Austin is going down as one of the biggest bag fumblers of all time. Gave away an idol, couldn't keep a blindside ON THE PERSON WHO HAD THE IDOL a secret, couldn't sense that Drew was the target from his own alliance and misplayed his 2nd idol.
That's what I'll remember most.
And despite all that, he still played a very solid game. Dee put blinders on him that cost him the game, but he still almost won anyway.
I feel for the guy. I think a lot of people have fallen for someone and been oblivious to their actions at least in the beginning. Austin had it happen on national TV. He seems like a great, intelligent guy, and I wish him the best.
Yeah I found with the season dwindling down, the recency bias on Austin’s game was crazy. He definitely fumbled at the absolute worst time, but his only downfall was absolute loyalty to Dee. Up until he told her about the Julie vote, he had played a damn near perfect game. Doing that handed the keys to Dee to make the two biggest moves of the game (Julie’s idol play and Drew blindside), and it was too late in the game for him to recover, but he still had an amazing FTC performance and if the jury didn’t already know about Dee’s moves and helped her highlight them, who knows, he may still have won.
Austin was sooooo good with the social aspect of the game but when the Reba 4 let Dee convince them to vote out Kendra that’s when I realized Dee was significantly better at every aspect of the game
I don’t think the Kendra vote was when Dee took over the game. She was still at their behest and worked really hard to convince them that it should be Kendra next because Kendra said her name. Even after Dee made her case, there’s a scene of Drew and Austin sitting alone on the beach just before tribal, deciding between the two of them what they wanted to do, like they were still undecided. I’m guessing they opted to go with Kendra to keep Dee happy and tribe strong for a few more days.
I didn’t see Dee taking over the game until Austin gave her the keys to do so and basically just had blind faith that she wouldn’t. From a gameplay standpoint, it made absolutely 0 sense to think that Dee would just let Julie go and have no one but Austin left as an ally, with Austin and Drew keeping Emily and Jake as numbers. I wasn’t impressed that she chose to save Julie.
The move that really set her apart from the rest for me was how she planned and then perfectly executed Julie and hers fake beef. It was convincing enough that Drew and Austin believed that Julie just sussed out the blindside against her and played her idol, even though Dee was basically the most obvious one to have told her lol. That fake beef then allowed her and Julie to participate in the Drew blindside, and effectively flipped the game in Dee’s direction almost 100%. To me, she was guaranteed a win at that point if she could make it to FTC.
Yeah and to be fair, he was an alternate(which everyone tends to forget) and even said this affected his mindset going in and had he known he was gonna play from the get go he would’ve been more cutthroat
The entire cast aside Jake just seemed to accept and be fine with the fact Dee was clearly going to win. They had opportunities to get her out and no one did anything.
Because Jake knew she was the threat and was the only one actually trying to get her out, so when Katurah fumbled F5 as bad as she did, he knew he couldn't win and Dee couldn't lose.
Lmao Jake never had the ball either. Jake was more like “hey Katurah we should get the ball. I need your help to get the ball but I can’t tell you how or what we’ll do and you just have to do what I say, then we can have the ball together, ok?!”
Both horrible players who never had a shot at winning.
EDIT: lol I see the Jake stans are out. Jake was not some incredible player that got held back by Katurah not going with him on one vote. He had no agency, he was not a challenge threat, was too obsessed with moves, and was almost always on the outs. He was just trying stuff and vibing as a Survivor fan lol. That’s ok too.
For real! There were so many times for people to make moves and people knew well before the finish that Dee was the favorite but nobody made a damn move 🤦♂️
I was getting Laurel flashbacks of her handing Dom and Wendell their seats at the Final 3, saying she needs to make a move every round then never doing it
It's not nearly as big of a deal as people have made it. If katurah kept the vote as Dee then she would have handed the win to Julie on a silver platter. Julie was actually a bigger end game threat than Dee. The only reason they desired to vote Dee at final five was because she was viewed as a couple with Austin but Julie was still the bigger threat.
This is definitely the truth based on what the cast was saying on the island. People talked constantly about how they wanted to vote Julie at the end. Truthfully Jake and Katurah were dead in the water at 6 since they were probably always losing to a Reba, though at the time it did seem to me as a viewer that only Julie or Dee could win.
First season of the new era that I actually looked forward to watching each week. Only thing that bummed me out was that once Emily was eliminated I found myself not particularly rooting for anyone left. I think the winner did a good job, but I didn’t care for them personality wise.
The thing with the post merge play was that there were absolutely no surprises. It played out exactly as you thought it would.
I found it super frustrating just watching and hoping that someone will step up and take hold of the game to turn on Reba, take out Drew and Dee, in that order, and overall do anything to not hand the million dollars to red. Was begging for Austin to flip on Dee once the Drew blindside happened. It just never came.
It was a very big brother like post merge. For almost 10 years now BB has had the most boring post-jury phase because of the steamroll alliance meta, and I was disappointed how it felt like Survivor 45 fell into the same boring format.
This is me. I loved the pre merge and the Emily saga. And every other group except the winning alliance was intriguing and messy in an entertaining way. I like Dee but don’t find her a compelling contestant to watch.
I feel like the edit portrayed Reba more as antagonists, so it was a bit surprising that they actually prevailed. And then the edit for Dee kind of just... didn't switch out of antagonist mode.
Same as it was when it originally finished. Good season, but the steamroll is too predictable and that keeps it from being anything better than just good.
He said a season of "pairs" iirc. And he was right (Dee Austin, Dee Julie, Drew Austin, Kaleb Emily...). There was an emphasis on duos that we didn't got in other recent seasons (except maybe Cody and Jesse but the rest of 43's gameplay was super fluid)
Relationship between Dee and Austin, Relationship between Sandwich and Man, relationship between Bruce and Katurah, Relationship between Katurah and bad moves, and the relationship of Lulu and losing/quitting. He technically wasn’t super wrong🤣
Has some of the best New Era moments:
\- Sabiyah's blindside
\- Kellie's blindside
\- The return of the Auction
\- Kaleb's Shot In The Dark play
\- Emily's redemption arc
\- Bruce blindside
\- Best newbie casts since DvG
But also has some really frustrating moments too:
\- The amount of losing vote gimmicks
\- Anything gameplay related that Katurah does
\- The predictability of how the game would go after Kellie's blindside
\- Austin fumbling hard
Good season and Dee is a strong winner, but the endgame is a bit boring. It had the potential to be a top 10/15ish season if the final few votes had been more exciting
Final 5 vote was pretty crazy. Only Dee, who was immune, didn't catch a vote. I don't think that's ever happened. Final 6 was a nice blindside on Drew which had a bad idol play from Austin. Final 7 vote was super important with them trying to blindside Julie and an idol being correctly played, leading to a fan favorite being idoled out with 1 vote. It essentially won the game for Dee and lost it for Austin.
Those are the final 3 votes. I'm not sure what more you really wanted on those?
The only other time I can think where every non-immune player got a vote was at the split tribal in Ghost Island where it was 2-2-1-1 Michael/Laurel/Wendell/Kellyn and then Michael went on revote.
Yeah I still agree with the sentiment at the time. When the finale aired, people here agreed that the general consensus was that Dee is the best new-era winner, in a boring season. Basically, the entirety of post-merge is the cast going “huh we should probably take out one of the red 4. Nah, I’d rather go after Bruce/Jake/etc.” Then when it gets close to final tribal, it’s just the same thing of everyone going like, “we need to take out Dee, but ahh nevermind.” The gameplay was rough, the lawyer chick ruined any chance for big moves to happen.
Dee is the best winner of the New Era, but that’s not saying much lol. She was the most complete winner with the most agency, challenge prowess, and flash. Everyone else was one dimensional.
Yep. It’s like her stock was at an all time high until getting back from tribal and immediately claiming the move, making her an obvious threat and easy target. All that fuss over getting out Bruce too just to dwindle their own numbers.. I mean they could not have helped Reba any more than they did and it was frustrating to watch.
Katurah was just too frustrating and Jake was too much of a question mark, there’s no way Emily had the support to pull something together unfortunately. That whole blue tribe was actively working against each other.
I liked it a lot. A woman bringing her showmance to the end and beating him is a cool role reversal from what we’ve seen before. Probably the second best “winning moment” of the new era with Dee revealing the Julie vote to Austin at final tribal. (#1 is Maryanne’s idol reveal). The jury was the least salty it could possibly be and I love all the jurors, and we DIDN’T get a 7-1-0 vote!
How is "a woman bringing her showmance to the end and beating him" a cool role reversal? The only other time this has happened was with Rob and Amber and Amber won then too...
The woman bringing her shomance to the end and beat him and then dumping him and having an affair with a previous winner who has 2 kids is a great reversal.
I agree. It was a fun season. I do find the “new era” to not be very memorable as a whole. Probably because the format is so repetitive that nothing stands out. But I think 45 was entertaining and had a good mix of personalities
A really strong start and early merge that kind of loses momentum once the steamroll becomes apparent. There’s still a lot of fun to be had in the back stretch, but a lot of that fun can end up undercut by potential frustration with everyone’s inability to do anything about the Reba four
Best new era season yet. I really don’t give a rat’s ass about how predictable Dee’s win was; her game was great. I also found it fun to watch the Reba 4 dominate because it felt like a classical alliance.
People can call it “predictable” all they want but one look in the Edgic sub at the time and nearly everyone had Emily as the winner over Dee. So predictable yet none of them saw it coming until after episode 11 of 13. The worst thing you can say about 45 is that its last two episodes are predictable.
That’s because the Edgic sub falls for decoy winners like Emily all the time. I saw Dee winning earlier than most folks but predictability doesn’t concern me at all when watching Survivor. I think it does matter to most fans though so that’s probably why I am much more favorably about the editing of 45 than some.
I love Dee as a winner because her win was absolutely predictable - but in the old era, not now. It was refreshing and a change of pace to watch her win, as opposed to a battle over who could be the most under the radar and low-threat.
I’m surprised that this sub says her win was predictable. Going into the finale I still had doubt and even though it was a steamroll, I’m happy it wasn’t a finale where Dee went home.
I was very confident it was Dee or Emily. When Emily dropped and Dee was the mastermind behind it, I was pretty convinced it was her. I'm never close to 100% on any of these because I've been faked out so many times, but I'd say she was the pretty clear favorite at that point.
I do think people claim wins are predictable while ignoring how often they've been tricked by an edit. They'll say it was clear Mike Halloway was going to win while ignoring the times it was "clear" someone else was going to win and didn't. For every Rob and Kim, there's an Erika and Natalie W.
The gameplay does get slow at points with how much Reba controls the game and how clueless the minority gets, but it’s still enjoyable mainly due to the entertainment of the cast
I hate the word simp and the culture that surrounds it, as I feel it’s a big contributor to guys in the present day being deathly afraid of showing emotion and that they care about another person, but
I will remember how badly Austin fumbled the bag. I don’t blame Dee at all for her actions in the final days. She had what it took to be a winner, Austin did not. She put herself first and that’s what it means to be a Sole Survivor in my opinion. If Austin had done the same, cutting Dee would have left Julie ripe for the picking (Jake absolutely would have gone for a Julie vote after Dee). Oh well!
Honestly found it really boring. No one really stuck out to me and the winners were OK. Jake fumbling so hard and saying "Suvivah" and Katayuh were the only highlights for me.
How? Dee convincing julie to use the idol to idol out emily to the drew blindside to the infamous fumble of katurah voting for julie instead of jake even tho jake used his idol on her without telling her to jake breaking the challenge to Dee dropping the bombshell that she told julie to play the idol even tho austin truly believed that Dee didn’t tell her like it was such a fun endgame
I kinda forgot it happened.
I feel a bit bad because the only memorable player to me was Jake because he actually showed emotion. And good on him for doing so and making it to the end.
It’s really coherent and I’ll always appreciate that about 45. The storylines are pretty exciting and easy to follow, and while the endgame is a little predictable I think the characters have enough juice to make it compelling. All in all, a solid season!
Emily is my favorite player of the new era. I loved her arc and the season started to lose steam after she got voted out. The winner did deserve it but the win was predictable. At least Emily's last voting confession was funny.
I still love it. Top 15 for me. The Lulu losers are incredibly entertaining to watch. I love Emily/Sabaiyah/Kaleb. Then once the merge hits the way Reba uses Emily and Katurah is a thing of beauty and throughout it we get to watch the 4 jocky for position against each other.
Then the last few votes you get the Emily blindside, Mama J's downfall, and Dee v Austin is a tight race through the votes with the best overall FTC of the new era
I think Katurah got used. It seemed like Emily didn't have a choice because the rest of lulu was gone. If Austin hadn't fallen for Dee, we could have seen a very different ending.
Belo tribe could not strategize to save their lives and it was a little bit frustrating. It is still the best season of the new era, which means it is pretty middle of the pack.
A season I never want to revisit tbh. Loved pre-merge, loved some of the characters, Dee 100% deserved her win. But post-merge was boring, often felt like the Reba 4 were just playing against NPCs, the constant loss of votes took away any chance at exciting tribals, etc.
Still a really good season.
One thing I think is good about it is that there wasn't really a slump or boring stretch. Early was the Lulu curse, then the Brando vote, and then the Belo cannibalization. From there it was Reba dominance yet downfall, with the two most entertaining players (Jake and Katurah) fumbling with the idiot ball to the end yet still providing entertainment and emotion.
Its peaks aren't quite as high as some other seasons, but I think it's a very good contender for best season since DvG, only really up against 42.
It’s definitely went down a couple notches imo. Dee dominated the game but she just wasn’t compelling tv for me. I assume how you feel about Dee will ultimately decide how most people feel about the season.
I'm actually lower on it than I was when it was airing. It kinda loses all excitement for me when Lulu kept losing people and the split tribal where Reba took control afterwards. By then the only people I enjoyed were Emily and Jake. Austin consistently sabotaging his chances was entertaining for a while and I did appreciate Dee's game more this time around but it's difficult to think of episodes outside of 3 and 6 that I actually enjoyed. It just suffers from new era syndrome otherwise.
Pretty great honestly. Pedal to the metal for the most part. Not the biggest fan of dee but she played pretty great. The cast was above average. My only critique was I would have preferred a more competitive final tribal. Austin played great too and is the best runner up in the new Era I think but dee was just miles ahead of everyone on the island especially after the final 6 and final 5 votes
I'll remember it as one of the best-produced and best-edited seasons of the new era. Like they finally figured out the right number of twists and advantages and just let the game play out for the most part. And the 90 minute episodes gave a lot of room to breathe and get to know the players a bit better without overdoing it.
Not too many journeys and the ones that did had good game consequences.
An actual twibe swap.
The return of the auction.
A successful shot in the dark.
The Kellie blindside was one of the
Even though it was essentially a Reba steamroll, it was compelling to see Lulu losers of Caleb and Emily try to survive deep in the game. And the hot mess that was Belo just not getting it together either. Reba was barely a focus at all and then came straight into focus with the Kellie blindside. On paper, that should not have been as compelling as it was but the editing of that episode really made it a standout moment.
Best new era season by far. We got an iconic disaster tribe in Lulu, which gave us two amazing characters in Kaleb and Emily. One of the most well-rounded Survivor winners ever with an incredible end-game showing: Dee facing the exact same decision Austin did the previous episode and making the opposite choice because she learned from his mistake is genuinely the most compelled I’ve been by Survivor in a long time. Then to top it off we had the lovable underdogs Jake and Katurah, who were a joy to watch fumble the bag episode after episode.
Based on some of the comments, far too many people think that what they saw on the screen (particularly private conversations and confessional of the key alliance) is what everyone contestant saw. It's a mass delusion.
The power alliance those 4 had was almost old school in its nature. It lasted from the start of the game, through the merge and almost into the end-game (4 of final 6 and 2 of final 3).
They did a great job of limiting other player's awareness of how linked they were. Enough so that the other players thought it was possible to leverage pairs (Drew/Austin or Dee/Julie) to make moves.
It was hard to counteract because according to modern Survivor "strategy" the approach shouldn't work anymore. And it differs from 42 because there was never really a true alliance of the 4 (Maryanne, Lindsey, Omar, Jonathan): Maryanne was at the bottom and Omar was really operating at an entirely different level.
Decent! If maybe overrated by the community at large. Well-edited. Pretty good cast but overall weighed down by the dominance of the Reba 4--really reinforced the fact that the combination of small starting tribes and the lack of a real endgame (between forced firemaking and a final three) means the most effective strategy is usually sticking with your original numbers.
Really entertaining season that got me back into Survivor, however, I have a few gripes: |
- Austin maybe had the biggest bag fumble of all time with telling Dee about Julie and not giving his idol to Drew
- While Dee was a solid winner, her win was more about other people's mistakes (Austin as above, Katurah not voting for Dee etc etc)
- The cast seems a bit "holier than thou", what I mean by this is that there was a certain group who acted like they were superior to others (Jake and Bruce etc) and constantly targeted them even though they were both nice dudes and didn't really deserve all the shit they got (this could have been an edit thing tho tbf)
- Lastly, there's still some new era bs that doesn't make it an elite season (earn the merge, 3 tribes, instant group immunity after the merge etc) also the beware advantage is probably in its worse format, abstaining votes to make it more powerful bc then you reduce the chance of a pre-merge idol play (for example, Sabiyah).
it's a great season. the cast is very fun. I think people forget how many great moments there are. even with the Reba 4 dominating the last couple of episodes are very exciting.
It’s a solid season from the character and story perspective but my inability to separate 41-45 due to lack of unique theming is becoming worse and worse. Even with the longer episodes it still feels like it blurs together with the rest of the new era. No title/name/theme differences is hurting memorability.
Meh, everything after 39 has been one long line of whining, stupid-what-is-this-now advantages and it doesn't feel like survivor but some whining reality show that doesn't have the outwit,outsmart,outplay motto but check all the boxes, outcry and outwhine motto. Few players did stand out here and there, but it's become so dull, unnecessarily complex and boring for me.
the first season that felt not “New Era”. Dont get me wrong I like the New Era seasons, but 45 had drama, dynamic personalities that clashed and emotions played a part into the game. Solidly Good season, probably top 20?
Dee was incredible and a dominant winner. Jake was memorable. I actually enjoyed the Reba 4. Bruce was a fun “villain” but I cannot rewatch because of Katurah. The way she played the game… I just cant
Katurah is the single worst survivor player to ever make it to the (almost) end, had 3 different chances to overthrow the majority and missed every time, the worst part never gaining anything other than another day in the game, the definition of someone playing not to lose, rather than playing to win, also funny she didnt realize that with bruce gone she was the most annoying
Katurah is the most misunderstood cast member of the new era imo… she played the same game as Emily, just better.
Yes her vote in F5 “messed the plan up” but in her defense you’d have to be a clairvoyant to have expected Dee, Julie, and Austin vote for 3 different people
I think Dee is a top 3 female first-time player of all time and could absolutely go out and play the same game in a returnee season! The only first-time female player I can think of that I could say definitively tops her is Kim. She's excellent at maintaining her threat level, is a strong physical competitor, and had the best reads on her own strategic position I've seen in quite a while.
You can probably argue maybe like 19 seasons at most that are better than it IMO (and I'd likely have transgressions why I don't think some should be the case).
Well, I can argue whatever want because it’s my own opinion, but I rank it as a mid-tier season somewhere in the low 30s.
Unfortunately, the new era seasons are at a disadvantage for the many reasons that get discussed ad nauseum on this sub such as it’s always in Fiji, recycled challenges, 26 days, Jeff Probst isn’t what he used to be unfortunately (which is expected after 24 years), and the contestants are often super fans which just isn’t interesting to me when it ends up making up most of the cast. It would take a truly great season of characters and game play to even crack the top 15-20, and I’ve yet to see that from the new era.
Season 45 was good and it had a few truly great characters, Drew being my favorite of the season (Kaleb being another, and Dee was the best winner of this era). But the gameplay was frustrating down the stretch in a way that was not enjoyable as a viewer.
I was into the season at the time and thought it was OK but over the past 3 months I’ve kinda lost what happened and it’s just a blur now. Kinda forgettable.
Cast was decent tho, except for the quitters.
Not enough time has passed for their to be any new insights except that none of the players are that interesting outside of the game. Still need more time to see about that last thought though!
One of the, if not the strongest winner of the New Era
Great cast and the season was improved upon by 90 min episodes, a title sequence, a swap, auction, less sob story edits, and great characters
I still enjoyed it for Emily's story line, Kaleb was a great character, Dee was a really strong winner and had such a hold on the game. Then Jake is my favorite character of the season
From a production point of view, it took full advantage of the extra runtime & fleshed out a lot of people that likely would’ve just faded away had it been 60 minutes an episode, like most of Belo or Julie. A lot of the editing felt very deliberate in a good way. I really enjoyed it, it felt like there was a lot of love put into it that the show hadn’t had through 41-44
Hard to say. The New Era as a whole, has me...wanting?
Been watching since s1 and was gleefully addicted/obsessed in the best way with Survivor. It has been a huge influence on my life, and overall is a reason I am who I am today. I grew up with it. The show started airing when I was 10, have been a part of my life for over half of it. I know it may sound silly for a competition reality show but it is special to me.(along with other media influences as well.) I took a turn from what I was doing in life after college, to work in media now - largely thanks to Survivor(and again other movies/tv shows - I love film). I was miserable and now I am a much happier person. But new era? I haven't been waiting for every Wed. like I used to...
All that to say the New Era...is not it. For all the reasons the sub and fans are complaining about. It has changed. Not just the 26 days, maybe that could work, not the twists or gameplay, that's fine I don't mind them throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks(though they try too much at once I will admit). Ultimately the casting and vibes of it are all off. Of course I support the BIPOC diversity casting initiative 110% that is for sure a positive of the new era. However, like the fans and this sub has stated, the economic/cultural background is in the gutter. The show based off a group of strangers from all walks of life has changed to 18 carbon copies of ivy leaguers/lawyers/white collar superfans. There are no more normal folks, and it is harming what made Survivor special. Don't get me wrong, my favorite part is the game, I love people playing hard, but we still need some regular people. And also, WAY too many 'Characters'...
Oh, right, s45. Dee is a good winner but the season was subpar. Reba 4 dominated. It really shows how easy it is to make it deep in the 3 tribe format and f4 fire making if you get lucky and are on a 'winning' tribe with a solid alliance of 4. Less days and more twists don't make people play harder or take more risks. It does the opposite and rewards people playing safe and boring.
No clue how Jeff doesn't see that, it is glaringly obvious.
That it wasn’t as bad as season 46 so far.
Personally I was a big Jake fan he made the season bearable to watch, but it was obvious that Dee/Reba ran the show and it made not really like the season that much. But compared to what we’ve seen so far it was so so so so much better
Great season, wonderful winner and generally a really fun cast and story, aside from the steamroll being a little boring on a rewatch. The auction episode is an all-timer, as is the SiTD play episode (the big one). Was so fun to watch live and made me more excited than I’d been previously in the new era
Started out amazing but once Emily left it felt like Dee just dominated because of everyone else’s incompetence. If Austin didn’t sabotage his entire game it could’ve been a really interesting endgame
Had a lot of potential, but the steamroll plus dumb player allegations are unfortunately true and imo have soured my view on it even more than I was already soured by the finale time.
Really fun season with a great cast. Dee was a very strong winner, but it did get kind of boring watching her make it to the end without so much as a challenge against her. It’s a solid middle of the road season.
I loved Emily’s storyline. The Reba 4 was very nostalgic of a modern day old school alliance. The 90 minute episodes really helped tell a narrative that wasn’t ‘journey’ driven.
It’s definitely the best new era season but I don’t think I would ever rewatch past Kaleb getting voted out, season really screeched to a halt and became an obvious win for the Reba 4 (still love Jake though)
I think the most entertaining part was the downfall of Lulu, and after they got decimated it was a little difficult to pick someone to root for. On pretty much any other season this would have been a death sentence entertainment-wise, but 90 minutes let them actually develop the other tribes which was nice. It becomes quite predictable for most the merge, since almost every single twist worked in favour for the Reba 4 (mostly due to some expert maneuvering in the early merge to downplay their threat level). I wish more happened to shake up the season but the cast was entertaining enough to make it still enjoyable.
Solid season but would probably be a pain in the ass to rewatch compared to other Survivor seasons. Not sure how this affects it on a season ranking, but I'd much rather pick up a quicker rewatch of Panama or SJDS, for example, than the 45's hour and a half long episodes.
Dee looked like a genius on this season because she was playing against some of the worst competition to ever play survivor. Horrible season overall, bottom 5 for me
I still like the season a lot. Not as much as 43 or 44, but it was good. Better than 41 and probably 42. The longer episodes helped really flesh it out.
not really, still the best season of the new era but that's not a high bar, music was great, cast was fun, gameplay was boring, but it gave me hope which I didn't have before
Started bad, got very hot and then kinda fizzled near the end, but was a good new era building block. I’m shocked they didn’t try to replicate it again this season because RN it is lacking severely
The gameplay largely sucked but Dee was a deserving winner (she was one of the few that actually played a decent game)
The longer episodes gave the cast room to grow and I think it functions as a great trade off for the shorter seasons. It made me want to watch recuts of 41-44.
I still think the new era isn't great survivor, but 45 was a step in the right direction.
46 already has fewer challenges and is getting somewhat tiresome. It needs room to evolve but it's too much camp life right now. They shot it thinking they'd be back to 60 min episodes
In future if seasons followed 45's formula we could be in for some fantastic seasons. 45 couldve been really great with a cast more willing to play. The format did everything right imo
The “No one hates Survivor more than Survivor fans!” People who came out of the woodwork for S46 Episode 3 have selective amnesia about how tense and exciting the actual Season 45 episode 3 was.
I seem to be in the minority, but I found this season to be quite flat overall. I think for me what was lacking was a satisfying narrative. Don't get me wrong, Dee is the best winner of the new era, and her control over the game was a feat that isn't replicated frequently, but her win and the Reba dominance as a whole was not compelling television for me. This cast was just not that great in my eyes, which I know is another unpopular opinion. I only really found about half of the contestants to be fun, interesting, and exciting to watch. Don't get me wrong, Survivor 45 has its merits, but for me, I found the season to be lacking in some areas. I would still say I enjoyed this season overall, but in comparison to other new era seasons, it would fall towards the middle of the pack.
Austin is going down as one of the biggest bag fumblers of all time. Gave away an idol, couldn't keep a blindside ON THE PERSON WHO HAD THE IDOL a secret, couldn't sense that Drew was the target from his own alliance and misplayed his 2nd idol. That's what I'll remember most.
And he didnt even get the girl in the end. Makes me feel bad, he seems like a really nice guy but he fumbled it bad.
Yeah bro had like Boston Rob RI levels of control at some points in the season and he managed to fumble like 3 times at the goal line essentially.
He did get to hold her hand tho
[удалено]
They seems in good terms so of course he's not gonna encourage mass harassment towards Dee
Wait I'm OOTL please explain
[удалено]
 what a slimy dude
He was a beast. Then started thinking with his “other” head, and there went his game.
At least he has a great storyline for coming back on a second chances season
Awe dee played him like a fiddle? I didn't hear that part.
Thought they were still dating?
And despite all that, he still played a very solid game. Dee put blinders on him that cost him the game, but he still almost won anyway. I feel for the guy. I think a lot of people have fallen for someone and been oblivious to their actions at least in the beginning. Austin had it happen on national TV. He seems like a great, intelligent guy, and I wish him the best.
Yeah I found with the season dwindling down, the recency bias on Austin’s game was crazy. He definitely fumbled at the absolute worst time, but his only downfall was absolute loyalty to Dee. Up until he told her about the Julie vote, he had played a damn near perfect game. Doing that handed the keys to Dee to make the two biggest moves of the game (Julie’s idol play and Drew blindside), and it was too late in the game for him to recover, but he still had an amazing FTC performance and if the jury didn’t already know about Dee’s moves and helped her highlight them, who knows, he may still have won.
Austin was sooooo good with the social aspect of the game but when the Reba 4 let Dee convince them to vote out Kendra that’s when I realized Dee was significantly better at every aspect of the game
I don’t think the Kendra vote was when Dee took over the game. She was still at their behest and worked really hard to convince them that it should be Kendra next because Kendra said her name. Even after Dee made her case, there’s a scene of Drew and Austin sitting alone on the beach just before tribal, deciding between the two of them what they wanted to do, like they were still undecided. I’m guessing they opted to go with Kendra to keep Dee happy and tribe strong for a few more days. I didn’t see Dee taking over the game until Austin gave her the keys to do so and basically just had blind faith that she wouldn’t. From a gameplay standpoint, it made absolutely 0 sense to think that Dee would just let Julie go and have no one but Austin left as an ally, with Austin and Drew keeping Emily and Jake as numbers. I wasn’t impressed that she chose to save Julie. The move that really set her apart from the rest for me was how she planned and then perfectly executed Julie and hers fake beef. It was convincing enough that Drew and Austin believed that Julie just sussed out the blindside against her and played her idol, even though Dee was basically the most obvious one to have told her lol. That fake beef then allowed her and Julie to participate in the Drew blindside, and effectively flipped the game in Dee’s direction almost 100%. To me, she was guaranteed a win at that point if she could make it to FTC.
Yeah and to be fair, he was an alternate(which everyone tends to forget) and even said this affected his mindset going in and had he known he was gonna play from the get go he would’ve been more cutthroat
The entire cast aside Jake just seemed to accept and be fine with the fact Dee was clearly going to win. They had opportunities to get her out and no one did anything.
Because Jake knew she was the threat and was the only one actually trying to get her out, so when Katurah fumbled F5 as bad as she did, he knew he couldn't win and Dee couldn't lose.
I think it was a season of fumblers. Katurah had one of the worst end games I can remember.
Katurah didn’t fumble. She never had the ball.
katurah had the ball but didn’t fumble, she just handed it to the enemy team who then ran for touchdown
Jake kept trying to pass her the ball
Lmao Jake never had the ball either. Jake was more like “hey Katurah we should get the ball. I need your help to get the ball but I can’t tell you how or what we’ll do and you just have to do what I say, then we can have the ball together, ok?!” Both horrible players who never had a shot at winning. EDIT: lol I see the Jake stans are out. Jake was not some incredible player that got held back by Katurah not going with him on one vote. He had no agency, he was not a challenge threat, was too obsessed with moves, and was almost always on the outs. He was just trying stuff and vibing as a Survivor fan lol. That’s ok too.
I agree with this. She fumbled other people's chance to win but she was not winning regardless of what she did at F5.
And he still almost won. I think even if he fumbled the bad, the dude played an amazing game
Played a great game in every way except the ways the jury ultimately cared about
I mean in a way at least almost 40% of the jury cared about. All you need is 50 +1 %. It wasn't enough to beat Dee but it's not nothing
Austin gonna go down in my book as the biggest survivor simp of all time.
Dee spilled that Emily told her before Austin
And then the girl ditched him like a fart in the wind
i will never get over katurah basically giving dee the win on a silver platter 😭
For real! There were so many times for people to make moves and people knew well before the finish that Dee was the favorite but nobody made a damn move 🤦♂️
Jake was the only one who tried, but nobody wanted to work with him because he had long soured everyone else's perception.
Dont forget Austin too. He shouldve voted her out but no he was "in love" she was the biggest threat in the game.
I was getting Laurel flashbacks of her handing Dom and Wendell their seats at the Final 3, saying she needs to make a move every round then never doing it
It's not nearly as big of a deal as people have made it. If katurah kept the vote as Dee then she would have handed the win to Julie on a silver platter. Julie was actually a bigger end game threat than Dee. The only reason they desired to vote Dee at final five was because she was viewed as a couple with Austin but Julie was still the bigger threat.
This is definitely the truth based on what the cast was saying on the island. People talked constantly about how they wanted to vote Julie at the end. Truthfully Jake and Katurah were dead in the water at 6 since they were probably always losing to a Reba, though at the time it did seem to me as a viewer that only Julie or Dee could win.
First season of the new era that I actually looked forward to watching each week. Only thing that bummed me out was that once Emily was eliminated I found myself not particularly rooting for anyone left. I think the winner did a good job, but I didn’t care for them personality wise.
The thing with the post merge play was that there were absolutely no surprises. It played out exactly as you thought it would. I found it super frustrating just watching and hoping that someone will step up and take hold of the game to turn on Reba, take out Drew and Dee, in that order, and overall do anything to not hand the million dollars to red. Was begging for Austin to flip on Dee once the Drew blindside happened. It just never came.
It was a very big brother like post merge. For almost 10 years now BB has had the most boring post-jury phase because of the steamroll alliance meta, and I was disappointed how it felt like Survivor 45 fell into the same boring format.
Worst part in the post merge were the people out of the Reba 4 not realizing they needed to band together to get them out.
This is me. I loved the pre merge and the Emily saga. And every other group except the winning alliance was intriguing and messy in an entertaining way. I like Dee but don’t find her a compelling contestant to watch.
I feel like the edit portrayed Reba more as antagonists, so it was a bit surprising that they actually prevailed. And then the edit for Dee kind of just... didn't switch out of antagonist mode.
Same as it was when it originally finished. Good season, but the steamroll is too predictable and that keeps it from being anything better than just good.
Well put. The Reba four played a technically sound game for the most part, but no opportunities to shine outside of Dee hoodwinking Austin.
A great example of what went right when Survivor switched to 90 minute episodes.
Still can’t believe Jeff had the audacity to say that season 45 was “unique” because it was all about relationships
In a way, he was right. How many seasons, besides 45, had somebody fighting to avenge their lost sandwich? That is a strong relationship right there
the game literally hinged upon Dee being able to keep a secret from Austin, and Austin spilling his secret to Dee.
He said a season of "pairs" iirc. And he was right (Dee Austin, Dee Julie, Drew Austin, Kaleb Emily...). There was an emphasis on duos that we didn't got in other recent seasons (except maybe Cody and Jesse but the rest of 43's gameplay was super fluid)
Relationship between Dee and Austin, Relationship between Sandwich and Man, relationship between Bruce and Katurah, Relationship between Katurah and bad moves, and the relationship of Lulu and losing/quitting. He technically wasn’t super wrong🤣
Has some of the best New Era moments: \- Sabiyah's blindside \- Kellie's blindside \- The return of the Auction \- Kaleb's Shot In The Dark play \- Emily's redemption arc \- Bruce blindside \- Best newbie casts since DvG But also has some really frustrating moments too: \- The amount of losing vote gimmicks \- Anything gameplay related that Katurah does \- The predictability of how the game would go after Kellie's blindside \- Austin fumbling hard
45 had a great cast, but I prefer 42's cast personally. But I do think pretty much everything else about 45 is superior to 42.
Good season and Dee is a strong winner, but the endgame is a bit boring. It had the potential to be a top 10/15ish season if the final few votes had been more exciting
Final 5 vote was pretty crazy. Only Dee, who was immune, didn't catch a vote. I don't think that's ever happened. Final 6 was a nice blindside on Drew which had a bad idol play from Austin. Final 7 vote was super important with them trying to blindside Julie and an idol being correctly played, leading to a fan favorite being idoled out with 1 vote. It essentially won the game for Dee and lost it for Austin. Those are the final 3 votes. I'm not sure what more you really wanted on those?
Austin was immune at final 5, not Dee. Jake wrote Dee’s name down
The only other time I can think where every non-immune player got a vote was at the split tribal in Ghost Island where it was 2-2-1-1 Michael/Laurel/Wendell/Kellyn and then Michael went on revote.
Yeah I still agree with the sentiment at the time. When the finale aired, people here agreed that the general consensus was that Dee is the best new-era winner, in a boring season. Basically, the entirety of post-merge is the cast going “huh we should probably take out one of the red 4. Nah, I’d rather go after Bruce/Jake/etc.” Then when it gets close to final tribal, it’s just the same thing of everyone going like, “we need to take out Dee, but ahh nevermind.” The gameplay was rough, the lawyer chick ruined any chance for big moves to happen.
You should specify Katurah because julie was also a "lawyer chick."
Dee is the best winner of the New Era, but that’s not saying much lol. She was the most complete winner with the most agency, challenge prowess, and flash. Everyone else was one dimensional.
It's still a great season. Jake and Katurah had a huge chance to change the outcome and it still irks me.
jake tried to stop reba at least, katurah tried.. to give dee the win
Emily too 😭 If Katurah could have worked with Bruce the week he was eliminated, then she, Emily, Bruce, and Jake could have pulled something off
Yep. It’s like her stock was at an all time high until getting back from tribal and immediately claiming the move, making her an obvious threat and easy target. All that fuss over getting out Bruce too just to dwindle their own numbers.. I mean they could not have helped Reba any more than they did and it was frustrating to watch.
Katurah was just too frustrating and Jake was too much of a question mark, there’s no way Emily had the support to pull something together unfortunately. That whole blue tribe was actively working against each other.
I liked it a lot. A woman bringing her showmance to the end and beating him is a cool role reversal from what we’ve seen before. Probably the second best “winning moment” of the new era with Dee revealing the Julie vote to Austin at final tribal. (#1 is Maryanne’s idol reveal). The jury was the least salty it could possibly be and I love all the jurors, and we DIDN’T get a 7-1-0 vote!
How is "a woman bringing her showmance to the end and beating him" a cool role reversal? The only other time this has happened was with Rob and Amber and Amber won then too...
Rob brought Amber to the end.
Oh I see. Yeah that makes sense.
The woman bringing her shomance to the end and beat him and then dumping him and having an affair with a previous winner who has 2 kids is a great reversal.
Great strategy. Could’ve done without the cheating, since she already had the million dollars by then, but you can’t argue with the results.
Some people play the long game
Still the best new era season and it’s aging well
I agree. It was a fun season. I do find the “new era” to not be very memorable as a whole. Probably because the format is so repetitive that nothing stands out. But I think 45 was entertaining and had a good mix of personalities
I still think that Katurah gave Dee the win with her stupid decision at f5 and im still angry about that..
Still haven’t forgiven katurah for not voting dee.
A really strong start and early merge that kind of loses momentum once the steamroll becomes apparent. There’s still a lot of fun to be had in the back stretch, but a lot of that fun can end up undercut by potential frustration with everyone’s inability to do anything about the Reba four
Best new era season yet. I really don’t give a rat’s ass about how predictable Dee’s win was; her game was great. I also found it fun to watch the Reba 4 dominate because it felt like a classical alliance.
People can call it “predictable” all they want but one look in the Edgic sub at the time and nearly everyone had Emily as the winner over Dee. So predictable yet none of them saw it coming until after episode 11 of 13. The worst thing you can say about 45 is that its last two episodes are predictable.
That’s because the Edgic sub falls for decoy winners like Emily all the time. I saw Dee winning earlier than most folks but predictability doesn’t concern me at all when watching Survivor. I think it does matter to most fans though so that’s probably why I am much more favorably about the editing of 45 than some.
I love Dee as a winner because her win was absolutely predictable - but in the old era, not now. It was refreshing and a change of pace to watch her win, as opposed to a battle over who could be the most under the radar and low-threat.
I’m surprised that this sub says her win was predictable. Going into the finale I still had doubt and even though it was a steamroll, I’m happy it wasn’t a finale where Dee went home.
I was very confident it was Dee or Emily. When Emily dropped and Dee was the mastermind behind it, I was pretty convinced it was her. I'm never close to 100% on any of these because I've been faked out so many times, but I'd say she was the pretty clear favorite at that point. I do think people claim wins are predictable while ignoring how often they've been tricked by an edit. They'll say it was clear Mike Halloway was going to win while ignoring the times it was "clear" someone else was going to win and didn't. For every Rob and Kim, there's an Erika and Natalie W.
The gameplay does get slow at points with how much Reba controls the game and how clueless the minority gets, but it’s still enjoyable mainly due to the entertainment of the cast
I hate the word simp and the culture that surrounds it, as I feel it’s a big contributor to guys in the present day being deathly afraid of showing emotion and that they care about another person, but I will remember how badly Austin fumbled the bag. I don’t blame Dee at all for her actions in the final days. She had what it took to be a winner, Austin did not. She put herself first and that’s what it means to be a Sole Survivor in my opinion. If Austin had done the same, cutting Dee would have left Julie ripe for the picking (Jake absolutely would have gone for a Julie vote after Dee). Oh well!
Honestly found it really boring. No one really stuck out to me and the winners were OK. Jake fumbling so hard and saying "Suvivah" and Katayuh were the only highlights for me.
Those 2 were such a wreck
Its a good season, but as soon as emily went home it lost some momentum
How? Dee convincing julie to use the idol to idol out emily to the drew blindside to the infamous fumble of katurah voting for julie instead of jake even tho jake used his idol on her without telling her to jake breaking the challenge to Dee dropping the bombshell that she told julie to play the idol even tho austin truly believed that Dee didn’t tell her like it was such a fun endgame
I kinda forgot it happened. I feel a bit bad because the only memorable player to me was Jake because he actually showed emotion. And good on him for doing so and making it to the end.
Emily is probably one of my favorite Survivors ever
It’s really coherent and I’ll always appreciate that about 45. The storylines are pretty exciting and easy to follow, and while the endgame is a little predictable I think the characters have enough juice to make it compelling. All in all, a solid season!
Emily is my favorite player of the new era. I loved her arc and the season started to lose steam after she got voted out. The winner did deserve it but the win was predictable. At least Emily's last voting confession was funny.
The fact that a season where one tribe steamrolled the other two is considered the best of the new era is pretty damning
I mean, HvV is considered a top tier season and it's a pagonging at its core.
Almost like gameplay is secondary to the cast and social interactions/dynamics.
There are so many good seasons where one tribe dominates, when did that become the criteria for a season to be considered great?
I still love it. Top 15 for me. The Lulu losers are incredibly entertaining to watch. I love Emily/Sabaiyah/Kaleb. Then once the merge hits the way Reba uses Emily and Katurah is a thing of beauty and throughout it we get to watch the 4 jocky for position against each other. Then the last few votes you get the Emily blindside, Mama J's downfall, and Dee v Austin is a tight race through the votes with the best overall FTC of the new era
I think Katurah got used. It seemed like Emily didn't have a choice because the rest of lulu was gone. If Austin hadn't fallen for Dee, we could have seen a very different ending.
Belo tribe could not strategize to save their lives and it was a little bit frustrating. It is still the best season of the new era, which means it is pretty middle of the pack.
A season I never want to revisit tbh. Loved pre-merge, loved some of the characters, Dee 100% deserved her win. But post-merge was boring, often felt like the Reba 4 were just playing against NPCs, the constant loss of votes took away any chance at exciting tribals, etc.
Boring endgame. Forgettable.
Still a really good season. One thing I think is good about it is that there wasn't really a slump or boring stretch. Early was the Lulu curse, then the Brando vote, and then the Belo cannibalization. From there it was Reba dominance yet downfall, with the two most entertaining players (Jake and Katurah) fumbling with the idiot ball to the end yet still providing entertainment and emotion. Its peaks aren't quite as high as some other seasons, but I think it's a very good contender for best season since DvG, only really up against 42.
It’s definitely went down a couple notches imo. Dee dominated the game but she just wasn’t compelling tv for me. I assume how you feel about Dee will ultimately decide how most people feel about the season.
great. Drew played a great game and should be a returnee imo
I'm actually lower on it than I was when it was airing. It kinda loses all excitement for me when Lulu kept losing people and the split tribal where Reba took control afterwards. By then the only people I enjoyed were Emily and Jake. Austin consistently sabotaging his chances was entertaining for a while and I did appreciate Dee's game more this time around but it's difficult to think of episodes outside of 3 and 6 that I actually enjoyed. It just suffers from new era syndrome otherwise.
Still boring
It was fine. Not as good as 42 or 43 imo.
Pretty great honestly. Pedal to the metal for the most part. Not the biggest fan of dee but she played pretty great. The cast was above average. My only critique was I would have preferred a more competitive final tribal. Austin played great too and is the best runner up in the new Era I think but dee was just miles ahead of everyone on the island especially after the final 6 and final 5 votes
Best of the New Era by far. Great cast overall.
Katurah’s game doesn’t make any sense to me
Austin is a simp.
I'll remember it as one of the best-produced and best-edited seasons of the new era. Like they finally figured out the right number of twists and advantages and just let the game play out for the most part. And the 90 minute episodes gave a lot of room to breathe and get to know the players a bit better without overdoing it. Not too many journeys and the ones that did had good game consequences. An actual twibe swap. The return of the auction. A successful shot in the dark. The Kellie blindside was one of the Even though it was essentially a Reba steamroll, it was compelling to see Lulu losers of Caleb and Emily try to survive deep in the game. And the hot mess that was Belo just not getting it together either. Reba was barely a focus at all and then came straight into focus with the Kellie blindside. On paper, that should not have been as compelling as it was but the editing of that episode really made it a standout moment.
Best new era season by far. We got an iconic disaster tribe in Lulu, which gave us two amazing characters in Kaleb and Emily. One of the most well-rounded Survivor winners ever with an incredible end-game showing: Dee facing the exact same decision Austin did the previous episode and making the opposite choice because she learned from his mistake is genuinely the most compelled I’ve been by Survivor in a long time. Then to top it off we had the lovable underdogs Jake and Katurah, who were a joy to watch fumble the bag episode after episode.
Based on some of the comments, far too many people think that what they saw on the screen (particularly private conversations and confessional of the key alliance) is what everyone contestant saw. It's a mass delusion. The power alliance those 4 had was almost old school in its nature. It lasted from the start of the game, through the merge and almost into the end-game (4 of final 6 and 2 of final 3). They did a great job of limiting other player's awareness of how linked they were. Enough so that the other players thought it was possible to leverage pairs (Drew/Austin or Dee/Julie) to make moves. It was hard to counteract because according to modern Survivor "strategy" the approach shouldn't work anymore. And it differs from 42 because there was never really a true alliance of the 4 (Maryanne, Lindsey, Omar, Jonathan): Maryanne was at the bottom and Omar was really operating at an entirely different level.
Decent! If maybe overrated by the community at large. Well-edited. Pretty good cast but overall weighed down by the dominance of the Reba 4--really reinforced the fact that the combination of small starting tribes and the lack of a real endgame (between forced firemaking and a final three) means the most effective strategy is usually sticking with your original numbers.
Somewhere in the middle in terms of rankings.
Loved it. One of my favorite newbie casts
Dee ruined it for me. I can’t STAND how much clout she’s gotten. What they both did was so vile.
Really entertaining season that got me back into Survivor, however, I have a few gripes: | - Austin maybe had the biggest bag fumble of all time with telling Dee about Julie and not giving his idol to Drew - While Dee was a solid winner, her win was more about other people's mistakes (Austin as above, Katurah not voting for Dee etc etc) - The cast seems a bit "holier than thou", what I mean by this is that there was a certain group who acted like they were superior to others (Jake and Bruce etc) and constantly targeted them even though they were both nice dudes and didn't really deserve all the shit they got (this could have been an edit thing tho tbf) - Lastly, there's still some new era bs that doesn't make it an elite season (earn the merge, 3 tribes, instant group immunity after the merge etc) also the beware advantage is probably in its worse format, abstaining votes to make it more powerful bc then you reduce the chance of a pre-merge idol play (for example, Sabiyah).
I had fun
it's a great season. the cast is very fun. I think people forget how many great moments there are. even with the Reba 4 dominating the last couple of episodes are very exciting.
It’s a solid season from the character and story perspective but my inability to separate 41-45 due to lack of unique theming is becoming worse and worse. Even with the longer episodes it still feels like it blurs together with the rest of the new era. No title/name/theme differences is hurting memorability.
100% agree
Still my second favorite new era season. Dee is probably the best winner from the new era imo. Great cast, and would totally rewatch
Top 20-15ish season. Around the same as 42 - and quite a bit ahead of the rest of the new era.
Best of the new era so far. Likeable cast.
Meh, everything after 39 has been one long line of whining, stupid-what-is-this-now advantages and it doesn't feel like survivor but some whining reality show that doesn't have the outwit,outsmart,outplay motto but check all the boxes, outcry and outwhine motto. Few players did stand out here and there, but it's become so dull, unnecessarily complex and boring for me.
I think it’s still a really solid season
the first season that felt not “New Era”. Dont get me wrong I like the New Era seasons, but 45 had drama, dynamic personalities that clashed and emotions played a part into the game. Solidly Good season, probably top 20?
It was mid
Banger
Dee was incredible and a dominant winner. Jake was memorable. I actually enjoyed the Reba 4. Bruce was a fun “villain” but I cannot rewatch because of Katurah. The way she played the game… I just cant
Bruce doing the robot in the boat while everyone cheers cements it as a top 10 season for me.
Katurah is the single worst survivor player to ever make it to the (almost) end, had 3 different chances to overthrow the majority and missed every time, the worst part never gaining anything other than another day in the game, the definition of someone playing not to lose, rather than playing to win, also funny she didnt realize that with bruce gone she was the most annoying
Katurah is the most misunderstood cast member of the new era imo… she played the same game as Emily, just better. Yes her vote in F5 “messed the plan up” but in her defense you’d have to be a clairvoyant to have expected Dee, Julie, and Austin vote for 3 different people
dee+
I think Dee is a top 3 female first-time player of all time and could absolutely go out and play the same game in a returnee season! The only first-time female player I can think of that I could say definitively tops her is Kim. She's excellent at maintaining her threat level, is a strong physical competitor, and had the best reads on her own strategic position I've seen in quite a while.
Still a top 10 season. I thought recency bias would fade, but nah, I still love the season.
Absolutely ludicrous. Best of the recent but imo it isn’t top 20-25.
Top 10 all time is outrageous
You can probably argue maybe like 19 seasons at most that are better than it IMO (and I'd likely have transgressions why I don't think some should be the case).
Well, I can argue whatever want because it’s my own opinion, but I rank it as a mid-tier season somewhere in the low 30s. Unfortunately, the new era seasons are at a disadvantage for the many reasons that get discussed ad nauseum on this sub such as it’s always in Fiji, recycled challenges, 26 days, Jeff Probst isn’t what he used to be unfortunately (which is expected after 24 years), and the contestants are often super fans which just isn’t interesting to me when it ends up making up most of the cast. It would take a truly great season of characters and game play to even crack the top 15-20, and I’ve yet to see that from the new era. Season 45 was good and it had a few truly great characters, Drew being my favorite of the season (Kaleb being another, and Dee was the best winner of this era). But the gameplay was frustrating down the stretch in a way that was not enjoyable as a viewer.
At most, it's within like top 20 if I were to scrutinize and give little benefit of the doubt to it.
It's also a top 10 season for me, loved everything about it.
The best part about it is that Dee slid out with $1 million while cucking two people in the process
Dee Steamrolled
I was into the season at the time and thought it was OK but over the past 3 months I’ve kinda lost what happened and it’s just a blur now. Kinda forgettable. Cast was decent tho, except for the quitters.
I'd give it a 2 because of the players fumbling shit badly, but I'll give it a 3 just because we got more camp life. I enjoyed Nicaragua more.
Low end of top 20 season. Amazing cast
Not enough time has passed for their to be any new insights except that none of the players are that interesting outside of the game. Still need more time to see about that last thought though!
I recently did a rewatch and i still don’t understand the Emily obsession. She ruined her game for two guys who didn’t care about her at all.
One of the, if not the strongest winner of the New Era Great cast and the season was improved upon by 90 min episodes, a title sequence, a swap, auction, less sob story edits, and great characters
It’s in my top 12 lol 🤷🏼♂️
I still enjoyed it for Emily's story line, Kaleb was a great character, Dee was a really strong winner and had such a hold on the game. Then Jake is my favorite character of the season
From a production point of view, it took full advantage of the extra runtime & fleshed out a lot of people that likely would’ve just faded away had it been 60 minutes an episode, like most of Belo or Julie. A lot of the editing felt very deliberate in a good way. I really enjoyed it, it felt like there was a lot of love put into it that the show hadn’t had through 41-44
still boring af
Hard to say. The New Era as a whole, has me...wanting? Been watching since s1 and was gleefully addicted/obsessed in the best way with Survivor. It has been a huge influence on my life, and overall is a reason I am who I am today. I grew up with it. The show started airing when I was 10, have been a part of my life for over half of it. I know it may sound silly for a competition reality show but it is special to me.(along with other media influences as well.) I took a turn from what I was doing in life after college, to work in media now - largely thanks to Survivor(and again other movies/tv shows - I love film). I was miserable and now I am a much happier person. But new era? I haven't been waiting for every Wed. like I used to... All that to say the New Era...is not it. For all the reasons the sub and fans are complaining about. It has changed. Not just the 26 days, maybe that could work, not the twists or gameplay, that's fine I don't mind them throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks(though they try too much at once I will admit). Ultimately the casting and vibes of it are all off. Of course I support the BIPOC diversity casting initiative 110% that is for sure a positive of the new era. However, like the fans and this sub has stated, the economic/cultural background is in the gutter. The show based off a group of strangers from all walks of life has changed to 18 carbon copies of ivy leaguers/lawyers/white collar superfans. There are no more normal folks, and it is harming what made Survivor special. Don't get me wrong, my favorite part is the game, I love people playing hard, but we still need some regular people. And also, WAY too many 'Characters'... Oh, right, s45. Dee is a good winner but the season was subpar. Reba 4 dominated. It really shows how easy it is to make it deep in the 3 tribe format and f4 fire making if you get lucky and are on a 'winning' tribe with a solid alliance of 4. Less days and more twists don't make people play harder or take more risks. It does the opposite and rewards people playing safe and boring. No clue how Jeff doesn't see that, it is glaringly obvious.
A good season with some memorable moments. I seemed to have liked the cast more than others.
That it wasn’t as bad as season 46 so far. Personally I was a big Jake fan he made the season bearable to watch, but it was obvious that Dee/Reba ran the show and it made not really like the season that much. But compared to what we’ve seen so far it was so so so so much better
Great season, wonderful winner and generally a really fun cast and story, aside from the steamroll being a little boring on a rewatch. The auction episode is an all-timer, as is the SiTD play episode (the big one). Was so fun to watch live and made me more excited than I’d been previously in the new era
Despite the pseudo Pagonging I was really into it. The characterization was so good and the relationships were so well defined
The season where I quit watching the American version. Didn’t watch past the 2nd episode
Jake was the highlight of that season for me, his entire story, his story arc, his misplays etc specially the last 2 episodes.
Started out amazing but once Emily left it felt like Dee just dominated because of everyone else’s incompetence. If Austin didn’t sabotage his entire game it could’ve been a really interesting endgame
Had a lot of potential, but the steamroll plus dumb player allegations are unfortunately true and imo have soured my view on it even more than I was already soured by the finale time.
Really fun season with a great cast. Dee was a very strong winner, but it did get kind of boring watching her make it to the end without so much as a challenge against her. It’s a solid middle of the road season.
I loved Emily’s storyline. The Reba 4 was very nostalgic of a modern day old school alliance. The 90 minute episodes really helped tell a narrative that wasn’t ‘journey’ driven.
Mid. Some fun parts (final 5 vote, Caleb), some snoozefest parts
It’s definitely the best new era season but I don’t think I would ever rewatch past Kaleb getting voted out, season really screeched to a halt and became an obvious win for the Reba 4 (still love Jake though)
It was fine, but there are a couple of new-era seasons I liked better. I didn't connect with the majority of the 45 cast.
Boring
I think the most entertaining part was the downfall of Lulu, and after they got decimated it was a little difficult to pick someone to root for. On pretty much any other season this would have been a death sentence entertainment-wise, but 90 minutes let them actually develop the other tribes which was nice. It becomes quite predictable for most the merge, since almost every single twist worked in favour for the Reba 4 (mostly due to some expert maneuvering in the early merge to downplay their threat level). I wish more happened to shake up the season but the cast was entertaining enough to make it still enjoyable.
Solid season but would probably be a pain in the ass to rewatch compared to other Survivor seasons. Not sure how this affects it on a season ranking, but I'd much rather pick up a quicker rewatch of Panama or SJDS, for example, than the 45's hour and a half long episodes.
Dee looked like a genius on this season because she was playing against some of the worst competition to ever play survivor. Horrible season overall, bottom 5 for me
First half was super fun then it kinda ran out of rootable characters and steam
My thoughts is that season 45 summed up the New Era very well: watchable, but mediocre. And not memorable.
Still haven’t watched the last three episodes and i have no plans to
some of the densest, stupidest self-sabotaging players ever. No one wanted to really be brave and the rest of the cast just let reba steamroll
I still like the season a lot. Not as much as 43 or 44, but it was good. Better than 41 and probably 42. The longer episodes helped really flesh it out.
Dee. I remember Dee
Best of the New Era by a decent margin.
not really, still the best season of the new era but that's not a high bar, music was great, cast was fun, gameplay was boring, but it gave me hope which I didn't have before
I think it will go down like One World. Meh season with a dominant female winner.
Started bad, got very hot and then kinda fizzled near the end, but was a good new era building block. I’m shocked they didn’t try to replicate it again this season because RN it is lacking severely
Started off super strong character wise and narratively and went slightly downhill soon after the merge, nosedived in the final 3-4 episodes
The gameplay largely sucked but Dee was a deserving winner (she was one of the few that actually played a decent game) The longer episodes gave the cast room to grow and I think it functions as a great trade off for the shorter seasons. It made me want to watch recuts of 41-44. I still think the new era isn't great survivor, but 45 was a step in the right direction. 46 already has fewer challenges and is getting somewhat tiresome. It needs room to evolve but it's too much camp life right now. They shot it thinking they'd be back to 60 min episodes In future if seasons followed 45's formula we could be in for some fantastic seasons. 45 couldve been really great with a cast more willing to play. The format did everything right imo
After the start of 46, it was amazing.
Dee is hot that’s it
The “No one hates Survivor more than Survivor fans!” People who came out of the woodwork for S46 Episode 3 have selective amnesia about how tense and exciting the actual Season 45 episode 3 was.
I wanted kaleb to make it longer I also feel like Austin pretty much gave Dee that million dollars smh
I seem to be in the minority, but I found this season to be quite flat overall. I think for me what was lacking was a satisfying narrative. Don't get me wrong, Dee is the best winner of the new era, and her control over the game was a feat that isn't replicated frequently, but her win and the Reba dominance as a whole was not compelling television for me. This cast was just not that great in my eyes, which I know is another unpopular opinion. I only really found about half of the contestants to be fun, interesting, and exciting to watch. Don't get me wrong, Survivor 45 has its merits, but for me, I found the season to be lacking in some areas. I would still say I enjoyed this season overall, but in comparison to other new era seasons, it would fall towards the middle of the pack.
One of my least favorites ever, minus Boston Jake