It's a generally agreed fact among most, if not all of the SFC fanbase that Season 8: The Midway Island was one of the worst, if not the worst season of Survivor: Fan Characters. I personally think that had Season 9 not been a strong season (which fortunately was) this season could have been the beginning of the end of the whole series.
So what went wrong?
First, the story. Melanie's win seemed a bit too contrived for a lot of people, as after the merge, everything seemed to all go her way without herself taking any blows from the others. SWSU's postseason notes detailed that he wanted to have the third person in the F3, like Mick of Samoa or Cody of TDWT, win, and I think this kinda resulted in a winner that lacked a decent story to carry her to the end. The Heinz/Matt rivalry seemed promising, but this feud devolved into Heinz being a dumbass because Melanie was supposed to get the votes at the end.
Second, the bootlist. Some of the pre-mergers and post-mergers were felt to be voted off too early or too late. For example, Geena, the character that didn't come out the way as expected, placed fifth when Emilee, who SWSU wished had lasted longer, placed 12th. Comparing this to Season 9, it would be like Summer, the fluked character, placing fourth, while Kathy, who developed into a really big character, placing 14th. (Note: The characters' descriptions are mostly what SWSU said about them.)
Third, the characters. Iraenus started off as one of the most polarizing characters in existence, but as the season went by the scale rapidly tipped towards the "hate" side. And then there was that controversy with his character and the character's owner apparently saying something homophobic about him... I think that the drama was kinda too much for the casual fans to bear, and thus a lot of people stopped caring. Other post-mergers like Malik, Johnny, Geena, and Matt were not well-received by a lot of the readers either.
Fourth (though it's a bit minor), the actual show. At the time Season 8 aired, the actual Survivor was finishing its 22nd season. This meant that people who hated seeing Rob winning could have been too fatigued to see someone get the win like Rob AGAIN.
What went wrong with Midway Island?
It's a generally agreed fact among most, if not all of the SFC fanbase that Season 8: The Midway Island was one of the worst, if not the worst season of Survivor: Fan Characters. I personally think that had Season 9 not been a strong season (which fortunately was) this season could have been the beginning of the end of the whole series.
So what went wrong?
First, the story. Melanie's win seemed a bit too contrived for a lot of people, as after the merge, everything seemed to all go her way without herself taking any blows from the others. SWSU's postseason notes detailed that he wanted to have the third person in the F3, like Mick of Samoa or Cody of TDWT, win, and I think this kinda resulted in a winner that lacked a decent story to carry her to the end. The Heinz/Matt rivalry seemed promising, but this feud devolved into Heinz being a dumbass because Melanie was supposed to get the votes at the end.
Second, the bootlist. Some of the pre-mergers and post-mergers were felt to be voted off too early or too late. For example, Geena, the character that didn't come out the way as expected, placed fifth when Emilee, who SWSU wished had lasted longer, placed 12th. Comparing this to Season 9, it would be like Summer, the fluked character, placing fourth, while Kathy, who developed into a really big character, placing 14th. (Note: The characters' descriptions are mostly what SWSU said about them.)
Third, the characters. Iraenus started off as one of the most polarizing characters in existence, but as the season went by the scale rapidly tipped towards the "hate" side. And then there was that controversy with his character and the character's owner apparently saying something homophobic about him... I think that the drama was kinda too much for the casual fans to bear, and thus a lot of people stopped caring. Other post-mergers like Malik, Johnny, Geena, and Matt were not well-received by a lot of the readers either.
Fourth (though it's a bit minor), the actual show. At the time Season 8 aired, the actual Survivor was finishing its 22nd season. This meant that people who hated seeing Rob winning could have been too fatigued to see someone get the win like Rob AGAIN.
So that's what I think went wrong with Season 8.