Survivor: Cagayan

Contestants

The cast is composed of 18 new players, initially split into three tribes containing six members each: Aparri ("Brawn"), Luzon ("Brains"), and Solana ("Beauty"). Luzon is named after the namesake island in the Philippines, while Aparri and Solana are also named after towns in Cagayan. The cast includes former professional basketball player Cliff Robinson and David Samson, president of Major League Baseball's Miami Marlins.

Future appearances

Yung "Woo" Hwang, Kassandra "Kass" McQuillen, Spencer Bledsoe, and Latasha "Tasha" Fox returned for Survivor: Cambodia; Hwang placed 14th, McQuillen placed 13th, and Bledsoe and Fox tied for runner-up. Sarah Lacina and Tony Vlachos returned for Survivor: Game Changers. Vlachos was the second person voted out, placing 19th.

Season summary

The 18 new castaways were divided into three tribes based on primary attribute: Aparri (Brawn), Luzon (Brains), and Solana (Beauty). The Brains tribe stumbled out of the gate, losing three of the first four immunity challenges and being reduced to only Tasha, Kass, and Spencer. The Beauty tribe, led by LJ, only lost one member, while the Brawn tribe went undefeated in challenges. With 14 players remaining, the castaways were shuffled into two tribes of seven: Aparri, featuring the three Brains, three of the Beauties, and Sarah from the Brawn tribe; and Solana, consisting of Beauties LJ and Jefra, and the other five Brawns. On Solana, the Brawns initially planned to hold strong and get rid of LJ, but he and Jefra convinced Tony and Trish to turn on the Brawn alliance to vote out physical threat Cliff instead.

The tribes merged with 11 players remaining: five from Solana and six from Aparri. While the swapped tribes looked like they were going to stick together, Tony attempted to sway his old ally Sarah back to the Brawn-heavy Solana alliance, but Sarah was indecisive. Instead, Trish persuaded Kass to swap alliances, which she did, eliminating Sarah and putting Solana in power. Despite being in the majority, Tony's paranoia continually got the better of him as he and Woo navigated between alliances to blindside potential threats. Tony also found multiple hidden immunity idols, including a special one that could be used after the votes were read; he also lied about the special idol's "different powers"—falsely insinuating it could be used at the Final Four.

Kass, Tony, and Woo ended up in the Final Three, at which point they learned that one more person would be eliminated before the Final Tribal Council. Woo won the final immunity challenge; but while Kass seemed like an easy choice to take to the end after betraying her initial alliance, Tony convinced Woo to uphold his virtues and honor their bond as tribe-mates throughout the entire game, and Woo took Tony to the Final Two. At the Final Tribal Council, a majority of the jury grilled Tony for his aggressive game play, while Woo was criticized for riding Tony's coattails. Ultimately Tony was awarded the title of Sole Survivor with eight of the nine jury votes.

Ratings

Survivor: Cagayan's premiere episode on February 26, 2014, drew in 9.4 million viewers and a 2.4 rating. Viewership was up substantially from the 8.9 million viewers of the premiere for Survivor: Caramoan, the previous winter premiere, which was the series' weakest. However, the 18-49 rating was on par with Caramoan's 2.4 rating.

In its third episode, Survivor: Cagayan gained higher ratings and brought in more viewers in the 18–49 adult demographic than time-slot rival American Idol for the first time in the series' history; the episode put up 2.5/8 ratings share with 9.86 million viewers, while Idol received a ratings share of 2.4/8 and had 9.57 million viewers. This trend continued the following episode as well, this time with a rating three-tenths of a point higher than Idol.

Critical reception

The season received universal acclaim from both critics and fans, some calling it the best season since the show's early days. Consistent praise has gone to the theme of Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty, the exciting challenges, the game play of winner Tony Vlachos, and the strong cast overall, particularly Spencer Bledsoe, Kass McQuillen, Tasha Fox, and Vlachos. Survivor: Caramoan winner John Cochran called it one of the show's best seasons, and had particular praise for the season's final six contestants, calling it the best final six in the show's history. Even host Jeff Probst, during the live reunion show, called it not only one of the best seasons, but also one of the best casts in the show's history.

Entertainment Weekly ranked it as the fourth best season of all time, behind Borneo and Micronesia (tied for first) and Heroes vs. Villains, calling it the best season with entirely new players since the very first one, and even then admitting that Borneo was only better simply by being the first. Cagayan was similarly ranked third, behind Heroes vs. Villains and Borneo, by Examiner.com, which similarly called it the best season with an entirely new cast since the original. Cagayan was ranked #1 by Survivor fan site "Survivor Oz" in its 2014 rankings of all seasons of the series, and was ranked #2 by the same list a year later. It was also ranked as the fourth-best season by another fan site, "The Purple Rock Podcast."

However, one criticism against the season was the inclusion of the Special Immunity Idol, which was panned by many fans, including former castaway Rob Cesternino from Survivor: Amazon and Survivor: All-Stars. Nevertheless, a poll on Cesternino's website a year later saw Cagayan ranked as the third-greatest season of the series, only behind Heroes vs. Villains and Survivor: Pearl Islands, while Cesternino himself personally ranked it as the fourth-greatest.

In the official CBS Watch issue commemorating the 15th anniversary of Survivor, Cagayan was voted by viewers as the fifth greatest season of the series, and was the only post-Heroes vs. Villains season to appear in the top ten. In a different poll for the same magazine, Tony was voted as the eighth greatest player in Survivor history for his performance in Cagayan. Lastly, LJ and Woo were respectively ranked fourth and fifth in the same magazine's poll for the "Hottest Male Castaway," while Morgan ranked third in the corresponding poll for "Hottest Female Castaway". In all three cases, they were the highest-ranking contestants in both polls to have competed in only one season each. In a 2015 interview, Jeff Probst admitted that, if Borneo is not taken into consideration, then Cagayan ties with Heroes vs. Villains as his personal favorite season of Survivor ever, and that Spencer ties with Rob Cesternino for his favorite non-winning contestant ever.