Survivor 43 is the forty-third season of the American reality television series Survivor. The show was filmed from May 2 through May 27, 2022, in Fiji, for an eleventh consecutive season; it premiered on September 21, 2022, on CBS in the United States.

The season concluded on December 14, 2022; Mike Gabler was named the winner of the season, defeating Cassidy Clark and Owen Knight in a 7–1–0 vote. Gabler, aged 51, was the second oldest winner, after Bob Crowley, who was 57 years old at the time of winning Survivor: Gabon. Gabler has stated he intends on donating the one million dollar prize to charity. This is the only season in Survivor history where the oldest contestant of the season was the winner.

Format

Survivor is a reality television show based on the Swedish show Expedition Robinson, created by Mark Burnett and Charlie Parsons. The series follows a number of participants isolated in a remote location, where they must provide food, fire, and shelter. One by one, a participant is removed from the series by majority vote, with challenges held to give a reward (ranging from living- and food-related prizes to a car) and immunity from being voted out of the series. The last remaining player receives a prize of $1,000,000.

Contestants

The cast was announced on August 31, 2022, and consists of 18 new players divided into three tribes: Baka, Coco, and Vesi. The merged tribe was called Gaia, a name suggested by contestant Cassidy Clark. Among the contestants was Paralympic 100 meter runner Noelle Lambert, who is the third amputee overall to play Survivor, following Chad Crittenden in Survivor: Vanuatu and Kelly Bruno in Survivor: Nicaragua.

+List of Survivor 43 contestantsContestantAgeFrom Tribe Finish Original None Merged Placement Day 28 Philadelphia,Pennsylvania 1st voted out Day 3 29 ,California rowspan="2" 2nd voted out Day 5 43 Weatherford,Texas 3rd voted out Day 7 42 Downingtown,Pennsylvania rowspan="2" 4th voted out Day 9 36 Honolulu,Hawaii 5th voted out Day 11 31 ,Utah rowspan="13" 6th voted out Day 13 22 Collierville,Tennessee rowspan="12" 7th voted out Day 14 24 ,California 8th voted out Day 16 37 Philadelphia,Pennsylvania rowspan="2" 9th voted out Day 17 25 El Paso,Texas 10th voted out 25 Manchester, 11th voted out Day 19 19 Las Vegas,Nevada 12th voted out Day 21 35 Honolulu,Hawaii 13th voted out Day 23 28 Newark,Delaware 14th voted out Day 24 30 Durham, Eliminated Day 25 30 New Orleans,Louisiana 2nd runner-upDay 26 26 Austin,Texas Runner-up 51 Meridian,Idaho Sole Survivor

Future appearances Outside of Survivor, Cassidy Clark competed on the second season of The Challenge: USA. In 2025, Noelle Lambert and Ryan Medrano competed on the second season of Raid the Cage. Lambert, Sami Layadi, and Jesse Lopez competed on Beast Games: Strong vs. Smart.

Season summary

Eighteen new castaways were divided into three tribes of six: Baka, Coco, and Vesi. The tribes fared relatively equally in challenges, but Baka and Vesi teamed up in the later ones against Coco, who had yet to see Tribal Council after three eliminations. Tribe dynamics saw Elie and Jeanine in the minority of Baka, Ryan on the outs of Coco, and two pairs on Vesi (Cody-Jesse and Dwight-Noelle).

At the merge, Baka and Vesi initially planned to join forces, but a series of votes left Baka in the minority instead. Cody and Jesse then took the reins, orchestrating the blindsides of various threats. Jesse, who had obtained advantages from other castaways, then blindsided Cody using the latter's own idol. This ultimately made him a big threat, and he was defeated in the firemaking challenge by Gabler from Baka.

At the Final Tribal Council, former Coco Cassidy highlighted the moves she made, but many jurors called her out for making those moves behind other player's shadows. Owen was criticized for never having control, and Gabler's social game earned the jury's respect. Thus, Gabler was named the Sole Survivor in a 7-1-0 vote over Cassidy and Owen.

+Survivor 43 season summaryEpisodeChallenge winner(s)JourneyEliminatedNo.TitleAir dateRewardImmunityTribePlayer 1 "LIVIN" September 21, 2022 rowspan="3" rowspan="2" rowspan="3" Morriah 2 "Lovable Curmudgeon" September 28, 2022 colspan="2" rowspan="2" rowspan="2" Justine colspan="2" 3 "I'll Sign The Divorce Papers" October 5, 2022 rowspan="2"colspan="2" rowspan="3" Nneka colspan="2" 4 "Show No Mercy" October 12, 2022 rowspan="2" rowspan="2" rowspan="2" Lindsay 5 "Stop With All the Niceness" October 19, 2022 rowspan="2" colspan="2" rowspan="3" Geo colspan="2" 6 "Mergatory" October 26, 2022 Dwight, Gabler, Jeanine,Jesse, Karla, Ryan[Noelle]rowspan="10" Elie 7 "Bull in a China Shop" November 2, 2022 rowspan="2" Gabler rowspan="9" Dwight 8 "Proposterous" November 9, 2022 Owen Jeanine 9 "What About the Big Girls" November 16, 2022 Cody[Cassidy, Gabler,Jesse, Ryan] Karla James Cody Ryan 10 "Get That Money, Baby" November 23, 2022 Noelle[Jesse,Owen, Sami] Cassidy Noelle 11 "Hiding in Plain Sight" November 30, 2022 Karla &Owen[Cody] Sami 12 "Telenovela" December 7, 2022 Cody,Karla, Owen Cassidy Cody 13 "Snap Some Necks andCash Some Checks" December 14, 2022 Owen[Cassidy] Owen Karla Cassidy[Owen] Jesse

Episodes

Voting history +Survivor 43 voting history Original tribes No tribes Merged tribe Episode 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Day 3 5 7 9 11 13 14 1617 19 21 23 24 25 Tribe colspan="2" EliminatedMorriahJustineNnekaLindsayGeoElieDwightJeanineJamesRyanNoelleSamiCodyKarlaJesse Votes5–13–1–14–14–1–13–27–3–29–24–14–16–0 Voter Vote Challenge GablerMorriahElieRyanJeanineRyanNoelleSamiCodyKarla CassidyLindsayGeoElieDwightRyanRyanNoelleSamiCodyKarla OwenMorriahJamesRyanJeanine colspan="2" KarlaSamiCodyKarla JesseJustineNneka DwightJeanineRyanNoelleSamiCodyKarla KarlaLindsayGeoOwenDwightJeanineJamesNoelleSamiOwenJesse CodyJustineNnekaElieDwightJeanineRyanNoelleSamiKarla SamiMorriahElieDwightJeanineJamesKarla NoelleNnekaNnekaCassidyJamesJeanineJamesJamesSami RyanLindsayCassidyElieDwightJeanineCassidy JamesLindsayGeoElieDwightJeanineOwen JeanineMorriah RyanRyan Dwight NnekaElieJames ElieMorriah James GeoCassidyCassidy LindsayGeo Nneka JustineNoelle JustineCody MorriahOwen Jury vote Episode 13 Day 26 Finalist Gabler Cassidy Owen Votes7–1–0 JurorVote Jesse Karla Cody Sami Noelle Ryan James Jeanine Notes

Production

On March 9, 2022, CBS renewed Survivor for its forty-third and forty-fourth seasons. Like the previous two seasons, Survivor 43 was contested over 26 days, being shortened from the traditional 39 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic. CBS required all cast and production members to be fully vaccinated. Filming began in May 2022.

It was initially broadcast from September 21 to December 14, 2022, on CBS.

Reception Survivor 43 was met with mixed reception, with many praising the cast as well as the removal of panned twists present in the previous two seasons such as the "Hourglass" twist; however, winner Mike Gabler's 7–1–0 victory, as well as his intention to donate the winnings to veterans' support organizations, was seen as shocking by many. Entertainment Weeklys Dalton Ross ranked this season 25th out of 44, praising the cast and citing Gabler's victory as "certainly interesting," but criticized the season for its lack of "knock-your-socks-off" moments. Game Rants Jillian Unrau gave the finale a rating of 3.5/5 stars, stating that Gabler's victory "felt like a blindside on the audience when he won. Unexpected twists are fun, but not when they come at the expense of wrapping up a narrative in any sort of satisfying way." Andy Dehnart of reality blurred stated that while he was glad to be surprised by Gabler's win, he also felt that Gabler was "failed" by the season's edit. In 2024, Nick Caruso of TVLine ranked this season 34th out of 47.

Viewing figures United States

References

External links