Survivor Top 40 Countdown #11 Survivor Philippines 

rest in peace to Stacy Penner

A season with an actual storyline where you care about the players? I remember those... I recently listened to that Malcolm podcast from WaW, the boat capsizing happens at the Russell-vote. There was a bad storm before, during and after the TC. Malcolm talked about how Russell was brought into the TC-area first and while Malcolm and Denise were alone, Denise wanted to quit and Malcolm talked her into staying. Then after TC Malcolm and Denise were supposed to get back on the boat to their camp, Malcolm went first and the boat flipped. They eventually got back to camp and were deeply bonded for the rest of the game, where before they were merely strategic partners who obviously liked and respected each other. The whole story is much longer, it's worth checking that podcast out.

Rob's Penner voice is oddly excellent

Kent was an amazing ball player. Check out these accomplishments: 5-time All-Star (1999-2001, 2004-05) 4-time Silver Slugger (2000-2002, 2005) National League MVP (2000) Finished 6th in National League MVP voting (2002) Finished 8th in National League MVP voting (1997) Finished 9th in National League MVP voting (1998) Finished Top-5 in RBIs (1997, 1998, 2000, 2002) All-time leader in home runs as a second baseman (377) Only second baseman to have 100 or more RBIs in 6 consecutive seasons (1997-2002) Hit for the cycle (1999))

This season is so, so strong. It’s great on a first watch, rewatch, tenth watch, its iconic to superfans but also great to show a fan to get them into the show, and is stacked with rootable, fun characters. The first third of the season is everything that makes Palau interesting but better - a tribe gets slowly decimated and loses everything, except with smaller tribes you get to develop characters a lot more, and the heroes of that story actually prevail and win in the end. Tandang is also really entertaining, Lisa is super underrated, the Abi/Pete/RC storyline is fun and anything Abi does is amazing TV. The season is certainly made better if you either don’t know or try to ignore the redacted situation, but I get those who see him and just feel too repulsed to get much enjoyment out of the season, but I’m glad that he basically gets shat on the entire season. The only downsides of the season are the Dana Medi-quit and Carter giving us absolutely nothing, but he’s so generic of a person it’s almost iconic. This season should undoubtedly be above WaW, Amazon and even Pearl Islands for me (though I know that’s a hot take). Great winner, great story, great gameplay.

I had this season ranked #9. I think this is a very solid cast throughout the season, and those who went far definitely played hard. The story of having the 3 medevacs return for another shot was very nice to see, especially with how different each one of them was taken out of the game. Watching Matsing basically get the same fate as Ulong was very interesting to watch, and to see Malcolm and Denise end up being the pair that revolve around the climax of the season is so good to watch. Russell Swan was solid for his time out there, but just couldn't get a challenge win unfortunately. Once we hit the merge, things get even better for this season. RC and Jeff both get blindsided, then Artis get betrayed by his old tribemates. After that we see Pete and Abi take the fall while Penner and Carter go in between them. We see this all end with Malcolm losing the game despite having an advantage in the final challenge, and watching Denise be able to take Lisa and Skupin to the end to win the game was very solid. In my opinion, this was Jonathan Penner's best season, and he continued to find ways to be very entertaining throughout the season. Even someone like Carter who never said much was still a threat in challenges, and even Pete and Abi-Maria were some strategic threats in the season, and you could say that for RC as well. You know it's a good season when just about everyone at the merge is playing as hard as they did in this season, and after the terrible string of seasons before this one, it does the show justice. Overall, this season is quite solid strategically, humorous, and it ends with a winner in Denise who survived every single tribal council in the season, a very rare feat to accomplish. Also, Dawson making out with Probst was funny to see, along with Penner just shouting out Denise's name at the voting booth, and finally, how about Jeff Kent spitting out some big facts in his final words, one of the most iconic final words in the show's history. And if there's one thing I'd like to have while watching this season is some cookies.

The idea for captains in this season is in my opinion the best it's ever worked. I love the idea of bringing medivaced players and it makes you instantly feel for them without them having too large of targets on them. This issue with having legend caliber players like Robb and Ozzy is that either that have such a huge target that they are voted out early or they have such experience that they can easily manipulate their whole tribe. If they ever do another captain season I would want the captains to be first boots or premerge boots. It would be really funny to have the cast think they are having legend players joining them and then first boots walk out of a chopper.

So love the respect for Abi... She's one of my fave survivor characters. She also has a lot of funny one-liners and the dan savage one is one of my fave.

WaW bout to go waaay higher than it deserves

Shocked this season is this low. I thought it was a top 5 contender. Everyone always has it AT LEAST top 10 on the ranking lists I’ve seen

I couldn't agree more...episode 4 is an absolute masterpiece.

First season I ever watched and I still love it. Also I won’t say that the season was rigged by any means, but did anyone else feel this season was geared toward a man winning. It made it even better to see Demise take the win. It is honestly a miracle a woman pulled off a win in this season. Every Pre-Merge challenge was super physical and no offense to any of the women, but really only Denise was built to compete. Roxy, Angie, Katie, Abbie all weren’t good at challenges. Then the others weren’t much better except for Denise and maybe Dana. Like whoever greenlit the challenges should have made each tribe compete with a certain amount of women or change it in some way. There is literally NO WAY anyone believed Matsing had a chance of winning the episode 4 immunity challenge. It’s like the second they got rid of all of their poor challenge people then BOOM time for a football drill with wrecking balls. I mean with how the challenges were going you have to get rid of the weaker ones and this season the challenges were not good for the women who were casted. On the flip side, the reverse was true for the men. Almost all of them were muscular or fit with Zane being the only outlier. You could say Jeff and Jonathan weren’t really in shape, but Penner had already played the game twice and knows how the challenges work and Jeff was athletically trained in the past. There was no Kieth(EOE) or older out of shape man. So essentially the men were guaranteed to have numbers at the merge and women still were unlikely to win these immunity challenges as well with only Denise winning one because a women had to have one (there being only 4 women) and Abi winning due to an advantage. I don’t know if this was just a change in the form of challenges or what, but this being my first season, I thought how are these women supposed to do this. It seems to be a lot better now (despite them being slightly puzzle heavy).

My prediction for the top 10: 10: Tocantins 9: Amazon 8: China 7: Winners at War 6: Micronesia 5: Pearl Islands 4: David vs Goliath 3: Cambodia 2: Cagayan 1: Heroes vs Villains

Apparently Jeff Kent was asked back for Second Chances, but he declined the offer.

This season was the refresher fans needed after the abysmal Nicaragua-One World stretch.

This season being below Tocantins is a travesty

My usual comment came out later than normal but list of remaining seasons not yet ranked! (As always, in chronological order) Amazon (6) Pearl Islands (7) China (15) Micronesia (16) Tocantins (18) Heroes vs Villains (20) Cagayan (28) Cambodia (31) David vs Goliath (37) Winners at War (40)

How has the Amazon not shown up yet

They totally undersold Jimmy Johnson

we stan abi maria

Wow Philippines and Tocantins are both lower then they actually should be.

Anybody else surprised we haven't seen The Amazon yet? I personally can't believe this and MvGX are somehow lower than the horniest season of Survivor ever. Love Rob C on it, but is Amazon really that great of a season?

Some clarification/background on speaking in tongues - In Christianity, it is considered a spiritual gift, seen at the day of Pentecost when the Apostles are preaching the Gospel. This happens after Jesus has ascended, and the Holy Spirit has descended upon the believers. This is a hot topic of debate in modern sects of Christianity. But Roxy in this season appears to be able to speak in tongues. The scene in question was her praying in her "tongue language". Tongues are sometimes considered to be a heavenly language beyond human understanding. But, interestingly enough, there are many accounts of people having the gift, who start speaking an earthly language they aren't fluent in. Thus, this allows for easier communication of the Gospel. I can't explain that entirely, as I am merely human. Hope this helps for anyone confused/curious! :)

I've always wondered what would've happened if Penner didn't put a vote on Abi and tied the vote up between Pete and Kent. I wonder if someone would've flipped and sent one of them home, or if they go to rocks where Pete, Jeff and Penner are all immune. Overall, I do wish they would bring Pete back for another season. He definitely didn't play perfectly in Phillipines, but I would sat he was a top 5 player that season and got kind of screwed by Skupin and Lisa being idiots. Great season all around, though.

Lisa didn't write Artis' name either because she didn't know he's the target OR she does know and she promised not to write his name - remember Artis was also at the bottom of Tandang before they were chosen by Abi and Pete over RC and Skupin; without Artis it seems she has no trust with Abi and Pete, and frankly is doing well with the coalition until they voted out Abi.

Love this season!

Side tangent on the post merge reward challenges, they should never let a majority of the tribe go on a reward together. Feels too easy to just pick ur closest allies with little to no repercussions. Might have been more interesting to see if Mike blows up his game choosing just Lisa or something. Just my 2 cents

lol the Mrs. White reference from Clue caught me off guard

i want to see Zane on a Goats vs First Boots season

#11!? This is an outrage, Philippines deserves to be in the top ten at the very least!

Sigh how high is Amazon gonna go. It surely is number 8. I'd be shocked if it is higher than Pearl Islands and China. It really is way too high.

I think this is just right for the ranking. Knowing Skupin makes the end after his conviction kind of makes me like this season less on rewatch.

Interesting.

great video, very informative,

I’d totally put my chip on Denise to do well on any random season

Carter is totally a standard definition kinda guy 😂

I, for one, think the top 10 is correct. All absolutely amazing seasons. I don't mind Philippines being outside of the Top 10 at all.

do i see a '15 royals world series ring?

Don’t you think Malcolm would take Denise spot if he was on winners at war 😅

What about a Malcolm vs Joe? Battle of the hair (if Joe didn't cut his)?

ngl I think Abi is exactly the same in 25 and 32 haha

please tell me he's going to bring in Brice when they talk about Cagayan

The fact that David vs Goliath hasn’t been talked about yet is abysmal

Does anyone get annoyed how every other word that Rob says is Uhh?

Honestly shocked at how much everyone loves this season, genuinely found it so boring throughout the entire thing