Survivor: Redemption Island

Survivor: Redemption Island
Season Information
Version:	United States
Season No.:	22
Filming Location:	San Juan del Sur, Rivas, Nicaragua
Filming Dates:	August 16, 2010 - September 23, 2010
Season Run:	February 16, 2011 - May 15, 2011
No. of Episodes:	15
No. of Days:	39
No. of Survivors:	18
Winner:	Rob Mariano
Runner(s)-Up:	Phillip Sheppard Natalie Tenerelli
Tribes:	Ometepe Zapatera Murlonio
Cast
Opening Sequence
01:02
Season Chronology
Previous:	Nicaragua
Next:	South Pacific

Survivor: Redemption Island is the 22nd season of Survivor. It premiered on February 16, 2011. Filming took place in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, the same location used in the previous season. The winner of the season was 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'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.^[1]

Production

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

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 on 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."

Twists/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.
• 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 Idol: Hidden Immunity Idols were available this season, with one hidden at each camp.
• Early Merge: This season merged with twelve castaways in the game.
• New Camp for Merger: This is the first time since Survivor: The Amazon where the merged tribe lived in an entirely new camp, rather than using either of the existing camps.
• Double Elimination: On Day 30, Murlonio was subjected to a double elimination, where two castaways would be eliminated after two rounds of voting.
• Expanded Jury and Final Three: Instead of the conventional Final Two facing the jury of seven, the Day 39 Tribal Council was held with a Final Three facing a nine-person jury.

Castaways

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation		Finish	Redemption Island Status	Votes Against
		Original Tribe	Merged Tribe
	Francesca Hogi 36, Washington, D.C.	Ometepe		1st Voted Out Day 3	1st Eliminated Day 6	4
	Russell Hantz 37, Dayton, TX Samoa & Heroes vs. Villains	Zapatera		3rd Voted Out Day 8	2nd Eliminated Day 10	8
	Kristina Kell 46, Malibu, CA	Ometepe		4th Voted Out Day 11	3rd Eliminated Day 12	9
	Krista Klumpp 25, Columbia, SC	Zapatera		5th Voted Out Day 13	4th Eliminated Day 14	6
	Stephanie Valencia 26, Long Beach, CA	Zapatera		6th Voted Out Day 16	5th Eliminated Day 17	8
	Sarita White 36, Santa Monica, CA	Zapatera		7th Voted Out Day 18	6th Eliminated Day 19	6
	David Murphy 31, West Hollywood, CA	Zapatera	Murlonio	10th Voted Out Day 24	7th Eliminated 1st Jury Member Day 25	8
	Julie Wolfe 50, Oceanside, CA	Zapatera		11th Voted Out Day 27	8th Eliminated 2nd Jury Member Day 28	6
	Steve Wright 51, Huntington Beach, CA	Zapatera		13th Voted Out Day 30	9th Eliminated 3rd Jury Member Day 31	9
	Ralph Kiser 45, Lebanon, VA	Zapatera		12th Voted Out Day 30	10th Eliminated 4th Jury Member Day 33	10
	Grant Mattos 29, West Hollywood, CA	Ometepe		15th Voted Out Day 35	11th Eliminated 5th Jury Member Day 36	10
	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
	Mike Chiesl 31, Del Mar, CA	Zapatera		9th Voted Out Day 22	13th Eliminated 7th Jury Member Day 36	6
	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
	Ashley Underwood 25, Benton, ME	Ometepe		17th Voted Out 9th Jury Member Day 38		3
	Natalie Tenerelli 19, Acton, CA	Ometepe		Second Runner-Up		1
	Phillip Sheppard 52, Santa Monica, CA	Ometepe		Runner-Up		17
	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, Matthew 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 Matthew at the next Redemption Island challenge. Matthew would continue to win several more duels against several Zapatera players after Ometepe dominated the challenges, while Zapatera suffered due to the loss of cohesion within their tribe.

The tribes merged with twelve players left in the game, including Matthew, who returned from Redemption Island. Matthew 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 Matthew could not be trusted, using his alliance to send Matthew 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 Andrea Boehlke and Grant Mattos. Though Andrea would return to the game from Redemption Island, she was unable to secure any other alliances, and was voted out a second time. Rob's plans were nearly derailed by Ashley Underwood's immunity run, but Rob managed to win immunity on Day 38 to send her to the jury and complete his ideal Final Three scenario. Ultimately, the Final Three were Rob, Natalie Tenerelli, and Phillip Sheppard.

At the Final Tribal Council, both Natalie and Phillip were criticized for simply following in Rob's footsteps, while Rob was criticized for his cutthroat gameplay. Rob, after 117 days of fighting in the game over four seasons, was voted the Sole Survivor receiving 8 of the 9 jury votes, while Phillip received one vote.

Episode Guide

Voting History

Survivor: Redemption Island Voting and Redemption Island History
		Original Tribes								Merged Tribe
Episode #:		1	2	3		4	5	6	7	8	9		10	11		12	13	14
Voted out:		Francesca	Matthew	Tie	Russell	Kristina	Krista	Stephanie	Sarita	Matthew	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Andrea	Grant	Andrea	Ashley	Natalie	Phillip	Rob
Vote:		4-3-2	4-2-01	3-3-32	5-1-01	4-3	6-2	5-2	4-2	6-5-1-02	6-5	6-4	6-3	6-2	6-1	5-1	4-1	4-0	3-1	8-1-0
►	Rob	Francesca	Matthew	—		Phillip	—	—	—	Matthew	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Andrea	Grant	Andrea	Ashley	Jury Vote
►	Phillip	Francesca	Kristina	—		Kristina	—	—	—	Matthew	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Andrea	Grant	Andrea	Ashley
►	Natalie	Kristina	Matthew	—		Kristina	—	—	—	Matthew	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Andrea	Grant	Andrea	Ashley
►	Ashley	Kristina	Matthew	—		Kristina	—	—	—	Matthew	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Andrea	Grant	Andrea	Phillip			Rob
►	Grant	Francesca	Matthew	—		Phillip	—	—	—	Matthew	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Andrea	Natalie	Eliminated				Rob
►	Andrea3	Kristina	Kristina	—		Kristina	—	—	—	Matthew	Mike	David	Julie	Ralph	Steve	Phillip		Rob				Rob
►	Steve	—	—	Stephanie	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	—	—	Russell	Russell	—	Krista	Sarita	Sarita	Grant	Phillip	Rob	Eliminated									Rob
►	Mike	—	—	Russell	Russell	—	Krista	Stephanie	Sarita	Grant	Phillip							Eliminated				Rob
►	Matthew3	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 used, therefore all votes against the user were negated. Kristina played her idol in Episode 2, Ralph played his for Mike in Episode 8, and Rob used his during the final five vote in Episode 14. All of these attempts, however, were all for naught as none of them either received votes or received enough votes to be voted out. ^2 Tribal Council resulted in a tie. Per the rules, a second vote 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 This contestant re-entered to the game through Redemption Island.

Reception

Trivia

• This is the first American season to feature Redemption Island.
• With Rob Mariano'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, then by Cirie Fields and Ozzy Lusth with their appearances on Survivor: Game Changers.
• Richard Hatch, the winner of Survivor: Borneo, was originally slated to compete against Russell Hantz, but his request to leave the country was again rejected by a federal judge; Rob replaced him instead.
• This is the first season to have no standalone Reward Challenges, due to the presence of Redemption Island taking up the first challenge of each episode.
• This is the second time a tribe which threw an Immunity Challenge ended up outnumbered at the merge due to the loss. The first time it happened was to Sook Jai in Survivor: Thailand.
• 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.
• This was the first season to have a three-way tie at Tribal Council.
• All individual Immunity Challenges were won by members of the former Ometepe tribe.
• The font used on the lettering of this season's tribe names is called "Hobo Std".^[3]

References