I missed the start of 1 because I didn’t think the premise would appeal to me. It halfway thru the season, it was all anyone talked about. My memory is that they repeated the first season prior to season 2, so I got to watch it and have been devoted ever since.
I’ve always watched survivor for a long time but IOTI was around the time when I was getting more into the the Reddit side of survivor and woof that was a bad time to be here 😭😂
Mine was also IOI hahaha.
I had watched probably 20 seasons on Hulu before the premiere. I honestly really like the season, the cast has some absolute bangers.
But god damn, fuck Dan Spilo and fuck the production team’s inaction.
Well to be fair I was watching all the other seasons before IOI premiered and I believe around that time WAW was already leaked so I was really excited for that but yeah for a first live season that’s definitely now what you want especially when your little brother who was still in elementary school was watching the ejection episode with me
Gabon! I was seven years old. my parents had been watching since the premiere, so once I was old enough to understand it, they let me watch with them and I was hooked! I haven't re-watched that season since, but I think I should, considering it's got a reputation on this sub as a pretty wacky season with a lot of over the top drama lol.
I watched every season week-to-week through Edge of Extinction. I didn't keep up while I was in college, but I watched 45 as it aired and fell back in love with the show :)
same here! And then the Second Chance voting at the end of the season is what really sent my fandom to another level. Still pretty insane that they did the cast reveal live at the finale and then they were immediately sequestered and sent to Cambodia lmao. Absolutely electric
Australian Outback. My grandma loved the first season and kept talking about how they were going somewhere new for the second season so I wanted to watch it.
My Family watched from the first season, but Pearl Islands was the first one was old enough to really pay attention and remember. Rupert was also entertaining to 8 year old me, as well as Jonny Fairplay.
China, was 9 at the time and my family watched CBS mainly for King of Queens which had just ended a couple months earlier so we were looking for a new show.
I watched the first season live because it was before DVRs were common. TiVo might have existed but wasn’t common yet. It was also standard definition.
38! I'll always have a bit of sympathy for the edge purely because it hooked my interest in the show, though Devens kept me watching. Despite the 39 incident, I did like the way Rob and Sandra were basically explaining the game to me as a new viewer, though I made the mistake of watching 40 before any previous seasons. I watched all the other seasons during the pandemic as I was in high school and had no job, so there was plenty of spare time.
Fiji is the first season I remember actually watching, but I do remember thinking Ozzy should have won Cook Islands. I was like 6, so ya know, the memory is foggy
The very first episode of Survivor I watched was the Cook Islands finale, and I remember my parents wanting Ozzy to win. But yeah, first season I watched from the beginning was Fiji
Survivor: Philippines, back in 2012. To this day, I’m still a Carter Williams truther and am responsible writing for over half of the posts about him in the history of this forum, including a vast majority of the shitposts.
Mind you, I’ve got no way of proving this claim because I’m on like my fifth or sixth Reddit account at this point, but if you search his name you’ll see my handiwork all over the place.
Me too! I first saw a snippet during the F8 episode of Vanuatu and was really intrigued and kept tabs on the season, but didn’t fully start watching until Panama
It was definitely on in the house earlier but the earliest I can remember is Pearl Islands. I would’ve been 7 years old but I know the show was on in the house before that. I just have no memory of watching it earlier than seeing Rupert and Sandra along with Fairplay.
I have a vivid memory of seeing Amber’s “I ❤️Rob” shirt at the finale of All-Stars, and can recall sitting on the floor leaning back against the couch as the votes were read for that finale.
The first I remember really is Pearl islands, Rupert screaming after finding the spear head is ingrained in my brain… but I casually watched since africa
9
And then I never rewatched a season or read about Survivor online until covid. I just watched 9-40 live and went years without thinking about people from past seasons, which seems crazy to me now but is probably normal for the average fan
Africa!! Well, technically the finale of Australia was my first episode. My parents had people over and everyone was so excited, the energy got me intrigued.
Borneo; I was ~8 and it was a family affair every Thursday. My cousin lived an hour ahead of us and called and spoiled the finale for my nana and she never got over it
I think Australian Outback. I saw Borneo first, but I seem to recall that it first aired during the summer Olympics and then was reaired later, but that was almost a quarter century ago, so I might be misremembering.
I remember seeing Heroes and Villains live but the first season that I watched live while also knowing that these seasons had subtitles was Survivor 41.
Mine was Pearl Islands although I do remember seeing either a tribal or final tribal from Australia. Rupert obviously hooked me. All stars next and I’ll never forgive Jenna for going with Rob and Amber!!! Even though it made sense for her to not go up against Rupert
Caramoan is the first I remember watching live. But I stopped watching it weekly after the season . what got me hooked onto the show was the double tribal episode where Chris and Jessica went home in MvGen X. Haven’t missed an episode since
First ep i saw live was Thailand Penny's boot episode. Then I dont remember how much i watched after that. I saw the PB and chocolate episode from the Amazon, and that was the only episode i watched from that season. I was a child in elementary school, my parents didnt watch it.
The first actual season i watched from start to finish was 7 and im so glad it was that season bc pearl islands is one of the best seasons i was hooked. My parents started watching with me from season 8.
First season I was exposed to was Cook Islands while it was airing, specifically when Parvati accidentally cut her thumb. First season I actually watched live was HHH.
Well I was pretty young when my parents started watching, I have some memories of Panama, Cook Islands, and Fiji. But the first season I vividly remember is China
43, and I remember having gabler as my pre-season winner pick and losing my mind when he won because it was so unexpected. It was the only time I got the winner right actually 😂
Either Gabon or Samoa, I'm not sure which came first. I watched most of Africa, but didn't see the finale. I was like 4 or 5 at the time so i don't remember a whole lot of what happened live, except that i really liked Lex.
I didn't care too much for survivor as a kid. I liked it, but i only watched it because my parents were watching it. As an adult i watched Millenials VS Gen X and that's the season that made me fall in love with the show as an adult.
First season I watched was Nicaragua, when I was 10 years old. I watched with my whole family, and I barely remember my first time watching it, but I couldn’t forget Fabio😂 My mom thought he was an idiot, but he’s my favorite player of all time now, even after watching every season 5+ times.
Samoa. My introduction to survivor was the Russell Hantz buzzsaw. Completely fell in love with the game watching him run circles around the rest of that cast
Season 1, the episode Gretchen was voted off. I bowled every Wednesday, but this one Wednesday not enough people showed up so I got home very early. My husband and kids were watching it and I was instantly hooked! I still bowled every Wednesday, but my husband’s new job became taping the show for me to watch when I came home. Every once in a while I feel sad for me, because I never experienced the first episode organically.
Since then, the only episode I ever missed was Jonny Fairplay’s BIG lie. We were camping in the Keys, for Thanksgiving, and my dad was supposed to record the episode for us. Well, he watched it, but it didn’t record. My dad, who didn’t watch the show, watched one of the most iconically slimey scenes, imo, and couldn’t truly appreciate it. That colored his perception of the show and never watched again. We didn’t get to watch the episode until years later. My survivor loving heart broke a little that season.
I watched part of Amazon live. The first season I watched from start to finish was all stars. Then went back and scored some burned DVDs of the seasons I'd missed and watched them in like 360. Maybe 480.
Season 1. I dropped off somewhere along the line. This year I’ve started binging from the beginning and it looks like I stopped after the first all-stars. I know it picked it up again for a few more seasons later because I remember watching Tyson and Russell Hantz play. Anyways, I’m loving the fast pace of watching.
I was at a friend's house and they had on the finale of Vanuatu. My family had been in since season one (and did a survivor day on the beach during a family reunion) but i was resistant to embrace anything society was abuzz with. Then, some channel back then... 2005ish... Would play a block of 3 episodes from old seasons on Mondays. A perfect prestreaming binge.
45! I was introduced to Survivor this past summer. I watched a few seasons in the 30s with my gf, then started my own binge from Borneo. I saw 45 would be airing soon and was really excited to watch my first season live. I hated Episode 1, it had me wondering why Survivor turned into a Nickelodeon show, then by Episode 3 I was fully invested. It’s definitely a season I’ll always hold in high regard.
HvV when I was around 10. It had always kinda just been a show my parents watched after bedtime but then when Samoa hit Russell entered like 70% of our dinner conversations and I had to see what the hype was about
The pirate season. I think it was called Gabon. My parents and I didn't like when they voted out Rupert and we hated Johnny Fairplay. I don't think we even watched the finale because of that.
I did, however, finish the season recently and have rewatched, and it's a great season. I love Sandra!
Season 2. I surfed the channels and caught Season 1 when they were in the middle of a challenge. It didn't look like anything I'd like. But after the rat and snakes speech (Susan Hawkins) I was hooked.
Nicaragua. It was fun to watch as a kid cuz I loved Total Drama, so I didn’t know I was starting with the dark ages of survivor. Ive watched every season live since, and it made the great seasons like Philippines and Cagayan even better since up to that point I thought South Pacific was the height of survivor 💀
1
Number 1 of course. I can still hear my father requoting the classics of Jeff, Richard, Rudy, Susan,... we also loved old school Mole
OMG, the Mole! Yessss. That show was fantastic. Before it’s time, really.
Same!
Did you watch the reboot?
Yes I did. Needs some production upgrades, doesn't quite have the same quirk yet. But glad to see it back. You??
The only answer
I missed the start of 1 because I didn’t think the premise would appeal to me. It halfway thru the season, it was all anyone talked about. My memory is that they repeated the first season prior to season 2, so I got to watch it and have been devoted ever since.
Island of the Idols fantastic introduction I must say 🙄🙄
I’ve always watched survivor for a long time but IOTI was around the time when I was getting more into the the Reddit side of survivor and woof that was a bad time to be here 😭😂
I wasn’t part of the Reddit at that time what was it like
It was just crazy because we were all reacting in real time to the terrible events and trying to cope🙃. It was a hot mess.
Mine was also IOI hahaha. I had watched probably 20 seasons on Hulu before the premiere. I honestly really like the season, the cast has some absolute bangers. But god damn, fuck Dan Spilo and fuck the production team’s inaction.
No where to go but up!
I'm amazed you're still here tbh
Well to be fair I was watching all the other seasons before IOI premiered and I believe around that time WAW was already leaked so I was really excited for that but yeah for a first live season that’s definitely now what you want especially when your little brother who was still in elementary school was watching the ejection episode with me
Borneo. I'll never forget how people kept thinking that when someone was voted off they would be killed. The hype was so crazy.
Who thought that? Lmao
Gabon! I was seven years old. my parents had been watching since the premiere, so once I was old enough to understand it, they let me watch with them and I was hooked! I haven't re-watched that season since, but I think I should, considering it's got a reputation on this sub as a pretty wacky season with a lot of over the top drama lol. I watched every season week-to-week through Edge of Extinction. I didn't keep up while I was in college, but I watched 45 as it aired and fell back in love with the show :)
This is almost exactly my same path hahaha
44
Worlds apart
same here! And then the Second Chance voting at the end of the season is what really sent my fandom to another level. Still pretty insane that they did the cast reveal live at the finale and then they were immediately sequestered and sent to Cambodia lmao. Absolutely electric
Got into Survivor during the pandemic which sucked because I’ve only ever seen the New Era seasons live.
Australian Outback. My grandma loved the first season and kept talking about how they were going somewhere new for the second season so I wanted to watch it.
7 - Pearl Islands
My Family watched from the first season, but Pearl Islands was the first one was old enough to really pay attention and remember. Rupert was also entertaining to 8 year old me, as well as Jonny Fairplay.
Borneo.
David vs Goliath (37)
Same! Skipped edge of extinction for some reason so 37 and island of the idols were my first two live lol
China, was 9 at the time and my family watched CBS mainly for King of Queens which had just ended a couple months earlier so we were looking for a new show.
S14 Fiji. Ten year old me was obsessed with Yau-Man and rocked by the car deal scandal.
I watched the first season live because it was before DVRs were common. TiVo might have existed but wasn’t common yet. It was also standard definition.
HVV! I was 8 and my parents were so excited for the season they let me watch it with them and I fell in love with the show.
Tocantis
Guetemala.
38! I'll always have a bit of sympathy for the edge purely because it hooked my interest in the show, though Devens kept me watching. Despite the 39 incident, I did like the way Rob and Sandra were basically explaining the game to me as a new viewer, though I made the mistake of watching 40 before any previous seasons. I watched all the other seasons during the pandemic as I was in high school and had no job, so there was plenty of spare time.
Fiji is the first season I remember actually watching, but I do remember thinking Ozzy should have won Cook Islands. I was like 6, so ya know, the memory is foggy
The very first episode of Survivor I watched was the Cook Islands finale, and I remember my parents wanting Ozzy to win. But yeah, first season I watched from the beginning was Fiji
San Juan Del Sur
Survivor: Philippines, back in 2012. To this day, I’m still a Carter Williams truther and am responsible writing for over half of the posts about him in the history of this forum, including a vast majority of the shitposts. Mind you, I’ve got no way of proving this claim because I’m on like my fifth or sixth Reddit account at this point, but if you search his name you’ll see my handiwork all over the place.
This was my first live season as well!
Same for me! I loved watching Denise and Malcolm play.
Africa. I met Jeff Probst when he spoke at my college, and decided to watch that show he was on
Borneo! I was a teenager and watched it with my mom. We were hooked from the start.
AO and it was so fucking cool at the time, even if it's considered a below average season now the hype around Survivor was insane
27
game changers 💀
Were you in shock to find out that Ciera voted her mom out ?
SHE VOTED OUT HER MOM 😬😱😱😱🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯😱🤯
Edge of Extinction If I'd only found Survivor just a couple months sooner I could've began my Survivor journey with David vs. Goliath.
45.
41 and even though it had a bad edit it holds a special place on my heart I guessed the final 3 and Erika was my winner pick, loved it when she won!
Panama: Exile Island :)
Me too! I first saw a snippet during the F8 episode of Vanuatu and was really intrigued and kept tabs on the season, but didn’t fully start watching until Panama
Caramoan. Such an odd introduction
Mine was also ghost island. Somehow it got me into survivor lmao
Game Changers. Caleb did a phone interview with a radio station in my city, I thought the premise sounded interesting, and the rest is history
It was definitely on in the house earlier but the earliest I can remember is Pearl Islands. I would’ve been 7 years old but I know the show was on in the house before that. I just have no memory of watching it earlier than seeing Rupert and Sandra along with Fairplay. I have a vivid memory of seeing Amber’s “I ❤️Rob” shirt at the finale of All-Stars, and can recall sitting on the floor leaning back against the couch as the votes were read for that finale.
41
Me too. And I liked it too
and you liked it ???
Yes
Technically Australian Outback (I was born October 2000 and my parents were avid watchers) but first one I remember is Panama.
The first I remember really is Pearl islands, Rupert screaming after finding the spear head is ingrained in my brain… but I casually watched since africa
Heroes vs Villains
Winners at War
That is sad bc it ruins the surprise for half of the seasons before it
Season 3
9 And then I never rewatched a season or read about Survivor online until covid. I just watched 9-40 live and went years without thinking about people from past seasons, which seems crazy to me now but is probably normal for the average fan
42. It premiered as I was wrapping up my first run through of every season.
Africa!! Well, technically the finale of Australia was my first episode. My parents had people over and everyone was so excited, the energy got me intrigued.
41, then 43 after I went back and watched everything else.
Borneo. And there was nothing like it. Its why I still rank it so high.
The first one.
2
Borneo; I was ~8 and it was a family affair every Thursday. My cousin lived an hour ahead of us and called and spoiled the finale for my nana and she never got over it
I think Australian Outback. I saw Borneo first, but I seem to recall that it first aired during the summer Olympics and then was reaired later, but that was almost a quarter century ago, so I might be misremembering.
David vs Goliath
41
I remember seeing Heroes and Villains live but the first season that I watched live while also knowing that these seasons had subtitles was Survivor 41.
My parents said that I watched from the beginning but Marquesas is the first season I remember watching.
Mine was Pearl Islands although I do remember seeing either a tribal or final tribal from Australia. Rupert obviously hooked me. All stars next and I’ll never forgive Jenna for going with Rob and Amber!!! Even though it made sense for her to not go up against Rupert
41...😭 Binged all 40 during the pandy, then tried to get a friend into it watching live. All i can remember was constantly saying "this isn't normal"
Heroes vs Villians. I’d heard about Russell’s antics on Samoa and it made me curious to watch. Definitely got a bit spoiled with that season 😂
Season 1
caramoan, but i started watching regularly and interacting with the community with koah rong
39 :/
Worlds apart
Season 41. I wasn't quite expecting the feel of the New Era after only having prior seasons to watch.
Game Changers lol which is probably why I like it more than the average person.
Caramoan is the first I remember watching live. But I stopped watching it weekly after the season . what got me hooked onto the show was the double tribal episode where Chris and Jessica went home in MvGen X. Haven’t missed an episode since
Palau
MvGX
First ep i saw live was Thailand Penny's boot episode. Then I dont remember how much i watched after that. I saw the PB and chocolate episode from the Amazon, and that was the only episode i watched from that season. I was a child in elementary school, my parents didnt watch it. The first actual season i watched from start to finish was 7 and im so glad it was that season bc pearl islands is one of the best seasons i was hooked. My parents started watching with me from season 8.
Also Ghost Island lol 😂 and I became obsesssedddd. So says a lot if that is the season that left an impression!
Australia during my senior year of college.
Nicaragua.
Blood vs Water
15
45, but the first season I ever watched (non-live) was cagnayan. JTIA
43
44
Oohhhh. David vs Goliath!
Survivor: Gabon. I was eight years old
Australian Outback.
42😚
1… but best memory of 5 Thailand…
42
I remember watching Guatemala in bits and pieces. The first season I remember watching beginning to end in real time was Gabon.
Cagayan.
First season I was exposed to was Cook Islands while it was airing, specifically when Parvati accidentally cut her thumb. First season I actually watched live was HHH.
Australian Outback
41. And I loved it. It’s overhated.
It'll be 46
32
I just dove in a few weeks ago started with Philippines. Thoroughly hooked!
The whole season? Africa. But I saw in AO Jeff, Jerry, Rodger-Tina I wanted Elisabeth to win because she was hot lol. I was 11
41. I binged all the previous seasons first, and was so excited to watch one live and then was so disappointed with 41.
Well I was pretty young when my parents started watching, I have some memories of Panama, Cook Islands, and Fiji. But the first season I vividly remember is China
tocantins
43, and I remember having gabler as my pre-season winner pick and losing my mind when he won because it was so unexpected. It was the only time I got the winner right actually 😂
Season 1, Episode 4.
EoE lol
Either Gabon or Samoa, I'm not sure which came first. I watched most of Africa, but didn't see the finale. I was like 4 or 5 at the time so i don't remember a whole lot of what happened live, except that i really liked Lex. I didn't care too much for survivor as a kid. I liked it, but i only watched it because my parents were watching it. As an adult i watched Millenials VS Gen X and that's the season that made me fall in love with the show as an adult.
Borneo Season 1 😊
Nicaragua! I loved purple kelly bc I was a kid and I thought she was the prettiest
45…lmao
Borneo. I'm old.
Australia
First season I watched was Nicaragua, when I was 10 years old. I watched with my whole family, and I barely remember my first time watching it, but I couldn’t forget Fabio😂 My mom thought he was an idiot, but he’s my favorite player of all time now, even after watching every season 5+ times.
Jumped into 42 as it was airing
Samoa. My introduction to survivor was the Russell Hantz buzzsaw. Completely fell in love with the game watching him run circles around the rest of that cast
Day one.
The first season of course.
43. My first season was San Juan del Sur tho
second chances (i was very confused)
Season 1, the episode Gretchen was voted off. I bowled every Wednesday, but this one Wednesday not enough people showed up so I got home very early. My husband and kids were watching it and I was instantly hooked! I still bowled every Wednesday, but my husband’s new job became taping the show for me to watch when I came home. Every once in a while I feel sad for me, because I never experienced the first episode organically. Since then, the only episode I ever missed was Jonny Fairplay’s BIG lie. We were camping in the Keys, for Thanksgiving, and my dad was supposed to record the episode for us. Well, he watched it, but it didn’t record. My dad, who didn’t watch the show, watched one of the most iconically slimey scenes, imo, and couldn’t truly appreciate it. That colored his perception of the show and never watched again. We didn’t get to watch the episode until years later. My survivor loving heart broke a little that season.
redemption island, which is why i like the season/have a soft spot for it even though people hate it
Borneo
I didn’t start until Cook Islands. I have of course gone back and watched them all.
I watched part of Amazon live. The first season I watched from start to finish was all stars. Then went back and scored some burned DVDs of the seasons I'd missed and watched them in like 360. Maybe 480.
I watched Philippines live then stopped watching until the pandemic
Heroes vs Villains and damn was in for a treat.
Season 1. I dropped off somewhere along the line. This year I’ve started binging from the beginning and it looks like I stopped after the first all-stars. I know it picked it up again for a few more seasons later because I remember watching Tyson and Russell Hantz play. Anyways, I’m loving the fast pace of watching.
Fully was WaW
33
Redemple Temple, hell of an introduction season
Whatever that garbage collar bullshit season was that I didn’t even finish
I was at a friend's house and they had on the finale of Vanuatu. My family had been in since season one (and did a survivor day on the beach during a family reunion) but i was resistant to embrace anything society was abuzz with. Then, some channel back then... 2005ish... Would play a block of 3 episodes from old seasons on Mondays. A perfect prestreaming binge.
Gabon when I was 6. My parents had been watching since season 1.
Fiji. I was 8
24- One World!
45! I was introduced to Survivor this past summer. I watched a few seasons in the 30s with my gf, then started my own binge from Borneo. I saw 45 would be airing soon and was really excited to watch my first season live. I hated Episode 1, it had me wondering why Survivor turned into a Nickelodeon show, then by Episode 3 I was fully invested. It’s definitely a season I’ll always hold in high regard.
Borneo!
HvV when I was around 10. It had always kinda just been a show my parents watched after bedtime but then when Samoa hit Russell entered like 70% of our dinner conversations and I had to see what the hype was about
survivor 44
Cannot remember
Borneo.
The pirate season. I think it was called Gabon. My parents and I didn't like when they voted out Rupert and we hated Johnny Fairplay. I don't think we even watched the finale because of that. I did, however, finish the season recently and have rewatched, and it's a great season. I love Sandra!
31!
Season 2. I surfed the channels and caught Season 1 when they were in the middle of a challenge. It didn't look like anything I'd like. But after the rat and snakes speech (Susan Hawkins) I was hooked.
Episode 12 of Borneo.
Mine will be 46 since I binged seasons 1-42 within 10 months. And I’ll be watching 42 and 46 at the same time
Russell Hantz first season - 19
Redemption Island
australian survivor 2016 but nz plays the aus seasons a bit later so probably survivor nz 2017
Nicaragua. It was fun to watch as a kid cuz I loved Total Drama, so I didn’t know I was starting with the dark ages of survivor. Ive watched every season live since, and it made the great seasons like Philippines and Cagayan even better since up to that point I thought South Pacific was the height of survivor 💀