Survivor: Island of the Idols
season of television series
Survivor: Island of the Idols is the 39th season of the American competitive reality television series Survivor. Hosted by Jeff Probst, it featured two tribes of ten new contestants. The season was filmed in Fiji during April and May 2019, and aired on CBS in the United States from September 25, 2019, until December 18, 2019, when Tommy Sheehan was named the winner by an 8–2–0 vote over Dean Kowalski and Noura Salman.
This season introduced the eponymous Island of the Idols, as Survivor alumni Sandra Diaz-Twine, winner of Survivor: Pearl Islands and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, and Rob Mariano, winner of Survivor: Redemption Island, returned to the game as mentors living on the Island of the Idols, though they did not compete for the million-dollar prize themselves. Instead, Diaz-Twine and Mariano periodically hosted a contestant each episode and gave them a lesson to assist them in the game. They also gave the contestant a chance to win an advantage, but if they failed, they lost their vote at their next Tribal Council.
The season received widespread media attention after contestant Dan Spilo was accused of inappropriately touching female contestants. While there was no in-game recourse provided from the production crew, Spilo was later ejected from the game following an off-camera incident involving a crew member. CBS and Survivor producers issued an apology for how they handled the situation and announced they would make significant changes to their safety protocols, to be fully in place by the 41st season, filming of which took place two years later following Island of the Idols' airing.
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