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| Num Episodes: | 13 | ||||||||||||
| Network: | CBS | ||||||||||||
| Prev Season: | Season 42 | ||||||||||||
| Next Season: | Season 44 | ||||||||||||
| Episode List: | List of Survivor (American TV series) episodes (season 41–present) |
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 and Global in Canada. 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 . Gabler has stated he intends on donating the one million dollar prize to charity.[1] This is the first season in Survivor history where the oldest contestant of the season was the winner.[2]
See also: COVID-19 pandemic in Fiji. On March 9, 2022, CBS renewed Survivor for its forty-third and forty-fourth seasons.[3] 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.[4]
It was initially broadcast from September 21 to December 14, 2022, on CBS.[5] [6]
The cast was announced on August 31, 2022, and consists of 18 new players divided into three tribes: Baka, Coco, and Vesi. The tribe for merged players was called Gaia, a name suggested by contestant Cassidy Clark. Among the contestants was Paralympic 100 meters runner Noelle Lambert.[7]
| Age | From | Tribe | Finish | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original | None | Merged | Placement | Day | |||
| 28 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 1st voted out | Day 3 | ||||
| 29 | Marina del Rey, California | 2nd voted out | Day 5 | ||||
| 43 | Weatherford, Texas | 3rd voted out | Day 7 | ||||
| 42 | Downingtown, Pennsylvania | 4th voted out | Day 9 | ||||
| 36 | Honolulu, Hawaii | 5th voted out | Day 11 | ||||
| 31 | Salt Lake City, Utah | 6th voted out | Day 13 | ||||
| 22 | Collierville, Tennessee | 7th voted out | Day 14 | ||||
| 24 | San Francisco, California | 8th voted out 1st jury member | Day 16 | ||||
| 37 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 9th voted out 2nd jury member | Day 17 | ||||
| 25 | El Paso, Texas | 10th voted out 3rd jury member | |||||
| 25 | Manchester, New Hampshire | 11th voted out 4th jury member | Day 19 | ||||
| 19 | Las Vegas, Nevada | 12th voted out 5th jury member | Day 21 | ||||
| 35 | Honolulu, Hawaii | 13th voted out 6th jury member | Day 23 | ||||
| 28 | Newark, Delaware | 14th voted out 7th jury member | Day 24 | ||||
| 30 | Durham, North Carolina | Eliminated 8th jury member | Day 25 | ||||
| 30 | New Orleans, Louisiana | 2nd runner-up | Day 26 | ||||
| 26 | Austin, Texas | Runner-up | |||||
| 51 | Meridian, Idaho | Sole Survivor | |||||
Outside of Survivor, Cassidy Clark competed on the second season of .[8]
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.
| Challenge winner(s) | Eliminated | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Air date | Reward | Immunity | Tribe | Player |
| 1 | "LIVIN" | September 21, 2022 | Morriah | |||
| 2 | "Lovable Curmudgeon" | September 28, 2022 | Justine | |||
| colspan="2" | ||||||
| 3 | "I'll Sign The Divorce Papers" | October 5, 2022 | Nneka | |||
| colspan="2" | ||||||
| 4 | "Show No Mercy" | October 12, 2022 | Lindsay | |||
| 5 | "Stop With All the Niceness" | October 19, 2022 | Geo | |||
| colspan="2" | ||||||
| 6 | "Mergatory" | October 26, 2022 | Dwight, Gabler, Jeanine, Jesse, Karla, Ryan [Noelle] | Elie | ||
| 7 | "Bull in a China Shop" | November 2, 2022 | Gabler | Dwight | ||
| 8 | "Proposterous" | November 9, 2022 | Owen | Jeanine | ||
| 9 | "What About the Big Girls" | November 16, 2022 | Cody [Cassidy, Gabler,<br>Jesse, Ryan] | Karla | James | |
| Cody | Ryan | |||||
| 10 | "Get That Money, Baby" | November 23, 2022 | Noelle [Jesse,<br>Owen, Sami] | Cassidy | Noelle | |
| 11 | "Hiding in Plain Sight" | November 30, 2022 | Karla &<br>Owen [Cody] | Sami | ||
| 12 | "Telenovela" | December 7, 2022 | Cody, Karla, Owen | Cassidy | Cody | |
| 13 | "Snap Some Necks and Cash Some Checks" | December 14, 2022 | Owen [Cassidy] | Owen | Karla | |
| Cassidy [Owen] | Jesse | |||||
See also: List of Survivor (American TV series) episodes.
| Merged tribe | |||||||||||||||||
| Episode | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 16 | 17 | 19 | 21 | 23 | 24 | 25 | |||
| Tribe | |||||||||||||||||
| Eliminated | Morriah | Justine | Nneka | Lindsay | Geo | Elie | Dwight | Jeanine | James | Ryan | Noelle | Sami | Cody | Karla | Jesse | ||
| Votes | 5–1 | 3–1–1 | 4–1 | 4–1–1 | 3–2 | 7–3–2 | 9–2 | 4–1 | 4–1 | 6–0 | Challenge | ||||||
| Voter | Vote | ||||||||||||||||
| Gabler | Morriah | Elie | Ryan | Jeanine | Ryan | Noelle | Sami | Cody | Karla | ||||||||
| Cassidy | Lindsay | Geo | Elie | Dwight | Ryan | Ryan | Noelle | Sami | Cody | Karla | |||||||
| Owen | Morriah | James | Ryan | Jeanine | Karla | Sami | Cody | Karla | |||||||||
| Jesse | Justine | Nneka | Dwight | Jeanine | Ryan | Noelle | Sami | Cody | Karla | ||||||||
| Karla | Lindsay | Geo | Owen | Dwight | Jeanine | James | Noelle | Sami | |||||||||
| Cody | Justine | Nneka | Elie | Dwight | Jeanine | Ryan | Noelle | Sami | |||||||||
| Sami | Morriah | Elie | Dwight | Jeanine | James | Karla | |||||||||||
| Noelle | Nneka | Nneka | Cassidy | James | Jeanine | James | James | Sami | |||||||||
| Ryan | Lindsay | Cassidy | Elie | Dwight | Jeanine | Cassidy | |||||||||||
| James | Lindsay | Geo | Elie | Dwight | Jeanine | Owen | |||||||||||
| Jeanine | Morriah | Ryan | Ryan | ||||||||||||||
| Dwight | Nneka | Elie | James | ||||||||||||||
| Elie | Morriah | James | |||||||||||||||
| Geo | Cassidy | Cassidy | |||||||||||||||
| Lindsay | Geo | ||||||||||||||||
| Nneka | Justine | Noelle | |||||||||||||||
| Justine | Cody | ||||||||||||||||
| Morriah | Owen | ||||||||||||||||
| Jury vote | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episode | 13 | |||
| Day | 26 | |||
| Finalist | Gabler | Cassidy | Owen | |
| Votes | 7–1–0 | |||
| Juror | Vote | |||
| Jesse | ||||
| Karla | ||||
| Cody | ||||
| Sami | ||||
| Noelle | ||||
| Ryan | ||||
| James | ||||
| Jeanine | ||||
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.[9] 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."[10] 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.[11]