Survivor: Pulau Tiga is the first season of the British ITV reality game show Survivor. The season was originally broadcast under the name Survivor but its often referred to as Survivor: Pulau Tiga to distinguish it from the subsequent edition of the program. The show premiered on 21 May 2001.
The programme was hosted by both journalist Mark Austin (who was on location with the contestants) and television presenter John Leslie (who conducted exit interviews with the players and presented additional footage of events from the island from a studio in London). The programme consisted of 40 days of gameplay with 16 castaways competing for a grand prize of £1,000,000. This season was set in the South China Sea on the remote Malaysian island of Pulau Tiga in the state of Sabah, about 6 miles (9.7 km) off the north coast of Borneo, Malaysia. The island also hosted the first season of the American Survivor series.
The sixteen contestants were initially separated into two tribes, named Helang and Ular, meaning Eagle and Snake in Malaysian, respectively. On Day 20, the ten remaining players merged into one tribe, named Sekutu, the Malaysian word for "together". The final nine players remaining made up the Final Two and the seven members of the Tribal Council Jury, who ultimately decided who would be the "Ultimate Survivor".
After 40 days of competition, police officer Charlotte Hoborough was named the "Ultimate Survivor", defeating airline industry purchaser Jackie Carey in a 7-0 jury vote.
The programme initially aired 4 times a week. An hour-long show aired on Mondays and Wednesdays which showed the highlights from the island with host Mark Austin while on Tuesdays and Thursdays a studio show hosted by John Leslie aired. This programme included an interview with the castaway voted off the previous episode and included unseen footage from the island. After lower than expected ratings, the schedule changed to allow the programme's viewing figures to grow. The programme only airing twice a week with the island show airing on Monday and studio show airing on Tuesday.
For consistency with other Survivor articles, events from the "Studio Show" (hosted by John Leslie) are not covered in this article.
^1 Combined reward and immunity challenge.
^2 Ular appeared to have won the challenge but because they missed a torch to light it, they were disqualified and Helang won reward and immunity.
^Note 3 : Simon first voted for Uzma, causing a tie; however, in a revote, Simon changed his vote and voted for J.J., sending her home.
^Note 4 : Charlotte and Zoe were tied 3-3 at Tribal Council and in a Tribal Council countback Charlotte had 1 previous vote, but Zoe had 5, and she was eliminated.
Nick: Although Jackie was targeted for being the weakest player, most of Ular voted out Nick as they felt he was taking control of the game too early. (5-3)
J.J.: Both J.J. and Uzma were in the hot seat. An elder alliance of J.J., Jayne and Andy were voting for Uzma for being the weakest member, whereas Charlotte, Adrian and Uzma were voting for J.J. for being too domineering. At tribal council, Simon and James split their votes and there was a 4-4 tie. The other players were then sent to a location where they could privately discuss, and then revote. A second vote (not aired) was tied after both Simon and James changed their votes (to J.J and Uzma respectively), again cancelling one another out. On the third vote, both James and Simon voted for J.J. (4-4), (3-3), (4-2)
Uzma: Uzma's weakness cost her dearly, and although Adrian and Charlotte rallied against Jayne, Helang felt that Uzma was weak. Uzma voted for James. (4-2-1)
Sarah: Although Sarah and Eve felt safe in their alliance with Richard and Jackie, Eve attempted to make waves by campaigning to send Jackie out. Richard objected and told Jackie, and between them they made a pact with the tribe outcast Zoe. Richard convinced Sarah and Eve that he would stick with their alliance, but joined Jackie and the others in blindsiding Sarah. (5-2)
Jayne: Adrian and Jayne were the two targets; Jayne for her weak performance in challenges and for mothering people too much, and Adrian for his lack of work around camp. After Jayne asked to leave (as she was missing her son), the tribe agreed to vote her out. (5-1)
Adrian: Two main duos existed in the Helang tribe: Andy & James, and Adrian & Charlotte. Simon promised loyalty to both groups, but at tribal council he betrayed Adrian and voted him out as lazy. (3-2)
Simon: The Ular alliance decided to vote out the Helang members one-by-one. Simon was first to go because Andy had won immunity and Ular bore Simon a grudge from an incident during one of the earlier challenges. Helang chose to split their votes across Ular so that their preferred players would win out in the event of a tie later in the game. (6-2-1-1)
Andy: Andy was the next victim of the Ular alliance, as he was seen more of a threat than Charlotte and James. (6-2-1)
James: The Ular members stuck together once again and voted out James, who they believed was a bigger threat than Charlotte. (6-1-1)
Pete: Although Charlotte was Ular's next target, Pete lost immunity. The Ular members then saw their chance to vote him out, as they thought he was a physical threat and that he was well liked by the Helang members of the jury. Richard told Pete, who was upset (as he had asked to be told when he was going to be voted off and the others refused to tell him). Pete then told Charlotte. Charlotte voted against Eve according to the Helang strategy. Pete stuck to the original plan and voted against Charlotte, keeping his word even knowing that he had been betrayed. Before leaving, Pete pretended to be taken by surprise, and took his betrayal personally. He threw his bible at Richard. (5-1-1)
Zoe: Fed up with Eve and Zoe, Richard and Jackie chose to break away from the Ular alliance and join Charlotte to form a new one. They decided to vote out Zoe for being too self-confident. Unaware of this, Eve, Mick, and Zoe voted for Charlotte according to Ular's original strategy. Charlotte and Zoe tied at tribal council 3-3. The tie would be broken by the number of past votes the players had received. Charlotte had one previous vote against her, while - partially thanks to Helang's voting strategy - Zoe had five. Thus Zoe was eliminated. (3-3)
Eve: Eve was unable to reconcile herself to dealing with Richard, Jackie and Charlotte, and became isolated. For their part, they did not get on with Eve. Even Mick, Eve's only ally, decided he had had enough of her. At camp, Eve took some of the camp tampons (although she later claimed she put some back) and a hidden bottle of ketchup which she drank alone in the jungle. When confronted at tribal council, Eve agreed that this had happened but claimed she had no regrets of doing it. She was then voted out. (4-1)
Mick: The alliance of Charlotte, Jackie, and Richard voted out their final non-aligned member, Mick. He was also considered a favourite of the jury, which contributed to his elimination. (3-1)
Richard: After winning the crucial final immunity challenge, Charlotte was safe from elimination. Jackie and Richard were forced to vote for each other while Charlotte had the only vote of actual value. She voted out well-liked Richard as he was more of a physical and mental threat to her than unpopular Jackie. When the final vote was being cast, Richard knew he would be eliminated and whispered "Good luck" to Charlotte. (2-1)
Jackie: The jury disliked Jackie and felt she was carried to the end by the others. She received no votes. (0-7)
Charlotte: The jury was impressed that she was able to make it so far despite winning only one individual immunity challenge. She was also more likeable than Jackie. She gained the votes of all the jury members: Andy, James, Pete, Zoe, Eve, Mick, and Richard. Andy and James voted for Charlotte since she was an ex-Helang member, Pete because he would only vote for Charlotte or Richard after being betrayed, Zoe because Charlotte "grew on her", Eve because she admitted that Charlotte did play a good game, Mick because of how Charlotte answered his questions compared to Jackie, and Richard because he felt Jackie didn't "understand the beauty" of the island and that Charlotte wasn't afraid to be who she was. (7-0)
The series was perceived as being not very popular with UK viewers. Despite initial media hype which surrounded the show, the debut episode opened with 6.6 million viewers, which was considered as a disappointment for ITV. Ratings for the show then began to hang around the 5 million mark, which was half of the audience that the network had expected.
The decision to air fewer episodes per week to give the show a greater opportunity to "grow", failed to have an effect on viewing figures. Nevertheless, the final show managed to attract 7.7 million viewers, peaking at 9 million.
There was controversy when viewers were invited to phone in to cast their preference; this was via a premium rate phone call. Despite being told many times by the host that the phone vote would not be counted in the final tally, several viewers felt cheated. This was rectified for the second series, where the phone vote did count for the final results and was used as one jury vote.
