I Lost My Mind Watching (Almost) All Of ‘Survivor’ In A Year

Conventional wisdom states that no one really cares about another person's dreams unless they're been paid to care, but humor me. Over the last year or so, I have had a recurring dream in which I am a player on Survivor. It's not always the same dream, exactly, but the format generally holds: I have made it to the final seven or so, and I am fighting for my life. I don't think I would be good at Survivor, and that's how I always know it's a dream; I wouldn't sniff final seven. That doesn't matter, though; the dream returns repeatedly, and it always ends with me winning an immunity challenge. Then, I vomit.

Welcome to my brain on Survivor. Over the last year, I watched almost all of the show: 44 out of 49 available seasons, mostly but not entirely in order, while skipping only five seasons that I was told were either not all that important to the meta-narrative of the show (Palau, Guatemala, Fiji) or straight up bad (Thailand, Nicaragua). Other than starting with 2018's David vs. Goliath, generally considered the best standalone season for a beginner, and moving Cagayan, which is generally considered a top three non-returning player season, up in the order, I have powered through the whole show since January of 2025. That date is important in this demented journey: The urge to watch Survivor came from watching Boston Rob Mariano on the third season of The Traitors. In a lifetime of highly questionable television decisions, this is a rare conclusive answer. For your good and mine, I won't be delving too deeply into that.

But seeing the way that everyone revered Boston Rob on that show, and the aggressive way he played, plus the blind spot I've had for this authentic cultural juggernaut for most of my life—I turned 11 during the first Survivor season, Borneo—finally made me take the plunge. I asked my Survivor fan coworkers for advice on what seasons to watch—Kelsey sent me an iPhone note with a guide, and Giri passed along this Reddit thread—before promptly ignoring them and just saying "Fuck it, let's do it all." (I did listen to their advice about starting with David vs. Goliath rather than the much slower first season, which helped; I think I can pinpoint the moment I got hooked as Episode 8, when the undermanned Davids pulled off a great idol-vote split play to eliminate pro wrestler John Hennigan.) Since then, I have thought about Survivor more than almost anything else in my life. There is no denying that the highs and lows of a show that has about 15 great seasons and a whole lot of garbage have, due to repeated exposure over this last year, shaped my days and now my dreams as well. I know that I am not the same person I was before I did this.