Survivor South Africa: Return of the Outcasts explained

Season Number:

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Module1:

Num Days:	39
Num Survivors:	20
Winner:	Dino Paulo
Runner Up:	Shane Hattingh

Num Episodes:

Network:

M-Net

Last Aired:

^[1]

Film End:

^[2]

Prev Season:

Immunity Island

Survivor South Africa: Return of the Outcasts is the ninth season of the South African reality competition show, Survivor South Africa. Announced on 25 November 2021, the season was scheduled for broadcast on M-Net in July 2022.^[3] The season is the first all-returning player season of Survivor South Africa, though only contestants from non-celebrity seasons/tribes during the Nico Panagio era (i.e. [the 'plebs' tribe of ] Maldives onwards) returned, with no contestants from the first two seasons of the show returning. Return of the Outcasts is the seventh season hosted by Nico Panagio and was produced by Afrokaans Film & Television. For this season, the grand prize was doubled to R2 million. The season premiered on 18 July 2022 airing four episodes a week, and the cast was announced on 5 June 2022; with the tribe division based upon if castaways had made it to the merge portion of their previous season or not.^[4] On the season finale, broadcast on 25 August 2022, Season 8 Pre-Merger, Dino Paulo, was crowned Sole Survivor in a 7-2 vote against Season 5 Post-Merger, Shane Hattingh.

Contestants

The cast is composed of 20 returning players from past seasons of Survivor South Africa. The blue 'Masu' tribe consists of 10 players who made the merge on their previous season, while the red 'Yontau' tribe were 10 players who only played in the pre-merge portion of their respective seasons.^[1] The tribe names – Yontau and Masu – come from the Vulcan words for fire and water respectively.^[5] The tribes were randomly shuffled on Day 12, with 15 players left in the game. With an advantage hidden in the game, Marian used Diplomatic Immunity to swap from Yontau to Masu on Day 18. After Tribal Council on Day 19, the final 11 players merged to form the yellow 'Salan' (Vulcan for wind) tribe.

Merged Tribe!class="unsortable"
Finish
33, Centurion, Gauteng Immunity Island		1st voted out Day 3
31, Lephalale, Limpopo Philippines		2nd voted out Day 5
53, Paternoster, Western Cape Island of Secrets		3rd voted out Day 7
28, Cape Town, Western Cape Philippines		4th voted out Day 9
29, Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal Philippines		5th voted out Day 11
33, Cape Town, Western Cape Champions		6th voted out Day 14
31, Cape Town, Western Cape Immunity Island		7th voted out Day 15
37, Uitenhage, Eastern Cape Immunity Island		8th voted out Day 17
31, Johannesburg, Gauteng Philippines		9th voted out Day 19
41, Cape Town, Western Cape Philippines	10th voted out 1st jury member Day 21
33, Dwarskersbos, Western Cape Island of Secrets	11th voted out 2nd jury member Day 23
30, Midrand, Gauteng Island of Secrets	12th voted out 3rd jury member Day 25
33, Centurion, Gauteng Island of Secrets	13th voted out 4th jury member Day 27
42, Johannesburg, Gauteng Maldives	14th voted out 5th jury member Day 30
32, Pretoria, Gauteng Island of Secrets	15th voted out 6th jury member Day 33
52, Benoni, Gauteng Champions	16th voted out 7th jury member Day 35
40, Johannesburg, Gauteng Champions	17th voted out 8th jury member Day 37
33, Cape Town, Western Cape Champions	18th voted out 9th jury member Day 38
50, Bryanston, Gauteng Champions	Runner-Up Day 39
31, Johannesburg, Gauteng Immunity Island	Sole Survivor Day 39

Notes

Season summary

The game began with 20 players divided into two tribes competing for a 2-million Rand prize. The players who were eliminated post-merge in their prior season made up the blue Masu tribe, while the players who were eliminated pre-merge in their prior season made up the red Yontau tribe. Though Masu lost the first two immunity challenges, a win streak gave them the numbers going into a tribe swap. The most prolific alliances on each starting tribe were the Breakfast Club on Masu made up primarily of past in-game relationships (which later birthed a "Full Package" trio among Steffi, Marian, and Meryl that gained power due to the advantages the women obtained) and the No-B.S. Alliance on Yontau between Dino, Felix, and Phil. The Philippines players found themselves outnumbered on both tribes, resulting in early eliminations for players like PK, Tevin, and Palesa, the latter of which was the result of a surprise double Tribal Council that took place right before the merge.

The new Salan tribe saw the Breakfast Club and the No-B.S. Alliance vying for power. The latter alliance ultimately won out by convincing the others to turn on each other and blindside Dante, the perceived strategic leader of the Breakfast Club. This gave Dino, Felix, and Phil the ammunition they needed to dismantle the Breakfast Club (voting out free agents Tejan and Killarney in the process as well), but the three of them eventually also turned on each other. Phil went on an unprecedented immunity run to keep himself safe, but his luck ran out at the Final 4.

Dino, Shane, and Marian made up the final three. Dino won the final immunity challenge with the castaways' loved ones present, and his fiancee urged him to do what he needs to do (that being, vote out Marian as the bigger threat between her and Shane). At the Final Tribal Council, Dino's strategic dominance won out over Shane's perseverance despite being an underdog, and the jury voted him the sole survivor in a 7-2 decision.

Challenge winners and eliminations by episode
Episode			Challenge winner(s)		The Outpost	Eliminated	Finish
No.	Title	Air date	Reward	Immunity	The Outpost	Eliminated	Finish
1 2	"Twice the Game" "Survivor 101"	July 18, 2022 July 19, 2022		1st voted out Day 3
1 2	"Twice the Game" "Survivor 101"	July 18, 2022 July 19, 2022
3	"The Ghost of Your Past Game"	July 20, 2022		2nd voted out Day 5
4	"Walking on Eggshells"	July 21, 2022		3rd voted out Day 7
5	"The Rope Dealer"	July 25, 2022		4th voted out Day 9
6	"Sharp Tools"	July 26, 2022		5th voted out Day 11
6	"Sharp Tools"	July 26, 2022
7 8	"Expect the Unexpected This is Gonna Be a Life Long Torture"	July 27, 2022 July 28, 2022		6th voted out Day 14
7 8		July 27, 2022 July 28, 2022
9	"A Flat Out No"	August 1, 2022		7th voted out Day 15
10	"The Don"	August 2, 2022		8th voted out Day 17
11 12	"Spanners in the Works Guess What, You Are a Number!"	August 3, 2022 August 4, 2022			9th voted out Day 19
11 12	"Spanners in the Works Guess What, You Are a Number!"	August 3, 2022 August 4, 2022
13	"Work for It"	August 8, 2022	Merge Feast Challenge				10th voted out 1st jury member Day 21
14	"A Steady Ship"	August 9, 2022			11th voted out 2nd jury member Day 23
15	"High Risk, High Reward"	August 10, 2022			12th voted out 3rd jury member Day 25
16	"Dipping into the Dark Side"	August 11, 2022	None			13th voted out 4th jury member Day 27
17 18	"Balance of Power" "Goat Mode"	August 15, 2022 August 16, 2022				14th voted out 5th jury member Day 30
19 20	"A Whole Lot of B.S." "Our Little Alliance"	August 17, 2022 August 18, 2022					15th voted out 6th jury member Day 33
21	"A Game of Fluidity"	August 22, 2022		16th voted out 7th jury member Day 35
22	"No Tools In My Toolkit"	August 23, 2022				17th voted out 8th jury member Day 37
23	"Peace. Calm. Confidence."	August 24, 2022	None				18th voted out 9th jury member Day 38
24	"Head vs. Heart" and Return of the Outcast Reunion	August 25, 2022				Jury vote
							Runner-up Day 39
							Day 39

In the case of multiple tribes or castaways who win reward or immunity, they are listed in order of finish, or alphabetically where it was a team effort; where one castaway won and invited others, the invitees are in brackets.

Notes

Episodes

No. in series	Episode No.	Title	Timeline	Original air date

Voting history

	Week 1			Week 2			Week 3				Week 4				Week 5		Week 6

Episode #	2	3	4	5	6	8	9	10		12	13	14	15	16	18	20	21	22	23
Day #	3	5	7	9	11	14	15	17		19	21	23	25	27	30	33	35	37	38

Votes
bgcolor=#000000 colspan="26"
Voter	Vote


									Palesa

									Palesa
									Palesa
									Palesa

									Palesa

									Meryl

Jury Vote
Episode #	24
Day #	39
Finalist
Votes	colspan="2"

Juror	Vote

Notes and References

Web site: 'Meet the 20 former castaways of Survivor South Africa: Return of the Outcasts'. News24. 5 June 2022. 6 June 2022.
Web site: 'Survivor SA 9: Return of the Outcasts calendar'. The True Dork Times. Pitman. Jeff. 11 January 2022. 14 January 2022.
Web site: M-Net renews Survivor SA for an 'all-stars' 9th season in 2022. News24. Ferreira. Thinus. 25 November 2021. 25 November 2021.
Web site: Reigniting The Flame. DStv. 26 May 2022. 26 May 2022.
Shannon Guss. Mike Bloom. Survivor South Africa 9 | Pre-Season Interviews Part 1: Yontau (Pre-Merge) Women. Rob Has a Podcast. 10 June 2022. 4:40. 11 June 2022.