Survivor: Philippines

This article is about the 25th season of the American version of Survivor''. For the Philippine version of the series, see Survivor (Philippines).''

Survivor: Philippines is the 25th season of Survivor. It premiered on September 19, 2012, with a 90-minute premiere.

The winner was Denise Stapley after she garnered more jury votes than returning contestant Michael Skupin and former child star Lisa Whelchel in a 6-1-1 vote.

Production
In an interview, Jeff Probst revealed that filming of this season wrapped up while was still airing. Furthermore, the 26th season will also be filmed in the Philippines, where the Survivor Production Team will stay up until August. Probst also said that more than 400 locals were hired during shooting.

The Production's Marine Department used 30 boats for water transport, with 15 from the Production Team, and another 15 were boats hired from locals.

Twists/Changes

 * Three Tribes: For the first time since, three tribes will compete starting at the beginning of the season. Also, for the first time since , the season starts out with more than two rival tribes.
 * Returning Players: Three returning players are going to return to compete with a new batch of castaways. These returnees are former contestants who were medically evacuated from their respective seasons.
 * Hidden Immunity Idols: Similar to, the idols will be "hidden" in plain sight, with a clue hidden in the bottom of each tribe's rice container. For the first time in Survivor history, three idols would be in play at the same time. There will be three idols, one at each camp. The idol is resting on top of the rice lid, disguised as a handle.
 * Tribe Absorption: On Day 11, the two remaining members of the Matsing tribe were absorbed in to the other two tribes.
 * Merge at 11: For the first time in Survivor history, the merge commenced with eleven players remaining, unlike the usual 10 or 12.
 * New Jury/Final Few Composition: This season is the first time to feature a Final Three with an eight-person jury.

Season Summary
The fifteen new castaways were split into three tribes and then introduced to their final tribe members, three returning castaways that had been medically evacuated from their previous seasons: Michael Skupin was assigned to Tandang, Jonathan Penner to Kalabaw, and Russell Swan to Matsing. Matsing lost the first four Immunity Challenges, leaving only Malcolm Freberg, who had the tribe's Hidden Immunity Idol, and Denise Stapley, his closest ally since the start of the game.

After Matsing's dissolution, Malcolm was sent to Tandang and Denise to Kalabaw. Malcolm quickly integrated himself with Tandang's dominant alliance, led by Pete Yurkowski, while Denise aligned with an alliance led by Jeff Kent at Kalabaw, strained by Jeff's desire to eliminate returning players. Jonathan had found Kalabaw's Hidden Immunity Idol, using it as leverage to align with Jeff, while Abi-Maria Gomes had located Tandang's.

The tribes merged with Tandang holding the majority. Lisa Whelchel accidentally discovered Malcolm's Hidden Immunity Idol, and promised to keep it a secret if he agreed to take her and Denise to the end of the game. After Jeff and Carter Williams allied with Pete's alliance to vote out the returning players, Jonathan used his Idol to save himself. Lisa revealed the existence of Malcolm's idol to the others in an attempt to blindside him. However, after Malcolm successfully convinced the Tandang alliance that he was planning on playing his Idol, they voted out Jeff instead. Lisa and Michael, on the bottom of the Tandang alliance, eventually flipped sides, working with the remnants of Kalabaw and Matsing to eliminate the other former Tandang members. Soon after, a core alliance of Michael, Lisa, Malcolm, and Denise had formed, systematically eliminating the others.

Despite winning an advantage in the Final Immunity Challenge, Malcolm failed to win immunity and he was subsequently voted out for being the largest jury threat. All three finalists were berated by the jury at the Final Tribal Council: Lisa for claiming that she could not handle the pressures of the game, Michael for being strategically and socially inept and Denise for being condescending at times. However, Denise's argument, coupled with the fact that she was the first player in Survivor history to attend and survive every Tribal Council in the season proved to be the most effective, and she earned the title of Sole Survivor by a 6-1-1 vote.

Trivia

 * The United States is the seventh country to host a Survivor season in Caramoan, following India, Serbia, Bulgaria, Israel, Sweden, and France.
 * The tribe colors, red, blue, and yellow appeared to be a reference to the colors of the Philippine flag. Furthermore, several promotional clips feature the eight-rayed sun which prominently featured in the flag.
 * This season is the first season since to feature more than 2 starting tribes.
 * Coincidentally, all three returning players were evacuated in their respective season's sixth episodes.
 * This is the first season to have a male voted off first since Jon Dalton was voted off first in . Interestingly, Zane and Jon are both from Danville, Virginia.
 * This is the first season with more than two tribes to have two independent tribal Immunity Idols. Previous seasons with the same format (,, and ) had all tribes sharing one tribal Immunity Idol.
 * This is the first season with more than two tribes to have a Hidden Immunity Idol assigned to each camp.
 * All-Stars had no Hidden Immunity Idols, while Panama and Cook Islands each had only one Hidden Immunity Idol up for grabs between four tribes.
 * This season's theme is inspired by the Maranao, a predominantly Muslim region in the southern Philippines. The Tribal Council set is inspired by the Maranao people's elaborate wooden houses. This season's Immunity Idol is the Sarimanok, a multicolored fowl in Filipino mythology (sari, an item of clothing, and manok meaning "chicken"), and an ubiquitous symbol of the Maranao people's arts and culture.
 * This season's Hidden Immunity Idol is actually the handle of the tribes' rice boxes, while its clue is nestled inside the rice box.
 * This season marks only the second time in Survivor history that a tribe dwindled to two members, the other time being.
 * Keeping in mind that Ulong was a tribe of 9, and Matsing was only a tribe of 6.
 * Matsing became the first tribe to win zero challenges.
 * Keeping in mind that immunities and rewards were combined challenges; therefore, only having 4 opportunities for victory.
 * This is the first season to have a merge at 11.
 * This is the first time a tribe (Tandang) made it all the way to the merge without going to Tribal Council. As such, the six original members of Tandang broke the record of days played before attending their first Tribal Council that had stood since.
 * The three returning players did not have votes cast against them in the season they were evacuated. Jonathan Penner had votes against him in Cook Islands, but not Micronesia.
 * This is the first season since where the finalists aren't all from the same original tribe.
 * This is the second season where all members of the Final Three received votes, the first being . This is also the second season since where two members of the Final Three received the same amount of jury votes.
 * In , Cassandra and Dreamz tied at 0 votes each.
 * This season has the oldest set of finalists out of any season, with an average age of 46.67, the youngest being Denise at 41, the oldest being Michael at 50, and the middle being Lisa at 49.
 * This is the first time that both runners-up had zero votes against them and the same amount of jury votes.
 * The font used for this season's tribe names is Nuku Nuku.
 * This is the first season since where the person that won the Final Immunity Challenge failed to win the season.
 * This season holds the record for most unanimous votes in a single season with nine.