Survivor: America's Tribal Council (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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Survivor: America's Tribal Council was a special edition of the TV show Survivor: All-Stars, which followed the Survivor: All-Stars finale in which Amber Brkich won the million dollar prize. It was broadcast live on CBS on May 13, 2004 and resulted in Rupert Boneham being given a million dollar prize (the second million dollar prize to be awarded on Survivor: All-Stars).

Information

The twist to Survivor: America's Tribal Council was that one All-Star player would be given a second million dollar prize which would depend on the public's votes. From May 9 to May 12, 2004, millions of people put their votes in on Cingular Wireless phones and at cbs.com. When the show aired Tom Buchanan, Colby Donaldson, Rupert Boneham and Rob Mariano were placed in a special final 4 (the four Survivors that got the most votes). At the end of the show Jeff Probst revealed the winner and Rupert Boneham was given the million dollar check (Jeff Probst even wrote it on Rupert's back live on TV). While 38 million votes overall were cast, only about 25 percent of them were for the prize. Rupert received 10 million votes, more than four out of five, to win.

On CBS.com, there were other smaller contests that were held. Here are the contestants that were broadcast live on TV. The winners are highlighted in bold:

• Sexiest Male:
  • Alex Bell (Amazon)
  • Greg Buis (Borneo)
  • Colby Donaldson (Australia)
  • Rob Mariano (Marquesas)
  • Gervase Peterson (Borneo)
  • Burton Roberts (Pearl Islands)
  • Andrew Savage (Pearl Islands)
  • Robb Zbacnik (Thailand)
  • Ethan Zohn (Africa)

• Sexiest Female:
  • Amber Brkich (Australia)
  • Alicia Calaway (Australia)
  • Erin Collins (Thailand)
  • Colleen Haskell (Borneo)
  • Elisabeth Hasselbeck (Australia)
  • Darrah Johnson (Pearl Islands)
  • Sarah Jones (Marquesas)
  • Jerri Manthey (Australia)
  • Jenna Morasca (Amazon)
  • Heidi Strobel (Amazon)

• Best Villain:
  • Rob Cesternino (Amazon)
  • Jon Dalton (Pearl Islands)
  • Richard Hatch (Borneo)
  • Brian Heidik (Thailand)
  • Jerri Manthey (Australia)

• Best Fight:
  • Rupert Boneham vs. Jon Dalton (Pearl Islands)
  • Alicia Calaway vs. Kimmi Kappenberg (Australia)
  • Ghandia Johnson vs. Ted Rogers (Thailand)
  • Clay Jordan vs. Robb Zbacnik (Thailand)
  • Rob Mariano vs. Lex van den Berghe (All-Stars).

• Most Memorable Moment: Rupert stealing shoes on Survivor: Pearl Islands

In addition to Rupert snatching the shoes and other items from the raft, other famous survivor moments were shown, such as Michael Skupin falling in a fire in Survivor: The Australian Outback, Jenna Morasca and Heidi Strobel taking off their clothes in Survivor: The Amazon, Susan Hawk's "snake and rat" speech in Survivor: Borneo, Ghandia Johnson screaming "You're way too close!" in Survivor: Thailand, and Jon Dalton (A.K.A. Johnny Fairplay) making up a lie in Survivor: Pearl Islands that his grandmother had died when she really hadn't.

Also on the show, Survivor: Vanuatu was announced.

Criticism and controversy

The event was criticized by many fans and writers as being unfair. Some viewed it as a popularity contest that rewarded Boneham even though he had failed to win the game on two consecutive occasions.

Some fans feared that if the America's Tribal Council format, of giving a separate prize to the most popular contestant, was continued into later seasons of Survivor, it would change the way the game was playedby encouraging contestants to behave differently to try to become a viewer favorite. In this scenario, contestants might give up on the normal prize and concentrate on the popularity prize, which might make the strategy aspects of the program less prominent and encourage contestants to act in their in-show interviews to make themselves seem nicer. However, these fears proved unfounded when the popularity prize did not recur in later seasons.

Another criticism was the questionable voting scheme. The other voting categories allowed viewers to pick nominees from all previous seasons. However, the nominees for America's greatest Survivor were restricted to the All-Star cast. Non All-Stars, but fan favorites like Colleen Haskell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck were therefore out of the proceedings. It should be noted that the All-Star cast was not picked by viewers, but rather chosen by Mark Burnett.

The results of the voting have also been scrutinized. It is believed that Rudy Boesch received the fourth most votes, not Tom Buchanan, although they received roughly the same percentage of votes. Boesch only appeared in two episodes of All-Stars so Buchanan was grouped into the final four, since he appeared longer on All-Stars and was thus more familiar to recent viewers. Jenna Lewis was credited as having the highest vote ranking for a female, at 5th (although Boesch and Buchanan were listed as tied for 4th).

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