Survivor: Micronesia
Survivor: Micronesia — Fans vs. Favorites is the sixteenth season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. It is the show's third season to include contestants from past seasons, after the all-returning contestant pool from ', along with ', in which two contestants from returned for a second chance.
The season was filmed in Palau, marking the second time Survivor has filmed there. The filming locations for this season were the same as those used in Survivor: Palau, with Airai living in the former Koror camp and Malakal living in the former Ulong camp. Exile Island returned this season after being absent from Survivor: China, with a new twist of one castaway from each tribe being sent to Exile Island where they had to compete to find the hidden immunity idol. This was the final Survivor season to be aired in standard definition. The complete season was released on DVD from CBS Home Entertainment, via Amazon.com's CreateSpace, on January 31, 2014. It is set to have significantly more special features than recent releases.
The full cast of 20 contestants was revealed on January 3, 2008 by Entertainment Weekly. For the first time since Survivor: Panama, the final Tribal Council featured a Final Two rather than a Final Three. This was also the first season to have an even numbered jury, with this season having eight jury members, rather than the traditional seven or nine in past seasons, making a tie possible. Host Jeff Probst held a white envelope that he claimed had the tie-breaker, but its contents were not revealed as no tie occurred.
In the end, Parvati Shallow defeated fellow Favorite Amanda Kimmel by a vote of 5–3 to become the Sole Survivor. On the reunion show, it was revealed that James Clement, for the second consecutive season, was the viewer's choice of favorite contestant, winning US$100,000. Kimmel and Oscar "Ozzy" Lusth received the next highest number of votes. The season has been considered one of the show's best, with the blindside elimination of fifth place contestant Erik Reichenbach by the four remaining female survivors, Parvati, Amanda, Cirie Fields and Natalie Bolton, as the series' best event.
Contestants
The contestants included ten new players, the "Fans," and ten former players, the "Favorites," from six previous seasons returning for their second chance at the game. The "Fans" were initially on the Airai tribe, with the "Favorites" on Malakal; both tribes were named after locations in Palau. Sandra Diaz-Twine and Twila Tanner were finalists for this season but were eventually cut., Eliza Orlins, and on far right, Cirie Fields
| Contestant | Original tribe | Switched tribe | Merged tribe | Finish |
| ' 33, Los Angeles, California ' | ||||
| ' 29, Emeryville, California | ||||
| ' 55, Martinez, California ' | ||||
| ' 34, Los Angeles, California | ||||
| ' 32, Avondale, Arizona | ||||
| ' 45, Los Angeles, California ' | ||||
| ' 48, Ford City, Pennsylvania | ||||
| ' 45, Glen Ellyn, Illinois | ||||
| ' 43, Fredericksburg, Virginia | ||||
| ' 34, Golden, Colorado ' | ||||
| ' ' | rowspan="10" | |||
| ' 26, Venice, California ' | - | |||
| ' 22, Fox River Grove, Illinois | - | |||
| ' 30, Lafayette, Louisiana ' | - | |||
| ' 24, Beverly Hills, California | - | |||
| ' 22, Ypsilanti, Michigan | - | |||
| ' | - | |||
| ' 37, Norwalk, Connecticut ' | - | |||
| ' 23, Los Angeles, California ' | - | |||
| ' 25, Los Angeles, California ' | - |
Future appearances
, Amanda Kimmel, James Clement and Cirie Fields returned to play Survivor for a third time in '. Ozzy Lusth returned to play a third time on '. Both Fields and Lusth also returned for their fourth time each on '. Jonathan Penner returned for his third time on '. Erik Reichenbach is at this time the only fan returning as he was a Favorite in the second "Fans vs. Favorites" season, '. Shallow later returned to compete on '.Outside of Survivor, Eliza Orlins competed in The Amazing Race 31 alongside two-time future Survivor contestant Corinne Kaplan.
Season summary
This season pitted a tribe of "Favorites", ten returning Survivor contestants, against a tribe of "Fans", ten new players. The Favorites tribe was run by a majority alliance of Amanda, Cirie, Parvati, James, and Ozzy, while the Fans failed to form consistent alliances. After four eliminations, with the tribes still at equal numbers, the tribes were swapped through a schoolyard pick. On both tribes, the Favorites worked to eliminate the Fans, who continued to succumb to infighting.After the merge, the remaining Fans attempted to form alliances with the Favorites that held the majority. A core alliance of Amanda, Parvati, and Cirie worked with the female Fans, Natalie and Alexis, to blindside several threats, working covertly to avoid suspicion and making it to the final six with Erik, who was spared due to repeated immunity challenge wins. Amanda was targeted for being a threat after Erik won immunity again, she saved herself with a hidden immunity idol and Alexis was eliminated. Erik won immunity yet again, but the others convinced him he was safe regardless; he gave the necklace to Natalie to gain her trust, and the women promptly voted him off.
Amanda, Cirie, and Parvati achieved their goal of becoming the final three, but were surprised by one last immunity challenge and elimination; Amanda won the challenge and eliminated Cirie for being the larger threat to win. The jury grilled both finalists, but Parvati's stronger arguments led to the jury awarding her the victory in a 5–3 vote.
Episodes
Voting history
Reception
This season was very well received by both fans and critics alike, and is generally considered one of the best seasons of the show. Jeff Probst originally ranked it as his second favorite season of all time, stating that “The Parvati-led women's alliance produced some of the most memorable moments in the history of the show.” Probst also stated that the Tribal Council in which Erik Reichenbach was eliminated was his favorite of all the seasons, and he also said Palau was his favorite filming location. Survivor columnist Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly also rated the season as the second best season saying that it had “great characters and the perfect mix of solid and stupid gameplay.” He then later ranked this season and Borneo as tied for the best seasons, saying,Ross, in a 2019 Entertainment Weekly oral history discussion of Erik's elimination episode, named the resulting blindside as the greatest Survivor moment in the show's history.
Slant magazine gave the season a 3.5 star rating out of four, saying “Never in Survivor history has there been such a string of shocking tribal councils one right after the next.” Andy Dehnart of realityblurred.com also gave the season a positive review, stating that the moment where Erik gave individual immunity to Natalie helped make “Survivor: Micronesia the best season ever—or at least, the best second half of a season ever.” In 2014, Joe Reid of The Wire ranked it as the sixth-best season of the series. Survivor fan site "Survivor Oz" ranked Micronesia as the second-best season of the series in its annual polls ranking every season in 2012 and 2013, while it was ranked fourth in 2014 and fifth in 2015 Fellow fan site "The Purple Rock Podcast" ranked it as the ninth-best season. In 2015, in a poll held on the website of former Survivor contestant Rob Cesternino, Micronesia was ranked as the fourth-greatest season of the series by the website's users, while Cesternino himself personally ranked it as the second-best season, only behind '.
Seven years later, in the official CBS Watch issue commemorating Survivor