Survivor: Africa

Survivor: Africa was the third season of the United States reality show Survivor. It was filmed in 2001 and was shown on TV from October 11, 2001 - January 10, 2002 on CBS. It was set in Kenya's Shaba National Reserve on the African continent.

The two starting tribes were Boran and Samburu (named after the real-life Borana and Samburu tribes). In the fifth episode, after 12 days, three members from each team were sent to the other team, in what became known as the first twist in the Survivor series. The players then knew that they must be ready for the most sudden changes; future seasons would have similar twists. Later on, the two tribes merged (combined) into a new tribe, which the players named "Moto Maji" (Kiswahili for 'fire' and 'water').

This season was also the first to have a tiebreaker challenge: in the season before, the person that had most votes against them in earlier Tribal Councils was voted out in such a situation, but in Samburu's first tribal council, Carl Bilancione and Lindsey Richter each had four votes. The two competed in a nature quiz tiebreaker, the loser of which was eliminated.

During the finale (last episode), the producers made it look like the votes were being read at the Final Tribal Council right after the votes were cast. Jeff Probst went to get the voting urn and, when he returned, it appeared he had returned to the Tribal Council site to read the votes. However, he was actually on a CBS sound stage in Hollywood (with a live audience) that was made up to look like the site. This was told after he read the votes and said who won. The players were told to try to make themselves look like they were at the last Tribal Council and the audience was told to hold any cheering or clapping until after they said who won.

There were thirteen episode, plus a mid-season recap, a live reunion/interview with Bryant Gumbel after the finale, and a "where are they now" show. The winner, Ethan Zohn, was revealed on January 10, 2002, where he won against Kim Johnson by a vote of 5-2.

Ethan Zohn, Lex van den Berghe, and Tom "Big Tom" Buchanan returned in Survivor: All-Stars, where they placed 11th, 9th, and 5th.

Players

The 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 final Tribal Council.

The game

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.

Voting history

 Lindsey and Carl competed in a nature quiz tiebreaker, which Carl lost. 
 Lindsey was eliminated because she had four previous votes against her.

Controversy
There was some controversy about an immunity challenge in the last episode. In a "Fallen Comrades" challenge, where the players were asked questions about players in the game who had been voted out, the last question was "Which female contestant has no piercings?" The official answer, given by Kim Johnson to earn the win, was Kelly Goldsmith. Lex van den Berghe answered the question with Lindsey Richter's name, who also had no piercings, but the producers did not know this. After the producers were told about mistake, both third place finisher van den Berghe and fourth place finisher Tom Buchanan were awarded the $100,000 runner-up prize instead of the usual third and fourth place earnings.

References

Other websites
Official CBS Survivor Africa Website

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