 survivor: vanuatu â islands of fire, also known as survivor: vanuatu, is the ninth season of the american cbs competitive reality television series survivor. the season was filmed from june 28, 2004 through august 5, 2004 and the season premiered on september 16, 2004. filming took place in vanuatu, a chain of volcanic islands in the south pacific. hosted by jeff probst, it consisted of the usual 39 days of gameplay, with 18 competitors for the second time in the series' history. this was the second season to initially divide the tribes by gender. it was also the first season to feature an amputee (chad crittenden, who had lost a foot to cancer) and two open lesbians (motivational speaker scout cloud lee and former playboy model ami cusack). the male tribe was named lopevi, after one of vanuatu's volcanic islands, while the female tribe was named yasur, after mount yasur. on day 11, there was a tribal shuffle which ended up moving two people from each tribe over to the other tribe. on day 20, the tribes were merged with ten contestants remaining; the tribe was named alinta, a name proposed by lee meaning "people of fire." the winner, chris daugherty was named sole survivor after defeating runner-up twila tanner by a jury vote of 5â2. the dvd for this season was released on december 5, 2006. ==contestants== {|class="wikitable sortable" style="margin:auto; text-align:center" |+list of survivor: vanuatu contestants !contestant !original tribe !switched tribe !merged tribe !finish |- |align="left"|27, winthrop, massachusetts | | style="background:darkgrey;" rowspan="5"| | style="background:darkgrey;" rowspan="8"| | |- |align="left"|25, mercer, pennsylvania | | |- |align="left"|31, los angeles, california | | |- |align="left"|29, toms river, new jersey | | |- |align="left"|{{sortname|brady|fi
2004_in_Vanuatu 2004_television_seasons Survivor_(U.S._TV_series)_seasons