Preceded by Survivor: Fiji Winner Todd Herzog | Followed by Survivor: Micronesia Presented by Jeff Probst | |
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Location(s) Zhelin Reservoir,
Jiujiang, Jiangxi, China Original release September 20 (2007-09-20) – December 16, 2007 (2007-12-16) Winner Todd Herzog | ||
Survivor china james in the barrel challenge
Survivor: China is the fifteenth season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. The premiere aired September 20, 2007. Host Jeff Probst claimed the show was the first full American TV series to be filmed entirely within China. It is also the northernmost Survivor season held to date, well outside of the tropical zone. Applications were due on January 30, 2007. Around March 2007, about 800 applicants were selected for an interview by CBS. Out of those 800, about 48 semi-finalists were selected to go to Los Angeles in April–May 2007. From these semi-finalists, about 16 were selected to participate in the show between June and August 2007. The final contestants and their original tribes, Fei Long (飞龙) and Zhan Hu (战虎), meaning Flying Dragon and Fighting Tiger respectively, were officially announced on August 20, 2007. The merged tribe was Hae Da Fung (黑打風), which means Black Fighting Wind, a name proposed by Peih-Gee Law. The complete season was released on DVD from CBS Home Entertainment, via Amazon.com's CreateSpace, on January 27, 2014. It is set to have significantly more special features than recent releases.
Contents
- Survivor china james in the barrel challenge
- Survivor china s fireball challenge
- Future appearances
- Season summary
- Controversy
- References
The "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast" slogan used in previous season's logos has been replaced by Chinese characters. The characters translate to "compete in intelligence" (比智慧, bĭ zhìhuì), "compete in skill" (比技巧, bĭ jìqiǎo), and "compete in endurance" (比耐力, bĭ nàilì). Among the many aspects of Chinese culture and history included this season were a Buddhist ceremony and a 100-foot (30 m) tall replica of a historic temple used for Tribal Council. Each tribe received a copy of The Art of War by Sun Tzu. As stated by Probst: "Survivor is a war. The book deals with leadership and how you defeat the other tribe. It's interesting how much it plays into the game all the way through." The show had "unprecedented access" to several historical Chinese monuments, including the Shaolin Temple and the Great Wall of China.
Exile Island from the previous three seasons was discarded for this season, but the Hidden Immunity Idol was still part of the game. In lieu of Exile Island, the tribes had the ability to kidnap a player from the opposing tribe as part of winning a Reward Challenge. The kidnapped player remained with that tribe through the next Immunity Challenge and received a clue to the location of an Immunity Idol at that camp. However, this clue must be given, unread, to a member of the other tribe prior to the next Immunity Challenge. Ultimately, neither of the two Idols available to the castaways were used; James Clement was voted out with both in his possession. Three players went to the Final Tribal Council, continuing the pattern that began in Survivor: Cook Islands and again in Survivor: Fiji. Probst explained that having a final three "prohibits one person winning through to the end and then taking an extremely unlikable person with them." In the end, Todd Herzog won, defeating Courtney Yates and Amanda Kimmel by a vote of 4–2–1. During the reunion, James Clement was awarded a $100,000 prize as the most popular player in Survivor: China, beating fellow favorites Denise Martin and Peih-Gee Law.
Survivor china s fireball challenge
Future appearances
James Clement and Amanda Kimmel both returned to compete in the following season, Survivor: Micronesia where they placed 7th and 2nd, respectively. The pair returned again in 2010 for Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains along with Courtney Yates; Clement placed 14th, Yates placed 11th, and Kimmel placed 9th. Peih-Gee Law returned for Survivor: Cambodia, where she placed 18th. Todd Herzog would later be on Dr. Phil because of his alcohol addiction.
Season summary
The two tribes, Fei Long and Zhan Hu, were predetermined prior to the start of the game. As an added bonus for winning reward challenges was that the winning tribe was given the opportunity to kidnap a member from the losing tribe, where they would live at the winning tribe's camp until the next Immunity Challenge. This person would receive a container with a clue to the hidden immunity idol that they had to give to one of the winning tribe members.
After the first 12 days, Fei Long held a slight edge thanks to the strength of James and leadership of Aaron. A strong alliance had been formed on Fei Long between Todd, Amanda, Aaron, and Courtney. On Day 14, each tribe, separately, selected two members of the other tribe to bring into theirs; Fei Long selected Sherea and Frosti, while Zhan Hu selected James and Aaron. Believing that James and Aaron would remain true to the other Fei Long members when the merge occurred, Jaime and Peih-Gee struck a plan to lose the next Immunity Challenge on purpose so that they would be able to remove the former Fei Longs from the game. Zhan Hu would end up losing the challenge, and subsequently voted Aaron out.
On Fei Long, Todd had been working to find the Hidden Immunity Idol. At the next reward challenge on Day 16, Fei Long won and kidnapped James. With the clue from James, Todd was able to find the idol, which he gave to James to use to eliminate a Zhan Hu, and also told James that the same clues would apply at the Zhan Hu camp. While James found the second idol, Zhan Hu won the next immunity challenge thus rendering Todd's plan moot and leaving James with both idols.
The tribes merged on Day 19, with the former Fei Longs holding a 6–4 advantage. After voting out Jaime, Jean-Robert and Frosti, Amanda became concerned that James would not give back one of the two idols, and worked with her other tribe members to blindside him, with James leaving the game with the two idols still in his possession. The remaining Fei Long held on to their lead, and Todd, Amanda and Courtney's alliance held strong and the three went to the Final Tribal Council. All three were criticized by the jury, but Todd ultimately won with four votes to Courtney's two and Amanda's one.
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.Controversy
During the Reunion show, Denise Martin stated that she lost her job as a lunch lady after her return from filming. As a result, producer Mark Burnett gave her $50,000 in compensation. However, the school district Denise worked for has refuted her version of what happened after she returned from Survivor. According to Douglas Public School District Superintendent Nancy T. Lane, Denise asked for and received a promotion to the higher-paying full-time custodian position before filming began for Survivor. When Denise returned to work, she returned to her new position. She requested to transfer back to her old position but it was no longer available. On the December 19, 2007 broadcast of The Early Show, Denise apologized, stating that it was "not [her] intention to be misleading" and asked that the $50,000 be donated to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.