Survivor: Redemption Island

Survivor: Redemption Island
Season Information
Season No.	22
Filming Dates	August 16, 2010 – September 23, 2010
Season Run	February 16, 2011 – May 15, 2011
Winner	Rob Mariano

fSurvivor: Redemption Island is the 22nd season of Survivor. It premiered on February 16, 2011. Its filming location took place in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, the same location used last season. The winner of the season is veteran player Rob Mariano after winning eight of nine Jury votes.

This season was highly controversial, being universally panned by fans for its predictable storyline (mostly due to Rob Mariano's huge advantage being a four-time contestant), Redemption Island having little to no effect on the actual outcome, and not enough airtime for everyone in favor of season noisemakers Rob, Russell Hantz, and Phillip Sheppard.

Production

The production staff stayed in Nicaragua after filming the previous season because they enjoyed the warm hospitality and also to minimize production costs. Also, the location of Ponderosa this season was the same location used last season.

The idea of bringing back Rob Mariano and Russell Hantz came from the Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains reunion show, where Rob (who was eliminated by Hantz' alliance) said he would like to compete against Russell in a future season to settle their rivalry.

After the controversial inclusion of NaOnka Mixon and Kelly Shinn to the Jury after their simultaneous voluntary exits in the previous season, Mark Burnett has stated that starting from this season, post-merge quitters may or may not be put to the Jury. This decision will be decided by the producers before the next Tribal Council, where the Jurors will watch its proceedings. According to Burnett, "It's very unlikely any quitter will be on the jury again."

Twist/Changes

• Redemption Island: In a drastic game-changing twist, when a player gets voted out from Tribal Council, that player will not be eliminated right away. Instead, the said contestant will go to Redemption Island, where he/she will fend for himself during his/her entire stay. When the next person gets voted out, the two players will compete in a "duel." The winner gets to stay at the island, while the loser is eliminated from the game for good. At a certain point, the last person standing on Redemption Island will return to the main game and will continue his/her pursuit of the one million dollar prize and the title of Sole Survivor.
• New Camp for Merger: This is the first time since Survivor: The Amazon where the merged tribe lived in a entirely new camp, rather than using one of the two existing camps.
• Challenges: In the advent of the Redemption Island Duels, this season featured several challenges  both for Reward and Immunity.
• Two Returning Contestants: Rob Mariano and Russell Hantz returned as contestants to settle their heated rivalry during Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.
• Hidden Immunity Idols: Hidden Immunity Idols were available this season, with one hidden at each camp.

Castaways

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation		Finish	Redemption Island Status	Votes Against
		Original Tribe	Merged Tribe
File:S22 francesca t.jpg	Francesca Hogi 36, Washington, D.C.	Ometepe		1st Voted Out Day 3	1st Eliminated Day 6	4
File:S22 russell t.jpg	Russell Hantz 37, Dayton, TX Samoa & Heroes vs. Villains	Zapatera		3rd Voted Out Day 8	2nd Eliminated Day 10	8
File:S22 kristina t.jpg	Kristina Kell 46, Malibu, CA	Ometepe		4th Voted Out Day 11	3rd Eliminated Day 12	9
File:S22 krista t.jpg	Krista Klumpp 25, Columbia, SC	Zapatera		5th Voted Out Day 13	4th Eliminated Day 14	6
File:S22 stephanie t.jpg	Stephanie Valencia 26, Long Beach, CA	Zapatera		6th Voted Out Day 16	5th Eliminated Day 17	8
File:S22 sarita t.jpg	Sarita White 36, Santa Monica, CA	Zapatera		7th Voted Out Day 18	6th Eliminated Day 19	6
File:S22 david t.jpg	David Murphy 31, West Hollywood, CA	Zapatera	Murlonio	10th Voted Out Day 24	7th Eliminated 1st Jury Member Day 25	8
File:S22 julie t.jpg	Julie Wolfe 50, Oceanside, CA	Zapatera		11th Voted Out Day 27	8th Eliminated 2nd Jury Member Day 28	6
File:S22 steve t.jpg	Steve Wright 51, Huntington Beach, CA	Zapatera		13th Voted Out Day 30	9th Eliminated 3rd Jury Member Day 31	9
File:S22 ralph t.jpg	Ralph Kiser 45, Lebanon, VA	Zapatera		12th Voted Out Day 30	10th Eliminated 4th Jury Member Day 33	10
File:S22 grant t.jpg	Grant Mattos 29, West Hollywood, CA	Ometepe		15th Voted Out Day 35	11th Eliminated 5th Jury Member Day 36	10
File:S22 matthew t.jpg	Matthew Elrod 22, Nashville, TN	Ometepe		2nd Voted Out Day 5	1st Returnee Day 19	10
				8th Voted Out Day 21	12th Eliminated 6th Jury Member Day 36
File:S22 mike t.jpg	Mike Chiesl 31, Del Mar, CA	Zapatera		9th Voted Out Day 22	13th Eliminated 7th Jury Member Day 36	6
File:S22 andrea t.jpg	Andrea Boehlke 21, Random Lake, WI	Ometepe		14th Voted Out Day 32	2nd Returnee Day 36	9
				16th Voted Out 8th Jury Member Day 37
File:S22 ashley t.jpg	Ashley Underwood 25, Benton, ME	Ometepe		17th Voted Out 9th Jury Member Day 38		3
File:S22 natalie t.jpg	Natalie Tenerelli 19, Acton, CA	Ometepe		Second Runner-Up		1
File:S22 phillip t.jpg	Phillip Sheppard 52, Santa Monica, CA	Ometepe		Runner-Up		17
File:S22 rob t.jpg	Rob Mariano 34, Pensacola, FL Marquesas, All-Stars & Heroes vs. Villains	Ometepe		Sole Survivor		7

Season Summary

Sixteen new castaways, previously divided into two tribes, Ometepe and Zapatera, were joined by returning contestants, Rob Mariano and Russell Hantz, with Rob joining Ometepe and Russell joining Zapatera by random draw. The tribes were then told about Redemption Island, a secluded location where voted out players would go to compete in challenges for a chance to be brought back into the game.

Rob quickly proved to be leader in Ometepe, and kept wary of the Hidden Immunity Idol, including sending one of his own alliance, Matt Elrod, to Redemption Island while trying to flush it out. On Zapatera, the bulk of the tribe recognized the threat that Russell could be, throwing a challenge in order to vote Russell out; Russell would lose to Matt at the next Redemption Island challenge. Matt would continue to win several more duels against several Zapatera players after Ometepe dominated the challenges, while Zapatera suffered due to loss of cohesion within their tribe.

The tribes merged with twelve players left in the game, including Matt who returned from Redemption Island. Matt discussed blindsiding Rob with the former Zapatera members, however he eventually decided against it, telling this to Rob in an attempt to prove his loyalty. Despite this, Rob decided Matt could not be trusted, using his alliance to send Matt back to Redemption Island, establishing a firm Ometepe majority. The former Ometepe tribe used their numerical advantage to completely eliminate the remaining former members of Zapatera, before having to turn on themselves. Rob orchestrated the eliminations of those whom he felt would be threatening to him, including close allies Grant Mattos and Andrea Boehlke. Though Andrea would return to the game from Redemption Island, she was unable to secure any other alliances, and was voted off a second time. Ultimately, the Final Three were Rob, Natalie Tenerelli, and Phillip Sheppard. Both Natalie and Phillip were criticized by the Jury for simply following in Rob's footsteps, and Rob, after 117 days of fighting in this game over four seasons, was voted the Sole Survivor in a vote of 8-1-0.

Episode Guide

Episode		Air Date	Redemption Island				Immunity	Voted Out (Vote)	Status	Viewership (in millions)	Rating/Share (18-49)
			Inhabitant	Challenger	Eliminated	Finish
1	"You're Looking at the New Leader of Your Tribe"	February 16, 2011					Zapatera1	Francesca (4-3-2)	1st Voted Out Day 3	11.16	3.2/9
2	"You Own My Vote"	February 23, 2011	Francesca				Zapatera1	Matt (4-2-0)2	2nd Voted Out Day 5	10.93	3.1/9
3	"Keep Hope Alive"	March 2, 2011	Francesca	Matt	Francesca	1st Eliminated Day 6	Ometepe1	Russell (3-3-3; 5-1-0)3	3rd Voted Out Day 8	11.32	3.3/10
4	"Don't You Work for Me?"	March 9, 2011	Matt	Russell	Russell	2nd Eliminated Day 10	Zapatera1	Kristina (4-3)	4th Voted Out Day 11	10.96	3.2/9
5	"We Hate Our Tribe"	March 16, 2011	Matt	Kristina	Kristina	3rd Eliminated Day 12	Ometepe1	Krista (6-2)	5th Voted Out Day 13	10.73	3.2/10
6	"Their Red-Headed Stepchild"	March 23, 2011	Matt	Krista	Krista	4th Eliminated Day 14	Ometepe1	Stephanie (5-2)	6th Voted Out Day 16	11.00	3.1/9
7	"It Don't Take a Smart One"	March 30, 2011	Matt	Stephanie	Stephanie	5th Eliminated Day 17	Ometepe1	Sarita (4-2)	7th Voted Out Day 18	11.01	3.1/9
8	"This Game Respects Big Moves"	April 6, 2011	Matt	Sarita	Sarita	6th Eliminated Day 19	Natalie	Matt (6-5-1)4	8th Voted Out Day 21	10.94	3.2/10
					Matt	1st Returnee Day 19
9	"The Buddy System"	April 13, 2011	Matt				Grant	Mike (6-5)	9th Voted Out Day 22	11.09	3.1/9
							Andrea	David (6-4)	10th Voted Out Day 24
10	"Rice Wars"	April 20, 2011	Matt	Mike	David	7th Eliminated 1st Jury Member Day 25	Rob	Julie (6-3)	11th Voted Out Day 27	11.02	3.1/9
				David
11	"A Mystery Package"	April 27, 2011	Matt	Julie	Julie	8th Eliminated 2nd Jury Member Day 28	Grant [Andrea, Rob]1	Ralph (6-2)	12th Voted Out Day 30	11.34	3.2/9
			Mike				Rob	Steve (6-1)	13th Voted Out Day 30
12	"You Mangled My Nets"	May 4, 2011	Matt	Ralph	Steve	9th Eliminated 3rd Jury Member Day 31	Rob	Andrea (5-1)	14th Voted Out Day 32	10.99	3.1/9
			Mike5	Steve
13	"Too Close for Comfort"	May 11, 2011	Matt	Andrea	Ralph	10th Eliminated 4th Jury Member Day 33	Ashley [Natalie]1	Grant (4-1)	15th Voted Out Day 35	10.77	3.1/9
			Mike
			Ralph
14	"Seems Like a No Brainer"	May 15, 2011	Matt	Grant	Grant	11th Eliminated 5th Jury Member Day 36	Ashley	Andrea (4-0)2	16th Voted Out 8th Jury Member Day 37	13.30	4.0/10
			Mike		Matt	12th Eliminated 6th Jury Member Day 36
			Andrea		Mike	13th Eliminated 7th Jury Member Day 36
					Andrea	2nd Returnee Day 36
							Rob	Ashley (3-1)	17th Voted Out 9th Jury Member Day 38
			Jury Vote
								Natalie (8-1-0)	Second Runner-Up
								Phillip (8-1-0)	Runner-Up
								Rob (8-1-0)	Sole Survivor
15	"Reunion"									10.91	3.4/8
Notes: ^1 Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge. ^2 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, negating all votes against its user. ^3 The vote resulted in a tie. Per Survivor rules, a revote would commence. ^4 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, however, no votes were cast against its user. ^5 After placing first in the duel, Mike also received a family visit reward. He was given the choice between keeping the reward for himself, giving it to his fellow inhabitants on Redemption Island, and giving it to remaining members of Murlonio. Mike chose to give his reward to the remaining players.

Voting History

		Original Tribes								Merged Tribe
Episode		1	2	3		4	5	6	7	8	9		10	11		12	13	14
Voted Out		Francesca	Matt	Tie	Russell	Kristina	Krista	Stephanie	Sarita	Matt	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Andrea	Grant	Andrea	Ashley	Natalie	Phillip	Rob
Vote		4-3-2	4-2-01	3-3-32	5-1-0	4-3	6-2	5-2	4-2	6-5-13	6-5	6-4	6-3	6-2	6-1	5-1	4-1	4-01	3-1	8-1-0
►	Rob	Francesca	Matt	—		Phillip	—	—	—	Matt	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Andrea	Grant	Andrea	Ashley	Jury Vote
►	Phillip	Francesca	Kristina	—		Kristina	—	—	—	Matt	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Andrea	Grant	Andrea	Ashley
►	Natalie	Kristina	Matt	—		Kristina	—	—	—	Matt	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Andrea	Grant	Andrea	Ashley
►	Ashley	Kristina	Matt	—		Kristina	—	—	—	Matt	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Andrea	Grant	Andrea	Phillip			Rob
►	Andrea	Kristina	Kristina	—		Kristina	—	—	—	Matt	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Phillip		Rob				Rob
►	Grant	Francesca	Matt	—		Phillip	—	—	—	Matt	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Andrea	Natalie	Eliminated				Rob
►	Steve	—	—	Russell	Russell	—	Krista	Stephanie	Sarita	Grant	Phillip	Rob	Phillip	Rob	Grant	Eliminated						Rob
►	Ralph	—	—	Russell	None	—	Krista	Stephanie	David	Grant	Phillip	Rob	Phillip	Rob			Eliminated				Phillip
►	Julie	—	—	Stephanie	Russell	—	Krista	Stephanie	Sarita	Grant	Phillip	Rob	Phillip	Eliminated								Rob
►	David	—	—	Stephanie	Russell	—	Krista	Sarita	Sarita	Grant	Phillip	Rob	Eliminated									Rob
►	Mike	—	—	Russell	Russell	—	Krista	Stephanie	Sarita	Grant	Phillip							Eliminated				Rob
►	Matt	Francesca	Phillip							Steve								Eliminated				Rob
	Sarita	—	—	Stephanie	Russell	—	Krista	Stephanie	David	Eliminated
	Stephanie	—	—	Ralph	None	—	Steve	Sarita	Eliminated
	Krista	—	—	Ralph	Ralph	—	Steve	Eliminated
	Kristina	Phillip	Phillip	—		Phillip	Eliminated
	Russell	—	—	Ralph	None	Eliminated
	Francesca	Phillip		Eliminated
Notes: ^1 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, negating all votes against its user. ^2 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. ^3 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played; however, no votes were cast against its user.

Trivia

• This is the first season to feature Redemption Island.
• With Rob's appearance in this season, he is the first contestant to play Survivor four times.
  • He would be followed by Rupert Boneham with his appearance on Survivor: Blood vs. Water.
  • Both of their fourth outings featured Redemption Island
• While this season is the first season to not have any straight Reward Challenges, it has the most number of combined Reward/Immunity Challenges with nine.
• This is the second time a tribe which threw an Immunity Challenge ended up outnumbered at or shortly after the merge due to the loss. The first time it happened was to Sook Jai in Survivor: Thailand.
  • Coincidentally, Zapatera and Sook Jai were both purple tribes, and lost to orange-colored tribes (Chuay Gahn and Ometepe)
• This season had the most amount of players make it to the finale, with eight. Four people were yet to be voted out, while another four competed in the final duel.
• Richard Hatch, the winner of Survivor: Borneo, was originally slated to compete against Russell, but his request to leave the country was again rejected by a federal judge. Boston Rob replaced him instead.
• This is the first season with a twelve player merge in which the first Tribal Council didn't have a 10-2 vote.
• The font used on the letterings of this season's tribe names is called "Hobo Std."
• This was the first season to have at least one three-way tie at Tribal Council. It would be followed by Survivor: Caramoan.
• Phillip Sheppard, Andrea Boehlke and Francesca Hogi hold the distinction of being three of only four players to compete with both of the Hantzes, Russell Hantz and Brandon Hantz; four seasons later, they would compete with Brandon in Survivor: Caramoan. However, Sheppard, Boehlke and Hogi were never tribemates of Russell.
  • The only other contestant to compete with both Hantzes is Coach Wade, who competed with Russell in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains and Brandon in Survivor: South Pacific. Unlike Sheppard, Boehlke, and Hogi, Wade has been on a tribe with both Russell and Brandon at one point.

References

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