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I won't argue too much for Earl, but I will say that I think the unnecessarily high amount of screentime he got is the main thing working against him. That led to a lot of helicopter shots and fluff confessionals that could've been used to develop some of the ignored characters in Fiji (aka pretty much everyone without a Y chromosome). He did have quite a few genuinely amusing moments IMHO, but I can definitely understand why people found him a bit too bland.

Earl and Matt are underrated?

Everyone basically had a hard on for Matt in the finals and hoping he'd beat Jenna.

Had I done the list immediately after Amazon (or even the ASS/Vanuatu timeframe), Matt would probably fit better on an overrated list even though I like the guy. But ever since Jenna became really well-liked and everyone began to appreciate her, Matt's been turned into a joke almost; some nutcase who nobody could've ever thought deserved to win. Like I said, I think there's been a ton of history rewritten with Amazon--nothing against Jenna, but it wasn't anything like this in 2003.

I also have a strong feeling that the rest of the top 8 will be like... 7 MORE guys... and Scout.

Don't call your bookie just yet then. ;) But like Kitty said, Sucks has a tendency to adore the females and bash the crap out of the males. Don't lose faith though, the list is about to get a boost of estrogen! And male or female, I think the entire top seven is pretty awesome (although I'm biased as hell I suppose).

You forgot a classic Matt moment -- when he swallowed that bug without any hesitation and then showed it running down his throat into his stomach and intestines. Awesome!

I love that--especially with everyone bowing to him in amazement afterwards. They should bring Matt out for every gross food challenge; I can just see him inhaling fafaru.

Sarah was a hilarious bitchgoddess and mactresses were actually exciting to have on the show back then.

Exactly! It's easy to take her for granted now that we've seen so many useless hot chicks on the show but even if she's not one of the most c.olorful characters in Marquesas, she was pretty entertaining.

And having almost the entire Africa cast on the list makes sense since I still think that's the most underrated season in general, simply due to its cast. They're probably the best roundup of average yet interesting people that are unique without being one-note OTT caricatures and stereotypes. Almost all of them had funny or notable moments, which is something you can't say about the casts of most seasons. It just so happens that the most boring in the bunch won.

There is no red X big enough for this paragraph.

Great list, beatles! The only one I honestly truly disagree with so far is Earl. He really was just that boring. And everytime he made a "funny" comment it sounded terribly forced. Oh, and Austin's "we found Nemo" comment had been used liked a million times before on Palau and Guatemala, so Nemo references were kind of lame by that point.

Thanks! I could've sworn I remembered Bobby Jon saying it in one of his seasons but when I browsed through some S12 episodes to get the exact quotes and heard it, I figured I must've remembered it wrong and Austin was the one who said it. Glad to know I wasn't totally off, and glad to see you're liking Gary more. I just remember how everyone hated him pre-show because we all thought that that an ex-NFL quarterback (who had actually played in the regular season for several years, unlike Big Ted) was about the biggest mediawhore the show could ever get. And nowadays that would be nothing compared to people like Ashley and Sugar and, like, a third of the Cook Islands cast.

I'm kind of doubting that half of the top 7 is from Thailand, but I'd say Clay, Helen, Robb, and Ghandia all deserve to be on this list with Jake. I'm also waiting for Scout to show up.

You definitely haven't seen the last of Thailand, but that's all I can say.

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7. Rory Freeman
Vanuatu - 10^th place

Even though its reputation has improved over time, Vanuatu is still one of the least popular seasons of the show, and one common complaint is that, while the female half of the cast is pretty tremendous, the guys leave a lot to be desired. That may be true of the overall cast, but honestly, after Eliza, I think the two most entertaining contestants of the season are Chris and Rory. Rory pretty much rubbed everybody he played against the wrong way at one point or another, and the littlest things irritated Rory too. Take the second episode, in which Mia did a victory dance after the women won the reward challenge. This really upset Rory for some reason, who chastised her back at Lopevi, demanding that Mia and the other women "show some class!" Even Rory's allies found the guy unbearable. Sarge especially couldn't stand him, and even wanted to vote him out ahead of the non-Fat 5 members, which says a lot considering how gung-ho Sarge was about keeping your word.

Basically, Rory was always a marked man in Vanuatu, but that was only underscored after a tribal shuffle in the fifth episode. Rory ended up alongside Bubba as the only two men on the Yasur tribe, and the women made it clear that the guys had no hope. An idiotic move on Bubba's part sealed his fate first, and Rory knew that he was in for an uphill battle. In probably his most likable episode of the season, Rory held a tribe meeting. He started off by telling the women he was sorry "for the horrible, horrible things I said to you in my mind last night." An unnecessary way to begin, perhaps, but even when making a 'heartfelt' apology, Rory can't help but phrase it in the most negative way possible. He does it again by making an obligatory "slave" reference when he explains that he will no longer continue to exert himself if he's just going to get voted out anyway. His speech, combined with a blunder made by Lisa, helped him make it past that next Tribal Council. Afterwards, he was back to being the prime target, but he single-handedly won the next immunity challenge, protecting him until the merge. Alas, the women banded together at the merge, and Rory's anti-Ami stance and Sarge's immunity win caused Rory to be the first person voted out of Alinta.

6. Linda Spencer
Africa - 13^th place

I've read that Linda was really disappointed with her portrayal on the show, and that's unfortunate, because she really wasn't as one-note a character as people seem to think. Sure, the "Mother Africa" stuff got a bit annoying, but Linda was more than that. In fact, as Brandon once put it, "She has two very, very different sides. It's like this sweet, little New England mom, and then there's this…I don't know, crazy woman side too." In some ways, Linda was like an early version of Scout (which I know will certainly endear her to Sucksters), in that she usually came across as a nice, older lady, yet she also seemed to relish in other peoples' misfortunes and/or subtly cut them down. Yet Linda was way more entertaining than Scout ever was. In keeping with the Scout metaphor, Lindsey was the pre-Eliza (I tried to make it prE-liza but it just looks terrible), and besides praising the goodness of Mother Africa, there was nothing Linda loved more than knocking Lindsey down a couple of pegs.

At the SOS reward challenge, Lindsey had a breakdown because of dehydration. Much to the defeated Lindsey's chagrin, Linda stumbled upon her, and later snidely remarked, "One of the things that Lindsey likes to say everyday on a regular basis is how strong she is; she's the strongest person that she knows! …Guess she's not so strong." Even as a proud Lindsey hater since 2001, I have to admit that the way Linda says this with a casual shrug is pretty damn cold. Nearly as brutal was the way she absolutely delighted in waking up the younger members of Samburu for an early morning reward challenge, telling them in the most condescendingly sarcastic tone possible, "Hey guys, hate to wake you up" and "Who'd like to read this? …Why [doesn't] one of you read it?" I'm sorry, but this is totally something Scout would do, although again, Linda is way more fun to watch since she turns it up to eleven. When Silas tried to unite the team before the challenge, Linda mocked his "cheesy" attempt at rousing their spirits, and openly criticized the way the younger members had handled their victory at the previous Tribal Council, before entering crazy woman state by jumping up and down, yelling, "I'm ready to be on the team!"

The Linda moment that everybody remembers came right after this. She goes up to Lindsey, asking for a hug, and Lindsey doesn't move a muscle. Linda "demonstrates" on Kim Powers what a hug is, then returns to Lindsey, asking, "Did your momma never hug ya?" And you know Scout was pissed off that Linda took this line, because she would have killed to use it on Eliza or Julie in Vanuatu. Linda apologized, but the damage was done, and she was the next person voted out. So yeah, basically every other time Linda was on screen she was spouting off about Mother Africa or whatever, but she was an absolutely fantastic character that doesn't really get any recognition these days.

5. Clay Jordan
Thailand - 2^nd place

It may come as a surprise to some people that Clay was actually seriously considered for All-Stars. After all, he was the runner-up on the least popular edition of the series up until that point, but he'd actually had his physical and all the paperwork done before he found out about two weeks before leaving that he wasn't going to be included. I really can't argue with any of the guys who made the cast, but Clay would have been a worthy addition. What I loved about him was how relentlessly blunt the guy was, and whenever you put him and Jan together, you had television gold. Really, he always had something funny to say, but Jan brought out the best in him (or worst, depending on your preference). And it's really a shame because if he were on nearly any other season, Clay would be celebrated as a classic Survivor character.

I've always loved his take on the Ghandia/Ted situation, in which he lovingly describes his child as "it" ("Ghandia gonna go down to the beach and cry and holler…my two-year-old did that one time; I whooped its ass and put it back to bed"). And not many people give credit for Clay being a relatively solid player, but he did have more of a game plan than most of Brian's opponents, and was hardly just another sheep being led to the slaughter. He dealt with most of the Sook Jai players brilliantly, explaining in the tenth episode, "Everybody that's asked me, 'Who's gonna be the final four?' I kick down a person and put in their name. I've done it with everybody up there; I'm gonna continue to do it, and if they don't think I'm not, that would be real damn stupid for Clay to say, 'Penny, you're not in the final four' and put her totally against me. I've gotta put her ass on the jury to vote for Clay."

But as I alluded to earlier, the two greatest Clay moments involve his reaction to Jan's oddball antics. One thing about Clay that needs to be said is that he was constantly aware of the cameras--usually, this would be considered a bad thing, but for Clay, it was different. He didn't play to the cameras, but treated it as though he were in the cast of The Office, utilizing the camera as a way to communicate directly with the audience, knowing that they were the only people who could truly sympathize with him for being forced into spending 36+ days with a crazy old woman, a psychopathic used car salesman, a grinding NFL reject, and Helen "Personality of an Encyclopedia" Glover. When Jan mournfully created her pet cemetery (I don't think this was what Stephen King had in mind), the audience was Clay's only sanctuary, as if to ask us, "Am I the only person who realizes how fucking messed up this is?" But the ultimate Clay/Jan interaction--and for my money, the best moment of the entire season--is Jan's screechy reading of the Tree Mail before the auction in the fifth episode. I don't think there's any way to describe this scene and do it any justice, but if you've seen Clay turning to the camera and muttering, "No shit, Sherlock," you know that it's quite possibly the most brilliantly exercised instance of comedy in Survivor history. You never see stuff like that on Survivor anymore, and you never get contestants like Clay either. I guess you could argue Randy, but really, Clay is one of a kind.

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So the inclusion of Rory confirms it--the only season that doesn't have a representative is China. There was one person who would've made it for sure if I'd done a top 45 or so, but it just wasn't meant to be.