‘Survivor: Blood vs. Water’: Ranking the season, Tyson Apostol as a winner
After every season of “Survivor,” we like to go back and reflect on where it stands compared to every other season of the show. It’s always fun to compare, especially if you are diehard enough to remember some of the early days of the show, and how cool it felt to watch Richard, Rudy, Kelly, and Colleen all the way back in season 1 in Borneo.
So what we wanted to do today is share where we personally believe both “Blood vs. Water” and its winner Tyson Apostol stand in comparison to the other seasons of the show. We’ve tried to be as objective as possible here, rather than just going with some sort of knee-jerk, gleeful reaction to the season being over and us being so entertained from start to finish.
You can see the official list updated with our choices at the link here, but we have some additional explanation below as to why we feel like this season really is all about lucky #7. Both the season and its winner are #7 in their respective lists, which is something that is very rare for us to do. The main reason for that is that they both have a a lot going for them, and only a few tiny things keeping them from being the best of the best.
For the season, we have to give props for Jeff Probst sticking to his guns and giving what he thought would be the best for the show, whether it be Redemption Island or some of the other family twists. We all pouted and screamed before it started, but they worked wonderfully. While we don’t want Redemption Island for any other season, it added so much drama with family members. There were great moments there, great blindsides (Aras and Vytas come to mind), and also some big moments like Colton quitting. The only thing holding it back from the top 6? When you really think about it, much of the final few tribal councils after drawing rocks were mostly just the editors making something out of nothing. It became very predictable when our final three had the majority, and nobody was really a threat to Tyson’s game.
Speaking of Tyson, he’s #7 as well for playing a brilliant game that started slow, but showed so many layers as he kept his alliance strong, made Ciera feel important for a while, and found immunity idols when he needed to. He also won despite everyone knowing that he needed to be voted out early because he was such a threat. The only downside to his game is mostly that if he drew the white rock at final six, we may not even be sitting here saying any of this.
But all in all, a heck of a great season. We’ve been huge Tyson supporters since Tocantins, and to see him come out on top finally made us giddy. Plus, it’s always nice to have a season that you are nervous about beforehand completely shatter expectations.
Want to see some more “Survivor” coverage, including interviews with the final seven contestants? Just be sure to click here!
Photo: CBS