Australian Survivor: Champions v Contenders (2019)

Australian Survivor: Champions v Contenders (2019)
Season Information
Version	Australia
Season No.	4
Filming Location	Savusavu, Fiji
Filming Dates	May 4, 2019 - June 22, 2019
Season Run	July 24, 2019 - September 17, 2019
No. of Episodes	24
No. of Days	50
No. of Castaways	24
Winner	Pia Miranda
Runner(s)-Up	Baden Gilbert
Tribes	Champions Contenders Soli Bula
Prize for Winner	AU$500,000
Viewership (in Millions)	0.84
Cast
Season Chronology
Previous	Champions v Contenders (2018)
Next	All Stars

Australian Survivor: Champions v Contenders (2019) is the fourth season of the Network Ten incarnation of the competitive reality TV show Australian Survivor.

After 50 days, Pia Miranda defeated Baden Gilbert in a 9-0 jury vote to become the Sole Survivor. To date, Champions v Contenders (2019) has produced seven returning players (Abbey Holmes, Andy Meldrum, Daisy Richardson, David Genat, Harry Hills, John Eastoe, and Shaun Hampson) for future seasons.

Production

To date, Champions v Contenders (2019) has the highest viewership of any season of the Network Ten incarnation of Australian Survivor, with an average of 840,000 viewers per episode.

Twists/Changes

• Champions v Contenders: The contestants are divided into two tribes based on their occupations and degree of success in life:
  • The Champions tribe is made up of public figures from fields such as (but not limited to) sports and entertainment.
  • The Contenders​​​ tribe is made up of everyday Australian contestants.
• Returning Player: Former Australian Survivor contestant Luke Toki competes as a member of the Champions tribe.
• Hidden Immunity Idol: A Hidden Immunity Idol for each tribe is hidden at the tribes' campsite.
• Tribe Switch: On Day 15, a tribe switch occurred.
• Kidnapping: On Day 20, the winner of the Immunity Challenge would get the opportunity to vote to kidnap one member of the losing tribe.
• Exile Beach: On Day 38 and 40 the person voted out will not be sent home but will be sent to Exile Beach to face each other to earn their spot back into the game.

Castaways

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation				Finish	Votes Against
		Original Tribe	Switched Tribe	Post-Kidnap Tribe	Merged Tribe
	Anastasia Woolmer 42, Brisbane, QLD Memory Champion	Champions				1st Voted Out Day 2	9
	Laura Choong 31, Sydney, NSW Digital Marketing Manager	Contenders				2nd Voted Out Day 5	8
	Susie Maroney 44, Cronulla, NSW Marathon Swimmer	Champions				3rd Voted Out Day 7	6
	Nova Peris 48, Darwin, NT Former Politician/Olympian	Champions				4th Voted Out Day 10	6
	Steven Bradbury 45, Camden, NSW Olympic Gold Medalist	Champions				5th Voted Out Day 12	10
	ET Ettingshausen 53, Sutherland, NSW NRL Legend	Champions				6th Voted Out Day 14	5
	Sam Schoers 30, Perth, WA VIP Gaming Manager	Contenders	Champions			7th Voted Out Day 16	5
	Sarah Ayles 45, Adelaide, SA Cleaner	Contenders	Champions			8th Voted Out Day 18	6
	Hannah Pentreath 27, Bendigo, VIC Police Officer	Contenders	Champions	Champions		9th Voted Out Day 22	6
	Casey Hawkins 31, Adelaide, SA Educator	Contenders	Contenders	Contenders		10th Voted Out Day 24	4
	Matt Farrelly 29, Sydney, NSW Highschool Teacher/Pro Wrestler	Contenders	Contenders	Contenders		11th Voted Out Day 26	6
	Ross Clarke-Jones 53, Bells Beach, VIC Big Wave Surfer	Champions	Contenders	Contenders		Evacuated Day 28	0
	Andy Meldrum 47, Noosa, QLD Marketing Executive	Contenders	Champions	Champions	Soli Bula	12th Voted Out Day 30	13
	Shaun Hampson 31, Moonee Ponds, VIC Retired AFL Player	Contenders	Contenders	Champions		13th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 32	11
	David Genat 39, New York City, NY International Model	Champions	Champions	Champions		14th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 34	13
	John Eastoe 28, Kalgoorlie, WA Gold Miner	Contenders	Champions	Champions		15th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 36	8
	Daisy Richardson 24, Brisbane, QLD Travel Agent	Contenders	Champions	Champions		Eliminated 4th Jury Member Day 38	10
	Simon Black 39, Brisbane, QLD AFL Superstar	Champions	Contenders	Contenders		16th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 42	13
	Janine Allis 53, Melbourne, VIC CEO Powerhouse	Champions	Contenders	Contenders		17th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 44	9
	Abbey Holmes 28, Melbourne, VIC AFL Premiership Winner	Champions	Contenders	Contenders		18th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 46	12
	Luke Toki 33, Perth, WA Australian Survivor (2017)	Champions	Champions	Champions		19th Voted Out 8th Jury Member Day 47	7
	Harry Hills 30, Perth, WA Ice Cream Maker	Contenders	Contenders	Contenders		20th Voted Out 9th Jury Member Day 49	15
	Baden Gilbert 23, Adelaide, SA Student	Contenders	Champions	Champions		Runner-Up	9
	Pia Miranda 45, Melbourne, VIC Leading Actor	Champions	Contenders	Contenders		Sole Survivor	8

Season Summary

This season began with two tribes of twelve: Champions and Contenders. Unlike the previous Champions vs. Contenders themed season, the Champions tribe started off the game losing five of the first six Immunity Challenges. Along with losing nearly every Immunity Challenge, an alliance war between athletes and non-athletes divided the tribe with David, returning player Luke, Pia, and Janine taking control after flipping Abbey and Ross from the athlete side.

After the Tribe Switch, and despite David and Luke finding themselves in the minority on the new Champions tribe, they managed to find cracks in the Contender majority causing their members to turn on each other. On the new Contenders tribe, Harry caused the Champions majority some trouble by playing consecutive Hidden Immunity Idols as he and Janine formed a rivalry, nicknaming each other "Dirty Harry" and "The Godmother" respectively.

Another major rivalry broke out between David and Shaun after Shaun discovered that the Hidden Immunity Idol David gave to him as part of a tribe idol exchange was a fake, with the rivalry coming to a head after the new Champions tribe chose to kidnap Shaun on Day 20. Just before the merge, Ross was medically evacuated from the game after he broke his ankle during an Immunity Challenge.

The tribes merged at 12 with the numbers even between the original Champions and Contenders at 6-6. Despite the original Contenders wanting to stay tribe strong, a combination of them being too fractured to come together, the original Champions being stronger strategically, and Andy's overall shadiness resulted in Andy being voted out first. The Contenders would subsequently be Pagonged despite David being blindsided in the meantime.

Eventually, the Champions alliance started showing signs of cracks, with Abbey and Luke sending Simon to Exile Beach before blindsiding Janine, leaving her closest ally Pia in the minority. Despite this, Pia managed to convince Luke to blindside Abbey instead, and he executed this via an advantage where he sent Baden back to camp without voting and caused mass confusion at Tribal Council. Luke, however, was voted out next after losing immunity due to his impressive "Survivor resume" and threat level being too high to ignore any further. After a hard-fought Final Immunity Challenge, Baden won and chose to take Pia to the Final Two with him over Harry, thinking Harry would take credit for his moves if they were in the Final Two together.

At Final Tribal Council, Baden argued that despite playing a quiet game, he put himself as a flow of information between the various alliances and used that role to his advantage. Pia explained her strategy of quietly steering the direction of the votes without being seen as the leader, and playing a social-based game. After a strong pitch, the jury unanimously voted for Pia to win the title of Sole Survivor.

Episode	Air Date	Challenges		Eliminated (vote)	Finish	Ratings
		Reward	Immunity
1	July 24, 2019	Champions	Contenders	Anastasia (9-3)	1st Voted Out Day 2	807,000
2	July 25, 2019	Champions	Champions	Laura (8-4)	2nd Voted Out Day 5	712,000
3	July 28, 2019	Contenders	Contenders	Susie (6-5)	3rd Voted Out Day 7	562,000
4	July 29, 2019	Champions	Contenders	Nova (6-2-2)	4th Voted Out Day 10	655,000
		[John]1
5	July 30, 2019	Champions	Contenders	Steven (8-1)	5th Voted Out Day 12	641,000
6	August 4, 2019	Champions	Contenders	ET (5-3)	6th Voted Out Day 14	630,000
		[Baden, Shaun]1
7	August 5, 2019	None	Contenders	Sam (5-2-2)	7th Voted Out Day 16	713,000
8	August 6, 2019	Contenders	Contenders	Sarah (6-2)	8th Voted Out Day 18	723,000
9	August 11, 2019	Champions	Champions	Shaun (6-1)2	Kidnapped by Champions Day 20	693,000
10	August 12, 2019	None	Contenders	Hannah (2-2-1-0; 4-2)3,4,5	9th Voted Out Day 22	711,000
11	August 13, 2019	Champions	Champions	Casey (4-0)3	10th Voted Out Day 24	739,000
12	August 18, 2019	Champions	Champions	Matt (2-2-0; 4-1)3,4,5	11th Voted Out Day 26	650,000
		[Harry]1
13	August 19, 2019	None	Champions	Ross (no vote)	Evacuated Day 28
14	August 20, 2019	Daisy	Shaun	Andy (11-0)3	12th Voted Out Day 30
15	August 25, 2019	Abbey [David, John]	David	Shaun (7-2-2)	13th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 32
16	August 26, 2019	None	Luke	David (8-2)	14th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 34
17	August 27, 2019	Abbey, Janine [Harry, Simon]	Simon	John (4-4-1; 4-3)4,5	15th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 36
18	September 1, 2019	Janine, Simon [Daisy, Pia]	Janine	Daisy (6-2)6	Sent to Exile Beach Day 38
19	September 2, 2019	None	Pia	Simon (4-2-1)6	Sent to Exile Beach Day 40
20	September 3, 2019	None	Luke	Daisy (no vote)	Eliminated 4th Jury Member Day 41
				Simon (6-1)	16th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 42
21	September 9, 2019	None	Luke	Janine (4-2)	17th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 44
22	September 10, 2019	None	Luke	Abbey (2-1-1)	18th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 46
23	September 16, 2019	None	Harry	Luke (3-1)	19th Voted Out 8th Jury Member Day 47
24	September 17, 2019	None	Baden	Harry (1-0)	20th Voted Out 9th Jury Member Day 49
		Jury Vote		Baden (9-0)	Runner-Up
				Pia (9-0)	Sole Survivor
Notes: ^1 As part of the reward, the winning tribe were told to pick a member(s) of the losing tribe to join them. ^2 After winning the Immunity Challenge, the Champions were allowed to eavesdrop on the Contenders' Tribal Council. Instead of the Contenders voting someone out, the Champions vote to decide which member of the Contenders they wanted to kidnap. Shaun received the most votes, and became a member of the Champions. ^3 A Hidden Immunity Idol was used, negating all votes against the user. ^4 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played, however, no votes were cast against its user. ^5 A tie occurred. Per Australian Survivor 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 involved in the tie. ^6 Instead of being permanently being eliminated from the game, these two castaways would compete in a duel to determine who would be eliminated, with the other reentering the game.

Voting History

		Original Tribes						Switched Tribes		Post-Kidnap Tribes						Merged Tribe
Episode		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	10		11	12		13	14	15	16	17		18	19	20	21	22	23	24
Voted Out		Anastasia	Laura	Susie	Nova	Steven	ET	Sam	Sarah	Tie	Hannah	Casey	Tie	Matt	Ross	Andy	Shaun	David	Tie	John	Daisy	Simon	Simon	Janine	Abbey	Luke	Harry	Baden	Pia
Vote		9-3	8-4	6-5	6-2-2	8-1	5-3	5-2-2	6-2	2-2-1-01,2,3	4-2	4-01	2-2-01,2,3	4-1	No vote4	11-01	7-2-2	8-2	4-4-12,3	4-3	6-2	4-2-1	6-1	4-2	2-1-15	3-1	1-06	9-0
►►►	Pia	Anastasia	—	Susie	Nova	Steven	Simon	—	—	—		Casey	Harry	None	—	Andy	Shaun	David	John	John	Harry	Baden	Simon	Baden	Abbey	Luke	None	Jury Vote
►►►	Baden	—	Laura	—	—	—	—	Sam	Sarah	Hannah	Hannah	—	—		—	Andy	Daisy	David	Abbey	Abbey	Daisy	Simon	Simon	Janine	None	Luke	Harry
►►►	Harry	—	Baden	—	—	—	—	—	—	—		Casey	Pia	Pia	—	Andy	Luke	David	Abbey	Abbey	Daisy	Simon	Simon	Janine	Pia	Luke	None		Pia
►►►	Luke	Pia	—	Susie	Nova	Steven	ET	Sam	Sarah	Shaun	Shaun	—	—		—	Andy	Shaun	Harry	Harry	John	Daisy	Simon	Simon	Janine	Abbey	Baden			Pia
►►►	Abbey	Anastasia	—	Susie	Nova	Steven	ET	—	—	—		Casey	Harry	Matt	—	Andy	Shaun	David	John	None	Daisy	Simon	Simon	Janine	Harry				Pia
►►►	Janine	Pia	—	Susie	Nova	Steven	ET	—	—	—		Casey	Matt	Matt	—	Andy	Shaun	David	John	John	Daisy	Baden	Simon	Baden					Pia
►►►	Simon	Anastasia	—	Janine	Steven	Steven	ET	—	—	—		Harry	Matt	Matt	—	Andy	Daisy	David	John	John	Daisy	Abbey	Harry						Pia
►►►	Daisy	—	Baden	—	—	—	—	Sam	Sarah	David	Hannah	—	—		—	Andy	Shaun	David	Abbey	Abbey	Harry		Eliminated						Pia
►►►	John	—	Laura	—	—	—	—	Sam	Sarah	Hannah	Hannah	—	—		—	Andy	Shaun	David	Abbey	None									Pia
►►►	David	Anastasia	—	Susie	Nova	Steven	Simon	Sam	Sarah	Shaun	Shaun	—	—		—	Andy	Shaun	Harry											Pia
►►►	Shaun	—	Laura	—	—	—	—	—	—	David	None	—	—		—	Andy	Luke												Pia
►►►	Andy	—	Baden	—	—	—	—	Luke	Sarah	Daisy	Hannah	—	—		—	Daisy
►►	Ross	Anastasia	—	Susie	Nova	Steven	ET	—	—	—		Harry	Harry	Matt	Evacuated
►►	Matt	—	Laura	—	—	—	—	—	—	—		Harry	Pia	None
►►	Casey	—	Laura	—	—	—	—	—	—	—		Harry
►►	Hannah	—	Laura	—	—	—	—	Luke	Andy	David	None
►	Sarah	—	Laura	—	—	—	—	David	Andy
►	Sam	—	Laura	—	—	—	—	David
	ET	Anastasia	—	Janine	Steven	Steven	Simon
	Steven	Anastasia	—	Janine	Abbey	Pia
	Nova	Anastasia	—	Janine	Abbey
	Susie	Anastasia	—	Janine
	Laura	—	Baden
	Anastasia	Pia
Notes: ^1 A Hidden Immunity Idol was used, negating all votes against its user. ^2 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played; however, no votes were cast against its user. ^3 The vote resulted in a tie. Per Australian Survivor rules, a revote was held where the castaways involved in the tie would not vote and the remaining castaways could only vote for those involved in the tie. ^4 Ross was evacuated due to breaking his ankle. No vote occurred for his removal. ^5 Luke played the "Send Away" advantage, allowing him to send one castaway back to camp without voting. ^6 Harry and Pia did not vote as they could only vote for each other. By virtue of winning the Final Immunity Challenge, only Baden voted.

Trivia

• The first four players voted out were women. This marks the most Tribal Councils to occur in a single season before a man was voted out.
• The winner and runner-up of this season both received the second-highest number of votes in their respective first Tribal Councils.
• This is the first season in the Australian series to have a unanimous jury vote.