Board 8 > Survivor Crew Ranks The Survivor Seasons

(+) Yeah! (+)

all-stars incoming
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SP, GI, Nicuragua
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SP, GI, All-Stars
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Those were three great ones to get done with!

oh wait
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By this point, my schedule slip has become a bit of a joke, hasn't it?

#33: South Pacific
Average Ranking: 30.64

Inviso: 21 - A season after Redemption Island, South Pacific definitely left a bad taste in my mouth in its immediate aftermath. However, having time to look back on it, its nowhere NEAR as awful as Redemption Island, and actually has some redeeming features to rank it amongst the flawed, but not completely awful seasons on the list. The pre-merge was actually exciting, what with the story of Redemption Island actually feeling compelling this time around. Plus the tribes were evenly matched, making the merge feel that much heavier when it finally came to pass. The endgame also worked out spectacularly, as we watched allies turn on each other, rather than an obvious core excising outsiders. Really, the only truly terrible parts of South Pacific (and theyre big parts, hence the lower ranking) are overbearing edits for half of the final eight, and the early merge episodes being frustrating to watch. But even then, it only takes three episodes to get through what COULD have taken five, so its all good. Throw in a satisfying winner, and South Pacific is surprisingly underrated, albeit not spectacular as a season.

Mana Sword: 26 - No writeup

Naye745: 26 - some people will probably say this is 10 spots too high, but I loved Sophie as a winner (and throughout the season) and thought the Cochran vs red tribe drama was great. (Even if he made a bad play, he wasn't winning with Ozzy and co. either.) i think this one is still a "bad" season, but one with more redeeming qualities than most.

YoRyan: 28 - garbage ass middle portion is semi saved from completely bottom tier because of an semi ok pre merge and a fantastic final 2 episodes

eaed: 29 - I like South Pacific more than a lot of people do and it all starts and ends in that pre-merge. I remember being on the edge of my seat in college during that premerge. And the constant back and forward between the two tribes and the constant wondering if something has got to give about these two teams is exciting and then it has the perfect payout at the merge but then it is immediately downhill afterwards. Honestly, if it werent for the religious undertones I think I would have this season even higher. There are also some dark things about this season that I didnt know about until after it aired and even then on the rewatch you dont notice them as much on screen as you should and while others will take that into account when ranking this season I dont think it affected my ability to watch the season.

Illuminatus: 32 - No writeup

GTM: 34 - unfun pagonging, why survivor gods and/or other gods

DoctorBlind: 34 - Weird religious overtones and awkward acting combined with a nutcase that should have never been cast results in one of the most uncomfortable seasons of Survivor out there.

FBike: 35 - RI + returnee shilling = trash.

BCT: 36 - Almost the entire cast is unlikable, the merge is boring and predictable, the religious undertones are off-putting, the winner is underwhelmingly edited, and nothing about it is fun to watch this is the one season of Survivor I cant find a single positive thing to say about. Except maybe the inclusion of a few challenges?

darkx: 36 - A mean-spirited season in which a handful of players get used and bullied, and are then chastized for not fulfilling the wishes of their abusers. Even worse is that the underdogs aren't likable at all. The season starts as a spit in the face to Survivor fans everywhere by bringing back the two twists that received so much criticism in the previous season, and only goes downhill from there.
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I might as well say it here: Cochran's flip was justified. His tribe was subjecting him to little better than juvenile bullying.
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FBike1 posted...

I might as well say it here: Cochran's flip was justified. His tribe was subjecting him to little better than juvenile bullying.

Oh yeah, I don't chastise Cochran for flipping at all. A tribe of people who treated him like garbage and kept him around for completely selfish reasons asked him to take one for the team and basically have a 1/6 chance of getting 12th place? No way. And the only one who had the right to be pissed at him after was Jim because he was the ONLY other Savaii member who would have had to draw rocks, and had also at least TRIED to make him feel welcome and wanted on the original tribe, even if he had ulterior motives with it it was more than Ozzy/Keith/Whitney ever did.
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Too high imo

FBike1 posted...

I might as well say it here: Cochran's flip was justified. His tribe was subjecting him to little better than juvenile bullying.

He flipped to get 7th. It wasn't THAT he flipped, it was HOW he flipped.

The way he should have done it was wait until 11, but flip alongside Dawn to make a Final Four alliance with two Upolus - which would have been Brandon and Edna if he figured out the Coach/Sophie/Albert trio - and then Pagong the jerks. This way, he gets to the final 7 with Upolu, but has a surprise alliance to blindside Coach. He doesn't know about the Coach/Sophie/Albert idol, of course. And he still wouldn't win here, but he would probably get 3rd.

...that said, Brandon, Edna, or Dawn winning Survivor would... yeah........
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My post above is assuming that he plans it out with the Upolu group btw. They agree to sacrifice somebody for him and Dawn to join them the next vote.
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Andy your point is also assuming that Dawn would flip. Especially in SP I dont know if she would have flipped she was very much just happy to be there and idk if she would have turned on Savaii.

That being said I still loved that premerge.
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Oh yeah baby, bringing the not-an-outlier title back home
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I'll likely update outlier stats in mass when I go back to work Monday
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honestly i agree with basically what inviso said but a good percentage of my sp ranking is just loving sophie as a winner

like in the testosterone-fueled sausagefest probst jerkoff sesh of a season, sarcastic and dour sophie one-upping the dudes (and winning the key immunity) just freaking rules
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Naye745 posted...

like in the testosterone-fueled sausagefest probst jerkoff sesh of a season

This is definitely not South Pacific. Not nearly as bad as a lot of other seasons anyway. Lile, say, Caramoan.
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i mean caramoan isnt about the athletic prowess of its main characters though

like yeah, eddie/malcolm/reynold are a thing but cochran is just a sarcastic nerdy loser who makes a good confessional

versus the ozzy/coach "strong men = best" machismo
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I count Caramoan Cochran (and to a lesser extent Phillip) as part of Jeff Probst male jerkoff.
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well, if we're just considering "a season where probst highlights the male competitors" as the sole criteria, that's every season
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What's rankings, precious?
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Naye745 posted...

well, if we're just considering "a season where probst highlights the male competitors" as the sole criteria, that's every season

There has to be an exception somewhere. Anyway, I'm gonna stop giving hints and start giving rankings.
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It seems a bit like Albert in SoPa where there are a lot of promises but never an action.

no updates means I can keep my crown, I represent the majority!
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Good job
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Update time! (Inviso's and eaed's writeups were shortened to fit the character limit.)

#32: Ghost Island
Average Ranking: 30.27

Illuminatus: 19 - No writeup

GTM: 29 - kinda blah all around, great finale

Mana Sword: 29 - No writeup

DoctorBlind: 30 - Way too many twists, bad implementation of an idea with potential, too many spineless sheep, and terrible editing.

Inviso: 31 - The pre-merge is DECENT, sure, but Id argue that theres only one really GOOD episode there, and of course its the one where the better tribe actually loses a challenge and gets to showcase their dynamics. Seriously, the imbalance if quality between the two tribes is amazing. I cant even root for the underdogs because theyre so boring. Anyway, the merge happens and all suspense dies. Its just episode after episode of the same people repeating the same thing over and over until we get a unique ending to the season that isnt worth having the edit be so piss poor.

eaed: 31 - I kind of hate putting this here because at the end of the day it does have the broken twist, and the overall predictability factor / boringness in it. But the fact of the matter is that there were indeed fun moments like the first 4 episodes and then Dom/Wendell rivalry/bromance. Also, someone needs to defend this poor season because I still dont get those people that are out here saying this doesnt even feel like survivor anymore because of the ending and uneven editing and lack of character talk. At the end of the day, Survivor has a job to do and to tell us the story that they want to tell and some characters arent offering up what YOU want out of them or what production needs out of them. For example, listening to RHAP Chelsea focused in her secret scenes primarily on the story being about her vs Wendell and the confessionals of the other players werent reflecting that. Now, that is no excuse not to show her at all. They should have found a way to get her/the others to talk about her more as a threat but at the end of the day without giving away the outcome of the season they had to do what they had to do. Honestly, people were just too hard on this season and the season didnt help itself by having one of the most dominating alliances in Survivor History.

FBike: 31 - The concept of bringing past props and advantages back sounds interesting, but in practice it's just twist overload.

darkx: 32 - I give the producers credit for having the balls to take a risk here and try something new and exciting, and I'm sure the idea looked great on paper, but this season was a miserable failure on so many levels. The Ghost Island twist had promise, but it was implemented very poorly and almost felt rigged to a certain degree - the lack of randomness often made it a hiderence to its victims at best and a death sentence at worst. The season's one major running story ended halfway through and we were left with a predictable Pagonging afterwards. While I appreciate the Survivor history scattered throughout, and the fact that they actually cast a very high ratio of superfans this year, for a season that was clearly intended to be mostly fanservice, they really fucked it up.

Naye745: 33 - somehow managed to make a final tribal tie still seem unexciting. decent characters, but no drama, and a lot of advantages that amounted to nothing but wasted screentime waxing nostalgic over previous, better seasons. probably should be lower

BCT: 34 - The first half is a tale of heartbreak. The second half is a tale of bore. With an overabundance of advantages due to its dud of a twist (which scared people from making moves), unnecessary swaps robbing us of an epic showdown on Naviti, most of the colorful people gone early, a very unstrategic jury, and a horrific edit (only Samoa is worse), Ghost Island ultimately falls flat. Its not even remotely fun to watch. That ending, though.

YoRyan: 34 - pure apathy in survivor form
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I almost want to just post my list and be done with all this waiting...
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KujikawaRising posted...

I almost want to just post my list and be done with all this waiting...

By this point, I'm worried this thing might actually last 39 days. I'm only posting one per day right now, and missed yesterday completely.

I'll double up on a few days to try to get back into things.
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bwburke94 posted...

I still dont get those people that are out here saying this doesnt even feel like survivor anymore

And at this point you never will
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-_-

Don't shorten my write-ups.
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Yeah, that's rude. In the past we've just gone onto the next post. People have posted write-ups that took up two whole posts before.
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KujikawaRising posted...

I almost want to just post my list and be done with all this waiting...

Kind of defeats the purpose of the exercise don't you think? Or are you not patient enough/ think your opinion is that important?
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The trimming of mine was probably all it needed to be. Just post yours.
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Here are your Outlier stats:

Illuminatus - 40
DoctorBlind - 25
Inviso - 24
BlueCrystalTear - 19
YoRyan - 19
Mana Sword - 18
FBike - 11
eaed - 10
darkx - 9
Naye745 - 8
GTM - 5

Illuminatus takes a pretty substantial lead. GTM gets to keep his crown for now.
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Inviso's full writeup: 31 - I want to rank this above Cambodia out of spite for Cambodia ruining the franchise, but I just cant bring myself to do it. As much as I harp on Cambodia for being soulless and strategy-laden, at least it HAD strategy. Ghost Island is as soulless as Cambodia, but with a straight-forward boot order that, compounded by terrible editing, makes for the biggest slog Ive had to watch since the month of Worlds Apart hell. The pre-merge is DECENT, sure, but Id argue that theres only one really GOOD episode there, and of course its the one where the better tribe actually loses a challenge and gets to showcase their dynamics. Seriously, the imbalance if quality between the two tribes is amazing. I cant even root for the underdogs because theyre so boring. Anyway, the merge happens and all suspense dies. Its just episode after episode of the same people repeating the same thing over and over until we get a unique ending to the season that isnt worth having the edit be so piss poor.

eaed's full writeup: 31 - I kind of hate putting this here because at the end of the day it does have the broken twist, and the overall predictability factor / boringness in it. But the fact of the matter is that there were indeed fun moments like the first 4 episodes and then Dom/Wendell rivalry/bromance. And the fact that this season allowed me to watch a little less like a superfan and more like a casual because I watched it with my friend really helped. Also, someone needs to defend this poor season because I still dont get those people that are out here saying this doesnt even feel like survivor anymore because of the ending and uneven editing and lack of character talk. At the end of the day, Survivor has a job to do and to tell us the story that they want to tell and some characters arent offering up what YOU want out of them or what production needs out of them. For example, listening to RHAP Chelsea focused in her secret scenes primarily on the story being about her vs Wendell and the confessionals of the other players werent reflecting that. Now, that is no excuse not to show her at all. They should have found a way to get her/the others to talk about her more as a threat but at the end of the day without giving away the outcome of the season they had to do what they had to do. Honestly, people were just too hard on this season and the season didnt help itself by having one of the most dominating alliances in Survivor History.
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Oh geez, Inviso going to single-handily prevent Cambodia, a great season, from being top half.
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I hope I do, because the overrating of Cambodia is why we have garbage like Game Changers, Ghost Island, MvGX, and the final episodes of HHH.
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Inviso posted...

I hope I do, because the overrating of Cambodia is why we have garbage like Game Changers, Ghost Island, MvGX, and the final episodes of HHH.

God damn it we are going to do this again. No, MAYBE MvGX but GC was an attempt to one up Cambodia that was too over the top and thus lead to HHH and GI. I put the blame on GC for being over the top and production for thinking Over the Top is okay in new player seasons. Cambodia is unique because at the time it felt like it was setting the standard for Returning player seasons.
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Cambodia is phenomenal but the show's attempts to replicate it are what's killing the franchise. The "two swaps" and "merge at 13" were fine in Cambodia, but they were utterly terrible in Ghost Island because it's getting to be overkill - they were curveballs that should have happened only once in a while. The attempt to replicate it through a strategy-only edit is pathetic, because at least Cambodia had people with a soul. It was awesome to see Wentworth come into her own and there were stories there with Jeremy, Spencer, and Chaos Kass, plus plenty of personality to go around (Keith Nale in particular).

Basically, the show had one great season and they're so desperate to recapture the magic that they've lost sight of how having a great cast and showing them properly goes a long way. In Ghost Island, I chalk that up to editing and how producers tried to coerce strategic-focused confessionals over opening up personally. The ending was a phenomenal scene but it didn't have the satisfaction because they never gave us much reason to care about the castaways. That is something they DID do in Cambodia - and that was largely due to the fan vote beforehand.

It really doesn't feel like Survivor anymore because production is treating it like human chess as opposed to a social experiment. It falls flat because it didn't have the heart that the show's best seasons had. The best seasons have both personality/character development AND strategy to dissect. Ghost Island had neither and that's ultimately why it fell so low in my rankings. Cambodia has both.
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Nah, Cambodia is still crap.

Game Changers had the potential to be the best all-returnee season but got killed by the last few episodes and so HvV still maintains that title.

KujikawaRising posted...

at least Cambodia had people with a soul

It didn't, though, and that's the problem that Inviso and I have with it.
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I guess you crying over your wife and family doesnt require a soul.
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KujikawaRising posted...

they've lost sight of how having a great cast and showing them properly goes a long way

It's funny how we can often come to the same conclusion but disagree on how we got there. This statement I agree with wholeheartedly and no recent season shows this better than HHH. That season had its flaws, but the cast was not one of them. That was a group that was clearly capable of putting on a good show with few if any duds, but the producers just didn't let them between the overabundance of idols and shit editing of the last few episodes.
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Underleveled posted...

It didn't, though, and that's the problem that Inviso and I have with it.

Stating incorrect things as fact again, I see.

Let's see...
1. Wentworth clearly having fun the entire time
2. Keith Nale's "You Call, We'll Haul"
3. Jeremy playing for his family
4. Spencer's semi-cheesy "relationship building" story arc
5. Chaos Kass actually improving her social game by leaps and bounds
6. Fishbach claiming his "Know-It-All" status and trying to play to live up to it
7. Varner's attempts to make deals with everybody and try to play the modern Survivor game
8. Terry Deitz being pulled from the game like that.
9. Hell, even Kimmi.

That's just what came to mind in two minutes. Sure, it doesn't have the same level of depth and complexity of character as some other seasons do, but it has enough to be ultimately satisfying.
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Also, those of you that hate Savage, he brought a lot of emotion to the season even if it was an attempt at a brofest+Tasha
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Underleveled posted...

It's funny how we can often come to the same conclusion but disagree on how we got there. This statement I agree with wholeheartedly and no recent season shows this better than HHH. That season had its flaws, but the cast was not one of them. That was a group that was clearly capable of putting on a good show with few if any duds, but the producers just didn't let them between the overabundance of idols and shit editing of the last few episodes.

Same goes for Ghost Island. Both HHH and Ghost Island had great casts, but they weren't shown to be having fun out there. The best people in Ghost were gone in the first eight episodes, however, which significantly undermined the joy later on. The personality in both seasons was drowned out by the advantages, swaps, and other twists and we instead got a really sad excuse for a narrative.

They need to get rid of the advantages. They need to only do one swap a season at most - and only if it's needed. They need to make it so there are only 4 idols a season maximum - one per tribe with one or two rehidden at the merge after being played. No stupid gimmick twists, either. Just let them play the damn game and add stuff if it's getting predictable. They're not going to replicate Cambodia if they force it. And because they're forcing it so much, they're suffocating the show to the point it's lost its heart and soul. It no longer feels organic. It feels completely controlled by production. There's no way they'll EVER get another Cagayan-like "Renaissance season" if they continue to control so much.
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That's exactly what I'm worrying about, especially with the leaks concerning S38. The game has so many twists that it hardly resembles itself from a few years ago.
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KujikawaRising posted...

Underleveled posted...

It didn't, though, and that's the problem that Inviso and I have with it.

Stating incorrect things as fact again, I see.

Let's see...
1. Wentworth clearly having fun the entire time
2. Keith Nale's "You Call, We'll Haul"
3. Jeremy playing for his family
4. Spencer's semi-cheesy "relationship building" story arc
5. Chaos Kass actually improving her social game by leaps and bounds
6. Fishbach claiming his "Know-It-All" status and trying to play to live up to it
7. Varner's attempts to make deals with everybody and try to play the modern Survivor game
8. Terry Deitz being pulled from the game like that.
9. Hell, even Kimmi.

That's just what came to mind in two minutes. Sure, it doesn't have the same level of depth and complexity of character as some other seasons do, but it has enough to be ultimately satisfying.

These are all very one-note stories though and it's not satisfying. Almost all of these are just variations on Russell Hantz getting the same three confessionals a hundred times in Samoa, granted they are more likable human beings it doesn't make them interesting or compelling characters.

And yet you failed to mention that the one thing Cambodia DID have was a great villain in Abi-Maria who was the one person who was consistently electric as both a character and a player.
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i hope you guys can appreciate my hosting and attention to detail with formatting/write-up inclusion/timeliness/consistency
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Peridiam posted...

i hope you guys can appreciate my hosting and attention to detail with formatting/write-up inclusion/timeliness/consistency

Yes.
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Yeah, Burke's never been known for consistency.
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Underleveled posted...

And yet you failed to mention that the one thing Cambodia DID have was a great villain in Abi-Maria who was the one person who was consistently electric as both a character and a player.

...how silly of me. I can't believe I forgot Abi XD

But yeah, Cambodia had a lot of character stuff. Sure, some of it was one-note, but it was there. Those things were absent from HHH and Ghost. And it was those stories of people coming into their own that made Survivor a Thing in the first place - and now it's gone in favor of STRATEGY TWISTS STRATEGY STRATEGY STRATEGY due to their attempts to replicate the level of play in Cambodia. I felt really satisfied by those stories that were present in Cambodia, personally, because I liked that group so much, but to each his own.
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It's so weird that you don't like Kaoh-Rong then since those characters had actual stories

Aubry evolving from one of the most anxious and insecure players ever to one of the biggest strategic players in recent memory
Tai being a loose cannon and screwing over every single alliance in the season
Debbie being a total nutjob and yet actually having some strategic prowess
Julia going on a coming of age journey where she showed both her maturity and immaturity
Scot and Jason getting two of the most satisfying downfalls of all Survivor villains
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bwburke94 posted...

(Inviso's and eaed's writeups were shortened to fit the character limit.)

how are you so bad at this lol.

it's literally just copy pasting