Survivor: Gabon

**Survivor: Gabon** is the ninth season of *PM Survivor​*. Pam Wheeler's motherly instincts turned survival instinct, allowing her to keep a firm handle over the game. In the end, Pam sat against her biggest competition, Chris Salvatore, and still won unanimously not only earning the title of Sole Survivor, but also playing a perfect game. To date, it has produced two returning players (Alec Richardson and Triniti Cavazos) for subsequent seasons.

## Production

After a two month hiatus, the series will make it's return in the month of April.

The season was originally supposed to be Cape Verde, however, the idea was scrapped. Gabon was shortly brought into the picture and made the season.

## Twists

* **Old vs. Young:** The 18 contestants will be divided up into two tribes based on their ages. The Akele tribe will feature contestants over the age of 40, and Shira tribe will include contestants aged 30 years and younger.
* **Hidden Immunity Idol:** A Hidden Immunity Idol will be hidden at both camps. Both idols are usable until the Day 36 Tribal Council.
* **Double Tribal Council:** On Day 9, both tribes were forced to attend Tribal Council separately to vote out one of their own.
* **Tribe Switch:** On Day 10, both tribes were told to send three castaways to compete in the reward challenge. The three from each tribe would compete for reward, but afterwards they would switch tribes. The three winning reward would bring the reward to their new tribe.
* **Final Two and Jury of Seven:** The season would revert back to a final two format, and consist of the shortest amount of jurors yet with seven.

## Season Summary

Eighteen new castaways were divided into tribes by age: the older Akele, and the younger Shira. At Akele, the older player instantly formed a large alliance including seven of their tribe members. They took the approach of unity and loyalty. Meanwhile, Shira was divided down the line with three players being on the bottom of the tribe. The older tribe won the first two immunities sending Shira to tribal to vote out the bottom players. Both tribes were subjected to a Double Tribal Council where Akele voted out their outsider, and Shira blindsided one of the players they found in charge of the tribe.

After the Double Tribal, the tribes swapped leaving original Shira members on the bottom of new Akele tribe, and tied for a power position on their new Shira tribe. In an attempt to save himself, Alec Richardson flipped on his original tribe, but Vallee Dodge played a Hidden Immunity Idol to save herself. The vote ended in a tie between Alec and Triniti Cavazos, and original Akele turned on their new ally to save an old ally. Afterwards another young was voted out until two older players were blindsided from both tribes.

The tribes merged with 10 players remaining in the game. The older tribe had the numbers of 6 members to the young tribe of 4. The young players saw their demise back to back until Zoey Bennett won immunity forcing them to turn on each other. A close alliance of Pam Wheeler, Chris Salvatore, Triniti and Bellerose Smith took control and blindsided the biggest competition threat Kenji Wong. Following Zoey was voted out after losing immunity.

As the older tribe was the final five, they were forced to turn on themselves. Bellerose and Triniti both used hidden immunity idols to save themselves leaving no votes cast at tribal. In a revote, Yusuf was voted out over Chris leaving Bellerose vulnerable and being voted out next. Pam won final immunity leaving her with a a decision between who to bring. Wanting to show the jury that Chris was dragged as far as he was because of her, she decided to take him to the final two.

At Final Tribal Council, Chris was criticized for his inability to make his own moves while Pam was praised for controlling the game from the start to end. She received all of the jury votes, and since she received no votes against her, she earned the distinction of playing the first perfect game.