Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Season Information
Version	United States
Season No.	20
Filming Location	Upolu, Samoa
Filming Dates	August 9, 2009 - September 16, 2009
Season Run	February 11, 2010 - May 16, 2010
No. of Episodes	15
No. of Days	39
No. of Castaways	20
Winner	Sandra Diaz-Twine
Runner(s)-Up	Parvati Shallow Russell Hantz
Tribes	Heroes Villains Yin Yang
Viewership (in Millions)	13.669
Cast
Opening Sequence
Season Chronology
Previous	Samoa
Next	Nicaragua

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains is the twentieth season of the CBS competitive reality television series Survivor.

This season was a celebration of the ten year anniversary of the show and opted to have returning players who were known for their honor and integrity (Heroes) or their deception and duplicity (Villains). It also marked the first two-time winner: Sandra Diaz-Twine, who beat Parvati Shallow and Russell Hantz in a 6-3-0 vote. To date, it has produced ten returning players (Candice Woodcock, Cirie Fields, Coach Wade, J.T. Thomas, Parvati Shallow, Rob Mariano, Rupert Boneham, Russell Hantz, Sandra Diaz-Twine, and Tyson Apostol) for subsequent seasons.

Production

Unlike previous seasons where a break in production occurred between seasons, the twentieth season was shot twenty days after Survivor: Samoa was completed, taking advantage of the existing infrastructure from that season. All challenges in this season were based on challenges used in previous seasons. Rather than the usual slogan "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast", the slogan for this season was "Return, Revenge, Redemption".

The 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami occurred shortly after the completion of filming for this season; a CBS spokeswoman stated that no crew members were harmed from it.

The castaways eliminated pre-jury were sequestered in Australia.

Casting

Heroes vs. Villains featured ten former castaways known for their acts of integrity and honor, the Heroes, and ten former castaways known for their deeds of deception and duplicity, the Villains. The cast was officially announced during the 36th People's Choice Awards on January 6, 2010. Jeff Probst, the show's host, stated that while they wanted to do another season where they brought back former players for the show's 10-year anniversary and 20th cycle, they did not want to simply do another "All-Stars" season. Upon reflecting on the most popular players, they realized that these players were either beloved or despised for those respective seasons, and opted to use that as the theme for this season.

Casting for Heroes vs. Villains was done simultaneously with casting for Samoa. According to Probst, the production initially selected 50 players from the past seasons, paring those down to twenty and keeping one spot open for a possible player from Samoa. Some selections were made to match players that production thought would be exciting to see, according to casting director Lynne Spillman. While the players had been classified as Heroes or Villains, Survivor creator Mark Burnett did not expect these players to maintain these roles in the game, and to instead do what they needed to survive to the end.

Richard Hatch, the winner of the original season, Survivor: Borneo, was asked to return for this season. However, he had to apply to leave the country since he was under house arrest. His request was denied by a federal judge in Rhode Island. Corinne Kaplan of Survivor: Gabon and Shane Powers of Survivor: Panama were also asked to return, but Corinne declined due to work obligations while Shane was replaced by Russell Hantz. Natalie Bolton of Survivor: Micronesia was seen shooting promotional images on location, but was ultimately not chosen for the final cast.

Due to the back-to-back filming of Samoa and this season, the other players did not have an opportunity to see Russell Hantz's gameplay in Samoa. However, the players were told by the production crew that Hantz was considered "one of the five most notorious male villains of all time" prior to the start of the game.

Twists/Changes

• Heroes vs. Villains: Ten of the most heroic castaways battled against the ten most villainous castaways for the title of Sole Survivor and the million dollar prize, hence the season title.
• Hidden Immunity Idol: Idols were hidden at each tribe camp for castaways to find.
• Double Tribal Council: On Day 15, both tribes were forced to attend Tribal Council separately to vote out one of their own.
• Expanded Jury and Final Three: The Final Tribal Council had a Final Three and a nine-person jury, including two jurors from the pre-merge portion of the game.

Castaways

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation		Finish	Votes Against
		Original Tribe	Merged Tribe
	Sugar Kiper 30, Los Angeles, CA Gabon	Heroes		1st Voted Out Day 3	9
	Stephenie LaGrossa 29, Philadelphia, PA Palau & Guatemala	Heroes		2nd Voted Out Day 6	6
	Randy Bailey 50, Austin, TX Gabon	Villains		3rd Voted Out Day 8	9
	Cirie Fields 39, Norwalk, CT Panama & Micronesia	Heroes		4th Voted Out Day 11	3
	Tom Westman 45, New York City, NY Palau	Heroes		5th Voted Out Day 14	8
	Tyson Apostol 30, Heber City, UT Tocantins	Villains		6th Voted Out Day 15	3
	James Clement 32, Lafayette, LA China & Micronesia	Heroes		7th Voted Out Day 15	7
	Rob Mariano 33, Pensacola, FL Marquesas & All-Stars	Villains		8th Voted Out Day 18	5
	Coach Wade 37, Susanville, CA Tocantins	Villains		9th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 21	4
	Courtney Yates 28, New York City, NY China	Villains		10th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 24	9
	J.T. Thomas 25, Mobile, AL Tocantins	Heroes	Yin Yang	11th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 27	5
	Amanda Kimmel 25, Los Angeles, CA China & Micronesia	Heroes		12th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 30	10
	Candice Woodcock 26, Washington, D.C. Cook Islands	Heroes		13th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 31	5
	Danielle DiLorenzo 28, Los Angeles, CA Panama	Villains		14th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 33	4
	Rupert Boneham 45, Indianapolis, IN Pearl Islands & All-Stars	Heroes		15th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 36	10
	Colby Donaldson 35, Los Angeles, CA The Australian Outback & All-Stars	Heroes		16th Voted Out 8th Jury Member Day 37	7
	Jerri Manthey 38, Los Angeles, CA The Australian Outback & All-Stars	Villains		17th Voted Out 9th Jury Member Day 38	9
	Russell Hantz 36, Dayton, TX Samoa	Villains		Second Runner-Up	5
	Parvati Shallow 26, Los Angeles, CA Cook Islands & Micronesia	Villains		Runner-Up	8
	Sandra Diaz-Twine 35, Fayetteville, NC Pearl Islands	Villains		Sole Survivor	3

Season Summary

The twenty returning castaways were pre-divided into two tribes of ten based on their previous style of gameplay. The Villains dominated the earlier challenges due to Rob's leadership, only going to Tribal Council once in the first 14 days, and the Heroes were quickly whittled down to six members. The Villains tribe was divided into two factions: Rob's alliance of six, and the minority alliance of Russell, Parvati, and Danielle. At a Double Tribal Council, Rob's alliance decided to split the vote between Russell and Parvati out of fear of the Hidden Immunity Idol which Russell had found. Rob's right-hand man Tyson, knowing that the minority alliance was voting for him, became uneasy and deviated from the plan, voting for Parvati instead of Russell. This error would prove fatal; Russell decided to play his Idol on Parvati, negating the four votes against her, and Tyson was voted out.

The Villains lost the next Immunity Challenge and, due to Jerri aligning with Russell and Coach's inability to pick a side, Rob was voted out. During this time, the dominant alliance on the Heroes tribe was centered around the returning Micronesia players; Amanda, Cirie, and James prior to Cirie's blindside caused by Tom's idol and a flip by J.T.. This move, several immunity losses, and an injury to James would force alliances to eventually dissolve as the Heroes would go down to just five members.

During the challenges after Rob's elimination, the Heroes were led to believe that the women of the Villains tribe were methodically eliminating the men. J.T. found the Heroes' second Hidden Immunity Idol, and gave it to Russell, the last male Villain remaining, with hopes that Russell would use it to eliminate Parvati and align with the Heroes at the merge. Instead, Russell shared the idol with his alliance, unaware that Parvati and Danielle had also found the Villains' second Hidden Immunity Idol. Without Rob, the Villains lost the next two Immunity Challenges, leaving Sandra as the last remaining Villain outside of Russell's alliance of four.

With five Heroes and five Villains remaining, the tribes merged into the Yin Yang tribe. While the Heroes believed Russell was on their side, Sandra attempted to warn Rupert of Russell's distrustful behavior. Ultimately, the Heroes ignored Sandra's warnings, voting for Jerri as she was considered the least likely to have a Hidden Immunity Idol. Parvati played both idols on Jerri and Sandra to gain their loyalty, negating the Heroes' votes, sending J.T. out of the game, and giving the Villains the majority.

Despite several attempts to align with the Villains, the remaining Heroes were consistently eliminated. However, after Russell realized that Parvati and Danielle's true loyalty was to each other, Russell betrayed Danielle, working with the remaining Heroes to vote her out. After this, the final Heroes were eliminated, leaving Sandra, Russell, Parvati, and Jerri as the final four. Russell, having won the Final Immunity Challenge, felt he would have a better chance in the Final Tribal Council against Sandra (whom he felt did little in the game) over Jerri, making her the final player voted out. This would ultimately be his downfall.

At Final Tribal Council, the jury blasted Russell for his numerous betrayals and poor social game, and he would go on to receive no votes. While Parvati was acknowledged for her strong challenge performances, she was criticized for her association with Russell, to which she rationalized by citing she had limited options for allies at the start of the game. Sandra was able to win over the Heroes' votes by pointing out that she tried to help them vote out the Villains and remained the last of Rob's core alliance, while also saying that despite the downfall of her alliance she continued to find ways to advanced herself in the game. Sandra won the title of Sole Survivor over Parvati and Russell, 6–3–0 respectively, and became the first two-time Survivor winner.

Episode		Air date	Challenges		Eliminated (Vote)	Finish	Viewership (in millions)	Rating/Share (18-49)
			Reward	Immunity
1	"Slay Everyone, Trust No One"	February 11, 2010	Heroes	Villains	Sugar (9-1)	1st Voted Out Day 3	14.15	4.5/12
2	"It's Getting the Best of Me"	February 18, 2010	Villains1		Stephenie (6-3)	2nd Voted Out Day 6	11.97	3.9/11
3	"That Girl Is Like a Virus"	February 25, 2010	Heroes1		Randy (9-1)	3rd Voted Out Day 8	11.60	3.7/10
4	"Tonight, We Make Our Move"	March 4, 2010	Villains	Villains	Cirie (3-2-0)2	4th Voted Out Day 11	12.72	3.8/11
5	"Knights of the Round Table"	March 11, 2010	Villains	Villains	Tom (5-2)	5th Voted Out Day 14	12.12	3.6/11
6	"Banana Etiquette"	March 24, 2010	Villains	Rob	Tyson (3-2-0)2	6th Voted Out Day 15	11.15	3.4/11
				Candice	James (5-1)	7th Voted Out Day 15
7	"I'm Not a Good Villain"	April 1, 2010	Heroes	Heroes	Rob (4-3-1)	8th Voted Out Day 18	11.26	3.5/13
8	"Expectations"	April 8, 2010	Heroes	Heroes	Coach (4-3)	9th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 21	11.28	3.8/12
9	"Survivor History"	April 15, 2010	Villains	Heroes	Courtney (5-1)	10th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 24	12.31	3.8/12
10	"Going Down in Flames"	April 22, 2010	None	Danielle	J.T. (5-0)2,3	11th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 27	11.89	3.6/11
11	"Jumping Ship"	April 29, 2010	Amanda, Colby, Danielle	Jerri	Amanda (6-3)3	12th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 30	12.74	4.1/13
12	"A Sinking Ship"	May 6, 2010	None	Parvati	Candice (5-3)	13th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 31	13.06	4.1/14
				Russell	Danielle (4-3)	14th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 33
13	"Loose Lips Sink Ships"	May 13, 2010	Jerri [Parvati, Sandra]	Parvati	Rupert (4-0)2	15th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 36	13.28	4.1/13
14	"Anything Could Happen"	May 16, 2010	None	Parvati	Colby (4-1)	16th Voted Out 8th Jury Member Day 37	13.46	4.2/11
				Russell	Jerri (3-1)	17th Voted Out 9th Jury Member Day 38
			Jury Vote		Russell (6-3-0)	Second Runner-Up
					Parvati (6-3-0)	Runner-Up
					Sandra (6-3-0)	Sole Survivor
15	"Reunion"						10.65	3.6/10
Notes: ^1 Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge. ^2 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, negating all votes against its user. ^3 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played; however, no votes were cast against its user.

Voting History

		Original Tribes										Merged Tribe
Episode		1	2	3	4	5	6		7	8	9	10	11	12		13	14
Voted Out		Sugar	Stephenie	Randy	Cirie	Tom	Tyson	James	Rob	Coach	Courtney	J.T.	Amanda	Candice	Danielle	Rupert	Colby	Jerri	Russell	Parvati	Sandra
Vote		9-1	6-3	9-1	3-2-01	5-2	3-2-01	5-1	4-3-1	4-3	5-1	5-01,2	6-32	5-3	4-3	4-01	4-1	3-1	6-3-0
►	Sandra	—	—	Randy	—	—	Russell	—	Russell	Coach	Courtney	J.T.	Amanda	Candice	Rupert	Rupert	Colby	Jerri	Jury Vote
►	Parvati	—	—	Randy	—	—	Tyson	—	Rob	Coach	Courtney	J.T.	Amanda	Rupert	Rupert	Rupert	Colby	Jerri
►	Russell	—	—	Randy	—	—	Tyson	—	Rob	Courtney	Courtney	J.T.	Amanda	Candice	Danielle	Rupert	Colby	Jerri
►	Jerri	—	—	Randy	—	—	Parvati	—	Rob	Courtney	Courtney	J.T.	Amanda	Candice	Danielle	Rupert	Colby	Parvati		Parvati
►	Colby	Sugar	Amanda	—	Cirie	James	—	James	—	—	—	Jerri	Parvati	Candice	Danielle	Sandra	Sandra				Sandra
►	Rupert	Sugar	Stephenie	—	Colby	Tom	—	James	—	—	—	Jerri	Parvati	Candice	Danielle	Sandra					Sandra
►	Danielle	—	—	Randy	—	—	Tyson	—	Rob	Coach	Courtney	J.T.	Amanda	Rupert	Rupert					Parvati
►	Candice	Sugar	Stephenie	—	Tom	Tom	—	James	—	—	—	Jerri	Amanda	Rupert							Sandra
►	Amanda	Sugar	Stephenie	—	Tom	Tom	—	James	—	—	—	Jerri	Parvati								Sandra
►	J.T.	Sugar	Stephenie	—	Cirie	Tom	—	James	—	—	—	Jerri									Sandra
	Courtney	—	—	Randy	—	—	Parvati	—	Russell	Coach	Jerri										Sandra
	Coach	—	—	Randy	—	—	Parvati	—	Courtney	Courtney										Parvati
	Rob	—	—	Randy	—	—	Russell	—	Russell
	James	Sugar	Stephenie	—	Colby	Tom	—	Colby
	Tyson	—	—	Randy	—	—	Parvati
	Tom	Sugar	Amanda	—	Cirie	James
	Cirie	Sugar	Stephenie	—	Tom
	Randy	—	—	Rob
	Stephenie	Sugar	Amanda
	Sugar	Amanda
Notes: ^1 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, negating all votes against the user. ^2 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played; however, no votes were cast against its user.

Trivia

• Heroes vs. Villains is the first season to feature three-time returning players.
• Heroes vs. Villains is the only all-returning player season where no tribe switches occurred.
• Heroes vs. Villains is the only all-returning player season without a green tribe.
• After filming, the Survivor medical team stayed in Samoa to aid the locals who were affected by the 2009 Samoan tsunami. As told by host Jeff Probst in the TV Guide preview of South Pacific, some of the filming locations also took damage from the disaster.
• Heroes vs. Villains is currently the last season where the merged tribe only consists of ten players.
  • This is the most recent season where the merge occurred with half the cast remaining.
• Heroes vs. Villains marks the first time a previous winner won the game for a second time.
• The season logo featured silhouettes of the castaways from the Heroes and Villains tribes.
  • Additionally, the "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast" slogan was replaced by "Return, Revenge, Redemption" for this season.
• Outside of Winners at War, this season is tied with All-Stars for the most former winners playing at the time of production with four; J.T., Parvati, Sandra, and Tom.
  • Along with future winners Rob (Redemption Island) and Tyson (Blood vs. Water), Heroes vs. Villains also ties with All-Stars for the most either former or future winners, with six (outside of Winners at War).
• Amanda Kimmel is the first player to achieve the record of playing Survivor for 100 days, achieving this milestone on Day 22.
• Both returning players from Gabon, Sugar and Randy, were voted out first from their tribes, and were both voted out 9-1.
  • Both tribes eliminated out people from China, James and Courtney, by a vote of 5-1 at their last tribal councils right before the merge.
• All contestants made it to the jury phase of the game at least once when they previously competed.
• Heroes vs. Villains is the first season where the Final Three was entirely composed of previous finalists from other seasons. It would be followed by Winners at War.
• Following Sandra's elimination in Game Changers, Heroes vs. Villains became the third season (along with Game Changers) in which all contestants have been voted out at some point in their Survivor careers, following Borneo and Cambodia.
• A misprint during the production of the Heroes vs. Villains Buffs resulted to an accidental pink Buff. The limited edition Buff, which only has 100 in stock, is made available for purchase.
• Heroes vs. Villains has had the most castaways return in future seasons, with ten.
• Heroes vs. Villains had the most castaways compete for at least four times in their Survivor career, with seven.
• Heroes vs. Villains has had the most castaways compete at an international version of Survivor, with four.
  • Conversely, all three finalists participated in Australian Survivor.
  • Three castaways who competed on their fifth time at an Australian Survivor season are all women.