Survivor: Micronesia

Casting

According to host Jeff Probst, the former contestants who were contacted for this season were initially informed that there would be 20 returning players. When the field was culled to ten "Favorites," several players were cut, including Shane Powers from Survivor: Panama, Yul Kwon, winner of Survivor: Cook Islands and Rupert Boneham, from Pearl Islands. Boneham would eventually return for Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains and Survivor: Blood vs. Water. While Courtney Yates from Survivor: China and Tom Westman, winner of Survivor: Palau, were considered to return for Micronesia, they declined; both later returned for Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. Edgardo Rivera from Survivor: Fiji also declined.

Contestants

The contestants included ten new players, the "Fans," and ten former players, the "Favorites," from six previous seasons returning for their second chance at the game. The "Fans" were initially on the Airai tribe, with the "Favorites" on Malakal; both tribes were named after locations in Palau.

Future appearances

Parvati Shallow, Amanda Kimmel, James Clement and Cirie Fields returned to play Survivor for a third time in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. Kimmel, Fields and Clement were all placed on the Heroes tribe, while Shallow was on the Villains tribe. Fields, Clement and Kimmel placed 17th, 14th and ninth, respectively, while Shallow was the season's runner-up. Ozzy Lusth returned to play a third time on Survivor: South Pacific where he placed fourth. Both Fields and Lusth also returned for their fourth time each on Survivor: Game Changers. Jonathan Penner returned for his third time on Survivor: Philippines where he finished seventh. Erik Reichenbach was the first Fan to return, playing as a Favorite in the second "Fans vs. Favorites" season, Survivor: Caramoan, where he again finished fifth, this time due to medical reasons.

Season summary

This season pitted a tribe of "Favorites", ten returning Survivor contestants, against a tribe of "Fans", ten new players. The Favorites tribe was run by a majority alliance of Amanda, Cirie, Parvati, James, and Ozzy, while the Fans failed to form consistent alliances. After four eliminations, with the tribes still at equal numbers, the tribes were swapped through a schoolyard pick. On both tribes, the Favorites worked to eliminate the Fans, who continued to succumb to infighting.

After the merge, the remaining Fans attempted to form alliances with the Favorites that held the majority. A core alliance of Amanda, Parvati, and Cirie worked with the female Fans, Natalie and Alexis, to blindside several threats, working covertly to avoid suspicion and making it to the final six with Erik, who was spared due to repeated immunity challenge wins. Amanda was targeted for being a threat after Erik won immunity again, she saved herself with a hidden immunity idol and Alexis was eliminated. Erik won immunity yet again, but the others convinced him he was safe regardless; he gave the necklace to Natalie to engender her trust, allowing the women to vote him off.

Amanda, Cirie, and Parvati achieved their goal of becoming the final three, but were surprised by one last immunity challenge and elimination; Amanda won the challenge and eliminated Cirie for being the larger threat to win. The jury grilled both finalists, but Parvati's stronger arguments led to the jury awarding her the victory in a 5–3 vote.

Reception

This season was very well received by both fans and critics alike, and is generally considered one of the best seasons of the show. Jeff Probst originally ranked it as his second favorite season of all time (behind Borneo), stating that “The Parvati-led women's alliance produced some of the most memorable moments in the history of the show.” Probst also stated that the Tribal Council in which Erik Reichenbach was eliminated was his favorite of all the seasons, and he also said Palau was his favorite filming location. Survivor columnist Dalton Ross also rated the season as the second best season saying that it had “great characters and the perfect mix of solid and stupid gameplay.” He then later ranked this season and Borneo as tied for the best seasons, saying,

"I’ve gone back and forth with these two over the years. After Micronesia aired, I named it the best Survivor season ever. Upon reflection, while I still considered it the most enjoyable, I also worried I was understating the impact of the first season, which became a national phenomenon. (Yes, Borneo now seems dated and tame by comparison, but it’s the biggest game changer in the past 20 years of television.) So then I returned that to the #1 spot. If I wanted to watch one season again, it would be Micronesia. If you ask me which is the most important season, well, obviously it’s Borneo. So instead of constantly flipping them, they can simply share the top spot…until I change my mind again."

Entertainment Weekly similarly ranked both Borneo and Micronesia as tied for first. Slant magazine gave it a 3.5 star rating out of four, saying “Never in Survivor history has there been such a string of shocking tribal councils one right after the next.” Andy Dehnart of realityblurred.com also gave the season a positive review, stating that the moment where Erik gave individual immunity to Natalie helped make “Survivor: Micronesia the best season ever—or at least, the best second half of a season ever.” In 2014, Joe Reid of The Wire ranked it as the sixth-best season of the series. Survivor fan site "Survivor Oz" ranked Micronesia as the second-best season of the series (behind Heroes vs. Villains) in its annual polls ranking every season in 2012 and 2013, while it was ranked fourth in 2014 and fifth in 2015 Fellow fan site "The Purple Rock Podcast" ranked it as the ninth-best season. In 2015, in a poll held on the website of former Survivor contestant Rob Cesternino, Micronesia was ranked as the fourth-greatest season of the series by the website's users, while Cesternino himself personally ranked it as the second-best season, only behind Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.

Seven years later, in the official CBS Watch issue commemorating Survivor's 15th anniversary, Micronesia was voted by viewers as the third greatest season of the series, only behind Heroes vs. Villains and Pearl Islands. Another poll in the same magazine, asking viewers to vote for the most memorable moment in the series, saw Ozzy's elimination in Episode Ten come in second, only behind Sandra Diaz-Twine burning Russell Hantz's hat in Heroes vs. Villains.