So I have no life (as seen by me coming up on my 8th year on this site) and starting with Game Changers, I began to go back and rewatch all the survivor seasons. I then ranked them on a big ass spreadsheet, and finally finished it.
I also ranked all the contestants, just by how much I liked them as a character and really nearly nothing to do with gameplay. This was how the seasons ranked:
35. Redemption Island
34. Thailand
33. One World
32. Samoa
31. All-Stars
30. Caramoan
29. Cook Islands
28. South Pacific
27. Worlds Apart
26. Fiji
25. Cambodia
24. Africa
23. Millennials v Gen X
22. Australia
21. Blood v Water
20. Palau
19. Game Changers
18. Tocantins
17. Marquesas
16. Guatemala
15. Heroes v Healers v Hustlers
14. Philippines
13. China
12. Panama
11. Cagayan
10. Nicaragua
9. Gabon
8. Borneo
7. Micronesia
6. Vanuatu
5. San Juan Del Sur
4. Kaoh Rong
3. Heroes v Villains
2. Pearl Islands
1. Amazon
Using the system I used, I was shocked that Amazon was #1 over PI, I thought Amazon would be around 10-12. Cambodia, MvGx, BvW is probably lower than others would have but I felt like they were generally too strategic based and at times boring in the character department. On the other hand, HHH, Nicaragua, Gabon, and SJDS are probably higher than most people have it. Nicaragua/Gabon/SJDS were just fun seasons with tons of crazy characters/drama. HHH I actually really loved, the pre-merge was a great mix of showing relationships and having intensity/blindsides that really mattered, while the post-merge felt like it had the right amount of moving parts past the merge episode. I'm not as up in arms about the ending because I really enjoyed Ben as a character overall.
7 years ago I joined this site, and I think less people know who I am as each year passes.
But really it's kinda crazy it's been 7 years, because despite this place being a dumpsterfire half the time, I think it's actually taught me some things. When I was a 12 year old joining this site (#Scandal), I grew up in a fam that wasn't really accepting of gays, an I was fairly homophobic. This site really changed me in the way that I'm annoyingly liberal rn (I was a Bernie Bro). Plus my dad who was the most homophobic I have basically gotten to believe in gay rights. Plus I don't really have many people in my life who watch reality TV so this is a nice place (well... place) to see all the different reactions to shows I don't see irl.
Through my rewatch (and for some seasons re-rewatch) of seasons, I started ranking seasons based on keeping points of how much I hated (-3) or loved (+3) episodes and the cast of each episode, Kaoh Rong was the second season I watched. After each season, I ranked the cast from hated to loved.
18th - Caleb (Dislike) I try to only base things on what happens on TV that season, but after watching almost 40 episodes of BB16, I only liked Caleb when he was completely OTT. This season, they tried to make him heroic when there wasn't much there, and he was the only character I wasn't a fan of this season.
17th - Anna (Like) Anna was a gamebot, but still had some good moments and wasn't horrible at confessionals. However, she wasn't that much more than a gamebot.
16th - Liz (Like) Liz was 100% a bigger gamebot than anyone this season, but almost to the literal sense, it was comical at times. She seemed like an actual robot, and I liked her downfall from being the ice queen of the brains.
15th - Darnell (Like) So much potential, and left because of the dumbest mistake while Alecia was still an option, really liked him in his episode, but all he really did was shit in the ocean.
14th - Jason (Like) Now it might seem weird to like Jason, and even weirder to like Scot more than him, but I just didn't connect with him that much. He was a villain, but imo Scot was a better villain, and I didn't really like his complexity until his boot episode.
13th - Neal (Really Like) The snake in ice cream pants was such an odd character that I'm still not sure if he was supposed to be a villain or an anti-hero or what. He had his quirks which I enjoyed, but wasn't too visible.
12th - Julia (Really Like) Julia is a large reason why the merge gets good, her going to the villains makes the numbers much more even and at the time it made it seem like Jason/Scot were unstoppable. I feel like her flip floppyness was a key part of keeping the 2nd half of the game engaging, and playing the whole young person who acted older was an interesting storyline. Plus I think she was the person Aubry was most afraid of strategically.
11th - Scot (Really Like) Scot was a dick, but he also had some good moments with Tai. I did not like pre-swap Scot, but after the swap/going into the merge, Scot really started the war between the two sides. One of my favorite episodes ever is the Debbie boot episode, and that is largely due to Scot.
10th - Nick (Really Like) Nick was another villain of Koah Rong, unlike the others he didn't seem like an actual bad person at times. Instead, he was just so into himself, he was a downfall arc waiting to happen. His downfall is a key turning point in the game, and one of the best in the shows history.
9th - Michele (Really Like) She wasn't the most interesting person in the cast, but had some great moments. Her and Tai's relationship, as well as her and Nick are two highlights of the season. She is a fun character when others piss her off, but otherwise she's not amazing.
8th - Joe (Really Like) Joe is largely invisible, but on a rewatch I found a lot of moments that I loved Joe in. His relationships with all the women are adorable, him v Peter is a great moment, him not being able to spell immunity, and him finally winning a challenge as everyone is annoyed waiting for him slowly throwing sandbags only to get evaced because of it is just so lulzy.
7th - Alecia (Love) The first four episodes are really highlighting Alecia, and how horrible she is treated. She is a really great scrappy underdog who never really gave up, and was screwed that they didn't do the usual swap at 14.
6th - Jennifer (Love) Her two episode arc is so odd. The earbug made her the biggest hero of the premiere, and everyone felt bad for her, but she showed to be a badass. Then, out of nowhere, she blows up her game in one of the best implosions in Survivor.
5th - Peter (Love) This may seem like a weird one. He's much like Nick in terms of villainy, he is completely overconfident, despite having no reason to think it. Peter is basically Nick if Nick had more screentime, and Peter is just such a OTT villain who thinks he is better than everyone else, and of course, has a great downfall.
4th - Tai (Love) Tai can get annoying when he gets so much screentime. However, he really seems like he may be the nicest person on Survivor. I liked seeing his struggle with villainy, and his narrative is very old school survivor. Plus he gave us Mark the chicken, and one of the best moments in Survivor when he backstabs Scot.
3rd - Cydney (Love) Cydney has some amazing quotes and soundbites, and she could be #1 if she wasn't part of the Alecia hate early on. She is one of the people responsible for the complete flip at the start of the merge, and was possibly one immunity challenge away from the win.
2nd - Debbie (Love) Debbie is completely crazy during the season, but it doesn't come off as fake like Phillip. She seems like a HvV Coach if anything, being ridiculous but also having some complexity. Plus Survivor basically making a meme out of her jobs was just amazing editing.
1st - Aubry (Love) My pick for the best narrator in Survivor history. She had so many things going for her, a growth edit, so many fun moments, COLESLAW, and amazing social manipulation. Too much now we get gamebots who talk about people as chess pieces, we're getting less of social manipulation like Aubry. As amazing as she is, it really sucks knowing that once the merge hit she really had no path to win. From an edgic standpoint, I was a Michele truther for the majority of the game. However, I thought it was because Aubry got 4th, I never suspected that Michele would beat Aubry with the edit they gave her. That was the one flaw in Kaoh Rong, it does not explain, to the viewer, why Aubry should have lost.
Overall Kaoh Rong may be my favorite season of Survivor. The entire premerge through the Scot boot is nearly perfect Survivor. The end game can be a bit boring, but thanks to the character development and relationships showed, it feels more dynamic than the boot order goes. Still haven't re-re-rewatched Pearl Islands using this system, PI may overtake it, but dang this is an amazing season.
Ranked rewatched seasons
1.) Kaoh Rong (3.61 avg score per ep, 50.51 total)
2.) MvGX ( 2.71 avg score per ep, 37.97 total score)
3.) Thailand (-.44 avg score per ep, -5.74 total score)
