Survivor: Vanuatu

Survivor: Vanuatu
Season Information
Version	United States
Season No.	9
Filming Location	Efate, Shefa Province, Vanuatu
Filming Dates	June 26, 2004 - August 3, 2004
Season Run	September 16, 2004 - December 12, 2004
No. of Episodes	15
No. of Days	39
No. of Castaways	18
Winner	Chris Daugherty
Runner(s)-Up	Twila Tanner
Tribes	Lopevi Yasur Alinta
Viewership (in Millions)	19.64
Cast
Opening Sequence
Season Chronology
Previous	All-Stars
Next	Palau

Survivor: Vanuatu, also known as Survivor: Vanuatu — Islands of Fire, is the ninth season of Survivor. Filmed in Vanuatu, a chain of volcanic islands in the South Pacific, the season premiered on September 16, 2004.

The second season divided by gender, the game was largely dominated by the women, who made up six out of the final seven. Against all odds, the lone man Chris Daugherty defeated Twila Tanner in a 5-2 vote to become the ninth Sole Survivor. To date, it has produced two returning players (Ami Cusack and Eliza Orlins) for subsequent seasons.

Production

The season was announced at the end of "The Instigator" where the number of players returned to the standard 16, but was eventually increased back to 18.

Survivor Live, an hour-long Internet talk show hosted by the show's first winner Richard Hatch and Entertainment Tonight correspondent Chris Booker, debuted during the season. The talk show, airing every Thursday and Friday on the CBS website, interviews former contestants and reviews the players' game-play.

The DVD for this season was released on December 5, 2006. It was the final Survivor DVD set to feature commentaries and DVD-exclusive interviews.

Twists/Changes

• Expanded Cast: Following its predecessor, this season also featured eighteen castaways.
• Tribe Composition: The castaways are divided into tribes of nine based on gender: The Lopevi tribe was composed of all men and the Yasur tribe was composed of all women.
• Double Tribal Council: On Day 7, both tribes were forced to attend Tribal Council separately to vote out one of their own.
• Tribe Switch: On Day 11, selected tribe "chiefs" were tasked to rearrange the tribes, mixing up the men and the women. Two members from both tribes joined the other.
• Merged Tribe Composition: The merged tribe was composed of ten members.
• Final Tribal Council Format: Two finalists faced a jury of seven. The jurors individually addressed the finalists.

Castaways

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation			Finish	Votes Against
		Original Tribe	Switched Tribe	Merged Tribe
	Brook Geraghty 27, Winthrop, MA Document Manager	Lopevi			1st Voted Out Day 3	5
	Dolly Neely 25, Mercer, PA Sheep Farmer	Yasur			2nd Voted Out Day 6	5
	John Palyok 31, Los Angeles, CA Sales Manager	Lopevi			3rd Voted Out Day 7	5
	Mia Galeotalanza 29, Boston, MA Bookkeeper	Yasur			4th Voted Out Day 7	5
	Brady Finta 33, Huntington Beach, CA FBI Agent	Lopevi			5th Voted Out Day 10	6
	Travis Sampson 33, Johnson City, TN Security Officer	Lopevi	Yasur		6th Voted Out Day 12	6
	Lisa Keiffer 44, Mandeville, LA Real Estate Agent	Yasur	Yasur		7th Voted Out Day 15	4
	John Kenney 22, Los Angeles, CA Mechanical Bull Operator/Model	Lopevi	Lopevi		8th Voted Out Day 18	5
	Rory Freeman 35, Des Moines, IA Housing Case Manager	Lopevi	Yasur	Alinta	9th Voted Out Day 21	14
	Lea Masters 40, Columbia, SC Drill Sergeant	Lopevi	Lopevi		10th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	7
	Chad Crittenden 34, Oakland, CA Teacher	Lopevi	Lopevi		11th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	7
	Leann Slaby 34, Kansasville, WI Equity Research Assistant	Yasur	Yasur		12th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	8
	Ami Cusack 31, Lakewood, CO Coffee Barista	Yasur	Yasur		13th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	8
	Julie Berry 23, Gorham, ME Youth Mentor	Yasur	Lopevi		14th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	4
	Eliza Orlins 21, Syracuse, NY Pre-Law Student	Yasur	Yasur		15th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37	9
	Scout Cloud Lee 59, Stillwater, OK Rancher	Yasur	Yasur		16th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38	3
	Twila Tanner 41, Marshall, MO Highway Repair Worker	Yasur	Lopevi		Runner-Up	6
	Chris Daugherty 33, South Vienna, OH Highway Construction Worker	Lopevi	Lopevi		Sole Survivor	3

Season Summary

The players were brought into the game at a native gathering, with the natives dividing the group into men and women. After the opening ceremony, the men were named the Lopevi tribe, and the women the Yasur tribe. Following the ceremony's conclusion, both groups were sent to find their camps in the dark.

At the first Immunity Challenge, Lopevi lost; mainly due to Chris' inability to cross a balance beam. This seemed like the end of the game for him; however, Lea succeeded in convincing the older men of the tribe to form an alliance and vote off the younger men. At the all-female Yasur, two factions also based around age quickly emerged, both fighting over Dolly's vote. With Dolly refusing to commit to either alliance, a concerned Eliza made a temporary jump to the older women to vote Dolly out.

A Tribe Switch occurred on Day 11, mixing the two tribes. At the new Lopevi, the men decided to invite Twila into their alliance, who she swore that both she and Julie would side with them come the merge. On the new Yasur, there were frequent clashes between Ami (the head of the women's alliance) and Rory, the latter of whom narrowly avoided elimination when the women decided to vote out the untrustworthy Lisa over him.

On Day 19, the two tribes merged and took the name Alinta, with the women outnumbering the men, six to four. While the men reformed their alliance, Julie and Twila broke their promise to them. The six women joined forces and eliminated the men until only Chris was left. Chris was set to be voted out when he failed to win immunity on Day 30, but the women's alliance began to crumble as they decided to vote out Eliza instead. This allowed Scout and Twila, the latter who swore on her son's life that she wouldn't betray Ami and Leann, to pull in Chris and Eliza and flip the game on its head. The plan worked, as Ami and her allies were systematically voted out. Chris won the last two Immunity Challenges, which allowed him to remain in power. He ultimately took Twila with him to the Final Two.

At the Final Tribal Council, Chris was heavily criticized particularly by Julie and Eliza for breaking promises and abusing relationships, while Twila was confronted for swearing on her son's life and attitude. Chris's ability to stay in the game despite the incredible odds against him convinced the jury to vote for him. He won the title of Sole Survivor by a vote of 5-2.

Episode		Air date	Challenges		Eliminated (Vote)	Finish	Viewers (in millions)	Ratings/Share (18-49)
			Reward	Immunity
1	"They Came at Us with Spears!"	September 16, 2004	Yasur1		Brook (5-3-1)	1st Voted Out Day 3	20.06	7.8/22
2	"Burly Girls, Bowheads, Young Studs, and the Old Bunch"	September 23, 2004	Yasur	Lopevi	Dolly (5-4)	2nd Voted Out Day 6	19.14	7.5/22
3	"Double Tribal, Double Trouble"	September 30, 2004	Lopevi	John K.	John P. (5-3)	3rd Voted Out Day 7	19.91	7.5/21
				[Ami]2	Mia (5-3)	4th Voted Out Day 7
4	"Now That's a Reward!"	October 7, 2004	Yasur	Yasur	Brady (6-1)	5th Voted Out Day 10	19.46	7.3/21
5	"Earthquakes and Shake-Ups!"	October 14, 2004	Lopevi	Lopevi	Travis (6-1)	6th Voted Out Day 12	19.16	7.0/19
6	"Hog Tied"	October 21, 2004	Lopevi	Lopevi	Lisa (4-2)	7th Voted Out Day 15	19.22	7.3/20
7	"Anger, Threats, Tears... and Coffee"	October 28, 2004	Yasur	Yasur	John K. (5-1)	8th Voted Out Day 18	20.24	7.6/20
8	"Now the Battle Really Begins"	November 4, 2004	Lopevi	Lea	Rory (6-4)	9th Voted Out Day 21	20.70	7.6/20
9	"Gender Wars... It's Getting Ugly"	November 11, 2004	Leann [Julie]	Ami	Lea (7-1-1)	10th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	20.14	7.4/N/A
10	"Culture Shock and Violent Storms"	November 18, 2004	Ami, Chad, Chris, Eliza	Twila	Chad (6-2)	11th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	20.70	7.7/N/A
11	"Surprise and... Surprise Again!"	November 25, 2004	Eliza	Ami	Leann (4-3)	12th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	19.72	7.2/19
12	"Now Who's in Charge Here?!"	December 2, 2004	Eliza	Chris	Ami (4-2)	13th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	20.3	7.6/21
			Ami
			Chris
13	"Eruption of Volcanic Magnitude"	December 9, 2004	Julie [Chris]	Eliza	Julie (3-2)	14th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	19.72	7.5/16
14	"Spirits and the Final Four"	December 12, 2004	None	Chris	Eliza (3-1)	15th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37	19.71	7.5/16
				Chris	Scout (1-0)	16th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38
			Jury Vote		Twila (5-2)	Runner-Up
					Chris (5-2)	Sole Survivor
15	"Reunion"						15.23	9.0/14
Notes: ^1 Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge. ^2 John K. had the right to assign individual immunity to a member of Yasur, in which he chose Ami.

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		Brook	Dolly	John P.	Mia	Brady	Travis	Lisa	John K.	Rory	Lea	Chad	Leann	Ami	Julie	Eliza	Scout	Twila	Chris
Vote		5-3-1	5-4	5-3	5-3	6-1	6-1	4-2	5-1	6-4	7-1-1	6-2	4-3	4-2	3-2	3-1	1-01	5-2
►►	Chris	Brook	—	John P.	—	Brady	—	—	John K.	Ami	Lea	Eliza	Leann	Ami	Julie	Eliza	Scout	Jury Vote
►►	Twila	—	Dolly	—	Mia	—	—	—	John K.	Rory	Lea	Chad	Leann	Ami	Julie	Eliza	None
►►	Scout	—	Dolly	—	Mia	—	Travis	Rory	—	Rory	Lea	Chad	Leann	Ami	Julie	Eliza	None	Twila
►►	Eliza	—	Dolly	—	Twila	—	Travis	Lisa	—	Rory	Lea	Chad	Leann	Ami	Twila	Twila			Chris
►►	Julie	—	Leann	—	Twila	—	—	—	John K.	Rory	Lea	Chad	Eliza	Scout	Twila				Chris
►►	Ami	—	Dolly	—	Mia	—	Travis	Lisa	—	Rory	Lea	Chad	Eliza	Scout				Twila
►►	Leann	—	Dolly	—	Mia	—	Travis	Lisa	—	Rory	Lea	Chad	Eliza						Chris
►►	Chad	Brook	—	John P.	—	Brady	—	—	John K.	Ami	Julie	Eliza							Chris
►►	Lea	Brook	—	John P.	—	Brady	—	—	John K.	Ami	Eliza								Chris
►►	Rory	Brook	—	John P.	—	Brady	Travis	Lisa	—	Ami
►	John K.	Chris	—	Rory	—	Brady	—	—	Chad
►	Lisa	—	Leann	—	Mia	—	Travis	Rory
►	Travis	Brook	—	John P.	—	Brady	Rory
	Brady	Rory	—	Rory	—	Rory
	Mia	—	Leann	—	Twila
	John P.	Chris	—	Rory
	Dolly	—	Leann
	Brook	Chris
Notes: ^1 Scout and Twila did not vote as they could only vote for each other. By virtue of winning the Final Immunity Challenge, only Chris voted.

Trivia

• This is the first season with 18 castaways where all of them are new players.
• As revealed on Survivor: America's Tribal Council special during the previews for this season, Jeff Probst stated there was going to be 16 castaways originally.
• This is the second season to feature a Battle of the Sexes format, following Survivor: The Amazon. It is the only Battle of the Sexes season where the women entered the merge with numbers over the men (The men had the numbers on The Amazon and Survivor: Panama, while on Survivor: One World, the men and women merged with equal numbers).
• All eighteen contestants of Survivor: Vanuatu were present during the Survivor 10th anniversary party.
• During this season, the filming location was struck by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake.
• After the Day 18 Immunity Challenge, Rory accidentally snapped the head of the Immunity Idol.
• This season featured the first amputee contestant, Chad Crittenden.
• This is the second season to have two castaways with the same first name placed on the same starting tribe.
  • They also were residing in the same hometown at the time they competed on the show.
• This is the first season to have a subtitle in its name.
• Only two men were on the jury this season, the fewest men on any jury thus far.
• With the exception of the premiere and finale, every episode contained separate Reward and Immunity Challenges.
  • This is the only season in which both the final pre-merge and first post-merge episodes contained separate Reward and Immunity Challenges, and as a result the season with the most consecutive episodes with separate Reward and Immunity Challenges.
  • If the opening twist is counted as a de facto Reward Challenge, every episode contained exactly two challenges.
• This is the first season to not feature the Buggin' Out challenge.