Most underrated Survivor seasons of all-time

When it comes to ranking the best seasons of Survivor, these eight seasons are either forgotten about or not well-perceived.

Throughout quarantine, I had the pleasure of rewatching every season of Survivor. During this time, I was able to really pinpoint seasons that didn’t get enough respect amongst the fans.

Everyone loves Heroes vs Villains, Micronesia, Cagayan, and Pearl Islands, but there are several really solid seasons that don’t get the respect they deserve. Sometimes people flat-out didn’t like these seasons, or — even worse — these seasons simply were forgotten amongst the casual fans and never to be heard from or talked about again.

Well, I can’t stay silent about my appreciation for these seasons anymore. Maybe these seasons didn’t land high on my final rankings, but there’s a reason why I believe them to be underrated by the fans.

The first pick on my list is one that some fans consider to be one of the worst seasons ever, but I don’t view it that way.

Most Underrated Seasons in Survivor History: No. 8 – One World

Before you stop reading, let’s get this out of the way — Am I saying that One World is a good season? Definitely not.

That being said, it doesn’t deserve as much hate as it receives and that’s why it’s making an appearance on my list of underrated seasons. I know that Survivor: One World has its flaws (or a lot of them actually), but when I went to rewatch it, I didn’t think it was that bad. Let me explain.

First and foremost, One World gave us the best winner in the history of the show in Kim Spradlin. That was my favorite part when rewatching it, seeing how Kim dominated from start to finish. The only mistake she made was choosing the wrong person to take on a reward, spurning Kat, and having to do major damage control when she returned to camp.

Kim’s dominance from beginning to end made One World fun for me, but I’m also a huge Kim fan. For anyone who appreciates stellar gameplay and dominant winners, that should be reason enough for you not to hate One World.

Secondly, I know they had their fair share of issues, but the cast of One World was pretty entertaining. I already mentioned Kat, who is easily one of the funniest contestants the show has ever had — albeit unintentionally. One of the funniest moments in the show’s history is when she expressed how funny blindsides are and then got blindsided herself. Kat is television gold.

The season also gave us Tarzan (“The game is afoot.”) and while many people didn’t care for them, Alicia and Colton were on One World as well and they made sure things were never dull. Alicia and Colton are two of the biggest reasons why One World is so vehemently disliked, but you have to admit that without them, this season would have been dull as dirt.

I totally understand the disdain for One World and I was not looking forward to rewatching it, but I was honestly pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it on a rewatch. Everyone living on one island while pitting the genders against each other made for a fun pre-merge and this set up a tribe willingly giving up immunity and voluntarily going to tribal council (surprisingly, it wasn’t the women who did this!).

If it weren’t for a nasty post-swap bully session from Colton and Alicia toward Christina, One World would have finished much higher in my rankings.

In the brilliant words of Kat, “Touché”.