Jalalabad, Shamli

Template:Infobox Television Survivor Survivor: Gabon - Earth's Last Eden is the seventeenth season of the CBS reality television series Survivor. The premier aired September 25, 2008, with the first two episodes screened back-to-back. This season, players sent to Exile Island will have a choice of receiving a clue to the location of a Hidden Immunity Idol or spending the night in the comfort hut.

Applications were due on January 24, 2008. Around March 2008, 800 applicants were selected for an interview by CBS. Out of these 800, about 48 semi-finalists were selected to go to Los Angeles sometime during April 2008. From these semi-finalists, 18 contestants were selected to participate in the show between late June and mid-July 2008.

On April 13, 2008 at the annual National Association of Broadcasters's NAB Show, it was announced that the 17th season would be the first to be shot in high definition, using Sony XDCAMs.

Survivor: Gabon began filming in late June. It marked the second season of the series that was filmed in Africa, after Survivor: Africa was filmed seven years prior in Kenya. Reports from Gabon indicate the show was filmed around the coastal towns of Nyonie and Ekwata in the Wonga-Wongue Presidential Reserve.

Host Jeff Probst mentioned that preproduction of the series was plagued by shipment delays, a crane toppling over and undesirable wild animals encroaching into the production area.

Contestants

Main article: List of Survivor: Gabon Contestants

Contestant	Original Tribe	Episode 4 Tribe	Finish	Total Votes
Michelle Chase 24, Los Angeles, CA	Fang		1st Voted Out Day 3	8
Gillian Larson 61, Temecula, CA	Fang		2nd Voted Out Day 6	8
Paloma Soto-Castillo 24, Downey, CA	Kota		3rd Voted Out Day 9	7
Jacquie Berg 25, Santa Barbara, CA	Kota	Fang	4th Voted Out Day 12	5
Ace Gordon 27, Naples, FL	Kota	Fang		2
Robert "Bob" Crowley 58, Portland, ME	Kota	Kota
Charlie Herschel 29, New York, NY	Kota	Kota
Corinne Kaplan 29, Los Angeles, CA	Kota	Kota
Crystal Cox 29, Durham, NC	Fang	Fang
Dan Kay 32, Boston, MA	Fang	Kota
Danny "GC" Brown 26, Portland, OR	Fang	Fang
Jessica "Sugar" Kiper 29, Brooklyn, NY	Kota	Fang1
Kelly Czarnecki 22, Buffalo Grove, IL	Kota	Fang		2
Ken Hoang 22, Westminster, CA	Fang	Fang		1
Marcus Lehman 28, Atlanta, GA	Kota	Kota
Matty Whitmore 29, Pacific Palisades, CA	Fang	Fang
Randy Bailey 49, Eagle Rock, MO	Fang	Kota
Susie Smith 47, Charles City, IA	Fang	Kota

The Total Votes is the number of votes a castaway has received during Tribal Councils where the castaway is eligible to be voted out of the game. It does not include the votes received during the final Tribal Council.

^1 Sugar was not picked in the tribal switch. She was sent to Exile Island and would join the tribe that lost the Immunity Challenge. Because Fang lost the challenge, Sugar became a member of Fang.

The game

Episode Titles	Air Date	Challenges		Exiled	Eliminated	Vote	Finish
		Reward	Immunity
"Want to See the Elephant Dung?" (part one)	September 25, 2008	Kota2	Marcus2
			GC2
		Kota3		None4	Michelle	8-1	1st Voted Out Day 3
"Want to See the Elephant Dung?" (part two)	September 25, 2008	Kota3		Dan	Gillian	7-1	2nd Voted Out Day 6
"She Obviously Is Post-Op!"	October 2, 2008	Fang	Fang	Sugar	Paloma	7-2	3rd Voted Out Day 9
"It Was Like Christmas Morning!"	October 9, 2008	None5	Kota	Sugar1	Jacquie	5-2	4th Voted Out Day 12
"This Camp is Cursed"	October 16, 2008

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.

^2 Combined Reward/Individual Immunity Challenge. Tribal Immunity was not in play, therefore no castaway was eligible to be exiled or eliminated.

^3 Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge.

^4 Exile Island was not yet known to the castaways.

^5 There was no Reward Challenge due to a tribal switch.

Episode 1: "Want to See the Elephant Dung?" (part one)

• Reward/Individual Immunity Challenge: The tribes would have to race across the plain and up a hill. The first castaway from each tribe to the top of the hill would win an Individual Immunity Idol that would only be good at their tribe's first Tribal Council. The first entire tribe to the top of the hill would win.
  • Reward: An extra bag of corn and beans

• Reward/Immunity Challenge: Six tribe members would be belted together and have to race through a swamp, over a net wall, and under and over a series of hitching posts. The six would then have to dig up three bags of puzzle pieces and deliver them to the three remaining tribe members. These three would then assemble the puzzle pieces to win the challenge.
  • Reward: Tribal Immunity and flint

The castaways were welcomed to the game by Jeff with just their street clothes. After introducing themselves, the tribes were divided by schoolyard pick. As traditional in Gabon, Jeff announced that the elders usually make the decisions in the tribe and therefore the oldest castaways, Bob and Gillian, started the pick. After the tribes were picked, tribe names announced, and buffs passed out, Jeff announced the first challenge for individual Immunity Idols and extra food. Marcus and GC won individual Immunity Idols and Kota won the extra bag of food. At the Kota tribe, Bob and Ace took charge and organized the campsite. At the Fang tribe, a nighttime visit by an elephant spooked the tribe. Randy hit his head on the tribe's hut, requiring a visit by the Survivor medical team to put in several stitches. At a combined Reward/Immunity Challenge, Kota pulled far ahead while digging up the puzzle bags and won by a blowout. Before Tribal Council, Michelle and Gillian were targets for votes due to their negativity and age, respectively. Michelle's negativity outweighed concerns over age and she was voted out 8-1. After the vote, Jeff announced that Fang would be taking their torches back to camp and gave them a flint.

Episode 2: "Want to See the Elephant Dung?" (part two)

• Reward/Immunity Challenge: The tribes have to roll a large ball through a series of gates. At two points along the course, a tribe member would have to climb atop the ball to retrieve of set of keys. At the final gate, the keys would unlock three chains that blocked the gate. The first tribe to go through all the gates and roll their boulder atop a short pedestal wins.
  • Reward: Tribal Immunity and fishing gear

Picked as the leader of Fang at Tribal Council, GC started the tribe's first fire and organized jobs to fix up the campsite. At Kota, Charlie felt attracted to Marcus (Charlie's feelings were not reciprocated as Marcus is straight) and they formed an alliance. The two expanded their alliance to include Jacquie and Corrine. The four discussed bringing in Bob to have a majority, though Bob would be kept out of the core alliance of four. In the early morning of day 5, GC resigned his leadership of the tribe after arguing with Gillian over waking up early and making too much noise. After receiving tree mail announcing the next challenge, Dan tried to unify the tribe by painting everybody with charcoal face paint, but the motivation did not work and Kota won their third challenge in a row. Kota selected Dan to go to Exile Island, where he chose to get a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol, but he was not able to decode the clue to find it. At Fang, Randy fashioned a fishing hook out of parts from his glasses and the tribe was finally able to get some meat. Dan's behavior after he returned from Exile Island made the others suspicious that he had found the Hidden Immunity Idol. At Tribal Council, Gillian was seen as the weakest link during physical challenges and she was voted out 7-1.

Episode 3: "She Obviously Is Post-Op!"

• Reward Challenge: One member of each tribe would hang on to a post. Two members of the opposing tribe would attempt to remove the tribe member from the post and drag them across the sand to the finish line. The first tribe to get the member of the other tribe across the finish line would receive one point. The first tribe to score two points wins.
  • Reward: Blankets, a hammock, pillows, and a mat

• Immunity Challenge: One at a time, six tribe members would slide down a water slide. They would then swim out to retrieve a numbered tile, then run up the hill they slid down to drop their number off. Once all six tiles were retrieved, the remaining castaway would use the tiles to solve a numeric puzzle. The answer to the puzzle is a combination to open a locked chest, which holds an ax. The first tribe to open their chest and use the ax to cut a rope that would raise their tribe's flag would win.

At Fang, the argument over who was or was not the tribe leader continued. At Kota, the rest of the tribe was annoyed at Ace's attitude of being king of the tribe. At the Reward Challenge, Fang won the reward and elected to send Sugar to Exile Island. The win re-energized the Fang tribe and they finally felt like a tribe. Meanwhile, at Kota, Paloma's poor effort at the challenge caused her to be seen as the weakest link in the tribe. Corinne talked to Bob about joining her alliance of four, though continued to keep him in the dark that he would not be brought along to the end of the game. On Exile Island, Sugar elected to receive a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol over comfort and followed the clues to find the Hidden Immunity Idol. During the Immunity Challenge, Ken secured Fang's victory by overcoming Kota's lead at the tile retrieval stage and solving the numeric puzzle before Bob. After the Immunity Challenge and back at their camp, Sugar told Ace that she found the Hidden Immunity Idol while leading the others to believe she didn't have it. Paloma approached Corinne about forming an alliance with her and target Ace for elimination, due to Ace being manipulative and trying to setup Paloma for failure at the Reward Challenge. At Tribal Council, Ace's attitude at camp was discussed, but the tribe chose to remove their weakest physical link and voted out Paloma 7-2.

Episode 4: "It Was Like Christmas Morning!"

• Immunity Challenge: The tribes would play a lacrosse-like game on the water. Each tribe member would be on a raft and have a paddle. The castaways would paddle around the playing field, use the paddle to pass a ball from one tribemate to another. The first tribe to throw the ball three times into their opponents goal would win.

After Tribal Council, Ace was upset at Kelly's animosity towards him and her vote against him. In retaliation, he targeted her for the next elimination. Over at Fang, an alliance of Dan, Matty, Randy, and Susie formed and targeted GC for elimination. The remaining members of Fang, Crystal, GC, and Kenny formed their own alliance. When the tribes next gathered, Jeff announced that the castaways would rank themselves by secret survey according to their importance within the tribe. Kota ranked Marcus as most important in their tribe followed by Ace, Bob, Charlie, Jacquie, Corinne, Sugar, and Kelly. Fang ranked Matty as most important in their tribe followed by Dan, Randy, Crystal, Ken, GC, and Susie. After announcing the rankings, Jeff told the castaways to drop their buffs as they would be picking new tribes by schoolyard pick. Voted as most important within their tribes, Marcus and Matty would stay with their original tribes and start the pick. The new Kota was Marcus, Dan, Charlie, Randy, Corinne, Susie, and Bob. The new Fang was Matty, Ace, Crystal, Jacquie, Ken, Kelly, and GC. Sugar was not selected during the pick. She was sent to Exile Island, would stay there until after the next Tribal Council, and then join the tribe that loses the next Immunity Challenge. Since she had already found the Hidden Immunity Idol, Sugar chose the comfort option at Exile Island. At the newly formed Fang campsite, Crystal noticed that Kelly felt like an outcast at the old Kota and invited her to join her alliance with GC and Ken. At the Immunity Challenge, Randy scored all three goals for Kota in their shutout victory over Fang. Kelly's poor performance at the Immunity Challenge made Crystal, GC, and Kenny reconsider their alliance with her and vote her out as the weakest member of the tribe. They switched over to voting for Jacquie when they considered that Sugar might have the Hidden Immunity Idol and with it, the trio of Ace, Sugar, and Jacquie would have power within the tribe. They wanted to make sure that Ace had as little power in the tribe as possible. The three shared their plan with Matty to get him to vote their way and he told Jacquie of the trio's plan. Jacquie tried to plead her case to Ken and Crystal, casting herself as an outsider, was not in an alliance with Ace, and that she really wanted to be in the game. At Tribal Council, the original Fang trio stuck to their plan of voting Jacquie and she was voted out 5-2.

Voting history

	Original Tribes			Switched Tribes
Episode #:	1	2	3	4
Eliminated:	Michelle 8/9 Votes	Gillian 7/8 Votes	Paloma 7/9 Votes	Jacquie 5/7 Votes
Voter	Vote
Ace			Paloma	Kelly
Bob			Paloma
Charlie			Paloma
Corinne			Paloma
Crystal	Michelle	Gillian		Jacquie
Dan	Michelle	Gillian
GC	Michelle	Gillian		Jacquie
Kelly			Ace	Jacquie
Ken	Michelle	Gillian		Jacquie
Marcus			Paloma
Matty	Michelle	Gillian		Jacquie
Randy	Michelle	Gillian
Sugar			Paloma
Susie	Michelle	Gillian
Jacquie			Paloma	Kelly
Paloma			Ace
Gillian	Michelle	Ken
Michelle	Gillian

Controversy

Survivor: Gabon has received criticism from the Parents Television Council for a brief, uncensored glimpse of Marcus' penis when it was exposed as it accidentally fell out of his underwear. The editors should have used one of these -->   to conceal the offending appendage. The exposure occurred on the season opener during the second Immunity Challenge.

External links

• Official CBS Survivor Gabon Website