Survivor: Cambodia — Second Chance (commonly referred to as either Survivor: Cambodia or Survivor: Second Chance) is the 31st season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. Unlike previous seasons, which were completely cast by producers, this season featured 20 returning contestants chosen by an online public vote. The ballot, with the 32 finalists that were considered for this season, was revealed on May 6, 2015, the same day that voting began. The final cast was revealed on May 20, at the reunion of the preceding season. After the reveal occurred, the chosen cast members immediately began the trip to Koh Rong, Cambodia, where the season was filmed. The season premiered on September 23, 2015, and concluded on December 16, 2015, when Jeremy Collins was declared the Sole Survivor over Spencer Bledsoe and Latasha "Tasha" Fox in a unanimous 10–0–0 jury vote.
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 isolated in a remote location, where they must provide food, fire, and shelter. One participant is removed from the series by majority vote every three days, with challenges held to give a reward (ranging from living- and food-related prizes to a car) and immunity from being voted out of the series. The last remaining player receives a prize of $1,000,000.
Contestants
The cast is composed of 20 returning players initially split into two tribes. On day 7, the tribes were shuffled from two to three. The three tribes are named after Cambodian temples: Ta Keo, Bayon, and Angkor. The merged tribe name Orkun is the Khmer word for "thank you", which was suggested by contestant Kimmi Kappenberg.
+List of Survivor: Cambodia – Second Chance contestantsContestantAgeFrom Tribe Finish Original Firstswitch Secondswitch Merged Placement Day Blood vs. Water 35 Santa Monica,California rowspan="4" 1st voted out Day 3 Worlds Apart 32 San Francisco,California 2nd voted out Day 6 China 37 San Francisco,California rowspan="2" 3rd voted out Day 9 49 Greensboro,North Carolina 4th voted out Day 11 Samoa 30 Queens,New York 5th voted out Day 13 Panama 55 Simsbury,Connecticut rowspan="2" Withdrew Cagayan 31 Newport Beach,California rowspan="5" 6th voted out Day 16 Cagayan 43 Tehachapi,California rowspan="2" rowspan=13 7th voted out1st jury member Day 19 Pearl Islands 51 San Jose, California 8th voted out2nd jury member Day 21 Borneo 38 Greensboro,North Carolina 9th voted out3rd jury member Day 24 Blood vs. Water 26 Salem,Oregon rowspan="3" 10th voted out4th jury member Day 26 Tocantins 36 New York,New York rowspan="2" 11th voted out5th jury member Day 29 Worlds Apart 26 Scottsdale,Arizona 12th voted out6th jury member Day 32 Philippines 35 Los Angeles,California 13th voted out7th jury member Day 35 The Australian Outback 42 Texas rowspan="2" rowspan="3" 14th voted out8th jury member Day 36 San Juan del Sur 54 Keithville,Louisiana rowspan="2" 15th voted out9th jury member Day 37 San Juan del Sur 29 Seattle,Washington rowspan="2" 16th voted out Cagayan 23 Chicago,Illinois Co-runners-upDay 39 Cagayan 38 St. Louis,Missouri rowspan="2" rowspan="2" San Juan del Sur 37 Foxboro,Massachusetts Sole Survivor
Future appearances Ciera Eastin and Jeff Varner returned for Survivor: Game Changers. Joe Anglim and Kelley Wentworth returned for Survivor: Edge of Extinction. Jeremy Collins returned to compete on Survivor: Winners at War.
Outside of Survivor, Yung "Woo" Hwang, Wentworth, Collins, and Anglim competed on the premiere of Candy Crush. Abi-Maria Gomes competed with two-time Survivor contestant Sierra Dawn Thomas on a Survivor vs Big Brother episode of Fear Factor. In 2022, Tasha Fox competed on the first season of The Challenge: USA. In 2025, Collins competed on the third season of The Traitors.
Season summary
The 20 returning castaways were initially divided into two tribes of ten: Bayon and Ta Keo. Bayon was led by a core alliance spearheaded by Andrew and Jeremy, the entire tribe promising to stay loyal in the face of upcoming tribe swaps. Throughout the two tribe shuffles, the original Ta Keo tribe fractured while most original Bayon members continued acting in the interest of reforming at the merge. However, some—such as Ciera and Kass—were not as loyal, creating a new alliance on the second Ta Keo tribe. On the third Ta Keo tribe, Ciera and Kass's new alliance came into conflict with Andrew, and they blindsided his ally Woo.
The tribes merged the next day with 13 players remaining, setting Andrew and Jeremy's reformed Bayon alliance against Ciera and Kass's. Though the Bayon alliance initially held the majority, the tribe's large size and multitude of intertwining relationships as a result of the tribe swaps caused the players to eschew long-term alliances in favor of creating temporary voting blocs to get rid of common threats.
While the voting bloc strategy prevailed well into the merge, stable alliances began to form as the numbers dwindled. With seven players remaining, Jeremy formed a majority alliance with Spencer, who had had no consistent allies throughout the game, and original Bayon members Kimmi and Tasha. However, Kimmi later betrayed them to align with outsiders Keith and Kelley. Kimmi was eliminated after the ensuing deadlock tie, and Jeremy, Spencer, and Tasha reached the end of the game together. Ultimately, at the Final Tribal Council, Jeremy was rewarded for his strategic and social dominance throughout the entire game, earning the title of Sole Survivor by a unanimous jury vote.
+Challenge winners and eliminations by episodesEpisodeChallenge winner(s)Eliminated No. Title Original air date Reward ImmunityTribePlayer1"Second Chance"September 23, 2015 Vytas 2"Survivor MacGyver"September 30, 2015 Shirin3"We Got a Rat"October 7, 2015 rowspan=2 rowspan="2" Peih-Gee scope="row" 4"What's the Beef?"October 14, 2015 rowspan="2" Jeff scope="row" 5"A Snake in the Grass"October 21, 2015 rowspan="2" Monica scope="row" 6"Bunking with the Devil"October 28, 2015 scope="row" rowspan="2" scope="row" rowspan="2" Terry Woo 7"Play to Win"November 4, 2015 Joe rowspan="11" Kass 8"You Call, We'll Haul"November 11, 2015 Ciera, Joe,Keith, Kelley,Kelly, Kimmi Joe Andrew 9"Witches Coven"November 18, 2015 Ciera,Joe, Spencer,Stephen, Tasha Joe Kelly 10"Like Selling Your Soul to the Devil"November 25, 2015 Abi-Maria,Ciera, Joe,Spencer, Tasha Joe Ciera 11"My Wheels Are Spinning" Stephen[Jeremy, Tasha] Spencer Stephen12"Tiny Little Shanks to the Heart"December 2, 2015 Kelley[Abi-Maria, Joe,Keith, Kimmi] Keith Joe Kelley 13"Villains Have More Fun"December 9, 2015 Keith[Kelley, Spencer] Spencer Abi-Maria14"Lie, Cheat and Steal"December 16, 2015 rowspan="3" Spencer Kimmi Kelley Keith Jeremy Kelley15"Reunion"
Episodes
Voting history Original tribesFirst switchSecond switchMerged tribeEpisode1234567891011121314Day36911131619212426293235363738Tribe colspan=2 colspan=3 Eliminated Vytas Shirin Peih-Gee Jeff Monica Terry Woo Kass Andrew Kelly Ciera Stephen Joe Kimmi Keith KelleyVotes 6–4 5–4 4–2 4–1 3–2–1 4–3 3–0 4–3–2 6–1–1 4–2–1 0–0 3–3 Consensus 3–2 3–1VoterVoteJeremy Monica Ciera Kelley Kelly Ciera Joe Joe Abi-Maria Kelley Kimmi Kimmi Keith KelleySpencer Vytas Shirin Kelly Woo Ciera Kelley Kelly Stephen Stephen Joe Abi-Maria Kelley Kimmi Kimmi Keith KelleyTasha Peih-Gee Jeff Kass Kelley Ciera Stephen Abi-Maria Joe Abi-Maria Kelley Kimmi Keith KelleyKelley Vytas Spencer Kass Andrew Kelly Kimmi Stephen Joe Tasha Jeremy Tasha Kimmi Spencer SpencerKeith Kass Kelley Kelley Stephen Stephen Tasha Tasha Jeremy Tasha Kimmi SpencerKimmi Monica Kass Kelley Ciera Ciera Abi-Maria Joe Abi-Maria Jeremy Tasha Abi-Maria Vytas Spencer Peih-Gee Jeff Woo Tasha Andrew Kelly Stephen Stephen Joe KeithJoe Ciera Kelley Kelley Stephencolspan=2 Stephen Monica Kass Kelley Kelly Ciera JoeCiera Woo Andrew Andrew Kelly KimmiKelly Shirin Spencer Spencer Ciera Kelley CieraAndrew Peih-Gee Jeff Spencer Kass KelleyKass Woo TashaWoo Abi-Maria Shirin Jeff SpencerTerry Abi-Maria SpencerWithdrewMonica KellyJeff Vytas Shirin Peih-Gee WooPeih-Gee Vytas Shirin Abi-MariaShirin Vytas SpencerVytas Abi-Maria
Jury voteEpisode15Day39Finalist Jeremy Spencer Tasha Votes10–0–0 JurorVote Kelley Keith Kimmi Abi-Maria Joe Stephen Ciera Kelly Andrew Kass Notes
Production Filming It is the tenth season to feature returning players, and the third to feature a cast consisting entirely of returning players, after Survivor: All-Stars and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. Though this season was the 31st to air, it was the 32nd filmed and the next season after Survivor: Kaôh Rōng; the two seasons were filmed back-to-back in the same location.
This season featured several new alterations to the game format. Hidden immunity idols, typically hidden either at tribal camps or Exile Island, were hidden this season at immunity challenges before the merge. Additionally, this season marked the first time the number of regular tribes increased over the course of a season (in this case, from two to three), and the first time the tribes merged with 13 players remaining. It also introduced the vote stealer, in which one player could prohibit another from voting and cast a second ballot in their stead. Casting According to host and executive producer Jeff Probst, 75 former contestants were initially considered regarding on returning for this season. On Twitter and in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Probst revealed that Greg Buis from Survivor: Borneo, Ian Rosenberger from Survivor: Palau, Shannon "Shambo" Waters from Survivor: Samoa, Roberta "R.C." Saint-Amour and Jeff Kent from Survivor: Philippines were contacted to return but all of them declined the offers. Josh Canfield, Reed Kelly, and Jon Misch from Survivor: San Juan del Sur were all contacted, however Canfield and Kelly's Broadway contracts prevented them from being able to play, and Misch missed the call.
Public vote The vote was conducted on the CBS website, and was open to residents of the U.S. On the website, each candidate was featured in a video displaying a series of clips from their original season followed by a plea to voters as to why they should be selected for Cambodia. Registered voters were required to submit ballots of exactly ten men and ten women, and each voter could only submit a ballot once every 24 hours.
Voting commenced on May 6, 2015, while the Worlds Apart season of Survivor was still in progress. The ballot consisted entirely of players who had played only once before and had not won; however, two of the candidates from Worlds Apart (Mike Holloway and Carolyn Rivera) had not yet been eliminated from that season when voting began; if either of them were revealed to be that season's winner, they would be deemed ineligible for Cambodia and, if they were among the top ten vote receivers of their gender, their spot would be given to the person on their ballot with the 11th highest vote total. Holloway won Worlds Apart and per Jeff Probst's announcement had finished in the top 10 among male candidates, so the 11th place male candidate joined the cast instead. Probst has since stated that, out of respect for the contestants, there is no intention to reveal the final vote counts or ranks.
+List of non-selected Survivor: Cambodia – Second Chance candidates Name Age Hometown 56 Jackson, Georgia 44 24 Studio City, California 30 San Diego, California 39 Denver, Colorado 25 Miami, Florida 53 Miami, Florida 37 Brooklyn, New York 46 Tampa, Florida 38 Topanga, California 38 Fort Worth, Texas 53 Queens, New York Notes
Reception Ratings