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Jeff Probst: ''Survivor'' seasons I loved -- and hated | 172929__survivor2_l

GET A GRIP Vanuatu's Twila

Twila Tanner: CBS/Landov

4 All-Stars (SEASON 8)
All--Stars, I thought, was great to watch — and miserable for me to experience. Worst season I've ever had. I even considered quitting many times. I thought, I'm done with this show, I don't like it anymore, I don't like these people and their out-of-control egos, I don't like what the show's become. Now, I've gotten some distance from it and realize, it was just a really, really personal season. But it's incredible what happened. First off, there's Jenna with this dramatic gut feeling that something's wrong at home with her mother, who died eight days after Jenna left the island. And then you had this horrible, ugly incident when Sue accused a naked Richard of rubbing himself against her during a challenge. This prompted the single worst Survivor moment I've ever had — standing on the beach with Sue just yelling at me for what happened. That's the only time in nine seasons of Survivor when I had absolutely no idea how to respond. The whole thing between Sue and Richard was a personal train wreck. On the flip side, Boston Rob did something no one has ever done before: He came right out and said, ''I'm running this game, and I'm doing it with my woman tucked under my arm — just try to stop me.'' And somehow he did it, in no small part due to Lex falling for it. Lex will continue to say, ''Hey, I was doing a buddy a favor.'' Bulls---. Lex is a strategist as much as anybody, and he's a good player, but this time, he got played. Much like the Outcasts, I would hope we never do All-Stars again, because Survivor is a game about strangers living together. Once they have had that experience and have spent time together socially, it's a completely different game. It's stunt casting.

5 The Amazon (SEASON 6)
I liked the battle of the sexes. I liked how it exposed the differences between men and women, especially in regards to competition. Initially, it seems that women dominate because guys are still preening for the ladies, but as the game becomes more competitive, the men bond and the women begin to fall apart. Rob Cesternino, of course, was a breakout character and really reminded people how to play this game. Specifically, that if you're fifth on the totem pole, you can get with the folks who are third and fourth and knock off the people above you. Plus, he was obviously full of great one-liners and had a quick wit. And this was definitely the most unpredictable of seasons. How do you ever predict Jenna and Matthew making it to the final two, and the spoiled college-sorority girl winning?!? And she only won because the jury thought Matthew was crazy. And they didn't want to give him the million dollars.

6 Vanuatu (SEASON 9)
Vanuatu is a great example of how I can never predict how a season will be viewed. Personally, I really enjoyed this group of people. They were fun and easy to get along with. But we didn't have the huge characters, so there were no big events from Vanuatu. Oddly, we did have one of the best final Tribal Councils ever, and I think that was because the relationships were so personal. The things that I liked about the season — I loved that we had two gay women on the show, although Scout has since informed me that she's ''omnisexual.'' As for repeating the battle of the sexes again, it's simple: If you do a show long enough, you're going to have to repeat some things. The characters on Friends can only date each other so many times before they start re-dating each other. Every season of Survivor is not going to have a jaw-dropping restructuring. What frustrated me about Vanuatu, watching it as a viewer, was the double standard applied to Chris and Twila. Chris lied more often and with more brutality than Twila ever did. Twila lied once, swearing on her son's life that she'd remain true to her alliance, but Chris lied the entire time. He's probably still lying!