Production
The season was filmed in Kenya, where the contestants had to put up with extreme heat conditions and dangerous wildlife. Because there were man-killing animals in the area, the tribes lived in thorny enclosures like local tribal Kenyans do.
The series later returned to the African continent for its seventeenth season, which was filmed in Gabon.
Because of the September 11, 2001 attacks, this season's premiere was delayed. As a result, this became the first season to be aired over multiple calendar years.
Twist/Changes
- Tribe Switch: For the first time in the history of the series, tribe members switched tribes during the tribal phase.
- 39-Day Format: The season was filmed under the standard 39 days, unlike the previous season, which was three days longer.
Castaways
| Contestant | Tribe Affiliation | Finish | Votes Against | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original Tribe | Switched Tribe | Merged Tribe | ||||
| Diane Ogden 42, Lincoln, NE | Boran | 1st Voted Out Day 3 | 6 | ||
| Jessie Camacho 27, Orlando, FL | Boran | 2nd Voted Out Day 6 | 5 | ||
| Carl Bilancione 46, Winter Springs, FL | Samburu | 3rd Voted Out Day 9 | 7 | ||
| Linda Spencer 44, Boston, MA | Samburu | 4th Voted Out Day 12 | 4 | ||
| Silas Gaither 23, Los Angeles, CA | Samburu | Boran | 5th Voted Out Day 15 | 8 | |
| Lindsey Richter 26, Portland, OR | Samburu | Samburu | 6th Voted Out Day 18 | 12 | |
| Clarence Black 24, Detroit, MI | Boran | Boran | Moto Maji | 7th Voted Out Day 21 | 12 |
| Kelly Goldsmith 22, San Diego, CA | Boran | Samburu | 8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24 | 5 | |
| Brandon Quinton 25, Dallas, TX | Samburu | Samburu | 9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27 | 6 | |
| Frank Garrison 43, Odessa, NY | Samburu | Boran | 10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30 | 9 | |
| Kim Powers 29, Conshohocken, PA | Samburu | Samburu | 11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33 | 4 | |
| Teresa Cooper 42, Jackson, GA | Samburu | Boran | 12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36 | 4 | |
| Tom Buchanan 45, Rich Valley, VA | Boran | Samburu | 13th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37 | 9 | |
| Lex van den Berghe 38, Santa Cruz, CA | Boran | Samburu | 14th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38 | 10 | |
| Kim Johnson 56, Oyster Bay, NY | Boran | Boran | Runner-Up | 1 | |
| Ethan Zohn 27, New York City, NY | Boran | Boran | Sole Survivor | 0 | |
Season Summary
Sixteen new castaways were marooned on the outskirts of the Shaba National Reserve, Kenya, Africa. The group was divided into two tribes named after two real-life Kenyan tribes, Samburu and Boran. During the first six days, Samburu dominated in challenges, while the depleted Boran lost two members. Despite their early winning streak, Samburu was divided into two existing voting alliances defined by age: the younger members and the older members. The younger Samburus gained power after a tiebreaker during their first Tribal Council.
On Day 13, host Jeff Probst announced that they would be switching tribes. When the new Boran lost the Immunity Challenge, the older ex-Samburu members voted out Silas Gaither. The new Samburu tribe lost the final pre-merge Immunity Challenge, and sent Silas' ally Lindsey home.
On Day 19, the two tribes merged to form the Moto Maji tribe. The former Samburu members entered into the merge in a precarious position being down 4 members to Boran's 6. However, Teresa Cooper hatched a plan to turn the former Boran members against each other by voting against Lex van den Berghe at Tribal Council. Angered by this mystery vote, Lex swore to track down whoever had cast the vote against him and promptly vote them out. He mistakenly suspected Kelly Goldsmith of treachery and swayed his alliance of Ethan Zohn, Kim Johnson, and Tom Buchanan to vote against her. In order to save herself, Kelly sided with the former Samburu members and voted against Lex, but Lex managed to convince Brandon Quinton to also vote against Kelly, thus eliminating her. Brandon's actions made both his old and new allies, minus Lex, lose trust in him, and the six other people banded together to vote him out. However, this put the former Samburu members in jeopardy, as they were subsequently picked off one-by-one by the original Borans.
Kim J. shocked everyone by winning the final two Immunity Challenges, causing the men to have to turn on each other. Tom, who had been conspiring to have others vote out Lex earlier, was voted out unanimously. At the final three Tribal Council, Kim J. voted out Lex and brought Ethan with her to the Final Two.
At the Final Tribal Council, Kim J. was met with mixed criticism from the jury. She was praised by the jury for lasting all 39 days, in spite of her age. However, she was perceived as riding the coattails of Ethan, Lex, and Tom for the entirety of the game. The jury voted 5-2 for Ethan to win due to his more active strategy and congenial personality and he was named the third Sole Survivor.
| Episode | Air Date | Challenges | Eliminated | Vote | Finish | Viewers (in millions)[2] | Rating/Share (18-49) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reward | Immunity | ||||||||
| 1 | "Question of Trust" | October 11, 2001 | Samburu1 | Diane | 6-2 | 1st Voted Out Day 3 | 23.84 | 10.4/23 | |
| 2 | "Who's Zooming Whom?" | October 18, 2001 | Samburu | Samburu | Jessie | 5-2 | 2nd Voted Out Day 6 | 19.59 | 7.9/20 |
| 3 | "The Gods Are Angry" | October 25, 2001 | Boran | Boran | Carl | 4-4; 3-3; Tiebreaker2 | 3rd Voted Out Day 9 | 20.43 | 8.0/20 |
| 4 | "The Young and Untrusted" | November 1, 2001 | Samburu | Boran | Linda | 4-3 | 4th Voted Out Day 12 | 18.73 | 7.8/18 |
| 5 | "The Twist" | November 8, 2001 | Boran | Samburu | Silas | 5-1 | 5th Voted Out Day 15 | 20.55 | 8.3/20 |
| 6 | "I'd Never Do It to You" | November 15, 2001 | Samburu | Boran | Lindsey | 3-3; 2-2; Tiebreaker3 | 6th Voted Out Day 18 | 19.71 | 8.1/21 |
| 7 | "Will There Be a Feast Tonight?" | November 22, 2001 | None | Teresa | Clarence | 8-2 | 7th Voted Out Day 21 | 17.70 | 6.6/18 |
| 8 | "The First 21 Days" | November 29, 2001 | Recap Episode | N/A | N/A | ||||
| 9 | "Smoking Out the Snake" | December 6, 2001 | Ethan [Lex] | Ethan | Kelly | 5-4 | 8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24 | 19.28 | 7.9/21 |
| 10 | "Dinner, Movie and a Betrayal" | December 13, 2001 | Brandon, Frank | Lex | Brandon | 6-2 | 9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27 | 20.41 | 8.1/21 |
| 11 | "We Are Family" | December 20, 2001 | Survivor Auction | Lex | Frank | 6-1 | 10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30 | 19.60 | 7.7/22 |
| 12 | "The Big Adventure" | December 27, 2001 | Lex [Tom] | Tom | Kim P. | 4-2 | 11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33 | 18.92 | 7.5/20 |
| 13 | "Truth Be Told" | January 3, 2002 | Lex | Lex | Teresa | 4-1 | 12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36 | 21.31 | 8.7/20 |
| 14 | "The Final Four: No Regrets" | January 10, 2002 | None | Kim J. | Tom | 3-1 | 13th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37 | 27.26 | 11.3/25 |
| Kim J. | Lex | 1-0 | 14th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38 | ||||||
| Jury Vote | Kim J. | 5-2 | Runner-Up | ||||||
| Ethan | Sole Survivor | ||||||||
| 15 | "Reunion" | 30.94 | 13.1/30 | ||||||
| Notes:
^1 Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge | |||||||||
Voting History
| Survivor: Africa Voting History | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original Tribes | Switched Tribes | Merged Tribe | |||||||||||||||||||
| Episode #: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | ||||||||
| Voted out: |  Diane |  Jessie | Tie | Deadlock |  Carl |  Linda |  Silas | Tie | Deadlock |  Lindsey |  Clarence |  Kelly |  Brandon |  Frank |  Kim P. |  Teresa |  Tom |  Lex |  Kim J. |  Ethan | |
| Vote: | 6-2 | 5-2 | 4-41 | 3-32 | Tiebreaker3 | 4-3 | 5-1 | 3-31 | 2-24 | Past votes5 | 8-2 | 5-4 | 6-2 | 6-1 | 4-2 | 4-1 | 3-1 | 1-06 | 5-2 | ||
| ►► | Ethan | Diane | Jessie | — | — | Silas | — | Clarence | Kelly | Brandon | Frank | Kim P. | Teresa | Tom | None | Jury Vote | |||||
| ►► | Kim J. | Diane | Jessie | — | — | Silas | — | Clarence | Kelly | Brandon | Frank | Kim P. | Teresa | Tom | Lex | ||||||
| ►► | Lex | Diane | Jessie | — | — | — | Lindsey | Lindsey | — | Clarence | Kelly | Frank | Frank | Kim P. | Teresa | Tom | None | Ethan | |||
| ►► | Tom | Clarence | Clarence | — | — | — | Lindsey | None | — | Clarence | Kelly | Brandon | Frank | Kim P. | Teresa | Lex | Ethan | ||||
| ►► | Teresa | — | — | Lindsey | Lindsey | — | Silas | Silas | — | Lex | Lex | Brandon | Frank | Lex | Tom | Ethan | |||||
| ►► | Kim P. | — | — | Carl | Carl | — | Linda | — | Tom | Tom | — | Clarence | Lex | Brandon | Frank | Lex | Kim J. | ||||
| ►► | Frank | — | — | Lindsey | Lindsey | — | Silas | Silas | — | Clarence | Lex | Brandon | Kim J. | Ethan | |||||||
| ►► | Brandon | — | — | Carl | Carl | — | Linda | — | Tom | Tom | — | Clarence | Kelly | Frank | Kim J. | ||||||
| ►► | Kelly | Diane | Jessie | — | — | — | Lindsey | Lindsey | — | Clarence | Lex | Ethan | |||||||||
| ►► | Clarence | Diane | Jessie | — | — | Silas | — | Lex | |||||||||||||
| ► | Lindsey | — | — | Carl | None | — | Linda | — | Tom | None | Voted out | ||||||||||
| ► | Silas | — | — | Carl | Carl | — | Linda | Frank | |||||||||||||
| Linda | — | — | Lindsey | Lindsey | — | Silas | |||||||||||||||
| Carl | — | — | Lindsey | None | Voted out | ||||||||||||||||
| Jessie | Diane | Clarence | |||||||||||||||||||
| Diane | Clarence | 
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Notes:
^1 Tribal Council resulted in a tie. Per the rules, a second vote was held where the castaways involved in the tie would not vote and the remaining castaways could only vote for those involved in the tie. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Trivia
- This is the first season to feature multiple castaways with the same first name. There were two contestants named Kim: Kim Johnson and Kim Powers.
- This is the first season in which the first two eliminated contestants are of the same gender.
- This is the first season to be set in the African continent.
- This is the only season to use the trivia quiz tiebreaker.
- This season marks the first tribe switch.
- During the finale, after host Jeff Probst collected the final votes, the producers made it appear as if he returned to the original Tribal Council site to read them. After he read them and announced Ethan Zohn as the winner, it was revealed that the votes were actually read live on the CBS sound stage made to look like the site. This would be repeated two seasons later in Thailand.
- This is the first season in which the winner was not decided by one vote.
- The area that the contestants were living in was so dangerous (due to the constant threat of lions and other wild animals) that armed soldiers regularly patrolled the area around the campsites as a precaution.
References
| Survivor (US) Seasons |
|---|
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Borneo • The Australian Outback • Africa • Marquesas • Thailand • The Amazon • Pearl Islands • All-Stars • Vanuatu • Palau • Guatemala • Panama • Cook Islands • Fiji • China • Micronesia • Gabon • Tocantins • Samoa • Heroes vs. Villains • Nicaragua • Redemption Island • South Pacific • One World • Philippines • Caramoan • Blood vs. Water • Cagayan • San Juan del Sur • Worlds Apart • Cambodia • Kaôh Rōng • Millennials vs. Gen X • Game Changers • Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers • Ghost Island • David vs. Goliath |
