Survivor: Vanuatu — Islands of Fire (commonly referred to as Survivor: Vanuatu) is the ninth season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. The season was filmed from June 28, 2004, through August 5, 2004, and the season premiered on September 16, 2004. Filming took place in Vanuatu, a chain of volcanic islands in the South Pacific. Hosted by Jeff Probst, it consisted of the usual 39 days of gameplay, with 18 competitors for the second time in the series' history.
This was the second season to initially divide the tribes by gender following Survivor: The Amazon. Chris Daugherty was named the winner and Sole Survivor after defeating runner-up Twila Tanner by a jury vote of 5–2.
Format
Survivor is a reality television show created by Mark Burnett and Charlie Parsons and based on the Swedish show Expedition Robinson. The series follows a number of participants who are 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 off the show. The last remaining player is awarded a prize of $1,000,000.
Contestants
The cast is composed of 18 new players, initially divided into two tribes by gender: the male tribe was named Lopevi, after one of Vanuatu's volcanic islands; while the female tribe was named Yasur, after Mount Yasur.
The season featured Chad Crittenden, the first amputee to play Survivor. He would be followed by Kelly Bruno in Survivor: Nicaragua and Noelle Lambert in Survivor 43. Vanuatu was also the first season of Survivor to feature two openly queer women on the same season, those being Ami Cusack and Scout Cloud Lee. It would be followed by Survivor: Micronesia, Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, Survivor: David vs. Goliath, Survivor: Island of the Idols, Survivor 42, Survivor 43, Survivor 44, Survivor 45, and Survivor 46.
On Day 11, there was a tribal shuffle which ended up moving two people from each tribe over to the other tribe. On Day 20, the tribes were merged with ten contestants remaining; the tribe was named Alinta, a name proposed by Cloud Lee meaning "people of fire."
+List of Survivor: Vanuatu – Islands of Fire contestantsContestantAgeFrom Tribe Finish Original Switched Merged Placement Day 27 Winthrop,Massachusetts 1st voted out Day 3 25 Lake Latonka,Pennsylvania 2nd voted out Day 6 31 Los Angeles,California 3rd voted outDay 7 29 Boston,Massachusetts 4th voted out 33 Huntington Beach,California rowspan="2" 5th voted out Day 10 33 Johnson City,Tennessee rowspan="2" 6th voted out Day 12 44 Mandeville,Louisiana 7th voted out Day 15 22 Los Angeles,California rowspan="4" 8th voted out Day 18 35 Des Moines,Iowa rowspan=10 9th voted out Day 21 40 Columbia,South Carolina rowspan="2" 10th voted out1st jury member Day 24 34 Oakland,California 11th voted out2nd jury member Day 27 35 Kansasville,Wisconsin rowspan="6" rowspan="2" 12th voted out3rd jury member Day 30 31 Lakewood,Colorado 13th voted out4th jury member Day 33 23 Gorham,Maine 14th voted out5th jury member Day 36 21 Syracuse,New York rowspan="2" 15th voted out6th jury member Day 37 59 Stillwater,Oklahoma 16th voted out7th jury member Day 38 41 Marshall,Missouri rowspan="2" Runner-upDay 39 33 South Vienna,Ohio Sole Survivor
Future appearances Ami Cusack and Eliza Orlins returned for Survivor: Micronesia as members of the Favorites tribe.
Outside of Survivor, John "J.P." Palyok competed on the second season of the Fox Reality Channel reality game show Solitary. In 2006, Twila Tanner competed with Survivor: Pearl Islands castaway Jonny Fairplay on a Reality Star episode of Fear Factor. Orlins competed on The Amazing Race 31 with fellow two-time Survivor contestant Corinne Kaplan.
Season summary
The eighteen players were brought into the game at a native gathering, with the natives dividing the group into men and women. The men were clearly favoured at the ceremony, creating animosity between them and the women. After the ceremony, the men were named the Lopevi tribe, and the women the Yasur tribe, and sent to find their camps in the dark. Lopevi lost the first challenge mainly due to Chris, but he created a majority alliance with older tribe members Lea, Travis, Rory, and Chad, and worked to vote off the younger men. In Yasur, two factions began to emerge, one composed of Julie, Mia, Lisa, and Eliza and the other of Ami, Twila, Scout, and Leann. While both factions lobbied for Dolly's vote, her refusal to commit resulted in her elimination. Both tribes were sent to tribal council on Day 7 as a result of a twist. The older men continued to eliminate the younger ones, and Ami's faction, now in power, voted Mia off. The Yasur tribe continued their dominance over the tribal challenges by winning the next reward and immunity challenges, bringing the men's numbers down to six.
A tribal switch occurred on day 11, mixing the two tribes; Rory and Travis were sent to Yasur while Twila and Julie were sent to Lopevi. The first Yasur loss resulted in Travis being eliminated for trying to publicly ask Lopevi to throw the immunity challenge. However, concerned over Lisa's loyalty, Ami arranged for the tribe to eliminate her at the next Tribal Council. At Lopevi, Lea, Chad, and Chris aligned with Twila and Julie, not trusting John K. as the last young man remaining. He was voted off and the five remaining Lopevi tribe members agreed to stick together after the merge.
On Day 19, with six women and four men remaining, the two tribes merged into Alinta. While Rory joined the Lopevi alliance, Julie and Twila broke their word and reformed the women's alliance. The men were quickly targeted over the next three tribal councils, leaving Chris as the sole male. By this time, Ami's core alliance consisted of her, Julie, and Leann, while Twila and Scout had formed a closer pairing and Eliza on the outside. Despite Chris losing immunity, Ami decided to spare him and vote Eliza out instead. However, Twila and Scout took the opportunity to align with Chris and Eliza, creating a new majority alliance and systematically voting out the others.
Chris won the last two immunity challenges, and ultimately took Twila with him into the final two. The jury saw Chris' ability to effectively stay in the game with the odds against him, from the first challenge to being the last man standing, and voted him the Sole Survivor in a vote of 5–2.
+Challenge winners and eliminations by episodeEpisodeChallenge winner(s)EliminatedNo.TitleOriginal air dateRewardImmunityTribePlayer1"They Came at Us with Spears!"September 16, 2004colspan="2" Brook2"Burly Girls, Bowheads, Young Studs,and the Old Bunch"September 23, 2004Dolly3"Double Tribal, Double Trouble"September 30, 2004rowspan="2" John P.Mia4"Now That's a Reward!"October 7, 2004Brady5"Earthquakes and Shake-Ups!"October 14, 2004Bubba6"Hog Tied"October 21, 2004Lisa7"Anger, Threats, Tears...and Coffee"October 28, 2004John K.8"Now the Battle Really Begins"November 4, 2004Sarge rowspan="9" Rory9"Gender Wars...It's Getting Ugly"November 11, 2004Leann[Julie]AmiSarge10"Culture Shock and Violent Storms"November 18, 2004Ami, Chad,Chris, ElizaTwilaChad11"Surprise and...Surprise Again!"November 25, 2004ElizaAmiLeann12"Now Who's in Charge Here?!"December 2, 2004Eliza,Ami, Chris Chris Ami13"Eruption of Volcanic Magnitude"December 9, 2004Julie[Chris]ElizaJulie14"Spirits and the Final Four"December 12, 2004rowspan="2" ChrisElizaChrisScout15"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 tribesSwitched tribesMerged tribeEpisode1234567891011121314 Day 3 67 10 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 37 38 Tribe Eliminated Brook Dolly John P. Mia Brady Bubba Lisa John K. Rory Sarge Chad Leann Ami Julie Eliza ScoutVotes 5–4 5–3 5–3 6–1 6–1 4–2 5–1 6–4 6–2 4–3 4–2 3–2 3–1 1–0VoterVoteChris Brook John P. Brady John K. Ami Sarge Eliza Leann Ami Julie Eliza ScoutTwila Dolly Mia John K. Rory Sarge Chad Leann Ami Julie ElizaScout Dolly Mia Bubba Rory Rory Sarge Chad Leann Ami Julie ElizaEliza Dolly Twila Bubba Lisa Rory Sarge Chad Leann Ami Twila TwilaJulie Leann Twila John K. Rory Sarge Chad Eliza Scout TwilaAmi Dolly Mia Bubba Lisa Rory Sarge Chad Eliza ScoutLeann Dolly Mia Bubba Lisa Rory Sarge Chad ElizaChad Brook John P. Brady John K. Ami Julie ElizaSarge Brook John P. Brady John K. Ami ElizaRory Brook John P. Brady Bubba Lisa AmiJohn K. Chris Rory Brady ChadLisa Leann Mia Bubba RoryBubba Brook John P. Brady RoryBrady Rory Rory RoryMia Leann TwilaJohn P. Chris RoryDolly LeannBrook Chris
Jury vote 15 Day 39 FinalistChrisTwila Vote5–2JurorVoteScoutElizaJulieAmiLeannChadSarge
Notes
Reception The season has generally been negatively received, with the primary criticism being the repetition of the "battle of the sexes" theme, and how the theme arguably did not work as well in this season as it did in Survivor: The Amazon. Host Jeff Probst, ranking it as the 5th-worst season in 2010, admittedly felt that he "liked this season more than the audience did, and that has probably influenced why it has dropped since my last ranking." Tom Santilli of Examiner.com ranked it among the bottom 10 at #21, while Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly ranked it the seventh-worst season of the series, only better than San Juan del Sur, One World, Thailand, Fiji, Nicaragua and Island of the Idols, saying that although "the battle of the sexes worked well the first time around," he felt it wasn't as strong in this season. In 2020, it was ranked 31st out of 40 by Survivor fan site "The Purple Rock Podcast", saying that "the casting was below average on this season," and since "the gimmick/twist for this season was one the show had used before…the issue here is whether you like that narrative." Andrea Deiher of Zap2it ranked it as the 3rd-worst season, saying that "we can barely remember anyone from this season…this was just kind of a dud season." In 2015, a poll by Rob Has a Podcast ranked Vanuatu 17th out of 30 with Rob Cesternino ranking this season 19th. This was updated in 2021 during Cesternino's podcast, Survivor All-Time Top 40 Rankings, ranking 23rd out of 40. In 2020, Inside Survivor ranked this season 22nd out of 40 saying that while "there are a few casting duds on Vanuatu, and the early merge suffers from a predictable Pagonging against the men, there's still a lot to love in this season thanks to its characters, unexpected moments, and a fantastic endgame." In 2024, Nick Caruso of TVLine ranked this season 31st out of 47. Part of the show's mixed-to-negative legacy has been defined by how different observers feel about the season's winner, Chris Daugherty. Jeff Probst has stated that Chris was a liar and a bad winner, a sentiment that many fans speculate stemmed from his post game relationship with Julie Berry, who Chris voted off. While many fans liked Chris and were happy when he won, his status as a one time contestant, paired with Probst's blatant dislike for him, has made his legacy more faded than other winners, many of whom have returned for at least one season.
References
External links Official CBS Survivor Vanuatu Website