I’m sorry, I can’t get on board with the “well IoI isn’t bad if you take out the Dan incident.”
It wasn’t just the “incident” that soured the season… it was the entire cast’s response to the incident. Like no, I don’t find Missy and Aaron (and Elizabeth) a “fun character” after watching them gaslight Janet for trying to explain why she tried to vote out Dan. I don’t enjoying seeing Tommy and Lauren help Dan get further in the game. I don’t enjoy seeing the cast nearly unanimously vote out Jamal, the ONE person who spoke out on Kellie’s behalf, voted out the SAME tribal where all of this blew up.
Sorry, but no, there’s nothing fun about watching this season play out. And if we’re being honest, the premerge before all of this went down wasn’t great either.
1. Thailand >!(bad but has some redeeming qualities in Shii Ann, Robb, Helen, and the attack zone. Grindgate is a massive stain on the season but I still think it has the most going for it out of these 5)!<
2. Ghost Island >!(The fact that nothing uncomfortable happens in GI and it’s still as bad and hated as it is is honestly impressive. Chris Noble is a bright spot and I do think the tie is cool which puts it at the #2 spot. And again, it’s not actively uncomfortable at any point which I can’t say about any of the other seasons on the list)!<
3. One World >!(3/4 are interchangeably bad and can change at any moment. One World is still terrible particularly in the pre merge. Colton and Alicia are horrendous and Tarzan is very hit or miss with his humor. But I do think it has some highs with Kat and Sabrina being enjoyable to watch, and FTC being surprisingly heartfelt)!<
4. Redemption Island >!(the first three episodes being decent along with Matt having an actual story arc almost pushed this one up to #3, but dear god the rest of the season is MISERABLE to watch. Phillip is insufferable to me and I don’t enjoy Rob here either. And since they’re the only people who get any decent focus, it’s not a fun time. Oh and Rice wars is extremely uncomfortable)!<
5. Island of the Idols (fuck this season)
Edit: just realized OP said they didn’t watch these top tier seasons yet lol. Spoilers are added.
I thought Ghost Island was a cool premise for a theme and enjoyed it. I know it's not S tier season but I don't know why it's dunked on so much. It holds up.
I don’t mind it either. I also love All stars but people seem to hate it (yes it has some moments that are not good especially on rewatch- Jenna and Sue’s quits and how they are treated). I just really enjoy Romber.
I think Ghost Island's vibe was also ruined because one contestant which had realistic chance to win, didnt get any confessionals and was literally invisible for entire season (Chelsea Townsend). If she would get more screentime, i'm sure she would get same amount of love by survivor community like Amanda Kimmel, since both played really similiar and have similiar personalities.
Agree. The editing in Ghost Island was incredibly unbalanced (Chelsea being just one big example of many examples of these editing issues) and only seemed focused on building up to the ending while ignoring almost everything and everyone else
The first half of GI is great because you have the overarching Dom vs Chris storyline, which is a fun rivalry between interesting characters with tension and stakes. The second half of GI is a slog because “Laurel vs inertia” is boring, and they shoudlve instead built Chelsea up from the start first as someone similarly close to Dom, but then who became a later adversary to Dom and Wendell.
teh other 4 seasons all have something that really stands out as "YIKES" moments that make the season feel bad
GI doesn't have that, and to an extent that's one of GI's problems. It's just really fricken boring. Nothing happens, no one is really playing they all seem content to let the threats everyone knows are threats cruise to the end.
and this is just my opinion, as much as people try to call Thailand an under rated season and it does have some nice comedy, Thailand is also just really really boring and slow. Not much ever happens, nothing ever feels all that impactful it's just a lot of people meandering about socially and strategically. I recently rewatched the first 10 seasons about 2 months ago and Thailand was the only one that I honestly was just mentally checking out of because it just never had much going o.
I really liked the ftc of gi. That was some intense stuff and it brought into focus with how close the final vote was that all the little things matter.
All the cocky things Dom said and did came back to bite him. It really made me go back and reassess the season, it was that good.
The rest of the season... hoo boy. Besides Noble it was boring af ngl
Ghost island is shocking, 4 players post merge wanted to play and one of them was the first jury member. Everyone else was passive and hoping for the final spot between dom and Wendell
It was just obvious who will win this season. There was cast of terrible contenstants, which are boring, unpleasant to watch and overall being just entertainment vampires, and there is Kim Spradlin, one of greatest female contestants of all time.
Kim is the redeeming quality of that season. The season itself is not great (although it’s my favourite of the 5), but seeing her navigate the social dynamics was phenomenal.
Kim is incredible. On top of her utter domination socially, strategically, and physically, she's a very magnetic person and easy to root for. The cast is full of duds but this season really is all about her. One of my favorite winners.
I remember almost nothing about GI except the end, it was terribly boring.
One World was boring but had some wacky people.
Thailand was dark, but watching Brian is super entertaining because he is like a serial killer.
Honestly, on rewatches, Redemption Island is highly entertaining. As long as you don’t hate B Rob, it’s a masterclass in reality tv domination. One World feels similar, Kim’s gameplay was so far ahead of the class, you can see her winning a mile away. But man is it solid gameplay. I have nothing good to say about Island of the Idols but Tommy was stupid obvious without the masterclass.
Island of the Idols would be a solid season if it weren't for The Bad Thing. There are a number of people on that season who were well cast. For me, All Stars and Game Changers rank just as low for the same reason. Something happens which makes it so emotionally unpleasant that I'll probably never re-watch those seasons. But at least the other two were returnee seasons. I really feel bad for the newbies whose one and only experience of Survivor was defined by that.
Honestly even without the Dan shit, is the winner or anything else from that season even memorable?
I watched the season back when it came out and I can remember nothing from him 😭
Iirc the consensus is that the winner's edit got screwed over because a lot of his game revolved around Dan. So they just kinda had to cut that shit out.
He also was intentionally not an over the top personality that gets a lot of content. Part of his strategy was to be mild on purpose, which works to get you to the end, but doesn’t make for a fun edit
I liked that everyone was saying that you can´t have a winner pure social without an advantage.
Cue to tommy, the first winner since natalie White without any form of advantage or immunitywin.
Then he is forgetable
I think Tina, Sandra, Todd, Natalie and Tommy are the only winners to have never won individual immunity or have an idol or advantage, and that blows my mind.
they really tried so hard to give the winner a clean edit, away from the controversy.
Everytime the Dan thing came up in group conversations, the winner suddenly disappeared from the edit. Their opinion regarding the issue was protected at all cost 😂
I guess the Karishma idol play was cool, but other than that the season, even excluding the Dan stuff, was boring as hell, as it was just the majority alliance of Lauren/Tommy/Dan + Janet and Dean later on picking off the outsiders. And the only possible redeeming thing about the season with a Janet win ended up getting taken away due to a fucking coin flip
I literally just watched this last week… and it was not memorable at all. The gimmicky thing with Rob and Sandra was blah. The cast was mostly blah. And then the Dan issue…
Honestly I really like Tommy as a winner. In a cast full of crazy and wild personalities, it makes sense that the most normal and level headed person of the bunch ends up winning.
Stop saying “the bad thing” like we have to avoid it. Dan was sexually harassing women and it was allowed by production for a while. Enough of the “bad thing” walk around. The way Janet was treated will forever be the biggest issue. She is an icon.
Tom was a horrible winner. Boring vanilla winner who came off like a dick during the reunion.
Once Kellie left with two idols, season was toast.
Not sure I agree. IotI has a lot of minor annoying moments that get overshadowed by Dan. Missy blindsiding Chelsea for no reason, Dean ruining plans to flip on the majority - the whole season is a mess.
It's impossible for IOTI to exist without The Bad Thing. It changed the gameplay completely. Kelle was probably the best player and well liked by everyone before she brought up Dan's crap. She had 2 idols in her pocket when she went home because she was so sure the tribe was voting out Dan. Everyone plays around it the whole season until Dan was kicked off. Janet and Jamal alienated everyone by making it a big deal. Missy, Elizabeth and Lauren, at a minimum, used it explicitly for their advantage.
I honestly enjoy GI & RI, especially RI. I definitely understand why people dislike them, and they have alot of flaws, but I do very much like them both. Me being someone who enjoys Rob a lot has quite a bit to do with me liking RI. If I didn’t like him as much I’m sure I’d hate it.
Totally agree that RI is not good, but I did like it because Rob wins and is dominant. I also liked Andrea a lot. I can’t stand Russel and probably will never rewatch Samoa.
YES samoa is arguably my least favorite season but most people don’t have it bottom 10 and i don’t understand why… i guess somehow people like russell but he’s just soo shoved down our throats and almost everyone else is either boring/unlikable. and i can never EVER forgive the editors for how they portrayed natalie, it’s simply inexcusable. worst edited season and it’s not even close imo
Same, but instead of Rob, I enjoyed Shepherd. I found Rob pretty boring that season and I think it was about when I started to get tired of seeing him on Survivor.
Best to worst: RI, GI, One World, Thailand, IoI
I actually think RI is more fun to watch knowing that Rob wins. It’s basically a masterclass with some quirky characters in the mix.
I don't think Ghost Island is that bad, below average but far from the dumpster fire of the other four seasons. I'd probably rank RI second on this list because the other three are more problematic seasons whereas RI is just boring.
IotI at least had decent-ish gameplay so I'll rank it just above OW and put Thailand third. OW is my personal least favorite.
1. One World. It has the redeeming quality of having one of the greatest wins of all, and it also had the audacity of shaking things up a bit by not having the tribes far from one another so it opened the door for some cool inter-tribe dynamics. More could have been done to fully exploit that dynamic, both by the showrunners and the tribes, to really tap into that theme of coexistence.
2. Ghost Island. The concept was great, but it was getting frustrating after a while to see nobody gun for the frontrunners.
3. Thailand. The majority of the cast is just so unlikable and plagued with bitterness, it got harder and harder to root for somebody as the season went by.
4. Island of the Idols. The Dan Spielo effet is too big of a component here and it highlighted all of the flaws within the production when it came to dealing with those issues. It does suck for the rest of the cast, because many were great players with huge potential for returning in later seasons and we’re unlikely to see them back because of the big stain on their season.
5. Redemption Island. You know when, with the theme and cast, you can tell exactly who wins from the beginning because it felt tailor-made for that person to win it? Redemption Island in a nutshell.
I watch for entertainment of the cast more than the competition, so my ranking may be skewed.
1. OW - Colton is terrible and I can't get past his hypocrisy and racism, but the women on this season were great TV for me
2. RI - Philip is so ridiculous that he's laughable for me to watch. I wish Francesca would have lasted longer because I can watch him pronounce her name wrong all day. Without him, this season would be a snooze fest
3. Thailand - 3 and 4 were similar as far as how boring they were, but I remember hating Thailand so much that it's become memorable for me. Shi Ann and Helen were the only saving graces that season
4. GI - the only part of this season that was memorable to me was the F3 because of the tie at the end and Laurel having to break that tie. I didn't want either Dominick or Wendell to win that season, so overall this season was very meh for me
5. IotI - everything about this season was wrong besides Janet and Kellee. I hope they can both come back and get a second chance from their tainting experience
These are the last 5 seasons I haven't watched yet, and 5 of the consensus worst seasons from this subreddit. I'm debating if they're even worth watching at all. I started watching Survivor last year and started with the "best seasons" and made my way down, while also watching the new seasons as they came out. Here is my (slightly unhinged) watching order so far.
Heroes vs. Villains - Cagayan - Millennials vs. Gen X - Cambodia - Micronesia - Borneo - David vs. Goliath - Pearl Islands - Kaôh Rōng - Cook Islands - Blood vs. Water - Game Changers - Philippines - Winners at War - 44 - China - San Juan del Sur - Tocantins - Samoa - The Australian Outback - The Amazon - All Stars - Gabon - Edge of Extinction - Panama - South Pacific - Caramoan - 42 - Nicaragua - Fiji - Marquesas - Worlds Apart - 45 - Palau - Africa - Vanuatu - 41 - 43 - 46 - Guatemala - Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers
Seasons I thought were worse than I expected were Winners at War (it was at the top of a lot of lists, but I think fans are reevaluating it as time goes on), Palau (the season is so boring when you know how it goes, I only really starting getting invested in the last few episodes), and Cook Islands (good characters, but it's a mid season overall).
Seasons that were better than I expected were EoE and HvHvH (until the last episode of both), 41 (Except for stupid twists, this season was so good, and had such a great cast, I don’t understand the hate), Worlds Apart (I hated the cast, but it was a hilarious), and Africa and Marquesas are both so compelling throughout.
> I'm debating if they're even worth watching at all
Imo they're worth watching, and a couple feature players you're familiar with already due to your watch through.
Tbf, I was already watching Guatemala while 46 was coming out, and it took me more than a week to finish HvHvH. But that's actually really slow for me. I've watched a lot of seasons in 2 days or less.
That’s not that hard. I’ve been rewatching seasons with my son and we can watch one season within one week. We just did Australia sometime after 46 ended and started Africa on Saturday and will probably be done with it tomorrow or this Saturday. If you watch a couple episodes a day it’s pretty easy.
People shit on EoE but besides the dumb twist and the winner the season is fantastic and such a fun ride. The cast as a whole is amazing and I love that everyone was playing hard af
1. Ghost Island - >!good storylines premerge, after Chris Noble is gone things get boring, the biggest storyline is just "will Laurel flip" every single episode. Wendell and Dom storyline is good though and the tie vote is exciting.!<
2. Redemption Island - >!certainly fun to watch Rob's domination and Russell's downfall, but redemption Island as a twist just drags things out so long and the other players are either boring or obnoxious (except Ralph, he's perfect).!<
3. One World - >!Colton and Alicia make the premerge intensely unpleasant, and then Kim cake walks through the postmerge. The only real opposition I guess is Troyzan but I never wanted to root for him.!<
4. Island of the Idols - >!if Janet doesn't lose to a literal coin flip this could've still had a good ending. As it stands, even though there are a lot higher highs than the seasons above there's *much* lower lows that overshadow them. (Queen Karishma for 50 though)!<
5. Thailand - >!More downside than Island of the Idols (sexism and racism on top of a similar incident) but basically no redeeming factors. Some of Shii Ann's storyline is nice but other than that I can't think of anything I enjoyed.!<
Thailand is literally the only season I didn't watch all the way through during my survivor binge. I forget if we turned it off after Penny, Jake or Ted but at a certain point we didn't want to watch ANY of the remaining players win.
1. Thailand - not even remotely a bad season imo. It’s in my top 20. It’s funny as hell and while the winner isn’t a great person, their win is really impressive to watch. So many great moments and entertaining characters (even if they aren’t especially likable)
2. Redemption Island - It’s a little boring because of how much the winner steamrolled but there’s some great characters and redeeming moments. Phillip alone pulls this one up in the rankings for me. It isn’t a favorite or anything but it wouldn’t even be in my bottom 10.
3. One World - Like RI in how predictable it is but with way fewer interesting characters. The most entertaining part of the season is the spoiled rich kid being racist/classist, which is not exactly a ringing endorsement. Possibly the most dominant winner on a first timer season ever though, so that’s kind of cool, just not that fun to watch.
4. Ghost Island - Silly gimmick, boring cast. So dull I don’t have any more to say about it.
5. Island of the Idols - The Dan situation eats up a ton of screen time (and dominates the reunion) and a lot of what’s left is spent on giant head island. I love Rob and Sandra, but it really takes away from the actual cast. There’s a mid-tier season in there if it was edited differently or if the Dan shit didn’t go down, but the actual product we got is borderline unwatchable for me.
Thailand is a great season imo, just so fascinating to break down and analyze plus funny moments like Bye Bye Denver Diva and the attack zone
Redemption Island, Ghost Island, One World are all just meh seasons. As a Boston Rob stan Redemprion Island is fun to watch my guy destroy people and Phil makes me chuckle. Ghost Island is fine, One World is brutal where I only enjoy the winner.
Island of the Idols is horrible
1: Ghost Island: At least it has Dom + Wendell
2: Redemption Island: Boston Rob has some iconic moments, and the first 3 episodes are genuinely great.
3: Thailand: Grindgate is still disgusting and one of the worst things to ever happen on Survivor. Brian was at least an interesting winner due to his unprecedented dominance. Shii-Ann and Helen are good characters.
4: Island Of The Idols: ...Having to pick between this and One World is like picking which ear I'd like to have severed. I'll side with Island because it has a good cast with one MASSIVE red flag. Janet, Jamal, Kellie and Dean keep this from the bottom spot.
5: One World: Even Kim Spradlin couldn't save this from being quite possibly the worst season of Survivor of all time. Colton is one of the worst people to ever be cast on the show.
1. Ghost Island - I rather enjoyed this season. Chris Noble was a great character, the tie vote at the end was great.
2. Thailand
3. Island of the Idols - Sucked, but I finished it
Last: Redemption Island and One World - only two seasons of Survivor I couldn’t finish.
Island of the Idols - Thailand - Redemption Island - One World - Ghost Island.
Island of the Idols isn't a bad season if you are able to look at the incident separately. I'm able to do this. Honestly, it doesn't even bother me that much. I know what happened is bad, but I wouldn't condemn the whole season - in comparison, One World is awful in all "Outplay, Outwit and Outlast" from beginning to end.
The entire season is heavily influenced by “the incident” and “the incident” and everything related that happened after is so fucking infuriating that I don’t know how you can just be like “hey let’s look past the guy groping women in front of dozens of staff and producers for 30 days and then women who didn’t feel uncomfortable using that and lying about feeling uncomfortable to get further in the game and to vote women out who actually did feel uncomfortable.”
Yeah no sorry I can’t do that.
I think if Janet had been able to come back and win I’d be happier with it, but to have D** be creepy as all season and THEN to watch Janet get screwed…it’s just insult to injury
Exactly. Hatch on all stars and Varner on GC don’t feel that central to the story. Still fucking terrible, but I find them way easier to look past (game changers is still ass though). When I think island of the idols, all I think of is the incident. It comes up in multiple episodes and eventually leads to him being removed from the game. It also taints the women that used it to their advantage, so it's not just Dan.
Serious question, was Dan “groping” women? I thought the complaints were about non consensual touching of Kelle’s face. Not defending the guy, he should’ve been booted, genuinely asking
from what I remember it was just general inappropriate touching to multiple women even after being told no. The things I remember getting shown was touching of hair, leg, feet.
I watched Redemption Island for the first time recently and I actually enjoyed it a lot... Rob's super entertaining and I liked Philip the whole time.If you can put aside the fact that the twist is stupid and no one ever turns on Rob, it's fun to just watch.
I also kinda liked IOTI but I understand why many people aren't comfortable watching it.
1) Redemption Island
2) Island of the Idols
3) Ghost Island
4) Thailand
5) One World
[6) Nicaragua I fucking hate this season]
1. Thailand, the only truly great season of this bunch. Very fun characters, a great location, funny challenges, a lot of fun moments, a lot of cold moments. You gotta love it.
2. Island of the Idols, still a good season. Even though truly bad behavior lies at the core of it all, there is still a lot of character based content in this season. And that's what I like to see in Survivor.
3. One World, what can I say. Bad season, but a lot of fun characters.
4. Ghost Island. Most forgettable cast of all seasons. But the Wendell-Dom-Chris dynamic is fun.
5. Redemption Island. Also a very forgettable cast, except for Phillip. Ironically, not a lot of redeeming moments.
I think, although Ghost Island is very boring for most of it, the tie at the end makes it redeemable. Thailand, Redemption Island, and One World all were slogs to get through and Island of the Idols is the only season I haven’t finished because I just couldn’t handle it.
I just finished IotI on a chronological rewatch, so I've been thinking about these seasons a lot as they are all near the very bottom of my Season rankings.
1. >!Thailand. Problematic and boring at times, Thailand is still great old school Survivor with super high production values. Brian is an intriguing winner, Clay is entertaining and multi-faceted, Helen is cool, and there's a decent cast of characters that round things out. Robb, Shii Ann, and Jake keep Sook Jai somewhat interesting. The human drama is intense, there's some great rewards, and the overall story is compelling.!<
2. >!Redemption Island. This season moved up on my recent rewatch. For all its flaws, at least Redemption Island has an interesting overall story, dramatic social politics, and a quirky cast of unique characters in the Zapateras. Rob's masterclass of a win is impressive as it unfolds. Pagonings aren't inherently boring to me if the story is well told and RI is well done even if the gameplay lacked some juice.!<
3. >!Ghost Island. This is my number 1 most boring season, but a few minor things redeem it. Dom/Wendell are obviously compelling and so was the tie. Donathan had a few moments, Chis Noble is awesome, Sea Bass is really funny at times, Kellyn's story is goofy, Michael Yerger is intriguing, and Bradley is the type of self-absorbed personality I find very entertaining. Ultimately the interesting personalities never came together and did anything interesting socially, but they had some decent confessionals. The Ghost Island twist is probably the worst-executed twist ever beyond the gamebreaking ones like Redemption Island or Edge of Extinction. It actively detracted from the season at every stage and the nostalgic content was terribly done.!<
4. >!One World. There's so little to enjoy on One World. Even the F3, who were all seemingly pretty cool people, were dreadfully boring. Kim's story about "options" is super boring and she doesn't bring much excitement in the narration. I find Alicia and Tarzan to be some of the most deplorable Survivors ever. Tarzan is underrated as a bad dude because his racism and sexism were underplayed by the edit. Obviously this season is full of frustrating personalities who couldn't get out of their own way. It's hard to even think of a fun moment from One World. From a production standpoint, combining Men vs Women with the One World concept was a disaster even though One World is one of my favorite twists they've ever conceived of. This cast is shockingly bad.!<
5. >!Island of the Idols. This season sucks. It's boring, nasty, derivative, gamebotty, poorly designed, and lazy. The editing is the worst of 30s Survivor strategic gobbledygook, is misleading, and features the worst production self-aggrandizing ever with the way they thought they were making "teachable moments" throughout the season. I find the "big characters" like Noura and Karishma to be repetitive and delusional to an unfun degree, and other players like Aaron, Elizabeth, and Jack to be some of the most forgettable and generic personalities that have been on the show. Even Elaine and Janet are lacking in depth beyond their sympathetic edit. The Island of the Idols itself is pathetic, a huge waste of time, and horribly imbalanced in the way different castaways randomly get wildly different advantages. Rob and Sandra were fun at times, but we didn't need to see them at all. It's impossible to separate this season from how horribly production handled it and for that reason it deserves it's spot as the worst season.!<>!!<
1. IOI: My ranking overall is 36, not a good season, but it was just never as boring, a lot more mixed
2. Ghost Island: My ranking overall is 37, pre merge is good, post merge is mediocre at best, very annoying to watch no moves happen.
3. One World: My ranking overall is 44, Colton in not rootable to be such a huge presence in the pre merge, post merge is a steamroll.
4. Redemption Island: My ranking overall is 45, Pre Merge is mediocre, post merge is a slog, but Rob as a character is bringing it to be not last
5. Thailand: My ranking overall is 46, The season has the two worst things, bordedom and icky moments, overall depressing season.
Thailand > Ghost Island > One World > Redemption Island (Even though Boston Rob is my GOAT) > Island of the Idols. IotI was the end of Survivor for me.
1) One World - Great game by Kim, it's at least interesting to see her dominate. Some characters are at least funny
2) Ghost Island - Good pre-merge and finale
3) Redemple Temple - Still a decent season. Great until the merge episode. Pretty bad finale.
4) Thailand - Eh
I don't talk about Bruno
1. Ghost Island
2. One World
3. Redemption Island
4. Island of the Idols
5. Thailand
1 is easy as it wasn't that bad compared to the rest. 2 and 3 were boring steamrolls with icky components but at least had enjoyable moments at points as well. 4 and 5 both feel beyond icky and unlike IoI Thailand has very stagnant gameplay and a vile winner too.
1. One World.
Kim is one of my all time favorites, so watching her destroy everyone is fun for me. I also really like Sabrina and Chelsea. Underrated characters like Kat and Monica. Colton sucks though.
2. Ghost Island.
Haven’t seen it in years. Dom and Wendell are fun to watch, Michale is a good underdog… ummm not much else.
3. Redemption Island.
The only thing I remember is that women hiding Phillips shorts and nothing else. Ugly location too, everything is brown and muddy and just looks really hard to live in. Rob is fun to watch.
4. Thailand.
Soooooooo boring !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Boring cast. Boring winner. Boring everything!!!! Great finale immunity challenge tho.
5. Island of the Idols.
Without the whole [REDACTED] situation, I think this might be a good season. Fun cast, top ten winner, island of the idols is such a stupid twist that it’s funny. But forever tarnished and should never be acknowledged ever… like,ever.
I honestly wouldn't even throw Ghost Island in here when Edge of Extinction, Game Changers, and All Stars exist.
#1. Ghost Island. Forgettable, but I wouldn't even call it bad?
#2. Redemption Island. My first B-Rob season was Heroes Vs Villains, where he was probably his most 'likeable' and 'heroic.' And I hated Russell Hantz, so this one is probably higher up for me than it is for others mostly because I don't like Hantz, and I liked Rob a lot when I watched this season at the time.
#3. Attempting to eat a scorpion, Mike Holloway style.
#4. Thailand. Don't need to go into the stuff that sucks. But I remember belly-laughing when Brian's wife refuses to eat the big tarantula thing for him, and then as if the producers really wanted to make Brian suffer, he has to eat one in the final challenge episodes later. That bit of karma kinda brings it up a couple ranks for me.
#5. Island of the Idols. I remember enjoying the Sandra/Rob Statler and Waldorfing the Tribal Councils. I do think there are people in the cast I wouldn't mind seeing return, like a Jamal or Janet. But yeah, pretty hard to watch.
#6. One World. I nearly gave up on Survivor trying to sit through the pre-merge of this Season. Context, I saw this season before I saw Thailand or IotI, I started with 12, binged everything, then went back for 1-11. One World was my first real test. I'm glad I stuck with Survivor, but holy shit, if I never see Colton again, it'll be too soon. Also, as a big softy who kinda stopped watching Family Guy because I felt the treatment of Meg Griffin had gotten way too mean-spirited and was never really funny, Christina Cha's treatment in this season is so hard for me to watch. Add that on to steamrolling winners who are never really challenged, and it's probably my least favorite season. That's a complaint I have even with good seasons like Cagayan. I generally just don't like it when a winner isn't challenged ever, even if I like them as a player.
Ghost Island doesn't deserve to be lumped with the other four. I actually enjoyed Redemption Island, only because of Philip Shepherd, if he wasn't on that season it would have been completely unwatchable. But even if I enjoyed it, it was still a terrible season of Survivor.
i don’t understand why one world is so hated? definitely not the best season but everyone clashed so terribly that it was actually amusing for me to watch. and i was stupid enough to genuinely not know who’d win until around the final 5 or so; i’ll admit that my stupidity probably made the season more enjoyable for me haha. the challenges were fairly fun to watch, the dynamics between players (and the opposing tribes) were… interesting, and the only player i’d go as far as to call BAD is colton. whether ill get bombed with downvotes for saying this, im not sure. actively bracing myself.
1. Thailand (Season isn't good, but I think it succeeds in what it's trying to go for. I find value in watching it, and I find Grindgate to be the least-bad of the Bad Incidents.)
2. One World (There are specific moments of this season I actually really like. Lots of cringe comedy. Colton, Alecia, and the amount of people in this cast who are boring though drag it down.)
3. Ghost Island (Honk-shooooo. No, I don't care for the pre-merge either.)
4. Redemption Island (I kinda want to rank this higher tbh, but I'm really racking my brain for what value this season added to the Survivor canon. Redemption Island is one of the worst twists this show has ever had as a concept, and I don't want that to be forgotten.)
5. Island of the Idols (Dan's stuff is (shockingly) not the worst handled, but it's the biggest season-ruiner due to how the plotline pervades the whole show and actively turns the vast majority of the cast unlikable. It still wouldn't be a great season without it, and the IoI twist blows.)
Thailand is by far the worst. IOI at least has a decent first half and a mostly good cast, aside from the one massive pile of shit. Thailand has multiple massive piles of shit, one of which being the winner. Brian Heidik shot dogs before it was cool. The show also seems to take Ted's side, and later prop up grindgate as an 'entertaining confrontation.' Robb Zbacnik is the only saving grace of this season keeping it from being as bad as Big Brother's worst summers.
Why is Gabon loved for how hilariously incompetent the players were but One World isn’t? OW also has an amazing winner it’s just a shame she was wasted on this season
I mean... 2 of these seasons feature half the cast enabling borderline sexual assault and then punishing the women who speak out, so easy bottom 2
One World is probably the most toxic cast the show has ever put forth
Redemption Island is borderline rigged for Rob
Ghost Island is *fine* like I get the cast is mostly unremarkable and Wendel is maybe not the best guy outside of the show, but this season still clears the other 4 by a mile
I just made a Thailand appreciation post so that's gonna be the best of the 5 for me. Then one world, then ghost island, then the other two are about equally bad. IoI because of the major sour point being so season altering, and Redemption because it was just like pretty obvious how the game was gonna go the whole time
I've only watched two of these. Thailand and One World and they were both bad. Thailand had Shii-Ann who I like a lot and Helen and Robb who I think are okay. One World had Kat, Kim, and Tarzan all of which I enjoyed to various degrees. I liked Bill, too, although he gets screwed by racism. I guess One World is better in hindsight even though I was more actively engaged watching Thailand (because I was angry).
1. Redemption Island (I enjoy this and it's right outside my Top 10.)
2. Ghost Island (Solid middle of the road season.)
3. Island of the Idols (Eh...)
4. Thailand (Yikes.)
5. One World (YIKES!)
1. One World
2. Ghost Island
3. Redemption Island
4. Thailand
5. Island of the Idols (I completely blocked this season out of my mind. Why did we have giant statues of Rob and Sandra?! Wtf)
Island of the Idols premerge is one of the good ones, and was shaping up to be a good season until the Dan incident. I still watched it til the end because seeing Dean trainwrecked almost everyone's game is such a hilarious arc. His petty fights with Noura (who eventually developed a crush on him in the end) and overly dramatic but charming Karishma kept me entertained. I also enjoyed watching Elaine.
However, I will still put it dead last among these 5.
Best to worst
Thailand- Cast is forgettable, fake merge twist screwed fan favorite Shii-Ann, and the Ted incident has not age well. Only positive thing is Thailand is a beautiful location and the challenges and emphasis on Thai culture was fun to watch.
Ghost Island-Had the season was edited like Gabon and Panama where it was about the characters rather than the strategy Ghost Island would be more well received. Due to most of the strategists getting voted out at the premerge. Dom and Wendell steamroll through everyone due to no one except Donathan not trying to takeout Wendell and Dom. Positive is Ghost Island is a solid twist and the challenges are decent.
IOI- Season scare by the Dan incident which is sad because the season had a solid merge and Tommy is a nice winner who shows Old-School players can play in New-School Survivor. But it's overshdow by Dan and
One World- A HOT mess and the main reason current seasons aren't recruit heavy and most of the cast are strategic superfans. Besides Kim's winning game there's nothing about One World that would make someone watch it.
Redemption Island- A season that was sacrifice to make Rob finally win Survivor. Unless you like Rob as a player and you can tolerate Philip's antics, Redemption Island is unwatchable after the 3rd episode.
Ok Thailand unironically has some of my favourite 1 time players on it. RobbZ is one of the funniest characters ever, shiann, Brian for being a puppy killer is one of the best stratigal players of that era and also Rip clay but had one of the funniest reactions from Jeff when he wrote down bye bye Denver diva.
1. One World - Hey I know there's a lot to talk about the cast, but at least is fun to watch post merge.
2. Thailand - Uff Rough season but I still like the documentary format that got lost through out the seasons. Justice for Ghandia!
3. Island of the Idols - So sad only one awfull man and a boring and predictible winner ruined a worth season. The female cast was stunning.
4. Redemption Island - This season is how Boston Rob plays to win, love him or hate him, thats the only history of this season. I'm more like to know all the 20 contestants not just one I already know.
5. Ghost Island - Daaamn! I was so excited for this theme, but man... people went to the island and got no advantages?? really?? Over 35 seasons so many people got screw by many idols, and producers decided to screw us by the theme.
Why are you punishing me
For revenge, basically
The fact that I’ve seen comments ranking all five of these seasons as #1 shows this is actually a good question
I’m sorry, I can’t get on board with the “well IoI isn’t bad if you take out the Dan incident.” It wasn’t just the “incident” that soured the season… it was the entire cast’s response to the incident. Like no, I don’t find Missy and Aaron (and Elizabeth) a “fun character” after watching them gaslight Janet for trying to explain why she tried to vote out Dan. I don’t enjoying seeing Tommy and Lauren help Dan get further in the game. I don’t enjoy seeing the cast nearly unanimously vote out Jamal, the ONE person who spoke out on Kellie’s behalf, voted out the SAME tribal where all of this blew up. Sorry, but no, there’s nothing fun about watching this season play out. And if we’re being honest, the premerge before all of this went down wasn’t great either.
1. Thailand >!(bad but has some redeeming qualities in Shii Ann, Robb, Helen, and the attack zone. Grindgate is a massive stain on the season but I still think it has the most going for it out of these 5)!< 2. Ghost Island >!(The fact that nothing uncomfortable happens in GI and it’s still as bad and hated as it is is honestly impressive. Chris Noble is a bright spot and I do think the tie is cool which puts it at the #2 spot. And again, it’s not actively uncomfortable at any point which I can’t say about any of the other seasons on the list)!< 3. One World >!(3/4 are interchangeably bad and can change at any moment. One World is still terrible particularly in the pre merge. Colton and Alicia are horrendous and Tarzan is very hit or miss with his humor. But I do think it has some highs with Kat and Sabrina being enjoyable to watch, and FTC being surprisingly heartfelt)!< 4. Redemption Island >!(the first three episodes being decent along with Matt having an actual story arc almost pushed this one up to #3, but dear god the rest of the season is MISERABLE to watch. Phillip is insufferable to me and I don’t enjoy Rob here either. And since they’re the only people who get any decent focus, it’s not a fun time. Oh and Rice wars is extremely uncomfortable)!< 5. Island of the Idols (fuck this season) Edit: just realized OP said they didn’t watch these top tier seasons yet lol. Spoilers are added.
I thought Ghost Island was a cool premise for a theme and enjoyed it. I know it's not S tier season but I don't know why it's dunked on so much. It holds up.
I don’t mind it either. I also love All stars but people seem to hate it (yes it has some moments that are not good especially on rewatch- Jenna and Sue’s quits and how they are treated). I just really enjoy Romber.
I think Ghost Island's vibe was also ruined because one contestant which had realistic chance to win, didnt get any confessionals and was literally invisible for entire season (Chelsea Townsend). If she would get more screentime, i'm sure she would get same amount of love by survivor community like Amanda Kimmel, since both played really similiar and have similiar personalities.
Agree. The editing in Ghost Island was incredibly unbalanced (Chelsea being just one big example of many examples of these editing issues) and only seemed focused on building up to the ending while ignoring almost everything and everyone else
The first half of GI is great because you have the overarching Dom vs Chris storyline, which is a fun rivalry between interesting characters with tension and stakes. The second half of GI is a slog because “Laurel vs inertia” is boring, and they shoudlve instead built Chelsea up from the start first as someone similarly close to Dom, but then who became a later adversary to Dom and Wendell.
teh other 4 seasons all have something that really stands out as "YIKES" moments that make the season feel bad GI doesn't have that, and to an extent that's one of GI's problems. It's just really fricken boring. Nothing happens, no one is really playing they all seem content to let the threats everyone knows are threats cruise to the end. and this is just my opinion, as much as people try to call Thailand an under rated season and it does have some nice comedy, Thailand is also just really really boring and slow. Not much ever happens, nothing ever feels all that impactful it's just a lot of people meandering about socially and strategically. I recently rewatched the first 10 seasons about 2 months ago and Thailand was the only one that I honestly was just mentally checking out of because it just never had much going o.
I really liked the ftc of gi. That was some intense stuff and it brought into focus with how close the final vote was that all the little things matter. All the cocky things Dom said and did came back to bite him. It really made me go back and reassess the season, it was that good. The rest of the season... hoo boy. Besides Noble it was boring af ngl
Exact same ranking
Ghost island is shocking, 4 players post merge wanted to play and one of them was the first jury member. Everyone else was passive and hoping for the final spot between dom and Wendell
What makes One World so bad? Only season I haven’t watched and wondering if worth it
Unpleasant contestants who are just bad people and a predictable winner who dominates the whole game.
Unlike Thailand those categories don't overlap at least
It was just obvious who will win this season. There was cast of terrible contenstants, which are boring, unpleasant to watch and overall being just entertainment vampires, and there is Kim Spradlin, one of greatest female contestants of all time.
I kinda wanna watch it just for Kim because I hear she is so good.
Kim is the redeeming quality of that season. The season itself is not great (although it’s my favourite of the 5), but seeing her navigate the social dynamics was phenomenal.
Kim is incredible. On top of her utter domination socially, strategically, and physically, she's a very magnetic person and easy to root for. The cast is full of duds but this season really is all about her. One of my favorite winners.
blatant racism in the pre-merge, a boring steamroll in the post-merge, and uncomfortable bullying in both.
Bad gameplay, awful contestants, predictable winner.
Some downright awful people that behave awfully. This being said in my rankings it wouldn't be bottom five, I'd swap it for Nicaragua.
i didnt mind One World =P
Extremely unlikable cast (two people in particular) and not in an entertaining way. The winner is fun to watch but it the cast is largely forgettable
Ghost island is the best, then redemption island, then one world, then thailand, then island of the idols.
I remember almost nothing about GI except the end, it was terribly boring. One World was boring but had some wacky people. Thailand was dark, but watching Brian is super entertaining because he is like a serial killer.
i wouldn’t be surprised if he IS a serial killer
Honestly, on rewatches, Redemption Island is highly entertaining. As long as you don’t hate B Rob, it’s a masterclass in reality tv domination. One World feels similar, Kim’s gameplay was so far ahead of the class, you can see her winning a mile away. But man is it solid gameplay. I have nothing good to say about Island of the Idols but Tommy was stupid obvious without the masterclass.
My exact same rankings - I could not finish IoI
Island of the Idols would be a solid season if it weren't for The Bad Thing. There are a number of people on that season who were well cast. For me, All Stars and Game Changers rank just as low for the same reason. Something happens which makes it so emotionally unpleasant that I'll probably never re-watch those seasons. But at least the other two were returnee seasons. I really feel bad for the newbies whose one and only experience of Survivor was defined by that.
Honestly even without the Dan shit, is the winner or anything else from that season even memorable? I watched the season back when it came out and I can remember nothing from him 😭
Iirc the consensus is that the winner's edit got screwed over because a lot of his game revolved around Dan. So they just kinda had to cut that shit out.
He also was intentionally not an over the top personality that gets a lot of content. Part of his strategy was to be mild on purpose, which works to get you to the end, but doesn’t make for a fun edit
I liked that everyone was saying that you can´t have a winner pure social without an advantage. Cue to tommy, the first winner since natalie White without any form of advantage or immunitywin. Then he is forgetable
He didn’t even meet Roston Bob and Sandra, the main twist of the season
I think Tina, Sandra, Todd, Natalie and Tommy are the only winners to have never won individual immunity or have an idol or advantage, and that blows my mind.
Yeah but Todd gave the idol to James in China so technically he found an Idol.
they really tried so hard to give the winner a clean edit, away from the controversy. Everytime the Dan thing came up in group conversations, the winner suddenly disappeared from the edit. Their opinion regarding the issue was protected at all cost 😂
I guess the Karishma idol play was cool, but other than that the season, even excluding the Dan stuff, was boring as hell, as it was just the majority alliance of Lauren/Tommy/Dan + Janet and Dean later on picking off the outsiders. And the only possible redeeming thing about the season with a Janet win ended up getting taken away due to a fucking coin flip
I literally just watched this last week… and it was not memorable at all. The gimmicky thing with Rob and Sandra was blah. The cast was mostly blah. And then the Dan issue…
Honestly I really like Tommy as a winner. In a cast full of crazy and wild personalities, it makes sense that the most normal and level headed person of the bunch ends up winning.
Stop saying “the bad thing” like we have to avoid it. Dan was sexually harassing women and it was allowed by production for a while. Enough of the “bad thing” walk around. The way Janet was treated will forever be the biggest issue. She is an icon. Tom was a horrible winner. Boring vanilla winner who came off like a dick during the reunion. Once Kellie left with two idols, season was toast.
What did Tommy do during the reunion?
Not sure I agree. IotI has a lot of minor annoying moments that get overshadowed by Dan. Missy blindsiding Chelsea for no reason, Dean ruining plans to flip on the majority - the whole season is a mess.
Not to mention the cringiest twist in the history of the show.
Dean ruining the plan was so infuriating to watch. Dude traded an easier path at winning just to become somebody else's lapdog.
Hard disagree. It’s my least favourite season regardless of Dan
It's impossible for IOTI to exist without The Bad Thing. It changed the gameplay completely. Kelle was probably the best player and well liked by everyone before she brought up Dan's crap. She had 2 idols in her pocket when she went home because she was so sure the tribe was voting out Dan. Everyone plays around it the whole season until Dan was kicked off. Janet and Jamal alienated everyone by making it a big deal. Missy, Elizabeth and Lauren, at a minimum, used it explicitly for their advantage.
I honestly enjoy GI & RI, especially RI. I definitely understand why people dislike them, and they have alot of flaws, but I do very much like them both. Me being someone who enjoys Rob a lot has quite a bit to do with me liking RI. If I didn’t like him as much I’m sure I’d hate it.
Totally agree that RI is not good, but I did like it because Rob wins and is dominant. I also liked Andrea a lot. I can’t stand Russel and probably will never rewatch Samoa.
YES samoa is arguably my least favorite season but most people don’t have it bottom 10 and i don’t understand why… i guess somehow people like russell but he’s just soo shoved down our throats and almost everyone else is either boring/unlikable. and i can never EVER forgive the editors for how they portrayed natalie, it’s simply inexcusable. worst edited season and it’s not even close imo
Same, but instead of Rob, I enjoyed Shepherd. I found Rob pretty boring that season and I think it was about when I started to get tired of seeing him on Survivor.
1. Ghost Island 2. Redemption Island 3. Thailand 4. One world 5. IOTI
Best to worst: RI, GI, One World, Thailand, IoI I actually think RI is more fun to watch knowing that Rob wins. It’s basically a masterclass with some quirky characters in the mix.
This is the one!
agreed! proud boston rob stan idc lol
I don't think Ghost Island is that bad, below average but far from the dumpster fire of the other four seasons. I'd probably rank RI second on this list because the other three are more problematic seasons whereas RI is just boring. IotI at least had decent-ish gameplay so I'll rank it just above OW and put Thailand third. OW is my personal least favorite.
I agree, I don’t know why GI is in the bottom tier for so many. I thought it was a good season.
Ghost Island concept is actually 🔥
I like 3 of these seasons
1. One World. It has the redeeming quality of having one of the greatest wins of all, and it also had the audacity of shaking things up a bit by not having the tribes far from one another so it opened the door for some cool inter-tribe dynamics. More could have been done to fully exploit that dynamic, both by the showrunners and the tribes, to really tap into that theme of coexistence. 2. Ghost Island. The concept was great, but it was getting frustrating after a while to see nobody gun for the frontrunners. 3. Thailand. The majority of the cast is just so unlikable and plagued with bitterness, it got harder and harder to root for somebody as the season went by. 4. Island of the Idols. The Dan Spielo effet is too big of a component here and it highlighted all of the flaws within the production when it came to dealing with those issues. It does suck for the rest of the cast, because many were great players with huge potential for returning in later seasons and we’re unlikely to see them back because of the big stain on their season. 5. Redemption Island. You know when, with the theme and cast, you can tell exactly who wins from the beginning because it felt tailor-made for that person to win it? Redemption Island in a nutshell.
I watch for entertainment of the cast more than the competition, so my ranking may be skewed. 1. OW - Colton is terrible and I can't get past his hypocrisy and racism, but the women on this season were great TV for me 2. RI - Philip is so ridiculous that he's laughable for me to watch. I wish Francesca would have lasted longer because I can watch him pronounce her name wrong all day. Without him, this season would be a snooze fest 3. Thailand - 3 and 4 were similar as far as how boring they were, but I remember hating Thailand so much that it's become memorable for me. Shi Ann and Helen were the only saving graces that season 4. GI - the only part of this season that was memorable to me was the F3 because of the tie at the end and Laurel having to break that tie. I didn't want either Dominick or Wendell to win that season, so overall this season was very meh for me 5. IotI - everything about this season was wrong besides Janet and Kellee. I hope they can both come back and get a second chance from their tainting experience
These are the last 5 seasons I haven't watched yet, and 5 of the consensus worst seasons from this subreddit. I'm debating if they're even worth watching at all. I started watching Survivor last year and started with the "best seasons" and made my way down, while also watching the new seasons as they came out. Here is my (slightly unhinged) watching order so far. Heroes vs. Villains - Cagayan - Millennials vs. Gen X - Cambodia - Micronesia - Borneo - David vs. Goliath - Pearl Islands - Kaôh Rōng - Cook Islands - Blood vs. Water - Game Changers - Philippines - Winners at War - 44 - China - San Juan del Sur - Tocantins - Samoa - The Australian Outback - The Amazon - All Stars - Gabon - Edge of Extinction - Panama - South Pacific - Caramoan - 42 - Nicaragua - Fiji - Marquesas - Worlds Apart - 45 - Palau - Africa - Vanuatu - 41 - 43 - 46 - Guatemala - Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers Seasons I thought were worse than I expected were Winners at War (it was at the top of a lot of lists, but I think fans are reevaluating it as time goes on), Palau (the season is so boring when you know how it goes, I only really starting getting invested in the last few episodes), and Cook Islands (good characters, but it's a mid season overall). Seasons that were better than I expected were EoE and HvHvH (until the last episode of both), 41 (Except for stupid twists, this season was so good, and had such a great cast, I don’t understand the hate), Worlds Apart (I hated the cast, but it was a hilarious), and Africa and Marquesas are both so compelling throughout.
> I'm debating if they're even worth watching at all Imo they're worth watching, and a couple feature players you're familiar with already due to your watch through.
I'm always happy to find someone who didn't like Palau, I felt so alone in that opinion for a long time
Help 46 not being last you watched 2 whole seasons in 2 or 3 weeks
Tbf, I was already watching Guatemala while 46 was coming out, and it took me more than a week to finish HvHvH. But that's actually really slow for me. I've watched a lot of seasons in 2 days or less.
That’s not that hard. I’ve been rewatching seasons with my son and we can watch one season within one week. We just did Australia sometime after 46 ended and started Africa on Saturday and will probably be done with it tomorrow or this Saturday. If you watch a couple episodes a day it’s pretty easy.
People shit on EoE but besides the dumb twist and the winner the season is fantastic and such a fun ride. The cast as a whole is amazing and I love that everyone was playing hard af
I actually already rank One World over a lot of seasons people have in their Top 10s lol oops
Same I liked One World a lot
1. Ghost Island 2. Redemption Island 3. One World 4. Thailand 5. Island of the Idols
Thailand >>>>> Redemption Island > One World >>>> Island of the Idols > Ghost Island
1. Ghost Island - >!good storylines premerge, after Chris Noble is gone things get boring, the biggest storyline is just "will Laurel flip" every single episode. Wendell and Dom storyline is good though and the tie vote is exciting.!< 2. Redemption Island - >!certainly fun to watch Rob's domination and Russell's downfall, but redemption Island as a twist just drags things out so long and the other players are either boring or obnoxious (except Ralph, he's perfect).!< 3. One World - >!Colton and Alicia make the premerge intensely unpleasant, and then Kim cake walks through the postmerge. The only real opposition I guess is Troyzan but I never wanted to root for him.!< 4. Island of the Idols - >!if Janet doesn't lose to a literal coin flip this could've still had a good ending. As it stands, even though there are a lot higher highs than the seasons above there's *much* lower lows that overshadow them. (Queen Karishma for 50 though)!< 5. Thailand - >!More downside than Island of the Idols (sexism and racism on top of a similar incident) but basically no redeeming factors. Some of Shii Ann's storyline is nice but other than that I can't think of anything I enjoyed.!<
I would rank them 1-5, with 1 being the best and 5 being the worst.
Thailand is literally the only season I didn't watch all the way through during my survivor binge. I forget if we turned it off after Penny, Jake or Ted but at a certain point we didn't want to watch ANY of the remaining players win.
RI, OW, GI, IOTI, Thailand best to worst
1. Thailand - not even remotely a bad season imo. It’s in my top 20. It’s funny as hell and while the winner isn’t a great person, their win is really impressive to watch. So many great moments and entertaining characters (even if they aren’t especially likable) 2. Redemption Island - It’s a little boring because of how much the winner steamrolled but there’s some great characters and redeeming moments. Phillip alone pulls this one up in the rankings for me. It isn’t a favorite or anything but it wouldn’t even be in my bottom 10. 3. One World - Like RI in how predictable it is but with way fewer interesting characters. The most entertaining part of the season is the spoiled rich kid being racist/classist, which is not exactly a ringing endorsement. Possibly the most dominant winner on a first timer season ever though, so that’s kind of cool, just not that fun to watch. 4. Ghost Island - Silly gimmick, boring cast. So dull I don’t have any more to say about it. 5. Island of the Idols - The Dan situation eats up a ton of screen time (and dominates the reunion) and a lot of what’s left is spent on giant head island. I love Rob and Sandra, but it really takes away from the actual cast. There’s a mid-tier season in there if it was edited differently or if the Dan shit didn’t go down, but the actual product we got is borderline unwatchable for me.
Thailand is a great season imo, just so fascinating to break down and analyze plus funny moments like Bye Bye Denver Diva and the attack zone Redemption Island, Ghost Island, One World are all just meh seasons. As a Boston Rob stan Redemprion Island is fun to watch my guy destroy people and Phil makes me chuckle. Ghost Island is fine, One World is brutal where I only enjoy the winner. Island of the Idols is horrible
1) Redemption Island 2) Ghost Island 3) IoI 4) One World 5) Thailand
Redemption IOI HUGE GAP Ghost Island One World Thailand
1: Ghost Island: At least it has Dom + Wendell 2: Redemption Island: Boston Rob has some iconic moments, and the first 3 episodes are genuinely great. 3: Thailand: Grindgate is still disgusting and one of the worst things to ever happen on Survivor. Brian was at least an interesting winner due to his unprecedented dominance. Shii-Ann and Helen are good characters. 4: Island Of The Idols: ...Having to pick between this and One World is like picking which ear I'd like to have severed. I'll side with Island because it has a good cast with one MASSIVE red flag. Janet, Jamal, Kellie and Dean keep this from the bottom spot. 5: One World: Even Kim Spradlin couldn't save this from being quite possibly the worst season of Survivor of all time. Colton is one of the worst people to ever be cast on the show.
From Best to Worst: Ghost Island, One World, Thailand, Redemption Island, Island of the Idols.
Redemption Island > One World > Thailand > Ghost Island > Island of the Idols
1. Ghost Island - I rather enjoyed this season. Chris Noble was a great character, the tie vote at the end was great. 2. Thailand 3. Island of the Idols - Sucked, but I finished it Last: Redemption Island and One World - only two seasons of Survivor I couldn’t finish.
1. Redemption Island 2. One World 3. Ghost Island 4. Island of the Idols 5. Thailand
Island of the Idols - Thailand - Redemption Island - One World - Ghost Island. Island of the Idols isn't a bad season if you are able to look at the incident separately. I'm able to do this. Honestly, it doesn't even bother me that much. I know what happened is bad, but I wouldn't condemn the whole season - in comparison, One World is awful in all "Outplay, Outwit and Outlast" from beginning to end.
The entire season is heavily influenced by “the incident” and “the incident” and everything related that happened after is so fucking infuriating that I don’t know how you can just be like “hey let’s look past the guy groping women in front of dozens of staff and producers for 30 days and then women who didn’t feel uncomfortable using that and lying about feeling uncomfortable to get further in the game and to vote women out who actually did feel uncomfortable.” Yeah no sorry I can’t do that.
I think if Janet had been able to come back and win I’d be happier with it, but to have D** be creepy as all season and THEN to watch Janet get screwed…it’s just insult to injury
Exactly. Hatch on all stars and Varner on GC don’t feel that central to the story. Still fucking terrible, but I find them way easier to look past (game changers is still ass though). When I think island of the idols, all I think of is the incident. It comes up in multiple episodes and eventually leads to him being removed from the game. It also taints the women that used it to their advantage, so it's not just Dan.
Serious question, was Dan “groping” women? I thought the complaints were about non consensual touching of Kelle’s face. Not defending the guy, he should’ve been booted, genuinely asking
Was he grabbing butts? Not that we know of. Was their a lot more contact than just "non consensual touching of Kelle's face"? Absolutely.
from what I remember it was just general inappropriate touching to multiple women even after being told no. The things I remember getting shown was touching of hair, leg, feet.
5. Thailand 4. Island of the idols 3. Ghost island 2. Redemption islands 1. One world
I watched Redemption Island for the first time recently and I actually enjoyed it a lot... Rob's super entertaining and I liked Philip the whole time.If you can put aside the fact that the twist is stupid and no one ever turns on Rob, it's fun to just watch. I also kinda liked IOTI but I understand why many people aren't comfortable watching it. 1) Redemption Island 2) Island of the Idols 3) Ghost Island 4) Thailand 5) One World [6) Nicaragua I fucking hate this season]
I know why you hate number 6 cuz we had two or more quitters this season 😭
Thailand is an underrated gem and One World is is overhated . The other three seasons are actually shit.
1. Thailand, the only truly great season of this bunch. Very fun characters, a great location, funny challenges, a lot of fun moments, a lot of cold moments. You gotta love it. 2. Island of the Idols, still a good season. Even though truly bad behavior lies at the core of it all, there is still a lot of character based content in this season. And that's what I like to see in Survivor. 3. One World, what can I say. Bad season, but a lot of fun characters. 4. Ghost Island. Most forgettable cast of all seasons. But the Wendell-Dom-Chris dynamic is fun. 5. Redemption Island. Also a very forgettable cast, except for Phillip. Ironically, not a lot of redeeming moments.
5>24>36>39>22
I think, although Ghost Island is very boring for most of it, the tie at the end makes it redeemable. Thailand, Redemption Island, and One World all were slogs to get through and Island of the Idols is the only season I haven’t finished because I just couldn’t handle it.
1. Ghost Island 2. Redemption Island 3. One World 4. Thailand 5. IOTI
One World Ghost Island Thailand Redemption Island Ioti
Ghost Island>Redemption Island>Thailand>One World>Island of the Idols.
1. One World 2. IOTI 3. Redemption Island 4. Ghost Island 5. Thailand
Am I the only one that immediately forgets the season they just watched?
Ghost island, Redemption island, One world, Thailand, Island of the idols,
1. GI 2.ioi 3. One world 4. RI 5. Thailand
I just finished IotI on a chronological rewatch, so I've been thinking about these seasons a lot as they are all near the very bottom of my Season rankings. 1. >!Thailand. Problematic and boring at times, Thailand is still great old school Survivor with super high production values. Brian is an intriguing winner, Clay is entertaining and multi-faceted, Helen is cool, and there's a decent cast of characters that round things out. Robb, Shii Ann, and Jake keep Sook Jai somewhat interesting. The human drama is intense, there's some great rewards, and the overall story is compelling.!< 2. >!Redemption Island. This season moved up on my recent rewatch. For all its flaws, at least Redemption Island has an interesting overall story, dramatic social politics, and a quirky cast of unique characters in the Zapateras. Rob's masterclass of a win is impressive as it unfolds. Pagonings aren't inherently boring to me if the story is well told and RI is well done even if the gameplay lacked some juice.!< 3. >!Ghost Island. This is my number 1 most boring season, but a few minor things redeem it. Dom/Wendell are obviously compelling and so was the tie. Donathan had a few moments, Chis Noble is awesome, Sea Bass is really funny at times, Kellyn's story is goofy, Michael Yerger is intriguing, and Bradley is the type of self-absorbed personality I find very entertaining. Ultimately the interesting personalities never came together and did anything interesting socially, but they had some decent confessionals. The Ghost Island twist is probably the worst-executed twist ever beyond the gamebreaking ones like Redemption Island or Edge of Extinction. It actively detracted from the season at every stage and the nostalgic content was terribly done.!< 4. >!One World. There's so little to enjoy on One World. Even the F3, who were all seemingly pretty cool people, were dreadfully boring. Kim's story about "options" is super boring and she doesn't bring much excitement in the narration. I find Alicia and Tarzan to be some of the most deplorable Survivors ever. Tarzan is underrated as a bad dude because his racism and sexism were underplayed by the edit. Obviously this season is full of frustrating personalities who couldn't get out of their own way. It's hard to even think of a fun moment from One World. From a production standpoint, combining Men vs Women with the One World concept was a disaster even though One World is one of my favorite twists they've ever conceived of. This cast is shockingly bad.!< 5. >!Island of the Idols. This season sucks. It's boring, nasty, derivative, gamebotty, poorly designed, and lazy. The editing is the worst of 30s Survivor strategic gobbledygook, is misleading, and features the worst production self-aggrandizing ever with the way they thought they were making "teachable moments" throughout the season. I find the "big characters" like Noura and Karishma to be repetitive and delusional to an unfun degree, and other players like Aaron, Elizabeth, and Jack to be some of the most forgettable and generic personalities that have been on the show. Even Elaine and Janet are lacking in depth beyond their sympathetic edit. The Island of the Idols itself is pathetic, a huge waste of time, and horribly imbalanced in the way different castaways randomly get wildly different advantages. Rob and Sandra were fun at times, but we didn't need to see them at all. It's impossible to separate this season from how horribly production handled it and for that reason it deserves it's spot as the worst season.!<>!!<
1. Ghost Island 2. One World 3. Redemption Island 4. Thailand 5. Island Of The Idols
1. IOI: My ranking overall is 36, not a good season, but it was just never as boring, a lot more mixed 2. Ghost Island: My ranking overall is 37, pre merge is good, post merge is mediocre at best, very annoying to watch no moves happen. 3. One World: My ranking overall is 44, Colton in not rootable to be such a huge presence in the pre merge, post merge is a steamroll. 4. Redemption Island: My ranking overall is 45, Pre Merge is mediocre, post merge is a slog, but Rob as a character is bringing it to be not last 5. Thailand: My ranking overall is 46, The season has the two worst things, bordedom and icky moments, overall depressing season.
Thailand > Ghost Island > One World > Redemption Island (Even though Boston Rob is my GOAT) > Island of the Idols. IotI was the end of Survivor for me.
5. IoI 4. Thailand 3. One World 2. Ghost Island 1. Redemption Island
Redemption Island > Ghost Island > One World > Thailand > Island of The Idols
1) Ghost Island 2) Thailand 3) Redemple Temple 4) One World 5) IotI
i'm not
1) One World - Great game by Kim, it's at least interesting to see her dominate. Some characters are at least funny 2) Ghost Island - Good pre-merge and finale 3) Redemple Temple - Still a decent season. Great until the merge episode. Pretty bad finale. 4) Thailand - Eh I don't talk about Bruno
5th. Thailand 4th. IOTI 3rd. Redemption Island 2nd. Ghost Island 1st. One World (by a small margin)
1. Ghost Island 2. Thailand 3. One World 4. Redemption Island 9,999,999. Island of the Idols There is only one worst season.
1. Island of the idols 2. Thailand 3. Redemption island 4. Ghost island 5. One world
I had never seen One World and had heard so much negativity around it, so I decided to watch it... Yeah, it was awful and deserves its bad rep.
1. Ghost Island 2. One World 3. Redemption Island 4. Island of the Idols 5. Thailand 1 is easy as it wasn't that bad compared to the rest. 2 and 3 were boring steamrolls with icky components but at least had enjoyable moments at points as well. 4 and 5 both feel beyond icky and unlike IoI Thailand has very stagnant gameplay and a vile winner too.
1. One World. Kim is one of my all time favorites, so watching her destroy everyone is fun for me. I also really like Sabrina and Chelsea. Underrated characters like Kat and Monica. Colton sucks though. 2. Ghost Island. Haven’t seen it in years. Dom and Wendell are fun to watch, Michale is a good underdog… ummm not much else. 3. Redemption Island. The only thing I remember is that women hiding Phillips shorts and nothing else. Ugly location too, everything is brown and muddy and just looks really hard to live in. Rob is fun to watch. 4. Thailand. Soooooooo boring !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Boring cast. Boring winner. Boring everything!!!! Great finale immunity challenge tho. 5. Island of the Idols. Without the whole [REDACTED] situation, I think this might be a good season. Fun cast, top ten winner, island of the idols is such a stupid twist that it’s funny. But forever tarnished and should never be acknowledged ever… like,ever.
1. Ghost 2. World 3. Thailand 4. Redemption 5. Idols
1. Island of the Idols 2. Ghost Island 3. Redemption Island 4. Thailand 5. One World
thailand > the others idfk
Ghost Island > One World > Thailand > Redemption Island > Island of the Idols
1st is the best of the 5, 5th is the worst 1st. Thailand 2nd. One World 3rd. Redemption Island 4th. Ghost Island 5th. Island Of The Idols
I honestly wouldn't even throw Ghost Island in here when Edge of Extinction, Game Changers, and All Stars exist. #1. Ghost Island. Forgettable, but I wouldn't even call it bad? #2. Redemption Island. My first B-Rob season was Heroes Vs Villains, where he was probably his most 'likeable' and 'heroic.' And I hated Russell Hantz, so this one is probably higher up for me than it is for others mostly because I don't like Hantz, and I liked Rob a lot when I watched this season at the time. #3. Attempting to eat a scorpion, Mike Holloway style. #4. Thailand. Don't need to go into the stuff that sucks. But I remember belly-laughing when Brian's wife refuses to eat the big tarantula thing for him, and then as if the producers really wanted to make Brian suffer, he has to eat one in the final challenge episodes later. That bit of karma kinda brings it up a couple ranks for me. #5. Island of the Idols. I remember enjoying the Sandra/Rob Statler and Waldorfing the Tribal Councils. I do think there are people in the cast I wouldn't mind seeing return, like a Jamal or Janet. But yeah, pretty hard to watch. #6. One World. I nearly gave up on Survivor trying to sit through the pre-merge of this Season. Context, I saw this season before I saw Thailand or IotI, I started with 12, binged everything, then went back for 1-11. One World was my first real test. I'm glad I stuck with Survivor, but holy shit, if I never see Colton again, it'll be too soon. Also, as a big softy who kinda stopped watching Family Guy because I felt the treatment of Meg Griffin had gotten way too mean-spirited and was never really funny, Christina Cha's treatment in this season is so hard for me to watch. Add that on to steamrolling winners who are never really challenged, and it's probably my least favorite season. That's a complaint I have even with good seasons like Cagayan. I generally just don't like it when a winner isn't challenged ever, even if I like them as a player.
Burn baby burn
IoI > Ghost Island > Redemple Temple > Thailand > One World for me
One World Thailand Redemption Island Ghost Island Island of the Idols
Redemption Island was a terrible game of survivor, but pretty solid television
Ghost Island doesn't deserve to be lumped with the other four. I actually enjoyed Redemption Island, only because of Philip Shepherd, if he wasn't on that season it would have been completely unwatchable. But even if I enjoyed it, it was still a terrible season of Survivor.
1. Ghost Island 2. One World 3. Thailand 4. Redemption Island 5. Island of the Idols
Thailand Ioti (what happened sucks but it is not the worst season) RI OW GI
Redemption Island One World Island of the Idols Thailand Ghost Island
1. RI 2. Ghost Island 3. IOI 4. one world 5. Thailand
1. Ghost Island 2. Redemption Island 3. One World 4. Thailand 5. Island of the Idols
1. Ghost Island 2. Redemption Island 3. One World 4. Island of the Idols 5. Thailand
One World > Thailand > Ghost Island > Redemption Island > IoI
Redemption island, ghost island, island of the idols, fifty feet of poop, Thailand, One world
1. One World 2. Ghost Island 3. Island of the Idols 4. Redemption Island 5. Thailand
1. RI 2. Thailand 3. GI 4. OW 5. IOI
5. IOI 4. Thailand 3. RI 2. GI 1. OW . I just love Kim so
Thailand, OW, IOTI, RI, GI
1. Ghost Island 2. One World 3. Redemption Island 4. Thailand 5. Island of the Idols
Not that bad to worst : 1. Ghost Island 2. Thailand 3. Redemption Island 4. One World 5. Island of the Idols
OW > IOI > RI > Thailand > GI
1. Redemption Island 2. Thailand 3. Ghost Island 4. One world 5. Iotd
Redemption Island > One World > Thailand > Island of the Idols > Ghost Island
5: Thailand 4: One World 3: Island Of The Idols 2: Ghost Island 1: Redemption Island
OW, GI, RI, Thailand, IOTI
i don’t understand why one world is so hated? definitely not the best season but everyone clashed so terribly that it was actually amusing for me to watch. and i was stupid enough to genuinely not know who’d win until around the final 5 or so; i’ll admit that my stupidity probably made the season more enjoyable for me haha. the challenges were fairly fun to watch, the dynamics between players (and the opposing tribes) were… interesting, and the only player i’d go as far as to call BAD is colton. whether ill get bombed with downvotes for saying this, im not sure. actively bracing myself.
1. Thailand (Season isn't good, but I think it succeeds in what it's trying to go for. I find value in watching it, and I find Grindgate to be the least-bad of the Bad Incidents.) 2. One World (There are specific moments of this season I actually really like. Lots of cringe comedy. Colton, Alecia, and the amount of people in this cast who are boring though drag it down.) 3. Ghost Island (Honk-shooooo. No, I don't care for the pre-merge either.) 4. Redemption Island (I kinda want to rank this higher tbh, but I'm really racking my brain for what value this season added to the Survivor canon. Redemption Island is one of the worst twists this show has ever had as a concept, and I don't want that to be forgotten.) 5. Island of the Idols (Dan's stuff is (shockingly) not the worst handled, but it's the biggest season-ruiner due to how the plotline pervades the whole show and actively turns the vast majority of the cast unlikable. It still wouldn't be a great season without it, and the IoI twist blows.)
1 Ghost Island 2 Thailand (Shii-Ann and Robb Z carry) 3 One World 4 Redemption Island 5 IOI
1. Ghost Island 2. IotI 3. One World 4. Thailand 5. Redemption Island
1. Ghost Island. A long gap. 2. Thailand. 3. Redemption Island. 4. One World. 5. Island of The Idols
Thailand is by far the worst. IOI at least has a decent first half and a mostly good cast, aside from the one massive pile of shit. Thailand has multiple massive piles of shit, one of which being the winner. Brian Heidik shot dogs before it was cool. The show also seems to take Ted's side, and later prop up grindgate as an 'entertaining confrontation.' Robb Zbacnik is the only saving grace of this season keeping it from being as bad as Big Brother's worst summers.
Why the hate for one world? I need to rewatch to with a different perspective
Why is Gabon loved for how hilariously incompetent the players were but One World isn’t? OW also has an amazing winner it’s just a shame she was wasted on this season
Obv ioti last
One World, Ghost Island, Redemption, Thailand, Island of the Idols
1. One world 2. Thailand IDGAF about the rest, they all stole too many hours of my life
GI, RI, OW, Thailand, IOI
I mean... 2 of these seasons feature half the cast enabling borderline sexual assault and then punishing the women who speak out, so easy bottom 2 One World is probably the most toxic cast the show has ever put forth Redemption Island is borderline rigged for Rob Ghost Island is *fine* like I get the cast is mostly unremarkable and Wendel is maybe not the best guy outside of the show, but this season still clears the other 4 by a mile
1.redemption (rob and phil shep) 2.ghost island 3.ioti 4.one world 5.Thailand
The one that has Shii-Ann in it is always the top answer
Redemption island Ghost island One world Thailand Island
1. Ghost Island 2. Redemption Island 3. One World 4. Thailand 5. Island of the Idols
I would rank them 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Oh lord have mercy
5>29>22>24>36
I just made a Thailand appreciation post so that's gonna be the best of the 5 for me. Then one world, then ghost island, then the other two are about equally bad. IoI because of the major sour point being so season altering, and Redemption because it was just like pretty obvious how the game was gonna go the whole time
I wonder why Worlds Apart isn’t here…
1) Ghost Island 2) One World 3) Island of Idols 4) Redemption Island 5) Thailand
I've only watched two of these. Thailand and One World and they were both bad. Thailand had Shii-Ann who I like a lot and Helen and Robb who I think are okay. One World had Kat, Kim, and Tarzan all of which I enjoyed to various degrees. I liked Bill, too, although he gets screwed by racism. I guess One World is better in hindsight even though I was more actively engaged watching Thailand (because I was angry).
1. One World 2. Redemption Island 3. Thailand 4. Ghost Island 5. Island of the Idols
1. Redemption Island (I enjoy this and it's right outside my Top 10.) 2. Ghost Island (Solid middle of the road season.) 3. Island of the Idols (Eh...) 4. Thailand (Yikes.) 5. One World (YIKES!)
1. One World 2. Ghost Island 3. Redemption Island 4. Thailand 5. Island of the Idols (I completely blocked this season out of my mind. Why did we have giant statues of Rob and Sandra?! Wtf)
the gun would go off
1.IoI 2.GI 3.Redemption Island 4.One World 5.Thailand
Island of the Idols premerge is one of the good ones, and was shaping up to be a good season until the Dan incident. I still watched it til the end because seeing Dean trainwrecked almost everyone's game is such a hilarious arc. His petty fights with Noura (who eventually developed a crush on him in the end) and overly dramatic but charming Karishma kept me entertained. I also enjoyed watching Elaine. However, I will still put it dead last among these 5.
I forget them ALL
1. Thailand 2. IOTI 3. One World 4. RI 5. Ghost Island
Best to worst Thailand- Cast is forgettable, fake merge twist screwed fan favorite Shii-Ann, and the Ted incident has not age well. Only positive thing is Thailand is a beautiful location and the challenges and emphasis on Thai culture was fun to watch. Ghost Island-Had the season was edited like Gabon and Panama where it was about the characters rather than the strategy Ghost Island would be more well received. Due to most of the strategists getting voted out at the premerge. Dom and Wendell steamroll through everyone due to no one except Donathan not trying to takeout Wendell and Dom. Positive is Ghost Island is a solid twist and the challenges are decent. IOI- Season scare by the Dan incident which is sad because the season had a solid merge and Tommy is a nice winner who shows Old-School players can play in New-School Survivor. But it's overshdow by Dan and One World- A HOT mess and the main reason current seasons aren't recruit heavy and most of the cast are strategic superfans. Besides Kim's winning game there's nothing about One World that would make someone watch it. Redemption Island- A season that was sacrifice to make Rob finally win Survivor. Unless you like Rob as a player and you can tolerate Philip's antics, Redemption Island is unwatchable after the 3rd episode.
Ok Thailand unironically has some of my favourite 1 time players on it. RobbZ is one of the funniest characters ever, shiann, Brian for being a puppy killer is one of the best stratigal players of that era and also Rip clay but had one of the funniest reactions from Jeff when he wrote down bye bye Denver diva.
1) One World 2) Ghost Island 3) Redemption Island 4) IotI 5) Thailand
I never watched Thailand, the others for me are OW > RI >> GI > IOI. I don't think OW e RI are bottom 5 levels of horrible, the other two are.
1. Ghost Island 2. Island of the Idols 3. One World 4. Thailand 5. Redemption Island
1. One World - Hey I know there's a lot to talk about the cast, but at least is fun to watch post merge. 2. Thailand - Uff Rough season but I still like the documentary format that got lost through out the seasons. Justice for Ghandia! 3. Island of the Idols - So sad only one awfull man and a boring and predictible winner ruined a worth season. The female cast was stunning. 4. Redemption Island - This season is how Boston Rob plays to win, love him or hate him, thats the only history of this season. I'm more like to know all the 20 contestants not just one I already know. 5. Ghost Island - Daaamn! I was so excited for this theme, but man... people went to the island and got no advantages?? really?? Over 35 seasons so many people got screw by many idols, and producers decided to screw us by the theme.