Survivor: Island of the Idols

Survivor: Island of the Idols
Season Information
Version:	United States
Season No.:	39
Filming Location:	Mamanuca Islands, Fiji
Filming Dates:	March 21, 2019 - April 28, 2019
Season Run:	September 25, 2019 - December 18, 2019
No. of Episodes:	14
No. of Days:	39
No. of Castaways:	20
Winner:	Tommy Sheehan
Runner(s)-Up:	Dean Kowalski Noura Salman
Tribes:	Lairo Vokai Lumuwaku
Cast
Season Chronology
Previous:	Edge of Extinction
Next:	Winners at War

Survivor: Island of the Idols is the thirty-ninth season of Survivor.

The season saw the return of Survivor legends Rob Mariano and Sandra Diaz-Twine as mentors for the cast of new players on the titular Island of the Idols. This season also saw the series' first official ejection with the removal of contestant Dan Spilo, who was at the center of controversy for his inappropriate behavior. In the end, for his smoothly executed social gameplay, Tommy Sheehan was awarded the title of Sole Survivor over Dean Kowalski and Noura Salman in a 8-2-0 vote.

Production

Starting with this season, Canadian citizens are eligible to apply for Survivor.

The mentors, Rob Mariano and Sandra Diaz-Twine, were given creative control over the happenings on the Island of the Idols, from the lessons they will teach and how they will go about them. Host Jeff Probst stated that production would have built a shelter for Rob and Sandra, but the two refused and insisted to relive the Survivor experience and built their own. Rob and Sandra also attend Tribal Council, albeit in secret. They have a special hiding place in one of the huts in the Tribal Council set where they watch the proceedings.

The contestants who were eliminated pre-jury were sequestered in Australia.

Twists/Changes

• Mentors: Former Survivor winners Rob Mariano and Sandra Diaz-Twine returned as mentors to the castaways. Neither mentor was in contention to win the million dollar prize.
• Island of the Idols: Every week, a selected castaway was sent to the Island of the Idols where they were taught survival skills and winning strategies by Rob and Sandra. The castaway was given an opportunity to be tested on what they learned from the mentors for a chance to win an advantage in the game. Losing the mentors' challenge also meant losing their vote the next time they visited Tribal Council. Jeff Probst described the island as a "Survivor boot camp."
  • Vote Blocker: The castaways sent to Island of the Idols on Days 9 and 15 were eligible to win a Vote Blocker. Unlike its previous appearance where it had to be used at the following Tribal Council regardless if the holder would attend that Tribal Council or not, the Vote Blocker was reworked so that it could be used at any Tribal Council there were six players left.
  • Safety Without Power: The castaway sent to the Island of the Idols on Day 17 was given a chance to win an advantage that allowed them to leave Tribal Council before the vote, effectively making them immune, at the cost of not voting. This advantage was usable until there were 7 players left.
  • Advantage Option: The castaway sent to the Island of the Idols on Day 34 was given a chance to play for one three advantages of their choice: an Extra Vote, an Idol Nullifier, or a Hidden Immunity Idol which could not be played for themselves.
• Hidden Immunity Idol: A Hidden Immunity Idol was hidden at each camp. In addition, temporary Hidden Immunity Idols were offered on the Island of the Idols which are only usable for two to three Tribal Councils after obtaining them.
• Tribe Switch: On Day 12, a tribe switch occurred, spreading the 16 remaining castaways across 2 tribes of 8.
• Merge: The merge occurred with 13 players remaining.
• Double Elimination: The Lumuwaku tribe was briefly split into two groups (one of six and one of five) with each group attending a separate Tribal Council to vote out a member. Following the Immunity Challenge, one group remained at the Lumuwaku camp, while the other was sequestered at the old Lairo camp for the afternoon.
• Simplified Final Four Tribal Council: Instead of a traditional vote, the person who won the Final Immunity Challenge chose one person to take with them to the Final Three, leaving the remaining two castaways compete in a fire-making challenge to determine who would be eliminated.
• Final Three and Expanded Jury: Three finalists faced a 10-person jury.
• Reformatted Final Tribal Council: Instead of having each jury member speak one by one, an open forum was held to ensure a more insightful rapport between the jury and finalists.

Castaways

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation			Finish	Votes Against
		Original Tribe	Switched Tribe	Merged Tribe
	Ronnie Bardah 36, Henderson, NV Professional Poker Player	Lairo			1st Voted Out Day 3	7
	Molly Byman 28, Durham, NC Law Student	Vokai			2nd Voted Out Day 6	7
	Vince Moua 27, Palo Alto, CA Admissions Counselor	Lairo			3rd Voted Out Day 8	7
	Chelsea Walker 27, Los Angeles, CA Digital Content Creator	Lairo			4th Voted Out Day 11	6
	Tom Laidlaw 60, Greenwich, CT Former NHL Player	Lairo	Lairo		5th Voted Out Day 14	6
	Jason Linden 32, New York City, NY Personal Injury Lawyer	Vokai	Vokai		6th Voted Out Day 16	6
	Jack Nichting 23, Harrisonburg, VA Graduate Student	Vokai	Lairo		7th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 19	2
	Kellee Kim 29, Philadelphia, PA MBA Student	Vokai	Lairo	Lumuwaku	8th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 22	8
	Jamal Shipman 33, Providence, RI College Administrator	Vokai	Lairo		9th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 24	6
	Aaron Meredith 36, Warwick, RI Gym Owner	Lairo	Vokai		10th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 27	5
	Missy Byrd 24, Tacoma, WA Air Force Veteran	Lairo	Vokai		11th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 27	3
	Elizabeth Beisel 26, Saunderstown, RI Olympic Medalist	Lairo	Vokai		12th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 30	8
	Karishma Patel 37, Houston, TX Personal Injury Lawyer	Lairo	Lairo		13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 32	22
	Elaine Stott 41, Rockholds, KY Factory Worker	Lairo	Vokai		14th Voted Out 8th Jury Member Day 35	8
	Dan Spilo 48, Los Angeles, CA Talent Manager	Vokai	Vokai		Ejected Day 36	5
	Janet Carbin 59, Palm Bay, FL Chief Lifeguard	Vokai	Lairo		15th Voted Out 9th Jury Member Day 37	8
	Lauren Beck 29, Glendale, CA Nanny	Vokai	Vokai		Eliminated 10th Jury Member Day 38	1
	Noura Salman 36, North Potomac, MD Entrepreneur	Vokai	Lairo		Second Runner-Up	6
	Dean Kowalski 28, New York City, NY Tech Salesman	Lairo	Lairo		Runner-Up	5
	Tommy Sheehan 26, Long Beach, NY 4th Grade Teacher	Vokai	Vokai		Sole Survivor	2

Season Summary

The twenty castaways were divided into two tribes: Lairo and Vokai. Multiple castaways were sent to the Island of the Idols over the season and were mentored and challenged by former Survivor winners and legends Rob Mariano and Sandra Diaz-Twine for a chance to earn game advantages.

Vokai were the more cohesive unit and dominated in challenges, while Lairo was fractured by excessive politicking, with Missy being behind most of the strategies taking place and Karishma being the perennial decoy target. The Tribe Switch allowed social in-roads between the tribes, with several players switching strategies and allegiances despite initial uneasiness. The pre-merge was generally characterized by players perceived to be threats being the primary targets, including some eliminations caused by Hidden Immunity Idol and advantages.

The merge was initially marred by controversy due to Kellee's accusations about incidents of inappropriate touching involving Dan. The other women came forward to exclaim that they also felt violated by Dan, though Missy and Elizabeth exaggerated their claims for strategy and Kellee was voted out at the subsequent Tribal Council for being seen as a large threat. Dan was later ejected from the game for a separate, but similar offense. While initially the post-switch Vokai faction worked together, that changed when a Double Elimination occurred which saw Aaron and Missy get blindsided.

Lauren and Tommy used their social relationships to eliminate the remaining members of the Lairo Women's Alliance, but when only Dean remained, he managed to make a resurgence and go on a power run by winning Immunity Challenges and finding or receiving, and using idols and advantages. The most consequential of these advantages was an Idol Nullifier which sealed Janet's elimination on Day 37. On the penultimate day, as a precautionary measure in case he failed to win the Final Immunity Challenge, Tommy convinced Noura to take him to the Final Three. Noura did win and took Tommy, leaving Dean and Lauren to compete in a fire-making challenge. Dean defeated Lauren and secured his spot in the Final Three.

At the Final Tribal Council, Noura was praised for her impressive challenge performances, but was overshadowed by her personality quirks and erratic gameplay while Dean, though lauded for his strong endgame, the jury felt that body of work was poor. In the end, it was Tommy's quiet yet strategic and social games and non-reliance on idols and advantages that won the jury over, winning him the title of Sole Survivor over Dean and Noura in an 8-2-0 vote.

Episode		Air date	Challenges		Exiled	Eliminated (Vote)	Finish	Viewers (in millions)	Ratings/Share (18-49)
			Reward	Immunity
1	"I Vote You Out and That's It"	September 25, 2019	Vokai1		Elizabeth	Ronnie (7-2)	1st Voted Out Day 3	6.29	1.3/6
2	"YOLO, Let's Play!"	October 2, 2019	Lairo1		Kellee	Molly (7-2-1)	2nd Voted Out Day 6	6.57	1.2/6
3	"Honesty Would Be Chill"	October 9, 2019	Vokai1		Vince	Vince (5-3-1)	3rd Voted Out Day 8	6.51	1.2/6
4	"Plan Z"	October 16, 2019	Vokai1		Noura	Chelsea (6-2)	4th Voted Out Day 11	6.91	1.4/7
5	"Don't Bite the Hand That Feeds You"	October 23, 2019	Vokai	Vokai	None	Tom (5-2)	5th Voted Out Day 14	6.82	1.3/6
6	"Suck It Up Buttercup"	October 30, 2019	Vokai	Lairo	Elaine	Jason (4-3)	6th Voted Out Day 16	6.37	1.2/6
7	"I Was Born at Night, but Not Last Night"	November 6, 2019	Vokai2	Vokai	Janet	Jack (2-0)3,4	7th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 19	6.82	1.3/6
8	"We Made It to the Merge!"	November 13, 2019	None	Aaron	None	Kellee (8-5)	8th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 22	6.07	1.1/6
			Dan, Dean, Elaine, Elizabeth, Noura, Tommy5	Aaron	Jamal	Jamal (6-3-0)3	9th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 24
				Missy
9	"Two for the Price of One"	November 20, 2019		Noura	None	Aaron (5-1)	10th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 27	6.63	1.2/6
			Elaine6			Missy (3-2)	11th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 27
			Elizabeth, Karishma, Missy, Tommy6
10	"Bring On the Bacon"	November 27, 2019	None	Noura	Lauren	Elizabeth (1-1-0; 7-0)3,4,7	12th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 30	6.48	1.1/6
11	"A Very Simple Plan"	December 4, 2019	Janet, Tommy [Dan, Lauren]	Lauren	None	Karishma (5-3)4	13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 32	6.86	1.2/6
12	"Just Go for It"	December 11, 2019	Tommy [Dean, Noura]5	Dean	Dean	Elaine (5-2)	14th Voted Out 8th Jury Member Day 35	6.82	1.2/7
						Dan (No Vote)8	Ejected Day 36
13	"Mama, Look at Me Now"	December 18, 2019	Dean1		None	Janet (4-1)9	15th Voted Out 9th Jury Member Day 37	6.52	1.2/6
			[Noura]
			None	Noura		Lauren (No Vote)10	Eliminated 10th Jury Member Day 38
			Jury Vote			Noura (8-2-0)	Second Runner-Up
						Dean (8-2-0)	Runner-Up
						Tommy (8-2-0)	Sole Survivor
14	"Reunion"							4.61	0.9/5
Notes: ^1 Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge. ^2 Promotional pictures were released showing an unaired challenge that would have occurred during the episode. A member of the cast anonymously informed the Survivor Wiki admins about the outcome of the challenge. ^3 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, negating all votes against its user. ^4 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played; however, no votes were cast against its user. ^5 According to castaways in post game interviews, there was an unaired challenge. ^6 At the Immunity Challenge, Lumuwaku was divided into two groups, with one person from each team winning Immunity, and the last person standing winning reward for their team. Elaine was the last person left standing and won reward for the Orange Team. ^7 The vote resulted in a tie. Per Survivor rules, a revote would commence. ^8 Dan was ejected from the game because of repeated inappropriate touching. ^9 Dean used the Idol Nullifier on Janet, canceling out Janet's idol. ^10 Instead of a traditional vote, The winner of the Immunity challenge, Noura, would choose someone to take with them to the Final Three. She chose Tommy. The remaining two castaways, Dean and Lauren, would compete in a fire-making challenge to determine the last finalist.

Voting History

Survivor: Island of the Idols Voting History
Tribes		Original Tribes				Switched Tribes			Merged Tribe
Episode #:		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8		9		10		11	12		13
Voted out:		Ronnie	Molly	Vince	Chelsea	Tom	Jason	Jack	Kellee	Jamal	Aaron	Missy	Tie	Elizabeth	Karishma	Elaine	Dan	Janet	Lauren	Noura	Dean	Tommy
Vote:		7-2	7-2-1	5-3-1	6-2	5-2	4-3	2-03,4	8-5	6-3-03	5-1	3-2	1-1-03,4,5	7-0	5-34	5-2	No Vote6	4-17	No Vote8	8-2-0
►►	Tommy	—	Molly	—	—	—	Elaine	—	Kellee	Jamal	—	Missy	Karishma	Elizabeth	Karishma	Elaine	—	Janet	—	Jury Vote
►►	Dean	Ronnie	—	Karishma	Karishma	Karishma	—	Jack	Kellee	Jamal	Aaron	—	Karishma	Elizabeth	Karishma	Elaine	—	Janet	—
►►	Noura	—	Molly	—	—	None1	—	Jack	Dan	Jamal	Aaron	—	Karishma	Elizabeth	Karishma	Elaine	—	Janet	—
►►	Lauren	—	Molly	—	—	—	Elaine	—	Kellee	Karishma	Aaron	—	Karishma	Elizabeth	Karishma	Elaine	—	Janet	Eliminated			Tommy
►►	Janet	—	Molly	—	—	Tom	—	Dean	Dan	Jamal	Aaron	—	Karishma	None	Noura	Elaine	—	Lauren				Tommy
►►	Dan	—	Molly	—	—	—	Elaine	—	Kellee	Jamal	Aaron	—	Elizabeth	Elizabeth	Noura	Noura	Ejected
►►	Elaine	Ronnie	—	Vince	Chelsea	—	Jason	—	Kellee	Karishma	—	Missy	Karishma	Elizabeth	Karishma	Noura						Tommy
►►	Karishma	Ronnie	—	Vince	Chelsea	Tom	—	Dean	Dan	Janet	—	Missy	Janet	Elizabeth	Noura							Tommy
►►	Elizabeth	None1	—	Vince	Chelsea	—	Jason	—	Kellee	Karishma	—	Tommy	Karishma	None							Dean
►►	Missy	Ronnie	—	Vince	Chelsea	—	Jason	—	Kellee	Janet	—	Tommy										Tommy
►►	Aaron	Vince	—	Karishma	Chelsea	—	Jason	—	Kellee	Jamal	Janet										Dean
►►	Jamal	—	Jason	—	—	Tom	—	Dean	Dan	None1												Tommy
►►	Kellee	—	Molly	—	—	Tom	—	Dean	Dan													Tommy
►	Jack	—	Jason	—	—	Tom	—	Dean														Tommy
►	Jason	—	Molly	—	—	—	None2
►	Tom	Ronnie	—	Karishma	Chelsea	Karishma
	Chelsea	Ronnie	—	Vince	Karishma
	Vince	Ronnie	—	Tom
	Molly	—	Noura
	Ronnie	Vince
Notes: ^1 This castaway lost their right to vote for losing the mentors' test on the Island of the Idols. ^2 This castaway's vote was blocked by a Vote Blocker. ^3 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, negating all votes against its user. ^4 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, however, no votes were cast against its user. ^5 Tribal Council resulted in a tie. Per Survivor rules, a revote 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. ^6 Dan was ejected from the game because of repeated inappropriate touching. No vote occurred for his removal and he would not be part of the jury. ^7 Dean used the Idol Nullifier on Janet, canceling out Janet's idol. ^8 Instead of a traditional vote, the person who won the Immunity Challenge, Noura, would take someone with them to the Final Three. She chose Tommy. The remaining two castaways, Dean and Lauren, would compete in a fire-making challenge to determine the last finalist.

Trivia

The unused Island of the Idols green Buff with a frog emblem.

• Island of the Idols is the first season to feature an East, Southeast, and South-Asian castaway with Kellee, Vince, and Karishma. They would be followed by Survivor 41.
• Island of the Idols was tied with Micronesia, Game Changers, David vs. Goliath, and Survivor 41 for the most LGBT contestants with three: Elaine, Missy, and Vince. This record was broken by Survivor 42 with 5.
• Island of the Idols is the first season to not have an opening sequence.
• The mentors wore Buffs from their winning seasons. Rob wore a Murlonio Buff from Redemption Island, while Sandra wore both Balboa and Yin Yang Buffs from Pearl Islands and Heroes vs. Villains respectively.
• Island of the Idols is the third season, after All-Stars and Fiji, where Jeff Probst did not meet the cast on Day 1.
• Island of the Idols is the first season since San Juan del Sur to start with two tribes and not introduce a third at a Tribe Switch.
  • A green Buff with a frog emblem was supposed to appear at some point in the season, but the idea was shelved for unknown reasons. However, decorative flags of the same color and pattern were visibly seen at challenge sites.
• Island of the Idols is the first season since Gabon to have a singular juror who was eliminated before the merge.
• Island of the Idols marked the first ejection, with Dan being disqualified due to inappropriate behavior.
• Island of the Idols is the fifth consecutive season to produce a male winner, breaking the previous record of four male winners in a row from Panama to China.