Survivor: South Pacific

Survivor: South Pacific is the 23rd season of Survivor. It was first announced by Jeff Probst on the Reunion show of. It premiered on September 14, 2011 with a 90-minute premiere.

Production
The season was filmed in the vicinity of Upolu, Samoa, and the season will premiere on September 14, 2011 with a 90-minute debut. It is in the same filming location as and. Fiji and Tonga were said to be alternate locations.

Aggie Grey's, the hotel that was used in the two aforementioned seasons was used once again to accommodate the staff and crew. The duration of their stay was reported to be identical to their last visit to Samoa. The said hotel had no availability from May 16 to September 16, 2011. Locals have been very appreciative hosting the show for a third time, stating that it helped boost their tourism industry (with revenues reported to be approximately $6,000,000 for filming seasons 19 and 20). The show also helped the devastated country recover from the 2009 Samoan tsunami.

Twist/Changes

 * Redemption Island: Redemption Island returned this season, but with new tweaks. During "group duels," or duels that have more than two competitors, only one winner stays, sending all the other contestants home.
 * One Returning Player Per Tribe: Two former contestants returned to compete in this season. Former castaways Coach Wade and Ozzy Lusth joined this season's batch of contestants. Jeff stated that their poor social skills had put them to jeopardy in their earlier seasons, and this would be their chance to improve in that aspect.
 * Hidden Immunity Idols: The clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol was hidden at camp. Once the clue is unearthed, the player will have a better chance of finding the idol.

Season Summary
Sixteen new castaways, already divided into tribes, were joined by returning players Ozzy Lusth and Coach Wade at Redemption Island. After a random draw of buffs, Ozzy joins the Savaii tribe, while Coach joins the Upolu tribe. Ozzy's welcome was warm and appreciative, while Coach's was largely cold and silent. At the first night, Coach got into a conversation with Brandon Hantz, Sophie Clarke, Albert Destrade, and Rick Nelson, which ended up uniting the five in a formidable alliance.

The warring tribes equally fared in challenges, trading time at Tribal Council. Along the way, Coach and Ozzy made alliances while successfully finding their tribe's Hidden Immunity Idols. While Coach successfully maneuvered the votes in his favor, it was not the case for Ozzy, with the new players not letting him achieve total control over the tribe. After seventeen days of competition, Savaii lost Semhar Tadesse, Mark Caruso, and Elyse Umemoto; while Upolu lost Christine Shields Markoski, Stacey Powell, and Mikayla Wingle. With Upolu's Christine dominating the Redemption Island duels, and an impending merge, Ozzy proposed the "Trojan Horse" plan, stating that should Savaii lose the next Immunity Challenge, the other tribe members would deliberately send him to Redemption Island in hopes of defeating Christine. The plan was successful, merging Upolu and Savaii to the new Te Tuna tribe, with six members each.

Anticipating a deadlock tie vote, Coach swayed a member of the other tribe, John Cochran, making him believe that he was being bullied by his former tribemates. While the next Tribal Council started with the expected 6-6 tie between Rick and Keith Tollefson, Cochran pulled a doublecross, sending his former tribemate Keith to Redemption Island. Furious with his betrayal, the remaining Savaii shunned Cochran, expressing disgust with his lack of loyalty. The remaining Savaii members (including Cochran himself) however, were systematically voted out from the tribe, and found themselves battling each other at Redemption Island, with Ozzy dominating the duels.

With no common enemy remaining for the Upolu alliance, they were forced to turn on each other, starting with Edna Ma. After winning the next Immunity Challenge, Brandon passed it to Albert, causing his demise. With Ozzy returned from Redemption Island, and won immunity, Upolu again voted each other out, with Rick being sacrificed. Losing the final Immunity Challenge against Sophie, Ozzy was voted out for the third time, leaving Coach, Albert and Sophie as the Final Three.

At the Final Tribal Council, Coach was castigated for using religion to instill fear to others, while Albert and Sophie were criticized for being ignoble and condescending respectively. In the end, Sophie's admittance to her flaws, silent game play and athleticism earned her the title of Sole Survivor and the million dollar prize.

Trivia

 * This is the first season to feature a contestant who is a relative to a previous contestant; Brandon Hantz is a nephew to Russell Hantz.
 * This is the third season to take place in Samoa, following and.
 * The location for this season was originally going to be in neighboring Tonga, but it was declined for economic reasons.
 * For the first time, no tribe won a back to back challenge.
 * This season is so far the last season without a tribe swap or tribe dissolve.
 * This is the seventh consecutive season to have a woman be the first voted out and the first eliminated.
 * This is the third season to feature a pattern in which the tribe that wins each Immunity Challenge switches each episode, following and.
 * This is the second season in a row where a tribe gets systematically voted off (a term known in the fandom as Pagonged) post merge.
 * This is the sixth season to feature returning contestants, following, , , and.
 * But this season is the third to feature only a pair of returning players competing.
 * It is also the sixth one to have a returning player in the final two/three.
 * Ozzy Lusth became the first contestant to be voted out three times in a single season.
 * As a result, Ozzy Lusth had highest total votes against at 17.  Surprisingly, the other returning contestant, Coach Wade, received non vote against at all.
 * Sophie is the second winner to defeat a returning contestant at the Final Tribal Council, Coach Wade. The first was Danni Boatwright beating Stephenie LaGrossa in.
 * Three contestants entered the competition through Sears' Casting Contest: Sophie, Rick and Papa Bear.
 * This is the only season to feature Redemption Island and only have one person return from Redemption Island.
 * This is currently the last season with a recap episode.