Survivor: Philippines

Survivor: Philippines is the 25th season of Survivor. It premiered on September 19, 2012, with a 90-minute premiere.

The winner was Denise Stapley after she garnered more Jury votes than returning contestant Michael Skupin and former child star Lisa Whelchel in a 6-1-1 vote.

Production
In an interview, Jeff Probst revealed that filming of this season wrapped up while was still airing. Furthermore, the 26th season will also be filmed in the Philippines, where the Survivor Production Team will stay up until August. Probst also said that more than 400 locals were hired during shooting.

The Production's Marine Department used 30 boats for water transport, with 15 from the Production Team, and another 15 were boats hired from locals.

Twists/Changes

 * Three Tribes: For the first time since, three tribes will compete starting at the beginning of the season. Also, for the first time since , the season starts out with more than two rival tribes.
 * Returning Players: Three returning players are going to return to compete with a new batch of castaways. These returnees are former contestants who were medically evacuated from their respective seasons.
 * Hidden Immunity Idols: Similar to, the idols will be "hidden" in plain sight, with a clue hidden in the bottom of each tribe's rice container. For the first time in Survivor history, three idols would be in play at the same time. There will be three idols, one at each camp. Apparently, the idol is resting on top of the rice lid, disguised as a handle.
 * More water challenges: While most recent season locations' waters were deemed unsafe for conducting challenges which would require the survivors to swim in open water, Challenge Producer John Kirhoffer states that the Philippines' beaches are safer and conducive for swimming, diving and boating challenges.
 * Tribe Absorption: On Day 11, the two remaining members of the dissolved Matsing tribe were absorbed in to the other two tribes.
 * Merge at 11: For the first time, the Merge commenced with eleven players remaining, unlike the usual 10 or 12.
 * New Jury/Final Few Composition: This season is the first time to feature a Final Three with an Eight-person Jury.

Season Summary
This season, there were three tribes. Kalabaw which wears red consists of Jeff Kent, Carter Williams, Sarah Dawson, Katie Hanson, and Dana Lambert. They were later joined by three-time player Jonathan Penner, returning after being evacuated during his second try due to a knee infection. Tandang which wears yellow consists of R.C. Saint-Amour, Abi-Maria Gomes, Lisa Whelchel, Pete Yurkowski, and Artis Silvester. They were joined by Michael Skupin, who was evacuated after he fell in the fire. Matsing which wears red consists of Malcolm Freberg, Zane Knight, Denise Stapley, Roxanne Morris, and Angie Layton. They were joined by the final returning player Russell Swan who was evacuated after blacking out twice.

Early on, Matsing was clearly the weaker tribe, as they lost all of of their immunity challenges. Denise and Malcolm formed an alliance of two after Zane approached everyone for alliances. Zane noticed that Russell found the clue to the hidden immunity idol, so he targeted him. When Matsing lost the first immunity challenge, Zane was voted out after Malcolm and Denise joined Russell, Angie, and Roxanne in voting him out due to his percieved weakness. Later, Malcolm and Angie started snuggling in their sleep, concerning Roxanne that this may turn into a Survivor couple/alliance. She rallied Russell, but at the second tribal council, Denise sided with Malcolm and Roxanne was voted out unanimously. After Matsing lost the third immunity challenge, Angie and Russell targeted each other, and the Matsing Alliance (Malcolm and Denise) joined Russell in voting Angie out, due to him being stronger. However, when they lost the fourth immunity challenge, Malcolm and Denise voted out Russell.

At Kalabaw, who was undefeated during the first four episodes, Penner was targeted by the entire tribe (mostly Jeff, who didn't want a veteran to win), and began looking for the hidden immunity idol. He found the clue, and successfully figured it out and found the idol. He used it as a leverage to form an alliance with the men of his tribe Jeff and Carter, so the girls of the tribe (Dana, Dawson, and Katie) formed a girls alliance. With this, Kalabaw was divided by gender.

At Tandang, R.C. and Abi immediately allied with each other, and brought in Michael as a returning player, and Pete for his strength in challenges. R.C. would later find the clue to the hidden immunity idol and shared it with Abi, who got paranoid of R.C. when she was talking to Michael. Pete took advantage of this and allied with Abi. He brought in former outsiders Lisa and Artis for a new majority alliance. Abi later found the hidden immunity idol before R.C. did. Pete then caused friction between R.C. and Abi by making it look like R.C. shared the clue with the entire tribe, making R.C. and Michael outsiders of the tribe, so they formed a minority alliance with each other.

After Matsing got decimated, Malcolm and Denise started looking for the idol, anticipating that they would be absorbed into Tandang and Kalabaw. Malcolm found the idol. Their predictions were correct, Malcolm went to Tandang, and Denise went to Kalabaw. After Malcolm won the reward challenge for Tandang, both R.C. and Pete rallied for his support. However, when Pete showed Malcolm his idol, he joined Pete. When Denise joined Kalabaw, the girls had a potential 4-3 number advantage, but everything went downhill once Dana got sick and quit. Denise decided to join the men, making it 4-2. Dawson tried to mess with Jeff's head, knowing he was a former MLB player. This backfired as Dawson was voted out unanimously. Katie was now on her own, and she attempted to convince Jeff and Carter to blindside Penner, saying it was what they agreed on during the first day. Jeff and Carter thought that Penner's idol could benefit them in the future, and voted Katie out.

With eleven members left, the tribes merged. Tandang had a 7-4 number advantage over Kalabaw. However, Penner had a plan to convince outsiders Michael and R.C. to flip and pick Tandang off one by one, as they would have a 5-6 advantage. Jeff had other ideas. He believed that this was the time to betray Penner and vote him out. He was allied with Carter and Denise. Denise was allied with Malcolm who was allied with Pete, Abi, Artis, and Lisa. Together, they would split the vote. 4 for Penner, 4 for R.C. That way if he played the idol, R.C. would go. If he didn't, Penner would get out in the revote. At Tribal Council, the vote went as planned. Penner played the idol, and R.C. went in a 4-2-0 vote.

At this point, Lisa was allied with Jeff, Carter, Denise, and Malcolm. The plan was to get rid of Penner, and then Skupin. After that, the Tandang Alliance Pete, Abi, and Artis. However, Lisa wanted to go with Pete, Abi, Artis, and Michael, as she believed she had a better jury vote chance against them. After Penner saved himself by winning immunity, the Tandang Alliance voted out Jeff in a 5-4-1 vote. Also, Malcolm and Abi revealed their idols.

Now without numbers, the alliance of Carter, Malcolm, and Denise invited Penner in. They were still outnumbered 5-4 by Tandang, and targeted Artis because Denise felt he's the least likely person in the Tandang Alliance that Abi would share her idol with. The Kalabaw Alliance worked on convincing Michael and/or Lisa to flip to their side. Lisa didn't flip, but it was Michael who did and Artis left in a 5-4 vote.

Soon after, Lisa flips to the Kalabaw supermajority, and Kalabaw has a 6-2 advantage over Pete and Abi. They planned to split the vote. 3 for Abi, 3 for Pete. If Abi doesn't play the idol, the revote would see her going. If she did, Pete goes. In the meantime, Malcolm formed a final four alliance consisting of himself, Denise, Michael, and Lisa. Pete found about the split vote plan. He noticed that if he and Abi voted for Malcolm, it would be a 3-3-2 vote. However, all he and Abi needed was one person to flip. Lisa, Carter, and Penner turned it down flat, but Michael considered it. If Michael flipped, it would be 3 for Malcolm, 3 for Abi or Pete, and 2 for Abi or Pete. They needed to figure out who Micheal was going to vote for until he flipped, so that person could play Tandang's idol, and Malcolm would go in a 3-2-0 vote. Ultimately, Michael did not flip and Abi played the idol, sending Pete home.

Abi was now the odd man out, but bought an advantage at the Survivor Auction for the immunity challenge. This caused her to win the challenge, and could not be voted off. Abi started the "fourth idol lie", lying that there was a fourth idol and she had it. No one believed it. Penner found out he was on the chopping block, and easily got Carter and Abi's support in voting Denise out. He tried getting Michael or Lisa somehow, but couldn't break Malcolm's alliance as he was voted out 4-3.

After that, Abi tried to use the "fourth idol lie" to get the vote split between her and Carter, and hoped Carter would not vote her off. That way, Carter would be voted off in a 3-2-1 vote. However, the Matsing Alliance still did not fall or it and Carter was voted out. At the final five, Abi tried to get Lisa and Michael to go to the final three with her, stating that she was hated more than Denise and Malcolm. However, she was voted out unanimously.

At the final four, it was originally split between the Michael-Lisa alliance and the Malcolm-Denise alliance. Malcolm, however believed that Denise's story was to similar to his and wanted to take Michael and Lisa. But Denise found out and tried to go to the finals with Michael and Lisa. In the end, Malcolm was voted off in a 3-1 vote. At the final tribal council, Denise's social, strong game gave her a million dollars in a landslide 6-1-1 vote.

Trivia

 * The United States is the seventh country to host a Survivor season in Caramoan, following India, Serbia, Bulgaria, Israel, Sweden and France.
 * This season and Survivor: China have many similarities:
 * Both are the only seasons to have their respective members of the Final Three all receive Jury votes.
 * Both are the only seasons with more than one contestant in the Final Three never receiving a vote against them, and who coincidently didn't win.
 * Both are the only seasons whose last episodes aired on December 16 and has a Final 4 Reward Challenge and had only one eliminated contestant.
 * Both seasons preceed a Fans. vs. Favorites season (Survivor: Caramoan and Survivor: Micronesia, respectively).
 * Both seasons are the first seasons to have their respective Jury configurations (8-person and 7-person Jury, respectively with both having a Final Three finale).
 * Both seasons have a black merge tribe color, and whose tribes that were merged were colored red and yellow (Kalabaw and Tandang for Philippines, Fei Long and Zhan Hu for China).
 * Both seasons have four eliminations before a Tribe Switch (Absorption for Philippines and Swap for China) 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 Stapley in Philippines and Denise Martin in China), 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 Three, where Philippines has the oldest while China has the youngest.
 * Both seasons have "hidden in plain sight" Hidden Immunity Idols that are both plaqued-shaped, also both seasons having players having possesion of a fake idol (in Philippines, however it was not used).
 * The tribe colors, red, blue and yellow appeared to be a reference to the colors of the Philippine flag. Furthermore, several promotional clips feature the eight-rayed sun which prominently featured in the flag.
 * This season is the first season since to feature more than 2 starting tribes.
 * This season's Buffs are the first to sport the new Buff logo.
 * This season's starting tribes, Matsing, Kalabaw, and Tandang, are named after animals; namely, the monkey, the water buffalo, and the rooster, respectively.
 * Coincidentally, all three returning contestants were evacuated in their respective seasons' sixth episodes.
 * In, Colton Cumbie was also evacuated during the season's sixth episode.
 * This is the first season to have a male voted off first since Jon Dalton from.
 * Oddly, Zane and Jon are both from Danville, Virginia.
 * This is the first season with more than two tribes with two independent tribal Immunity Idols. Previous seasons with the same format (, and ) had tribes sharing one idol, which was split into multiple parts.
 * This season's theme is inspired by the Maranao, a predominantly Muslim region in the southern Philippines. The Tribal Council set is inspired by the Maranao people's elaborate wooden houses.
 * This season's Immunity Idol is the Sarimanok, a multicolored fowl in Filipino mythology (sari, an item of clothing, and manok meaning "chicken"), and an ubiquitous symbol of the Maranao people's arts and culture.
 * This season's Hidden Immunity Idol is actually the handle of the tribes' rice box, while its clue is nestled inside the rice box.
 * The Filipino version of Survivor is also named Survivor Philippines (sans colon).
 * Like, the only other season to begin with three tribes, the first two people eliminated from the season are from the same tribe.
 * This season is the first season with exactly three returning players.
 * This season marks only the second time in Survivor history that a tribe dwindled to two members, the other time being . Though this season holds the record for the fastest time for dwindling down to two with four episodes and took seven episodes.
 * Matsing became the first tribe to win zero challenges.
 * This is the first season to feature a contestant who quit the game due to medical reasons.
 * This season's three returning players have reached different stages in the game:
 * Russell Swan was eliminated pre-merge.
 * Jonathan Penner was eliminated post-merge (became part of the Jury).
 * Michael Skupin is part of this season's Final Three (Co-Runner-up with Lisa Whelchel).
 * This is the first season since where the merged tribe didn't start at 12 members.
 * This is the first season to ever have tribes merge at 11.
 * This is the first time a tribe (Tandang) made it all the way to the merge without going to Tribal Council.
 * As such, the six original members of Tandang broke the record of consecutive days without attending Tribal Council that had stood since Marquesas.
 * This is the first season in which every pre-merge vote was unanimous.
 * This is the seventh season to feature red and yellow starting tribes following, , , , , and.
 * This makes red and yellow the most common starting tribe color.
 * This is the first season in which the first member of the Jury finished in 11th place.
 * This is the first season since where the finalists aren't all from the same original tribe.
 * This is the second season where all members of the Final Three received votes. The first being.
 * This is also the second season since where two members of the Final Three received the same amount of Jury votes.
 * This season has the oldest Final Few out of any season, with an average age of 46.67, the youngest being 41 (Denise), the oldest being 50 (Skupin) and the middle being 49 (Lisa).
 * This season has the least number of highest number of votes received against a contestant in a single Tribal Council in a season among all seasons, with 5.
 * During the reunion show, Russell and Angie were not seated in the order of their elimination.
 * This is the first time that both Runners-Up both had zero votes against them and the same amount of Jury votes.
 * This is the third season in a row to feature a female winner from a blue tribe (following Upolu's Sophie Clarke from and Salani's Kim Spradlin from ).
 * The font used for this season's tribe names is Nuku Nuku.