‘Australian Survivor’ Red tribe power rankings (week 1): Ben Watson’s decision to keep Queen Sandra shows he’s in control

It’s been one week in the game for the 24 players of “Australian Survivor: Blood V Water,” which under the Aussie format means three people have already been sent packing. For all you “Survivor” fans who aren’t able to watch, Gold Derby has recapped the first three episodes — Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3 — and we’ll be covering the show all throughout the season. To help keep you up to speed on what’s going down Down Under, we’ll also be providing weekly power rankings of the players still in the hunt to become Australia’s ninth “sole survivor.”

This season is modeled after the 27th and 29th editions of the main franchise in that it features pairs of players connected by blood, all in the hopes of answering the age-old question: Is blood truly thicker than water? On Day 1, host Jonathan LaPaglia split those pairs up between two tribes: the Red tribe representing blood and the Blue tribe representing water.

Below is our assessment of the Red tribe, featuring The Queen of Survivor and first two-time winner Sandra Diaz-Twine. As a tribe, they won the first two immunity challenges and only just attended their first tribal council on Day 7. They voted out Kate Tatham, sister of Andy Meldrum, a veteran of “Australian Survivor” who returned to the game after finishing 12th on 2019’s “Champions vs. Contenders” and became the first elimination this season when the Blue tribe sent him home on Day 2.

SEE Everything to know about ‘Australian Survivor: Blood V Water’

Check out our power rankings of the 11 remaining players on the Red tribe below. (Warning: this article contains spoilers for what has already aired!)

1. Ben Watson
2. Michael “Croc” Crocker

Ben tops the tribe at this point as the figurehead of a decision to not go with Sandra as the easy first vote and instead target David. Part of Ben’s decision was that he wanted to keep Sandra around long enough to learn from her, which says volumes about how hard he wants to play the game. It appears as though Croc is his second-in-command and that right now they’ll be in control of which way the wind blows when it comes time to return to tribal council.

3. Jesse Hansen
4. Jay Bruno
5. Jordan Schmidt

One of the things Sandra has said repeatedly about the difference between American and Australian players is the value that the Aussies put on physicality. She has already clocked their style of play as being a physical one, which automatically gives an advantage to the “young” and “strong” men, especially in the early stages of the game. For that reason and truth alone, Jesse, Jay and Jordan should consider themselves comparatively safe through the next week, barring any unfortunate miscalculations in play from any of them.

SEE How to watch ‘Australian Survivor: Blood V Water’

6. Sophie Cachia
7. Michelle Chiang
8. Amy Ong

A belief that the young men are more advantageous to keep around initially automatically puts the female players at a disadvantage and below them in our first power rankings. Sophie and Michelle seem to be more closely tied to the guys at the top of the totem pole, while Amy bonded with Sam and could become guilty by association if/when Sam becomes a target. Kate’s elimination also puts the female players at a disadvantage in numbers, so if things break down a gender line then the men will have the upper hand.

9. Sandra Diaz-Twine
10. Samantha “Sam” Gash
11. David Goodchild

Any way you cut the pie, Sam, Sandra and David will all emerge from the tribe’s first tribal council with a bit of heat on them. David is the obvious group-target of the tribe and will have to do damage control with Sam, who was his closest ally prior to the tribal council. David threw Sam under the bus because he assumed that she had been throwing his name out as an option. In his remarks against her, David called Sam a “social butterfly” and insinuated that she is playing the middle, which is an unfavorable view to give the rest of the tribe. Like Sandra, Sam is a returning player (she was voted out 6th on season 4) and so both women are fighting that battle as well. We already know (and she already knows) that Sandra will remain a huge threat until/if she gets voted out, so until any one of these three makes headway within the group we can expect all of their names to be easy options to go home next. Sandra wouldn’t be a two-time winner if she wasn’t a huge social threat and we should fully expect her to pull another trick or two out of her sleeve this week in order to stick around a little longer — how effective she’ll continue to be against this group of players demands a bit more testing though.