Survivor Season 42: Way too early power rankings

Survivor Season 42 won’t properly kick off until March 9, but the season’s cast has leaked thanks to the team over at Inside Survivor. While we don’t know much about these Survivors, we do know just enough to make a first impression. While these power rankings are more for fun than anything else, we did predict that Ricard Foye was going to be a force in Season 41’s version of these rankings. Of course, we also picked Tiffany Seely as our winner, but we digress.

So, take these rankings with a hefty grain of salt. After all, all we have to on is a picture, their age, occupation, and the initial tribes. These will almost inevitably shift as soon as we get our hands on the pre-season information. Take a look at your new favorite Survivors.

Survivor Season 42 early power rankings

18) Rocksroy Bailey – Rocksroy definitely feels like the most out-of-place player on his starting tribe. Everyone else is significantly younger, which could make it difficult for the 43-year-old environmental scientist to make inroads. That said, we hope we’re wrong. It’s not often you get someone named Rocksroy on your television screen.

17) Marya Sherron – Marya’s starting tribe doesn’t have a clear-cut pecking order at first glance. That said, she is an older woman, which can either make her an early target or set her up to make a deep run like Heather Aldret did in Survivor 41. Given her background in education and the fact that this cast has several students, we wouldn’t be surprised to see her connect and make a surprising run.

16) Jenny Kim – Jenny’s in a tough spot with such a young tribe. Sure, she’s only 42 (which is basically the new 30), but almost everyone else is at least a decade younger than her. That’s not a great recipe for an “older” woman in Survivor. We’re not saying she has no chance, but her day one upside feels low.

15) Jackson Fox – We put Jackson this low for a few reasons. If you can’t tell by now, we often have a bit of an age bias out of the gate simply because players are looking for something different to jump on early. However, on top of that, we don’t currently know what his job is. That makes him almost impossible to rank, so we’ll keep him on the lower end.

14) Mike Turner – Mike is the oldest person on the season, but he is a former New Jersey firefighter. That probably means he’s a hard worker who will be a major asset at camp. If he can perform in challenges and not get under his younger tribemates’ skin, he could go far.

13) Maryanne Oketch – Maryanne looks like a bubbly source of laughs. That’s a great trait to have on the island, but the fact that she’s a student in the science field has us slightly worried. Being smart is never a bad thing, but we’ve older players get annoyed at young players who think they know too much (think: Xander Hastings at the end of Season 41). If she falls into that same trap, she might struggle to get enough votes to win.

12) Romeo Escobar – This 34-year-old producer/pageant director strikes us as someone with potential. Romeo is likely a people person, which is a plus, but will his director background take over and make him a bit bossy to the younger members of his tribe. That’s obviously impossible to predict (and something you could say about several people on this tribe).

11) Lydia Meredith – Lydia is a 22-year-old actor from Los Angeles. If she fits the typical “mactor” profile, that’s not the best news for her game. That said, Survivor has seemingly gotten away from using as many recruits since Season 41, so we’re not completely tossing away Lydia’s chances. Here’s hoping she can surprise us.

10) Jonathan Young – Jonathan is in the business of beach rental properties, which could mean he has a hustler streak. That’s always a great thing to have in Survivor. We just always wonder about anyone that comes in looking to play the “Bro” archetype. It works from time to time, but we want to see more out of Jonathan before we put too many bets behind him.

9) Hai Giang – Hai looks to have great upside. He’s an analytics director at a relatively young age, which makes us think he’s probably pretty smart. He also looks to be in good shape and is in a tribe that seems tailor-made for him to have an easy four-person alliance out of the gate.

8) Chanelle Howell – Chanelle slots in nicely into the middle of our rankings. She’s a youngish (28) Recruiter from New York, NY. That probably means she has to talk to people quite a bit in her professional career, which should serve her well in the game. She also seems well-placed on her starting tribe, which should give her the opportunity to at least make the merge.

7) Omar Zaheer – At 30-years-old, Omar is exactly where you want to be in terms of age for a Survivor winner. He’s also probably very intelligent since he’s a veterinarian. His first impression doesn’t jump off the screen, but he seems like a solid pick to go far at this very early stage.

6) Zach Wurtenberger – Zach is one of the younger players this season at 21. He’s also still just a student, but he is studying media, which might mean he’s already camera-ready. That could make him a producer asset if nothing else. That’s definitely not a bad role to fill.

5) Swati Goel – And here we have the actual youngest player on Season 41. Swati is listed as just a student, which gives us almost no information. However, we have her ranked pretty high because she’s from Stanford, CA and therefore we assume she goes to Stanford. Her starting tribe is also on the young side, so we’re not as worried about her flaming out early.

4) Lindsey Dolashewich – Lindsey is a dietitian from New Jersey, so we’re assuming she’s in good shape for the game. She’s probably had her nutrition locked in since she’s been cast and will be able to easily adapt to the lack of calories. Our only worry is that her tribe looks a bit all over the place, which could make the first few days tough to navigate.

3) Daniel Strunk – Daniel is a 30-year-old law clerk from Ann Arbor, Michigan. To us, that reads as a whip-smart go-getter who could either play a great game or flame out early. With his tribe makeup, it seems like he’ll have an easy path to an early majority with Chanelle, Lydia, and Hai, which makes us bullish on his chances.

2) Drea Wheeler – Drea is right in that sweet spot in terms of age. At 34, she’s young enough to connect with the students but old enough to get the respect of the older members of her tribe. Plus, she’s a fitness trainer, so you know the girl’s in good shape. Her tribe does skew pretty young, but we think she has what it takes to make some noise.

1) Tori Meehan – Look, we’ll admit that we’re biased toward Tori because she’s from our home state of Oklahoma. That said, she’s a mid-twenties grad student who’s starting out on a young tribe full of people who seem physically fit. If she gets together a solid alliance early, she has a great chance to win this game.