The fourth season of Australian Survivor is a television series based on the international reality competition franchise Survivor. It is the second season to air on the Network Ten, following the network acquiring the broadcast rights to the Australian Survivor franchise in late 2015. Jonathan LaPaglia returned to host the series for his second season.
The season premiered on 30 July 2017. Like the previous season, the program was filmed on the Samoan island of Upolu and featured 24 Australian castaways competing for 55 days in the Samoan jungle for a grand prize of A$500,000. On 10 October 2017, Jericho Malabonga was revealed to be the winner over Tara Pitt by a vote of 6–3.
Production Casting The series was renewed on 23 October 2016. Upon the announcement of renewal, a casting call was made for potential contestants for the new season. Over 20,000 people applied for the new season.
Twists This season featured multiple game-play twists for the first time in the series. This season introduced the super-idol which had the power to nullify the use of any other idol at one tribal council (not to be confused with the post-vote negating idol seen first in the American format's Panama season). This season also introduced several 'moral dilemmas' into the game which forced contestants to choose between two luxuries; one that benefits the entire tribe and one that only benefits the finder.
This season also saw the return of non-elimination episodes from season 3, the first of which saw a double tribal council where two contestants were sequentially voted out and sent to the opposing tribe. The following day, two contestants of the other tribe were then required to volunteer to switch to the tribe to replace them. The second non-elimination episode saw the contestants of one tribe vote for one of their members to receive a reward. The third featured a Tribal Council mutiny and the fourth featured a juror elimination.
This season also introduced a variety of twists previously seen on the American format including the initial marooning, the hiding of an immunity idol at challenges (first seen in Cambodia), tribal mutiny (first seen in Thailand) and jury member elimination (as seen in Kaôh Rōng).
Contestants
+List of Australian Survivor season 4 contestantsContestantOriginal tribeFirstswapped tribeSecondswapped tribePost-mutinytribeMerged tribeFinish29, Sydney, NSW 40, Brisbane, QLD47, Melbourne, VIC51, Toowoomba, QLD23, Melbourne, VIC32, Melbourne, VIC37, Perth, WA50, Byron Bay, NSW51, Adelaide, SA29, Adelaide, SA20, Perth, WA32, Sydney, NSW29, Mount Lawley, WA rowspan="12" 23, Melbourne, VIC26, Adelaide, SA29, Melbourne, VIC22, Perth, WA30, Perth, WA26, Gymea Bay, NSW27, Perth, WA33, Sydney, NSW 22, Sydney, NSW32, Sunshine Coast, QLD25, Melbourne, VIC
Future appearances Luke Toki competed on the 2019 edition of Australian Survivor: Champions vs. Contenders as part of the Champions tribe. Mark Herlaar, Jacqui Patterson, Aaron "A.K." Knight, Henry Nicholson, Locky Gilbert, Michelle Dougan and Jericho Malabonga competed on Australian Survivor: All Stars. Samantha Gash and Mark Wales - who were married at the time - competed on Australian Survivor: Blood V Water as a pair. Toki and Sarah Tilleke returned for Australian Survivor: Australia V The World.
Outside of Survivor, Locky appeared on the eighth season of The Bachelor Australia as the titular bachelor in 2020. Aimee competed on the eighth season of Seven Network's House Rules in 2020 and finished as the runner up. Sam and Mark competed on the Amazon Prime Video series World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji as part of Team Aussie Rescue and finished the race in 26th place after 212 hours and 28 minutes. Michelle competed in the tenth episode of The Cube in 2021 with her sister Sam. Luke competed on Big Brother VIP, finishing in first place. Sam and Mark appeared on The Dog House Australia in 2022. In 2023, Luke competed on the second season of The Traitors, while in 2026 Henry competed on the third season. Joan competed on Season 2 of Squid Game: The Challenge in 2025 as player #69, she was eliminated in the third episode.
Season summary
The 24 contestants were split into two tribes. On Asaga, Luke and his closest ally Jericho were in the minority and unsuccessfully attempted to upset the balance of power in the tribe. On Samatau, A.K. was on the bottom due to his aggressive strategizing, but he was able to seize control by eliminating Aimee, the closest ally of the tribe's prominent strategist in Locky. Outsiders Tara and Anneliese were sent to Asaga in a fake double elimination, with Ben and Henry taking their place. Luke and Jericho used the opportunity to take control of Asaga, while Samatau went on an immunity run. A second tribe swap sent A.K. & Peter to Asaga and Anneliese & Michelle to Samatau; later, a mutiny twist was offered, and Peter was the only one to accept, sending him back to Samatau.
The merge left Samatau in a 6–5 majority, but the Asaga members convinced the people on the bottom of Samatau to turn against Jarrad and Anneliese, eliminating them both. A new majority composed of Tessa, Michelle, Luke, Peter, Sarah, and Jericho blindsided Henry before Luke caught wind of a plan against Jericho, prompting him to make a move against Tessa. Tara then decided to betray her closest ally Locky due to his status as a threat, but he went on an immunity run that eventually ended with his elimination.
At the Final 4, Jericho won an advantage to remove a member of the jury. He chose Tessa, believing her to be the least likely to vote for him to win, despite her saying that she viewed Tara as the weakest player. Peter was the next intended target, but after he won immunity, he lobbied for Jericho's elimination. This was foiled after Jericho uncovered the plan and Tara, paranoid after Tessa's statements, decided to make a big move and force a fire-making challenge between Jericho and Michelle. Jericho ended up winning, and thus Michelle was eliminated. Jericho then won the final immunity challenge and decided to stay true to his new alliance with Tara, voting out Peter.
At the Final Tribal Council, Tara was commended for her strong social game, playing from a minority position and her orchestration of Locky and A.K's elimination, but chastised for riding Locky's coattails for far too long, not making enough strategic decisions, and being weak in challenges. Meanwhile, Jericho was congratulated for his very effective method of making alliances and using shields, playing under-the-radar, and winning challenges when he needed to. However he was criticized for his cruelty and hypocrisy, claiming to be a benevolent religious person despite unnecessarily being nasty to Jarrad and Sarah when they were eliminated, riding on Luke's coattails, and making bad decisions such as removing Tessa from the jury and taking Tara to the end, despite Tessa saying she would be very unlikely to vote for Tara to win. However, Jericho's strong strategic and physical game was rewarded over Tara's underdog status, and he was awarded the title of Sole Survivor with six jury votes to Tara's three.
+Tribal phase (Day 1–34)EpisodeEliminatedFinishNo.RewardImmunity 1 30 July 2017 rowspan="2" rowspan="2" 1st voted outDay 3 2 31 July 2017 2nd voted outDay 63 1 August 2017 3rd voted outDay 94 6 August 2017 4th voted outDay 115 7 August 2017 None 5th voted outDay 136 13 August 2017 6th voted outDay 167 14 August 2017 None 7th voted outDay 188 20 August 2017 9 21 August 2017 None 8th voted outDay 2210 27 August 2017 9th voted outDay 2411 28 August 201712 3 September 2017 13 4 September 2017 None 11th voted outDay 3014 rowspan="2" 15 None 12th voted outDay 34
+Individual phase (Day 35–55)EpisodeEliminatedFinishNo.Air dateRewardImmunity16 13th voted outDay 3617 None 14th voted outDay 3818 SurvivorAuction 15th voted outDay 4019 None 16th voted outDay 4220 17th voted outDay 4421None 18th voted outDay 4622 19th voted outDay 4723colspan=2 20th voted outDay 492425None 21st voted out9th jury memberDay 522622nd voted out10th jury memberDay 54Final VoteRunner-UpDay 55Day 55
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. Notes
Episodes
Voting history Tribal Phase (Day 1–34) Original tribesTribe swap voteFirst swapRewardSecond swapMutinyEpisode #123456789101112131415Day #369111316182022242628303234EliminatedVotesVoterVotealign="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" colspan="2" align="left" colspan="2" align ="left" colspan="3" align="left" colspan="3" align="left" colspan="4" align="left" colspan="4" align="left" colspan="4" align="left" colspan="4" align="left" colspan="4" align="left" colspan="4" align="left" colspan="4" align="left" Individual phase (Day 35–55)
Merged tribeEpisode #1617181920212223242526Day #3638404244464749505254EliminatedVoteVoterVotealign="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left"
Final voteEpisode #26Day #55FinalistVotecolspan="3" JurorVotealign="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" colspan="2" align="left" align="left" align="left"
Notes
Reception Ratings Ratings data is from OzTAM and represents the viewership from the 5 largest Australian metropolitan centres (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide). WkEp Air date Timeslot Source Viewers Rank Viewers Rank Viewers Rank 1 1 639,000 8 52,000 7 691,000 8 2 656,000 12 74,000 3 730,000 11 3 600,00011 124,0001 724,00010 2 4 606,0009 51,0005 657,0008 5 637,00013 105,0003 742,00010 3 6 622,0007 72,0001 694,0007 7 625,00014 109,0002 729,00011 4 8 633,0008 63,0003 696,0008 9 611,00016 128,0001 739,00012 5 10 607,00011 55,0006 662,0009 11 575,00014 115,0001 690,00011 6 12 574,0009 49,0004 623,0008 13 617,00014 88,0002 706,00011 7 14 603,0008 55,0002 658,0008 15 595,00017 101,0002 696,00013 8 16 567,00010 54,0004 622,0009 17 559,00018 64,0005 623,00017 18 567,00013 96,0002 663,000 11 9 19 570,0009 69,0004 639,0009 20 625,00012 68,0003 693,00011 21 625,00010 94,0002 719,00010 10 22 617,00015 43,0005 660,00014 23 595,00011 90,0002 685,00011 11 24 644,00014 68,0005 712,00011 25 669,00010 51,0004 721,00010 26 720,0009 105,0003 825,0008 787,0007 155,0002 943,0002 R 508,00016 105,0003 613,00013
Notes
References
External links