Ozcars 2014–25 Greatest Survivor Player Of All Time!
We conclude our reveals of each of our Ozcar categories, and today we bring you who you voted as the top 25 greatest Survivor players of all time! You know the winner, you know the final five, but did your favourite season just miss out on reaching the finals? Read on to find out!
Once again for this poll we added up the total votes received by our Survivor contestants, as well as our Survivor Oz crew and the people who took part on our online poll. No negative votes were taken into count for this poll, and several repeat offenders from last year made an appearance, as well as several new contestants.
25. Amanda Kimmel (China, Micronesia & Heroes vs. Villains) – 8 Votes
LAST YEAR: 16th (-9)
Drops well back and just hangs on to a top 25 spot on our poll. Wouldn’t surprise me to see her fall of completely next year.
24. Earl Cole (Fiji) – 10 Votes
LAST YEAR: New Entry
So happy to see Earl on this list, Earl is one of 16 winners to appear in the top 25. I know I sound like a broken down record when it comes to his interview, but seriously go and listen to it now and see why Earl is so awesome.
23. John Cochran (South Pacific & Caramoan) – 10 Votes
LAST YEAR: 15th (-8)
Last year he was the most recent winner and that helped him high on our list. But he still manages to finish in the top 25 a year later, so is it still ‘recency bias’? Falls 8 spots, but still has the support enough to get him on the list.
22. Malcolm Freberg (Philippines & Caramoan) – 11 Votes
LAST YEAR: 17th (-5)
Malcolm got a love last year and still gets some love this year as he falls outside the top 20. Surely will come back for a third time and surely on that third time will help him raise higher on this list.
21. Tyson Apostol (Tocantins, Heroes vs. Villains & Blood vs. Water) – 12 Votes
LAST YEAR: New Entry
Off the back of his win in Blood vs Water, Tyson steals his way into the top 25 greatest winners of all time. Would anyone a year ago thought this would’ve happened? I know I certainly wouldn’t have.
20. Tom Westman (Palau & Heroes vs. Villains) – 14 Votes
LAST YEAR: 13th (-7)
Another player to drop back, Tom just holds on to a top 20 spot. Our former Ozlet Rileigh won’t be happy at all!
19. Yul Kwon (Cook Islands) – 16 Votes
LAST YEAR: 12th (-7)
Big drop for Yul sees him fall to 19th and very nearly out of the top 20. This for sure won’t make people happy. Especially considering the next person who finished ahead of him..
18. Mike Borassi (Samoa) – 16 Votes
LAST YEAR: New Entry
Mike ends up on the 25 sexiest males. Mike ends up on the 25 best non-winners. Now Mike ends up on the 25 greatest players of all time. Wow, Mike sure had his family and friends campaign for him this year! I am lost for words! And clearly so will you be…
17. Chris Daugherty (Vanuatu) – 16 Votes
LAST YEAR: 24th (+7)
Great to see Chris working his way up on this list into a spot I think that justifies his game on Vanuatu! Actually no, he deserves to be higher! Let’s make it happen next year!
16. James “JT” Thomas (Tocantins & Heroes vs. Villains) – 18 Votes
LAST YEAR: 21st (+5)
Struggled in the winners poll, JT can at least say he jumped up big time in the greatest of all time. You go sir!
15. Ozzy Lusth (Cook Islands, Micronesia & South Pacific) – 22 Votes
LAST YEAR: 9th (-6)
Big drop for Ozzy who falls out of the top 10 and just lands in the top 15. It hasn’t been a good year for Ozzy in the Ozcars in 2014. He is already hoping for 2015.
14. Tina Wesson (Australian Outback, All-Stars & Blood vs. Water) – 25 Votes
LAST YEAR: 14th (No Change)
Tina shone on Blood vs Water and very nearly pulled off her second victory. It definitely silenced a lot of her critics and already has fans crying out for her to return for a fourth try! I for one am one of those fans!
13. Colby Donaldson (Australian Outback, All-Stars & Heroes vs. Villains) – 26 Votes
LAST YEAR: 20th (+7)
Massive improvement from the Colbster who jumps up 7 spots into 13th. Colby for sure had a struggle on Heroes vs Villains but let’s not forget he still finished in 5th place! I also feel his All-Stars game was slightly underrated, and then of course you can’t overlook his dominant run on Australian Outback. By far one of the greatest.
12. Rob Cesternino (Amazon & All-Stars) – 32 Votes
LAST YEAR: 10th (-2)
Drops out of the top 10 which will see some of his loyal fans seething. Always rated as one of the greatest and once again comes ahead of several winners to take his spot at 11th. Back in the top 10 next year Rob!
11. Spencer Bledsoe (Cagayan) – 40 Votes
LAST YEAR: New Entry
Spencer narrowly misses out on the top 10 at his first attempt. It’s been Spencer’s year this year in the Ozcars, and this finish just caps off another strong result!
10. Cirie Fields (Panama, Micronesia & Heroes vs. Villains) – 41 Votes
LAST YEAR: 11th (+1)
Always considered one of the greatest players never to have won, Cirie lands herself in the top 10 of this category for the very first time and won’t she be happy!
9. Kim Spradlin (One World) – 48 Votes
LAST YEAR: 4th (-5)
Kim drops out of the finals in 2014 but still registers a top 10 finish which I know will make her smile. Still a strong player who dominated her season and would be great to see play again.
8. Richard Hatch (Borneo & All-Stars) – 51 Votes
LAST YEAR: 5th (-3)
I still can’t believe that after 3 years Richard Hatch hasn’t won an Ozcar. Not even one. At this rate he will win a Lifetime Achievement Ozcar before he wins a publicly voted one! Which will be a shame! Richard needs to win one already!
7. Tony Vlachos (Cagayan) – 57 Votes
LAST YEAR: New Entry
A great effort for Tony in his first attempt to be listed as the 7th greatest player in the history of Survivor. Already anticipating the ‘recency bias’ comments below, but it’s always the excuse of disgruntled voters who aren’t willing to band behind their favourites or ‘rightful entrants’ when voting initially opens! I say props to Tony and no doubt he’ll be on here once again next year!
6. Russell Hantz (Samoa, Heroes vs. Villains & Redemption Island) –65 Votes
LAST YEAR: 6th (No Change)
Another close encounter for Russell as he misses out on the top 5 by only 8 votes. Not everyone’s cup of tea in the Survivor world, but when the voting counts they fans get behind him to show off their passion. Can he make the finals next week? Watch this space.
5. Todd Herzog (China) – Final Voting Percent 7.79%
LAST YEAR: 8th (+3)
POSITION AFTER FIRST ROUND: 5th (73 points)
Todd did well to scrape into the top 5 as he narrowly held of a late run by Ozcar winner for best non-winner Russell Hantz. Never was in with a shot at winning, Todd had an impressive Ozcar performance in 2014 with three finalist finishes.
4. Sandra Diaz-Twine (Pearl Islands & Heroes vs Villains) – Final Voting Percent 16.17%
LAST YEAR: 3rd (-1)
POSITION AFTER FIRST ROUND: 2nd (313 points)
Sandra won this award back in 2012, but she drops back even further in 2014 to finish in 4th place. Never looked like she was in a shot at winning this year, it’s an unfortunate result for the only two time winner in the history of Survivor.
3. Brian Heidik (Thailand) – Final Voting Percent 22.33%
LAST YEAR: 7th (+4)
POSITION AFTER FIRST ROUND: 4th (195 points)
The Ozcar winner in the best winner category, Brian backed up his impressive result in that category to take out the bronze in the greatest player of all time category. An amazing effort from the lord and master who had never even made the finals of this category before. I for one am proud of him for this result! The recognition continues to grow!
2. Parvati Shallow (Cook Islands, Micronesia & Heroes vs Villains) – Final Voting Percent 25.14%
LAST YEAR: 1st (-1)
POSITION AFTER FIRST ROUND: 3rd (313 points)
The queen is dethroned in another category as she falls back a spot to experience the same feeling she experienced on Heroes vs Villains. Still always a strong vote getter, she actually improved on her 3rd place from the first round of votes. I’m sure she’ll be back once again in 2015 to try to win her 6th Ozcar statue!
1. Rob Mariano (Marquesas, All-Stars, Heroes vs Villains & Redemption Island) – Final Voting Percent 28.58%
LAST YEAR: 2nd (+1)
POSITION AFTER FIRST ROUND: 1st (319 points)
After two years of female dominance it’s finally time for a male winner in this category, and after two close finishes Boston Rob finally comes out on top with the prize as greatest Survivor player of all time as voted for by you! Four seasons, a win, a 2nd and two pre-jury finishes are enough to see him have the admiration of his fans as well as his Survivor peers who often rate him as the greatest of all time! From everyone at Survivor Oz congratulations Rob!
That’s it! All our Ozcar categories have been fully revealed with the top 25 of each category being posted over the past 17 days. Thank you so much to every single person who voted and made this years Ozcars the best year in history! Stay tuned because the Ozcars will be back better than ever in 2015!
Survivor Oz 
This list is so awful. Parvati should be #1. Brian should be closer to the 8-10 range. Todd should also be closer to 8-10. Russell should NO WAY be higher than Tony or Kim. Hatch is the father of Survivor and definitely deserves top 5 or 6. Kim may be the GREATEST player in Survivor history, yet she barely makes top 10… she should be ranked 3rd at the worst. I love Spencer, but in NO WAY should he make top 25, let alone 11th! I loved Spencer and he can definitely win if he plays again, but honestly, he didn’t do too much impressive work in Cagayan besides being a fun guy to root for. He should be ranked around 30th. No way is he 11th. Colby is wayyy overrated. Ozzy is the most overrated player in Survivor history. Besides the physical aspect, he absolutely sucks at every other part of Survivor. Yul, Tom, Tyson, Malcolm, and Cochran are all underrated. And Mike Borassi? Do I even have to say it? He shouldn’t even be in contention for top 100 players! get that joke outta here! what an awful, awful top 25. terrible voting fans
The Ozcars are awful this year. That’s because Ben’s minions voted a million times for Morgan, Heidik etc. to please their master. Their reward was a kiss, a hug and a pat on the back.
And guess what! Clearly you didn’t vote enough for your favourites so therefore your results that you wanted didn’t happen! There is a lesson in there somewhere isn’t there? Note that down for 2015…
I’m not blaming Ben and the Ozlets, I think they’re great! I think some fans voted for less deserving players, and some fans that may want to please Ben voted for Brian a lot. Don’t get me wrong, Brian was an amazing player! just not top 3 IMO. I’m not blaming Survivor Oz for this though, just some of the fans
Cochran and Tyson underrated????
Yes sir! Both should be top 20 IMO. especially Tyson. his performance in BvW was amazing, he only loses some points for his struggles in Tocantins and HvV
Cochran is a joke. He won just because CBS needed to attract the nerd public, and rigged the season for him. He had pre game alliance with bad player (Andrea, Dawn, Francesca, Brandon), challenge made for a looser like him, and Jeff as lawyer in TC.
Tyson suck in Tocantins and HvsV and was so lucky in BvsW.
how was he lucky on BvW? he literally controlled everyone and was the puppet master of the season. the only “lucky” thing that happened to him was that not drawing the white rock, and there was only a 33% chance of him drawing the rock, so odds are he wouldn’t draw it. I wouldn’t call that getting so lucky that he didn’t deserve to win… I’d call that a moment of luck, just like every winner has. Tony is lucky that Woo took him to the end instead of Kass! does that make Tony a bad winner? absolutely not, he’s an incredible player and winner
I bcame a regular follower of dis site during d last years ozcars, nd ur lists drew my attention towards some of d classic survivor characters. I live in India where d only seasons telecastd are 23, 24 nd 25(thank God for d last one).. Bt stil have a gud history about al past seasons bcoz of ur site.. M updatd thru bvv nd cagayan all thanx to ur ozcaps.. I was super xcitd for dis years ozcars..
Bt i m highly highly dissapointed
Thanks for the comment Eric, but remember these awards are voted for by the public. And votes are always open to as many votes as you like. So therefore if you wish to see your favourites in the high places next year, then get behind your favourites and vote for them! That way you won’t be disappointed!
I’m not disappointed that my favorites didn’t win. But the Ozcars lose their credibility when a minority of the voters decide who gets to win a specific category. It implies that the other readers’ opinion doesn’t count for much if you won’t shout it 1000 times. Why do this polls if you’re not interested to garner the pulse of your readers? How can you find out where the new players land their spot in the ever growing pool of players when you pollute the process with joke votes?
Why not let everyone get only their one vote in? Do you only want to say that the Ozcars are getting bigger and bigger each year or trying to avoid it getting stale with the same people winning?
Sorry Nostradamus, but I think you’re implications are way off. You’re essentially claiming that our readers/listeners/voters are stupid and are only doing it for a joke. I think that is a completely false assumption. The truth of the matter is it’s impossible to have any sort of poll or awards like this that is 100% accurate. Even if we allowed one vote per person/IP address, people would still exploit the system to do it to what they desire. They would also see results essentially the same. In previous years we have allowed one vote per person/ISP and the majority of winners/finalists are the same. What baffles me is that despite there clearly being a clear majority in these categories from fans/voters towards certain people, there are the select vocal minority who are quick to call them ‘stupid’ or ‘rigged’ or a myriad of other things just because they aren’t satisfied with the result. Again, there is no perfect way of doing this. I noticed on RHAP with their greatest player of all time list that the top 20 had a very similar feel to it as ours, and there are even more people who listen/read to RHAP. So if the majority of Survivor fans think the same way on a different show with a different audience, then how is that something that then makes something like this wrong or not ‘credible’? Truth be told, these are done for a bit of fun, and something to curb the off season blues. They are never going to please everyone. And yes even I look at some results and think ‘wtf’. But there is never a right or wrong answer in these polls. For every vote you or someone else considers a ‘joke’ vote, there is someone legitimately serious about their vote. Take Russell for example. While I understand that there is a very large majority of people out there who despise him, his gameplay and everything about him and think he doesn’t deserve any credit of place on any type of ‘best of’ list, there is equally the same amount thinking he does. Is either side right? Of course not. Is either side wrong? Of course not. It’s the beauty of something like this that goes to show the opinion of people that can then give a collective set of results. We also include results and votes from former Survivor contestants and of course the people who work for the show. Are we or they wrong or right? No. This is about as ‘credible’ as you can get with votes of this nature. It’s just like a democracy. People are free to vote for whoever they want to. If the majority of the public voted for a ‘joke’ candidate in an election and that candidate won, does that mean that the candidate isn’t worthy just because they are considered a ‘joke’? Of course not, it’s the old rule of ‘majority rules’. That’s how we run the poll. Sorry if that doesn’t suit your beliefs or how you think it should be run, but again we can’t please everyone and we don’t aim to. We can’t help how ‘big’ it gets each year and we can’t help if the same people win each year. We had different winners this year compared to the first two years which was great, but I’m sure this will change next year and we will have a mixture of new and old winners. It’s just the nature of the beast.
It can’t be said “majority rules” when a “vocal” minority can vote multiple times and trump a “more detached” majority of relatively small size; and i haven’t said they are stupid.
There have be many jokes (votes) to make good fun!
So, these lists aren’t meant to be taken seriously, it’s a way to provide content involving the readers at the same time.
You give us great interviews not so many podcasts can provide, but please allow me to dislike the Ozcars this year and hope you’ll reconsider and bring back to the previous voting system for 2015.
Never said you can’t dislike them, you can do whatever you like. As I said, these aren’t done to please everyone and we know they won’t please everyone. But the voting system will not change for next year as I explained for reasons why any other previous voting methods also have the same issues. Thanks for reading/listening
Mike Borassi is a beast
Stop with the complaints about these lists. It’s annoying. It would be fun if there was an ozcar category or top 10 of worst players. I feel like that would be really entertaining.
Boston Rob #1? Seriously? He’s so overrated!
I’m actually perfectly happy with these list. Every person will have their own opinion, and you can’t please everyone, but I’m glad to see it doesn’t stay the same every year, it changes all the time. I’m happy. This is a great list, obviously there are those random people that voted for Mike but other then that it was a great list, and I loved every category and well you can’t change a thing so why complain about it.
Something that bothers me about these posts are that I don’t know how much credibility i can give to them, when they include such a high percentage of obvious joke votes, such as mike borassi… over the last couple posts they were really evident.
OMG stop With Mike Borassi he sucked
People need to look up ‘great’ in the dictionary.
The tribe of survivor oz listeners has spoken boston rob is the greatest do I agree not nescessaily I am a big parv fan but still I have to respect the decision by the listeners/readers
Heidik and Sandra are tied for first, here. Good list.
So glad to see Cochran on here. Yes, you could argue that Caramoan was almost boring because of how much he dominated the season, but the fact still remains that Cochran is still only one of three winners to sweep the jury votes, and only one of two to have a perfect season (Earl Cole had one vote thrown at him in the third Tribal Council, ruining the no-damage run aspect of the perfect season), with the other being J.T. in Tocantins).
Keep in mind, people argue time and again that Redemption Island was set up specifically for Rob Mariano to win, and he still wasn’t able to sweep jury votes or pull off a no-damage run. In other words, Cochran did better in his season than the favored contestant in a season everyone claimed was slanted. That is impressive.
Not sure about Rob Mariano taking the number one spot, but I only started watching Survivor during South Pacific, so pretty much any information I have on previous seasons is hearsay.
The only reason Rob didn’t sweep the jury votes is because Ralph voted for “Phile.” Rob played as close to a perfect game as you possibly can on Redemption Island.
I think who should or shouldn’t have placed where is ridiculous, as it’s all subjective. Personally, I don’t see how anyone can dismiss Boston Rob, given that the guy has proven he’s probably got the most balanced gameplay of all time so far. He dominates challenges; he’s a viable threat no matter the challenge, be it physical or mental, on land or in the water. He has an A+ social game, willing to cut throats when he needs to and can still manage a jury.
We can base who wins off where they finished, but that’s highly unfair anyway, as the winner of Survivor is determined by other people; it’s not like traditional games where the winner is determined by accumulating points. You can play an outstanding game and still not win because someone doesn’t like you (Russel). At any point in the game, no matter how well you’re doing, if you don’t have the numbers, you’re toast.
And finally, for me at least, I think Rob rounds out that package by being entertaining to watch. Lots of people make these kind of lists that I thought were a snooze onscreen. But that’s just me. I think some people might be turned off by Rob either because he pretty much puppeteered the Redemption Island game or they may just be sick of seeing him play.
Just my two cents.
NO, NO, NO AND NO……….
Yes, yes, yes and yes
CIRIE IN TENTH!!! i am very dissapointed, and i think Amanda should be further up to, Malcolm, Spencer, Sandra should all be up higher.
1. Cirie Fields
2. Amandas Kimmel
3. Spencer Bledsoe
4. Sandra Diaz Twine
5. Rob/Parvati
6. Malcolm Freberg
…I could go on forever…
I am also surprised that Ciera Eastin and Brenda Lowe aren’t here, i would also like to campaign for Sugar Kiper and Shii-Ann Huang to be here next Ozcars, but we’ll just have to wait and see, for the most part, the list is reasonable, but i would tweak it a little bit myself