Survivor: Guatemala

Production
Production location(s)	Laguna Yaxhá, Yaxhá-Nakúm-Naranjo National Park, Petén, Guatemala
Filming dates	June 22 – August 5, 2005
Release
Original release	September 15 – December 11, 2005
Chronology
Preceded by	Survivor: Palau
Followed by	Survivor: Panama

Survivor: Guatemala - The Mayan Empire (also known as Survivor: Guatemala) was the eleventh season of the American reality show Survivor, and was set inside of the ruins of the Maya civilization. The show was filmed in Yaxhá-Nakúm-Naranjo National Park near the more popular Tikal National Park, in northern Guatemala. The season started being shown on TV on September 15, 2005 on CBS. The finale (last episode) was on Sunday, December 11, 2005 on CBS. Danni Boatwright won this season. She won against Stephenie LaGrossa in a 6-1 vote.

Applications had to be given on January 14, 2005. Around March 2005, 800 people were chosen for an interview by CBS. Out of these 800, 48 people were chosen to go in Los Angeles sometime around April 2005. From these 48, 16 were chosen to be in the game this season, which was filmed from June to August 2005. Stephenie LaGrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard from Survivor: Palau also returned this season. LaGrossa also returned once again in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. Her place is unknown because the season has not been shown on TV yet.

Host Jeff Probst says that temperatures seemed to be over 110 °F (43 °C) with a lot of humidity. He talked about it during some of the challenges. Challenges like the 11-mile (18 km) walk through the jungle and "Mayan basketball" showed how tired all the players were. In Day 1, many of the Nakúm men were sick after the walk, and had a hard time getting better.

After the tribes were merged (combined), production put a small Immunity Idol in the Xhakúm tribe. Gary Hogeboom found it up in a tree, saving him from being voted off at that Tribal Council. Unlike later seasons, this Idol could only be used before the vote instead of after, and once it was used, it wouldn't be used anymore. However, it could be used until the Final Four.

The tribes were Yaxhá (blue buffs, living in a shelter in the jungle) and Nakúm (yellow buffs, living near the Mayan ruins). Both of these tribes were named after two old Mayan cities. When there were 10 people left, the tribes merged one tribe, which the players named "Xhakúm" (red buffs, at Nakúm's old camp), named by blending the names "Yaxhá" and "Nakúm".

Tina Scheer, a player on Survivor: Panama, was supposed to be on the show this season, but her son had been killed in a car accident and she backed out.

The players came on June 22 and began filming on June 27. Filming ended on August 4 and players returned home August 5. (Source from Survivor Fever Archived 2021-02-14 at the Wayback Machine)

Players

Player	Starting tribe	Switched tribe	Merged tribe	Finish	Total votes
Jim Lynch 63, Northglenn, CO	Nakúm			1st Voted Out Day 3	8
Morgan McDevitt 21, Decatur, IL	Yaxhá			2nd Voted Out Day 6	8
Brianna Varela 21, Edmonds, WA	Yaxhá			3rd Voted Out Day 8	7
Brooke Struck 25, Hood River, OR	Nakúm	Nakúm		4th Voted Out Day 11	5
Blake Towsley 24, Dallas, TX	Nakúm	Yaxhá		5th Voted Out Day 14	5
Margaret Bobonich 43, Chardon, OH	Nakúm	Nakúm		6th Voted Out Day 15	7
Brian Corridan 22, New York, NY	Yaxhá	Yaxhá		7th Voted Out Day 15	7
Amy O'Hara 39, Revere, MA	Yaxhá	Yaxhá		8th Voted Out Day 18	4
Brandon Bellinger 22, Manhattan, KS	Nakúm	Yaxhá	Xhakúm	9th Voted Out Day 21	6
Bobby Jon Drinkard 28, Troy, AL	Nakúm	Yaxhá		10th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	8
Jamie Newton 24, North Hollywood, CA	Yaxhá	Nakúm		11th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	10
Gary Hogeboom 46, Grand Haven, MI	Yaxhá	Yaxhá		12th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	8
Judd Sergeant 34, Ridgefield, NJ	Nakúm	Nakúm		13th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	5
Cindy Hall 31, Naples, FL	Nakúm	Nakúm		14th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	6
Lydia Morales 42, Lakewood, WA	Yaxhá	Nakúm		15th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37	10
Rafe Judkins 22, Providence, RI	Yaxhá	Nakúm		16th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38	2
Stephenie LaGrossa 25, Philadelphia, PA	Yaxhá	Nakúm		Runner-Up	2
Danni Boatwright 30, Tonganoxie, KS	Nakúm	Yaxhá		Sole Survivor	1

The Total Votes is the number of votes a player got during Tribal Councils where the player is able to be voted out of the game. It does not count the votes they got during the final Tribal Council.

The game

Episode name	Date shown on TV	Challenges		Eliminated	Vote	Finish
		Reward	Immunity
"Big Trek, Big Trouble, Big Surprise"	September 15, 2005	Nakúm	Yaxhá	Jim	8-1	1st Voted Out Day 3
"Man Down"	September 22, 2005	Nakúm	Nakúm	Morgan	8-1	2nd Voted Out Day 6
"The Brave May Not Live Long, but the Cautious Don't Live at All"	September 29, 2005	Nakúm	Nakúm	Brianna	7-1	3rd Voted Out Day 8
"To Betray or Not to Betray"	October 6, 2005	None[1]	Yaxhá	Brooke	5-3	4th Voted Out Day 11
"Crocs, Cowboys and City Slickers"	October 13, 2005	Yaxhá	Nakúm	Blake	5-2	5th Voted Out Day 14
"Big Ball, Big Mouth, Big Trouble"	October 20, 2005	Nakúm	Rafe	Margaret	6-1	6th Voted Out Day 15
			Gary	Brian	5-1	7th Voted Out Day 15
"Surprise Enemy Visit"	October 27, 2005	Yaxhá	Nakúm	Amy	4-1	8th Voted Out Day 18
"The Hidden Immunity Idol"	November 3, 2005	None[2]	Gary	Brandon	6-4	9th Voted Out Day 21
"Secrets and Lies and an Idol Surprise"	November 10, 2005	Judd [Bobby Jon, Stephenie]	Jamie	Bobby Jon	6-2-1	10th Voted Out Day 24
"Eating and Sleeping With the Enemy"	November 17, 2005	Danni, Gary, Judd, Stephenie	Rafe	Jamie	6-2	11th Voted Out Day 27
"Everything Is Personal"	November 24, 2005	Cindy [Rafe]	Rafe	Gary	6-1	12th Voted Out Day 30
"Price for Immunity"	December 1, 2005	Survivor Auction	Danni	Judd	4-2	13th Voted Out Day 33
"Big Win, Big Decision, Big Mistake?"	December 8, 2005	Cindy [Stephenie]	Stephenie	Cindy	4-1	14th Voted Out Day 36
"Thunder Storms & Sacrifice"	December 11, 2005	None	Rafe	Lydia	3-1	15th Voted Out Day 37
			Danni	Rafe	1-0	16th Voted Out Day 38
"The Reunion"	December 11, 2005	Jury Vote		Stephenie	6-1	Runner-Up
				Danni		Sole Survivor

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.

^  There was no reward challenge due to tribal switch.

^  There was no Reward Challenge due to tribal merge.

Episode summaries

Episode 1: The sixteen new players learned upon arriving in the Guatemalan jungle that Bobby Jon Drinkard and Stephenie LaGrossa from Survivor: Palau were returning. They were also told that their first reward challenge would be an 11-mile (18 km) walk to a campsite near some Mayan ruins. Nakúm won, and Yaxhá was told to find a new campsite. Yaxhá won the first Immunity Challenge, and because of his illness and injuries he got during the challenges, Jim was voted out of Nakúm (8-1).

Episode 2: Before the Reward Challenge, Blake had cramps and hyperventilation. Nakúm won fishing gear as their reward, and later won Immunity as well. Morgan was voted out because her tribe thought she was weak and lazy (8-1).

Episode 3: At the Reward Challenge, Nakúm won pillows, blankets and a tarp before going on to win their fourth challenge in a row, the Immunity Challenge. At Tribal Council, Brianna of Yaxhá was voted out because her tribe thought she was weak (7-1).

Episode 4: At the Reward Challenge, the tribes were switched; Brooke, Cindy, Judd, Margaret, Lydia, Stephenie, Rafe and Jamie were the new Nakúm and Amy, Brian, Gary, Danni, Brandon, Blake and Bobby Jon were the new Yaxhá. After the new Yaxhá tribe won the Immunity Challenge, Judd make his original Nakúm teammates upset and helped to vote Brooke out (5-3).

Episode 5: At the Reward Challenge, Yaxhá won chips, drinks and a crocodile-proof swimming cage. Nakúm won immunity and Blake was voted out for being selfish, (5-2).

Episode 6: Nakúm won their second challenge in a row, and both tribes would be going Tribal Council. As part of their reward, Nakúm had an individual Immunity Challenge, which was won by Rafe. He was also able to watch part of the Yaxhá tribal council. Margaret, due to personality problems, was voted out of Nakúm (6-1), and Yaxhá voted out Brian (5-1), because they thought they could not trust him.

Episode 7: Yaxhá won the reward of a jungle canopy zipline ride, then invited Nakúm to camp for Danni's birthday. They swam together in the crocodile-proof cage. Nakúm won the Immunity Challenge, and with Amy still having an ankle injury that she got days ago, Yaxhá thought it was best to vote her out (4-1). After the vote, the four Yaxhá members left moved to the Nakúm camp for the tribal merge.

Episode 8: It was told that there was a Hidden Immunity Idol located near the camp of the new Xhakúm tribe (the old Nakúm camp). The tribes merged (combined) into one tribe and named the new tribe "Xhakúm". At the Challenge, Jeff said that it would be both for Reward and Immunity. However, only those who didn't think they needed immunity would go to the food reward while the others played for immunity. Gary ended up winning the individual immunity, saving himself because the old Nakúm members (Stephenie, Jamie, Judd, Rafe, Lydia and Cindy) wanted to vote off Gary. With Gary safe from being voted off, they thought about voting off Bobby Jon, but Stephenie told her allies to keep him in the game, allowing him to at least make the Jury. Instead, Brandon, likely the strongest player of the old Yaxhá members, was voted off (6-4).

Episode 9: Gary found the Hidden Immunity Idol. Judd won reward (shared with Bobby Jon and Stephenie), and Jamie won immunity. Gary, whom Nakúm wanted gone, surprised the tribe with the Hidden Immunity Idol at Tribal Council. With Gary safe from the vote once again, Bobby Jon was voted out instead (6-2-1) and became the first member of the Jury. He lasted three days longer than he did on Survivor: Palau.

Episode 10: At the very messy reward challenge, the team of Danni, Gary, Stephenie and Judd won a night away from camp and videos from home. After Rafe won Immunity, Jamie became worried about being voted out; they actually didn't want to vote him out that night, but him being too worried annoyed everyone else. They made his worst nightmare come true, voting him out (6-2).

Episode 11: Cindy won the reward challenge, and took Rafe with her on a reward of a feast, waterfall pool and massage. Rafe won Immunity again, and at Tribal Council, the old Nakúm tribe finally got to vote off Gary (6-1).

Episode 12: The final six's loved ones came to the camp after the Survivor Auction. Danni won an Immunity Challenge advantage, and Judd's wife, Cindy's twin sister and Stephenie's boyfriend were allowed to stay overnight at camp. As a result of her advantage, Danni won the Immunity Challenge. Safe with immunity, Danni also was able to turn the game around for herself by convincing Stephenie, Rafe and Lydia that Judd could not be trusted and was too much of a threat to keep around. In a (4-2) vote, Judd was sent packing, but not before he said some last words to the players left, quote "Bye, guys. Hope you get eaten by a freakin' crocodile. Scumbags."

Episode 13: After winning the Reward Challenge, Cindy was given the choice of keeping her newly won 2006 Pontiac Torrent or giving one to each of the other players left. Cindy chose to keep the car, a decision which made Rafe made. After Stephenie won Immunity, Rafe was able to get Cindy voted out (4-1).

Episode 14: In the final four, Rafe won his fourth individual immunity, and Lydia was voted out for being liked by the jury (3-1). After a two-hour, 38 minute challenge, Danni won the last immunity challenge. She chose to vote out Rafe, because she thought she would have a better chance at winning the game against Stephenie. (1-0). At the live reunion and finale (last episode), Danni beat Stephenie in a (6-1) vote. Stephenie had lasted 9 days longer than she did on Survivor: Palau.

Voting history

	Original Tribes			Switched Tribes					Merged Tribe
Episode #	1	2	3	4	5	6		7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14		Reunion
Eliminated:	Jim 8/9 votes	Morgan 8/9 votes	Brianna 7/8 votes	Brooke 5/8 votes	Blake 5/7 votes	Margaret 6/7 votes	Brian 5/6 votes	Amy 4/5 votes	Brandon 6/10 votes	Bobby Jon 6/9 votes	Jamie 6/8 votes	Gary 6/7 votes	Judd 4/6 votes	Cindy 4/5 votes	Lydia 3/4 votes	Rafe 1 vote	Stephenie 1/7 votes	Danni 6/7 votes
Voter	Vote
Danni	Jim				Blake		Brian	Amy	Jamie	Stephenie	Jamie	Gary	Judd	Cindy	Lydia	Rafe	Jury Vote
Stephenie		Morgan	Brianna	Brooke		Margaret			Brandon	Bobby Jon	Jamie	Gary	Judd	Cindy	Lydia
Rafe		Morgan	Brianna	Brooke		Margaret			Brandon	Bobby Jon	Jamie	Gary	Judd	Cindy	Lydia		Stephenie
Lydia		Morgan	Brianna	Brooke		Margaret			Brandon	Bobby Jon	Jamie	Gary	Judd	Cindy	Danni			Danni
Cindy	Jim			Lydia		Margaret			Brandon	Bobby Jon	Jamie	Gary	Lydia	Rafe				Danni
Judd	Jim			Brooke		Margaret			Brandon	Bobby Jon	Gary	Gary	Lydia					Danni
Gary		Morgan	Brianna		Blake		Brian	Amy	Jamie	Cindy	Jamie	Cindy						Danni
Jamie		Morgan	Brianna	Brooke		Margaret			Brandon	Bobby Jon	Gary							Danni
Bobby Jon	Jim				Blake		Brian	Amy	Jamie	Stephenie								Danni
Brandon	Jim				Brian		Brian	Amy	Jamie
Amy		Morgan	Brianna		Blake		Brian	Bobby Jon
Brian		Morgan	Brianna		Blake		Bobby Jon
Margaret	Jim			Lydia		Judd
Blake	Jim				Brian
Brooke	Jim			Lydia
Brianna		Morgan	Lydia
Morgan		Lydia
Jim	Margaret

Survivor: Guatemala Media

• 

  Stephenie LaGrossa - Bryan Street Pub, July 2005

• 

  Danni Boatwright

Other websites

• Official CBS Survivor Guatemala Website