Survivor: Philippines

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

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 hired 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 Cook Islands, the season starts out with more than two rival tribes.
 * Returning Contestants: 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. There will be three idols, one at each camp.
 * 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, thus allowing them to perform swimming, diving and boating challenges.
 * Tribe Absorption: On Day 11, Matsing was down to two members so the two remaining members were absorbed in to the other two tribes.
 * Merge At 11: On Day 18, the two tribes merged at 11, unlike the usual 8, 9, 10, or 12.

Trivia

 * The United States is the seventh country to host a Survivor season in Caramoan, following India, Serbia, Bulgaria, Israel, Sweden and France.
 * 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's Buffs are the first to sport the new Buff logo.
 * This season's starting tribes, Matsing, Kalabaw, and Tandang, are named after animals, the monkey, the water buffalo and the rooster respectively.
 * Coincidentally, all three returning contestants were evacuated during their season's sixth episode.
 * In, Colton Cumbie was elso evacuated during its 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 Philippine 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 just 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 is the first season since where the merged was not comprised of 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.
 * All pre-merge Tribal Councils were at most participated by 6 members (Dana Lambert's quitting of the game and the loss of Kalabaw in all of the Immunity Challenges between only two tribes prevented a 7 member pre-merge Tribal Council to happen).
 * Currently, all votes received by each contestant on the Tribal Council in where they are eliminated doesn't exceed 5 votes.
 * This is the first season to have all pre-merge eliminations be unanimous.