Survivor: Africa

Survivor: Africa is the third season of the United States reality show Survivor. It was filmed during 2001 and aired from October 11, 2001 - January 10, 2002 on CBS. It was set in Kenya's Shaba National Reserve on the African continent.

The two initial tribes were Boran and Samburu (named for the real-life Borana and Samburu tribes). In the fifth episode, after 12 days, three members from each team were switched to the other team, in what became known as the first "twist" in the Survivor series. This emphasized that the players must be ready for the most sudden changes; future seasons would have similar twists. In the seventh episode, the two tribes merged into the Moto Maji (Swahili for 'fire' and 'water') tribe.

This season was also the first to have a tiebreaker challenge: in the previous season, the person with the most previous votes was voted out in such a situation, but in Samburu's first tribal council, Carl Bilancione and Lindsey Richter each received four votes. The pair competed in a nature quiz tiebreaker, the loser of which was eliminated.

During the finale, the producers made it appear that the votes were being read at the site of the Final Tribal Council immediately after the votes were cast. Jeff Probst went to get the voting urn and, when he returned, it appeared he had returned directly to the Tribal Council site to read the votes. However, he was actually on a CBS sound stage in Hollywood (with a live audience) that was made up to look like the site. This was revealed after he read the votes and announced the winner. The contestants were told to try to make themselves appear as they had looked during the last Tribal Council and the audience was told to hold any cheering or applause until after the winner was announced.

Thirteen episodes were aired, plus a mid-season recap, a live reunion/interview with Bryant Gumbel after the finale, and a "where are they now" show. The winner, Ethan Zohn, was revealed on January 10, 2002, where he defeated Kim Johnson by a vote of 5-2.

Ethan Zohn, Lex van den Berghe, and Tom "Big Tom" Buchanan competed in Survivor: All-Stars, where they placed 11th, 9th, and 5th respectively.

A DVD release of the season was confirmed on July 28, 2010. It was released Tuesday, October 5, 2010.