Survivor: Pearl Islands

Future appearances

Rupert Boneham returned to the Pearl Islands for the subsequent season, Survivor: All-Stars, placing 4th. Jonny Fairplay returned for Survivor: Micronesia; he was the first person voted out, placing 20th. In 2009, Boneham appeared as a special guest and a reward for a reward challenge on Survivor 10: Philippine Islands, the third season of the Israeli edition of Survivor.

Boneham later returned to the game with Sandra Diaz-Twine on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, with Boneham placing 6th and Diaz-Twine again winning the season, becoming the first two-time winner of Survivor. Boneham would later return for his fourth appearance on the show, competing in Survivor: Blood vs. Water, this time along with his wife, Laura, where he was the first player eliminated and placed 20th. Diaz-Twine would return again for Survivor: Game Changers.

Andrew Savage returned in 2015 for Survivor: Cambodia, where he placed 12th.

Season summary

The start of the game was announced as a surprise to the contestants, most of whom believed that they were on their way to a photo shoot. After being told they would begin the game with only the clothes on their back, they were divided into two tribes of eight, Morgan and Drake, and were given some money and sent to a small village to barter and buy supplies for their camps in lieu of being given them as in seasons past. Drake, thanks to Sandra's ability to speak Spanish and Rupert stealing the other tribe's abandoned shoes to barter, was able to acquire better supplies than Morgan, and thus went on an early winning streak, dwindling Morgan to five members.

Despite Drake's winning streak, member Burton conspired to throw an immunity challenge to eliminate a weaker player. The reluctant Drake tribe threw the challenge, but Burton was voted off for his cunning. This resulted in a major shift: Morgan, led by Andrew, experienced a renewal, and Drake began to splinter due to fighting between de facto leader Rupert and the conniving Jon. Morgan's newfound momentum led them to win the next two immunity challenges, leaving both tribes with five players each.

Upon arrival at their next challenge, the tribes were faced with the "Outcast" twist, with the six eliminated players competing against the remaining players for a chance to return to the game. The Outcasts beat both Morgan and Drake in the challenge, forcing them both to go to Tribal Council and resulting in two of the Outcasts returning to the game. Former Drake member Burton and former Morgan castaway Lillian returned to the game, and joined the eight other castaways in forming the merged Balboa tribe. While Burton made up with his former tribe, Lillian's return was resented by the Morgan members. Lillian enacted revenge against her former tribemates, siding with the Drake alliance to eliminate Andrew.

While the Drake alliance had the upper hand, Jon, Burton, and Lillian decided that Rupert, as the strongest member of the Drake alliance, was an immunity threat, and worked with the remaining Morgan members to blindside him from the game. The three navigated between the Drake and Morgan factions to take out members of both sides, until they were the dominant alliance with only five players remaining. Lillian was swayed by Darrah and Sandra to break up the duo of Jon and Burton, and Burton was voted out for a second time. In another twist, the first five jurors were able to compete for immunity with four players remaining. They subsequently won the competition, thus leaving no one immune; challenge threat Darrah was then eliminated.

In the final immunity challenge, Lillian beat Jon and Sandra to secure a space in the Final Tribal Council. Knowing that she would likely lose for having already been voted out of the game, she chose to take Sandra to the end for she felt Sandra deserved the victory more than Jon. The jury awarded Sandra the title of Sole Survivor by a vote of 6-1.

Voting history

Reception

Survivor: Pearl Islands was met with extremely positive reception and is generally considered to be one of the show's best seasons. It was ranked by host Jeff Probst as his 5th favorite season. Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly ranked it 6th, citing Rupert and Jonny Fairplay as memorable players. Both Andrea Deiher of Zap2it and Joe Reid of The Wire ranked it as the 9th-greatest season; Deiher called Dalton's lie about his grandmother "some next-level shenanigans never before seen on reality TV," and Reid described Rupert and Fairplay as "two of the series' signature players" who "pretty much made the season." Since 2012, Survivor fan site "Survivor Oz" has consistently ranked Pearl Islands in the top 5 greatest seasons, in its annual polls ranking every season of the series; it was 4th in 2012, 3rd in 2013 and 2015, and 5th in 2014. Another prominent fan site, "The Purple Rock Podcast," ranked it as the 3rd best season, behind Cook Islands and Heroes vs. Villains. In the official issue of CBS Watch commemorating Survivor's 15th anniversary, Pearl Islands was voted by viewers as the #2 greatest season of the series, only behind Heroes vs. Villains, and thus was the highest-ranking season with an entirely new cast. Also, Sandra was ranked in another poll, in the same magazine, as the 6th greatest contestant in the series, and was the highest-ranking contestant on the list to win her first time playing. Additionally, Fairplay's infamous lie about his grandmother's death was voted as the #10 most memorable moment in the series. The season was also voted as the second-greatest season of Survivor in a 2015 ranking on the website of former Survivor contestant and reality TV podcast host Rob Cesternino, where it ranked only behind Heroes vs. Villains.