Australian Survivor: Champions v Contenders (2019)

***Australian Survivor: Champions v Contenders*** **(2019)** is the sixth season overall of the Australian franchise of *Survivor*.

## Twists/Changes

* **Champions v Contenders:** The contestants are divided into two tribes based on their occupations and degree of success in life:
	+ The Champions tribe is made up of public figures from fields such as (but not limited to) sports and entertainment.
	+ The Contenders​​​ tribe is made up of everyday Australian contestants.
* **Returning Player:** Former *Australian Survivor* contestant Luke Toki competes as a member of the Champions tribe.
* **Hidden Immunity Idol:** A Hidden Immunity Idol for each tribe is hidden at the tribes' campsite.
* **Tribe Switch:** On Day 15, a tribe switch occurred.
* **Kidnapping:** On Day 20, the winner of the Immunity Challenge would get the opportunity to vote to kidnap one member of the losing tribe.
* **Exile Beach:** On Day 38 and 40 the person voted out will not be sent home but will be sent to Exile Beach to face each other to earn their spot back into the game.

## Season Summary

This season began with two tribes of twelve: Champions and Contenders. Unlike the previous Champions vs. Contenders themed season, the Champions tribe started off the game losing five of the first six Immunity Challenges. Along with losing nearly every Immunity Challenge, an alliance war between athletes and non-athletes divided the tribe with David, returning player Luke, Pia, and Janine taking control after flipping Abbey and Ross from the athlete side.

After the Tribe Switch, and despite David and Luke finding themselves in the minority on the new Champions tribe, they managed to find cracks in the Contender majority causing their members to turn on each other. On the new Contenders tribe, Harry caused the Champions majority some trouble by playing consecutive Hidden Immunity Idols as he and Janine formed a rivalry, nicknaming each other "Dirty Harry" and "The Godmother" respectively.

Another major rivalry broke out between David and Shaun after Shaun discovered that the Hidden Immunity Idol David gave to him as part of a tribe idol exchange was a fake, with the rivalry coming to a head after the new Champions tribe chose to kidnap Shaun on Day 20. Just before the merge, Ross was medically evacuated from the game after he broke his ankle during an Immunity Challenge.

The tribes merged at 12 with the numbers even between the original Champions and Contenders at 6-6. Despite the original Contenders wanting to stay tribe strong, a combination of them being too fractured to come together, the original Champions being stronger strategically, and Andy's overall shadiness resulted in Andy being voted out first. The Contenders would subsequently be Pagonged despite David being blindsided in the meantime.

Eventually, the Champions alliance started showing signs of cracks, with Abbey and Luke sending Simon to Exile Beach before blindsiding Janine, leaving her closest ally Pia in the minority. Despite this, Pia managed to convince Luke to blindside Abbey instead, and he executed this via an advantage where he sent Baden back to camp without voting and caused mass confusion at Tribal Council. Luke, however, was voted out next after losing immunity due to his impressive "*Survivor* resume" and threat level being too high to ignore any further. After a hard-fought Final Immunity Challenge, Baden won and chose to take Pia to the Final Two with him over Harry, thinking Harry would take credit for his moves if they were in the Final Two together.

At Final Tribal Council, Baden argued that despite playing a quiet game, he put himself as a flow of information between the various alliances and used that role to his advantage. Pia explained her strategy of quietly steering the direction of the votes without being seen as the leader, and playing a social-based game. After a strong pitch, the jury unanimously voted for Pia to win the title of Sole Survivor.

## Reception

This season received more mixed reviews than prior seasons. While there were high ratings and a high level of interest among fans, several issues were called out, with some splitting opinion while others were universally chastised. These include several contestants lying about their profession, a tribe throwing several challenges, Ross Clarke-Jones' injury that forced his evacuation, as well as allegations of an immunity challenge being decided unfairly.

## Trivia

* The winner and runner-up of this season both received the second-highest number of votes in their respective first Tribal Councils.
* This is the first season of *Australian Survivor* to have a unanimous winner.

## References

1. ↑ https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/07/wednesday-24-july-2019.html
2. ↑ https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/07/thursday-25-july-2019.html
3. ↑ https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/07/sunday-28-july-2019.html
4. ↑ https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/07/monday-29-july-2019.html
5. ↑ https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/07/tuesday-30-july-2019.html
6. ↑ https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/08/sunday-4-august-2019.html
7. ↑ https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/08/monday-5-august-2019.html
8. ↑ https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/08/tuesday-6-august-2019.html
9. ↑ https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/08/sunday-11-august-2019.html
10. ↑ https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/08/monday-12-august-2019.html
11. ↑ https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/08/tuesday-13-august-2019.html
12. ↑ https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/08/sunday-18-august-2019.html

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