Fresh-faced fans show up to an island to face off against their favorite players. The Best Midpoint Survivor Season: Micronesia - Fans vs. Beauty”? Your jaw will drop several times watching it. Who could skip a season called “Brawn vs. The Best Semi-Recent Survivor Season: Cagayan, Season 28. Also, cast member Hannah Shapiro’s Survivor coverage at Men’s Health is a joy to read. The chemistry in this cast shone through even as they battled it out. It could have been so dumb, but it was a wholesome joy to watch, with real bonds formed and tender moments. There are no real gimmicks here, just pure fun. It’s a back-to-basics season with a truly memorable and likable cast, including a surprising performance by a famous person and a gleefully watchable villain. ![]() If you’ve never seen the show before, here’s where to start. One by one, the modern winners send the legends packing. But it’s also an amalgamation of everything that made the previous 39 seasons great, and it feels like a passing-of-the-torch from the old school to the new school, which is currently kicking the old school’s old ass. In an all-winners season, you expect the players to operate at the game’s highest level, constantly playing 4-D chess and betraying one another in flashy high-wire stunts like the one Denise seamlessly executed. In season 40, Winners at War, the game is better than ever. Each contestant was beyond stoked to be there, to get a chance to play. Gen X (33), the new players were vicious but the vibes were chill. Even in gimmicky seasons like Millennials vs. Survivor turned into a fast-paced puzzle of shifting alliances, strategies and Big Moves™ that felt a lot more fun. Around Seasons 23 through 29, something delightful happened: A new generation of Survivor superfans grew up, got cast on the show and injected steroids into the game. The game got strategic around Season 13 (a questionable experiment in racial segregation, but an excellent cast), gave us delicious villains to root for in 16 and 20, and made us appreciate tender bro friendships in Season 18. The pace is slower and there’s very little strategy to be found (though, personally, I think the challenges were more creative and fun to watch in the mid-2000s). I’ll say it: Except for the wild ride of Pearl Islands, Seasons One through 10 are boring. Looking back, it’s kinda hard to watch the older seasons now. Survivor kept going, bringing in new twists, iconic characters and a steady 6 million viewers a week. After the first few seasons, many people forgot it was there reality TV itself evolved and gave us flashier casts in the Kardashians and Jersey Shore. Survivor began in 2000 as a game simply about survival: catchin’ fish, winning island mini-games and creating strong enough personal bonds that no one wanted you gone. Even more surprising, though, is the way the game that invented the genre continues to reinvent itself. The reality juggernaut has been around for 20 years - so long many people are surprised it’s still on. We’re in the 40th season of Survivor, arguably its best season ever, and no, “40th” is not a typo. Sandra Diaz-Twine, left, and Denise Stapley. Oh yeah, and this all aired a few hours ago. It was one of the best moves I’ve ever seen on the show. I still can’t believe what I just watched. ![]() As a coup de grâce, she put a single vote on a stunned Sandra - blindsiding her, betraying her and voting her out. She played both: one for her closest ally and one for herself, nullifying the votes against her. ![]() ![]() Then, at tribal council, where a player is voted out, Denise revealed she’d been hiding a second idol. With a poker face on, Denise accepted Sandra’s idol. This was the show’s first all-winners season the stakes had never been higher.ĭenise had spent the episode building trust and a tentative partnership with Sandra Diaz-Twine, Survivor’s only two-time winner - an infamous villain whose legend status is so solidified in Survivor lore she’s known simply as the “Queen.” The two women had agreed to a trade that would give Denise an immunity idol - protection from a sure vote-out - in exchange for some currency in the game. To do so, she’d have to make an exceptionally risky move - one that could end her shot at a $2 million prize and leave her ostracized and humiliated if it backfired. Warning: Contains spoilers for Survivor: Winners at War.ĭenise Stapley, a five-foot-tall, 49-year-old sex therapist, knew it might be her only chance to take down the greatest player in Survivor history.
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