The following seasons were ranked in the bottom 10. I have also denoted where I have tiered them:

The “D” Tier: these are seasons that are either generally unpleasant or just fairly bland and boring. In most of these seasons, either the cast or the way they are edited or portrayed is especially weak.

39. Redemption Island

38. One World

37. All Stars

36. Ghost Island

35. Cook Islands

34. Caramoan

33. Nicaragua

32. Game Changers

The “C” Tier: these are seasons that are decent but may not have enough characters or moments to make them a very memorable season. Some of these seasons, however, may have some considerable strengths and may even be memorable but may have 1–2 flaws that weigh down the season’s ranking.

31. Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers

30. Thailand

29. Guatemala

28. Edge of Extinction

27. Samoa

26. Fiji

The “B-” Tier: these are seasons that I enjoyed quite a bit, but have some sort of flaw either in casting, narrative, or outcome that puts it a bit below the “B” tier.

25. South Pacific

24. Milennials vs. Gen X

23. Island of the Idols

22. Kaoh Rong

21. San Juan Del Sur

I will now look at one last season in the “B-” tier before moving onto the “B” tier.

20. Survivor: Worlds Apart

Unpredictability: 8/10

Cast: 6.5/10

Strength of Outcome: 8/10

Storyline/Edit: 7/10

Theme/Locale: 4/5

Challenges: 4/5

Total Score: 37.5/50

Worlds Apart gets a lot of flak for the post-merge, and while I did not enjoy the beginning of the post-merge all that much, and the way that Will and Dan treated Shirin, and the way that Rodney and Dan talked about women in general, was generally uncomfortable and not good TV. However, I think the season has a very strong pre-merge, with fun blindsides of Vince, Max, and Joaquin, all of which would rank among my favorite blindsides that took place in the pre-merge on Survivor.

While the first part of the post-merge can be difficult to go through, it gets better at the final seven, when we see Rodney melt down on his birthday, Dan misuse his extra vote, and Mike going on a clutch immunity run to take down the biggest villains in the game.

A lot of people hate this season primarily because of Will, Rodney, and Dan and the way they treated the women, but for me, they all get their comeuppance by the end of the game, as Rodney has an arc hilariously similar to Crystal Cox, where he can’t win a challenge to save his life, including the fire making challenge at the end of the game. As for Dan and Will, Dan gets completely buried by the edit and gets taken down with his own advantage, and Will gets laughed out of final tribal council, being called a ‘dead fish’ in the process.

In the end, there are definitely some personalities that can be frustrating to watch at times,but the fact that they all lose, and on top of that, have to admit that their nemesis Mike beat them, makes it easier for me to enjoy the season, especially on a rewatch, because there are a lot of great moments on the way to a satisfying finish.

19. Survivor: Blood vs. Water

Unpredictability: 7/10

Cast: 8/10

Strength of Outcome: 7/10

Storyline/Edit: 8/10

Theme/Locale: 5/5

Challenges: 3/5

Total Score: 38/50

Despite coming in at #19, Blood vs. Water is a very good season that opens up the “B” tier of seasons, which are all highly enjoyable seasons that are just not quite as good as my top tier of seasons for a variety of reasons. But their weaknesses are not as apparent as the lower-tiered seasons.

Blood vs. Water was a concept that paid off tremendously, and was the only time I truly enjoyed Redemption Island, as we got some fun drama as castaways saw their loved ones at Redemption Island and sometimes even lashed out at members of the opposing tribe because of it.

The pre-merge was fantastic, as the relationships between the castaways made for an interesting dynamic that we hadn’t seen before. The post-merge was a little weaker, as it became fairly obvious that Tyson was going to win, but still, we had some good moments, my personal favorite being the final six rock draw.

Blood vs. Water is a great season with one of the most successful twists in the history of the show. The post-merge isn’t as good as the pre-merge, but this is still a fun season.

18. Survivor: Exile Island

Unpredictability: 7/10

Cast: 8/10

Strength of Outcome: 7/10

Storyline/Edit: 8.5/10

Theme/Locale: 4/5

Challenges: 4/5

Total Score: 38.5/50

Exile Island is a tale of two tribes: one tribe which was dynamic, crazy, and a joy to watch, and the other tribe which was fairly boring and not nearly as dynamic. This made the pre-merge somewhat uneven, as I would be highly entertained anytime we would see Casaya, but any time they showed La Mina, I was waiting for them to switch back over to Casaya.

Luckily, the Casaya tribe prevailed, even when it seemed that so many times, they would crumble, and we got to see a very strong endgame, with fun characters in Courtney and Shane, lovable hero Cirie, a dysfunctional alliance that Aras was desperately trying to hold together to keep underdog Terry from winning the game, and a fun rivalry between Terry and Aras as they continued to battle in challenges.

Exile Island is a fun season, mostly due to the antics of the Casaya tribe, and the endgame was probably the strongest part of the season, though I still wish Cirie had found a way to win that game.

17. Survivor: Australian Outback

Unpredictability: 4/10

Cast: 10/10

Strong Outcome: 8.5/10

Storyline/Edit: 8/10

Theme/Locale: 5/5

Challenges 3.5/5

Total Score: 39/50

Australia has one of my favorites casts in 39 seasons, and still my favorite location in 39 seasons. The pre-merge is very strong, with plenty of conflict, character moments and important moments that still stand out in the history of Survivor. The post-merge slows down as we get a Pagonging of the Kucha tribe, and the finale is one of the more bland finales in the show’s history, as there are only three people left and their fates are dragged out in a 2-hour finale. However, the final two of Colby vs. Tina was one of the most competitive in the show’s history, along with Yul and Ozzy and Wendell and Domenick, and fans still debate who was the better of the two to this day.

While there are certainly some slow parts of Australia, and many modern fans may get frustrated with the pacing of the season, it has an amazing cast with some of the best heroes and villains the show has seen, as well as a strong winner and plenty of moments that stand the test of time.

16. Survivor: Borneo

Unpredictability: 6/10

Cast: 10/10

Strong Outcome: 7/10

Storyline/Edit: 10/10

Theme/Locale: 3/5

Challenge: 3/5

Total Score: 39/50 (tie with “Australia” broken by Borneo having more “10” rankings)

Borneo and Australia are fittingly next to each other, and it is very hard for me to choose between the two. In the end, though, Borneo gets the edge over the Outback. While the first two seasons of Survivor are so different from the rest of the show that it is hard to compare them, they still both have among the best casts that the show has ever had, and the novelty of Survivor, a show we hadn’t seen before, hadn’t yet wore off. So even though Borneo and Australia may not be as strategically dynamic as some later seasons, it is the characters that helped make these seasons still great even though they are 20 years old.

Borneo has so many iconic characters that make for great moments. At the beginning of the game, the tribes are so interestingly different, with Tagi being the more buttoned-down and strategic oriented tribe, while Pagong is the more fun-loving and carefree tribe. Despite their differences, both tribes have great characters and make great TV.

Of course, the season literally introduces the concept of the “Pagonging”, but as someone who watched the show when it first aired, the season still kept me engaged and I didn’t get bored by the predictability. Maybe it was because of the characters, or maybe it was because of the newness of the series, but to me, Borneo was not what I’ve heard some modern fans call the season “Bore-neo”.

The finale still might be one of the best in the show’s history, from the first tie vote that eliminated Sue, to the final immunity challenge where Rich voluntarily took his hand off the idol, to the final tribal council where we heard the notorious Rats vs. Snakes speech. All in all, Borneo is a great first season, and the fact that it is so strong is one of the reasons we can still enjoy Survivor today. The only reason it is at 16 is because there are simply 15 other seasons that I liked even more.

15. Survivor: Cambodia

Unpredictability: 10/10

Cast: 8/10

Strong Outcome: 10/10

Storyline/Edit: 6/10

Theme/Locale: 4/5

Challenge: 2/5

Total Score: 40/50

Cambodia and Millennials vs. Gen X were both seasons that I had in my top ten when they first aired, but on rewatch, I didn’t enjoy them quite as much. However, I still really liked most of Cambodia, and while it fell out of the top 10 for me, it still is among one of my favorite seasons.

The biggest strength of Cambodia is that everyone came to play, which led to unpredictability. Like Millennials vs. Gen X, that unpredictability made it hard to follow the narrative of the season at times. However, I enjoyed the cast more in Cambodia, as I felt that there were some underrated individual character arcs that involved either redemption or making the same mistakes as they did the first time.

I do think the season suffers somewhat from being too game-play heavy at times, and it helped usher in the “Big Moves” and mega-strategy era of Survivor, but I still really enjoyed how aggressively most of the cast was playing, and many of the individual arcs of people trying to get their second chance.

14. Survivor: Marquesas

Unpredictability: 8/10

Cast: 7.5/10

Strong Outcome: 7/10

Storyline/Edit: 10/10

Theme/Locale: 3/5

Challenges: 4/5

Total Score: 40.5/50

I just finished a rewatch of Marquesas recently and I ended up moving this season up about five spots after watching it. Marquesas might be one of the most important seasons in the history of the show, and might have one of the most unique stories and overarching narratives that the show has seen, as well.

There are several groundbreaking moments that happen in Marquesas that we hadn’t seen before. The Hunter blindside in episode 3 was the first time a tribe voted out a strong competitor that early on in the game, and the power shift at the final nine where the five outsiders all came together to take out the Rotu four also hadn’t been seen before. And of course, the controversial Purple Rock tiebreaker that took Paschal out of the game.

Marquesas has a strong cast and lots of big moments. The final two of Neleh and Vecepia was somewhat anticlimactic, as I believe a Kathy win would have been a better end to Marquesas’ story, but on my rewatch on Marquesas, I was able to appreciate Vecepia’s game a lot more than when I originally watched the season.

13. Survivor: Tocantins

Unpredictability: 7/10

Casting: 8/10

Strong Outcome: 10/10

Storyline/Edit 9/10

Theme/Locale: 4/5

Challenges: 3/5

Total Score: 41/50

Tocantins starts off a little slow, as the pre-merge is nothing special, but there are so many great characters that help make the merge fantastic. Coach might be the greatest character the show has seen, and his arc is absolutely fantastic. Both Tyson and Erinn provide plenty of humor with their snarkiness, Sierra has a fun underdog arc, and Taj might be the heart of the season. That’s not even mentioning JT and Stephen and their unlikely but impressive partnership that they took all the way to Day 39.

I think Tocantins might have the best boot order in the history of the show, because all of the weaker characters go out early, leaving the strongest characters left in the game, with a very satisfying JT and Stephen final two.

I love the characters of Tocantins, and the Jalapao comeback, down 6–3 as Timbira completely crumbled, is among my favorite storylines in the history of the show. The only reason this season misses out on the top 10 is because the first portion of the game is somewhat underwhelming until it kicks into gear around the final nine.

12. Survivor: Africa

Unpredictability: 6.5/10

Casting: 9/10

Strong Outcome: 10/10

Storyline/Edit: 8/10

Theme/Locale: 5/5

Challenges: 3/5

Total Score: 41.5/50

Africa is my favorite of the original five seasons, which may be an unpopular opinion, but there is so much to love about this season for me — I love the location, I love the cast, and Ethan might still be one of my favorite winners, as he was the first fan favorite winner in the show’s history, and he did plenty of great things with the money.

Africa was a more simple season just like Borneo, Australia, and Marquesas, but I think it is stronger than all three because it has a stronger cast than Marquesas, and more unpredictability than Borneo and Australia, as we see the first tribal swap that certainly shakes up the game, and while there is somewhat of a Pagonging after the merge, there is still some drama early on in the merge with Teresa’s vote for Clarence, Kelly’s blindside, and Ethan and Tom’s concern over their ally Lex’s relationship with Brandon. And while the next three episodes are fairly straightforward, we see some amazing rewards and character moments that still keep the episodes fresh. And I didn’t even mention the drama in the pre-merge with the generation gap in Samburu, which was a highly entertaining storyline.

Overall, Africa is an extremely well-rounded season, and despite being an old season, it ages well on a rewatch.

11. Survivor: China

Unpredictability: 6.5/10

Cast: 10/10

Strong Outcome: 7.5/10

Storyline/Edit: 8/10

Theme/Locale: 5/5

Challenges: 5/5

Total Score: 42/50

China might have the best cast in the history of the show, as everyone has a role and has something compelling about their personality that makes them a great character. Highlights include Crazy Dave and his fire pit, poker player Jean Robert and his poor social skills, grave digger James and his amazing confessionals, perennial underdog Peih-Gee, and the snarky Courtney, who nobody expected to have a shot to win the game but surprised many. Todd is also a well-deserving winner who put together a great final tribal council performance.

Like Africa, this is another season that takes advantage of having a unique location, and does a good job of integrating the culture of China into both the challenges and rewards, which help it get extra points for me. The only thing that keeps China out of the top 10 is that I find the endgame to be predictable, as it is clear from the beginning of the merge that Zhan Hu is not going to be able to get the numbers against the dominant Fei Long alliance led by Todd and Amanda, and the only person who might get in the way of a Todd/Amanda/Courtney final three was James, who was voted out with two idols in probably the most memorable moment of the season.