Top 100 Survivor Characters: #55–51

A Slog Through Some Tough Seasons

We are back with another entry my friends! It took a long while between the last one and now. But, when you see some of the seasons I had to re-watch to do these entries, you’ll probably understand. Going to try to get back to a more regular scheduled regimen to finish these out!

Once again, a quick reminder of the criteria:

•The most important thing to note is that this is all subjective and done by myself. No doubt many readers will see people miss the top 100 and will feel like I have slighted a character. These are simply my opinions on who the top 100 is, it’s my personal list that I’ve been curating for well over 4 months, and I completely understand that you can disagree. I look forward to healthy disagreement as I reveal this list.

•A player’s entire history is considered in their rankings. For example, I won’t be looking solely at Malcolm Freberg’s Philippines appearance, his Caramoan and Game Changers games are part of the whole product.

•This list will only include Survivors who debuted between 2010 and 2019. That means players who have played prior to that won’t be included even if they participated in a season that fits out parameters (IE: the entire cast of HvV).

•I am ranking these Survivors as characters. Not as strategists or game players. I am solely trying to determine who I believe were the most entertaining characters of the last decade.

To read any of the previous entries, click HERE.

55. Dean Kowalski, Survivor: Island of the Idols

Through two episodes of Survivor: Island of the Idols, there is no chance in hell that Dean would have gotten anywhere near this list. He was invisible to the audience. In fact, in my own recaps of those episodes, I have absolutely nothing of virtue to say about him. As we would find out, Dean would end up as one of our losing finalists. Putting him out of sight so early might have been a decision made by production to highlight Tommy and downplay Dean.

It’s in episode three that we really get acquainted to Dean, aka DKChilling. That’s where we see Dean suggest in front of his entire tribe that they should split the vote between Vince and someone else. Only to be told that, dude, everyone on your tribe is currently here. It was in that moment that we figured out that Dean might not the brightest Survivor player ever cast on the show (that footage of Dean tripping over a rock was just the icing on the cake).

After Vince left, we kind of all looked at each other, and being the dumb-dumb that I was, I opened my mouth and goes as any Survivor fan would do: split the vote! And that’s a smart thing to do in front of everyone. Cause if you’re splitting the vote, one of those people is the one you’re splitting against. Was everyone thinking it? Yes. Did it need to be verbalized? No.

After three episodes, that was Dean’s first confessional of the season. And it’s to explain a dumb decision he made in front of his entire tribe. I can’t imagine that’s how Dean foresaw his Survivor experience going, but that’s how it went.

In a season that dealt with a lot of dark, unlikable subject matter, Dean’s presence was welcomed. He provided levity and entertainment on a season that felt like a chore to finish. Dean was never going to impress us with his Survivor knowledge but his actions throughout the season served to make us laugh and remember that sometimes, Survivor can be an enjoyable experience.

Because of Dean, Chelsea ends up becoming an early season casualty. Their bond is seen as something of a showmance and, as Figgy and Taylor or Keith and Whitney (bet you had to google them even though they somehow also appeared on TAR) have taught us, showmances are simply too powerful on Survivor. Dean’s perceived usefulness in challenges was valued over Chelsea and she got the axe despite having an idol in her pocket.

Chelsea’s demise from the game leads to the emergence of Island of the Idols’ greatest character, Detective Dean Kowalski.

Dean Kowalski woke up and immediately turned into detective Dean Kowalski. The goal being who ordered this hit. Detective Dean Kowalski’s looking for motives in the Chelsea Walker case. I don’t think it’s me. Clearly. I don’t think it’s Chelsea… she’s at home eating oreos. My man Tom, wanted Karishma out forever. So, my main suspects are Elizabeth, Elaine, Missy and Aaron. So I target them. I wanna find out who the hell was this strategic mastermind that’s convinced the whole friggin tribe away from Karishma towards Chelsea because they are super, super good at this game and most likely not to be, not only watched, but need to go.

I mean, Detective Dean Kowalski was such a hit that Dean even went as himself for Halloween, which honestly, is kind of a power move.

In all seriousness, that’s kind of what I appreciate with Dean. Anyone could have given a confessional about wanting to find revenge for their fallen ally. It’s been shown a million times on Survivor. Dean attacked the same angle with a different perspective and made it a fun moment for television while still finding a way to talk about the game. Dean’s not afraid to be silly in front of the camera and that makes him a better character for it.

At the swap, Dean became a focal point in Kellee’s story. Through their shared connection of Dean’s ex-girlfriend, they struck a bond. That bond became so real that when it was Dean’s turn on the chopping block, Kellee offered him a stay of execution through her soon-to-be-expiring idol. That is much more of a Kellee moment, but it obviously impacts Dean too. If Kellee doesn’t save Dean in that spot, he goes home pre-merge and once again, doesn’t make this list.

Instead, Dean does make the merge where Kellee then becomes the target at hand. When Dean comes across this information, instead of saving her like she once did him, Dean turned a blind eye. He deserves to be held accountable for this decision, simply because it created the ugliest double episode in Survivor history where we watched Kellee go home over a certain scumbag and then, in the second part of the episode, watched Janet get gaslighted into thinking she had slandered an innocent bystander. You could have saved us Dean! You were just too busy DKChilling I suppose.

Like Chelsea, Kellee goes home with a couple of idols in her pocket. I don’t know what it is about the association to Dean but if he ever returns, young women beware: do not work with him unless you want to be sent home with an idol in hand. Dean is cursed, he might even be a new relic on Ghost Island 2.0.

Dean’s biggest enemy is Karishma. They simply do not get along. Both players spend most of their season trying to vote each other out and failing each time. By the time death comes for Karishma, Dean has ironically fixed his relationship with her and formed an alliance. Of course, Dean is going to detonate that very alliance with his actions at tribal council, but it’s nice to see that Dean’s reasons for doing so were not Karishma related.

The final big relationship that Dean shares with a woman on his season is also the greatest: his bond with Noura. I would describe their relationship as antagonistic. Dean calls her crazy when she first approaches him over targeting Jack and Jamal. He then calls her at tribal council for planning a coup on Tommy despite that coup being with Dean. This sends Noura into a big tizzy in one of the better tribal councils of the season.

Near the end, Dean chooses Noura to share a reward with him and their bond mends a little. We learn that Noura feels some type of way about Dean because he reminds her of her exes. Part of the finale is dedicated to Noura being physically attracted to Dean, not in a creepy way but in a way that provides a lot of great entertainment.

The edit loves to make fun of Dean whenever it can. Dean sees himself as this gigantic immunity threat (that he would eventually become) but keeps dropping out of immunity challenges early on. He makes fun of Karishma and Noura for being goats, while being a potential goat himself. The show makes a point of including Boston Rob making fun of him for rolling up the sleeves on his shirt to show off his biceps. Near the end of the game, everyone is delighted when Noura hides Dean’s Nikes simply because he’s annoying her. Oftentimes, Dean is the butt of the joke, but the beauty of his personality is that because he’s chill, it never feels meanspirited.

And the further Dean gets in the game, the further he proves he’s not as airheaded as we may have thought. When Jamal gives him a fake advantage, Dean goes through the trouble of copying that fake advantage and playing his fake at tribal council, making it seem like he no longer has any advantages and pocketing the “real” fake. Sure, that move would have backfired on him if Dean had needed Jamal’s legacy advantage at 6, but the fact that Dean had the foresight to pull off a move like this shows that Dean was thinking about the game.

He also gets lucky on a coin flip at Island of the Idols. His lesson was on jury management, so I don’t still don’t understand why the test was a coin flip… but the concept of Island of the Idols was never fully baked anyways. That gives him an idol nullifier, which ends up costing Janet her game (ugh). This ends up being a huge move Dean as well, that he plays perfectly because of his ability to notice small actions. If Dean isn’t smart enough to spot Janet talking to Tommy in the woods, maybe he never realizes she has an idol. That’s the kind of sly perception Dean has that isn’t always highlighted by the show.

Then you have the idol hunt with Tommy, in which Dean shines. Because of Tommy’s inability to decipher certain colors, he enlists Dean’s help with a clue to a hidden immunity idol. To Tommy, it seems like Dean is doing absolutely no work to help out with the search, including the legendary quote, “I’m gonna go take a poop.” In reality, Detective Dean is working on the sly, going through clues and eventually laying hands on an idol that Tommy simply could not figure out.

Combine that with a strong immunity run deep into the game and successfully making fire against Lauren, and Dean enters tribal council with a lot of momentum. To the point where, despite Tommy’s perfect edit, I felt like he might have had a chance to win the game. That was helped by a particularly strong final tribal council where I thought that Dean spoke passionately about his desire to win the game. Dean’s been this chill guy the entire season, but the competitive fire comes out at final tribal council and it’s cool to see.

Unfortunately for Dean, winning wasn’t in the cards. He has to settle for second place and 100k. Still, the odd combination of actual Survivor skills, truly stupid moments and a great personality made Dean one of the biggest standouts from his cast. Along with Noura, he absolutely carries much of the season and especially the finale, that would feel drab without their presence. Don’t be surprised when we see Dean 2.0 and you remember how much you liked this guy in the first place. That’s just the kind of aura that DKChilling emits.

54. Wendell Holland, Survivor: Ghost Island

BABY BOY! Going into Survivor: Ghost Island, Wendell seemed to be a popular pre-game pick to be the season’s winner. I don’t know whether it was because he impressed so much in pre-season interviews, the charisma he gave off or spoiled people poisoning the waters, but he had a lot of pull. I also drank the Kool-Aid and made him my winner pick for the season, he remains the only one I’ve called on record since I’ve started writing about Survivor.

We all know that Survivor: Ghost Island has its flaws. The cast was fairly weak, or at least what we saw of it. The editing was even weaker, with most of the airtime going to Domenick and by proxy, Wendell. The story of the season is Wendell and Domenick mowing through their competition. That might have been compelling if it didn’t feel more like two main characters punching through nameless enemies in a beat ’em up style video game.

I’ll be honest, part of what has taken this entry so long to come out is that I needed to re-watch Ghost Island, as to have a clear picture in my head of Wendell, the character, it was taking a lot out of me to get through it. Outside of some key characters and moments, Ghost Island truly is a slog.

But that isn’t Wendell’s fault. You can only play the people in front of you and that’s what he did. Brilliantly. If Dom was the flashy part of the dynamic duo, Wendell was its heart and soul. You can’t have Dom going wild on everyone without any pushback unless you have Wendell gently massaging people on the side, letting know that everything was going to be okay. Dom was loud and visible, but Wendell was quiet and effective.

For a day one Survivor fan, Wendell represents a little bit of hope. Throughout its years, Survivor has evolved from its original incarnation. Through the invention of idols and other varying advantages, much of the strategy has shifted its focus away from social skills onto scavenger hunting abilities. It’s rare that winners can get through the game without any help from Survivor advantages (Tommy’s win was a true rarity in modern Survivor but that is marred by his season by ravaged by certain unfortunate events).

Wendell isn’t a player that didn’t find any advantages. He had an idol. But he’s also not the kind of player that relied solely on his bag of tricks. Domenick, Wendell’s partner in crime, played a style that had a lot more idol shenanigans involved. He was more aggressive and demonstrative about the powers he wielded and used the knowledge of his trinkets to further his relationships in the game.

By contrast, Wendell moved himself ahead in the game through his personal relationships. Early on, he had a good relationship with both Domenick and Chris Noble. He tried to act as the bridge to bring them together. That’s because that is how Wendell naturally wants to play the game, through his social skills. That didn’t work out, because those two were never going to get along, but it showed us how Wendell thought of the game.

I was so ready to drop my buff because… I felt myself trying somehow to manage two giant egos, Domenick and Chris, who both wanna kill each other and although I’m a little seed I’m not gonna be with my boy Dom, I was excited to see that Chris and I are on another team with each other. He’s a beast of an athlete with an extremely winning track record out here. Now, when it comes to me having to hear Chris gloating about himself and bragging, boasting, all these things. I don’t love that at all.

That confessional essentially boils down Wendell’s game. He’s going to be friends with everyone on the island to the extent that he can. Whatever character flaws they may have, Wendell is just going to swallow it down and brush past it and use that person for however long they can help him get further in the game. Chris helped Wendell stay immune by winning a bunch of challenges. That was Chris’ role in Wendell’s game. When the merge hit, Chris was no longer useful to Wendell, instead he was now dangerous and needed to be eliminated. So, that’s what Wendell did.

Ghost Island is known as a boring season because it’s filled with players who can clearly see a power duo in front of them but do nothing about it. I would posit that nothing is done about Dom and Wendell in large part because everyone on that island liked Wendell (and yeah, they were scared of the possible advantages in Dom’s bag of tricks).

The culmination of Wendell’s social gameplay is when he plays his idol for Laurel at the final five. That solidifies a partnership that has existed for a long time in the game. From there, Laurel is a Wendell soldier through and through. Of course, we know how much that pays off in the end, when the final vote ends up tied between Domenick and Wendell and Laurel is called upon to break that tie.

There’s a fun confessional back when Wendell finds his idol and his thoughts on the history behind it.

I pull out this big, green package and I’m like this is it right here. This is the idol. I open it up, and this beautiful thing is what I find. This necklace could be the single most iconic relic in the history of Survivor. This is now, not Erik’s immunity necklace this is a hidden immunity idol. When I saw season 16, I thought Erik made the most bone-headed move and now it’s like, ‘woah!’ I have that man’s idol around my neck. I might be in that position at some point. I will, never do what he did. I’m not gonna make that mistake. I’m super excited to have this thing. I’m so proud and I worked hard for it. The curse will be reversed and I can’t wait to use it.

The irony is that, if you know your Survivor history, Erik made his move because he knew he had to find a way to win. His only other chance was winning every immunity challenge and pulling himself to the end. By giving his immunity necklace away, Erik thought he might solidify some bonds with Natalie. In reality, Wendell, by giving his idol to Laurel, ends up doing the same thing Erik did. Only for Wendell, the move ends up working out. With or without playing the idol for Laurel, she was going to break a tie in his direction, that idol play simply further cemented her in Wendell’s corner.

It’s thanks to Wendell’s social skills that he ends up winning a million dollars. It would be hard to argue that he played a flashier game than Domenick. Wendell didn’t put himself out there like that. Instead, he sat back on the beach, got to know the other players and built them quality furniture. Maybe that isn’t the greatest gameplay we’ve ever seen from a winner, but it’s effective. People are going to want to vote for someone they like, and everybody liked Wendell.

There’s also the relationship between Domenick and Wendell, that plays a gigantic part in Ghost Island. The further these two go, the bigger threats they become to each other. It’s like a stand-off in a classic western movie. They both want to take a shot at each other but both fears being gunned immediately thereafter if they do. It becomes a stalemate that forces both to continue working together through to the end. It’s rare that two forces like Wendell and Dom both get to the end of the same season. Watching them do battle at final tribal council only for it to come back a draw was entertaining. It wasn’t worth the slog that much of Ghost Island became, but the finale is a very good episode of Survivor thanks to their dynamics.

As a character, Wendell is laidback and kind of cool. When I picture him, it’s always with the toothpick in his mouth, arms crossed, kind of just chilling (not DKChillin’). He doesn’t have a loud demeanour, but he does have quiet confidence that doesn’t border on arrogance. He exists in a cool manner and it’s hard to explain.

His most memorable moment to me is his voting confessional for Chris, which everyone likely remembers. But here’s a refresher if you don’t.

My favorite part of that entire moment is how offended Chris was by it after the game. In the post-game press, he would be completely miffed when asked about Wendell’s comments. He even explained that it was something he and Wendell needed to squash before they could become friendly after the game. Leave it to Chris to be so offended by a joke made on the show and not realize that his entire presence on Ghost Island exists as something of a joke.

Another enjoyable Wendell quirk: his relationship with women that get shown on Survivor never seem to age well. In Ghost Island, there is an extended segment about Wendell’s girlfriend, Nicole and her birthday. Only, between taping and airing the season, the couple had called it quits. Obviously, Winners at War doesn’t figure into these rankings but on that season, Wendell’s core storyline so far has been his relationship with Michele Fitzgerald, another couple that went south before the filming of this season and that now must navigate playing the game together. If Wendell ever plays a third time, he should make sure he’s been single for a while before going out.

While no one would argue that Wendell is the most memorable winner of the 2010s, he does have a charm that makes you remember him fondly. Wendell is the silent killer. The guy behind the guy. It’s a strategy that worked well for him in the game and I think it also made him a compelling Survivor player fully deserving a spot on this list.

53. Taylor Lee Stocker, Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X

If you need a stereotypical representative of the millennials, Taylor would be your guy. It’s easy to see why he was cast for his season. Taylor is chill, doesn’t work a regimented job, he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He’s exactly what older generations think of millennials when they speak so lowly of them. There’s no doubt he was put on Millennials vs Gen X with the hopes he would become a lightning rod that would spark some feuding between the generations.

Instead, Taylor got preoccupied with falling in love with Figgy. That is another thing anyone could have predicted before he even played the game: there’s no way Taylor wasn’t going to be looking for a showmance on the island. Cast with a bunch of players his age and who shared a similar mindset, it was easy for Taylor to find himself a willing partner.

We’ve already explored a lot of FigTails in Figgy’s entry much earlier on this list. The disgust the relationship awakens in Michaela is great. FigTails’ complete inability to see how obvious they are to others when they think they are being so stealthy is great. It’s such a badly handled showmance on their part and that’s what makes it so compelling.

And Taylor is the biggest offender of the two. There’s no way in hell that Taylor was a fan of Survivor before getting cast. He doesn’t really understand how any of this works. In contrast, Figgy is a huge Survivor fan who understands the strategy behind the show. She at least realizes that a showmance is going to hurt her chances of going far in the game and tries to mitigate that by attempting to hide it. Taylor doesn’t give a shit about concealing anything.

It’s most obvious when Taylor, Figgy and Adam swap with Ken and Jessica. Figgy tries telling Taylor that they can’t spend too much time together. She knows that this will further spook Adam and give him the doubt he needs to flip on them. Taylor isn’t bothered by this. Taking the attitude that Adam knows what they are but he’s going to stay loyal regardless. Adam was likely always going to flip on FigTails at that swap, but Taylor’s bravado certainly made things easier for him.

What differentiates Taylor from Figgy, at least to me, is Taylor’s relationship with Adam. Poor, sweet Adam. It’s so funny to look back at those early days of Millennials vs Gen X where he is going around, trusting people that are so willing to turn on him. There is no better representation of that than Taylor.

After Adam decides to flip on FigTails, he believes that a relationship with the now blindsided Taylor can still be salvaged. Adam is so sure he can get back in Taylor’s good graces that he even shares knowledge of his advantage with him. That moment with Taylor is actually an interesting prism with which to examine Adam’s general Survivor beliefs.

With Winners at War now airing, we’ve seen Adam a second time. We can kind of see that he believes in truthfulness with people. He thinks that being honest will allow people to more easily want to ally with him. Him telling Taylor about his advantage, days after having voted off his girlfriend, is the pre-cursor to telling Boston Rob he was going to vote out Parvati.

While Adam believes he and Taylor are good, Taylor’s mindset has shifted from winning the game to sinking Adam at all costs. That leads to the tribal council in which Taylor fully throws Adam under the bus by revealing everything he knows about Adam’s game. But on the way to that moment, Taylor also takes some time to hide some food from the merge and employs it as a secret stash for himself. That’s something he lets Adam know about and Taylor even shares some of his food, further incriminating Adam.

At that tribal, Taylor lets everything out in the open. Adam has a secret advantage that will allow him to steal someone’s reward whenever he feels like it. Yeah, Taylor stole some food, but you know what? Adam had some of that food and didn’t tell anyone about it. Maybe Taylor is untrustworthy, but Adam is even more so. Taylor’s plea ultimately falls on deaf ears and he gets voted out, and it’s maybe the most mad we’ve ever seen Adam on Survivor.

Taylor is just terrible at Survivor but that’s what is fun about him. Just take the triforce for example. He’s the driving force behind that alliance of Michelle, Jay, Figgy and himself (which makes the name of the alliance make no sense). It’s an alliance that isolates themselves from the rest of their tribe but like Reynold in Caramoan, Taylor doesn’t seem to realize that he doesn’t have the majority. If it wasn’t for Michelle pulling some serious wool over Hannah’s eyes, Figgy goes home first from the millennials tribe and it would have mostly been Taylor’s fault.

In a lot of ways, Taylor is the yin to Fabio’s yang. They might both be cast as the surfer boy archetype but Fabio was self-aware. He could see how the others saw him and he played into that. Taylor, on the other hand, doesn’t see how he’s annoying people with his behaviour. None of what he does is steeped in self-awareness. No one is ever going to say Fabio is the greatest Survivor winner but Taylor’s performance on Millennials vs Gen X serves as a reminder that Fabio also isn’t a bad Survivor player.

Millennials vs Gen X has always been an interesting contrast to me. The winner’s story is so emotional but the gameplay is so robotic. Almost everyone on that season was there to play a strategic, cutthroat game. The meta surrounding season became one of acceptance. You got voted out, you lost and you took that loss with good vibes, wishing everyone well. Two people really go against that mindset: Ken and Taylor. Especially Taylor.

He becomes the antithesis for what is going on around him. Taylor doesn’t care about strategy. He wants to ally with the people he likes and ride that to the end. He’s a millennial in the way he lives his life but he’s very much an old-school Survivor player. Close your eyes and picture him in Survivor: Africa. Couldn’t you see Taylor taking Silas’ spot and doing the exact same thing he did (without being a reprehensible human being)?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I like when people leave the game with bad feelings. Sure, every now and then, it’s fun to see people accept losing gracefully. But when an entire season has that vibe, it gets to be pretty boring. Taylor breaks up that monotony by being such a negative force on his way out. None of what he does to Adam in his last tribal council is strategic. It’s all an emotional reaction to Adam voting out Figgy and I love that stuff.

People like to compare Taylor to a player like Cole but to me, Taylor is much more of a Na’Onka. He’s a villain in the sense that he’s selfish and he’s going to do whatever is best for him. Not because he wants to do better in the game, but because it’s just what he wants to do. Cole was certainly not a great player and he consumed too much food, but that wasn’t out of villainy. It was out of necessity not to die. I can see Na’Onka hiding food from the rest of her tribe, it’s something she’s done. That’s Taylor’s Survivor vibe: villainy for no real strategic reason.

So that’s why I like Taylor. He feels like a real person. Certainly, a flawed person, but on a season that has a lot of robotic gameplay, he breathes some fresh air into the game. Survivor isn’t as exciting when there aren’t any stakes and to me, Taylor adds a lot of that into the action. He deserves to be remembered for his work, even if his work is generally poorly received by the rest of his cast.

52. Janet Carbin, Survivor: Island of the Idols

Island of the Idols’ lows are really low. Possibly lower than any season in the show’s history to this point. But I do think that its highs are worth mentioning. There are a lot of top-tier characters on this season that will probably not be remembered as fondly as they should, because of how things went down. Janet Carbin is a highlight of Island of the Idols and she deserves to be recognized as such.

Right away, Janet comes into the season knowing the perception around her. She’s an older woman and that archetype doesn’t tend to do well in the early goings of Survivor. But Janet isn’t here to let the perception of others influence how she defines herself.

Coming into the game, I am worried about being an easy vote off because of my age and the stigma of the older person, especially the older woman. So, I need to stand out to break that stereotype.

And how does she plan on standing out? Well, Janet comes out in the early days of the game and gets a fire going without a flint. That should do it, right? Immediately, she dispels any misconceptions everyone else may have had about her. Janet may be older in years but it’s not going to limit what she can do on Survivor.

Not only does Janet make fire without flint, Janet also becomes a provider for the tribe. She grabs a Hawaiian spear and gets her Ozzy-on, catching fish for everyone on the island. The biggest narrative for Janet’s story is that despite her age and gender, Janet won’t let herself be placed in a box. She’s always pushing herself further, realizing dreams she didn’t even know she had.

That’s the power behind Janet’s character. She’s not a strategic mastermind who is going to dominate a season. She’s just a strong-willed woman who wants to give other women representation on her favorite TV show. She wants to set an example that anyone can accomplish their dreams when they work hard and put in the time. Janet isn’t memorable on Survivor because she’s good at Survivor. Much like Taylor before her, she’s memorable because she played with her heart on her sleeve and came off as a real person. Though the kind of person Janet is greatly differs from the person Taylor was.

And that’s not to say Janet did poorly at Survivor. She managed to get into a majority alliance and rode that into the merge. When things went awry for her there, she still managed to use her social bonds to keep her alive until the end-game. Janet only got the boot because of an idol nullifier being played late into the season, which sucked. If she had gotten to the end, it would have probably been a clean sweep for her with the jury and it would have been glorious. That just wasn’t in the cards.

Janet is also one of the few players on Island of the Idols who receives praise for their stint with Boston Rob and Sandra. When Janet refuses Rob’s offer, she gets a confessional from Rob praising her choices. In a season where Rob spends most of his time dunking on the various contestants, it counts for something that Janet got approval from him means a lot.

Of course, it’s impossible to talk about Janet’s presence on Island of the Idols without talking about the darker issues that plague the season. In the premiere, Janet is already part of Kellee’s story when she brings up the unwanted touching to Janet. In her wisdom, Janet gives Kellee the best advice she could in the moment.

The girls are very uncomfortable with Dan’s physicality with them. And I’ve learned in my life, as a woman, you need to say what you think.

Thanks to Janet’s advice, Kellee is able to talk with Dan and seemingly resolve their issue. Until it comes roaring back at the merge. Here, Janet, not through her own choices, becomes involved in the Dan incident when his unwanted touching is brought to her by Kellee, Missy and Elizabeth. Before those new issues were brought to Janet, she had a good relationship with Dan. They were in an alliance together that looked to control the post-merge.

Still, as a mother and strong woman, Janet could not bear the thought of letting Dan’s behaviour go unpunished. If the other women felt uncomfortable being around him, she needed to let him go. Regardless of how that hurt her own game and how she felt with Dan, Janet understood that some things were bigger than Survivor. And so, she cast her vote against Dan, choosing to send him home to spare everyone else’s feelings.

Some of the girls have come to me, upset about being in his presence. And Jamal coming to me like that, it just confirmed in my heart that it was the right thing to do. But it’s really hard for me. Because I really, really do like Dan. However, this is the moral decision that I’m making. I just have a personal, emotional need to have these girls feel okay. So, I’m gonna do what’s best for them.

But then everything flipped on her when Missy and Elizabeth saw the opportunity to change the game. They left Janet out in the dark and when Dan came questioning, Missy and Elizabeth threw Janet under the bus. Being a strong and moral person, Janet didn’t back down. She made Missy and Elizabeth acknowledge that they had told her Dan made them uncomfortable. Still, the damage was done and Janet was suddenly at the bottom of the power structure for standing up for what was right.

Janet was made to feel like she did something wrong to Dan when she was one of the few players to do what was right. Despite her own positioning in the game, Janet made the morally correct decision and what did she get for it? She got the honor of being gaslight by her tribe at camp and at tribal council.

This is what I wrote about Janet back when we saw the merge episode in real time:

Now onto Janet. Queen Janet, we Stan-et. She is a lovely woman who deserves nothing but praise in this world. This Dan situation was once again brought onto her radar by Kellee, Missy and Elizabeth. For Janet, voting out Dan wasn’t her best strategic move, but you know what? Janet is a real human being and she put the women’s comfort over her own best interest. Maybe she got played on a strategic level but on a compassion level, Janet won the night. And in this situation, I think compassion trumps anything else.

And then, after Janet has the rug pulled from under her, she gets gaslight by this terrible crew of people who try to make it seem like she fabricated these stories about Dan. I was so upset watching Missy and Elizabeth act like Janet made a mountain out of a molehill after they used Kellee’s genuine discomfort as gameplay. Missy’s conversation with Kellee about Dan was presented as legitimate, we have no reason to think it was otherwise. So, for her to stay completely silent when Janet tried to defend herself after the first tribal council, it was disgusting.

In the face of some really horrible behaviour, Janet was a beacon of positivity. When she pushed back on the idea that this was just another blindside or another vote, I was elated. When she found that idol, I’ve never been so excited for a single Survivor. Janet was made to feel like she did something wrong when she was one of the few people who did everything right.

I have a daughter who turns four this month and another on the way in December. Every day, I work to raise my daughter in a way that she knows she is equal to any man and that she has all the rights and privileges allotted to a man. I’ve already talked to her multiple times about consent because this has become the world we live in. I want her to be prepared for the unfair bullshit she is going to have to face in life because she was born a woman.

To see someone like Janet on television is inspiring for me and hopefully for my daughters too. She is the kind of woman who stands for her beliefs and for other women. When she heard that the girls were feeling badly about Dan, she didn’t think twice about her standing in the game, she did what was right in protecting them. Janet is, and this word is thrown around too easily on shows like Survivor, a hero. She deserves all of the accolades she will receive in the postseason and a second chance in this game down the road. She inspires me to be a better person by simply being herself.

And I stand by those words today. Janet is a legendary Survivor player for doing what is right in a game where that isn’t always the easiest thing to do. She deserves a second shot at the game in a season where she won’t have to face all this doom and gloom. She deserved better than what she got and I hope Survivor production will remember that when they start casting the next returning player season.

50. Kim Spradlin, Survivor: One World

Like Wendell, there’s a dichotomy between Kim’s season of Survivor and her own performance on that season. Nobody is going to argue that Kim didn’t deserve to win One World. She ran circles around her opposition. There was no one close to her in terms of strategy, competition skills or social skills. She was the whole package. It’s just that her season is so dreadful, it becomes hard to separate Kim the character to her attachment to One World as a product.

Here’s the crazy thing about Kim Spradlin: who would be her closest comparison? Most people would say it was Boston Rob in Redemption Island, right? Well, consider that Boston Rob in Redemption Island had already played three times and was an established Survivor legend. That’s who we are comparing Kim’s first attempt at Survivor to? I don’t care how bad you think her cast was, that’s an insane comparison to be making and it’s even more insane that the comparison fits.

Kim is a legendary Survivor player. I will not hear otherwise. If you placed her on 100 seasons as an unknown quantity, she would win the majority of those seasons and would likely never be the first boot. I put her with Earl Cole and Brian Heidik in that category (though Brian would probably be a first boot on a few occasions).

It’s hard to explain what makes Kim so good at Survivor because I don’t think I have those skills myself. Kim has inherent abilities to make people feel good about her. She’s obviously very attractive. She’s a warm person that anyone could feel right talking to about anything. She’s inviting in a way that isn’t threatening but should be.

People often talk about JT’s win in Tocantins as social mastery (and it was too). People like Brendan and Coach were tripping over themselves to get him further in the game when JT came into the merge in the minority. The explanation there is that JT was so likable that people couldn’t help themselves. But when the same phenomenon happens with Kim, people just say that her cast was stupid. Wouldn’t Kim’s charm and likability be the reason she went so far, much like JT? Why do we discount people tripping over themselves to get Kim further when we praise JT for getting his cast to do the same thing?

It’s kind of like LeBron James. He makes basketball look so easy that people will discount his achievements. Like, yeah LeBron won a bunch of MVPs, but he should win a bunch of them because he’s so good, in fact, he should have won more. When you’re as good at something like LeBron at basketball or Kim at Survivor, people always want more than what you’re giving them. Even if you’ve given them everything you could have.

To me, Survivor isn’t about strategy. It’s about the people and their stories. But sometimes, someone comes along and completely takes over a season. That’s what Kim did to One World. Maybe she isn’t the winner who is going to just light up the screen, but she is just so dominant that I can’t help myself from liking her as a character.

There’s so much debate over the best players in Survivor history. There are Boston Rob fans and people who think he’s an overrated production favorite. It’s almost impossible to exist as both a Sandra and Parvati fan because their factions spend most of their time trying to tear down the other. In a fandom that is so divisive over their favorites, it’s telling that practically no one will disagree that Kim is in contention for GOAT status. Saying you don’t think Kim is great at Survivor is essentially admitting you don’t watch Survivor. She is the most respected winner of all-time and as such, deserves to be remembered through the history of the show and in this ranking.

In terms of being a Survivor character, Kim is highly underrated. Again, her season hurts her in the eyes of the fans, but that’s not any of Kim’s fault. She does the best with what she is given. One of my favorite Kim moments is that she is the birthmother to the famous crotch idol. When she tells Chelsea she has the idol, she tells her, “I just found the hidden immunity idol and it’s in my crotch.”

Do we need that extra detail about where it’s hidden? No. It’s just Kim displaying her low-key sense of humor. She could have just told Chelsea she had an idol, but Kim is having some fun with it. Of course, One World’s cast is mostly devoid of humor (except for Kat and Tarzan in the unintentional category) so it doesn’t go anywhere but the fans remember it fondly.

Remember when Survivor had the auction as a reward challenge? That was fun, right? Well Kim owns the auction on her own season.

The way she pulls that power move from the shower to buy peanut butter? Only Kim’s aura could do that. And for all the talk about Kim being a gamebot from the fans, notice how she knows there’s likely to be an advantage near the end of the auction and Kim is unbothered by it. She’s still going to get her shower and her peanut butter. Troyzan is the one holding his cash for an advantage.

For people who doubt Kim’s charm and likability, picture this: take Kim out of One World. Replace her with an average Survivor player. Say Philippines’ Katie Hanson. Imagine how that season plays out now. Do you really think One World would be better off without Kim’s dominating presence? One World isn’t a great season but that’s not because of Kim. In fact, I would argue Kim is the reason One World is even watchable in the first place.

She’s an all-time great player. She’s a lower-key character. All in all, she deserves a spot on this list because Survivor in the 2010s is impossible to recount without talking about Kim in great detail. That kind of presence has to be recognized.