Survivor: Island of the Idols is the 39th season of the American competitive reality television series Survivor. Hosted by Jeff Probst, it featured two tribes of ten new contestants. The season was filmed in Fiji during April and May 2019, and aired on CBS in the United States from September 25, 2019, until December 18, 2019, when Tommy Sheehan was named the winner by an 8–2–0 vote over Dean Kowalski and Noura Salman.
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
Notable contestants from this season include retired National Hockey League defenseman Tom Laidlaw, Olympic swimmer Elizabeth Beisel, and professional poker player Ronnie Bardah.
+List of Survivor: Island of the Idols contestantsContestantAgeFrom Tribe Finish Original Switched Merged Placement Day 36 Henderson,Nevada 1st voted outDay 3 27 Durham,North Carolina 2nd voted outDay 6 27 Merced,California rowspan="3" 3rd voted outDay 8 27 Los Angeles,California4th voted outDay 11 60 Brampton,Ontario 5th voted outDay 14 32 New York,New York rowspan="4" 6th voted outDay 16 23 Harrisonburg,Virginia rowspan="3" 7th voted out1st jury memberDay 19 29 Philadelphia,Pennsylvania rowspan="13" 8th voted out2nd jury memberDay 22 33 Providence,Rhode Island9th voted out3rd jury memberDay 24 36 Warwick,Rhode Island rowspan="5" rowspan="3" 10th voted out4th jury memberDay 27 24 Tacoma,Washington11th voted out5th jury member 26 Saunderstown,Rhode Island12th voted out6th jury memberDay 30 37 Houston,Texas 13th voted out7th jury memberDay 32 41 Rockholds,Kentucky rowspan="2" 14th voted out8th jury memberDay 35 48 Los Angeles,California rowspan="4" EjectedDay 36 59 Palm Bay,Florida 15th voted out9th jury memberDay 37 28 Glendale,California Eliminated 36 ,Maryland rowspan="2" 2nd runner-upDay 39 29 New York,New York Runner-up 26 Long Beach,New York Sole Survivor
Future appearances Tommy Sheehan competed on the thirty-seventh season of the MTV reality competition show The Challenge. Chelsea Walker competed on the revival of Legends of the Hidden Temple. In 2023, Missy Byrd competed on The CW and Roku Channel show Fight to Survive.
Season summary
The 20 new castaways were randomly divided into two tribes of ten (Lairo and Vokai). Vokai won nearly every challenge, even after a tribe swap. Missy controlled much of the strategy on Lairo, while Vokai was run by Lauren and Tommy. At the swap, Lairo outsider Karishma flipped on her old tribe, while new bonds were formed on both tribes, causing some of the players to forgo their old alliances.
At the merge, Dan had been accused of inappropriate touching by several women on the tribe. In the midst of this, Lauren and Tommy used their social bonds to ultimately dismantle the Lairo alliance until only Dean remained. After Dan's ejection for an unspecified incident with a crewmember, Dean kept himself in the game by winning immunity challenges while Elaine and Janet were eliminated as they were considered too likeable to take to the end.
The Final Four were Dean, Lauren, Noura, and Tommy; Noura won the final challenge, and Tommy convinced her to take him to the end. Dean joined them in the Final Three after defeating Lauren in the fire-making challenge. The jury ultimately rewarded Tommy's strong social game by voting him the Sole Survivor.
+Challenge winners and eliminations by episodeEpisodeChallenge winner(s)Island of the IdolsEliminatedNo.TitleOriginal air dateRewardImmunityPlayerResultTribePlayer 1"I Vote You Out and That's It"September 25, 2019 colspan="2" Ronnie 2"YOLO, Let's Play!"October 2, 2019 colspan="2" Molly 3"Honesty Would Be Chill"October 9, 2019 colspan="2" Vince 4"Plan Z"October 16, 2019 colspan="2" Chelsea 5"Don't Bite the Hand That Feeds You"October 23, 2019 colspan="2" Tom 6"Suck It Up Buttercup"October 30, 2019 Jason 7"I Was Born at Night, But Not Last Night"November 6, 2019 Jack8"We Made It to the Merge!"November 13, 2019 Aaron colspan="2" rowspan="11" Kellee Dan, Dean,Elaine, Elizabeth,Noura, Tommy Aaron Jamal rowspan="2" Jamal Missy 9"Two for the Price of One"November 20, 2019 Elaine[Elizabeth, Karishma,Missy, Tommy] Noura colspan="2" rowspan="2" Aaron Elaine Missy 10"Bring on the Bacon"November 27, 2019 Noura Lauren Elizabeth 11"A Very Simple Plan"December 4, 2019 Janet, Tommy[Dan, Lauren] Lauren colspan="2" Karishma12"Just Go For It"December 11, 2019 Tommy[Dean, Noura] Dean Dean Elaine colspan="4" Dan13"Mama, Look at Me Now"December 18, 2019 Dean[Noura] Dean Dean,Janet, Lauren,Noura, Tommy Janet Noura[Tommy] colspan="2" Lauren14"Reunion Special"
Episodes
Voting history Original tribesSwitched tribesMerged tribeEpisode12345678910111213Day368111416192224 27 303235363738Tribe colspan=2 Eliminated Ronnie Molly Vince Chelsea Tom Jason Jack Kellee Jamal Aaron Missy Elizabeth Karishma Elaine Dan Janet LaurenVotes 7–2 7–2–1 5–3–1 6–2 5–2 4–3 2–0 8–5 6–3–0 5–1 3–2 1–1–0 7–0 5–3 5–2 Ejected 4–1 VoterVote ChallengeTommy Molly Elaine Kellee Jamal Missy Karishma Elizabeth Karishma Elaine JanetDean Ronnie Karishma Karishma Karishma Jack Kellee Jamal Aaron Karishma Elizabeth Karishma Elaine JanetNoura Molly Jack Dan Jamal Aaron Karishma Elizabeth Karishma Elaine JanetLauren Molly Elaine Kellee Karishma Aaron Karishma Elizabeth Karishma Elaine JanetJanet Molly Tom Dean Dan Jamal Aaron Karishma Noura Elaine LaurenDan Molly Elaine Kellee Jamal Aaron Elizabeth Elizabeth Noura NouraEjectedElaine Ronnie Vince Chelsea Jason Kellee Karishma Missy Karishma Elizabeth Karishma NouraKarishma Ronnie Vince Chelsea Tom Dean Dan Janet Missy Janet Elizabeth NouraElizabeth Vince Chelsea Jason Kellee Karishma Tommy KarishmaMissy Ronnie Vince Chelsea Jason Kellee Janet TommyAaron Vince Karishma Chelsea Jason Kellee Jamal JanetJamal Jason Tom Dean DanKellee Molly Tom Dean DanJack Jason Tom DeanJason MollyTom Ronnie Karishma Chelsea KarishmaChelsea Ronnie Vince KarishmaVince Ronnie TomMolly NouraRonnie Vince
Jury vote Episode14 Day39 Finalist Tommy Dean Noura Votes 8–2–0 JurorVote Lauren Janet Elaine Karishma Elizabeth Missy Aaron Jamal Kellee Jack Notes
Production Filming This season introduced the eponymous Island of the Idols, as Survivor alumni Sandra Diaz-Twine, winner of Survivor: Pearl Islands and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, and Rob Mariano, winner of Survivor: Redemption Island, returned to the game as mentors living on the Island of the Idols, though they did not compete for the million-dollar prize themselves. Instead, Diaz-Twine and Mariano periodically hosted a contestant each episode and gave them a lesson to assist them in the game. They also gave the contestant a chance to win an advantage, but if they failed, they lost their vote at their next Tribal Council.
The season received widespread media attention after contestant Dan Spilo was accused of inappropriately touching female contestants. While there was no in-game recourse provided from the production crew, Spilo was later ejected from the game following an off-camera incident involving a crew member. CBS and Survivor producers issued an apology for how they handled the situation and announced they would make significant changes to their safety protocols, to be fully in place by the 41st season, filming of which took place two years later following Island of the Idols airing.
This season featured the Island of the Idols, a secluded location inhabited by Survivor winners Sandra Diaz-Twine and Rob Mariano, acting as non-competing advisers. Castaways were periodically exiled to the island throughout the season, where Diaz-Twine and Mariano taught them a lesson about a specific skill designed to help them in the game, such as fire-making or active listening, and then offered them an optional challenge to test that skill. Winning the challenge would yield a reward such as a hidden immunity idol or vote blocker, while losing the challenge meant losing the right to vote at the next Tribal Council attended by the losing castaway (though this was not revealed to the other players; a castaway without a vote would still go to the voting area during Tribal Council, but would write "no vote" on the parchment). Diaz-Twine and Mariano were not eligible to compete or win the grand prize, nor could they vote at Tribal Council. Unbeknownst to the castaways, the mentors secretly attended each Tribal Council in a hideaway, allowing them to eavesdrop on the proceedings.
According to host and executive producer Jeff Probst, the idea to bring back past champions as mentors came from "wondering how to get a player like Boston Rob, who has said he'd never compete again because he doesn't feel he'd ever really have a shot to win, to return to the show." Probst considered the mentors to be equivalent of on-camera producers for this season. Mariano and Diaz-Twine were even involved with the pre-production phase, posing for 3D modeling of their heads for the statues, and providing input on the type of lessons they would be able to teach, as well as how they would present these lessons. The two also had flexibility as to how significant each advantage would be, such as making an advantage be valid for a time ranging from one to three Tribal Councils. According to Diaz-Twine, Probst compared their mentor roles similarly to the single-episode cameo by Survivor: Caramoan winner John Cochran during Survivor: Game Changers, where he had provided strategic advice to a player as part of a reward. Diaz-Twine and Mariano later returned to compete on the subsequent season, Survivor: Winners at War, which began filming in Fiji weeks after Island of the Idols production concluded, though this had not yet been confirmed when they were cast for this season.
Probst said that production wanted players to try to figure out with as little information that they were told: that the title of the season was "Island of the Idols" and had hoped players would question if the separate island would be filled with immunity idols. They were not sure how players who were taken to the Island would behave on their return whether they would tell the truth or lie about what happened on the island, and were surprised that all players fibbed and did not discuss Rob or Sandra's presence there.
Island of the Idols became the first season to feature a Canadian-born castaway (Tom Laidlaw), as the casting process opened for Canadian residents in mid-2018. Previously, Canadian citizens had been ineligible to compete on the show as, according to Probst, the limitation was due to the rights that Mark Burnett and CBS had on the Survivor format, limiting it to contestants with American citizenship. While Survivor has had contestants with dual citizenship in the past, such as Survivor: China winner Todd Herzog, they were required to give up their non-American citizenship as a prerequisite for claiming their prize money.
Contestant misconduct controversy