Survivor: Panama

**Survivor: Panama** is the twelfth season of *PM Survivor​*. The season concluded with Sara Branson winning against Jeremey Thomsen and Devyn Liu in a 5-4-0 vote. To date, it has produced two returning players (Brenner Cordell, Jeremey Thomsen and Nicole Finch) for subsequent seasons.

## Production

The season would follow the previous seasons of the format of two episodes per day.

## Twists

* **Exile Island:** After a Reward Challenge, players may banish a player from the rival tribe to Exile Island. This island, entirely separate from the existing camps, will force the banished player to fend for him/herself until the upcoming Immunity Challenge (unless stated otherwise). The player would not be left in despair, for he/she will be given clues to a Hidden Immunity Idol that is hidden somewhere on the island.
* **Hidden Immunity Idol:** During the early stages of the game, the current format of Hidden Immunity Idols will not be hidden until the merge stage of the game. There will be a new idol with new rules hidden on Exile Island during the tribe stage. The said new idol is to be used *after* the votes have been read and can be only used by its finder.
* **Four Tribes:** For the first time in the series, the castaways were divided into four tribes of five.
* **Tribe Switch:** On Day 12, the four tribes became two. Bugaba and Rincon were dissolved, with the 16 remaining contestants spread into the new Canoa and Pacola tribes with eight members each.
* **Final Three and Expanded Jury:** This season featured a Final Tribal Council with three remaining finalists facing a nine-person jury.

## Season Summary

For the first time, the twenty castaways were divided into four tribes of five until Day 11 where Bugaba and Rincon were dissolved. The sixteen players were divided between Canoa and Pacola with seven members on each tribe. On the Pacola tribe: Brenner Cordell, Murray Sandoval, Saki Zook, and Tayla Jansen ran the unfortunate Pacola tribe down to them being the remaining four members left until the merge at 12.

Once the tribe merged, the new Canoa tribe stuck together for the first two votes to vote out the women of the new Pacola tribe. The Final 10 were surprised with a Double Elimination that divided the ten of them into teams of five. At both tribals, a regular Hidden Immunity Idol play by Brenner sent home the first new Pacola member. At the second tribal, the super idol play by Jeremey Thomsen sent the second Pacola member to the jury. With two new Pacola members going back to back, the pattern continued the following tribal. At the final seven, the power trio of Devyn Liu, Jeremey and Sara Branson arose as they misled the four other members to split the vote 2-2, successfully working to blindside Brenner. The four of them were able to retain control for the remaining of the game to allow them to reach the Final Tribal Council.

At the Final Tribal Council, the jury blasted Devyn for not playing her own individual game while making moves to favor Jeremey and Sara. The jury respected Jeremey's game for being a big target in the game and still surviving to the final three without immunity and using his strategic gameplay to accomplish this feat. However, more of the jurors valued Sara using Jeremey as her shield and winning challenges towards the end of the game. In the end, Sara became the Sole Survivor in a close vote against Jeremey and Devyn in a 5-4-0 vote.

## Trivia

* This season holds the record for the most starting tribes, with four.