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 Tesauro , 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

Survivor: Pearl Islands was arguably the best series of Survivor after the first installment and the most watched since Survivor: The Australian Outback, in part due to unique twists and colourful and memorable contestants such as America's hero Rupert Boneham, everyone's favourite villain Jonny Fairplay, straight-shooting mum Sandra Diaz-Twine, whiny and weepy Scout troop leader Lillian Morris and self-righteous attorney Andrew Savage.

On the very first day, the castaways, who were earlier been told to dress up for a promotional event for the show on board a ship, were shocked to learn that they were to be marooned with only the clothes they were wearing. They were then given 100 Panamanian balboas which they could exchange, along with any personal items such as earrings, gold chains and sneakers, for supplies at a nearby fishing village on the first day. Young and muscular African-American Osten Taylor ended up bartering off all his clothing except his boxer shorts. On day 3, while participating in the tribes' first immunity challenge, Taylor decided to take off his boxer shorts, which had become extremely loose due to rapid weight loss in the preceding days, and complete the challenge in the nude to eliminate the trouble of having to keep his shorts up. His two alliance partners, Andrew Savage and Ryan Opray, decided to honour that alliance and so stripped down as well. Ultimately, however, their efforts went unrewarded when their tribe, Morgan, lost the challenge.

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, and were each given individual immunity at their first Tribal Council to allow them time to "integrate" back into their tribe. Known among Survivor fans as the Outcast twist, this feature was to cause huge controversy among Survivor fans and was also viewed as unfair by many of the contestants still in the game, notably Andew Savage (which partly resulted in him being voted off immediately after Morris and Roberts rejoined the contest). Roberts became the first person in Survivor history to have his torch snuffed out twice when he was voted off again on Day 36.

External link

• Official CBS website