Survivor: Tocantins

Template:Future tvshow information Template:Infobox Television Survivor Survivor: Tocantins - The Brazilian Highlands is the eighteenth season of the United States reality show Survivor filmed in the microregion of Jalapão in Tocantins, Brazil. The premiere aired Thursday, February 12, 2009.

CBS began casting for Survivor: Tocantins once production for Survivor: Gabon was underway. Applications were due by July 15, 2008, with in-person interviews being conducted in various cities sometime in August 2008, and semi-finalists traveling to Los Angeles, California sometime in September 2008. Shooting occurred sometime in October to mid-December 2008. This is the first season that applicants under the age of 21 were able to apply except in Mississippi and Washington, D.C.

Sixteen applicants were chosen to compete on the show, and were initially divided into two tribes. Exile Island returns this season, but with new twists. Instead of one castaway sent to Exile Island, two will be sent. While on Exile Island, each exiled castaway will pick from one of two urns. One urn will contain a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol and an option to join the opposing tribe, while the other urn will contain nothing.

Contestants

Contestant	Original Tribe	Merged Tribe	Finish	Total Votes
Carolina Eastwood 26, West Hollywood, CA	Jalapao	1st Voted Out Day 3	7
Candace Smith 31, Dayton, OH	Timbira	2nd Voted Out Day 6	7
Jerry Sims 49, Rock Hill, SC	Timbira	3rd Voted Out Day 9	6
Sandy Burgin 53, Louisville, KY	Jalapao	4th Voted Out Day 12	6
Spencer Duhm 19, Lakeland, FL	Jalapao	5th Voted Out Day 15	5
Sydney Wheeler 24, Raleigh, NC	Jalapao	6th Voted Out Day 18	4
Benjamin "Coach" Wade 37, Bolivar, MO	Timbira	Jambara
Brendan Synnott 30, New York City, NY	Timbira	Jambara
Debra "Debbie" Beebe 46, Auburn, AL	Timbira	Jambara
Erinn Lobdell 26, Waukesha, WI	Timbira	Jambara	1
James "J.T." Thomas, Jr. 24, Samson, AL	Jalapao	Jambara
Joe Dowdle 26, Austin, TX	Jalapao	Jambara	1
Sierra Reed 23, Los Angeles, CA	Timbira	Jambara	1
Stephen Fishbach 29, New York City, NY	Jalapao	Jambara
Tamara "Taj" Johnson-George 37, Nashville, TN	Jalapao	Jambara	3
Tyson Apostol 29, Lindon, UT	Timbira	Jambara

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.

The game

Episode Titles	Air Date	Challenges		Exiled	Eliminated	Vote	Finish
		Reward	Immunity
"Let’s Get Rid of the Weak Players Before We Even Start"	February 12, 2009	Timbira1		None2	Carolina	7-1	1st Voted Out Day 3
"The Poison Apple Needs to Go"	February 19, 2009	Jalapao1		Brendan	Candace	7-1	2nd Voted Out Day 6
				Taj
"Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This"	February 26, 2009	Jalapao	Jalapao	Brendan	Jerry	6-1	3rd Voted Out Day 9
				Taj
"The Strongest Man Alive"	March 5, 2009	Jalapao	Timbira	Sierra	Sandy	5-1-1	4th Voted Out Day 12
				Taj
"You’re Going to Want that Tooth"	March 12, 2009	Jalapao	Timbira	Brendan	Spencer	5-1	5th Voted Out Day 15
				Stephen
"The First Fifteen Days"	March 25, 2009	Recap Episode
"One of Those 'Coach Moments'"	April 2, 2009	Timbira	Timbira	Joe	Sydney	3-2	6th Voted Out Day 18
				Erinn
"The Dragon Slayer"	April 9, 2009

^1 Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge.

^2 Exile Island was not yet known to the castaways.

Episode 1: "Let’s Get Rid of the Weak Players Before We Even Start"

• Reward/Immunity Challenge: Six members of each tribe would race across a series of sand hills and into a river to retrieve a raft with puzzle planks tied to it. When all six members of the tribe returned to shore with the raft, the puzzle planks could be untied and taken back to the start line. The two remaining tribe members would assemble the planks into a staircase. Once all of the tribe was at the top of the staircase, any two tribe members would work together to navigate a peg through a table maze, which would release the tribe's flag to win the challenge.
  • Reward: Tribal Immunity and flint

With the castaways already split into tribes, they were dropped off by truck in a clearing. The game started immediately with Jeff announcing that the tribes would have 60 seconds to gather as many supplies from the back of the truck as they could. Timbira took all of the water and bags of beans, leaving Jalapao with only some melons and a few other supplies. Jeff then announced that the tribe's campsites were about a 4 hour trek by foot away, that one person from each tribe "would not be making the journey" and a vote would take place immediately. Jalapao voted for Sandy and Timbira voted for Sierra. Sandy and Sierra thought they were being voted out the game, but Jeff announced that they would only not be making the trek to camp and instead would be flown to their campsites by helicopter. When Sandy and Sierra arrived at their respective campsites, they were given the option to start setting up camp or follow clues to a Hidden Immunity Idol. Sandy opted to follow the clues, but did not find the idol before her tribe arrived. Sierra opted to start setting up the camp in order to improve her impression with her tribe. Carolina was upset that Sandy did not work on the campsite. Timbira's trek did not end until dark, by which time Sierra had built a shelter big enough to house the entire tribe. Despite her hard work, Coach's view on Sierra did not change and he still wanted to vote her out first. On day 2, Sandy resumed her search for the Hidden Immunity Idol, but was stumped by the second clue. At the Reward/Immunity Challenge, Sandy gave Jalapao a big lead by building the staircase quickly. However, Brendan and Erinn quickly solved the table maze for a comeback victory for Timbira. Back at Jalapao's camp, Carolina's bossy personality irritated the others, while Sandy's effort at the challenge impressed her tribemates. Still concerned about being voted out, Sandy went searching for the Hidden Immunity Idol before Tribal Council, but was again unsuccessful. At Tribal Council, Jalapao decided that Carolina would be first voted out and she was voted out 7-1. Before sending the tribe back to camp, Jeff gave them flint.

Episode 2: "The Poison Apple Needs to Go"

• Reward/Immunity Challenge: Three castaways from each tribe would face off against each other in a river to retrieve a ball and throw it into their tribe's net to score a point. The first tribe to score three points would win.
  • Reward: Tribal Immunity and fishing gear consisting of a spear, two poles, fishing line, fishing hooks, a cast net, tackle box, a diving mask, and a knife

In a quest for protein, the Jalapao tribe broke open a termite mound to eat the termites. At Timbira, Sierra decided that she needed help following the clues to the special first Tribal Council-only Hidden Immunity Idol and she recruited Brendan in the search. Together they went to the beach to follow the clues, but were caught digging a large hole on the beach by Debbie and had to stop their search. Sierra came up with the cover story that Brendan and she were building a fire pit for the tribe that night, which Debbie believed and relayed to the rest of the tribe. Candace and Coach argued over how to cook the afternoon meal on day 5. Back at Jalapao, Taj told her tribe that she was married to famed football player Eddie George. At the start of the rain-soaked Reward/Immunity Challenge, Jeff announced that someone from the losing tribe would go to Exile Island. He added that there was a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol at Exile Island, and a twist would be revealed after the challenge. Jalapao overcame a 0-2 deficit to win the challenge and chose to send Brendan to Exile Island. Jeff announced the twist was that Brendan could choose one person from the winning tribe to join him on Exile Island; he chose Taj. J.T. and Stephen put their newly acquired fishing gear to use, but did not catch anything. On Exile Island, Brendan and Taj found two urns and each had to choose one. Brendan's urn contained two notes: the first note was a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol which he could optionally share with Taj and the second note telling him that he could switch tribes if he wanted to. After some pestering by Taj, Brendan shared the clue with her and they realized that the clue hinted that there was a Hidden Immunity Idol back at each tribe's campsite. They agreed to work to get sent back to Exile Island together to collect more clues. At Timbira, Candace lobbied her tribemates to vote for Coach, but her negativity backfired on her and she became the target to vote out. When Brendan returned to Timbira's campsite, he lied to his tribemates telling them that Taj had the urn with the clue and that she went to look for the Hidden Immunity Idol on her own, but did not appear to have found it. At Tribal Council, Candace's lobbying to vote out Coach could not overcome her negativity and she was voted out 7-1.

Episode 3: "Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This"

• Reward Challenge: Six castaways from each tribe would be blindfolded and tethered together in pairs. The remaining castaway would work as a caller to direct the paired tribemates through a maze. Each set of tribemates would have to locate a bucket in the maze, navigate the rest of the maze to a tower, fill the bucket with water from the tower, return to the beginning of the maze, and empty the bucket into a container which would raise a flag. Once the water container was filled enough to raise a flag, the process would have to be repeated again, this time filling the buckets with corn from a different tower. The first tribe to raise both flags would win.
  • Reward: A tarp, an umbrella, folding chairs, pillows, blankets, and a hammock.
• Immunity Challenge: In pairs, the castaways would race across a field to retrieve six large crates painted in their tribe's colors. Once all six crates were retrieved, the tribes would have to stack the crates into a staircase with the name of their tribe properly aligned along the sides. The first tribe to complete the staircase and get all of their members up the staircase to the top of a platform would win.

Back at camp after Tribal Council, Erinn scrambled to realign herself with the rest of her tribe after Candace, with whom the tribe thought she was aligned, was voted out. Jerry started to develop stomach pains which he blamed on Timbira's diet of beans. At Jalapao, the tribe struggled with their casting net, only catching a few minnows, but had better luck with the fishing line and hooks. At the Reward Challenge, Jalapao easily won and selected Brendan to go back to Exile Island. As per their agreement the first time they went to Exile Island, Brendan selected Taj to return with him to Exile Island for a second time. On Exile Island, Brendan and Taj shared the next clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol, further cemented their secret alliance, and discussed bringing Sierra and Stephen into their cross-tribe alliance. Jalapao secured their third challenge win in a row at the Immunity Challenge by coming from behind during the staircase assembly task. After returning to camp, Jerry's weakening condition made him a target for elimination. Coach was upset about Erinn's reaction after she realized Jerry was sick and he was likely to be voted off next. Coach tried to persuade Tyson, Sierra, and Debbie to keep Jerry and vote out Erinn, but Sierra did not want to "sever off another limb so we can get our vendetta's against Erinn" and cast her vote for Jerry. Tyson tried to get Jerry to stick it out and vote against Erinn. A few hours before Tribal Council and using the second clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol, Brendan found the Idol hidden within the statue next to the tree mail. At Tribal Council, Tyson looked for a blindside against Erinn, but the tribe could not ignore Jerry's illness and voted him out 6-1.

Episode 4: "The Strongest Man Alive"

• Reward Challenge: Three castaways, two men and one woman, from each tribe would stand on perches holding a wooden pole on their shoulders to which weighted bags would be added. Every few minutes, two members of the opposing tribe would select someone to carry an additional 20 pounds (9.1 kg) of weight. If the weight becomes too much for a castaway, they would drop the pole and be out of the challenge. The last castaway standing would win the challenge for their tribe.
  • Reward: The winning tribe would send two castaways to the losing tribe's camp where they would be allowed to steal two items from the camp
• Immunity Challenge: One tribe member at a time would race along a winding path to retrieve a puzzle piece. Each puzzle piece is a large wooden triangular prism with letters written on each of the three faces. Once eight puzzle pieces are retrieved, they would need to be placed in their correct spot in a frame. The pieces would then need to be rotated to display a scrambled phrase. The first tribe to solve their puzzle would win.

Back at camp after Tribal Council, Coach was angry at Erinn for saying that Brendan was a better leader then himself, but he eventually accepted it and anointed Brendan as tribe leader. At Jalapao, Taj told Stephen about her secret alliance with Brendan and told him that if Jalapao were to win the next Reward Challenge, they would need to choose Sierra to go to Exile Island, who would pick Stephen to go along. However, Brendan could not find the time and privacy to tell Sierra about the alliance. At the Reward Challenge, Brendan, Tyson, and Debra shouldered the weight for Timbira, and J.T., Joe, and Taj for Jalapao. Brendan dropped out first when he was about to carry 220 pounds (100 kg). Tyson dropped out next at 140 pounds (64 kg), leaving just Debbie for Timbira. J.T. carried 220 pounds (100 kg) before dropping out next, tying the weight carried by Rupert Boneham in Survivor: Pearl Islands. Moments later, Joe dropped out at 140 pounds (64 kg), leaving the two women to continue the challenge. Just as both women were to move to carrying 120 pounds (54 kg), Debbie dropped her pole, giving Jalapao their fourth straight challenge victory. In a rare show of sportsmanship for Survivor, Taj congratulated Debbie for a "hell of a job". Timbira selected Sierra to go to Exile Island, but since Brendan did not tell Sierra of his alliance's plan, she immediately picked Taj to join her. Joe and J.T. arrived to raid the Timbira camp and they chose to take Timbira's larger sack of beans and a can for water. Sandy derided the decision, stating that they should have taken both sacks of Timbira's beans. On Exile Island, Taj got the clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol, which told her it was hidden around the tree mail area. Taj told Sierra about her secret four-way alliance and Sierra readily agreed to join the alliance. At the Immunity Challenge, Timbira broke Jalapao's winning streak. Before Tribal Council, Jalapao was undecided whether to vote out Sandy or Sydney. Ultimately, Taj, J.T. and Stephen did not want to risk Joe and Spencer feeling betrayed by voting Sydney off, so the vote went against Sandy and she was voted out 5-1-1.

Episode 5: "You’re Going to Want that Tooth"

• Reward Challenge: A tribe member would sit on a spinning platform at one end of the playing field. Another tribe member would start at the other end and race across to the platform, grab a rope and pull it back to the starting line. The rope would be wound around the base of the platform, causing the platform to spin as the rope is unwound. When the "puller" returned to the finish line, the sitting tribe member, now dizzy, would have to race across a balance beam to the finish line. The tribes would race against each other in rounds with the first dizzy tribe member across the finish line scoring one point for their tribe. The first tribe to score three points would win.
  • Reward: A trip to a cafe with coffee, fresh water, pastries, cookies, muffins, and a toilet with toilet paper.
• Immunity Challenge: Two tribemates from each tribe would alternate launching balls from a slingshot while the remaining four tribemates have to catch the balls with handheld nets. Catching a ball would score one point for their tribe. The first tribe to reach five points would win.

The day after Tribal Council at Jalapao, Taj and Stephen found the Hidden Immunity Idol in the statue next to tree mail. Taj gave the idol to Stephen as he had shorts with pockets and was able to conceal the idol. While the rest of Timbira was off fetching water from the river, Sierra told Brendan that she decided to join the Exile Island alliance. Jalapao won the Reward Challenge by a score of 3-1 and chose Brendan to go to Exile Island; Brendan chose Stephen to join him. Midway through enjoying their reward, J.T. found envelopes with letters from home. Back at Timbira, Tyson told Coach and Debbie that he was suspicious that Brendan was building relationships with members of Jalapao and that they should vote out Brendan at the next Tribal Council. On Exile Island, Brendan talked to Stephen about cementing the secret four-way Exile Island alliance, but Stephen was privately unsure about tying his fate in the game to the alliance. Spencer decided to keep his homosexuality a secret from his tribe, thinking that there was nothing to gain by coming out and also that it might conflict with J.T.'s Southern values. Despite J.T. losing half of a tooth and almost single-handedly winning the Immunity Challenge for his tribe, Tyson and Brendan helped score a victory for Timbira. Tempers flared at Jalapao over their performance at the Immunity Challenge, with J.T. upset at Spencer's poor defense and Taj venting at Joe. Joe wanted to vote off Taj for this reason but Jalapao eliminated Spencer instead, voting him out 5-1.

Episode 6: "One of Those 'Coach Moments'"

• Reward Challenge: The tribes would have five minutes to build a barricade of poles tied together with ropes inside two frames of the opposing tribe. The tribes would then have to toss small ceramic pigs from tribemate to tribemate through the two frames, avoiding breaking them against the barricade or dropping them. The tribe which tosses the most number of intact pigs through the frames after ten minutes would win.
  • Reward: A trip to a waterfall and a barbecue with hamburgers
• Immunity Challenge: Each tribe would use a slingshot to shoot out a tile in three towers full of sand. After a tile is broken, the sand would be released from the tower which would cause a bag of puzzle pieces to be released and the tile at the next tower to be uncovered. The same tribe member could do all of the shooting with the slingshot or different shooters may be substituted. Once all three bags of puzzle pieces were collected, two tribe members would have to assemble the puzzle to win the challenge.

The day after Tribal Council, Sydney was worried that if Jalapao were to lose the next Immunity Challenge that either her or Taj would be voted off as the men would stick together. Joe tried to assure her that she would make it to the merger as she was trustworthy and the men would vote off Taj first. Taj and Stephen discussed telling J.T. about the Hidden Immunity Idol, but not the secret four-way Exile Island alliance in order to secure his vote at the next Tribal Council. Over at Timbira, Coach clashed with his tribe over him burning a pot of beans. At the Reward Challenge, Timbira won the closely fought challenge. Timbira decided to send Joe to Exile Island and he chose Erinn to join him, thinking that she would be a good candidate to flip her tribal loyalties once the merger occurred. On Exile Island, Erinn select the urn with the clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol and shared the clue with Joe. Joe and Erinn thought that if they could find the two Hidden Immunity Idols, they could have a strong alliance together. To counter Joe figuring out Jalapao's Hidden Immunity Idol had already been found, Taj and Stephen crafted a fake idol and placed it in the statue at tree mail. After using the real idol as a model for the fake one she made, Taj tried to hide it her bag, but J.T. stumbled upon the idol after she walked off. Stephen tried cover for Taj by telling J.T. that Taj had just discovered the idol moments earlier and had shown it to him. A bit later, Taj showed the idol to J.T. and told him that he could have it anytime he needed it. J.T. believed Taj and Stephen to be honest in their story and that he now had a strong alliance with them. At the Immunity Challange, Tyson gave his tribe a large lead by winning the slingshot shoot out over J.T. Brendan and Erinn finished off the puzzle to give Timbira their third Immunity Challenge win in a row. After the challenge, Joe told his tribemates that Erinn kept the clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol to herself. Using an excuse that he wanted some water, he went to find the idol, not knowing that what he found was a fake. Joe told the tribe to vote out Taj. Stephen and J.T. tried to convince Joe to vote out Sydney, but were unable to convince him to change his vote. Stephen and J.T. thought about the possibility of blindsiding Taj at Tribal Council since Stephen had the Hidden Immunity Idol. However, the two kept to their alliance with Taj and Sydney was voted out 3-2.

Voting History

	Original Tribes
Episode #:	1	2	3	4	5	6
Eliminated:	Carolina 7/8 votes	Candace 7/8 votes	Jerry 6/7 votes	Sandy 5/7 votes	Spencer 5/6 votes	Sydney 3/5 votes
Voter	Vote
Brendan		Candace	Jerry
Coach		Candace	Jerry
Debbie		Candace	Jerry
Erinn		Candace	Jerry
Joe	Carolina			Sandy	Spencer	Taj
J.T.	Carolina			Sandy	Spencer	Sydney
Sierra		Candace	Jerry
Stephen	Carolina			Sandy	Spencer	Sydney
Taj	Carolina			Joe	Spencer	Sydney
Tyson		Candace	Jerry
Sydney	Carolina			Sandy	Spencer	Taj
Spencer	Carolina			Sandy	Taj
Sandy	Carolina			Sydney
Jerry		Candace	Erinn
Candace		Sierra
Carolina	Sandy

Ratings

U.S. Nielsen ratings

Episode	Rating	Share	Rating/Share (18-49)	Viewers (millions)	Weekly Rank
"Let's Get Rid of the Weak Players Before We Even Start"	8.0	13	4.5/13	13.632	#12
"The Poison Apple Needs to Go"	7.8	12	4.5/12	13.589	#11
"Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This"	6.9	11	4.0/11	12.053	#11
"The Strongest Man Alive"	7.0	11	3.9/10	11.850	#15
"You’re Going to Want that Tooth"	7.3	12	4.1/12	12.818	#15
"The First Fifteen Days"	5.0	8	2.3/6	8.15
"One of Those 'Coach Moments'"			3.6/11	11.21

External links

• Official CBS Survivor: Tocantins Website