After 47 seasons, which installment comes out on top (and bottom)?
We rank every single installment of the reality franchise, from first to worst.
(Tie)Survivor: BorneoandSurvivor: Micronesia Fans vs.
Sue Smey, Teeny Chirichillo, Rachel LaMont, Sam Phalen on ‘Survivor 47’.Credit:CBS
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I’ve gone back and forth with these two over the years.
AfterMicronesiaaired, I named it the bestSurvivorseason ever.
So then I returned that to the No.
CBS
If I wanted to watch one season again, it would beMicronesia.
If you ask me which is the most important season, well, obviously it’sBorneo.
The season was filled with huge memorable moments like Tyson voting himself off, J.T.
Monty Brinton/CBS; Monty Brinton/CBS
giving Russell his immunity idol, andParvati handing out two immunity idolsat one Tribal Council.
I know many people would consider this No.
1, but it’s all returnees.
Robert Voets/CBS
For me, the fresh blood ofMicronesiakeeps that season higher.
(Maybe not well at all times, but at least they were playing.)
moment to a truly exhilarating season.
Michael Yarish/CBS
That’s what it all comes down to.
And it’s not just Christian, who is one of the most universally loved contestants of all time.
That is an amazing nine out of 20 that I would easily welcome back on another season.
The cast of ‘Survivor: David vs. Goliath’.CBS
Often, that’s all a season needs.
And that really is first and foremost the reasonDavid vs. Goliathbecame an all-time great.
But there are other trophies to hand out as well.
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The editing job done by the producers was perhaps the show’s best ever.
They experimented with new techniques which served to freshen up the franchise in its 37th season.
They added comedic flourishes that were totally unnecessary, yet improved the episodes nonetheless.
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They cut back and forth between players and stories in ways they never had before.
The result?A top 5 finish.
Letting fans vote in the cast?
Robert Voets/CBS
Brilliant.Hiding idols at challenges?
I think you all know how I feel about that.
Tempting people to quit an immunity challenge for a mystery vote steal advantage?
Bill Inoshita/CBS
All the tribe switcheroos?
They played out to perfection.
TheSurvivorproducers always throw a bunch of twists out there.
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Usually, some work and some don’t.
This season, they all paid dividends.
I also appreciated how hard the bulk of the cast was playing.
Monty Brinton/CBS Entertainment
Usually, you get a small handful of big-time gamers.
Another plus: The votes were completely unpredictable from week to week, leading to some truly crazy Tribals.
Sure, the challenges were a bit blah, but, still, a rousing and triumphant success.
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(MaybePirate Masteris to blame for that?)
Obviously, there was a stellar cast with big personalities.
Fairplay getting drunk at Tribal Council.
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Osten becoming the first person to lay down his torch.
Savage willing his tribe to win.
And Sandra getting in faces.
CBS/Landov
It was all delicious.
Some people, like Ben and Michele, had something to prove.
His return alone was one of the best reality TV stories ever.
Bill Inoshita/CBS
Go back and watch it.
It’s amazing on both a technical and an emotional level.
And Tony Vlachos cemented his reputation as the most entertaining and dominant player of all time.
Monty Brinton/ CBS
I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to have a great winner on such an important season.
And itdidfeel special, even with its flaws.
I wish the show would shake things up like that more at the outset to keep contestants off-balance.
Monty Brinton/CBS
One of the best creative decisionsSurvivorever made was not panicking and reshuffling the tribes once Koror started dominating.
Also, I’d bring back Jolanda, Coby, Katie, and Ian in a heartbeat.
Every single person added something.
Monty Brinton/CBS
That’s how you win a million dollars.
Possibly the least scenic camps inSurvivorhistory.
It just looked absolutely miserable.
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And I still jump when Chicken gets voted out.
WhenMillennials vs. Gen Xstarted, most of us were like, “Yeah, it’s fine.
Not amazing, but not terrible either.”
CBS
But then things kept happening.
And everyone kept flipping on one another.
And everyone kept getting blindsided.
Kenzie Petty and Maria Shrime Gonzalez on ‘Survivor 46’.CBS
And everyone kept futilely using their idols for other people.
It was madness and chaos in the best way possible.
And what was so fascinating was thatexcept Michaelanobody took their ouster personally.
The cast of ‘Survivor 44’.CBS
This was a season remarkably free of any sort of fighting whatsoever.
None of the ugliness ofWorld’s ApartorKaoh Rongpermeated the proceedings, even amongst all the lying and backstabbing.
Even Hannah was entertaining with her neurosis.
Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS
Ken was entertaining with his late-game cluelessness.
Bret gave us a touching moment where he came out as gay to Zeke.
Sunday outsmarted Adam and Hannah with a ruse at Tribal Council.
The ‘Survivor 42’ final five.Robert Voets/CBS
(However, I still can’t figure out why they went with three-person duelsa.k.a.
truelsand they definitely should have stopped RI at the merge.)
So why is it so high?
The Yase tribe on ‘Survivor 41’.Robert Voets/CBS
Because the casting and story lines that developed gave us people to root for and againstsomething every greatSurvivorseason needs.
And that’s not all.
Seriously, that guy was straight gold in every episode.
Robert Voets/CBS
BRING HIM BACK!!!!
There were some other problems early on as well, but what a difference a mutiny makes.
Then, we had clearly defined people to root for and against.
Zeke Smith on ‘Survivor: Game Changers’.CBS
There are other things to love as well.
Plus, just look at all the great first-time contestants (Parvati, Penner, Ozzy, Yul).
I love you, Billy.
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16.Survivor: The Amazon
17.Survivor: Caramoan Fans vs.
But hear me out first before you ruffle any feathers.
It was flat-out grating.
The ‘Survivor 43’ final five.CBS
But everything post-merge was spectacular.
I can’t remember a time when there were so many moves and countermoves so late in the season.
It’s much more important to finish strong than to start strong.
Monty Brinton/CBS
Also, don’t overlook how great the bevy of water challenges were.
Should I push it down in the rankings due to the lackluster Reunion show that followed?
He was denied in the end, though, in the most controversial jury decision ever.
Monty Brinton/CBS
19.Survivor: Tocantins
Okay, you may roll your eyes at Coach 1.0.
But imagine for a second this season without him.
His unintentional comedy single-handedly lifts this into middle-of-the-pack territory for me.
Robert Voets/CBS
However, the unlikely alliance between bookish northerner Fishbach and country boy J.T.
definitely made for a compelling thread throughout the season.
But it wasntjustthe extra runtime.
Screen Grab/CBS
Other creative flourishes, like the return of the new and improved auction, were home runs.
At least for now.
21.Survivor 46
Survivor 46was not a perfect season, by any means.
Monty Brinton/CBS
(Obviously, if it was, it would be ranked a lot higher).
While there were plenty of blindsides, there were few (if any) pick-your-jaw-up-off-the-floor shockers.
If there was true next-level gameplay, it did not translate to the screen.
Monty Brinton/CBS
Confrontation is a good thing.
22.Survivor 44
And here we are.
An all-time great character.
CBS
One of the most delightfully funny narrators in the show’s history.Frannie and Matt?
Arguably the most adorkable showmance couple ever.
The episodes also breathed well and did not get bogged down in too many advantages and idol hunts.
Monty Brinton/CBS
There was also more diversity in post-merge challenges, which was a plus.
So, with all that said, then why doesSurvivor 44just miss the top 20?
That’s just bad luck.
Kevork Djansezian/AP
I know I was.
I have no big complaints about this season at all.
It was a totally solid entry for the best reality TV franchise on the planet… just not transcendent.
Timothy Kuratek/CBS
Shane Powers should have been brought back forHeroes vs. Villains.
And theSecond Chanceseason, for that matter.
Seriously, what the hell?!?
Bill Inoshita/CBS
Get that guy back on TV.
But I still can’t figure out how/why Bob Dawg didn’t get a bigger and better edit.
That guy is an absolute gas, whether in or outside of Casa de Charmin.
Monty Brinton/CBS
Tears, anger, confusion all in abundance.
And it was wonderful to see.
The early and mid-game parade of tears and jeers out of Tribal Council truly felt like old schoolSurvivor.
Monty Brinton/CBS
I could see some people naming this as their favorite new-era season.
But it was a fun ride nonetheless.
Anytime you have a perpetual “been there, done that” feeling…that’s bad.
Monty Brinton/CBS
Especially when most of those twists and challenges were not great to begin with.
However, the producers did a much better job of editing and presenting that content.
26.Survivor 41
This may be the hardestSurvivorseason ever to rank.
Monty Brinton/CBS
Let’s get to the bad before the good.
That’s not good.
Which was a shame because when allowed to, this cast delivered in a huge way.
Monty Brinton/CBS
Early boots like Brad and J.D.
That’s a hell of a lineup right there.
Not that I thought all of the changes were bad.
Robert Voets/CBS
27.Survivor: Ghost Island
This was such a hard season to rank.
(“Guess that Bamboo” was about as riveting as watching anAdam Sandlermovie as part of aSouth Pacificreward.
This idea was used a few years later onSurvivor South Africa: Immunity Island.)
And then there is the ending, which also has plusses and minuses.
So, again, both good and bad.
Like I said, a hard season to rank.
But the ending was fantastic, and I was engaged throughout, even with the noted weaknesses.
I was fascinated with the Laurel and Donathan strategic push-and-pull.
Throw that all together and you end up in the middle of the pack.
28.Survivor: Game Changers
What a weird season this was.
We were treated to two titans of the game (Tony and Sandra) going toe to toe.
But something was missing.
Said events were all exciting, but they failed to form a cohesive unit.
And despite the gameplay and unpredictability down the stretch, that is kind of what happened.
And then there is what happened to Cirie in the finale.
(The fact that it happened to a true legend in Cirie made it even harder to swallow.)
I was invested in the players and their fatesthe ones I wanted to do well and not so well.
For the most part, the game flow either by design or sheer luck worked out really well.
But the cast, while extremely likable, were not super propulsive.
Where were the fireworks?
Instead, we got a lot more gauzy, reach-for-the-Kleenex backstory photo montages, but little sizzle.
I think this season sets a land speed record for number of times women call each other bitch.
Like, there is a staggering amount of bitch-related talk.
Its undeniably entertaining to watch so much open animosity.
The LeAnn blindside episode remains an all-time great installment.
But that stellar casting does not extend to the other sex.
But I have watched this season multiple times and still could not pick J.D.
out of a lineup from John and Brady.
And the whole I cant believe were losing to a bunch of girls!
angle feels a bit stale considering we had the same storyline three seasons earlier onThe Amazon.
But you were right, Eliza.
Its better than I remembered, and the new ranking reflects that.
32.Survivor: The Australian Outback
An overrated season in my book.
I didn’t.Solid, but unspectacular.
Pretty predictable boot order as well.
Dude didburn his hands off, though.
And, outside of one mind-bogglingly boring loved ones reward contest, the challenges were strong.
But now comes the bad news.
Like the majority ofSurvivornation, I was not a fan of the new final four fire-making twist.
That was a bummer.
34.Survivor: Kaoh Rong
Not one of the best seasons ever; not one of the worst.
That’s always exciting.
Working against this season is the fact there simply were not enough transcendent players in the cast.
That’s a problem.
Another problemfor mewas the unsurprisingly bitter jury, whose egos simply couldn’t handle being bested by Aubry.
That said, man, were there some hate-fueled fireworks at those final few Tribal Councils.
The fact that so many unworthy players went so far is simply too damning.
39.Survivor: Africa
Some great challenges.
Not that much else was great.
40.Survivor: Edge of Extinction
Flat.
That’s the best word I can think of to describe the season.
At least give them a place where they can go in the water!
Rafe was good for a few laughs, though.
Especially on rope obstacles.
A 2015Rob Has a Podcastpoll ranked it 22nd out of 30 seasons at the time.
( I can’t believe you all are going to make me watch John Rocker all over again.)
43.Survivor: One World
Look, I have total respect for Kim’s game.
Like Tom inPalauand Rob inRedemption Island, she excelled strategically, socially, and physically.
Unfortunately, that is really the only good thing I can say about this season.
But, man, what a thoroughly uninspiring cast.
Splitting the tribes up by age and the Medallion of Power were both enormous flops.
LikeOne World,ThailandandFiji,Nicaraguahad just too many unlikable players.
Two people quitting with only 11 days left.
No big memorable moments.
Unfortunately, it was people quitting, and that was memorable for all the wrong reasons.
47.Survivor: Island of the Idols
I’m a guy who tends to be pretty analytical.
But even I recognize that when it comes to rankingSurvivorseasons, it ultimately comes down to a feeling.
Butnothing seemed funin light of the far more serious issue that clearly outweighed the final game result.
Quite simply: It made the rest of the season impossible to enjoy.
And so here it sits.
