Survivor: The Australian Outback

Survivor: The Australian Outback (also called Survivor: Australia in later seasons) is the second season of the United States reality show Survivor. Filming took place at Goshen Station in northern Queensland during 2000 and aired from January 28, 2001 to May 3, 2001 on CBS. The location used was within a three hour drive of the coastal city of Cairns and located in a wet, tropical area. It was the top-rated show of 2001, according to Nielsen Ratings, ranging at 30 million viewers watching weekly.

Fourteen weekly episodes were aired, the debut episode airing immediately after Super Bowl XXXV, which also aired on CBS. The winner, Tina Wesson, was announced on May 3, 2001 where she defeated Colby Donaldson by a vote of 4-3.

The entire season was released in DVD format on April 26, 2005.

Production
Production was already in Australia by the time of the Survivor: Borneo reunion show, where Bryant Gumbel interviewed Jeff Probst, who was at location at the time, confirmed that the season was already underway while the reunion show was in broadcast.

Twist/Changes

 * Longer Game: The game lasted 42 days, three days longer than the previous season. After this season, the game reverted back to the standard Day 39 format.thumb|300px|right
 * Deadlock Tiebreaker: In an event of a tie vote, a revote would take place. If the second round of voting did not help, the players' past votes will be included in the tally. The player that has more votes would be eliminated from the game.

Season Summary
Tribe assignments were determined before the game began. The two tribes were named Ogakor and Kucha, Aboriginal names for "crocodile" and "kangaroo." At the first challenge, the tribes were given a large amount of supplies from which they would have to choose what to carry on their trek to their tribe camps. Ogakor was a slightly weaker tribe, and, after five players were eliminated, were down five players to Kucha's six. On Day 17, Kucha's Michael, who was a powerhouse for his tribe, fell into the camp fire and suffered third-degree burns, requiring his evacuation, and leaving the two tribes equal when they merged. As a result, the vote at the first Tribal Council after the merge ended in a tie along tribal lines. According to the rules of this season, a tie vote would be resolved based on which player had received the most votes in all previous Tribal Councils. As a result, former Kucha Jeff was eliminated, thus shifting power to the remaining members of Ogakor.

The remaining Ogakor, particularly Tina, Colby, and Keith, stayed a strong group and voted off the remaining Kucha, only working to remove close allies Jerri and Amber when they threatened to usurp their power. However, the merged tribe was wasteful with food and ended up hungry and sluggish near the end of the game; Jeff Probst approached the tribe and offered them a new supply of rice in exchange for giving up shelter (tarps and a giant Texas flag that Colby brought as a personal item). The tribe also built their new camp in a dried wash basin; during one challenge, a flash storm caused the wash basin to flood, wiping away much of their camp including the new supply of rice, though they were later able to recover it. The Tina/Colby/Keith alliance stayed together to the end, and Colby took Tina with him into the Final Tribal Council. Tina's strategic plan was valued over Colby's prowess in challenges, and she won the title of Sole Survivor, 4 votes to 3.

Episode Guide
 Notes: 


 * In the case of multiple tribes or castaways who win reward or immunity, they are listed in order of finish, or alphabetically where it was a team effort; where one castaway won and invited others, the invitees are in brackets.


 * The challenge in Episode 1 was a combined Reward and Immunity challenge.


 * The supposed Immunity Challenge in Episode 6 was postponed because of Michael's evacuation

Voting History
Notes:

With a deadlock tie between Mitchell and Keith, Mitchell's past votes were taken into account, eliminating him. With a deadlock tie between Mitchell and Keith, Mitchell's past votes were taken into account, eliminating him.

Trivia

 * The Tribal Council set was placed into the majestic rock cliffs beside the Herbert River falls.
 * This season had the most contestants return in Survivor: All-Stars with 5 (Tina Wesson, Colby Donaldson, Jerri Manthey, Alicia Calaway, and Amber Brkich).
 * Similarily, it is the season with the highest number of representatives in a returning player season.
 * This season was the first and only season that the game was played over 39 days.
 * This season saw the first time contestant was evacuated due to medical reasons (Michael Skupin).

Controversy
During a reward trip, Colby Donaldson removed corals from the Great Barrier Reefand in the same trip, a helicopter involved with the production crew flew around protected sea bird rookeries. Both acts violated Australian law and the incidents could have resulted in fines up to 110,000 AU. Mark Burnett, the executive producer, issued an apology on behalf of Donaldson and the Survivor crew.