You spend your time re-watching reality shows that you’ve seen and already knows who wins? That’s a question I get from some friends and family when I tell them whatever season of Survivor I am currently re-watching. Since I have seen them all multiple times by now, I like to randomly choose a season and throw it on in the background when doing other things like writing, cleaning or just playing around with my daughter. It serves as great background noise and more importantly, it allows me to catch new things on each run through a season.

The surprise in people’s voices when I tell them I like to do re-watches is not uncommon. Even the network that broadcasts Survivor, CBS, figured nobody wanted to watch a show they had already seen and knew the outcome. The show’s replayability is a major reason CBS held off for so long before they started to release DVDs of past seasons. It’s a valid question too, why would you want to re-watch a season already knowing its outcome?

There are multiple reasons to do a re-watch. For some seasons, knowing who wins from the start can really make you enjoy the season further. For example, knowing that Chris Daugherty and Danni Boatwright win Vanuatu and Guatemala respectively, it makes you really look out for any of their moves on a re-watch.

Oh my god somebody remembers my season and I exist!

For me, the ultimate example of knowing a winner ahead of time greatening my enjoyment of a season is Cagayan. Throughout the original run of the season, I remember that the prevailing sentiment among the fans is that there was absolutely no way Tony Vlachos could win. He was too messy, too quick to flip back and forth and it was going to cost him. Much of the fan base was behind Spencer Bledsoe but I was a Tony fan because he brought the entertainment every single episode. I was so invested in Tony winning that it actually hurt my ability to truly enjoy the chaos that is Cagayan. Knowing that Tony does indeed win, I can go back and watch the season and really enjoy everything that happens without having to worry about the outcome.

On the flip side, knowing someone doesn’t win a season can also help you enjoy a season more. While it may not be universally true for everybody, Panama is greatly bettered in my eyes knowing that Terry Deitz does not win his way to the end of the game. While the show edits him as an All-American hero, all I see from Terry is a self-important, cocky guy who also happens to have a terrible social game. On first watch, I spent most of Panama’s late game hoping for Terry to eventually lose a challenge so he could be voted out. Instead of focusing on the clusterfuck that is Casaya, I spent more time worrying about Terry getting to the final tribal council. On a re-watch, I don’t have to worry about that because I know it won’t happen and I can enjoy Courtney Merit and Shane Powers getting into loud, crazy arguments for their own sexual needs.

A rare moment where neither of them is yelling at the other.

Going for multiple viewings of the same season also helps clarify a lot of storylines. This is especially true in character driven seasons that have a lot of different relationships to keep track of. Gabon is a good example for this. On a first run-through, it could easily seem like the Sugar Show given how prominently Sugar Kiper is featured. It would be easy to miss the still visible but more subtle bonds like Ken Hoang and Matty Whitmore’s odd bromance, Randy and Corrine’s “we hate everyone” connection or the impact Ace Gordon left on multiple players despite being a pre-merge boot that would unfortunately be forgotten to time.

Seeing those less highlighted bonds makes a season that much better for me. Seeing Matty hug Kenny upon reconnecting at the merge or being so happy for him when Kenny wins an individual immunity challenge is cute. It really makes you realize that these people are forging real connections on the island despite also trying to cut some throats on the road to a million dollars. I have always said that a re-watch really helps humanizing a season because you get to know the contestants more intimately than the first time through.

Because you know all the characters a lot more on a second run, it can open up your eyes to seemingly unimportant characters and make you fall in love with them. This is easily my favorite part of any re-watch. What fan who only watches seasons once is going to tell you how much they love Cindy Hall, the zookeeper from Guatemala? Possibly her immediate family members and that’s it. On my most recent Guatemala re-watch, I found myself falling in love with her for her earnest love of the forest wildlife and her bad-ass boot quote after she decides to keep a car for herself instead of rewarding everyone else with one.

In China, you really can appreciate Dave Cruser and his insane need to build Survivor’s most elaborate fire pit which is basically his entire four episode arc. Almost every time the attention switches to Zhan Hu, Dave is either in the background building his Mona Lisa or talking about how the tribe should be focusing on building his fire pit. By the time he is voted off, Zhan Hu has accomplished almost nothing but they do have the best looking fire pit in Survivor history. On a first watch, much of that storyline is mostly swept aside for the juicier drama that goes on at Fei Long between Jean-Robert Bellande and Courtney Yates. On second viewing, it can takes its spot as a truly funny storyline in a very funny season.

There’s also Bob Dawg, the King’s Ransom, and his multiple Street Fighter victory poses.

The same can definitely be said of South Pacific which was a season I was fairly low on during its original run but has since found its way solidly into my top 10. Knowing how the story shapes out, that head of the cult like, religiously motivated alliance ends up losing to the atheist changes the perspective on the season. People often say that South Pacific focuses too much on religious angle of the season but it’s important to showcase because it becomes a big reason for why Coach Wade loses to Sophie Clarke. That season also throws out some very powerful imagery throughout that is easily missed at first glance. It’s a season that really needs a couple of viewings to really extract a lot of what the show is saying.

That producers are now putting together seasons like that means that they understand that fans are now really analyzing their seasons. They are packing their storylines with a bunch of things that make it fruitful for the fans to re-watch all while trying to balance it so that those who only watch seasons live are not missing key points in a dense storyline.

Of course, some seasons can also be hurt by a re-watch. The prime example most people would think of is Cook Islands. Much of the drama throughout the season is whether or not the Aitu Four can topple the Raro majority after Candice Woodcock and Jonathan Penner mutiny over to their side. Watching Yul Kwon masterfully leverage his idol to get the numbers on his side at the merge is exciting. Watching Ozzy Lusth dominate challenges is pretty crazy. It’s a great season to watch once. After that, there isn’t much depth to Cook Islands and that hurts it greatly when going back to re-watch it. We know the Aitus prevail but what else can we really pull out of Cook Islands?

I would posit that most of the seasons do get better with multiple viewings and that Cook Islands is one of the few exceptions to that rule. Most fans who end up reading this probably already take part in re-watching seasons but if you aren’t, you should really start to consider getting into it because it will open up your eyes to brand new moments and characters you didn’t even know you loved.