Survivor: Samoa

Template:Infobox Television Survivor Survivor: Samoa is the nineteenth season of the CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. The season premiered on Thursday, September 17, 2009.

Applications were due by January 14, 2009. Approximately 800 might have been invited to be interviewed in several states. Following this, approximately 48 semi-finalists were invited to Los Angeles in April 2009 for final interviews with the producers. From there, 20 finalists were selected to be contestants in the show, which was scheduled to occur between mid June and mid-July 2009 in Samoa. Similar to Survivor: Tocantins, the minimum age requirement for this season is 18 for most states.

Contestants

Contestant	Original Tribe	Finish	Total Votes
Marisa Calihan 26, Cincinnati, OH	Foa Foa	1st Voted Out Day 3	7
Mike Borassi 62, Marina del Rey, CA	Foa Foa	Removed Due to Injury Day 5	0
Betsy Bolan 48, Campton, NH	Foa Foa	2nd Voted Out Day 6	7
Ben Browning 28, Los Angeles, CA	Foa Foa	3rd Voted Out Day 8	7
Yasmin Giles 33, Los Angeles, CA	Galu	4th Voted Out Day 11	8
Ashley Trainer 22, Maple Grove, MN	Foa Foa	5th Voted Out Day 14	9
Russell Swan 42, Glenside, PA	Galu	Removed Due to Injury Day 15	0
Dave Ball 38, Los Angeles, CA	Galu
Erik Cardona 28, Ontario, CA	Galu
Brett Clouser 23, Los Angeles, CA	Galu
John Fincher 25, Los Angeles, CA	Galu
Russell Hantz 36, Dayton, TX	Foa Foa
Elizabeth "Liz" Kim 33, New York City, NY	Foa Foa		1
Laura Morett 39, Salem, OR	Galu
Monica Padilla 25, San Diego, CA	Galu		2
Jaison Robinson 28, Chicago, IL	Foa Foa
Kelly Sharbaugh 25, West Hollywood, CA	Galu
Mick Trimming 33, Los Angeles, CA	Foa Foa
Shannon "Shambo" Waters 45, Renton, WA	Galu
Natalie White 26, Van Buren, AR	Foa Foa

The Total Votes is the number of votes a castaway has received during Tribal Councils where the castaway is eligible to be voted out of the game. It does not include the votes received during the final Tribal Council.

The game

Episode Titles	First air date	Challenges		Observer	Eliminated	Vote	Finish
		Reward	Immunity
"The Puppet Master"	September 17, 2009	Foa Foa	Galu	None	Marisa	7-3	1st Voted Out Day 3
"Taking Candy From a Baby"	September 24, 2009	Galu		Yasmin	Mike	No vote	Removed Due to Injury Day 5
					Betsy	7-1	2nd Voted Out Day 6
"It's Called a Russell Seed"	October 1, 2009	Galu		Shambo	Ben	6-1	3rd Voted Out Day 8
"Hungry for a Win"	October 8, 2009	Galu	Foa Foa	None	Yasmin	8-2	4th Voted Out Day 11
"Walking on Thin Ice"	October 15, 2009	Galu	Galu	Shambo	Ashley	5-1	5th Voted Out Day 14
"This Is the Man Test"	October 22, 2009	Neither1	None	None	Russell S.	No vote	Removed Due to Injury Day 15
"Houdini Magic"	October 29, 2009

In the case of multiple tribes or castaways who win reward or immunity, they are listed in order of finish, or alphabetically where it was a team effort; where one castaway won and invited others, the invitees are in brackets.

^1 Russell S. collapsed during the challenge; Jeff announced that neither tribe won.

Episode 1: "The Puppet Master"

• Reward Challenge: A designated swimmer would swim out into the ocean to retrieve a key and swim back. The swimmer would hand the key to the designated strong person to unlock a chain around two bundles of heavy logs. The logs would have to be carried to the next station where a designated agile person would use the log bundles to climb on top of a balance beam. The agile person would need to pull a second key along a rope twisted around the balance beam while remaining on top of the balance beam. At the final stage, a designated smart person would use the second key to unlock a bag of puzzle pieces and use them to assemble a statue. The first tribe to assemble their statue would win.
  • Reward: Flint
• Immunity Challenge: Six members from each tribe would race across a series of three wooden A-frames carrying three coils of rope. At the end of the course, the six would use the rope to pull a heavy wooden crate across a ramp and up to the finish platform. The four remaining tribe members would disassemble the crate to use as puzzle pieces. The first tribe to solve the puzzle would win.

The castaways rowed ashore on four longboats in silence already divided into tribes called Foa Foa and Galu. Jeff instructed the tribes that they would elect a leader of their tribe without speaking to one another, handing out a parchment and pen to each castaway to record their vote. Galu elected Russell S. Foa Foa elected Mick. Mick and Russell S. came forward to make their first leadership decision by selecting participants in the first Reward Challenge. Jeff told the leaders to select their tribe's best swimmer, Jaison and John; the strongest person, Russell and Erik; the most agile, Marisa and Yasmin; and the smartest person, Liz and Shambo. Jaison gave Foa Foa a huge lead during the swimming leg of the challenge and they never lost the lead, though Shambo made up a lot of ground during the puzzle assembly. Dave and Erik were very disappointed in John's performance during the swim leg. Jeff gave the tribes maps to their new homes and sent them on their way. At Foa Foa, Mick ceded leadership of setting up their camp to Ben. Russell quickly made secret alliances with Ashley, Betsy, Marisa, and Natalie, though Betsy was suspicious and didn't trust him. At Galu, Russell S. kept going in his leadership role and took charge of setting up camp. John wanting to talk over how to build their shelter annoyed Shambo. Back on Foa Foa, Russell told a completely fabricated story to the tribe that he was a fireman, a survivor of Hurricane Katrina in Template:City-state and that he lost his German Shepherd in the storm in order to get their sympathy. In the middle of the night, Russell emptied all of the water in everybody's canteens and burned Jaison's socks in order to make the rest of the castaways miserable, thinking that if he could control how his tribe felt, he could control how they think, and further himself in the game. His strategy seemed to work when Ben and Marisa argued the next morning. Galu avenged their loss at the Reward Challenge and won the first Immunity Challenge. In addition to winning Tribal Immunity, Jeff also gave Galu a flint. Mike talked to others in his tribe that they should vote out the physically weakest, who he thought was Ashley. Marisa suspected Russell was up to something and she told him that she was uncomfortable with him, so he immediately targeted her for elimination. Betsy told Natalie that she didn't trust Russell. At the Tribal Council, Russell's plan to eliminate Marisa came together and she was voted out 7-3.

Episode 2: "Taking Candy From a Baby"

• Reward/Immunity Challenge: In a walled off arena, three members of each tribe would battle for control of three balls. Once a castaway gets control of a ball, they would pass the ball to three other tribe members standing on a platform who would attempt to throw the ball through the opposing tribe's basket at the other end of the arena. One point would be scored when a ball is made in the basket. After every point, the tribes would change who was in the arena and on the platform. The first tribe to score three points would win.
  • Reward: Fishing gear

The day after Tribal Council, Betsy and Russell agreed that they didn't trust each other. Jaison and Russell formed an alliance. Russell told Jaison that he was assuming that there was a Hidden Immunity Idol around the camp and went searching for it without any clues or knowing that it existed. While his tribemates stood around watching him look for the Idol, Russell located the Idol hidden in the roots of a tree. He removed the Idol from its hiding place and hid it in his underwear without anybody noticing. Later, he showed the Idol to Jaison. At the Reward/Immunity Challenge, Jeff announced that there was a surprise twist to be read after the Challenge. After two very physical points and the score tied 1-1, Jeff called a pause to the game and announced that the tribes were "right on the line of getting ugly," that there would be no more warnings of being too physical, and that he would remove anybody from the challenge that he deemed made a cheap shot such as a head butt, choking, or a slap to the face. During the very next round, Jeff removed Ben from the challenge for tripping Russell S., forcing Foa Foa to play the round shorthanded by one. Galu took advantage and scored the next point. Galu scored again during the next round to win the Reward/Immunity Challenge by a score of 3-1. Ben was the first castaway ever to be removed from a Challenge by discretion, but he shrugged it off claiming he was an "outlaw" when questioned about it by Jeff. After handing over the Immunity Idol to Galu, Jeff announced that the twist would be that Russell S., as leader of the Galu tribe, would select one member of his tribe to accompany Foa Foa back to their camp and observe them through the next Tribal Council, returning back to Galu afterwards. Russell S. selected Yasmin. Jeff gave Yasmin a note that she would read in private after getting to Foa Foa's camp. After Galu departed the Challenge area, Jeff told Mike to stay so that the Survivor Medical Team could look at him as Mike had taken several hard hits during the Challenge. After examining Mike, the Survivor Medical Team determined that he would be unable to continue and was pulled from the game. Jeff announced that Foa Foa would still be going to Tribal Council. Over at Galu, Shambo said that spearfishing was her thing, but when she came back with no fish and having lost the mouthpiece to the swim mask, Laura felt that Shambo had "signed her own death warrant." At Foa Foa's camp site, after introducing herself, Yasmin announced to Foa Foa that she would help Foa Foa strategize for the rest of the game because she wanted to see a "fair fight" for the rest of the game and didn't want to "take candy from a baby" or be "a cake walk" over a weak Foa Foa tribe. This did not go over well at all with Jaison and Russell stated that Yasmin would pay for the disrespect she showed the tribe. The private note for Yasmin gave her a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol at Foa Foa's camp. Yasmin wanted a private conference with Ben about his "cheap shot" against her when he tackled her during the Challenge. The conference turned into a shouting match and continued on in front of the rest of Foa Foa, which Ashley and Russell thought made Ben look stupid and the rest of tribe not like him, respectively. Ben annoyed his entire tribe by chopping wood in the middle of a night while the tribe tried to sleep. Knowing that she was the next target for being voted out since she the oldest member of the tribe and perceived as the weakest in Challenges, Betsy lobbied for Ben to be voted off as he was disruptive to the tribe and his removal from the last Challenge cost them the win. At Tribal Council, the topics of Yasmin's visit and put down of the Foa Foa tribe and Ben's personality and actions during the Challenge were discussed. Betsy continued to lobby to vote out Ben. Yasmin left the Tribal Council area before the voting started. Betsy's lobbying proved ineffective and she was voted out 7-1.

Episode 3: "It's Called a Russell Seed"

• Reward/Immunity Challenge: A pair of castaways from each tribe would swim out into the ocean to retrieve one of four crates. Between the beach and where the crates are located would be a "battle zone" marked off by four flags. Within this zone, an opposing tribe member would try to prevent the two castaways from crossing the zone and reaching the crate. Once the two castaways crossed the zone, they would bring a crate back to the beach and a second pair of castaways would go out to retrieve another crate. Once all four crates were retrieved, the crates would need to be stacked to solve a puzzle. The first tribe to complete the puzzle would win.
  • Reward: Comfort items of pillows, candles, mats, beach towels, and a hammock

The day after Tribal Council, Jaison talked to Mick about wanting to vote out Ben next because of racist comments he made about Yasmin when she visited the Foa Foa campsite and at the last Tribal Council. Russell told Ben that Ashley was trying to get rid of Ben, because Russell felt that he needed to keep Ben in the game and he wanted Ashley out. Ben confronted Ashley about Russell's story that she first brought up his name to be voted out before the last Tribal Council. Ben told Ashley that somebody told him about Ashley's plot, but he would not say who that somebody was except that it wasn't Russell. Ashley went to verify the story with Natalie, who denied she told Ben. Over at Galu, Shambo felt alienated from her tribe. At the Reward/Immunity Challenge, Galu never lost the lead and won their third consecutive Challenge. After the challenge was over, Jeff gave Russell S., as leader of the Galu tribe, an option of trading the comfort items for more functional items such as fishing gear, a pot, a lantern, and a tarp. Russell S. chose the comfort items because he knew it would make the women of the tribe happier even though he also knew the men would disagree with his choice. Russell S. was also given the decision on who to send to Foa Foa's camp to observe them through the next Tribal Council. This time, he chose Shambo. Shambo's visit with Foa Foa went well with them and she felt more comfortable with them than her own tribe. Shambo was excited about the two clues to the Hidden Immunity Idol, but she did not know that Russell had already found it. Back over at Galu, Russell S. defended his decision about taking the comfort items because he said that he was the type of man who believes he is supposed to take care of his women. His defense did not go over well with John and Erik. Jaison gave Ashley and Natalie an ultimatum that either Ben would be voted out at the next Tribal Council or he would quit, though he was not serious about quitting. Russell, Liz, and Ben wanted to vote out Ashley, but Mick was unsure if he wanted to vote for her or Ben. Russell made an agreement with Mick that as long as Mick would not vote for Russell, Ben would be next voted out after Ashley. To try to gain Mick's trust, Russell showed the Hidden Immunity Idol to Mick. Mick and Russell tried to convince Jaison to vote off Ashley using the threat of an all girl alliance that would vote out the Foa Foa men. At Tribal Council, Jaison and Ben argued over Ben's racist statements. In the end, the tribe decided to vote against Ben and he was voted out 6-1.

Episode 4: "Hungry for a Win"

• Reward Challenge: Three castaways from each tribe would play a game similar to bocce. A flag would be placed in the center of a circle. The castaways would take turns tossing three balls each at the flag. The tribe who throws a ball closest to the flag would win.
  • Reward: Three chickens
• Immunity Challenge: The castaways would race across a net run carrying wooden blocks to a platform. When all of the blocks were at the platform, they would need to be stacked into a tower. The castways would then cross a rope bridge to a second platform where two nets would be tied together holding more wooden blocks. After the nets were untied, the blocks would have to be stacked into another tower. The first tribe to stack both towers would win.

When Shambo returned to Galu, she wasn't happy as she felt more appreciated over at Foa Foa. At Foa Foa, Jaison felt as though he made a bad choice to apply for Survivor because he and the rest of his tribe were cold and wet and hungry. Erik talked to Shambo about the Hidden Immunity Idol clues she had received and she shared the clues with both him and John. The Tree Mail told the tribe leaders that they needed to select two castaways to join them at the next Reward Challenge. Mick chose Russell and Natalie. Russell S. took Shambo and Dave. When the six arrived at the challenge site, Jeff was nowhere to be seen and the castaways did not know what to do. After some hesitation, the tribes made a scramble towards a treasure chest and the cage of chickens. When they opened the treasure chest, they discovered instructions telling them that they were on their own to do the challenge. The challenge came down to Dave's last toss where he had to place his last ball or knock another Galu ball closest to the flag. Dave made the ricochet shot and Galu took home the four chickens. While his three Galu tribemates were at the Reward Challenge and the others were sleeping, Erik went looking for the Hidden Immunity Idol at his campsite and found it. When the victorious trio returned to Galu with the chickens, Russell S. assigned Shambo the job of taking care of them. Over at Foa Foa, Russell had doubts about Jaison's resolve to stay in the game, so he thought about changing his alliance to take Natalie all the way to the final two. On the morning of day 10, Shambo let one of the chickens escape. Kelly was upset at Yasmin for doing nothing around camp. Foa Foa broke Galu's challenge win streak at four when they came from behind at the second tower stacking stage to win the Immunity Challenge. Russell S. talked to Erik about voting out Monica due to her being slow during the rope bridge stage of the Immunity Challenge. Brett brought up Yasmin's name for doing nothing around camp. Shambo and Yasmin wanted to vote out Monica because of the challenge. When Russell S. was told that the rest of the tribe was leaning towards voting out Yasmin, he was upset that the tribe was not following his lead. However, at Tribal Council, he followed the majority and Yasmin was voted out 8-2.

Episode 5: "Walking on Thin Ice"

• Reward Challenge: A food eating challenge. Two castaways would face off against each other by spinning a roulette-like wheel with various food items on it that would be blended together and have to be drunk by the castaways. The castaway would score one point if they were able to drink the whole glass. The challenge would not be a race and there was no time limit on getting the food item down. The first tribe to score five points would win. The draw of the castaways and food items were:

Shambo	Jaison	Giant clam, Jeff's choice: octopus, sea snail, noni juice, seaweed
Russell S.	Russell H.	Jellyfish, milk
Brett	Mick	Giant clam, sea cucumber, milk
Monica	Liz	Sea urchin, sea noodle
Dave	Ashley	Sea slug guts, water

• Reward: Steaks, sausages, and onions

• Immunity Challenge: One man and one woman from each tribe would hold on to a rope that would suspend a net. The castaways from the other tribe would attempt to toss coconuts into the net which would weigh it down. The castaway who held on to the rope the longest without letting the net touch the ground would win for their tribe.

After returning to camp from Tribal Council, Shambo felt more alienated from her tribe as she was the only one besides Yasmin who voted for Monica. Monica felt slighted by Shambo because of that vote and wanted to vote her out next. Over at Foa Foa, Russell thought that Liz was trying to manipulate the next vote and he targeted her for the next vote as he wanted to be the only one manipulating the tribe. At the Reward Challenge, the first four pairs of castaways all succeeded in downing their glasses and the challenge came down to Dave and Ashley. Dave got his glass down while making various vomiting-like noises, which disturbed Ashley. After some taunting by the Galu bench, Ashley quit from the challenge before she could finish her glass and lost the challenge for Foa Foa. Russell had to choose an observer to go the Foa Foa campsite and he chose Shambo for the second time, which made her very unhappy. Russell stated to the rest of the tribe that Shambo had to pay for the loss of the chicken, but after this, the slate would be clean. While trying to start the fire to cook up their challenge winnings, Russell had trouble and argued with Dave about when Dave should step in to help with the fire. After a while, Dave stepped in and got the fire started. At Foa Foa, Shambo shared all of the clues to the Hidden Immunity Idol with Foa Foa. Liz thought that either Ben or Russell H. had the Idol and since Ben did not play it when he was voted out, that Russell H. had to have had it. She confronted him about it, he denied he had it, and then threatened Liz for confronting him. The rain started to pour during the night of day 13 and continued into day 14. At the Immunity Challenge, Foa Foa selected Liz and Russell H. to hold the ropes, while Galu selected Laura and Russell. Foa Foa had trouble tossing the coconuts into the nets while Galu was able to add many to Russell H. and Liz's nets. Russell H. was the first to drop his net. Liz dropped her net next, losing the challenge for Foa Foa. Back at camp, the rain was still coming down, forcing Foa Foa to huddle under their shelter and they could not strategize or scramble as normal before a Tribal Council. At Tribal Council, Ashley was voted out 5-1.

Episode 6: "This Is the Man Test"

• Reward Challenge: One castaway would be strapped into a wooden spherical cage and would have to guide two blindfolded castaways in rolling the cage through a maze through the forest. At the end of the maze would be a labyrinth-like table maze. The castaway inside the cage would then have to guide four blindfolded castaways in solving the table maze. The first tribe to finish the table maze would win.
  • Reward: Pizza while observing the losing tribe at Tribal Council.

The rain continued for the fifth straight day and the two Russells continued to work around their campsites while the others castaways tried to stay out of the rain. The rain finally broke on the morning of day 15. At the Reward Challenge, after Jeff described the rules of the challenge, he announced that both tribes would be going to Tribal Council that night to vote somebody out of the game. Galu sat out Dave, Kelly, Monica, and Shambo. Foa Foa selected Liz to be the guide with Jaison and Russell H. pushing the cage. Galu selected Laura to be the guide and Eric and Russell S. pushing the cage. Towards the end of the cage pushing stage, Russell S. became disoriented and struggled to make it to the puzzle table. Jeff noticed that Russell S. collapsed at his station on the puzzle table, called for a halt, and for the Survivor Medical Team to immediately tend to Russell S. The Survivor Medical Team reported that Russell S. had blood pressure even lower than Mike. Jeff made the call that the challenge was over, neither tribe would win, both tribes would go to Tribal Council, the medical team would tend to Russell S. and, if he was better, he would be at Tribal Council. The Survivor Medical Team made the decision that Russell S. was not fit to continue and he was pulled out of the game. Over at Foa Foa, Liz and Natalie knew that one of them was to be voted out and they each tried to lobby the men in voting the other out. At Galu, Laura plotted to vote out Shambo for being a potential threat to flip to the other tribe post-merger. Monica wanted to vote for Shambo in retaliation for Shambo's votes against her. The Galu men were thinking about voting for Monica instead of Shambo as Monica was seen at the weakest link. When the tribes arrived at the Tribal Council site, Jeff announced that Russell S. was pulled from the game but doing fine. The castaways discussed Russell S.'s departure, the hardships of playing Survivor, and perceptions about how the game was going. Jeff made a final announcement that due to the unprecedented circumstances of not completing a challenge, there would be no Tribal Council votes and nobody would be going home. Jeff told Galu that they would need to select a new tribe leader.

Voting history

	Original Tribes
Episode #:	1	2		3	4	5	6
Eliminated:	Marisa 7/10 votes	Mike No vote2	Betsy 7/8 votes	Ben 6/7 votes	Yasmin 8/10 votes	Ashley 5/6 votes	Russell S. No vote3
Voter	Vote
Brett					Yasmin
Dave					Yasmin
Erik					Yasmin
Jaison	Marisa		Betsy	Ben		Ashley
John					Yasmin
Kelly					Yasmin
Laura					Yasmin
Liz	Marisa		Betsy	Ben		Ashley
Mick	Ashley		Betsy	Ben		Ashley
Monica					Yasmin
Natalie	Marisa		Betsy	Ben		Ashley
Russell H.	Marisa		Betsy	Ben		Ashley
Shambo					Monica
Russell S.					Yasmin
Ashley	Marisa		Betsy	Ben		Liz
Yasmin					Monica
Ben	Marisa		Betsy	Ashley
Betsy	Ashley		Ben
Mike	Marisa
Marisa	Ashley

^2 Mike was evacuated due to medical reasons, therefore no vote occurred for his removal from the game.
^3 Russell S. was evacuated due to medical reasons, therefore no vote occurred for his removal from the game.

Ratings

U.S. Nielsen ratings

Episode	Rating	Share	Rating/Share (18-49)	Viewers (millions)	Weekly Rank
"The Puppet Master"	6.8	11	3.6/11	11.66	#12
"Taking Candy From a Baby"	6.7	11	3.7/11	11.66	#22
"It's Called a Russell Seed"	6.9	11	3.7/11	11.54	#22
"Hungry for a Win"	7.0	11	3.4/10	11.69	#19
"Walking on Thin Ice"	7.1	11	3.5/10	11.78	#19
"This Is the Man Test"	7.7	12	4.0/11	12.88

External links

• Official CBS Survivor: Samoa Website