Survivor: Africa

Survivor: Africa is the third season of the reality TV show Survivor.

Development
The season was filmed in Kenya, where the contestants had to put up with extreme heat conditions and dangerous wildlife. Because there were man-killing animals in the area, the tribes lived in thorny enclosures like local tribal Kenyans do.

The series later returned to the African continent for its seventeenth season, which was filmed in Gabon, but the title Survivor: Africa refers only to the third season.

Because of the September 11, 2001 attacks, this season's premiere was delayed. As a result, this season's finale wasn't held before the end of the year.

Twist/Changes

 * Tribe Switch: For the first time in the history of the series, tribe members switched tribes during the tribal phase.
 * 39-Day Format: The season was filmed under the standard 39 days, unlike the previous season, which was three days longer.

Season Summary
16 new castaways were marooned on the outskirts of the Shaba National Reserve, Kenya, Africa. The group was divided into two tribes named after two real-life Kenyan tribes, Samburu and Boran. During the first six days, Samburu dominated in challenges, while the depleted Boran lost two members. Despite their early winning streak, Samburu was divided into two existing voting alliances defined by age: the younger members (Silas Gaither, Kim Powers, Brandon Quinton, and Lindsey Richter) and the older members (Frank Garrison, Teresa Cooper, Carl Bilancione, and Linda Spencer). After losing the third Immunity Challenge, Samburu's age-defined voting blocs resulted in a 4-4 deadlock tie vote between Carl and Lindsey. Since it was the tribe's first Tribal Council, and there were no previous votes to count in order to break the tie, a nature quiz tiebreaker commenced. In the end, Lindsey edged out Carl, sending him home, and giving power to the younger Samburu alliance. Because of Samburu's lack of unity, momentum changed, as Boran won another Immunity Challenge. Linda was eliminated by the younger Samburus, thus evening up the tribes with six members each.

When it seemed that the younger members of the Samburu tribe became unstoppable, a new unexpected twist shook things up. On Day 13, both tribes were given the vaguest Tree Mail yet, asking them to send half of their tribe "to a quest". Boran chose Kelly Goldsmith, Tom Buchanan, and Lex van den Berghe, while Silas (the leader of the younger Samburu alliance) sent himself, along with the older Frank and Teresa (the only two remaining members of the older alliance) to represent Samburu. Everything turned on its head when Jeff announced that they will be switching tribes. This gave Frank and Teresa a chance to get rid of Silas, and when the new Boran lost the Immunity Challenge the older ex-Samburu members had their revenge. The new Samburu tribe lost the final pre-merge Immunity Challenge, and sent Silas' ally Lindsey home.

On Day 19, the two tribes merged to form the Moto Maji tribe. The former Samburu members, Teresa, Frank, Kim P. and Brandon, entered into the merge in a precarious position being down 4 members to Boran's 6. However, Teresa hatched a plan to turn the former Boran members against each other. First, the entire tribe agreed to vote off Clarence Black, fearing his physical prowess at challenges. However, unknown to anyone else, Teresa voted with Clarence against Lex. Angered by this mystery vote, Lex swore to track down whoever had cast that vote against him and promptly vote them off. He mistakenly suspected Kelly of treachery and swayed his alliance of Tom, Ethan Zohn and Kim Johnson to vote against her. In order to save herself, Kelly sided with the former Samburu members and voted against Lex, but Lex managed to convince Brandon to also vote against Kelly, thus eliminating her. Brandon's actions made both his old and new allies, minus Lex, lose trust in him, and the six other people banded together to vote him out. However, this put the former Samburu members in jeopardy, as they were subsequently picked off one-by-one by the original Borans. Teresa, the last original Samburu left, tried to shake things up, even telling Lex that she was the caster of the mystery vote against him, but her efforts were in vain.

Kim J. (the oldest contestant of the season) shocked everyone by winning the final two Immunity Challenges, causing the men to have to turn on each other. Tom, who had been conspiring to have others vote off Lex earlier, was voted off unanimously. At the final three Tribal Council, Kim J. voted off Lex and brought Ethan with her to the Final.

At the Final Tribal Council, Kim J. was met with mixed criticism from the Jury. She was praised by the jury for lasting all 39 days, in spite of her age. However, she was perceived as riding the coattails of Ethan, Lex, and Tom for the entirety of the game. The Jury voted 5-2 for Ethan to win due to his more active strategy and congenial personality and he was named the third Sole Survivor.

Trivia

 * This season marks the first Tribal Switch.
 * This is the first season to feature multiple castaways with the same first name. There were two contestants named Kim: Kim Johnson and Kim Powers.
 * This is the first season in which the first two eliminated contestants are of the same gender.
 * This is the first season in which the winner was not decided by one vote.
 * During the finale, after Jeff collected the final votes, the producers made it appear as if he returned to the original tribal council site to read them. After he read them and announced Ethan Zohn was the winner, it was revealed that the votes were actually read live on the CBS sound stage made to look like the site. This would be repeated two seasons later in.
 * This is the only season to use the trivia quiz tiebreaker.
 * This is the only season to have its premiere in one year (2001) and its finale the next year (2002).
 * This is the first season to be set in the African continent.