Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X
Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X is the 33rd season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. It featured two initial tribes of ten new castaways divided by generation: Gen X, born between 1963 and 1982, and Millennials, born between 1984 and 1997 (no one born in 1983 was cast this season).[1] It is the third season to divide the castaways into tribes by age, following Survivor: Panama and Survivor: Nicaragua, and the second season to film in Fiji, following Survivor: Fiji, which was filmed in a different location.[1] The season premiered on September 21, 2016 with a 90-minute episode and ended on December 14, 2016 when Adam Klein was unanimously awarded the title of Sole Survivor over Ken McNickle and Hannah Shapiro by a jury vote of 10–0–0.
Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X | |
---|---|
Season 33 | |
Presented by | Jeff Probst |
No. of days | 39 |
No. of castaways | 20 |
Winner | Adam Klein |
Runners-up | Hannah Shapiro Ken McNickle |
Location | Mamanuca Islands, Fiji |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of episodes | 14 |
Release | |
Original network | CBS |
Original release | September 21 – December 14, 2016 |
Additional information | |
Filming dates | April 4 – May 12, 2016 |
Season chronology | |
This season featured the first full cast evacuation, where all contestants were removed on the second day of competition due to Severe Tropical Cyclone Zena; the castaways were returned to their camps the next morning and no additional time was needed to complete the game.[2]
Contestants
The cast is composed of 20 new players, initially split into two tribes containing ten members each: Takali ("Gen X") and Vanua ("Millennials").[3] The tribe names come from the Fijian words for "open ocean" and "homeland", respectively. On Day 13, the remaining castaways were redistributed into three tribes, including new tribe Ikabula, named after the Fijian word for "turtle". On Day 21, the remaining castaways were merged into one tribe, which they named Vinaka after the Fijian word for "thank you". Notable castaways this season include David Wright, a writer on the FOX animated sitcom Family Guy, and Smosh Games YouTuber Mari Takahashi.
Contestant | Age | From | Tribe | Finish | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Original | Switched | Merged | Placement | Day | |||
Rachel Ako | 37 | Los Angeles California |
Takali | 1st voted out | Day 4 | ||
Mari Takahashi | 31 | Los Angeles, California |
Vanua | 2nd voted out | Day 7 | ||
Paul Wachter | 52 | Sugarloaf Key, Florida |
Takali | 3rd voted out | Day 10 | ||
Lucy Huang | 42 | Diamond Bar, California |
4th voted out | Day 12 | |||
CeCe Taylor | 39 | Granada Hills, California |
Vanua | 5th voted out | Day 15 | ||
Figgy Figueroa | 23 | Nashville, Tennessee |
Vanua | Takali | 6th voted out | Day 18 | |
Michaela Bradshaw | 25 | Fort Worth, Texas |
Ikabula | 7th voted out | Day 20 | ||
Michelle Schubert | 28 | Yakima, Washington |
Vanua | Vinaka | 8th voted out 1st jury member |
Day 23 | |
Taylor Lee Stocker | 24 | Post Falls, Idaho |
Takali | 9th voted out 2nd jury member |
Day 25 | ||
Chris Hammons | 38 | Moore, Oklahoma |
Takali | Vanua | 10th voted out 3rd jury member |
Day 28 | |
Jessica Lewis | 37 | Voorheesville, New York |
Takali | Eliminated[lower-alpha 1] 4th jury member |
Day 30 | ||
Zeke Smith | 28 | Brooklyn, New York |
Vanua | Vanua | 11th voted out 5th jury member |
Day 33 | |
Will Wahl | 18 | Long Valley, New Jersey |
Ikabula | 12th voted out 6th jury member |
Day 34 | ||
Sunday Burquest | 45 | Otsego, Minnesota |
Takali | 13th voted out 7th jury member |
Day 35 | ||
Jay Starrett | 27 | Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
Vanua | 14th voted out 8th jury member |
Day 36 | ||
Bret LaBelle | 42 | Dedham, Massachusetts |
Takali | 15th voted out 9th jury member |
Day 37 | ||
David Wright | 42 | Sherman Oaks, California |
Vanua | 16th voted out 10th jury member |
Day 38 | ||
Hannah Shapiro | 24 | West Hollywood, California |
Vanua | Ikabula | Co-runners-up | Day 39 | |
Ken McNickle | 33 | Denver, Colorado |
Takali | Takali | |||
Adam Klein | 25 | San Francisco, California |
Vanua | Sole Survivor |
- Due to a deadlocked tie after two rounds of voting and the non-tied contestants being unable to come up with a unanimous decision to vote out either Hannah or Zeke, the non-tied and non-immune contestants — Adam, Bret, David, Jessica, Sunday and Will — drew rocks to resolve the vote; Jessica picked the black rock and was therefore eliminated.
Future appearances
Michaela Bradshaw and Zeke Smith returned the following season for Survivor: Game Changers. David Wright returned for Survivor: Edge of Extinction.[4] Adam Klein returned to compete on Survivor: Winners at War.[5]
Outside of Survivor, Bret LaBelle and Chris Hammons competed as a team in The Amazing Race 31.[6] Michelle Schubert competed on the eleventh season of American Ninja Warrior.[7] Jay Starrett appeared on the second season of the MTV reality series Ex on the Beach,[8] the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-eighth seasons of the MTV reality competition series The Challenge.[9][10] Bradshaw competed on the thirty-seventh season of The Challenge,[11] and the second season of The Challenge: USA.[12]
Season summary
The 20 new castaways were initially divided into tribes based on generation. The Gen X tribe was fractured between two alliances—one led by Paul and Chris, and the other by David and Ken—while the Millennial tribe's majority was run by Jay and Michelle. With 16 players remaining, the castaways were divided into three tribes, during which Millennial outsiders Adam and Zeke worked with the Gen X-ers against the majority Millennial alliance.
The four initial alliances regrouped at the merge: the core Millennial alliance; the Millennial outsider alliance of Adam, Hannah and Zeke; Chris's alliance; and David and Ken's alliance. While the latter three alliances initially formed a majority coalition, it eventually splintered as David and Zeke targeted each other. Zeke rallied together the remnants of Chris's alliance and the core Millennial alliance, while Adam and Hannah joined David's alliance; David's alliance ultimately won out, and Adam, David, Hannah and Ken were able to eliminate all others, though Adam's attempts to betray David for being the largest strategic threat remaining were thwarted by Hannah and Ken's unwavering loyalty.
With only the four remaining, Hannah and Ken decided to join Adam to eliminate David. At the final Tribal Council, the jury lambasted Ken and Hannah for following David too long, while Adam was applauded for being loyal but also willing to eliminate threats, which led the jury to unanimously vote Adam as Sole Survivor.
Episode | Challenge winner(s) | Eliminated | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | Title | Original air date | Reward | Immunity | Tribe | Player |
1 | "May the Best Generation Win" | September 21, 2016 | Vanua | Takali | Rachel | |
2 | "Love Goggles" | September 28, 2016 | Takali | Vanua | Mari | |
3 | "Your Job is Recon" | October 5, 2016 | Vanua | Takali | Paul | |
4 | "Who's the Sucker at the Table?" | October 12, 2016 | Takali | Vanua | Takali | Lucy |
5 | "Idol Search Party" | October 19, 2016 | None[lower-alpha 1] | Ikabula | Vanua | CeCe |
Takali | ||||||
6 | "The Truth Works Well" | October 26, 2016 | Vanua | Ikabula | Takali | Figgy |
Ikabula | Vanua | |||||
7 | "I Will Destroy You" | November 2, 2016 | Vanua | Takali | Ikabula | Michaela |
Ikabula | Vanua | |||||
8 | "I'm the Kingpin" | November 9, 2016 | None[lower-alpha 2] | Will | Vinaka | Michelle |
9 | "Still Throwin' Punches" | November 16, 2016 | Bret, Chris, David, Ken, Sunday, Taylor |
Ken | Taylor | |
10 | "Million Dollar Gamble" | November 23, 2016 | Adam, Bret, Hannah, Sunday, Zeke |
David | Chris | |
Bret, Sunday, Zeke, [David][lower-alpha 3] |
Jay | Jessica | ||||
11 | "About to Have a Rumble" | November 30, 2016 | Jay [Adam, Sunday, Will] |
Adam | Zeke | |
12 | "Slayed the Survivor Dragon" | December 7, 2016 | None | Jay | Will | |
Ken | Sunday | |||||
13 | "I'm Going for a Million Bucks" | December 14, 2016 | (Jay)[lower-alpha 4] [Adam, David] |
David | Jay | |
None | Ken | Bret | ||||
Ken | David | |||||
14 | "Reunion" |
- There was no reward challenge due to the tribe switch.
- There was no reward challenge due to the merge.
- David did not participate in the challenge and automatically joined the winning team on the reward as a result of picking the odd rock.
- Jay stole the reward from David. Jay was able to choose the reward participants, although David retained immunity; Jay picked David and Adam to join him on the reward.
Episodes
No. overall | No. in season | Title | CBS recap | Rating/share (18-49) | Original air date | U.S. viewers (millions) | Weekly rank | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
486 | 1 | "May the Best Generation Win" | Recap | 2.3/8[13] | September 21, 2016 | 9.46[13] | 14[14] | |
The 20 new players were divided into two tribes of 10 based on age: those 33 and older formed the Gen X tribe, while those 31 and younger formed the Millennials tribe. Immediately, the tribes were given a few minutes to grab supplies scattered in the jungle. During the scramble, Jessica from the Gen X tribe found an envelope. At camp, she learned that she had found a "legacy advantage," which would give her an unspecified advantage in the game on Day 36; if she were voted out before then, she would privately will it to someone else following her elimination. Both tribes had difficulties setting up their camps due to a severe storm, even after being given tarps for assistance and shelter. After the storm was upgraded to a cyclone, both tribes were evacuated to a safe location for the night, and returned to their camps the following morning. At the Millennials camp, Zeke led the tribe in building the shelter and making fire. Taylor flirted with Figgy and bonded with Jay; the three aligned, and later added Michelle to their alliance. However, Hannah and Mari were wary of Taylor's alliance and Mari began rallying her other tribemates against them. At the Gen X camp, Rachel's bossiness annoyed her tribemates while David struggled with camp setup; his paranoia led to him searching for a hidden immunity idol, which caused his tribe to distrust him.
The Gen X tribe took both shortcuts while the Millennials took one; while the Gen X tribe completed the obstacle course first, they lost their lead after David and Rachel struggled on the puzzle, and the Millennials won immunity. Back at camp, an alliance of Bret, Chris, Jessica, Lucy, Paul, and Sunday formed, and—following an impassioned plea of loyalty from David—they decided to target Rachel. At Tribal Council, David, Ken and the majority alliance of six split their votes between Rachel and her only ally, CeCe, in case of a hidden immunity idol; no idols were played, and Rachel became the first castaway voted out. | ||||||||
487 | 2 | "Love Goggles" | Recap | 2.1/8[15] | September 28, 2016 | 9.16[15] | 16[16] | |
At the Gen X camp, David managed to make fire, but both Chris and Paul targeted him for elimination; however, David was able to find the tribe's hidden immunity idol. David later showed Ken the idol, and the two aligned with CeCe against Paul. Paul fell ill from heat exhaustion but, following a visit from the medical team, was cleared to remain in the game. At the Millennials camp, Taylor and Figgy's mutual attraction continued, but Michaela overheard the two kissing and outed them the next morning; this alarmed Jay, Figgy and Taylor's closest ally. Michaela and Figgy proceeded to argue.
The Gen X tribe won immunity. Back at camp, Zeke worked to break up Figgy and Taylor, telling his other tribemates to vote out Figgy. Jay alerted Michelle, and they decided to target Mari for her intelligence: Michelle recruited Will, and Figgy and Michaela made amends. During Tribal Council, Jay and Michelle quietly tried convincing Hannah to change her vote to Mari; after much noticeable hesitation, Hannah joined the new majority and cast her vote against Mari, who became the second person voted out, leaving Adam and Zeke in shock. | ||||||||
488 | 3 | "Your Job is Recon" | Recap | 1.9/7[17] | October 5, 2016 | 8.60[17] | 15[18] | |
After switching her vote to eliminate Mari, Hannah apologized to Adam and Zeke and expressed a desire to still work with them, but they were frustrated with her for refusing to leave them alone after betraying them. The next day, both tribes were instructed to send four representatives, chosen by random draw, to a summit: Figgy, Jay, Taylor and Will went for the Millennials, while CeCe, Chris, David and Paul went for the Gen X tribe. After the eight feasted, CeCe and David privately chatted with Figgy and Taylor, telling them that Paul was their tribe's leader; David later pledged loyalty to Taylor if they ever ended up on a tribe together, and vowed to turn against his Gen X tribemates. After returning to camp, Figgy and her allies decided to target Zeke while Adam tried convincing Michaela to rejoin her initial alliance and split up Figgy and Taylor, which she considered. At the Gen X camp, the minority alliance of CeCe, David, and Ken continued to campaign against Paul.
After CeCe struggled on the balance beam, the Millennials gained a lead that they were able to maintain to win the challenge. Back at camp, the majority alliance targeted CeCe; however, after Paul made an offhand comment to Jessica about how he would align with men over women, the women in his alliance—Jessica, Lucy, and Sunday—considered voting him out. At Tribal Council, they joined the minority alliance to eliminate Paul from the game. | ||||||||
489 | 4 | "Who's the Sucker at the Table?" | Recap | 2.0/8[19] | October 12, 2016 | 9.06[19] | 18[20] | |
The morning after Tribal Council, Lucy told Chris and Bret that betraying Paul was Jessica's idea, and Chris, Bret, Lucy and Sunday targeted Jessica for being untrustworthy. While his Millennials tribemates hunted for food, Adam looked for the hidden immunity idol and found a clue to its location.
The Gen X tribe won the challenge in the fifth round. At the Millennials camp, Adam found the hidden immunity idol. At the Gen X camp, Lucy told David and Ken that Jessica was the next target, but demanded that they not talk to anyone else about the plan; Ken did not appreciate Lucy's bossiness and considered making a move against her.
After 45 minutes on the puzzle, the Millennials won the challenge. Back at the Gen X camp, CeCe, David, and Ken tried to rally support against Lucy, but Ken was unable to convince Jessica that Lucy was targeting her. Jessica discussed Ken's claims with Lucy and was further dissuaded after Lucy told her to vote against CeCe. Ken and Lucy later argued: Ken about Lucy's attitude and Lucy about Ken's attempts to vote her out. David considered playing his idol on Jessica to secure her as an ally, which would put his alliance with CeCe and Ken in the majority. After an argumentative Tribal Council, Ken joined Bret, Chris, Lucy and Sunday in voting against Jessica while Jessica voted against CeCe. However, David played his hidden immunity idol on Jessica, nullifying the five votes against her and sending Lucy out of the game with David and CeCe's votes. | ||||||||
490 | 5 | "Idol Search Party" | Recap | 1.9/7[21] | October 19, 2016 | 8.59[21] | 17[22] | |
After David played his hidden immunity idol to save Jessica, she vowed to be loyal to David and Ken and told Ken about her legacy advantage. The next morning, the Gen X tribe looked for the rehidden immunity idol, which David found. Later that day, the castaways were redistributed into three tribes: CeCe, Chris, David, Michelle and Zeke formed the Vanua tribe, at the Millennials camp; Adam, Figgy, Jessica, Ken and Taylor formed the Takali tribe, at the Gen X camp; and Bret, Hannah, Jay, Michaela, Sunday and Will formed the Ikabula tribe, receiving an extra member due to having to build a camp from scratch. At Takali, Figgy implored Taylor to hide their romance from their new tribemates, while Adam and Ken bonded. At Vanua, Chris and Zeke bonded over their mutual home state of Oklahoma, and Chris's experience playing on the 2000 Oklahoma Sooners football team. At Ikabula, Gen X-ers Bret and Sunday struggled to integrate with the Millennial majority, and Michaela made fire for the tribe.
After CeCe and David struggled to secure their buoys, Vanua lost the challenge. Back at camp, the Gen X majority of CeCe, Chris and David chose to target Michelle over Zeke, but Chris decided to join the Millennials to target CeCe instead for her poor challenge performances. Chris told David about the plan in an attempt to engender trust, which David agreed to. However, after a paranoid Michelle tried to convince CeCe to target David, David realized that he would be the weakest member of the tribe once CeCe was gone and considered using his new idol to save CeCe, but at Tribal Council, David kept with Chris' plan and CeCe was voted out. | ||||||||
491 | 6 | "The Truth Works Well" | Recap | 1.9/7[23] | October 26, 2016 | 8.30[23] | 23[24] | |
At Ikabula, Jay and Will found the hidden immunity idol, but were caught by Michaela. As the tribes assembled for the reward challenge, Figgy expressed joy upon discovering that her ally Michelle had not been voted out.
Vanua placed first while Ikabula placed second. Back at Vanua, Zeke considered targeting Michelle due to Figgy's comments before the challenge. At Takali, Figgy and Taylor decided to tell Jessica and Ken about their relationship.
Michaela's leadership led Ikabula to victory; she then coached Zeke and Michelle, which allowed them to win the challenge for Vanua. Back at Takali, Adam found himself caught between staying loyal to the Millennials by voting with Figgy and Taylor against Ken, or breaking up the relationship by voting with Jessica and Ken against Figgy. Ultimately, at Tribal Council, Adam cast the deciding vote against Figgy, sending her out of the game. | ||||||||
492 | 7 | "I Will Destroy You" | Recap | 1.6/5[25] | November 2, 2016 | 6.93[25] | 22[26] | |
After Tribal Council, Adam talked to Taylor about betraying him and eliminating Figgy, but Taylor still plotted revenge. At Vanua, David told Zeke that he trusts him more than Chris and showed him his hidden immunity idol in order to secure his loyalty.
Vanua placed first and Ikabula placed second. At Takali, Jessica and Ken considered betraying Adam for the less-strategic Taylor. At Ikabula, Bret continued to lie about his occupation—claiming he was a funeral director instead of a police officer—but Hannah and Jay were suspicious, correctly deducing that he was a cop.
Takali and Vanua won the challenge, sending Ikabula to their first Tribal Council. Michaela rallied the Millennials together to split the votes between Bret and Sunday, with Bret leaving on the revote. However, Michaela's long-term plans alarmed Jay and Will, who worried about her impressive strategic mind and challenge performances, and considered voting her out to eliminate a major threat to win. At Tribal Council, Jay and Will teamed up with Bret and Sunday to blindside Michaela from the game. | ||||||||
493 | 8 | "I'm the Kingpin" | Recap | 1.9/7[27] | November 9, 2016 | 8.81[27] | 14[28] | |
After being left out of the plan to eliminate Michaela, Hannah felt on the outs of the Ikabula tribe. The next morning, the three tribes merged into one, Vinaka, and enjoyed a celebratory feast. Jay, Michelle and Taylor reformed the core Millennial alliance along with Will, Jay's closest ally from Ikabula; David reunited with Ken and Jessica, as did Chris with Bret and Sunday, while Millennial outsiders Adam, Hannah and Zeke teamed up. While the tribe feasted, Adam found an advantage: the ability to steal a reward from another player following a reward challenge. Later that night, Taylor stashed food from the feast, but was overheard by several others; as Taylor snacked, Adam came over in an attempt to align, telling Taylor about his advantage and targeting Will, telling Taylor that Will was Jay's new closest ally. However, out of revenge for Adam voting out Figgy, Taylor told Jay about Adam's plan. Jay then told Will, and the two decided to target Adam; however, they were overheard by Zeke.
After an hour-and-a-half, Will outlasted Jessica to win immunity, foiling Adam's plan. Chris, David and Zeke—allies from the Vanua tribe—brought their factions together against the core Millennial alliance; while Zeke wanted to target Taylor, David and Chris suggested voting against Michelle as the least-likely to have a hidden immunity idol. Shortly before Tribal Council, a paranoid Adam again talked to Taylor about aligning, which alarmed Adam's allies. However, at Tribal Council, the Millennial outsider-Gen X coalition kept to their plan, and Michelle became the first member of the jury. | ||||||||
494 | 9 | "Still Throwin' Punches" | Recap | 1.8/6[29] | November 16, 2016 | 8.49[29] | 17[30] | |
After Tribal Council, the minority alliance of Jay, Taylor and Will tried to recruit more allies; despite being in opposing alliances, Adam and Taylor promised to protect each others' secrets—Adam about Taylor's food stash and Taylor about Adam's reward-stealing advantage—and Jay reconciled with Hannah.
Bret, Chris, David, Ken, Sunday and Taylor won the challenge. On the trip, Sunday reflected on her lack of trust in David, Jessica and Ken. At camp, Jay tried talking to Adam, but Adam taunted Jay about Jay being in the minority alliance; after Jay told Adam's allies about his comments, they considered betraying him. The next day, Sunday and Bret discussed targeting Jessica; Sunday recruited Jay, who promised support from his alliance members Taylor and Will.
Ken defeated Taylor to win immunity. Back at camp, the majority alliance decided to split their votes between Jay and Taylor in case of a hidden immunity idol. Sunday realized that her plan to target Jessica was infeasible at that point, and warned Jay. Taylor then told Jay about his stolen food stash and Adam's advantage. Jay encouraged Taylor to tell their tribemates about Adam's advantage in order to spark distrust. At Tribal Council, Taylor falsely claimed that Adam had eaten the food with him, and also revealed Adam's advantage, which Adam confirmed. Ultimately, the majority alliance stayed loyal while the minority alliance turned on each other out of fear; Jay chose not to play his idol and Taylor was voted out. | ||||||||
495 | 10 | "Million Dollar Gamble" | Recap, part 1 Recap, part 2 | 1.5/5[31] | November 23, 2016 | 7.74[31] | 16[32] | |
After Taylor's elimination, Jay returned Taylor's hidden food stash to the tribe, while Will tried building trust with Zeke by telling him about Jay's idol, which Zeke then told his alliance about. Chris, Bret and Sunday decided to turn against David, Jessica and Ken, and targeted Jessica.
Adam, Bret, Hannah, Sunday and Zeke won the challenge. On the reward trip, Bret and Zeke bonded; at camp, David rallied Ken and Jessica against Chris.
David defeated Zeke to win immunity. Back at camp, both alliances tried courting Hannah and Zeke, though neither told Jay about their plans in order to goad him into playing his hidden immunity idol. At Tribal Council, Jay chose not to play his idol; he voted against Jessica, but the other Millennials sided with David's alliance to send Chris to the jury. After Tribal Council, Bret—having lost his closest ally in Chris—tried aligning with Zeke, who suggested they eliminate David for being a strategic threat. The next morning, David tried aligning with Bret against Zeke, but Bret told Zeke about David's plan and Zeke told Bret about David's idol; Zeke then tried recruiting Adam and Hannah but both were hesitant.
Before the challenge, the castaways drew rocks to determine teams; the castaway who drew the white rock earned exemption from the challenge and automatically went on the reward trip with the winners. David drew the white rock, and Bret, Sunday and Zeke won the challenge. On the reward trip, Bret came out to Zeke, and the two and Sunday affirmed their alliance against David. Hannah later told David about Zeke's plan, and the two decided to target Zeke.
Jay won the challenge before anyone else was able to unlock their gate. Back at camp, Jessica and Ken confirmed their allegiance with David, while Zeke talked to Hannah about his plan; after she was visibly reluctant to work against David, Zeke decided to target her instead. He recruited Jay and Will to join him, Bret and Sunday, while Hannah tried recruiting Adam to join her, David, Jessica and Ken, and force a tie. At Tribal Council, David and Zeke's alliances openly quarrelled and whispered amongst themselves about their respective plans. Before the votes were read, David stood up to play his hidden immunity idol, but decided to play it for Ken after Adam claimed that he overheard Zeke's alliance planning to vote for him. Adam joined David's alliance in voting against Zeke, but Zeke's alliance voted against Hannah, and the vote was tied. During the revote, Zeke openly asked Jessica to switch sides to avoid a deadlocked tie, but everyone stayed loyal and the votes were tied again. Per the rules, the non-tied castaways were given a few minutes to come to a unanimous decision as to whom to eliminate between Hannah and Zeke, but they were unable to do so. As a result, the non-tied and non-immune castaways drew rocks; the castaway who drew the black rock was eliminated. Jessica drew the black rock and was sent to the jury; after her elimination, she privately chose to give her legacy advantage to Ken. | ||||||||
496 | 11 | "About to Have a Rumble" | Recap | 1.9/7[33] | November 30, 2016 | 8.86[33] | 16[34] | |
After a heated Tribal Council, Zeke's now-majority alliance with Bret, Jay, Sunday and Will solidified a deal to pick off David's alliance one by one. The next morning, Ken found the legacy advantage that Jessica had left for him. Before the reward challenge, the castaways were joined by their loved ones: Sunday's husband, Jeff; Bret's father, Don; Jay's sister, Melanie; Hannah's mother, Liz; Adam's brother, Evan; David's father, Doug; Ken's brother, William; Zeke's father, Sam; and Will's mother, Irene. Adam told his tribemates that he would not use his reward stealing advantage to deprive the challenge winner of time with their loved one.
Jay won the challenge and chose to share his reward with Will, Sunday, Adam and their loved ones. Adam's brother shared information about their mother's battle with cancer. To show his gratitude to Jay for sharing the reward with him, Adam gave Jay the reward stealer. The next day, Will told David that he was willing to change allegiances and eliminate Zeke for being a strategic threat.
Adam defeated Jay to win the challenge. Back at camp, David's alliance, with the addition of Will, targeted Zeke. Zeke, suspicious of David's calm demeanor, decided to target Ken out of fear that David had found another hidden immunity idol. Will told Ken that Zeke's alliance was voting against him, and a paranoid Ken outed Will's duplicity, putting both alliance's plans in disarray. At Tribal Council, both alliances openly vied for Will's vote. Zeke's alliance voted against Hannah, but Will decided to betray them; Adam played his hidden immunity idol on Hannah, negating the four votes against her, while Zeke was sent to the jury. | ||||||||
497 | 12 | "Slayed the Survivor Dragon" | Recap | 1.7/6[35] | December 7, 2016 | 8.50[35] | 16[36] | |
After Zeke's elimination, Will was determined to keep changing allegiances to eliminate threats and prove he deserved to win the game. The next morning, Bret and Sunday approached Adam about aligning to eliminate David, Jay and Will.
Jay won the challenge. Back at camp, Jay and Will tried rallying people against David, but Adam targeted Will for his strategic unpredictability; at Tribal Council, Bret and Sunday joined Adam, David, Hannah and Ken to eliminate Will from the game. With the last of his allies gone, Jay tried aligning with Adam; they discussed targeting David, but Adam was still hoping to eliminate Jay.
Ken won the challenge after Adam gave him advice on the puzzle to prevent David and Jay from winning. Jay targeted David while David's alliance decided to target Sunday to hinder her alliance members from bringing her to the end of the game as a perceived easy opponent in the jury vote. However, Adam plotted to split the votes between David and Jay to eliminate both Jay's idol and a major threat to win; he told Jay to play his idol, and confided in him about his mother's cancer battle. Before Tribal Council, Hannah tried to convince Adam to vote against Sunday in order to keep their alliance strong. At Tribal Council, Jay played his hidden immunity idol but only received one vote, while Adam and Hannah stayed loyal to David and Ken and sent Sunday to the jury. | ||||||||
498 | 13 | "I'm Going for a Million Bucks" | Recap | 1.9/7[37] | December 14, 2016 | 9.09[37] | 13[38] | |
In the middle of the night, David crafted a fake hidden immunity idol, and hid it in a marked coconut; the next morning, Jay spotted and retrieved it, believing it to be real. Ken discovered that the legacy advantage was immunity for that night's Tribal Council, to be played after the votes were cast but before they were read.
David won the challenge, but Jay used the reward stealer to choose the reward participants; he picked David for winning the challenge and Adam for giving him the reward stealer. During the meal, Jay campaigned against Bret for his connections on the jury, and David considered keeping Jay in the game to deflect attention from himself as a threat to win. At Tribal Council, Jay played the fake idol while Ken played the legacy advantage on himself. Jeff tossed the fake idol into the fire pit after declaring that it was not a hidden immunity idol, though he called it "a work of art but has no value in this game". Jay's vote against Ken was negated, while everyone else came together to send Jay out of the game.
Ken won the challenge. Adam and Bret decided to target David; Adam then searched for a hidden immunity idol, which he found. David, Hannah and Ken affirmed their final three deal and decided to target Adam for being a larger threat than Bret to win the final challenge. Adam then told Hannah about his new idol and plan to eliminate David, but Hannah told David and Ken. At Tribal Council, Adam played the idol on himself, but Hannah, David and Ken voted against Bret to send him to the jury. Back at camp, a frustrated Adam told Hannah that, if David made it to the final tribal council, he would win the game; though she had repeatedly spared David, she agreed with Adam and promised to vote against David the next night.
After 30 minutes, Hannah and Ken were tied with 10 bowls each; they then competed in a five-minute runoff, which Ken won. With David vulnerable at that night's vote, Adam and Hannah tried convincing Ken—David's closest ally since the start of the game—to betray David. Though Ken was hesitant, he ultimately joined Adam and Hannah in voting David out at Tribal Council, making David the final member of the jury. The next night, the ten jurors questioned Adam, Hannah and Ken about why they deserved to win. All three were lambasted—Ken for not turning on David until it was too late; Adam for being on the wrong side of several votes; and Hannah for foiling earlier plans to eliminate David despite his status as a threat to win—while Adam was praised for making decisive strategic decisions, though both Hannah and Ken defended their roles in making those decisions. In his final answer of the night, Adam emotionally revealed his mom's cancer diagnosis and how it motivated him to play. | ||||||||
499 | 14 | "Reunion" | N/A | 1.3/5[37] | December 14, 2016 | 6.40[37] | 13[38] | |
Months later, it was revealed that the jury unanimously voted to award Adam the title of Sole Survivor over Hannah and Ken. During the reunion, Adam revealed that his mother died an hour after he returned home from the game, and pledged to donate $100,000 of his winnings to cancer research. Several contestants spoke of their personal transformations during the game. |
Voting history
Original tribes | Switched tribes | Merged tribe | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Episode | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | ||||||||
Day | 4 | 7 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 20 | 23 | 25 | 28 | 30 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | ||||
Tribe | Takali | Vanua | Takali | Takali | Vanua | Takali | Ikabula | Vinaka | Vinaka | Vinaka | Vinaka | Vinaka | Vinaka | Vinaka | Vinaka | Vinaka | Vinaka | ||||
Eliminated | Rachel | Mari | Paul | Lucy | CeCe | Figgy | Michaela | Michelle | Taylor | Chris | Tie[lower-alpha 1] | Tie[lower-alpha 2] | Jessica | Zeke | Will | Sunday | Jay | Bret | David | ||
Votes | 5–3–1–1 | 7–3 | 6–3 | 2–1–0[lower-alpha 3] | 4–1 | 3–2 | 4–2 | 9–4 | 7–4–1 | 7–4 | 5–5 | 4–4 | Rock Draw[lower-alpha 4] | 5–0[lower-alpha 5] | 6–2 | 4–2–0[lower-alpha 6] | 5–0[lower-alpha 7] | 3–2 | 3–1 | ||
Voter | Vote | ||||||||||||||||||||
Adam | Figgy | Figgy | Michelle | Taylor | Chris | Zeke | Zeke | White rock | Zeke | Will | Sunday | Jay | David | David | |||||||
Ken | Rachel | Paul | Figgy | Michelle | Taylor | Chris | Zeke | Zeke | Immune[lower-alpha 8] | Zeke | Will | Sunday | Jay | Bret | David | ||||||
Hannah | Mari | Bret | Michelle | Jay | Chris | Zeke | None[lower-alpha 9] | Immune | Zeke | Will | Sunday | Jay | Bret | David | |||||||
David | Rachel | Paul | Lucy | CeCe | Michelle | Taylor | Chris | Zeke | Zeke | White rock | Zeke | Will | Sunday | Jay | Bret | Adam | |||||
Bret | Rachel | CeCe | Michaela | Michelle | Jay | Jessica | Hannah | Hannah | White rock | Will | David | Jay | David | ||||||||
Jay | Mari | Michaela | Adam | Taylor | Jessica | Hannah | Hannah | Immune | David | David | |||||||||||
Sunday | CeCe | Paul | Michaela | Michelle | Taylor | Jessica | Hannah | Hannah | White rock | Will | |||||||||||
Will | Mari | Michaela | Adam | Jay | Chris | Hannah | Hannah | White rock | Zeke | David | |||||||||||
Zeke | Figgy | CeCe | Michelle | Taylor | Chris | Hannah | None[lower-alpha 9] | Immune | |||||||||||||
Jessica | CeCe | Paul | CeCe | Figgy | Michelle | Jay | Chris | Zeke | Zeke | Black rock | |||||||||||
Chris | Rachel | CeCe | CeCe | Michelle | Taylor | Jessica | |||||||||||||||
Taylor | Mari | Ken | Adam | Adam | |||||||||||||||||
Michelle | Mari | CeCe | Adam | ||||||||||||||||||
Michaela | Mari | Bret | |||||||||||||||||||
Figgy | Mari | Ken | |||||||||||||||||||
CeCe | David | Paul | Lucy | Michelle | |||||||||||||||||
Lucy | CeCe | Paul | |||||||||||||||||||
Paul | Rachel | CeCe | |||||||||||||||||||
Mari | Figgy | ||||||||||||||||||||
Rachel | Sunday |
Jury vote | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Episode | 14 | |||
Day | 39 | |||
Finalist | Adam | Ken | Hannah | |
Votes | 10–0–0 | |||
Juror | Vote | |||
David | ||||
Bret | ||||
Jay | ||||
Sunday | ||||
Will | ||||
Zeke | ||||
Jessica | ||||
Chris | ||||
Taylor | ||||
Michelle |
- Notes
- The first Tribal Council Vote resulted in a tie. Per the rules, a second vote was held where the castaways involved in the tie would not vote and the remaining castaways could only vote for those who tied.
- After two rounds of voting, Tribal Council remained tied. Per the rules, the non-tied castaways must come to a Consensus as to whom to eliminate between the tied castaways, or else one of the non-immune deliberating castaways would be eliminated by random draw.
- David played a hidden immunity idol on Jessica, therefore five votes against her were not counted.
- Due to a deadlocked tie after two rounds of voting and the non-tied contestants being unable to come up with a unanimous decision to vote out either Hannah or Zeke, the non-tied and non-immune contestants—Adam, Bret, David, Jessica, Sunday and Will—drew rocks to resolve the vote; Jessica picked the black rock and was therefore eliminated.
- Adam played a hidden immunity idol on Hannah, therefore four votes against her were not counted.
- Jay played a hidden immunity idol, therefore one vote against him was not counted.
- Ken played the legacy advantage, therefore one vote against him was not counted.
- David played a hidden immunity idol on Ken, therefore Ken was immune during the rock draw.
- Hannah and Zeke were not eligible to vote in the second round of voting.
Reception
This season received mainly positive reception by critics and fans alike, for the cast and their high level of gameplay, though the editing of the season received some criticism. Editor of Entertainment Weekly, Dalton Ross, ranked it as the 11th-best season of the series, praised the season as a whole stating that the finale was "yet another great piece of theater in what turned out to be a great season of Survivor. A season that remains great due to the crowning of a solid winner in Adam." He felt that "the season went from not bad to pretty good to legitimately great over the course of a few months," which he attributes to David's fake idol, calling it "the best fake immunity idol of all time" and "[how hard] the entire cast was playing." He praised the cast in particular and felt it was "an incredible season in general."[39][40] Daniel Fienerg of The Hollywood Reporter initially had mixed feeling towards the season, calling it a "dud," but became much more positive towards the season later, stating that the season "had one of the strongest home stretches of any Survivor season in recent memory, if not any Survivor season ever."[41] In 2020, "The Purple Rock Podcast" ranked Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X as the 13th-best season in the series, stating that the season has "several enjoyable narrative arcs, some nice interactions between the players, and some of those delicious tears that Probst loves so much."[42] Later in the year, Inside Survivor ranked the season 21st out of 40 writing that "'Millennials vs. Gen-X' is such a zeitgeisty gimmick that screams ‘desperate ploy for ratings.’ However, ludicrous theme aside, the season itself is highly enjoyable with an array of memorable characters, exciting gameplay, and one of the most emotional endings in the show's history."[43] In 2021, Rob Has a Podcast ranked Millennials vs. Gen X 12th during the Survivor All-Time Top 40 Rankings podcast.[44]
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