Survivor: Africa

Survivor: Africa is the third season of the reality program Survivor.

Production
The season was filmed in Kenya, and the contestants had to put up with extreme heats, dangerous wildlife, and dangerous insects. Because there were man-killing animals in the area, the tribes lived in thorny enclosures like local tribal Kenyans do, for safety. The series later returned to Africa in the country of Gabon for its seventeenth season, but the title Survivor: Africa stands. Delayed due to the September 11, 2001 attacks, the series continued the high-ratings trend into 2002. This season featured the first tribe swap, which came as a complete shock to all contestants.

Although Lex van den Berghe dominated at challenges, in the end, Ethan Zohn was crowned the Sole Survivor in a 5-2 vote and won $1,000,000. This was the first season in which the runner-up, Kim Johnson, was separated by more than one vote from the winner.

Twist/Changes

 * Tribe Switch: For the first time in the history of the series, three tribe members were switched to the rival tribe until the merger.
 * 39-Day Format: The season was filmed under the standard 39 days, unlike the previous season, which was filmed 3 days longer.

Castaways
 Notes: 
 * The Votes Against 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. This tally includes votes that are cast during a re-vote because of a tie.
 * Lindsey and Carl competed in a nature quiz tiebreaker, which Carl lost.
 * Lindsey was eliminated because she had four previous votes against her.

Season Summary
16 new castaways were marooned in the outskirts of the Shaba National Reserve, Kenya, Africa. The group was divided into two tribes named after two real-life Kenyan tribes, Samburu and Boran. During the first six days, Samburu dominated in challenges, while the depeleted Boran already lost two members. Despite their early winning streak, Samburu was divided into two existing voting alliances defined by age, the younger members (Silas, Kim P., Brandon, and Lindsey) and the older members (Frank, Teresa, Carl, and Linda). After losing the third Immunity Challenge, Samburu's age-defined voting blocs resulted into a 4-4 deadlock tie vote between Carl and Lindsey. Since it was the tribe's first Tribal Council, and there were no previous votes to count in order to break the tie, a nature quiz tiebreaker commenced. In the end, Lindsey edged out Carl, sending him home, and giving power to the younger Samburu alliance. Because of Samburu's lack of unity, momentum changed, as Boran won another Immunity Challenge. Linda was eliminated by the younger Samburus, thus evening up the tribes with six members each.

Despite their rise to power over the Samburu tribe, a new twist shook things up in the younger Samburu alliance. On Day 13, both tribes were given the vaguest Tree Mail yet, asking them to send half of their tribe "to a quest." Boran chose Kelly, Tom, and Lex, while Silas (the leader of the younger Samburu alliance) sent himself, Frank, and Teresa (the only two remaining members of the older alliance) to represent Samburu. Everything turned on its head when Jeff announced that the sent castaways would be switching tribes. When the new Boran tribe lost the fifth Immunity Challenge, Frank and Teresa made a plea to the original Borans that Silas must go. And in that night's Tribal Council, Frank and Teresa had their revenge on Silas, who was unanimously eliminated. Silas' elimination caused a big surprise for the remnants of the younger Samburu alliance, who wanted to target one of their new members to even up original tribe members at five each. When Samburu lost the sixth Immunity Challenge, the former Borans turned on Lindsey, and with her previous votes behind her, she was sent home, leaving a 6-4 deficit between the original tribes.

On Day 19, the two tribes gathered at the Immunity Challenge, where they merged into one tribe. They later decided on the name Moto Maji. The former Samburu members, Teresa, Frank, Kim P., and Brandon entered into the merge in a precarious position being down 4 members to Boran's 6. However, Teresa hatched a plan to turn the former Boran members against each other. First, the entire tribe agreed to vote off Clarence, fearing his physical prowess at challenges. However, unknown to anyone else, Teresa voted with Clarence against Lex. Angered by this mystery vote, Lex swore to track down whoever had cast that vote against him and promptly vote them off. He mistakenly suspected Kelly of treachery and swayed his alliance of Tom, Ethan, and Kim J. to vote against her. In order to save herself, Kelly sided with the former Samburu members and voted against Lex, but Lex managed to convince Brandon to also vote against Kelly, thus eliminating her. Brandon's actions made both his old and new allies, minus Lex, lose trust in him, and the six other people banded together to vote him out. However, this put the former Samburu members in jeopardy, as they were subsequently picked off one-by-one by the original Borans. Teresa, the last original Samburu left, tried to shake things up, but was also eliminated, but not before telling Lex that she was the caster of the mystery vote and not Kelly.

At the final Immunity Challenges, Kim J. shocked everyone by winning both times, causing the men to have to turn on each other. Tom, who had been conspiring to have others vote off Lex earlier, was voted off unanimously. The next day, Lex awoke very sick, and this heavily affected his challenge performance. At Tribal Council, Kim J. voted off Lex and subsequently brought Ethan with her to the Final Two.

At the Final Tribal Council, Kim J. was met with mixed criticism from the Jury. She was praised by the jury for lasting all 39 days, in spite of her age. However, she was perceived as riding the coattails of Ethan, Lex, and Tom for the entirety of the game. The Jury voted 5-2 for Ethan to win due to his more active strategy and congenial personality and was named the third Sole Survivor.

Episode Guide
 Notes: 
 * In the case of multiple castaways who win reward or immunity, they are listed in order of finish, or alphabetically where it was a team effort; where one castaway won and invited others, the invitees are in brackets.


 * Lindsey and Carl competed in a nature quiz tiebreaker, which Carl lost, thus eliminating him.
 * Lindsey was eliminated because she had four previous votes against her.

Trivia

 * This is the first season to feature multiple castaways with the same first name, "Kim Johnson" and "Kim Powers". However, it is the first of only two seasons where they are not identified with their last initial as in future seasons, i.e. (Pearl Islands: Ryan O. and Ryan S.; All-Stars: Rob M. and Rob C., as well as Jenna M. and Jenna L.; Vanuatu: John P. and John K.; Nicaragua: Jimmy T. and Jimmy J., as well as Kelly S. and Kelly B. Their names are simply displayed as "Kim" to the audience. (Samoa: Russell H. and Russell S. were the other intsance.)
 * This is the first season where a male and female are not the first two voted out.
 * This is the first season in which the winner is not decided by one vote.
 * This was the first season to have a game-changing "twist." In Episode 5, both tribes received treemail from Jeff Probst to select 3 members to attend a meeting with him at the original drop-off point.  The Samburu tribe sent Tom Buchanan, Lex van den Berghe, and Kelly Goldsmith, while the Boran tribe sent Silas Gaither, Teresa Cooper, and Frank Garrison.  When they all met, Jeff had each of them hand over their tribal buffs and gave each one a buff opposite of their original tribe, meaning the Borans were now Samburus and vice versa.
 * During the finale, after Jeff collected the final votes, the producers made it appear as if he returned to the original tribal council site to read the votes. After he read them and announced Ethan Zohn was the winner, it was revealed that the votes were actually read live on the CBS soundstage made to look like the site.  This would be repeated two seasons later in Thailand.