Survivor: Fiji

Survivor: Fiji is the fourteenth season of United States reality show Survivor. It was filmed in Macuata, Vanua Levu, Fiji during 2006 and aired on television in 2007.

This season was heavily panned by fans and Jeff Probst alike, mainly for its lack of likable contestants (with exceptions such as Earl, Michelle, and Yau-Man), all but one contestant being recruited, one player quitting before the game even started, and its poor execution of twists.

Production
Applications were due June 16, 2006. Mellisa McNulty, a 27-year-old talent manager from Los Angeles, would have been the twentieth castaway but dropped out and returned home the night before the show began because of panic attacks, making this the first season of Survivor to have an odd number of castaways, with 19. Because of the timing and lack of alternates, her spot could not be replaced, making it the first time in which a contestant backed out of Survivor and was not replaced. Gary Stritesky was the only contestant who applied to be on the show; McNulty and the other 18 contestants were recruited. The cast retained the same amount of racial diversity as the previous season,, in a conscious effort intended to show that the diversity of Survivor: Cook Islands was not just a ratings stunt.

Survivor: Fiji was filmed in the eastern region of the Macuata province, on Fiji's second largest island, Vanua Levu, about 15 miles (24 km) from the town of Labasa. Tribal Council, the production camp ("Tent City"), and several challenges were located in close proximity to the village of Vunivutu. Other challenges were held on Katawaqa Island, Tivi Island, Vatudamu Point, and fields along the Wainikoro River. The Moto (and later, Bula Bula) tribe lived on a peninsula in Vunivutu Bay, while the Ravu tribe lived on Druadrua Island under much harsher conditions. Exile Island's actual name is Sausau Island. Reward getaways included trips to the Namale Resort and Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort in the town of Savusavu, as well as a rafting excursion on the Navua River on Fiji's main island of Viti Levu.

On December 5, 2006 (Day 37), a coup d'état was initiated by Fiji's military leader, Frank Bainimarama. While there was some speculation that a full evacuation of the Survivor crew members from Fiji would take place, only a few crew members on the mainland were relocated to the second-smallest island. However, the political turmoil prior to the coup did prevent the families of the cast members from coming to Fiji to participate in a Reward Challenge (as usually occurs on Survivor) that occurred towards the end of filming.

Twists/Changes

 * Haves vs. Have Nots: The castaways (after they had been divided into tribes) would compete for the right to the luxurious camp in the first episode that all nineteen helped to build, the losing tribe would move to a new camp with the very basic of materials.
 * Odd-Numbered Cast: Prior to the start of filming, Mellisa McNulty suffered a severe panic attack and the Medical Team deemed her participation in the game too risky, thus she was pulled from the competition. As a result, this was the first season with an odd number of castaways.
 * Rehashed Hidden Immunity Idol Mechanism: Unlike previous seasons wherein the Hidden Immunity Idol would be played after the votes have been read, the new format forces the holder to play it after the votes have been cast, but prior to the votes being read.
 * Exile Island After a Reward Challenge, players may banish a player from the rival tribe to Exile Island. This island (entirely separate from the existing camps) will force the banished player to fend for him/herself until the upcoming Immunity Challenge, unless stated otherwise. The player would not be left in despair, for he/she will be given clues to a Hidden Immunity Idol.
 * Message in a Bottle: A message forced the winning tribe of a pre-determined challenge to choose between keeping their luxurious camp or keeping immunity.
 * Tribe Switch: A schoolyard pick was conducted between two captains to determine the new tribes. After the pick was done, which the captains would then draw buffs to determine which tribe they would be members of.
 * Post-Merge Tribal Challenge: In the first round as a merged tribe, the group split into two teams of five. The winning group would be immune from Tribal Council under the rules of Tribal Immunity.
 * Three Finalists and Expanded Jury: A Final Three would face a Jury of Nine.

Season Summary
Due to one player dropping out prior to the game, the season started with 19 players. After arriving at their beach as one group, instructions and materials for building a camp were dropped from a plane. Before the first challenge, the teams were divided by Sylvia Kwan, the one they saw as their leader; as she was the odd-one out, she became the first to visit Exile Island. After the challenge, the winning team, Moto, returned to the constructed camp, while the losing team, Ravu, was directed to a different beach where only meager supplies awaited them; Sylvia joined Ravu shortly afterwards. While both tribes vied equally in challenges, it was apparent that the Moto tribe's well-off living condition had lopsided the competition, sending Ravu to five of the first six Tribal Councils, though Moto had their share of mishaps, such as Gary Stritesky's body's averse reaction to bug bites (causing him to quit the game) and surrendering their Immunity to Ravu to keep their shelter after a twist in the Day 11 Immunity Challenge. Ravu's losing streak, however, served to build an alliance between Earl Cole and Yau-Man Chan. When Earl became a target to be sent to Exile Island, he conspired with Yau-Man to find one of the two Hidden Immunity Idols located at the camps.

A Tribe Switch served to further alliances. At the new Moto tribe, Earl and Yau-Man added Michelle Yi, Cassandra Franklin, and Boo Bernis into their alliance, while at the new, all-male Ravu tribe, Alex Angarita became the leader of an alliance between himself, Mookie Lee, Edgardo Rivera, and Dreamz Herd, self-titling themselves the Four Horsemen. Ravu would then lose three more Immunity Challenges. The tribes merged by traveling to Exile Island, then returning to the original Moto camp, finding that all the structures and luxuries had been removed. The first post-merge Immunity Challenge divided the contestants into two randomly selected teams, putting Michelle with most of the Horsemen, and leading up to her being voted out. By this point, Yau-Man and Mookie, the latter using clues given to him by Lisi Linares before her elimination, held possession of the two Immunity Idols. A critical gameplay moment came at Tribal Council on Day 27 — Earl's alliance, with the help of Stacy Kimball and Dreamz, was able to trick Alex into playing Mookie's Immunity Idol, but instead targeted and eliminated an unsuspecting Edgardo, which led to the elimination of Mookie and Alex in the subsequent votes.

The Reward Challenge played by the final six players was for a truck. Yau-Man won the challenge, but made a deal with Dreamz to trade the truck in exchange for the final challenge's Immunity Necklace should Dreamz win it. Yau-Man also became the first player to send himself to Exile Island, in hopes of using the clue there to find a Hidden Immunity Idol. Stacy and Boo were eliminated in the following days, and Dreamz won the Final Immunity Challenge. At the subsequent Tribal Council, Yau-Man was voted out after Dreamz reneged on his promise to give up the Immunity Necklace.

At the Final Tribal Council, a mostly averse Jury expressed their disgust at Dreamz' controversial actions about the truck deal, while Cassandra was also ignored by the jury because of her perceived coattail-riding gameplay. This left the jury unanimously voting for the most strategic, yet ethical Earl to win the title of Sole Survivor.

Trivia

 * Due to Mellisa McNulty dropping out only hours before the castaways were set adrift, the crew was unable to pick a replacement contestant and the season started with 19 castaways. This makes Fiji the first and only season with an odd number of castaways.
 * Fiji is the first season to have and uneven number of male and female players. It would be followed later by.
 * This is the first and thus far, only season with an all-African-American final three.
 * This is the first season to have two runners-up, due to Dreamz Herd and Cassandra Franklin both receiving no votes from the jury. As a result, there were two second-place finishers and no third-place finisher. This later occurred in, , , and.
 * This is the first season to have a unanimous winner.
 * Gary Stritesky becomes the first castaway to quit due to an illness in this season.
 * During the finale, both Earl Cole and Jeff Probst mentioned that Earl had never received a vote against him. However, this is untrue as Rita Verreos voted against him during the third Tribal Council.
 * This season is tied with  for the most African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic-American contestants, with five of each race.
 * Due to Mellisa dropping out of the competition, this is the first series where the number of African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic-American contestants outnumbered the amount of Caucasian contestants. There is speculation that the tribes were supposed to be divided up by race again, similar to.
 * The season was supposed to have a Loved Ones Challenge, but due to the political turmoil in Fiji, the challenge was scrapped and the loved ones stayed home.