Survivor Pearl Islands
Survivor: Pearl Islands is the seventh installment of the popular television reality show Survivor. It was filmed in 2003 and debuted in the United States on CBS on September 18, 2003.
The show takes place on the Pearl Islands, off the coast of Panama. The two original tribes were Drake and Morgan. Eventually the two were merged into the Balboa tribe.
The contestants include (in order of how they finished, starting from the first one eliminated and ending with the winner):
- Nicole Delma, 25, massage therapist from Hermosa Beach, California (Morgan)
- Ryan "Skinny Ryan" Shoulders, 23, produce clerk from Clarksville, Tennessee (Morgan)
- Michelle Tesaurio, 22, student from Pittstown, New Jersey (Drake)
- Trish Dunn, 42, sales executive from Annapolis, Maryland (Drake)
- Shawn Cohen, 28, advertising sales rep from New York City (Drake)
- Osten Taylor, 27, equity trade manager from Boston, Massachusetts (Morgan)
- Andrew Savage, 40, attorney from Chicago, Illinois (Morgan)
- Ryan "Ryno" Opray, 31, electrician from Los Gatos, California (Morgan)
- Rupert Boneham, 39, troubled teen mentor from Indianapolis, Indiana (Drake)
- Tijuana Bradley, 27, pharmaceutical sales rep from St. Louis, Missouri (Morgan)
- Christa Hastie, 24, computer programmer from Los Angeles, California (Drake)
- Burton Roberts, 31, marketing executive from San Francisco, California (Drake)
- Darrah Johnson, 22, mortician from Liberty, Mississippi (Morgan)
- Jon "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton, 29, art consultant from Danville, Virginia (Drake)
- Lillian Morris, 51, Scout troop leader from Cincinnati, Ohio (Morgan) Won $100,000 US
- Sandra Diaz-Twine, 29, office assistant from Fort Lewis, Washington (Drake) Won $1,000,000 US
Osten Taylor was not voted off. He became the first contestant in Survivor history to quit the game, saying that his health was more important to him than the million dollar prize.
Jon Dalton gained notoriety on the show when, in a challenge where the contestant's loved ones competed, he had his friend say that his grandmother had died. He did this in order to gain the others' pity and win the challenge, then continued to milk the lie for all its worth by always saying "I swear on my grandmother" when someone didn't believe him about something. In the reunion show that aired after the season finale, host Jeff Probst did a brief interview with Jon's grandmother, who was not only alive and well, but a young and very beautiful woman.
Note: This series of Survivor had a surprise feature where the first six contestants voted off were given an opportunity to win their way back on to the show. Lillian Morris (who was originally the third person voted off) and Burton Roberts (who was the fourth) rejoined the contest in this manner.
Survivor: Pearl Islands was preceded by Survivor: The Amazon and followed by Survivor: All-Stars
