Survivor: Redemption Island

Survivor: Redemption Island is the 22nd season of Survivor. It premiered on February 16, 2011. Its filming location was San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, the same location used last season. The winner of the season is veteran player, Rob Mariano after winning eight of nine Jury votes.

Production
The production staff stayed in Nicaragua after filming the previous season because they enjoyed the warm hospitality and also to minimize production costs. Also, the location of Ponderosa this season was the same location used last season.

The idea of bringing back Rob Mariano and Russell Hantz came from the Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains reunion show, where Rob (who was eliminated by Hantz' alliance) said he would like to compete against Russell in a future season to settle their rivalry.

After the controversial inclusion of NaOnka Mixon and Kelly Shinn to the Jury after their simultaneous voluntary exits at the previous season, Mark Burnett has stated that starting from this season, post-merge quitters may or may not be put to the Jury. This decision will be decided by the producers before the next Tribal Council, where the Jurors will watch its proceedings. According to Burnett, "It's very unlikely any quitter will be on the jury again."

Twist/Changes

 * Redemption Island: In a drastic game-changing twist, when a player gets voted out from Tribal Council, that player will not be eliminated right away. Instead, the said contestant will go to Redemption Island, where he/she will fend for himself during his/her entire stay. When the next person gets voted out, the two players will compete in a "duel." The winner gets to stay at the island, while the loser is eliminated from the game for good. At a certain point, the last person standing on Redemption Island will return to the main game and will continue his/her pursuit of the one million dollar prize and the title of Sole Survivor.thumb|300px|right|Survivor: Redemption Island opening credits
 * Early Merge: Twelve people entered the merge.
 * New Camp for Merger: This is the first time since Survivor: The Amazon where the merged tribe lived in a entirely new camp, rather than using one of the two existing camps.
 * Challenges: In the advent of the Redemption Island Duels, this season featured several challenges are both for Reward and Immunity.
 * Two Returning Contestants: Rob Mariano and Russell Hantz returned as contestants to settle their heated rivalry during Heroes vs. Villains.
 * Hidden Immunity Idols: Hidden Immunity Idols were available this season, with one hidden at each camp.
 * Final Tribal Council: Three contestants are eligible to win at the Final Tribal Council, where they get to face a Jury of nine.

Season Summary
Sixteen new castaways, which were already divided into the two tribes, Ometepe and Zapatera, were brought to Nicaragua to compete in the 22nd season of Survivor. They were joined by two all-stars, "Boston" Rob Mariano and Russell Hantz. Rob and Russell drew buffs to see which tribe they would be on. Rob joined Ometepe and Russell joined Zapatera. At Ometepe, Rob quickly made an alliance with Andrea, Matt, Natalie, Ashley and Grant. He caught Kristina looking for the clue to the idol and she became Rob's target. Kristina went to find the idol and used it to form an alliance with Phillip and Francesca. At Zapatera, Russell quickly formed an alliance with Stephanie and Krista. The rest of the tribe created an alliance against him and Ralph found an idol. Ometepe lost the first immunity challenge and Rob planned to split the votes between Kristina and Francesca. Phillip betrayed his alliance and voted Francesca out, sending her to Redemption Island. Ometepe lost the next challenge and Rob formulated a plan to blindside Matt and to flush Kristina's idol. His plan worked and Matt was sent to Redemption Island, angering Andrea, Matt's closest ally. At the first duel, Matt beat Francesca. Matt would then go to win the rest of the duels too until the merge. Zapatera would then throw a challenge just to get rid of all-star Russell Hantz whom they saw as a threat and disturbance to their tribe, which worked. Rob then found the hidden immunity idol at his camp which was rehidden after Kristina played hers. Ometepe then lost and voted Kristina out of the game. Ometepe would then go on a winning streak and send Zapatera to three straight tribal councils, where they would vote out Krista, Stephanie and Sarita, all losing a duel against Matt. After Matt beat Sarita on Redemption Island, he was allowed back in the game. The two tribes then merged into Murlonio. Matt talked to Andrea about betraying the Ometepe tribe by both of them flipping to the Zapatera alliance. Natalie won the first immunity challenge and Matt went and told Rob that he and Andrea were thinking about blindsiding him, but had decided not too. This move angered Andrea and especially Rob who decided to send Matt back to Redemption Island for being untrustworthy. Andrea became the swing vote and in the end blindsided her closest ally Matt, sending him right back to Redemption Island. At that tribal council, Ralph also wasted his idol on Mike. With the former Zapatera tribe members at a 6-5 disadvantage, Rob maintained control of his Ometepe alliance and implemented the "buddy system" where two member of the alliance must be together at all times in order to prevent someone from flipping. The former Zapatera members would then go on to be eliminated one by one by the former Ometepe tribe members. Grant won the next immunity and Mike was voted out, followed by Andrea winning immunity and voting David out. At the next duel, Mike and Matt won, sending David to be the first jury member. Phillip and Steve then got in a fight about rice, which exploded into a fight about race, with Phillip bringing the n-word into it. Rob won immunity and decided to get rid of Julie, who would go to lose to Matt and Mike on Redemption Island to become the second jury member. Grant then won immunity and the former Ometepe members stayed together to vote Ralph out. After Ralph was voted out a twist revealed that the remaining players would immediately compete in their next immunity challenge, which Rob won and they voted out the final Zapatera, Steve. In the first four way duel, Mike, Matt and Ralph won and Steve becomes the third jury member. With the six former Ometepe members being the only ones left in the actual game, they were forced to turn on each other. In a close race Rob won his third immunity challenge and the group decided to blindside Andrea in a 5-1 vote. At Redemption Island, Mike, Matt and Andrea won the duel, making Ralph the fourth jury member. Rob decided to target Ashley next, but she won individual immunity forcing the rest of the former Ometepe members to blindside Grant. The final duel would allow the winner to re-enter the game. Grant dropped out first to become the fifth jury member, followed by Matt to become the sixth and finally Mike to become the seventh. Andrea then re-entered the game. Andrea decided to try and align with Ashley and Natalie to try and take out Rob, which they considered. Rob decided to continue to target Ashley. At the immunity challenge, it was close between Rob, Andrea and Ashley but Ashley pulled out her second straight win. At tribal council, Rob played his idol and Andrea became the eight jury member in a 4-0 vote. At the final immunity, it came down to Rob and Ashley with Rob barely winning. Ashley was then blindsided and became the ninth and final jury member, bringing Natalie and Phillip to the end with Rob. The jury criticized Natalie and Phillip for blindly following Rob and admitting that he masterminded the entire game. In the end, Rob won the title of Sole Survivor in a 8-1-0 vote (with Ralph's vote going to Phillip).

Trivia

 * With Rob's appearance in this season, he is the most recurring contestant, appearing in four seasons.
 * While this season is the first season that did not have any Reward Challenges, this season has the most number of combined Reward/Immunity Challenges, with nine.
 * This is first season that had a male returnin contestant won. Rob's wife Amber Mariano won Survivor: All-Stars (in which Rob was runner-up), Danni Boatwright won Survivor: Guatemala, Parvati Shallow won Survivor: Micronesia and Sandra Diaz-Twine won Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.