Survivor: Worlds Apart

Survivor: Worlds Apart is the 30th season of Survivor.

Development
Filming commenced weeks after, while information about this season was revealed at the end of that season's live Reunion Show.

Originally, the season was planned to feature Returning Players to mark the show's 15th anniversary and 30th installment, but Executive Producer Mark Burnett decided to have new contestants instead. Jeff Probst said: "none"

- Leading up to 30, we spent almost a year talking about whether we should do some sort of all-star season with returning players, and that seemed to be the conventional wisdom. A lot of people were expecting us to do that. But Mark and I were talking on the phone one day and Mark said something so simple. Mark said, Just keep in mind, Jeff—it is our 30th season, but it is also just our 30th season. And that really struck me, and from that moment on I realized, yeah, this is not the end of Survivor. It just happens to be a big number. Let’s just do a great season.

Probst explained why San Juan del Sur failed to be on par with the past four seasons. He stated that they decided on the theme (the "Blood versus Water" concept) before casting. In an attempt to remedy last season's lackluster performance, the host said they went into casting before they decided how they were going to divide them into tribes.

The idea of "White Collar versus Blue Collar" was considered but the producers found the concept flat on its own. But with the success of 's "Brains versus Brawn vs Beauty", they settled on having a third tribe, thus "No Collar" being conceived. Probst claimed that the "No Collar" archetype was his idea.

The contestants that were eliminated before the jury phase were sequestered in Costa Rica.

Twists/Changes

 * Tribe division: The 18 castaways are divided according to their professions and approaches to life:
 * The Masaya ("White Collar") tribe are made up of castaways who work in the corporate world with a degree of authority. They "make the rules."
 * The Escameca ("Blue Collar") tribe are made up of castaways who work on manual labor. They "follow the rules."
 * The Nagarote ("No Collar") tribe are made up of castaways who are free spirits with passion-based occupations. They "break the rules."
 * Tribe Leaders: At the beginning of the season, two people from each tribe would be chosen as "leaders" and would have do decide together between either receiving a large bag of beans or receiving a smaller bag of beans and a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol.
 * Extra Vote: A castaway would get the right to vote twice at the same Tribal Council. The intention of using the double vote should be voiced immediately after all the votes are cast and it is valid until the final five. It is at the voter's discretion whether he would throw this vote away, vote the same person twice, or vote another potential threat.

Season Summary
The eighteen new castaways were divided into three tribes of six based on social class: Escameca (Blue Collar), Masaya (White Collar), and Nagarote (No Collar). Despite frequent arguments between the Blue Collars, they only went to Tribal Council once, as did the White Collars. Though the No Collars lost two members, a core alliance of Hali Ford, Jenn Brown, and Joe Anglim formed, with Will Sims II as their fourth. With 14 players remaining, the players were redistributed into two tribes of seven; on Escameca, Blue Collar Rodney Lavoie Jr. and White Collar Joaquin Souberbielle aligned, but Rodney’s former Blue Collar allies, led by Mike Holloway, blindsided Joaquin to break up the pair and retain Rodney’s loyalty.

When the tribes merged, two alliances vied for dominance: the No Collar core alliance, now with White Collar Shirin Oskooi, against the Blue Collars. However, due to White Collar's Carolyn Rivera and Tyler Fredrickson and No collar Will joining the Blue Collar's side the Blue Collar alliance took control of the game. They started off by systematically eliminating the members of the no collar alliance. Though Rodney remained with the Blue Collars, he constructed his own alliance with the swing votes—Will, and White Collars Tyler and Carolyn—to eventually take down the other Blue Collars to avenge Joaquin. Mike overheard Rodney’s inner alliance plotting his blindside and outed his plans, but instead found himself ousted from the majority alliance and made the primary target. However, Mike won five of the last six Immunity Challenges and played a Hidden Immunity Idol the only time he was vulnerable. Due to the alliance being unable to get rid off Mike they were forced to turn on each other. Eventually Mike's immunity wins and the use of the Hidden Immunity Idol enabled him to make it to the end along with Carolyn and Will.

At the Final Tribal Council, Mike was praised for winning so many Immunity Challenges and making it to the end despite being a massive target, but was criticized for not playing a good social game, Carolyn received some criticism for backstabbing her ally Tyler, and Will was berated for making derogatory comments toward Shrinn and her family. In the end, Mike was awarded with six of the eight Jury votes, and the title of Sole Survivor, while Carolyn and Will tied for second with one vote each.

Trivia

 * This is the fourth season to have a three-tribe format, following, , and.
 * It is the second to feature all-new players and third in which all-new players are the majority.
 * This is the first season to have three starting tribes in which one tribe doesn't lose the first two Immunity Challenges.
 * This is the first season to have three starting tribes in which all three tribes attended a Tribal Council before a tribe swap or absorption.
 * This is the first time in the U.S. version that a castaway was able to vote twice in a single voting.
 * All Hidden Immunity Idols were successfully played to save their owners. Jenn Brown negated 7 votes cast against her on Day 19. Mike saved himself from 4 votes on Day 32. Carolyn nullified 5 votes, including Dan's extra vote, that were cast against her on Day 35.
 * This is the first season since to not have a contestant quit or be medically evacuated.
 * This is the first season since to utilize the fire-making tiebreaker challenge.
 * This is the first season with three starting tribes and a final three to have a representative from each of the original tribes present in the final three. Carolyn represented Masaya, Mike represented Escameca, and Will represented Nagarote.
 * This is the first season since to have no female African-American contestants.
 * During the jury phase, each tribe was consecutively eliminated down to its last member, (Nagarote, Masaya, then Escameca). where that last remaining member made the final three.
 * During the individual phase, whoever won the reward challenge won the immunity challenge and whoever lost the reward challenge, one person on that team was sent home.