New shows and seasons in 2020. Only includes seasons with announced air dates. Ranked by show's IMDb rating.
Last Updated: June 8, 2024
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My rankings of survivor seasons. Comments welcome!
Spoilers below
1 - S17 Gabon - :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: This is the most chaotic season of all time. Cast was full of so many poor game players that they just spiraled out so hard. The best players (Charlie and Marcus) were immediately booted from the game at the merge which in-itself isn't horrible strategy, but everyone else is just kind of bleh and they had to figure it out in the absolute most chaotic fashion. There is a big difference between being a villain for the camera and leaning into that persona and being outright mean and cruel, Corinne and Randy were outright mean and cruel, which was not cool. Regardless, this season rules so hard
2 - S40 Winners at War - This season end to end was riveting. Gameplay was top notch and very good. A little confusing at times with all of the cross talk and scrambling but overall is great. Even the lame ass Edge of Extinction was great. Such a sucker for all-star seasons.
3 - S31 Second Chance - :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: I went into this season with low expectations and it completely blew me out of the water. Every single episode was unpredictable and everyone keeping their Immunity Idols an actual secret were the absolute best and the way it should be done. Still cannot overtake the absolute chaos of S17 Gabon, but i'm pretty sure that no season will.
4 - S20 Heroes vs. Villains - :thumbsup::thumbsup: Great season but I mostly hate-watched it because everyone just let Russell plow through them. Boston Rob was right from the jump and his call to action was too late
5 - S16 Micronesia - Fans vs. Favorites - :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: Black Widow Brigade was great to see. Great cast after they trimmed the fat of bad cast members
6 - S43 - this season wire to wire was VERY good. Real-time reviews were negative, which i never understood. Jesse goes down in history as one of the best players of all time. Great characters across the board and will pay dividends on re-watch.
6 - S7 Pear Islands - :thumbsup::thumbsup: Compelling and great twists with outstanding cast. :thumbsdown: Lillian was dreadful, Fairplay giving himself a nickname is dumb
7 - S42 Survivor 42 - :thumbsup::thumbsup: Absolutely outstanding season. 10/10 cast and compelling through and through. Overlooking all of the advantages this is a top-tier season.
8 - S41 Survivor 41 - :thumbsup: Welcome back! Season started slow but really came into form and overall I really grew to enjoy the season as a whole
9 - S14 Fiji - :thumbsup::thumbsup:The highs of this season are so high, the lows are fairly low. Yau Man is life. Earl was great. Compelling character arc for Dreamz
10 - S29 San Juan del Sur - This is a full-on paranoia season with several Big Moves. Jon was a dumb player and Reed, Jeremy, and Natalie were the real gamers with Natalie playing so well. Season started out boring and really gained steam. Good season
11 - S18 Tocantins - :thumbsup: (The final tribal council with the jury made this better and vaulted it into top tier) I am lower on this season than others appear to be. Nothing wrong with this season at all, just not as good as others make it out to be. Coach was too weird to be a good villain and after the power change the season was more or less decided. But that power swap was GREAT
12 - S33 Millennials vs. Gen X - Fairly mundane concept that hit it out of the park with casting. Hannah was my personal choice at winner based off merit, but it is hard to complain against Adam's personal story. If the vote were to take place without off-island stories I think she would win by a mile. Good and compelling season
13 - S15 China - :thumbsup::thumbsup: Todd may be the most underrated player in the series. Very good cast. Each tribe has some players who I purely loved rooting against and hated, Crazy Dave and Jean-Robert especially
14 - S27 Blood v Water - Great concept and loved to see Tyson win. Pretty compelling the entire time and the rock daw was great
15 - S28 Cagayan - Pretty good season but not as high as others have it. Tony and Kass were the only cast members who were in the game the moment they stepped off the chopper and Tony just ran circles around everyone
16 - S6 The Amazon - :thumbsup: Gameplay by Rob. :thumbsdown: gameplay by Rob. Most if not all males were misogynist
17 - S10 Palau - :thumbsup: I really liked this season. Tom completely obliterated everyone and Ian was just idiotic with his gameplay
18 - S11 Guatemala - :thumbsup: Good season. Kinda bland cast but overall enjoyable
19 - S8 All-Stars - :thumbsup: Boston Rob dominates . :thumbsdown: Everyone just let Boston Rob dominate and season lost steam post merge
20 - S22 Redemption Island - :thumbsup: Kind of a meh season but that is only due to Rob completely wiping the floor strategically with EVERYONE. My god, Phillip is WILDIN. Best character this series has seen thus far in my viewing
21 - S30 Worlds Apart aka Blue Collar/White Collar/No Collar - I'm probably higher on this season than others are. Mike's journey is undeniably entertaining and a great champion. I will leave it to my girl Jenn to perfectly summarize this season with her Last Words: A lot of people suck super hard. Will seemed to be a nice person, but he's kind of shattered now. Sierra, I don't know, she just sucks. I hated Rodney, but I really hate Mama C, the same way I hate Dan. They're just fake and it kills me. But I can't really wait to watch the rest of this tribe destroy each other and I just hope they're not on the jury anytime soon so I don't have to see their faces.
22 - S12 Panama - Exile Island - :thumbsup: Pretty good cast, great addition of Hidden Immunity, Exile Island, and Terry's persistence. Shane is easily one of the worst contestants this series has had
23 - S37 David vs. Goliath - Great cast but and pretty compelling but it just didn't have THAT unknown thing to push it over the edge
24 - S34 Game Changers - While this season has some of the most iconic MOMENTS of the series (Varner/Zeke and multiple immunity idol tribal), the season overall is kind of bleh after the merge. Sarah is a great champion but overall it is lacking a bit
25 - S25 Philippines - :thumbsup: This is a middle of the road season for me. Nothing wrong with this season at all, kind of blah towards towards the end once Skupin flipped alliances. Prior to Skupin's flip there was SO MUCH paranoia. One of the few final tribal councils that I had no read on who would actually win. I wanted and kind of thought that Denise would win, but you never know
26 - S19 Samoa - This season was tough to watch. Russell was one of the more evil villains the series has seen, BUT EVERY SINGLE OTHER SURVIVOR IS SO SILLY NAIVE. Foa Foa went into the merge with Galu down 4 SURVIVORS and ALL MADE IT TO THE TOP 5. Others may say this is due to Russell’s game play but a lot of it is on the ineptitude of Galu. The only people who called out on Russell’s bullshit were among the first people eliminated
27 - S26 Caramoan Fan v Fav - Mehhh. Cochran was a good champion and i'll never pass up an opportunity to see Phillip
28 - S13 Cook Islands - Meh season. Good production twists but by and large a forgetful season
29 - S4 Marquesas - :thumbsup: Boston Rob but overall a forgettable season
30 - S32 Kaôh Rōng - Nothing really to say about this season. Decent cast but I mentally checked out pretty early
31 - S35 Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers - Nothing really to say about this season. Too many idols in play and kind of takes me out of the experience
32 - S1 Borneo - :thumbsup:- First alliance
33 - S36 Ghost Island - 2nd completely bland season in a row with far too many idols to be as impactful as they should be
34 - S2 The Australian Outback - :thumbsdown:- Boring
35 - S3 Africa - :thumbsdown:- Cast was dreadful and boring
36 - S24 One World - :thumbsdown::thumbsdown: Colton is a bad person. Boring season but only due to the women being so dominate and such a poor male cast
37 - S38 Edge of Extinction - From the team that brought you Too Many Idols now brings you Too Many Idols AND nobody really gets voted off. This season had managed to have almost no stakes coupled with weird advantages and far too dependent on idols. I think there was a time when 4 or 5 different people had idols at a time
38 - S21 Nicaragua - :thumbsdown::thumbsdown: everyone here sucks
39 - S9 Vanuatu - :thumbsdown: Such a boring cast and everyone sucks
40 - S23 South Pacific - :thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown: this season is brought to you by religion. So dreadful and annoying
41 - S39 Island of the Idols - It was mentioned during the tribal council but it is interesting how this show mimics life with the whole handling of sexual misconduct and believing women. It is no surprise that both Kellee and Jamal were voted off back to back when they were the ones sounding the alarms. Everyone involved should be ashamed
42 - S5 Thailand - :thumbsdown::thumbsdown: Misogyny all around AND attempted rape
Rating Scale:
10 - Must see tv!
9 - Great season, definitely a stand out in the shows history
8 - Really good and/or meaningful, you should check it out if you like the show
7 - It's an average season, it might get lost in the shuffle
6 - It had more bad than good, a season worth skipping
5 - It was a really bad season by its usual standards
Please Note: Scale contains half increments and the tiebreakers in the rankings are determined by quality of the seasons winner in regards to overall "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast".
Survivor Rankings
by eganmd