Survivor: Vanuatu

Survivor: Vanuatu - Islands of Fire (also known as Survivor: Vanuatu for short) was the ninth season of the American reality show Survivor. It was filmed in Summer 2004. The game took place on Vanuatu, a group of volcanic islands in the South Pacific.

Survivor: Vanuatu
Presented by
No. of episodes	14
No. of days	39
No. of castaways	18
Winner	Chris Daugherty
Production
Production locations	Efate, Shefa Province, Vanuatu
Filming dates	June 28 – August 5, 2004
Original release
Release	September 16 (2004-09-16) – December 12, 2004 (2004-12-12)

Survivor: Vanuatu started being shown on TV on September 16, 2004. Also starting that day was Survivor Live, an hour-long Internet talk show hosted by the first Sole Survivor Richard Hatch and Entertainment Tonight correspondent Chris Booker. The talk show was shown every Thursday and Friday on the CBS website. It interviews players from earlier seasons and reviews the players' gameplay.

On December 12, 2004, Chris Daugherty won against Twila Tanner by a vote of 5-2 to become the sole survivor. This seasons became available on DVD on December 5, 2006.

For the first time, not including the season before, All-Stars, there were eighteen players. In the first seven seasons, there were only sixteen. This was the second season where the starting tribes were divided by gender. It was also the first season to have an amputee (Chad Crittenden, who had lost a foot to cancer) and not one, but two open lesbians (motivational speaker Scout Cloud Lee and old Playboy model Ami Cusack).

The season began like Survivor: The Amazon. The tribes were divided by gender. The male tribe was Lopevi, named after one of Vanuatu's volcanic islands; the female tribe was Yasur, named after Mount Yasur. On Day 11, there was a tribal switch like in other seasons, which ended up moving two people from each tribe over to the other tribe.

On Day 20, the tribes were merged (combined) into one tribe. They named the new tribe "Alinta", a name suggested by Scout meaning "people of fire."

Eliza Orlins and Ami Cusack were chosen from this season to return for Survivor: Micronesia as members of the Favorites tribe, where they placed 10th and 11th.

Gameplay

The players were brought into the game at a native gathering, with the natives dividing the group into men and women. The men were clearly worshiped at the ceremony, suggesting they would have better luck in the game. After the ceremony, the men were named the Lopevi tribe, and the women the Yasur tribe, and sent to find their camps in the dark. Lopevi lost the first challenge mainly due to Chris, however, the older men of the tribe started an alliance and worked to vote off one of the younger men, Brook. This would continue through the next two tribal councils that Lopevi took part in. In Yasur, a strong clique started around Ami, and the women that did not fit in were voted out.

The tribes were switched on day 11, mixing the two tribes; later voting only strengthened Ami's alliances. On Day 19, the two tribes, now with 6 women and 4 men, merged into one tribe, which they named "Alinta". The men were quickly targeted at the next three tribal councils, leaving Chris as the only male. By this time, the players in Ami's alliance were her, Julie, and Leann, while Twila and Scout had formed a closer pairing, with Eliza as an outsider among the women. When Chris didn't win the next immunity challenge, Twila brought Chris into a plan to vote out one of Ami's group if they could bring Eliza into their foursome. Chris was successful at this, and Leann was voted out at the next tribal council. Ami and Julie soon followed, even though they had tried to vote off Chris. The final four was Chris, Eliza, Twila, and Scout. Chris won the last two immunity challenges, and took Twila with him into the final two. The jury saw Chris' power to stay in the game with the odds against him, both from the first challenge and as the last man standing, and voted him the Sole Survivor 5-2.

Players

Player	Starting tribe	Switched tribe	Merged tribe	Finish	Total Votes
Brook Geraghty 27, Winthrop, MA	Lopevi			1st Voted Out Day 3	5
Dolly Neely 25, Mercer, PA	Yasur			2nd Voted Out Day 6	5
John "J.P." Palyok 31, Los Angeles, CA	Lopevi			3rd Voted Out Day 7	5
Mia Galeotalanza 29, Toms River, NJ	Yasur			4th Voted Out Day 7	5
Brady Finta 33, Huntington Beach, CA	Lopevi			5th Voted Out Day 10	6
Travis "Bubba" Sampson 33, Blountville, TN	Lopevi	Yasur		6th Voted Out Day 12	6
Lisa Keiffer 44, New Orleans, LA	Yasur	Yasur		7th Voted Out Day 15	4
John Kenney 22, Los Angeles, CA	Lopevi	Lopevi		8th Voted Out Day 18	5
Rory Freeman 35, Des Moines, Iowa	Lopevi	Yasur	Alinta	9th Voted Out Day 21	14
Lea "Sarge" Masters 40, Columbia, SC	Lopevi	Lopevi		10th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	7
James "Chad" Crittenden 34, Oakland, CA	Lopevi	Lopevi		11th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	7
Leann Slaby 35, Kansasville, WI	Yasur	Yasur		12th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	8
Ami Cusack 31, Lakewood, CO	Yasur	Yasur		13th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	8
Julie Berry 23, Gorham, ME	Yasur	Lopevi		14th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	4
Eliza Orlins 21, Syracuse, NY	Yasur	Yasur		15th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37	9
Scout Cloud Lee 59, Stillwater, OK	Yasur	Yasur		16th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38	3
Twila Tanner 41, Marshall, MO	Yasur	Lopevi		Runner-Up	6
Chris Daugherty 33, South Vienna, OH	Lopevi	Lopevi		Sole Survivor	3

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
"They Came at Us with Spears!"	September 16, 2004	Yasur		Brook	5-3-1	1st Voted Out Day 3
"Burly Girls, Bowheads, Young Studs and the Old Bunch"	September 23, 2004	Yasur	Lopevi	Dolly	5-4	2nd Voted Out Day 6
"Double Tribal, Double Trouble"	September 30, 2004	Lopevi	John K.	John P.	5-3	3rd Voted Out Day 7
			[Ami]1	Mia	5-3	4th Voted Out Day 7
"Now, That's a Reward!"	October 7, 2004	Yasur	Yasur	Brady	6-1	5th Voted Out Day 10
"Earthquakes and Shake-Ups!"	October 14, 2004	Lopevi	Lopevi	Travis	6-1	6th Voted Out Day 12
"Hog Tied"	October 21, 2004	Lopevi	Lopevi	Lisa	4-2	7th Voted Out Day 15
"Anger, Threats, Tears... and Coffee"	October 28, 2004	Yasur	Yasur	John K.	5-1	8th Voted Out Day 18
"Now the Battle Really Begins"	November 4, 2004	Lopevi	Lea	Rory	6-4	9th Voted Out Day 21
"Gender Wars... And It's Getting Ugly"	November 11, 2004	Leann [Julie]	Ami	Lea	7-1-1	10th Voted Out Day 24
"Culture Shock and Violent Storms"	November 18, 2004	Ami, Chad, Chris, Eliza	Twila	Chad	6-2	11th Voted Out Day 27
"Surprise and... Surprise Again!"	November 25, 2004	Eliza	Ami	Leann	4-3	12th Voted Out Day 30
"Now Who's in Charge Here?!"	December 2, 2004	Eliza2 [Ami, Chris]	Chris	Ami	4-2	13th Voted Out Day 33
"Eruptions of Volcanic Magnitude!"	December 9, 2004	Julie [Chris]	Eliza	Julie	3-2	14th Voted Out Day 36
"Spirits and the Final Four"	December 12, 2004	None	Chris	Eliza	3-1	15th Voted Out Day 37
			Chris	Scout	1-0	16th Voted Out Day 38
"Survivor: Vanuatu - Islands of Fire - The Reunion"	December 12, 2004	Jury Vote		Twila	5-2	Runner-Up
				Chris		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.

Note 1: John K. had to spend a day with the other tribe for the point of giving immunity to one of them at tribal council that night. He chose Ami because he thought she was safe even without immunity.

Note 2: When Eliza won the reward challenge, she got her own car and the players who finished second and third in the challenge were able to join her at a spa retreat.

Voting history

	Starting tribes					Switched tribes			Merged tribe
Episode #:	1	2	3		4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14		Reunion
Eliminated:	Brook 5/9 votes	Dolly 5/9 votes	John P. 5/8 votes	Mia 5/8 votes	Brady 6/7 votes	Travis 6/7 votes	Lisa 4/6 votes	John K. 5/6 votes	Rory 6/10 votes	Lea 7/9 votes	Chad 6/8 votes	Leann 4/7 votes	Ami 4/6 votes	Julie 3/5 votes	Eliza 3/4 votes	Scout 1 vote	Twila 2/7 votes	Chris 5/7 votes
Voter	Vote
Chris	Brook		John P.		Brady			John K.	Ami	Lea	Eliza	Leann	Ami	Julie	Eliza	Scout	Jury Vote
Twila		Dolly		Mia				John K.	Rory	Lea	Chad	Leann	Ami	Julie	Eliza
Scout		Dolly		Mia		Travis	Rory		Rory	Lea	Chad	Leann	Ami	Julie	Eliza		Twila
Eliza		Dolly		Twila		Travis	Lisa		Rory	Lea	Chad	Leann	Ami	Twila	Twila			Chris
Julie		Leann		Twila				John K.	Rory	Lea	Chad	Eliza	Scout	Twila				Chris
Ami		Dolly		Mia		Travis	Lisa		Rory	Lea	Chad	Eliza	Scout				Twila
Leann		Dolly		Mia		Travis	Lisa		Rory	Lea	Chad	Eliza						Chris
Chad	Brook		John P.		Brady			John K.	Ami	Julie	Eliza							Chris
Lea	Brook		John P.		Brady			John K.	Ami	Eliza								Chris
Rory	Brook		John P.		Brady	Travis	Lisa		Ami
John K.	Chris		Rory		Brady			Chad
Lisa		Leann		Mia		Travis	Rory
Travis	Brook		John P.		Brady	Rory
Brady	Rory		Rory		Rory
Mia		Leann		Twila
John P.	Chris		Rory
Dolly		Leann
Brook	Chris

Other websites

• Official CBS Survivor Vanuatu Website