Survivor: China

Survivor: China is the fifteenth season of Survivor. It originally aired in fall 2007. It was the first American television show to ever be filmed or produced in the People's Republic of China. The "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast" slogan used in previous season's logos was replaced by Chinese characters. The characters translate to "compete in intelligence" (比智慧, bĭ zhìhuì), "compete in skill" (比技巧, bĭ jìqiǎo), and "compete in endurance" (比耐力, bĭ nàilì).

This season returned to 16 contestants on two initial tribes, Fei Long (飞龙) and Zhan Hu (战虎), meaning Flying Dragon and Fighting Tiger respectively. On Day 13 each tribe switched two contestants. On Day 19 the tribes merged into Hae Da Fung (黑大风), which means Black Fighting Wind, a name proposed by Peih-Gee Law (who happened to be Chinese herself).

This season was dominated by the Fei Long Alliance, who used their numbers to eliminate any castaways aligned with Zhan Hu.

In the end, there was a final three. However, there was only a jury of seven. All three final contestants received votes, but Todd Herzog was crowned Sole Survivor after garnering four votes, as opposed to Courtney Yates's two and Amanda Kimmel's one.

Production
Producers were given an "unprecedented access" to several Chinese monuments and landmarks, and they incorporated many aspects of China's vast culture into the game (design of campsites, challenge concepts, Tribal Council set, etc.). Before they made it to their camps, the contestants took part in a non-religious Buddhist ceremony. After the ceremony, both tribes received a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War which would help them in winning challenges and conquering the other tribe.

The season was said to be the first US show to be entirely shot in China.

Twists/Changes

 * Kidnapping: The kidnapping twist from and  returned. However, unlike the two former seasons, the kidnapped player was not granted immunity. Starting with the episode , whichever tribe won the reward challenge would kidnap a member from the losing tribe to stay at their camp until the next Immunity Challenge. The kidnapped player would give a tube containing clues to the Hidden Immunity Idol to a tribe member from the opposing side for an idol at their camp.
 * Final Three: For the third consecutive season, three castaways would face the Jury instead of the usual two.
 * New Jury/Finals Configuration: This is the first Final Three season to use the traditional seven-member Jury instead of the nine-member Jury used during and.

Season Summary
The two tribes, Fei Long and Zhan Hu, were predetermined prior to the start of the game. Exile Island was abandoned for this season and instead, an added bonus for winning Reward Challenges was that the winning tribe was given the opportunity to kidnap a member from the losing tribe, where they would live at the winning tribe's camp until the next Immunity Challenge. This person would receive a container with a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol that they had to give to one of the winning tribe members.

Through the first 12 days, Fei Long held a slight edge thanks to the strength of James Clement and leadership of Aaron Reisberger. A strong alliance had been formed on Fei Long between Aaron, Todd Herzog, Amanda Kimmel, and Courtney Yates. On Day 14, each tribe, separately, selected two members of the other tribe to bring into theirs; Fei Long selected Sherea Lloyd and Frosti Zernow, while Zhan Hu selected James and Aaron. Believing that James and Aaron would remain true to the other Fei Long members when the merge occurred, Jaime Dugan and Peih-Gee Law formed a plan to lose the next Immunity Challenge on purpose so that they would be able to remove the former Fei Longs from the game. Zhan Hu would end up losing the challenge, and subsequently removed Aaron from the game.

Todd had been working to find the Hidden Immunity Idol. At the next reward challenge on Day 16, Fei Long won, and selected to kidnap James. With the clue from James, Todd deduced the idol's location: one of two plaques on the standing pagoda gate near camp, and recovered it. He then gave this idol to James, and instructed him that the same clues would apply at the Zhan Hu camp, so that James would be able to possess both idols. Todd's plan required Fei Long to win the next Immunity Challenge, which would force Zhan Hu to Tribal Council; while the other members would target James, he would have been able to use one of the idols to deflect the vote and remove a Zhan Hu member. However, Fei Long lost the challenge, and instead voted off a former Zhan Hu member, Sherea.

The tribes merged on Day 19, with the former Fei Longs holding a 6–4 advantage. Amanda became concerned that James would not give back one of the two idols, and worked with her other tribe members to blindside him, with James leaving the game with the two idols still in his possession. The remaining Fei Long held on to their lead, comprising the final four. Todd, Amanda and Courtney's alliance held strong and the three went to the Final Tribal Council. All three were criticized by the Jury, but Todd ultimately won with four votes to Courtney's two and Amanda's one.

Trivia

 * This is the only 16-castaway season to have a Final Three face the Jury.
 * This season and  have many similarities:
 * Both are the only seasons to have all their respective members of the Final Three receive Jury votes.
 * However, this season was the only season where the final three received a different amount of votes.
 * Both are the only seasons with more than one contestant in the Final Three never receiving a vote against them but didn't win.
 * Both are the only seasons whose last episodes aired on December 16, has a Final 4 Reward Challenge and had only one eliminated contestant.
 * Both seasons preceed a Fans. vs. Favorites season ( and, respectively).
 * Both seasons preceed a seasons featuring Erik Reichenbach.
 * Also, both seasons have representatives in the Fans vs. Favorites season directly following them (Amanda Kimmel & James Clement from China and Malcolm Freberg from Philippines).
 * Both seasons are the first seasons to have their respective Jury configurations (7-person Jury with a Final 3 and an 8-person Jury with a Final 2).
 * Both seasons have a black merge tribe color, and whose tribes that were merged were colored red and yellow (Fei Long and Zhan Hu for China, Kalabaw and Tandang for Philippines).
 * Both seasons have four eliminations before a Tribe Switch (Swap for China and Absorption for Philippines) and two Tribal Council eliminations (Dana Lambert wasn't eliminated in Tribal Council as she quit due to illness) before merging.
 * Both seasons have a contestant named Denise (Denise Martin in China and Denise Stapley in Philippines), both women over 40 and reached Day 38 (Stapley however reached Day 39 and won).
 * Both seasons currently hold the records concerning the average age of the Final Few (and in extension, the Final Three), where China has the youngest while Philippines has the oldest.
 * Both seasons had Hidden Immunity Idols "hidden in plain sight", with China's being a plaque-shaped ornament while Philippines' being the rice container handle.
 * Both seasons included intros, where all contestants were included up until the Jury phase of the game.
 * This is the first season to use a variation on "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast". The Chinese words used in their place translate to "compete in intelligence, compete in skill, compete in endurance" as a rough translation.
 * The colors of the two starting tribes may be a reference to China's national flag.
 * This season had the first instance of a contestant (Jaime Dugan) trying to play an item at Tribal Council believed to be a Hidden Immunity Idol, but turning out not to be.
 * Once this season reached the Jury phase, the opening introductory montage no longer showed all the contestants in the game. The montage showed the players in "the Jury" first, followed by the ones in the "Merged Tribe." Prior to this, all seasons had shown all the players in the intro in all episodes.
 * This season has the smallest amount of people voted out in a season without any evacuations, quits, or eliminations.
 * This is the final season to feature the original Tribal Council theme music.
 * This is the first season where a female finalist received jury votes at a three-way Final Tribal Tribal Council.
 * CBS gave this season's Immunity Idol to celebrity Neil Patrick Harris, an avid reality TV fan, for his 37th, birthday.