Survivor: Congo

**Survivor: Congo** also known as **Survivor: Congo — Second Chance** is the 26th season of Survivor.

Just like in the first *Second Chance* seasons, *Survivor* fans were given the chance to vote for who would appear on the cast through an online public vote.

The season was won by Cameron Luis in a 7-3-2 vote against Angie Kalvin and Patricia Wecar. This season has to date produced xx returning players () for subsequent seasons.

## Production

On April 30, 2013, an announcement was made that for the second time in *Survivor* history, fans had the ability to vote for and assemble the cast for the next season. Through social media, fans voted for fifteen men and fifteen women from a pool of 48 former castaways, each of whom had played only once. Voting ended one hour into the Wild West finale, where all of the nominees were present at the Reunion Show with their luggage already prepared for filming. The final roster of 30 was revealed at the end of the show, and were flown to Congo immediately afterward. Filming commenced in June 2.

According to Jeff Probst, some of the former players who declined the chance to come back to this season were

The pre-merge contestants were sequestered in South Africa.

### Second Chances Vote

Immediately following the *Survivor: Wild West* episode "xx", a shortlist of 48 candidates, all one-time, non-winner contestants, was posted on CBS.com. Contestants were nominated from across 21 seasons, ranging from the first installment, *Survivor: Raja Ampat*, to the most recent, *Survivor: Wild West*. Fans were allowed to vote starting from the end of the said episode until the *Wild West* finale.

At the time of the launch of the poll, two nominated contestants from *Wild West*, Natalia Dramsay and Timon Sanner, were still in the game. Jeff Probst explained that if either one of them eventually wins their season and garnered enough votes to return, they would be ineligible to compete for this season, giving their spot to the candidate of their gender who garnered the 16th highest amount of votes. This did end up being the case, with Timon winning *Wild West* and finishing in the top fifteen. It is unknown which castaway was in 16th place in the public vote.

 Men

## Twists/Changes

* **Returning Players**: Thirty former contestants, all of whom have played only once and did not win the game, and whom were determined by public vote, returned for a second chance. They will be divided into two tribes of fifteen.
* **Legacy Advantage**: The Legacy Advantage was hidden on the truck used during the marooning, and allowed its holder to gain immunity at either the final twenty four, final eighteen, final twelve or the final six. In the event that the holder is eliminated, he or she must will it to another player still in the game.
* **Hidden Immunity Idols**: The Hidden Immunity Idols for this season will look different from each other, making it more difficult for the players to know if the idols are real or fake. Also, the idols will be hidden in challenges, while the clues will be hidden at each camp.
* **Challenges**: The challenges for this season will also feature the Second Chances theme, as production will incorporate past challenges in which the cast has previously participated in their previous seasons. The lineup of challenges includes some that they have lost before, but not exclusively.
* **Tribe Expansion**: On Day 13, tribe switch, introducing the Nord and Ouest tribes and mixing 24 remaining castaways into four tribes of six.
* **Double Tribal Council**: On Day 15, two tribes that lost the Immunity Challenge, would go to Tribal Council and vote out one of their own.
* **Joint Tribal Council**: The two tribes who lost the twelfth Immunity Challenge on Day 23 were both sent to Tribal Council as a group, but unlike a standard Double Tribal Council, they would vote as a group and only one person was voted out.
* **Merged Tribe Composition**: The tribes merged on Day 31. The merged tribe was composed of thirteen members.
* **Vote Steal**: At the final eleven Reward Challenge, a "secret advantage" was placed by the sit-out bench. It was revealed to give its holder the right to steal a vote from another contestant, effectively denying that person a right to vote and allowing the holder to vote twice at one Tribal Council. It is usable up until the final six.
* **Challenge Disadvantage**: The castaway who purchase this during Survivor Action may anonymously disadvantage another person at the Day xx Immunity Challenge.
* **Final Tribal Council Format**: Three finalists faced a jury comprised of twelve members.