Every Survivor Era, Ranked

"Survivor" started airing in 2000, but in case it's been a while since you checked in on the reality competition show led by host and executive producer Jeff Probst, here's the gist. A bunch of "castaways" are stranded in exotic locations and split into tribes. The tribes then compete for a group immunity idol, and the tribe that loses the challenge has to vote someone out. Once the tribes merge into one gang, players fight for individual immunity instead. 

Originally, the castaways spent 39 days in the wilderness, but after changes were made during the COVID-19 pandemic, the day count was shortened to 26. As players are voted out — or, in some cases, quit or are medically evacuated from the game in extreme emergencies — a final Tribal Council takes place where eliminated players (the jury) decide which backstabbing former ally should win the title of Sole Survivor and $1 million. 

All in all, "Survivor" is a wildly complex game that requires shrewd strategy, slick social maneuvers, and physical strength to win. In its truly great seasons, you get to watch brilliant players duke it out for the money. However, there are also many terrible ones and several lackluster ones. To help figure out which ones are the best, we've divided "Survivor" into distinct "eras" and ranked them worst to best.

After the landmark 20th season of "Survivor" (subtitled "Heroes vs. Villains," which we'll circle back to later), there's a reason that the show experienced a period known as the Dark Ages. Not only could the seasons that immediately followed one of the show's best not match up to Season 20, but during this time, the show ended up with some truly tragic casts, introducing some themes that should have ultimately been left on the cutting room floor.

Let's start with the 21st season of "Survivor," which took place in Nicaragua and is considered by many "Survivor" scholars to be one of the all-time worst seasons thanks to the Medallion of Power twist (which allowed a tribe to gain an advantage before it shifted to the opposing tribe) and a cast that contained not one, but two people who quit the game. Season 22 finally saw "Boston" Rob Mariano win, but the rules of "Redemption Island" were dumb. Just because Rob won, it doesn't redeem the season. 

That twist came back in Season 23, "South Pacific," which (rightfully) pissed fans off. Season 24, "One World," divided tribes by gender for the fourth time in franchise history, ignoring the fact that this was a frankly awful way to divide said tribe. The one bright spot here is the 25th season, "Phillippines," which brought fan-favorite players like Jonathan Penner back into the fray to fight for the million dollars. Despite a great winner in "Survivor: Caramoan — Fans vs. Favorites," Season 26 rounded out the Dark Ages thanks largely to the fact that the show unwisely cast Brandon Hantz, nephew of "Survivor" villain Russell Hantz. Brandon grew so out of control during a challenge that he was summarily dismissed from the show. (With that said, Season 26's final Tribal Council is extremely funny. Watch it for the fake teeth alone.)

The New Era of "Survivor," meaning the 41st season and beyond, is still ongoing, so it can't be judged as a whole. With that said, what we've seen is not encouraging. After previous "Survivor" winners stormed the beaches of Fiji for "Survivor: Winners at War," the show introduced several new casts in a row, and for every truly great player (Charlie Davis, Carolyn Wiger), you've got a handful of duds (Geo Bustamante, Bhanu Gopal, and David Jelinsky come to mind).

To be honest, Seasons 41-48 of "Survivor" bleed together thanks to a lot of forgettable contestants, as well as some who never got a fair shot — sorry to "Pod Save America" host and Crooked Media co-founder Jon Lovett, who got the boot at the end of the very first episode of "Survivor 47." The biggest issue with the entirety of the New Era, though, is actually twofold: The players aren't great, and the manufactured twists are worse.

First of all, every player is way too aware of the fact that they're "on 'Survivor,'" to the point where they won't stop reminding the audience. (It gets annoying. Truly!) Not only that, but those players aren't good strategists by and large and spend an inordinate amount of time talking about "making moves" at Tribal Council without actually doing anything interesting. Also, a bunch of people quit, or do their damndest to get voted off for some reason. Case in point: Quintavius "Q" Burdette from "Survivor 46" wouldn't stop asking to be voted off and was kept around anyway.

Now, to deal with the twists. Instead of letting the gameplay speak for itself, Probst and his creative team seem determined to make the game of "Survivor" as convoluted as possible, introducing things like the Shot in the Dark (where a player exchanges his or her vote for a 1-in-6 chance at safety) to Beware Advantages, which have all but replaced hidden immunity idols and simply punish players for hunting for trinkets at camp. (Watching players uselessly look for hidden immunity idols in the sand and trees is half the fun!) Hopefully, the New Era can redeem itself, but it's not looking good.

Let's be fair here: the era of super-specific "Survivor" themes wasn't all bad, which is why it falls pretty firmly in the middle of the pack. Let's start with the highlights. Season 37, titled "David vs. Goliath," assembled one of the best brand-new "Survivor" casts in recent memory thanks to players like Christian Hubicki, Angelina Keeley, and Mike White — yes, that Mike White, who went on to create "The White Lotus." (White makes a habit of giving his "Survivor" castmates cameos in the anthology series, by the way.) Season 33, "Millennials vs. Gen X," had a stupid theme when you take it at face value, but it managed to assemble another genuinely great cast that brought excellent strategy to their gameplay. Season 40, "Winners at War," was predictable, but at least it's full of great former winners like Ethan Zohn ("Africa," Season 3) and Parvati Shallow ("Micronesia," Season 16).

Unfortunately, that's it for the "good" in the Theme Era. Season 34, subtitled "Game Changers," brought together a phenomenal cast packed entirely with returning favorites like the great Cirie Fields, the franchise's first two-time winner, Sandra Diaz-Twine, future two-time winner Tony Vlachos, Aubry Bracco, and even Zeke Smith, a "Millennials vs. Gen X" standout who faced a deeply nasty situation during a Tribal Council in that season. (Another contestant, Jeff Varner, outed Smith as a transgender man in a horrible attempt to prove Smith was "untrustworthy," and a disgusted tribe, along with Probst, insisted that Varner leave the game immediately.) Unfortunately, this was also the season where Fields was "voted out" by default, which just... sucks.

The less said about the 35th season of "Survivor," (which bears the bizarre subtitle "Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers") the better. And it's hard to stress how forgettable Seasons 36, 38, and 39 are (titled "Ghost Island," "Edge of Extinction," and "Island of the Idols," respectively). This is when Probst and his team started coming up with byzantine rules and twists that just didn't work, and unfortunately, they kept those going for the New Era.

Themes on "Survivor" can, as we've made clear, really suck, but the "Blood vs. Water" theme is one of the most devious the game has ever designed. It's also one of the most delightful. The first version of this theme came in the 27th season of "Survivor" and pitted family members against one another. Returning players (like the beloved Rupert Boneham and Season 19's Laura Morett) each brought a loved one to play with. Surely, producers didn't expect some players, like Morett's daughter and newbie at the time Ciera Eastin, to choose "water," but when Eastin voted out her own mother, it was clear that audiences had a great season of "Survivor" on their hands.

This was immediately followed by Season 28, "Cagayan," which might have the best new cast outside of the eras that haven't shown up on this list yet. Between Spencer Bledsoe, Tony Vlachos, Sarah Lacina, and "Chaos" Kass McQuillen, "Cagayan" was an absolute thrill ride. It was then followed by the second "Blood vs. Water" game, "San Juan del Sur," which brought in yet another great cast of new players including future returnees like Natalie Anderson, Jeremy Collins, and Kelley Wentworth.

Season 30, "Worlds Apart," is a completely middle-of-the-road season succeeded by the extremely fun 31st season "Survivor: Cambodia — Second Chance." That season brought back a bunch of really great players like Andrew Savage and Stephen Fishbac, though ultimately, it's Wentworth who steals the season with a well-timed blindside that remains one of the most cunning in franchise history. Season 32, "Survivor: Kaôh Rōng," is just as delightful thanks to savvy players like Aubry Bracco, so honestly? You're hard-pressed to find a season in the Re-Renaissance that's truly bad.

Retroactively titled "Survivor: Borneo," the first season of "Survivor" is the stuff of legend. Not only was the game — and show — brand new to both the players and audiences around the world, but in her 2024 book "Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV," New Yorker critic Emily Nussbaum revealed that the production itself went through hell just to get "Borneo" on the air, with crew members sleeping without tents and dodging dangerous animals without any light in the Borneo brush. The winner of that season was, of course, Richard Hatch, later disgraced by his deeply inappropriate behavior down the road. But during "Borneo," he invented savage "Survivor" gameplay and ousted player after player to win the inaugural million-dollar prize.

The first eight seasons of "Survivor" are, frankly, outstanding. The second season brought the audience and players to the remote "Australian Outback," introducing "Survivor" supervillain Jerri Manthey into the mix. Season 3, "Africa," had a great cast and one of the franchise's most beloved winners of all time in Ethan Zohn. Seasons 4 and 5, "Marquesas" and "Thailand," managed to hold onto the magic (the former introduced "Boston" Rob Mariano), and in Season 6, "The Amazon," future legends were born, including Rob Cesternino (who's made an entire media career out of "Survivor" podcasts since his early franchise appearances) and the iconic winner Jenna Morasca.

Then comes Season 7, "Pearl Islands," which — aside from "Borneo" — might be the most consequential early season of "Survivor." This season made the brilliant decision to cast both Rupert Boneham and Sandra Diaz-Twine, two radically opposed players (Boneham is a physical powerhouse, whereas Diaz-Twine plays a brilliant social game) who go on to become "Survivor" mainstays. (Diaz-Twine became the first two-time winner thanks to "Heroes vs. Villains.") Wisely, "Survivor" then chose to do an "All-Stars" season for its eighth outing, bringing back a ton of fan favorites. The fact that "All-Stars" ended with "Australian Outback" veteran Amber Brkich winning minutes after accepting a marriage proposal from her "All-Stars" teammate Mariano is just one thing that makes this an incredible season.

This era of "Survivor" would probably win based on Season 16 alone, but the second age of "Survivor" is extraordinary enough even without the Black Widow Brigade (though they obviously help vault this season to the top of the list). The Golden Age of "Survivor" kicks off with the ninth season, "Vanuatu," where we first meet future superstars like Eliza Orlins and Ami Cusack, and in Season 10, "Palau," Stephenie LaGrossa and Tom Westman became favorites amid some truly excellent gameplay. Season 11, "Survivor: Guatemala," was a little forgettable, but Season 12, "Survivor: Panama," wasn't, introducing one of the show's all-time best players: Cirie Fields.

Things really took off in Season 13, "Survivor: Cook Islands," even though the conceit of the season was dubious at best. With players divided by ethnicity — which was a terrible idea anyway you phrase it — "Cook Islands" had a weird vibe until the merge when great players like Parvati Shallow, Oscar "Ozzy" Lusth, and Jonathan Penner got to show what they were made of. Notably, the 14th season of "Survivor," subtitled "Fiji," was the first season set there before production permanently relocated there in Season 33. Then in Season 15, we got "Survivor: China," one of the most chaotic entries in the entire franchise. Between Courtney Yates outlasting most of her haters, James Clement getting voted out with not one, but two idols in his pocket, and Amanda Kimmel choosing her own downfall at the end, "China" was a great season, but it pales in comparison to what followed.

"Survivor: Micronesia," the 16th season and the first "Fans vs. Favorites," gets its own paragraph. In the first episode, notorious sneak Jonny Fairplay begged his tribemates to vote him out first because he missed his family, and things didn't let up from there. As Jonathan Penner, Ozzy Lusth, Eliza Orlins, Cirie Fields, and Parvati Shallow duke it out amongst the favorites, some fans, like Natalie Bolton and Alexis Jones, carved out paths on their own. After the merge, the all-female Black Widow Brigade alliance formed and picked off men one by one, culminating in the Tribal Council where Erik Reichenbach gave his hard-earned immunity necklace to Bolton and sealed his own fate as, per Shallow, "the dumbest Survivor in the history of 'Survivor.'" After that fracas, Shallow, a generational talent on "Survivor," won her first title.

Season 17, "Survivor: Gabon," was made up of a bunch of misfits, and Season 18, "Survivor: Tocantins," brought Tyson Apostol, Stephen Fishbach, and J.T. Thomas into the mix. "Survivor: Samoa" was a little unbearable thanks to the eminently evil Russell Hantz, but the aforementioned 20th season, "Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains," was easily the show's best. You really can't go wrong anywhere in the Golden Age of "Survivor."

All of "Survivor" is available to stream on Paramount+.