Survivor: The Amazon - Season Summary

Season Summary

The season began with the contestants divided into tribes split by gender for the first time. This trend would continue again in Survivor Vanuatu; however, the difference here is that the tribes were divided before the game starts, whereas the tribes were divided by the chiefs in Vanuatu, when the game had already begun. The men's tribe, Tambaqui, wearing blue, were quick to get their camp life squared away, building shelter, and alliances were quickly formed. The women's tribe, Jaburu, wearing yellow, experienced quarreling within their tribe, and spent almost the entire first week without a shelter. In the first challenge, the men raced ahead by solving the code, gaining a huge lead, but lost the challenge when they could not compete with the women on the balance beam.

On Tambaqui, an alliance of 4 was formed early, led by Roger, which included Butch, Alex, and Dave. However, an early power player, Rob, began to emerge who managed to act as an arbiter between the two alliances. On Jaburu, the younger women, Heidi, Jenna, and Shawna quickly began to coalesce together; they pulled in Deena and Christy to control the voting on Jaburu. On Day 13, Dave and Jenna traveled to an isolated location to act as tribal ambassadors for their tribes. Jenna told Dave everything he needed to know about her tribe, giving Dave an advantage when, the next day, they were forced to choose new tribes, equally distributing the men and the women. After the picks were made, Tambaqui consisted of Dave, Butch, Roger, Jeanne, Christy, and Heidi; Jaburu consisted of Jenna, Deena, Shawna, Alex, Rob, and Matthew. At Tambaqui, Heidi made a tempo switch to the men's alliance to vote off Jeanne. At Jaburu, the men and women joined forces to vote off an untrustworthy Shawna. From there, Deena and Rob hatched a plan to rid the game of Roger and Dave once the merge were to occur, which involved the new Jaburu tribe voting together as bloc, with Heidi.

On Day 19, the two tribes headed for a new campsite where they merged into one tribe. They decided on the name Jacaré. As the men held the majority 6-4, Alex, Rob, and Matthew lead the other three men into believing that they would vote together as a bloc to eliminate the women. However, Rob and Deena set their plan into motion. Dave was intended to be the first target; however, the women were concerned over letting Roger onto the jury, due to his sexism. So, the alliance changed their pecking order to vote Roger out before the jury and allowing Dave onto the jury. Once Dave and Roger left, the game started to get chaotic. Convinced she had control over the game, Deena changed the pecking order from Butch to Alex, in case Matthew were to win the next immunity challenge. Unaware of Alex's influence over the women, she approached Heidi, Jenna, Christy, and Rob with her plan. However, the women quickly informed Alex of Deena's betrayal, and he organized the other men and Heidi and Jenna to vote her out at the next Tribal Council. Once again in the middle of two alliances, Rob was forced to rid the game of his closest ally Deena, in order to protect his position.

With Deena gone, Alex was convinced he was solid in an alliance of four with Jenna, Heidi, and Rob. Valuing his friendship with Rob, he frankly revealed to Rob that his plan was to vote him out once at the final four, to avoid a tie with Heidi and Jenna. Rob used this information to form a counter-alliance with Matthew, Butch, and Christy, where they voted out Alex and left Jenna and Heidi in the minority for the first time. Christy then became the vote everyone wanted on their side, with both the men and women campaigning for her vote, but when she failed to give Rob a straight answer, Rob made a deal with Heidi and Jenna to spare them by voting out Christy. The girls agreed, and Christy was voted off that night. The next Tribal Council, the men stuck together and voted off Heidi, perceived to be the more physical of the two women left.

At the Final Four, Jenna, who knew she was on the chopping block, won immunity, forcing the men to prematurely turn on themselves. Faced with either avenging Alex and Heidi by voting off Rob or getting rid of an undeserving Butch, she ultimately sided with Matthew and Rob to vote off Butch. Jenna continued her winning streak and won immunity again, giving her the sole vote at the next Tribal Council. She ultimately voted off Rob to give herself a better shot at winning. Facing the jury, Matthew was praised for his survival skills and work ethic, but he was criticized for hypocrisy and lack of strategic gameplay for the majority of the game. On the other hand, Jenna was criticized for her lack of work ethic and even wanting to quit a few days earlier. However, as a result of having better relationships with people on the jury, and being seen as playing the game more strategically from the beginning, Jenna was voted to become the Sole Survivor in a landslide vote 6-1.