Survivor: The Australian Outback

Survivor: The Australian Outback (also called Survivor: Australia in later seasons) is the second season of the United States reality show Survivor. Filming took place at Goshen Station in northern Queensland between late October and early December 2000, and aired from January 28 to May 3, 2001 on CBS. The location used was within a three hour drive of the coastal city of Cairns and located in a wet, tropical area. It was the top-rated show of 2001, according to Nielsen Ratings, ranging at 30 million viewers watching weekly.

Fourteen weekly episodes were aired, the premiere airing immediately after Super Bowl XXXV. The winner, Tina Wesson, was announced on May 3, 2001, when she defeated Colby Donaldson by a 4-3 vote.

Production

Filming was known to have commenced during the Survivor: Borneo reunion show which was hosted by Bryant Gumbel. Gumbel had Jeff Probst via phone patch where Probst revealed that they started filming.

In the middle of filming, Colby Donaldson, who won a trip to the Great Barrier Reef as part of a reward win, was fined with A$100,000 for breaking off coral which he intended to keep as souvenirs and flying over sea rookeries. Executive Producer Mark Burnett apologized in behalf of Colby and the production staff after the episode aired.^[2]

The season was released in DVD format on April 26, 2005.

Twist/Changes

Longer Game: The game lasted 42 days, three days longer than the previous season. After this season, the game reverted back to the standard 39 day format.
Tiebreaker: In an event of a tie vote, a revote would take place. If a stalemate occurs, the votes cast against the players in question from previous Tribal Councils will be taken into account. The castaway that had more votes would be eliminated from the game.

Castaways

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation		Finish	Votes Against
Contestant		Original Tribe	Merged Tribe	Finish	Votes Against
File:S2 debb t.jpg	Debb Eaton 45, Milan, NH	Kucha		1st Voted Out Day 3	7
File:S2 kel t.jpg	Kel Gleason 32, Fort Hood, TX	Ogakor		2nd Voted Out Day 6	7
File:S2 maralyn t.jpg	Maralyn Hershey 51, Wakefield, VA	Ogakor		3rd Voted Out Day 9	5
File:S2 mitchell t.jpg	Mitchell Olson 23, Union City, NJ	Ogakor		4th Voted Out Day 12	6
File:S2 kimmi t.jpg	Kimmi Kappenberg 27, Ronkonkoma, NY	Kucha		5th Voted Out Day 15	6
File:S2 michael t.jpg	Michael Skupin 38, White Lake, MI	Kucha		Evacuated Day 17	0
File:S2 jeff t.jpg	Jeff Varner 34, New York City, NY	Kucha	Barramundi	6th Voted Out Day 21	11
File:S2 alicia t.jpg	Alicia Calaway 32, New York City, NY	Kucha		7th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	5
File:S2 jerri t.jpg	Jerri Manthey 30, Los Angeles, CA	Ogakor		8th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	12
File:S2 nick t.jpg	Nick Brown 23, Steilacoom, WA	Kucha		9th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	4
File:S2 amber t.jpg	Amber Brkich 22, Beaver, PA	Ogakor		10th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	6
File:S2 rodger t.jpg	Rodger Bingham 53, Crittenden, KY	Kucha		11th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	5
File:S2 elisabeth t.jpg	Elisabeth Filarski 23, Boston, MA	Kucha		12th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 39	5
File:S2 keith t.jpg	Keith Famie 40, West Bloomfield, MI	Ogakor		13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 41	10
File:S2 colby t.jpg	Colby Donaldson 26, Dallas, TX	Ogakor		Runner-Up	9
File:S2 tina t.jpg	Tina Wesson 39, Knoxville, TN	Ogakor		Sole Survivor	0

Season Summary

Tribe assignments were determined before the game began. The two tribes were named Ogakor (crocodile) and Kucha (kangaroo). Ogakor was a slightly weaker tribe, and after five players were eliminated, they were down five players to Kucha's six. On Day 17, however, Kucha's Michael Skupin, who was a powerhouse for his tribe, fell into the camp fire and suffered third-degree burns, requiring his evacuation and leaving the two tribes equal when they merged. As a result, the vote at the first Tribal Council after the merge ended in a tie along tribal lines. According to the rules of this season, a tie vote would be resolved based on which player had received the most votes in all previous Tribal Councils. As a result, former Kucha member Jeff Varner was eliminated, thus the power has shifted to the remaining members of Ogakor.

The remaining Ogakor tribe members, particularly Tina Wesson, Colby Donaldson, and Keith Famie, stayed a strong group and voted off the remaining Kucha, while also removing close allies Jerri Manthey and Amber Brkich when they threatened to usurp their power.

The merged tribe was wasteful with food and ended up with almost nothing left close to the end of the game. Jeff Probst approached the tribe and offered them a new supply of rice in exchange for giving up their tarps and a giant Texas flag that Colby brought as a personal item (which was also used as a tarp). The tribe also built their new camp in a dried wash basin, and while everybody was away on a challenge, a flash storm caused the wash basin to flood, wiping away much of their camp including the new supply of rice, which Tina barely managed to recover.

The Tina-Colby-Keith alliance stayed together to the end. When Colby won the final Immunity Challenge, he took Tina with him to the Final Tribal Council because he thought she was more worthy. This decision cost Colby the win, as Tina's strategic planning was valued by the Jury more than Colby's prowess in challenges, and she won the title of Sole Survivor by 4 votes to 3.

Episode Guide

Episode		Air Date	Challenges		Eliminated (Vote)	Finish	Viewers (in millions)^[3]	Ratings/Share (18-49)^[3]
Episode		Air Date	Reward	Immunity	Eliminated (Vote)	Finish	Viewers (in millions)^[3]	Ratings/Share (18-49)^[3]
1	"Stranded"	January 28, 2001	Ogakor¹		Debb (7-1)	1st Voted Out Day 3	45.37	21.8/48
2	"Suspicion"	February 1, 2001	Ogakor	Kucha	Kel (7-1)	2nd Voted Out Day 6	29.04	11.9/28
3	"Trust No One"	February 8, 2001	Ogakor	Kucha	Maralyn (5-1-1)	3rd Voted Out Day 9	29.04	12.2/28
4	"The Killing Fields"	February 15, 2001	Kucha	Kucha	Mitchell (3-3; 2-2; tiebreaker)^2,³	4th Voted Out Day 12	28.23	11.7/29
5	"The Gloves Come Off"	February 22, 2001	Kucha	Ogakor	Kimmi (6-1)	5th Voted Out Day 15	28.78	11.9/28
6	"Trial by Fire"	March 1, 2001	Kucha	None	Michael (no vote)	Evacuated Day 17	31.32	13.7/34
7	"The Merge"	March 8, 2001	None	Keith	Jeff (5-5; 4-4; tiebreaker)^2,³	6th Voted Out Day 21	28.72	12.1/31
8	"Friends?"	March 14, 2001	Jerri [Amber]	Keith	Alicia (5-4)	7th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	28.46	12.0/33
9	"The First 24 Days"	March 21, 2001	Recap Episode				N/A	N/A
10	"Honeymoon or Not?"	March 29, 2001	Colby, Jerri	Nick	Jerri (6-2)	8th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	28.12	11.8/29
11	"Let's Make a Deal"	April 5, 2001	Survivor Auction	Colby	Nick (4-2-1)	9th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	27.71	11.7/32
12	"No Longer Just a Game"	April 12, 2001	Colby	Colby	Amber (4-2)	10th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	27.55	11.7/34
13	"Enough Is Enough"	April 19, 2001	Tina	Colby	Rodger (3-2)	11th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	28.41	11.7/32
14	"The Final Four"	April 26, 2001	Colby	Colby	Elisabeth (3-1)	12th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 39	26.89	11.2/32
15	"The Most Deserving"	May 3, 2001	None	Colby	Keith (1-0)	13th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 41	36.35	15.9/39
			Jury Vote		Colby (4-3)	Runner-Up
			Jury Vote		Tina (4-3)	Sole Survivor
16	"Reunion"						41.26	18.5/41
Notes: ^1 Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge. ^2 The vote resulted in a tie. Per Survivor rules, a revote would commence. ^3 Per Survivor rules, in case of a deadlock tie, past votes were taken into account. The player with more past votes would be eliminated.

Voting History

		Original Tribes								Merged Tribe
Episode		1	2	3	4			5	6	7			8	10	11	12	13	14	15
Voted Out		Debb	Kel	Maralyn	Tie	Deadlock	Mitchell	Kimmi	Michael	Tie	Deadlock	Jeff	Alicia	Jerri	Nick	Amber	Rodger	Elisabeth	Keith	Colby	Tina
Vote		7-1	7-1	5-1-1	3-3¹	2-2²	Past votes	6-1	No vote³	5-5¹	4-4²	Past votes	5-4	6-2	4-2-1	4-2	3-2	3-1	1-0⁴	4-3
►	Tina	—	Kel	Maralyn	Mitchell	Mitchell	—	—	—	Jeff	Jeff	—	Alicia	Jerri	Nick	Amber	Rodger	Elisabeth	None	Jury Vote
►	Colby	—	Kel	Maralyn	Mitchell	Mitchell	—	—	—	Jeff	None	—	Alicia	Jerri	Nick	Rodger	Rodger	Elisabeth	Keith	Jury Vote
►	Keith	—	Kel	Mitchell	Mitchell	None	—	—	—	Jeff	Jeff	—	Alicia	Jerri	Nick	Amber	Rodger	Elisabeth	None		Tina
►	Elisabeth	Debb	—	—	—			Kimmi	—	Colby	Colby	—	Jerri	Jerri	Amber	Amber	Keith	Keith			Tina
►	Rodger	Debb	—	—	—			Kimmi	—	Colby	Colby	—	Jerri	Jerri	Amber	Amber	Keith			Colby
►	Amber	—	Kel	Maralyn	Keith	Keith	—	—	—	Jeff	Jeff	—	Alicia	Elisabeth	Nick	Rodger				Colby
►	Nick	Debb	—	—	—			Kimmi	—	Colby	Colby	—	Jerri	Jerri	Keith					Colby
►	Jerri	—	Kel	Maralyn	Keith	Keith	—	—	—	Jeff	Jeff	—	Alicia	Elisabeth							Tina
►	Alicia	Debb	—	—	—			Kimmi	—	Colby	Colby	—	Jerri								Tina
►	Jeff	Debb	—	—	—			Kimmi	—	Colby	None	Voted Out
	Michael	Debb	—	—	—			Kimmi	Evacuated
	Kimmi	Debb	—	—	—			Jeff
	Mitchell	—	Kel	Maralyn	Keith	None	Voted Out
	Maralyn	—	Kel	Jerri
	Kel	—	Jerri
	Debb	Jeff
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 Per Survivor rules, in the event of a deadlock tie, past votes were taken into account. The castaway with more past votes would be eliminated. ^3 Michael was medically evacuated after falling into the camp fire and severely burning his hands. No vote occurred for his removal. ^4 Keith and Tina did not vote as they could only vote for each other. By virtue of winning the Final Immunity Challenge, only Colby voted.

Reception

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Trivia

The Tribal Council set was located on the majestic rock cliffs beside the Herbert River falls.
This season has the most first-time participants returning in future seasons with 6: Alicia Calaway and Amber Brkich returned in Survivor: All-Stars; Colby Donaldson and Jerri Manthey returned in both Survivor: All-Stars and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains; Michael Skupin returned in Survivor: Philippines; and Tina Wesson returned in both Survivor: All-Stars and Survivor: Blood vs. Water.
- Australia is the season with the highest number of representatives in a future season (5 on All-Stars).
This is the first season to feature a live finale, as opposed to the previous season, which had the winner revealed on set.
This season is the longest season in terms of filming, which lasted 42 days instead of the standard 39.
This season saw the first time a contestant was medically evacuated when Michael Skupin fell into a fire and burned his hands.
This is the only season to have an episode where there only three people left.
This is the only season in which Jeff Probst sat to the contestants' right at Tribal Council.

References

Survivor (U.S.) Seasons
Borneo • The Australian Outback • Africa • Marquesas • Thailand • The Amazon • Pearl Islands • All-Stars • Vanuatu • Palau • Guatemala • Panama • Cook Islands • Fiji • China • Micronesia • Gabon • Tocantins • Samoa • Heroes vs. Villains • Nicaragua • Redemption Island • South Pacific • One World • Philippines • Caramoan • Blood vs. Water • Cagayan • San Juan del Sur • Worlds Apart • Cambodia • Kaôh Rōng • Millennials vs. Gen X • Game Changers • Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers • Ghost Island • David vs. Goliath • Edge of Extinction • Island of the Idols • Winners at War • Survivor 41 • Survivor 42 • Survivor 43 • Survivor 44 • Survivor 45 • Survivor 46

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[1] ttp://web.archive.org/web/20020221074716/http://www.wndu.com/entertainment/052001/entertainment_7900.php

[2] ttp://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,104571~3~0~survivorheadapologizesfor,00.html

[ratings-3] 3.0 ^3.1 http://www.spottedratings.com/2011/12/spotvault-survivor-cbs-spring-2001.html

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