I just wanted to comment what is frequently stated here that the female cast for Vanuatu was great but the male cast was boring. This may not actually have been the case. The editing of the different contestants is very much dependent on the elimination order. Most contestants that go deep in the game are given a lot of character development while most of the early evictees are thrown under the bus, from an editing stand point. This is especially true in most of the post ASS seasons. Vanuatu was unusual because 6 of the final 7 were women and nearly half of the male cast (4 out of 9) were eliminated in the first 5 episodes. So it made sense that the women in Vanuatu (unlike some of the recent seasons) were much better developed then the men overall. I think that Brook, Palyok, Brady and Bubba could have been entertaining if they had lasted longer. Aso, Brook, Palyok and Brady really couldn't be given much of a story because they were methodically picked off by the Fat 5. I will say that John K. was a dud, since he lasted 7 episodes and, other than his prosthetic foot and his gape of astonishment, Chad didn't bring much to the table either

It might make more sense to rank the casts first based on only the contestant that made the merger and then to tweak that ranking based on some of the personalities that didn't last long.