Survivor: Palau

Survivor: Palau is the tenth season of Survivor. It was filmed in the island-country of Palau in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania. The main theme of the season was the Pacific Theatre of World War II.

This season ended with New York City fire lieutenant Tom Westman defeating advertising executive Katie Gallagher in a 6-1 vote.

Survivor's 10th season earned the show a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2005.

Development
Applications were due June 22, 2004. Around 800 applicants were selected for an interview between the latter part of July and August. Out of these 800, 48 were chosen as semi-finalists for an interview in Los Angeles during September. From these semi-finalists, 20 were chosen to participate the show between October to December 2004.

Twists/Changes

 * Expanded Cast: This is the first season to feature twenty contestants.
 * Schoolyard pick and elimination: The contestants start the game by competing for two individual immunity necklaces awarded to the first man and the first woman to reach them. The winners then pick one member of the opposite sex to join their tribe and add another contestant to it. The last man and the last woman who are not picked are eliminated from the game.
 * Double Tribal Council: On one occasion, both tribes have to vote somebody out of the game.
 * Tiebreaker challenge: A fire-starting contest is held in case of a tie or if there are only two people left on a tribe.
 * No Merge: Ulong was absorbed into its rival tribe after being reduced to only one member.
 * Exile Island: Exile Island is introduced for the first time. Used only once as punishment for the first blood of an Immunity Challenge, the exiled contestant is sent to a remote location with minimum supplies to live there for a certain period of time.

Season Summary
The twenty contestants began the game by rowing to the beach they would live on, with the first player of each gender to reach shore winning Immunity. However, once ashore, they received no additional instructions nor were divided into tribes, and began to work on a common shelter. The next day, Jeff Probst announced that they would now pick tribes via a school-yard pick, with those who had won immunity getting to choose first. The last man and woman remaining would immediately leave the game. Eventually, Jonathan Libby and Wanda Shirk did not get picked, and were sent home. The two tribes, Koror and Ulong, then participated in the first Reward/Immunity Challenge, with the winner, Koror, deciding to leave their present beach to another one they had not seen.

On paper, it seemed that the young and athletic Ulong tribe had an advantage over the old and slower Koror tribe, but Ulong's lack of teamwork found themselves lose every Immunity Challenge in the first 21 days, decimating them down to a paltry tribe of two: Stephenie LaGrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard, who faced each other off in a fire-making challenge, with the former emerging victorious. After spending the night alone, she was instructed to travel to camp Koror, and was given a Koror buff, thus having no merge.

Koror developed a core group of five: Tom Westman, Ian Rosenberger, Gregg Carey, Jenn Lyon, and Katie Gallagher, and those on the outside saw them as a threat but were not able to break them. Despite making an immediate strong impression on her new tribe, Stephenie was targeted due to her strength and tenacity. She was able to buy herself some time when the Koror alliance decided to get rid of Coby Archa. A twist sent Janu Tornell, the first to bail from the next Immunity Challenge, to a secluded island where she had to be alone. Tornell found the experience liberating, and decided to quit the game at the next Tribal Council, effectively sparing Stephenie from being voted out. Stephenie's run lasted for only one more round, as she was finally sent home after not winning Immunity or being able to break Koror's bond.

With only Koror members remaining, Tom and Ian worried that they would fall against a potential Immunity threat, Gregg, and his close ally Jenn, and plotted with Caryn Groedel and Katie to vote him out when they had the chance. Katie, feeling betrayed by Ian, became even more distraught when Ian took Tom with him on a reward instead of her as he had promised. Ian attempted to make amends, but Katie still held bad feelings towards him. After eliminating Caryn from the game, the final four opted to allow the next vote to end in a tie between Jenn and Ian. In the subsequent fire-making challenge, it was Ian who prevailed.

At the Final Immunity Challenge, which ran for 12 hours, Ian decided to step down after being burdened by his numerous deceptions. He asked Tom, who won the challenge, to vote him out, making him the final member of the Jury.

At the Final Tribal Council, Tom was lauded for his leadership that led Koror to a clean Immunity Challenge sweep, but was barbed for his machismo. Katie on the other hand was appreciated for her honesty, but was more heavily berated for her poor challenge performances, being gossipy and mean towards others beside Tom and Ian. In the end, Tom won the title of Sole Survivor in a 6-1 landslide.

Trivia

 * For the first time in the series' history, one tribe "conquered" the other by winning every single Immunity Challenge and absorbing the other tribe's last remaining member. Had Koror and Ulong merged, their tribe color would have been green.
 * This is the only season where the pre-Jury boots outnumbered those who reach the Jury phase.
 * It is the first season of US version of Survivor to have a cast of twenty.
 * Palau is the first season to eliminate three castaways in one episode. Jonathan and Wanda were eliminated in the schoolyard pick, while Jolanda was voted out the day after in a standard Tribal Council scenario.
 * This is the last season to not have a Hidden Immunity Idol.
 * This season marks the first time to have a tie since due to the players' concern regarding the controversial purple rock tiebreaker. In, Jeff Probst confirmed that the rock-pulling tiebreaker only applies in votes outside the final four, whereas in a final four situation, the contestants are to compete in a fire-starting challenge.
 * This season ties with for having the most tie votes, with three.
 * Palau is the only season to have two fire making challenges occur.
 * The font used for the tribes and Palau subtitle is "Stencil."
 * Palau is the first season to have Exile Island. However, Exile Island was only used for one episode. was the first season to use it as a full season twist.
 * Palau is the first season where contestants were eliminated before Day 3.
 * With this season having no merged tribe, Palau has the fewest number of tribes, with two.
 * The season's Tribal Council set was a decorated with actual World War II relics such as fallen aircraft, weapons, bags of cement and barbed wires. The set took eight weeks to build, took 25 tons of cement, 14 tons of rubble and a thousand bags of sand.
 * Ulong and Koror's camps would be used by the Malakal and Airai tribes respectively years later, in.