Survivor: Island of the Idols

Episode 1 Stats

Rob Brodeur breaks down all the latest stats!

Photo: CBS

Each week Inside Survivor contributor Rob Brodeur will be collecting various Survivor related statistics and information based off the latest episode of Survivor: Island of the Idols.

Season

  • This is the eighth season to film in Fiji.
    • It’s the seventh season in a row to film in Fiji.
      • This season holds the record for a location most used in consecutive seasons.
        • Millennials vs. Gen X, Game Changers, Heroes vs Healers vs. Hustlers, Ghost Island, David vs. GoliathEdge of Extinction, and Island of the Idols were all filmed in the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji.
  • Fiji continues to hold the record for the most used location for Survivor seasons.
    • Fiji, Millennials vs. Gen X, Game Changers, Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, Ghost Island, David vs. Goliath, Edge of Extinction, and Island of the Idols have all been filmed there.
  • Every season that has 9 in the number has filmed on an island in the Pacific Ocean except for season 29.
    • Season 9 – Vanuatu filmed in Vanuatu.
    • Season 19 – Samoa filmed in Samoa.
    • Season 29 – San Juan Del Sur filmed in Nicaragua.
    • Season 39 – Island of the Idols filmed in Fiji.

Tribal Council

  • Ronnie was voted out 7-2.
    • He’s the third professional poker player to be voted out pre-merge, the others are as follows:
      • Garrett Adelstein – Cagayan.
      • Anna Khait – Kaoh Rong.
        • Jean-Robert Bellande in China is the only professional poker player to make it to the merge.
  • This is the earliest in a season that someone lost their ability to vote.
  • Ronnie is the 16th male to be the first person voted out from a season.
  • Both people named Vince to play Survivor received votes at the first tribal council they attended.
    • Vince Sly in Worlds Apart was voted out at his first tribal council in episode 2.
    • Vince Moua received two votes in the premiere episode of Island of the Idols.
  • This is the first season since Philippines in which only men received votes at the first tribal council of the season.
    • Zane Knight was voted out, and he voted for Russell Swan.
      • This has only happened four times in 39 seasons.
        • The AmazonRyan, Roger, and Daniel.
        • Vanuatu – Brook, Rory, and Chris.
        • Philippines – Zane and Russell.
        • Island of the Idols – Ronnie and Vince.
          • In The Amazon and Vanuatu, the male tribe lost the first immunity challenge and were the only eligible players to be voted out.
  • Ronnie is the first male since Darnell Hamilton in Kaoh Rong to be the first person voted out of a season.
  • Ronnie is the first male to ever be the first voted out from a season filmed in Fiji.
    • FijiJessica DeBen.
    • Millennials vs. Gen X – Rachel Ako.
    • Game Changers – Ciera Eastin.
    • Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers – Katrina Radke.
    • Ghost Island – Stephanie Gonzalez.
    • David vs. Goliath – Jessica Peet.
      • Pat Cusack was the first person eliminated from David vs. Goliath, but he was medically evacuated, making Jessica Peet the first person officially voted out of the season.
    • Edge of Extinction – Reem Daly.
  • Lairo is the second 10 person tribe to only have nine votes cast at their first tribal council despite there being 10 people currently on the tribe.
    • Malolo in Ghost Island was the first, as Jacob was sent to Ghost Island, and therefore wasn’t at tribal council.
      • Both tribes were orange, competing against a purple tribe, on a season filmed in Fiji, and both were due to an “Island” twist.

Cast

  • The average age of this cast is 34.1.
  • Janet is the oldest woman this season at 59.
    • Both castaways named Janet have been the oldest female player on their season and the oldest player on their tribe.
      • Janet Koth in The Amazon.
      • Janet Carbin in Island of the Idols.
  • Tom is the oldest man and oldest castaway this season at 60.
    • He’s the first player to be 60+ since Joe Del Campo in Kaoh Rong.
    • Tom is the first male to be the oldest player in the season since Troyzan Robertson in Game Changers.
    • He’s also the first Canadian to play Survivor.
  • Jack is the youngest male castaway this season and also the youngest castaway at 23.
    • Jack was an alternate for Edge of Extinction.
  • Missy is the youngest female this season at 24.
  • Elizabeth is the third former Olympic athlete to play Survivor, following Crystal Cox in Gabon and Katrina Radke in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers.
    • Katrina and Elizabeth have both won Olympic medals for swimming.
  • Dan was supposed to be on David vs. Goliath but was injured prior to the season.
    • He was supposed to be on the Goliath tribe.

Tribes

  • This is the eighth two-tribe season to have a purple tribe vs. an orange tribe. The others are as follows:
    • Thailand – Sook Jai (purple) and Chuay Gahn (orange).
    • Micronesia – Malakal (purple) and Airai (orange).
    • Redemption Island – Zapatera (purple) and Ometepe (orange).
    • Caramoan – Bikal (purple) and Gota (orange).
    • Millennials vs. Gen X – Takali (purple) and Vanua (orange).
    • Ghost Island – Naviti (purple) and Malolo (orange).
    • David vs. Goliath – Goliath/Jabeni (purple) and David/Vuku (orange).
      • Including merged tribes, this is the fifth season in Fiji to have a purple tribe and orange tribe.
        • Fiji – Bula Bula (purple merged tribe) and Ravu (orange).
  • All four seasons with “Island” in the title have had a purple and orange starting tribe.
    • Panama: Exile Island – Casaya (purple) and La Mina (orange).
    • Redemption Island – Zapatera (purple) and Ometepe (orange).
    • Ghost Island – Naviti (purple) and Malolo (orange).
    • Island of the Idols – Vokai (purple) and Lairo (orange).
      • La Mina is the only orange tribe to not lose the first immunity challenge on a season with “Island” in the title.
  • Each season with a purple vs. orange tribe has had the winner alternate between an orange tribe and purple tribe.
    • Thailand – Brian Heidik – Chuay Gahn (orange).
    • Micronesia – Parvati Shallow – Malakal (purple).
    • Redemption Island – Boston Rob – Ometepe (orange).
    • Caramoan – John Cochran – Bikal (purple).
    • Millennials vs. Gen X – Adam Klein – Vanua (orange).
    • Ghost Island – Wendell Holland – Naviti (purple).
    • David vs. Goliath – Nick Wilson – David/Vuku (orange).
      • Parvati is the only female to win on an orange vs. purple starting tribe season.
  • Lairo
    • Lairo is Fijian for “land crab.”
      • The tribe insignia for Lairo is a crab.
    • The Lairo tribe has an average age of 34.
    • It’s the 18th orange tribe.
      • It’s the 15th orange starting tribe.
    • The Lairo tribe is on the beach that was previously used for Manu in Edge of Extinction, Goliath in David vs. Goliath, Naviti in Ghost Island, Soko in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, Mana in Game Changers, and Takali in Millennials vs. Gen X.
      • Two winners had their starting tribe on this beach.
        • Wendell in Ghost Island.
        • Chris in Edge of Extinction.
  • Vokai
    • Vokai is Fijian for “iguana” or “forest gecko.”
      • The tribe insignia for Vokai is a lizard.
    • The Vokai tribe has an average age of 34.2.
    • It’s the 14th purple tribe.
      • It’s the 11th purple starting tribe.
    • Everyone on the cast whose first names start with “J” are on Vokai.
      • Jack, Jamal, Janet, and Jason.
        • Coincidentally, the second letter of all of their names is “a.”
      • This previously happened in The Amazon, where the four players whose names started with “J” were on the same tribe.
        • Jaburu had Janet, Jeanne, Jenna, and JoAnna.
  • The Vokai tribe is on the beach that was previously used for Kama in Edge of Extinction, David in David vs. Goliath, Malolo in Ghost Island, Yawa in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, Tavua in Game Changers, and Vanua in Millennials vs. Gen X.
    • Two winners had their starting tribe on this beach.
      • Adam in Millennials vs. Gen X.
      • Nick in David vs. Goliath.
        • Ben and Sarah both started on the third beach (Ikabula, Nuku, Levu, Yanuya, Tiva, & Lesu beach) in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers and Game Changers, respectively, but were both swapped to this beach.
          • Coincidentally, the two tribes they were on (Nuku & Levu) were both blue tribes and are the only non-expansion, non-green tribes to be on this beach.
      • Each starting tribe campsite has produced exactly two winners.

Confessionals

  • Elizabeth had the most confessionals this episode with 10.
  • Dean had the lowest amount of confessionals with 0.
    • He’s the only player to not have a confessional in this episode.
  • The first 7 confessionals of the season were given by women.
  • Ronnie is tied with Diane Ogden from Africa and Katrina Radke in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers for the least amount of confessionals for a first boot with 1.

Hidden Immunity Idols/Advantage

  • This is the first season since Kaoh Rong in which there wasn’t a hidden immunity idol or advantage found in the first episode.
    • Millennials vs. Gen X – Jessica found the Legacy Advantage.
    • Game Changers – Sierra found the Legacy Advantage.
    • Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers – Chrissy was given the “one time only” idol by Ryan.
    • Ghost Island – Domenick found an idol, Jacob got the Legacy Advantage on Ghost Island and gave it to Morgan.
    • David vs. Goliath – Dan found a hidden immunity idol.
    • Edge of Extinction – Ron found the Advantage Menu.

Island of the Idols

  • Elizabeth is the first person to be sent to the Island of the Idols.
  • Island of the Idols is at the same location that was used as Ghost Island in season 36.
  • Rob and Sandra are the first two players to be season-long mentors.
    • John Cochran was the first player to come back as a mentor, although it was only for one episode, in Game Changers.
  • Sandra and Rob have a combined 211 days of playing Survivor.
    • They have a total of six seasons played between the two of them.
      • Sandra played in Pearl Islands, Heroes vs. Villains, and Game Changers.
      • Rob played in Marquesas, All-Stars, Heroes vs. Villains, and Redemption Island.
  • Rob and Sandra are wearing the merge buffs from their previous winning seasons.
    • Sandra is wearing the Balboa buff from Pearl Islands and Yin Yang from Heroes vs. Villains.
    • Rob is wearing the Murlonio buff from Redemption Island.
      • All three buffs are black.
  • Both Sandra and Rob have been at final tribal council twice (this is season 39 and they’ve both made it to day 39 twice).
    • They both have won the game at least once and been voted out pre-jury at least once.
    • Neither of them have ever been a juror.
    • Parvati is the only other winner to be at final tribal council twice.
      • She’s the only one of the three to ever be on the jury.

Immunity Challenge – “Tower of Equality”

  • Of all the orange starting tribes, 9 out of 15 have lost the first immunity challenge.
  • Of all the purple starting tribes, 7 out of 11 have won the first immunity challenge.
    • Millennials vs. Gen X is the only season filmed in Fiji where an orange starting tribe won the first immunity challenge.
    • Fiji – Ravu lost the first immunity challenge.
    • Ghost Island – Malolo lost the first immunity challenge.
    • David vs. Goliath – David/Vuku lost the first immunity challenge.
    • Island of the Idols – Lairo lost the first immunity challenge.

Ratings

  • The first episode received 6.29 million viewers and 1.3/5 in the Adults 18-49 Rating/Share. This is the lowest rating for a season premiere ever. For comparison, the premiere rating for last fall’s season (David vs. Goliath) was 7.83 million viewers and 1.7/7.

Episode Title

  • The episode title “I Vote You Out and That’s It” was said by Sandra when watching tribal council, in response to Boston Rob asking her if it was hard for her to vote people out.

Written by

Rob Brodeur

Rob hails from Boston, MA. He studied Architectural Engineering at college and has been following Survivor since the first season. Rob is married and has a dog named Snoopy. He also used to host Survivor ORGs (Online Reality Games) on Facebook. Rob writes Inside Survivor’s weekly Survivor Stats feature.


7 responses to “Episode 1 Stats”

  1. In your first section under Season, i couldn’t help but notice you called this season, season 38 where you have it said that every season ending in 9 filmed on an island in the pacific ocean, except for season 29.

  2. They’ve literally been using the same islands and beaches since MvsGX (which I mentioned in the section about tribes and the section about IoI) I don’t really think it’s necessary to go into a geography lesson about all the other islands and beaches in Fiji. Also, I don’t really know exactly what islands are used for a lot of the stuff because it’s not really public knowledge. I write stats about what I know about and can confirm. If you’d like to include some research in a future Stats article comment section, you’re more than welcome.

    • I think you took that the wrong way – I wrote that before I read the whole article so I was a bit premature in asking that. I was not looking for a geography lesson, my point was when they have multiple issues available I don’t know why they would want to use the same islands all the time….switch things up because since they say it Fiji things start to look the same & it becomes redundant (dare I say boring) seeing the same islands all the time. I completely hate(d) the idea of them staying in Fiji for that reason….personally, I always felt the location & culture of the area was a big component of the theme/show (for example, back in I believe Vanuatu when a/the local tribal leader divided up the tribes – men/women & Jeff told them that since the tribal leader already divided them they would stay that way). I can’t stand that now the season(s) are based solely on theme(s)/twists….it makes no sense to me why they would base a season/theme on a a tribe division (say, MvsGX only to mix tribes a few (short) episodes in (which they had done on episode 2 before) which I think throws out that theme/twist. I don’t mean to go on a rant here but they have 13 islands available to them yet only use the same 3 or 4, the logic to that doesn’t make sense to me. Need I go into my gripe about why I can’t stand returning players? (I am already dreading season 40, I am going to hate that solely because of the theme alone.)

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