Hey Survivor Buffs!

We are only two weeks away from the premiere of “Survivor: Nicaragua,” and this week I break into the top ten Survivor seasons of all time! Next week I crown number five, four, and three! So without further adieu…

10. The Australian Outback

The season that truly was the golden age of the series with one of the most dynamic casts of all time. While the first sequel in the series may have strayed away from the island setting, the  drama was amped up substantially from season one. Every cast member was involved in a major story line and early fan favorites based on physical and survival skills were quickly ousted reminding fans that the true game is the social politics. While many fans have this as their favorite season, it did lose it’s dramatic tension towards the end with a lackluster emotional climax, a far cry from the nail biting battle between Kelly and Rich in Borneo. This season was a little too family friendly, but the cast and concrete story lines more than make up for the losses.

9. Tocantins-The Brazilian Highlands

What difference simplicity makes. After Gabon’s season filled with two tribal swaps, producers decided it was time to get back to basics and give fans an original opening that put castaways immediately on their feet. A cast of sixteen (a classic number), including Sierra the pariah, snarky Tyson, and Steven Seagal look-alike Coach against the tight Jalapao three of Taj, Stephen, and JT who lead one of the biggest comebacks in the history of the game, gave excitement to viewers every week by systematically turning the Timbira tribe against each other, proving to viewers that playing the social game and not relying on twists CAN make a difference and a great season.

8. China

After the dreaded season that was Fiji, the series went for a new frontier, the sacred land of China, while going with a cast that was, shockingly, not dominated by race! With an old school cast in action (lead by super fan and eventual winner Todd Herzog), the season got an electric bolt that hadn’t been seen in sometime. Along with James’ headlining blindside, this season regained some water-cooler conversations and brought the show it’s finest players yet. While the slow but sure elimination of the Zhan Hu tribe became painfully obvious, no one ever went down without a fight, or an attempted blindside.

7. Heroes Vs. Villains

With the show going into it’s tenth year on the air, an all-star season seemed appropriate to celebrate the series’ landmark achievement. The cast was near perfect, with the exception of a few castaways, and the exotic locale of Samoa provided a beautiful backdrop and exciting stage for the ultimate Survivor battle. But all-star fatigue, along with a series of unwelcome personality changes prevented this season from hitting the levels of excitement that previous all-star seasons attained. Having third time players was uninspired, despite having marquee names back in the mix. The serious/business only approach quickly showed and watching the pros play the game became a simple paint by the numbers exercise, frustrating die-hard strategists. But Sandra’s sneaky and welcome victory brought Survivor to another level, giving the series it’s first two time winner. While Russell slipped and lost his game after Danielle’s exit, fans were still motivated and drawn to the evil one, giving him another $100,000. Being bad never paid off like this.

6. Borneo

Ladies and Gentlemen, the one that started it all! A series no one predicted would be the phenomenon it is today and it all started with a man who wasn’t supposed to go past day three! Richard Hatch lead the first alliance, and along with several other innovations, started a game which to never ceases to revolutionize itself each time out. Along with his bold moves, the alliance of Rich, Kelly, Rudy, and Susan gave fans the textbook example of strategy and what to expect week in and week out. Despite the nickel and dime production value, the show turned into pure gold with the simplicity and innocence of the castaways which was genuinely fun at it’s core.

Images courtesy of:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor:_The_Australian_Outback

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor:_Borneo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor:_China

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor:_Heroes_vs._Villains

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor:_Tocantins

Hey Survivor Buffs! The countdown continues with my rankings of Survivor seasons past. Do you see your favorite season on this weeks list?

15. Survivor: All-Stars

The season that should have been a blockbuster, turned into a bust from both the fans and the majority of the competitors on this season. With Rob and Amber dominating the game and practically taking the edit away from the cast and in effect, turning the show into the Bachelor. So many frustrating questions will never be answered from this season. Why was Amber picked to begin with? Why wasn’t the tribal shuffle truly a tribal shuffle? Why were the fans given this season for all our years of loyalty viewing? Oh the humanity!

14. Survivor: Africa

If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Unfortunately, Mark Burnett went way off script in his unscripted drama by going to the desert and taking away the visually stimulating island environments and going to the Kenya Reserve. While there were plenty of interesting and offbeat characters, the season suffered from a cast which, having already seen the first 2 seasons became scholars of the game, leaving many weeks of predictable voting strategies and little suspense. Ethan’s win did serve as the first time the fan favorite won the game and also proved that nice guys can finish first (they just don’t always make good TV at times).

13. Survivor: Samoa

The season that brought us the reinventor of the game, and let’s not forget, the most hated Survivor of all, Russell Hantz! Every week we marveled in awe of manipulative Russell: Russell burns socks, Russell pours out his teams’ water, Russell makes an alliance with everyone, all with a theatrical persona! But what else was there? With a cast of 20, many were merely extras to the “star” that was Russell. While I try to be objective and leave personal feelings aside for the winner, Natalie’s victory was truly an unwelcome shocker, and while Russell was truly a sore loser, America supported him and fans from all over wanted to give the cutthroat competitor a pat on the back. But $100K worked just as well.

12. Survivor: Cook Islands

What started off as a controversial decision became one of the series’ most beloved editions in recent years, with the first ever multi-racial cast in the show’s history. This season gave us the true meaning of the term underdog with the Aitu 4 (after an unforseeable mutiny) fighting for their lives. Yul and Ozzy were the most respectable final two in years, and Ozzy’s win for fan favorite made a majority of the fans happy. But those moments came towards the latter end of the season, nearly 3/4 of the way in, giving the fans way too much down time waiting for some real drama to happen. Also, the shows final three concept was a slap in the face to fans that prefer the old fashioned final two scenario, which always has, and always will, work like a charm.

11. Survivor: Gabon-Earth’s Last Eden

While Burnett met his first failed venture in Africa several years earlier, his return to the dark continent was a successful, albeit minor improvement from the last go around. With a theme of good vs. evil and not one but two tribal swaps, this seaosn provided some of the most unlikely underdogs (Bob and Sugar) and polarizing antagonists (Randy and Corinne), the merge brough about some of the most emotion filled and tense tribal councils every week. While some purists argued that there were too many tribal swaps, and casual fans argued that there were too many negative personalities, every episode leading to the finale displayed that the good guys can win, giving the show it’s most inspirational finale in years.

Do you see your favorite season on this weeks list? Next week we start the top ten!

Images courtesy of:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_All_Stars

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor:_Africa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor:_Samoa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor:_Cook_Islands

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor:_Gabon

Hey Survivor Buffs,

Today is the 10 year anniversary of the finale of the first season of Survivor! Ten years ago Richard Hatch became the inaugural winner and reality television was never the same.

Also, congrats to Jeff Probst for winning his THIRD PRIMETIME EMMY AWARD for Outstanding Reality Host. Jeff has never lost in this category since the category was introduced in 2008. The show also won an award for Outstanding Cinematography.

Hey Survivor Buffs,

While there is only 4 weeks left until Survivor:Nicaragua starts on Wednesday, September 15, I will be recapping the series highs and lows over the past 20 seasons. Let’s get the ball rolling:

20. Thailand

The season that will live in infamy for all time, season 5 was the series at it’s lowest; cast-wise, story-wise, and every element in between. Personalities and situations were too edgy (Ghanidia vs. Ted) and brought the show in a dark and unwelcome direction. The producers also left the choosing of the tribes on 2 castaways, an optional tribal swap and a delayed merge that resulted in a season with no inspiration or innovation to the franchise. Followed by an unclimactic filnale and a predictable, yet deserving winner Brian Heidik, this season will be highly regarded as the worst, most hated, or least favorite (however individual fans describe it) for years to come.

19.Fiji

Memo: Fire the producer who decided to give one tribe supplies galore while giving the other nothing! Despite tribal swaps, 2 hidden idols, and Yau-Man, one of the most endearing castaways, this season should have been called “Survivor: D.O.A.” Maybe Melissa McNulty, the 20th castaway who dropped out mere hours before shooting began, gave the production an unforseeable obstacle, but all the excuses can’t make up for this season.

18. Panama-Exile Island

After several seasons of 18-20 castaways per group, the producers decided it was time to get back to it’s roots of the classic 16 Survivor cast. With Panama as the backdrop for the third time and a new twist that was featured in Palau, what could go wrong? Well, for starters, the tribes were divided in 4 groups of 4 in an uninspired blend of twists from Amazon/Vanuatu (Men vs. Women) and Thailand (Age). With so many groups to cover, the editing was scattered and finding some favorites wasn’t that easy (with the exception of Cirie). A near Pagonging of the La Mina tribe made for a very predictable stretch of the show, and while Terry Dietz tied Colby Donaldson’s overall immunity challenge wins (also shared with Ozzy from Cook Islands), his streak came to a questionable end with a very biased immunity challenge. The final 2 who beat Terry were characters who had zero edit and no hype going into the finale, leaving everyone scratching their heads as to how and why Aras and Danielle (if those are their names) made it over everyone else.

17. Guatemala-The Mayan Empire

From the get go, Survivor’s trip to the Mayan Empire was ‘ruined.’ With the show going into it’s 11th season, the producers decided to raise the stakes for contestants in more ways than one. At first, things got to an upbeat start with the return of Palau’s Bobby Jon Drinkard and Stephenie Lagrossa. Then the tribes embarked on an 11 mile hike through the jungle and the fun quickly diminished. While the producers made a good intention to return the show to it’s roots of physical stamina, it repeated the same mistake as Africa, by giving the contestants an environment that was physically draining and a location that was visually unappealing. Not even Danni’s underdog victory over fan favorite Stephenie could save this season from the Survivor scrapheap.

16. Vanuatu-Islands of Fire

Maybe the islands were on fire, but the cast barely provided a spark in the rematch of the battle of the sexes. While it is not uncommon for the producers to want to catch lightning in a bottle twice, doing so after barely a year seemed premature, rushed, and uninspired for the series. The character arcs suffered greatly since 18 new people had never been on a season before (while 18 castaways were featured on all-stars, their personalities were already known to the audience). Thankfully Chris Daugherty’s win and the lopsided victory over the dominant women’s alliance gave this season a little salvation, but a few original twists would have been nice.

All images courtesy of:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_Thailand

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor:_Fiji

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor:_Panama

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor:_Guatemala

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor:_Vanuatu

Hey Survivor Buffs,

While the Survivor’s were celebrating in Celebration, Florida a last month, CBS took a golden opportunity to break some news on Survivor: Nicaragua.

Those who were lucky to attend the San Diego Comic-Con got some early info on the secrets of the new season, such as the number of castaways, tribal names and the gender divide twist.

But there was another incentive for the audience at the EW/CBS Comic-Con party: free Buffs! While fans might not be on the show (yet), they can wear their pride with the all new yellow (La Flor) and blue (Espada) tribal Buffs.

Coming up next week: The first of many entries in “Survivor: Blast From The Past,” where I rank the best of all Survivor seasons!

NOTE TO SELF: Need to order the new 10th Anniversary Buffs for my Survivor premiere party. Fall is also coming, might as well get some Polars’ while I’m at it.