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.

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 in Survivor history. 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 couldn't get anything done. This early success led the men to believe they would easily beat the women in challenges as well. However, the Tambaqui tribe lost to Jaburu at the inaugural Immunity Challenge. The men blamed Ryan Aiken and Daniel Lue for the loss and eliminated them in their first Tribal Councils. Despite winning four out of the first five challenges, Jaburu quickly became a very dysfunctional tribe. Janet Koth, the eldest member of the women's tribe, began to weaken, and the discovery of a Granola bar wrapper in their tribe crate led to further controversy around her and to her elimination. After Tambaqui lost another Immunity Challenge, Daniel was voted out due to his lack of cohesiveness and work ethic. As the women lost once more, the tribal numbers were evened out after Joanna Ward's elimination.

On Day 13, the youngest members of both tribes (Dave Johnson and Jenna Morasca) traveled to an isolated location to act as 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 Lockley, Roger Sexton, Jeanne Hebert, Christy Smith, and Heidi Strobel, while Jaburu consisted of Jenna, Deena Bennett, Shawna Mitchell, Alex Bell, Rob Cesternino, and Matthew von Ertfelda. Losing their first Immunity Challenge as a new tribe, Tambaqui was split through gender lines until Heidi jumped ship. Holding a grudge against Jeanne, she helped the men to vote her out. After the Tribe Switch, Shawna, who was depressed and even considered quitting, sparked up, but it wasn't enough to convince Jenna, Deena, Rob and Matthew that she will be with them for the rest of the game. Shawna became the last person to be voted out before the merge.

The merge occurred on Day 19, and the new tribe got the name Jacaré. Entering the merge, the men had the numbers needed to eliminate all the women, which led to Roger becoming overconfident. Deena and Rob, however, had other plans, instigating a continuation of the new Jaburu tribe, picking up the two remaining women; Heidi and Christy, from Tambaqui. The new alliance decided to eliminate the bossy and chauvinistic Roger immediately, so he will not be on the Jury (they were sure Roger would never vote for a woman to win). Roger, who never saw it coming, was sent home at the first post-merge Tribal Council. Dave, who was a physical threat, was sent home next.

Convinced she had control over the game, Deena proceeded to change the pecking order from Butch to Alex - another physical threat. Unaware of the control Alex had over the women, Deena approached Jenna, Heidi, Christy, and Rob with her new plan, convincing Christy, but leaving Jenna and Heidi shocked. They immediately turned to Alex to inform him of the betrayal. Alex, in turn, organized a counter-blindside, pulling in the remaining men, along with Heidi and Jenna. Rob, Butch, and Matthew could have turned either way, and thus found themselves in a powerful position, with Rob dictating the moves. He eventually sided with Alex and took out Deena, much to her surprise.

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 him that his plan was to vote him out once at the final four, to avoid a tie with Heidi and Jenna. Rob, offended, rallied a counter-alliance with Matthew, Butch and Christy, against Alex, and voted him out, leaving Heidi and Jenna in the minority for the first time. Christy then became a swing vote with the men and women vying for her support. Her indecisiveness, however, cost her, and when she failed to give Rob a straight answer about her vote, he approached Jenna and Heidi, and turned them against her. Still in the majority, Rob and his alliance eliminated Heidi, leaving Jenna the last woman in the game, and without an alliance.

By Day 37, knowing it was do or die, Jenna won the next two Immunity Challenges, forcing the men to turn on each other. Faced with a choice of avenging Alex and Heidi by eliminating Rob or disposing of an ever deteriorating Butch (whose obsession with collecting firewood led to a fire, that completely destroyed the camp), Jenna sided with Rob and Matthew to send Butch to the Jury. At the final Immunity Challenge, Matthew threw the challenge hoping he would be judged as less of a threat to Rob and Jenna. Rob tried to convince Jenna that if he win, he would take her but Jenna wouldn't budge. In the end Jenna won the final immunity and despite stating she would take the strongest oppenent, she cast her vote for Rob who became the last jury member.

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, only losing Butch's vote.

Trivia

 * For the first time, the contestants were divided with a theme, featuring a Battle of the Sexes format.
 * For the first time, all contestants received a vote at one point during the game.
 * For the first time, a contestant gave up an Immunity Necklace and gave it to another contestant.
 * This is the only occasion in which the original holder of individual immunity was not voted out after giving it up.
 * Erik Reichenbach and Brandon Hantz were both voted out after giving up immunity in Survivor: Micronesia and Survivor: South Pacific respectively.
 * This is also the only time in which the person who gave up immunity was a girl
 * For the first time, the merged tribe has an accented letter. The tribe was 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.
 * This is the first season not to introduce a new tribe color.  All three colors (yellow, blue and red) had been used in previous seasons.
 * This season is the first and only pre-All Stars season that every contestants received at least one vote against them. Previous seasons have had at least one contestant who did not receive any vote against them.