Survivor: Micronesia

Survivor: Micronesia, also known as Survivor: Micronesia — Fans vs. Favorites or simply Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites in later seasons, is the sixteenth installment of . This season featured ten new contestants, dubbed as "the super-fans", facing ten of the most popular castaways at the time. 
The season concluded with Parvati Shallow defeating Amanda Kimmel in a 5-3 jury vote to win the title of Sole Survivor. It featured two medical evacuations, one quit, and has to date produced seven returning players (Amanda Kimmel, Cirie Fields, Erik Reichenbach, James Clement, Jonathan Penner, Ozzy Lusth, and Parvati Shallow) for subsequent seasons.
==Production==
Casting for this season was originally done as an "All-Stars" season with all returning players, but that idea was scrapped in favor of the "Fans vs. Favorites" format.
Coby Archa, Shane Powers, and Yul Kwon were considered for the season but were not chosen. Tom Westman was also asked to compete but declined.http://web.archive.org/web/20090928002613/http://www.buddytv.com/articles/survivor/jeff-probst-talks-survivor-mic-16163.aspx
==Twists/Changes==
* Fans vs. Favorites: One tribe, ​​, is composed of ten Survivor "superfans", while the other, , is composed of ten popular castaways from past seasons.
* Temporary Immunity Idols: At the beginning of the game, the contestants vied for two individual Immunity Idols, one for each tribe. The first person who gets their tribe's idol will be immune at his/her first visit to Tribal Council.
* : Exile Island returns after being absent in . This season, both tribes will send one of their own to Exile Island to compete to find the Hidden Immunity Idol.
* Hidden Immunity Idol: Hidden Immunity Idols return this season, however only one is hidden on Exile Island at a time.
* Tribe Switch: On Day 12, both tribes swapped four members each.
* Eight Person Jury: This season marked the first time that a jury is comprised of eight members.
* Final Tribal Council: The standard two-finalist Final Tribal Council returns after three seasons of having a three-finalist finale.
==Castaways==
Contestant	Contestant 	Tribe Affiliation	Tribe Affiliation	Tribe Affiliation	Finish	VotesAgainst
Contestant	Contestant 	 	 	 	Finish	VotesAgainst
 	Jon Dalton33, Los Angeles, CA 	 	 	 	 	9
 	Mary Sartain28, Emeryville, CAReal Estate Manager 	 	 	 	 	6
 	Yau-Man Chan55, Martinez, CA 	 	 	 	 	6
 	Mikey Bortone33, Los Angeles, CAAspiring Writer 	 	 	 	 	9
 	Joel Anderson32, Avondale, AZFirefighter 	 	 	 	 	6
 	Jonathan Penner45, Los Angeles, CA 	 	 	 	 	0
 	Chet Welch48, Ford City, PAPageant Coach 	 	 	 	 	15
 	Kathy Sleckman45, Glen Ellyn, ILGolf Course Vendor 	 	 	 	 	0
 	Tracy Hughes-Wolf43, Fredericksburg, VAResidential Builder	 	 	 	 	7
 	Ami Cusack34, Golden, CO 	 	 	 	 	4
 	Eliza Orlins24, Manhattan, NY 	 	 	rowspan="10" 	 	8
 	Ozzy Lusth26, Venice, CA 	 	 	 	9 	
 	Jason Siska22, Fox River Grove, ILGymnastics Coach 	 	 	 	9 	
 	James Clement30, Lafayette, LA 	 	 	 	3 	
 	Alexis Jones24, Beverly Hills, CAMotivational Speaker 	 	 	 	2 	
 	Erik Reichenbach21, Ypsilanti, MIIce Cream Scooper 	 	 	 	7 	
 	Natalie Bolton31, West Hollywood, CAPersonal Trainer 	 	 	 	3 	
 	Cirie Fields37, Norwalk, CT 	 	 	 	3 	
 	Amanda Kimmel23, Los Angeles, CA 	 	 	Runner-Up 	4 	
 	Parvati Shallow25, Los Angeles, CA 	 	 	Sole Survivor 	4 	
==Season Summary==
The 20 players were divided into two tribes: Malakal consisting of ten favorites, and Airai consisting of ten fans. On Malakal, a "couples alliance" of Amanda, Ozzy, Parvati, and James seized control after Cirie became their fifth, opposing a minority group led by Jonathan. At the same time, the fans tribe was caught in a silent power struggle between Joel and Mikey B., which was exploited by Tracy in order to keep her own three-person alliance safe. 
After 11 days, with the tribes equal at eight members each, the tribes were swapped through a Schoolyard Pick. The new Malakal quickly proved to be the weaker of the two tribes, resulting in multiple fan eliminations as the favorites remained united. The new Airai struggled in different ways, with Jonathan being evacuated for a knee infection and Kathy quitting after suffering a mental breakdown. These setbacks for Airai kept the tribes relatively even in numbers, with Airai entering the merge with six members to Malakal's four. 
At the start of the merge, the original Malakal couples alliance held the majority, recruiting Alexis and Natalie to eliminate the outsiders. However, the women soon formed their own alliance at the behest of Parvati, leading to the blindside of Ozzy. With the numbers on their side, the women's alliance voted out the remaining men until only Erik remained, who thwarted their attempts at eliminating him by winning multiple Immunity Challenges. 
Finally at the final five, the remaining women convinced Erik that he was safe at the next vote regardless if he won individual immunity; Erik, having won this immunity, gave it to Natalie to engender her trust, allowing the women to vote him out. After eliminating Natalie, the trio of Amanda, Cirie, and Parvati falsely believed they had made it to the Final Three, only to be surprised with a Final Two. After Amanda won the Final Immunity Challenge, she voted out Cirie for being the largest jury threat. At the Final Tribal Council, Amanda was criticized for being melodramatic and superficial, while Parvati was castigated for her deceptive and occasionally mean-spirited gameplay. In the end, Parvati was ultimately awarded the title of Sole Survivor by a vote of 5-3.
==Voting History==
==Trivia==
* Micronesia is the last season to not be filmed in high-definition.
* Micronesia is the only returning players season to feature returning players from and .
* Micronesia set the record for the most openly LGBT contestants at the time of airing, with 3: Ami, Chet, and Natalie. This record would be tied by , , , and before it was broken by , with 5.
**With Ozzy coming out as bisexual in 2022 and Parvati coming out as queer in 2023, Micronesia officially contains 5 LGBT castaways.
* Micronesia is the first season to have two tribes of 10 players each, despite there being 20 contestants in two previous seasons.
* Micronesia is the first season to have an equal number of returning players and new players at the beginning of the game. It would be followed by and .
* Micronesia is the only season with returning players to feature Exile Island as a season-long twist.
* Half of the contestants in this season would visit Exile Island.
** Five of them were Fans and the other five were Favorites.
* Micronesia is the first season to have an even-numbered jury, with eight members.
** This is the only season with a Final Two and an even-numbered jury. It is unknown how a potential tie would have been broken.
* Micronesia is the most recent season with a Final Two to produce a female winner.
* Micronesia is tied with for the most contestants leaving the game without being voted out, or eliminated in a tiebreaker, eliminated by a twist or duel, with 3. Both Jonathan Penner and James Clement were evacuated, and Kathy Sleckman quit.
* Micronesia is the first season to have two contestants be medically evacuated. It would be followed by , , and Caramoan.
* Micronesia is the first season where the final four was comprised of castaways of the same gender.
** However, this would be surpassed in One World, whose final five was comprised of castaways of the same gender.
* Micronesia is the second season to start with 20 contestants and have a Final Two, following .
** Coincidentally, both seasons were filmed in Palau, both featured , and both had at least three contestants leave the game through means other than being voted out.
* Micronesia is the last season to date to feature still headshot images of the contestants in the opening credits.
* For this season, once a player was eliminated, their name and images would no longer appear in the opening credits. Then, in continuing what was started in , once the game reached the jury phase, only the players remaining would be shown, divided into "the jury" and the "the merged tribe".
* Amanda Kimmel, Cirie Fields, and Parvati Shallow are the only returning players to place higher than they did on their original season.
** Cirie is the only one not to make the Final Tribal Council.
* Micronesia is the first season to have Ponderosa videos, released after every episode following the start of the jury phase.
* Micronesia introduced the fewest first-time players who have reached the Final Tribal Council, with 0; no Fans who debuted on this season have made it to Final Tribal Council in this season or any future season.
* The returning players from , , and China would go on to become three-time players.
==References==
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Category:Survivor (U.S.)
Category:Survivor: Micronesia
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Category:Seasons with a reused location