- Borneo- of course the 1st season is going to top the list, it started everything. One reason why this season always goes to the top is Richard Hatch. Hatch is the original winner and is just an amazing player. He sort of 'founded' the idea of the alliance on Survivor and this has since spiraled out further as the seasons have progressed. Hatch helped make the season amazing, but I was always a big fan of Kelly as a kid. She was tough and competed against the boys and won constantly. I just loved how this season progressed and thought that it was the perfect first season to this amazing show.
- Amazon- this season was pretty good and everytime I watch it, it just gets better and better to me. I think it introduced an amazing player to the show (Rob C.) and just brought a new element to the game. I think this season is somewhat underrated due to the final two, no offense to Jenna M. and Matthew, but Rob C. played the most overt strategic game this season. Rob C. made the game interesting and still had a chance to win at the end, this is not usually the case. As the player who plays the most openly strategic game generally is not respected enough at the end of the game to actually get votes from the jury.
- Fans vs Favorites- this season was awesome!! It had an interesting concept of having fans play favorites, currently Survivor is trying to do this concept again, but with not as much success. I think the original Fans vs Favorites was so successful, because the Favorites that were cast, were actually players and not characters. The players are who I as a viewer want to see. If I want to see a cast of characters, then I'll watch a scripted show. Reality TV is to see people play a game in my opinion. Save the characters for the scripted shows and the players for reality TV, please.
- All-Stars-i like this season a lot, but partly due to the DVD. This DVD release of the season has the most commentaries per season. with only around 4 episodes not having a commentary. This season had game play and also let Boston Rob make a name for himself, because in my opinion he would not have been asked back to other seasons based solely on Marquesas. This season was just very different than the ones before it and that made it interesting to watch, and re-watch. I would know I re-watch this season very frequently.
- Tocantins-this season is high on my list because it had everything that a Survivor fan wants to see. Characters, game play, stupid moves, and really cute boys. This season just had a mixture of good things, while it did bring Coach to the Survivor world it also brought J.T. and Tyson as well. I can get over Coach for Tyson's witty comebacks. This season might be a little underrated due to the winner being perceived to win just by being likable, but J.T. had some strategy and good plans.
- Cook Islands- this season brought me one of my current favorite players-Jonathan Penner. This man is hysterical and so very smart. I think this man is awesome and want to see him play a little more, but not too much. Also you can't discount a season that spawned 3 favorites in the original Fans vs Favorites season and 1 returnee in Heroes vs Villains. Go Cook Islands...you spawned many amazing players and also were interesting to watch to boot.
- Vanuatu-this season had some amazing moments that after watching the DVD I have come to appreciate more. Eliza is still one of the most opinionated and paranoid players to date. I don't think winner Chris gets enough credit for how he played, he truly manipulated people. Manipulating people, I think takes more skill than outright lying to someone. Being manipulative is a little harder and really anyone can lie. Chris manipulated the women at the end and then Twila before the final tribal council. This season had a lot more game play with subtlety and less people going on immunity runs, which makes the game a little more compelling to watch, than just win and pick everybody else off.
- Redemption Island- Boston Rob owned this season, right from the start. This was his season to lose and he won it outright. This season had one of my all time favorite moments, Russell got voted out!! I hate Russell and Boston Rob winning was one of the best moments of the series. This season brought many people back for Fans vs Favorites season 2 and the players seemed to redeem themselves, since on Redemption Island everyone seemed to be Boston Rob's puppet.
- Philippines- this season makes the list partly due to Jonathan Penner and Mike Skupin being on the show. I love these two players and I think that they were amazing to watch. I thought this season was fun and interesting, I couldn't stop trying to figure out who would win, you can track my thought process as to who I thought would win this show through the blog. Denise winning was awesome and I loved it. She was a great player and very subtle. I love it when the subtle players win, because it shows that the jury actually knew what was going on and didn't vote for the person who they thought was pulling the strings but the actual puppeteer.
So there is my top 9 favorite seasons of Survivor let me know what you think.
