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

|align="left"|Contestant|Original tribe|Switched tribe|Merged tribe|Finish|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|align="left"|**** <small>42, Lincoln, Nebraska</small>||style="background:darkgrey;" rowspan="4"||style="background:darkgrey;" rowspan="6"|||
|align="left"|**** <small>26, Orlando, Florida</small>|||||||
|align="left"|**** <small>46, Winter Springs, Florida</small>|||||||
|align="left"|**** <small>44, Cambridge, Massachusetts</small>|||||||
|align="left"|**** <small>23, Germantown, Tennessee</small>|||||||
|align="left"|**** <small>26, Portland, Oregon</small>|||||||
|align="left"|**** <small>24, Detroit, Michigan</small>|||align="center" rowspan=10||||
|align="left"|**** <small>22, Rancho Santa Fe, California</small>|||||||
|align="left"|**** <small>25, Dallas, Texas</small>|||||||
|align="left"|**** <small>43, Odessa, New York</small>|||||||
|align="left"|**** <small></small>|||||||
|align="left"|**** <small>42, Jackson, Georgia</small>|||||||
|align="left"|**** <small>45, Rich Valley, Virginia</small>|||||||
|align="left"|**** <small>38, Santa Cruz, California</small>|||||||
|align="left"|**** <small>56, Oyster Bay, New York</small>|||||||
|align="left"|**** <small>27, Lexington, Massachusetts</small>|||||||

- _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

|rowspan="2" style="width:200px;"|Episode title|rowspan="2" style="width:125px;"|Original air date|colspan=2|Challenge winner(s)|rowspan="2" style="width:60px;"|Eliminated|rowspan="2" style="width:150px;"|Finish|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|align="left"|"Question of Trust"|align="left"|October 11, 2001|colspan=2||1st voted out Day 3||||
|align="left"|"Who's Zooming Whom?"|align="left"|October 18, 2001||||2nd voted out Day 6|||
|align="left"|"The Gods Are Angry"|align="left"|October 25, 2001||||3rd voted out Day 9|||
|align="left"|"The Young and Untrusted"|align="left"|November 1, 2001||||4th voted out Day 12|||
|align="left"|"The Twist"|align="left"|November 8, 2001||||5th voted out Day 15|||
|align="left"|"I'd Never Do It To You"|align="left"|November 15, 2001||||6th voted out Day 18|||
|align="left"|"Will There Be a Feast Tonight?"|align="left"|November 22, 2001|None|||7th voted out Day 21|||
|align="left"|"Smoking Out the Snake"|align="left"|December 6, 2001||||8th voted out Day 24|||
|align="left"|"Dinner, Movie and a Betrayal"|align="left"|December 13, 2001||||9th voted out 2nd jury member Day 27|||
|align="left"|"We Are Family"|align="left"|December 20, 2001|Survivor Auction|||10th voted out 3rd jury member Day 30|||
|align="left"|"The Big Adventure"|align="left"|December 27, 2001||||11th voted out 4th jury member Day 33|||
|align="left"|"Truth Be Told"|align="left"|January 3, 2002||||12th voted out 5th jury member Day 36|||
|rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|"The Final Four: No Regrets"|rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|January 10, 2002|rowspan=2|None|||13th voted out 6th jury member Day 37||
|||14th voted out 7th jury member Day 38||||||||
|rowspan="3" style="text-align:left;"|"The Reunion"|rowspan="3" style="text-align:left;"|January 10, 2002|rowspan="3" colspan="2" bgcolor="darkgray"||colspan=2|**Jury vote**|||
||Runner-up|||||||||
||Sole Survivor|||||||||
- _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

||colspan=4|Starting tribes|colspan=2|Mixed tribes|colspan=10|Merged tribe||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|align="left"|Episode #:|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|colspan=2|13|colspan=2|Reunion|||||||||||||||||
|align="left"|Eliminated:|bgcolor="gold"|Diane 6/8 votes|bgcolor="gold"|Jessie 5/7 votes|bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Carl 4/8 votes<span style="color:white;"><sup>1</sup></span></span>|bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Linda 4/7 votes</span>|bgcolor="gold"|Silas 5/6 votes|bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Lindsey 3/6 votes<span style="color:white;"><sup>2</sup></span></span>|bgcolor="#00A693"|Clarence 8/10 votes|bgcolor="#00A693"|Kelly 5/9 votes|bgcolor="#00A693"|Brandon 6/8 votes|bgcolor="#00A693"|Frank 6/7 votes|bgcolor="#00A693"|. 4/6 votes|bgcolor="#00A693"|Teresa 4/5 votes|bgcolor="#00A693"|Tom 3/4 votes|bgcolor="#00A693"|Lex 1 vote|bgcolor="#00A693"|. 2/7 votes|bgcolor="#00A693"|Ethan 5/7 votes|
|align="left" bgcolor="#00A693"|Ethan|bgcolor="gold"|Diane|bgcolor="gold"|Jessie|||bgcolor="gold"|Silas||bgcolor="#00A693"|Clarence|bgcolor="#00A693"|Kelly|bgcolor="#00A693"|Brandon|bgcolor="#00A693"|Frank|bgcolor="#00A693"|Kim P.|bgcolor="#00A693"|Teresa|bgcolor="#00A693"|Tom||colspan=2 rowspan=2|Jury Vote|||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="#00A693"|Kim J.|bgcolor="gold"|Diane|bgcolor="gold"|Jessie|||bgcolor="gold"|Silas||bgcolor="#00A693"|Clarence|bgcolor="#00A693"|Kelly|bgcolor="#00A693"|Brandon|bgcolor="#00A693"|Frank|bgcolor="#00A693"|Kim P.|bgcolor="#00A693"|Teresa|bgcolor="#00A693"|Tom|bgcolor="#00A693"|Lex||||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="#00A693"|Lex|bgcolor="gold"|Diane|bgcolor="gold"|Jessie||||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Lindsey</span>|bgcolor="#00A693"|Clarence|bgcolor="#00A693"|Kelly|bgcolor="#00A693"|Frank|bgcolor="#00A693"|Frank|bgcolor="#00A693"|Kim P.|bgcolor="#00A693"|Teresa|bgcolor="#00A693"|Tom|||bgcolor="#00A693"|Ethan||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="#00A693"|Tom|bgcolor="gold"|Clarence|bgcolor="gold"|Clarence||||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Lindsey</span>|bgcolor="#00A693"|Clarence|bgcolor="#00A693"|Kelly|bgcolor="#00A693"|Brandon|bgcolor="#00A693"|Frank|bgcolor="#00A693"|Kim P.|bgcolor="#00A693"|Teresa|bgcolor="#00A693"|Lex|bgcolor="darkgray"|||bgcolor="#00A693"|Ethan|||||
|align="left" bgcolor="#00A693"|Teresa|||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Lindsey</span>|bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Silas</span>|bgcolor="gold"|Silas||bgcolor="#00A693"|Lex|bgcolor="#00A693"|Lex|bgcolor="#00A693"|Brandon|bgcolor="#00A693"|Frank|bgcolor="#00A693"|Lex|bgcolor="#00A693"|Tom|bgcolor="darkgray" colspan=2|||bgcolor="#00A693"|Ethan|||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="#00A693"|Kim P.|||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Carl</span>|bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Linda</span>||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Tom</span>|bgcolor="#00A693"|Clarence|bgcolor="#00A693"|Lex|bgcolor="#00A693"|Brandon|bgcolor="#00A693"|Frank|bgcolor="#00A693"|Lex|bgcolor="darkgray" colspan=3||bgcolor="#00A693"|Kim J.||||||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="#00A693"|Frank|||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Lindsey</span>|bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Silas</span>|bgcolor="gold"|Silas||bgcolor="#00A693"|Clarence|bgcolor="#00A693"|Lex|bgcolor="#00A693"|Brandon|bgcolor="#00A693"|.|bgcolor="darkgray" colspan=4|||bgcolor="#00A693"|Ethan|||||||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="#00A693"|Brandon|||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Carl</span>|bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Linda</span>||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Tom</span>|bgcolor="#00A693"|Clarence|bgcolor="#00A693"|Kelly|bgcolor="#00A693"|Frank|bgcolor="darkgray" colspan=5||bgcolor="#00A693"|Kim J.||||||||||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="#00A693"|Kelly|bgcolor="gold"|Diane|bgcolor="gold"|Jessie||||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Lindsey</span>|bgcolor="#00A693"|Clarence|bgcolor="#00A693"|Lex|bgcolor="darkgray" colspan=6|||bgcolor="#00A693"|Ethan|||||||||||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="#00A693"|Clarence|bgcolor="gold"|Diane|bgcolor="gold"|Jessie|||bgcolor="gold"|Silas||bgcolor="#00A693"|Lex|bgcolor="darkgray" colspan=9|||||||||||||||||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Lindsey</span>|||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Carl</span>|bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Linda</span>||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Tom</span>|bgcolor="darkgray" colspan=10|||||||||||||||||||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="gold"|Silas|||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Carl</span>|bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Linda</span>|bgcolor="gold"|Frank|bgcolor="darkgray" colspan=11||||||||||||||||||||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Linda</span>|||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Lindsey</span>|bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Silas</span>|bgcolor="darkgray" colspan=12||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Carl</span>|||bgcolor="red"|<span style="color:white;">Lindsey</span>|bgcolor="darkgray" colspan=13||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="gold"|Jessie|bgcolor="gold"|Diane|bgcolor="gold"|Clarence|bgcolor="darkgray" colspan=14||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|align="left" bgcolor="gold"|Diane|bgcolor="gold"|Clarence|bgcolor="darkgray" colspan=15||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
<small> Lindsey and Carl competed in a nature quiz tiebreaker, which Carl lost. </small>

<small> Lindsey was eliminated because she had four previous votes against her. </small>

## 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.

## Other websites

- Official CBS Survivor Africa Website

## Infobox (television survivor)

- **season name**: Survivor: Africa
- **presenter**: Jeff Probst
- **location**: Shaba National Reserve, Kenya
- **winner**: Ethan Zohn
- **final vote**: 5–2
- **number survivors**: 16
- **number days**: 39
- **number episodes**: 14
- **previous season**: _Survivor: The Australian Outback_
- **next season**: _Survivor: Marquesas_