San Juan
Winner: 7/10
Entertainment: 7/10
Cast: 7/10
Gameplay: 9/10

I watched Australia when I was 10 as it was airing and haven't watched a bit of it since (: . Can't remember enough to rate it at all

Gonna go with San Juan because of that. Pretty solid season with some really surprising editing

San Juan Del Sur


Rate the season 1-10 on the winner
Natalie 10/10. Great female winner. An edit you rarely see given to one. Her move with the idol at F5 and playing straight to the Jury was gr8.

Rate the season 1-10 on entertainment
6/10. There were lots of blindsides and moves but there was a lack of connection to this cast which brought down the entertainment.

Rate the season 1-10 on the cast overall
4/10. As I said above there was a lack of connection to the cast. Lots and lots of unlikeable people. (Alec, Baylor, John, Dale. Somewhat Drew/Kelley/Wes/Julie for me) I liked Natalie and Jaclyn and the fact they were f2 propels this season for me.

Rate the season 1-10 on gameplay
8/10. There were a lot of shifts. John's blindside. Jeremy's crazy blindside. Keith's "stick to the plan" that ruined a blindside. Wes idoled out. Jon blindsided. Baylor's elimination. One would think it would be an instant top season ~~~ but it all goes back to the cast.



Australia


Rate the season 1-10 on the winner
6/10. The game was still forming in season 2 sooo ya. Tina did a good job socially with everyone.

Rate the season 1-10 on entertainment
7/10. It was a fun season for it's time.

Rate the season 1-10 on the cast overall
7/10. A lot of people were brought back from this for a reason. The highest ratings the show ever got so it forced the players to become big characters

Rate the season 1-10 on gameplay
6/10. Lots of decisions were emotional.



I voted San Juan Del Sur. I prefer new school in this instance.

SJDS
Winner: 6/10 (Natalie was solid, nothing special, but solid)
Entertainment: 7/10 (Keith carrying this 7 on his back along with a couple of moments from other people)
Cast: 6/10 (Keith, Jeremy, Jon were the only people really memorable for me)
Gamplay: 8/10 (Post-merge was awesome, pre-merge was bleh)

Australia (I also haven't seen it in a bit)
Winner: 6/10 (Tina is a more memorable winner than Nat, but I can't single out big moments or key moves for her)
Entertainment: 8/10 (This may just be an off memory, but I remember this group being great @ confessionals + a good amount of classic moments)
Cast: 10/10 (Colby, Tina, Jerry, Amber, Rodger, Elizabeth, Alicia, Kimmy, Jeff, Skupin. Maybe the best cast of new people ever. I even liked less popular people like Mad Dog and Nick)
Gameplay; 6/10 (Very tough to rate old school Survivor gameplay, it's so much different from what you think of when you think gameplay now. Colby taking Tina to the finals over Keith pretty much sums up what's different about the game, though we've seen people make the same mistake recently *cough*Woo*cough)

I have to go with Australia here. Its cast blows SJDS out of the water. Even though I wasn't watching then, this was the season that cemented Survivor into pop culture forever, these people were legit celebrities whether you were pre-merge or there in the last episode. SJDS is very underrated though, deserves more love, especially for the unpredictability post-Rocker's GF quitting.

Never cared for Australia, and even tho half the cast of San Juan was despicable it still wins it for me.

San Juan
Winner: 10/10 - LOVE Natalie, she deserved it and played great.
Entertainment: 8/10 - I tend to like seasons more in general when my favorite is winning :P
Cast: 8/10 -
Gameplay: 9/10

Australia
Winner: 3/10 - nice lady but never liked her as a winner
Entertainment: 6/10 - It was fun until Skupin's accident flipped the game and the wrong tribe ended up on top. Kucha was WAY more likable than Ogakor in general imo and it was so sad to lose Varner pre-jury and then Elisabeth, Rodger basically not having a shot to win due to #s.
Cast: 6/10
Gameplay: 6/10

The match-up of two overrated season that had great female winners.

San Juan del Sur
Winner: 8/10
Entertainment: 7.5/10
Cast: 3/10 BvW does not work with non-returnees. Some good characters, but for the most part the cast is pretty dull
Gameplay: 8/10

Australia
Winner: 7/10
Entertainment: 7.5/10
Cast: 9/10
Gameplay: 4/10

Australia's casting wins outweighs the better gameplay in San Juan del Sur for me.

San Juan del Sur
Winner: 8/10
Entertainment: 7/10
Cast: 4/10
Gameplay: 7/10

Australia
Winner: 7/10
Entertainment: 8/10
Cast: 9/10
Gameplay: 5/10

Australia will always be one of my favorite seasons. I love original Survivor much more than the newer seasons. Australia in particular did a good job of editing to the point where you really do fall in love with some of the people in the game while watching. I've never been a HUGE fan of SJDS.

The Australian Outback has always been one of my favourite seasons. I had to vote for it over San Juan Del Sur, but they're completely different seasons in terms of everything. lol

SJDS

Lots of post merge chaos (1)
No pre merge surprises (-1)
Jeremy (1)
Drew (1)
Twinnies (-1)
Twinnies actually being okay (1)


Australia:

Dude falling in the fire (5)
Tina (1)
Nick Brown, Harvard Bound (1)
Keith's cooking skills (-1)
Tie vote rules (-1)
Best non africa location (1)


Australia

Yeah I LOVE Natalie as a winner, she was also my fantasy pick -yes, I had to point that out-, but just her overall gameplay was so well done by her, so I definitley prefer her as a winner over Tina -even though I love Tina alot!-.

But the cast is most important to me, and Australia def has a WAY more stronger cast, a more fair and evenly spread out edit which made you care for everyone, which SJDS failed miserably at. Also Australia has much more iconic moments that still hold up to this day, and I can't get over Australia's cast, it was just a really good one!! Also the edit that season truly nailed it. Thinking of Australia just reminds me of why I love Old School so much, so even though I love Natalie, Australia def takes the cake for me by a landslide!

yeah australia has some of the more iconic people in the history of the series

Voted San Juan Del Sur because it's one of the seasons I've watched fully and I enjoyed it. I actually don't think I've ever seen any of Australia. It's one of the seasons I don't know much about in terms of event.

Both logos are great but I'll give it to Australia for being the older one

SJDS:
Rate the season 1-10 on the winner: 7. Played a great game and proved a worthy main character after Josh and Jeremy went home, but I wish we could have seen more of her (excluding her and Baylor on Exile was inexplicable).
Rate the season 1-10 on entertainment: 7. Some of it was the right kind of entertainment (Keith being Keith, Drew being Drew, the F5 idol play) and some of it was the wrong kind (flint drama, rice drama, trail mix drama, John Rocker drama), but there were no dull stretches.
Rate the season 1-10 on the cast overall: 4. The editors did an alright job of making hay with what was almost guaranteed to be only half of a good cast. The family that stays together does not watch Survivor together, apparently.
Rate the season 1-10 on gameplay: 5. The gameplay was presented as an extension of family ties and interpersonal conflict, which in theory is something I should love, but it was frustrating at the time, largely because of the impenetrable "family final five" that agreed on who would place 4th and 5th to give the remaining 3 a better shot with the jury. Thankfully that didn't happen, but still, holy shit. I need a rewatch to properly evaluate.
BONUS
Rate the season 1-10 on the location: 4. Looked better than the last time they were in Nicaragua, but aside from the cool-looking exile spire, Nicaragua still falls in a weird no-man's-land between not beachy enough and not jungly enough.
Rate the season 1-10 on the challenges: 5. Points awarded for the creativity of the hero challenges (as well as the best-ever iteration of the Massive Obstacle Course at F4), points docked for the merge being nothing but balancing balls and endurance challenges. Seriously, switch it up a little!

TAO:
Rate the season 1-10 on the winner: 8. Tina is iconic, not only as an antithesis to Colby, but as an antithesis to Hatch.
Rate the season 1-10 on entertainment: 7. Provided our first dose of Survivor as we know it today, as well as the biggest survival-in-the-wild moments the show has ever produced (the camp flood in particular is riveting television). The merge SERIOUSLY drags, though.
Rate the season 1-10 on the cast overall: 8. Think about how many people from Australia came back a second or third time. Think about how many of them you actually wanted to see a second time.
Rate the season 1-10 on gameplay: 5. Ranks lowest out of all of the original 7 seasons; wasn't really that much of a leap forward from Borneo.
BONUS
Rate the season 1-10 on the location: 9. The inland/beach combo is something we've only seen once since (Tocantins, and even then just barely), and it strikes an excellent balance between unique and Survivoresque. And HOLY SHIT THAT TRIBAL COUNCIL.
Rate the season 1-10 on the challenges: 4. Doesn't retain as much old-school charm as other things we love from the first several seasons; they mostly look amateurish. Would be a 3 if not for the cliff-jumping challenge.

...and yet I voted for SJDS, because its gestalt entertains me more, even as its individual components fail to impress.


EDIT: OMG I just realized both seasons feature Probst coming to camp and dismantling the shelter in exchange for giving them more rice. OLD SCHOOL AND NEW SCHOOL AREN'T SO DIFFERENT AFTER ALL!

Travesty