Survivor: Palau was the tenth season of the American reality show Survivor. Survivor: Palau'''s first episode was shown on TV on February 17, 2005. This season became available on DVD on August 29, 2006.

Applications to be on the show had to given on June 22, 2004. About 800 people were chosen for an interview in July or August 2004. Out of these 800, 48 were chosen for an interview in Los Angeles during September 2004. From these 48 people, 20 were chosen to be on the show between October to December 2004.

It started with twenty players. Each one came, as told by the producers, dressed in street clothes which are normal for one's career — which they thought was for publicity photos — but this was the only clothing for all of the game. Tom Westman's wife told him to wear swim trunks as underwear, since she remembered the Pearl Islands players, tricked into street clothes for all of that game. For the second time in Survivor history, the players, not the producers, chose the tribes. On the second day of the first episode, when the players chose the two tribes of nine, two players were left unchosen, and they had to leave the game. The two tribes were Ulong (named after Ulong Island, one of Palau's tourist spots) and Koror (named after the capital city of Palau).
Koror dominated from the beginning. They won every challenge, except for three reward challenges, and eventually there was only one Ulong member left. Having lived alone at Ulong, Stephenie LaGrossa got a map to Koror. When she came, she got a brown buff. While the players at the finale (last episode) said that the tribes had merged (combined), the producers say that Palau was the only season without a merge.

Fireman Tom Westman won against Katie Gallagher in a 6-1 vote.

Stephenie LaGrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard returned in the next season, Survivor: Guatemala, where they placed 2nd and 9th. Winner Tom Westman and LaGrossa also returned in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.Gameplay
The twenty players for Palau began the game by rowing a boat to shore, with the first player of each gender to get to the shore winning immunity. However, once they were all at the beach, they got no other instructions, and tribal divisions. They began to work on a shelter for everybody. The next day, Jeff Probst said that they would now pick tribes by doing a schoolyard pick (where one person, the captain, picks one person, then the person they picked picks another person, and so on). Those who had won immunity got the first pick, and the last male and female left would leave the game. The two tribes, Koror and Ulong, then had their first reward/immunity challenge, with the winner, Koror, chose to leave the beach they were at and go to another one they had not seen.

As the challenges continued, everyone knew that Ulong was the weaker tribe, while strong leadership by Tom and Ian at Koror kept the tribe together. Ulong won no immunity challenges and only three reward challenges. Koror only had to go to tribal council and vote for one of their own once during the first 21 days as part of a double-elimination challenge. Unlike many earlier seasons, the tribes were never switched, and Ulong kept on losing players. With only two members left, Stephenie and Bobby Jon, going into tribal council, the two faced off in a fire-making challenge, with Stephenie winning. After spending one night alone, she was told to travel to Koror, and given a Koror buff as there was no need for a tribal merge.

Koror had started a main group of five: Tom, Ian, Gregg, Jenn, and Katie, and those on the outside saw them as a threat but were not able to break them. Although Stephenie made strong impression on her new tribe, Stephenie became a target due to her strength. In a twist that would used in later seasons, the first player to lose the individual immunity challenge had to spend the night alone on a separate island. Janu, the one who lost, felt she had freedom when she left, and chose to quit the game at the next tribal council, which saved Stephenie from being voted out for one more round. When Koror was down to six, Tom and Ian worried that they would fall against a possible immunity threat, Gregg, and his close ally Jenn, and started a plan with Caryn and Katie to vote out Gregg when they had the chance. Katie, feeling betrayed by Ian, became even more upset when Ian took Tom with him on a reward instead of her as he had promised. Ian tried to make Katie happy, but she still held bad feelings towards him. The final four: Tom, Ian, Katie, and Jenn, chose to allow the next vote to end in a tie between Jenn and Ian, and Ian won in the fire-making tie-breaker challenge. The last immunity challenge made players stand on buoys for as long as possible; Katie jumped off early, but both Tom and Ian stayed for more than 12 hours. Ian chose to quit the challenge, giving immunity to Tom, after Tom played on his regret for hurting Katie's feelings and breaking his promises to her, and Ian felt that dropping out would make up for the emotional damage he had done. At the last tribal council, Tom voted Ian out of the game. At the last tribal council, Tom's leadership and physical strength against Katie being too dependent on others, led the jury to vote Tom as the Sole Survivor, 6-1.

PlayersThe Total Votes is the number of votes a player got during Tribal Councils where the player is able to be voted out of the game. It does not count the votes they got during the last Tribal Council.The gameIf more than one tribe or player wins reward or immunity, they are listed in order of finish, or alphabetically if it was teamwork, or where one player won and invited others, the players they invited are in brackets.''

 Two players were eliminated when the tribes were chosen. The players 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 players 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. Once it was completed, the power of the immunity necklaces was over.

 On Day 12, both tribes went to Tribal Council. Koror, by winning the reward challenge prior to Tribal Council, won the chance to vote first, then eat a reward dinner as Ulong spoke with Jeff. Before Ulong voted, Koror voted to give individual immunity to a member of Ulong. Ibrehem was given Immunity in a 3-2-2-1 vote (Bobby Jon and Stephenie each received 2 votes, Angie received 1).

 Because Ulong had only 2 members, a fire-making challenge instead of a vote decided who would be eliminated, and Stephenie won.

 There was no reward challenge because of Stephenie joining Koror.

 Jenn and Ian competed in a fire-making challenge similar to that of Stephenie and Bobby Jon's. Ian won this challenge, sending Jenn home.

Voting history

 The vote was at first tied 2-2 between Angie and Bobby Jon, but after a second vote, Angie eliminated.

 Bobby Jon and Angie were not able to vote in the second Tribal Council vote.

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

 Ibrehem and James were not able to vote in the second Tribal Council vote.

 Janu wanted to leave the game, so there was no vote at Tribal Council.

 Ian was voted out outside Tribal Council by being verbally eliminated by Tom after winning the Final Immunity Challenge.

References

Other websites
Official CBS Survivor Palau Website

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