Thread title. It's a rankdown, and just like with 'Whose Line Is It Anyway', the points don't matter, and it's my opinion (which is mine alone).

​

Number 22. Thor: The Dark World

Number 21. The Incredible Hulk

Number 20.

Our runner up is:

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2. HEROES VS VILLAINS

Average: 8.719/10

Standard Deviation: 1.205 (29/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -0.401 (20/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -1

Total votes: 32

Breakdown:

Despite the three other all returnee seasons all landing in our bottom 11, Heroes vs Villains cracks the top two. It doesn’t get as many tens as Vanuatu or Palau, but makes up for it by having only one score of below a 7 while still having over two thirds of people giving it a 9 or 10. It’s pretty much agreed on as the one all returnee season that shows what returnee seasons are capable of, with many of the characters maintaining the traits that made them great before and in some cases being even better. It includes one of the only two people to win a rankdown as well as other staples of the rankdown top 100, and despite falling a bit in comparison to the r/survivor poll, it still has pretty much everything this community looks for in a season.

• Russell still sucks but otherwise this is about as good as I can reasonably expect an all returnee season to be /u/jacare37

• I don't think any returnee season can top this epic battle of true legends. Everything culminating with Sandra of all people pulling out her second win is fantastic. /u/qngff

• Legendary /u/bobinou96

• Slightly overrated by a lot of people (to the point that Rob Cesternino basically said it's IMPOSSIBLE to not have it in your top 10), but it's still pretty much everything you could hope for out a returning players season. Only a handful of things that it does wrong. /u/reeforward

• Clash of the titans. /u/acktar

• Basically every other returnee season has disappointed one way or another. Heroes Vs Villains, the only season to approach the epic scope of Pearl Islands and maybe even exceed it, is good enough on its own to make the whole concept entirely worth it. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 10/10. This is one of those seasons that just keeps on giving. The sanctimonious heroes shoot themselves in the foot time after time and you find yourself rooting for the villains majority. Formerly hated castaways become your favorites while formerly loved castaways become repulsive. Just when you're enjoying things,somehow shit blows up and fucking Russell ends up in control of the game... but not for nothing - you get to watch his glorious downfall at the hands of the only two-time winner, the queen of sass, the monarch of mean, the regent of revenge, her highness, Sandra Diaz Twine. /u/oomps62

• Yeah, this is some good shit. GREAT storytelling, great characters, great setting. /u/moostronus

• On rewatch, it's always better than I imagine it will be. /u/beatricejd

• The second best season with returning players (And if you just consider seasons with half/full returning players, it’s the best).

  HvV has a lot of strong aspects that should be in an All-Stars season: Fantastic cast (I mean I can nitpick and say there are some people I’d like to see cast that weren’t, but overall it’s great), the interactions between the cast are really good, storylines that are built based on past appearances, and a good boot order (Even if it would’ve been good to see Tom, Cirie, and Randy go farther)

  The season has a lot of strong characters; It’s got the best iteration of JT and Parvati. Tom, Coach, Courtney, Rupert, Colby, and Jerri are also great here, even if they aren’t as good as previous iterations.

  My biggest complaint about this season is that Russell still sucks here. I want to like him, but I can’t.

  Personal Ranking: #13/34 (I could see it moving up as far as #10 on a rewatch)

  Best Character: Sandra Diaz-Twine

  Best Episode: Tonight, We Make Our Move /u/xerop681

• Had the makings to be dull and annoying, but then Sandra happened at approximately Episode 8, and it got amazing in every way. /u/extralifeballoon

Which means, to nobody’s surprise, the winner is:

1. PEARL ISLANDS

Average: 9.735/10 (!!!)

Standard Deviation: 0.503 (34/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +0.855 (6/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +1

Total votes: 34

Breakdown:

I gotta say this is absolutely incredible. I figured Pearl Islands was a lock to win from the moment this started but I couldn’t have guessed just how dominant it would be. It finishes more than a full point over #2 HvV’s score — 4 people could have given it a 1 and it still would’ve beaten HvV, it would take 17 1’s to knock it out of the top half, and it would take 359 1’s to knock it below Redemption Island. Its 26 tens are far and away the most common individual score for a season/rank pair — it has more tens than HvV has tens and nines combined. It has the lowest standard deviation, nobody gave it below an EIGHT, and it actually peaked as high as 9.77 a day or two before closing before a couple of 9’s came in and brought its score down. The difference between PI and HvV is roughly the same as the difference between HvV and Marquesas at #11.

Anyway yeah I’m done with these stats about how fucking incredible Pearl Islands is.

• eh it's not bad i guess /u/jacare37

• An epic battle with heroes, villains, and Fairplay. Sandra is a fantastic winner and there was never a dull moment in the show. /u/qngff

• Fantastic season. It finishes at #1, because it has one of the best blends of characters and strategy, and I don't think there was a single episode that I was bored at. /u/Franky494

• Perfectly crafted /u/Bobinou96

• Yo-ho-ho. /u/acktar

• Pearl Islands deserves all of the praise it can get. /u/KororSurvivor

• The best season of Survivor there ever was or will be /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 10/10. Great start and a great end. That Fairplay lie was HUGE back in the day. I loved Sandra, I loved Pearl Islands Rupert. The season was interesting from start to finish. Still my favorite season premiere. /u/oomps62

• Yeah, I mean, this season had pretty much everything you'd want in a Survivor season. /u/moostronus

• Perfect ten, baby! /u/beatricejd

• My favorite season. It may just be one of my favorite TV seasons ever (Although I always find it hard to compare survivor seasons to other shows). Everyone on this season plays the role they’re cast for perfectly. It feels like CBS decided to make the best Reality TV season ever, and they succeeded.

  The first thing to bring up about Pearl Islands is just how incredible the theme is. It says a lot about how much they nailed the theme/location that it’s hard for me to imagine the season and where I’d rank it without it, and the only other seasons I’d say that about are China, Kaoh Rong, and Africa, just because the theme/location produces so many great parts of the season: Epic pirate challenges (Probably some of the best challenges we’ve ever seen on a season), the village marooning (Big part about what makes the Pearl Islands premiere my favorite one), the looting twist, the buried treasure twist, and the Outcasts twist (I know this is probably an objectively bad twist, but here it’s what made the post-merge fantastic and brought back two top 50 characters).

  Pearl Islands main cast is also incredible. I say “main cast” because if I had to point out one flaw with Pearl Islands it’d be that other than Shawn, Osten and maybe Skinny Ryan, the early boots are pretty underdeveloped. But as far as the main cast goes, everyone plays their role in the season perfectly. Rupert is great in the fallen hero role, and the way he plays towards the theme is incredible, Lill was great in the “power goat” role, and as the person who takes down JFP in the end. Also, speaking about Jonny Fairplay, he’s the best villain ever. I’m amazed that we saw him blindside Rupert and use the Grandma Lie in just two episodes. Sandra is also great here with her rivalry with Fairplay, and avenging Rupert by being the one to beat Fairplay in the end. Burton is also super underrated among lots of the community and if he was on a worse season he’d probably be more praised as a character. He’s probably the best “Evil sidekick” we’ve seen on a season.

  Other characters that deserve mention: Savage as the asshole tribe leader who gets taken down at the merge, Christa is a fun sidekick to Sandra, and there’s something about Darrah I really like.

  The last thing I want to mention about Pearl Islands: So many great episodes:

  -- Beg, Barter, and Steal

  -- United We Stand, Divided We...?

  -- Pick A Castaway... Any Castaway

  -- What The...? Part 1 and 2

  -- Swimming with Sharks

  -- The Great Lie

  -- Would You Be My Brutus Today?

  -- Mutiny

  -- Flames and Endurance

  Personal Ranking: #1/34

  Best Character: Jonny Fairplay. But Lill, Sandra, Rupert, and Burton are all in my top 50.

  Best Episode: The Great Lie /u/Xerop681

• No season will ever be better. /u/willseamon

• Every episode of this season is easy to jump into and just love. So many stars, so many strong storylines, and everything has stakes in addition to just being amazing moments. None of the memorable moments, big or small, underwhelm when viewing it. It is just excellent TV.

/u/ExtraLifeBalloon

And the ranking is now complete! Thanks to all for following, voting, and discussing. Perhaps we can do this again in a year or so and add HvHvH, Ghost Island, and possibly Australian Survivor as a bonus.

Coming in at #4:

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4. VANUATU

Average: 8.406/10

Standard Deviation: 1.765 (8/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +1.486 (1/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +12

Total votes: 32

Breakdown:

How soon you all forget that Chad’s first name, is, in fact, James. Sorry to disappoint you reef.

Still, if it helps, Vanuatu has the largest boost from the r/survivor poll of any season, and it isn’t close. The difference between the #1 and #2 biggest boosts is about the same as the difference between the #2 and #6 biggest boots. It has pretty much everything this community looks for with powerful storylines, great characters, a well-balanced edit, and strategy that develops from the characters and their storylines, not the other way around. It’s the only season to produce 4 different rankdown endgamers, and that’s not an accident. While some may be lower on the pre-merge, it’s earned its place in the top 4 and is only kept from being higher by a couple of lower scores — if you remove the 2 and 5 it would rank #2.

• Best F6 of anything ever, y/y? /u/jacare37

• Offensively boring pre-merge, unlikable winner, and overall bad. It has its moments, but not much more. /u/qngff

• The only thing that stops it from being my #1 is the mediocre pre-merge. /u/Franky494

• Overrated. Especially, in the rankdown community. Pre-merge is terribly boring. /u/bobinou96

• I don't really know where to start with Vanuatu. It's perfection wrapped up into 14 episodes. No other season builds up quite like it, and for me at least this is the only season besides Australian Survivor 2016 where the two best characters on the season are in the final two. Chris and Twila's are fascinating. You have this long con/revenge tale of this scumbag who's getting back at everyone who wronged him, and next to that is a woman who can't hide who she is and what she cares about the most, so much so that it makes her hated even after she's visibly remorseful for the mistakes she's made on an island that breaks her down day by day.

  Oh yeah and then there are about 5 other amazing characters with an excellent supporting cast behind and it's just so good I'll stop myself. /u/reeforward

• Stronger down the stretch, but what a stretch it is. /u/acktar

• Slow start, great middle, incredible finish /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 8/10. Man, what a great season. Interesting personalities and dynamics all around. It's fun watching Chris trimumph over the all girl's alliance, watching Twila become the villain, watching Eliza go from annoying twit to fan favorite, and everything else. Great tv. /u/oomps62

• THIS SEASON WAS STRAIGHT FIRE HOLY SHIT. Underrated premerge, holyshit postmerge. /u/moostronus

• Predictable at times, but still funny and engaging. /u/beatricejd

• Vanuatu is so fucking good. A slow-burn season that gets more and more suspenseful and dramatic as the season goes on, and doesn’t lose its suspense until the winner is revealed.

I know a lot of people criticize Vanuatu’s pre-merge and cite it as a low point of the season but I really don’t think it’s that bad; it’s actually quite good. The premiere, the Dolly boot, the Bubba boot, the Lisa boot, and the John Kenney boot are all very good episodes. The John P. and Mia boot episode is also pretty fun. Rory is really hilarious during the pre-merge and I’m still amazed that he managed to survive Yasur.

I think the main thing I like about the pre-merge is that it does a good job setting up the post-merge. It develops all of the major characters: Ami starts to rise as a villain, Chris has a great premiere episode and is shown as a competent player, Twila gets a lot of development and her arc begins after the swap, and Eliza is an incredible cockroach the whole season.

But, the main strength of this season is the post-merge, and that it’s so fucking good. The major characters (Chris, Twila, Ami, Eliza) are all in my top 20 and stick out as some of the best ever. I really can’t pick out any flaws with the post-merge, since it’s got some of my favorite survivor storylines all mixed together: An underdog story, a great villain downfall, and a tragic story. Just overall excellent.

Personal Ranking: #4/34

Best Character: Twila

Best Episode: Surprise and… Surprise Again! /u/xerop681 

• The cast is overrated by the rankdown, but the dynamics are consistently engaging. /u/willseamon

• Utterly perfect, I mean yeah the premerge is slower but it's such a magnificent build up. Even then you have Ami, Twila, and Eliza all being developed and set up well and Dolly, Lisa, and Bubba are solid early boots. It just has everything I would in a season with conflict, complexity, excellent downfalls and underdog stories, and topped off with the greatest FTC the show has seen. The top four of the cast in particular here (Ami, Chris, Eliza, Twila) are all like top 20-25 favorites of mine. /u/JM1295

• Chris' comeback would not feel as earned if we didn't have the complex mechanisms of the Yasur Six and why they blew up. Every cast member prior to the merge (save maybe Bubba) is irrelevant and honestly so are half the episodes but from merge after just about everyone and everything delivers. /u/extralifeballoon

Top 3 are Pearl Islands, Palau, and Heroes vs Villains. Just missing out on the final update is:

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3. PALAU

Average: 8.438/10

Standard Deviation: 1.676 (10/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +1.188 (2/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +11

Total votes: 32

Breakdown:

Despite a couple of low scores, Palau cracks the top three in large part due to it receiving a 9 or 10 from over half of voters. It has one of only three four time endgamers and has had the winner make endgame as well, and has some of the most powerful storylines through 34+ seasons. While some aren’t as big on the Ulonging, the rest more than makes up for it according to most voters and without a couple of those low scores it could’ve made it all the way to the final update.

• Absolutely fantastic. The military theme worked so well with how dominant Koror was over Ulong. Gritty, real, and unforgiving. This is Survivor. /u/qngff

• Palau is probably the epitome of a season that'll slowly decrease each time you watch. I've seen the seasons three times each mostly, and Palau loses its captivation each time, just a small bit. I do also think that the endgame is the best endgame in history. /u/Franky494

• Best season of all time. The final episode is the best piece of reality TV ever made. I don't know how it could be beaten. Perfection. /u/Bobinou96

• I LOVE IT SO MUCH OMG THIS IS THE BEST SEASON EVER /u/ramskick

• Dark, militaristic, and unique. /u/acktar

• Lol, fucking guess what rating that I (Koror) gave this. /u/KororSurvivor

• I love both the Ulong and Koror halves of the season /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 9/10. One of a kind season that is basically like watching two post-merges. As Ulong loses challenge after challenge you really get to know them as their tribe dwindles to just a few members and only one victor emerges to enter Koror. Stephenie's struggle to join Koror and try to play the game is a perfect lead-in to Guatemala. I love the post-merge even more than the pre-merge: filled with great stories of what humans expect from others. #KatieWasRightAndIanWasWrong Like I said. I have unpopular opinions. /u/oomps62

• I wanna say a little flatter than I'd hoped it would be? Koror is amazing, but Ulong was hard to watch, and I never really fell into the Stephenie love. /u/moostronus

• The premerge drags like no other, but the postmerge has one of the best Survivor episodes ever (if not the best). /u/beatricejd

• Palau is so damn good. Such a dramatic, intense, and emotional survivor season, and I absolutely love it. Four of the best main protagonists ever with Ian (My #2 of all time), Tom (My #7 of all time), Katie (My #13 of all time), and Stephenie (Ranking for her isn’t solid yet but she’s definitely in my top 30). The supporting cast is also very solid: Wanda is fun during her five minutes of screentime (Even though her being a supporting character can be argued against), Kim is a random favorite of mine, Angie has a fun mini-growth arc on Ulong, James is really funny, Bobby Jon is fun and he gets more cavemen-like as the season goes on which is good to watch, I loved Janu in her quit episode, Gregg is a good dark horse to Tom, Caryn is a great WTF endgamer, and Jenn is a likable UTR prescience (RIP).

Other great things about Palau: Beautiful location, amazing challenge design, and a fantastic theme.

It’s really hard to pick out any major complaints with Ulong. I guess the Ulong plot can lose a bit of focus around the midway point but it’s got a strong start and a strong ending, so it’s still a great plotline.

Personal Ranking: #2/34

Best Character: Ian

Best Episode: The Ultimate Shock /u/Xerop681

• Tom isn't an entertaining winner to watch, and the entire Ulong tribe is boring or unlikable. /u/willseamon

• Have yet to rewatch so maybe Ulong's dreary stretch of episodes will hurt the season, but man this season is heavy in the greatest way possible. Stephanie carries the Ulong disaster superbly and of course I have to mention Katie being a constellation throughout. The final stretch here in particular still holds up as some of the best string of episodes I've seen. /u/JM1295

• This is an odd one because it falls into two distinct halves for me. The Ulonging is a 4 and the endgame is a 9/10. /u/vulture_couture

• I would give Ulong phase a 7/10 but the post-merge a 13/10 and the Ian storyline is the best thing in US Survivor. Also, Steph deserves to be a hero. /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

#2 is a season where Rupert voted for Sandra to win, and she won. #1 is a season where Rupert voted for Sandra to win, and she won.

Just missing out on the top 5 we have:

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6. CHINA

Average: 8.353/10

Standard Deviation: 1.054 (31/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -.007 (16/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -2

Total votes: 34

Breakdown:

China ends up with basically an identical score to the r/survivor poll, but people here just love Borneo, Vanuatu, and Palau enough to knock it down to 6th place. It’s got great characters, memorable moments, a very well balanced set of strengths and is often recommended to Survivor newbies for these reasons, among others. It only gets one score below a 6 and only four below an 8, showing how widespread its appeal is and how generally agreeable it is.

• Casting absolutely knocked it out of the park here and the rest just fits into place /u/jacare37

• The Final 3 is one of the best ever and the whole cast delivered. Excellent season. /u/qngff

• Fun /u/bobinou96

• China actually went down a lot on a rewatch. Courtney wasn't as funny as I remembered, James's story wasn't as interesting, Todd wasn't as charismatic, etc. Jean Robert was possibly the only character who didn't go down a little for me after watching it again. It's still good and easily top half, but besides the location and theme I think it's ceiling if you were grading every aspect of the season is lower than many say. Like I think Slicer says it's a B+ or A- in everything but I'd probably give a few aspects of it a B or B-, maybe even C+. I suppose none of the relationships connected with me and there wasn't at least that one amazing storyline to follow. Again it's still very good, but everyone else will be talking plenty about it's positives so I'll play devil's advocate. /u/reeforward

• A+ location and cast. /u/acktar

• This season comes the closest to Pearl Islands to blending all the qualities that make Survivor great. It's just a little bit less exciting and unique. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 8/10. Another thoroughly enjoyable season. I fucking love Courtney's arc throughout this entire season, I like Todd, and I love to watch some of the others fall. Beautiful season. /u/oomps62

• I really like this season! It's not on the level of adore, but I really really like it! Peih-Gee <3 /u/moostronus

• Predictable at times, but still funny and engaging. /u/beatricejd

• For a long time China was my answer to the long debated question “What is your favorite season”. It did drop a little bit after my rewatch (Even out of my top 10), but it’s still a very solid season.

  China excels by having a 10/10 overall cast with few duds, and an excellent use of Chinese culture for its design, challenges, and rewards.

  My biggest problem with this season is the plot. It’s not bad by any means, but it’s not great either.

  Personal Ranking: #11/34

  Best Character: James Clement

  Best Episode: Ready to Bite the Apple /u/xerop681

• This is always listed as one of the first seasons to watch. While I prefer watching in order I am told others have lives or some stupid shit so I can't rag on them too much. Besides this fits the bill. It's just consistently good to watch and imo a hilarious season. /u/extralifeballoon

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5. BORNEO

Average: 8.364/10

Standard Deviation: 1.410 (20/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +0.714 (7/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +5

Total votes: 33

Breakdown:

Borneo ends up ranking at #5 with nearly an identical ranking to China’s, getting a nice boost in comparison to the r/survivor poll. Not only does it receive very few low scores, but it also received a 10 ten times, more than any season on the list so far. Though it occasionally gets some criticism for being slow or boring, no other season will be able to duplicate anything like this, and its strong cast, powerful storylines, and big moments all help propel it this high.

• As awkward as it is at times, it's just so real and raw and complex and there really isn't anything remotely like it, which works for and against it -- but mostly for it. /u/jacare37

• The classics aren't always the best. Borneo is a sub-par season when compared to others even from its time. /u/qngff

• Unavoidable but slow /u/Bobinou96

• Yeah the rankdown community does kind of have a constant hard on for this season but there's good reason for that given that it's greatness is pretty much impossible to recreate due to reality tv and game shows like this being a common thing now. /u/reeforward

• Hard to rank; it's unlike any other season, and it set the ground for the rest of the series. /u/acktar

• No explanation necessary. /u/KororSurvivor (note: Koror gave this a 10)

• It's fuckin Borneo man /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn (note: Hodor gave this a 9)

• Haven't seen /u/oomps62

• The OG. It can be a bit rough in spots (premerge was not nearly on par with postmerge) but any season introducing Hatch and Hawk to us can never be below a 9. /u/moostronus

• Lives up to the hype. The Citizen Kane of Survivor. /u/beatricejd

• For me, it’s hard to praise Borneo without taking into consideration just how different it is from every season. Going into Borneo, there were no “rules” on how you should play the game. Not everyone thought you’d need to manipulate and lie to make your way to the end; Some people just thought that it was a simple survival.

  And I think that’s the best way to view Borneo. It’s the story about a fun survival show that could probably air for a few seasons before people get bored of it turning into a fascinating story of manipulation. We’ll never see debates about if an alliance is ethical on any season other than Borneo, just because it’s become such a standard way to play the game. It’s a story arc that’s fascinating to watch unfold from beginning to end (Don’t listen to anyone who calls this season boring!), especially if you’ve already seen all the other seasons.

  Also not to mention that the cast for this season is fucking stellar. Everyone who makes the merge has a well-developed story and distinct personality, and I’d have all 10 of them close to or in my top 100. Gervase, Sue, Rudy, and Richard are also all probably in my top 30 (With Colleen not too far behind).

  I guess a complaint that could be given to this season is that the camerawork is choppy, like sometimes you can see other camera man in the background of shots, and some bad challenges… but I think all that adds to the charm of a season, in a weird way.

Personal Ranking: #8/34

• Compelling characters, creating a great deal of intrigue despite a predictable late merge. /u/willseamon

• The Alpha and the Omega /u/dabusurvivor

• It's easy to give this kudos for being the OG and not thinking about it, but being the first season doesn't on its own mean anything. And there's a lot about Borneo that feels like kickstarting a phenomenon, true, but Borneo holds a lot of fantastic character moments, development, and a progressive plot of those holding themselves to higher standards falling to those who don't act like they owe the world anything. The moments feel revolutionary and we care about those they happen to. It certainly doesn't deserve its reputation of being boring. /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

#4 had at least one contestant whose name is “James”. #3 had only new players.

8. PHILIPPINES

Average: 8.086/10

Standard Deviation: 1.105 (30/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +0.136 (13/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -1

Total votes: 34

Breakdown:

Philippines cracks the top 8 thanks to an unbelievably high floor, being one of only three seasons to have everyone rate it a 6 or higher, and only having one person give it below a 7. It's one of the most well-rounded modern seasons with something to appreciate for every kind of Survivor fan with strong emotional storylines, a very strong cast, a great winner, good strategy, heroes, villains, you name it. Interestingly, its score rises in comparison to the r/survivor poll, but its placement still falls.

• A treasure of a season. All around excellent. /u/qngff

• Refreshing. /u/bobinou96

• Definitely some bias due to it being my first season, but it still has extremely high highs and doesn't even drop too low during it's weaker segments. Without a doubt it's also an important season for Survivor as a whole as it finally produced a season that a majority of the audience could get behind, and it popularized the three tribe format that has been working out pretty well in recent seasons.

The Matsing arc is a work of art and even if the season turned to shit after that it'd still be top half. But it didn't turn to shit. There are plenty of exciting moments in the postmerge, one of the best villains of the post Heroes vs. Villains era, and a really solid storyline to a lovable winner. /u/reeforward

• The season that reinvigorated my love for Survivor and for that I will always be grateful. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• Great season, overall. I love that Russell Swann and Penner got a chance to come back. Abi was a great villain. Seeing Blair on TV again <333. A bunch of other great cast additions: Malcolm, Denise, RC. Besides, after One World, anything else is a treat. /u/oomps62

• It was good, clean fun! I enjoyed it! Matsing was an epic story line, and Tandang is underrated. /u/moostronus

• The cast is perfection from first boot to winner. /u/beatricejd

• Following a streak of bad seasons, Philippines is a breath of fresh air. It probably has my favorite first four episodes in survivor history with the whole Matsing/Russell Swan arc and all of the chaos on Tandang. Some people say that there’s a quality drop after that and I agree, but I more think it goes from being a 10/10 for the first four episodes to a consistent 8.5 or 9/10. And it even still has some great episodes, like Dead Man Walking.

  I really like this seasons cast as a whole. Other than Roxy everyone on Matsing is great, with Denise (One of my all time favorites), Russell Swan, and Malcolm being the stars. Speaking of Malcolm, I like him a lot more than people on here do it seems. He’s an excellent narrator and super charasmatic, and I was fine that he got a lot of screentime during the post-merge. I also really like Artis (Too UTR :(), Pete (Fun early merge villain), I know some people don’t like Jonathan this season but I enjoyed his narration and he was great during ‘Dead Man Walking’, Carter was likable throughout the whole season and I actually felt bad for him during his boot episode, Abi is a star, and I like Lisa.

  Really I have no major problems with Philippines as a season. It sticks out with Kaoh Rong as the best of the post-HvV era, and one of the best ever.

  Personal Ranking: #5/34

  Best Character: Denise Stapley

  Best Episode: Dead Man Walking /u/xerop681

• The saga of Matsing is 11/10, the fourth episode was 15/10, and the rest of the season was between an 8 and 9 out of 10 but you know what I'll take it. A great cast will solve anything. /u/extralifeballoon

7. KAOH RONG

Average: 8.143/10

Standard Deviation: 1.31 (22/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +0.023 (15/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -2

Total votes: 35

Breakdown:

Kaoh Rong is the second of the three seasons to have everyone who voted for it rate as a 6 or higher. It tops all other post HvV seasons in the poll and has nearly an identical score to the r/survivor poll. As with Philippines, the reasons to like it kind of speak for themselves, and both have stuff that any kind of Survivor fan will enjoy. Great characters, dynamic gameplay, strong editing, etc. Neither it or Philippines have quite as much rabid support to make the top 6, but this is pretty damn good.

• Part of me wishes this season didn't happen because the reaction it got from Probst/production in comparison to other recent seasons is perhaps the most alarming thing about the postmodern era. Then again, it's fucking amazing /u/jacare37

• Good in most aspects. Michele's winner story was unsatisfying and three medevacs dampened it, but it was a good season nonetheless. /u/qngff

• Well-rounded /u/Bobinou96

• My #2 favorite season of all time. It is probably the best edited modern season, one of my very favorite casts, one of the /u/KororSurvivor

• I think a rewatch might move this one higher but I as of now I fall somewhere between the "it's great" and "it's only OK" camps when it comes to Kaoh Rong /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 8/10 This felt like such a refreshing season. Great people against awful villains. I wish the jury had a different mentality, but it's not enough to ruin an otherwise great season. /u/oomps62

• Cydney + Aubry = <3 /u/moostronus

• Stellar cast. /u/beatricejd

• "Kaoh Rong:

My favorite season of the post-HvV era. If I go even farther back it’s my favorite season of the post-Palau era (And the two seasons I have above it from the first 10 are really just untouchable). Folllowing Cambodia, Kaoh Rong is an excellent return to form. It features a good blend of characters-strategy and (Other than the finale maybe) it rarely feels like it gets too gameplay focused, I think the medical evacuations add something dark and unique to the season, it’s got complex villains and complex heroes who stick out compared to other post-HvV heroes and villains, I like the role the location plays into the season, it’s got one of the best early merge storylines ever, almost the entire cast is at least good, and it’s got a super idol twist that isn’t shit.

First thing I’d like to go over is that the cast of this season is really excellent, and there’s only one person I dislike:

-- Darnell: Great first boot and 10/10 casting choice who could have been a far better character if he went farther, but was still fun as a first boot.

-- Jenny: AMAZING trainwreck. Seeing her get a super positive premiere episode where she over comes a bug in her ear and is able to get into the majority, it seemed like she was a strong winner candidate. So seeing her suddenly play terrible the next episode, getting to the point where she stands up and pleads for her life at the next tribal council was great.

-- Liz: Basically a parody of a gamebot. She thought that she could control the game with Peter, sadly she didn’t realize that two people isn’t enough to have the majority on a tribe.

-- Caleb: I enjoyed his relationship with Tai and his medevac was super suspenseful to watch.

-- Alecia: She’s a mental giant. Seeing Scot and Jason constantly beat down Alecia during the pre-merge perfectly built them up as villains, and Alecia was a great character on the own. She was on the bottom from the very begginning, but she constantly fought to stay in the game and never wanted to give up. Even though people thought she was on the wrong tribe, I think the mental strength that she showed and the fact that she was never willing to give up even when she was on the complete bottom shows that she wasn’t.

-- Anna: The only person on this cast I dislike. Something about her just rubbed me the wrong way and annoyed me the whole season. All of her post-game prescience hasn’t really helped. Her yelling was also annoying. 

-- Peter: Amazing pre-merge trainwreck. I can understand why people wouldn’t like him though.

-- Neal: Fun when he does get screentime, and I enjoyed his role in Aubry’s story. His final scene when he was being evacuated was really sad. My major complaint about him is I hate what he says to Michele after he’s voted off the jury.

-- Nick: Charming narrator. I think he would have gotten annoying if he lasted longer, so glad he went early though. His boot episode is also the start of the downfall of Scot and Jason, which is obviously incredible.

-- Debbie: I know some people didn’t like her forced personality on the show, but I think she’s much closer to someone like Coach than she is to someone like Phillip. And once again, that blindside is pretty incredible.

-- Scot: I loved Scot and watching his journey as a survivor villain unfold. It only got better when I rewatched the season. He’s got a fantastic rise and a fantastic fall, he’s got a good villain sidekick, and he’s complex and not completely evil. His boot episode was my favorite episode of the season and probably one of my favorites ever (He was also great in the Debbie boot episode). Fills the role of a villain I love to hate very well, and is a standout among other post-HvV villains as one of the best.

-- Julia: She’s good as this devious young girl. Idk I feel like it’s hard to write about her for some reason.

-- Jason: As far as evil sidekicks in survivor go, Jason is one of the best. Throughout the whole season it’s pretty obvious that he’ll get booted eventually, but it’s still fun to watch him constantly try to create chaos even though he’s on the bottom until he’s finally booted. Also, his opening confessional is unintentionally hilarious.

-- Joe: UTR badass:

-- Cydney: Fun sassy narrator. Not really a top 50 character but i’d probably have her in my top 100.

-- Tai: My favorite from this season. I'm still amazed that we got to see someone like Tai play Survivor. Coming off of the first few episodes of Kaoh Rong I thought that there was no way that Tai would lose if he ended up making it to the final 3, and I was perfectly fine with it, because like most people, I loved Tai. But as Kaoh Rong starts to unfold more we get to see Tai's indecisiveness and flipping piss people off, which causes him to lose in final tribal council. Granted we don't get this Twila-like final tribal council out of Tai, but whatever, he's still incredible.

Also, Tai is really crazy, like during his religious immunity win over Cydney and bringing a fucking chicken to final tribal council. Just an A+ casting choice overall and everything (Or most I guess since I criticized him for not having an epic Twila-like final tribal) I want from a FTC loser. He’s easily the star of the season and my second favorite post-HvV character.

-- Aubry: So fucking good. I just mentioned that Tai is the star of this season but Aubry is also pretty damn close. She’s such a great narrator and seeing her go head to toe with Scot and Jason and actually win was great. She’s also different from most other growth arcs in that she actually does make it to the end, but sadly can’t seal the deal and win. I know some people say that the story of her loss was poorly told, but I don’t think it’s hard to see where she lost most of the votes.

-- Michele: Fun winner. Sucks that she gets such a bad reputation for beating Tai and Aubry.

Another thing about Kaoh Rong is that it’s got so many great episodes. So many that it would be shorter for me to list that aren’t great than the ones that are: -- It’s a ‘Me’ Game Not A ‘We’ Game

-- Not Going Down Without A Fight (My biggest criticism of this season is probably that the finale is underwhelming, mostly because of an anticlimactic final immunity and the shitty vote off a juror twist. So much of Kaoh Rong is good that it doesn’t bring down the season as a whole down a lot).

And yeah, the storyline this season is pretty incredible. Not sure I need to go too in depth and this post is getting long, but if anyone wants reasoning I can write something.

Personal Ranking: #3/34

Best Character: Tai Trang.

Best Episode: I’m Not Here to Make Good Friends /u/xerop681 

• The medevac episodes kill the momentum of what is otherwise a great season. /u/willseamon

• Episodes 9 and 10 are two of the best episodes ever and I will always have a bias towards this season as it's the first I recapped (and got me through a rough stint to the point where I watched the finale in the hospital, ty Grando <3) but it really deserves that rep. The characters are awesome throughout and things you never saw happening happen. The remove a juror twist sucks dick though holy shit /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

Getting down to the wire now. #6's season number has a "'1" somewhere in it. #5 had exactly 16 players.

For those of you still awake:

10. SAN JUAN DEL SUR

Average: 7.901/10

Standard Deviation: 1.264 (26/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +0.469 (11/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +2

Total votes: 33

Breakdown:

Some nice symmetry with SJDS’s scores — if you throw out the one, its scores are an exact bellcurve with 4-6-12-6-4 from 6 to 10. Which pretty accurately represents SJDS’s reputation here has a decisively strong season if not a spectacular one. It receives a nice boost from the r/survivor poll and has come a long way from the days when it was seen as boring and forgettable.

• Not bad at all. The Blood vs Water twist plays well, especially into Natalie's story. /u/qngff

• Best season post-HvV. The editing post-merge is perfect. A gem. /u/bobinou96

• Strong location and theme, and no real weaknesses. /u/acktar

• I find this season more interesting than lovable. Sorry SJDS stans. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 9/10. Love the all-new players fans vs. favorites. It's such a fun twist on Survivor and it's great seeing how people end up prioritizing their relationships. /u/oomps62

• Jonclyn + Natalie = <3 /u/moostronus

• Endless rewatch value. It just gets better every time. /u/beatricejd

• San Juan Del Sur is an excellent season. It’s got a slowly unravelling plot that gets better and better as the season unfolds, peaking when Natalie wins (What a perfect ending <3). There are four standout characters here; Jon, Jaclyn, Keith, and Natalie, all of whom are probably in my top 50 (Only one who might not be in it is Jaclyn… but either way she’s excellent). Jon Misch is a really great and complex survivor figure (especially for his arctype), his relationship with Jaclyn and overall plotline/character is epic and stands out as one of personal favorites; Keith also sticks out as an incredible comedy character also with some interesting depth with his relationship with Wes (Please bring him back for a third time). And like I said all ready, Natalie winning this season was perfect and her revenge story is epic to watch unfold, and part of what makes the season so good.

  This season also has solid supporting characters; Jeremy (Gamebot who’s actually kind of fun with a sudden by awesome blindside), Drew (A badass), Baylor (Fun scrappy woman), Wes (I feel like he’s gone underappreciated because of how strong Keith is), and Missy (Don’t hate her as much as everyone else).

  The whole cast of San Juan Del Sur is really what makes it worthwhile. The characters do a really good job filling their role in the overall plot, and it’s hard to imagine someone else taking it.

  Now, for some complaints about San Juan Del Sur: Josh sucks, the location is ugly (I usually don’t care too much about the location of a season, but it just looks really bad here), and even though I like it more than most, the pre-merge isn’t great.

  Personal Ranking: #10/34

  Best Character: Jon Misch. Natalie Anderson and Keith Nale are also close.

  Best Episode: This is Where We Build Trust /u/xerop681

• Underloved and often misunderstood. The season had some high quality gameplay and wasn't just "NO ONE WAS DOING STRADEGY", the family relations were extremely fleshed out and made the season interesting even though there were three pairs in the F9, decisions were constantly driven from conflict and it wasn't just "everyone was too nice!" to the point where people forgot non-icky conflict was a thing and it all stunned them by HHH. A godly season I think of reasons to love when my mind wanders on it. /u/extralifeballoon

9. PANAMA

Average: 8.000/10

Standard Deviation: 1.28 (25/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +0.620 (9/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +4

Total votes: 33

Breakdown:

Panama cracks the top 10 with an average of exactly a 8. Obviously Casaya is more than enough to make up for La Mina’s shortcomings; two of its members have made the endgame and the others have done pretty well across the rankdowns too. It’s just a ton of fun and it’s no surprise to see it appreciated as much as it is.

• Some of the most iconic moments and characters ever originated here. You'd be hard pressed to find something to hate about it. /u/qngff

• Hilarious /u/Bobinou96

• Just a bunch of fun really. /u/reeforward

• Top-tier cast and action. /u/acktar

• I should not be giving this a 10/10, but y'know what? I don't care. This is the funniest season, and one that entertained me more than almost any other. It's not the most deep, but it gave us Cirie and it gave us Casaya. That alone is worthy of respect. /u/KororSurvivor

• Proof that an A+ cast can turn a ho-hum game of Survivor into a fantastic season of Survivor /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 9/10. Cirie <3 Need I say anything else? Ok, fine, it's just another fun season to watch. Overall a likable cast, plus Shane. At least he's good tv. I low-key hate Aras because he still needs a few years to grow up, but very enjoyable season. /u/oomps62

• Ciriesus Christ <3 (Also, related: why the fuck does Terry always do so poorly in Rankdowns? He's such a fascinating character. TERRY FOR TOP 75 OR SO.) /u/moostronus

• Probably the funniest Survivor season ever. /u/beatricejd

• Panama is a really good season. I feel like it’s like Survivor: China in that it’s consistently an 8 or 9 out of 10, but never crosses that “OMG AMAZING” line that the seasons in my top 5 have. It does have more standout moments than China though, and all the wacky/crazy stuff with Casaya definitely gives this season a different and distinct feel from most other seasons (The closest comparison probably being Gabon?). It feels like a sitcom at times, and still does have good character plots, like with Cirie’s growth and slowly unravelling Aras vs Terry plotline during the post-merge.

  Some complaints about this season: Terry’s downfall is pretty underwhelming, I think it would have been better if there was a fairer final immunity challenge (Although the fact that Terry got legitimately screwed by a challenge after wrongly complaining about another one being unfair is kind of funny), Shane can be a little much at times (Might get some hate for this one), and La Mina is a very stale tribe if you forget about Terry.

  Also, kind of random thought: I enjoyed Terry a lot more on my most recent rewatch. During SRIV I really didn’t like that he made it so far, but after watching it again I enjoyed the role he played in the season as an opposing force to all of Casaya, and as an underdog hero who’s actually kind of an asshole. He was definitely one of the stronger characters (I may even go as far to say he’s in my top 4)

  Personal Ranking: #14/34

  Best Character: Cirie Fields. Duh.

  Best Episode: This is tough. I feel like this season has a lot of 8/10 and 9/10, but there isn’t really a major stand out. I think I’ll say “Perilous Scramble”.

• Survivor: Casaya is amazing and seeing the tribe interact with Terry actually makes him an interesting foil. /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

#8 had a male first boot. #7 had a final three.

12. TOCANTINS

Average: 7.559/10

Standard Deviation: 1.310 (23/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -0.301 (18/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -4

Total votes: 34

Breakdown:

Tocantins makes the top 12 thanks to everyone who voted for it giving it a 5 or higher. It has one of the highest floors of any season and you won’t find many people who hate or even dislike it. It’s agreed on as a generally solid all-around season with good characters and moments and gets a big bump from Coach, but it doesn’t pack quite enough for it to make the top ten.

• ehhh... I feel like I should like this more but to me it feels like Panama where La Mina wins, and that's lame /u/jacare37

• Solid. Enjoyable throughout. I'm not sure if that's because of or in spite of Coach though. /u/qngff

• Bizarre /u/bobinou96

• Strong location and theme, and no real weaknesses. /u/acktar

• This really should be an 8. But Coach brings it up to a 9. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 9/10. Beauty. Pure beauty. Another beautiful location with overall great cast. JT is at his finest here and it's just another great cast. Coach <3. Taj <3. Erinn <3. So enjoyable to watch. /u/oomps62

• Is Coach enough to make a season amazing? Yes. Yes, he is. /u/moostronus

• Great cast. Solid mid-tier Survivor. /u/beatricejd

• To be honest I’d probably have Tocantins around where I have Micronesia if it didn’t have Coach, but Coach and the way his tribe mates react to him alone makes it a worthwhile season and in my top half.

  Personal Ranking: #16/34

  Best Character: Coach.

  Best Episode: The Martyr Approach /u/xerop681

• Glad the Historians hosted a #TocantinsExposedParty because it is boring (and I am not a huge Coach fan) with its good moments and its existence of Erinn/Taj/Tyson not able to compensate for it. Brendan is underrated tho <3 /u/extralifeballoon

11. MARQUESAS

Average: 7.706/10

Standard Deviation: 1.69 (9/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +1.09 (4/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +8

Total votes: 34

Breakdown:

Marquesas gets a huge boost from the r/survivor poll, rising in score by a full point and moving up 8 spots. With nearly 2/3 voters giving it an 8 or higher and two multi-time endgamers, Marquesas’s strong story and characters help it average almost an 8. It does have a few low/middling scores however and doesn’t get many 10’s, which causes it to fall outside the top 10.

• If Survivor were a movie, it would be Marquesas /u/jacare37

• Full of life, charm, character, strategy, and personality. Almost everyone on the cast was memorable in some way. /u/qngff

• Entertainingly tragic /u/Bobinou96

• Overrated as all hell. /u/acktar

• I love Marquesas. You love Marquesas. We all love Marquesas. I do have to point out the location kinda sucks though. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 5/10. It's not the worst, but it's a bit of a snoozefest. I love Sean and Kathy, but pretty much everybody else who makes it to the end is entirely forgettable. /u/oomps62

• I will defend this season from my first day to my last. I LOVED the emotional turmoil and larger issues brought up in this season, and how the good guys/bad guys narrative wasn't as clean as we'd want it to be. /u/moostronus

• Sean Rector is my spirit animal. /u/beatricejd

• Marquesas has gained a reputation among the survivor community as “boring”, which I really don’t like because in my opinion it’s far from it. I really think that other than The General and Tammy’s boot episode, every episode is at least good.

  Like Africa, Marquesas is another season with 2 good and dynamic tribes: Maraamu and Rotu. I don’t know where Maraamu ranks as far as trainwrecks go but it’s definitely up there. It’s fun to see Rob take control early on, Sean + Others hosting the Maraamu morning show, everything Sean Rector, and everyone but Gina not caring that they’re such a disaster. Early Rotu is a little weak (Even if there are great moments like Kathy peeing on John C.) but once the storyline with the fall of John C/The Rotu 4 is set up it gets good.

  Also, Marquesas easily has my favorite merge episode of all time. Man Rob and Kathy were true stars in that episode.

  Marquesas gets a lot of flack for post-John C. and people call it boring, but I just don’t really agree. A Tale of Two Cities and The Sole Survivor are both fantastic episodes, and the Zoe boot episode is really fun.

  Personal Ranking: #6/34

  Best Character: Sean Rector. But him and Kathy are both in my top 10.

  Best Episode: This is tough. Going to go with Jury’s Out but True Lies is really close though. /u/xerop681

• I don't love the characters as much as everyone else, with half the post-merge cast being very forgettable. /u/willseamon

• Fantastic, I mean really it's such an iconic season but it doesn't just rely on having such historical importance, because it's chock full of good characters and scenes. Besides John, the Rotu Four isn't built up quite as well as I'd like, but besides that and original Rotu not having the best editing and developing Neleh a bit late, I don't have many gripes. Top 5 season. /u/JM1295

• Perpetually robbed by the main page. The overarching story arc from Episodes 3 of smaller stories building a bigger one was possibly the best ever, at least in my top 3. The "dull episodes" to me aren't that dull and it picks back up from F5 and ramps the hell back up. Each character plays their part well, from Kathy to the General, and this deserves love for being an amazing cast. /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

#10 aired in 2010 or later. #9 had a black merge buff.

14. GABON

Average: 7.364/10

Standard Deviation: 1.410 (21/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +0.344 (12/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +1

Total votes: 33

Breakdown:

Gabon comes in at #14 with a mild improvement from the r/survivor poll. It got a whopping seventeen 7’s — no other season has gotten a single score more times than that so far (yes, Gabon got more 7’s than Redemption Island got 1’s), with over half of its scores being a 7. It also had a string of five 7’s in a row on two separate occasions. The relative lack of 8-10s explains why it doesn’t get even higher, but it’s consistently popular enough to do this well.

• Hilarious, beautiful, and even has a tragic story with Sugar. I loved it through and through. /u/qngff

• WTF /u/bobinou96

• Best summarized as "lol Gabon". /u/acktar

• Other people love this season more than I do. But Randy on his own elevates this by one point. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 7/10. It's a bit of a strange season that just doesn't ever seem to fit in, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. /u/oomps62

• This season grows on me the more I think about it. I don't think it's a top tier one by any stretch, but I do deeply appreciate Sugar (especially after SRIV). /u/moostronus

• On paper, this is the best Survivor season ever. In practice, I hate 50 percent of the cast and winner is seriously creepy. To sum up - I'm conflicted. /u/beatricejd

• Gabon:

  Absolutely amazing trainwreck, and it still does have an interesting character plot line with Sugar. Gabon is one hell of a ride, and I like it more every time I watch it.

  Personal Ranking: #9/34 /u/xerop681

  Best Character: Randy Bailey.

  Best Episode: Nothing Tastes Better than Five Hundred Dollars

• Great for all the reasons SURM hates it. So if he posts a writeup for it, copy and paste it into mine but add hearts after every sentence. /u/extralifeballoon

13. CAGAYAN

Average: 7.486/10

Standard Deviation: 1.42 (19/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -1.19 (26/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -10

Total votes: 35

Breakdown:

Guess nobody got the hint, although there were like 5 idols played none of them actually negated any votes here.

Cagayan takes one of the biggest hits from the r/survivor poll and falls out of our top 10. Still, it manages a respectable score of 7.48 with over half of respondents giving it an 8 or higher, and doesn’t get any scores lower than 4. It just doesn’t have as many diehard supporters as it has elsewhere in the fanbase.

• It's fine, but Tony's edit still fucking sucks /u/jacare37

• Easily the most overrated season ever. Tony's a good winner, but the season was so focused on 3 characters that others got lost in the shadows. /u/qngff

• Thrilling /u/Bobinou96

• The most important season of the 2010s by a significant margin. I rewatched it recently and was glad to see I enjoyed it as much as I did when it hit like a breath of fresh air on first airing. KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• (I apparently didn't record this. 8?/10) Cagayan is fun. It's one of those seasons that's a little too strategy heavy, but Tony is just funny. I haven't laughed so hard on a survivor season in ages. The Brains tribe might be even worse than Ulong in terms of competence, and that's saying something. Overall, I always enjoy Cagayan rewatches.

• Tony + Kass = <3 /u/moostronus

• Deserves to be in my top ten just on the strength of the first episode alone. /u/beatricejd

• My feelings on Cagayan are fairly similar to my feelings on South Pacific in that they have lots of strong aspects going for them, but big negatives that bring the season down as a whole, so it’s weird that one is universally regarded as one of the best seasons ever and the other is consistently called bottom tier.

  Cagayan has a lot going for it; It’s got a strong pre-merge (I mean there aren’t really any standout episode, but it just flows really well in general), one of the strongest post-merge episodes ever (Even if I don’t like the season as much as other people, this episode is fantastic), Kass and Trish are fantastic even if they take a backseat during the post-merge, I really like Garrett, Cliff is a random favorite of mine, Woo is this fun-goofy personality throughout the season (Even if the edit showed him to be more likable than he actually is), and Sarah’s downfall is so fun. There are more positives to this season, but these are the major ones.

  But, it also has a lot of weak points; LJ gets to join Josh and Jeff Kent with the generic gamebot who takes up screen time and is blindsided early merge (Granted Josh and Jeff’s downfalls were far better), after Sarah is booted the season turns into the Spencer and Tony show, and Spencer is someone I really wouldn’t care for on other seasons, and Tony could have been a great character but his content gets really repetitive and we didn’t get enough content to show why the jury didn’t hate him by the end of the season. That 4-episode stretch after Tony is booted is my main problem with the season; It’s so damn dull and kills a lot of momentum out of the season: Like I said, it’s basically just Tony and Spencer content, and by the final 6 it feels like we’re still in the same position alliance wise as we were at the final 10.

  And expanding on that Tony point, I definitely think he had potential to be a better character. I don’t hate Tony (I actually do like him quite a bit), but I hate how his win is told. We got few scenes seeing Tony actually form social bonds that would get the jury to respect him even though he stabbed them in the back. I think Tony has a better plot line if we get to see this guy who’s willing to play a giant social game with everyone, but stab them instantly.

  TL;DR: Cagayan isn’t a bad season, it’s actually quite good, but it does have some severe flaws that I think are often overlooked.

  Personal Ranking: #17/34

  Best Character: Kass McQuillen

  Best Episode: Head of The Snake /u/xerop681

• The premiere and infamous clusterfuckery of Luzon was enough to fool me into thinking that the post-merge was good. The F10-F6 is garbage tier with only a few moments to remember. Before that was amazing and Trish's speech blows me away today. /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

#12 had contestant(s) on the Cambodia ballot. #11 has had multiple different contestants make a rankdown endgame.

16. MICRONESIA

Average: 6.971/10

Standard Deviation: 1.635 (13/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -1.13 (25/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -10

Total votes: 34

Breakdown:

The rankdown community tends to not enjoy seasons more based around flash than substance, so it’s not super surprising to see that Micronesia takes a big hit in comparison to where it usually ranks. But the general consensus is less negative and more neutral-positive, as shown by about 3/4 voters giving it a score somewhere between 6-8. Another season helped by its relative low number of bad scores, with only a certain Alex Angarita fan giving it below a 4.

• It's a fucking stick! /u/qngff

• Spectacular /u/bobinou96 (note: bobinou says this despite only giving it a 7.. if you’re out there I’d like to get more of an idea of what you’re saying here lol)

• Little known fact: I don't like Natalie Bolton /u/ramskick

• Fun, even if surprise is what makes it memorable. /u/acktar

• Screw the haters. This season is still fun as hell. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 8/10. This is a bit of a trainwreck of a season with incompetent fans vs. bumbling favorites. This is the kind of season where nothing that happens should happen, yet it does. Entertaining though. /u/oomps62

• Maybe not the deepest season I've ever seen, but it was really fun. FITE ME. /u/moostronus

• I don’t like Micronesia too much. I feel like it’s plagued with lots of the worst parts of modern survivor; Favoring blindsides and strategy/big moves over characters, a crappy theme (That certainly favors one tribe over the other), and a bad boot order (More of a trend for all-stars seasons). Additionally, I think that other than Ozzy and Parvati every favorite from this season is worse than their original iteration. Granted this could be because of the strength of the favorites casting more than everything, and I think few returning players are ever better than their original iteration. Also, other than Erik and Jason I don’t think there are many strong characters on the fans tribe, and there are also two that I have strong negative feelings on (Joel and Natalie).

  Micronesia does have some positive traits though. Erik, Jason, and Cirie (Even if she’s a downgrade compared to her original version) are all great characters. Erik’s blindside is pretty damn iconic and I really like it. And in general it’s not like it’s frustrating to watch Micronesia/ Even if it doesn’t have the most depth, it’s fun to just relax and watch and it doesn’t require complete attention. The fact that it’s still enjoyable puts it above seasons like Game Changers, Cambodia, and Blood vs Water (This sounds pretty positive considering I gave it a 6. It would be a 6.5 but that wasn’t an option).

  Personal Ranking: #24/34

  Best Character: Erik Reichenbach

  Best Episode: If It Smells Like A Rat, Give It Cheese

• It really does kickstart a lot of horrible trends of modern Survivor but still delivers a lot of legitimately great moments (the stick <3). That F3 twist can get fucked to hell though. /u/extralifeballoon

15. AFRICA

Average: 7.294/10

Standard Deviation: 1.96 (3/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +0.934 (5/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +6

Total votes: 34

Breakdown:

With Africa’s elimination, every season still in has had a rankdown endgamer at one point, and it is also the highest ranking season that got a score of 1. It’s a season with some passionate defenders here thanks to its strong cast, incredibly unique location, and memorable and iconic moments. Unfortunately for its ranking, as passionate as its defenders are, there just aren’t enough of them to rank it higher than this.

• Watching people sweat and starve to death is not fun. /u/qngff

• Innofensive and cool /u/Bobinou96

• Excellent location, interesting strategy, top-tier cast. /u/acktar

• A great season, would be better if the cast wasn't totally sapped by the elements worse than any other season. KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 3/10. Eh. That mostly sums up my Africa viewing experience. /u/oomps62

• Great atmosphere, great cast, great unique challenges. Unfortunately, it also introduced us to Linda Spencer. /u/moostronus

• Gorgeous scenery + dysfunctional tribe dynamics + endless paranoia + that time when a tribe almost was eaten by lions. I love this season. /u/beatricejd

• Africa is an absolutely breathtaking season. I think the first thing that needs to be said about Africa is the location is gorgeous. I think I might prefer Pearl Islands location just because of the way they used the pirate theme with it, but based on pure beauty Africa has the best location ever, with all the beautiful scenery and wildlife we get to see. The way that they incorporate African culture in some of the challenges and rewards is also very cool.

Another thing to mention involving the location is how difficult the survival is here. I love the role survival plays in this season, people often refer to it as the “17th player”, which is true. It’s compelling to watch the whole cast struggle to survive in Kenya.

Away from the location, this season also has an excellent cast. Samburu is an absolutely legendary tribe (How could any tribe with Silas, Frank, and Lindsay not be?) and the generational gap is great just to see how different the two alliances are, with Silas in the middle (For a few episodes). We’ll never see a tribal divide this good again.

Boran is a step down compared to Samburu (Most tribes are) but still has good/great characters like Clarence, Lex, Ethan, and Kelly G. The storyline with Clarence early on is also great (Clarence <3). One complaint I have about Boran is I find Big Tom to be more annoying than funny, so that’s a negative.

As far as the plotline goes Africa is also great. Like I’ve already mentioned that Samburu is a legendary tribe and watching it implode is amazing. After Kelly gets voted out it loses a bit of steam (Which is why it’s a 9 and not a 10) but you still have Lex trying to get to the end, and even when you know he doesn’t it’s still fun to see his downfall be formed.

Personal Ranking: #7/34

Best Character: Frank. Lindsay and Lex are also probably in my top 50.

Best Episode: Smoking out The Snake /u/xerop681 

• The dynamics between the Boran members as well as the mainly all-around great post-merge cast bring this up higher than it could be based on its miserable location. /u/willseamon

• Incredible premerge and a great stretch of episodes from 3-6 that are phenomenal and Samburu takes a lot of credit there, but Boran is solid. After the first two merge episodes, the season isn't quite as great and teeters between solid and decent to average and a bit dull. Also don't find Lex nearly as compelling as I wanted to given his prominence on the season. Still top 10 for me. /u/JM1295

• Deserves credit for being genuinely heated early on in ways that were passionate and almost uncomfortable, and emotions ran high the entire game. Even when it hit lulls it still had amazing rewards that took up half the episode and deserved to. Even if the later parts got a little Travel Channel's Guide to Africa I do not think it was a problem. Especially knowing the earlier episodes exist. /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

#14 had a player/players play an idol and negate votes. #13 included idols, but they did not negate any votes.

Last cut before the top half:

18. MILLENNIALS VS GEN X

Average: 6.735/10

Standard Deviation: 1.633 (14/34)

Total votes: 34

Breakdown:

While Guatemala was the most surprising season for me in how much lower it was than I expected, MvGX is the one that’s the most surprisingly high to me. It’s similar to Cambodia with the meta talk and larger cast and focus on strategy, but to its credit, it does a bit better job of developing its top characters and the relationships between them. It benefits from having very few low scores with only 1 person giving it below a 4 and only 7 people giving it below a 6, but doesn't have as many high scores as the ones above it, knocking it down to here.

• Do people not remember how much that premerge sucked? And like half of the postmerge episodes too? /u/jacare37

• A great blend of character and strategy. The premerge was alright, but the post-merge was FANTASTIC. /u/qngff

• Cool /u/bobinou96

• Basically a better version of Cambodia. You've got the emotional winner story, you got the trust cluster/votingblocks, you got the oversized cast, the fancy swaps, the early merge, and the ridiculous 6 person finale. But there are a lot of little things MvGx does significantly better. There are few storylines that just show up to make it easier to add tension in one episode before disappearing for the rest of the season. The only example I can think of that is the Sunday/Jessica feud. Still it's overall a lot more consistent as a season and it even holds back a little bit more with the gamebotty stuff. David's story isn't just "I made moves," Adam has more characterization passed "my mom's sick," Jay, Hannah, and Ken are all fairly complex, and Bret's a great comic relief character. The editors decision to have everyone in the finale built up at least a little bit allowed the season to have a relatively strong finale that heavily improved my opinion of the season last minute.On a rewatch it might go down, but right now I kinda like it. /u/reeforward

• I really, truly believe that MvGX is overhated on SR4, and that it's a bit more character driven than it's given credit for. /u/KororSurvivor

• This is the season Cambodia should have been. Lots of game but with genuine heart and soul. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 7/10 Another season that's a bit twist heavy, but you do get a sense of all the people, which is nice. I enjoy MvGX and like it even more upon a rewatch. I wish we saw a bit more of Adam's relationship-building and a little less of his "doing this for my mom" story. I love Michaela, David, Jay, Jessica, and more. Such enjoyable people on this whole season. Not an ounce of bitterness and I love that. <3 /u/oomps62

• Was it a super meta season? Yes. Do I like super meta seasons? Yes. /u/moostronus

• I have no idea who most of the characters of this season are, but the ones that get screen time deliver. Points off for the ridiculous theme. /u/beatricejd

• My feelings to this season are pretty similar to my feelings on Micronesia. Some fun characters and blindsides stop it from being terrible and make it a good casual watch, but it lacks depth and there are also a lot of problems, like a shitty theme.

  Personal Ranking: #22/34

  Best Character: Adam Klein.

  Best Episode: I Will Destroy You /u/xerop681

• The first four episodes are the literal worst start to a season ever. Ever. EVER. But at the same time the rock draw episode is one of the best episodes ever. Ever. EVER. /u/extralifeballoon

17. NICARAGUA

Average: 6.844/10

Standard Deviation: 1.856 (4/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +1.10 (3/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +7

Total votes: 32

Breakdown:

Obviously by ranking Nicaragua in the top half this community has proven that it is indeed the worst and that we think we’re a better class of fan than everyone else /s. But anyway, despite being unpopular outside of here and Sucks, the strong cast and funny moments make it land in the top half.

• lol /u/jacare37

• The epitome of mid-tier Survivor. /u/qngff

• WTF n^2 /u/Bobinou96

• A complete parody of a Survivor season, with all the good and bad that entails. KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 4/10. This season everybody is either forgettable (except Naonka, who is among my least favorites (#SorryNotSorry, Moose)). I couldn't tell you anything about the winner. or like... anybody.

• I will always irrationally love this season, and nothing anyone says can stop me. Probably the most plugged in I've been for a Survivor season. /u/moostronus

• I like Nicaragua a lot. Like The Amazon, it effectively works as a trainwreck/parody of survivor. It’s got lots of great character like Holly, Chase, Marty, NaOnka, and Fabio, and tons of standout episodes. I think it has one of the strongest early merges with the Alina, Marty, and Brenda boots all coming back to back.

  I feel like this season is often criticized for the medallion of power and the double quit - I don’t really think the medallion of power is that bad just because it has minimal impact on the season, and while the double quit does kill the momentum I like it more than most.

  Personal Ranking: #12/34

  Best Character: Holly.

  Best Episode: Company Will Be Arriving Soon /u/xerop681

• The personalities are admittedly crazier than the gameplay (it was basically an alliance Pagonging) but oh what a crazy-ass bat-shit cast it was. Everyone was petty, douchebags were struck down, and basic things happened for stupid reasons. Also, Fabio is one of the best winners ever. /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

#16 featured Exile Island. #15 had exactly one tribe swap.

20. THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK

Average: 6.576/10

Standard Deviation: 1.985 (2/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -0.274 (17/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -1

Total votes: 33

Breakdown:

Even though this sub tends to prefer old-school seasons, Australia doesn't make it out of the bottom half. There isn't as much passionate support for it as there is for other old-school seasons while also having a fairly high number of detractors, and it ends up with the 2nd highest standard deviation. It actually takes a fall from the r/survivor poll and manages to do as well as it does thanks to 11 scores of 8 or higher.

• Sucks that all of the fun got voted out in the middle of the season. /u/jacare37

• Hands down my favorite season of Survivor ever. /u/qngff

• Australia is the most overrated season ever. I have never watched a season as slow as this. I found no redeeming qualities, aside from Jerri, but almost every other scene with a few exceptions like Kimmi/Alicia and the flood, I just forget, and I'll happily forget. Watching Australia felt like torture, and it nearly put me on a survivor burn, and made me lose interest. At least with RI, its laughably bad, so you can watch just to admire the shit that it is. The cast is full of flops, and the only people that are good are Jerri, and then a few with potential if they made it further - Varner and Kimmi. I will say the pre-merge is middle-of-the-road, but it doesn't change the awful post-merge, where I would rather gouge out my eyes than ever even consider watching it again. /u/franky494

• Underrated /u/bobinou96

• Fallen out of favor over time with people citing the whole postjury as a stretch of episodes lacking much entertainment, while the prejury is pretty darn good. Though now Skupin's kinda screwed that up and people maybe can't even enjoy the premerge as much. So watch out for Australian Outback coming to the near-bottom tier of season rankings near you. /u/reeforward

• Great opening half, drags on in the post-merge. /u/acktar

• Definitely the worst of the seasons I rank 8 or better but I still love this season for so many reasons, sentimental though they may be. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• Haven't seen /u/oomps62

• It gets lower the more I think about it. I liked a lot of people, but I loved very few. Except for Skupin. Boy, did that not age well. /u/moostronus

• Has it's moments, but you will probably fall asleep between them. /u/beatricejd

• If I was judging The Australian Outback by the premiere to the Jerri boot episode it’s probably at least 10 spots higher than I have it right now. Obviously, i’m not judging seasons by there first halfs only.

  So yeah The Australian Outback has a really strong early phase. Tribal by Fire is one of my favorite survivor episodes ever, and the Kel boot episode, Merge episode, and Jerri boot episode are also excellenet. Sadly, after that the season takes a huge drop quality wise. There really aren’t any compelling storylines in place during the last 5 episodes, and it peaks in one of the worst season finales ever.

  Personal Ranking: #21/34

  Best Character: Jerri Manthey. Colby is also a very solid episode, but I like Jerri more.

  Best Episode: Tribal By Fire /u/xerop681

• Phenomenal pre-merge, abysmal post-merge. /u/willseamon

• Dynamic pre-merge, after the Jerri boot it DOES get boring but is buoyed by some amazing dynamic moments. The early stages do have a damper on them knowing half of Kucha turns out to be reprehensible and the love tribe is harder to root for knowing the guy who falls in the fire is an actual pedophile. Also taints the Trial by Fire, because I don't have the same feelings about redacted that I used to. /u/extralifeballoon

19. THE AMAZON

Average: 6.710/10

Standard Deviation: 2.128 (1/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -0.770 (21/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -7

Total votes: 31

Breakdown:

Amazon's reputation is the most interesting in the rankdown community to me, with opinions literally all over the place with no discernible pattern between people who like it and people who don't. It's not surprising it ends up #1 in standard deviation as a result of this; despite being a consensus top 5 season in most places you looked as recently as ~5 years ago, its flaws have been much more widespread and agreed on in recent years. There isn't a single score it received more than 6 times, showing how widespread opinions are on it, and it received every score from 2-10 at least once.

• What an unlikable mess of awful contestants, how I love them /u/jacare37

• Solid cast, season, and twist. In my opinion, the best of the gender divide, unless you count Panama. /u/qngff

• Obsolete and boring /u/Bobinou96

• Excellent strategic season, but weak until the post-merge hits. /u/acktar

• Without a doubt the season of Survivor that has aged the poorest. I used to love it but rewatches and Wilbur's campaigning have downgraded it to a mere "like" /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 2/10. Here's my Amazon summary: hurr durr boobs tits hehheh sex nipples legs hot girls doofy guys imma strip here's some sex questions winkwink tits and ass giggity giggity. /u/oomps62

• Garbage season full of garbage people. HARD. PASS. /u/moostronus

• High school drama, which is both a feature and a bug for me. /u/beatricejd

• The Amazon is what you get when you put a bunch of horny youths in a jungle together + some older people, and call it “Battle of the Sexes”. It feels like a parody of survivor of survivor with all the drama that happens and with everyone getting a negative edit at some point.

  Personal Ranking: #15/34

  Best Character: Matt

  Best Episode: Girls Gone Wilder /u/xerop681

• Probably the most fun season to watch all-around. /u/willseamon

• Very juvenile and immature in a not so entertaining way. Even some of the bigger characters like Heidi and Christy don't land for me. I understand it's appeal, I just fundamentally disagree with it. Jenna and Matt are pretty great though. /u/jm1295

• I think why this season struggles is that there is no overarching storyline aside from a vague boys v girls theme, and none of the characters really hit any heights. However, it's buoyed by having some incredibly ridiculous moments you couldn't make up. Remember when the guy who nearly burnt down the Amazon Rainforest was one immunity win away from winning? /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

One more cut until we hit the top half. #18 had a female merge boot; #17 had all finalists of the same gender.

Just missing out on the top 20 we have:

22. GUATEMALA

Average: 6.033/10

Standard Deviation: 1.426 (18/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -0.397 (19/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -1

Total votes: 30

Breakdown:

Despite only having 3 people give it a score of 4 or lower, Guatemala lands outside the top 20. With most scores hovering around the 5-7 range, Guatemala's role as the "forgotten" season doesn't change much here, surprisingly even falling from the most recent r/survivor poll (the only result that really surprised me). There also aren't many comments here, which seems fairly fitting.

• The location was great. The season was okay. /u/qngff

• Forgettable /u/bobinou96

• One of the best locations they've ever gone to. /u/acktar

• A true transitional season between classic and early modern Survivor with an iconic location and some great characters. I can never figure out just why it doesn't emotionally engage me. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 7/10. Sure, it's basically a forgotten season in terms of the meta, but it's another one I enjoyed. It was fun watching Stephenie turn into a villain and lose at FTC and the location/theme of the season was interesting. /u/oomps62

• Haven't seen yet. /u/moostronus

• A nice season with a nice cast, but nothing really stands out. /u/beatricejd

• I often see a lot of people listing Guatemala as the most underrated season of survivor, and while I don’t dislike the season, I think it’s just decent. The thing about Guatemala is that while it’s good at everything, nothing ever goes up to be 10/10 amazing, and we’ve seen it better in other seasons. Danni has a fun underdog story for a winner, but Chris and Denise are better. Stephanie and Judd are also fun characters, but we’ve seen better FTC losers and better grumpy old people who eventually get blindsided during there boot episode.

  There are two areas where I think Guatemala really excels: Jamie Newton, who I think really works as somebody who’s OTTN for most of the season but then turns positive for one epsidoes, only to be blindsided in the next. Something about him just works.

Another strong part of Guatemala that needs to be mentioned is the location. It’s not as good as Pearl Islands or China, but it does massively improve the season.

Personal Ranking: #20/34

Best Character: Jamie Newton

Best Episode: Secrets and Lies and An Idol Surprise /u/xerop681 

• An assortment of good candies, but none really nourishing. I like THINGS about this season- Cindy, Lydia, Gary's underdog arc, Danni's win (which is earned because the minority went through genuine shit but goddamn if only it was anyone but her), Brandon, Amy <3, stars through the sunroof, the brutal Brandon episode, the 11 mile hike, the pyramids- but I would be lying if I said the sum of the parts was one of the best seasons ever. /u/extralifeballoon

21. BLOOD VS WATER

Average: 6.061/10

Standard Deviation: 1.301 (24/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -0.839 (22/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -3

Total votes: 33

Breakdown:

While Guatemala is considered the "forgotten season" by the general fanbase, BvW is seen as the most forgettable, generic seasons within the rankdown community, which is especially weird considering how it aired so recently. Its lack of any scores below 4 helped it do this well, but its lack of very high scores push it out of the top 20.

• Haven't Seen. Won't Rate. /u/qngff

• Innovative /u/Bobinou96

• Aggressively average. /u/acktar

• A tale of two halves. Interesting first half, boring and predictable home stretch /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 5/10. Love the concept, kinda hate fans vs. favorites, especially after so many seasons in a row with returnees. Candice returns to do what she does best: be wrong while acting righteous. There's a bunch of negativity and this season is another hot mess./u/oomps62

• Kinda meh, but there was nothing I really hated there. Thirdpersonica is a top 50 character. /u/moostronus

• Meh. Blood vs Water has some strong traits that stop it from being a bad season: Dramatic and entertaining pre-merge with a pretty memorable pre-merge villain, Redemption Island not being completely awful, some great returnee choices like Rupert, Gervase, Tina, and Aras, and it definitely isn’t a season that’s difficult to watch. There are obviously other good positives for this season.

But, there are also negatives to this season; Even if Redemption Island works better for a Blood vs Water season it’s still Redemption Island, I feel like we missed out on some great characters. The idea of Gervase coming back 10+ years after Borneo and being a big asshole SOUNDS like a fantastic character (Coming from a big Gervase fan), but we didn’t get to see enough of him. And Tyson coming back and winning also sounds great, but he’s pretty bland here and his march towards victory isn’t very fun to watch. This season also has returnees brought back solely for the purpose of their loved ones; Colton, Kat, Laura, and Monica specifically stand out as people who were brought back solely for the purpose of interesting loved ones. And yeah the post-merge of this season is pretty bland, except for maybe the rock draw episode. I already mentioned it, but I find Tyson’s path to victory underwhelming and I like the idea of him winning more than what he saw.

Something positive about this season: Ciera is really great.

Personal Ranking: #25/34

Best Character: Ciera Eastin.

Best Episode: One Armed Dude and Three Moms

• the definition of a 5 /u/dabusurvivor

• This season happened. To be fair there were some great moments in the interpersonal dynamics of the pairs but I could really do without it. Tina was amazing tho. /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

#20 has had the winner come back and play in S20 or later. #19 has the highest standard deviation in the poll.

24. CAMBODIA

Average: 5.097/10

Standard Deviation: 1.855 (5/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -2.68 (32/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -14 (!!)

Total votes: 31

Breakdown:

Cambodia has by far the biggest drop in comparison to the r/survivor poll, dropping by nearly three full points. Which.. isn't much of a surprise, considering how popular it is in general and how popular it is here. It still has one of the highest standard deviations here, with it being the first season to get a score of 10, but it barely escapes the bottom 10.

• big moves voting blocs second chance big moves blindside threat alliance big move voting blocs /u/jacare37

• Haven't Seen. Won't Rate. /u/qngff

• Self-congratulating /u/Bobinou96

• By far, Cambodia is the best returnee theme, because it's the closest a returnee cast has ever been to feeling fresh in any way. The premerge of this season is quite strong, as the characters go mad running from their pasts and strong character moments generally drive the action. That said, at some point, the story gets gamey and uninteresting. Thankfully, the Stephen arc is very good, and partially redeems an otherwise bleak postmerge. /u/IAmSoSadRightNow

• I can best describe this as Survivor Popcorn. It's fun, but lacking in substance. The first two episodes showed so much potential, but it never quite lived up to the first two again. /u/KororSurvivor

• All the full returnee seasons have strong starts but this one just might be the best. The strength of those first 4 episodes makes the rest of the season even more disappointing. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• Haven't seen /u/oomps62

• Empty calories. /u/moostronus

• Has some fun and engaging moments, but everything gets drowned out by the relentless gamebotting. /u/beatricejd

• Survivor: Cambodia has a special place in my heart as one of the biggest disappointments ever. I was so hyped for the season during pretty much all phases leading up for it: I constantly wondered what the cast would look like going in because there were so many different combinations, and I loved watching the people campaign for the thought. I loved speculating how the season was going to play out and who the big players were after the cast was announced. To me during the preseason, there was no way that Cambodia wasn’t going to be this epic-HvV level season. I even convinced myself watching it for the first time and after that I really liked it, just because I was in denial that the season wasn’t actually that good. But, after I rewatched it a few months later, I came to the conclusion that Cambodia is not that good of a season (Granted it’s at the top of the list of seasons I dislike).

  The two most common criticisms of Cambodia i’ve seen and ones that i’ll be agreeing with here is that the focus on gameplay over characters and inconsistent editing is terrible. Like I don’t know how people working on survivor thought these were good ideas:

  -- Random Survivor Executive 1: Kelly Wigglesworth is one of the most legendary Survivor’s of all time. We should use her and slowly set up her downfall throughout the season.

Random Survivor Executive 2: Nah. Let’s just keep her invisible until she’s suddenly a big threat during her boot episode.

-- Random Survivor Executive 1: What should we do to add more complexity to Ciera?

Random Survivor Executive 2: What do you mean add more complexity to Ciera? Just give her some content about making a big move and changing the game.

-- Random Survivor Executive 1: I think Kimmi could work well as a dark horse this season. She actually had a pretty good chance of winning if she made it to the end. She should get some screentime every episode.

Random Survivor Executive 2: BUT her exit was unsatisfying. Make her invisible!

-- Random Survivor Executive 1: Should we show Kelley forming bonds with people not just for strategy purposes and give her any sort of story outside of gameplay?

Random Survivor Executive 2: No.

-- Random Survivor Executive 1: What should we do with Spencer?

Random Survivor Executive 2: Give him a storyline about learning to actually have emotions and form social bonds. I’m sure the viewers will love that.

Random Survivor Executive 1: But he doesn’t win…

Random Survivor Executive 2: Why does that mater? It’ll keep things suspenseful to the very end!

Those are just some of the complaints I have with this season relating to the inconsistent editing and focus on gameplay over characters.

And this season does have a lot of bad characters: Kelley Wentworth was a generic gamebot at her best and extremely annoying at her worst, Spencer was a terrible screentime hog, Ciera was UTR until she became annoying by preaching big moves, Kelly Wigglesworth was poorly handled, Joe isn’t terrible but extremely mediocre and he does get a lot of screentime, and Tasha is just kind of there but annoying when she pops up during the season.

Another complaint for Cambodia is that the boot order is pretty weak (/u/slicer37 recently said this on a hot takes thread and I agree). An endgame with Shirin, Peih-Gee, Varner, Terry, Kass, and Woo seems like it’d be fun and entertaining. Granted Jeremy, Kimmi, and Keith all made endgame here and it still wasn’t good...

Even though I’ve been complaining a lot, Cambodia isn’t completely terrible and has some positive aspects. I really like Savage, Abi, and Varner here and they are the highlights of the season. Jeremy, Stephen, Woo, and Kass (Still disappointed she didn’t vote out Spencer though) are all pretty fun here even if Jeremy and Stephen have a lot of game content. Kimmi and Keith are also kind of fun when they get game content.

The fact that the season has some good characters puts it at the top of the “seasons I don’t like list” (Meaning it’s my favorite of the seasons I actually dislike).

Personal Ranking: #26/34

Best Character: Andrew Savage

Best Episode: We Got a Rat /u/xerop681 

• This season could have legitimately been interesting what with the gameplay and swings if the edit wasn't insultingly one-note. Episode 2 is legitimately engaging social commentary, I like Jeremy, Kelley, and Savage more than most (you made it to the jury! <3) and my favorite character is Woo by a mile, but I can do without it. /u/extralifeballoon

23. FIJI

Average: 5.567/10

Standard Deviation: 1.667 (11/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +0.067 (14/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +3

Total votes: 30

Breakdown:

Seems like Fiji has always been a bit more well-received in this community. It's had an endgamer, it's had multiple contestants make the top 50 consistently, and outside of Rocky, doesn't have anyone really hated. It's strengths are recognized on the main sub too, but it seems like here they hold a bit more weight.

• Definition of a mixed bag u/jacare37

• Where's my 0/10 option. This is the most boring, unmemorable, awful, uninteresting season of Survivor I've ever had the displeasure of watching. At the very least it gave us Yau-Man. /u/qngff

• Inconstant /u/Bobinou96

• Excellent post-merge bogged down by an awful pre-merge that dragged on and on and on. /u/acktar

• Arguably the worst premerge in Survivor history is saved by great second half. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 3/10. What even happened in this season again? /u/oomps62

• Haven't seen yet. /u/moostronus

• Much better than its reputation. /u/beatricejd

• Fiji is a mixed bag season. It’s got an awful pre-merge full of forgettable red shirts and Rocky (Who I just don’t see the appeal of) and it doesn’t really have any good stuff (Except for some fun stuff from Yau, Dreamz, Earl, etc. I suppose).

  Fiji really shines during it’s post-merge. Dreamz is one of the best tragic characters (And simply one of the best characters), Earl is one of my favorite winners just based on his charisma, and Yau-Man is fun even if his edit is a little too positive at times. The last 2 episodes of Fiji are where it shines: Dreamz makes a deal to give Yau-Man final immunity if he wins it, and tries to take him out before than. And he fails. The whole moral dillemma when Dreamz wins final immunity is amazing; he’s put into a lose-lose situation, which is tragic story-telling 101.

  Yeah so that’s probably a bland description. Sorry.

  Personal Ranking: #20/34

  Best Character: Dreamz Herd

  Best Episode: You’ve Got That Puzzled Look /u/xerop681

• First season bias dictates that I love this season. It has some horrible people on it but still shines regardless. Plus it delivers two of the best moments ever and I am a moments type of gal so <3 /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

#22 was filmed in the Americas. #21 is from a season number divisible by 3.

26. SAMOA

Average: 4.758/10

Standard Deviation: 1.652 (12/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -1.32 (28/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -3

Total votes: 33

Breakdown:

Samoa is the first season so far to not receive a single score of 1. It has scores all across the board, but half of voters gave it a 5 or 6, showing that in spite of the negative things about it, it does do just enough to win over some people, as low as this community is on Russell. It’s also the first season to get a score of 9 or higher.

• something something should've been good something something fuck russell and the editors /u/jacare37

• Russel Hantz was on this season. Wait he wasn't the only one out there? /u/qngff

• Wasted oppportunity /u/Bobinou96

• Samoa is basically a season where basically a background character wins, but not just any backgound character, probably the sweetest, coolest, and most strategically ingenious character of all time. Watching this season is super worth it for watching the winner slowly prove that she has exactly what it takes to win the game while being infinitely more down-to-earth than her psychotic and bombastic ally. One of the most satisfying endings that speaks so much to what the show is about. Galu is a fantastic tribe to watch, and the premerge is a riot with that tribe running house. Unfortunately, parts of the merge are pretty mediocre storytelling-wise so it overall only amounts to a high mid-tier season. /u/IAmSoSadRightNow

• Better Cook Islands in just about every way. /u/acktar

• Yeah this season has a big Russell problem. But it's still a lot of fun, at least for me. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• Samoa: 6/10. I don't even really know why I gave it this score, but it feels right. I hate Russell and find Natalie entirely forgettable, but I still like Samoa. /u/oomps62

• I don't think Russell is enough to ruin the season for me and completely wipe out some pretty cool people on the Galu side. /u/moostronus

• Would be a good season if it wasn't hijacked by a malicious and highly repetitive troll. /u/beatricejd

• I don’t like Samoa. Other than the fact that I hate Russell and how he’s had a negative effect on the franchise as a whole, little from this season evokes anything major from me. Personal Ranking: #28/34. /u/xerop681

• Edited Samoa: 9/10. The Samoa we got: Russell/10 /u/extralifeballoon

25. SOUTH PACIFIC

Average: 4.800/10

Standard Deviation: 1.833 (6/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +0.600 (10/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +5

Total votes: 30

Breakdown:

A perennial bottom 5 season often lumped in with the seasons before and after it, SoPa almost manages to escape the bottom 10 here. Opinions are all over the place, with every score from 1-8 getting at least one vote. Surprised its standard deviation didn’t end up even higher, but w/e.

• Some of the highest highs the show has ever had with a lot of mediocre or worse stuff in between them u/jacare37

• Haven't Seen. Won't Rate. /u/qngff

• Two good episodes. Before that, it's cringey, uncomfortable, has a bad editing and a stupid theme. Even the challenges are terrible. Trash /u/Bobinou96

• It is my opinion that SoPa is currently probably the most underrated season. The truest tragedy, SoPa sets up two very distinct tribes: the vapid-but-honest Savaii and the dishonest-and-corrupt Upolu. These two tribes are brought to life by the very strange returnee choices that are placed on each one. In the end, the corrupt tribe wipes the floor with everybody, but not before proving that it really overstepped the line with how it used and threw away human lives. The merge part (e7-8) of this season is phenomenal, when Upolu really shows why they're stronger than Savaii. The ending of the season is possibly the one of the most epic endings in the history of the show, as Upolu shows how truly perverted it has become, and every gets whats coming to them. Perhaps I like SoPa more because the theme of religion is pretty present in my life, and so I can appreciate it more. Either way, SoPa is very good at what it does, and I hope it some day gets a fuller recognition. /u/IAmSoSadRightNow

• The journey of watching South Pacific is very long, and arguably terrible, but it has a tremendous payoff. It's just that the journey there is so bad, and the editing so biased towards the four biggest characters, that I'm just waiting for the last two episodes to eventually come. /u/kororsurvivor

• I don't really have strong feelings on South Pacific, beyond it being significantly better than the seasons immediately before and after it. I'm really due for a rewatch. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• 3/10. Ugh. I just hate like... everybody here. Coach and Ozzy get worse with each successive appearance on the show. Nobody needed Brandon Hantz or Cochran. Entirely unenjoyable. /u/oomps62

• Haven't finished yet. /u/moostronus

• South Pacific is definitely an underrated season. The cult plotline is fascinating and gets to areas survivor doesn’t get too often - It can be awkward at times, but also interesting at the same time.

  South Pacific has 5 standout characters: Brandon, Albert, Ozzy, Dawn, and Sophie. Sophie is the big standout and is easily in my top 30. She’d be a great casting choice on any season, and the fact that she beat Ozzy and Coach (Probably saving Survivor) makes her legendary. She’s definitely one of the best snarky girls we’ve seen. I also like Ozzy because the season has a great conclusion to his arc, especially building on his Micronesia account. I kind of wish he didn’t come back for a 4th time after his appearance here.

  Obviously, South Pacific’s got some bad stuff: Even though I like Coach he also has a really big edit here, Jim and Cochran suck, even though it played a great role in Ozzy’s story Redemption Island is an objectively bad choice, and lots of the minor characters are poorly developed.

  Personal Ranking: #18/34 Best Character: Sophie Clarke. Best Episode: Then There Were Five. Those last 20 minutes may just be the peak of storytelling from modern survivor. /u/xerop681

• A really boring season with some Stacey-related highlights until the finale happened and Sophie made Probst cry /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

#24 has returning players. #23 has had exactly one person come back and play again.

28. COOK ISLANDS

Average: 4.000/10

Standard Deviation: 1.614 (15/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -1.76 (29/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -4

Total votes: 33

Breakdown:

Cook Islands has always been one of the more disputed seasons on r/survivor, having a near 50-50 split of fans and haters. Here... not so much. 2/3 of people gave it a 4 or lower and it doesn't get a score above a 7 -- it is, however, the first season to get a 7 so far (3 of them). It has yet to have a character make the endgame in a rankdown and likely never will unless a diehard Penner fan comes around.

• whatever /u/jacare37

• It's alright. Nothing special. The idol was overpowered since it expired at Final 4 with a Final 3 happening. Still, Yul was a good winner and there were a handful of fun moments. /u/qngff

• Dull /u/Bobinou96

• The Survivor equivalent of the word MEH /u/ramskick

• Cook Islands is the blandest all newbie cast ever put on the show. It definitely feels like the show barely cared when they put these people on, and the cast was awfully edited. The main story of the Aitu Four's comeback is palatable but lacks depth. The early postmerge is where the season really comes together with some fun characterization and conflict, after an all-too-long and extremely rudimentary premerge. /u/IAmSoSadRightNow

• Suffers more on a rewatch than any other season. /u/acktar

• Cook Islands is a FANTASTIC location. The season is not fantastic. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• My love for Yul is the only thing preventing this from being even further in the toilet. /u/moostronus

• zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz /u/beatricejd

• "If Ann from Arrested Development was a survivor season, she would be Cook Islands. Personal Ranking: #30/34" /u/xerop681

• Boring. /u/willseamon

• I actually think that the divide by race twist (I affectionately call it the Apartheid Twist) is the worst thing to happen in Survivor. It made 5 people the bad guys and 15 people segregated out as THE Asian Tribe, THE Spanish Tribe, THE African-American Tribe, and put them up to represent their demographics, making a boring season, delivering little social commentary aside from what being forced to wear a mask does to one's personality, and caused probably all the problems they had to deal with later. Just undo that, it's probably at least okay. /u/extralifeballoon

27. THAILAND

Average: 4.414/10

Standard Deviation: 1.791 (7/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): +0.634 (8/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +4

Total votes: 33

Breakdown:

Not much of a surprise Thailand is the first pre-ASS season out. It does improve in comparison to the r/survivor poll and does tend to be a bit more popular here than elsewhere, being the first season on the list so far to get a score of an 8. Still, it has fairly limited upside and even in a group that is pretty high on it in comparison to most other places on the internet, it doesn't make it out of the bottom 10.

• Has some fun moments and characters that elevate it above the bottom tier, but still pretty subpar /u/jacare37

• It gave us Helen and Shii Ann and Robb, and you could argue Jan, but it just wasn't much fun. /u/qngff

• Aggressively boring /u/Bobinou96

• At least it's not ASS /u/ramskick

• Thailand seems like such a cool season: here's a bunch of old people who take on all the young people. Unfortunately, the season peaks in the middle with a quite strong episode 5 and 6, and then it gets very dire and very quickly. The old alliance sounds good on paper, but their dynamics are boring/nonexistent, they are hard to like on the heels of grindgate, they win out against the other team in challenges not story, and there's a pretty clear hierarchy among them. /u/IAmSoSadRightNow

• I think I'm one of the 7 people who actually think Thailand's pretty good. Even at it's worst it's not quite as dull as most people say because unlike Redemption Island or One World it isn't constantly focusing on how amazing and perfect and godlike our eventual winner is. Brian gets his gamebotty moments that show his strategic strengths, but combining that with his sinister demeanor makes it wrap around and become fascinating how much of a cyborg he is. He's not one of the best characters on the season, but there's intrigue there. Clay, Helen, Jan, Jake, and Robb are all far better and put in a lot more work to hold up the season. Is the overall story of Thailand particularly thrilling or interesting? No not really, but there are enough unique characters and moments within it that it's definitely above the bottom tier that it's often placed in. /u/reeforward

• Aggressively boring, with a generally unlikable cast. /u/ackar

• Not great, but nowhere near bad. /u/kororsurvivor

• I'm still not sure how this season tanked so badly but tank it did /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• Haven't seen /u/oomps62

• The one season I haven't been able to finish. Nobody was nearly charismatic and likeable enough to grab me, and as a result, I found it very difficult to care what happened. /u/moostronus

• Nope. /u/beatricejd

• "Eh. I certainly liked this season a bit more when I rewatched it, but i’m still mixed overall in it.

  Thailand does have some really good characters, like Clay, Jan, Jake, Robb, and Helen. The location of Thailand is also pretty cool, and there are some funny moments like Helen and Jan getting lost at sea and Jan starting a pet cemetery.

  But there’s not much else to Thailand. Considering Brian is ranked 16/16 for the cast (For me) I don’t find watching him steamroll his way to victory and hogging screentime a compelling storyline. And there really aren’t that many good plot lines in Thailand. Sook-Jai vs Chuay-Gan is lame, Shii-Ann being an outsider on her tribe only to flip at the fake-merge and get screwed by a twist is decent, and Ted getting a lot of screentime for some reason is pretty generic (Even though he has some fun moments). Another thing about Thailand: There’s so much deadweight in this cast.

  This post probably makes it seem like I dislike Thailand more than I do, but whatever.

  Personal Ranking: #23/34

  Best Character: Clay.

  Best Episode: Family Values? Idk that one has Attack Zone in it but also grindgate, and i’m not sure if they cancel eachother out." /u/xerop681

• Miserable. /u/willseamon

• My opinion on this season has fallen over time. I wouldn't rewatch it but I don't mind it. There are some good characters, funny moments, and I like the F9 episode more than most. The fake merge .5 World twist is so money. It has an utterly reprehensible winner that I find impossible to root for in any way, and imo is severely overrated. Spotted Clay three jury votes to distract him, my fucking asshole. /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

On tap for tomorrow are two seasons where the runner up/one of the runner ups had the most confessionals.

Rounding out the bottom five we have:

30. GAME CHANGERS

Average: 3.188/10

Standard Deviation: 1.261 (27/34)

Total votes: 32

Breakdown:

Half of the all-returnee seasons are out in the bottom 5. It's hard to argue much of this was affected by recency bias, considering how we've had half a season since then and it does still get enough "bad" scores as opposed to "horrible" ones to rank above the bottom four, but it's not surprising that a season so universally reviled outside of CTS lands in our bottom five.

• Haven't Seen. Won't Rate. /u/qngff

• At least it's not ASS /u/ramskick

• Game changers is a rerun. Everyone either comes back to play essentially the same way, or to play the same way minus whatever made them interesting in the first place (with a few overall minor exceptions). The overall effect is a season with such very little value and personality that I wouldn't even recommend it's flashy premerge.

/u/IAmSoSadRightNow

• Now that it's over it's pretty fun to look back and laugh at how much of failure this season was. /u/reeforward

• I have no idea why this season even exists. Just about everything that could have gone wrong, did.

  First of all, there was no reason to have another full-returnee season so soon after Cambodia, there was no time to get a new roster of great potential returnees.

  As for the casting, it was a shitshow of great people dropping out or being unable to go. Earl, Danni, Mike Holloway, Natalie A., they were cut, dropped out, or injured and were thus replaced by legends such as Brad Culpepper, Troyzan, Sarah Lacina, Zeke Smith, Michaela Bradshaw, etc. This predictably lead to one of the worst boot orders of all time. We lost Ciera, Tony, Malcolm, JT and Sandra in the premerge, and the postmerge was dominated by the 11th place trainwreck from Cagayan, while the other two F3 members were literal rejects from Cambodia. So many people who the fanbase didn't want to see again were brought back against a few actual legends, and they predictably dominated.

  There were so many twists that it made Cook Islands look like Borneo, and the twists completely backfired on the producers, knocking out fan favorites Malcolm and Cirie. I count the 2-3 expansion, the Legacy Advantage, the seemingly endless stream of idols found in the premerge, the second swap, the Joint Tribal, the Luxury Exile where Debbie talked to Cochran (on which they spent 10 mintues during Sandra's boot, no less), the Double Vote, the Vote Steal. It is just so fucking much to take in, and so little time left for character development. They were clearly going for a season of #BIGMOVEZ, but did not get that at all. To top it all off, the one thing that could have salvaged the endgame, a power play by Cirie, was cockblocked by a technicality. Even when a player wanted to make an interesting move, this season blocked it.

  On top of all of the stupid production decisions, the players certainly didn't help matters. First of all, there is the obvious you know what incident. That set the tone for a boring, dreary postmerge where the only time I felt like there were high stakes was during the Debbie and Michaela boots. The gameplay was frustratingly low level for a returnee season, and the big #BLINDSIDEZ that came with it were often contrived. Like I said, the Malcolm and Cirie boots just did not feel like dynamic and satisfying vote offs, because they were, to some extent, arbitrary.

  Last, but certainly not least, the editing. Oh dear God, the editing. The premerge players took up so much time that the postmerge ones were not developed at all by then. Literally, I statistically analyzed this season's number of confessionals, and found that Sarah, Brad, Troyzan, Tai, Aubry and Cirie were the second least visible Final 6 of all time. On top of that, the storylines made no sense. Why did Debbie blow up so badly? Why didn't Tai and Aubry immediately hook up at the merge? Why did Brad turn into a dick at the end? Why did Troyzan get the fewest number of confessionals of any finalist ever? He was a male with an idol, he was a very unpopular player from a very unpopular season, that had been 5 years old by the time Game Changers started filming (meaning his window of opportunity was theoretically going to close), he was literally rejected by the Fans from Cambodia, and they went through the trouble to bring him back anyway, only to give him 14 confessionals over the entire season.

  This season, man. It has caused a large portion of the fanbase to lose hope in Survivor, but thankfully, I think HvHvH, as stupid as the name is, is getting my hopes up again. /u/kororsurvivor

• The more I think back on this season the sadder I become. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• Only filled in seasons I've watched so far. /u/joshkempw

• The premerge was great! The postmerge was feces. /u/moostronus

• This season is not bottom three for me because Sandra exists. /u/beatricejd

• "After JT leave it’s a downward spiral, peaking in one of the worst episodes and finales ever. Not going to go too indepth for this one just because /u/KororSurvivor said he wrote a mini-essay. It’s also got one of the worst intros ever. Personal Ranking: #27/34 Best Character: J.T. Thomas Best Episode: DIrty Deed" /u/Xerop681

• The only fond memories I have are of inside jokes from RHAP, plus whatever Hali moments we got. /u/willseamon

• On instinct I give it a one because the Cirie boot made it all feel like a fucking waste of time, and if I have to talk about the Varner boot again I may quit watching the show. Sugargate happening though was a revelation, though the Sandra era of the episodes are still not as good. The fact that the two worst things in Survivor history (personally and strategically) is a horrible sign. /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

29. WORLDS APART

Average: 3.606/10

Standard Deviation: 1.434 (17/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -1.104 (24/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -1

Another season that shouldn't come as a surprise, never having anyone make top 50 in a rankdown and having plenty of consistent bottom-dwellers. Generally agreed on that this seemed like it could and should have been a great season but ended up as a disappointing failure for so many reasons. We have still yet to have a season receive a 7 or higher from anybody.

• Mario needs to stop trying to make Worlds Apart happen, it isn't going to happen and it should not happen /u/jacare37

• meh /u/qngff

• Detestable /u/Bobinou96

• Nina and Mike are cool, that's about it. /u/ramskick

• WA isn't a season with much suspense, and it's whole cast, even it's big ol' hero Mike, are all jerks. That said, I can get behind a flawed hero like Mike as he cuts himself away from his own allies due to his own paranoia and then has to do everything on his own. It is satisfying seeing Mike come back against the manic Rodney from the low point when Jenn and Shirin were completely out of hope. The highlight for me is Dan and Mike's diverging paths and the interactions they have when Mike was right and Dan was very wrong. /u/IAmSoSadRightNow

• No Survivor season ever looked better on paper and worse in reality /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• Yes, there were some SUUUUUPER objectionable people there, but their downfalls were great and I really enjoyed JELI. /u/moostronus

• It is a funny season, but it is also way darker than I want Survivor to be. /u/beatricejd

• Starts out with a decent post-merge, only to than have a horrendous post-merge that includes an obvious winner’s edit and 3 of the worst people on the season making it really far (Rodney, Will, and Dan). Personal Ranking: #30/34 Best Character: Shirin Oskooi Best Episode: Really can’t think of one that stands out. /u/Xerop681

• Conflict is good. Conflict because people are awful is not good. Conflict because people were awful nearly leading into a F3 of the three most awful person save for magical forest camp decoration is the end of my fucking innocence. /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

#28 has had 3 or more contestants come back and play again. #27 had a purple starting tribe.

Coming in as the lowest all newbie season and 3rd lowest overall:

32. ONE WORLD

Average: 2.344/10

Standard Deviation: 0.888 (33/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -1.32 (27/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): +1

Total votes: 32

Breakdown:

Despite lacking any returning players, forced storylines, or season ruining twists, One World still ranks below many seasons that have one or multiple of these things. It does fare better than Caramoan here, unlike in the r/survivor poll, but it’s still regarded as a very bad season here with only two people giving it a score higher than a 3.

• nearly as unwatchable as All-Stars and I don't say that lightly /u/jacare37

• Colton was fun enough. Jonas was robbed. Troy kept it on life support. Kim is boring. /u/qngff

• Not good. But sometimes ok. /u/Bobinou96

• I like Jonas /u/ramskick

• One World is such a unique season. That might not be a good thing, but certainly there's nothing in Survivor that feels like the One World twist. The tribes basically immediately antagonize each other, and we get to see all this cross-tribe talk. The politics that tear apart Manono are pretty interesting, as someone with basically no friends subjugates his tribe. The postmerge gets pretty boring though, as Manono in its broken state doesn't stand a chance against the most dominant winner the show has ever seen. Also I personally really love the weird visual filter this season has. It makes it feel really unique. /u/IAmSoSadRightNow

• I still maintain Colton was an interesting villain. The rest was a snooze. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• I think this one's due for a rewatch, because I doubt I'd hate it nearly as much as I hate other seasons. /u/Moostronus

• I’m not going to go too in depth for this one just because I haven’t seen it in awhile and I’m sure other people can far better explain why this season sucks. My only opinion about the season that’s unpopular is that I really hope Sabrina comes back because she has so much potential as a character.

  Personal Ranking: #31/34

  Best Character: Sabrina Thompson.

  Best Episode: Umm…

  /u/Xerop681

• Kim is not nearly as bad as her rep suggests but this season sucks and the pre-merge especially so, it's a nightmare where the Colton medevac is a reprieve but not a conclusion that leaves idiots to say Colton would have made the post-merge better or taken down Kim, and considering he says in post-game interviews that he was gonna jump in Kim's pocket I highly doubt it. /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

31. ALL-STARS

Average: 2.871/10

Standard Deviation: 1.54 (16/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -2.22 (30/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -3

Total votes: 31

Breakdown:

The first of the all returnee season to fall, All-Stars notoriously has taken a beating in all four rankdowns so far, having yet to sniff the endgame and SR4 in particular hammered all of the characters in the first half. Nobody gave it higher than a 6 and it also takes one of the biggest hits in comparison to the r/survivor poll.

Comments:

• As someone who recently ranked FICs using how mentally taxing and pain causing they were as a criteria I'd love to see watching this season used as one /u/jacare37

• Not quite as bad as its made out to be, but still bad nonetheless /u/qngff

• I wish this season never happened. It's the only one where I can't find any positives after the first 15 minutes. Depressing. /u/Bobinou96

• I HATE IT SO MUCH OMG THIS IS THE WORST SEASON EVER /u/ramskick

• Look, slapping the title "All Stars" on an impressionable young group of pseudo-celebrities is probably a criminal act. People wanted blood to spill even before this season started, and you can tell. The season starts out with everyone mugging the cameras very hard, with little substance or story, and ends with horrid people spewing some of the most atrocious things ever said on the show while having no fun at all. Even so, they're too paralyzed by the fear of losing to do anything risky, so the entire thing is stagnant and worse than worthless. /u/IAmSoSadRightNow

• I sometimes want to defend All Stars because I do really enjoy those first several episodes, and I find the Lex situation and final tribal council to be pretty fascinating, but it's tough. It has more episodes than any other season and it drags for a looooong time. Between Rich's boot and the final tribal council, the merge episode is pretty much the only point of interest. So about 10 episodes worth of boring content. It gets worse than boring at points, but I'm not getting into that. /u/reeforward

• Dark, unpleasant, and joyless. /u/acktar

• I don't find All-Stars as irredeemably bad as most of this sub does (it has a very strong start) but when it's bad it's TERRIBLE. Rich assaulting Sue is still the worst moment in Survivor history. /u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/b85cbba9-30f2-47b1-9f5b-e71fadde1a6d /u/Moostronus

• The unholy combination of "zzz" and "oh hell no". /u/beatricejd

• This season really sucks. I could write more about why I hate this season, but having to relive some of it doesn’t seem worth it.

  Personal Ranking: #33/34

  Best Character: Jerri

  Best Episode: Panicked, Desperate, Thirsty as Hell.

  /u/Xerop681

• come enjoy watching ur faves suck and gradually suck the sense of joy out of everything :) /u/vulture_couture

• Boston Rob is a fucking cockweasel this season (and RI, and TAR7, and kind of Marquesas if I'm honest) and I wish I cut him first, fuck his existence. In SRAS I will probably cut him first... eyes Varner okay second. He, Amber, and Chapera ruin the season. It only gets this high because of Shark Attack being excellent and my not being nostalgically affected by Rob v Lex to hate it entirely. A lot of the arguments against it were that it hurt to watch as someone who was a fan of them both getting involved in such an ugly moment but it interested me immensely. Otherwise, fuck Boston Rob. /u/ExtraLifeBalloon

On tap for tomorrow: #30 is a season with Ozzy on it. #29 is a season with tribes divided by a particular thing.

To nobody's surprise, in dead last we have:

34. REDEMPTION ISLAND

Average: 1.758/10

Standard Deviation: 0.889 (32/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -0.98 (23/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): 0

Total votes: 33

Breakdown:

No surprises here, RI finishes in dead last as it has in pretty much any season ranking done by a collective group. Nobody gave it higher than a 4, and 82% of people gave it a 1 or a 2. If 17 more people came along and gave RI a 10, it would still rank in the bottom half -- and that's with only 35 people voting.

Comments:

• it's bad. /u/jacare37

• Bad. /u/qngff

• I gave RI 2 solely because All-Stars exists. Soporific. /u/Bobinou96

• At least it's not ASS /u/ramskick

• "Redemption island feels incestuous in its conception in the most uncomfortable way possible. Here's two people who we think were robbed not by their own incompetence but some sort of flaw in the game, we really hope one wins this time! Of course, that wouldn't be that bad on its own if the cast reacted to that in a logical way, and some do. However, what makes it absolutely awful is that Phillip totally eats up camera time and makes arbitrary decisions that make no sense because they're a part of some sort of awful shtick, which throws the entire game into the greedy and vile hands of Boston Rob making for the single biggest mockery of the show ever produced." u/IAmSoSadRightNow

• I didn't give out any 1s because I don't think Survivor has ever hit that cellar. But RI definitely comes the closest. u/keepcalmandhodoron

• If I haven't been able to finish your season, you get a 1 from me. u/moostronus

• It's bad, folks. u/beatricejd

• "“Love this season” -- No One

Personal Ranking: #32/34

Best Character: Mike
Worst Episode: Rice Wars u/Xerop681

• lol u/willseamon

• Needless. u/extralifeballoon

Coming in at #33, we have:

33. CARAMOAN

Average: 2.094/10

Standard Deviation: 1.208 (28/34)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (score): -2.35 (31/32)

Difference from most recent r/survivor poll (relative placement): -3

Total votes: 32

Breakdown:

Caramoan also has a pretty predictable low finish in the rankdown community, with no characters from it making a rankdown top 100 since Dawn in the very first one. It has a steep drop from the most recent r/survivor poll, with a difference of over two full points, and only one person gave it higher than a 4.

Comments:

• Haven't Seen. Won't Rate. u/qngff

• Messy and cringey. u/Bobinou96

• At least it's not ASS u/ramskick

• "A deeply bothersome season characterized by a winner so divorced from anything interesting that the season might as well have been won by nobody at all. To be fair, considering all the fodder the season had, whether in ""crazies"" or in bland nobodies, he really didn't really have to do more than show up to get the crown. I still enjoy small parts of Caramoan like Reynold or Dawn, but it's premerge shows incompetence in casting, and the postmerge is too gamey to be all that interesting." u/IAmSoSadRightNow

• A lot like All-Stars, only not nearly as good at its best and not quite as bad at its worst (although it does come close) u/KeepCalmAndHodorOn

• I really, really want to give this a 1...but hell, I finished it. That has to count for something. u/Moostronus

• God is dead. u/beatricejd

• "Caramoan: Not a good season. Personal Ranking: #34/34 Best Character: Dawn Best Episode: Zipping Over the Cuckoo’s Nest u/xerop681

• There are... a couple good episodes. u/willseamon

• This season insulted my intelligence as a viewer and even as an unwashed heathen I was offended that it existed. Yes, please set up those mocking one episode blindside downfalls and push that Cochran is an underdog, I will buy it 100%. mimes cock sucking motion u/ExtraLifeBalloon

Up next for tomorrow: One all newbie season and one season with at least half returnees.

Post them

I hope everyone is enjoying my podcast. We are new & still learning. We would love to hear your feedback. Those of you that are still listening we appreciate it. Those of you who aren't' are missing out😉. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-russell-hantz-show/id1237472803?mt=2#episodeGuid=e788987c978e7df87417101269fbd569

I'm guessing some people were thrown off by the NRL, but the last episode has aired.

If anyone has a link to the new episode that doesn't cut off after 25 minutes... I would greatly, greatly appreciate it

screwed up the last title, so this is week 6.

Meet the Cast video