Survivor New Era Cast Collage | Credit for Photos: Entertainment Weekly

The New Era of “Survivor” has been one of the most controversial eras of the show, but it has also been one of the most popular eras. The New Era currently includes Season 41 through Season 46. Like most reality shows, “Survivor” had a short hiatus during the 2020 Pandemic. 

“Survivor: Winners At War” (also known as season 40) wrapped up with a live reunion in May 2020, and the initial plans before COVID-19 were to start production for 41 immediately after, but they were forced to halt production until 2021. Survivor 41 was the official start of the new era. 

What is different in the New Era?

• Filming Length: Before the New Era, seasons were filmed over 39 days, but CBS announced for Season 41 and forward, the seasons would only be 26 days. This caused an uproar in the fandom, many people thought that the 26-day format was way too short. 
• Filming Location: This isn’t necessarily only for the new era, but “Survivor” has been filmed in the Mamanuca Islands of Fiji since “Survivor: Millennials Vs. Gen X” or season 33 (filmed in 2016). Before this, “Survivor” was filmed in a different country almost every season. 
• Diversity Mandate: In 2020 CBS introduced a diversity mandate for its reality shows, which would have 50% of the casts for its reality shows be BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or People of Color). This took effect for “Survivor” in season 41, and has been in effect since. 
• Removal of Theming: Most seasons had a theme behind them (ex. Millennials Vs. Gen X,  David Vs. Goliath, and Winners at War), but starting in 41, there wasn’t a theme behind the show. Fans thought this might just be for pandemic-era “Survivor” 41 and 42, but it hasn’t changed since. 
• New (Permanent?) Twists: In 41 the beware advantage was announced; if a player found it, they had to complete a challenge to get the actual advantage, and until they completed this challenge, they lost their vote if they went to tribal council. The Shot in the Dark twist was also announced in 41. The Shot in the Dark would give players a 1 in 6 chance of safety at tribal council; the only cost was that they lost their vote at tribal council.
• Opened Casting to Canadians: Starting in “Survivor 41,” Canadians were allowed to apply for “Survivor.” Before this, only United States citizens could apply to be on the show.
• Longer Episodes: During the SAG AFTRA strike of 2023, CBS allowed “Survivor” to do 90 minute episodes throughout all of season 45. This ended up being such a big hit, that it was announced “Survivor 46”  would have 90 minute episodes as well. Season 45 was filmed with 90 minute episodes in mind, but 46 was not. How will this affect 46? We shall see.

Which of the New Era seasons should you watch first? Here is how I would rank them from worst to best. 

1. “Survivor 41” – Season 41 was the guinea pig season of the new format, and it shows. Many people didn’t like the new 26 day format, and felt like everything was rushed. Is this one of the worst seasons in all 45 seasons? No, it is far from being the worst of all seasons, but it just doesn’t stack up to the rest of the new era. This was the first season that allowed Canadians though, which brought in a ton of new fans showing support for their fellow Canadians. Luvu, which was one of the starting tribes (including Syndey Segal, Naseer Muttalif, Danny McCray, Heather Aldret, Deshawn Radden, and Erika Casupanan), ended up winning every tribal immunity, which in my opinion made the season boring, because we pretty much already knew at least one of the tribes who would win the challenges. The winner, Erika Casupanan, was a surprise since she didn’t have much airtime and seemed unrepresented in the season. Erika was on Luvu, the tribe that won most of the tribal immunities. Had she been on a different tribe, she would have been voted out sooner rather than later.
2. “Survivor 43” – Season 43 started off all right, so people thought it might redeem the new era. In fact, I really enjoyed it in the beginning. One of the things that made this season stand out from season 41, was the fact that none of the 3 starting tribes really dominated the early game, which made it more enjoyable. Many people weren’t happy with the winner, Mike “Gabler” Gabler, because he wasn’t as entertaining as most other winners, and some argued he didn’t play as well as runner-up Cassidy Clark, but you can’t deny he played a great game. Gabler was a respectable person, and he decided to donate his winnings to charity instead of keeping it for himself, which is one reason I decided to rank 43 under 41.
3. “Survivor 42” – Survivor 42 was definitely better than its predecessor and successor mainly because the cast was really enjoyable. We had amazing characters such as Omar Zaheer, Jonathan Young, and the winner Maryanne Oketch. Maryanne was an early favorite for many fans. Her goofy personality quickly won people over, even though at some points it got a little obnoxious. The gameplay, however, wasn’t at its best, but it did seem like producers were finally getting a grip on how the new era should be handled.
4. “Survivor” 45 – This may be a controversial opinion, but I have decided to put season 45 under season 44 mainly because within the first 4 episodes, there were 2 people who quit, and the same tribe went to tribal council 3 times in a row. The premiere was underwhelming because one of the contestants, Hannah Rose, decided to quit during the tribal council. She realized how hard it was to go without her vape, and this was too much for her to handle. Then in episode 4, contestant Sean Edwards decided to quit so he could spend more time at home with his husband. The rest of the season was fantastic, though, and ultimately ended with a satisfying winner.
5. “Survivor 44” – Survivor 44 is one of my all-time favorite seasons. There was great game play, great characters, and an extremely satisfying ending. In the beginning of the season, the Tika tribe didn’t have much luck at all, losing most of the early tribal immunities. “Survivor 44” also has one of the most infamous alliances of the New Era: “The Tika 3” included 3 of the original 6 members of the Tika Tribe (including winner Yamil “Yam Yam” Arocho, third-place runner up Carolyn Wiger, and fourth place contestant Carson Garrett.) This whole cast was full of complex personalities, and many New Era fan favorites.

The “Survivor 46” cast was announced on February 4th and premiered on February 28th on CBS. The Cast includes 18 new players: Ben Katzman, Bhanu Gopal, Charlie Davis, David “Jelinsky” Jelinsky, Hunter McKnight, Jemila “Jem” Hussain-Adams, Jessica “Jess” Chong, Kenzie Petty, Liz Wilcox, Maria Shrime Gonzalez, Moriah Gaynor, Quintavious “Q” Burdette, Randen Montalvo, Sodasia “Soda” Thompson, Tevin Davis, Tiffany Nicole Ervin, Tim Spicer, and Venus Vafa. For a more in-depth look at the cast, and their bios check out this article by Entertainment Weekly.