Castaway: Dawn of a New Era

***Castaway: Dawn of a New Era*** is the eighteenth season of *Castaway* and was produced on March 12, 2023.

The season borrowed elements from the CBS reality television competition *Survivor*. Hosted by Robert, the game consisted of nine new competitors and nine returning competitors.

The three tribes, Baka, Coco and Vesi, were named after local Fijian trees. When ten competitors remained, they merged to the Duavata tribe named by Alex after the Fijian word for "unity". Carlos won the season in a 4-2-1 vote over Pranay and Sam.

The season introduced *Fire Tokens*, a form of currency earned by winning challenges to potentially purchase advantages through a recurring "silent auction". Minor advantages included the Hidden Immunity Idol, Burn the Urn and Block votes. Multiple elimination style twists based on *Survivor South Africa* and *Australian Survivor* were introduced during the merge portion of the game, alongside a sole vote at the final four in lieu of the Elimination Challenge first introduced in *Castaway: Micronesia*.

## Development and Casting

The season was announced at the finale of *Revenge of the Traitors*.

One of the more difficult aspects of *Survivor* to introduce into *Castaway* was the Auction as due to the speed of the game, the auction would slow the game down too much with the potential for little to no impact. The *Fire Tokens* used in *Survivor: Winners at War* where players could buy items throughout gave inspiration to a "silent auction" where at the start of the game, players are given five Fire Tokens and in each round a finite number of players attend the silent auction and bid for a particular advantage. All bids (regardless of their being successful or not) would be deducted from their total number of Fire Tokens and the winner would be informed publicly of their purchase to those attending the auction, those who overbid had their Fire Tokens default to zero. Additional Fire Tokens would be earned through winning challenges and being awarded them through eliminated players.

For tribe division, Rob opted to split the groups into three distinct categories of new, mixed and returnee.

* The Baka tribe comprised of all new players to Castaway.
* The Coco tribe comprised of three new players to Castaway and three returning players to Castaway.
* The Vesi tribe comprised of six returning players to Castaway.

The season was also the first to have no tribe swap/switch/expansion or absorption since *Castaway: Kaôh Rōng*.

## Voting History

* Pre-Merge
* Post-Merge
* Final Tribal Council

## External links

1. ↑ On Day 19, both JD and Steven as *Tied Destinies* were voted out as a pair and competed against one another in a Trial by Fire whereby the winner would return to the game.
2. ↑ On Day 19, both JD and Steven as *Tied Destinies* were voted out as a pair and competed against one another in a Trial by Fire whereby the winner would return to the game.
3. ↑ On Day 21, Alex and JD received the highest number of votes to face a dilemma whereby Lefebvre as the winner of Individual Immunity would save either Alex or JD whilst the castaway not saved would be the second member of the jury.
4. ↑ On Day 21, Alex and JD received the highest number of votes to face a dilemma whereby Lefebvre as the winner of Individual Immunity would save either Alex or JD whilst the castaway not saved would be the second member of the jury.