Survivor: Redemption Island

Survivor: Redemption Island is the 22nd season of Survivor. It premiered on February 16, 2011. Its filming location took place in 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.

This season was highly controversial, being universally panned by fans for its predictable storyline, mostly due to Mariano's huge advantage being a four-time contestant, Redemption Island had little to no effect in the actual outcome, and not giving enough airtime for everyone in favor of season noisemakers Rob, Russell and Phillip.

Beatles20147, a well-known Survivor analyst and founder of the Survivor Wiki, posted an "open letter" to CBS and SEG on Survivor Sucks, complaining about the show's downward spiral due to the Redemption Island format cheapening the game and watering down the game's premise in favor of the returning players and repeating locations. The post got so much public attention, Jeff Probst himself post at Survivor Sucks, saying he appreciated the criticism, though he defended the game's recent changes. Jeff Probst himself replied to it.

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.
 * 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  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.

Trivia

 * This is the first season to feature Redemption Island.
 * With Rob's appearance in this season, he is the most recurring contestant, appearing in four seasons.
 * He is also the first returning male player to win the game. Rob's wife Amber Mariano won (in which he was runner-up), Parvati Shallow won  and Sandra Diaz-Twine won.
 * While this season is the first season to not have any straight Reward Challenges, it has the most number of combined Reward/Immunity Challenges with nine.
 * This is the second time a tribe which threw an Immunity Challenge ended up outnumbered at or shortly after the merge due to the loss. The first time it happened was to Sook Jai in.
 * Coincidentally, Zapatera and Sook Jai were both purple tribes, and lost to orange tribes (Chuay Gahn and Ometepe)
 * This season had the most amount of players make it to the finale, with eight. Four people were yet to be voted out, while another four competed in the final duel.
 * Richard Hatch, the winner of, was originally slated to compete against Russell, but his request to leave the country was again rejected by a federal judge. Boston Rob replaced him instead.
 * This is the first season with a twelve player merge in which the first Tribal Council didn't have a 10-2 vote.
 * The font used on the letterings of this season's tribe names is called "Hobo Std".
 * This was the first season to have at least one three-way tie at Tribal Council. It was followed by.
 * Coincidentally, all three-way ties were 3-3-3, and both seasons' third episodes had three-way ties.
 * This season is tied with Survivor: All-Stars for having the lowest placing representative return for a future season.
 * This is the first season where two people got voted out twice.