Survivor: Palau

File:Survivorpalau.jpg

Survivor Palau logo

Survivor: Palau is the tenth installment of the reality hit Survivor. A preview of it was shown on the reunion of Survivor: Vanuatu. Survivor: Palau premiered on February 17, 2005.

Contestants

Template:Spoiler The competition was increased to twenty contestants for this series. The contestants all spent the first night together tribeless, then on Day 2 the first woman and the first man to win the Individual Immunity the previous day, would start the selection process, by picking the first member of each tribe. The newly selected member would select another person and the process would be repeated. The last two people left were eliminated. A total of three, including the traditional tribal council vote-off on Day 3, were eliminated in the first episode.

When the Ulong tribe was reduced to only one tribe member, Stephenie, she was given a map to Koror, and upon arrival was given a Koror buff. While the players in the game referred to it as a merge, during the finale episode, the apparent official opinion of producers is that it wasn't a merge, as the season was described as being the first without a merge.

Constestant	Original Tribe	"Merged" Tribe	Finish
Jonathan Libby	(none)		Eliminated - Day 21
Wanda Shirk	(none)		Eliminated - Day 21
Jolanda Jones	Ulong		Voted off 1st - Day 3
Ashlee Ashby	Ulong		Voted off 2nd - Day 6
Jeff Wilson	Ulong		Voted off 3rd - Day 8
Kim Mullen	Ulong		Voted off 4th - Day 11
Willard Smith	Koror		Voted off 5th - Day 122
Angie Jakusz	Ulong		Voted off 6th - Day 122
James Miller	Ulong		Voted off 7th - Day 15
Ibrehem Rahman	Ulong		Voted off 8th - Day 18
Bobby Jon Drinkard	Ulong		Eliminated 9th - Day 213
Coby Archa	Koror	Koror	Voted out 10th - Day 24
Janu Tornell	Koror		Quit 11th - Day 27
Stephenie LaGrossa	Ulong		Voted out 12th - Day 30
Gregg Carey	Koror		Voted out 13th - Day 33
Caryn Groedel	Koror		Voted out 14th - Day 36
Jennifer Lyon	Koror		Eliminated 15th - Day 37
Ian Rosenberger	Koror		Voted out 16th - Day 38
Katie Gallagher	Koror		Runner-Up
Tom Westman	Koror		Sole Survivor

• Note 1 - Two players were eliminated in a tribal selection process. The contestants were told that the first man and first woman to initially reach the beach would receive individual immunity. Ian and Jolanda won the immunity and were given the responsibility of picking teams. Only 18 people could go into the two tribes; Jonathan and Wanda were the only ones left, and were eliminated immediately. Subsequently, the immunities that Jolanda and Ian had won were nullified.
• Note 2 - On Day 12, both tribes went to Tribal Council. Koror, by winning the challenge prior to Tribal Council, won the opportunity to vote first, then eat a reward dinner as Ulong spoke with Jeff. Before Ulong voted, Koror voted to give Immunity to a member of Ulong. Ibrehem, who single-handedly lost the challenge for Ulong, was given Immunity in a 3-2-2-1 decision (Bobby Jon and Stephenie received 2 votes, Angie received 1).
• Note 3 - Due to Ulong having only 2 members, a vote did not occur at the Tribal Council; instead, a fire-making challenge was performed in the Tribal Council area, which Stephenie won by just a few seconds.

Elimination notes

• Wanda and Jonathan - Eliminated by not being picked during the tribal selection phase. Wanda apparently annoyed the other players with her singing. Jonathan apparently was too individualistic - he swam to shore when others stayed together in the boat and didn't attempt to form any alliances with other players.
• Jolanda - Eliminated for causing the tribe to lose the challenge, and for being bossy.
• Ashlee - Eliminated after asking to be (not shown on the show, but later revealed in interviews). Also for being solitary, and for refusing food, which caused her to be viewed as the weakest player on her tribe.
• Jeff - After twisting his ankle prior to the immunity challenge, Jeff asked to be voted off. Kim was considered by the tribe as an alternative to voting him out, but in the end he was eliminated. (Note: He didn't lay down his torch. He asked to be voted off, but unlike Osten, he still received votes and had votes cast for others. However, since the definition of quit is "to give up; relinquish," he did essentially quit.)
• Kim - Eliminated for being lazy, and making no noteworthy contribution to the tribe. In fact, she was pegged as the reason the Ulong lost the second immunity challenge.
• Willard - Although Koror never lost an immunity challenge, they were forced to eliminate a player on day 12. Willard was eliminated for getting what Tom referred to as "a free ride" as well as fears he would be a threat in post-merge mental challenges. The tribe had apparently wanted to get rid of him for a while, but never got the chance to.
• Angie - Once obvious target Ibrehem (who had just lost Ulong a reward challenge) received immunity from Koror, Angie received the boot in a last-minute decision by her tribemates. The vote was initially tied 2-2 between her and Bobby Jon (with one vote for James), but after a revote, she was unanimously eliminated. Her elimination was likely a result of the fact that she and her ally Stephenie had not chosen a back-up target to vote out.
• James - A combination of his poor performance in the previous challenge, and a budding alliance between Stephenie and Bobby Jon, were the causes of James' elimination. The vote was originally split 2-2 between Ibrehem and James, but when only Bobby Jon and Stephenie voted, Stephenie changed her vote again.
• Ibrehem - While his performance in previous challenges may have been an issue, with the tribe as small as it was, his elimination was probably just a result of Bobby Jon and Stephenie's choice to stick together. Bobby Jon later said he wanted Stephenie around because of her skill in challenges.
• Bobby Jon - Lost the immunity challenge described above.
• Coby - Was presumably voted out for excessive scheming, and making it obvious he thought he was on top of the game. He was also promoting dissent among the remaining players by openly talking about the various alliances and frictions that existed. Was also a strong threat for physical or mental challenges.
• Janu - Quit the game at Tribal Council. Janu had previously expressed that she was feeling increasingly tired and fed up with the game, and announced she had no qualms about being voted off. After a lengthy discussion at Council, after being assured by Jeff Probst (he stopped tape and asked the producers) she would be able to serve on the jury, she agreed to step down. Stephenie had urged Janu to do so, feeling the tribe might be inclinded to keep Janu and vote her out. Janu sympathized with Stephenie's dilemma, though officially she said she was not stepping down simply on her behalf.
• Stephenie - The original Koror members went through with their previous plan to vote the final remaining Ulong member out. Stephenie was also perceived as a threatening competitor, especially by Gregg.
• Gregg - The original plans to vote out Caryn were scuttled when Ian/Tom realized Gregg would target them next (as he had done with Stephenie). Also a major challenge threat. An alliance of Tom, Ian, and Caryn were joined by Katie, who broke her new deal with Gregg due to her bond with Ian and fear of a tie vote "Purple Rock" scenario.
• Caryn - The final five players allowed paranoia to sink in, and many possibilities for alliances were discussed and broken throughout the episode. During Tribal Council, Caryn elected to reveal private conversations with the rest of the tribe, and did it for both sides of the predominant conflict, which was men against women. Both sides, feeling that Caryn wasn't trustworthy, and also feeling hurt by what she did, unanimously voted her out.
• Jenn - When the Final Four could not agree on whether Jenn or Ian should be voted off, a tiebreaker challenge was used in lieu of the rock-pulling procedure used in Marquesas. It was very similar to the challenge that Ulong faced when they were down to two, a very simple fire-building challenge, which Jenn lost.
• Ian - After spending nearly 12 hours on a bouy, Ian made a deal with Tom that if Ian stepped down, Tom would take Katie to the final two. Ian was feeling guilty for all the wrongs he had committed to Tom, and said that he wanted to leave without that burden. After Ian stepped down, an impromptu tribal council was held, in which Tom simply spoke his vote for Ian, and he was voted off.
• Katie - While she appeared to be more honest and less rehearsed in her responses, Katie was clearly viewed by most of the tribe as a useless and mean-spirited member who got to the final two by riding on Tom and Ian's coattails.
• Tom - Had the tribe's respect, for the most part, and essentially dominated the entire game, winning five out of seven individual challenges and also was the leader of Koror, the most dominant tribe in Survivor history.

Voting Chart

This is a chart of the voting history of all the tribe members, and their results.

On the graph, blue represents a member of Ulong, while brown represents a member of Koror. Stephenie, who has been a member of both tribes, will be yellow. After someone has been eliminated, their future squares will be black.

¹Iberhem first voted for James and Stephenie first voted for Bobby Jon, causing a tie (Bobby Jon voted for Angie and vice versa; James voted for Angie). In a revote, Stephenie, James and Ibrehem voted for Angie.

²Stephenie first voted for Ibrehem, causing a tie; however, in a revote, Stephenie changed her vote and voted for James, sending him home.

³Neither Stephenie nor Bobby Jon actually voted for each other; however, if they had voted, they would have both been forced to vote for each other, thus the fire-making challenge was required.

⁴After the original vote and a revote, there was a deadlock between Jenn and Ian two to two; since there were only 4 people, and Katie would have been eliminated otherwise, Jenn and Ian competed in a fire-making challenge similar to that of Stephenie and Bobby Jon's. Ian won this challenge by a longshot, thus sending Jenn home.

⁵On the aired show, Ian and Katie did not verbally give their vote. However, their votes are known. Katie could not vote for herself or Tom because he had immunity, so she had to vote for Ian. Ian could not vote for himself or Tom, so he had to vote for Katie.

Trivia and Survivor Firsts

In a pre-show interview, host Jeff Probst stated that this season of Survivor would feature the most "Survivor firsts" ever.

Among the firsts this season:

First Episode

• The first Survivor to start with 20 Survivors.
• The first to have two Survivors that were never part of a tribe (Wanda and Jonathan).
• The first to have three Survivors leave in the first episode (Wanda, Jonathan, and Jolanda, who was voted off first).
• Ibrehem of Ulong is the first Muslim contestant to be on Survivor.
• Jolanda was the first Survivor castaway ever to win an Immunity Challenge and be voted off at the subsequent tribal council. The Immunity that she won was only good until Day 2, when the tribes were selected. Her tribe lost the first tribal immunity challenge, and she was voted off.

Ulong

• Ulong performed the worst in pre-merge challenges of any tribe in series history, losing all seven immunities and four out of seven reward challenges.
• The eighth episode of the season marked the first time in which a challenge directly decided who would be leaving the game, because Ulong went to Tribal Council with only two members.
• Ulong was reduced to the smallest tribe in Survivor history, at one member.
• Three of the last four members of Ulong tribe (Bobby Jon, James, and Ibrehem) were from Alabama. The sole non-Alabamian, Stephenie (who is from Pennsylvania), was the only one of the four who survived to the merge.

Koror

• Koror is the first tribe in Survivor history to have brown as its tribal color and to win every single immunity challenge. However, it did lose three reward challenges.
• As Willard of Koror is voted off in that Episode 5 before his reward food is served, this marks the first time ever that a member of a tribe that has won a Reward Challenge does not get to partake in the reward without choosing to do so. (In Pearl Islands, Rupert was given the choice to stay with Morgan and partake in their reward, or go back to Drake; he decided to go back to Drake.)
• The final six members are all from the same original tribe.

Miscellaneous

• Palau had five castaways (Wanda, Jonathan, Bobby Jon, Janu, and Jenn) eliminated from the game without being voted out at tribal council, a series record. Some would say Ian was also not voted out at tribal council, but Jeff Probst held an impromptu council at the site of the final immunity challenge.
• Palau was the first season where there was no official merge. Had there been one, the new tribal color would have been green.
• Janu became the first player to quit the competition and to still be allowed to participate in the jury, as well as make a goodbye speech during the closing credits.
• Janu became the first player to be "exiled" from their tribe, and to be left on a separate island for a night.
• Palau was the first season where a player (Ian) asked to be voted out so he would not go to the final two.
• The first time a Tribal Council vote was not held at the Tribal Council area.
• The first time a Tribal Council vote was held verbally, without players writing down their votes.
• The endurance challenge on Day 38 is the longest-lasting challenge in Survivor history, at 11 hours and 55 minutes.
• This season marks the largest amount of ties at Tribal Council in a season.
• Stephenie attended all tribal councils in the game (whether as a player or as a jury member) except the one where Willard was voted out, giving her the record for the most tribal councils attended by a single player in one season.
• The two tribes were named for Koror Island and Ulong Island, two islands in the Palau Islands. The Koror tribe camp was ironically located on Ulong Island.

External links

• Survivor My Pad
• Official CBS website
• Ulong - Reality Hall of Shame
• Zap2It Article on Ulong's losing streak