Mike: B-Ashley Nolan: B-Lauren Rimmer: A-Joe Mena: B+JP Hilsabeck: D-Cole: BDesi: C-Jessica Johnston: B-Ali Elliot: B-Roark: DAlan: C+Patrick Bolton: C+Simone: C-Katrina: D-Ghost Island:Wendell: B+Dominick: A-Laurel: BAngela: CDonathan: A-Sebastian: DKellyn: A-Chelsea Townsend: D-Michael Yeager: B+Jenna Bowman: D+Desiree: B-Libby: CChris Noble: B+Bradley: BJames Lim: C-Stephanie Johnson: C+Brendan Shapiro: CMorgan Ricke: C-Jacob Derwin: C+Gonzales: D-David vs. Goliath:Nick Wilson: A-Mike White: B+Angelina: A+Kara: B-Allison Raybould: B-Davie: BChristian: AGabby: B+Carl Boudreax: B-Alec: B-Dan Rengering: BJohn Hennigan: C+Elizabeth Olson: B-Lyrsa: C+Natalie Cole: B+Natalia: CBi: C-Jeremy Crawford: C+Jessica Peet: C-Pat Cusack: C-Edge of Extinction:Chris Underwood: C+Gavin: CJulie: BRick Devins: ALauren: B-Victoria: CAurora: C+Ron: B-Wardog: B-Kelley Wentworth: BDavid: BJulia: D+Eric: CJoe Anglim: C-Aubry: C+Reem: C+Wendy: BKeith: CIsland of the Idols:Tommy: BDean: B+Noura: A-Lauren Beck: BJanet: ADan Spilo: B-Elaine: A-Karishma: AElizabeth: B-Missy: BAaron Meredith: CJamal: B+Kellee Kim: B+Jack: D+Jason Linden: CTom Laidlaw: C-Chelsea Walker: D+Vince Moua: C+Molly: D+Ronnie: DWinners at War:Tony: A+Natalie Anderson: BMichele Fitzgerald: A-Sarah Lacina: A-Ben Driebergen: A-Denise Stapley: B-Nick Wilson: B-Jeremy Collins: B-Kim Spradlin: B-Sophie: B-Tyson: B-Adam: B+Wendell: CYul: B-Parvati: C+Boston Rob: B-Ethan: B-Danni: D+Amber: C+Sandra: B-. To view the previous entries in that series, click here. Since 2001, weve brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Arguments for either mans victory come down less to pros and cons than ones entire philosophy about the game itself. 3. This season is like if they did Cook Islands, except we were supposed to cheer for the white people when they mutinied and abandoned their tribe. This twist stripped players of voting agency, made final immunity an active liability, and openly privileged strong but socially maladroit castaways over those with subtler games. The asinine gimmick of redeeming advantages from prior seasons made for episodes that devoted more footage to players reading rules than actually competing. Im like Karishma, except likeable or I will hide all the machetes so you cant practice fire are probably the funniest lines of the season. Normally this is just game bot behavior, but at least with Missy they give her enough complexity. Which. This ranking gives every Survivor player a score of up to 5 based on six aspects: challenge performance, correct votes cast, votes received, Final Tribal votes, finding and playing hidden immunity idols, and how long they last in the game. You can read how this all fits together here. As ruminative as it was celebratory, Winners at War showcased the best the game could offer not just in gameplay, but in personal growth. The MCU Villain Problem: But What About Ego. Worthy Adversary: Cirie Fields once again showed herself to be Survivors greatest sleeper agent. The Tika Three, perfectly balanced as players and delightfully entertaining as people, propelled a white-hot post-merge that saw nearly every New Era twist fall away in favor of good, old-fashioned Survivor, the kind that relies on social bonds, reading peoples thoughts, and coming through clutch in immunity challenges. Amazingly, the season never ran out of great characters, no matter how many strong players got blindsided. Not rewatching those. Then theres her whole relationship with Dean. The notorious tribal divisions by race could have doomed Cook Islands. Add to this mix Chaos Kass McQuillen, whose deadpan trolling of Tony produced reactions akin to dropping a Mentos in a Diet Coke and who constantly positioned herself as a swing vote just to wreak havoc on everyones plans. During the 36th and in anticipation of the 37th season of CBS hit showSurvivor,Pop Cultural Studies contributor Hugh Geraghty wrote a definitive ranking of every Survivor contestant to make it past the Merge on each season. On one hand, its easy to write off Jamal as a terrible player. Shes not a major character, but she is at least enjoyable. (I dont look like Josh.). Even the seasons designated goat, Romeo Escobar, made a compelling case for their personal and performance growth. His decision stemmed mostly from physical ailments, as he suffered from intense weight loss and six staph infections on his chest and legs. He says Lets split the vote! in front of his entire tribe, and is a part of the lamest showmance of all time. But beyond all the trainwreck exterior, Noura is actually a decent player. But its difficult not to feel that either co-finalists Gavin Whitson and Julie Rosenberg deserved to win more than anyone for actually making it to the finals without ever being voted out. Survivor gilded the lily with season 40, undermining a surefire premise (an all-winners cast) with every bad gimmick of the last few seasons and a new wrinkle in the faux-currency of fire tokens. The exception: Russells first season (#43.) I will update this again after the next two seasons. Shes not a fan of the outdoors and hates being around people for too long. He controlled nearly every vote despite playing from the bottom and sealed his win with a textbook final tribal performance. Worthy Adversary: Fans love to talk about robbed players, but in losing a pivotal immunity due entirely to a production error, Lex is the only player with an objective case for being screwed out of a victory. Who Won: Bridal shop owner Kim Spradlin sized up the meager competition on day one and spent the rest of the time conducting a masterclass on how to play the game. Survivor Contestant Rankings #324-301 Survivor Contest Rankings #300-276 Survivor Contest Rankings #275-251 The pirate theme of Pearl Islands, an outlier in the shows tendency to build themes around casting divisions and gameplay gimmicks, prompted one of the most story-driven seasons. After practicing a little bit, Noura manages to unanimously convince her tribe to make her sit out of the challenge. I hope Noura returns soon, because every season could use a player like her. Some lists had her quite high, while others had her near the bottom. Yeah, it kneecaps the whole season. So to start, this is divided into 2 subcategories, the Idol score and Votes Negated score. This season was so frustrating, that I felt like I had to write about it. After a few minutes, Kellee manages to put together a new plan where she can have someone else play an idol and get rid of one of her targets, without any blowback hitting her. Out) David Voce (Last: 7) - Voce didn't really do anything wrong to get voted out this week. Shouting Why didnt Dean play his idol earlier? Showed that she was perceptive about what was going on. If a contestant were to win every challenge in the game without sitting out once, they'd earn a score of 1 for this category. One of the most thematically and geographically distinctive seasons, China also fielded a cast that walked the fine line between memorable gamesmanship and engaging personalities. Survivor instantly became a ratings juggernaut, and viewership for the first season finale reached north of 50 million. Missy has to be one of the most cutthroat players the game has ever seen. The first new season to truly build on the original blueprint of the game, The Amazon divided its tribes by gender, only for the mostly young players to start mingling flirtatiously. Aaron starts out as a promising character. Rarely has the term favorite been stretched to the limits of its tensile strength as it was in Caramoan, with a downright strange set of returnees set against an unmemorable group of newbies. Contestant played the game for a fifth time. This new twist made it paradoxically advantageous for players to get voted out early and enjoy weeks of jury management, and it gave the very first booted player more airtime than the finalists who made it to day 39 without being eliminated. got #woke about its portrayal of strong women and people of color in the game. Too bad she proved to be the shows second-most notorious final-tribal-council flop, putting in the first of back-to-back disastrous showings to a jury that was looking for a clinching reason to vote for her. So fortunately shes voted off shortly after. From forging the shows second-best platonic friendship to the warm pride he took in being viewed as a genuine threat, Christian was the best player in years. Lauren falls into the Tommy category of competent but uninteresting. Still, Karishma was one of the few bright spots of the season, and I really appreciate her. Yet for all the amusing and often endearing social interactions, it was also a consistent display of high-level gameplay, with multiple players pulling off blindsides and manipulations one rarely sees anymore in first-time players. Votes cast: Simply, the percentage of a castaway's votes that were for the boot. At its best, though, the series has a purity that other competitions lack; where some reality shows cynically and dishonestly dangle promises of fame and even love, Survivor presents the chance to truly confront oneself. It then cuts to Noura who immediately says she wants to do it. Worthy Adversary: Palau sweetheart Stephenie LaGrossa returned to a literal ovation from the new players and promptly exploited her fame to wield absolute authority, playing a game that seemed destined for victory until Danni got into her head. I mixed objective and subjective matters into this. For the Idol score, each idol a contestant finds is worth (1/6) of a point, and each time they play one correctly is worth another (1/6). Who Won: Sandra, who somehow played the exact same game she did on Pearl Islands, offering her vote to any takers, openly baiting the most evil and vindictive player, and standing tall at the end once again, cementing herself as Survivors unlikeliest legend. Thomass disastrous decision to gift Russell an idol across tribe lines, mounting an outright parody of Ken Burnss The Civil War for the flowery letter that J.T. In the final score, this value is subtracted from 1 to get their final score. The number of days they were in is divided by the total number of days in the game, so all finalists earn 1 for this. 96 votes, 42 comments. I said Marty gave up power to stay in the game longer. Vote for the best Survivor contestants here and make your own list to rank the players in order and add anyone you see missing. As the kids these days say #respectdahustle. Jamal was an incredibly smart guy, who was able to break down how real-world discrimination and microaggressions could influence the game. Ranking Three-Time Survivor Players - Number 23: Jeff Varner. Witness Tyson Apostols growth from a sardonic imp to a contented and mature father, or how the alliance of police officers Tony Vlachos and Sarah Lacina became one of the shows most emotionally affecting arcs. Unfortunately, its a little hard to enjoy Karishma when the entire first half of the season is every contestant saying that Karishma is useless, or Karishma is worthless.