Survivor (seasons 5, 14, 21-24, 30, 38, and 39)

Survivor (seasons 5, 14, 21-24, 30, 38, and 39) File:Survivor.thailand.logo.png File:Survivor fiji logo.jpg File:Survivor Nicaragua logo.jpg File:Survivor Redemption Island logo.jpg File:Survivor south pacific logo.jpeg File:Survivor - One World.jpg File:Survivor30logo.jpg File:Survivor38logo.jpg File:Survivor39logo.jpg If you're a fan of Survivor, good luck surviving these seasons if you plan to watch them. Genre: Reality competition Running Time: 43 minutes Country: United States Release Date: September 19 – December 19, 2002 (Thailand) February 8 – May 13, 2007 (Fiji) September 15 – December 19, 2010 (Nicaragua) February 16 – May 15, 2011 (Redemption Island) September 14 – December 18, 2011 (South Pacific) February 15 – May 13, 2012 (One World) February 25 – May 20, 2015 (Worlds Apart) February 20 – May 15, 2019 (Edge of Extinction) September 25 – December 18, 2019 (Island of the Idols) Created by: Charlie Parsons Distributed by: CBS Television Distribution Starring: Jeff Probst (host) Survivor contestants

Survivor: Thailand, Survivor: Fiji, Survivor: Nicaragua, Survivor: Redemption Island, Survivor: South Pacific, Survivor: One World, Survivor: Worlds Apart, Survivor: Edge of Extinction, and Survivor: Island of the Idols are the fifth, fourteenth, twenty-first, twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, thirtieth, thirty-eighth, and thirty-ninth seasons respectively of hit reality game show Survivor.

Synopsis

Survivor: Thailand takes place in Ko Tarutao, which is in the Satun Province of Thailand. The two oldest contestants are selected to form their tribe via schoolyard pick. Each tribe camp had an advantage and a disadvantage.

Survivor: Fiji takes place in the Macuata Province of Fiji. Initially, all of the contestants live in one camp to build a luxurious camp, then they get split into two tribes. The tribe to win the first challenge stays at the luxurious camp, while the tribe that loses goes to another camp with nothing but a pot and a machete.

Survivor: Nicaragua, Survivor: Redemption Island, and Survivor: Worlds Apart all take place in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. In Nicaragua, the tribes are divided by age, and introduce the "Medallion of Power", which gives the tribe who uses it an advantage in challenges, but they have to give it to the enemy tribe afterwards. In Redemption Island, two former contestants who were rivals in a previous season return as tribe captains. Players who are voted out can re-enter the game by wining challenges in the season's twist, "Redemption Island". In Worlds Apart, the tribes are divided by profession (white collar vs blue collar vs no collar).

Survivor: South Pacific and Survivor: One World both take place in Upolu, Samoa. South pacific features the same theme and twist as Redemption Island (Unlike Redemption Island however, the returning captains here were not rivals). One World divides the tribe by gender, and has both tribes living in the same camp.

Survivor: Edge of Extinction and Survivor: Island of the Idols take place in the Manamuca Islands of Fiji. Edge of Extinction features the "Edge of Extinction", where a castaway can go when voted out and wait for an opportunity to rejoin. Island of the Idols has "Island of the Idols", where a selected castaway goes to the titular island and receive a lesson about the game from two mentors, "Boston" Rob Mariano and Sandra Diaz-Twine, and the castaway can show what they learned in a challenge, wagering their Tribal Council vote.

Unsurvived Qualities

Overall

1. There were too many forgettable or unlikable contestants, and too few likable contestants. This is especially a problem in Thailand, Redemption Island, and One World. Each season also had at least one particularly annoying or nasty contestant.
   • Thailand had Robb, who was very obnoxious and immature. At least he became a lot more likable during the episode where he got voted out.
   • Fiji had Rocky and Lisi, who were also not only obnoxious, but were also miserable sore losers. They made the first half of Fiji almost unbearable to watch.
   • Nicaragua had NaOnka, who was self-centered and extremely nasty towards others, such as when she shoved over and wrestled with an amputee to get to a clue to a hidden immunity idol.
   • Redemption Island had Natalie and Phillip (both of which are considered the biggest goats in the show's history). Natalie was a useless follower and Rob's henchwoman, and although Phillip was unintentionally funny at times, he was also very bossy and uptight. He also was often seen wearing pink briefs, which was very cringy.
   • South Pacific had Brandon, who was shown multiple times to be mentally unstable. This makes most scenes with him in them uncomfortable or cringy to watch.
   • One World had Alicia and Colton (the latter of which is considered to be the worst person to have ever been on the show), who were very condescending bullies. Colton was also extremely xenophobic (he showed that he dislikes the poor, disabled people, the elderly, and democrats), and acted like a ten year old girl by constantly whining and telling contestants he didn't like (which was almost everyone) to kill themselves. Thankfully Colton gets eliminated somewhat early on.
   • Worlds Apart had Dan and Will. The former was an obnoxious idiot, while the latter went berserk over being accused of hiding a small amount of food.
   • Edge of Extinction had Wendy, who was a huge hypocrite, such as not wanting her starving tribe to eat chickens they won as reward, despite being a meat-eater herself.
   • Island of the Idols had Dan, Missy, and Elizabeth. The former was being too touchy with another contestant named Kellee despite being told to stop many times, while the latter two exaggerated Kellee's claims to further their game.
2. Because of the bad casting, the reunion shows aren't that good. Most of them focus too much on the unlikable contestants, while mostly ignoring the likable contestants. Island of the Idols suffers this problem the most, as half the reunion is talking about Dan (Who was banned from it).
3. The tribe themes most of these seasons had were poorly executed.
   • Fiji had the "haves" vs "have-nots" theme, this is considered the worst theme the show had done because the "haves" tribe had a very unfair advantage against the "have-nots" tribe.
   • Nicaragua had the old vs young theme, which caused unbalanced tribes. This problem is further escalated by the large age gap between the tribes, with the oldest member of the young tribe being 30, while the youngest member of the old tribe was 41.
   • Redemption Island had returning contestants as tribe captains. One tribe wanted to take out their captain with the first chance they had, while the other tribe mindlessly did almost everything their captain told them to do.
   • South Pacific also had returning contestants as tribe captains. The problem this time was the selection of the two captains, as they had no history with each other prior to this season, while previous seasons with this theme did.
   • One World had men vs women, which was already done twice.
   • Worlds Apart had "white collar" vs "blue collar" vs "no collar", which not only sounded absurd, but added almost nothing to the season.
4. The twists most of these seasons had were also poorly executed.
   • Thailand had the "fake merge", which caused the demise of the more likable tribe.
   • Fiji had the "Post-merge Tribal Challenge", which led to a contestant getting voted out unfairly.
   • Nicaragua had the "Medallion of Power". Considering the theme, the older tribe would always need it. After a tribe swap, when the tribes became more well balanced, it got retired.
   • Redemption Island and South Pacific had the "Redemption Island" twist. Along with season 35's final four twist and Season 38's Edge of Extinction twist, this is considered one of the worst twists ever done. The most notable problem with the twist was that it caused vote-outs to become not nearly as great to watch.
   • One World had the "One World" twist. Although it had potential to be interesting, it was retired too soon.
   • Edge of Extinction had the "Edge of Extinction" twist, which is considered a terrible twist, and also made vote-outs less interesting to watch.
5. With the exception of Nicaragua, South Pacific, and Edge of Extinction, it became obvious as to who would win the season. Redemption Island suffered from this problem the most.
6. The winners of Nicaragua, South Pacific, and Edge of Extinction (especially the latter) didn't play that good of a game. Many have agreed that the runner-up should have won instead.
7. The way these seasons were edited were rather poor, as a small group of certain contestants would hog up most of the screen time, leaving the rest of the contestants to be barely shown.
8. A bunch of mean-spirited, cringy, and sometimes gross scenes, such as the scenes that showed a few contestants vomiting in Thailand.
9. In addition to cringy scenes, each season featured some straight up uncomfortable, hard-to-watch, or frustrating scenes.
   • In Thailand, one contestant gets accused of "grinding" against another contestant during the night.
   • The sixth tribal council in Fiji, where one contestant finally stands up to Rocky belittling him, only to get voted out immediately afterwards.
   • The entire twelfth episode of Nicaragua, which features the only double quit in the series (one of the quitters was NaOnka which was good).
   • A heated argument happens between Phillip and another contestant named Steve in the tenth episode of Redemption Island, which gets so bad that Phillip accuses Steve of racism.
   • Every scene that involves Brandon and another contestant named Mikayla in South Pacific, where he constantly accused her of trying to manipulate him with her good looks, even though she didn't at all.
   • Almost every scene involving Colton in One World.
   • As mentioned above, Will flipping out in Worlds Apart, where he throws tons of insults towards another contestant. Worst of all, almost everyone sides with him during this incident.
   • A dispute in Edge of Extinction between Wendy and her tribe with her wanting to free chickens, stating they should not be killed. What makes this frustrating is that Wendy is a meat-eater, and doesn't want her tribe to kill their food source for no good reason.
   • Almost every scene involving Dan and Kellee in Island of the Idols, where Dan is touching her hair, face, and body despite being told multiple times to stop, Dan never listened. Worst of all, Elizabeth and Missy use Kellee's concerns about Dan to further their game.
10. Predictable vote-outs, especially during the merge episodes, which can make the seasons boring. This is especially a problem in Redemption Island and South Pacific.

Nicaragua Only

1. Hardly anything memorable happens during this season, which makes this season more boring than the others.
   • Because of how boring the season was, this inspired the production team to implement "Redemption Island".
2. The theme that was originally intended to be used for this season got cut for unknown reasons, instead the original theme is used. This was quite a shame considering how great sounding the theme is.

Redemption Island Only

1. One of the returning captains, Russell, gets eliminated too early on. Because Russell is one of the most entertaining contestants the show has had, the season became a lot more boring after his departure.

South Pacific Only

1. The returning captains are a lot less likable than they were in their previous seasons.

Worlds Apart Only

1. The auction in this season was terrible, and is responsible for causing auctions to be discontinued.

Island of the Idols Only

1. Production removed Dan from the game for his concerning behavior, but it is agreed by critics and fans they should have done it earlier instead of "making a story out of it"
2. Because of the Dan fiasco, the reunion show was pretaped hours in advance.

Surviving Qualities

Overall

1. A bunch of good qualities present in the other seasons are present here.
   • The challenges, especially in Thailand, are still fun to watch.
   • The opening themes for each season are still amazing.
   • The tribal council sets still look great.
   • Jeff Probst is still a good host.
   • There are a handful of funny moments.
2. The winners, along with a few other contestants, are likable.
   • If it weren't for these seasons, we wouldn't have gotten a few of the best contestants to have been on the show, such as Earl Cole, Yau-Man Chan, Andrea Boehlke, John Cochran, Kim Spradlin, or Janet Carbin.
3. The winners from Fiji, Redemption Island, and One World played fantastic games, and they are considered to be some of the greatest winners the show has had.
4. Thanks to many of the contestants being unlikable, there are many satisfying eliminations, even if some are predictable.
5. Production doesn't really like some of the unlikable contestants listed in this article, and most of them likely will not return for a second (or in Colton and Brandon's case, third) time in the game.
6. "Thailand" and "Fiji" seasons are the most tolerable and the least bad.

Fiji Only

1. The season becomes more enjoyable after the merge happens.
2. This is the first season to use the modern format of the Hidden Immunity Idol after the previous format was criticized for being over-powered.

Edge of Extinction Only

1. Starting from Episode 6 of this season, what advantages a player has are shown on their confessional chyron. This makes it easier to keep track of who has what advantages, especially with the increasing amount of advantages in recent seasons.

Island of the Idols Only

1. The "Island of the Idols" twist, which featured two former winners as mentors, was rather interesting.

Reception

These nine seasons were met with reception ranging from mixed to negative from critics and fans alike, with common criticisms going towards the poorly utilized twists and unlikable casts.

Nicaragua and Redemption Island were particularly panned, with many considering them to be the worst seasons of the show.

Thailand is known for being host Jeff Probst's least favorite season, he called the season "mean-spirited" and also said there was a "lot of hostility, a lot of ugliness, and that's not fun to watch."

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