The 5 Most Chaotic Survivor Seasons To Watch After Season 46
Contains spoilers for "Survivor 16," "Survivor 20," "Survivor 28," "Survivor 34," and "Survivor 37"
The modern era of "Survivor" — meaning, the seasons since Season 40, "Winners at War" — has brought with it entirely new casts of players to both the audience and the remote islands of Fiji, providing incredibly mixed results. While an argument can be made that having countless superfans who may or may not have solid strategic instincts is an exhausting way to cast the show (we get it, you love "Survivor" and that's why you're here), some immediately iconic players have definitely emerged from recent seasons. "Survivor 41" winner Erika Casupanan comes to mind, as do Yamil "Yam Yam" Arocho and Carolyn Wiger from "Survivor 44" — and now that "Survivor 46" is over, we've entered an entirely new era of chaotic gameplay.
I thought "Survivor 46" was, overall, a season that started a bit slow but really picked up by the end ... and thanks to players who prioritized constant blindsides over any discernable strategy, it got messy fast. (The fact that the players are still beefing on social media is just the cherry on top of a truly wild season.) Whenever a season of "Survivor" comes to a close, some fans may want to revisit older seasons until the new one premieres, and if you're looking to scratch the same chaotic itch that "Survivor 46" delivered, you're in luck. "Survivor" players have been absolutely bonkers for decades now; here are five wonderfully weird, wild seasons you can check out before "Survivor 47" premieres in fall 2024.
(Also, we can only include five here, but honorable mentions include the first "Blood vs. Water" season for Colton's Cumbie's antics alone, "Survivor: Caramoan" thanks to John Cochran, and "China," "Cook Islands," and "Pearl Islands" for introducing some of the most iconic players ever.)
Survivor: Micronesia – Fans vs. Favorites (Season 16)
One does not simply walk into Mordor, and one does not discuss chaotic "Survivor" seasons without mentioning "Micronesia." This season saw favorite players return — including Parvati Shallow, Cirie Fields, Amanda Kimmel, Jonathan Penner, Ozzy Lusth, and Jonny Fairplay, among others — alongside an absolutely wild group of superfans, like Kathy Sleckman (who ended up quitting) and Natalie Bolton (who became a legend in her own right). This season has plenty of insane moments, including one where fan Jason Siska finds a fake immunity idol crafted by Ozzy — at which point veteran Eliza Orlins tries to explain to him that "it's a f***ng stick" — and poor Penner getting medically evacuated from the island. That said, there is (to my mind) no better moment in "Survivor" history than the audacious blindside by the "Black Widow Brigade."
When Erik Reichenbach (a superfan) won the individual immunity challenge with just five players left, all hope seemed lost for the all-female alliance — Parvati, Cirie, Amanda, and Natalie — who had been taking out enemies right and left. That's when Cirie, one of the best non-winners who's ever played "Survivor," posed a crazy question: "I wonder if he would give [Natalie] his necklace. Probably not, huh?" To say these four women ran with this idea is an understatement; by tricking the all-too gullible Erik into thinking a final jury would never side with him, they did convince him to give the necklace to Natalie and promised him they wouldn't vote him out ... at which point they promptly voted him out.
As Parvati put it, "You're crazy. You officially go down as the dumbest Survivor ever. In the history of 'Survivor.' Ever." Erik returned in "Survivor: Caramoan," but after that ousting, he seemed dead inside.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains (Season 20)
Yes, Parvati Shallow's bold gameplay is on this list twice; deal with it. (It's my list, and Parvati is an iconic enough player that fans are begging for her to return for Season 50 and she got cast on "The Traitors.") Season 20 of "Survivor" pitted "heroes" against "villains," marking a cast made up completely of returning players, and while the heroes were (by and large) a bunch of numbskulls, the villains were absolutely delicious. (Cirie Fields and Amanda Kimmel, who could have probably ended up on either side, were the two standout "heroes," and it's not close.)
Right away, "Boston Rob" Mariano and obvious villain Russell Hantz found themselves at odds, though Russell got around that particular problem by voting Boston Rob out before he even made it to the jury. Tyson Apostol went home before Boston Rob by changing his vote at the last minute, effectively sending himself home, and J.T. Thomas tried to sweet-talk Russell into an alliance by gifting him an immunity idol, drawing derision from Parvati and Russell. During the tribal council where J.T. did go home, Parvati played not one, but two idols for other people in a "Survivor" first, which basically meant that J.T. got voted out with his own idol. The season eventually ended with three "villains" vying for the million dollars — Russell, Parvati, and Sandra-Diaz Twine — and Sandra came out on top, becoming the first person to ever win "Survivor" twice (and eliciting utterly nasty comments from Russell during the aftershow). The "villains" came to play, and play they did.
Survivor: Cagayan (Season 28)
After a string of seasons featuring returning players in some fashion — where they were half of or the entire cast — "Survivor: Cagayan" reset the clock for Season 28, and I'm so glad it did. The conceit of this particular season is that the starting players were split into three tribes based on specific and superficial attributes — "brains," "brawn," and "beauty" — and immediately introduced some of the strangest people to ever play "Survivor." First, there was J'Tia, who boldly screwed over her Luzon ("brains") tribe by dumping their rice into the fire and eliminating their food source, at which point her tribemates (understandably) eliminated her from the game. Sarah Lacina (who began on the Aparri tribe, or "brawn"), who would later return and win a follow-up season, formed an alliance with fellow police officer Tony Vlachos, also on Aparri ... and Tony turned out to be one of the most inventive and flat-out insane people to ever play "Survivor." I mean, the guy is known for creating "spy shacks" and hiding in leaves to eavesdrop on other people; it might be good gameplay, but it's also certifiably nuts.
"Cagayan" really brought together a group of chaos monsters; for god's sake, Kass McQuillen (Luzon), who was the final person voted out of the game, was literally known as "Chaos Kass." Between Kass, Tony, Sarah, and other standouts like Spencer Bledsoe (also Luzon) and the kindhearted runner-up Woo Huang, "Cagayan" is consistently ranked as one of the best "Survivor" seasons in the show's history — and for good reason.
Survivor: Game Changers (Season 34)
"Survivor: Game Changers" might not be one of the best seasons of the series, but it's chaotic enough to land on this list without question. After all, this is the season where Cirie Fields, playing her fourth game of "Survivor," got "voted out" without a single vote cast against her (every single other player used an immunity idol during the tribal council, meaning that Cirie was legitimately voted out by default, a first in the show's history). The season also marked the return of former winners Tony Vlachos and Sandra Diaz-Twine (though neither made the merge or jury) and other oddballs like Debbie Wanner, Brad Culpepper, Jeff Varner, and, once again, Ozzy Lusth (who, like Cirie, has never managed to win a season). Besides Cirie's historic departure, the season was a wild collection of moments courtesy of returning players, like when "Millennials vs. Gen X" veteran Michaela Bradshaw was forced to sit out a challenge and completely missed the immunity idol hidden underneath her bench (which Sarah promptly stole). The one that looms largest, though, was between Varner and Zeke Smith, who played with Michaela on "Millennials vs. Gen X" just one season earlier.
During a tribal council for the Nuku tribe — made up of Varner, Zeke, Ozzy, Sarah, Debbie, Tai Traing, and Andrea Boehlke after a few change-ups — Varner took a desperate yet wholly inappropriate swing at Zeke's expensive. In an attempt to prove Zeke was "untrustworthy," Varner asked him, in front of the tribal council and the world at large, "Why haven't you told anyone that you're transgender?" Zeke was not yet out publicly, and host Jeff Probst and the players handled the awful situation in the only appropriate way: they admonished Varner and dismissed him from the game without even holding a vote.
Survivor: David vs. Goliath (Season 37)
"Survivor" is known for its ... unique conceits in certain seasons (see: "Cagayan" or "Cook Islands," the latter of which made the questionable decision to divide players by their ethnic backgrounds), but Season 37, "David vs. Goliath," was a genuinely clever one that panned out quite well. The basic concept seems obvious, but I'll lay it out anyway: a bunch of weedy looking underdogs (the Davids) had to battle against a tribe of strong-seeming high-achievers (the Goliaths), and it was clear that the Davids would subvert expectations when they won the very first tribal challenge against the Goliaths. From there, things only got more interesting (and in a clever bit of casting, Mike White, writer of "School of Rock" and "The White Lotus," numbered amongst the Goliaths).
While the Davids strategized constantly about how to overcome the Goliaths, the latter mostly squabbled amongst themselves, most notably thanks to Natalie Cole's bad attitude at their camp. (Natalie was ultimately voted out fourth, at which point, in a now-iconic moment, fellow Goliath Angelina Keeley begged for Natalie to leave her jacket behind; Natalie silently declined.) When the tribes swapped around so that they were both populated with Davids and Goliaths, Christian Hubicki, an extremely bright robotics scientist, ended up dominating challenges and rising up as a genuine threat, and idols flew around so fast and so furiously in tribal councils that it was genuinely hard to keep track. Unfortunately, the winner — Nick Wilson, a David — has since expressed some extremely questionable views (especially when it comes to marrying one's own cousin), but the upshot is that his time on "Survivor" apparently inspired Mike White to write "The White Lotus," and a few of his favorite cohorts even cameoed in the Season 2 premiere.
Every season of "Survivor" is streaming now on Paramount+.