Survivor: Samoa

Survivor: Samoa is the nineteenth season of Survivor. It premiered on September 17, 2009 and concluded on December 20, 2009.

In the end, Natalie White defeated Russell Hantz and Mick Trimming with a vote of 7–2–0. Hantz ended up winning the "Sprint Player of the Season" award, earning the fans' vote over Shannon "Shambo" Waters and Brett Clouser.

Production
Participant applications were due by January 14, 2009. Approximately 800 might have been invited to be interviewed in several states. Following this, approximately 48 semi-finalists were invited to Los Angeles in April 2009 for final interviews with the producers. From there, 20 finalists were selected to be contestants in the show, which was scheduled to occur between mid June and mid-July 2009 in Samoa. Similar to Survivor: Tocantins, the minimum age requirement for this season was 18 for most states.

Survivor: Samoa and the succeeding season, Survivor: Heroes vs Villains, were filmed back-to-back. Day 39 of Samoa and Day 1 of Heroes vs Villains were merely 20 days apart, giving Russell Hantz only few days to prepare.

Twist/Changes

 * Selection of "Tribe Leaders": At the beginning of the game, both tribes voted for a tribe "leader." This leader (symbolized by a necklace, not to be confused with the Immunity Necklace) would make decisions in challenges (assigning tasks for tribemates, sit-outs, etc.). After a Reward Challenge, the winning tribe's leader would also assign one of his tribemates to be an "observer." If a leader gets voted out, the tribe must select a new one to replace him.
 * The "Observer": Following a Reward Challenge, one member from the winning tribe would be selected by the tribe leader to go to the opposing tribe's camp, and would return to them at the next Immunity Challenge. This person would hand the tribe the whereabouts of a Hidden Immunity Idol at their camp.
 * Hidden Immunity Idol: A Hidden Immunity Idol will be hidden at both camps. Both idols are usable until the Day 36 Tribal Council.
 * Double Tribal Council: Both tribes would go to separate Tribal Council sessions to eliminate a player. This would be forfeited during Russell Swan's medical emergency.
 * Early Merge: For the first time in Survivor history, the merge now occured with 12 players.
 * 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 three finalists facing a nine-man Jury.

Season Summary
Based only on first impressions, the tribes were told to vote one of their own as a "leader," who, for the tribal portion of the game, would make critical decisions at certain challenges, in particular, selecting one member of their tribe to spend the day after Reward Challenges with the other tribe through which they would receive a clue to the hidden immunity idol. Foa Foa selected Mick as theirs, while Galu picked Russell S. as their leader.

Foa Foa's Russell H. attempted to make living conditions harsher for Foa Foa by sabotaging his own tribe (i.e. dumping water out of canteens and burning socks). Russell H.'s risky move proved effective as Foa Foa performed dismally in challenges, and consequentially, the tribe quickly decimated. At the same time, Russell H. took complete control of the voting my making alliances with everyone on his tribe. Before the merge, the opposing Galu tribe had won eight challenges, while Foa Foa won only one Reward Challenge and one Immunity Challenge. The Galu members seemed more and more relaxed and appeared lazy as they continued to win more challenges, which Shambo resented. Shambo also felt alienated from her tribe after she was excluded from a reward by Russell S., and while visiting with the Foa Foa tribe, she began to grow roots within the yellow tribe.

Due to intense competition, two players were medically evacuated. During a challenge, Mike was too injured to continue, while Russell S.'s condition became more serious, as he fainted during a challenge and almost died in the process. After Russell S.'s sudden departure, the supposed double boot twist was canceled, and Galu chose Shambo as their new leader.

The two tribes merged with twelve players left; Galu had the advantage of eight players over Foa Foa's four, though Shambo clearly showed favoritism towards Foa Foa. Natalie was able to convince Galu to vote off Erik along with the rest of Foa Foa. At this vote, Russell H. had played his hidden immunity idol, but was able to find the idol in its new location, again without clues, before the next tribal council. Russell H. played his new idol there, saving himself from being voted off as he was targeted by every Galu member, and eliminating Kelly. As Shambo began to shift sides to the former Foa Foa's, the next vote first ended in a tie, but John, worried about being eliminated from the game by the rock-pulling tiebreaker, switched his vote on the tiebreaker, eliminating Laura. With the tribes now 5-4, the remaining Foa Foa members continued to hold together for the rest of the game, systematically eliminating the former Galu members, one-by-one. Their plans were halted when Brett went on an immunity challenge winning streak, resulting in Foa Foa having to turn on each other with Shambo and Jaison being voted out. Brett lost the final immunity challenge and was voted out, leaving the Final Three as Russell H., Natalie, and Mick.

At the Final Tribal Council, Mick was mostly ignored by the Jury for his poor leadership, that lead to Foa Foa's failure in challenges, while Russell H. was berated for his unethical game strategy. In the end, Natalie's better social game made her the nineteenth Sole Survivor in a 7-2-0 vote, receiving everyone's vote excluding Shambo and John's.

Episode Guide
Notes:
 * Russell S. collapsed during the challenge; Jeff cancelled the challenge with neither tribe winning the reward.
 * The observer rule was no longer applicable after the tribal merge, as there was only one tribe.
 * Russell H. played the Hidden Immunity Idol, therefore the seven votes against him did not count.
 * Laura and Natalie were tied in a 5-5 vote. During the revote, John changed his vote to Laura, thus eliminating her.

Trivia

 * Ben Browning was the only male player voted out before the merge.
 * Ben became the first person to be disqualified from a challenge due to foul behavior since several members of Survivor: Thailand 's Sook Jai tribe.
 * This is the first season where a female player won in a 3 way final tribal council.
 * There was only one Tribal Council this season in which more than two players received votes
 * This season is tied with and  for the most amount of exits due to health reasons.
 * This season marked the first early merger, with 12 people entering the merge.
 * This season was the third season to have a 9 player jury following and.
 * This is the first season where a player earned more than 9 votes at a single Tribal Council, being Erik Cardona.
 * The necklace Jeff Probst wore this season was made by Survivor: Marquesas contestant, Gina Crews.
 * This season's rendition of Ancient Voices is remixed with another track from the season's soundtrack entitled Samoa Tomeah.
 * This is the only season to contain two people with the same first name who both returned for future seasons.
 * As stated in the Tocantins reunion, the season was originally planned to have only 18 castaways.