Welcome back to Inside Survivor’s 50 For 50, a semi-regular feature highlighting 50 former castaways who we think should be considered for a spot on Survivor 50. In a snake draft, the Inside Survivor team selected ten players each, with the only rule being they couldn’t have played more than twice.
PROFILE
Name: Quintavius “Q” Burdette
Age: 30
Season: Survivor 46, 2024
Finish: 6th Place
HIGHLIGHTS
There is perhaps no other contestant from Survivor’s new era who brought as much entertainment to a season as Q Burdette. Starting on the disastrous Yanu tribe, Q was thrust into the limelight immediately when he and tribemate David Jelinsky opted to take on the Sweat portion of the Savvy or Sweat challenge. His relationship with Jelinsky would become an early example of Q’s chaotic and often confusing gameplay — one minute, he’d be allied with someone; the next, he’d lose trust in them and vote them out.
Throughout Yanu’s calamitous start, Q aligned himself with Tiffany Ervin and Kenzie Petty, though his distrust in the latter led to many contentious moments between the trio. From early on, Q was trying to plot ways to vote Kenzie out but could never gain the traction needed. This made for some tense and sometimes hilarious exchanges between the trio as they struggled to get on the same page at the merge.
Speaking of the merge, Q entered in a strong position, having made an agreement with Hunter McKnight and Tim Spencer during a pre-merge journey. This led to the formation of the so-called “Journey 6,” one of the most cursed and loosely thrown together alliances in Survivor history. They voted together at just one tribal council before the wheels fell off, with Q losing trust in Tim and voting him out.
Q’s post-merge game was a mix of comical antics, like his introduction of the “Q-Skirt” and encouraging a game of Hide n Seek, as well as baffling game decisions. After trying and failing to turn the vote on his ally Tiffany, Q announced publicly at tribal council that his tribemates should vote him out, setting off a wild scramble before the vote. This would turn Q into the tribe’s pariah, with his decision not to take Liz Wilcox on a reward only adding fuel to the fire. Yet he kept scraping through, being used as a smokescreen by the others to blindside back-to-back-to-back players with idols in their pocket.
In the end, Q would meet that same fate. Despite regaining traction and finding an ally in Maria Shrime Gonzalez, Q would find himself leaving the game with an idol in his pocket after Charlie Davis rallied the troops against him at the final six.
WHY HE SHOULD BE CONSIDERED
While Q could be confusing and frustrating at times, there is no doubt he leaped off the screen as one of Survivor’s most colorful personalities. He was unabashedly himself throughout, which made him a compelling player and a fantastic confessionalist. No matter what else was going on, you could always rely on Q to shake things up.
Even though he only played recently, Q would make for a fascinating returning player on Survivor 50. It would be interesting to see how (if at all) he learned from his past (big) mistake — would he play a more careful, cautious game, or would he turn things up all the way to 11? Maybe he’d return with more Q-clothing ideas to join his Q-Skirt.
It’s also fun to imagine his interactions with other huge personalities from seasons past. Just think about him meeting Angelina Keeley (maybe he could make her a Q-Jacket?) or dealing with a no-nonsense player like Cydney Gillon, should either of those end up on Survivor 50.
There is always a chance Q could do a Coach 2.0 and lean too much into being a ‘character,’ leading to an early exit. However, I just don’t think you can do a returnee season and not have Q on that island.
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