Survivor: Guatemala
season of television series / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Survivor: Guatemala - The Mayan Empire (also known as Survivor: Guatemala) was the eleventh season of the American reality show Survivor, and was set inside of the ruins of the Maya civilization. The show was filmed in Yaxhá-Nakúm-Naranjo National Park near the more popular Tikal National Park, in northern Guatemala. The season started being shown on TV on September 15, 2005 on CBS. The finale (last episode) was on Sunday, December 11, 2005 on CBS. Danni Boatwright won this season. She won against Stephenie LaGrossa in a 6-1 vote.
Survivor: Guatemala | |
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Presented by | |
No. of episodes | 14 |
No. of days | 39 |
No. of castaways | 18 |
Winner | Danni Boatwright |
Production | |
Production locations | Laguna Yaxhá, Yaxhá-Nakúm-Naranjo National Park, Petén, Guatemala |
Filming dates | June 22 – August 5, 2005 |
Original release | |
Release | September 15 (2005-09-15) – December 11, 2005 (2005-12-11) |
Applications had to be given on January 14, 2005. Around March 2005, 800 people were chosen for an interview by CBS. Out of these 800, 48 people were chosen to go in Los Angeles sometime around April 2005. From these 48, 16 were chosen to be in the game this season, which was filmed from June to August 2005. Stephenie LaGrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard from Survivor: Palau also returned this season. LaGrossa also returned once again in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. Her place is unknown because the season has not been shown on TV yet.
Host Jeff Probst says that temperatures seemed to be over 110 °F (43 °C) with a lot of humidity. He talked about it during some of the challenges. Challenges like the 11-mile (18 km) walk through the jungle and "Mayan basketball" showed how tired all the players were. In Day 1, many of the Nakúm men were sick after the walk, and had a hard time getting better.
After the tribes were merged (combined), production put a small Immunity Idol in the Xhakúm tribe. Gary Hogeboom found it up in a tree, saving him from being voted off at that Tribal Council. Unlike later seasons, this Idol could only be used before the vote instead of after, and once it was used, it wouldn't be used anymore. However, it could be used until the Final Four.
The tribes were Yaxhá (blue buffs, living in a shelter in the jungle) and Nakúm (yellow buffs, living near the Mayan ruins). Both of these tribes were named after two old Mayan cities. When there were 10 people left, the tribes merged one tribe, which the players named "Xhakúm" (red buffs, at Nakúm's old camp), named by blending the names "Yaxhá" and "Nakúm".
Tina Scheer, a player on Survivor: Panama, was supposed to be on the show this season, but her son had been killed in a car accident and she backed out.
The players came on June 22 and began filming on June 27. Filming ended on August 4 and players returned home August 5. (Source from Survivor Fever Archived 2021-02-14 at the Wayback Machine)