This is where I will rank each completed season of KidA's Survivor. I will include my full reasoning for the ranking of the season, and my personal opinion on the players, moves, events, and all that. Alright, let's start!
I don't think this ranking will surprise anyone - from start to finish, All-Stars lived up to the hype in every way possible. Let's talk about pre-merge first. In my eyes, the pre-merge for All-Stars was the absolute highlight of the season. Almost every tribal council was a blindside, and the game was shifting constantly. Sean giving the idol to Jake, who idoled out John, the 3-2 vote for Natasha, Matt playing the idol on Nathan and being totally fooled, the vote shifting from Jake to Gerard, Jordan idoling out Porsche, Oliver flipping the tribe on Jacob... each moment was fantastic and unexpected. I don't think a pre-merge will beat this season for a very long time.
Once the merge hit, things did slow down a bit. The LOSH alliance took control, but we did get a mini-underdog story from Jordan, who returned from Ghost Town and won immunity to last one more day. Still, once Jordan was finally gone, and LOSH broke up, things picked right back up. The tribe completley split, leading to a purple rock. What could've been an alliance pagonging quickly turned to a game-changing move when the tribe turned on Sean, leading to the finale night. Cole was taken out, and finally, a fire-making tie-breaker led to the Final 3 of Oliver, Ethan, and Nathan. The Final 3 was impressive, and the journey to get there was amazing. Overall, the activity and unpredictibality in All-Stars made it a phenominal season. While there were tiny dull splotches, the exciting moments shined - and there were a LOT of exciting moments. All-Stars will be a hard season to top; here's to hoping for an even crazier Heroes vs Villains!
Survivor: Wild West lived up to it's name in every possible way; it was wild. The players were extremely active, and a huge majority of them were invested in the game, and ready to play. Pre-merge, the Ghost Town twist helped filter out some of the less active players, while returning more deserving players to the game. It did exactly what it was intended to when I designed the twist; keep the strong players around.
Another factor that helped make the season great was the three tribe dynamic. When the tribes were broken into three, a pagonging was almost out of the question. And due to a tribal switch, alliances were crossed all over the game. This all led up to one hell of a merge... where nearly every single vote was a blindside. Some great aspects of the season was the constant drama and rivalry, starting with all of La Paz vs. RJ, leading up to Sean vs. Jake, and ending with Jake vs. Brady. The whole season was a power struggle, and I was never quite sure who was going to make it to the end, and win it all. Luckily for me, the winner was extremely deserving, and his victory only amplified the season's quality.
The only minor aspect to Survivor: Wild West that brought down it's quality would be the finale, where some controversial decisions were made. I won't go into too much detail, but certain players were seemingly "screwed over" by some of the choices that I had to make as a host. Despite the minor controversy, Survivor: Wild West featured a fantastic cast, some colorful characters, and a string of blindsides that will not be soon forgotten!
Survivor: India was a great season, and I loved watching the whole game fall into place. This was the first time where I used a major, game-long twist, The Viper Idol . While the twist did shake things up very late into the merge, it didn't quite meet the full potential it could've. This was only a minor flaw in a season that I will always remember for its drama and shocks. Early on, there were big moves and even bigger reactions. Logan playing his idol on Patricia, Gerard's fiesty confessionals, and Leah's short-lived underdog storyline. There were so many great moments in the season, and a lot of All-Star worthy competitors. This season also featured a Viewer's Lounge for the first time; an addition which enhanced the whole experience by a mile. It was very interesting to see everyone's opinions on particular players, and for the first time, the viewers were allowed to vote for "Player of the Season" and "Fan Favorite".
Now let's talk about a few flaws. The final 4, with the exception of Jacob, was very dissapointing. It was mostly weaker players, a few who were barely even active. Overall, the season was active, but there were just a handfull of players who never became dedicated to the game, and the season wasn't as exciting because of it. As cheesy as it sounds, there is a "vibe" to every season, and India's vibe was a little more mellow than some other seasons. This being said, it was still very unpredictable due to blindsides, backstabs, and no pagongings! Overall, I think India may fall in the rankings over time, but in no way was it a poor season. It had a great winner, some fantastic storylines and players, and it featured plenty of unforgettable moments!
4. Survivor: Tuvalu - Blood vs Water
Survivor: Tuvalu was a fantastic season, consisting of extreme high points, and also extreme low points. Let's start with the positive - The Exile Alliance. This alliance was formed on Day 1 between two duos - Bryce & Dakota, and Sean & Porsche. Each player was unique in strategy and personality, and seeing them squeeze through the game was fascinating. It came to a point where idols were being given from one tribe to the other, and challenges were being thrown - all so they could survive until the merge. Aside from the Exile Alliance, the gameplay was great. At the first tribal council, a tie vote led to a huge player being taken out, right away. On Amatuku, allainces were switched and a strong duo had to survive only with idols - three in a row, actually.
This leads to some of the bad points. While Porsche continued to play idols (even though she only found one herself), people began to suspect rigging on my part. While the accusations were ridiculous, they led to the removal of Amanda, something I felt was neccessary. This basically ensured that The Exile Alliance would sail to the Final 4, which they inevitably did. I do NOT regret the decision, but it would've been more exciting to see the game more evened out.
Finally, Survivor: Tuvalu has hands-down the most exciting finale in KidA Survivor history. With two duos dead-lock against eachother at the Final 4, a tie-breaker challenge was inevitable, leading to the elimination of Dakota. Afterwards, the Final Immunity Challenge was extremely close, coming down to a surprise victory from Porsche. Afterwards, Final Tribal Council was intense. Both sides seemed to have support and hate. In the end, it came down to a suspenseful 4-3 vote, and Sean was crowned the victor. Overall, there were portions of Survivor: Tuvalu which I did not enjoy, but the overall excitement of the season gives it a top spot on the rankings.
Survivor: Greece was a season of characters, huge amounts of drama, and an amazing game. First of all, the cast was impressive. With 20 players, there was a lot of room for inactives and duds, but most of those 20 castaways brought something to the table. Even the minor characters, such as Tobi or Nick, all contributed to the overall outcome. Then, there were the major characters - Cole, Oliver, Matt, Ronnie, Katherine... to name a few. These huge personalities clashed throughout the entire game, and the fights were ruthless, albeit entertaining. Overall, the characters of Survivor: Greece are really what made it shine, and stand out from other seasons.
A few things, however, prevented Greece from taking a higher spot. In terms of gameplay, it was good, but nothing fantastic. In seasons like Wild West or India, players were splitting votes, flipping alliances, planning blindsides, etc. In Greece, while the characters were huge, the gameplay was a little bit weaker. The Parliament, Cole's alliance, was the major alliance throughout the game, usually in control. Players like Oliver and Stephen were often up to something behind-the-scenes, but since Cole was generally disliked by the cast, nobody found it neccessary to overthrow him. For that reason, there were very few shocking tribal councils. In my opinion, there were maybe more surprising tribal councils pre-merge - such as the boots of Patrick and AJ.
Also, Greece is by far the funniest season of KidA's Survivor. From the start, Matt was the comedian of the season, making jokes purposely. Cole, on the other hand, was hilarious unintentionally... with his crazy confessionals and alliance names. And Fred definitely had his moments as well, with the legendary "Lucky Sperm" confessional.
Greece will be remembered for delivering some amazing players to the KidA Survivor franchise, and telling a great story. The gameplay was unable to truly reach phenominal levels, which prevents Greece from taking the #1 spot, but the characters and humor of the season maintain it's high position. At the moment, I'm unsure how Greece will stand as the series progressed, but I guess only time will tell!
For a first season, Morocco was great. It introduced some great characters to the series, including my personal favorites: Ethan, Jette, and Jordan. There were some shocking moves... Jette idoling Jon, Ethan's idol plays, Jette's blindside, and Anthony's intended self-vote.
Ethan was a great winner. He was in the minority at the merge, being the only Marrakech member, but he managed to fight back and slip into the final 2, earning five out of six jury votes. It was great watching him play the game, and the rest of the cast (towards the late merge) was exciting as well.
However, in the end, it was still a first season. For this reason, a lot of things were unpolished, there were a lot of inactive players, and I was just figuring out how to be an effective host. Survivor: Morocco will always have a special place in my heart, but it's flaws are also very apparant.
I hope, for the sake of my sanity, there is never a season like this again. Survivor: Canada was not an enjoyable experience for me. Manitoba had a ton of inactive players, and their complete failure grew boring very quickly. Towards the end, when only Desmond and James went into the merge, I thought things might pick up. But to my dissapointment, Yukon was also filled with duds, alongside maybe two or three interesting players.
At the final eight, Bryce, one of my personal favorites, was booted. At final five and six, two major active players were booted. So in the final four were two inactives, one unbearably annoying player (more on him later), and Desmond - the last remaining Manitoba member. At this point, I was rooting for Desmond, but when he lost the Final 3 immunity challenge, I knew his time was over.
So then we come to the final 2: John and Sheena. Sheena had done nothing the entire season, and despite a dismal social game, John deserved to win. The votes came in, and he won in a 4-3 vote. However, after the votes were read, I found out some more news. John had bribed a juror for a vote; a vote that resulted in him winning. I was disgusted, but not surprised. John had been trying to push the rules all season, arguing every rule I made, trying to tilt the game to his advantage. It was a stressful and miserable experience, and in hindsight, I should've removed him when I had the chance. So overall, dull season with a terrible winner; bad experience for me, and probably wasn't too fun for the castaways either.
I'm still a little bit unsure about this ranking... Canada was horrible for me, but it did have some points of interest and fun characters. Spain, on the other hand, was simply painful. The level of inactivity in this cast was ridiculous. I received maybe 15 confessionals over the course of the season, all from the same 3 people. There were countless self-votes, all the way up until the finale. Pre-merge, nobody showed up for challenges. In fact, 2 of the pre-merge challenges were won by having one player show up for their tribe. That was it.
Another factor which definitely contributed to the season's poor reception was All-Stars. Everyone in the VL knew All-Stars was coming next, and everyone was excited. I was excited too! And Spain continued to drag on, nothing interesting happening, holding back All-Stars. Everyone simply wanted this season to end. There were, however, a few good points to the season. Jackson, Bubba, and Game. These three players were the most active, and actually sent confessionals, attended challenges, voted at Tribal Council, etc. Jackson was a great player whose double-idol play (which sadly took out Bubba) was the highlight of the season. Game was a strategic challenge-force whose poor jury performance made him lose in the end. And Bubba was the comic relief, but also an underrated strategist. These three managed to give some life to a dead season. Sean, the winner, had sent no confessionals and was only semi-active due to travel, so his victory was a bit underwhelming.
Overall, the inactivity of this season is what caused it to be so terrible. Players who had amanzing potential, such as Andrea or Alexandra were complete let-downs... which is definitely a word I would use to sum-up this season. A total let-down.