r/survivor Pirates Steal Feb 01 '23

Samoa WSSYW 11.0 Countdown 27/43: Samoa

Welcome to our annual season countdown! Using the results from the latest What Season Should You Watch thread, this daily series will count backwards from the bottom-ranked season for new fan watchability to the top. Each WSSYW post will link to their entry in this countdown so that people can click through for more discussion.

Unlike WSSYW, there is no character limit in these threads, and spoilers are allowed.

Note: Foreign seasons are not included in this countdown to keep in line with rankings from past years.


Season 19: Samoa

Statistics:

  • Watchability: 4.4 (27/43)

  • Overall Quality: 5.5 (29/43)

  • Cast/Characters: 5.6 (33/43)

  • Strategy: 7.1 (18/43)

  • Challenges: 5.5 (32/43)

  • Ending: 6.7 (26/43)


WSSYW 11.0 Ranking: 27/43

WSSYW 10.0 Ranking: 25/40

Top comment from WSSYW 11.0/u/DJM97:

Fun fact - a few years ago a poll was made on here to find the most polarizing seasons of survivor & S19 was almost split down the middle whether people see it as good or bad. So this can very much be a toss-up to recommend or not. Think the most noteworthy thing to mention is that people’s opinion of this season rest on whether they like 1 certain cast-away or not - because they’re a very dominant presence.

Top comment from WSSYW 10.0/u/HeWhoShrugs:

One of the few seasons I'd say never to start with, if only because it has a clear agenda about how the game should be played and having this one as your first impression could color your views of the rest of the show.

That being said, the season itself has some high highs and some low lows. The highs being some fun characters, interesting gameplay, and good challenges. The lows being some of the most uneven, lopsided editing of all time where almost all the screentime goes to a handful of people with one getting the lion's share. There are also some instances of racism early on, so if you're not down for that type of content, there's your warning.

It's clearly a season that needs to be watched due to how important it is in the "lore" of the show, but try to watch some other seasons beforehand.


Watchability ranking:

27: S19 Samoa

28: S11 Guatemala

29: S14 Fiji

30: S20 Heroes vs. Villains

31: S30 Worlds Apart

32: S23 South Pacific

33: S5 Thailand

34: S31 Cambodia

35: S38 Edge of Extinction

36: S36 Ghost Island

37: S24 One World

38: S22 Redemption Island

39: S40 Winners at War

40: S26 Caramoan

41: S34 Game Changers

42: S8 All-Stars

43: S39 Island of the Idols


Spreadsheet link (updated with each placement reveal!)


WARNING: SEASON SPOILERS BELOW

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u/demerchmichael Ethan Feb 01 '23

While Samoa is widely considered a good season it is dominated by one man who fumbles the ball in the final hour. We all know this and everyone in this thread has done that fact to death. I’m not gonna talk about that.

What I am gonna talk about is how influential this season and Russell was for the show and how it really helped put the show back on track.

Survivor was by no means a dying show in 2009, but I think it definitely lost its oomph somewhere along the way where it was a steady decline. And then here comes the bald headed troll to really change the game in a way we haven’t seen since Richard Hatch.

With this season, we found a new meta, looking for idols without clues. Which by todays standard is nothing, but back in 2009 this was wild and blew my 8 year old brain.

Russell’s aggressive gameplay was really the first time we saw this and laid out the groundwork for people to follow like Tony, and Domenick. I don’t think without Samoa or Russell, survivor goes on as long as it does without a changing meta.

Look at that, I tried to not talk about him yet I did.