Survivor: Palau

Production
Production location(s)	Koror, Palau, Micronesia
Filming dates	October 27 – December 4, 2004
Release
Original release	February 17 (2005-02-17) – May 15, 2005 (2005-05-15)
Chronology
Preceded by	Survivor: Vanuatu
Followed by	Survivor: Guatemala

Survivor: Palau was the tenth season of the American reality show Survivor. Survivor: Palau's first episode was shown on TV on February 17, 2005. This season became available on DVD on August 29, 2006.

Applications to be on the show had to given on June 22, 2004. About 800 people were chosen for an interview in July or August 2004. Out of these 800, 48 were chosen for an interview in Los Angeles during September 2004. From these 48 people, 20 were chosen to be on the show between October to December 2004.

It started with twenty players. Each one came, as told by the producers, dressed in street clothes which were normal for their work— which they thought was for publicity photos — but this was the only clothing for all of the game. Tom Westman's wife told him to wear swim trunks as underwear, since she remembered the Pearl Islands players, tricked into street clothes for all of that game. For the second time in Survivor history, the players, not the producers, chose the tribes. On the second day of the first episode, when the players chose the two tribes of nine, two players were left unchosen, and they had to leave the game. The two tribes were Ulong (named after Ulong Island, one of Palau's tourist spots) and Koror (named after the capital city of Palau). Koror dominated from the beginning. They won every challenge, except for three reward challenges, and eventually there was only one Ulong member left. Having lived alone at Ulong, Stephenie LaGrossa got a map to Koror. When she came, she got a brown buff. While the players at the finale (last episode) said that the tribes had merged (combined), the producers say that Palau was the only season without a merge.

Fireman Tom Westman won against Katie Gallagher in a 6-1 vote.

Stephenie LaGrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard returned in the next season, Survivor: Guatemala, where they were placed 2nd and 9th. Winner Tom Westman and LaGrossa also returned in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.

Gameplay

The twenty players for Palau began the game by rowing a boat to shore, with the first player of each gender to get to the shore winning immunity. However, once they were all at the beach, they got no other instructions, and tribal divisions. They began to work on a shelter for everybody. The next day, Jeff Probst said that they would now pick tribes by doing a schoolyard pick (where one person, the captain, picks one person, then the person they picked picks another person, and so on). Those who had won immunity got the first pick, and the last male and female left would leave the game. The two tribes, Koror and Ulong, then had their first reward/immunity challenge, with the winner, Koror, chose to leave the beach they were at and go to another one they had not seen.

Koror had started a main group of five: Tom, Ian, Gregg, Jenn, and Katie, and those on the outside saw them as a threat but were not able to break them. Stephenie made strong impression on her new tribe, Stephenie became a target due to her strength. In a twist that would be used in later seasons, the first player to lose the individual immunity challenge had to spend the night alone on a separate island. Janu, the one who lost, felt she had freedom when she left, and chose to quit the game at the next tribal council, which saved Stephenie from being voted out for one more round. When Koror was down to six, Tom and Ian worried that they would fall against a possible immunity threat, Gregg, and his close ally Jenn, and they started a plan with Caryn and Katie to vote out Gregg when they had the chance. Katie, feeling betrayed by Ian, became even more upset when Ian took Tom with him on a reward instead of her as he had promised. Ian tried to make Katie happy, but she still held bad feelings towards him. The final four: Tom, Ian, Katie, and Jenn, chose to allow the next vote to end in a tie between Jenn and Ian, and Ian won in the fire-making tie-breaker challenge. The last immunity challenge made players stand on buoys for as long as possible; Katie jumped off early, but both Tom and Ian stayed for more than 12 hours. Ian chose to quit the challenge, giving immunity to Tom, after Tom played on his regret for hurting Katie's feelings and breaking his promises to her, and Ian felt that dropping out would make up for the emotional damage he had done. At the last tribal council, Tom voted Ian out of the game. At the last tribal council, Tom's leadership and physical strength against Katie being too dependent on others, led the jury to vote Tom as the Sole Survivor, 6-1.

Players

Players	Starting tribe	Dissolved tribe	Finish	Total Votes
Jonathan Libby 23, Dallas, TX	None		Eliminated Day 2	0
Wanda Shirk 55, Ulysses, PA				0
Jolanda Jones 38, Houston, TX	Ulong		1st Voted Out Day 3	6
Ashlee Ashby 22, Easley, SC	Ulong		2nd Voted Out Day 6	6
Jeff Wilson 21, Ventura, CA	Ulong		3rd Voted Out Day 8	5
Kimberly "Kim" Mullen 25, Huber Heights, OH	Ulong		4th Voted Out Day 11	8
Willard Smith 56, Bellevue, WA	Koror		5th Voted Out Day 12	8
Angie Jakusz 24, New Orleans, LA	Ulong		6th Voted Out Day 12	5
James Miller 33, Mobile, AL	Ulong		7th Voted Out Day 15	5
Ibrehem Rahman 27, Birmingham, AL	Ulong		8th Voted Out Day 18	4
Bobby Jon Drinkard 27, Troy, AL	Ulong		Eliminated Day 21	2
Coby Archa 32, Dallas, TX	Koror	Koror	9th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	7
Janu Tornell 39, Las Vegas, NV	Koror		Quit 2nd Jury Member Day 27	1
Stephenie LaGrossa 24, Glenolden, PA	Ulong		10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	8
Gregg Carey 27, Chicago, IL	Koror		11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	4
Caryn Groedel 46, Solon, OH	Koror		12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	7
Jennifer "Jenn" Lyon 32, Encino, CA	Koror		13th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37	2
Ian Rosenberger 23, Key Largo, FL	Koror		14th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38	4
Katie Gallagher 29, Merced, CA	Koror		Runner-Up	1
Tom Westman 40, Sayville, NY	Koror		Sole Survivor	0

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 last Tribal Council.

The game

Episode name	Date shown on TV	Challenges		Eliminated	Vote	Finish
		Reward	Immunity
"This Has Never Happened Before!"	February 17, 2005	None	Ian	Jonathan	No Vote	Eliminated Day 2[1]
		Jolanda	Wanda
		Koror		Jolanda	6-3	1st Voted Out Day 3
"Love is in the Air, Rats Are Everywhere"	February 24, 2005	Ulong	Koror	Ashlee	6-1-1	2nd Voted Out Day 6
"Dangerous Creatures and Horrible Setbacks"	March 3, 2005	Ulong	Koror	Jeff	4-2-1	3rd Voted Out Day 8
"Sumo at Sea"	March 10, 2005	Koror	Koror	Kim	5-1	4th Voted Out Day 11
"The Best and Worst Reward Ever"	March 16, 2005	Koror	Ibrehem	Willard	8-1	5th Voted Out Day 12[2]
				Angie	2-2-1/3	6th Voted Out Day 12[3]
"Jellyfish 'N Chips"	March 23, 2005	Ulong	Koror	James	2-2/2	7th Voted Out Day 15
"The Great White Shark Hunter"	March 31, 2005	Koror	Koror	Ibrehem	2-1	8th Voted Out Day 18
"Neanderthal Man"	April 7, 2005	Koror	Koror	Bobby Jon	No Vote	Eliminated Day 21[4]
			Stephenie
"I Will Not Give Up"	April 14, 2005	None[5]	Tom	Coby	7-1-1	9th Voted Out Day 24
"Exile Island"	April 21, 2005	Caryn, Gregg, Janu, Tom	Tom	Janu	No Vote	Quit Day 27
"I'll Show You How Threatening I Am"	April 28, 2005	Survivor Auction	Ian	Stephenie	6-1	10th Voted Out Day 30
"We'll Make You Pay"	May 5, 2005	Gregg [Jenn, Katie]	Ian	Gregg	4-2	11th Voted Out Day 33
"It Could All Backfire"	May 12, 2005	Ian [Tom]	Tom	Caryn	4-1	12th Voted Out Day 36
"The Ultimate Shock"	May 15, 2005	None	Tom	Jenn	2-2[6]	13th Voted Out Day 37
			Tom	Ian	1-0	14th Voted Out Day 38
"The Reunion"	May 15, 2005	Jury Vote		Katie	6-1	Runner-Up
				Tom		Sole Survivor

If more than one tribe or player wins reward or immunity, they are listed in order of finish, or alphabetically if it was teamwork, or where one player won and invited others, the players they invited are in brackets.

^  Two players were eliminated when the tribes were chosen. The players were told that there were two immunity necklaces on the beach: one for the first man and one for the first woman to claim them. On day 2, the players were told they would divide into 2 tribes of 9 members each, with the two immunity holders making the first picks for their new tribes. Because one man and one women would not be chosen due to the numbers, they would be eliminated. Jonathan and Wanda were the two that were eliminated. Once it was completed, the power of the immunity necklaces was over.

^  On Day 12, both tribes went to Tribal Council. Koror, by winning the reward challenge prior to Tribal Council, won the chance to vote first, then eat a reward dinner as Ulong spoke with Jeff. Before Ulong voted, Koror voted to give individual immunity to a member of Ulong. Ibrehem was given Immunity in a 3-2-2-1 vote (Bobby Jon and Stephenie each received 2 votes, Angie received 1).

^  Because Ulong had only 2 members, a fire-making challenge instead of a vote decided who would be eliminated, and Stephenie won.

^  There was no reward challenge because of Stephenie joining Koror.

^  Jenn and Ian competed in a fire-making challenge similar to that of Stephenie and Bobby Jon's. Ian won this challenge, sending Jenn home.

Voting history

	Starting tribes											Dissolved tribe
Episode #:	1	2	3	4	5			6		7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14		Reunion
Eliminated:	Jolanda 6/9 votes	Ashlee 6/8 votes	Jeff 4/7 votes	Kim 5/6 votes	Willard 8/9 votes	Tie[7]	Angie 3/3 votes [8]	Tie[9]	James 2/2 votes [10]	Ibrehem 2/3 votes	Bobby Jon Challenge[11]	Coby 7/9 votes	Janu No vote[12]	Stephenie 6/7 votes	Gregg 4/6 votes	Caryn 4/5 votes	Jenn 2/4 votes[13]	Ian 1 vote[14]	Katie 1/7 votes	Tom 6/7 votes
Voter	Vote
Tom					Willard							Coby		Stephenie	Gregg	Caryn	Ian	Ian	Jury Vote
Katie					Willard							Coby		Stephenie	Gregg	Caryn	Jenn
Ian					Willard							Coby		Stephenie	Gregg	Caryn	Jenn			Tom
Jenn					Willard							Coby		Stephenie	Caryn	Caryn	Ian			Tom
Caryn					Willard							Coby		Stephenie	Gregg	Ian				Tom
Gregg					Willard							Coby		Stephenie	Caryn					Tom
Stephenie	Jolanda	Ashlee	Jeff	Kim		Bobby Jon	Angie	Ibrehem	James	Ibrehem	(Win)	Coby		Caryn						Tom
Janu					Willard							Stephenie								Tom
Coby					Willard							Janu							Katie
Bobby Jon	Angie	Ashlee	Kim	Kim		Angie	None[15]	James	James	Ibrehem	(Lose)
Ibrehem	Angie	Kim	Jeff	Kim		James	Angie	James	None [16]	Stephenie
James	Jolanda	Ashlee	Kim	Kim		Angie	Angie	Ibrehem	None [17]
Angie	Jolanda	Ashlee	Jeff	Kim		Bobby Jon	None [18]
Willard					Katie
Kim	Jolanda	Ashlee	Jeff	James
Jeff	Jolanda	Ashlee	James
Ashlee	Jolanda	Jeff
Jolanda	Angie

^  The vote was at first tied 2-2 between Angie and Bobby Jon, but after a second vote, Angie eliminated.

^  Bobby Jon and Angie were not able to vote in the second Tribal Council vote.

^  Stephenie first voted for Ibrehem, causing a tie; however, in a second vote, Stephenie changed her vote and voted for James, sending him home.

^  Ibrehem and James were not able to vote in the second Tribal Council vote.

^  Janu wanted to leave the game, so there was no vote at Tribal Council.

^  Ian was voted out outside Tribal Council by being verbally eliminated by Tom after winning the Final Immunity Challenge.

Survivor: Palau Media

• 

  Jolanda Jones speaking in 2009

• 

  Stephenie LaGrossa - Bryan Street Pub, July 2005

• 

  The season was filmed on the island of Koror in Palau.

Other websites

• Official CBS Survivor Palau Website