Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Jeff Probst ranks all seasons of "Survivor"

659 views
Skip to first unread message

Milhouse Van Houten

unread,
Feb 9, 2005, 4:38:10 PM2/9/05
to
1 Borneo (SEASON 1)
You'll never repeat those first 39 days - never. It was the virgin season,
and the show was being created day by day. In many ways, Richard, Sue, Rudy,
and the other 13 created it as much as we did. Even though content-wise the
show was solid, we weren't always sure where it was going. As for me, I
really didn't know what the hell I was doing. Plus, CBS made us put that
trunk of cash on the Tribal Council set, which I hated. It was a little
corny, but hey, the show was corny, so in that sense it fit. When Sue made
her big speech blasting Kelly at the final Tribal Council, the only thing I
was thinking was - this is money. It's probably still the greatest Survivor
moment, and another reason why season 1 will never be repeated. And I
honestly thought Richard would be the first person voted off. He's a
scheming, pompous, condescending guy, but is so endearing you want to keep
him around even though you know he's got a dagger with your name on it.

2 Australia (SEASON 2)
I could almost put Australia as a tie for No. 1. It had the incredible cast
led by Colby and Elisabeth. You had forest fires, a flood, Mike Skupin
killing a pig and then falling in a fire, burning his hands so severely that
the skin was falling off. And rarely do you have a choice in the final three
that makes people drop their jaw, and Colby's choice to take Tina to the
final two over Keith made people's jaws drop. And then Colby lost. That show
delivered every damn week. Everybody wanted to marry Elisabeth, and Jerri
was maybe the best female villain ever. And as for that season's biggest
controversy: I do think Kel had the beef jerky. Just a gut feeling on what I
heard and saw. People try to smuggle things all the time, and if you're
really good, you can get away with stuff. It's part of the game. We've had
people try to smuggle things up their a--! And I won't say who, because we
caught them and it never made the show, but yes, somebody tried to smuggle
something up their anus. So beef jerky is no big deal.

3 Pearl Islands (SEASON 7)
There are many reasons why Pearl Islands was good. Top of the list would be
casting one of the greatest heroes and greatest villains in the same season
with Rupert and Jonny Fairplay. You know you're in for a good season when
Rupert immediately starts stealing people's shoes. And then you have Jonny
Fairplay, who's completely despicable. It was actually fun to work with
Fairplay on the show because he's a producer's dream. When he shows up drunk
or flips somebody off, he's bringing you gold every time. I wish we had a
Jonny Fairplay every season. Personally, however, he's an absolute jackass
whose actions at the Vanuatu finale after-party pissed me off so much that
he's banned from any event that I'm at from now on. I'm done with Jonny
Fairplay. Osten was the complete opposite. Outside of the game, Osten is a
very likable guy, but on the show he frustrated me because every time he
showed up, he wanted to quit. When he finally did quit - the first person
ever to do so on the series - we didn't want to give him the honor of being
voted out. Instead, we said, ''We're just gonna lay your torch down and you
can go home - loser.'' The other thing about Pearl Islands is one of the
most debated twists ever - the Outcasts. I hated the Outcasts. I felt it
went against everything we say the show is about - that if you are voted
out, you are out of the game. In addition, it cost us a great player in
Andrew Savage and in return gave us Lill, the most undeserving final-two
member ever. But the flip side is, you ask people what the memorable things
are about the show and Outcasts always comes up. So, was it a good twist? I
guess so. I just philosophically hated it.

4 All-Stars (SEASON 8)
All--Stars, I thought, was great to watch - and miserable for me to
experience. Worst season I've ever had. I even considered quitting many
times. I thought, I'm done with this show, I don't like it anymore, I don't
like these people and their out-of-control egos, I don't like what the
show's become. Now, I've gotten some distance from it and realize, it was
just a really, really personal season. But it's incredible what happened.
First off, there's Jenna with this dramatic gut feeling that something's
wrong at home with her mother, who died eight days after Jenna left the
island. And then you had this horrible, ugly incident when Sue accused a
naked Richard of rubbing himself against her during a challenge. This
prompted the single worst Survivor moment I've ever had - standing on the
beach with Sue just yelling at me for what happened. That's the only time in
nine seasons of Survivor when I had absolutely no idea how to respond. The
whole thing between Sue and Richard was a personal train wreck. On the flip
side, Boston Rob did something no one has ever done before: He came right
out and said, ''I'm running this game, and I'm doing it with my woman tucked
under my arm - just try to stop me.'' And somehow he did it, in no small
part due to Lex falling for it. Lex will continue to say, ''Hey, I was doing
a buddy a favor.'' Bulls---. Lex is a strategist as much as anybody, and
he's a good player, but this time, he got played. Much like the Outcasts, I
would hope we never do All-Stars again, because Survivor is a game about
strangers living together. Once they have had that experience and have spent
time together socially, it's a completely different game. It's stunt
casting.

5 The Amazon (SEASON 6)
I liked the battle of the sexes. I liked how it exposed the differences
between men and women, especially in regards to competition. Initially, it
seems that women dominate because guys are still preening for the ladies,
but as the game becomes more competitive, the men bond and the women begin
to fall apart. Rob Cesternino, of course, was a breakout character and
really reminded people how to play this game. Specifically, that if you're
fifth on the totem pole, you can get with the folks who are third and fourth
and knock off the people above you. Plus, he was obviously full of great
one-liners and had a quick wit. And this was definitely the most
unpredictable of seasons. How do you ever predict Jenna and Matthew making
it to the final two, and the spoiled college-sorority girl winning?!? And
she only won because the jury thought Matthew was crazy. And they didn't
want to give him the million dollars.

6 Vanuatu (SEASON 9)
Vanuatu is a great example of how I can never predict how a season will be
viewed. Personally, I really enjoyed this group of people. They were fun and
easy to get along with. But we didn't have the huge characters, so there
were no big events from Vanuatu. Oddly, we did have one of the best final
Tribal Councils ever, and I think that was because the relationships were so
personal. The things that I liked about the season - I loved that we had two
gay women on the show, although Scout has since informed me that she's
''omnisexual.'' As for repeating the battle of the sexes again, it's simple:
If you do a show long enough, you're going to have to repeat some things.
The characters on Friends can only date each other so many times before they
start re-dating each other. Every season of Survivor is not going to have a
jaw-dropping restructuring. What frustrated me about Vanuatu, watching it as
a viewer, was the double standard applied to Chris and Twila. Chris lied
more often and with more brutality than Twila ever did. Twila lied once,
swearing on her son's life that she'd remain true to her alliance, but Chris
lied the entire time. He's probably still lying!

7 Africa (SEASON 3)
On paper, Africa should have been a better season. We had some great players
and characters in Lex and Big Tom. We had the most epic locale ever - the
middle of Kenya, with giraffes and zebras and gazelle. But I think the fact
that there was no water source made it miserable for them to live and
miserable for everyone else to watch. It wasn't a fun season. And you ended
up with a final two of Ethan, who is a nice guy but boring television, and
Kim Johnson, who is a wonderful woman, but again - boring television. That's
hard to hear when you're one of those Survivors. It's hard to hear that
people didn't like your season, because you take it personally, but this
group didn't work. As for the decision to do our first tribe switcheroo 13
days in, that was something we had talked about doing for a while, but the
players hated it. I remember Lex looked at me like he wanted to kill me. I'm
not sure he feels any differently today.

8 Marquesas (SEASON 4)
One thing that Marquesas has going against it is - worst location ever. I
will never go back to Marquesas - ever. The No-No sandflies were eating
people alive. Dramatically, I just felt like Marquesas never got any
momentum, and by the time you got to the final two with Neleh and Vecepia -
I'm sleeping. In terms of casting a good player, we cast well with Vecepia,
but in terms of casting for the show - she was a snoozer. And Neleh was no
better. It was one of the worst final Tribal Councils ever. It was sooooo
boring. At least Kathy was around this season to pee on someone's hand.
Although she says what really happened is that a couple of guys tried to pee
on John's hand first and had some performance anxiety. So she did it. And
then she couldn't stop. The most interesting thing about Marquesas - and
what nobody knows - is that we screwed up on the colored-rock tiebreaker
that knocked out Paschal. In the event of a Tribal Council tie, Survivors
pull rocks out of a bag, and whoever pulls the colored rock is eliminated.
The way it's supposed to work is that once the tie is revealed, the people
for whom votes have been cast and the person with immunity all become safe;
the others have to pull rocks. We didn't realize that process works for all
numbers except for four. (With four people left, only one person is eligible
to pull a rock since one has immunity and two have received votes.) I
realized something was wrong about halfway through as Paschal, Neleh, and
Kathy were all pulling their rocks out. Even if I had figured out exactly
what was wrong, there would have been no way to correct it because we had
already done it. Let me be clear - no rules were violated. It's just not
what we meant to happen. And that's the truth.

9 Thailand (SEASON 5)
They're going to hate me for saying this, but this final four of Brian,
Clay, Helen, and Jan was the least likable final four ever. And that, in a
nutshell, explains why Thailand is No. 9 for me. There was so much
negativity, with Ted and Ghandia's he said/she said sexual ''grinding''
incident, and Robb strangling Clay during the ''attack zone'' challenge. And
then you felt like you needed a shower after watching Brian play, because he
was so sleazy. It was a mean-spirited season. There was a lot of hostility,
a lot of ugliness, and that's not fun to watch. We love conflict on
Survivor, but conflict that is fun to watch, not conflict that is
uncomfortable to watch. It's kinda odd that on the season I liked the least,
they decided to ask me to host the reunion special for the first time,
although I honestly think that's just because they couldn't find anybody
else. I don't think it was that they suddenly thought I could do it. They
just couldn't find anybody they liked, so they were like, ''Okay, we'll try
Jeff.''

By Jeff Probst, as told to Dalton Ross
(Posted:02/07/05)
http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1024612_3_0_,00.html


bob smith

unread,
Feb 9, 2005, 4:59:57 PM2/9/05
to
Great Article! I would have thought Africa would be the worst, and all-stars
further down.

I would have ranked them:

Borneo
Pearl Islands
Amazon
Australia
Thailand
All-Stars
Marquesas
Vanuatu
Africa


"Milhouse Van Houten" <bt...@myrealbox.com> wrote in message
news:36ve64F...@individual.net...

Ar Q

unread,
Feb 9, 2005, 6:05:47 PM2/9/05
to
My ratings--

Best:
Amazon

Good:
Borneo, Australia

OK:
Peal Islands, All-Stars

Bad:
Marguesas, Vanuatu, Africa

Terrible:
Thailand


Message has been deleted

Major ChrisB

unread,
Feb 9, 2005, 7:34:05 PM2/9/05
to

"jbalin" <jbal...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:jbalin992-105D5...@newssvr23-ext.news.prodigy.com...
> Wow, that article was a great read. Jeff is no dummy...some very good
> observations.
>
> Suggests a couple of questions:

>
>> We've had
>> people try to smuggle things up their a--! And I won't say who, because
>> we
>> caught them and it never made the show, but yes, somebody tried to
>> smuggle
>> something up their anus.
>
> Who? Who?

I heard Richard had a lighter up his ass in All Stars - thats not a gay
joke...thats really what I've heard at least twice from two different
people.

>
>> It was actually fun to work with
>> Fairplay on the show because he's a producer's dream. When he shows up
>> drunk
>> or flips somebody off, he's bringing you gold every time. I wish we had a
>> Jonny Fairplay every season. Personally, however, he's an absolute
>> jackass
>> whose actions at the Vanuatu finale after-party pissed me off so much
>> that
>> he's banned from any event that I'm at from now on.
>

> What did he do? What did he do?

no idea, did a google search but can't see anything, if he's refering to the
"After Party" as the reunion on TV he basically said the season sucked, he
was a professional wrestler now and fuck you for not putting me on All Stars

>> Outcasts always comes up. So, was it a good twist? I
>> guess so. I just philosophically hated it.
>

> Agreed.

yip they were already outplayed, outwitted and outlasted.

>> Much like the Outcasts, I
>> would hope we never do All-Stars again
>

> Also agreed.

I agree at no more all stars with the season 1 to 7 folk but if we have
another 6 seasons or so then I'd be happy to do another one with season 8 to
14.

I'd also be keen to do an All Stars Amazing Race and either had 3 teams from
each past Amazing Race Season or have some past Amazing Race Teams and some
other CBS Reality teams like some big brother teams and some survivor teams

>> 5 The Amazon (SEASON 6)
>> I liked the battle of the sexes. I liked how it exposed the differences
>> between men and women, especially in regards to competition. Initially,
>> it
>> seems that women dominate because guys are still preening for the ladies,
>> but as the game becomes more competitive, the men bond and the women
>> begin
>> to fall apart. Rob Cesternino, of course, was a breakout character and
>> really reminded people how to play this game.
>

> I would have ranked this season close much closer to the top.

Initially I would htink I would rank it higher but the disapointment of Matt
not winning over that hoe Jenna I would probably agree with Jeff and leave
every seasons as it was (except put africa bellow Marqusas)


>> 7 Africa (SEASON 3)


>> But I think the fact
>> that there was no water source made it miserable for them to live and
>> miserable for everyone else to watch. It wasn't a fun season.
>

> Agreed again.

I saw season 1, 2, 6 and 7 before seeing season 3 and I had always been told
that 3 and 5 were shit but I enjoyed Africa....but not as much as others.

I'm happy with Jeff's rankings and agree with him on almost every point

al2...@aol.com

unread,
Feb 9, 2005, 8:09:12 PM2/9/05
to


Jeff is correct when he says that Ethan and Kim Johnson were boring
television. However, the producers have only themselves to blame for
that. The tribal switch made sure that Kim Johnson survived as long as
she did.

The tribal switch forced Lindsey and Silas out. I liked Silas, and
everyone on alt.tv.survivor knows how much I LOVE LINDSEY (Damn her for
getting married!!!), but some people disliked Silas and Lindsey.
However, everyone must agree that Silas and Lindsey were exciting
television.


Regards,

Alex K.

Democracy Proponent, Ian J. Ball

unread,
Feb 9, 2005, 8:59:45 PM2/9/05
to
In article <ZZxOd.47$J85...@text.usenetserver.com>,
"Major ChrisB" <cgbrannig...@ntlworld.com> wrote:

> "jbalin" <jbal...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:jbalin992-105D5...@newssvr23-ext.news.prodigy.com...
>

> >> 5 The Amazon (SEASON 6)
> >> I liked the battle of the sexes. I liked how it exposed the differences
> >> between men and women, especially in regards to competition. Initially,
> >> it seems that women dominate because guys are still preening for the
> >> ladies, but as the game becomes more competitive, the men bond and the
> >> women begin to fall apart. Rob Cesternino, of course, was a breakout
> >> character and really reminded people how to play this game.
> >
> > I would have ranked this season close much closer to the top.
>
> Initially I would htink I would rank it higher but the disapointment of Matt
> not winning over that hoe Jenna I would probably agree with Jeff and leave
> every seasons as it was (except put africa bellow Marqusas)

I'd rate this one dead last (I didn't see Pearl Islands), as the ending
you described absolutely killed "Survivor" for me (though it was far
from the only reason I hated "Amazon").

After this edition, the only one I ever watched was "All Stars".

And I feel no compunction to ever watch "Survivor" again, because of
"Amazon".

> >> 7 Africa (SEASON 3)
> >> But I think the fact
> >> that there was no water source made it miserable for them to live and
> >> miserable for everyone else to watch. It wasn't a fun season.
> >
> > Agreed again.
>
> I saw season 1, 2, 6 and 7 before seeing season 3 and I had always been told
> that 3 and 5 were shit but I enjoyed Africa....but not as much as others.

I'd rate "Africa" 3rd or 4th. The so-called 'Beadz Kidz' were actually
the thing that made this season interesting. Watching Silas and Lindsay
literally meltdown on screen was truly joyous to behold. (Though, as
stated, the Final Four were on the boring side...)

--
I didn't get to vote in Iraq on Jan. 30, but I wish I could have.

http://homepage.mac.com/ijball/TV.html

Major ChrisB

unread,
Feb 9, 2005, 9:32:15 PM2/9/05
to

"Democracy Proponent, Ian J. Ball" <ijball***SPAM-No***@mac.com.invalid>
wrote in message
news:ijball***SPAM-No***-4252E4.175...@orngca-news04.socal.rr.com...

See I try not to judge reality shows based on their finale due to the fact
only three seasons of the hundreds of reality shows I watch have ever ended
as I hoped. Amazing Race 3, Amazing Race 6 and Big Brother 2

Pearl Islands was a great season with the exception of the finale and
Vanuatu was a shit season with the exception of the finale. It started out
well but the constant crap decisions and bad strategy by both aliances just
made the show sucky...

As for Hot Chicks on Survivor I'd have to say the hottest ever was Colleen
in season 1...and I'd have to say Joey would be much better if they didn't
insist of casting Colby

PCK

unread,
Feb 10, 2005, 10:18:38 AM2/10/05
to

Great article! Thanks for posting...

Jeff makes a lot of good points; I generally agree with his rankings
except I'd put Africa last: all the twenty-somethings were *so* whiny
and lazy they made it unpleasant to watch. Maybe bump Pearl Islands up
to #2 over Australia, too.

That said, Survivor desperately needs a reworking of some sort.
Watching the 4-5 weeks after the two original tribes merge is boring as
hell, as the one with the majority votes the minority out.

Jorabi

unread,
Feb 10, 2005, 10:37:58 AM2/10/05
to

"Major ChrisB" wrote ...

>
> As for Hot Chicks on Survivor I'd have to say the hottest ever was Colleen in season 1...and I'd have to say Joey
> would be much better if they didn't insist of casting Colby

No way. Lindsay and Dolly the Sheep were much hotter.

Are there any websites devoted to either?

0 new messages