Survivor: Winter War

***Survivor: Winter War*** is the fifth season of ***Survivor***. The season was filmed Saturday January 9th, 2021 and was revealed on Sunday January 10th, 2021 via. the Instagram page @idol.identifiers that gives out information regarding current and upcoming seasons. It featured four returning players facing eleven new players mixed into three tribes.

## Season Information

### Tribes

StarkTargaryen

Lannister

## **Format**

* **Tribe Composition:** In the beginning, the 11 new players were already divided into 3 tribes of 5, with 4 returning players coming in to join them. At every immunity challenge, the first two tribes to win would be immune, with the losing third tribe being sent to tribal council.
* **Tribe Leaders**: At select immunity challenges, one person from each tribe would be elected as the leader and would make the final decision for each tribe's participation in the immunity challenge.
* **Hidden Immunity Idols**: Once again, hidden immunity idols were hidden at the tribes' "camps." Once a player finds it, it is theirs to keep until they want to use it or until it expires. If and when a player uses it, any votes counted against them will not count.
* **The Dungeon:** After a tribe would lose an immunity challenge, they would have to go to the basement, nicknamed *The Dungeon*, to deliberate who they would wish to vote off.
* **Tribe Swap**: After the third tribal council, the tribes were randomly mixed and split between two tribes with one of the three tribes being dissolved.
* **Comeback Challenge**: Before the merge, the previously eliminated contestants will get an opportunity to come back into the game via. a challenge, with the winner earning their place back into the game.
* **Merge Tribe Composition:** The merge tribe consisted of 11 players.
* **Advantage Hunt**: After the tribes became one, all 11 of the remaining players went down to *The Dungeon* to search for three advantages scattered around *The Dungeon*.
* **Double Tribal Council:** At a random tribal council during the season, the players will be asked to vote as normal and then be asked to vote a second time, after the first player has been voted out.
* **Final Tribal Council:** This season, the Final 3 players faced the jury of 8. The jurors individually addressed the finalists.
	+ The jury of 8 came to a 3-3-2 tied vote, so the power shifted to the player who got the least amount of votes in the original voting, and that player would choose the winner.

## **Players**

*Note: There was a tie at Final Tribal Council, Tom (who was not in the tie) became the unofficial 9th member of the jury and therefore casted the last vote.*

## **Season Summary**

The season started out with the eleven players being divided into three predetermined tribes, with an announcement of four returning players returning to the game, those returnee players being Jack Demet, Jadon Selsmeyer, Richie Gureski, and Tom Andersen, two of which were sent to the Stark Tribe, and the other two being split amongst the other two tribes. The Stark Tribe would be sent to the upstairs floor for their tribe's camp, with the Lannister Tribe's camp being on the main floor, leaving the Targaryen Tribe to have their camp in the basement floor, otherwise nicknamed as *The Dungeon*. Whenever a tribe would lose an immunity challenge, their tribe would be sent to *The Dungeon* where they would deliberate together on who they wish to vote out at tribal council.

At the start of the season, the Targaryen Tribe would lose three immunity challenges in a row, turning on their own very early on. After the third tribal council, the Targaryen Tribe would be down to only two members, and they would be dissolved at the tribe swap. The Stark and Lannister Tribes were both evenly matched throughout this portion of the game, with both tribes winning a challenge and losing one member on each tribe.

After the fifth tribal council, the two tribes would be shocked to learn of the five previously eliminated contestants getting a shot to earn their way back into the game, with Jadon Selsmeyer winning his spot back in the game in a close battle against Richie Gureski. Jadon Selsmeyer would join the remaining ten contestants and they would form the merge tribe to play the rest of the game as individuals. Their first task would take them to *The Dungeon*, where all of them would look at the same time for three advantages hidden around there.

After a season full of blindsides, lies, and emotional conversations; only Tom Andersen, Sam Chovanec, and Dylan Ulrich remained. After a tied vote occurred at the Final Tribal Council between Dylan and Sam; and Tom, who only garnered two of the eight possible votes to win, was forced to make a decision on who to win, ergo making him the unofficial ninth member of the jury. Tom would eventually cast his vote for his ally, Dylan, to win *Survivor: Winter War*.

At the *Survivor: Winter War Reunion Episode*, two awards were up for grabs, those being the *Fan Favorite Award* and the new *Player of the Season Award*. Steph Klug would become the first female contestant to win the *Fan Favorite Award* and Adam Frelka would become the first contestant to win the *Player of the Season Award*. The host of the season, two-time player Devin Ulrich, gave a tease for the next season, saying that it would be much closer than many would expect it to be.

## Trivia

* *Survivor: Winter War* is the first season to be filmed in the winter, unlike its' predecessors that took place either in the spring or the summer.
* *Survivor: Winter War* is the first and currently the only season to start out with three tribes instead of two.
* *Survivor: Winter War* is the first season to feature a tribe that never won a challenge, that tribe being the Targaryen Tribe.
* *Survivor: Winter War* is the first season to feature the *Advantage Hunt*.
* *Survivor: Winter War* is the second season to not have a tribe be represented at the Final Tribal Council, as all members of the Targaryen Tribe being eliminated from the game before the Final Tribal Council.
* *Survivor: Winter War* is the first season to have a Final 3 be involved in a tied vote at the Final Tribal Council, and the second overall to have a tied vote at the Final Tribal Council. The first season being *Survivor: Twist Manor*, which featured a tied vote at the Final Tribal Council between the Final 2 contestants of the season.
* This season had the most jury members with nine because of the tie