‘Survivor 48’ players share their picks for the best season ever

People like to make fun of me for my highly controversial Survivor season rankings. But that’s okay. Part of the fun of the Survivor fandom is the good-natured and respectful debate and discussion. Besides, ask 50 different people to rank all the Survivor seasons and you will get 50 different rankings.

With that in mind, I decided to put some other people in the line of fire for once — namely, the current cast of Survivor 48. While in Fiji before filming began, I asked each of the players to give me their pick for the best season of Survivor. While some of the obvious answers definitely pop up, there are also some surprises in store. So prepare to be surprised!

Star Toomey

The best Survivor season was the one with Sandra, Boston Rob, and Parvati — Heroes vs. Villains. And Cirie was on there too! That was top notch. And then the guy who always wore the hat… Russell! That season was full of drama. And they had history. That’s what I like about bringing people back, especially people who had beef, who had little minor issues, because the story still continues. So even with Liz and Q, the story still continues. Bring Liz and Q back! I’m sure Liz got smoke for Q for sure.

Shauhin Davari

I think the best season of Survivor is the first Fans vs. Favorites one. That’s number one. Micronesia is the best just because I think the gameplay is unbelievable, with the biggest move of Survivor history. And also, I think what’s really interesting is that season established the threat of a woman’s alliance, and that threat has never happened again, and yet it comes up every season. How insanely impactful it was on the game that one woman’s majority alliance had that much impact for that long, that even to this day it comes up and it’s still never happened again successfully.

Kamilla Karthigesu

Part of me wants to say 46, but that might be recency bias. But I loved how messy the cast was. We don’t get that in modern Survivor, but I think my gut go-to whenever I try to get people into watching Survivor, I tell them to watch Cagayan. That was actually the season that brought me back to Survivor. I’d started watching with The Amazon. I watched maybe four or five seasons, but I stopped in high school. I thought I was too cool for watching TV and movies. I was too cool for that. Instead, I played video games, which was much cooler.

And the season that got me back was Cagayan. I came home from college and my brother was like, “You need to watch this. This dude is going to win the entire thing. He’s running away with it.” And I thought he was talking about Spencer at the time, but I was wrong. It was Tony. He was just like, “You need to watch this man play Survivor. He’s playing a different game.”

Mitch Guerra

My favorite season of Survivor is Second Chance. Everyone came out to play and it was decided by the people. Literally, so many legends on that season and everyone came out to play. Nobody held back any punches. Nobody took it personally. That was one hell of a cast, and honestly, I hope a few of them get the opportunity to come back out for season 50.

Charity Nelms

Honestly, there’s a lot of seasons that would tie because I love all of Tony’s seasons, Russell’s seasons. I love Coach. The one that is legendary is the season with Brandon and Coach, where they literally made Survivor this weird religious cult [South Pacific]. I grew up spiritual and religious, and the power it takes to get that amount of people on board to pray before every meal and pray before challenges? It’s so funny to me, and I just feel like it has legend points. That, to me, is ultimate. I don’t know what they did, but I hope I have that level of power in this game.

Joe Hunter

It’s close between Heroes vs. Villains, but I would say Millennials vs. Gen X. It’s almost a tie, but I would say the Gen X version, because that is such a hot topic that to this day and probably to the day I die, I will have this conversation and it can be as heated as a political debate. And to have it almost on display in a social lab, if you will, that we could all watch and see “This is what I’m talking about! See, this is why I’m right!” And to see it unfold, because every side was saying things that we all divided within a little bit. Each one of us really jumps more to one side. And to see it play out like that was intoxicating. I couldn’t stop watching it because right when I saw it, I said, “Hell yeah, I know exactly what this player is thinking.” I couldn’t stop watching.

Bianca Roses

Best season ever was Tocantins. I love that season for so many reasons. The cast was phenomenal, but JT getting what I think was the first-ever perfect game was just like a masterclass to watch the game be played, and there were so many layers to it. So much fun gameplay — 100 percent, Tocantins.

Kevin Leung

My favorite season to a watch is David vs. Goliath. But my favorite season of all time, and it’s personal to me, is Cook Islands. And that’s because when I was younger, I didn’t really know what Survivor was at all, and I didn’t watch that much TV. But one day the TV was on and my dad was sleeping, and just the music was playing. And it was the Survivor intro, and I was like, “What is this?”

So I went down to watch Survivor, and I had no sound because I had to be really quiet. It was late at night and I just watched. I was like, “Is that Colby Donaldson jumping in the water? Why is there something going into fire? What’s going on here?” So I watched many seasons without any sound. I was trying to watch late at night when my parents were sleeping and they were like, “It’s bedtime, you can’t watch TV.” And I would just sneak downstairs to watch.

But it wasn’t until I was older in high school when I watched Cook Islands, that I was 15 and I saw Yul Kwon on the screen and I said, “There’s somebody out there who I never thought I would have the chance to play because I’m not the typical what American standard looks like.” And when I saw him in the Puka Puka tribe, the five Asians with Cowboi, Brad, Jenny, and Becky, I was like, “Wow, this is inspirational. This could be me one day.”

So that season really changed my life because it really showed that a person like me, a normal Asian-American kid who had a dream, can make it out here. And I’m here!

Stephanie Berger

I have a really soft spot in my heart for Survivor 44. I think that the characters in 44 are just some of the best folks around. They’re really, really, really compelling and there are so many of them that are really compelling. We would be lucky to have as compelling of a season. I think about Josh holding Yam Yam’s face and Yam Yam being like, “Oh, I thought you were going to kiss me.”

Of course, you remember Carolyn‘s cold open, and you remember them helping each other make fire before the fire-making competition. And I remember Jamie with her megawatt smile, and Lauren just having such a compelling story. That one really sticks out to me, and I think it might be a hot take that it’s my favorite new-era season. I just think it’s really good. And when I recommend people watch seasons, it’s the new-era season that I send people to. Just because if you’ve got a soft spot in your heart, those are people you’re going to be excited about.

Kyle Fraser

Okay, this is very sentimental for me because it’s one of the first seasons I watched. It’s the season where Aras won, Panama. I think I literally watched season 40, then 1, then 12. And watching Terry’s run was so inspiring to me to see somebody who’s back is up against the wall time after time after time after time rise up to the challenge. That was so phenomenal to me.

And the best part about it is I watched the next season that Aras was in and I actually really liked the guy. I really did! I hated him at the time when he was on Terry’s season, but I really like him and that’s just kind of Survivor for me. I don’t expect to be Terry Deitz out here by any means, let’s be clear. But there was just something about watching that season, being introduced to the game, and watching somebody overcome so much adversity thrown at them. That was great. And Cirie was in it, so that’s probably why I really enjoyed that season, too.

Sai Hughley

I got to stick with 42, because I’m obsessed with Drea and Maryanne. Both of them have different qualities that I would hope to emulate. Maryanne was authentic in the best ways possible. At some points, I was cringing a little bit at the things she was doing, but it also just gave me permission to maybe be cringey myself. Drea, because she’s literally kicks butt and I kind of want to be her. But I would never tell her that to her face. I don’t want to make it weird, but I do want her to know that I would love to emulate her in some way.

Justin Pioppi

I’m going to lean Heroes vs. Villains, just because that was such a good cast and I don’t think you could ever replicate that, to be honest with you. As good as this cast is, I don’t think we’re going to touch that one, unfortunately. But you just had so many unbelievable players. You had Boston Rob, you had Parvati, you had Rupert, you had Colby. I mean, Russell coming back after playing just a few weeks before. It was just a perfect storm of crazy characters and people who were really out there to play the game. And that’s what you want in a season of Survivor.

Eva Erickson

Tocantins. That was one of the first ones I watched all the way through, and I just thought it was so fun. They had a lot of great people on it and that really made me watch and be like, “You know what? That’s something I could do. That looks like a blast!”

Cedrek McFadden

It just came out, but the last season was 46. And that was pretty awesome, because it was somewhat unexpected, I don’t know if anybody walked in thinking “This is going to be a rollercoaster ride.” I mean there are moments you were thrilled, you were embarrassed for them, you were scared for them, you were confused. I mean it was all the things — with Q wanting them to vote him out, it was like, “What’s happening?” And then you got the whole Q skirt thing. There was so much meat that it stood out and hit so many of the boxes that needed to be met, and it was quite enjoyable to experience.

Mary Zheng

I feel like my favorite season of Survivor is Millennials vs. Gen X, because even though I don’t agree with the winner, I still loved the rivalries and the weird frenemies and respect that was going on between Adam and Jay. And I feel like every character out there was so memorable and they each played such different games.

Thomas Krottinger

Okay, I think this is one where I just kind of align with the masses here. I love female players. I love when women win. They’re not going to win this season. No offense, we’ll have another gay man. But I think it has to be Micronesia. That’s my favorite. It’s just like when Parv, Natalie, Cirie, and Amanda come and get that necklace off of Erik — it’s just like one of those moments where I was like, that’s iconic television. It’s iconic! It’s one of the best moments that’s ever happened on the show, and the heartbreaking final two kills me. There are so many moments in that one that are great — the fake idol with the stick!

Chrissy Sarnowsky

Well, I’m not a super fan. And I have a bad memory to begin with. I would say I like the older ones. I can’t name a specific season, but I like the older ones now. Everybody sort of knows what to expect, even though they changed some things where before it was so new and you’re like, “Wow, these people are on an island!” And it was just so different. I mean, Richard Hatch walking around naked? You can’t do that anymore.

David Kinne

Of the new seasons, I would say season 45. I really liked the cast of season 45. I think season 46 may have been more entertaining, but I think 45 had a better cast — regarding how they played the game, how the challenges ran, and just generally was better. Maybe the personalities weren’t as strong. I liked Dee, the winner of season 45, and so I’m going to give my vote to season 45.

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