Winner Jud Birza Presented by Jeff Probst | Air date September 15, 2010 Number of episodes 15 | |
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Location(s) San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua Original release September 15 (2010-09-15) – December 19, 2010 (2010-12-19) Preceded by Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains Followed by Survivor: Redemption Island Winner Jud Birza Similar Survivor: Redemption Island, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, Survivor: South Pacific | ||
Survivor: Nicaragua is the 21st season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. It premiered on September 15, 2010 at 8:00pm, moving to the Wednesday timeslot for the first time since Survivor: Borneo. Applications were due in January 2010, filming started from June and ended on July 2010. Nicaragua and the following season, Survivor: Redemption Island, were filmed near San Juan del Sur in Rivas Department on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua.
Contents
This season's opening titles uses the original version of "Ancient Voices" — Survivor's opening theme song — first used for the debut Survivor season. Traditionally, each season features its own version of "Ancient Voices", using instruments and sounds meant to evoke that season's location or theme. One was created for Nicaragua but was not used, though the song was released onto iTunes on October 10. The reason for this omission has not been publicly disclosed. Survivor host Jeff Probst also announced that the Hidden Immunity Idol will continue to be used in the game. However, as idols had been found too easily in the past two seasons, the idol was hidden differently. The clues to the idols' locations were visual rebuses rather than text as in past seasons. In addition, the tribes vied for control of a new item, the Medallion of Power, which offered an advantage to the tribe who held it at a challenge, but should they use the Medallion, it went to the other tribe for the next challenge. This season also marked the return of the tribal swap, which was absent in the previous three seasons. When the tribal swap occurred in episode 5, the Medallion of Power was retired.
Additionally, the 20 contestants were originally divided up into two tribes based on their ages. Until a tribal swap in episode 5, the Espada tribe featured contestants over the age of 40, while the La Flor tribe included contestants aged 30 years and younger. This was the second season in which tribes were divided by age, the first one being Survivor: Panama. Notable contestants this season include Kelly Bruno, a triathlete whose leg was amputated at six months old because of a birth defect, and former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson. Bruno is the second Survivor contestant to be an amputee, the first being Chad Crittenden of Survivor: Vanuatu, who lost his right leg to cancer. Jud "Fabio" Birza was named the winner in the final episode on December 19, 2010, defeating Chase Rice and Matthew "Sash" Lenahan in a 5–4–0 vote. Birza became the youngest person to ever win the game, at age 21 years and 6 months. Jane Bright won $100,000 as the "Sprint Player of the Season."
The season was released by CBS DVD on November 18, 2014, in a DVD set including all episodes and numerous special features, including unaired scenes and the Life at Ponderosa webseries. It will only be made available through online purchase, manufactured by Amazon.com's CreateSpace.
Future appearances
Brenda Lowe competed on Survivor: Caramoan as a part of the "Favorites" tribe, placing 6th.
Season summary
Twenty new castaways were divided into tribes by age: La Flor, which consisted of castaways 30 and younger, and Espada, which consisted of castaways 40 and older. Both tribes also vied for ownership of the newly introduced Medallion of Power, which granted them an advantage when played in challenges.
Several members of the older Espada tribe vied for leadership. While Jimmy J. initially took control, he was quickly overthrown by Marty and voted out. Marty furthered his control of the tribe by finding the Hidden Immunity Idol and voting out aspiring leader Jimmy T. Despite dominating the challenges in the first eleven days of the game, the younger La Flor tribe also had their own share of conflicts. Two warring alliances emerged, one led by Shannon and the other led by Brenda, with both alliances vying for Chase's vote. A confused Shannon lashed out at La Flor's first Tribal Council, causing Chase and some of Shannon's own alliance members to vote him out.
A tribe swap on Day 12 caused allegiances to shift. Alina, Benry, Chase, and NaOnka moved to Espada, while Marty, Jill, and Jane moved to La Flor. At the new Espada, Holly and Dan aligned themselves with the younger members. At the new La Flor, the once-powerful Marty fell from grace, and Jane teamed up with the original La Flor tribe members. Brenda planned to split the vote between Marty and original La Flor outsider Kelly B. in order to flush Marty's idol and send Kelly B. home. Unfortunately for them, Marty decided not to use his idol and Kelly B. was sent home anyway, while Marty still had his immunity idol. Sash told Marty that in order to remain in the game, he must give him his idol. Marty complied, and Sash stayed true to his word by keeping him around, only to send Jill, Marty's closest ally, home instead.
On Day 19, the two tribes were merged into the Libertad tribe. Brenda's original La Flor alliance regrouped, with the addition of Holly and Jane. Marty, however, convinced Dan, Benry, and Fabio to follow him. Without any alliances, Alina was targeted by both voting blocs and sent to the jury first. Marty then tried to form an all-male rebellion against the females, which did not work and sent him home instead. It seemed that Brenda and Sash were in total control of the tribe, but Holly made her own move by turning everybody else on Brenda. Brenda put her faith wholly in her alliance without attempting to plead with them, but they ultimately eliminated her. Meanwhile, while the tribe was at a challenge, their unattended fire ignited their cache of food and supplies, burning them and part of their tarp. The remaining tribe members struggled with the meager rations.
With Brenda gone and the sudden voluntary exits of Kelly S. and NaOnka as a result of the camp fire, Sash was left alone without any allies, but eventually regained power by winning the next Immunity Challenge, becoming the swing vote between Holly, Chase and Jane's alliance and the alliance of Dan, Fabio and Benry. Sash joined Chase, Holly and Jane to eliminate an unsuspecting Benry, whom Sash saw as the bigger threat. The newly formed majority alliance planned to eliminate Fabio next, but he went on to win individual immunity. While Dan was the only non-immune of the minority alliance, Chase, Holly and Sash decided to turn on jury threat Jane, and voted her out instead. Fabio won immunity again and Dan was voted out, but after Fabio won his third successive immunity challenge, Chase and Sash decided to turn on Holly, whom they thought had the best chance to win the game against them.
At the Final Tribal Council, Sash was blasted for his numerous deceptions, while Chase was castigated for his indecisiveness at several points during the game. Fabio, on the other hand, was accused of seemingly coasting throughout the competition by acting strategically clueless the entire time, but he rebutted that he did that on purpose to not hurt anybody's feelings, and still stay longer in the game. In the end, Fabio's unconventional strategy earned him the title of Sole Survivor by a vote of 5-4-0.
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.Reception
Survivor columnist Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly ranked Nicaragua as the worst season of the entire series, for four reasons: "1) Splitting the tribes up by age and the Medallion of Power were both enormous flops. 2) Like One World, Thailand and Fiji, just too many unlikable players. 3) Two people quitting with only 11 days left. 4) No big memorable moments. Even Thailand had the fake merge and Fiji had the big Yau-Man/Dreamz free car deal gone bad, but what was Nicaragua's signature moment? Unfortunately, it was people quitting, and that was memorable for all the wrong reasons." Nicaragua was also ranked as the worst season by fan site "The Purple Rock Podcast" in 2015, describing it as having "terrible casting, a terrible gimmick, and the worst winner ever," combined to make "a truly horrendous Survivor viewing experience." When Jimmy Fallon, a longtime fan of the show, interviewed Jeff Probst on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, he said that he was disappointed with this season and called it a popularity contest. Probst even admitted that season was boring, and that was why he and the producers decided to add the "Redemption Island" twist for the next season (which would fare worse than Nicaragua as a result of the twist). Nicaragua is ranked as the third-worst season of the series by Examiner.com (only ahead of Gabon and Fiji), and the fourth-worst season by The Wire (only ahead of Samoa, Gabon, and Redemption Island). In 2012, when Survivor fan site "Survivor Oz" held its first annual poll ranking every season of the series (up to that point), Nicaragua was ranked as the second-worst season of the series, only ahead of Redemption Island. In the official issue of CBS Watch magazine commemorating the 15th anniversary of Survivor, Probst stated that Nicaragua's tribe division by age "is a division I hope we never do again," and also called the Medallion of Power "one of the worst named and most poorly executed twists we’ve ever come up with. Embarrassing on all accounts."