The first season of Survivor Philippines premiered on September 15, 2008, and ended its run on December 14 of the same year, when John Carlo "JC" Tiuseco, defeating Robert Vincent "Rob" Sy in a vote of 7–2. Auditions for this season were held in six Philippine cities in May 2008. From these auditions, 18 contestants were selected to participate on the show in June 2008. The show was filmed in Ko Tarutao, the same island where Survivor: Thailand took place, from July to August 2008.
Format changes
Although the main format is the same, this season introduced several notable differences from the American version of Survivor:
Airing format: This season aired five times a week, compared to the once-weekly airing schedule of the American version. The American version largely produces one episode for every three days, culminating in an elimination; this season had 65 episodes, with between four and six episodes for every three days. Black and white pearls: Small trinkets roughly the size of a standard billiard ball. After the merge, each voted out contestant was to assign one of the pearls to a remaining castaway. The castaway who receives the black pearl automatically receives a penalty vote at the following Tribal Council; if the pearl is lost, the holder would then receive two votes. The castaway who receives the white pearl will have one vote against them at the next Tribal Council nullified. Public jury vote: Viewers were given the opportunity to vote through SMS between which of the two finalists they wanted to win the game. The finalist with the most overall votes received an extra vote to win on behalf of the viewing public.Viewers can choose between Rob and JC in "Survivor Philippines"
Contestants The castaways were initially divided into tribes by gender: Jarakay () composed of the nine male contestants, and Naak () of the nine females. On Day 3, the real, co-ed tribes were revealed. On Day 19, the ten remaining castaways were merged into Chalam ().
Contestant Original tribe Pre-merge tribe Merged tribe FinishChevyline "Chev" Macias 26, Iloilo City Emerson Dino 31, Caloocan "Gigit" Sulit 48, Quezon City Jervy "Patani" Daño 20, Talisay, Cebu Maria Nona "Niña" Ortiz 40, Quezon City Vevherly "Vevh" Gador 20, Alcantara, Cebu John Anthony Lopez 27, Bicol Leona Rica "Nikki" Dacullo 21, Tacloban City, Leyte Reynaldo "Jace" Chanco Flores Jr. 19, Hawaii, USA rowspan=10 Raymund Francis "Kiko" Rustia 27, Quezon City Veronica "Vern" Domingo 29, Bacoor, Cavite Marlon Carmen 31, Parañaque Kristina "Kaye" Alipio 20, Calamba, Laguna Zita Ortiga 43, Pasay Crisanto "Cris" Cartagenas 30, Metro Manila Anna Charisse Yacapin 27, Makati Robert Vincent "Rob" Sy 30, Davao City John Carlo "JC" Tiuseco 23, Metro Manila
Season summary
+Challenge winners and eliminations by cycleEpisodes Challenge winner(s) Eliminated Finish No. Original air dates Reward Immunity1–5September 15 to 19, 2008 1st voted outDay 36–10September 22 to 26, 2008 2nd voted outDay 6 11–16September 29 to October 3, & October 6, 2008rowspan=2 rowspan=2 3rd voted outDay 94th voted outDay 9 17–20 October 7 to 10, 2008rowspan=2 Left due to injuryDay 11 5th voted outDay 1220–25October 13 to 17, 2008 6th voted outDay 1526–30October 20 to 24, 2008 7th voted outDay 1831–35October 27 to 31, 2008None8th voted out1st jury memberDay 2136–41November 3 to 7 & November 10, 2008SurvivorAuction9th voted out2nd jury memberDay 2441–45November 10 to 14, 200810th voted out3rd jury memberDay 2646–51November 17 to 21& November 24, 200811th voted out4th jury memberDay 2951–53November 24 to 26, 200812th voted out5th jury memberDay 3254–57November 27 & 28,December 1 & 2, 200813th voted out6th jury memberDay 3557–60December 2 to 5, 200814th voted out7th jury memberDay 3760–62December 5, 8 & 9, 2008None15th voted out8th jury memberDay 3863–65December 10 to 12, 2008Jury vote Runner-upSole Survivor
In the case of multiple tribes or people who win reward or immunity, they are listed in order of finish, or alphabetically where it was a team effort; where one player won and invited others, the invitees are in brackets.
Days 1–3 (Episodes 1–5)
Immunity Challenge: One tribe member would sit inside a portable "spirit house", to be transported by six others. The eighth tribe member would be the puzzle solver, while the ninth acts a reserve who will take over a transporter who wants to rest. The seven tribe members transporting the spirit house will cross a course. Along the way are six stations, each with a bag of puzzle pieces for each tribe. Once at the station, the spirit house passenger must retrieve the tribe's bag. Once all puzzle pieces are gathered and the spirit house brought to the tribe's mat, the puzzle solver picks up the puzzle pieces and solves the puzzle: a Thai stupa. The puzzle solver who constructs their stupa first wins immunity for their tribe. Day 1: The castaways were brought to the island by boat, but stopped several meters from shore. They were then told to jump out of the boat with the clothes they were wearing and swim to shore, which the castaways did. Moreover, Paolo said that only those castaways who can swim to the shore will make it to Survivor. After all castaways arrive on shore, Paolo separated the castaways into tribes by gender: the men make up Jarakay while the women compose Naak. Since Jace was the one who arrived to shore first, the Jarakay tribe would have the bigger camp.
Reward Challenge: Eight of the nine castaways are harnessed together while the ninth will be the "keykeeper" who will release their tribemates. The tribes will cross an obstacle course composed of a one-pole bridge and a zip line, and the end of each is a pole containing a set of keys that will release the restraints of each tribe member. At the end of the obstacle course, tribes will gather puzzle pieces from bags hanging on a large web. Once all puzzle pieces are retrieved, one tribe member will solve the puzzle, which is a picture of an eagle. First tribe with a solved puzzle wins the reward. Reward: Additional materials for setting up camp Punishment: The members of the entire tribe would be harnessed together until the next day
The Reward Challenge then took place, in which the men lead the entire time and won, although the women slowly caught up with the men. After the challenge, both tribes head to their camps and each opened the tribal boxes which contained additional clothes and footwear and some raincoats. Though there was some effort, the members of both tribes slept in their raincoats on the sand in the pouring rain without setting up their shelters.
Day 2: Work on the Jarakay men's camp started while the Naak women divided their work on building their shelter, gathering food, and starting fire. Later, several of the Jarakay men finally found their water source, while Naak rested with Patani imitating the StarStruck spiel. After the women were relieved of their harnesses, they went back to work. Back in Jarakay, after finally deciding that Gigit would be the "mediator" of the tribe and some heated discussion on where to place the shelter, the shelter was finally built at the shore line near the water source. Later, Marlon complained to Cris about them and Emerson being easy pickings by being the hunters of the tribe. After the shelter was finished, Gigit announced that he would relinquish his "mediator" role to Kiko, which the entire tribe accepted, although Jace thought of it as a ploy for votes. In Naak, most of the women rested more, leaving the harder work to Patani and Zita. Meanwhile, in Jarakay, everyone feasted on raw fish. Food-sensitive JC, after having a nip of his piece, vomited afterwards.
Day 3: During the distribution of the tribal buffs, it was revealed that Emerson, Rob, Cris, Kiko, and JC were transferred to Naak, while Veronica, Nikki, Patani, Charisse, and Niña went to Jarakay. The Immunity Idol, a statue of the god Garuda, was then revealed. During the Immunity Challenge, Naak led initially but strayed and later stopped because JC asked to be replaced by Emerson in carrying the spirit house, saying he was tired. Jarakay took the lead and was the first team to start their puzzle. Naak slowly caught up, but lost because Kaye, Naak's puzzle solver, was unable to pull out the final piece of the puzzle from the bag, enabling Jarakay's puzzle solver Niña to win immunity for her tribe. Upon return to the Jarakay tribe, the new women were amazed at the organization of the camp and of the chores. Attempts of making fire were futile. A budding relationship was also formed between Jace and Veronica. In Naak, work on the shelter finally went underway. There were also rumors about either JC or Chev being slated to be voted out. Emerson and Kiko formed an alliance and Emerson influenced his tribemates on how they would vote. It seemed to work as Chev was unanimously voted out 8-1.
Days 4–6 (Episodes 6–10) Reward Challenge: Carrying a torch, the tribe must row their boat toward a lighted lotus, from which they would get their flame using their torch. They will use their flame to light the next six lotuses. Afterwards, they will row their boat to a flag and swim underwater in two groups of three to untie two foot stools. The foot stools will be used as transport to bring two assigned crossers from the tower with the large platform to the one with the medium platform, and then to the one with the small platform. Once both crossers are on the small platform, the entire tribe must gather on top of the tower with their feet on the small platform. The first tribe that does this wins the reward. Reward: A piece of flint. Mini-Reward Challenge: After losing in the Reward Challenge, the members of Naak swam out on a deep part of the water and floated on its surface each keeping a matchstick dry. Any tribe member who sank, touched the body of the boats, or deliberately quit was out of the challenge. Any tribe member who kept the matchstick dry for 15 minutes could take those matchsticks back to camp. Naak took home six such matchsticks. Immunity Challenge: There are five rings, each with a "Thai pillow" (a triangular prismic pillow) buried under the sand. In each round, one or more members of each tribe must unearth the pillow from one ring and bring it to their tribal mat. While wrangling is inevitable, inflicting injury is not allowed. Once the pillow is brought to one tribe's mat, that tribe gains one point; even touching the mat, regardless of whose foot is touching it, counts. The first tribe that gains three points wins Immunity.
Night of Day 3: The Naak tribe returned to their camp from Tribal Council as they started to doubt Emerson's actions, causing distrust on him because of his claim that he had no idea how to definitely play the game.
Day 4: Still with no fire, the Jarakay tribe started to talk about food, considering that they haven't eaten properly for days. In the Reward Challenge, because of some steering problems and tight ropes in Naak's front, Jarakay easily won the challenge just as Naak started to catch up. After Jarakay returned to camp, they started attempting to have fire with their new flint. Meanwhile, in Naak, Cris and Kiko discussed the confusion over who sits where and over steering the boat that caused Naak to lose the Reward Challenge, particularly on Cris's career as a professional driver and Kiko's experience as a dragon boat racer. The discussion became heated that Rob stepped in to pacify the situation. Three of Naak's strike-anywhere matchsticks were used up without success.