Survivor: The Amazon

Survivor: The Amazon is the sixth season of the reality show Survivor.

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 live season finale, including the announcement of the winner and a live reunion of all the season's contestants, took place 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 reunion was supposed to be held at 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. It is also regarded as being the first season with a particular theme, ultimately changing the mechanics of Survivor in the long run.

Twists/Changes

 * Battle of the Sexes: For the first time, the castaways are divided into tribes based on gender.
 * Tribe Switch: After 13 days of gender wars, three members from both tribes were sent to the other tribe, creating mixed tribes.

Season Summary
The season began with the contestants divided into tribes split by gender for the first time. The men's tribe, Tambaqui, wearing blue, was quick to get their camp life squared away, building shelter, and alliances were quickly formed. The women's tribe, Jaburu, wearing yellow, experienced quarreling within their tribe, and spent almost the entire first week without a shelter. On Tambaqui, an alliance of four was formed, led by Roger Sexton, which included Butch Lockley, Alex Bell, and Dave Johnson. However, Rob Cesternino quickly emerged as an arbiter between Roger's alliance and the outliers of the tribe, solidifying allegiances with both. On Jaburu, the younger women, Heidi Strobel, Jenna Morasca, and Shawna Mitchell quickly began to coalesce, pulling in Deena Bennett to control the voting on Jaburu.

On Day 13, Dave and Jenna traveled to an isolated location to act as tribal ambassadors. Jenna gave Dave crucial information about Jaburu, giving Dave an advantage when, the next day, they were forced to choose new tribes, equally distributing the men and the women. At the new Tambaqui, Heidi decided to align with the men to vote off Jeanne Hebert. At Jaburu, the men and women joined forces to vote off an untrustworthy Shawna. Deena and Rob also created an alliance and when the merge occurred, they aligned with Alex, Matthew von Ertfelda, and the rest of the women. Deena and Rob's new alliance controlled the votes against sexist Roger and physical and mental threat Dave. leaving Butch as the last player remaining outside of Rob and Deena's alliance.

Convinced she had control over the game, Deena decided to spare Butch in order to vote out Alex for being a social and physical threat. The women quickly informed Alex of Deena's betrayal and he was able to convince Heidi, Jenna and the men to eliminate Deena at the next Tribal Council. With Deena gone, Alex was convinced he was solid in an alliance of four with Jenna, Heidi, and Rob. However, he revealed to Rob that his plan was to vote him out 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 Smith, where they voted out Alex. With three men and three women remaining, Christy became the swing vote but was voted out after failing to commit to either side. The next Tribal Council, the men stuck together and voted off Heidi, perceived to be the more physical of the two women left.

At the Final Four, Jenna, the final woman remaining, won immunity, 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. Jenna continued her winning streak and won immunity again, giving her the sole vote at the next Tribal Council. She ultimately voted off Rob due to his strong strategic gameplay. Facing the jury, Matthew was praised for his survival skills and work ethic, but he was criticized for hypocrisy and lack of strategic gameplay for the majority of the game. On the other hand, Jenna was criticized for her lack of work ethic and even wanting to quit a few days earlier. However, as a result of having better relationships with people on the jury, and being seen as playing the game more strategically from the beginning, Jenna was voted to become the Sole Survivor in a vote of 6-1.

Trivia

 * For the first time, the contestants were divided with a theme, featuring a Battle of the Sexes format.
 * For the first time, and the only time pre-All-Stars, all contestants received a vote against them at one point during the game.
 * For the first time, a contestant gave up an Immunity Necklace and gave it to another contestant.
 * Along with Burton to Rupert, this is the one of two occasions in which the original holder of individual immunity was not voted out after giving it up, as Erik Reichenbach and Brandon Hantz were both voted out immediately after giving up immunity in  and  respectively.
 * This is also the only time in which the person who gave up immunity was a woman.
 * For the first time, the merged tribe has an accented letter (Jacaré).
 * This is the first season to not feature Pagonging.
 * This is the only season represented in to not have someone make that season's final six.
 * It is also the only season to not have at least one representative reach the jury stage.
 * This is the first season not to introduce a new tribe color, as all three colors (yellow, blue, and red) had been used in previous seasons.
 * This is the first season to include an Asian-American male contestant.
 * This is the first season to not include an African-American male contestant.