The 2020 season of Survivor: VIP (Hebrew: הישרדות VIP, romanized: Hisardut VIP) is the tenth season overall of the Israeli reality program Survivor and the third VIP season. The season featured 18 celebrity contestants competing against each other for the 1 million NIS prize. The season was filmed in the Philippines between August and October 2019, and began airing on Reshet 13 on May 2, 2020.
Format changes
This season largely retained the format of previous seasons, with several changes:
Airing format: This season aired four to five episodes per three-day cycle, compared to the two episodes per cycle schedule of previous seasons.
Cabin Guard: Voted out players became Cabin Guards, who lived at the Negotiation Cabin (as seen in all seasons since the 2012 VIP season), where representatives from each tribe met to broker deals, such as allocating resources or picking contestants to switch tribes. If the deliberating contestants could not come to a conclusion in the allotted time, the Cabin Guard who had been there the longest would make the decision for them.
Duels: There were three types of duels involving the Cabin Guards, of which the first two were similar to the zombie's duels from season seven, Survivor: Honduras.
Vote duel: Immediately after each tribal immunity challenge, the losing tribe's Cabin Guard would challenge one of the tribe members to a duel. If the Cabin Guard won the duel, they voted in the duel loser's stead at the upcoming Tribal Council, and had the power to summon one member of the losing tribe to the Cabin to strategize for the vote. If the Cabin Guard lost the duel, they exited the game. After the merge, these duels occurred immediately before the immunity challenge.
Cabin Guard duel: If the Cabin Guard won the vote duel, they duelled the player voted out at the next Tribal Council for the right to remain the Cabin Guard. At two predetermined points, winners of these duels returned to the game.
Reward duel: After the merge, one tribe member competed in a duel against the Cabin Guard. If the player won the duel, one of their tribemates received a video call from a loved one. If the Cabin Guard won two consecutive duels, they would immediately return to the game. These duels were held in lieu of the veto challenges seen in all seasons since the second season, Survivor: Pearl Islands.
Popularity ratings: Contestants regularly ranked their tribemates throughout the game. On the first day, players ranked the others; the nine most popular players formed the Kapre tribe, while the remaining nine formed the Anting Anting tribe. Before each reward challenge, players ranked their tribemates. Before the merge, the player from each tribe with the lowest rating was unable to enjoy the reward should their tribe win the challenge, and were unable to compete in the individual immunity challenge should their tribe lose the tribal immunity challenge. After the merge, the player with the lowest rating was unable to compete in the reward challenge.
Penalty vote: After the merge, the contestant who placed last in the immunity challenge received a penalty vote at that night's Tribal Council. This was similar to the veto challenge penalty votes from the 2012 VIP season.
^At the Negotiation Cabin on Day 4, Israel and Alina chose one member to switch to the other tribe; they chose Adi and Nava, respectively.
^On Day 11, Benny and Israel were temporarily switched to the other tribe. At the immunity challenge later that day, they were given the opportunity to remain with their new tribes; they both accepted.
^Elimination order is based on when the contestant was voted out at Tribal Council.
^ abThe Final Tribal Council vote resulted in a tie for first place between Asi and Israel. As the other finalists, Idan and Yarden became the 8th and 9th members of the jury, and the jury revoted between the two remaining finalists.
Season summary
Pre-merge challenge winners and eliminations by cycle
^For switching tribes, Adi and Nava would receive individual immunity if their new tribe lost the next immunity challenge. Anting Anting lost, and Adi became immune.
^For winning the reward challenge, the Kapre tribe competed in a bonus reward challenge for an extra vote at a future Tribal Council, which Ido won.
^ abAt the Negotiation Cabin before the tribes were switched, Asi and Idan gave individual immunity to one member from the other tribe; they chose Ido and Israel, respectively.
^For winning the reward/immunity challenge, the Anting Anting tribe observed Kapre's Tribal Council and voted to give immunity to one player from their tribe; Regev won the vote.
^There was no vote duel due to the upcoming merge.
^For winning the reward/immunity challenge, the Anting Anting tribe got to vote to give immunity to one member of Kapre; Regev won the vote, therefore the five votes cast against him were not counted.
^The initial vote resulted in a tie between Alina and Regev; as such, the tie was resolved by a firemaking competition, which Regev won. Idan played a hidden immunity idol on Yarden, therefore the one vote against her was not counted.
^Yarden gave her immunity to Benny, therefore the penalty vote against him was not counted.
^For winning the reward challenge, Idan got to block another player from voting at the next Tribal Council; he chose Asi.
^Asi played an extra vote advantage, allowing him to cast two ballots during a single vote.
^For winning the reward challenge, Yarden got to block another player from voting at the next Tribal Council; she chose Israel.
^ abAt the Negotiation Cabin before the tribes were switched, Asi and Idan chose one member of the other tribe to lose their vote at the next Tribal Council; they chose Lital and Alina, respectively.
^ abAt the Negotiation Cabin, Israel and Yarden chose one member of their tribe to vote at the other tribe's Tribal Council in the place of one of that tribe's members, should their tribe win the tribal immunity challenge; they chose Ella and Ido, respectively. Kapre won the challenge and Ella was sent to Anting Anting's Tribal Council, where she chose to take Alina's vote.
^ abcdFor winning the duel, the Cabin Guard voted at the next Tribal Council in the place of the castaway they defeated.
^ abcdFor losing the duel, this castaway was unable to vote at the next Tribal Council, while the Cabin Guard voted in their stead.
^Ido played an extra vote advantage, allowing him to cast two ballots during a single vote.
^The player who came in last place during the immunity challenge automatically received a penalty vote at the next Tribal Council.
^For violating the laws of survival, one vote was disqualified. As a result, the vote was tied between Asi and Israel; Idan and Yarden joined the jury in a new ballot between Asi and Israel to determine the winner. All The votes from this ballot were not revealed.
