Survivor: Kaôh Rōng — Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty (commonly referred to as Survivor: Kaôh Rōng) is the 32nd season of the American competitive reality television series Survivor. It was originally broadcast by CBS between February 17 and May 18, 2016. The season featured 18 new contestants divided into three tribes based on their personal attributes; with "Chan Loh," "Gondol," and "To Tang" representing "Brain," "Beauty," and "Brawn," respectively. It is the second season of Survivor to divide their starting tribes this way, following Survivor: Cagayan.
Filming took place on the island of Koh Rong in Cambodia between March 30 and May 7, 2015. It was filmed before season 31, Survivor: Cambodia, though aired after, with both seasons filmed back-to-back in the same location. Survivor: Kaôh Rōng introduced two new game mechanics to the show: a feature whereby two hidden immunity idols could be combined into one single idol that could be played after the votes were read, and the power to remove a member of the jury, given to the finalist who won the final reward challenge.
After 39 days, Michele Fitzgerald was named the Sole Survivor over fellow finalists Aubry Bracco and Tai Trang in a jury vote of 5–2–0, thus winning the US$1,000,000 prize. The season received a positive critical reception, with many praising its unpredictability and strong finalists. It also performed well in ratings, as it became the highest-rated unscripted program among adults in all demographics.
Overview
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 by one, a participant is removed from the series by majority vote, 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.
Production
Survivor: Kaôh Rōng was filmed on the island of Koh Rong in Cambodia between March 30 and May 7, 2015. The season originally aired on CBS between February 17 and May 18, 2016. Although it was filmed before Survivor: Cambodia, it aired after, marking the first time the show aired its seasons out of filming order. As it was filmed first, it became the first CBS reality show to film in Cambodia. Three medical evacuations from the game occurred during the season's filming, the most to ever occur during a single season. Host Jeff Probst named the first of the three evacuations, which occurred during a challenge, the most frightening moment in the show's history. A previous season of Koh-Lanta, a French variant of Survivor, which filmed there saw a contestant die during its first challenge, resulting in the cancellation of its thirteenth season.
The 18 new contestants were divided into three tribes based on personal attributes: "Chan Loh" ("Brains"), "Gondol" ("Beauty"), and "To Tang" ("Brawn"). Kaôh Rōng became the second season to employ this theme, after Survivor: Cagayan, season 28. Probst said that the decision to do the theme again emerged during casting: "As we started seeing people, it became obvious we had another really clear division of brains, brawn, and beauty."
The season introduced a new mechanic for the show's hidden immunity idol to the game, being that if two were used together, they could be used to save a player from elimination after they had been voted out. It later introduced a new advantage, which allowed a member of the final three to remove a member of the jury at Tribal Council after winning a final Reward Challenge.
Contestants
The cast is composed of 18 new players, initially split into three tribes of six based on personal attributes: "Chan Loh" ("Brains"), "Gondol" ("Beauty"), and "To Tang" ("Brawn"). On Day 12, the remaining 13 players were redivided into "Chan Loh" and "Gondol". On Day 17, the 11 remaining players merged into one tribe, "Dara", named after the Khmer word for "star", for the remainder of the game. Notable castaways include former NBA player Scot Pollard. +List of Survivor: Kaôh Rōng contestantsContestantAgeFrom Tribe Finish Original Switched Merged Placement Day 27 Chicago,Illinois rowspan="2" 1st voted out Day 3 38 Salt Lake City,Utah 2nd voted out Day 6 27 New York,New York 3rd voted out Day 8 27 Hopkinsville,Kentucky Day 9 24 Dallas,Texas 4th voted out Day 11 26 Brooklyn,New York rowspan="2" 5th voted out Day 13 34 Minneapolis,Minnesota rowspan="2" 6th voted out Day 16 38 Sausalito,California rowspan="3" rowspan=12 Medically evacuated Day 19 30 California 7th voted out Day 22 49 Reading,Pennsylvania 8th voted out2nd jury member Day 24 40 Carmel,Indiana rowspan="2" 9th voted out3rd jury member Day 27 19 Boston,Massachusetts 10th voted out4th jury member Day 29 31 Detroit,Michigan 11th voted out5th jury member Day 32 71 Vero Beach,Florida Medically evacuated6th jury member 22 Douglasville,Georgia 12th voted out7th jury member Day 37 51 San Francisco,California rowspan="2" 2nd runner-up Day 39 29 Cambridge,Massachusetts Runner-up 24 Freehold,New Jersey Sole Survivor
Future appearances Caleb Reynolds, Debbie Wanner, Aubry Bracco, and Tai Trang returned for Survivor: Game Changers. Bracco returned again for Survivor: Edge of Extinction. Michele Fitzgerald returned to compete on Survivor: Winners at War. Bracco once again competed on Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans.
Outside of Survivor, Reynolds competed on the premiere of Candy Crush. Reynolds also competed on a Survivor vs Big Brother episode of Fear Factor. Fitzgerald competed on the thirty-seventh, thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, and fortieth seasons of The Challenge, and also on the second season of The Challenge: USA. She has also been announced as a contestant for the sixth season of The Traitors, which is scheduled to stream in 2027. Cydney Gillon competed on Beast Games: Strong vs. Smart.
Season summary The 18 new castaways were divided into three tribes based on primary attribute: Chan Loh (Brains), To Tang (Brawn) and Gondol (Beauty). Though the Brawn lost three of the first four immunity challenges, being reduced to only Cydney, Jason, and Scot, all three survived through the tribe swap, reaching the merge alongside four Brains and four Beauties.
Upon merging, the Brawns and Beauties initially aligned against the Brains but, put off by their male allies’ attitudes, the Brawn-Beauty women (Cydney, Julia and Michele) decided to team up with the Brains instead to form a new majority alliance. Though the minority alliance of Jason, Scot and Tai had two hidden immunity idols, Aubry convinced Tai to betray his allies, getting rid of one of the idols and joining the majority.
Aubry and Cydney were the primary strategists of their alliance, and turned against each other when there were four players remaining; Aubry won the tiebreaker to join Michele and Tai in the finals. The next day, Michele won a challenge against Tai and Aubry in which she had the power to remove a member of the jury from the Final Tribal Council. She chose Neal, due to his support of Aubry's game and his persuasiveness.
At the Final Tribal Council, Tai had difficulty explaining his choices, and was accused of having played his idols and advantages at the wrong time - especially by Scot, who was eliminated due to Tai withholding his idol. Aubry and Michele both emphasized how different their games were, with Aubry stating that she made multiple strategic moves to position herself in the game and making fire two nights ago. However, they felt that her social connections were lacking in comparison to Michele. Michele stated that even though she did cruise until the merge, that she still affected the game largely due to her relaxed social game. In the end, Michele beat Aubry and Tai in a vote of 5–2–0. +Challenge winners and eliminations by episodesEpisodeChallenge winner(s)Eliminated No. Title Original air date Reward ImmunityTribePlayer1"I'm a Mental Giant"February 17, 2016colspan=2 rowspan="2" Darnellcolspan=2 2"Kindergarten Camp"February 24, 2016colspan=2 rowspan="2" Jennifercolspan=2 3"The Circle of Life"March 2, 2016 colspan=2 rowspan="2" Lizcolspan=2 4"Signed, Sealed and Delivered"March 9, 2016 Caleb Alecia5"The Devils We Know"March 16, 2016 rowspan="2" rowspan="2" Anna 6"Play or Go Home"March 23, 2016 Peter 7"It's Merge Time"March 30, 2016 Nick rowspan="10" Neal 8"The Jocks vs. the Pretty People"April 6, 2016 Debbie,Julia, Nick,Scot, Tai Tai Nick 9"It's Psychological Warfare"April 13, 2016 Jason, Julia,Scot, Tai Julia Debbie10"I'm Not Here to Make Good Friends"April 20, 2016 Julia Jason Scot Michele Tai 11"It’s a ‘Me’ Game, Not a ‘We’ Game"April 27, 2016 Cydney, Michele[Aubry] Michele Julia 12"Now’s the Time to Start Scheming"May 4, 2016 Jason,Michele, Tai Cydney Jason 13"With Me or Not With Me"May 11, 2016 Joe[Aubry, Cydney] Joe14"Not Going Down Without a Fight"May 18, 2016 Aubry[Cydney] Michele Cydney Michele colspan="3" 15"Reunion"
Episodes
Voting history
Original tribesSwitched tribesMerged tribeEpisode1234567891011121314Day36891113161922242729323437Tribecolspan=2 colspan=2 colspan=2 colspan=2 Eliminated Darnell Jennifer Liz Caleb Alecia Anna Peter Neal Nick Debbie Scot Julia Jason Joe CydneyVotes 3–3 4–0 3–2 Evacuated 3–1 5–1 4–2 Evacuated 4–3–2 5–2 4–2–1 Evacuated 2–2 ChallengeVoterVoteMichele Nick Debbie Tai Julia Jason AubryAubry Peter Anna Peter Nick Debbie Scot Julia Jason CydneyTai Anna Peter Jason Cydney Scot Julia Michele Michele CydneyCydney Alecia Darnell Jennifer Alecia Nick Debbie Scot Julia Jason AubryJoe Liz Liz Anna Julia Nick Scot Scot Julia JasonEvacuatedJason Alecia Darnell Jennifer Alecia Aubry Cydney Aubry Tai JoeJulia Peter Nick Debbie Tai TaiScot Darnell Darnell Alecia Alecia Anna Peter Aubry Cydney AubryDebbie Liz Liz Nick ScotNick DebbieNeal Peter LizEvacuatedPeter Aubry Anna JuliaAnna PeterAlecia Darnell Jennifer ScotCalebEvacuatedLiz AubryJennifer Darnell Darnell AleciaDarnell Alecia
Jury voteSurvivor: Kaôh Rōng episode 14, "Not Going Down Without a Fight", CBS, May 18, 2016Episode15Day39FinalistMicheleAubryTaiVotes5–2–0JurorVoteCydneyJoeJasonJuliaScotDebbieNickNealcolspan="3"
Notes
Reception Critical reception Overall, the season received a positive response from critics and commentators, who praised its unpredictability and strong players including Fitzgerald, Bracco, Gillon, and Trang. The members of the jury, the lackluster final tribal council, and the final twist that gave one of the finalists the right to vote out a jury member (which resulted in Gottileb's removal), however, were received poorly by many.
Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter praised the season's unpredictability but panned the final Tribal Council, saying "this was one of the rare seasons that came into its last leg with no inherently 'wrong' winner;" but was critical of the jury members for providing a very dull final tribal council. He praised Fitzgerald for her alliance management and for winning challenges at crucial points in the game and was of the opinion that the last two challenge wins, which provided "nice [moments] of release and catharsis", were what won her the title in the end. Fienberg, however, criticized the jury, Pollard and Jason in particular, for not voting for Bracco, who he thought had been a stronger strategic player and the undue attention given to Tai during the reunion show; he went on to call the whole two hours "awful".