The “new era” of Survivor has been wacky and weird. It’s been full of journeys, secret phrases, awkward twists, and much trial and error. But it’s also been captured by some superb new Survivor players, many of whom can hold a candle to some of the greatest we’ve ever seen.
After the conclusion of Season 49, I’ve decided to rank the winners of the New Era from worst to first.
#9 – Gabler
Gabler’s win is the worst by all accounts, and it’s because that season should have gone to Jesse. If not, maybe even Cassidy. But it’s clear whenever you listen to anyone from Survivor 43, they all love Gabler. Everyone speaks highly of Gabler, and you can see why he won. But from the edit of the show, I don’t really see it. Gabler was an erratic player who shifted between alliances without much rhyme or reason, and was brought along to the end as a goat by the power players like Jesse and Cody. Unfortunately, once Jesse turned on Cody, Gabler seized his path to the end of the game, and won. Certainly not the worst winner in Survivor history. But definitely the worst of the New Era.
#8 – Yam Yam
At the time of watching, I felt like Yam Yam’s game in Survivor 44 was quite strong. But upon reflection, his game lacks the defining moments and control that elevate others on this list; many of whom have flashier moves and better social standing. Yam Yam was constantly in dispute with other players like Carolyn and Josh, and didn’t have great reads about who he could beat in the end. Like a few of these winners, Yam Yam comes into the merge without much in the way of power and sits toward the bottom of the tribe. But through less strategic maneuvering on his part than others, he skates by and is kept around due to the growing threat level of other players, like Frannie and eventually Carson. Carson controls much more of what happens in the season, and Yam Yam’s agency in making moves happen is far less than people give him credit for.
#7 – Rachel
Rachel is another player that had much acclaim when she first won her season. But when it comes down to it, she won the game Mike Holloway / Ben Driebergen styled. And we look down upon both of their games since they had to “win out” from the end. Personally, I like to see a player like Tommy in Survivor 39 masterfully maneuver their way to the end with zero immunity wins. Rachel needed every advantage and every immunity necklace she could have to make it to the end. On the one hand, that’s impressive. She benefited from twists in the game like the one she received from Sol when she was swap-screwed, and she won when it mattered. That’s clutch. She also has a few super cool moves, like when she plays her shot in the dark to see the reaction of others, sussing out whether she needed to play her idol or not.
But in most scenarios where Rachel doesn’t win immunity, she goes home. This can’t be said for someone like Savannah, who always had numbers working to keep her safe. Rachel had numbers too, and is better than Mike and Ben, because at least she had some people working for her. But it’s a difficult game to replicate, and heavily reliant on her challenge wins above anything else.
#6 – Kenzie
Kenzie is a top-tier social player, and we saw every ounce of that we could see on the show with how she managed relationships around her. Kenzie’s game reminds me a lot of Erica’s, where she manages to scoop up pieces from other tribes in the middle of the merge, and then position herself at the centre of it all to stay alive and eventually win. But Kenzie only wins by a narrow 5-3 vote to Charlie, and relies heavily on bitterness of Maria to get her that win. I think Kenzie’s a much better player than she will ever get credit for, managing relationships with strong personalities like Q, Liz, and Hunter. She’s got Michele Fitzgerald energy to her, and if she ever came back, I think she’d be a great second time player too.
#5 – Maryanne
Maryanne is a fantastic TV character, and has a strong final run-in at the end of her season. She makes a game-winning move on Omer, and has an idol played on her despite having one of her own. She articulates her game really well in the final tribal council, against opponents that floundered. But Maryanne also lacks a lot of agency when it comes to this season. She’s toward the bottom of the tribe at the start of the merge, and doesn’t have much of the game funnelling through her like some of these other winners, probably even less so than Yam Yam.
But her strategic maneuvering and social positioning in the game was extremely strong throughout. I think she would have been a better pick for Survivor 50 than a lot of the new era players chosen for the cast, and I think her stock would have risen dramatically in a setting where she would have continued to be able to downplay her threat level and maneuver her way far into the game.
#4 – Erica
Many of the new era winners are underrated as players, and Erica is the cream of the crop when it comes to being underappreciated. Her game is left under-edited in the pre-merge, where the edit makes it look as though she’s in grave danger. From interviews after, we know that Erica was always in a strong position in the early days of the game, and carefully creating those relationships with Deshawn, Heather, and Danny that would come to serve her so well in the second half of the season. From the merge on, Erica always knew the right move to make. She won immunity when she needed, hid behind the threat of Ricard whilst getting Shan and Liana out of the way, thus weakening Danny and Deshawn in the process.
Her relationship building with Heather, Xander and Ricard is what ultimately gives her the leg up over everyone, where she only then needs Ricard out to win the game. Erica was excellent at downplaying her threat level, and even better at executing moves at exactly the right moment from the final eight all the way to the end. The edit of the show never gave her enough credit, but her fellow players certainly did when they gave her a 7-1 vote.
#3 – Savannah
Savannah’s game is similarly underrated, despite only airing last season. She won challenges to keep herself alive, tying the female immunity record. But it’s underreported that she would have survived quite a few of those episodes even without the immunity. Despite remaining the biggest threat to win the game from the merge on, Savannah managed to keep herself alive via her own immunity wins, and Rizo’s idol. But it was also through that tight alliance that she cultivated and kept intact between herself, Rizo and Sophie B. I think this is one of the best alliances in Survivor history, and much of the credit deserves to go to all three of them for how they pulled off their underdog story. But it’s without a doubt impressive that they managed to survive also through their ability to pull in numbers and work on their social relationships – cutting people at exactly the right moment, like Erica did on 41.
Savannah’s management of her relationship with Sophie S. was key, and while she had a rockier relationship with Jawan and Sage, she always worked hard to keep them on her side. Had the bridge ever been burned too far, Jawan and Sage never would have kept that door open. So Savannah might get knocked for having a “poor social game”. But this could not be further from the truth. She had the majority alliance from the beginning of the game through her social game, and stayed alive even after falling to the bottom of the pecking order due in large part to her social maneuvering around the likes of Sophie S., Jawan and Sage; keeping Soph and Rizo as loyal numbers throughout despite her obvious threat level.
#2 – Kyle
Kyle played a masterful game in Survivor 48, hiding himself behind other big targets like Joe, David, and Shauhin. His game will be most remembered for his secret partnership with Kamilla, where the two of them pulled off a massive move at the swapped tribe to orchestrate Thomas’s blindside. The way they combined their advantages and knowledge together whilst hiding their relationship is one of the best moves of the entire new era. And Kyle’s game only gets stronger from there, being an earpiece for all of the major players, and always in pole position to win against anyone.
#1 – Dee
Out of all the winners, Dee had the greatest stranglehold over the game, controlling the game from her dominant alliance. She had threats around her at every angle inside that alliance, helping to keep her safe. She had Austin and Julie as staunch shields in front of her, and constant connections to most of the bottom feeders toward the end of the game. It’s one of the most commanding, dominant performances in Survivor history, somehow, without ever raising the alarm bells of her opponents.
So there it is! My Survivor winner rankings of the new era from Seasons 41-49. Where do you rank the winners? Let me know your thoughts via the comments below. Thanks for reading and see you soon!
Coup de Chaos 
Leave a comment