Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X

Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X
Season Information
Version	United States
Season No.	33
Filming Location	Mamanuca Islands, Fiji
Filming Dates	April 4, 2016 - May 12, 2016
Season Run	September 21, 2016 - December 14, 2016
No. of Episodes	14
No. of Days	39
No. of Castaways	20
Winner	Adam Klein
Runner(s)-Up	Hannah Shapiro Ken McNickle
Tribes	Takali Vanua Ikabula Vinaka
Cast
Opening Sequence
Season Chronology
Previous	Kaôh Rōng
Next	Game Changers

Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X is the thirty-third season of Survivor.

The season used a variant of the tribe division twist previously employed in Survivor: Nicaragua and saw 39 days of unpredictable gameplay, culminating in highlights including the series' third rock draw and several power shifts. Ultimately, Adam Klein emerged as Sole Survivor in the fifth unanimous vote in the series. He received all 10 jury votes, defeating fellow finalists Hannah Shapiro and Ken McNickle. To date, the season has produced four returning players (Adam Klein, David Wright, Michaela Bradshaw, and Zeke Smith) for subsequent seasons.

Production

Filming for the season was scheduled to start in mid-March 2016 but had to be delayed by two weeks because of the effects of a cyclone that passed through the Fiji islands. The cyclone destroyed challenge props and the newly-built Tribal Council set, with the production team having "to scramble in two weeks to rebuild everything". During the peak of the typhoon on Day 2, the castaways were evacuated from their beaches and were sequestered in a barren room located at base camp until the cyclone subsided. The castaways returned to their camps nine hours later.

The pre-jury trip took place in Australia.

Twists/Changes

• Millennials vs. Gen X: The 20 castaways will be divided into two tribes based on their generation: The Vanua tribe consisted of Millennials, while the Takali tribe consisted of Gen X'ers.
• Hidden Immunity Idol: Hidden Immunity Idols were hidden at all pre-merge tribe camps, concealed inside random objects with a tribe emblem painted on them as identifiers. 
• Summit: On Day 8, four castaways selected by random draw from each tribe met for a summit, where they could get information on the rival tribe.
• Tribe Expansion: On Day 13, a third tribe, Ikabula was introduced, randomly spreading the sixteen remaining castaways into all three tribes. To offset Ikabula's disadvantage of having to create a new shelter from scratch, they had one extra member.
• Legacy Advantage: While the tribes were allowed to grab supplies for the game during the marooning, an envelope containing the Legacy Advantage was up for grabs. It would grant its holder an advantage in the game, given that he or she makes it to Day 36. If he or she is eliminated before Day 36, the advantage must be willed to another player. The advantage was having immunity at the Day 36 Tribal Council.
• Early Merge: As was the case in Cambodia, there was another merge involving the thirteen contestants. All three post-expansion tribes merged into one.
• Reward Steal: The right to steal one reward from another player was up for grabs at the merged tribe camp.
• Expanded Jury and Final Three: Instead of the conventional Final Two facing the jury of seven, the Day 39 Tribal Council was held with three finalists facing a ten-person jury.

Castaways

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation			Finish	Votes Against
		Original Tribe	Expanded Tribe	Merged Tribe
	Rachel Ako 37, Los Angeles, CA Recruiting Director	Takali			1st Voted Out Day 4	5
	Mari Takahashi 31, Los Angeles, CA Professional Gamer	Vanua			2nd Voted Out Day 7	7
	Paul Wachter 52, Sugarloaf Key, FL Boat Mechanic	Takali			3rd Voted Out Day 10	6
	Lucy Huang 42, Diamond Bar, CA Dietician	Takali			4th Voted Out Day 12	2
	CeCe Taylor 39, Granada Hills, CA Insurance Adjuster	Takali	Vanua		5th Voted Out Day 15	11
	Figgy Figueroa 23, Nashville, TN Bartender	Vanua	Takali		6th Voted Out Day 18	6
	Michaela Bradshaw 25, Fort Worth, TX Vacation Club Saleswoman	Vanua	Ikabula		7th Voted Out Day 20	4
	Michelle Schubert 28, Yakima, WA Missionary Recruiter	Vanua	Vanua	Vinaka	8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 23	10
	Taylor Stocker 24, Post Falls, ID Snowboard Instructor	Vanua	Takali		9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 25	7
	Chris Hammons 38, Moore, OK Trial Lawyer	Takali	Vanua		10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 28	7
	Jessica Lewis 37, Voorheesville, NY Assistant District Attorney	Takali	Takali		Eliminated 4th Jury Member Day 30	9
	Zeke Smith 28, Brooklyn, NY Asset Manager	Vanua	Vanua		11th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 33	14
	Will Wahl 18, Long Valley, NJ High School Student	Vanua	Ikabula		12th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 34	6
	Sunday Burquest 45, Otsego, MN Youth Pastor	Takali	Ikabula		13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 35	5
	Jay Starrett 26, Fort Lauderdale, FL Real Estate Agent	Vanua	Ikabula		14th Voted Out 8th Jury Member Day 36	10
	Bret LaBelle 42, Dedham, MA Police Sergeant	Takali	Ikabula		15th Voted Out 9th Jury Member Day 37	5
	David Wright 42, Sherman Oaks, CA Television Writer	Takali	Vanua		16th Voted Out 10th Jury Member Day 38	10
	Hannah Shapiro 24, West Hollywood, CA Barista	Vanua	Ikabula		Runners-Up	13
	Ken McNickle 33, Denver, CO Model	Takali	Takali			3
	Adam Klein 25, San Francisco, CA Homeless Shelter Manager	Vanua	Takali		Sole Survivor	6

Season Summary

The 20 castaways were divided into tribes based on generation: Millennials and Generation X. The Gen X tribe, Takali, was fractured due to Paul's abrasive leadership which lost them three out of the first four Immunity Challenges. The Millennial tribe, Vanua, was split between two rival factions, but ultimately came under the control of the Triforce alliance, headed by the showmance of Figgy and Taylor.

With 16 players remaining, the castaways were randomly divided into three tribes, during which Vanua outsider Adam took the opportunity to defect against the majority Millennials alliance by blindsiding Figgy. Meanwhile on the new Ikabula tribe, Jay and Will turned on their fellow Triforce member Michaela, unknowingly dealing another fatal wound to their previous majority alliance. The three tribes merged into the Vinaka tribe on Day 21.

Come the merge, the tribe was initially unified against the members of the Triforce, but soon split into two alliances of five: one led by David and another led by Zeke. Following a deadlocked vote between Zeke and Hannah, Jessica became the third player in Survivor history to be eliminated via rock draw. This seemingly spelled the end of David's alliance, but after Will defected from Zeke's alliance, David's faction was able to recoup and systematically take out the remainder of Zeke's forces.

At the final five, Adam joined outsider Bret in a failed attempt to target David due to his growing odds of winning. Ultimately, at the final four, Adam managed to successfully convince Hannah and Ken to eliminate David. At the Final Tribal Council, Adam was received with adoration from the jury for his decision to campaign against David. This, along with his strong social game, family-oriented motives, and the jury's general dismissal of the other two's games, won Adam the title of Sole Survivor in the series' fifth unanimous jury vote at 10-0-0.

Episode		Air date	Challenges		Eliminated (Vote)	Finish	Viewers (in millions)	Ratings/Share (18-49)
			Reward	Immunity
1	"May the Best Generation Win"	September 21, 2016	Vanua1		Rachel (5-3-1-1)	1st Voted Out Day 4	9.46	2.3/8
2	"Love Goggles"	September 28, 2016	Takali1		Mari (7-3)	2nd Voted Out Day 7	9.16	2.1/8
3	"Your Job Is Recon"	October 5, 2016	Vanua1		Paul (6-3)	3rd Voted Out Day 10	8.52	1.8/7
4	"Who's the Sucker at the Table?"	October 12, 2016	Takali	Vanua	Lucy (2-1-0)2	4th Voted Out Day 12	9.06	2.0/8
5	"Idol Search Party"	October 19, 2016	None	Ikabula	CeCe (4-1)	5th Voted Out Day 15	8.59	1.9/7
				Takali
6	"The Truth Works Well"	October 26, 2016	Vanua	Ikabula	Figgy (3-2)	6th Voted Out Day 18	8.30	1.9/7
			Ikabula	Vanua
7	"I Will Destroy You"	November 2, 2016	Vanua	Takali	Michaela (4-2)	7th Voted Out Day 20	6.93	1.6/5
			Ikabula	Vanua
8	"I'm the Kingpin"	November 9, 2016	None	Will	Michelle (9-4)	8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 23	8.81	1.9/7
9	"Still Throwin' Punches"	November 16, 2016	Bret, Chris, David, Ken, Sunday, Taylor	Ken	Taylor (7-4-1)	9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 25	8.49	1.8/6
10	"Million Dollar Gamble"	November 23, 2016	Adam, Bret, Hannah, Sunday, Zeke	David	Chris (7-4)	10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 28	7.59	1.5/5
			Bret, Sunday, Zeke [David]3	Jay	Jessica (5-5; 4-4; tiebreaker)4,5,6	Eliminated 4th Jury Member Day 30
11	"About to Have a Rumble"	November 30, 2016	Jay [Adam, Sunday, Will]	Adam	Zeke (5-0)2	11th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 33	8.77	1.9/7
12	"Slayed the Survivor Dragon"	December 7, 2016	None	Jay	Will (6-2)	12th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 34	8.50	1.7/6
				Ken	Sunday (4-2-0)2	13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 35
13	"I'm Going for a Million Bucks"	December 14, 2016	David1		Jay (5-0)8	14th Voted Out 8th Jury Member Day 36	9.14	2.0/7
			[Adam, Jay]7
			None	Ken	Bret (3-2)4	15th Voted Out 9th Jury Member Day 37
				Ken	David (3-1)	16th Voted Out 10th Jury Member Day 38
			Jury Vote		Ken Hannah (10-0-0)	Runners-Up
					Adam (10-0-0)	Sole Survivor
14	"Reunion"						6.40	1.3/5
Notes: ^1 Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge. ^2 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, negating all votes against its user. ^3 David drew the odd-colored rock when the teams were formed and, as a result, automatically joined the winning team on reward without competing. ^4 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played; however, no votes were cast against its user. ^5 The vote resulted in a tie. Per Survivor rules, a revote would commence. ^6 Per Survivor rules, in the event of a deadlock tie, the non-immune castaways would have an open discussion to eliminate one of the tied castaways. If no consensus is reached, the non-immune castaways will have to draw rocks, with the castaway who draws the odd-colored rock being eliminated. ^7 Jay played his Reward Steal advantage and stole David's reward. He picked Adam and David to join him on the reward. ^8 The Legacy Advantage was played, negating all votes against its user.

Voting History

		Original Tribes				Expanded Tribes			Merged Tribe
Episode		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10				11	12		13
Voted Out		Rachel	Mari	Paul	Lucy	CeCe	Figgy	Michaela	Michelle	Taylor	Chris	Tie	Deadlock	Jessica	Zeke	Will	Sunday	Jay	Bret	David	Ken	Hannah	Adam
Vote		5-3-1-1	7-3	6-3	2-1-01	4-1	3-2	4-2	9-4	7-4-1	7-4	5-52, 3	4-44	Lottery5	5-01	6-2	4-2-01	5-06	3-22	3-1	10-0-0
►►	Adam	—	Figgy	—	—	—	Figgy	—	Michelle	Taylor	Chris	Zeke	Zeke	—	Zeke	Will	Sunday	Jay	David	David	Jury Vote
►►	Hannah	—	Mari	—	—	—	—	Bret	Michelle	Jay	Chris	Zeke	None	—	Zeke	Will	Sunday	Jay	Bret	David
►►	Ken	Rachel	—	Paul	Jessica	—	Figgy	—	Michelle	Taylor	Chris	Zeke	Zeke	—	Zeke	Will	Sunday	Jay	Bret	David
►►	David	Rachel	—	Paul	Lucy	CeCe	—	—	Michelle	Taylor	Chris	Zeke	Zeke	—	Zeke	Will	Sunday	Jay	Bret	Adam			Adam
►►	Bret	Rachel	—	CeCe	Jessica	—	—	Michaela	Michelle	Jay	Jessica	Hannah	Hannah	—	Hannah	Will	David	Jay	David				Adam
►►	Jay	—	Mari	—	—	—	—	Michaela	Adam	Taylor	Jessica	Hannah	Hannah	—	Hannah	David	David	Ken					Adam
►►	Sunday	CeCe	—	Paul	Jessica	—	—	Michaela	Michelle	Taylor	Jessica	Hannah	Hannah	—	Hannah	Will	Jay						Adam
►►	Will	—	Mari	—	—	—	—	Michaela	Adam	Jay	Chris	Hannah	Hannah	—	Zeke	David							Adam
►►	Zeke	—	Figgy	—	—	CeCe	—	—	Michelle	Taylor	Chris	Hannah	None	—	Hannah								Adam
►►	Jessica	CeCe	—	Paul	CeCe	—	Figgy	—	Michelle	Jay	Chris	Zeke	Zeke	Eliminated									Adam
►►	Chris	Rachel	—	CeCe	Jessica	CeCe	—	—	Michelle	Taylor	Jessica												Adam
►►	Taylor	—	Mari	—	—	—	Ken	—	Adam	Adam													Adam
►►	Michelle	—	Mari	—	—	CeCe	—	—	Adam														Adam
►	Michaela	—	Mari	—	—	—	—	Bret
►	Figgy	—	Mari	—	—	—	Ken
►	CeCe	David	—	Paul	Lucy	Michelle
	Lucy	CeCe	—	Paul	Jessica
	Paul	Rachel	—	CeCe
	Mari	—	Figgy
	Rachel	Sunday
Notes: ^1 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, negating all votes against its user. ^2 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played; however, no votes were cast against its user. ^3 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. ^4 Per Survivor rules, in the event of a deadlock tie, the non-immune players would have an open discussion to eliminate one of the tied players. If no consensus is reached, the non-immune castaways would be forced to draw rocks. ^5 Since no consensus was reached, a rock draw occurred. Jessica drew the odd-colored rock and was eliminated. ^6 The Legacy Advantage was played, negating all votes against its user.

Trivia

The unreleased cast photos for Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X.

• The font used for this season is a variant of SRG Marker.
• Millennials vs. Gen X is the first season since Nicaragua with 20 new castaways. Coincidentally, Nicaragua also employed the Old vs. Young twist.
• Millennials vs. Gen X is the third season to have tribes divided by age, following Panama and Nicaragua.
• Millennials vs. Gen X is the first season to merge directly from three tribes.
• Millennials vs. Gen X is the first season to not have the individual cast photos of each contestant released. Stills from the first episode, rather than the normal photoshoot, were released.
  • Though not publicly released, the individual cast photos were used in online promotional materials.
• Millennials vs. Gen X is the third season in which only one man was eliminated pre-merge, after Redemption Island and South Pacific, it would later be followed by Survivor 43.
  • Millennials vs. Gen X is the second season where only one man was voted out pre-merge, after Samoa, it would be followed by David vs. Goliath, Survivor 43 and Survivor 44.
• Millennials vs. Gen X is the first season where the players were evacuated due to a weather issue. On Day 2, the cast was evacuated as a tropical storm approached.
• Millennials vs. Gen X is the last season where the original Final Tribal Council format was used when the jurors spoke to the finalists one by one.