Kristie Bennett

The third season of Australian Survivor is a television series based on the international reality game show franchise Survivor.

The first season aired on the Nine Network in 2002, while the second season (a celebrity edition) aired in 2006 on the Seven Network.

This season gives Australian Survivor the rare distinction of being one of the few Australian programs to have aired across all three commercial networks in Australia.

However, in August 2013, the creator of the Survivor format, Charlie Parsons revealed in an interview with fan website and podcast Survivor Oz that the rights to produce Australian Survivor had been licensed to an undisclosed production company.

The company who believed that there was an appetite for the program and would be approaching Australian networks to commission the potential series.

This season, announced by Ten in November 2015, is the third Australian edition of the program, the second to feature non-celebrity contestants and the first to air on Network Ten.

On 19 November 2015, Network Ten revealed at their upfronts that they would be commissioning a revival of Australian Survivor to air in mid-late 2016.

They also announced that Endermol Shine Australia would be producing the series in association with Castaway Television.

This season of Australian Survivor introduced several elements from international editions of Survivor, including: hidden immunity idols, small trinkets that, when played on a castaway after the votes were cast at Tribal Council but before they were read, negated all votes cast against them at that Tribal Council; the ability to prohibit another player from voting at a single Tribal Council, as offered during the season's Survivor Auction; and Exile Beach, where a small number of castaways were banished to a separate beach for a predetermined amount of time, and given minimal tools for survival.

With the announcement of the series in November 2015, a casting call was made for potential contestants.

Applicants for the series were required to be 18 years of age or older, be Australian citizens or permanent residents and be able to swim.

More than 5,000 people applied within the first week of casting being opened, and 7,500 had applied before the year's end.

Submissions eventually reached 15,000 before the 10 February deadline, making it the largest pool of applicants for a Network Ten reality program.

The season was rumored to be filmed in Samoa as early as March, and was officially confirmed on 9 May by LaPaglia in a radio interview on the Hamish & Andy show.

The season was filmed on the island of Upolu, the same location used in four seasons of the American edition of Survivor: Samoa, Heroes vs. Villains, South Pacific and One World.

In total, 250 Australians and at least 180 Samoan locals worked on the program, including Trent Pattison, who has previously worked as a challenge producer on the American edition as well as Ten's own I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

Australian Survivor was initially scheduled to air twice a week, with new episodes airing on Sunday and Monday at 7:30pm.

However, following the first week, a third weekly episode — set to air Tuesdays at 7:30pm — was added to the schedule.

The move was a means to both increase the exposure to the series to potential viewers and to increase the competitiveness of Ten's Tuesday schedule following low ratings for the previous programs airing in the 7:30pm slot, Modern Family and Life in Pieces.

In addition to the main show, a 9-part companion program, titled The Jury Villa, was released online through tenplay.

Based on the similar Ponderosa series from the American show, the web series follows the last nine castaways to be voted off as they become members of the Tribal Council Jury and interact with one another and discuss The Game in the villa.

Episodes began airing after episode 17 and were uploaded following the airing of subsequent episodes.

The primary sponsorships for the season include Hungry Jack's, AHM Health Insurance and Holden.

The 24 castaways were initially divided into three tribes of eight, each named after a beach in Samoa: Aganoa, Saanapu and Vavau.

On Day 12, two castaways each from Saanapu and Vavau swapped tribes as a result of a special joint Tribal Council in which the tribes unknowingly voted to switch a member of their tribe to the other; the switched castaways each brought a tribe member with them.

After winning the reward challenge on Day 19, Saanapu earned the right to redistribute the 18 remaining castaways into two tribes of nine, and Aganoa was officially disbanded.

For winning the immunity challenge on Day 29, Saanapu sent an observer to Vavau's Tribal Council where, instead of a vote, the observer was to "kidnap" one of the Vavau tribe members, bringing them back to Saanapu as an official member.

On Day 32, the 13 remaining castaways merged into the Fia Fia tribe, named after the Samoan term for "celebration".

The final 11 players comprised the two finalists and the nine members of the jury, who voted to decide which of the two finalists should be the "Sole Survivor" and be awarded the grand prize.

The season was filmed in Samoa from May to July 2016 and premiered on 21 August 2016 on Network Ten.

Hosted by Jonathan LaPaglia, the program featured 24 Australian castaways competing for 55 days for a grand prize of A$500,000.

After 55 days on the island, Kristie Bennett was named the "Sole Survivor" and awarded the grand prize over former professional cricketer Lee Carseldine by a jury vote of 8–1.

After Australian Celebrity Survivor was not renewed by the Seven Network, a third season of Australian Survivor appeared unlikely.

Phoebe Timmons, Nick Iadanza, Brooke Jowett, Felicity "Flick" Egginton and Lee Carseldine competed on Australian Survivor: All Stars in 2020, while Sam Webb competed as a hero on Australian Survivor: Heroes V Villains in 2023.

Outside of Survivor, Brooke Jowett has competed on The Challenge: Australia in 2022.

Matt Tarrant competed on the tenth season of Australia's Got Talent in 2022.

The Game began with three tribes of eight, and in each, a majority alliance was formed.

On Saanapu, Flick and Brooke recruited Sam, Matt, and Conner.

On Vavau, Craig, Andrew, Sue, and Jennah-Louise joined forces.

And on Aganoa, Evan aligned with Phoebe, Rohan, Lee, and El, but drama from the idol clue twist between him and Rohan would see the alliance turn on Evan.