Survivor: Palau

Template:Infobox Television Survivor Survivor: Palau is the tenth installment of the reality television show Survivor. A preview of it was shown on the reunion of Survivor: Vanuatu. Survivor: Palau premiered on February 17, 2005. In the end, Tom Westman defeated Katie Gallagher in a 6-1 vote. The DVD for this season was released on August 29, 2006. [1]

The competition was increased to twenty contestants for this series. Before filming began, the cast was told to dress in street clothes indicative of their careers for publicity photos. This ended up being their only clothing for the duration of the game. Tom Westman's wife told him to wear pants over his swim trunks, as she remembered the Pearl Islands season where the contestants were also tricked into wearing street clothes for the game. 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 a person of the opposite sex. The newly selected member would select another person of the opposite sex, 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, and so far only, without a merge.

Contestants

Contestant	Original Tribe	"Merged" Tribe	Finish	Total Votes
Jonathan Libby 23, Dallas, TX	none		Eliminated Day 2	0
Wanda Shirk 55, Ulysses, PA	none		Eliminated Day 2	0
Jolanda Jones 39, Houston, TX	Ulong		1st Voted Out Day 3	6
Ashlee Ashby 22, Easley, SC	Ulong		2nd Voted Out Day 6	6
Jeff Wilson 21, Ventura, CA	Ulong		3rd Voted Out Day 8	5
Kim Mullen 25, Huber Heights, OH	Ulong		4th Voted Out Day 11	8
Willard Smith 57, Bellevue, WA	Koror		5th Voted Out Day 12	8
Angie Jakusz 24, New Orleans, Louisiana	Ulong		6th Voted Out Day 12	8
James Miller 33, Mobile, AL	Ulong		7th Voted Out Day 15	7
Ibrehem Rahman 27, Birmingham, AL	Ulong		8th Voted Out Day 18	4
Bobby Jon Drinkard 27, Troy, AL	Ulong		Eliminated by Tie-breaker Day 21	2
Coby Archa 32, Dallas, TX	Koror	Koror	9th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	7
Janu Tornell 39, Las Vegas, NV	Koror		Quit 2nd Jury Member Day 27	1
Stephenie LaGrossa 25, Glenolden, PA	Ulong		10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	8
Gregg Carey 27, Chicago, IL	Koror		11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	4
Caryn Groedel 46, Solon, OH	Koror		12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	7
Jennifer Lyon 32, Encino, CA	Koror		13th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37	3
Ian Rosenberger 23, Key Largo, FL	Koror		14th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38	5
Katie Gallagher 29, Merced, CA	Koror		Runner-Up	1
Tom Westman 41, Sayville, NY	Koror		Sole Survivor	0

The Game

		Challenges
Episode Title	Air Date	Reward	Immunity	Eliminated	Vote	Finish
This Has Never Happened Before!	2005-02-17	None	Ian	Jonathan	No Vote	Eliminated Day 21
			Jolanda	Wanda	No Vote	Eliminated Day 21
		Koror		Jolanda	6-3	1st Voted Out Day 3
Love is in the Air, Rats Are Everywhere	2005-02-24	Ulong	Koror	Ashlee	6-1-1	2nd Voted Out Day 6
Dangerous Creatures and Horrible Setbacks	2005-03-03	Ulong	Koror	Jeff	4-2-1	3rd Voted Out Day 6
Sumo at Sea	2005-03-10	Koror	Koror	Kim	5-1	4th Voted Out Day 11
The Best and Worst Reward Ever	2005-03-16	Koror	Ibrehem	Willard	8-1	5th Voted Out Day 122
				Angie	Tie	6th Voted Out Day 122
Jellyfish 'N Chips	2005-03-23	Ulong	Koror	James	Tie	7th Voted Out Day 15
The Great White Shark Hunter	2005-03-31	Koror	Koror	Ibrehem	2-1	8th Voted Out Day 18
Neanderthal Man	2005-04-07	Koror	Koror	Bobby Jon	No Vote	Eliminated 9th Day 213
I Will Not Give Up	2005-04-14	None	Tom	Coby	7-1-1	10th Voted Out Day 24
Exile Island	2005-04-21	Tom, Caryn, Gregg, Janu	Tom	Janu	No Vote	Quit 11th Day 27
I'll Show You How Threatening I Am	2005-04-28	Survivor Auction	Ian	Stephenie	6-1	12th Voted Out Day 30
We'll Make You Pay	2005-05-05	Gregg [Jennifer, Katie]	Ian	Gregg	4-2	13th Voted Out Day 33
It Could All Backfire	2005-05-12	Ian [Tom]	Tom	Caryn	4-1	14th Voted Out Day 36
The Ultimate Shock	2005-05-15	None	Tom	Jennifer	Tie	15th Eliminated Day 37
			Tom	Ian	1-0	16th Voted Out Day 38
The Reunion	2005-05-15	Jury Vote		Katie	6-1	Runner-Up
				Tom		Sole Survivor

• Note 1 - Two players were eliminated in a tribal selection process. The contestants were told that there were two immunity necklaces on the beach: one for the first man and one for the first woman to claim them. On day 2, the castaways were told they would divide into 2 tribes of 9 members each, with the two immunity holders making the first picks for their new tribes. Because one man and one women would not be chosen due to the numbers, they would be eliminated. Jonathan and Wanda were the two that were eliminated immediately. Once this process was completed, the power of the immunity necklaces was over.
• Note 2 - On Day 12, both tribes went to Tribal Council. Koror, by winning the reward 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 - Because Ulong had 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 several players with her singing and was likely perceived to be the weakest female. The reasons for Jonathan's exclusion aren't entirely clear. It's likely that his early jump from the boat alienated him in some regard, but fellow contestant Angie later claimed (at the reunion) that he hadn't been very friendly in an early conversation. Also, Coby Archa had been campaigning for Jonathan's elimination in case of a 20-person tribal council.
• Jolanda - Eliminated for being too strong a leader and for causing friction within the tribe.
• Ashlee - Asked to be voted out as a result of illness (not shown on the show, but later revealed in interviews).
• 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.)
• Kim - Ultimately eliminated for making no noteworthy contribution to camp life and commonly being perceived as "lazy." She nearly escaped elimination for a third time when Stephenie and Angie, the other women of Ulong, worried that they would be outnumbered when Kim was eliminated.
• 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 since they won every immunity challenges, they had never gotten the opportunity to do so.
• 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 re-vote, she was unanimously eliminated. Her elimination was likely a result of the fact that she was seen as the weakest of the four.
• James - A combination of his poor performance in the previous challenge, a budding alliance between Stephenie and Bobby Jon, and Bobby Jon's mistrust in James caused of James to be voted out. 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, since the tribe was so small, his elimination was 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 - When Stephenie and Bobby Jon lost the immunity challenge, they were forced to face off in a fire-building challenge at tribal council. Despite having known how to make fire much longer than Stephenie, Bobby Jon came up short and was eliminated.
• Coby - Was presumably voted out for excessive scheming, and making it obvious he thought he was on top of the game(This was presumably due to the fact that he had made a secret Final Four alliance with Janu, Gregg and Jenn in order to eliminate big threats Tom and Ian) . He was also promoting dissent among the remaining players by openly talking to ex-Ulong Stephenie about the various alliances and frictions that existed among the Koror members. Was also a strong threat for physical or mental challenges. Gregg changed his strategy after realizing Coby could not be trusted and helped get rid of him.
• Janu - Quit the game at tribal council. Janu had previously expressed that she was feeling increasingly tired and fed up with the game and the other players. After being exiled, she had a rebirth of spirit and it did not matter to her whether she stayed or left because she got what she wanted to get out of the experience. After a lengthy discussion at tribal council, and after getting assurance from Jeff Probst that she would be able to serve on the jury (he stopped the taping and asked the producers), she agreed to step down from the game. Realizing she was being used by some of the other players, she wanted to "throw a wrench into their game". Stephenie had urged Janu to quit, and Janu sympathized with Stephenie's dilemma, though officially she said she was not stepping down simply on her behalf. Because of the circumstances of her departure, it was not regarded as being as dishonorable as that of Osten Taylor from Pearl Islands and her final words were aired at the end of the episode.
• Stephenie - The original Koror members went through with their previous plan to vote the final remaining Ulong member out. Because he saw her as a major threat to his long-term plans (while seeing Janu as no threat at all), Gregg insisted she be voted out. Stephenie attempted to convince the Koror women to overthrow the men, but it was not to be.
• Gregg - The original plans to vote out Caryn were scrapped when Ian and Tom realized Gregg would target them next(as he had done with Stephenie) after seeing the events that had occurred at the reward challenge, where Gregg had taken Jenn and Katie with him on a yacht reward instead of the two of them. He was also considered a major challenge threat. An alliance of Tom, Ian, and Caryn was 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. (This is puzzling, because it is fair to assume that the Koror tribe had been informed of the fire-building challenge between Stephenie and Bobby Jon, either by Stephenie herself or by Jeff Probst. It would seem that they were never expressly informed that the "Purple Rock" tie-breaker was no longer in use.)
• 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.
• Jennifer - The alliance of Tom, Ian, and Katie had planned to stick together and vote off Jenn, but after Tom discovered that Ian plotted against him, he joined Jenn and changed his vote to Ian instead. With a split 2-2 decision between Ian and Jenn, they performed a fire-building challenge, and loser Jenn was eliminated.
• Ian - After spending nearly 12 hours on a buoy, Ian made a deal with Tom that if Ian stepped down, Tom would take Katie to the final two. Ian felt 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. She won only Coby's vote.
• Tom - Had the tribe's respect for the most part, and essentially dominated the entire game, winning five out of seven individual challenges. Won in a 6-1 decision with the votes of Ian, Jenn, Caryn, Gregg, Stephenie, and Janu.

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. After someone has been eliminated, their future squares will be black.

	Starting Tribes								"Merged" Tribe
Episode:	Episode 1	Episode 2	Episode 3	Episode 4	Episode 5	Episode 6	Episode 7	Episode 8	Episode 9	Episode 10	Episode 11	Episode 12	Episode 13	Episode 14		Runner-up	Sole Survivor
Eliminated:	Jolanda 6/9 votes	Ashlee 6/8 votes	Jeff 4/7 votes	Kim 5/6 votes	Willard 8/9 votes	James 2/4 votes 2	Ibrehem 2/3 votes	Bobby Jon Elimination Challenge 3	Coby 7/9 votes	Janu No vote 4	Stephenie 6/7 votes	Gregg 4/6 votes	Caryn 4/5 votes	Jennifer 2/4 votes 5	Ian 1 vote	Katie 1/7 votes	Tom 6/7 votes
					Angie 2/5 votes 1
Voter	Vote
Tom					Willard				Coby		Stephenie	Gregg	Caryn	Ian	Ian	Jury Vote
Katie					Willard				Coby		Stephenie	Gregg	Caryn	Jennifer
Ian					Willard				Coby		Stephenie	Gregg	Caryn	Jennifer			Tom
Jennifer					Willard				Coby		Stephenie	Caryn	Caryn	Ian			Tom
Caryn					Willard				Coby		Stephenie	Gregg	Ian				Tom
Gregg					Willard				Coby		Stephenie	Caryn					Tom
Stephenie	Jolanda	Ashlee	Jeff	Kim	Bobby-Jon	Ibrehem	Ibrehem		Coby		Caryn						Tom
Janu					Willard				Stephenie								Tom
Coby					Willard				Janu							Katie
Bobby Jon	Angie	Ashlee	Kim	Kim	Angie	James	Ibrehem
Ibrehem	Angie	Kim	Jeff	Kim	James	James	Stephenie
James	Jolanda	Ashlee	Kim	Kim	Angie	Ibrehem
Angie	Jolanda	Ashlee	Jeff	Kim	Bobby Jon
Willard					Katie
Kim	Jolanda	Ashlee	Jeff	James
Jeff	Jolanda	Ashlee	James
Ashlee	Jolanda	Jeff
Jolanda	Angie

Template:Fnb The vote was initially tied 2-2 between Angie and Bobby Jon, but after a revote, Angie was unanimously eliminated.
Template:Fnb Stephenie first voted for Ibrehem, causing a tie; however, in a revote, Stephenie changed her vote and voted for James, sending him home.
Template:Fnb Neither Stephenie nor Bobby Jon actually voted for each other because if they had voted, they would have both been forced to vote for each other, thus the fire-making challenge was required.
Template:Fnb Quit the game at Tribal Council.
Template:Fnb Jennifer and Ian competed in a fire-making challenge similar to that of Stephenie and Bobby Jon's. Ian won this challenge easily, thus sending Jenn home.

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:

General Firsts

• The first Survivor to have 20 castaways.
• The first to have two Survivors that were never part of a tribe (Wanda and Jonathan).
• The first to have any Survivors last fewer than three days (Wanda and Jonathan were eliminated on Day 2).
• The first to have three Survivors leave in an episode (Wanda and Jonathan, and Jolanda, who was voted off first).
• The first time someone was not allowed to partake in a reward their tribe had won. (Willard was voted off before Koror got to eat their beef stew.)
• Ibrehem of Ulong is the first contestant of Muslim faith to be on Survivor.
• Jolanda was the first Survivor castaway ever to win Immunity and be voted off in the same episode. The Immunity that she won was only good until Day 2, when the tribes were selected.
• The first time four contestants quit the game in one season. (Ashlee & Jeff, asked to be voted out; Janu, voluntarily quit; Ian, promised Tom he would step down if he took Katie to the Final 2.) In addition, Willard knew about his ouster beforehand and did nothing about it.
• The first Survivor to have no merge color (which would have been green). With Stephenie being the sole Ulong in the core group, she was merely absorbed into the Koror.
• Stephenie was the highest-ranking Ulong, at seventh. The Koror are the first tribe to place more than five members in all of the top spots.
• The first season in which a whole tribe won all of the tribal immunity challenges, and a member of the same tribe won each of the individual immunity challenges.
• Tom is the first player to win more than 5 individual challenges and become sole survivor.
• Ian is the first ever person to get voted out outside Tribal Council.

Ulong

• Ulong (OOH-long) performed worst in challenges of any tribe in Survivor history at the time, losing all eight immunity challenges and four out of seven reward challenges. This makes Ulong the first tribe to lose all immunity challenges. As a result, the name of the tribe has achieved verb status in Survivor lore, to indicate a tribe that is repeatedly defeated for immunity. This record would later be broken on Survivor: Fiji, in which Moto defeated Ravu in all eight immunity challenges and all but one of the reward challenges, though this records includes the tribes before and after a tribal swap. As well, Ravu was kept in far more severe conditions than Moto, while Ulong and Koror were kept on equal footing.
• For the first time, a tribe was reduced to one member. Stephenie was Ulong's sole member.

Ulong as a verb

• The original tribes were selected using a 'schoolyard' pick approach, with the two immunity winners selecting one person of the opposite gender, and then that person selecting the next person by the same means until each team had 9 players. By this selection method, only two of Ulong's members were over the age of 30; none were over 40. When they were formed, they believed their youth and strength would work to their total advantage. However, the opposing tribe (with only three members in their 20s) valued wisdom and teamwork and used it to score the first tribal sweep in Survivor history. As the article in the link indicates, "ulonging" is now used to describe a prolonged losing streak.

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. The same thing later occurred in Episode 6 of Survivor - Cook Islands. Aitutaki won a similar reward challenge, with Cao Boi being voted out before the reward (in this case lamb shanks and cider) was given. (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.
• Koror is also the first tribe in Survivor history to be named after a city- Koror, Palau.

Miscellaneous

• Palau had six castaways (Wanda, Jonathan, Bobby Jon, Janu, Katie, and Tom) finish without being voted out; a series record. Bobby Jon did get voted out, however, in Survivor: Guatemala.
• Janu became the first player to quit the competition and to still be allowed to make a goodbye speech during the closing credits. She quit the game because she said she got everything she could out of the experience while on Exile Island. She is also the first contestant to quit the game during the jury phase of the game and was still a juror even though she quit.
• Janu became the first player alone to be "exiled" from their tribe, and to be left on a separate island for a night. She intentionally dropped out of the previous challenge because she wanted to be on Exile Island. Before, in Survivor: Pearl Islands, when Jon won a reward challenge (by lying to the others about his grandmother's death), the rest of the members were exiled to another island. This became the theme of the show two seasons later, Survivor: Panama - Exile Island.
• The first time a tribal council vote was not held at the Tribal Council area.
• The record for most votes cast in a single episode (episode 5)
  • 9 Koror TC votes
  • 8 Koror immunity votes for Ulong
  • 5 Ulong TC votes
  • 3 Ulong tiebreaker votes
• The first time a tribal council vote was cast verbally, without the player(s) writing down their votes.
• Jenn was not shown speaking until the fourth episode, a record for the show.
• The first time both African American contestants (as almost each season of Survivor up until this point has coincidentally had only two African American contestants as part of the cast) held individual immunity in one season.
• The endurance challenge on Day 38 is the longest-lasting challenge in Survivor history, at 11 hours and 55 minutes.
• With three, this season marks the largest amount of ties at tribal council in a season. Before Palau, there had not been a tie since Marquesas.
• Stephenie attended all tribal councils in the game (whether as a player or as a jury member) except Koror's tribal council at which Willard was voted out, and the impromptu tribal council at the final immunity challenge, 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 (where they went following their first immunity win).
• Tom, Ian, Jolanda, and Ibrehem were the only people to win individual immunity during the entire season. During Episode 1, Ian and Jolanda won the individual immunity by being the first man and woman to reach the shore (later in the episode, they started off the tribal selection during the schoolyard pick 'em). Ibrehem didn't technically "win" individual immunity, but possessed it during episode 5 when Koror voted for him to have it. After the merge, only Tom and Ian were the only winners of individual immunity (Tom won five, Ian won two).
• The first tie-breaker challenge involved with fire where the first player to have the flame just touching the torch (which would light up immediately) won the challenge. The second and final tie-breaker challenge was the same except it required both players to have a flame that would last long enough to burn the rope and raise a flag to win that challenge. This second tie-breaker challenge would be used in future seasons of Survivor should any ties occur.
• Ian stated he would take his clothes off for chocolate and peanut butter during the first individual immunity challenge. This is a reference to Survivor: The Amazon's Heidi Strobel and winner Jenna Morasca, who did take off their clothes for chocolate (Oreo Cookies) and peanut butter.

External links

• Official CBS Survivor Palau Website
• Survivor Fever
• Survivor Maps
• Reality TV Hall of Shame article on "Ulonging"