Survivor: Samoa

Survivor: Samoa is the nineteenth season of Survivor. It premiered in September 17, 2009 and concluded in December 20, 2009.

In the end, Natalie White defeated Russell Hantz and Mick Trimming with a vote of 7–2–0. Hantz ended up winning the "Sprint Player of the Season" Award, earning the fans' vote over Shannon "Shambo" Waters and Brett Clouser.

Production
Participant applications were due by January 14, 2009. Approximately 800 might have been invited to be interviewed in several states. Following this, approximately 48 semi-finalists were invited to Los Angeles in April 2009 for final interviews with the producers. From there, 20 finalists were selected to be contestants in the show, which was scheduled to occur between mid June and mid-July 2009 in Samoa. Similar to Survivor: Tocantins, the minimum age requirement for this season was 18 for most states.

Survivor: Samoa and the proceeding season, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains were filmed back-to-back. The Day 39 of Samoa and Day 1 of Heroes vs. Villains were merely 20 days apart, giving Russell Hantz only few days to prepare.

Twist/Changes

 * Selection of "Tribe Leaders": At the beginning of the game, both tribes voted for a tribe "leader." This leader (symbolized by a necklace, not to be confused with the Immunity Necklace) would make detrimental decisions in challenges (assigning tasks for tribemates, sit-outs, etc.). After a Reward Challenge, the winning tribe's leader would also assign one of his tribemates to be an "observer." If a leader gets voted out, the tribe must select a new one to replace him.
 * The "Observer": Following a Reward Challenge, one member from the winning tribe would be selected by the tribe leader to go to the opposing tribe's camp, and would return to them at the next Immunity Challenge. This person would hand the tribe the whereabouts of a Hidden Immunity Idol at their camp.
 * Hidden Immunity Idol: A Hidden Immunity Idol will be hidden at both camps. There are three idols (the first two would be hidden at the tribe camps, while a third one would surface at the merge). All three idols are usable until the Day 36 Tribal Council.
 * Double Tribal Council: Both tribes would go to separate Tribal Council sessions to eliminate a player. This would be forfeited during Russell Swan's medical emergency.
 * Early Merge: Due to Foa Foa being severely reduced to four versus Galu's eight, the two tribes were merged earlier, with the game still having twelve players remaining.
 * Expanded Jury and Three-Way Final Tribal Council: Instead of the conventional "Final Two" facing the Jury of seven, the Day 39 Tribal Council was held with a three finalists facing a nine-man Jury.

Castaways
 Notes: 
 * The Votes Aganst 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. The tally also includes all votes negated by Hidden Immunity Idols.

Season Summary
Based only on first impressions, the tribes were told to vote one of their own as a "leader", who, for the tribal portion of the game, would make critical decisions at certain challenges, in particular, selecting one member of their tribe to spend the day after Reward Challenges with the other tribe through which they would receive a clue to the hidden immunity idol. Foa Foa selected Mick as theirs, while Galu picked Russell S. as their leader.

Foa Foa's Russell H. attempted to make living conditions harsher for Foa Foa by sabotaging his own tribe (i.e. dumping water out of canteens and burning socks). Russell's risky move proved effective as Foa Foa performed dismally in challenges, and consequentially, the tribe quickly decimated. At the same time, Russell took complete control of the voting my making alliances with everyone on his tribe. Before the merge, the opposing Galu tribe had won eight challenges, while Foa Foa won only one Reward Challenge and one Immunity Challenge. The Galu members seemed more and more relaxed and appeared lazy as they continue to win more challenges, which Shambo resented.

Due to intense competition, two players were medically evacuated. During a challenge, Mike Borassi was too injured to continue, while Russell S.'s condition became more serious, as he fainted during a challenge and almost died in the process. After Swan's sudden departure, the supposed double boot twist was canceled, and Galu chose Shambo as their new leader.

The two tribes merged with twelve players left; Galu had the advantage of eight players over Foa Foa's four, though Shambo clearly showed favoritism towards Foa Foa. Natalie was able to convince Galu to vote off Erik along with the rest of Foa Foa. At this vote, Russell H. had played his hidden immunity idol, but was able to find the idol in its new location, again without clues, before the next tribal council. Russell H. played his new idol there, saving himself from being voted off as he was targeted by every Galu member, and eliminating Kelly. As Shambo began to shift sides to the former Foa Foa's, the next vote first ended in a tie, but John, worried about being eliminated from the game by the rock-pulling tiebreaker, switched his vote on the tiebreaker, eliminating Laura. With the tribes now 5-4, the remaining Foa Foa members continued to hold together for the rest of the game, systematically eliminating the former Galu members, one-by-one. Their plans were halted when Brett went on an immunity challenge winning streak, resulting in Foa Foa having to turn on each other with Shambo and Jaison being voted out, but Brett lost the final immunity challenge and was voted off leaving the Final Three as Russell H., Natalie, and Mick.

At the Final Tribal Council, Mick was mostly ignored by the Jury for his poor leadership, that lead to Foa Foa's failure in challenges, while Russell H. was berated for his unethical game strategy. In the end, Natalie's better social game made her the nineteenth Sole Survivor in a 7-2-0 vote, receiving everyone's vote excluding Shambo and John's.

Episode Guide
Notes:
 * Russell S. collapsed during the challenge; Jeff cancelled the challenge with neither tribe winning the reward.
 * The observer rule was no longer applicable after the tribal merge, as there was only one tribe.
 * Russell H. played the Hidden Immunity Idol, therefore the seven votes against him did not count.
 * Laura and Natalie were tied in a 5-5 vote. During the revote, John changed his vote to Laura, thus eliminating her.

Voting History
Notes:
 * Mike and Russell S. were evacuated due to medical reasons, therefore no vote occurred for their removal from the game.
 * The Episode10 Tribal Council resulted in a tie. Per the rules, a second vote was held where the castaways involved in the tie would not vote and the remaining castaways could only vote for the two tied. Additionally, Laura and Natalie were not eligible to vote in the second Tribal Council vote.The asterisks (*) denoted all votes cast during the revote.
 * In Episode 9, Russell H. used a Hidden Immunity Idol, therefore all votes cast against him will be nullified.

Trivia

 * Ben Browning was the only male player voted off before the merge. Ben became the first person to be disqualified from a challenge due to foul behavior.
 * This is the first season where a female player wins in a 3 way final tribal council.
 * There was only one tribal council this season in which more than two players received votes
 * This season is tied with Micronesia for the most amount of exits due to injuries.


 * This season marked the first early merger, with 12 people entering the merge.
 * This is currently the last season to have a Survivor Auction.