Survivor: Africa

Survivor: Africa is the third season of the reality TV show Survivor. Ethan Zohn was crowned the winner defeating Kim Johnson by a vote of 5-2.

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 Mail Carrier	Boran			1st Voted Out Day 3	6
	Jessie Camacho 27, Orlando, FL Sheriff	Boran			2nd Voted Out Day 6	5
	Carl Bilancione 46, Winter Springs, FL Dentist	Samburu			3rd Voted Out Day 9	7
	Linda Spencer 44, Boston, MA Career Counselor	Samburu			4th Voted Out Day 12	4
	Silas Gaither 23, Los Angeles, CA Bartender	Samburu	Boran		5th Voted Out Day 15	8
	Lindsey Richter 26, Portland, OR Advertising Executive	Samburu	Samburu		6th Voted Out Day 18	12
	Clarence Black 24, Detroit, MI Basketball Coach	Boran	Boran	Moto Maji	7th Voted Out Day 21	12
	Kelly Goldsmith 22, San Diego, CA Behavior Analyst	Boran	Samburu		8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	5
	Brandon Quinton 25, Dallas, TX Bartender	Samburu	Samburu		9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	6
	Frank Garrison 43, Odessa, NY Telephone Technician	Samburu	Boran		10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	9
	Kim Powers 29, Conshohocken, PA Freelance Marketer	Samburu	Samburu		11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	4
	Teresa Cooper 42, Jackson, GA Flight Attendant	Samburu	Boran		12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	4
	Tom Buchanan 45, Rich Valley, VA Goat Farmer	Boran	Samburu		13th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37	9
	Lex van den Berghe 38, Santa Cruz, CA Marketing Manager	Boran	Samburu		14th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38	10
	Kim Johnson 56, Oyster Bay, NY Retired Teacher	Boran	Boran		Runner-Up	1
	Ethan Zohn 27, New York City, NY Professional Soccer Player	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 ^2 With a deadlock tie between Carl and Lindsey and no previous votes to take into account, a quiz trivia was held, eliminating Carl. ^3 With a deadlock tie between Lindsey and Tom, Lindsey's past votes were taken into account, eliminating her.

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
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. ^2 A deadlock tie occurred, but because it was the tribe's first Tribal Council, no previous votes may taken into account. With this, a nature quiz challenge was held between the tied players to determine the elimination. ^3 Carl lost the tiebreaker to Lindsey, eliminating him from the game. ^4 Per the rules at the time, in case of a deadlock tie, past votes were taken into account. The player with more past votes got eliminated. ^5 Lindsey had more past votes than Tom, eliminating her from the game. ^6 Ethan and Lex did not vote as they could only vote for were each other. By virtue of winning the final Immunity Challenge, only Kim J. voted.

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

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120514150640/http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2002/jan02/jan14/3_wed/news1wednesday.html
2. ↑ http://www.spottedratings.com/2011/12/spotvault-survivor-cbs-fall-2001.html

Survivor (US) Seasons

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