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Three all-time best seasons of Survivor
Survivor has been renewed for a new season following the conclusion of season 42; below we look at the most highly ranked seasons from the show’s history.
Survivor has been a popular watch since it first premiered on CBS in 2000. The outdoors reality-format competition against the elements was groundbreaking when it first premiered and it managed to maintain its popularity for over two decades, as it has continually reinvented its own wheel.
Now set for its forty-third season, the show has given fans and viewers many seasons that they still revisit to date. So let us take a look back at three of the most universally touted seasons in the show’s history.
Who Won Survivor Season 42?
Survivor season 42 marked a return to the pattern where seasons were not named based on themes like, Worlds Apart or David and Goliath but were just referred to as Survivor 42.
Moreover, this season was shot in 26 days instead of the previous approximate 39 days, due to a change brought on by the pandemic. This season 18 contestants took up the challenge to outwit, outplay, and outsmart the competition.
Airing between March and May 2022, the last episode saw five contestants competing for the title of sole survivor. 24-year-old seminary student, Maryanne Oketch, won, with a total of seven votes from the jury securing her win.
Three All-Time Best Seasons Of Survivor
Season 43 of Survivor was confirmed by CBS in March 2022 as part of the announcement of the greenlit shows for the channel’s 2022/2023 programming schedule.
The official trailer for the season was shared following the conclusion of Survivor 42, which confirmed the change with the naming principle.
Similarly to Survivor 41 and Survivor 42, the upcoming season does not have a theme but is titled by its season number, Survivor 43.
The series is expected to premiere on CBS by mid-September 2022. While every season has kept fans entertained, there are seasons that are more memorable as they had a collection of aspects that entertained fans throughout the season.
Specifically, for a successful Survivor season, key aspects that make a season memorable are the individual castaways along with the dynamics of the group, the plot twists introduced by the game, and the overall game strategies played by the castaways. Some seasons were more successful than others in exploiting these aspects to make for great television.
Of course, an honorary mention is the episode that launched 43 other seasons: Survivor Borneo.
As the first and pilot season, Survivor Borneo was the beginning of the cultural phenomenon that is Survivor – one of the longest-running shows on television and the longest-running outdoor reality-format competitions. Without Borneo, who knows if there would have been more seasons of the show.
1. Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains is the twentieth season of Survivor and is universally regarded as the best season from the show’s entire catalogue to date.
The season was filled with fan-favourite returnees, some returning for the third time to compete. Every episode of the season kept fans on the edge of their seat, with Sandra Diaz-Twine winning the season.
Sandra was the first Survivor winner to win two of the seasons she was a part of. Other entertaining moments include J.T.’s letter to Russell, and James Clement’s opinions about “banana etiquette” and “Superman in a fat suit.”
2. Survivor: Cagayan — Brains Vs. Brawn Vs. Beauty
Survivor: Cagayan is the twenty-eighth season of Survivor. The season is touted as the best season that featured an entirely new cast of castaways.
This season did not disappoint in providing entertainment, despite the fact that there were no all-star returnees in the season. The season also had a winner who was a police officer, Tony Vlachos.
He was voted as the Sole Survivor and winner of the $1 million. This is despite the fact that during the entire competition he unabashedly backstabbed and lied to his fellow castaways to eventually get into the top three and win.
3. Survivor: Micronesia — Fans Vs. Favorites
Survivor: Micronesia was the sixteenth season of the show and marked the first return of fan-favourite castaway, Parvati Shallow.
Shallow, who won the season, was the creator of arguably the most memorable and strongest all-female alliance, known as the Black Widow Brigade.
The alliance was responsible for inspiring what is still regarded the worst strategic move in Survivor history. The brigade manipulated Erik Reichenbach into giving up his final five immunity necklaces, resulting in a season filled with entertainment and strategy.
