A giant bonfire lit up the beach, illuminating the sand and keeping us all from complete darkness. None of us had our phones, or a screen of any kind to distract from the starry night or splashing waters of the ocean. There were nine of us on the beach, in the most intense game—the adventure of a lifetime: dirty charades.

Well, we were also playing Survivor, but on a night like this, there was nothing but time to fill. One by one, the members of my tribe went up and made a dirty motion, while other people shouted out answers. This would never make air—it wasn't exactly suitable for all 10 million viewers— but it was one of my favorite moments from the show.

Survivor is filled with serious gameplay, physical challenges, and a handsome host. In between the challenges, complex strategy, and tribal councils, there's also a lot of downtime—time spent discussing food, love, and big future plans. I lasted 39 days Survivor 33: Millennials vs. Genx, and can assure you, there was a lot that never made air. The actual show feels more like a highlights reel of over a month of shooting.

I asked former Survivor players to share their island stories that didn't quite make the TV cut, to fill fans in on what happens beyond what they see onscreen.

Domenick Abbate, Survivor Season 36: Ghost Island

Dom (front) and Wendell (back). CBS Photo Archive Getty Images

"It wasn’t until I actually played Survivor myself that I came to realize how much downtime and long stretches of boredom actually existed in the game.

"Lucky for my tribe, we had Wendell Holland at our camp. For those that don’t know, Wendell is a custom furniture builder from Philadelphia that actually won our season (cough, cough). Ok, ok so I probably shouldn’t give too much props to the man that beat me by one vote, but I have to say that this guy has amazing talent. When most people were lying around doing nothing, Wendell was always building or crafting something. Occasionally he would design some piece of jewelry for himself, but most of the time he was building something to improve the camp. And improve it he did. We had everything you could want in a camp including two fire pit areas, seating, a pantry and a bed that comfortably slept 10. He even designed a ring hook game that I used to play as a kid just because he heard me talking about it earlier that day. Don’t tell anybody, but we would occasionally catch some of the production team playing the game when things were quiet at camp.

"There were plenty of other great moments that unfortunately never made it to TV. One moment that I recall was after a reward challenge. It was right after the merge and we were split into two teams competing in a sling shot challenge where the winning team got to go feast on a taco reward. Unfortunately, our team lost and had to go back to camp with nothing. I remember when we got back we decided to make the best of the situation. Six of us grabbed the fishing gear and collected and entire pot of crab. As we were cooking the crab back at camp, we decided to finish off the spiced rum bottle that was given to us at the merge feast. Even though we lost the challenge we were still celebrating. We all got tipsy pretty quick, and at one point myself or Kellyn [Bechtold] (still up for debate) decided to take the lid off the pot to check on the crab. Sure enough, a few of the crabs scurried out of the pot and ran off. The first words out of my mouth were, 'Kellyn, your dinner is getting away!' We made several attempts to catch the escapees but we were laughing so hard and having so much fun that we didn’t stand a chance. It was one of the funniest moments we had out there and I think we were all a little bummed when it didn’t make television."

Angelina Keeley, Survivor 37: David vs. Goliath

Angelina. CBS Photo Archive Getty Images

"One day, Kara [Kay] and I were swinging together on the hammock, and we were just giggling about nothing in particular. It was post merge, and a day where we didn’t have a challenge or anything major to get done around camp. We wanted to sing, but we aren’t allowed to sing anything that has a copyright on camera, so we decided we would write our own musical. We titled it 'Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?' Almost everyone came over and helped contribute to the masterpiece. We wrote the first few lines of the opening song, and performed it for Mike [White] (through a lot of laughter). The only lines I can remember are something like: 'Schemers be scheming, dreamers be dreaming, amongst this disarray, we’re looking for an idol today.' Watch out, Broadway!

"There are so many little moments like this that don’t make it in the final cut, but they are memories that we’ll hold onto forever."

Bret Labelle, Survivor 33: Millennials vs. GenX

Bret. CBS Photo Archive Getty Images

"After the merge feast, the new tribe was tasked with naming their new tribe and painting their tribe flag. Production gave us paints for the new tribe flag and after that task was completed, we used some of the leftover paint to transform several coconuts into different colored bocci balls so we could play bocci.

"I also remember, in the evening after the sun went down, we would gather around the fire or into our sleeping spots and talk. Sometimes we would play games that helped force everyone to share a little bit about themselves. I remember one such game: You were having all of the survivors present (still in the game) to your house for dinner and a movie. Each person had to state what dish they would serve and what movie you put on for everyone to watch. Seems like a very simple idea, yet it was extremely entertaining. Mostly because we were all starving and enjoyed talking about food. Sometimes you learned that you had nothing in common, but other times you were surprised that you liked the same things. Zeke [Smith], Chris [Hammons], David [Wright] and I learned we were all huge fans of The Big Lebowski movie starring Jeff Bridges. From that moment on we enjoyed reciting lines from that classic flick. "

Gabby Pascuzzi, Survivor 37: David vs. Goliath

Gabby. CBS Photo Archive Getty Images

"There are days on Survivor where you have absolutely nothing to do. The strategizing you see on TV happens occasionally, but not enough to fill all the hours of the day. As a result, we came up with truly stupid and pointless games to play.

"For example, when my tribe won spices and herbs as a reward, we had a spicy pepper eating contest. We pretended like it was a Survivor challenge, with someone even pretending to be Jeff [Probst]. The contest was very painful and shortsighted considering we had nothing to eat or drink besides water to minimize the burn.

"Most games weren’t competitive (probably because we were already in a competition: Survivor). We often played 'f***, marry, kill' with celebrities and castaways from previous seasons. We called it 'go fishing with, align with, vote off the island.' We could take pretty much any game and make it Survivor-themed: we were eating, breathing and living Survivor 24/7, after all."

Ben Driebergen, Survivor 35: Healers vs. Heroes vs. Hustlers

Ben. CBS Photo Archive Getty Images

"I guess the one [memory] that comes to mind is: I was running around the island with Alan Ball reliving my high school football glory days like Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite. When I finally found out that he played pro ball, I was immediately embarrassed and prayed they didn't show it! We talked about body fat percentage and that one time I had a 96 yard touchdown run!"

Brice Johnston, Survivor Season 28: Cagayan

Brice. CBS Photo Archive Getty Images

"When you’re smelly, irritated, and around people that you would not normally be around, the downtime does not seem as much fun as it seems to be on TV. I started to obsess over food. Thinking about all the food that I did not like growing up and how I wished I could go back in time and request all the food I ever passed up on.

"We had to walk to a well every morning, afternoon, and night to get water—and on top of that, boil water to ensure its safety. I made a promise to my tribe mates that the next time I took bath, I would drink every drop of my bathwater because that’s how much I wanted to just drink water. Thinking about how we take for granted the fact that we can go to a faucet and turn on the water and drink it.

"With so much idle time your mind tends to play tricks on you. We had coconut chips from an actual coconut that I would pretend were hot chili fries with salt, pepper, and ketchup, and at times it would really tasted like it. However, returning home I was unable to keep my promise of drinking my bathwater. Survivor was such a great experience and I would do it again. However it makes you reflect on how blessed we are and the things we take for granted on a daily basis. It really propels you to want to help out as much as you can and be grateful for life’s blessings."

Christian Hubicki, Survivor 37: David Vs. Goliath

Christian. CBS Photo Archive Getty Images

"If I could sum up the first few weeks of the game in a single word, it would be "rain." When it rains you can't do much around camp, so you often just linger in boredom. I remember the beginning of Day 9 being another of those dreary, wet mornings with the "David" tribe. We were all loitering by the shelter in misery, just hoping the rain would eventually stop. I was standing near one of my tribe mates, Lyrsa, and she looked so gloomy it was heartbreaking. So I sidled up next to her and improvised a cheery tune called 'No one likes the rain when you're in it.' Clever lyrics, I know. But sure enough, Lyrsa started harmonizing to it and we briefly turned our dreary existence into this lovely little musical improv routine. It was such a sweet moment, and I'll never forget our song."

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Hannah Shapiro Hannah Shapiro is a comedy writer and Northwestern University graduate who has been published in Mic, Bustle and People.

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