1. VanuatuSome seasons are known for the characters, some for the strategy and gameplay, and some for storylines, and this season has a near perfect mixture of all three. I did not find a single episode of this season boring, even when the elimination was predictable because the cast dynamics was so damn good. The foreshadowing of feuds and blindsides to come can be seen all the way in episode 1, and this season is the epitome of great editing. The tie-in of the Vanuatu culture was beautifully done, the cast delivered, and the strategy and blindsides reached huge peaks compared to even Pearl Islands a year before it. Can't say enough good things.
2. Pearl IslandsNo surprise here, this season remains my favorite out of the OG seasons after the rewatch. While some would say the Outcast twist tainted this season a lot, I would say it only did a little. It wasn't THAT big of a deal and Burton and Lill both brought a lot to the game so who cares. Aside from that, the cast was amazing with plenty of great characters, some who I'd still love to see return, and the game also took a HUGE turn towards strategy and blindsides that the Amazon only grazed with Rob. Fun to watch from start to finish and one of the greatest seasons in Survivor history.
3. Micronesia - Fans vs. FavoritesI came into this rewatch with lower expectations than most probably, but I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I actually do still love this season. I forgot how amazing the entire merge game of this season is from start to finish, and the pre-merge is also pretty lit for a pre-merge. This season has a fantastic cast, with fans that actually ended up being a lot more entertaining all around than I had remembered and favorites who all delivered in their own rights, even if just a little compared to their original seasons. The location is beautiful (Palau is probably my favorite location of all time), the challenges were fantastic, and there was always great drama. The only thing that knocks this season in my opinion is how heavily strategic it is, but even then, it was less glaring than I had anticipated. Overall fantastic season, but the seasons above it win out mainly from my love of the casts and how they interacted/their story arcs.
4. MarquesasI really don't remember liking this season as much the first time I watched it, but it was so good the second time around. The cast is arguably the weakest out of the four so far, but still has a great cast, all the way down to the pre-merge boots as well. It had a lot of great game-changing moments like the first merge flip, Hunter's early elimination, the rock draw...and Kathy made this such a great season with support from Rob (who I actually wish had made it further this season) and Sean (despite the unnecessary god and race comments he made). Great season in all aspects.
5. Panama - Exile IslandThis season was kind of hard to place in comparison to seasons 10 and 11 because all three are extremely close for me. The obvious plus to this season is the fantastic cast. Even if there were some less exciting castaways thrown into it, they're easily forgotten when you have Shane, Terry, Courtney, Cirie and solid supporting castmates Aras, Danielle, etc. Never again can I see a season that is nearly a fully successful Pagonging be as fantastic as this season was, thanks to the Casaya tribe plus Terry. Aside from the amazing cast, there were some good blindsides, notably Courtney and Shane's exits and great drama like Shane's blowups, Courtney's delusional annoyances, and Terry vs. Aras. Knocks on this season is that the location sucked a** and for me, in comparison to the previous eleven seasons, the excitement of the season was almost kind of lost due to the almost dreariness of the location and also the unnecessary 4 tribe start that only lasted an episode. But those are small issues that are overshadowed by the positives.
6. ChinaI love China everytime I watch it (I think this is #3) and it honestly just gets better each time. The cast is overall fantastic, with a couple of duds, but none that stand out by not standing out like other seasons, and some great characters, love them or hate them, that lived on to be even better returnees, and still some good ones that still need to return like Todd and Frosti. This was also the first heavily strategic season where people were blindsiding and backstabbing without much remorse, which made for some great tribal councils. I loved loved loved the location and how they used it for all it was worth in challenges, rewards, etc. and it felt like a nice step back to the show's roots of heavily embracing the culture like in AO, Africa, Thailand, Guatemala. This season has a lot of parallels with Tocantins for me, having an amazing cast and not a ton of OTT drama, without that actually being a knock on the season.
7. GuatemalaThis season and Palau are really close for me and I'm still not completely solid on if I like this season better, but I think what it came down to is that personally, I enjoyed the cast more. I know it's beating a dead horse but I still can't believe there's no returnees from season, like the entire merged tribe is amazing even down to the less shown (though still pretty well covered Cindy or Brandon). The pettiness of the majority alliance, leading up to Danni getting the win 6-1 was beautiful TV, the pre-merge was decent, though it picks up at the merge for sure. The location is gorgeous, like how tf did they pull off having so many sets take place in f*cking Maya ruins like that's crazy. It's not the most exciting season, but it's one of the most interesting in my opinion and the cast has a special place in my heart for a reason I can't really explain.
8. PalauI really love this season. The theme was great, the location is the most beautiful they've ever had, the premiere was strong and both tribes brought it, even if it took Ulong a while to bring the good drama. The pre-merge was fairly boring up until the final five remaining Ulongs but Stephanie's story, whether it was the edit making her look great or not, it worked. She brought so much emotion into the game that hadn't been seen before and once she left, Koror kept bringing the emotion with the Katie/Ian dynamic and Ian trying to earn the respect of Katie and Tom in the last few days. The big mark against this season is the fairly boring pre-merge episodes, but overall this season is really good and really underrated imo.
9. BorneoWhile it may have been one of the least conventionally exciting seasons ever, it was still the first season, and with the cast as amazing as it was, it made up for the lack of strategy and actual playing of the game. I think what sets it apart from Australian Outback is that it's the OG season and Richard, Sue, Rudy and Kelly are the most amazing Final Four in the history of Survivor.
10. AfricaIt's weird because on my original watch of this season, I wasn't a huge fan and thought the first two seasons were for sure better, but after rewatching it, it's actually a really good season. Once again, casting did so good this time, possibly the best so far actually. There were so many good characters throughout both phases of the game, with Silas and Lindsey being fun to watch, and then the entire merge tribe was great, especially the final five. Also had the best merge game of any season so far, with Teresa and Lex keeping things interestng even if it was a straightforward vote.
11. The AmazonI remembered thinking this season was meh overall, and for the most part I'm still in that mindset. I think there were a decent amount of duds in this cast, and I got irritated with a lot of players. I think this season was saved by the really smart Guys vs. Girls format that I think had a huge part in the enormous amount of new grounds of the game explored strategically speaking. The biggest shift yet towards strategic gameplay and blindsiding saved a season that was one of the weakest cast-wise.
12. FijiThis rewatch, and at certain points, first watch, was very eye-opening to me in regards to how underrated this season is by most fans, including myself up until now. I get a couple reasons why this season is knocked, mainly the fact that this season is when Survivor was at its peak for an OTT amount of twists. Like it was actually ridiculous. Another knock is how trashy it is as a cast, but I love it's trashiness tbh. This season overall actually has a pretty strong cast, especially compared to the season before it and I would say, as a whole, was better than Panama as well. Good points to this season is the constant unpredictability, or drama if it was fairly predictable, some great characters supported by decent ones and very strong finale. I was actually considering putting this season above Amazon tbh. This season actually reminds me so much of Gabon in it's trashiness and unpredictability, so it's actually not surprising that it's sh*t on like it is. Gabon was/still is too.
13. Australian OutbackThis season had a great pre-merge, but the post-merge was very boring. While this season also benefitted from a very strong cast, I think Borneo's cast was stronger overall. It also seemed to actually digress rather than progress in the amount of game playing there was, taking out the advantage this cast had of knowing how the game works, while in Borneo they were literally thrown into unknown territory and had to figure it out for themselves.
14. All-StarsThis is one of the best casts Survivor has ever had, and that's pretty much the sole reason it's above Thailand. It had it's moments, the pre-merge was decent, the merge episode was dramatic and it's probably the most lit final tribal council of all time, but that doesn't make up for the incredibly boring post-merge game and the fact that all of the players that I was rooting for were out first. I don't know about others, but the Romber storyline was not fun to watch and I hated that they made it to the final two together. Definitely worse on the rewatch.
15. Cook IslandsRewatching this season was a strange experience because usually seasons get better each time I watch them, but this is the first case I can remember that I like it less on the rewatch. This season is good in some ways, like a great crop of all-star worthy players being the main one, but even its strongest aspect is also taken down because of those all-stars being surrounded by the complete opposite of that. This season had a lot of worthless players. There are great moments like the mutiny, all of the Penner moments, especially vs. Candice, etc. but even then it's a mild season. I still enjoy it, a lot more than I can actually back up with evidence, but it's still a lower tier season for me now.
16. ThailandThis season gets a very bad rap and tbh it deserves like 80% of the hate. It's not AS bad of a season as people like to make it out to be, but maybe it's because I enjoy watching disgusting human beings being themselves, which there were plenty of. The fact that this season is ridden with horrible human beings (Brian, Clay, Robb) and then a bunch of insufferable people (Ghandia, Robb, and even Shii Ann kinda) along with a bunch of no-names makes this easily the worst cast so far. Pros are the winner being a great manipulator, Shii Ann screwing herself over, and the b*tchiest FTC yet, but none of these things can save the otherwise lackluster season.
1. Earl ColeEarl has a lot of things going for him as a winner. He was 1 random-a** pre-swap vote away from a perfect game, with NINE votes to win and had one of the best social games of all time. It's crazy that he was never a target the entire game, despite basically being in control of two hidden immunity idols, being a pre-merge leader, and also leading the entire merge game. He may have had some bad players as opponents, but even the better players didn't even talk about how he needed to go, they instead targeted Yau-Man or Dreamz, etc. Apparently, he would have even beat Yau-Man in the final tribal, so even YM being voted out isn't a knock on his game most likely. It was hard for me to put him above Tom due to my love for the dude, but Earl deserves #1 from the first 14 seasons in my opinion. Earl and Tom were both extremely dominating leaders the entire game, even if Tom's dominance was shown more, but the difference between the two is that Earl had to maneuver a twist every episode basically, swaps, merges and adversity in numbers, but still always came out on top, while Tom had control and always had control due to his season's unique circumstances. Not a knock on Tom's game, but just a defense for Earl being above him.
2. Tom WestmanAfter the rewatch, I actually noticed more flaws in Tom's game that I hadn't remembered, but he's still the definite #1 out of the first ten seasons for me. Tom had a tight grip on his tribe nearly the entire season, whether it was through his fantastic social game, or through those dark moments in his game where he attempted to strongarm people into doing what he wanted (which can be a mark against him, but at the same time, it never proved to be bad necessarily, if anything it was good (Katie ended up voting with them at the final five and Ian dropped out for his acceptance). He might have won immunity challenges to save his a** a couple of times, but overall he didn't need his immunities and that is nuts considering he was such a threat from the start. What puts him above Brian is his superior social game. Tom is everything you want out of a winner: social, strategic, and strength, all excels in. Tom is Mr. Perfect when it comes to winners, even with his flaws because nobody can be entirely perfect.
3. Brian HeidikDespite me having Brian at #1, I don't see him staying this high when I get deeper into the series. He's a strong winner, nevertheless. He played his entire tribe like puppets and despite the fact that they called him out in confessionals, nobody ever entertained the fact of taking him out. The fact that a horrible person like Brian can be this fake and trick fifteen other people to basically do whatever he wants without even realizing it makes him probably the best winner of the pre-All-Stars group. He was ahead of his time and really f*cked sh*t up. However, the 4-3 vote against an almost equally as awful person at the FTC and his lack of knowledge of the other players as people instead of pawns will take him down in my list in the future.
4. Danni BoatwrightMan, Danni is hard to place, and I can see a case for her being as low as 5th on my list. What cuts her down is a similar reason for Tina, which is that we don't get to actually physically see a lot of crucial parts of her game. What we do see is that she infiltrated the majority alliance and used their cracks to her advantage, much like Chris on Vanuatu. I've seen some say that her job was much harder, but I don't agree. This majority was also already very chaotic and they had plenty of cracks to work with, but nevertheless, Danni went about it beautifully, and she did it in a cleaner way and had more control, rather than being lead to some moves like Chris was. I love her strategy of hiding her gameplay from confessionals, etc. due to the production love for Stephanie and her big disadvantage at the merge. She may have played a quiet game, but honestly, I keep becoming more and more favorable to those games than louder games because if you can come off as a non-threat when secretly you are one and can pull off the win in the end, that's impressive, and Danni did that perfectly.
5. Chris DaughertyMy favorite winner of all time. Not only is his story one of the greatest of all time, but he's an amazing character and player. Yes, he started out on a bad foot, and his game was in the women's hands for a few rounds, but Chris never stopped playing. He wouldn't have been in the position he was as the last guy standing and none of the women would've debated flipping if he hadn't made the relationships he did. He infiltrated one of the hardest alliances to budge in Survivor history and played the women against each other perfectly. He's strategic, his social game is one of the best ever, and best of all, he's dedicated as hell, even playing the game after the final two was set, trying to convince Twila to sass the jury. A severely overlooked player and character.
6. Parvati ShallowI'm not even unsure about her placement here tbh. While Parvati often gets criticized too much, or isn't criticized enough, I think she deserves plenty of both. She isn't the perfect winner that people make her out to be, but she's a fantastic winner nevertheless. Things going against her game first are that she planned on a final three, in which case there's a good chance she loses against Cirie, and the way she outcasted certain players when a strong social player shouldn't just be strong socially with those they care about being that way with, but with everyone. Those things aside, she was a master of strategic timing, and no, that was not all Cirie, both admitted it was a joint effort, and even then she had her own moves that Cirie wasn't a part of (like pulling Alexis and Natalie to their side, which is half of the winning alliance). She was very strong socially aside from the few she shunned (which the two jurors she did shun ended up voting for her btw), and she was also against a player who is very strong socially in her own right. Parvati was cutthroat af and I loved her game tbh, even if I didn't love her character half the time.
7. Todd HerzogThis may be a controversial placement with him being so low and underneath Danni and Chris, but I feel like there were flaws in his game that are often overlooked. I think he's a fantastic winner who played hard and had a great social game. He was able to find common ground with everyone he worked with and used them up until he blindsided them out of the game, but while he was a great strategic player and social player, he was a big target throughout the entire game, mainly merge. He was known to be an erratic player by the other castmembers which isn't really a good thing. Many were worried he would turn on them and in turn were planning to take him out before he could take them out, and he was lucky to have people as shields to keep him safe, though even then, he had a few close calls. I think Todd is a very strong winner, but I think while the edit shows him to have had a strong hold on the game, the reality is that he almost played too hard to have that hold on the game that people remember him for and didn't have the hold on the game that the people above him did.
8. Richard HatchTo have the winner of the very first season, where nobody knew anything about the game before playing, be such a witty and manipulative person is amazing. Hatch had a firm grip on the game, but of course he also had many flaws on top of this. However, compared to Tina, they both had the social game, but Richard had the strategy to overpower her game.
9. Sandra Diaz-Twine (Pearl Islands)
I know this may be controversial to put her this high, but she actually played a great game in Pearl Islands. Sure, she was obviously confrontational which isn't ever necessarily a good strategy, but she was confrontational with the people it mattered to be that way with. One of the biggest things that makes Sandra stand out to me as a great player is her read on people. She knows who the bad eggs are even when nobody is aware, but she's always there when they finally come around OR in both of her cases, seeing she "had their best interest" in mind all game, and thus rewarding her with the jury vote. The Queen of UTR and the Queen of Survivor.
10. Tina WessonTina's social game is one of the best in Survivor history easily, however, beyond that, Tina really didn't do any strategic work to get to the end. Not to mention, Colby had much more control over how the game was going to go than Tina did. Tina played a solid game for the time she was playing, but not strong enough to be high up on the list.
11. Yul KwonYul is hard to place, mainly because of his season being so twist heavy and the idol he had in his possession all season. Yul seems to be a great manipulator and he kept his ladies in check all the way to the end, which I give him tons of credit for. He is a great winner and I'd love to see him play again. I can't really think of a good knock on his game, but I think the people above him played more innovative and exciting games which is a large part of why I rank him here. The biggest thing is the twists all really helped his game right down to the final three instead of two, but again, I can't really fault him for production choices. I think the fact that his season is below average also kind of taints his win for me.
12. Ethan Zohn He gets a lot of credit in the TEOS podcast, and by fans in general I feel but I'm not entirely sure why he got SO much credit. He's a strong winner for sure, but he lacked in social game, confirmed by many of the players. He did pick the right people to trust and align himself with though, and he had a good enough social game to get him to the end, and there were definitely strategic moves he made throughout the game.
13. Aras BaskauskasI have always enjoyed Aras and his game more than I feel like most fans do. He's a very charismatic winner and I enjoy him as a character, though he's obviously outshined by most of his castmates. His strengths were his ability to keep his tribe in line (which was clearly no easy task considering Shane and Courtney could probably be certified lunatics if tested) his leadership and, regardless of some comments I've seen before by fans, his social game was pretty good as well. If we're going to call Tom Mr. Perfect, I feel like Aras is Mr. Perfect Jr. though much more flawed than Tom. His biggest knock would probably be the fact that Cirie was the real player of this season and even at the point where he was the target to go at the final six, Cirie was the one that saved his a**. He seemed to lack awareness at certain points in the game. He still made it all the way to the end while being a target nearly all season long, and was loved by nearly everyone he was in contact with and I find him to be a pretty satisfying winner, but far from the best.
14. Vecepia ToweryI do think Vecepia is underrated. She played a very under-the-radar game, but that isn't a game to be ashamed of. She made a lot of subtle smart moves like sitting back and distancing herself when Sean and Rob became targets pre-merge, but still keeping a working relationship with Sean for later, and also making sure she knew everyone's story, interests, etc, which eventually helped her win the jury's votes. However, she just simply didn't play a strong enough game to beat Tina or Richard, however her and Ethan are close in my opinion.
15. Jenna MorascaThere were times where Jenna seemed to know what she was doing, like with manipulating the men, but more often she seemed to have the strategic/social awareness of a toddler. She complained constantly, often about things that everyone had to go through, which rubbed people the wrong way, and she just seemed overall self-involved and immature. Heidi was definitely the stronger player of the two "cute girls" and I don't feel like Jenna is a strong winner. However, positives to her game was her social manipulation and her general awareness of what was happening, aside from how she was perceived by the other castaways.
16. Amber BrkichWhat's funny is as I was watching, I started off thinking I might have to rethink my opinion that Amber is possibly the worst winner of all time, but as the season progressed, it just slowly and disappointingly led right back to that opinion. She seemed to be supported for her gameplay by some of the other players, and one could make a stretch and say that she knew what she was doing going to the end with Rob, but it becomes very clear at the end that she is no more aware than Rob is that he's a good pawn to hide behind to the end, and instead she just wanted him in the end because of their relationship. Her FTC performance is also one of the worst ever in my opinion and every time she spoke, I just didn't ever feel like I was watching a winner, if that makes sense.
AwardsPlayer of the Season: Cirie
Favorite of the Season: Eliza
Hero of the Season: Yikes um...Erik I guess?
Villain of the Season: Parvati
Best Moments:- Eliza's TC reactions
- Ozzy's OTT exit and jury speech
- Amanda's surprise idol play
- The downfall of Erik at the final five: possibly still the greatest Survivor moment ever
- Jason giving Eliza the stick idol and her outing Ozzy as she left
- Yau-Man tackling JFP into the boat lmao
- Any moment with Kathy being extra
Cast Rankings1. Eliza
2. Tracy
3. Cirie
4. Ami
5. Amanda
6. Natalie
7. Parvati
8. Jason
9. Penner
10. Erik
11. Yau-Man
12. Alexis
13. Kathy
14. James
15. Joel
16. Ozzy
17. Fairplay
18. Chet
19. Mikey B
20. Mary