Survivor: Worlds Apart

Survivor: Worlds Apart, also known as Survivor: Worlds Apart — White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar, is the 30th season of Survivor. The initial tribes were divided based on the economic/professional background of their members. The season has to date produced two returning players (Shirin Oskooi and Joe Anglim) for subsequent seasons.

This season saw an abnormally high level of interpersonal strife between contestants. Major incidents included: the controversial invective that Will Sims II directed against Shirin; the misogynistic conduct of Rodney Lavoie Jr.; the fraught social standing of Dan Foley; the latter's emotional conflict with Mike Holloway; Nina Poersch's feelings of exclusion from her tribe based on her hearing impairment; and Jenn Brown's withdrawal from the main social action of the game after the elimination of her friend Hali Ford. After an extended streak of Immunity Challenge victories, Mike won the title of Sole Survivor in a 6-1-1 jury vote over Will and Carolyn Rivera.

Development
Filming commenced weeks after, while information about this season was revealed at the end of that season's live Reunion Show.

Originally, the season was planned to feature returning players to mark the show's 15th anniversary and 30th installment, but Executive Producer Mark Burnett decided to have new contestants instead. Jeff Probst said: "none"

- Leading up to 30, we spent almost a year talking about whether we should do some sort of all-star season with returning players, and that seemed to be the conventional wisdom. A lot of people were expecting us to do that. But Mark and I were talking on the phone one day and Mark said something so simple. Mark said, Just keep in mind, Jeff—it is our 30th season, but it is also just our 30th season. And that really struck me, and from that moment on I realized, yeah, this is not the end of Survivor. It just happens to be a big number. Let's just do a great season.

Probst explained why San Juan del Sur failed to be on par with the past four seasons. He stated that they decided on the theme (the "" concept) before casting. In an attempt to remedy last season's less than stellar performance, the host said they went into casting before they decided how they were going to divide them into tribes.

The idea of "White Collar vs. Blue Collar" was considered but the producers found the concept flat on its own. But with the success of 's "Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty", they settled on having a third tribe, thus "No Collar"'s conception. Probst claimed that the "No Collar" archetype was his idea.

The contestants that were eliminated before the jury phase were sequestered in Costa Rica.

Twists/Changes

 * Tribe Division by Profession: The 18 castaways are divided according to their professions and approaches to life:
 * The  ("White Collar") tribe is made up of castaways who work in the corporate world with a degree of authority. They "make the rules."
 * The ("Blue Collar") tribe is made up of castaways who work on manual labor. They "follow the rules."
 * The ("No Collar") tribe is made up of castaways who are free spirits with passion-based occupations. They "break the rules."
 * Tribe Leaders: At the beginning of the season, two people from each tribe would be chosen as "leaders" and would have do decide together between either receiving a large bag of beans or receiving a smaller bag of beans and a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol.
 * Extra Vote: A castaway would get the right to vote twice at the same Tribal Council. The intention of using the second vote should be voiced immediately after all the votes are cast and it is valid until the final five. It is at the voter's discretion whether he would throw this vote away, vote the same person twice, or vote another potential threat.

Season Summary
The eighteen new castaways were divided into three tribes of six based on social class: Escameca (Blue Collar), Masaya (White Collar), and Nagarote (No Collar). Despite frequent arguments between the Blue Collars, they only went to Tribal Council once, as did the White Collars. Though the No Collars lost two members, a core alliance of Hali Ford, Jenn Brown, and Joe Anglim formed, with Will Sims II as their fourth. With 14 players remaining, the players were redistributed into two tribes of seven; on Escameca, Blue Collar Rodney Lavoie Jr. and White Collar Joaquin Souberbielle aligned, but Rodney's former Blue Collar allies, led by Mike Holloway, blindsided Joaquin to break up the pair and retain Rodney's loyalty.

When the tribes merged, two alliances vied for dominance: the No Collar core alliance, now with White Collar Shirin Oskooi, against the Blue Collars. However, due to White Collar's Carolyn Rivera and Tyler Fredrickson and No collar Will joining the Blue Collar's side the Blue Collar alliance took control of the game. They started off by systematically eliminating the members of the no collar alliance. Though Rodney remained with the Blue Collars, he constructed his own alliance with the swing votes—Will, and White Collars Tyler and Carolyn—to eventually take down the other Blue Collars to avenge Joaquin. Mike overheard Rodney's inner alliance plotting his blindside and outed his plans, but instead found himself ousted from the majority alliance and made the primary target. However, Mike won five of the last six Immunity Challenges and played a Hidden Immunity Idol the only time he was vulnerable. Due to the alliance being unable to get rid off Mike they were forced to turn on each other. Eventually Mike's immunity wins and the use of the Hidden Immunity Idol enabled him to make it to the end along with Carolyn and Will.

At the Final Tribal Council, Mike was praised for winning so many Immunity Challenges and making it to the end despite being a massive target, but was criticized for not playing a good social game, Carolyn received some criticism for backstabbing her ally Tyler, and Will was berated for making derogatory comments toward Shirin and her family. In the end, Mike was awarded with six of the eight jury votes, and the title of Sole Survivor, while Carolyn and Will tied for second with one vote each.

Trivia

 * This is the fourth season to have a three-tribe format, following, , and.
 * This is the first season to have three starting tribes in which all three tribes attended a Tribal Council before a tribe swap or absorption.
 * This is the first time in the U.S. version of Survivor where a castaway was able to vote twice in a single voting.
 * This is the first season since to utilize the fire-making tiebreaker challenge.
 * This is the first season with three starting tribes to have a representative from each of the original tribes present in the final three. Carolyn represented Masaya, Mike represented Escameca, and Will represented Nagarote.