Survivor: San Juan del Sur

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Survivor: San Juan del Sur
Season Information
Season No.	29
Filming Dates	June 2, 2014 - July 10, 2014
Season Run	September 24, 2014 - December 2014

Survivor: San Juan del Sur - Blood vs. Water, also known as Survivor: San Juan del Sur, is the 29th season of Survivor.

Development

The theme and name of the season were announced at the reunion show of Survivor: Cagayan. The production flew back to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, the same location where Survivor: Nicaragua and Survivor: Redemption Island were filmed. Filming began June 2, 2014, and was completed on July 10. After filming wrapped, it was confirmed that the two upcoming seasons will have an all-new cast.

Originally, the season was set to have a 20-player cast. However, 48 hours prior to the start of filming, a member of an all-female pair failed a medical examination. Unable to find a replacement pair of the same gender composition in time, production was forced to start the game with the remaining nine pairs, ostensibly having an uneven ratio of males and females. A similar case occurred back in Survivor: Fiji, where Mellisa McNulty was pulled from the game due to last-minute panic attacks. Former contestant and Survivor Live After Show host Parvati Shallow went to the production site as part of the press who conducted interviews to the contestants and wrote an online journal about her experience.

In an interview with Dalton Ross from Entertainment Weekly after the Cagayan finale, Jeff Probst initially stated that Redemption Island was slated to be in play. However, after the interview, last minute changes were discussed by Jeff and production to further innovate the upcoming season. In a more recent interview with Ross for EW Morning Live, which was held live on set, Probst revealed that they decided to shelve Redemption Island, which potentially misled the contestants, who were yet to be flown on location and listened to the prior interview. The set that was supposed to be the Redemption Island Arena would be rehashed for Exile Island, a twist long-unused since Survivor: Tocantins. Jeff teased:

“	We all started looking at it, and it started feeling like—I don’t know. I don’t know if Redemption Island is the right thing. And it would be the safe thing to do, because we knew it worked. I got the cards out and started looking at all the players in my living room and just started imagining: What else could you do with people who love each other that would really make it difficult? And we came up with an idea, and everybody puts their two cents in, and we formed a new idea. Instead of Redemption Island, we decided: We have this arena being built. What if instead of that, we use it for something else, something that will make Blood vs. Water a little more interesting. A little more bloody.	”
—Jeff Probst

On August 13, 2014, editors temporarily halted the post-production process of the season and went on strike due to CBS preventing them to unionize which would give them pension plans and health benefits similar to other to the workers in Mark Burnett's other shows. The next day, an agreement was settled, and the editors concerned were allowed to unionize and went back to work, thus keeping the premiere to air on schedule.

Twists/Changes

• Blood vs Water: Nine pairs of castaways, each with a pre-existing relationship, will compete against each other for the million dollar prize. The pairs will be separated, assigning each member to opposite tribes. Unlike the first Blood vs Water season, this season will have an all-new cast. Also, unlike the first Blood vs. Water season, Redemption Island will not be in play in San Juan del Sur.
• Day Zero: A day before the actual game starts, the pairs will be sent out at sunset to different locations to live by themselves for the night. They will then all meet up to be officially welcomed by host Jeff Probst and start the game the next morning.
• Exile Island: After an eleven season hiatus of the twist, Exile Island returns replacing the initial Redemption Island twist. This season's version of the twist would have its tribal Reward Challenges only be one-on-one duels between castaways. Before the tribe switch, however, the twist is that the ones that would face-off should be between loved ones. The winner of each duel wins reward for his/her tribe while the losing castaway would be sent to Exile Island, along with one of the winner's tribemates, where they will choose between two urns: one with a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol buried on his/her camp, and the other with nothing.
• Tribe Switch: When there were were 14 castaways left in the game, there was a tribe switch, that puts four Hunahpu and three Coyopa castaways on each tribe.

Castaways

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation			Finish	Votes Against
		Original Tribe	Switched Tribe	Merged Tribe
	Nadiya Anderson 28, Edgewater, NJ Natalie's twin sister	Coyopa			1st Voted Out Day 3	5
	Val Collins 35, Foxboro, MA Jeremy's wife	Coyopa			2nd Voted Out Day 6	9
	John Rocker 39, Atlanta, GA Julie's boyfriend	Coyopa			3rd Voted Out Day 8	5
	Drew Christy 25, Winter Park, FL Alec's brother	Hunahpu			4th Voted Out Day 10	5
	Kelley Wentworth 28, Seattle, WA Dale's daughter	Hunahpu	Coyopa		5th Voted Out Day 13	4
	Dale Wentworth 55, Ephrata, WA Kelley's father	Coyopa	Coyopa		6th Voted Out Day 16	8
	Alec Christy 22, Winter Park, FL Drew's brother	Coyopa	Hunahpu	Huyopa
	Baylor Wilson 20, Nashville, TN Missy's daughter	Coyopa	Coyopa			10
	Jaclyn Schultz 25, Las Vegas, NV Jon's girlfriend	Coyopa	Coyopa
	Jeremy Collins 36, Foxboro, MA Val's husband	Hunahpu	Hunahpu
	Jon Misch 26, Waterford, MI Jaclyn's boyfriend	Hunahpu	Coyopa
	Josh Canfield 32, New York City, NY Reed's boyfriend	Coyopa	Hunahpu
	Julie McGee 34, Atlanta, GA John's girlfriend	Hunahpu	Hunahpu			2
	Keith Nale 53, Shreveport, LA Wes's father	Hunahpu	Coyopa			3
	Missy Payne 47, Dallas, TX Baylor's mother	Hunahpu	Coyopa			1
	Natalie Anderson 28, Edgewater, NJ Nadiya's twin sister	Hunahpu	Hunahpu
	Reed Kelly 31, New York City, NY Josh's boyfriend	Hunahpu	Hunahpu
	Wes Nale 23, Shreveport, LA Keith's son	Coyopa	Hunahpu

Season Summary

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Episode Guide

Episode		Air date	Challenges		Exiled	Eliminated (Vote)	Finish	Viewers (in millions)	Ratings/Share (18-49)
			Reward	Immunity
1	"Suck It Up and Survive"	September 24, 2014	Hunahpu	Hunahpu	Val	Nadiya (5-3-1)	1st Voted Out Day 3	9.75	2.7/9
					Keith
2	"Method to This Madness"	October 1, 2014	Hunahpu	Hunahpu	John	Val (4-4; 5-1)1	2nd Voted Out Day 6	9.49	2.4/9
					Jeremy
3	"Actions vs. Accusations"	October 8, 2014	Coyopa	Hunahpu	Keith	John (5-2)	3rd Voted Out Day 8	9.59	2.5/8
					Josh
4	"We're a Hot Mess"	October 15, 2014	Hunahpu	Coyopa	Jaclyn	Drew (5-2-1-1)	4th Voted Out Day 10	9.33	2.3/8
					Drew
5	"Blood Is Blood"	October 22, 2014	None	Hunahpu	None	Kelley (3-2-2)	5th Voted Out Day 13	9.22	2.2/7
6	"Make Some Magic Happen"	October 29, 2014	Hunahpu	Hunahpu	Baylor	Dale (3-2-1)	6th Voted Out Day 15	9.07	2.2/7
					Natalie
7	"Million Dollar Decision"	November 5, 2014	None	Keith	None	Julie (no vote)	Quit Day 18	9.31	2.3/7
8	"Wrinkle in the Plan"	November 12, 2014	Jeremy, Keith, Natalie, Reed, Wes	Jeremy	Jon	Josh (6-5)	7th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 21	9.51	2.3/7
9	"Gettin' to Crunch Time"	November 19, 2014	Alec, Baylor, Jeremy, Natalie, Reed (Jaclyn, Jon)	Baylor	Jeremy	Jeremy (5-3-2)	8th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 24	9.85	2.4/8
10	"This Is Where We Build Trust"	November 26, 2014	Alec, Jaclyn, Jon, Reed (Missy)	Reed	Wes	Wes (2-0-0)2	9th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 26	8.93	2.1/7
11	"Kind of Like Cream Cheese"	December 3, 2014	Missy3 [Baylor, Natalie]	Keith	Jon	Reed (7-1)	10th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 29	8.71	2.1/7
12	"Still Holdin' On"		Natalie [Jaclyn, Jon]	Jon	Alec	Alec (4-3)	11th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 32
13	"Let's Make a Move"	December 10, 2014	Jon, Keith, Missy (Baylor)	Natalie	Natalie	Jon (2-2-2; 2-1-0)1	12th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 35	9.47	2.4/8
14	"This Is My Time"	December 17, 2014	Keith	Keith	Jaclyn	Baylor (2-0)2	13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 37	9.79	2.4/8
			None	Jaclyn	None	Keith (3-1)	14th Voted Out 8th Jury Member Day 38
			Jury Vote			Missy (5-2-1)	Second Runner-Up
						Jaclyn (5-2-1)	Runner-Up
						Natalie (5-2-1)	Sole Survivor
15	"Reunion"							7.31	1.8/8
Notes: ^1 The vote resulted in a tie. Per Survivor rules, a revote would commence. ^2 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, negating all votes against its user. ^3 The remaining five in the challenge decided to forfeit the challenge and give the win to Missy.

Voting History

		Original Tribes					Switched Tribes		Merged Tribe
Episode		1	2		3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13		14
Voted Out		Nadiya	Tie	Val	John	Drew	Kelley	Dale	Julie	Josh	Jeremy	Wes	Reed	Alec	Tie	Jon	Baylor	Keith	Missy	Jaclyn	Natalie
Vote		5-3-1	4-41	5-1	5-2	5-2-1-1	3-2-2	3-2-1	No vote2	6-5	5-3-2	2-0-03	7-1	4-3	2-2-21	2-1-0	2-03	3-1	5-2-1
►►	Natalie	—	—		—	Drew	—	—	—	Josh	Keith	Keith	Reed	Alec	Jon	Jon	Baylor	Keith	Jury Vote
►►	Jaclyn	Dale	Baylor	Baylor	John	—	Kelley	Dale	—	Josh	Jeremy	Wes	Reed	Keith	Keith	None	Baylor	Keith
►►	Missy	—	—		—	Drew	Kelley	Keith	—	Josh	Jeremy	Keith	Reed	Alec	Jaclyn	Jaclyn	Jaclyn	Keith
►►	Keith	—	—		—	Julie	Dale	Dale	—	Baylor	Reed	Jon	Reed	Alec	Jon	None	Jaclyn	Missy			Natalie
►►	Baylor	Nadiya	Val	None	John	—	Kelley	Keith	—	Josh	Jeremy	Keith	Reed	Alec	Jaclyn	Jon	Jaclyn		Missy
►►	Jon	—	—		—	Keith	Dale	Dale	—	Josh	Jeremy	Wes	Reed	Keith	Keith	None				Jaclyn
►►	Alec	Nadiya	Baylor	Val	John	—	—	—	—	Baylor	Reed	Jon	Reed	Keith							Natalie
►►	Reed	—	—		—	Julie	—	—	—	Baylor	Jeremy	Jon	Missy							Jaclyn
►►	Wes	Nadiya	Val	Val	John	—	—	—	—	Baylor	Reed	Jon									Natalie
►►	Jeremy	—	—		—	Drew	—	—	—	Josh	Keith										Natalie
►►	Josh	Baylor	Val	Val	John	—	—	—	—	Baylor											Natalie
►►	Julie	—	—		—	Drew	—	—	Quit
►	Dale	Nadiya	Val	Val	Baylor	—	Baylor	Missy
►	Kelley	—	—		—	Drew	Baylor
	Drew	—	—		—	Kelley
	John	Nadiya	Baylor	Val	Baylor
	Val	Dale	Baylor	None
	Nadiya	Dale
Notes: ^1 The vote 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. ^2 Julie quit the game, therefore the Tribal Council scheduled for that night was cancelled. ^3 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, negating all votes against its user.

Trivia

• Based on the logo and the names of the tribes, the theme of the season appears to be inspired by Mesoamerican culture (predominantly, Aztec and Mayan).
• The removal of two castaways for medical reasons 48 hours before the start of the game resulted in an unbalanced cast, with ten males and eight females.
  • This is the first season since Survivor: Fiji to have an uneven number of male and female castaways.
  • This is also the first season with an even number of contestants to have an uneven number of male and female castaways.
• This is the first season to feature Exile Island since Survivor: Tocantins, after a hiatus of eleven consecutive seasons. 
• This season has the first cast to feature only 8 female contestants since Survivor: Tocantins.
• With the Day Zero twist, this season, along with Survivor: Blood vs. Water, are the second longest seasons in terms of number of days, lasting 39.5 days, following Survivor: The Australian Outback, which was filmed in 42 days instead of the standard 39.
• This is the first season to have contestants with homophonic first names (names that are pronounced the same, but spelled differently), namely John Rocker and Jon Misch.
• This is the first season with all new players to follow another season with all new players since Survivor: Samoa.
• The font use for this season's buff is Voodoohouse