Survivor: Palau

Survivor: Palau is the tenth season of . It was filmed in the island-country of Palau in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania. The main theme of the season was the Pacific Theatre of World War II.
This season ended with New York City fire lieutenant Tom Westman defeating advertising executive Katie Gallagher in a 6-1 vote. It would ultimately feature one quit, and has to date produced three returning players (Bobby Jon Drinkard, Stephenie LaGrossa, and Tom Westman) for subsequent seasons.
Survivor's 10th season earned the show a nomination in 2005.
==Production==
Applications were due June 22, 2004. Around 800 applicants were selected for an interview between the latter part of July and August. Out of these 800, 48 were chosen as semi-finalists for an interview in Los Angeles during September. From these semi-finalists, 20 were chosen to participate the show between October to December 2004.
The season's Tribal Council set was decorated with actual World War II relics such as fallen aircraft, weapons, bags of cement, and barbed wires. The set took eight weeks to build, took 25 tons of cement, 14 tons of rubble, and a thousand bags of sand.http://survivorskills.com/forum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=1772.0http://insidepulse.com/2005/02/09/31956/
==Twists/Changes==
* Expanded Cast: This is the first season to feature twenty contestants.
* Schoolyard Pick/Day 2 Eliminations: On Day 1, the survivors, still unsorted into tribes, raced to shore for two Immunity Necklaces, one for a man and another for a woman. The next day, the winners, Ian and Jolanda, were tasked to select 16 of the 18 remaining players to be on their tribes. The last man and woman respectively, Jonathan and Wanda, were eliminated on the spot.
* Tribe Composition: Following the elimination of two contestants on Day 2, two tribes of nine were formed. 
* Double Tribal Council: On Day 12, both tribes went to Tribal Council to vote one out of their own.
** Immunity Vote: The tribe that won the Day 12 Reward Challenge, Koror, voted one member from the rival tribe to have individual immunity from their Tribal Council.
* Fire-Making Immunity Challenge: With only two members remaining, Ulong competed in an individual Immunity Challenge at Tribal Council where the loser, Bobby Jon, was eliminated from the game, leaving the winner, Stephenie to return back to camp alone.
* No Merge: Having outlasted her entire tribe, Stephenie was absorbed by the Koror tribe, thus no merge occurred.
* : A one-off twist used as punishment for the first person to bail out from the Day 26 Immunity Challenge. The exiled contestant, Janu, was sent to live on a remote location with minimum supplies until the next day.
* Tiebreaker Challenge: Facing a deadlock tie vote on Day 37, Ian and Jenn competed in a fire-making contest.
* Verbal Vote: Due to the Final Immunity Challenge concluding late at night, it was impossible to conduct a formal Tribal Council. The winner, Tom, was asked to verbally say his vote, which was Ian.
* Final Tribal Council Format: Two finalists faced a jury of seven. The jurors individually addressed the finalists.
==Castaways==
Contestant	Contestant 	Tribe Affiliation	Tribe Affiliation	Finish	VotesAgainst
Contestant	Contestant 	 	 	Finish	VotesAgainst
 	Jonathan Libby23, Dallas, TXSales & Marketing Associate 	rowspan="2" 	rowspan="11" 	 	0
 	Wanda Shirk55, Ulysses, PAEnglish Teacher 	 	0 	 	
 	Jolanda Jones38, Houston, TXLawyer 	 	 	6 	
 	Ashlee Ashby22, Easley, SCStudent 	 	 	6 	
 	Jeff Wilson21, Ventura, CAPersonal Trainer 	 	 	5 	
 	Kim Mullen25, Huber Heights, OHGraduate Student 	 	 	8 	
 	Willard Smith56, Bellevue, WALawyer 	 	 	8 	
 	Angie Jakusz24, New Orleans, LABartender 	 	 	8 	
 	James Miller33, Mobile, ALSteelworker 	 	 	7 	
 	Ibrehem Rahman27, Birmingham, ALWaiter 	 	 	4 	
 	Bobby Jon Drinkard27, Los Angeles, CAWaiter 	 	 	2 	
 	Coby Archa32, Athens, TXHairdresser 	 	rowspan="9" 	 	7
 	Janu Tornell39, Las Vegas, NVVegas Showgirl 	 	 	1 	
 	Stephenie LaGrossa24, Toms River, NJPharmaceutical Sales Representative	 	 	8 	
 	Gregg Carey27, Chicago, ILBusiness Consultant 	 	 	4 	
 	Caryn Groedel46, Solon, OHCivil Rights Lawyer 	 	 	7 	
 	Jenn Lyon32, Encino, CANanny 	 	 	3 	
 	Ian Rosenberger23, Ambridge, PADolphin Trainer 	 	 	5 	
 	Katie Gallagher29, Merced, CAAdvertising Executive 	 	Runner-Up 	1 	
 	Tom Westman40, Sayville, NYFirefighter 	 	Sole Survivor 	0 	
==Season Summary==
The survivors, still undivided into tribes, raced from a rowboat to shore for two Immunity Necklaces, one for each gender. With no tribes formed nor any further information given to them, the castaways temporarily lived as one big group. The following day, those who won immunity, Ian and Jolanda were tasked to spread 16 of the 18 remaining players into two tribes of nine, with Ian choosing for Koror and Jolanda for Ulong. Those who were not picked, Jonathan and Wanda, were eliminated on the spot. 
On paper, it seemed that the younger and more athletic Ulong tribe had an advantage over the older and slower Koror tribe, but Ulong's lack of teamwork resulted in them losing every Immunity Challenge in the first 21 days, decimating them to a paltry tribe of two: Bobby Jon and Stephenie, who faced each other off in a fire-making challenge. Stephenie, while having won the challenge, was forced to return to camp alone, but absorbed by the Koror tribe the next day, beginning the individual portion of the game without a merge. 
Leaving a strong impression on Koror, Stephenie was a clear target, but Coby informed her about Koror's majority alliance: Ian, Gregg, Jenn, Katie, and Tom. For his loose lips, Coby was promptly voted out. While it would seem Stephenie was going next, Janu, fed up by her tribe and contented with her experience altogether, stalled the majority alliance's plans by quitting the game. After a long and hard battle however, Stephenie succumbed to the Koror Alliance on Day 30.
With only Koror members remaining, they were forced to turn on each other, with Ian and Tom taking over the game. Ian later considered betraying Tom, but was thwarted by the latter's Immunity Challenge winning streak. Tom realized Ian was plotting against him, prompting him to force a tie vote between Ian and Jenn. Ian won the fire-making tiebreaker challenge against Jenn, but was overwhelmed with guilt after being caught. During the Final Immunity Challenge, Ian stepped down and asked Tom to vote him out to make up for his betrayal.
At the Final Tribal Council, Tom was lauded for his leadership that led Koror to a clean Immunity Challenge sweep, but was barbed for his machismo. Katie, on the other hand, was appreciated for her honesty, but was more heavily berated for her poor challenge performances and accused of being mean to others besides Tom and Ian. In the end, Tom won the title of Sole Survivor in a 6-1 vote.
==Voting History==
==Trivia==
thumb|200px|The unused merge Buff. While never seen in the actual show, it remained commercially available on CBS.com during the season's run.
* The font used for the tribes and Palau subtitle is "Stencil".
* Palau is the only season where the pre-jury boots outnumbered those who reached the jury phase.
* Palau is the first season of US version of Survivor to have a cast of twenty.
* Palau is the last season to not feature Hidden Immunity Idols.
*Palau is the first season to eliminate three castaways in one episode. Jonathan and Wanda were eliminated in the Schoolyard Pick, while Jolanda was voted out the day after at a standard Tribal Council.
* Palau is the first season where contestants were eliminated before Day 3.
*Palau contains the most challenges where at least one person sat out, with 13.
**Palau also set the record for most consecutive episodes with at least one person sitting out, with 7. This was broken in , which had an eight-episode streak with people sitting out.
* For the first time in the series' history, one tribe "conquered" the other by winning every single Immunity Challenge and absorbing the other tribe's last remaining member. Had Koror and Ulong merged, the merged tribe's color would have been green (see image to the right). The supposed merge Buff became a sought-after collector's item among Survivor fans.
* Palau marks the first tie vote since due to the players' concern regarding the rock drawing tiebreaker.
* Palau ties with , and for having the most tie votes, with three. 
* Palau is the only season to have two fire-making challenges.
* Palau is the first season to have . However, Exile Island was only used for one episode. was the first season to use it as a full season twist.
* Palau holds the record for most contestants eliminated without being voted out, with 5.
* Ulong and Koror's camps, Mecherchar and Ulong Islands respectively, were used by the Malakal and Airai tribes respectively three years later in .http://www.claycritters.com/map/s16/survivor_16_map.htm
==References==
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Category:Survivor (U.S.)
Category:Survivor: Palau