Survivor: Redemption Island

 fSurvivor: Redemption Island is the 22nd season of Survivor. It premiered on February 16, 2011. Its filming location took place in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, the same location used last season. The winner of the season is veteran player Rob Mariano after winning eight of nine Jury votes.

This season was highly controversial, being universally panned by fans for its predictable storyline (mostly due to Rob Mariano's huge advantage being a four-time contestant), Redemption Island having little to no effect on the actual outcome, and not enough airtime for everyone in favor of season noisemakers Rob, Russell Hantz, and Phillip Sheppard.

Production
The production staff stayed in Nicaragua after filming the previous season because they enjoyed the warm hospitality and also to minimize production costs. Also, the location of Ponderosa this season was the same location used last season.

The idea of bringing back Rob Mariano and Russell Hantz came from the Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains reunion show, where Rob (who was eliminated by Hantz' alliance) said he would like to compete against Russell in a future season to settle their rivalry.

After the controversial inclusion of NaOnka Mixon and Kelly Shinn to the Jury after their simultaneous voluntary exits in the previous season, Mark Burnett has stated that starting from this season, post-merge quitters may or may not be put to the Jury. This decision will be decided by the producers before the next Tribal Council, where the Jurors will watch its proceedings. According to Burnett, "It's very unlikely any quitter will be on the jury again."

Twist/Changes

 * Redemption Island: In a drastic game-changing twist, when a player gets voted out from Tribal Council, that player will not be eliminated right away. Instead, the said contestant will go to Redemption Island, where he/she will fend for himself during his/her entire stay. When the next person gets voted out, the two players will compete in a "duel." The winner gets to stay at the island, while the loser is eliminated from the game for good. At a certain point, the last person standing on Redemption Island will return to the main game and will continue his/her pursuit of the one million dollar prize and the title of Sole Survivor.
 * New Camp for Merger: This is the first time since where the merged tribe lived in a entirely new camp, rather than using one of the two existing camps.
 * Challenges: In the advent of the Redemption Island Duels, this season featured several challenges  both for Reward and Immunity.
 * Two Returning Contestants: Rob Mariano and Russell Hantz returned as contestants to settle their heated rivalry during.
 * Hidden Immunity Idols: Hidden Immunity Idols were available this season, with one hidden at each camp.

Season Summary
Sixteen new castaways, previously divided into two tribes, Ometepe and Zapatera, were joined by returning contestants, Rob Mariano and Russell Hantz, with Rob joining Ometepe and Russell joining Zapatera by random draw. The tribes were then told about Redemption Island, a secluded location where voted out players would go to compete in challenges for a chance to be brought back into the game.

Rob quickly proved to be leader in Ometepe, and kept wary of the Hidden Immunity Idol, including sending one of his own alliance, Matt Elrod, to Redemption Island while trying to flush it out. On Zapatera, the bulk of the tribe recognized the threat that Russell could be, throwing a challenge in order to vote Russell out; Russell would lose to Matt at the next Redemption Island challenge. Matt would continue to win several more duels against several Zapatera players after Ometepe dominated the challenges, while Zapatera suffered due to loss of cohesion within their tribe.

The tribes merged with twelve players left in the game, including Matt who returned from Redemption Island. Matt discussed blindsiding Rob with the former Zapatera members, however he eventually decided against it, telling this to Rob in an attempt to prove his loyalty. Despite this, Rob decided Matt could not be trusted, using his alliance to send Matt back to Redemption Island, establishing a firm Ometepe majority. The former Ometepe tribe used their numerical advantage to completely eliminate the remaining former members of Zapatera, before having to turn on themselves. Rob orchestrated the eliminations of those whom he felt would be threatening to him, including close allies Grant Mattos and Andrea Boehlke. Though Andrea would return to the game from Redemption Island, she was unable to secure any other alliances, and was voted off a second time. Ultimately, the Final Three were Rob, Natalie Tenerelli, and Phillip Sheppard. Both Natalie and Phillip were criticized by the Jury for simply following in Rob's footsteps, and Rob, after 117 days of fighting in this game over four seasons, was voted the Sole Survivor in a vote of 8-1-0.

Trivia

 * This is the first season to feature Redemption Island.
 * With Rob's appearance in this season, he is the first contestant to play Survivor four times.
 * He would be followed by Rupert Boneham with his appearance on.
 * Both of their fourth outings featured Redemption Island
 * While this season is the first season to not have any straight Reward Challenges, it has the most number of combined Reward/Immunity Challenges with nine.
 * This is the second time a tribe which threw an Immunity Challenge ended up outnumbered at or shortly after the merge due to the loss. The first time it happened was to Sook Jai in.
 * Coincidentally, Zapatera and Sook Jai were both purple tribes, and lost to orange-colored tribes (Chuay Gahn and Ometepe)
 * This season had the most amount of players make it to the finale, with eight. Four people were yet to be voted out, while another four competed in the final duel.
 * Richard Hatch, the winner of, was originally slated to compete against Russell, but his request to leave the country was again rejected by a federal judge. Boston Rob replaced him instead.
 * This is the first season with a twelve player merge in which the first Tribal Council didn't have a 10-2 vote.
 * The font used on the letterings of this season's tribe names is called "Hobo Std."
 * This was the first season to have at least one three-way tie at Tribal Council. It would be followed by.
 * Phillip Sheppard, Andrea Boehlke and Francesca Hogi hold the distinction of being three of only four players to compete with both of the Hantzes, Russell Hantz and Brandon Hantz; four seasons later, they would compete with Brandon in . However, Sheppard, Boehlke and Hogi were never tribemates of Russell.
 * The only other contestant to compete with both Hantzes is Coach Wade, who competed with Russell in and Brandon in . Unlike Sheppard, Boehlke, and Hogi, Wade has been on a tribe with both Russell and Brandon at one point.