Defining and Naming EVERY Survivor Era

 Survivor is arguably the most successful Reality TV show ever. The show has filmed 42 seasons in just 11 years (including 41 & 42) and has gained worldwide popularity, inspiring versions from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, etc. The US version is still by far the most successful though, and today we will be defining and naming all the Eras. I have seen this done by Peridiam before, but I do not actually agree with a lot of his decisions.

Classic Era (1-8) 

Starting with Survivor: Borneo and ending with Survivor: All Stars, the Classic Era of Survivor took the world by storm and bringing back some of the best players ever was an amazing way to round off the show. While they were admittedly inferior strategically to more recent seasons they are somehow magical and even to those such as myself who are younger than the show still feel that sense of something new and exciting when watching these seasons. To this day the likes of Richard Hatch, Rupert Boneham and Boston Rob are iconic and legendary figures and if you haven't watched much of the old Era I would recommend you do watch them to understand why people to this day cherish Big Tom, Ethan Zohn, Rob Cesternino, etc. 

Age of Experimentation (9-12) 

While you could realistically end this Era anywhere from season 12-16, I think the earlier ending is more accurate. This has also been dubbed (the Dark Age), and was very much a period where they through random things into the game to see what the audience liked. Vanuatu brought back a tribe division that wasn't random, which was an idea for the future, and Palau raised the number of contestants to 20, but two were immediately eliminated after not getting selected by teams picked by contestants and had no official merge. Guatemala brought about Immunity Idols and was the first cast to have returning players and newbies and Panama brought the idea of Exile Island as well as being the first season to have more than 2 tribes.

Age of Modernisation (13-20)

Often known as the Golden Age, this was a chain of some of the best seasons ever. In fact, other than Gabon and Samoa they are all probably in the top half of best ever Survivor seasons. This period included three of my four favorite contestants: Todd Herzog, J.T. Thomas and Boston Rob, and the modern game was kind of born here, starting with Yul, Earl, Yau Man, Todd and Amanda and ending with J.T., Russel, Sandra and Parvati. Heroes vs Villains, one of the best seasons ever, was the perfect season to end on. 

The Dark Ages (21-27)  

This almost killed Survivor. They relied heavily on returnees and two of the three seasons that only featured new players were below par. Blood vs Water was really good, and I controversially enjoyed Rob's dominance during Redemption Island, but it was truly a Dark Age that should never have happened. Ozzy, Coach, Rob and Russell were each practically handed (arguably) a 33 per cent chance to win, with Rob winning and Coach screwing himself over at the eleventh hour with a terrible final tribal council performance.

The Golden Age (28-32) 

The other one of my four favorites, Spencer Bledsoe, featured twice here, and the divisions of Brains vs Brawn vs Beauty, Blood vs Water and White Collar vs Blue Collar vs No Collar were spectacular. Cagayan is my favorite season, and contained a stacked cast that included Tony Vlachos, Sarah Lacina, Spencer Bledsoe, Tasha Fox, Woo Hwang and Chaos Kass, but the other seasons were also amazing and featured some of the best players ever seen on Survivor.

Thematic Era (33-40)

This Era is defined by two things: Advantages and Themes. Survival was less focused on, and to be perfectly honest the casts made or broke all of them. The Survival aspect was left to rot, and everything was about advantages. I didn't appreciate this, to be perfectly honest, and that narrative was shared by most fans. They were pampered and had quite a lot of food comparative to other seasons, and the amount of advantages was maddening. Having more than three different advantages on a single season was pretty bad and I hated Fire Idols, the Edge, etc. 

While I really enjoyed seasons such as David vs Goliath, Survivor was like that one person who is actually pretty but then gets a bunch of plastic surgery and wears too much make-up, rendering themselves worse than before. To be clear, I love Survivor and enjoyed these seasons, I just think that it was too chaotic and you are aiming to be "Sole Survivor" not "Most Hyperactive" after all. It contained really good seasons but was generally a bit overcomplicated. It was rounded off and "summarized" brilliantly by season 40.

Modern Era 

And finally we come to the Modern Era. The chaos we will see with 26-day seasons will be mad. We've already seen two vote-outs in one episode, and this will likely occur again. This is the next evolution of Survivor, where they are trying to make the show even more perfect for the fans at home. Personally I can't wait to see what what happens with this season, or the next, or the next, or the next after that.

So there we have it! Please comment your thoughts on the Eras down below. Do you have better names, do you think some seasons should be added to the previous or next bunch or do you think my ideas should be completely scratched. Please remember to follow me here or on social media. As always, I hope you enjoyed and I will see you guys later. Noah ( ͡⚈ ͜ʖ ͡⚈)