Survivor: The Amazon

Survivor: The Amazon is the sixth edition of the reality show, Survivor.

Sixteen people were sent to the Amazon to compete to win one million dollars. For the first time ever, the initial tribes were divided by sex. The two initial tribes were the all-female Jaburu (named for a bird) and the all-male Tambaqui (a native fish). They were eventually merged into the Jacaré (Portuguese for "alligator") tribe. Though the tribes remained gender-segragated for the first 14 days, a Tribe Shuffle in Day 15, with three members switching tribes.

The winner was Jenna Morasca, a 21-year-old swimsuit model from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who defeated Matthew Von Ertfelda by a vote of 6-1. The season finale including the announcement of the winner and a live reunion of all the season's contestants at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, on David Letterman's Late Show stage which was decorated to look like the set in the Amazon. The live was supposed to be held at the Madison Square Garden, but due to heavy rain and lack of roof, the set was immediately changed.

The season is noted for having the first reality show contestant with a disability, the hearing impaired Christy Smith.

Jenna Morasca and Rob Cesternino later competed in Survivor: All-Stars, where they placed 16th and 15th respectively

Twists/Changes

 * Battle of the Sexes: For the first time, the castaways are divided into tribes based on gender. The all-male tribe is Tambaqui, while the all-female tribe is Jaburu.
 * Tribe Switch: After 13 days of gender wars, three members from both tribes were sent to the other tribe, thus mixing up the sexes.

Season Summary
The season began with the contestants divided into tribes split by gender for the first time. The all-male Tambaqui tribe flourished early on, creating a sturdy shelter and fire during the first two days, while the all-female Jaburu tribe can't get anything done. But with their egotism and underestimating the women, the physically strong, Tambaqui tribe quickly lost to Jaburu at the inaugural Immunity Challenge, leading to Ryan's elimination. But despite winning four out of the first five challenges, dysfunction at the Jaburu camp started to appear early. A granola bar was found at the women's supply crate, creating tension; and with no one admitting the crime, combined with their lack of work ethic to form a shelter and Shawna's wavering committment to the competition took its toll on Jaburu, as after Daniel's elimination, they eliminated Joanna for being overly preachy, thus evening the tribes with six members each.

On Tambaqui, an alliance of was formed early, lead by Roger, which included Butch, Alex, and Dave. However, an early power player, Rob, began to emerge who managed to act as an arbiter between the two alliances. On Jaburu, the younger women, Heidi, Jenna, and Shawna quickly began to coalesce together; they pulled in Deena and Christy to control the voting on Jaburu.

On Day 13, the youngest members of both tribes (Dave and Jenna) traveled to an isolated location to act as tribal ambassadors for their tribes. The next day, they were forced to choose new tribes, equally distributing the men and the women. After the picks were made, Tambaqui consisted of Dave, Butch, Roger, Jeanne, Christy, and Heidi; Jaburu consisted of Jenna, Deena, Shawna, Alex, Rob, and Matthew. At Tambaqui, Heidi made a tempo switch to the men's alliance to vote off Jeanne. At the new Jaburu, Rob, Mathew, Deena and Jenna voted off an untrustworthy Shawna, whose drive for the game continued to go up and down until the tribe switch (and became closer to Alex than her alliance). From there, Deena and Rob hatched a plan to rid the game of Roger and Dave once the merge were to occur, which involved the new Jaburu tribe voting together as bloc, with Heidi.

On Day 19, the two tribes headed for a new campsite where they merged into one tribe, where they decided on the name Jacaré. As the men held the majority 6-4, Alex, Rob, and Matthew lead the other three men into believing that they would vote together as a bloc to eliminate the women. However, Rob and Deena set their plan into motion. Dave was intended to be the first target; however, the women were concerned over letting Roger onto the Jury phase, because they knew that he will never vote for a female should a female goes to the Final Tribal Council. At the Day 21 Tribal Council, the plan came into fruition, as an overconfident Roger was sent home and allowed Dave onto the Jury.

Convinced she had control over the game, Deena changed the pecking order from Butch to Alex, in case Matthew were to win the next immunity challenge. Unaware of Alex's influence over the women, she approached Heidi, Jenna, Christy, and Rob with her plan. However, the women quickly informed Alex of Deena's betrayal, and he organized the other men and Heidi and Jenna to vote her out at the next Tribal Council. Once again in the middle of two alliances, Rob was forced to rid the game of his closest ally Deena, in order to protect his own position.

With Deena gone, Alex was convinced he was solid in an alliance of four with Jenna, Heidi, and Rob. Valuing his friendship with Rob, he revealed to Rob that his plan was to vote him out once at the final four, to avoid a tie with Heidi and Jenna. Rob used this information to form a counter-alliance with Matthew, Butch, and Christy, where they voted out Alex and left Jenna and Heidi in the minority for the first time. Christy then became the vote everyone wanted on their side, with both the men and women campaigning for her vote, but when she failed to give Rob a straight answer, Rob made a deal with Heidi and Jenna to spare them by voting out Christy. The girls agreed, and Christy was voted off that night. The next Tribal Council, the men stuck together and voted off Heidi, perceived to be the more physical of the two women left.

By Day 36, knowing she was next, a sickly Jenna proceeded to win the next two Immunity Challenges, forcing the men to prematurely turn on themselves. Faced with either avenging Alex and Heidi by voting off Rob or getting rid of an undeserving Butch, she ultimately sided with Matthew and Rob to vote off Butch. After winning again, Jenna went ton to eliminate Rob to give herself a better shot at winning.

Facing the Jury, Matthew was praised for his unmatched survival skills and strong work ethic, but he was castigated for hypocrisy and lack of strategic gameplay for the majority of the game, combined with his poor answers to the Jury. On the other hand, Jenna was criticized for her lack of work ethic, snobbish demeanor and lack of desire to win in the earlier part of the game; however, she was seen as playing the game more strategically from the beginning and having better relations on the Jury. As a result, Jenna was crowned as the sixth Sole Survivor in a lopsided 6-1 vote.

Trivia

 * This is the first season with the contestants are divided with a theme, featuring a "battle of the sexes" format.
 * This is the first season that all contestants received a vote at one point during the game.