Survivor: Cambodia

(also known as Survivor: Cambodia — Second Chance or simply Survivor: Second Chance in later seasons) is the thirty-first season of .
In a change to previous installments, Survivor fans were given the chance to vote for who would appear on the cast through an online public vote.
The season became highly regarded for its unprecedented degree of strategic gameplay, with long-term allegiances being largely eschewed as each player made the most of their second chance. The season also saw the first elimination by consensus when Kimmi Kappenberg was eliminated on Day 36. After 39 days of high-octane gameplay which also saw one evacuation, Jeremy Collins won the title of Sole Survivor in the series' fourth unanimous jury vote, defeating Spencer Bledsoe and Tasha Fox in a 10-0-0 vote. To date, it has produced five returning players (Ciera Eastin, Jeff Varner, Jeremy Collins, Joe Anglim, and Kelley Wentworth) for subsequent seasons.
==Production==
On May 6, 2015, an announcement was made that for the first time in history, fans had the ability to vote for and assemble the cast for the next season. Through social media, fans voted for ten men and ten women from a pool of 32 former castaways, each of whom had played only once.http://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/second-chance/ Voting ended one hour into the finale, where all of the nominees were present at the Reunion Show with their luggage already prepared for filming.
The final roster of 20 was revealed at the end of the show, and were flown to Cambodia immediately afterward. It should be noted that this season was 32nd to be produced, but the first to be aired, while the 31st season to be produced, , was pushed back and slated as the 32nd season to air.
Filming commenced in May 31, a date which also marked the 15th anniversary of the series' debut episode, .
Ponderosa was filmed at Sandy Beach Bungalows, located on the neighboring island, Koh Rong Samloem.https://www.reddit.com/user/stephenfishbachhttps://www.tripadvisor.com.ph/Hotel_Review-g325573-d3493434-Reviews-Sandy_Beach_Bungalows-Sihanoukville_Sihanoukville_Province.html
The pre-merge contestants were sequestered in Vietnam.https://twitter.com/jeffvarner/status/678252184547540993
===Casting===
According to Jeff Probst, some of the former players who declined the chance to come back to this season were Greg Buis from , Elisabeth Filarski from , Ian Rosenberger from , Shambo Waters from , and Jeff Kent and RC Saint-Amour from .http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/27/survivor-cambodia-second-chance-jeff-probst-players-could-not-gethttps://twitter.com/JeffProbst/status/600772125910298624 Josh Canfield of confirmed on his Twitter he was approached to return, but he had to decline because his Broadway contract wouldn't allow him to leave.https://twitter.com/joshuacanfield/status/596684038766776320 Jaclyn Schultz revealed on her Twitter account that her fiancé Jon Misch (also of San Juan del Sur) missed the call and opportunity to compete in Cambodia.https://twitter.com/JaclynMisch/status/596119340212166657
===Second Chance Vote===
Immediately following the episode , a shortlist of 32 candidates, all one-time, non-winner contestants, was posted on CBS.com.http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/05/jeff-probst-survivor-fan-voted-second-chance-season-31 Contestants were nominated from across 16 seasons, ranging from the first installment, , to the most recent, Survivor: Worlds Apart. Fans were allowed to vote starting from the end of the said episode until the Worlds Apart finale.
At the time of the launch of the poll, two nominated contestants from Worlds Apart, Mike Holloway and Carolyn Rivera, were still in the game. Jeff Probst explained that if either one of them eventually wins their season and garnered enough votes to return, they would be ineligible to compete for this season, giving their spot to the candidate of their gender who garnered the 11th highest amount of votes.Ross, Dalton, http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/05/jeff-probst-survivor-fan-voted-second-chance-season-31 This did end up being the case, with Mike winning Worlds Apart and finishing in the top ten. It is unknown which castaway was in 11th place in the public vote.
Second Chance Vote Results	Second Chance Vote Results 	Second Chance Vote Results
Gender 	Cut from the Season 	Won Season
Men 	Brad Culpepper, Jim Rice, Max Dawson, Shane Powers, Troyzan Robertson 	Mike Holloway
Women 	Carolyn Rivera, Mikayla Wingle, Natalie Tenerelli, Sabrina Thompson, Stephanie Valencia, Teresa Cooper	
==Twists/Changes==
* Returning Players: Twenty former contestants, all of whom have played only once and did not win the game, and whom were determined by public vote, returned for a second chance.
* Hidden Immunity Idol: The Hidden Immunity Idols for this season will look different from each other, making it more difficult for the players to know if the idols are real or fake. Also, for the first time, the idols will be hidden in challenges, while the clues will be hidden at camp. This is an idea originally proposed by columnist Dalton Ross.http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/24/survivor-cambodia-second-chance-immunity-idols-challenges
* Challenges: The challenges for this season also featured the Second Chance theme, as production incorporated past challenges in which the cast has previously participated during their previous seasons, including some that they have lost before.http://my.xfinity.com/blogs/tv/2015/08/25/survivor-host-jeff-probst-breaks-down-the-second-chance-twists/
* Impromptu First Tribal Council: The tribe that loses the first Immunity Challenge will be immediately sent to Tribal Council after the challenge.
* Tribe Expansion: For the first time since , a third tribe will be introduced after the start of the game, but before the merge. At the tribe switch, the contestants were split into three tribes instead of the expected two. The ​​ tribe, wearing gold buffs, was introduced on Day 7 of the game.
*Tribe Switch: On Day 14, a tribe switch occurred, simultaneously dissolving the Angkor tribe and mixing the castaways into two tribes of seven.
* Early Merge: For the first time, the merged phase of the game commenced with thirteen players left in the game.
* Vote Steal: Similar to , a player won the right to vote twice at the same Tribal Council, but this time while also preventing another player of their choice to vote.
* New Jury/Finals Configuration: For the first time in Survivor history, the Final Three faced a 10-person jury.
==Castaways==
Contestant	Contestant 	Tribe Affiliation	Tribe Affiliation	Tribe Affiliation	Tribe Affiliation	Finish	VotesAgainst
Contestant	Contestant 	Original Tribe 	Expanded Tribe 	Switched Tribe 	Merged Tribe 	Finish	VotesAgainst
 	Vytas Baskauskas35, Santa Monica, CA 	 	 	 	 	 	6
 	Shirin Oskooi32, San Francisco, CA 	 	 	 	 	 	5
 	Peih-Gee Law37, San Francisco, CA 	 	 	 	 	 	4
 	Jeff Varner49, Greensboro, NC 	 	 	 	 	 	4
 	Monica Padilla30, Queens, NY 	 	 	 	 	 	3
 	Terry Deitz55, Simsbury, CT 	 	 	 	 	 	0
 	Woo Hwang31, Newport Beach, CA 	 	 	 	 	 	5
 	Kass McQuillen43, Tehachapi, CA 	 	 	 	rowspan="13" 	 	6
 	Andrew Savage51, San Jose, CA 	 	 	 	 	4 	
 	Kelly Wiglesworth37, Greensboro, NC 	 	 	 	 	8 	
 	Ciera Eastin26, Salem, OR 	 	 	 	 	10 	
 	Stephen Fishbach36, New York City, NY	 	 	 	 	9 	
 	Joe Anglim26, Scottsdale, AZ 	 	 	 	 	8 	
 	Abi-Maria Gomes35, Los Angeles, CA 	 	 	 	 	14 	
 	Kimmi Kappenberg42, The Woodlands, TX	 	 	 	 	9 	
 	Keith Nale54, Keithville, LA 	 	 	 	 	4 	
 	Kelley Wentworth28, Seattle, WA 	 	 	 	 	17 	
 	Spencer Bledsoe22, Chicago, IL 	 	 	 	Runners-Up 	11 	
 	Tasha Fox38, St. Louis, MO 	 	 	 	Runners-Up 	8 	
 	Jeremy Collins37, Foxboro, MA 	 	 	 	Sole Survivor 	3 	
==Season Summary==
The 20 former players who were voted onto the season by fans returned to finish off what they started. They were initially divided into two tribes: Bayon and Ta Keo. On Ta Keo, a power struggle quickly formed between the "Beach People" and the "Shelter People", based around different approaches to playing the game, of which the former emerged victorious. Meanwhile, Bayon was led by a strong alliance spearheaded by Jeremy and Andrew.
Throughout the two tribe swaps the original Ta Keo tribe fractured; Ta Keo lost six of their members before the merge while the original Bayon tribe only lost one. However, original Bayon members Kass and Ciera were non-committal to Andrew's initial Bayon alliance, creating their own coalition on the second Ta Keo tribe. On the third Ta Keo tribe, Ciera and Kass' new alliance blindsided Woo because both believed that he would be too closely aligned with Andrew following the merge.
The tribes merged with the original Bayon outnumbering the original Ta Keo, 9-4. Though the Bayon Alliance initially held the majority, the tribe's large size and multitude of intertwining relationships as a result of the tribe swaps caused the players to eschew long-term alliances in favor of creating temporary voting blocs to eliminate common threats.
While the voting bloc strategy prevailed deep into the merge, a stable alliance began to form between Jeremy, Kimmi, Spencer, and Tasha. However, with six players remaining, Kimmi betrayed her alliance to align with outsiders Keith and Kelley. Kimmi was eliminated by consensus after the ensuing deadlock tie. This enabled Jeremy, Spencer, and Tasha to eliminate the remainder of the opposition an make it to the Final Three.
At the Final Tribal Council, Jeremy was praised for playing with honor and integrity, and Spencer was commended for making strategic moves, but both he and Spencer were criticized for their moments of arrogance while Tasha was castigated for doing Jeremy's dirty work and was accused for not making significant moves post-merge. Ultimately, the jury of ten unanimously voted for Jeremy to win the title of Sole Survivor, believing he played the best strategic and social game and made it to the end without being targeted until Day 36.
==Voting History==
==Trivia==
* Cambodia is the most recent season whose title contains the name of a country.
* Cambodia is the third season with a cast consisting entirely of returning players, following  and . Unlike the aforementioned seasons, the theme of Cambodia excludes former Sole Survivors, and unlike Heroes vs. Villains, the theme of Cambodia excludes contestants who have already played more than once.
** This is the first season consisting of entirely returning players to have been won by a man.
** This is the first season consisting of entirely returning players where everyone competing has had the opportunity to watch everyone else's full season, compared to , , , and , where those competing back-to-back had seasons finishing post-production or airing.
* Cambodia is the second season to have contestants with homophonic names, following . Kelly Wiglesworth and Kelley Wentworth have homophonic names.
* The font used for the season logo and buffs is a modified version of the premium font, "Anglo-Angkor".https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/parquillian/angloangkor/regular/
* Jeremy, Spencer, Tasha, Kelley, Kimmi, and Joe all placed higher this season than in their original.
* Cambodia is the second season, following Caramoan, to have banned a contestant from attending the Reunion Show. Vytas was banned for having returned home early and potentially spoiling the season.http://www.inquisitr.com/2636095/vytas-baskauskas-banned-from-survivor-cambodia-reunion-show-what-happened/
* Cambodia is the first season to feature a jury with 10 jurors. This would be the biggest jury until , which had 11 jurors.
** This is the first season to start the jury stage at the final 13. This record would be broken in , which started the jury stage at the final 14. ( had jurors finishing below 13th place, but the jury stage did not technically start until the final 13 Tribal Council.)
** Jeremy Collins is the first contestant to receive 10 jury votes in a single season. This record would be broken in , in which Tony received 12 jury votes.
* Cambodia is the second season, after All-Stars, to have three pre-merge tribes without having a black merged tribe.
* Cambodia holds the record for most votes negated by Hidden Immunity Idols, with 20.
* The final five of this season is composed entirely of members of the original Hunahpu and Luzon tribes. By extension, all five contestants were from either or .
==References==
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Category:Survivor (U.S.)
Category:Survivor: Cambodia
Category:Returning Player Seasons