Survivor: Pearl Islands

Survivor: Pearl Islands - Panama is the seventh installment of the popular television reality show Survivor. It was filmed in 2003 and debuted in the United States on CBS on September 18, 2003.

The show takes place on the Pearl Islands, off the coast of Panama, and had a pirate culture theme. The two original tribes were Drake (named for Francis Drake) and Morgan (named for Henry Morgan). Eventually the two were merged into the Balboa tribe (named for Vasco Núñez de Balboa).

Survivor: Pearl Islands - Panama was the most watched since Survivor: The Australian Outback, in part to unique twists (Outcasts, Looting, Buried Treasure) and colorful, memorable contestants (Rupert Boneham, Jon Dalton). In some cases, the official title Survivor: Pearl Islands is referred to as Survivor: Pearl Islands - Panama (as indicated by CBS and the opening titles of the season)

On the very first day, the castaways, who earlier were to dress up for a promotional event for the show on board a ship, were shocked to learn that they were going to be marooned with only the clothes they were wearing. They were then given 100 Panamanian balboas (exactly US$100) which they could exchange, along with any personal items such as earrings, gold chains, and sneakers for supplies at a nearby fishing village on the first day. While in the village, Rupert sat down with his tribe's supply raft. The Morgan tribe stopped beside him and left their raft unguarded, thus giving him an idea he considered common in pirate culture: stealing the supplies. Meanwhile, the bi-lingual Sandra Diaz-Twine communicated well with the locals (one of whom seemed enamored with Drake member Trish Dunn's eyes and seemed to want to barter for them) in Spanish for a wealth of extra supplies for Drake, whereas the Morgans were nowhere near as adept or successful. Some of the items bought were lighters, chickens, aluminum foil, waterproof matches, pots, and knives.

Young and muscular African-American, Osten Taylor ended up bartering all his clothing except his boxer shorts for goods for his tribe. On day 3, while participating in the tribes' first immunity challenge, Taylor decided to take off his boxer shorts, which had become extremely loose due to rapid weight loss in the preceding days, and complete the challenge in the nude to eliminate the trouble of having to keep his shorts up. His two alliance partners, Andrew Savage and Ryan Opray, decided to honour that alliance and so stripped down as well. Ultimately, however, their efforts went unrewarded when their tribe, Morgan, lost the challenge.

Burton Roberts made a significant error at a critical point. Having seen three of the Morgans eliminated and none of the Drakes yet at Tribal Council, he encouraged his tribe to throw an immunity challenge. (Boneham did not appreciate this idea but felt bringing it up against the majority view would be counterproductive.) However, he failed to consider the consequences of this decision and ended up being eliminated in place of the player he had in mind.

Osten Taylor was not voted off. He became the first contestant in Survivor history to quit the game, saying that his health was more important to him than the million dollar prize. While other players had quit in essence by asking their teammates to vote them off, Taylor's elimination was the first in which voting was foregone completely and host Jeff Probst simply accepted his resignation at Tribal Council. Taylor did agree to let his tribe vote him out, but Probst said this was not necessary.

Jon Dalton gained notoriety on the show when, in a challenge where the contestant's loved ones competed, he had his friend say that his grandmother had died. He did this in order to gain the others' pity and win the challenge, then continued to milk the lie for all its worth by always saying "I swear on my grandmother" when someone didn't believe him about something. In the reunion show that aired after the season finale, host Jeff Probst did a brief interview with Jon's grandmother, who was not only alive and well, but much younger than many expected.

This series of Survivor had a surprise feature where the first six contestants voted off were given an opportunity to win their way back on to the show. Lillian Morris (who was originally the third person voted off) and Burton Roberts (who was the fourth) rejoined the contest in this manner, and were each given individual immunity at their first Tribal Council to allow them time to "integrate" back into their tribe. Known among Survivor fans as the Outcast twist, this feature was the cause of huge controversy among Survivor fans and was also viewed as unfair by many of the contestants still in the game, notably Andrew Savage (this partly resulted in him being voted off immediately after Morris and Roberts rejoined the contest). Roberts became the first — and thus far, the only — contestant in Survivor history to be eliminated twice in the same season, while Morris managed to fend her way to the Final Two.

Survivor: Pearl Islands was released on DVD on February 7, 2006.

Contestants

 * The Total Votes is the number of votes a castaway has received during Tribal Councils where the castaway is eligible to be voted out of the game. It does not include the votes received during the final Tribal Council.

Gameplay

 * 1) Lillian Morris and Burton Roberts were brought back into the game on Day 20, so they are both listed as having placed in two different points in the game. The tribes they were briefly in upon their return were the same tribes they were originally in.
 * 2) Burton won immunity, but gave it to Rupert during tribal council since it was no use to Burton since he and Lillian already had immunity so they could integrate back into the tribe.
 * 3) Rupert won reward, but gave it to Burton.
 * 4) Burton and Lillian won reward. Burton gave Jon his reward, while Lillian kept hers.
 * 5) Burton originally won immunity and was stripped of it due to Jeff Probst not noticing a misspelled word. Because of this, a runoff between those not already eliminated was conducted with Darrah winning the immunity.
 * 6) The immunity challenge was a trivia competition, and the five members of the Jury were allowed to compete as a team against the four remaining players. The Jury won immunity, meaning that none of the four remaining players had immunity for that vote.

Voting history
1. Osten chose to quit the game, claiming that his body was breaking down and his health was more important to him than a million dollars

2. Both tribes lost a challenge to the Outcast Tribe composed of the first 6 departed players; as a result, both tribes had to vote out a player.

3. Rupert abstained from the vote, as he was captured by Morgan.

Elimination Notes

 * Nicole Delma - It appeared that Ryan S. or Lil was getting the boot for being the weakest link. However, due to Nicole's excessive plotting and scheming, especially to oust Tijuana, she was  eliminated in a unanimous vote. (7-1)
 * Ryan Shoulders - As a result his lackluster performance in the challenges as well as being on the outside of Morgan alliance, he was voted off. (5-2)
 * Lillian Morris - Between Darrah and Lil who were on the outside of the Morgan alliance, Lil was seen weaker in the physical challenges. Additionally, she lost a fishing hook while attempting to find food, which angered the men in her tribe, and contributed to her elimination. (5-1)
 * Burton Roberts - He convinced the Drake tribe to throw the challenge to get rid of their dead weight, which he believed was Christa. However, his move made the women and Rupert believe he was a hard-core gamer. Even though Rupert was captured by Morgan, Jon convinced Shawn to brake away from Burton and Michelle, and Burton was eliminated. (5-2)
 * Michelle Tesauro - The departure of the strong Burton sent Drake into a challenge tailspin. Since Michelle was the only one who sided with Burton, she was an outcast. Also, Michelle was voted out because she failed to go along with Drake's plan to win the immunity challenge by having her, their best gross-food eater, pretend to be their worst so that the other tribe would pick her in a tie breaker. Even though she tried to rally against Shawn, she got ousted. (6-1)
 * Trish Dunn - Trish and Jon decided to oust Rupert because they felt he was too powerful and feared that he could use both tribes to his advantage. Rupert was tipped off by ally Sandra, and convinced Shawn along with Christa to turn against Trish. After that tribal council, Rupert lost his temper and cursed at Jon, threatened him, and even put his hands around Jon's neck.
 * Shawn Cohen - Both tribes lost a challenge to the Outcast Tribe comprised of the first 6 departed players; as a result, both tribes had to vote out a player. Drake voted out Shawn due to his friendship with Burton, whom they accurately believed would be voted back into the game. (4-1)
 * Osten Taylor - After much consideration, Osten chose to quit the game, claiming that his body was breaking down and his health was more important to him than a million dollars. Instead of a vote, all 4 other Morgan members agreed to let Osten quit. His quitting visibly annoyed Jeff Probst, who extinguished Osten's torch (and laid it down on the ground as a symbol of Osten's quitting) and dismissed him with a curt, "Per your wishes, go home."
 * Both Lil and Burton re-entered the game after being voted back in by their fellow outcasts.
 * Andrew Savage - Lil's return sparked Andrew's demise as she was bitter about his choice to eliminate her. Since he never attempted to form a better relationship with her, as the Drakes tried to, she felt inclined to side with the Drakes.  Upon the merge, Drake saw Andrew as a physcial threat and the leader of the enemy tribe. (6-4)
 * Ryan Opray - He was the next person on the chopping block due to his strength over the remaining Morgan members. He was voted off and became the first member of the jury. (8-1)
 * Rupert Boneham - Jonny Fairplay and his ally Burton banded together with Lil and the final Morgan members Darrah and Tijuana. On a reward challenge, Jon managed to convince Lil that Rupert was too big of a threat to keep in the game. He was voted off and became the second member of the jury. (5-2-1)
 * Tijuana Bradley - When Sandra took Tijuana out in the middle of the night to spy on Burton and Jon as they schemed, Tijuana knew she was being played. Tijuana and Sandra devised a plan to get Burton out with Christa and Darrah.  When Jon found out, he turned the tables on her by using his now infamous "dead grandmother" lie to secure the votes of Christa and Sandra.  As a shock to the Morgan women, she was voted off and became the third member of the jury. (5-2)
 * Christa Hastie - Because Christa was seen as the biggest physical threat to the men, Burton worked on Lil while Jon worked on Darrah. In addition, the rest of the tribe found her annoying especially after she was accused of throwing away the fish (Sandra threw the fish). She was eliminated and became the fourth jury member. (4-2)
 * Burton Roberts - In another blindside vote, Burton attempted to oust Darrah for being good at the challenges. However, when the boys went on the reward, Sandra and Darrah convinced Lil to turn on Burton.  They promised not to say something to tip off Burton or Jon when they came back.  To Burton's surprise, he was voted off and became the fifth member of the jury. (3-2)
 * Darrah Johnson - Jon, knowing he would be out next, devised a plan to have Lil and Darrah turn on each other. He spread the rumor that Darrah would not take Lil to the finals for being a nice person, and she fell for it.  The jury won immunity making everyone eligible for the vote, which provided the perfect opportunity for Sandra, Jon and Lil to vote out Darrah and make her the sixth jury member. (3-1)
 * Jon Dalton - Lil won the final immunity, and decided to take Sandra because she saw her in the same position in life. She also disliked Jon's lifestyle and what he would do with the money.  Jon became the seventh and final member of the jury (1-0).
 * Lillian Morris - Lil was roasted at the final tribal council for hypocrisy, hiding behind her Scout image, and being an Outcast. Lil won only Tijuana's vote.
 * Sandra Diaz-Twine - Even though some people thought that she rode coattails, she convinced the jury that she voted people out of the game simply to stay alive. Perhaps because of her "tell-it-like-it-is" responses to the jury's questions - a stark contrast to Lil's defensive responses - and because she was the only person of the final two to last the entire 39 days, Sandra won the votes of Jon, Ryan, Rupert, Christa, Darrah and Burton.

Trivia

 * This was the first series ever to have the castaways start the game with the clothes on their back and not bring anything else, except for another pair of shoes. Unfortunately for the Morgan tribe, Rupert took the shoes from their tribe to barter with.
 * The Drake tribe won the first six challenges in a row, who held the record for most consecutive Tribal Challenges won. The Moto tribe of Fiji topped this feat by winning the first nine challenges in a row.
 * This is the first time contestants were given a second chance to play the game. They were represented as the Outcast tribe. Burton and Lillian came back to the game when the other eliminated contestants voted them in.
 * Because Osten's departure from the show was regarded as less than honorable, his final words were not broadcast during the end credits as they would have had he actually been voted out (nor were they posted on the show's official website at the time). To date, he is the only player not to have his exit confessional aired.
 * This season marked the first and only time there was no individual immunity won by the final four because the jury played that immunity challenge and won.
 * When the members of Drake wanted to vote off Jon, they decided to throw the immunitychallenge. Before the challenge, Jeff announced that if Drake lost, Morgan would get a reward.  Drake still threw the challenge, and Rupert was sent to Morgan.  The plan to vote out Jon backfired when Burton  was voted out, throwing Drake into a losing streak.
 * During the "Fallen Comrades" ritual, a tradition in which the final three players participate right before their final immunity challenge, they walked a path marked by the extinguished torches of the Survivors previously voted out, and stopped at each torch to reflect upon its owner. Osten's torch was excluded from the ritual. It was instead shown lying on the ground at the Tribal Council area, after the final three had finished walking the path.
 * Ryan S. wrote "die jerks" on his Outcast buff.
 * Sandra is the first, and so far only, Latino player to win Survivor.