Survivor 45 Review 

I don’t know if this is controversial, but I LOVED the 90 minute episodes. It made it way easier to understand alliances and tribe dynamics in the pre-merge, and also allowed for challenges and journeys that didn’t feel like they took up airtime space.

Jake’s memorization strategy in the finale has got to be in a future challenge hack video

Katurah not voting Dee with Jake was the biggest disappointment of the season. That not only solidified Dee winning the season, but it also validated the fact that Katurah was never trustworthy. She flipped more often than anyone else, shared secrets that others confided in her, and prevented at least two blindsides by telling those individuals -- who weren't even working with her.

Hated Emily in the first few episodes, but then I completely fell in love with her. I hope she changes her mind and comes back one day.

Jake was way better than Owen. Jake was right about the moves to make but he seemed to be the only one on Belo who could see what the Reba 4 were doing so nobody would listen to him

Katurah has to hold some sort of record for the number of chances to take control of the game that she didn’t take or actively blew up. Some of the weirdest NON-gameplaying we’ve seen since the early seasons. Jake deserves to play again for the simple fact that he was the only one not in the Reba 4 who actually WANTED TO PLAY SURVIVOR after the merge. Katurah especially, but also Emily and Bruce and Kendra… just useless post-merge.

we need a returnee season ASAP. maybe second chances 2 with people from seasons 30-45+

People rewriting history claiming Katturah was good is hilarious. She was so petty and clung on to a majority alliance until she was their final victim. And even if she lucked out and won fire, she still finished 3rd. She was annoying and one note.

The 90 minute episodes were truly a godsend. Through the highs and lows of the season, the 90 minute episodes remained a consistent force multiplier that added to the entertainment value. The pre-merge wouldn’t have worked nearly as well if we didn’t have the extra time to flesh out the players. And the post-merge would have felt like a monotonous slog if we didn’t have the extra time to get a better sense of the dynamics. Even though the season ended up a steamroll, we still had a good grasp of the dynamics to understand why the steamroll was taking place. Not to mention that the editors were really in their bag this season as they took multiple chances to inject some much appreciated humor and fun into the season. Boys’ Night was some truly unexpected hilarity and I loved the plethora of ways they took to highlight Jake’s Charlie Brown-esque narrative 😂. Emily, Kaleb, and Drew got the lion share of the substance (which is understandable since they were gold mines for content), but I felt like the cast overall had decent to good content that sufficiently presented their character within the narrative. I do wish Katurah had a more well-rounded edit. It felt extremely jarring to see her get more of a competitive edit towards the end after the show spent so much time dragging her for her Bruce obsession. I felt Katurah had more gas in the tank than just Bruce. I know we are getting 90 minutes for 46 and CBS said that the added length was already an idea prior to the strikes, so hopefully they continue the 90 minutes into the 47/48 cycle. The advantages weren’t as bad as it has been in the New Era, but they did get a little intrusive as the season went on. Sacrificed votes are much more engaging than lost votes. It’s always better to give the players agency if they are going to lose a vote versus just taking them away. No intrigue there. All in all, 45 was the best season of the New Era, and that was in large part thanks to the 90 minutes. Survivor is best when the people are highlighted. Not the bells and whistles that are twists and advantages.

I think this is definitely the best season of the new era. They had a lot of great characters on this season and they even brought the auction back which was fantastic. I'm also glad they brought the intro back and I'm really hoping they bring it back next season. I think these 90-minute episodes really helped a lot and we honestly needed these 90 minute episodes during WAW. I think the only sour thing from this season was a little bit in the beginning with the quits otherwise I really enjoyed this season😊

Austin preseason: I hope I find my Amber out here *proceeds to lose by 1 jury vote to his showmance*

Boys night was the hardest I laughed at survivor since 10 days is two weeks. By far the best thing that happened for survivor 45 was the 90 minute episodes. It allows for more creative camp life segments like Boys Night. I hope survivor is 90 minutes for good, it adds so much entertainment to the TV product. And I can’t have enough praise for modern casting, this is a very cohesive cast and it gives room for that form of entertainment

Something I'd love to see happen is an old school picking teams but instead of day one do it at the tribe swap. Do a reward challenge where the top male and top female become captains and have to pick their teams alternating sex each time. Do you pick strength? Do you pick your allies? do you pick someone you're targeting? I think it would be a lot more interesting than just drawing colored rocks.

Jake, Emily, Kaleb, and Kellie would be perfect for a second chance season IMO

Enjoyed the season but can't really say I feel satisfied with Dee winning. I respect the game, she played strong, but of the Reba 4 she was the most unlikable and least charismatic imo, obviously as a character on the show she could be extremely pleasant and sweet irl but that didn't really come across on the season for me. I never enjoy showmances in reality TV, whether it be Survivor or Drag Race and this really was not an exception to it, although that one is both her and an Austin thing. She never faced any real obstacles to get to the end and it just made the endgame feel incredibly stale, a steamroll can be entertaining I mean look at Cagayan. But it just felt like once Emily went the season lost steam and momentum and kinda ended on a dud for me.

Personally wasn't a huge fan of Season 45 simply due to the lack of shifting power dynamics. I love Survivor more for the strategy than the personalities. My favorite seasons have constantly shifting "power rankings" where one day you're on top and the next you're on the bottom. While I loved the cast of Drew, Emily, Kaleb, Kellie, Austin, and Jake, it was just monotonous in the feeling of wanting non-Reba's to band together to take out the OBVIOUS power alliance. Reba absolutely dominated the season, which is a testament to their teamwork and decision making, but it made for a less entertaining season that rarely had a redeeming strategic move. It was just clockwork for Reba.

I totally agree that Jake NEEDS to come back, me and my family loved his energy and he was hilarious, I think in a different season with different circumstances he could be a power player

Looking back, it's crazy how Katurah almost singlehandedly ruined every Belo's shot at winning...just to be the 6th member of a four-person alliance.

I know I'm likely going against the grain with this take, but for me the season started out very strong but then really finished with a wimper. They spent so much time pumping up Emily in the editing that after she left I didn't care about anyone left, aside from kind of Drew, who was then the next person voted out. To me this season finished firmly in the middle of the new era seasons, which is something I never thought I'd have said after how good the first two thirds of it were.

I don't understand why they're still holding out on reunion live shows. It feels like every season is incomplete to me

the peridiam shout out from jake in that interview is hilarious, great video as always !!

What I took from this season is that Old-School Survivor is not dead. It was so weird to see a group stick together for a majority of the game, and waiting until the end to pick each other off. Even then, two of them made the end. The winner didn't focus on making the "big moves". Dee played with loyalty, played with her people, mixed her heart in with her strategy and WON with that strategy. In an era that was dominated by advantages and a "strategy/moves first" mentality, seeing someone win where the main part of their game was that she was loyal to her people is very refreshing. Loved this season. By far my fave of the new era, and the 90 minute episodes certainly helped. I think the show is finding the groove with this new era, and I hope we keep going up with it!

Canadians who have won Survivor: 2 Batmans who have won Survivor: 0 Clearly it's better to be Canadian than Batman.

Are we forgetting the most important part? The official return of the freakin intro?

Funniest thing is we actually got a Parvati 2.0 win the game and no one clocked it out there. Their winning games are pretty similar: Both were the center of the power alliance and had players who would never write their name down, both blindsided their showmances by eliminating a player in their alliance, both won with the same vote count. This may be recency bias, but removing Tony, she has the strongest winning game since Jeremy

I respect Jake for always trying to make a big move this season, especially since they technically would have been good moves.

I wish I could relate to what seems like the universal praise of season 45. It wasn't a bad season by any means but just felt middle of the road to me overall. I personally still think 44 is the best New Era season that brought us the best characters and narrative, and I would even rank 42 over 45 as well. I would say 45 is definitely the best PRODUCED season of the New Era and one of the best overall as far as the editing for sure but isn't as compelling to be narratively, strategically, or personality-wise to place it any higher than somewhere in the mid-tier. But I'm glad most of the rest of the fanbases seems to be very excited about it.

For me this season was good, but not great. The setup was great. Two roughly equal forces, Reba and Belo, fighting over the decimated remains of Lulu, was a really interesting premise. Instead watching Belo implode and simply hand the win to one of the Reba 4 was rather disappointing.

All credit to Emily in the merge phase for lasting like she did. Could’ve easily been out behind Caleb but made it to final 7

if they are doing 90 min episodes then they should be bring back 39 days

I had Dee and Sean as my survivor team, so to have one quit and one be the winner was wild for me. Your edit near the end of showing how Dee really commanded the game was well done though, I for the longest time was still like "I don't know if she can pull it off," but seeing that, I shouldn't have been worried lol

I feel like the first half of the season was amazing, but the second half was a totally predictable snooze fest and Katurah enraged me by completely sabotaging anything that MIGHT derail the Reba 4. She reminded me of Cochran flipping at the merge and letting his tribe be pagong'd.

This was a mid to high-mid season for me. I'm really disappointed that they haven't done a Second Chance 2 season. So many great players including from the 30's that we have not seen a second time.

Have we ever seen an easier walk to the end for any player besides Dee? Dee literally never struggled. Never had to work with players outside of her original alliance. Never had to worry about being the target. The ONLY strategy Dee used was to lie to Austin and hide behind her numbers advantage after Belo imploded. Dee was the player I wanted Emily to be, a backstabbing, cut throat liar with no sense of guilt. Deception is important, but giving the win to the person riding on Austins back for a month is a tragedy. No love for Austin either, he couldn't keep his fat mouth shut when they were going to blindside Julie which sent Emily home because ALL of them were too stupid to split votes just to be safe. Dee is basically a Puerto Rican version of Parvati, giant fake smile and all.

I still wish they would change locations. I’m sick of Fiji 😭

Jake was our one chance at having an interesting middle game, but Old Belo and Katurah managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

I don’t like how katurah and emily went with reba instead of flipping when they had multiple opportunities. I also dislike how so many times in early merge people lost votes.

I think they should do away with taking away the flint from tribes. With the time reduced to 26 days I find it increases the chances of a team self destructing far to much that you can start assuming at the start of a season that if a team doesn't get a flint that team will constantly lose.

I was really mad when I realized that a lot of the episode names were phrases that the person voted out said…. I noticed at Caleb’s boot. Then Bruce, etc.. I stopped reading them after that…

As much as i was routing for austin, by the final episode i was screaming "Dee, you deserve to be the winner" because the season deservess a magnetic winner like Dee

I think that my least favorite part of the season is Katurah being afraid to make big moves with Jake. It could have made it way less of a steamroll and I would have loved to see Jake do some big things like he wanted to. Jake was one of my favorite reality show players ever!

As a Survivor fan since day 1, Survivor 45 felt like a nice mix of old school play vs. new! Good recap!!!

To me the season peaks at the out at the middle once Kellie was gone, it was a two horse raise to me and once Emily was taken out it was just a question of if Dee could lose? She didn't so it's a bit boring in the last couple episodes strategy/gameplay wise. Though the characters, the drama, just the extra camp life shenanigan's all of that was good. 90 minutes really helped almost every episode maybe one or two didn't need it but I think it was a good way to allow the show time to breathe. To allow us to just get to know the cast and not have so much screen time eaten up by twists. Though they did turn back the twists this season. Overall a dang good season and the show has been getting better since 41 and if this keeps up we could have an all time great season next.

Best season of the new era and once the first few cast members that didn't want to play were weeded out, this became the best cast of the new era and I think that has to do with their hunger to play the game with no regrets AND the 90 minute episode length. I hope that stays moving forward because that added so much depth to each episode and to each player. Absolutely balanced, well said. Jake absolutely deserves a second chance in the game. I would also love to see Kellie come back. Lots of great candidates for a second chance. Also liked that the showmance made it to the end and flew under the radar enough to where there was nothing anyone could do about it when it came down to the wire. Austin and Dee played really strong games and it was great to see the vote come so close with the final 3. Feel bad for Jake that he got no votes but that is kind of a poetic end to his season. People tried to vote him out all season and in the end, he didn't see his name come up for once. I would also argue that Dee is the best winner of of the new era. I could say best winner since Tony MAYBE... though I think that Yam Yam was a good winner too in terms of social game and how he had his hand in every part of the game. The podcast has also added great detail to the season too. Overall FANTASTIC season with a DREAM cast.

Only criticism I would like to ask angry juries to come back. Stop the conversational style and bring back the ridiculously mean pointed questions.

Dude! Nice shout-out from Jake at the end 🙌🏼

Austin said in pre game press he wants to find his Amber only to kinda become Amber. Also the strength of the cast shows in how much a lot of us want a lot of the players back. Everyone wants Kellie, Emily and Caleb back but I would love to see Drew playing again.

I honestly felt the season was “over edited”. It felt like the show forced me to think of players as “dumb” or “strategic” or other, without really giving me a real reason to think so. Like Austin played an amazing game but they purposefully overshadowed him in favor of Dee (yeah I know why but shouldn’t the edit be less obvious?)

I liked this season but the amount of quits in the beginning made me so angry. So many people would’ve killed to have those spots. Imagine what it would’ve been like if we had quality characters that didn’t quit

This is the first new era season that I watched all the way through. 41 and 43 weren’t good, and for whatever reason I just lost some interest in 42 and 44 along the way. This season held my interest from episode 1. The 90 minute episodes were an absolute godsend in helping flesh out what turned out to be an incredible cast. I don’t know if it’s top 10 for me, but it’s up there. And Dee is pretty high in the winners rankings for sure. And the Kenny Loggins montage is legitimately my favorite thing the Survivor editors have ever done. That was hilarious. I’d love to see Jake, Sabiyah, Kaleb, Emily, Kellie, and heck even Bruce play again.

Bring back 39 days Get rid of "risk your vote twist" Stop casting cry babies and people with sob stories Bring back 2 tribes Go to different locations If these things do not happen, every season will be mid Also why at every merge are half of the players safe

Dee was such a predictable win after the Emily vote, and yet I was still crossing my fingers for it! Needed a likable strong and dominant winner so badly - it’s so fun watching a woman run the game like a man too

This is the best of the 'new era' but the bar was not set very high. THREE quitters in one season. The only reason Dee won was because Katurah made the WORST move in Survivor history. Dee owes her part of the million.

For me, 41-44 are all better IMHO. 42 was a joy from start to finish, period. 43 was a roller coaster with a brilliant overarching narrative/twist ending, and lots of exciting, interesting players. 44 was a fascinating emotional journey of perseverance and a wonderful pay-off. 41, which has some major weaknesses (had an under-edited tribe that housed the winner, and some early episodes were CRAMMED with advantages), but overall I still thoroughly enjoyed almost every moment from start to finish, with the complex characters, emotional drama, and devastating blindsides, thanks to players like Shan, Ricard, Deshawn, Xander, Tiffany, Evvie, Danny. 45's strengths were a few standout episodes and character arcs, but I don't think they outweigh the weaknesses -- especially the long stretches of limited/inadequate gameplay, and another under-edited tribe/winner (well, a bit less so thanks to the 90 minute episodes). The show made us root for Kaleb and Emily, but after both rising to power at different stages, their games just sorta fizzled out. We also rooted for Jake, but it was sort of out of pity since he had zero agency after episode 7 through to the end of episode 12. Perhaps that's just the effect of a dominant game and a dominant winner. But in trying to hide the winner a bit until the very end (i.e. end of episode 11), the season felt like it was missing something. Why were the Reba 4 so solid? Why were the Belos so dysfunctional? These critical developments were shown to us on a surface level (wow, Bruce is so annoying! Katurah hates him! Dee and Julie are a solid two, and Drew and Austin are like Stephen and JT, wow!), but never fleshed out. Kellie being Bruce's #1 ally was explored in about 30 seconds of footage. Kellie turning on Bruce was explored in about 15 seconds. Julie was ignored by the edit (apart from some one-liners) for like 8 episodes until she randomly became this big threat in episode 9. Since when did Kendra think Dee is a threat? Came outta nowhere. That's the best they can do with 90 minute episodes?

This was the BEST season of survivor in YEARS. I actually liked the cast, the most athletic/attractive people weren’t immediately voted out in the first few episodes, and there were several new interesting twists along with some callbacks (looking at you, auction) that were done well with mind to what doomed them in prior seasons.

Okay look it’s not something she should get too much shade for. But Katura kept screwing over Jake when he was right about what move to make

Re your comment "Jake was shifty", would it be more accurate to say that "Katurah *thought* that Jake was shifty?" given that he did actually vote the way that she told him to. She said she didn't trust him but I never quite understood why. Ironically it was Katurah who ended up being shifty and not Jake.

This is the most memorable new cast since at least Millennials vs Gen X. A huge part of that has to be the longer episodes. Think of what we were missing through so many other seasons.

I enjoyed the first 2/3rd of the season a lot… but I feel like the last third was weaker and a bit disappointing. Still, I liked the longer airtime and the season overall.

completely agree with you. this season def revived my love for survivor. i found myself looking forward to the next episode every week and seeing the narratives established throughout the season getting a satisfied pay-off was just amazing. great cast, excellent editing, tons of memorable moments a top tier winner who played a fantastic game while displaying a lot of the seasons themes as a character. really happy with the overall result.

Honestly, i don't really get how people could not at least like the season it had so many great moments the Kelly blindsided the Kaleb shot in the dark and the 2 1 1 1 vote plus one of the most in depth cast ever and a deserving winner what's not to love?

Boys night is probably the editing crews most beloved couple of minutes on this season

Also just gotta give a shoutout to bringing back the opening credits (thanks to the 90 min eps no doubt)

Once the merge started I thought that is where season 45 started to go downhill for me. This is where the gameplay started to fall flat in my opinion. Were there still good moments after the merge? Yes, but to be honest the only person I was invested in was Emily at that point. It was very clear from this point forward that someone from the Reba 4 was going to win this season. Specifically either Austin or Dee. The focus on Mama D and Drew was wild to me. Well deserved win for Dee. There were what I felt like a ton of emotional/personal voting this season compared to strategic. Overall it is one of the better seasons of the new era, but this season got a little boring after the merge. I love everyone on this cast though

Katurah could have put shit aside and vote with bruce and 5-4ed or 4-4ed reba. her voting out bruce gave her no power to dictate the end

Sorry, I have to note on your video, are you saying that this season, the season where two players left the game of their own free will, was the best way to start the new era? No, they need to bring back survivor that’s not so brain-based, but equal out with strength and intelligence.

Great season. Was rooting for drew from day one and it was good ride 🎉🎉

Continuing the trend of the 40's being the very worst era of Survivor while simultaneously having each season be better than the last, while ALSO having really underwhelming winners. I think every winner so far in the 40's (not including winners at war of course) easily falls into the bottom half of winners.

What drove me mad was some incredibly stupid gameplay. Wasn’t there multiple times where EVERYONE put their vote on 1 player, even though they knew they had a hidden immunity idol? That just led to the HII being played, and that one person having all the power to vote who they wanted out.. like.. common, be smarter than that.

great video as always ! i genuinely think this season has the most memorable tribals / vote offs in a LONG time -- the kaleb shot in the dark play / julie idol play (complete with everyone's confessional being shown) / the goddamn 2-1-1-1 are all (imo) up there with the dvg minority split vote and the cody betrayal as some of the most iconic voteouts of modern survivor, then you also have the kellie blindside (which could be argued as being in the tier above), the bruce blindside, sabiyah ROASTING HER IDOL IN THE TRIBAL FIRE, both quits (say what you will abt them, they were both very memorable and were something we haven't seen in a long, long time), brandon and emily openly deliberating between the two of them at tribal, jake trying to tie the vote only to have katurah flip (which stands out since we're in an era that rly incentivizes people being on the same page vote-wise) ,,,, you're damn right that in a lesser season any of these would've been one of the most iconic moments so the fact that some of these aren't even in the top 5 speaks to the sheer quality of the season we'll see how the season is on a rewatch, but i genuinely think this might be a top 5 season for me. the fact that we had all these iconic tribals PLUS a plethora of amusing and incredibly fresh feeling character moments (brando and drew talking abt pokemon, dee's big toe, the gurls talking abt their buffs, lulu genuinely believing that the aliens built the pyramids, dee/austin/katurah flying over camp in a chopper to drew's chagrin, bruce being bruce, kendra being kendra, etc) and a number of fantastic arcs across the season (emily going from certain first boot to edgic frontrunner, sabiyah's downfall, bruce slowly pissing off more and more people to the point of singlehandedly tanking his tribe post merge, dee playing a lovestruck austin like a fiddle, jake and katurah constantly ending up in parallel positions but taking the opposite route at every opportunity, as well as lulu, belo, and reba all getting a third of the game dedicated to their implosion as you mentioned) left me feeling so so satisfied but also so so excited for survivor 46

I got better vibes from the 46 preview than I have in awhile. Great idea to include audition video clips too.

Was Dee really a big player when it came to leading votes or was everyone around her just afraid to make moves? She was like "Kendra!" "Kaleb!" and everyone was like "but, why?" And she was like "because" and they were like "ok" 🤷🏼‍♀️

Jake's story line in this season was so cringe it was hard to watch. He threw tantrums like a child and everyone ignored him like the weird kid at school. That first episode was so pathetic. Embarrassing. 🤦🏼‍♀️ The lack of survivability the whole season was pretty dumb and cheapens the show. Kaleb's "adoption" of Emily, trying to teach her social survivor was also very cringey. It reminded me of Ozzy setting standards for Cochran in their first season. The editing made it seem like Kaleb was being kind and helpful, but I just felt it was fake and awkward. All everyone talked about all season was making big moves and no one did it. It was such a boring, disappointing season! Julie played that idol, and voted for Emily?! Lame. Jake finally redeems himself and finds an idol...and tells everyone about it?! THEN uses it on someone that didn't end up needing it?! Lame! Even Kaleb playing his shot in the dark ended up being not so exciting considering he went home so soon after. Lame.

I REALLY ENJOYED the 90 minute episodes REVELLED in the return of the Survivor Auction and tribe swap And, FREAKING LOVE that Dee is our winner of Survivor 45!!! 🥳

I loved this season a lot...except for the end game. It was so obvious Dee was winning because literally no one was willing (except like one person) to take her out of the game when it was obvious she had so much win equity in the game and power AND good social game. Became frustrating.

I feel like I'm alone here, judging by the commentary and comments, but I thought the premiere episode of 45 was the WORST ep of Survivor I had seen. Not the worst premiere, the worst, full stop. Having said that, ep 2 onwards was great (with a couple of meh episodes here and there) but I ended up loving the season overall.

I just finished watching the season over the last couple of weeks and I enjoyed it way more than many recent seasons. I don't tend to have the same problems with some of the game changes or power quirks (although the hourglass one was awful), but I thought they did a really good job of managing it for 45. My favorite player was Emily (I always appreciate it when folks wear their heart on their sleeve and you can see them navigating parts of the game they're not good at). I was so disappointed to see her voted out, but it didn't ruin the season for me. Lastly, I LOVED the longer episodes. They rarely felt overlong. I think modern Survivor has done a really good job of giving players the chance to look good in their own ways. It feels like most players get a generous edit (not to imply stuff is hidden, just that they get a generally positive spotlight) and the longer episodes gave room for that while also letting the challenges and strategy breathe. Plus we got the "boy's night" montage, something that was so good but unnecessary, you'd think it was done by a fan after the season instead of put within an episode.

In my ranking for the past 5 seasons, I would rank this as 4 out of five, only above 41. Pros were the swap, the 90 minute episodes, and some very entertaining rootable characters that went too early or couldn’t get any traction (Kaleb, Emily, Jake, Kellie). It just felt like everything had time to breathe with the extra time. Characters became more fleshed out. Arcs and storylines were established and went somewhere for the most part. Cons were the gameplay, those quits, and the failure of the editors to give Dee an edit that would make her more satisfying as winner (she is a satisfying winner, don’t get me wrong, but the fact a significant portion of the fan base were rooting for Jake due to his underdog status instead of the winner is a sign of bad communication from the editors). Honestly if people thought through Dee’s 2 “Number 1”s, they would realize her plan for the final three. It honestly felt like amateur hour from a solid 2/3 of the cast. Nobody but the Reba 4 and a few others thought long term with their moves. Emily ensuring Bruce (while edited as a great move) would not play his idol ensured Reba the numbers without her, thereby making her more exposed. Katurah’s edit was bad (its hyper fixation on Bruce that went nowhere) and she made mistakes that allowed Reba to marched unchallenged to the end (The Kaleb boot and the Julie boot). The Kellie blindside was brutal, but just illustrates the nearsighted nature of Belo. Jake failed to keep his idol secret and to maintain a solid relationship with a key player in Katurah. Austin was a lovesick idiot, who in my opinion was lucky to even get votes at final tribal. The whole showmance was getting too much screen time towards the end and was a little sickening to me. Great moments were undercut by the boot order like Kaleb’s Shot in the Dark and then being voted out the very next episode. My ranking for the New Era would 41, 45, 42, 43, 44.

I think if it isn't for the Dee & Austin relationship Drew probably wins

speaking of Bruce, he literally did not talk during FTC??????

Let’s just say for starters that I wanted Jake to win. I understand why Dee won but the circumstances that made her win. weren’t comparable to the struggle that Jake went through. Another thing I need to put out there is that Austin is a dumb ass guys. He thought with his third leg instead of his brain. I understand that winning more immunity challenges and had a stronger alliance, but the jury this year didn’t understand the issues that Jake had to overcome before getting to the final three. One piece of evidence that I thought that made Jake more likely to win was that he made himself stand out and try to fight against the strong alliances. He Tried to save Caleb, which for me was my favorite player and I hope was many others favorite player, he tried to destroy the Reba strong alliance that took over the game in the end. I am salty about the season just because after all the tribes are merged, it should be an individual game not an alliance strong game. I could’ve told you that going into the merge that one of the two big tribes would have a winner on them just because of their majority. I also think that the players this year were idiotic when they showed their idol and they didn’t play like a true survivor. Lastly, I think survivor should go back to instead of being puzzle heavy they need to equal out strength and brains. All these skinny guys and gals who use their brains immediately vote out the stronger players due to their physicality. I want to survivor where there’s all strong players. Let’s be for real the last three seasons have been the worst survivor seasons of all time. Prove me wrong. 😅

90 minute episodes made the show far better. They must keep it and hopefully return to 39 days. Just look at the ratings and the reception. This was the best season in the new era by far.

This was my first Survivor season I watched ever. I was HOOKED after the first episode that I binged Season 44 just to get an idea of the long game and I loved it. I feel extremely lucky that 45 was my first season because it was an awesome season to watch as a brand new person to all of this.

I was so annoyed with the first 4 boots because of the quitters but it really ended super nicely I am glad I never quit on a season.

season 45 is just sheer brilliance & fun season man

I adored Emily right from episode 1! She was intelligent and wasn’t afraid to be honest and blunt. I feared it might not be good for her gameplay, so I worried for her in that sense - but gosh it was SO REFRESHING to hear someone on the screen say the exact same things I was thinking instead of always tiptoeing around superficial niceties. Love her! ❤

My favorite was Drew and least favorite was Dee, obviously im not thrilled for the results lol but I could see Drew coming back in later seasons

God that "Chaos is a ladder" scene still f*cking gets me 😂

While I also don't like quits, I think the fans are overreacting about them for a very specific reasons. There's this underswell in the fandom where people want to push the narrative that the new era is weaker than previous seasons. Some do it because they want to convince everyone that Australian Survivor is superior. Others do it for the far more sinister reason of wanting fans to believe that a more diverse cast is inherently not as strong. In 42 they pretended that Jonathan muscling his tribe forward and the challenge needing to be paused was proof. In 44 they pretended that Last Gasp ending the way it did was proof (when, in reality, it was the exact opposite because it showed how badass Karla and Owen are). Now in 45 they pretended the two quits were proof.

Nah, this is way too generous. The pre-merge was great, but post-merge was a disaster. Literally the reba 4 and Emily were the ONLY people actually playing the game. Zero gameplay. This season was a joke -- and yes, the final 5 vote was indeed the perfect summation of that cast, because it was season 1-level gameplay. Yawn.

I'm not really sure what it is about modern survivor but I just have a hard time enjoying most of these characters. I know you aren't supposed to like everyone necessarily but so many characters this season just rubbed me the wrong way and not even in like a villain way just like a "wtf is wrong with this person way." I think part of that has to do with the lack of themed seasons though, which makes every season just feel like a superfan season.

Ending it with Guys night, chef's Kiss

1. Bring back villains. NOT REAL-LIFE ONES like Dan and Varner: I mean character villains like Russell and Rob and Sandra. 2. Just do the reunion the old-fashioned way. I have a sneaking suspicion that CBS's craving to save money on this show is COSTING them money through viewership. Same with the loved-ones visits. Jeez, guys, come on. Don't be cheap and then cry when you sink your own boat. 3. Can we get out of Fiji? Please? Those purple flowers in the background have been the same for several seasons now. You know the ones I mean: they're in the background of a lot of confessionals. Can we have CULTURE back? Remember Survivor China? Thailand? That kind of thing. The challenge variation has gone up again, though: a few seasons ago, if I'd seen any more balancing challenges, I would have been at my wits' end. These are all quality versus quantity issues. You throw too much at us, it's all going to blur together, like with twist after twist after twist instead of having good characters. I'm not complaining about people like Yam Yam or Maryanne or even Bruce, though I found him annoying: at least he had a personality. But a lot of them feel kinda...white bread? Which is horrible for me to say about PEOPLE, since they AREN'T characters, but we all know that the only "real" thing about "reality TV" of this kind is when they have to turn things over to medical. We got a likeable, intelligent winner this time around. More real heroes and more show villains, fewer stupid twists. And don't cheap out on the loved ones thing. I won't even BOTHER asking for 39 days back, though that would be the show's best-possible decision if they're thinking long term, but since they don't seem to think long term, I'm not going to bother. Just think MORE THAN one season ahead. Come on. All of this to say that I think it's all one big mixed bag nowadays.

Just found your channel with this video. Incredible! Thank you. This is better than the post season final episode. Such a great breakdown of the entire season. Surely, in time, it cracks your top 10 season ranking.

This was the first season of survivor I watched in full. I absolutely loved it and I'm obsessed now. I've watched big brother since I was in single digits and would sometimes catch an episode or two a season when it lined up with big brother. I enjoyed this this season of survivor more than a lot of the past seasons of big brother. I know they are different shows with some similarities but it's the only thing i have to compare to lol. I'm gonna have to binge watch past seasons. Also I love Jake and would love to see him play again. Such a cool dude.

I never thought I would ever watch any existing, or future new era seasons with (mostly) all new players just bc I’ve never really seen anything about any of them that looked interesting and have always liked returning player stacked casts…but I did see some things about this season that got me curious and I was so shocked by how incredible this entire cast was (especially post-merge!!) I loved this season and would’ve been satisfied with more than half of the players that made it to the jury/final 3

Kat ruined the whole season by switching her vote to julie my boy Jake got robbed

If I had a nickel for every time a showmance runs the show, I'd have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice

i like jake but he will never win this game. everyone already knows he's a lawyer, which turned him into persona non grata for any alliances. a social pariah, "i just can't trust him" from literally everybody. also he had big move-itis. at final counsel he had to be consoled by the guy he fought with, and nobody voted for him. i was rooting for him, i'm so pissed he lost, annoyed that all his good moves were foiled by people acting against their own self-interest... but he shouldn't play again. play for what, for everyone to ostracize him again? ride off into the sunset my sweet dude

I think this was a good season for sure but recency bias is really causing people to overhype this season and ignore its flaws. Pros: 90 minute episodes Intro is back Mostly solid cast Some good blindsides Satisfactory insight on relationships Auction is back Cons: The quits Taking away people's votes just because Some moments of very frustrating gameplay Auction's new format was kinda broken Maybe I'll like it more if I ever rewatch but even then, this cracks top 20 at best.