Survivor South Africa: Panama

Survivor South Africa: Panama
Season Information
Version:	South Africa
Season No.:	1
Filming Location:	Pearl Islands, Panama
Filming Dates:	June 6, 2006 - July 5, 2006
Season Run:	September 3, 2006 – November 26, 2006
No. of Episodes:	14
No. of Days:	29
No. of Castaways:	14
Winner:	Vanessa Marawa
Runner(s)-Up:	Jacinda Louw
Tribes:	Aguila Rana Burba
Season Chronology
Next:	Malaysia

Survivor South Africa: Panama is the first season of Survivor South Africa. The premiere aired on the 3rd of September 2006. Vanessa Marawa defeated Jacinda Louw in a 3-2 vote, winning the R1 million prize.

Production

A South African version of global reality phenomenon Survivor was announced by pay channel M-Net on Tuesday 11 April 2006, and was filmed on the Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama from June 6.

In Survivor South Africa: Panama 14 contestants were chosen from a shortlist of 700, with six additional contestants selected as replacements in case any of the original 14 were unable to take part through injury or other reasons. Entries opened for the show on April 11 and closed on May 15. More than 18,000 South Africans applied to be on the show. Pierre van Niekerk (49), a resident of Rietfontein in Pretoria, entered 1,000 times.

The show was filmed from June 6, 2006 until early July.

On July 16 M-Net announced the host of the show - Capetonian Mark Bayly, who auditioned to be a contestant and was hired as presenter instead.

Survivor South Africa: Panama was filmed in the Pearl Islands at the same time as five other Survivor productions: The Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, Sweden and Turkey.

Twists/Changes

• Unexpected Start: The contestant were being taken to a place to take some pictures to promote the season, when the pilot of the plane they were in faked an emergency landing near a Panamanian village. The host then appeared to announce that the game had started. The tribes were divided and they were told that they would have only their belongs that could fit in one back pack for each tribe.
• Future Vote: After Jude Wilken quit at Tribal Council, the host Mark Bayly announced to the remaining Aguila tribe they would still have to vote. After Mark read the votes, he announced that the person who had received the majority of the votes would already have a vote cast against them at their next Tribal Council.
• Life Donation: As Sanele Gumede was medevaced, his torch wasn't extinguished. At Rana's Tribal Council next night, he showed up to give his "life" to the person who was voted out, who will be joining the Aguila tribe in his place.
• Dead Man's Island: Starting at the merge, the castaways voted out at Tribal Council would be exiled to an island called Dead Man's Island without knowledge of the castaways remaining at the game, where they would wait to compete for two spots to re-enter the game at the Final Three.
• Semi-Finals: At the second Final Four, the castaways would compete in a challenge where the first person out would be eliminated from the game, the last person standing would be the first finalist, and the other two people would compete in another challenge to define the second finalist.

Castaways

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation			Finish	Dead Man's Island Status	Votes Against
		Original Tribe	Switched Tribe	Merged Tribe
	Don Soper 54, Hurlingham Manor, GP Businessman	Rana			1st Voted Out Day 3		4
	Sam Allerton 30, Hogsback, EC Sculptor	Aguila			2nd Voted Out Day 6		5
	Jude Wilken 39, Kempton Park, GP Hostage Negotiator	Aguila			Quit Day 8		0
	Ncumisa Ngcaweni 30, Kenilworth, WC Skills Trainer	Rana			3rd Voted Out Day 10		4
	Sanele Gumede 27, Sandton, GP Brand Manager	Aguila			Evacuated Day 12		0
	Danielle Vukic 35, Green Point, WC Fashion Producer	Rana	Aguila		4th Voted Out Day 14		8
	Nico Hinis 43, Parkhurst, GP Restaurateur	Aguila	Aguila		5th Voted Out Day 16		5
	Lezel Crook 28, Llandudno, WC Attorney	Rana	Rana	Burba	9th Voted Out Day 24	1st Eliminated 1st Jury Member Day 25	9
	Brigitte Willers 24, Auckland Park, GP Sports Model	Aguila	Aguila		6th Voted Out Day 19	2nd Eliminated 2nd Jury Member Day 25	5
	Gareth Tjasink 27, Sunninghill, GP Medical Doctor	Rana	Rana		10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 27		3
	Zayn Nabbi 24, Durban, KZN Journalist	Rana	Rana		Eliminated 4th Jury Member Day 28		2
	Mzi Tyhokolo 31, Honeydew Ridge, GP Energy Advisor	Aguila	Aguila		7th Voted Out Day 21	Returnee Day 25	6
					Eliminated 5th Jury Member Day 29
	Jacinda Louw 25, Bedfordview, GP Entrepreneur	Rana	Rana		Runner-Up		1
	Vanessa Marawa 27, La Lucia, KZN Estate Agent	Aguila	Aguila		8th Voted Out Day 22	Returnee Day 25	6
					Sole Survivor

Season Summary

Episode	Air Date	Dead Man's Island			Challenges		Eliminated (Vote)	Finish
		Inhabitant(s)	Eliminated	Finish	Reward	Immunity
1	September 3, 2006				Aguila	Aguila	Don (4-3)	1st Voted Out Day 3
2	September 10, 2006				Aguila	Rana	Sam (5-2)	2nd Voted Out Day 6
3	September 17, 2006				Aguila	Rana	Jude (No Vote)	Quit Day 8
4	September 24, 2006				Aguila1	Aguila	Ncumisa (4-2)	3rd Voted Out Day 10
					Rana1
5	October 1, 2006				Aguila	Aguila	Sanele (No Vote)	Evacuated Day 12
6	October 8, 2006				Aguila	Rana	Danielle (3-2-1)	4th Voted Out Day 14
7	October 15, 2006				Rana	Rana	Nico (3-1)	5th Voted Out Day 16
8	October 22, 2006				None	Gareth	Brigitte (4-3)	6th Voted Out 1st Jury Member2 Day 19
9	October 29, 2006	Brigitte			Jacinda [Lezel]	Gareth	Mzi (4-2)	7th Voted Out Day 21
10	November 5, 2006	Brigitte			Vanessa [Gareth]	Gareth	Vanessa (4-1)	8th Voted Out Day 22
		Mzi
11	November 12, 2006	Brigitte			Gareth	Gareth	Lezel (3-1)	9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member2 Day 24
		Mzi
		Vanessa
12	November 19, 2006	Brigitte	Lezel	Eliminated Day 25	None	Mzi	Gareth (3-1-1)	10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 27
		Lezel	Brigitte
		Mzi	Mzi	Returnees Day 25
		Vanessa	Vanessa
13	November 26, 2006				None	Vanessa	Zayn (No Vote)3	Eliminated 4th Jury Member Day 28
						Jacinda	Mzi (No Vote)4	Eliminated 5th Jury Member Day 29
		Jury Vote					Jacinda (3-2)	Runner Up
							Vanessa (3-2)	Sole Survivor
Notes: ^1 Due to the Reward Challenge occurring independently on both tribes' islands, both tribes were able to win reward. ^2 Brigitte and Lezel became jurors after losing the Dead Man Island reentry challenge. ^3 The Final Four competed in an elimination challenge, with the first placer going straight to the Final Tribal Council. Vanessa came in first, while Zayn finished last in the challenge, eliminating him from the game. ^4 Jacinda and Mzi competed in a second challenge to determine the second person at the Final Tribal Council. Jacinda won, eliminating Mzi from the game.

Voting History

Survivor South Africa: Panama 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:		Don	Sam	Jude	Ncumisa	Sanele	Danielle	Nico	Brigitte	Mzi	Vanessa	Lezel	Gareth	Zayn	Mzi	Jacinda	Vanessa
Vote:		4-3	5-2	No Vote	4-2	No Vote	3-2-11	3-1	4-3	4-2	4-1	3-1	3-1-1	No Vote2	No Vote3	3-2
►►	Vanessa	—	Sam	—	—	—	Danielle	Nico	Lezel	Lezel	Lezel		Gareth	—	—	Jury Vote
►►	Jacinda	Don	—	—	Ncumisa	—	—	—	Brigitte	Mzi	Vanessa	Lezel	Gareth	—	—
►►	Mzi	—	Sam	—	—	—	Danielle	Nico	Lezel	Lezel			Gareth	—	Eliminated		Vanessa
►►	Zayn	Don	—	—	Danielle	—	—	—	Brigitte	Mzi	Vanessa	Lezel	Jacinda	Eliminated			Vanessa
►►	Gareth	Don	—	—	Ncumisa	—	—	—	Brigitte	Mzi	Vanessa	Lezel	Zayn			Jacinda
►►	Lezel	Danielle	—	—	Ncumisa	—	—	—	Brigitte	Mzi	Vanessa	Zayn	Eliminated			Jacinda
►►	Brigitte	—	Vanessa	—	—	—	Mzi	Nico	Lezel				Eliminated				Vanessa
►	Nico	—	Sam	—	—	—	Danielle	Brigitte
►	Danielle	Don	—	—	Ncumisa	—	Nico
	Sanele	—	Sam	—	—	Evacuated	Nico
	Ncumisa	Danielle	—	—	Danielle
	Jude	—	Sam	Quit
	Sam	—	Vanessa
	Don	Danielle
Notes: ^1 Nico had a future vote that took effect at this Tribal Council. ^2 The Final Four competed in an elimination challenge, with the first placer going straight to the Final Tribal Council. Vanessa came in first, while Zayn finished last in the challenge, eliminating him from the game. ^3 Jacinda and Mzi competed in a second challenge to determine the second person at the Final Tribal Council. Jacinda won, eliminating Mzi from the game.