50 Fun Facts About Survivor: Cook Islands

Survivor: Cook Islands caused an uproar before it aired by first dividing its four tribes on what basis?

Ethnicity split the cast into African American, Asian American, Latino and white tribes, an arrangement that lasted only six days before a shuffle into two mixed tribes.

Which management consultant from the Aitu Four won Survivor: Cook Islands by a single jury vote?

Yul Kwon never won an individual immunity challenge; his alliance swept the final four places and the jury narrowly preferred his strategy to the runner-up's challenge record.

Survivor: Cook Islands was the first season to end with what change to the Final Tribal Council?

Three finalists faced a nine-person jury instead of the usual two facing seven, a change the last four players learned about only on Day 38.

The eventual winner of Survivor: Cook Islands came back from his only trip to Exile Island secretly holding what?

A hidden immunity idol, made to look like a broken compass, could that season be played after the votes were read, so nobody could vote its holder out while he kept it.

A deadlocked vote at the final four of Survivor: Cook Islands was settled by which tiebreaker, lasting over an hour?

Fire-making dragged on because neither woman could raise a flame with flint; both were finally handed matches, and one of them used up her whole box.

Survivor: Cook Islands, first shown on CBS in September 2006, is which numbered season of the American series?

Thirteenth in the run, Cook Islands arrived only six years after the show began, because CBS usually staged two seasons a year.

Ozzy Lusth lost the Survivor: Cook Islands jury vote but was voted fan favorite, a title that won him what?

A new car, a Mercury Mariner, was his consolation prize at the reunion after five individual immunity wins had carried him to the final vote.

Survivor: Cook Islands was filmed in a self-governing Pacific nation that is in free association with which country?

New Zealand gives most Cook Islanders its citizenship, though the islands run their own affairs; filming took place around the lagoon of Aitutaki.

After a mutiny left Aitutaki outnumbered eight to four in Survivor: Cook Islands, how did the tribe fare in challenges?

It won every one of the four tribal challenges that followed, forcing the larger Rarotonga tribe to vote out three of its own before the merge.

Which state was home to 13 of the 20 castaways who started Survivor: Cook Islands?

California supplied nearly two-thirds of the cast, and about 85 percent of the players had been recruited by producers rather than applying on their own.

Which attorney reached the Final Tribal Council of Survivor: Cook Islands yet received no jury votes at all?

Becky Lee became the first person in Survivor history to face the final jury and be shut out, as jurors saw her as following her closest ally's lead.

The premiere of Survivor: Cook Islands has a 15-word title quoting a castaway's complaint about which animals?

Chickens that a tribemate let escape from the Rarotonga camp provoked Jonathan Penner's outburst, and no Survivor episode had ever been given a longer title.

Which boxer finished sixth in Survivor: Cook Islands, her debut, and won a later season two years afterwards?

Parvati Shallow was a 23-year-old boxer and cocktail waitress here; she went on to become one of the most celebrated players the show has had.

Ozzy Lusth and Jonathan Penner returned two years after Survivor: Cook Islands in which Fans vs. Favorites season?

Micronesia took three Cook Islands castaways as Favorites, more than any other season supplied, and one of the three went on to win it.

One of the Aitu Four stayed away from Survivor for 14 years before returning in which season, where he placed 14th?

Winners at War brought back twenty former champions for the show's fortieth season; he was voted out and could not win his way back from the Edge of Extinction.

Which carmaker, a Survivor sponsor since the first season, pulled its advertising before Survivor: Cook Islands aired?

General Motors had supplied roughly a fifth of the show's ad revenue that year and had handed cars to earlier champions; it said the choice predated news of the format.

Members of which city's council publicly asked CBS not to broadcast Survivor: Cook Islands before its premiere?

New York councilman John Liu launched the campaign and was joined by fellow council members at a press conference; CBS stood by its producers and aired the season as planned.

Which comedy series opened its twelfth season with a parody of Survivor: Cook Islands two days after the premiere?

Mad TV's spoof rigged the contests, letting one tribe paddle a canoe through a swimming race while its rivals had to swim.

Exile Island, used throughout Survivor: Cook Islands, first became a season-long twist in a series set in which country?

Panama's season carried the subtitle Exile Island; Cook Islands kept the twist, banishing a castaway after most challenges to a bare sand cay in the lagoon.

The two tribes of Survivor: Cook Islands merged at nine players under what blended name?

Aitutonga fused Aitutaki and Rarotonga, and the order proved apt: the four players Aitutaki brought to the merge outlasted all five from Rarotonga.

Which of the four starting tribes in Survivor: Cook Islands won the opening challenge and produced the winner?

Puka Puka placed first in both challenges it ever entered, yet it was dissolved on Day 7 when the four starting tribes were reshuffled into two.

After the mutiny in Survivor: Cook Islands, the Aitu Four repeatedly banished which mutineer to Exile Island as payback?

Candice Woodcock jumped first and paid for it: the four players she left behind won the very next challenge and sent her straight to Exile Island.

Ozzy Lusth won all but one individual immunity challenge in Survivor: Cook Islands; which copier salesman won the other?

Adam Gentry won a memory contest built on the season's own events, then traded his jury vote for a promise that Jonathan Penner would be voted out before him.

Which Survivor: Cook Islands castaway, the first juror, later introduced the season's winner to his future wife?

Brad Virata, a menswear merchandising director, played matchmaker after the show, and the couple's 2009 winery wedding was televised.

Which Survivor: Cook Islands castaway dreamed up Plan Voodoo, an early scheme for splitting a tribe's votes?

Cao Boi Bui said the plan came to him in a dream; his tribe voted him out that same night, yet vote-splitting later became standard Survivor strategy.

Which jazz bassist, the oldest castaway in Survivor: Cook Islands, was the first person voted out of the season?

Sekou Bunch had played with Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and Ray Charles, but he lasted only three days and later performed his own Survivor song at the reunion.

J.P. Calderon, voted out fourth in Survivor: Cook Islands, was a nationally ranked professional in which sport?

Volleyball took Calderon from a Long Beach State scholarship to the pro beach tour, and he later modeled for Janice Dickinson's agency.

Ozzy Lusth, the challenge star of Survivor: Cook Islands, was born in the city of Guanajuato in which country?

Mexico was home only briefly: his parents divorced when he was a toddler, and he moved with his mother to North Carolina to be near relatives.

Survivor: Cook Islands runner-up Ozzy Lusth later competed on the second season of which other competition series?

American Ninja Warrior suited a man who could dive to 30 feet and hold his breath for three minutes, skills that helped him win five immunity challenges.

In the second episode of Survivor: Cook Islands, Ozzy Lusth talked Aitutaki into doing what to get rid of Billy Garcia?

Throwing a challenge on purpose worked: Aitutaki lost, voted Garcia out, and Lusth later cited the move to the jury as proof of his strategy.

The winner of Survivor: Cook Islands studied at Stanford before earning a law degree at which university?

Yale Law School followed a Stanford degree in symbolic systems; he then clerked for a federal appeals judge and worked for Senator Joseph Lieberman.

The Survivor: Cook Islands winner left a government post in 2011 to host America Revealed on which network?

PBS aired the four-part series in 2012, after he had served as a deputy bureau chief at the Federal Communications Commission.

Before Survivor: Cook Islands, mutineer Jonathan Penner was nominated for which film award for a live-action short?

An Oscar nomination came in 1994 for Down on the Waterfront, a short he co-wrote, co-produced and starred in alongside Jason Alexander and Edward Asner.

After losing immunity on Day 24 of Survivor: Cook Islands, Rarotonga opened a sealed bottle whose note ordered what?

A second vote-off sent two players to the jury in one night, a first for the show; the tribe had assumed the bottle held news of the merge.

A Day 15 reward win in Survivor: Cook Islands let Aitutaki do what to Rarotonga's Nate Gonzalez?

Kidnap him they did: he shared a feast of lamb with his captors and was immune that night, when both tribes had to vote somebody out.

The Tribal Council set of Survivor: Cook Islands, themed on Pacific explorers, was built to look like what?

A shipwreck in British style, hung with maps and sailors' gear, suited a season themed on Captain James Cook, whose name the islands carry.

Ozzy Lusth's five immunity wins in Survivor: Cook Islands tied a record first set by which Australian Outback star?

Colby Donaldson reached five individual wins in the show's second season, and Tom Westman and Terry Deitz matched him before Lusth did.

Which actress from the Aitu Four lost the final-four tiebreaker in Survivor: Cook Islands and became the ninth juror?

Sundra Oakley was the only member of her alliance to sit on the jury; the other eight jurors had all finished the game on the rival side.

Which Survivor: Cook Islands castaway had won an Emmy as a make-up artist on the talk show The View?

Rebecca Borman did make-up there for co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who had herself been a Survivor castaway five years earlier.

Which Survivor: Cook Islands castaway was a police officer once shot during a standoff on Santa Monica Pier?

Cristina Coria was told she might lose her arm after the shooting in 2000, yet she returned to full patrol duty the following year.

Many Survivor: Cook Islands challenges were filmed on Tapuaetai, an islet better known by which English name?

One Foot Island sits on the south-eastern rim of the Aitutaki lagoon, and a bare sand cay just west of it is known locally as Nude Island.

Survivor: Cook Islands introduced which storytelling device, later a habit of the show, in its fourth episode?

A cold open, starting the story before the title sequence rolls, first appeared in the episode Ruling the Roost and was kept from then on.

Survivor: Cook Islands was followed on CBS in early 2007 by a season filmed in which other Pacific nation?

Fiji began with an odd number of players, a first for the show, after one castaway withdrew the night before filming.

At the Survivor: Cook Islands auction, one castaway bought the right to exile a rival and take what from her?

All her money went with the exile, and at the same auction the season's eventual winner revealed a secret he had kept for weeks.

While exploring the bay in Survivor: Cook Islands, Ozzy Lusth and two tribemates accidentally stumbled upon what?

The rival tribe's camp lay on the same lagoon, and no other Survivor season had seen one tribe wander onto the other's beach by accident.

Jonathan Penner of Survivor: Cook Islands played the game three times, finishing seventh again in which later season?

Philippines saw him voted out in seventh place, exactly where he had finished in Cook Islands; a knee infection had cut short his second attempt in between.

In the final immunity challenge of Survivor: Cook Islands, the last four castaways had to stay standing on what?

A shrinking perch above the water lost a section every 15 minutes, and Ozzy Lusth outlasted the other three for his fifth individual win.

The mutiny offer accepted in Survivor: Cook Islands had first been made, with no takers, in which earlier season?

Thailand's castaways all stayed put when the offer came on Day 13, and it went unclaimed again in Pearl Islands before two players finally said yes.

As his torch was snuffed in Survivor: Cook Islands, Jonathan Penner asked the remaining players to return which item?

His hat duly came back: the eventual winner brought it to him at the next Tribal Council, where Penner sat on the jury.

A ship chartered for the Survivor: Cook Islands production in June 2006 left the island of Mangaia short of what?

Fuel ran short on Mangaia, and the electricity with it, after the MV Maungaroa was pulled off its usual schedule to work for the producers.