Survivor: San Juan del Sur

Survivor: San Juan del Sur, also known as Survivor: San Juan del Sur — Blood vs. Water, is the twenty-ninth season of . This season revived the format of , in which pairs of loved ones were split to create the initial tribes. However, San Juan del Sur departed from the precedent set by Blood vs. Water in one respect, as it featured only new contestants. The season saw one quit and has to date produced four returning players (Jeremy Collins, Keith Nale, Kelley Wentworth, and Natalie Anderson) for subsequent seasons.
Early drama revolved around inflammatory former baseball player John Rocker and his girlfriend Julie McGee. After the former was blindsided and the latter quit the game, strategic threats Josh Canfield and Jeremy Collins were eliminated. The game then developed into a rather shapeless affair in which no one player was understood to exercise clear control. However, The Amazing Race 21 alumnus Natalie Anderson distinguished herself with her subtle strategy, manifested in such moves as her nearly unilateral elimination of Alec Christy, her long-premeditated vengeance on Jon Misch and her use of a Hidden Immunity Idol on Jaclyn Schultz to consolidate late-game control. She would go on to win the title of Sole Survivor in a 5-2-1 jury vote over Jaclyn and Missy Payne.
==Production==
The theme and name of the season were announced at the Reunion Show of . The production flew back to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, the same location where and were filmed.http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/05/21/survivor-san-juan-del-sur-blood-vs-water-jeff-probst Filming began June 2, 2014, and was completed on July 10. After filming wrapped, it was confirmed that the two upcoming seasons will have an all-new cast.http://www.hitfix.com/the-fien-print/interview-jeff-probst-discusses-the-survivor-cagayan-seasonhttp://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2014/05/survivor-30-probst-cast-new-players/
Originally, the season was set to have a 20-player cast. However, 48 hours prior to the start of filming, a member of a pair of sisters failed one of the final medical examination. Unable to find a replacement pair of the same gender composition in time, production was forced to start the game with the remaining nine pairs, despite this leaving an uneven 10:8 ratio in favor of the men.http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/06/02/survivor-nicaragua-two-contestants-leave The healthier of the sisters, So Kim, was brought back for the next season. A similar case occurred back in , where Mellisa McNulty was pulled from the game due to last-minute panic attacks.http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/melissa-mcnulty-explains-how-she-became-fiji-lost-survivor-4672.php Former contestant and Survivor After Show host Parvati Shallow went to the production site as part of the press who conducted interviews to the contestants and wrote an online journal about her experience.http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-san-juan-del-sur-734178
In an interview with Dalton Ross from after the Cagayan finale, Jeff Probst initially stated that was slated to be in play. However, after the interview, last minute changes were discussed by Jeff and the production crew to further innovate the upcoming season. In a more recent interview with Ross for EW Morning Live, which was held live on set, Probst revealed that they decided to shelve Redemption Island, which potentially misled the contestants, who were yet to be flown on location and listened to the prior interview. The set that was supposed to be the Redemption Island Arena would be rehashed for , a twist long-unused since . Jeff teased:
In another interview, Probst added that former The Amazing Race contestant and avid fan Mike White (who would later become a future contestant himself) heavily contributed to the shift from Redemption Island to Exile Island and the Redemption Island duels became the "Hero Duels".http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/11/13/survivor-jeff-probst-mike-white/
On August 13, 2014, editors temporarily halted the post-production process of the season and went on strike due to CBS preventing them to unionize which would give them pension plans and health benefits similar to other to the workers in Mark Burnett's other shows. The next day, an agreement was settled, and the editors concerned were allowed to unionize and went back to work, thus keeping the premiere to air on schedule.http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/08/13/survivor-strike/http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/08/14/survivor-strike-over/
==Twists/Changes==
*: Nine pairs of castaways, each with a pre-existing relationship, will compete against each other for the million dollar prize. The pairs will be separated, assigning each member to opposite tribes. Unlike the first "Blood vs. Water" season, this season will have an all-new cast, and will not be in play.
*Day Zero: A day before the actual game starts, the pairs will be sent out at sunset to different locations to live by themselves for the night. They will then all meet up to be officially welcomed by host Jeff Probst and start the game the next morning.
*: After an eleven-season hiatus of the twist, Exile Island returns replacing the initially planned twist. This season's version of the twist would have its tribal Reward Challenges only be one-on-one duels between castaways. Before the tribe switch, however, the twist is that the ones that would face-off should be between loved ones. The winner of each duel wins reward for his/her tribe while the losing castaway would be sent to Exile Island, along with one of the winner's tribe mates, where they will choose between two urns: one with a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol buried on his/her camp, and the other with nothing.http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/08/27/survivor-san-juan-del-sur-cast-twists-revealed/
* Hidden Immunity Idol: During the pre-merge portion of the game, one idol would be hidden at each tribe's camp with clues found at Exile Island. Post-merge, an idol would be hidden somewhere on Exile Island.
* Tribe Switch: When there were 14 castaways left in the game, there was a tribe switch, putting four Hunahpu and three Coyopa castaways on each tribe.
* Early Merge: This season merged with twelve castaways in the game.
* Expanded Jury and Final Three: Instead of the conventional Final Two facing the jury of seven, the Day 39 Tribal Council was held with a Final Three facing an eight-person jury.
==Castaways==
Contestant	Contestant 	Tribe Affiliation	Tribe Affiliation	Tribe Affiliation	Finish	VotesAgainst
Contestant	Contestant 	Original Tribe 	Switched Tribe 	Merged Tribe 	Finish	VotesAgainst
 	Nadiya Anderson28, Edgewater, NJNatalie's twin sister	 	 	 	 	5
 	Val Collins35, Foxboro, MAJeremy's wife 	 	 	 	 	9
 	John Rocker39, Atlanta, GAJulie's boyfriend 	 	 	 	 	5
 	Drew Christy25, Winter Park, FLAlec's brother 	 	 	 	 	5
 	Kelley Wentworth27, Seattle, WADale's daughter 	 	 	 	 	4
 	Dale Wentworth55, Ephrata, WAKelley's father 	 	 	 	 	8
 	Julie McGee34, Atlanta, GAJohn's girlfriend 	 	 	rowspan="12" 	 	2
 	Josh Canfield32, New York City, NYReed's boyfriend 	 	 	 	6 	
 	Jeremy Collins36, Foxboro, MAVal's husband 	 	 	 	5 	
 	Wes Nale23, Shreveport, LAKeith's son 	 	 	 	2 	
 	Reed Kelly31, New York City, NYJosh's boyfriend 	 	 	 	10 	
 	Alec Christy22, Winter Park, FLDrew's brother 	 	 	 	4 	
 	Jon Misch26, Waterford, MIJaclyn's boyfriend 	 	 	 	8 	
 	Baylor Wilson20, Nashville, TNMissy's daughter 	 	 	 	17 	
 	Keith Nale53, Shreveport, LAWes's father 	 	 	 	16 	
 	Missy Payne46, Dallas, TXBaylor's mother 	 	 	SecondRunner-Up 	3 	
 	Jaclyn Schultz25, Las Vegas, NVJon's girlfriend 	 	 	Runner-Up 	6 	
 	Natalie Anderson28, Edgewater, NJNadiya's twin sister	 	 	Sole Survivor 	0 	
==Season Summary==
Upon entering the season, the nine pairs of loved ones were separated onto two tribes: Coyopa and Hunahpu. Coyopa had a very rough start, losing three consecutive Immunity Challenges. While the tribe was initially dominated by the Coyopa Guys Alliance led by John. Josh was torn between allegiances to the men and a separate alliance with Baylor. After John verbally tussled with members of the other tribe after a challenge, Josh orchestrated John's ouster and blindsided him.
On the Hunahpu tribe, Jeremy and Natalie, having lost their loved ones first, aligned. After a tribe swap on Day 11, Missy came into power on the new Coyopa, while Josh and Jeremy vied for control on the new Hunahpu. While both men targeted each other, their conflict was never resolved after their tribe won all the remaining Immunity Challenges during the post-swap phase of the game.
At the merge, two factions emerged: The Hunahpu Alliance, led by Jeremy, and the Coyopa Guys Alliance, now headed by Josh, with the dating couple Jon and Jaclyn in the middle. While they prepared to side with Josh's alliance for the first post-merge Tribal Council, it was cancelled after Julie quit the game; giving Jon and Jaclyn time to change their minds and side with Jeremy's alliance to eliminate Josh.
Jeremy's fortune was not to last, and he was blindsided by Jon's own alliance, and with Natalie's help (turning the alliance into the "Fab Five"), they resumed picking off the remnants of Josh's alliance, with Keith as the last outsider remaining. However, Natalie had been biding her time for the right moment to retaliate and avenge Jeremy's blindside at the hands of Jon. Keith was spared as Natalie spearheaded Jon's elimination, leaving with a Hidden Immunity Idol in his pocket. While Keith survived the next Tribal Council after winning immunity, he lost the Final Immunity Challenge and was the last player voted out of the game.
Ultimately, Missy, Jaclyn, and Natalie became the Final Three. At the Final Tribal Council, Reed eviscerated Missy's character, comparing her to a "wicked stepmother", while Jaclyn was questioned for having only made moves with others, primarily Jon. Natalie was praised for making bold moves without a loved one's support and was ultimately awarded the title of Sole Survivor with five votes to win, compared to Jaclyn's two and Missy's one.
==Voting History==
==Trivia==
* Based on the logo and the names of the tribes, the theme of the season appears to be inspired by Mesoamerican culture (predominantly, Aztec and Mayan).http://ecuip.lib.uchicago.edu/diglib/science/cultural_astronomy/cultures_aztec_images-2.html
* The font used for this season's buff is called Voodoohouse.http://www.whatfontis.com/Voodoohouse.font?text=COYPA
* San Juan del Sur is the first season since to have an uneven number of male and female contestants.
* With the Day Zero twist, San Juan del Sur ties as the second-longest seasons in terms of number of days, lasting 39.5 days, following , which was filmed in 42 days instead of the standard 39.
* San Juan del Sur is the first season to have castaways with homophonic first names (names that are pronounced the same, but spelled differently), namely John Rocker and Jon Misch. Coincidentally, both players were also voted out while having an unused Hidden Immunity Idol.
* San Juan del Sur is the first season to include a pair of twins.
* San Juan del Sur is the first season not to include any contestants from California.
* San Juan del Sur is the first season with all new players to follow another season with all new players since .
* San Juan del Sur is the first season to feature since , after a hiatus of eleven seasons.
* San Juan del Sur is the first season since to not have any combined Reward and Immunity Challenges.
* San Juan del Sur is tied with for the earliest merge in any 39-day season; the tribes merged on Day 16.
* San Juan del Sur is tied with , , and for having the most post-merge challenges in a single season, with 16.
* Only 4 female castaways were voted out from this season, setting a record low.
==References==
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Category:Survivor (U.S.)
Category:Survivor: San Juan del Sur
Category:Seasons with a reused location