Survivor: Nicaragua

Survivor: Nicaragua is the twenty-first season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. It premiered on September 15, 2010 at 8 pm, moving to the Wednesday timeslot for the first time since Survivor: Borneo.

Production
The location of Nicaragua was announced at the conclusion of the finale of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. This season and the next were both filmed in San Juan del Sur. Jeff Probst had admitted he and the production crew were very grateful of the natives' warm hospitality.

Twists/Changes
These are the game-changing events of the season:
 * Old vs. Young: The 20 contestants will be divided up into two tribes based on their ages. The Espada tribe will feature contestants over the age of 40, and the La Flor tribe will include contestants aged 30 years and younger. The producers deemed that they have a good slate of competitive older people, so they expected that the 'Battle of the Ages' format will not agree to the younger tribe's sheer strength.
 * Hidden Immunity Idol: Similar to Fiji, China, Tocantins, Samoa and Heroes vs.Villains, one Idol will be hidden at both tribe camps. Jeff Probst, has also announced that the Hidden Immunity Idol will be hidden differently this season. Realizing that Idols have been found too easily the past two seasons (notoriously often by Russell Hantz), the clues of the Idol's location will be rebus puzzles rather than textual. They dubbed it as "The Russell Factor." Both Idols are usable up until the Day 36 Tribal Council.
 * Medallion of Power : The two tribes will also vie for a new item, the Medallion of Power. The tribe that currently hold the Medallion will have an option to have an advantage in challenges (i.e. shortcuts, less workload etc.). They can either use it or save it until the next challenge. But once they used it, regardless of wether the host tribe won or lost the challenge, they must surrender it to the rival tribe. The premise of the Medallions is to further even up the playing field for the tribes defined by age. After the tribe switch, the Medallion was retired.
 * Challenges: Aside from the Medallion of Power, challenges in this season will be more innovative and less physical, due to the Old vs. Young format. Instead of sheer strength, majority of the challenges will require teamwork to win. Jeff Probst said: "It's way less physical this season, so there will be no wrestling on the beach. Our challenge department has come up with some inventive ideas that are fair, still take skill and still take strategy. They're going to be the kind of things you think would be fun to do."
 * Tribe Switch: Selected tribe members will be transferred to the rival tribe.
 * Double Tribal Council: Both tribes will go to Tribal Council and will vote somebody out, with one member of both tribes possessing individual Immunity.
 * Early Merge: Similar to Survivor: Samoa, the tribes will be merged with twelve people still in the game.
 * Expanded Jury and Three-Way Final Tribal Council: Instead of the conventional "Final Two" facing the Jury of seven, the Day 39 Tribal Council was held with a "Final Three" facing a nine-man Jury.

Season Summary
Twenty new castaways embarked on a journey in pristine, yet treacherous Nicaragua. They were surprisingly divided into two tribes entirely defined by age, La Flor, and Espada. They also vied for ownership of a Medallion of Power that would help them in challenges.

At Espada, the males battled for tribe supremacy, with Marty ending up victorious; not only he successfully ousted his perceived threats Jimmy J. and Jimmy T., he also possessed the Hidden Immunity Idol, making him virtually invincible.

Despite dominating in challenges, La Flor also had their own share of conflicts. Two warring alliances (one led by Shannon, and the other led by Brenda and Sash) emerged, with both alliances vying for Chase's vote. A confused Shannon lashed out at Tribal Council, causing some of his alliance partners and Chase to turn on him, cuasing his elimination instead. The remnants of Shannon's group found themselves at the mercy of the majority alliance. Not only they had numbers, Brenda and NaOnka successfully found their Hidden Immunity Idol, leaving Fabio, Kelly B., Alina and Benry more vulnerable, though their supposed eliminations were put on hold, as La Flor went on winning two more Immunity Challenges.

A Day 12 tribe swap caused allegiances to shift. At the new Espada, Holly bonded with her new tribemates, and formed an alliance with them, causing Tyrone and Yve's eliminations. At the new La Flor, the once-powerful Marty fell from grace, thanks to Jane flipping to Brenda's alliance. Not only Marty got blackmailed by Sash to give up his Immunity Idol to him, he became witness to the ouster of his closest ally, Jill. In Day 19, the two tribes were merged into the Libertad tribe.

Sash and Brenda took control of Libertad, persuading the rest of the tribe to eliminate Alina and Marty. seeing that Brenda was running the show, Holly made her move by turning everybody else on Brenda (who even hoped that Sash will give her his Idol), causing her demise. Brenda's elimination, and the voluntary exit of Kelly S. and NaOnka, Sash was left alone. Despite this, he managed to slither his way to Day 39, along with Fabio and Chase.

At the Final Tribal Council, Sash was ignored by the Jury because of his numerous deceptions; while Chase was castigated for his indecisiveness at several points during the game. Fabio on the other hand was chastised by the other two for seemingly coasting throughout the game, but he rebutted that he did that on purpose to not hurt anybody's feelings, and still stay longer in the game. In the end, Fabio's unconventional strategy earned him the title of Sole Survivor by a 5-4-0 vote.

Episode Guide
Notes: Combined Reward/Immunity Challenge. The challenge was divided into two parts. La Flor and Espada would separately perform the first part of the challenge for individual immunity, while the winners from both tribes would compete for tribal reward. There were two Immunity Necklaces available, one for both genders. While the Libertad camp was devastated by a fire that burned their food and shelter, Jeff bribed the winners of the Reward Challenge, that if one of them gives up his/her reward, the tribe will be given a new supply of rice and tarp. Furthermore, being singled out due to the odd number of players, Dan was chosen to sit out in the challenge, but if he guessed the winning team correctly, he would join them at their reward. Dan guessed the winning team correctly, winning himself reward as well. After the Reward Challenge, NaOnka and Kelly S. expressed their desire to voluntarily leave the competition, but Jeff insisted they should think over their decision. The tribe would meet at Tribal Council to settle this matter. Both women ultimately left the game that night.

Trivia

 * This is the second season to have tribes split by age. The first being Survivor: Panama (which was divided by age and then gender). La Flor is the third tribe in the show's history to comprise only younger contestants that was purposefully assigned by the producers, following Viveros and Bayoneta. Espada is now the third tribe in the show's history to comprise only older contestants that was purposefully assigned by the producers, following Casaya and La Mina.
 * This is the fifth season to take place in North America, the others being Pearl Islands, All-Stars, Guatemala, and Panama.
 * Nicaragua had several similarities with Samoa:
 * Both seasons started with twenty castaways divided into two tribes of ten.
 * Similar to Galu and Foa Foa, La Flor and Espada were merged with an 8-4 deficit. This is presumably because though both tribes are merged with six members apiece, the original La Flor had a 8-4 supermajority over the original Espada.
 * The first person eliminated after the merge was voted out by a 10-2 vote.
 * This season's Tribal Council set is patterned from a destroyed church, with a mock graveyard pathway where the eliminated castaways walk after being voted out.
 * This season's Hidden Immunity Idol was a large wooden key.
 * This marked the return of the Tribe Switch, which was absent in the past three seasons.
 * This season marked the fourth and fifth time that a contestant opted to voluntarily leave the competition. But this is the first time in the history of the series that two people quit at the same time.
 * This season marked the second time that Jeff bribed a tribe for something after an unfortunate event at camp. The first time this happened was in Survivor: The Australian Outback, where the Barramundi tribe suffered miserably after a terrible storm, with their remaining food supply being washed up. Jeff bribed them to dismantle their shelter for a new supply of rice.
 * This season has three episodes that breached the usual 3-day cycle. Company Will Be Arriving Soon, Not Sure Where I Stand and This is Going to Hurt all covered four days.
 * This season marked the first "double quit," which generated controversy. Despite NaOnka and Kelly S. quitting in the same episode, NaOnka is considered 9th place and Kelly 8th place because of the order in which their torches were snuffed.
 * This season marked the second time that more than one player used a Hidden Immunity Idol in a single Tribal Council, being Sash and Chase.
 * Sash is third contestant to use an Idol and only negated minority votes (not enough votes to eliminate him), following Matty Whitmore and Sandra Diaz-Twine in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.
 * Chase is the fourth player that drew an Idol, but no votes were cast against them, following Alex Angarita and Earl Cole (Surivor: Fiji), Russell Hantz (one opportunity in Samoa and another in Heroes vs. Villains).
 * This is the first time since Survivor: Tocantins that there have been all-male finalists, though this is the first time that the final three entirely comprised of male contestants, namely, Sash, Chase and Fabio. This is also the first time that three males have been finalists during a three-way final Tribal Council.
 * This is the fourth consecutive season that all finalists came from one original tribe. In Tocantins, the final two came from Jalapao, while the finalists from Samoa, Heroes vs. Villains and Nicaragua came from Foa Foa, Villains and La Flor respectively.
 * This is the first time since Survivor: The Amazon that the contestants' torches were designed with their tribe affiliations in mind. Original La Flor members had an etched flower design at their torches, while the original Espada had saber-like etchings on theirs.
 * This was the first time that tribe names were prominently displayed on the buffs, though this would be the second time that buffs were customized for a tribe, following Survivor: All-Stars, where their buffs had their tribe insignia drawn on it.
 * This season' Jury had the most female members, with six.
 * La Flor only had one original male jury member: Benry.
 * This is the first season since Survivor: Gabon where the difference in the jury vote was one vote.
 * This is the second season in a row where the oldest contestant gets 18th place.
 * This was the first season since Survivor: All-Stars to feature two castaways quit in the same season. However, unlike the former season, the two contestants quit in the same episode.
 * It is the first season since Survivor: Cook Islands, that the Final Tribal Council vote has been 5-4-0.