Survivor: Samoa
Survivor: Samoa is the nineteenth season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. The season premiered on Thursday, September 17, 2009. Participant applications were due by January 14, 2009. Approximately 800 were invited to be interviewed in several states. Following this, approximately 48 semi-finalists were invited to Los Angeles in April 2009 for final interviews with the producers. From there, 20 finalists were selected to be contestants in the show, which was scheduled to occur between mid June and mid-July 2009 in Samoa. Similar to Survivor: Tocantins, the minimum age requirement for this season was 18 for most states. In the end, Natalie White defeated Russell Hantz and Mick Trimming with a vote of 7–2–0. Hantz ended up winning the "Sprint Player of the Season" Award, earning the fans' vote over the next highest vote getters, Shannon "Shambo" Waters and Brett Clouser. This was the first season when the tribes merged at 12 players with nine people on the jury. Contestants The 20 contestants were initially split into two teams of ten: Foa Foa and Galu, both meaning "trumpet shell" and "wave" in Samoan respectively. On day 19, the merged tribe Aiga means "family" in Samoan which was