This era of “Survivor” would probably win based on Season 16 alone, but the second age of “Survivor” is extraordinary enough even without the Black Widow Brigade (though they obviously help vault this season to the top of the list). The Golden Age of “Survivor” kicked off with the ninth season, “Vanuatu,” where we first met future superstars like Eliza Orlins and Ami Cusack, and in Season 10, “Palau,” Stephenie LaGrossa and Tom Westman became favorites amid some truly excellent gameplay. Season 11, “Survivor: Guatemala,” was a little forgettable, but Season 12, “Survivor: Panama,” wasn’t, introducing one of the show’s all-time best players: Cirie Fields.
Things really took off in Season 13, “Survivor: Cook Islands,” even though the conceit of the season was dubious at best. With players divided by ethnicity — which was a terrible idea any way you phrase it — “Cook Islands” had a weird vibe until the merge when great players like Parvati Shallow, Oscar “Ozzy” Lusth, and Jonathan Penner got to show what they were made of. Notably, the 14th season of “Survivor,” subtitled “Fiji,” was the first season set there before production permanently relocated there in Season 33. Then in Season 15, we got “Survivor: China,” one of the most chaotic entries in the entire franchise. Between Courtney Yates outlasting most of her haters, James Clement getting voted out with not one, but two idols in his pocket, and Amanda Kimmel choosing her own downfall at the end, “China” was a great season, but it pales in comparison to what followed.
“Survivor: Micronesia,” the 16th season and the first “Fans vs. Favorites,” gets its own paragraph. In the first episode, notorious sneak Jonny Fairplay begged his tribemates to vote him out first because he missed his family, and things didn’t let up from there. As Jonathan Penner, Ozzy Lusth, Eliza Orlins, Cirie Fields, and Parvati Shallow duked it out amongst the favorites, some fans, like Natalie Bolton and Alexis Jones, carved out paths on their own. After the merge, the all-female Black Widow Brigade alliance formed and picked off men one by one, culminating in the Tribal Council where Erik Reichenbach gave his hard-earned immunity necklace to Bolton and sealed his own fate as, per Shallow, “the dumbest Survivor in the history of ‘Survivor.'” After that fracas, Shallow, a generational talent on “Survivor,” won her first title.
Season 17, “Survivor: Gabon,” was made up of a bunch of misfits, and Season 18, “Survivor: Tocantins,” brought Tyson Apostol, Stephen Fishbach, and J.T. Thomas into the mix. “Survivor: Samoa” was a little unbearable thanks to the eminently evil Russell Hantz, but the aforementioned 20th season, “Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains,” was easily the show’s best. You really can’t go wrong anywhere in the Golden Age of “Survivor.”
All of “Survivor” is available to stream on Paramount+.
