The first episode I saw was Mitchell's boot in Australia (AXN-Asia). I did not catch it from the beginning of the episode but right at the immunity challenge. When Kucha won and Jeff gave them the idol, and told Ogakor they were going to tribal council, I was confused. I thought, "They won and they only got a piece of ugly wood. And the other team lost but they were going to some vacation spot? What's going on?" I stayed in front of the TV because I was somehow intrigued. The tribe finally went to tribal council and there was a tie between Keith and Mitchell. When Jeff asked them about previous votes, I misheard Keith. I thought he had "nine" votes against Mitchell's one previous vote. So my initial thought was the lesser previous votes you had would get you kicked out of the show.

Then I stumbled upon the next episode of S2. I saw that amazing intro credits and that was what hooked me on the show. Up to this day, the Australia intro is very dear to me. I saw Debb, Kel, and Maralyn and I thought that maybe they were the contestants already voted out. During that time, AXN aired the latest episode thrice a week, and they had a marathon from the first episode on the weekend. So it got me confused because I got to watch the merge, then saw pre-merge episodes. And my initial thought back then was that the game was really going on while airing, not realizing it was already finished in taping.

Then I saw Borneo on another channel, and watched it as well. But I saw the Australia finale first before the Borneo finale. At that time, I hated the Rich, Rudy, and Sue. I loved the Pagong tribe and Kelly towards the end of the season. I thought that Australia was much better and did not initially liked the Borneo setting. Up to this day, I think the Australia was one of the coolest location they had. Hearing the sound of the crickets while watching the show brings back very fond memories to me.

I believe that new viewers who are trying to catch up with the early seasons should watch them in the correct order. If they do, they will see and understand how the game evolved, even the editing as well. I liked Micronesia and it's ranked high up there for me but the early seasons were better because you really felt you were right there with them.