Survivor: Borneo (originally known as Survivor 1, Survivor: Pulau Tiga, or simply Survivor) is the first season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. The show was filmed from March 13 through April 20, 2000, and premiered on May 31, 2000. The season started with 16 participants tasked with being left to survive in a remote area in Borneo, Malaysia, with minimal tools and supplies. Hosted by Jeff Probst, it consisted of 39 days with consecutive participants being removed by a majority vote. The series was set in the South China Sea on the remote Malaysian island of Pulau Tiga in the state of Sabah, about off the north coast of Borneo.
The contestants were initially separated into two tribes, Tagi and Pagong, which represented the names of the beaches they were on. When 10 players remained, the contestants merged into one tribe, Rattana. While Tagi and Pagong's names and makeups were picked by the producers, Rattana was named by contestants Sean Kenniff and Jenna Lewis, because of the rattan wood that was at their camp. The series was won by Richard Hatch defeating Kelly Wiglesworth in a 4–3 jury vote.
The finale of the season had an average of 51.7 million viewers, the highest of the franchise. Nielsen reported that 125 million people watched at least some part of the finale. In 2006, Hatch was sentenced to 51 months in prison after failing to declare his $1,000,000 winnings.
Format Survivor is a reality television show based on the Swedish show Expedition Robinson created by Mark Burnett and Charlie Parsons. The series follows a number of participants being isolated in a remote location, where they must provide food, fire, and shelter for themselves. Every three days, one participant is removed from the series by majority vote, with challenges being held to give a reward (ranging from living and food related prizes to a car) and immunity from being voted out from the series. The last remaining player is awarded a prize of $1,000,000.
Contestants
There were 16 contestants, divided into two tribes, Pagong and Tagi. After six contestants were eliminated, the tribes were merged to form one tribe, Rattana. The final seven eliminated contestants made up the jury that decided who would be the winner. Below is a list of the participants of the series.
+List of Survivor: Borneo contestants Contestant Age From Tribe Finish Original Merged Placement Day 63 Walnut Creek,California 1st voted out Day 3 64 Mission Hills,Kansas 2nd voted out Day 6 27 San Francisco,California 3rd voted out Day 9 29 Edison,New Jersey 4th voted out Day 12 23 Spring Green,Wisconsin 5th voted out Day 15 27 Sherwood,Arkansas rowspan="6" 6th voted out Day 18 38 Clarksville,Tennessee rowspan="10" 7th voted out Day 21 24 Gold Hill,Colorado 8th voted out1st jury member Day 24 22 Franklin, 9th voted out Day 27 30 Willingboro,New Jersey 10th voted out3rd jury member Day 30 23 Miami Beach,Florida 11th voted out4th jury member Day 33 30 Carle Place,New York rowspan="5" 12th voted out5th jury member Day 36 38 Palmyra,Wisconsin 13th voted out6th jury member Day 37 72 Virginia Beach,Virginia 14th voted out7th jury member Day 38 22 Kernville,California Runner-up 39 Newport,Rhode Island Sole Survivor
Future appearances Rudy Boesch, Richard Hatch, Susan Hawk, and Jenna Lewis returned to Survivor for Survivor: All-Stars. Gervase Peterson returned for Survivor: Blood vs. Water alongside his niece, Marissa. Kelly Wiglesworth returned for Survivor: Cambodia. Jenna Lewis (now Lewis-Dougherty) returned for Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans.
Outside of Survivor, Richard Hatch, Susan Hawk, Sean Kenniff, Ramona Gray, Gretchen Cordy, and Joel Klug competed on a special edition of NBC's The Weakest Link. Susan Hawk and Gervase Peterson made an appearance on Big Brother 2. Hatch competed in the 11th season of The Apprentice (known as the fourth season of The Celebrity Apprentice) and appeared on the 17th season of The Biggest Loser. In 2024, Hatch competed on the second season of House of Villains.
Season summary
The contestants were divided into two tribes of eight: Tagi and Pagong. The tribes fared equally in challenges but differed in organizational structure. Pagong was dominated by the younger, more carefree members, whereas four Tagi members—Kelly, Richard, Rudy, and Susan—formed an alliance, choosing to vote as a bloc to ensure their safety. When ten players remained—five from each tribe—the tribes merged into one, Rattana. The alliance strategy proved successful, and the four took advantage of the other contestants' lack of voting strategy. There was dissension in the alliance as Kelly was deemed untrustworthy, but she won four consecutive immunity challenges and was ineligible for elimination.
When only the four alliance members remained, the vote initially ended in a draw; close allies Richard and Rudy voted for Susan, and Susan and Kelly voted for Richard. On the revote, Kelly decided to switch her vote and Susan was eliminated. After winning the final immunity challenge, Kelly decided to eliminate Rudy because she believed she had a better chance against Richard. At the final Tribal Council, Susan lambasted Kelly for switching her vote and proclaimed her support for Richard. Richard's strategic prowess and leadership were valued over Kelly's challenge performances, and the jury awarded him the title of Sole Survivor by a vote of 4–3.
+Challenge winners and eliminations by episode Episode Challenge winner(s) Eliminated No. Title Original air date Reward Immunity Tribe Player 1 "The Marooning" May 31, 2000 colspan="2" Sonja 2 "The Generation Gap" June 7, 2000 B.B. 3 "Quest for Food" June 14, 2000 Stacey 4 "Too Little, Too Late?" June 21, 2000 Ramona 5 "Pulling Your Own Weight" June 28, 2000 Dirk 6 "Udder Revenge" July 5, 2000 Joel 7 "The Merger" July 12, 2000 Greg rowspan="8" Gretchen 8 "Thy Name Is Duplicity" July 19, 2000 Greg Gervase Greg 9 "Old and New Bonds" July 26, 2000 Colleen[Jenna] Rudy Jenna 10 "Crack in the Alliance" August 2, 2000 Gervase Richard Gervase 11 "Long Hard Days" August 9, 2000 Sean[Richard] Kelly Colleen 12 "Death of an Alliance" August 16, 2000 Kelly Kelly Sean 13 "The Final Four" August 23, 2000 rowspan="2" Kelly Susan Kelly Rudy 14 "The Reunion" In the case of multiple tribes or castaways who win reward or immunity, they are listed in order of finish, or alphabetically where it was a team effort; where one castaway won and invited others, the invitees are in brackets.
Episodes
Voting history Original tribes Merged tribe Episode 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Day 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 37 38 Tribe colspan="2" Eliminated Sonja B.B. Stacey Ramona Dirk Joel Gretchen Greg Jenna Gervase Colleen Sean Susan Rudy Votes 4–3–1 6–2 5–2 4–2–1 4–1–1 4–2 4–1–1–1–1–1–1 6–3 4–3–1 5–2 4–2 4–1 2–2 2–0 1–0 Voter Votes Richard Stacey Stacey Dirk Gretchen Greg Jenna Gervase Colleen Sean Susan Kelly Rudy Rudy Dirk Gretchen Greg Sean Gervase Sean Sean Richard Susan Rudy Rudy Sonja Stacey Dirk Gretchen Greg Jenna Gervase Colleen Sean Susan Susan Susan Sonja Stacey Dirk Gretchen Greg Jenna Gervase Colleen Sean Richard Sean Sonja Stacey Rudy Colleen Greg Jenna Gervase Colleen Susan Colleen B.B. Ramona Joel Richard Jenna Richard Sean Sean Gervase B.B. Colleen Jenna Susan Jenna Richard Sean Jenna B.B. Ramona Joel Gervase Greg Richard Greg Ramona Jenna Joel Jenna Jenna Gretchen B.B. Ramona Joel Rudy Joel B.B. Ramona Jenna Dirk Sonja Stacey Susan Ramona B.B. Colleen Stacey Rudy Rudy B.B. Ramona Sonja Rudy Jury vote Episode 13 Day 39 Finalist Richard Kelly Votes 4–3 Juror Votes Rudy Susan Sean Colleen Gervase Jenna Greg Notes
Production Over 6,000 people applied for the show; 800 were then interviewed in 16 cities. Forty-eight people were then chosen, and after background checks and psychological evaluations done by the producers, the final 16 contestants and two alternates were picked. As the participants awaited the game's start, crews prepared the island for reward and immunity challenges, removing harmful items, checking for harmful animals in specific locations, and building a set. Camera and other crews were sent to the island three weeks in advance for testing. On the opposite side of the island from the tribes, headquarters were set up for the producers and crew to live in. This facility included traditional trailers with running water, televisions, and a phone line. The set used for the Tribal Council was built 200 yards from the crew's facility.
On March 7, 2000, the contestants were flown to Los Angeles, then to the city of Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo. From there, they were taken by boat to their island. Contestants were not allowed to speak to one another until they got on the boat headed toward their beaches. The two tribes shared the island of Tiga, which was divided by over of forest. They were surrounded by wildlife such as pythons, kraits, adders, monkeys, monitor lizards, and white-bellied sea eagles. Filming began on March 13, 2000, and lasted until April 20, 2000. This was the only season to have the winner revealed on location at the final Tribal Council until the show's 41st season in 2021.
Reception Ratings
By the second week, the show had already gained over 18 million viewers, beating ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'s ratings. After the season finale, Carter said that Survivor "built over a 13-week run to what was expected last night to be the biggest single television audience ever assembled for a summer television series, far eclipsed every expectation the network had when it acquired the rights to the show last year." Les Moonves, the president of CBS Television, said that "it has beaten our expectations by about double."
The finale of Survivor was watched by 51.7 million viewers, the second-highest viewership of any American television episode during the first decade of the 21st century, exceeded only by the finale of Friends. The finale had higher ratings than the World Series, NBA finals, NCAA men's basketball finals, and Grammy Awards of that year. CBS was able to make the cost of commercial advertisers up to $600,000 during the season finale.
Survivor was the surprise summer hit show of the season garnering an average of 28.3 million viewers with a 12.1/36 share in the 18/49 market over its 13-week run. The season had the second-highest ranking and the second-highest average viewers of the entire series, behind The Australian Outback. In addition to the most finale viewers, it also had the most reunion viewers (37 million).
Critical reception Survivor: Borneo initially received mixed reactions in the media. The New York Times Bill Carter wrote that Survivor has "clearly begun to emerge as part of the wider culture, with news and discussion about the show widespread on television and radio talk shows and coverage increasing in newspapers." On the Late Show with David Letterman, David Letterman began a segment titled "Top 10 Things That'll Get You Thrown Off the Survivor Island." During the first season, USA Today covered the show like a sporting event, listing which participant was voted off. USA Today also held a poll to see who viewers would have voted off. With 26 percent, Susan Hawk won the poll, although it had no effect on the game, as Susan made it to 4th place. CBS's The Early Show held an interview with each contestant the day after the episode in which they were voted off aired.
Survivor: Borneo was criticized by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in response to footage showing the contestants trapping rats on the island, initially for fish bait but later for human consumption.
Susan Hawk's "snakes and rats" speech during the final Tribal Council has been cited as one of the greatest and most memorable speeches in the show's history.