Survivor: The Amazon

Survivor: The Amazon
Season Information
Version	United States
Season No.	6
Filming Location	Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil
Filming Dates	November 4, 2002 - December 12, 2002
Season Run	February 13, 2003 - May 11, 2003
No. of Episodes	15
No. of Days	39
No. of Castaways	16
Winner	Jenna Morasca
Runner(s)-Up	Matthew von Ertfelda
Tribes	Jaburu Tambaqui Jacaré
Viewership (in Millions)	19.97
Cast
Opening Sequence
Season Chronology
Previous	Thailand
Next	Pearl Islands

Survivor: The Amazon is the sixth season of the reality show Survivor.

The season is noted for having the first reality show contestant with a disability, the hearing impaired Christy Smith. It is also regarded as being the first season with a particular theme, ultimately changing the mechanics of Survivor in the long run. The winner is Jenna Morasca, a 21-year-old swimsuit model from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who defeated Matthew von Ertfelda in a 6-1 vote. The season has produced two contestants (Jenna Morasca and Rob Cesternino) who have returned for subsequent seasons.

Production

The live season finale, including the announcement of the winner and a live reunion of all the season's contestants, took place at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, on David Letterman's Late Show stage, which was decorated to look like the set in the Amazon. The live reunion was supposed to be held at Madison Square Garden, but due to heavy rain and lack of roof, the set was immediately relocated.

Twists/Changes

• Tribe Composition: The sixteen castaways were divided into two tribes of eight. In a Survivor first, the castaways were sorted by gender: The men formed the Tambaqui tribe while the women formed the Jaburu tribe.
• Summit and Tribe Switch: On Day 13, the youngest member from each tribe, was sent to a summit where they decided the new tribes, mixing the men and the women.
• Merged Tribe Composition: The merged tribe was composed of ten members.
• Final Tribal Council Format: Two finalists faced a jury of seven. The jurors individually addressed the finalists.

Castaways

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation			Finish	Votes Against
		Original Tribe	Switched Tribe	Merged Tribe
	Ryan Aiken 23, Ellicott City, MD Model	Tambaqui			1st Voted Out Day 3	4
	Janet Koth 46, Manchester, MO Homemaker	Jaburu			2nd Voted Out Day 6	5
	Daniel Lue 26, Houston, TX Tax Accountant	Tambaqui			3rd Voted Out Day 9	7
	JoAnna Ward 31, Orangeburg, SC Guidance Counselor	Jaburu			4th Voted Out Day 12	4
	Jeanne Hebert 40, North Attleboro, MA Marketing Director	Jaburu	Tambaqui		5th Voted Out Day 15	5
	Shawna Mitchell 23, Los Angeles, CA Retail Saleswoman	Jaburu	Jaburu		6th Voted Out Day 18	6
	Roger Sexton 56, Valencia, CA Construction Company VP	Tambaqui	Tambaqui	Jacaré	7th Voted Out Day 21	11
	Dave Johnson 23, Pasadena, CA Rocket Scientist	Tambaqui	Tambaqui		8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	8
	Deena Bennett 35, Riverside, CA Deputy District Attorney	Jaburu	Jaburu		9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	6
	Alex Bell 32, Los Angeles, CA Triathlon Coach	Tambaqui	Jaburu		10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	6
	Christy Smith 24, Basalt, CO Children's Adventure Guide	Jaburu	Tambaqui		11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	9
	Heidi Strobel 24, Jefferson City, MO Gym Teacher	Jaburu	Tambaqui		12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	3
	Butch Lockley 50, Olney, IL School Principal	Tambaqui	Tambaqui		13th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37	5
	Rob Cesternino 24, Wantagh, NY Computer Projects Coordinator	Tambaqui	Jaburu		14th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38	4
	Matthew von Ertfelda 33, Washington, DC Restaurant Designer	Tambaqui	Jaburu		Runner-Up	6
	Jenna Morasca 21, Bridgeville, PA Swimsuit Model	Jaburu	Jaburu		Sole Survivor	3

Season Summary

For the first time, the castaways were divided into tribes split by gender. The men's tribe, Tambaqui, was quick to set up their camp under Roger's effective yet abrasive leadership. On the sidelines, Rob secretly arbitrated between Roger's alliance of Butch and Dave and the outliers Alex, Daniel and Matthew to further his interests.

The women's tribe, Jaburu, experienced infighting and spent almost the entire first week without a shelter. Deena stepped up as leader of the women, setting things in order within the tribe while forming a majority alliance with the younger members Heidi, Jenna and Shawna. Believing they can easily defeat the women with their physical strength, the men displayed overconfidence, which was handily eroded by losing 4 of the first 5 challenges. The men later came together and won enough Immunity Challenges to even the numbers, 6-6.

On Day 13, the youngest of both tribes, Dave and Jenna traveled to an isolated location to act as tribal ambassadors. Jenna gave Dave crucial information about Jaburu, giving Dave an advantage when, the next day, they were forced to choose new tribes, equally distributing the men and the women. At the new Tambaqui, it seemed the tribe would arrive at a stalemate, but much convincing, Heidi joined the men in voting out Jeanne. At the new Jaburu, despite showing signs of giving up pre-switch, Shawna's mood somehow lit up since the men arrived, particularly Alex. Deena, believing Shawna's growing closeness with Alex could be detrimental to her game, sought Rob's help to break the two apart, voting Shawna out. The tribes merged on Day 19 where the men outnumbered the women, 6-4.

At the merge, Roger believed the men would easily pick the women off one by one; but Heidi and Jenna, believing he will not vote for a woman if he was on the Jury, used his growing unpopularity and turned the rest of the tribe against him. At the first merge Tribal Council, Roger was blindsided, with his ally Dave swiftly going next. Rob later turned the tables on Deena when she believed she was controlling the game.

Following Deena's elimination, it would seem that Alex, Heidi, Jenna and Rob forged a majority alliance, but when Alex hastily revealed Rob he would vote him out at the final four, Rob gathered the outsiders Butch, Christy and Matthew to blindside Alex. With the men and women even again, Christy was viewed as the swing vote but was noncommittal to either pact, allowing Rob to realign with Heidi and Jenna and voting Christy out. With the men having the majority, they voted out Heidi over Jenna, who was sick at the time.

Despite being under the weather, Jenna overcame the odds by winning the remaining Immunity Challenges, forcing the men to turn on each other. Unaligned, Butch was voted out first, then the biggest threat Rob, leaving Jenna and Matthew as the final two.

At the Final Tribal Council, Matthew was commended for his work ethic, but was criticized for his lack of strategic play while Jenna was called the opposite. In the end, for having better relationships on the jury and having more strategy than Matthew, Jenna won the title of Sole Survivor in a 6-1 landslide vote.

Episode		Air date	Challenges		Eliminated (Vote)	Finish	Viewers (in millions)	Rating/Share (18-49)
			Reward	Immunity
1	"Boys vs Girls"	February 13, 2003	None	Jaburu	Ryan (4-3-1)	1st Voted Out Day 3	23.30	9.1/24
2	"Storms"	February 20, 2003	Jaburu	Tambaqui	Janet (5-1-1-1)	2nd Voted Out Day 6	20.30	7.7/19
3	"Girl Power"	February 27, 2003	Jaburu	Jaburu	Daniel (6-1)	3rd Voted Out Day 9	22.40	8.4.22
4	"Trapped"	March 6, 2003	Tambaqui		JoAnna (4-2-1)	4th Voted Out Day 12	23.30	9.3/23
			Tambaqui1
5	"Pick-Up Sticks"	March 13, 2003	None	Jaburu	Jeanne (4-2)	5th Voted Out Day 15	21.10	8.1/21
6	"More than Meats the Eye"	March 19, 2003	Tambaqui	Tambaqui	Shawna (4-2)	6th Voted Out Day 18	16.40	6.1/14
7	"Girls Gone Wilder"	March 26, 2003	None	Deena	Roger (7-3)	7th Voted Out Day 21	16.70	6.3/16
8	"Sleeping with the Enemy"	April 3, 2003	Dave [Deena]	Jenna	Dave (8-1)	8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	19.80	7.3/19
9	"The Chain"	April 10, 2003	Alex [Jenna]	Matthew	Deena (6-2)	9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	19.10	7.1/20
10	"The First 27 Days"	April 17, 2003	Recap Episode				N/A	N/A
11	"Q and A"	April 24, 2003	Survivor Auction	Rob	Alex (4-3)	10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	18.09	6.5/19
12	"Sour Grapes"	May 1, 2003	Matthew [Butch, Christy, Heidi, Jenna, Rob]	Jenna (Heidi)2	Christy (4-2)	11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	17.70	6.5/19
13	"The Amazon Heats Up"	May 8, 2003	Matthew [Rob]	Matthew	Heidi (3-2)	12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	19.00	7.0/20
14	"And Then There Were Four"	May 11, 2003	None	Jenna	Butch (3-1)	13th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37	22.3	8.9/22
				Jenna	Rob (1-0)	14th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38
			Jury Vote		Matthew (6-1)	Runner-Up
					Jenna (6-1)	Sole Survivor
15	"Reunion"						17.60	8.2/21
Notes: ^1 Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge. ^2 Jenna gave up her immunity to Heidi at Tribal Council.

Voting History

		Original Tribes				Switched Tribes		Merged Tribe
Episode		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	11	12	13	14
Voted Out		Ryan	Janet	Daniel	JoAnna	Jeanne	Shawna	Roger	Dave	Deena	Alex	Christy	Heidi	Butch	Rob	Matthew	Jenna
Vote		4-3-1	5-1-1-1	6-1	4-2-1	4-2	4-2	7-3	8-1	6-2	4-3	4-2	3-2	3-1	1-01	6-1
►►	Jenna	—	Janet	—	JoAnna	—	Shawna	Roger	Dave	Deena	Matthew	Christy	Rob	Butch	Rob	Jury Vote
►►	Matthew	Roger	—	Daniel	—	—	Shawna	Roger	Dave	Deena	Alex	Christy	Heidi	Butch	None
►►	Rob	Ryan	—	Daniel	—	—	Shawna	Roger	Dave	Deena	Alex	Christy	Heidi	Butch	None		Jenna
►►	Butch	Ryan	—	Daniel	—	Jeanne	—	Christy	Dave	Deena	Alex	Jenna	Heidi	Rob		Matthew
►►	Heidi	—	Janet	—	JoAnna	Jeanne	—	Roger	Dave	Deena	Matthew	Christy	Rob				Jenna
►►	Christy	—	Jenna	—	JoAnna	Butch	—	Roger	Dave	Alex	Alex	Jenna					Jenna
►►	Alex	Ryan	—	Daniel	—	—	Matthew	Roger	Dave	Deena	Matthew						Jenna
►►	Deena	—	Janet	—	JoAnna	—	Shawna	Roger	Dave	Alex							Jenna
►►	Dave	Daniel	—	Daniel	—	Jeanne	—	Christy	Matthew								Jenna
►►	Roger	Ryan	—	Daniel	—	Jeanne	—	Christy
►	Shawna	—	Janet	—	Christy	—	Matthew
►	Jeanne	—	Janet	—	Shawna	Butch
	JoAnna	—	Christy	—	Shawna
	Daniel	Roger	—	Roger
	Janet	—	Jeanne
	Ryan	Roger
Notes: ^1 Matthew and Rob did not vote as they could only vote for each other. By virtue of winning the Final Immunity Challenge, only Jenna voted.

Trivia

• The Amazon is the first season to be filmed in South America.
• The Amazon is the first season where the contestants were divided with a theme.
• The Amazon is the first season to include an Asian-American male contestant.
• The Amazon is the first season to not include an African-American male contestant.
• The Amazon is the first season not to introduce a new tribe color, as all three colors (yellow, blue, and red) had been used in previous seasons.
• All five contestants from California were voted out consecutively.
• The Amazon is the first season, and the only season pre-All-Stars, where all contestants received a vote against them at one point during the game.
• The Amazon is the first season in which a contestant gave up an Immunity Necklace and gave it to another contestant.
• The Amazon is the first season in which a Pagonging did not occur after the merge.
• The Amazon is the only season represented in All-Stars to not have a representative make that season's final six.
  • It is also the only season to not have any representatives reach the jury stage.