Revisiting the Dark Ages of Survivor (Seasons 21-26)

Fortunately, there was no Russell to be found in One World.

I will say that One World was not as bad on a rewatch as I remembered it being, but I think most of that is because I’m a huge fan of Kim Spradlin’s win.

One World had the cool concept of both tribes living on one beach to start the season, but it takes a nasty turn once the tribes swap and move to separate islands. Colton Cumbie and Alicia Rosa are two of the worst people to ever be on the show and their bullying of Christina Cha post-swap makes One World tough to watch.

That being said, Kim’s win is the best in Survivor history and that makes the post-merge portion of the show a little more bearable. I’m not as down on One World as a lot of people are, but I definitely can see why it’s considered as one of the worst seasons ever and encapsulates a lot of the Dark Age problems of the show.

Philippines was the only saving grace during this era of the show.

The only truly good season during the stretch of dark ages is Survivor: Philippines and it’s a shame it has to be grouped in here because it’s a fun season. It gave us a good cast and was overall a joy to watch. That’s all I have to say about the best season in this group by a mile.

Finally, there’s Survivor: Caramoan.

The final season in the original dark ages of Survivor is Caramoan, also dubbed as Fans vs Favorites 2. The first Fans vs Favorites (Micronesia) was so popular (and still is), that production decided to use the concept again ten seasons later.

Well, production missed the mark with the second installment, as the fans were lackluster and made for an absolutely horrendous pre-merge. The favorites chosen for this season were also head scratching, as Francesca Hogl – the first boot on Redemption Island – was invited back, most likely because of her banter with Phillip Sheppard from that season.

This was yet another season where we were subjected to having a Hantz on (Brandon came back), but fortunately it was the final time there’d be references to either one during the course of a season. Brandon’s meltdown was more sad to watch than anything because he clearly wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be on the show at that point in his life.

Caramoan got better in the post-merge portion and Cochran was a great winner, but the season was pretty blah for the most part and fortunately was the final season of the dark ages.