In this preview to the third season of Survivor, Jeff Probst introduces us to all of the 16 new competitors in Survivor: Africa. Also, previous Survivor competitors give their opinions.
16 new Survivors, 39 days, million up for grabs, and a new location - the vast savannah of Kenya. Survivor: Africa is here! The players are split into two tribes: Brandon Quinton, "Doc" Carl Bilancione, Frank Garrison, Kim Powers, Linda Spencer, Lindsay Richter, Silas Gaither and Teresa "T-Bird" Cooper on the Samburu tribe (wearing red), and Clarence Black, Ethan Zohn, Diane Ogden, Jessie Camacho, Kelly Goldsmith, Kim Johnson, Lex van den Berghe and "Big" Tom Buchanan on the Boran tribe (wearing gold). Frank's bosiness gets him on the wrong side of his tribemates, while Diane and Clarence cause a major blow-up in the Boran camp when they eat a can of beans while the others are away collecting water. As the Survivors make an unpleasant discovery about the state of their watering hole, and Samburu manages to light a fire with the aid of a telescope, wild animals begin to surface, and Boran loses the first African Immunity Challenge, an obstacle course involving fire, sending them to Tribal Council, where Diane is voted out of Africa as the first casualty of the game. The tribe has spoken.
Clarence admits to Jessie that it was Diane's fault that he opened the beans. Jessie states that Clarence is shaking and worried. After a bad night sleeping the Samburu Tribe works on its shelter. Frank begins barking orders which angers Lindsey & Brandon. At the reward challenge Kim J falls, causing Samburu to win. Kim J states that her fall could get her voted out. Jessie continues to get sicker and admits how hard it is to drink water. At Samburu the tribe becomes split between younger people (Brandon, KimP, Lindsey) and the elders (Carl, Frank, Linda, Teresa) with Silas as the key for both sides. Carl tells Frank, Linda & Teresa that he knows Silas will side with them. Lex talks to Ethan about a Final 3 alliance of them & Tom, and Ethan agrees. The tribes are stuck drinking cow blood for Immunity. It comes down to Kelly for Boran and Linda for Samburu, with Linda wining immunity for Samburu. At Tribal Council, Clarence receives 2 votes while Jessie receives 5 votes and is voted out.
Clarence & Kelly get scared when lions came close to camp. At Samburu the 4 elders, Carl, Frank, Linda & Teresa, do chores and make camp life easier but the youngsters refuse to do work and decide to sleep in. While the elders go to get water the younger players decide to cook and eat some food, leaving little for the older Samburans. Lindsey decide to make bracelets for Kim P, Brandon, and Silas to show their allegiance to each other. Boran wins Immunity, sending Samburu to Tribal Council, where the vote ends up in a tie between Carl & Lindsey. To break the tie, Jeff quizzes the two vote-getters on life in the Bush, and Lindsey wins, eliminating Carl.
Samburu wakes up to another day with an obvious divide in their tribe, seeing how the last tribal council ended in a tie between the older and younger tribe members. Lindsey is thrown off by Linda's sarcastic anxiousness to rejoin as a group, and Silas gives the tribe a pep talk before the Reward Challenge. The talk seems to work, as Samburu pulls through with another victory, this time a bundle of spices and flavorings. At the Immunity Challenge, Boran's determination not to lose another team member works their hardest, and they overcome the odds, sending Samburu to Tribal Council, where the older members disregard the younger members' request to vote for Lindsey, and sure enough, the generation gap prevails, this time making Linda the victim of the vote.
The twist changes the entire game. All alliances in the game are crushed when each tribe is asked to select three of its "best" members, "best" meaning whatever they might interpret that to mean. When the three chosen members from each tribe show up at a neutral location, they are informed that they are now members of the other tribe. A switched Silas, split from his alliance mates, is voted out of Boran.
Despite a breakfast of eggs and chicken, Boran loses the Reward Challenge to Samburu, giving the latter tribe some much-needed nourishment. Boran, however, comes back at the Immuntiy Challenge and pulls through with a win. At the Tribal Council, the Samburu tribe votes become tied between Tom and Lindsey, and after a deadlocked vote, Lindsey goes home for having prior votes cast against her.
On the twentieth day at the immunity challenge the contestants are informed that they are now one tribe. The challenge comes down to Teresa and Clarence and he suggests that they settle the deadlock by playing rock, paper, scissors. Clarence loses and steps down, giving Teresa Immunity. The newly merged tribe decides that the new tribe name will be Moto Maji, the Swahili words for "fire" and "water" . Meanwhile, Lex conspires against Clarence and convinces everyone but Teresa to vote him off. His plan goes through, and Clarence is voted out of the jungle.
New footage highlights a recap and a review of the first 21 days of Survivor: Africa.
Lex tries to figure out who voted for him last time. He is determined to vote off whoever did it, calling that person the "snake". Lex mistakenly targets Kelly, who isn't the snake, and rallies to get her voted off.
Tensions are high from Lexs snake hunt and voting off Kelly. For the reward challenge they need to be in pairs, so they draw names out of a hat. The teams are: Kim Johnson and Ethan, Teresa and Lex, Kim Powers and Tom, andrivals Frank and Brandon. Frank and Brandon win the challenge they set their differences aside and enjoy dinner and a movie. The next day frank plots against Brandon. Lex wins immunity and Brandon gets voted off.
The seven remaining contestants are weary as they welcome the food auction. Lex points out how clever Tom is when he beats other people at checkers. Frank states his opinion onballoon control, making his tribe mates uncomfortable. Lex wins immunity and the tribe votes off Frank.
For the reward challenge, the Survivors have to match trivia answers with their loved ones. Lex wins a safari ride and decides to bring Tom along for the ride. While feasting on lamb, they decide to keep the details of the trip, which ends with a hot air balloon ride, to a minimum, in order to keep tribe morale up. Big Tom wins the immunity challenge, and the tribe continues picking off the former Samburu members by voting off Kim P.
After the five remaining Survivors find an unpleasant surprise awaiting them in their water hole, Lex wins the final Reward Challenge, winning a car and the opportunity to take supplies to a local AIDS hospital. As animosity towards Lex grows in the camp, he is lucky to win Immunity for the third time in the game, and secure himself a position in the final four. Teresa, the last remaining Samburu tribemate, decides to lay her cards on the table and confesses to Lex she cast the mysterious vote against him in episode seven, but puts Tom in a compromising position when she labels him as the one that instigated the vote. However, Teresa is eventually voted out of the tribe, meaning the final four (Tom, Lex, Kim and Ethan) are all members of the original Boran alliance. Who will win?
With three days left in Africa, Kim, Ethan, Tom and Lex are all battling it out to win the title of Ultimate Survivor. As tensions boiled and animosity grew, Lex began to plot against his longtime ally Tom, and Ethan looked back on his time in the game. When Kim won the first Immunity Challenge (trivia about departed contestants), Tom Buchanan was voted off of the island. On the penultimate day, the final three Survivors met local tribes and then competed in an endurance marathon of a final Immunity Challenge, which ended with Kim winning once again. Placing the only vote at Tribal Council, she expelled Lex Van Den Berghe from the competition. Kim and Ethan were the final two, and after reflecting on their time in the competition and dismantling camp, they headed to the final Tribal Council, where the Jury of Kelly, Brandon, Frank, Kim P, Teresa, Tom and Lex returned to pass judgement. The final two made speeches trying to convince them to make them the winner, and each member of the Jury asked questions, before placing their final vote. Jeff Probst then revealed the votes to the nine former members of Moto Maji. With a 5-2 majority of the votes, Ethan Zohn, the professional soccer player, walked away with the million and the worthy title of the winner of SURVIVOR: AFRICA!.
All of the players from season three reconvene for the first time since leaving Africa and talk about their strategies, friends, enemies, and audition tapes.
The survivors discuss how their lives have changed since returning to the United States.