Survivor: China

Survivor: China is the fifteenth season of Survivor. It originally aired in fall 2007. It was the first American television show to ever be filmed or produced in the People's Republic of China. The "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast" slogan used in previous season's logos was replaced by Chinese characters. The characters translate to "compete in intelligence" (比智慧, bĭ zhìhuì), "compete in skill" (比技巧, bĭ jìqiǎo), and "compete in endurance" (比耐力, bĭ nàilì).

This season returned to 16 contestants on two initial tribes, Fei Long (飞龙) and Zhan Hu (战虎), meaning Flying Dragon and Fighting Tiger respectively. On Day 13 each tribe switched two contestants. On Day 19 the tribes merged into Hae Da Fung (黑大風), which means Black Fighting Wind, a name proposed by Peih-Gee Law (who happened to be Chinese herself).

In the end, there was a final three. However, there was only a jury of seven. All three final contestants received votes, but Todd Herzog was crowned Sole Survivor after garnering four votes, as opposed to Courtney Yates's two and Amanda Kimmel's one.

Production
Producers were given an "unprecedented access" to several Chinese monuments and landmarks, and they incorporated many aspects of China's vast culture into the game (design of campsites, challenge concepts, Tribal Council set, etc.). Before they made it to their camps, the contestants took part in a non-religious Buddhist ceremony. After the ceremony, both tribes received a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War which would help them in winning challenges and conquering the other tribe.

The season was said to be the first US show to be entirely shot in China.

Twists/Changes

 * Kidnapping: The kidnapping twist from Survivor: Pearl Islands and Survivor: All-Stars returned. However, unlike the two former seasons, the kidnapped player was not granted immunity. Starting with the episode My Mom Is Going to Kill Me!, whichever tribe won the reward challenge would kidnap a member from the losing tribe to stay at their camp until the next Immunity Challenge. The kidnapped player would give a tube containing clues to the Hidden Immunity Idol to a tribe member from the opposing side for an idol at their camp.

Trivia

 * This is the only 16-castaway season to have the Final Three face the Jury.
 * This season and Survivor: Philippines have many similarities:
 * Both are the only seasons to have all their respective members of the Final Three 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: Micronesia and Survivor: Caramoan, respectively).
 * Both seasons are the first seasons to have their respective Jury configurations (7-person and 8-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 (Fei Long and Zhan Hu for China, Kalabaw and Tandang for Philippines).
 * Both seasons have four eliminations before a Tribe Switch (Swap for China and Absorption for Philippines) 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 Martin in China and Denise Stapley in Philippines), 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 Few, where China has the youngest while Philippines has the oldest.
 * This is the first season to use a variation on "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast". The Chinese words used in their place translate to "compete in intelligence, compete in skill, compete in endurance" as a rough translation.
 * The colors of the two starting tribes may be a reference to China's national flag.
 * This season had the first instance of a contestant (Jaime Dugan) trying to play an item at Tribal Council believed to be a Hidden Immunity Idol, but turning out not to be.
 * Once this season reached the jury phase, the opening introductory montage no longer showed all the contestants in the game. The montage showed the players in "the Jury" first, followed by the ones in the "Merged Tribe." Prior to this, all seasons had shown all the players in the intro in all episodes.
 * For the first five episodes, only one tribe won any challenges. On episode 6, Fei Long wins reward and Zhan Hu won immunity. Otherwise it was only one tribe winning anything per episode.