CBS Is Bringing a Survivor-Themed Scavenger Hunt to Colorado

Although Survivor is not inviting any Colorado castaways back for its upcoming all-star season, there is still a chance for local fans to replicate an iconic part of the game by searching for a “hidden immunity idol” in the Centennial State.

At the end of last year, CBS announced that a nationwide, Survivor-themed scavenger hunt would be opened to the public ahead of the show’s milestone 50th season. 

Each of the 50 US states will have one hidden immunity idol for fans to find, in reference to the classic Survivor advantage that players tend to find hidden in trees or buried on the island. Colorado’s hunt has started, now that the first clue has dropped on the official Survivor 50 Challenge website. 

Once solved, the clue will direct seekers to a well-known Colorado landmark that they must visit to find the idol. That location is open to idol hunters from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday, February 12, but don’t worry if you’re only free on the weekend; the hunt will be open during the same hours every day for roughly a week. Hunters must register on the website linked above, and should come prepared for an hour-long hike. The location will not be ADA-accessible.

The first clue reads: “Not Manitou, but just as steep/Where wooden steps in silence creep/Beneath a butte, a castle’s base/This hill will test your heart and pace.” 

Ringing any bells? If so, you may have a shot at winning the hunt’s grand prize: two tickets to season 50’s live post-finale reunion. Taking a picture of the idol and submitting it to the challenge website will enter you into a sweepstakes with all other Colorado winners. After the hunt ends, one lucky entrant will be randomly drawn from the pool of statewide winners as a grand prize recipient. Unfortunately, none of the winners will be invited to the Survivor Sanctuary, where good things happen, but this is a solid consolation prize.

A Look Back on Survivor’s Coloradan Castaways

Colorado has had a modest but consistent presence on Survivor since it aired its first season in the summer of 2000. Although some players may have moved since their season, a total of twelve different castaways have been listed as Colorado residents at the time of filming. In honor of the show’s 50th season, we looked back on all of the Colorado residents who have played the game thus far. Spoilers for past seasons ahead.

The first Coloradan to play the world’s greatest adventure game was Greg Buis of Gold Hill, one of the original 16 players on the first season of the show. A wholesome goofball, Buis started the game on the same tribe as season 50 contestant Jenna Lewis-Dougherty and won the show’s first-ever individual immunity challenge. He was voted out by Survivor’s first alliance ever, and was later the crucial fourth vote for Richard Hatch to win the show.

As with all reality TV shows airing in the 2000s, players were not always treated well by their castmates, and could be at risk of being deeply hurt by others while being isolated from the support of their friends and loved ones. This was especially true for Denver resident Ghandia Johnson, who was harmed by another player and then discredited and mistreated by several others. Johnson is doing well now, but you can learn more about her untold experience with the show through her interview with Rob Has A Podcast.   

Christy Smith from Basalt was also outcast from her tribe in season six, feeling especially isolated as the show’s first deaf contestant. Her disability was not always accounted for by her original tribemates, but she outlasted all but two of them, placing sixth.  

Ami Cusack is one of the first openly queer women to appear on Survivor, and is also the only Coloradan to be asked back to play a second time. Hailing from Lakewood in season nine and from Golden in season sixteen, Cusack was the informal leader of her all-women tribe and called the shots in season nine until a counteralliance formed to vote her out in sixth place. In her second season, she struggled to gain her footing, and she was eventually voted out in eleventh place by a majority alliance that included future season 50 stars Ozzy Lusth and Cirie Fields.

Not everyone who is cast on Survivor turns out to be a star, including Northglenn resident Jim Lynch, the first boot of season 11. Likewise, Stacey Kimball from Boulder may have been a strategic force in season 14 and was the first player to ever be eliminated by a hidden immunity idol, but she was given very little screentime in the show’s edit.

Jim Rice is the second Coloradan to play against Ozzy Lusth, whom Rice betrayed by engineering a blindside to vote out Lusth’s “showmance” in season 23. He was a passionate player who missed his opportunity to be voted into season 31 by the fans. His marijuana business, High Times Dispensary, relocated to downtown Denver a couple of years ago.

The highest placement of any of these twelve players comes from Denverite Ken McNickle, who tied for third in season 33 after failing to receive any votes to win at the final tribal council. Another Denverite, Kellyn Bechtold, would also fall short of the win after her allies cut her loose. 

Gabby Pascuzzi was living in Denver when she played in season 37 of the show alongside season 50 castmates Christian Hubicki, Angelina Keeley, and Mike White, who is also the director behind White Lotus. Pascuzzi was eliminated after she tried to orchestrate a blindside against Hubicki, who played an idol on himself. Kendra McQuarrie of Steamboat Springs also played against season 50 stars in season 45, where Emily Flippen and Dee Valladares’ commanding post-merge alliance took her and her allies out one by one.

We watched the most recent Survivor player from Colorado get his torch snuffed just a few short months ago, when Denverite Steven Ramm was blindsided at tribal council at the final six. We are only two weeks out from seeing if his castmates, Savannah Louie and Rizo Velovic, will be able to outwit, outplay and outlast the upcoming season’s all-star cast as they did with Ramm.

As you may have noticed, the track record for Coloradans on Survivor is not a great one thus far. With no victories and very few major characters that have been brought back for a second chance, one has to wonder what we are doing wrong. Do we need some ocean access to help acclimate ourselves to Fijian climates? Is our reputation for having a poor dating scene hampering our opportunities to hone a strong social game? Or have we just had fewer chances compared to the dozens of players who have come onto the show from states like California, New York and Texas?

Regardless of the reason, the fact remains that CBS has given Colorado zero winners throughout fifty seasons of Survivor, as well as 27 seasons of Big Brother and 38 seasons of The Amazing Race. And a Coloradan has never found a hidden immunity idol either. Will you be the first?

Survivor 50: In The Hands Of The Fans will release its first episode on CBS at 7 p.m. MST on Wednesday, February 25. The Survivor 50 Challenge will be open to the public in Colorado for a limited time at the location hinted at in the first clue, starting at 9 a.m. on Thursday, February 12th.