I’m a fan of his. I mean could you imagine if he hadn’t come back in the game at the merge? I think the season would have lost a lot of the entertainment aspect. Who knows where the game would have gone if he doesn’t step back in at that point.
Makes me wonder how the season goes if Chris and Devens don’t return. The yellow tribe probably pagongs most of the remaining green. Does Gavin get the win in that case?
Great question, I have wondered the same thing.
If Devens doesn’t come back the original Kama tribe has a huge numbers advantage at the merge of like 8-4 over Manu, so you would think just from a numbers advantage someone from Kama would win.
Most of the merge was taking out the next biggest threat each vote, so I think you might be looking at someone like Victoria and Gavin winning it all because they both did a solid job of lowering their threat level to the other people, and they both played good games.
Kelley, David, and Joe being returning players already made them all have huge targets on their back especially at the merge.
Someone like Eric, Ron, or Wardog would have a hard time making it far because of their great strategy and bold way of playing.
I think Lauren has a hard time making it to the end just from a numbers stand point with 2 of her 3 remaining Manu tribe mates being Kelley and David who are returning players.
I would say that Julia for example might have actually really benefited from Devens not coming back in the game. She was a solid player, and although people recognized that they were very preoccupied with other threats in the game that I listed above, and if Kama sticks together for a vote or two at the merge she might have slipped thru and found herself in a power position.
personally i think victoria is the most likely winner in this scenario. a big factor as to why she’s even eliminated to begin with is because Chris said she had a lot of locked jury votes when he came back into the game.
I literally just finished an EOE rewatch like twenty minutes ago. I actually love Devens as a character. But he wasn't really a good strategic player. Yeah, he put in the work to win challenges and find idols, but that only goes so far. And giving that idol back to Chris at final 5 was kinda boneheaded. I understand he wanted to be loyal, and not send Chris out of the game again, but he would've won hands down with Chris gone. Entertaining guy, though.
Not really big brother is doing it.
Sit in front of your computer with Google open or your phone and just talk about toilet paper out loud to yourself to your wife to your kid to your dog.
You are going to get ads for toilet paper .
Charismatic, and great in front of a camera, but massively overrated as a player.
I've said this before but my main points against him are:
-Would have been fourth boot on any other season, I can't even argue he got swap screwed since he was with his entire preswap tribe except for Wendy.
-Felt the need to grandstand every move in front of the jury, basically ensuring he'll be forever on the bottom which is impressively hard to do in a game as dynamic as modern survivor, also no one took any of his plans seriously.
-Gave Chris Underwood an idol at F5 for no damn reason and it cost him the game. He already had an idol at F5 himself, and if he just tells Chris to pound sand and votes him out then he wins the game easily (no one remaining can beat him at fire and he wins the jury vote handily against everyone left in the game.) Even Chris was surprised Devens gave him the idol back and heavily implied he would not have done the same thing.
I'll give him credit for being really good at surviving from the bottom, but that's about it.
It’s so weird to watch the Ron vote out tribal where he plays his idol and calls out Ron and Julie in front of the jury as this big grandstanding thing, yet Ron’s vote out really had nothing to do with him at all. Like he voted for Aurora or something, and sure Ron doesn’t go if he doesn’t idol, but the edit and the jury make it seem like it’s Ricks big moment getting out Ron, yet it was really Victoria, Lauren, Gavin, and Aurora who made the move. He himself is even like 😐 oh Ron’s going
Since his game and skills as a player are so shat on can i just say tho that is actually an impressive thing to do? He completely took control of the narrative in his favour in a way we haven’t seen any goats (which he would’ve been) do before.
Passing the idol back to Chris at F5 is possibly the worst survivor play I have ever seen. Its more than just leading to him getting voted off, it directly prevents him from winning the game
Hardly. Rick had ZERO allies. Trying to reconnect with Chris and build trust was to give him a potential path to the end. Devens would have beaten Chris at FTC.
I think it’s a bad move in hindsight but I’m pretty sure that Rick thought the jury would want to protect the integrity of the game by not awarding it to someone who had been in the game for 9 previous days. So probably didn’t see him as much of a jury threat.
Yes, I can't imagine a scenario where he loses the game after keeping the idol for himself. Chris doesn't win F5 immunity so he goes home, and then he's in an F4 where he's guaranteed to go to fire at the minimum and will win against everyone left in the game, so he makes F3 and wins easily (might even sweep sometimes) against any combination of Gavin/Julie/Lauren.
I think Devens fell for a psychological thing, he showed far too much loyalty to Chris which Chris didn't reciprocate because Chris was the first person in like 2 weeks to actually show an interest in working with him. Easy to get overattached to him when you're on an island starving and going borderline insane from the stresses of the game and being on the outs for so long.
Is he even a threat to win if he doesn’t do the grandstanding stuff though? I feel like he was a goat and that was a unique play to twist the narrative in his favour. Idk i just feel like time and time again he was being left out and lied to, nobody wanted him there so he went hard in the available route forward
I didn't like him at all lol. Nothing against the guy as a person, of course, but when the show pushes someone too hard it usually has the opposite effect on me. I also hate the "idk anything and I just fart idols every round" style of gameplay.
I almost rage-quit when he just so conveniently *found* his fourth idol. They seriously wanted the winner to reflect the theme of the season but the player who got back in had no strategic backbone and was an extremely emotional player (to his own detriment) so they keep nudging him from round to round hoping he'll reach final 3.
I felt this with Devens, Carolyn and more recently Charlie. You’re telling me with all the strategizing on the island, one the most interesting bits of strategic/social gameplay was ingratiating yourself with your tribe by reciting Taylor Swift song titles? Meanwhile there are players we know nothing about?
I’m out.
I get that, I felt like I liked him because he was a witty guy and always had some good commentary. It also felt like he didn’t get too caught up in the game, was always there with a smile and having a good time. I agree though that just relying on idols isn’t my favourite style of gameplay either, but I felt like most of his reliance on idols was a byproduct of the situation he was in and not necessarily his game itself. Maybe im wrong though
His game led to his situation. He chose allies poorly premerge and then at merge he actively alienated people who offered him an olive branch which is what put him into the minority in the first place and on the rare occasions he had any control at all he made counterproductive decisions (like helping Wardog discourse off of Wentworth onto Julia when Wentworth out there would have been great for him + it raised his threat profile + he also wasted his Idol on David and proved he didn’t trust anybody there in the process). This isn’t like the Sook Jai tribe in Thailand or whatever where there really was essentially nothing they could do once they were out of the numbers at merge. Rick actively put himself in the minority of his own volition. He seems like a funny, clever, and all-around lovely man off the show but dude is one of the biggest examples of failing forward in Survivor history. It is very rare to see someone play that badly and get that close to winning. I really don’t see how his game is better in any way than Fabio or Mike, who are (correctly) much-maligned and lowly rated winners for being no-agency underdogs who were popular with the jury because they had so little influence that they didn’t piss anybody off, and that’s *before even considering* the parts where he got voted out and then essentially orchestrated his own demise at F4.
could not listen to the podcast while he was on it. could not stand the guy during his season. nothing against him as a person but the “wittiness” to me was annoying as fuck and i didnt vibe with his edit or character at all
Personally :
Outside of the show, he seems like a geniunely great guy with a lot of love and humour
On the show, i hated him. His style of gameplay and his edit was everything wrong with this era of Survivor and the last episodes were near unwatchable because of it
Yeah, I respect other people's opinions when they say he was good TV to them, but I had the opposite feeling. His oversized edit made EoE hard to watch after he returned, while I actually really liked the premerge.
Had a fun story in EOE but just a “big moves” type of guy. Had a horrible social game and never tried to do anything to lower his threat level. Not really someone I would call a great player
I don’t know why it bothers me, but what sums up why I didn’t like him was when he was extremely upset that someone tried to give him a fake idol and make him look bad in front of his kids on TV. But then he turned around and pulled it on someone else and mocked them. Inconsistent.
I think his intention there was calling out the person who gave him the fake idol so that the jury would see who did it, and in his normal style, he made it a spectacle!
I love him immensely. He's so confident and charming that I think he is too big of a threat to ever make it far but as a character on my screen I can't get enough.
Hated him on my first watch of EoE, hated him again on my rewatch. Maybe I’ll tolerate him more if he ever returns for another season, but for now I thought he was just an annoying screenhog
I see Devens as a more entertaining Ben Driebergen as far as the edit and public perception goes. The biggest difference is that Ben benefitted from the Final 4 Firemaking and Devens was taken down by the Final 4 Fire Making. I could see a scenario where Ben loses and people love him and Devens wins and people hate him.
how the hell do people dislike this guy??? he was strong physically, found so many idols. made those fake idol plays. pretended he was playing one for julia so he could take out who he wanted, and he was just fun entertainment… i’ll never understand these comments
Honestly. I disliked him on his season through and through. He was a bad player who played with a lot of antagonistic emotions towards others, especially at tribal. A bit of gaslighting, bratty complainer, and it seemed like he was in that bad position due to his own shortcoming. I was totally rooting against him throughout the season because I don’t think he deserves a win. A bad player becoming an underdog because they are a bad player.
After the season is over, I dislike him on podcasts simply because every time he goes on a podcast he spends a lot of unnecessarily long time talking about his own season instead of the actual current Survivor episode, like a lot. I don’t mind players talking about their seasons when it’s relevant at all. But Devens over-did it by miles. He just goes off. I dislike players behaving that way on podcasts in general.
But I’m sure he is a great and kind person IRL. Nothing against the person.
Last thing, a weird pet peeve of mine is people talking like they are laughing the whole time. Devens has that habit. Sorry, Devens. That’s my weird problem.
Me too. My teenage son and I had watched his season of Survivor together, and we both loved him. My son was going through a really tough time and Rick Devens sent him a long, heartfelt video that was super meaningful. It was really above and beyond. He communicated with my son beyond that, too.
I think the fandom often loves an underdog. And let’s face it, the fan favorite player/finalist more often than not is usually a heterosexual Caucasian male.
Put those two together and an average to below average social game (Devens, Mike Holloway, the back half of Ben’s winning game) are considered amongst the “greats” moreso because they are liked by the fandom than because they played a great game imo.
Personally, I did not think Devens was anything to write home about other than planting an idol and laughing about it. People who argue what a great game he played when A) he was voted out early and B) people regularly did not want to work with him, confuse the heck out of me.
I’m sure he’s a lovely person, but not my cup of tea on the show.
Not a very good survivor player but he's fun to watch and a great narrator. I expect him to be on 50 and I am looking forward to it. One of my favs from the 30s
Agree 100%. Very entertaining character just not the best player. Deserved to win his season by simply outplaying everyone? Sure. Got beaten by better strategy? Sure. Would love to see him back
I love him- he oozes charisma and I think he was a pretty decent player. He was my favourite from the season (besides the obvious returning players who I liked too)
I like him because he played with a lot of heart. If he was on a non Edge season i feel like he wouldve been more well received. But he was a great character and played balls to the wall given his circumstaces. Imo
I love how different the comments here are lol. People either think he was great tv without overdoing it or that he was an insufferable showboat. I’m of the latter camp, I fear.
I like him and I’d love to see him return, but I hate what his game represents. It being touted as some masterclass and perfect game when he had like no strategy post merge and got voted out and had to come back not know edge existed. So he basically lost from his perspective and got randomly saved. And then won a bunch of luck based scavenger hunts to find idols. Then he fails at the one hint that was specifically introduced to toss players like Devens (aka people with no threat management who didn’t win the last challenge) into the finale. He played nearly as bad as one possibly can and still get that far. He was handed an underdog story on a silver platter.
I didn’t root for him but can respect anyone who can get themselves on screen, unless I find them completely intolerable like a Debbie or Phillip. It’d feel wrong not to have him on any sort of 1 time returnee season but who knows when the next time that’ll happen
I'll never forget when he was finishing a puzzle in a challenge and shouted out, "La Cheeserie!" Made me Google it to see what in the world he was shouting. I found him incredibly likeable throughout the season, and I was rooting for him.
Oh we hated this guy watching the season live LMAO. Everyone thought he was the second coming of Ben with how much he dominated screentime and trudged through the game with advantages. His journey on 38 was sort of a culmination of the advantage insanity of the thirties, and the horribly unbalanced edit did not help his image when there were much stronger newbies like Victoria/Lauren/Gavin.
I don't dislike him though. I mean, he's fine. He's not a groundbreaking character or anything, but I do think he's a solid narrator and knows what to give the camera (seeing as that's literally his job). People love their scrappy underdogs but I'm mostly indifferent toward him.
one of my favorites. you could root for him and he was entertaining and charismatic as hell. was my pick to win. loved him as a cohost on the podcast as well!
I’ve read a lot of people say they don’t like him which I never understood. He would’ve been a really cool winner. People also shit on Underwood so idk what these people want lol
Fun player who made the season better. Think there'd have been slightly less controversy if he won, but it'd still be a contested win because of the edge. Kinda overrated as a player.
I feel it's controversial to dislike him or not being a big fan. Personally, he wouldn't be on my list of desired returnees but I see him constantly mentioned. I feel he got a very inflated edit as an unstoppable force so they could highlight Chris taking him down in the finale to justify his win.
Why hasn't he come back. Because he didn't win, and the only returnee season since was WaW.
I like him but heavily disliked the ending of EoE devolving into the Devens idol hunt theatric show. I think he’s a fine player and maybe the best tribal council performer ever (which is a great skill IMO), but the game he ended up playing just wasn’t entertaining at all. I felt the same way watching Devens as the other contestants did
I enjoyed him a lot and was bummed he fell just short. But I also always root for anyone being ganged up on.
And the reason he hasn’t come back is because there hasn’t been a non-winner returnee season since EOE.
I think if Devons were put on a better cast he would get a lot more hate. But because he wasn't really stealing any screen time from people I cared about (Take notes Bhanu), I actually found him very endearing! Plus his storyline of returning from the edge, and then losing the game because of the same twist that gave him a second chance in the first place was a masterstroke.
he was entertaining for sure
that ron vote out and the double fake idol was gold moments
seasson 46 contestants could learn something about him when it comes to playing idols
If you need one of the dumbest twists ever and two successful idol plays to make the final 4, you're not a good player. It's that simple. I can see why the casual audience loved him but I didn't care for him.
I love him! And we paid for a Cameo for my son’s cross over ceremony for Scouts and he did such a phenomenal, above and beyond job. We are huge Rick fans in our house.
Most people seem to love him but he just annoys the ever living heck out of me. I really can’t stand him on my screen. He’s probably going to be on S50 but I am hoping not. He’s one of those people that if he goes far it could bring down the entire season for me.
Memorably because he is charismatic in a goofy way. Everyone is criticized to some level but I feel like he is fairly well regarded overall. He did a good job on the Survivor podcast for 45.
I love him. I love a good outcast and underdog story. I like his light energy and mood. He worked hard for each idol he found and each competition he won! I wish he would’ve won his season but that’s how the game goes. I do think he led very emotional at times. He was humble after his loss and he seems like a genuine and good guy! I’d love to see him on season 50!
Lauren didnt appreciate the way he treated her and that stuck with me. Lauren said he was very dismissive of her.
I dont think we will see someone like Devens play again because casting wont cast someone like him.
Good.
He carried an entire season on his back. Dude worked as hard in the game as anyone ever has. Definitely not a perfect player, but a player I would watch play again in a heartbeat.
Good entertainment during the first half of his season...extremely annoying after he returned from EoE. He showboated and mugged for the jury way too much.
However, I wouldn't mind him as Jeff's replacement once Probst chooses to step aside as host.
Rick is one of the GOATS in my eyes. Great at the game, great at entertaining, and just a great guy. In my eyes, he really was the winner. Someone who gets voted out is not the sole survivor. The same way i don’t see Boston Rob as a real winner. They had to bring him back 4 (or 5?) times before he won.
Oh man seeing all these comments like him is CRAZY. Watching this season live I was one of the sole Rick devens fans (my flair was robbed goddess Rick devens for so long)
I was in the TRENCHES he was the peak of the era and everyone was SICK OF IT. But he will always be the player that literally changed my life!
Rick devins is a legend in my household. A few years ago, my survivor super fan son was about to cross over from cub scouts to Boy Scouts. He was also crossing over with the first girl that joined after Scouts gave the greenlight for girls to become members.
We found our Devins is a former scout so I hopped onto cameo and requested one from Devins. In the request I mentioned he is one of my kid’s favorite survivors, and that our first girl was crossing over with him. Devins cameos we’re usually fun and friendly but maybe 30 seconds. He sent a really long one, talked about how Scouts were important to him and how excited he was to hear about the first female Cub Scout in our pack crossing over.
The whole crossover that year was survivor themed (and setup like tribal!) and we surprised Xander and all the kids with the cameo on the projector!
Forever grateful to devins for hooking that up for us.
Plus, he was one of the greatest players to NOT get to the final three I’ve seen in all the years I’ve watched. I hope we see him again in a fan favorite season one day!
He has the unfortunate appearance of Jared from subway.
I know, right? Although Jared lost more weight from being in prison than he ever did with his Subway diet.
it’s all I can think of when I see him 🤮
I’m a fan of his. I mean could you imagine if he hadn’t come back in the game at the merge? I think the season would have lost a lot of the entertainment aspect. Who knows where the game would have gone if he doesn’t step back in at that point.
Makes me wonder how the season goes if Chris and Devens don’t return. The yellow tribe probably pagongs most of the remaining green. Does Gavin get the win in that case?
Great question, I have wondered the same thing. If Devens doesn’t come back the original Kama tribe has a huge numbers advantage at the merge of like 8-4 over Manu, so you would think just from a numbers advantage someone from Kama would win. Most of the merge was taking out the next biggest threat each vote, so I think you might be looking at someone like Victoria and Gavin winning it all because they both did a solid job of lowering their threat level to the other people, and they both played good games. Kelley, David, and Joe being returning players already made them all have huge targets on their back especially at the merge. Someone like Eric, Ron, or Wardog would have a hard time making it far because of their great strategy and bold way of playing. I think Lauren has a hard time making it to the end just from a numbers stand point with 2 of her 3 remaining Manu tribe mates being Kelley and David who are returning players. I would say that Julia for example might have actually really benefited from Devens not coming back in the game. She was a solid player, and although people recognized that they were very preoccupied with other threats in the game that I listed above, and if Kama sticks together for a vote or two at the merge she might have slipped thru and found herself in a power position.
Victoria wins and it's not even close.
I knew Victoria was a killer from the moment I saw her. GREAT player.
personally i think victoria is the most likely winner in this scenario. a big factor as to why she’s even eliminated to begin with is because Chris said she had a lot of locked jury votes when he came back into the game.
I literally just finished an EOE rewatch like twenty minutes ago. I actually love Devens as a character. But he wasn't really a good strategic player. Yeah, he put in the work to win challenges and find idols, but that only goes so far. And giving that idol back to Chris at final 5 was kinda boneheaded. I understand he wanted to be loyal, and not send Chris out of the game again, but he would've won hands down with Chris gone. Entertaining guy, though.
This always happens to me. Whatever season I’m rewatching I’ll see a post about lol
The universe is weird like that.
Not really big brother is doing it. Sit in front of your computer with Google open or your phone and just talk about toilet paper out loud to yourself to your wife to your kid to your dog. You are going to get ads for toilet paper .
Yeah but in this case, the people posting about a certain season of Survivor on the Survivor subreddit we follow are not working for Google
Maybe controversial, but I absolutely loved him as a player, purely from an entertainment standpoint.
That is extremely not controversial and the majority view of the guy
Yeah I guess so, eh? When I wrote this there was only ~8 other comments, mostly saying they’re not fans of the guy, so that’s why I included that.
Fair enough, cheers
Charismatic, and great in front of a camera, but massively overrated as a player. I've said this before but my main points against him are: -Would have been fourth boot on any other season, I can't even argue he got swap screwed since he was with his entire preswap tribe except for Wendy. -Felt the need to grandstand every move in front of the jury, basically ensuring he'll be forever on the bottom which is impressively hard to do in a game as dynamic as modern survivor, also no one took any of his plans seriously. -Gave Chris Underwood an idol at F5 for no damn reason and it cost him the game. He already had an idol at F5 himself, and if he just tells Chris to pound sand and votes him out then he wins the game easily (no one remaining can beat him at fire and he wins the jury vote handily against everyone left in the game.) Even Chris was surprised Devens gave him the idol back and heavily implied he would not have done the same thing. I'll give him credit for being really good at surviving from the bottom, but that's about it.
It’s so weird to watch the Ron vote out tribal where he plays his idol and calls out Ron and Julie in front of the jury as this big grandstanding thing, yet Ron’s vote out really had nothing to do with him at all. Like he voted for Aurora or something, and sure Ron doesn’t go if he doesn’t idol, but the edit and the jury make it seem like it’s Ricks big moment getting out Ron, yet it was really Victoria, Lauren, Gavin, and Aurora who made the move. He himself is even like 😐 oh Ron’s going
Since his game and skills as a player are so shat on can i just say tho that is actually an impressive thing to do? He completely took control of the narrative in his favour in a way we haven’t seen any goats (which he would’ve been) do before.
Agreed. Being completely uninvolved with a move and still manage to convince the jury you deserve credit is elite gameplay.
Passing the idol back to Chris at F5 is possibly the worst survivor play I have ever seen. Its more than just leading to him getting voted off, it directly prevents him from winning the game
Hardly. Rick had ZERO allies. Trying to reconnect with Chris and build trust was to give him a potential path to the end. Devens would have beaten Chris at FTC.
I think it’s a bad move in hindsight but I’m pretty sure that Rick thought the jury would want to protect the integrity of the game by not awarding it to someone who had been in the game for 9 previous days. So probably didn’t see him as much of a jury threat.
Yes, I can't imagine a scenario where he loses the game after keeping the idol for himself. Chris doesn't win F5 immunity so he goes home, and then he's in an F4 where he's guaranteed to go to fire at the minimum and will win against everyone left in the game, so he makes F3 and wins easily (might even sweep sometimes) against any combination of Gavin/Julie/Lauren. I think Devens fell for a psychological thing, he showed far too much loyalty to Chris which Chris didn't reciprocate because Chris was the first person in like 2 weeks to actually show an interest in working with him. Easy to get overattached to him when you're on an island starving and going borderline insane from the stresses of the game and being on the outs for so long.
Is he even a threat to win if he doesn’t do the grandstanding stuff though? I feel like he was a goat and that was a unique play to twist the narrative in his favour. Idk i just feel like time and time again he was being left out and lied to, nobody wanted him there so he went hard in the available route forward
Marry me.
I didn't like him at all lol. Nothing against the guy as a person, of course, but when the show pushes someone too hard it usually has the opposite effect on me. I also hate the "idk anything and I just fart idols every round" style of gameplay.
I almost rage-quit when he just so conveniently *found* his fourth idol. They seriously wanted the winner to reflect the theme of the season but the player who got back in had no strategic backbone and was an extremely emotional player (to his own detriment) so they keep nudging him from round to round hoping he'll reach final 3.
I felt this with Devens, Carolyn and more recently Charlie. You’re telling me with all the strategizing on the island, one the most interesting bits of strategic/social gameplay was ingratiating yourself with your tribe by reciting Taylor Swift song titles? Meanwhile there are players we know nothing about? I’m out.
I get that, I felt like I liked him because he was a witty guy and always had some good commentary. It also felt like he didn’t get too caught up in the game, was always there with a smile and having a good time. I agree though that just relying on idols isn’t my favourite style of gameplay either, but I felt like most of his reliance on idols was a byproduct of the situation he was in and not necessarily his game itself. Maybe im wrong though
His game led to his situation. He chose allies poorly premerge and then at merge he actively alienated people who offered him an olive branch which is what put him into the minority in the first place and on the rare occasions he had any control at all he made counterproductive decisions (like helping Wardog discourse off of Wentworth onto Julia when Wentworth out there would have been great for him + it raised his threat profile + he also wasted his Idol on David and proved he didn’t trust anybody there in the process). This isn’t like the Sook Jai tribe in Thailand or whatever where there really was essentially nothing they could do once they were out of the numbers at merge. Rick actively put himself in the minority of his own volition. He seems like a funny, clever, and all-around lovely man off the show but dude is one of the biggest examples of failing forward in Survivor history. It is very rare to see someone play that badly and get that close to winning. I really don’t see how his game is better in any way than Fabio or Mike, who are (correctly) much-maligned and lowly rated winners for being no-agency underdogs who were popular with the jury because they had so little influence that they didn’t piss anybody off, and that’s *before even considering* the parts where he got voted out and then essentially orchestrated his own demise at F4.
Personally could not stand him. Not sure what it was but just wasn’t a fan. I’m curious how the season plays out without him and Chris returning.
Not a fan. Massive ego and tried to make everything about himself. Just not my kind of guy.
I found him to be good tv. He’s polarizing both ways on love and can’t stand. People aren’t indifferent about him. Devens was good casting.
He was good casting but I couldn’t stand him. He annoyed me on the show. Outside of the show, he seems like a great person!
could not listen to the podcast while he was on it. could not stand the guy during his season. nothing against him as a person but the “wittiness” to me was annoying as fuck and i didnt vibe with his edit or character at all
Personally : Outside of the show, he seems like a geniunely great guy with a lot of love and humour On the show, i hated him. His style of gameplay and his edit was everything wrong with this era of Survivor and the last episodes were near unwatchable because of it
Yeah, I respect other people's opinions when they say he was good TV to them, but I had the opposite feeling. His oversized edit made EoE hard to watch after he returned, while I actually really liked the premerge.
Couldn't say it better myself. I was beyond thrilled when Underwood took him out at fire.
Had a fun story in EOE but just a “big moves” type of guy. Had a horrible social game and never tried to do anything to lower his threat level. Not really someone I would call a great player
I think he’s a really great guy
I don’t know why it bothers me, but what sums up why I didn’t like him was when he was extremely upset that someone tried to give him a fake idol and make him look bad in front of his kids on TV. But then he turned around and pulled it on someone else and mocked them. Inconsistent.
I think his intention there was calling out the person who gave him the fake idol so that the jury would see who did it, and in his normal style, he made it a spectacle!
I don’t like screenhogs 😭
I love him immensely. He's so confident and charming that I think he is too big of a threat to ever make it far but as a character on my screen I can't get enough.
Can't stand Devens, lol. It also felt like production was feeding him idols.
Incredibly annoying, very much dislike
Hated him on my first watch of EoE, hated him again on my rewatch. Maybe I’ll tolerate him more if he ever returns for another season, but for now I thought he was just an annoying screenhog
I see Devens as a more entertaining Ben Driebergen as far as the edit and public perception goes. The biggest difference is that Ben benefitted from the Final 4 Firemaking and Devens was taken down by the Final 4 Fire Making. I could see a scenario where Ben loses and people love him and Devens wins and people hate him.
He sucks ass xoxo
Very negatively imo
insufferable
I didn’t like him very much lol
boringggg sloppyyyyy
how the hell do people dislike this guy??? he was strong physically, found so many idols. made those fake idol plays. pretended he was playing one for julia so he could take out who he wanted, and he was just fun entertainment… i’ll never understand these comments
Really loved him. Funny, and vulnerable without overdoing it like so many others these days.
OVERRATED.
Fun character, way overedited. I really like EOE but I'd happily exchange a good chunk of his screentime for Lauren/Victoria/etc.
annoying
Strong dislike
I loved when Julia called him a passenger 🤭 that’s one of my fav lines lol
Honestly. I disliked him on his season through and through. He was a bad player who played with a lot of antagonistic emotions towards others, especially at tribal. A bit of gaslighting, bratty complainer, and it seemed like he was in that bad position due to his own shortcoming. I was totally rooting against him throughout the season because I don’t think he deserves a win. A bad player becoming an underdog because they are a bad player. After the season is over, I dislike him on podcasts simply because every time he goes on a podcast he spends a lot of unnecessarily long time talking about his own season instead of the actual current Survivor episode, like a lot. I don’t mind players talking about their seasons when it’s relevant at all. But Devens over-did it by miles. He just goes off. I dislike players behaving that way on podcasts in general. But I’m sure he is a great and kind person IRL. Nothing against the person. Last thing, a weird pet peeve of mine is people talking like they are laughing the whole time. Devens has that habit. Sorry, Devens. That’s my weird problem.
The best Cameo I ever purchased came from Rick Devens.
Came here to say this too! He does amazing cameos. He did a breaking news report to celebrate my graduation.
Me too. My teenage son and I had watched his season of Survivor together, and we both loved him. My son was going through a really tough time and Rick Devens sent him a long, heartfelt video that was super meaningful. It was really above and beyond. He communicated with my son beyond that, too.
I love hearing that.
Cool! What did you request? What did he do?
Knowing he was a news anchor, I asked him to do it as a news report for my wife and it was really really fun and fantastic.
That's awesome!
Pro Devens
LOVE him!
Very Annoying
He was my favorite that season of the newbies
He’s one of my favorites
With how hated Ben is as a winner I’m shocked Devens gets so much love since they played basically the same game (except Devens got voted out lol)
Nothing. We feel nothing. 😭
I liked him on the show until he outed Zeke. Afterwards, his online presence has ruined any likeability he had for me.
I think the fandom often loves an underdog. And let’s face it, the fan favorite player/finalist more often than not is usually a heterosexual Caucasian male. Put those two together and an average to below average social game (Devens, Mike Holloway, the back half of Ben’s winning game) are considered amongst the “greats” moreso because they are liked by the fandom than because they played a great game imo. Personally, I did not think Devens was anything to write home about other than planting an idol and laughing about it. People who argue what a great game he played when A) he was voted out early and B) people regularly did not want to work with him, confuse the heck out of me. I’m sure he’s a lovely person, but not my cup of tea on the show.
Don't get the enthusiasm. He seemed like a middle aged paunchy egotist. Not someone I enjoy spending time with.
I loved him! He was one of my favorite players of that season, I was really rooting for him to win. I think he played a great game.
I love him!
Motherfucker saved the season.
Facts.
Not a very good survivor player but he's fun to watch and a great narrator. I expect him to be on 50 and I am looking forward to it. One of my favs from the 30s
Agree 100%. Very entertaining character just not the best player. Deserved to win his season by simply outplaying everyone? Sure. Got beaten by better strategy? Sure. Would love to see him back
Big fan. I got my wife a cameo from him when we were having a baby and he didn’t disappoint
Someone else said he got a great Cameo from him too! What did he do?
Just used his news voice to congratulate us on the kid with some survivor stuff thrown in as well
That's so cool!
He was great for the show. He's fun and entertaining and an excellent communicator
I found him to be very entertaining.
The most fun I had watching a single player on survivor cause shenanigans
I love him- he oozes charisma and I think he was a pretty decent player. He was my favourite from the season (besides the obvious returning players who I liked too)
I like him because he played with a lot of heart. If he was on a non Edge season i feel like he wouldve been more well received. But he was a great character and played balls to the wall given his circumstaces. Imo
All time favorite player!!
He was great to watch and I wanted him to win.
I rather he won than Chris
Devens is one of my all time faves
rlly fun character but not a good player, but i’d rather watch ppl like him play than boring tv
I love how different the comments here are lol. People either think he was great tv without overdoing it or that he was an insufferable showboat. I’m of the latter camp, I fear.
Need to see him again.
never knew it was controversial to like him. i love him and was rooting for him and hope he returns for 50
Thought this was a pic of Jared the Subway guy for a sec
I appreciate how hard he plays and he seems like a good guy, but i find him to be very annoying.
He was great. My husband loved him
One of my favorites. He caused chaos and had an incredible run. Would love to see him on S50
I like him and I’d love to see him return, but I hate what his game represents. It being touted as some masterclass and perfect game when he had like no strategy post merge and got voted out and had to come back not know edge existed. So he basically lost from his perspective and got randomly saved. And then won a bunch of luck based scavenger hunts to find idols. Then he fails at the one hint that was specifically introduced to toss players like Devens (aka people with no threat management who didn’t win the last challenge) into the finale. He played nearly as bad as one possibly can and still get that far. He was handed an underdog story on a silver platter.
I fucking love Devens.
Love him and I super hope he comes back to play again soon!
Truly in my top 10 players of all time
GOAT
Too much
Slimy, petty, not a team player, icky vibes.
Pretty ok fan.
I didn’t root for him but can respect anyone who can get themselves on screen, unless I find them completely intolerable like a Debbie or Phillip. It’d feel wrong not to have him on any sort of 1 time returnee season but who knows when the next time that’ll happen
Loved Rick. He was fun to watch. It was fun to watch him laughing as the fake idols were found and played. I'm a bit devious myself.
Loved him. One of the best players ever, and a natural entertainer!
I'll never forget when he was finishing a puzzle in a challenge and shouted out, "La Cheeserie!" Made me Google it to see what in the world he was shouting. I found him incredibly likeable throughout the season, and I was rooting for him.
Would love him to play again!!
He's in my top 10 favorite characters from the show of all time and the thing that made Edge of Extinction worth watching
Oh we hated this guy watching the season live LMAO. Everyone thought he was the second coming of Ben with how much he dominated screentime and trudged through the game with advantages. His journey on 38 was sort of a culmination of the advantage insanity of the thirties, and the horribly unbalanced edit did not help his image when there were much stronger newbies like Victoria/Lauren/Gavin. I don't dislike him though. I mean, he's fine. He's not a groundbreaking character or anything, but I do think he's a solid narrator and knows what to give the camera (seeing as that's literally his job). People love their scrappy underdogs but I'm mostly indifferent toward him.
fun guy
I love him. And every time I say that, I get downvoted so that's basically how the sub feels.
A flawed player, but very charismatic and fun. I can see people being annoyed towards him, but I loved him on 38
Did not enjoy him, but he seems like a fun guy.
one of my favorites. you could root for him and he was entertaining and charismatic as hell. was my pick to win. loved him as a cohost on the podcast as well!
He was my fave that season. I still think he should have won.
I’ve read a lot of people say they don’t like him which I never understood. He would’ve been a really cool winner. People also shit on Underwood so idk what these people want lol
I want him back for another season!
Fun player who made the season better. Think there'd have been slightly less controversy if he won, but it'd still be a contested win because of the edge. Kinda overrated as a player.
A fantastic showman who played a fun game. He's not the best, but I definitely enjoyed him.
I feel it's controversial to dislike him or not being a big fan. Personally, he wouldn't be on my list of desired returnees but I see him constantly mentioned. I feel he got a very inflated edit as an unstoppable force so they could highlight Chris taking him down in the finale to justify his win. Why hasn't he come back. Because he didn't win, and the only returnee season since was WaW.
I love him. I hope he returns one of these days.
I think he’s a lock to return for Survivor 50, at the very least.
I love Devens! I feel great about him! I think he was a super exciting player and I'm hoping he'll get to come back, maybe for 50?
I love Rick Devens
I think he would have been really entertaining if he hadn't been shoved in our face the entire season
I like him but heavily disliked the ending of EoE devolving into the Devens idol hunt theatric show. I think he’s a fine player and maybe the best tribal council performer ever (which is a great skill IMO), but the game he ended up playing just wasn’t entertaining at all. I felt the same way watching Devens as the other contestants did
Cool, funny, that's pretty much it.
fav player of all time
I love him. Love him with all my heart
I can't speak for the sub. I think he's a great player, I loved watching him, and I hope he gets to play again if he wants to.
Jeff loved him too much
I enjoyed him a lot and was bummed he fell just short. But I also always root for anyone being ganged up on. And the reason he hasn’t come back is because there hasn’t been a non-winner returnee season since EOE.
He was great. One of the more entertaining players in the modern era.
I think if Devons were put on a better cast he would get a lot more hate. But because he wasn't really stealing any screen time from people I cared about (Take notes Bhanu), I actually found him very endearing! Plus his storyline of returning from the edge, and then losing the game because of the same twist that gave him a second chance in the first place was a masterstroke.
I want him back
he was entertaining for sure that ron vote out and the double fake idol was gold moments seasson 46 contestants could learn something about him when it comes to playing idols
One of the best casting choices of all time. Carried Edge's mid to late merge
I loved him, and i want him on another season
I'm a fan and wouldn't mind seeing him again but I feel he is a little overrated
If you need one of the dumbest twists ever and two successful idol plays to make the final 4, you're not a good player. It's that simple. I can see why the casual audience loved him but I didn't care for him.
I love him! And we paid for a Cameo for my son’s cross over ceremony for Scouts and he did such a phenomenal, above and beyond job. We are huge Rick fans in our house.
Gotta support my weatherman
Love him!! I’m rooting for him to come back for 50.
I love him as a character, he did not play a great game on eie, but I think he is a better player than the game he played
Most people seem to love him but he just annoys the ever living heck out of me. I really can’t stand him on my screen. He’s probably going to be on S50 but I am hoping not. He’s one of those people that if he goes far it could bring down the entire season for me.
my fav player of all time. hope he returns so bad
LA CHEESERIE
Memorably because he is charismatic in a goofy way. Everyone is criticized to some level but I feel like he is fairly well regarded overall. He did a good job on the Survivor podcast for 45.
I love Devens...he is entertaining...I got a cameo from him and he was wonderful! We loved it!
I stopped listening to the podcast because of him
He’s fun to watch for sure,I’m sure he’ll return at some point
Seeing "charismatic" thrown around a lot and it makes me worried for civilization.
I also found him incredibly entertaining if not always 100% effective.
I love him. I love a good outcast and underdog story. I like his light energy and mood. He worked hard for each idol he found and each competition he won! I wish he would’ve won his season but that’s how the game goes. I do think he led very emotional at times. He was humble after his loss and he seems like a genuine and good guy! I’d love to see him on season 50!
GOAT
Justice for Devens!!!
If I remember correctly, this sub pretty consistently hated him back when that season was airing
Lauren didnt appreciate the way he treated her and that stuck with me. Lauren said he was very dismissive of her. I dont think we will see someone like Devens play again because casting wont cast someone like him. Good.
I think he is one of the most entertaining players ever
Season 50 winner pick
IMO he is one of my favorite players! I wish he would have won. The idol wins and finding idols was awesome!
He’s okay. He didn’t wow me or anything but I don’t have a problem with him either.
Overrated on his season, but kinda underrated since then. He played hard, but it felt like production wanted him to win.
He carried an entire season on his back. Dude worked as hard in the game as anyone ever has. Definitely not a perfect player, but a player I would watch play again in a heartbeat.
I think he'd be great for when Jeff retires.
Decent as a character he is absolute ass as an overall player though.
 he’s okay i guess
Good entertainment during the first half of his season...extremely annoying after he returned from EoE. He showboated and mugged for the jury way too much. However, I wouldn't mind him as Jeff's replacement once Probst chooses to step aside as host.
“I think I’m the poop, Jeff” after David’s sharks and minnows analogy is top tier
funny
A charming cool fella
Rick is one of the GOATS in my eyes. Great at the game, great at entertaining, and just a great guy. In my eyes, he really was the winner. Someone who gets voted out is not the sole survivor. The same way i don’t see Boston Rob as a real winner. They had to bring him back 4 (or 5?) times before he won.
lol he got voted out and came back the same way as the winner did 😂
Oh man seeing all these comments like him is CRAZY. Watching this season live I was one of the sole Rick devens fans (my flair was robbed goddess Rick devens for so long) I was in the TRENCHES he was the peak of the era and everyone was SICK OF IT. But he will always be the player that literally changed my life!
That's my guy.
I really like him.
Love him. He was my step son's favorite. I had him do a Cameo for Christmas one year. My kid was psyched!
Rick devins is a legend in my household. A few years ago, my survivor super fan son was about to cross over from cub scouts to Boy Scouts. He was also crossing over with the first girl that joined after Scouts gave the greenlight for girls to become members. We found our Devins is a former scout so I hopped onto cameo and requested one from Devins. In the request I mentioned he is one of my kid’s favorite survivors, and that our first girl was crossing over with him. Devins cameos we’re usually fun and friendly but maybe 30 seconds. He sent a really long one, talked about how Scouts were important to him and how excited he was to hear about the first female Cub Scout in our pack crossing over. The whole crossover that year was survivor themed (and setup like tribal!) and we surprised Xander and all the kids with the cameo on the projector! Forever grateful to devins for hooking that up for us. Plus, he was one of the greatest players to NOT get to the final three I’ve seen in all the years I’ve watched. I hope we see him again in a fan favorite season one day!
