The premiere of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, the best Survivor season of all time, re-aired on CBS as part of the Road to Survivor 50 on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, which was exactly 16 years after it originally aired.
After rewatching the episode, I was reminded of two very important lessons about Survivor that I want fans to remember heading into another big anniversary season. That lesson is simple: the best player doesn't always win Survivor, and that's okay.
The episode shines a light on four Heroes vs. Villains players who will be competing on Survivor 50: Colby Donaldson, Coach, Stephenie LaGross Kendrick, and Cirie Fields. While I'm excited to watch all four of those players return for Survivor 50, it was the players who perform well on this season that caught my eye.
Of course, I'm talking about Sandra Diaz-Twine and Parvati Shallow, who finish first and second this season, respectively. Sandra and Parvati are joined at Final Tribal Council with Russell Hantz, who received zero votes at the end. Sandra beat Parvati in a 6-3-0 vote to win the 20th season of Survivor.
Heroes vs. Villains is a reminder the best player doesn't always win
I don't mean to ruffle any feathers, but I don't think it's debatable that Parvati played an incredible game in Heroes vs. Villains. And, there are many fans, including myself, who think Parvati actually deserved to win instead of Sandra. Honestly, looking at their games on paper, Parvati plays the better game.
Taking out what happened in the tribe portion of the game, Parvati pulled off the biggest move in the game to take control of the game, which gives the Villains an advantage that basically lasts through the end of the game. It's one of the biggest moves in Survivor history, honestly.
Heading into the merge with a 5-5 split of original Heroes and Villains, Parvati pulls out two immunity idols. She instructs Sandra and Jerri to play them for themselves because she knows the Heroes are targeting one of those players. It turns out to be Jerri. None of the votes against Jerri count, and J.T. gets voted out.
That completely changes the game, and while there is more crossover between the original Heroes and Villains after this point, it's the move that sets up the original Villains to make a deep run. And, they do. Parvati is in the driver's seat most of the season, but Sandra does make a few influential moves, as well.
Sandra played into and managed the emotions of those around her better than Parvati, who had to work a lot more closely with Russell than she probably wanted to. But, it's not like Colby and Rupert were just waiting to work with her, either.
Sandra gets credit for playing both sides, but Parvati had to adapt and reinvent herself throughout the game, too. She, and Sandra, were betrayed by Russell and Jerri to vote out Danielle, but then they were able to put aside their differences, work together again, and get rid of Rupert in the next vote.
Parvati even won three immunity challenges in Heroes vs. Villains! Had she not won all of those challenges, I don't think there's any way that she even makes Final Tribal Council. That's how big of a threat she was.
There are more egregious examples in Survivor history of the best or better player losing at the Final Tribal Council. I have no problem with anyone thinking Sandra, of all people, deserved to win. She played an incredible game. To some, she might have played an even better game than Parvati. Sandra was able to weave back and forth between the heroes and villains, working with everyone, for the most part, throughout the 39 days in the game.
I'm simply pointing out that the deck was completely stacked against Parvati from the first day on the beach, and she was able to do whatever it took to control the game and keep those working against her on their heels. Parvati was targeted repeatedly, and they simply couldn't pin her down.
In the end, there are many ways to win Survivor, and it's up to the players who played the game. Sometimes, that works out in your favor, and sometimes, it doesn't.
This is what makes Survivor a perfect game
Unlike other reality shows, there's no fan voting element to pick the winner. The person with the highest score or fastest time doesn't automatically win the game. In Survivor, the winner is picked by the players, and that's a bit of a double-edged sword.
Every Survivor player has a different set of criteria that they will use to decide the winner. Some jurors care exclusively about strategy. Others care about how a player battled adversity, in the game and in life, to get to Final Tribal Council. Other players respect a more well-rounded game. Some just care about the strategic side and the moves that were made along the way. Some players just pick who they like most, who they were allied with, or who they just want to see win.
That's why the jury management component is so important. You want to do your best to have players who will vote for you on the jury. Finalists need to have at least some positive aspects of their relationship with the players who will decide who wins the game, but that's not always possible.
In the case of Parvati and Heroes vs. Villains, I don't think there's much that Parvati could have done in the game to get to the end and also earn the vote of some of those who started on the heroes tribe. From what we saw in the edit, Parvati was the player they were trying to get out of the game, and they couldn't.
It's easy to say, well, Parvati should have had a better social relationship with some of the players on the jury. She should have made those relationships count. But, that's not really fair to Parvati. Rupert and Colby, the two players on the Heroes tribe who made it close to the end, seemed to loathe how Parvati played the game. Amanda Kimmel, who also voted for Sandra but was close, at times, with Parvati, finished runner-up to Parvati in Micronesia. Do you think some of that factored into her vote? I don't know how it wouldn't.
The rebuttal to that is, obviously, Parvati can't let Sandra get to the end of the game and sit next to her, which is fair criticism, but that's just how it goes sometimes.
Parvati and Sandra are two of the best Survivor players of all time. There's no arguing that. I just think it's important to remember that, with all these legends returning for Survivor 50, the best player might not win.