Survivor: The Amazon
Survivor: The Amazon is the sixth season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. The season was filmed from November 11, 2002, through December 15, 2002, in the Amazon and premiered on February 13, 2003. Hosted by Jeff Probst, it consisted of the usual 39 days of gameplay with 16 competitors.
For the first time ever, the initial tribes were divided by sex. The two initial tribes were the all-female Jaburu and the all-male Tambaqui. The season is noted for having the first reality show contestant with a disability, the hearing impaired Christy Smith. They were eventually merged into the Jacaré tribe when ten contestants remained. The winner, swimsuit model Jenna Morasca, was named Sole Survivor after defeating Matthew von Ertfelda by a jury vote of 6-1.
The complete season was released on DVD exclusively through Amazon on November 22, 2011.
Contestants
| Contestant | Men vs. women | Switched tribe | Merged tribe | Finish |
| ' 23, Ellicott City, Maryland | ||||
| ' 46, Manchester, Missouri | ||||
| ' 26, Houston, Texas | ||||
| ' 31, Orangeburg, South Carolina | ||||
| ' 40, North Attleboro, Massachusetts | ||||
| ' 23, Los Angeles, California | ||||
| ' 56, Valencia, California | align="center" rowspan=10 | |||
| ' 23, Pasadena, California | - | |||
| ' 35, Riverside, California | - | |||
| ' 32, Los Angeles, California | - | |||
| ' 24, Basalt, Colorado | - | |||
| ' 24, Jefferson City, Missouri | - | |||
| ' 50, Olney, Illinois | - | |||
| ' 24, Wantagh, New York | - | |||
| ' 33, Washington, D.C. | - | |||
| ' 21, Bridgeville, Pennsylvania | - |
Future appearances
A challenge during the season in which Jenna Morasca and Heidi Strobel removed their clothing ultimately led to a cover shot and nude pictorial in a Playboy spread.Morasca and Rob Cesternino later competed in ', finishing 16th and 15th, respectively. Outside of Survivor, in 2005 Morasca competed on a "Reality All-Stars" episode of Fear Factor. In 2011, Morasca appeared on The Amazing Race 19 and finished in 10th place with then-boyfriend and winner of ' Ethan Zohn.
Season summary
The season began with the contestants divided into tribes split by gender for the first time. The men's tribe, Tambaqui, wearing blue, was quick to get their camp life squared away, building shelter, and alliances were quickly formed. The women's tribe, Jaburu, wearing yellow, experienced quarreling within their tribe, and spent almost the entire first week without a shelter. On Tambaqui, an alliance of four was formed, led by Roger, which included Butch, Alex, and Dave. However, Rob quickly emerged as an arbiter between Roger's alliance and the outliers of the tribe, solidifying allegiances with both. On Jaburu, the younger women, Heidi, Jenna, and Shawna quickly began to coalesce, pulling in Deena and Christy to control the voting on Jaburu.On Day 13, Dave and Jenna traveled to an isolated location to act as tribal ambassadors. Jenna gave Dave crucial information about Jaburu, giving Dave an advantage when, the next day, they were forced to choose new tribes, equally distributing the men and the women. Rob, Matthew and Alex were sent to Jaburu while Heidi, Jeanne and Christy were sent to Tambaqui. At Tambaqui, Heidi decided to align with the men to vote off Jeanne. At Jaburu, the men and women joined forces to vote off an untrustworthy Shawna. Deena and Rob created an alliance and when the merge occurred, they aligned with Alex, Matthew and the rest of the women. At the merge, Deena and Rob's alliance controlled the votes against sexist Roger and physical and mental threat Dave. leaving Butch as the last player remaining outside of Rob and Deena's alliance.
Convinced she had control over the game, Deena decided to spare Butch in order to vote out Alex for being a social and physical threat. The women quickly informed Alex of Deena's betrayal and he was able to convince Heidi, Jenna and the men to eliminate Deena at the next Tribal Council. With Deena gone, Alex was convinced he was solid in an alliance of four with Jenna, Heidi, and Rob. However, he revealed to Rob that his plan was to vote him out at the final four to avoid a tie with Heidi and Jenna. Rob used this information to form a counter-alliance with Matthew, Butch, and Christy, where they voted out Alex. With three men and three women remaining, Christy became the swing vote but was voted out after failing to commit to either side. The next Tribal Council, the men stuck together and voted off Heidi, perceived to be the more physical of the two women left.
At the Final Four, Jenna, the final woman remaining, won immunity, forcing the men to prematurely turn on themselves. Faced with either avenging Alex and Heidi by voting off Rob or getting rid of an undeserving Butch, she ultimately sided with Matthew and Rob to vote off Butch. Jenna continued her winning streak and won immunity again, giving her the sole vote at the next Tribal Council. She ultimately voted off Rob due to his strong strategic gameplay. Facing the jury, Matthew was praised for his survival skills and work ethic, but he was criticized for hypocrisy and lack of strategic gameplay for the majority of the game. On the other hand, Jenna was criticized for her lack of work ethic and even wanting to quit a few days earlier. However, as a result of having better relationships with people on the jury, and being seen as playing the game more strategically from the beginning, Jenna was voted to become the Sole Survivor in a vote of 6-1.