Survivor: America's Tribal Council

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Survivor: America's Tribal Council was a special edition of the TV show Survivor: All-Stars, which followed the Survivor: All-Stars finale in which Amber Brkich won the million dollar prize. It was broadcast live on CBS on May 13, 2004 and resulted in Rupert Boneham winning a million dollar prize (the second million dollar prize to be awarded on Survivor: All-Stars).

[edit] Information

The twist to Survivor: America's Tribal Council was that one All-Star player would be given a second million dollar prize which would depend on the public's votes. From May 9 to May 12, 2004, millions of people put their votes in on Cingular Wireless phones and at cbs.com. When the show aired Tom Buchanan, Colby Donaldson, Rupert Boneham and Rob Mariano were placed in a special final 4 (the four Survivors that got the most votes). At the end of the show Jeff Probst revealed the winner and Rupert Boneham was given the million dollar check (Jeff Probst even wrote it on Rupert's back live on TV). While 38 million votes overall were cast, only about 25 percent of them were for the prize. Rupert received 10 million votes, more than four out of five, to win.

On CBS.com, there were other smaller contests that were held. Here are the results that were broadcast live on TV:

In addition to Rupert snatching the shoes and other items from the raft, other famous survivor moments were shown, such as Michael Skupin falling in a fire in Survivor: The Australian Outback, Jenna Morasca and Heidi Strobel taking off their clothes in Survivor: The Amazon, Susan Hawk's "snake and rat" speech in Survivor: Borneo, Ghandia Johnson screaming "You're way too close!" in Survivor: Thailand, and Jon Dalton (A.K.A. Johnny Fairplay) making up a lie in Survivor: Pearl Islands that his grandmother had died when she really hadn't.

Also on the show, Survivor: Vanuatu was announced.

[edit] Controversy

The event was criticized by many fans and writers as being unfair. Some viewed it as a popularity contest that rewarded Boneham even though he had failed to win the game on two consecutive occasions. However, this was not an outwit-outplay-outlast contest; in fact, given that each contestant had to make a public plea as to why they deserved the million (Rob Cesternino actually thought of giving Boneham half the prize), the frequently-espoused strategy of flying under the radar would not work.

Another criticism was the questionable voting scheme. The other voting categories allowed viewers to pick nominees from all previous seasons. However, the nominees for America's greatest Survivor were restricted to the All-Star cast. Non All-Stars, but fan favorites like Colleen Haskell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck were therefore out of the proceedings. It should be noted that the All-Star cast was not picked by viewers, but rather chosen by Mark Burnett.

The results of the voting have also been scrutinized. It is believed that Rudy Boesch received the fourth most votes, not Tom Buchanan, although they received roughly the same percentage of votes. Boesch only appeared in two episodes of All-Stars so Buchanan was grouped into the final four, since he appeared longer on All-Stars and was thus more familiar to recent viewers. Jenna Morasca was credited as having the highest vote ranking for a female, at 5th (although Boesch and Buchanan were listed as tied for 4th).

Survivor
Seasons
Borneo (2000) · Australia (2001) · Africa (2001) · Marquesas (2002)
Thailand (2002) · Amazon (2003) · Pearl Islands (2003) · All-Stars (2004)
Vanuatu (2004) · Palau (2005) · Guatemala (2005) · Panama (2006)
Cook Islands (2006) · Survivor 14 (TBA) · Survivor 15 (TBA)
Related articles
Jeff Probst · America's Tribal Council · Survivor Live
Statistics and trivia · Survivor Car Curse · Survivor: The Ride!
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