I've been rewatching every season of Survivor (currently on Cook Islands) and have been posting rankings on another site, so I figured I'd repost my rankings here. Would love to see how my opinions compare to everybody elses here
Overall, I'd say Borneo was just a decent season. The fact that I watched this season really late (after watching some of the newer seasons) definitely didn't help it, because if we're being honest with ourselves... if Borneo was placed on television now and advertised as a new season, it probably wouldn't be a big hit. After seeing so much strategy play in the new era of Survivor, going back to the older seasons was just a little strange. I could understand why the season was a big hit back in 2000, but it didn't feel that special since I already had newer seasons to base it off of. Anyways, onto the ranking of the contestants...
16. Joel Klug (11th Place)Up until his boot episode, he was a non-entity in the game, and he pretty much served no purpose. Then we get to his boot episode, and it's revealed that he's extremely cocky and thinks way too highly of himself. So glad he got little screentime in the early episodes, because I'm not sure I'd be able to handle 5 episodes of his cockiness.
15. B.B. Andersen (15th Place)You could tell that everything BB suggested was meant well and he had the good of the tribe in mind, but the way he came off was more annoying than anything. The constant barking orders, and the "if you're not working as hard as me, you're not working" mentality wasn't entertaining. Not to mention him wanting to quit coming completely out of nowhere.
14. Dirk Been (12th Place)He came off as really lazy, and a little bit dumb when it came to the experience. Didn't really seem to understand what he signed up for, and I think he was an undeveloped version of characters like Matt (Redemption Island) later, except Dirk was nowhere near as interesting. His type of playing has been done better by later players, and because of that he wasn't interesting.
13. Sean Kenniff (5th Place)At the beginning of the season I liked him due to his laziness but still being entertaining with things like the bowling alley. Then the merge hits and he brings in his stupid alphabet system which was extremely stupid and led to a lack of strategy being used by everyone. And he pretty much just became annoying after the merge hit… and incredibly stupid "I don't know if there is a 4 person alliance, let's wait one more vote to find out. No, now let's wait one more vote to see"
12. Ramona Gray (13th Place)She didn't have a bad personality, but compared to early boots like Stacey and Sonja, she didn't have enough personality to find her interesting. She was sick, and called weak… that's about all she offered to the show. I didn't hate her, but I didn't like her either. She was just there.
11. Sonja Christopher (16th Place)Despite the fact that editing was different in early seasons, Sonja was very boring for a first boot. She seemed like she was nice and innocent, but the only thing I really remember is her singing that song to Richard. Could have been a good first boot if more was shown, but just turned out boring instead.
10. Gretchen Cordy (10th Place)The way I view Gretchen is kind of funny. I look back and I think "Wow, someone who's not willing to form alliances? Why are you on Survivor?" but then I have to take into account that this was the very first season and they had never seen past players or seen how to play. The fact that she was so negative in the work around camp, and yet didn't want to play the game strategically was irritating. But she was a part of one of the most hilarious votes in Survivor history thanks to the mess that was Pagong.
9. Stacey Stillman (14th Place)Stacey is higher simply due to the potential she had. You could tell her personality was not boring and she might have even been a little b*tchy, but once again due to editing it's hard to get a good feel on who she is. From what we saw from her I think she had the most potential out of the early boots.
8. Gervase Peterson (7th Place)You could tell Gervase was a nice guy who was genuine but at the same time he wanted to get into the strategic game slightly… but it was too little too late for him. Early on he was lazy around camp, but he got away without anyone noticing him being lazy, so it could be considered as part of his strategy. Him and Colleen's "Sitting Duck" and "Target" costumes were pretty funny.
7. Susan Hawk (4th Place)Funny redneck who is pretty harsh when it comes to criticizing people. I love how blunt she was with everyone, straight out saying what they're doing sucks especially when it came to Sean and fishing. Honestly I still don't understand all the hype with her jury speech… didn't seem that great to me, and seemed way to over planned… like word for word. But she delivered throughout the rest of the season.
6. Kelly Wiglesworth (2nd Place)The original immunity hog of Survivor. My favourite part about Kelly was honestly the friendship/rivalry with Sue. They started off so well, then things got really bad, and then it seemed to be getting a bit better… and then out of nowhere we get "Snakes and Rats". Kelly's personality and actual strategy were pretty good too. Sshe was playing the game hard and it seems like she was the original person to use the strategy of playing both sides.
5. Jenna Lewis (8th Place)Jenna was the nice girl that missed her kids and I would say got sympathy from the viewer's as well as the other contestants from it. Not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, because overall I actually liked Jenna. She was a victim of Sean's idiotic alphabet system, and I liked her role as kind of being the Pagong motivator… or positive force, however you want to look at her.
4. Richard Hatch (Winner)Richard Hatch… the original winner. He was really what led Survivor into not being a simple game of "let's have fun on an island, and who cares about the money!" He was playing right from the start when nobody else was, and him being the ring leader of the Tagi alliance he deserves a lot of credit for getting them all to the end of the game, especially when he had no past Survivor season to base a strategy off of.
3. Colleen Haskell (6th Place)Such a sweetheart, and yet she was able to slip so many insults by without being seen in bad light. I loved how much her and Richard butted heads, and how she always was like "I know Richard gets annoyed with me, and I like it". It was sort of a brother/sister relationship with the two of them. Props for being the last Pagong member standing, and almost managing to have at least 1 Tagi member go before her.
2. Rudy Boesch (3rd Place)He was hilarious, and the funniest part is I don't think he was trying to be funny at all. He was the old grouch of the season, and it worked so well. In newer seasons we see these types of characters, but they're more annoying than entertaining… but here Rudy was actually pretty funny. Also, props for the funniest reward challenge ever (the video camera one where they had to answer questions and every single question Rudy said "I don't know" to).
1. Greg Buis (9th Place)This guy was very entertaining to watch. Sure he had his funny quirks about him, and his sarcasm was hilarious, but deep down you could tell that behind the carefree mask, he was actually playing the game. He tried to get in a good position with everyone, and I feel that his goofy personality was also a strategy to get people on his side. He delivered throughout the whole game, even up to the point of him walking out of tribal council after being voted off.