Survivor: Africa

Survivor: Africa is the third season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. The season was filmed from July 11, 2001, to August 18, 2001, in Kenya's Shaba National Reserve, and was aired weekly from October 11, 2001, until the live finale on January 10, 2002. Ethan Zohn was named Sole Survivor over Kim Johnson by a jury vote of 5–2, and won the $1,000,000 grand prize. The season featured a cast of 16 participants split between two tribes, Boran and Samburu. Three of the cast, Zohn, Lex van den Berghe, and Tom Buchanan all returned for future seasons. The season received more criticism than previous seasons due to the harsh living conditions of the African desert and the small amount of food for participants.

Filming of Survivor: Africa took place from July 11, 2001, to August 18, 2001, in Kenya's Shaba National Reserve.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The show was broadcast from October 11, 2001, until January 10, 2002, on CBS.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Contestants

The show's cast consists of 16 players who are divided into tribes named Boran and Samburu for the real-life Borana and Samburu tribes. After 12 days, three members of each team switched to the other tribe in what became known as the first "twist" in Survivor. When 10 contestants remained, the two tribes were merged into the Moto Maji tribe, which was named for the Swahili words for "fire" and "water".

List of Survivor: Africa contestants

Contestant	Age	From	Tribe			Finish
			Original	Switched	Merged	Placement	Day
Template:Sortname	42	Lincoln, Nebraska	rowspan="2" Template:Stribe			1st voted out	Day 3
Template:Sortname	26	Orlando, Florida	2nd voted out			Day 6
Template:Sortname	46	Winter Springs, Florida	rowspan="4" Template:Stribe			3rd voted out	Day 9
Template:Sortname	44	Boston, Massachusetts	4th voted out			Day 12
Template:Sortname	23	Los Angeles, California	Template:Stribe	5th voted out		Day 15
Template:Sortname	26	Portland, Oregon	Template:Stribe	6th voted out		Day 18
Template:Sortname	24	Detroit, Michigan	rowspan="2" Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	rowspan="10" Template:Stribe	7th voted out	Day 21
Template:Sortname	22	San Diego, California	rowspan="2" Template:Stribe	8th voted out 1st jury member	Day 24
Template:Sortname	25	Dallas, Texas	rowspan="4" Template:Stribe	9th voted out Template:Nowrap	Day 27
Template:Sortname	43	Odessa, New York	Template:Stribe	10th voted out 3rd jury member	Day 30
Template:Sortname	29	Conshohocken, Pennsylvania	Template:Stribe	11th voted out 4th jury member	Day 33
Template:Sortname	42	Jackson, Georgia	Template:Stribe	12th voted out 5th jury member	Day 36
Template:Sortname	45	Rich Valley, Virginia	rowspan="4" Template:Stribe	rowspan="2" Template:Stribe	13th voted out 6th jury member	Day 37
Template:Nowrap	38	Santa Cruz, California	14th voted out 7th jury member	Day 38
Template:Sortname	56	Oyster Bay, New York	rowspan="2" Template:Stribe	Runner-up	Template:Nowrap
Template:Sortname	27	New York City, New York	Sole Survivor

Future appearances

Since the broadcast of Survivor: Africa, Ethan Zohn competed again with Lex van den Berghe and Tom Buchanan on Survivor: All-Stars. Zohn also competed on Survivor: Winners at War. In 2015, Teresa Cooper was included on the public poll to choose the cast of Survivor: Cambodia but was not chosen to compete.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Outside of Survivor, Zohn competed on a "Reality All-Stars" episode of Fear Factor,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and also competed on The Amazing Race 19 with then-girlfriend and fellow Survivor winner Jenna Morasca.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Season summary

File:Shaba reserve Kenya mountains.jpg

The Shaba National Reserve in Kenya

The 16 castaways were split into tribes named Samburu and Boran, and were given camps that included fencing to help protect them from wildlife. Samburu took an early lead but the tribe was internally divided along age lines – Silas, Kim Powers, Brandon, and Lindsey as one, and Frank, Teresa, Carl, and Linda as the other. At their first Tribal Council, the age blocs left a stalemate tie between Carl and Lindsey, and with no previous votes to count, a quiz was used. Lindsay won and put the younger members in control. On the next visit to Tribal Council, Linda was eliminated and both tribes were even at six members. On day 13, the tribes were given a vague clue about sending three members on a quest but were unaware this would be the first tribal swap. Silas picked himself and the remaining older Samburu, Frank and Teresa. Kelly, Tom, and Lex were picked for Boran. After being informed of the tribal swap, these players joined their new tribes; Frank and Teresa quickly went to work with the original Boran members to eliminate Silas while the original Boran members on Samburu learned of Lindsay's past votes and were able to eliminate her.

Once 10 players remained – six from the original Boran and four from Samburu – the tribes were merged into a single tribe called Moto Maji. Samburu members were aware that the Boran players were sticking with original alliances and scrambled to stay in. During the first post-merger Tribal Council, a mystery vote was cast for Lex, sending him on a witch hunt. Deciding it had been Kelly, a member of his alliance who had voted against him, Lex asked his alliance to turn against one of their own. When Kelly found out what was going to happen, she banded with the Samburu members, but Lex had also persuaded Brandon to vote with his alliance, leading to Kelly's elimination. Brandon's disloyalty to Samburu led to his elimination and that of the other remaining Samburu members.

The final four players were Ethan, Lex, Tom, and Kim Johnson. Kim won the last two immunity challenges, Tom was voted out, and then Lex was voted out by Kim's vote. At the final Tribal Council, Kim was praised for surviving the game but was accused of riding the coattails of Lex, Ethan, and Tom. Ethan was praised for his likeability and integrity, and the jury voted Ethan the Sole Survivor in a 5–2 vote.

Challenge winners and eliminations by episode

Episode			Challenge winner(s)		Eliminated
No.	Title	Original air date	Reward	Immunity	Tribe	Player
1	"Question of Trust"	October 11, 2001	colspan="2" Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Diane
2	"Who's Zooming Whom?"	October 18, 2001	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Jessie
3	"The Gods Are Angry"	October 25, 2001	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Carl
4	"The Young and Untrusted"	November 1, 2001	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Linda
5	"The Twist"	November 8, 2001	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Silas
6	"I'd Never Do It To You"	November 15, 2001	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Lindsey
7	"Will There Be a Feast Tonight?"	November 22, 2001	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn	Teresa	Template:Stribe	Clarence
8	"The First 21 Days"	November 29, 2001	Recap Episode
9	"Smoking Out the Snake"	December 6, 2001	Ethan [Lex]	Ethan	rowspan="7" Template:Stribe	Kelly
10	"Dinner, Movie and a Betrayal"	December 13, 2001	Brandon, Frank	Lex	Brandon
11	"We Are Family"	December 20, 2001	Template:Stribe	Lex	Frank
12	"The Big Adventure"	December 27, 2001	Lex [Tom]	Tom	Kim P.
13	"Truth Be Told"	January 3, 2002	Lex	Lex	Teresa
14	"The Final Four: No Regrets"	January 10, 2002	rowspan="2" Template:Stribe	Kim J.	Tom
			Kim J.	Lex
15	"The Reunion"

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.

Episodes

Template:Episode table {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 31 | EpisodeNumber2 = 1 | Title = Question of Trust | Aux1 = Recap | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 10.4/20<ref name="Africa">Template:Cite web</ref> | Viewers = 23.84<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary = | LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 32 | EpisodeNumber2 = 2 | Title = Who's Zooming Whom? | Aux1 = Recap | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 7.9/20<ref name="Africa"/> | Viewers = 19.59<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary = | LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 33 | EpisodeNumber2 = 3 | Title = The Gods Are Angry | Aux1 = Recap | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 8.0/20<ref name="Africa"/> | Viewers = 20.43<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary = | LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 34 | EpisodeNumber2 = 4 | Title = The Young and Untrusted | Aux1 = Recap | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 7.8/18<ref name="Africa"/> | Viewers = 18.73<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary = | LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|SurUkraine vivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 35 | EpisodeNumber2 = 5 | Title = The Twist | Aux1 = Recap | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 8.3/20<ref name="Africa"/> | Viewers = 20.55<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary =

| LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 36 | EpisodeNumber2 = 6 | Title = I'd Never Do It to You | Aux1 = Recap | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 8.1/21<ref name="Africa"/> | Viewers = 19.71<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary = | LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 37 | EpisodeNumber2 = 7 | Title = Will There Be a Feast Tonight? | Aux1 = Recap | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 6.6/18<ref name="Africa"/> | Viewers = 17.70<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary =

| LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 38 | EpisodeNumber2 = 8 | Title = The First 21 Days | Aux1 = N/A | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 7.1/18<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | Viewers = 17.80<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary = | LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 39 | EpisodeNumber2 = 9 | Title = Smoking Out the Snake | Aux1 = Recap | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 7.9/21<ref name="Africa"/> | Viewers = 19.28<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary = | LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 40 | EpisodeNumber2 = 10 | Title = Dinner, Movie and a Betrayal | Aux1 = Recap | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 7.3/20<ref name="Africa"/> | Viewers = 18.39<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary =

| LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 41 | EpisodeNumber2 = 11 | Title = We Are Family | Aux1 = Recap | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 7.7/22<ref name="Africa"/> | Viewers = 19.60<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary =

| LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 42 | EpisodeNumber2 = 12 | Title = The Big Adventure | Aux1 = Recap | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 7.5/20<ref name="Africa"/> | Viewers = 18.92<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary = | LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 43 | EpisodeNumber2 = 13 | Title = Truth Be Told | Aux1 = Recap | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 8.7/20<ref name="Africa"/> | Viewers = 21.31<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary = | LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 44 | EpisodeNumber2 = 14 | Title = The Final Four: No Regrets | Aux1 = Recap | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 11.3/25<ref name="Africa"/> | Viewers = 27.26<ref name="final">Template:Cite web</ref> | ShortSummary = | LineColor=1AB35F }} {{#invoke:Episode list|sublist|Survivor: Africa | EpisodeNumber = 45 | EpisodeNumber2 = 15 | Title = The Reunion | Aux1 = N/A | OriginalAirDate = Template:Start date | Aux4 = 8.7/20<ref name="Africa"/> | Viewers = 19.05<ref name="final"/> | ShortSummary = | LineColor=1AB35F }} Template:End

Voting history

	Original tribes						Switched tribes				Merged tribe
Episode	1	2	3			4	5	6			7	9	10	11	12	13	14
Day	3	6	9			12	15	18			21	24	27	30	33	36	37	38
Tribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	colspan="3" Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	colspan="3" Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe	Template:Stribe
Eliminated	Diane	Jessie	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn	Carl	Linda	Silas	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn	Lindsey	Clarence	Kelly	Brandon	Frank	Kim P.	Teresa	Tom	Lex
Vote	6–2	5–2	4–4	3–3	ChallengeTemplate:Efn	4–3	5–1	3–3	2–2	CountbackTemplate:Efn	8–2	5–4	6–2	6–1	4–2	4–1	3–1	1–0
Voter	Votes
Ethan	Diane	Jessie					Silas				Clarence	Kelly	Brandon	Frank	Kim P.	Teresa	Tom	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn
Kim J.	Diane	Jessie					Silas				Clarence	Kelly	Brandon	Frank	Kim P.	Teresa	Tom	Lex
Lex	Diane	Jessie						Lindsey	Lindsey		Clarence	Kelly	Frank	Frank	Kim P.	Teresa	Tom	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn
Tom	Clarence	Clarence						Lindsey	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn	Clarence	Kelly	Brandon	Frank	Kim P.	Teresa	Lex
Teresa			Lindsey	Lindsey		Silas	Silas				Lex	Lex	Brandon	Frank	Lex	Tom
Kim P.			Carl	Carl		Linda		Tom	Tom		Clarence	Lex	Brandon	Frank	Lex
Frank			Lindsey	Lindsey		Silas	Silas				Clarence	Lex	Brandon	Kim J.
Brandon			Carl	Carl		Linda		Tom	Tom		Clarence	Kelly	Frank
Kelly	Diane	Jessie						Lindsey	Lindsey		Clarence	Lex
Clarence	Diane	Jessie					Silas				Lex
Lindsey			Carl	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn	Linda		Tom	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn
Silas			Carl	Carl		Linda	Frank
Linda			Lindsey	Lindsey		Silas
Carl			Lindsey	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn	Template:StribeTemplate:Efn
Jessie	Diane	Clarence
Diane	Clarence

Jury vote
Episode	15
Day	39
Finalist	Ethan	Kim J.
Votes	5–2
Juror	Votes
Lex	Template:Ya
Tom	Template:Ya
Teresa	Template:Ya
Kim P.		Template:Ya
Frank	Template:Ya
Brandon		Template:Ya
Kelly	Template:Ya

Notes

Reception

Survivor: Africa received much more criticism than the two previous seasons, primarily for the contestants' tough living conditions during filming. Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly ranked it as the ninth-worst season of the series, saying aside from "Some great challenges, not that much else was great".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Tom Santilli of Examiner.com ranked it 26th, saying following Borneo and Australian Outback, "it was a complete dud at the time", while noting winner Ethan Zohn "was just so-so and not that interesting", and that the cast's "lethargy showed on screen" due to the poor conditions in the filming location. In 2020, fan site "The Purple Rock Podcast" also ranked the season 29th, and said it "suffers because of its location" and that "the cast on this season is generally pretty decent, and probably would have been much better if they weren't constantly sapped of energy by lack of food and water".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2015, a poll by Rob Has a Podcast ranked Survivor: Africa 19th out of 30 with Rob Cesternino ranking this season 26th.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This was updated in 2021 during Cesternino's podcast "Survivor All-Time Top 40 Rankings", ranking Survivor: Africa 21st out of 40.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2013, Andrea Deiher of Zap2it ranked the season the fifth-worst before it was replaced in 2015 by Survivor: San Juan del Sur.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2020, Inside Survivor ranked this season 23rd out of 40, saying; "Is it the most dynamic season in terms of gameplay? No. But it is rich in character."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2024, Nick Caruso of TVLine ranked this season 36th out of 47.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Controversy

Controversy surrounded an immunity challenge in the final episode of Survivor: Africa. In the "Fallen Comrades" challenge, in which the contestants were quizzed on trivia about their fellow players who had been voted out, the final question is "Which female contestant has no piercings?". The official answer, given by Kim Johnson to win the challenge, was Kelly. Lex answered Lindsey, who, unbeknownst to the producers, also had no piercings. Had Lex been given credit for his correct answer, he and Kim would have tied and faced tie-breaker questions. After the producers were alerted to the mistake, both third-place finisher Lex and fourth-place finisher Tom were awarded the $100,000 runner-up prize instead of the usual third- and fourth-place earnings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Official CBS Survivor Africa website