Survivor: Ghost Island is the 36th season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. Ghost Island was filmed in the summer of 2017 and premiered on February 28, 2018, on CBS with a two-hour episode. The season concluded on May 23, 2018. This season was the fifth to be filmed in Fiji, surpassing Nicaragua, the Philippines and Samoa for the highest number of Survivor seasons filmed in a single country.
For the first time since Survivor: Borneo, the jury's votes were read at Final Tribal Council. This season also marks the first time in Survivor history in which two players were tied for having the most jury votes at the Final Tribal Council. Domenick Abbate and Wendell Holland each received five votes from the jury, while Laurel Johnson received none. In order to break the tie, Johnson joined the jury and used her deciding vote to award the title of Sole Survivor to Holland.
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 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.
Contestants
+List of Survivor: Ghost Island contestantsContestantAgeFrom Tribe Finish Original Firstswitch Secondswitch Merged Placement Day26Ocala,Florida rowspan="2" 1st voted outDay 3 22Brooklyn,New York2nd voted outDay 6 29Orlando,Florida3rd voted outDay 9 40Herndon,Virginia rowspan="3" rowspan="2" 4th voted outDay 12 34Chicago,Illinois5th voted outDay 14 24New York,New York6th voted outDay 17 26Los Angeles,California rowspan="2" 7th voted outDay 19 27Brooklyn,New York rowspan="2" rowspan="13" 8th voted out1st jury memberDay 22 24Houston,Texas9th voted out2nd jury memberDay 25 21Brooklyn,New York rowspan="6" 10th voted out3rd jury memberDay 27 23Venice Beach,California rowspan="2" 11th voted out4th jury memberDay 29 18Los Angeles,California12th voted out5th jury member 25Los Angeles,California rowspan="3" 13th voted out6th jury memberDay 32 30Denver,Colorado14th voted out7th jury memberDay 35 22Florida15th voted out8th jury memberDay 36 25Kimper,Kentucky rowspan="5" 16th voted out9th jury memberDay 37 42Cincinnati,OhioEliminated 29Minneapolis,Minnesota2nd runner-upDay 39 38Nesconset,New York rowspan="2" Runner-up 33Philadelphia,PennsylvaniaSole Survivor
Future appearances Wendell Holland returned to compete on Survivor: Winners at War.
Outside of Survivor, Domenick Abbate competed on the first season of the CBS crossover reality competition, The Challenge: USA. Sebastian Noel competed on the second season of the show. Stephanie Gonzalez and Libby Vincek competed on The CW and Roku Channel show Fight to Survive. Wendell Holland competed on Amazon Freevee’s The Goat. In 2025, Holland appeared as a designer on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. In 2026, Holland competed on the NBC show Destination X.
Season summary
The 20 castaways were divided into two tribes: Malolo and Naviti. Naviti fared better in challenges but was divided by a conflict between Domenick and Chris. Through two tribe shuffles, Naviti held the majority on every tribe; some, such as Kellyn, held strong to eliminate original Malolos, while others, like Domenick and his closest ally Wendell, worked to consolidate power at the merge, forming an alliance with original Malolos Donathan and Laurel.
At the merge, Domenick led the tribe in eliminating Chris before the majority began picking off the remaining original Malolos. However, they began to turn on the female Naviti alliance members, sending Chelsea and Kellyn home when the two led a charge to turn on Domenick and Wendell. Both Domenick and Wendell had hidden immunity idols; Donathan later turned against them to try and flush their idols, but he was unable to rally enough votes against them and was eliminated.
The final four were Domenick, Laurel, Wendell and outsider Angela. Domenick won the final immunity challenge and turned on Wendell as the biggest remaining threat. He decided to bring Laurel to the end of the game, leaving Angela to face Wendell in the fire-making challenge to determine the third finalist, which Wendell won. At the final Tribal Council, the jury debated between Domenick's more aggressive strategic game and Wendell's more relaxed social game, and the ten jurors tied the vote, with five votes each on Domenick and Wendell. Laurel, as the third-place finalist with zero votes, cast the tie-breaking vote for Wendell, crowning him the Sole Survivor.
+Challenge winners and eliminations by episodesEpisodeChallenge winner(s)Ghost IslandEliminatedNo.TitleOriginal air dateRewardImmunityPlayerResultTribePlayer1"Can You Reverse the Curse?"February 28, 2018Gonzalezcolspan="2" Jacob2"Only Time Will Tell"March 7, 2018colspan="2" Morgan3"Trust Your Gut"March 14, 2018Brendan4"A Diamond in the Rough"March 21, 2018Stephanie5"Fate is the Homie"March 28, 2018rowspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="1" rowspan="2" colspan="2" rowspan="2" Jamescolspan=1 6"Gotta Risk it For the Biscuit"April 4, 2018rowspan="2" rowspan="2" rowspan="2" Bradley7"Fear Keeps You Sharp"April 11, 2018KellynChris rowspan="10" Chris8"The Sea Slug Slugger"April 18, 2018Angela, Chelsea,Donathan, Laurel,Libby, WendellAngelaJennaLibby9"It's Like the Perfect Crime"April 25, 2018Chelsea,Jenna, Kellyn,Michael, SebastianChelseaAngelaDesiree10"The Finish Line Is in Sight"May 2, 2018rowspan="2" Chelsearowspan="2" colspan="2" JennaDomenickMichael11"A Giant Game of Bumper Cars"May 9, 2018Sebastian[Domenick, Donathan,Wendell]DomenickWendellChelsea12"Always Be Moving"May 16, 2018Domenick, Wendell[Laurel]LaurelSebastianKellyn13"It is Game Time Kids"May 23, 2018 Wendell[Angela, Sebastian] Wendell rowspan="2" colspan="2" Sebastian rowspan="2" Wendell Donathan Domenick[Laurel] Angela, Domenick,Laurel, Wendell Angela14"Reunion Special"
Episodes
Voting history
Original tribesFirst switchSecond switchMerged tribeEpisode12345678910111213Day36912141719222527293235363738Tribe colspan=3 colspan=2 Eliminated Gonzalez Jacob Morgan Brendan Stephanie James Bradley Chris Libby Desiree Jennacolspan="2" Michael Chelsea Kellyn Sebastian Donathan AngelaVotes 8–1 5–2–1 4–3–1 5–4 7–1 4–1 4–1 10–2 8–2 2–2–1–1 3–0 5–3 3–3–1 4–1 4–1–1 4–0 VoterVote ChallengeWendell Angela Chris Michael Desiree Michael Michael Chelsea Kellyn Kellyn Sebastian DonathanDomenick Angela Bradley Chris Michael Desiree Michael Michael Chelsea Kellyn Kellyn Sebastian DonathanLaurel Gonzalez Jacob Morgan Chris Libby Desiree Kellyn Chelsea Kellyn Kellyn Sebastian DonathanAngela Libby James Libby Michael Jenna Wendell Donathan Kellyn Sebastian DonathanDonathan Gonzalez Morgan Bradley Chris Michael Desiree Chelsea Domenick Domenick LaurelSebastian Brendan Stephanie Chris Michael Desiree Jenna Chelsea Donathan Donathan DonathanKellyn Brendan Stephanie James Chris Libby Desiree Laurel Laurel Michael Wendell DonathanChelsea Brendan Stephanie Bradley Chris Libby Michael Jenna WendellMichael Gonzalez James Bradley Stephanie James Chris Wendell Desiree WendellJenna Gonzalez Jacob Bradley Stephanie Chris Michael Desiree DonathanDesiree Brendan Stephanie James Libby Libby MichaelLibby Gonzalez James Morgan Bradley Chris MichaelChrisBradley Brendan Stephanie LibbyJames Gonzalez Jacob Morgan Stephanie Gonzalez Jacob Bradley DesireeBrendan Gonzalez Jacob BradleyMorgan AngelaJacob MichaelGonzalez Donathan
Jury voteEpisode14Day39FinalistWendellDomenickLaurelVotes6–5–0JurorVoteLaurelAngelaDonathanSebastianKellynChelseaMichaelJennaDesireeLibbyChris
Notes
Production Filming This season introduced Ghost Island, a secluded location similar to Exile Island, where castaways were banished for short periods. The island was decorated with mementos and props from previous seasons of Survivor, including torch snuffers and immunity idols.
With few exceptions, castaways were exiled to Ghost Island after being chosen by the winners of the reward challenge. The challenge winners were required to unanimously choose a losing castaway; if they were unable to do so, the losing castaways would draw colored rocks to determine who would be exiled. On Ghost Island, exiled castaways were instructed to smash the next in a series of urns, some of which would allow the castaway to compete in a game of chance for an advantage in the game. The advantages were taken from previous seasons of Survivor, all of which were misplayed in their original seasons. Exiled castaways were given the opportunity to acquire these advantages under the premise of learning from past castaways' mistakes.
The game of chance would require the castaway to wager their vote at their next Tribal Council in order to play. In initial games, castaways were presented with two bamboo shoots, of which one contained an advantage while the other would cost them their vote; for each lost or unplayed game, subsequent games would add another shoot with an advantage, increasing subsequent castaways' odds at winning.
Extending the theme of using misplayed advantages from previous seasons, the hidden immunity idols this season were misplayed items from previous seasons.
Reception Survivor: Ghost Island was met with a mixed to negative reception by fans and critics. Though the gameplay of Wendell and Domenick, as well as the pre-merge portion of the season, were praised, the incoherence and predictability of the edit after the merge was its most criticized aspect. Many castaways who made it far in the game were poorly portrayed, with the viewers being left in the dark about several of their strategies due to the edit's constant focus on a specific group of players, who also happened to be the final three. Austin Smith of fan site "Inside Survivor" gave the season a mixed review, saying the season "delivered a stellar pre-merge full of exciting moves and memorable characters. It gave us one of the best merge episodes of all time. It sagged under the weight of predictable boots and frustrating intransigence through the later votes, but it was still punctuated by exciting new twists like the split Tribal at Final Ten. And it gave us one of the most unexpected finales of all time." Andy Dehnart of Reality Blurred criticized the season's post-merge episodes and the finale, saying "The finale ended up like the majority of the post-merge: grand promises, no action, rinse, repeat, zzzz." People Magazine blogger Stephen Fishbach, who played in Survivor: Tocantins and Survivor: Cambodia, praised the dominant gameplay of Domenick Abbate and winner Wendell Holland, but also stated that their gameplay made for "boring television." Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly ranked this season 19th praising the ending but believing that the Ghost Island concept was underdeveloped. In 2020, Survivor fan site "Purple Rock Podcast" ranked this season 30th saying that "while it is interesting to watch [Survivors first finale tie vote] play out, it can't lift this season out of the lower tiers". Later that same year, Inside Survivor ranked this season 32nd out of 40 saying that "it has a strong premiere, an excellent merge episode, and an entertaining finale with a gloriously dramatic conclusion. But a season can not stand on three episodes alone." In 2021, Rob Has a Podcast ranked Ghost Island 32nd during their Survivor All-Time Top 40 Rankings podcast. In 2024, Nick Caruso of TVLine ranked this season 30th out of 47.
References
External links Official CBS Survivor Website Metacritic IMDB