Survivor: San Juan del Sur

Survivor: San Juan del Sur - Blood vs. Water, also known as Survivor: San Juan del Sur, is the 29th season of Survivor.

Development
The theme and name of the season were announced at the reunion show of. The production flew back to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, where and  were filmed. Filming began June 2 and was completed on July 10. It was confirmed that the two upcoming seasons will have an all-new cast.

Originally, the season was set to have a 20-player cast. However, 48 hours prior to the start of filming, a member of pair failed a medical examination. Unable to find a replacement pair of the same gender composition on time, production was forced to start the game with the remaining nine pairs, ostensibly having an uneven ratio of males and females. A similar case occurred in, where Mellisa McNulty was pulled from the game due to last-minute panic attacks.

In an interview with Dalton Ross from Entertainment Weekly after the Cagayan finale, Jeff Probst initially stated that Redemption Island was slated to be in play. However, after the interview, last minute changes were discussed by Jeff and production to further innovate the upcoming season. In a more recent interview with Ross for EW Morning Live, which was held live on set, Probst revealed that they decided to shelve Redemption Island, which potentially misled the contestants, who were yet to be flown on location and listened to the prior interview. The set that was supposed to be the Redemption Island Arena would be used for an entirely new twist. Jeff teased:

In August 13, 2014, editors temporarily halted the post-production process of the season and went on strike due to CBS preventing them to unionize which would give them pension plans and health benefits similar to other to the workers in Mark Burnett's other shows. The next day, an agreement was met, and the editors concerned were allowed to unionized and went back to work.

Twists/Changes

 * Blood vs Water: Nine pairs of castaways, each with a pre-existing relationship, will compete against each other for the million dollar prize. The pairs will be separated, assigning each member to opposite tribes. Unlike the first Blood vs Water season, this season will have an all-new cast. Also, unlike the first season, Redemption Island will not be in play in San Juan del Sur.
 * Day Zero: A day before the actual game starts, the pairs will be sent out at sunset to different locations to live by themselves for the night. They will then all meet up to be officially welcomed by host Jeff Probst and start the game the next morning.
 * Exile Island: After a eleven season hiatus of the twist, Exile Island returns replacing the initial Redemption Island twist. For this season your loved one will be sending you there after a one-on-one duel. The winner of the duel gets a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol buried somewhere at camp.

Trivia

 * Based on the logo and the names of the tribes, the theme of the season appears to be inspired by Mesoamerican culture (predominantly, Aztec and Mayan).
 * According to Jeff Probst, the two contestants dropping out for medical reasons 48 hours before the start of the game resulted in ten male and eight female contestants.
 * This will be the first season since to have an uneven number of male and female castaways.
 * This will be the first season with an even number of contestants to have an uneven number of male and female castaways.
 * With the Day Zero twist, this season, along with, are the second longest seasons in terms of number of days, lasting 39.5 days, following , which was filmed in 42 days instead of the standard 39.