Survivor South Africa: Panama

Survivor South Africa: Panama is the first season of the South African version of Survivor. The premiere aired on the 3rd of September 2006. Vanessa Marawa defeated Jacinda Louw in a 3-2 vote, winning the R1 million prize.

Production
A South African version of global reality phenomenon Survivor was announced by pay channel M-Net on Tuesday 11 April, 2006, and was filmed on the Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama from June 6.

In Survivor South Africa: Panama 14 contestants were chosen from a shortlist of 700, with six additional contestants selected as replacements in case any of the original 14 were unable to take part through injury or other reasons. Entries opened for the show on April 11 and closed on May 15. More than 18,000 South Africans applied to be on the show. Pierre van Niekerk (49), a resident of Rietfontein in Pretoria, entered 1,000 times.

The show was filmed from June 6, 2006 until early July.

On July 16 M-Net announced the host of the show - Capetonian Mark Bayly, who auditioned to be a contestant and was hired as presenter instead.

Survivor South Africa: Panama was filmed in the Pearl Islands at the same time as five other Survivor productions: Holland, Denmark, Greece, Sweden and Turkey.

Twists/Changes

 * 29 Days: Instead of the usual 39 days of the other versions of Survivor, the first season of Survivor South Africa was filmed in 29 days. This would change to 27 days for the next seasons.
 * Unexpected Start: The contestant were being taken to a place to take some pictures to promote the season, when the pilot of the plane they were faked a emergency landing nearby a Panamanian village. The host then appeared to announce that the game had started. The tribes were divided and they were told that they would have only their belongs that could fit in one back pack for each tribe.
 * Future Vote: After Jude Wilken had quit at Tribal Council, the host Mark Bayly announced to the remaining Aguila tribe they would still have to vote. After Mark read the votes, he announced that the person who had received the majority of the votes would already have a vote casted against him/her at their next Tribal Council.
 * Life Donation: As Sanele Gumede was medevaced, his torch wasn't extinguished. At Rana's Tribal Council next night, he showed up to give his life to the person that was voted out, who will be joining the Aguila tribe in his place.
 * Dead Man's Island: Starting at the merge, the castaways voted out at Tribal Council would be exiled to an island called Dead Man's Island without knowledge of the castaways remaining at the game, where they would wait to compete for two spots to re-enter the game at the Final Three.
 * Semi-Finals: At the second Final Four, the castaways would compete in a challenge where the first person out would be eliminated from the game, the last person standing would be the first finalist, and the other two people would compete in another challenge to define the second finalist.

Episode Guide
As Sanele Gumede was medevaced, his torch wasn't extinguished. At Rana's Tribal Council next night, he showed up to give his life to the person that was voted out, who will be joining the Aguila tribe in his place.

After Jude Wilken had quit at Tribal Council, the host Mark Bayly announced to the remaining Aguila tribe they would still have to vote. Nico received 4 of the 6 votes, and would already have a vote casted against him at their next Tribal Council.