Survivor All-Stars seasons are rare but are always exciting, and can range from terrible to legendary. These seasons exclusively feature returning players, and each one so far has had a different theme. Some all-star seasons have had a mix of castaways, including winners, losers, and multiple-time returnees. Others, like Second Chance and Winners at War, have a very strict casting criteria.
There have been several Survivor seasons to feature a mix of returning players and new contestants, but there have only been five true all-star seasons. The first was 2004’s Survivor: All-Stars, which was the show’s eighth season overall. The most recent all-star Survivor season was 2020’s Winners at War, which was season 40.
5 Survivor Season 34: Game Changers
The worst all-returnee Survivor season was 2017’s Game Changers. With an underwhelming cast and unclear theme, the season never really made sense. The cast had a few all-time Survivor icons like Sarah Lacina sprinkled among many players who had yet to prove themselves on their original seasons. The mix didn’t make for great television, and the season also featured one of the darkest moments in Survivor history when a player outed one of their competitors as transgender in a desperate attempt to stay in the game.
4 Survivor Season 8: All-Stars
2004’s Survivor: All-Stars was a monumental season for the show, but it was also one of the ugliest games in the show’s history. Because it was the first season to feature returnees and many of the players knew each other from before the season, things got extremely personal. Unfortunately, the conflict wasn’t fun to watch. The season is still iconic, due to its status as the first all-star season and for being the season that featured the show’s most famous romance, that of “Boston” Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich, who would go on to marry and start a family together.
3 Survivor Season 40: Winners at War
Survivor: Winners at War was a landmark season for the show. It brought together an incredible cast of 20 former winners to duke it out for the title of Sole Survivor and an unprecedented two-million dollar prize. Though the season was extremely exciting and featured some of the show’s most iconic players battling for the crown, it also had some drawbacks in the form of two unpopular twists: Survivor’s Edge of Extinction and Fire Tokens. The show picked the wrong season to experiment and should’ve let the winners play the game without major twists, but it was still a stellar season nonetheless.
2 Survior Season 20: Heroes vs. Villains
2010’s Heroes vs. Villains is often touted as Survivor’s greatest season, and it definitely has a strong case for that title. The season featured a cast of Survivor legends separated into two tribes as Heroes and Villains, and they lived up to those labels. Heroes vs. Villains contains many of the show’s most iconic moments, and the cast remains unrivaled by any season other than Winners at War.
1 Survivor Season 31: Cambodia – Second Chance
Although Heroes vs. Villains typically gets the most acclaim, 2015’s Survivor: Cambodia inspired the highest level of fan enthusiasm in the show’s history. It was the first time (and only time so far) that the show let the fans decide the cast. After an exhilarating period of prospective returning players campaigning to the fans for a second chance at the game, the fan vote resulted in an amazing cast of one-time players who lost the game on their first seasons.
With their past errors hanging over them and the added pressure of living up to the fans’ expectations, the cast of Cambodia delivered one of the most exciting and unpredictable seasons of Survivor ever. It was the show at its absolute best, with an unbelievable mix of players navigating harsh conditions and complex gameplay on their quests for Survivor glory.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
