Todd Herzog, the 22-year-old flight attendant from Utah, said of his win, “I wasn’t the strongest. I wasn’t the smartest. But I was definitely the most strategic.”
Wikipedia on Survivor China
Survivor: China is the fifteenth season of the American reality television series Survivor. The premiere aired September 20, 2007. Host Jeff Probst claimed the show was the first full American TV series to be filmed entirely within China.[1] The winner of Survivor: China was Todd Herzog.
Among the many aspects of Chinese culture and history included this season were a Buddhist ceremony and a 100 foot-tall replica of a historic temple used for Tribal Council. Each tribe received a copy of The Art of War by Sun Tzu. As stated by Probst: "Survivor is a war. The book deals with leadership and how you defeat the other tribe. It's interesting how much it plays into the game all the way through." The show will reportedly have "unprecedented access" to several historical Chinese monuments, including the Shaolin Temple and the Great Wall of China.
The "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast" slogan used in previous season's logos has been replaced by Chinese characters. The characters translate to "compete in intelligence" (比智慧, bĭ zhìhuì), "compete in skill" (, bĭ jìqiǎo), and "compete in endurance" (, bĭ nàilì).
Contestant applications were due on January 30, 2007. Around March 2007, about 800 applicants were selected for an interview by CBS. Out of those 800, about 48 semi-finalists were selected to go to Los Angeles sometime during April-May 2007 for an additional round of interviews. Between June and August 2007, 16 contestants were selected from the semi-finalists to participate in the show.[4] The final contestants and their original tribes, Fei Long and Zhan Hu, meaning Flying Dragon and Fighting Tiger respectively, were officially announced on August 20, 2007.
Exile Island from the previous three seasons was discarded for this season, but the Hidden Immunity Idol was still part of the game. In lieu of Exile Island, the game gives the tribes the ability to "kidnap" a player from the opposing tribe as part of winning a Reward Challenge. The kidnapped player remains with that tribe through the next Immunity Challenge and would receive a clue to the location of an Immunity Idol at that camp. However, this clue must be given, unread, to a member of the other tribe prior to the next Immunity Challenge.
According to Probst, three players will go to the final Tribal Council, continuing the pattern begun in Survivor: Cook Islands and again in Survivor: Fiji. He explained that having a final three "prohibits one person winning through to the end and then taking an extremely unlikable person with them."
The winner was Todd Herzog, defeating Courtney Yates and Amanda Kimmel. During the reunion, James Clement was awarded the $100,000 prize as the most popular Sprint player in Survivor: China, with Denise Martin and Peih-Gee Law as runners-up. However, the producer, Mark Burnett, heard Denise's story backstage at the reunion and awarded her a $50,000 prize.
I loved that Mark Burnett
I loved that Mark Burnett gave Denise 50K due to her story of losing her job.