Survivor: Cook Islands Final Thoughts

Let's do this Rapid Delivery style:

• One thing that I should have picked up on sooner: the final comparison between the first Survivor and this Survivor. You had many players who had not been previously exposed to Survivor. You had the inevitable mistakes that new players make. And you had a final two of the dominant physical player (Ozzy/Kelly) and the brains behind a dominant tribe (Yul/Richard Hatch). Much like the first Survivor, brains beat brawn.


• My friend Boyd came up with the only workable way to have another All-Star season: take the 3 most dominant players ever and then have them draft a tribe of 6 people (including themselves) from all of the previous Survivors. He suggested Terry from Panama, Tom from Pulau and Ozzy from this year to be the captains. My changes that I would make:
  
  
  
  • My 3 captains would be Tom from Pulau, Brian from Thailand (he might be an ass, but he dominated that game unlike anybody before him) and Rob Mariano from the original All-Stars (though he didn't win, he ran the show and won challenges, which is the definition of domination).
  
  
  • I would force each tribe to be comprised of 3 men and 3 women. (Maybe 4 men and 2 women if you pushed me.) This would force them to make a few more interesting choices
  
  
  
  This is the only way that I could see this working, and I'm pretty close do demanding this to happen. An All-Star season that did not suck would be great, and a certain rarity in reality game show history.


• After watching Yul on the Early Show the next day, after getting only an hour of sleep and picking up a large novelty cheque for $1 million, it is safe to say that Yul is never off.

And finally, the rankings. First, where Yul stands in terms of overall Survivor winners:

1.  Tom      (Survivor 10)
2.  Brian    (Survivor 5)
3.  Rich     (Survivor 1)
4.  Yul      (Survivor 13)
5.  Tina     (Survivor 2)
6.  Aras     (Survivor 12)
7.  Chris    (Survivor 8)
8.  Jenna    (Survivor 6)
9.  Ethan    (Survivor 3)
10. Sandra   (Survivor 7)
11. Amber    (Survivor 8 - All-Stars)
12. Danni    (Survivor 11)
13. Vescepia (Survivor 4)

And finally, a ranking of each Survivor season:

1.  Survivor 1  (Borneo)
2.  Survivor 2  (Australian Outback)
3.  Survivor 6  (Amazon)
4.  Survivor 13 (Cook Islands)
5.  Survivor 7  (Pearl Islands)
6.  Survivor 10 (Pulau)
7.  Survivor 3  (Africa)
8.  Survivor 12 (Panama)
9.  Survivor 11 (Guatemala)
10. Survivor 9  (Vanuatu - Island of Fire)
11. Survivor 8  (All-Stars)
12. Survivor 4  (Marquesas)
13. Survivor 5  (Thailand)

I'll probably come back to this list to explain why I ranked them as I did. But for now, discuss amongst yourselves.