Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Survivor (UK): Panama

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Location(s)
  
Bocas del Toro, Panama

Preceded by
  
Survivor: Pulau Tiga

Survivor: Panama is the second season of the British ITV reality game show Survivor. Hosted by Channel 4 cricket presenter Mark Nicholas, the program consisted of 37 days of gameplay with 12 castaways competing for a grand prize of £1,000,000. This season was set in the Bocas del Toro archipelago of Panama.

Contents

The twelve contestants were initially separated into two tribes, simply named North Island and South Island, which were represented by Frog and Turtle respectfully. On Day 17, the eight remaining players merged into one tribe, named Columbus, named after explorer Christopher Columbus. The six players voted off from Columbus formed the Tribal Council Jury who along with the British public (who held the 7th jury vote) ultimately decided who would be the "Ultimate Survivor".

After 37 days of competition, police detective Jonny Gibb was named the "Ultimate Survivor", defeating teacher Susannah Moffatt in a 7-0 jury vote. Moffatt complained the show portrayed her as an "arty farty teacher with a posh accent"

Production

Despite the lack of success of the first series, ITV decided to bring back Survivor with some major changes. These changes included fewer contestants, audience participation and replacing presenters Mark Austin and John Leslie, with a single presenter, Channel 4 cricket presenter Mark Nicholas.

Additionally, viewers were also promised that any controversial activities - such as the sex that was edited out of a first season - would definitely be shown this year.

Broadcast

The show was only broadcast in a once-a-week slot, on Wednesday nights, often at 9:45pm due to live Champions League football airing that night on ITV1. Each episode was split into two parts, a main one-hour programme that contained highlights from the days on the island that were featured and a secondary, half-hour programme that aired following the news, which featured the latest contestant voted-off from the show involved in a private face-to-face interview with Nicholas. Media experts believed placing the show in this "graveyard slot" was a means to fulfill contractual requirements.

An additional program, titled Survivor: Raw was shown on ITV2 after the main show had aired. This was presented by "Ultimate Survivor" of Survivor: Pulau Tiga, Charlotte Hobrough, and Ed Hall. It included extra footage not shown on the main show, discussions, interviews with evictees and phone-ins and emails from viewers.

Contestants

The total votes is the number of votes a castaway has received during Tribal Councils where the castaway is eligible to be voted out of the game. It does not include the votes received during the final Tribal Council. The Columbus tribe did not have an official tribe colour, they simply had a flag resembling the flag of Panama with the frog and turtle replacing the red and blue stars. Purple is used here because it is a combination of the 2 tribe colours.

Elimination notes

Following the television portrayal of some of the contestants in the first series, most of those in the second felt that they would prefer to maintain allegiance to their alliances, even at the risk of their future in the game. John, for example, would say after Dave was voted off: "if someone had explained my tactics at the start of the game, then I wouldn't have believed that I would jeopardise such a significant amount of money just for some contract written in the sand four weeks ago with someone I had only met 48 hours previously. But it is how you want to be perceived and how you feel you have played the game."

  • Sarah: Although the tribe were disqualified due to Susannah's mistake in the immunity challenge, the tribe agreed to vote Sarah off at her request. (5-1)
  • Lee: Lee was voted off because John, Jonny and Susannah decided that their position was better if they kept Bridget, who was not interested in building alliances and who helped around camp. South Island were only in this position because of John's misjudged showboating when well ahead in the immunity challenge but again someone else paid for the mistake. (4-1)
  • Tayfun: Though Meeta had asked to be voted off if the opportunity arose, Tayfun was voted off because he did not fit in with the rest of his tribe. (5-1)
  • Meeta: Meeta asked to be voted off and North Island agreed to do so. (4-1)
  • N/A: The host announced a tribal council would not take place due to the merge. The public would get the seventh vote in the jury.
  • Helen: The tribes chose to vote for Helen and Bridget following a deal between John, Jonny and Alastair during the immunity challenge. Helen lost to Bridget in the tiebreaker (a quiz about Panama) when the two former tribes voted against each other in two successive votes. (4-4, 4-4, lost tiebreaker)
  • Alastair: After Helen's elimination, South Island proceeded to pick off the North Island members. Alastair, a physically very strong man was the first victim despite a last-ditch attempt by Drew to put herself forward in his place. (4-3)
  • Drew: South Island's second victim, Drew was seen as a bigger threat than Dave. Jonny voted for her despite a relationship developing between the two of them. (4-2)
  • Dave: South Island's final victim, as well as the final North Island member. Dave failed to win immunity and could not convince South Island members to break ranks. (4-1)
  • Bridget: After Bridget lost immunity, she was voted off by the long-established alliance of John, Jonny, and Susannah. (3-1)
  • John: Susannah won immunity and held to an agreement that she believed was in place between her and Jonny, even though she believed John was less popular with the jury. (1-0)
  • Susannah: The jury felt she was carried to the final round by John and Jonny, as well as undeserving. She received significant hostility from the jury as her accent lent some to believe that she was "posh". She received no votes from the jury and didn't win the public's 7th vote. (0-7)
  • Jonny: The jury saw him as the lesser of the two evils as well as the more deserving player. Jonny gained all the jury member's votes: Helen, Alistair, Drew, Dave, Bridget, and John. Jonny also received the vote from the public. Jonny is among the few players of Survivor worldwide to play what is considered a "perfect game" (no votes against during the game and all jury votes in the final vote) (7-0)

    • References

    Survivor (UK): Panama Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA