16 average Americans are marooned on the deserted island of Puala Tiga in the South China Sea for 39 days, where they must survive not only the island, but each other, as every three days, one person is voted off. The 16 are split in to two tribes of 8. Tagi consists of Dirk, Kelly, Richard, Rudy, Sean, Sonja, Stacey and Susan. Pagong consists of BB, Colleen, Gervase, Greg, Gretchen, Jenna, Joel and Ramoana. In the first 3 days, the tribes get to know each other, and while BB's domineering attitude annoys some of his tribemates, Richard also begins to get on the nerves of the Tagi camp as he attempts to lead them in a group direction. When Pagong won the first Immunity Challenge (a competition), Tagi had to go to Tribal Council, where they must vote someone off of the island. Despite Stacey's attempts to form a female alliance against 72-year-old Rudy, it was Sonja Christopher who was voted off of the island with 4 of the 8 votes. The tribe has spoken.

Pagong are growing weary of BB's bossy and domineering attitude, and as Greg and Colleen begin to get friendly, the crabby 60-something clashes with Ramoana and Joel. Meanwhile, at the Tagi camp, Stacey and Rudy's personality clashes are getting worse, but Rudy does have a fond admiration for gay islander Richard. Tagi works as a team and prevails in the second Immunity Challenge, where they must eat live bugs, mostly due to Stacey, who competed with Gervase in a tiebreaker round. BB's fate was sealed when he used the tribe's only supply of clean water to wash his clothes, and when it came to Tribal Council, BB Anderson was voted off of the island. The tribe has spoken.

At Pagong, Greg and Colleen continue to grow closer as the younger tribe members begin to grow more accustom to their island home. Meanwhile, across the island at Tagi camp, Stacey's raw attitude continued to annoy the rest of her tribemates, especially the elder members. While both tribes were on the verge of running out of rice, Tagi won a reward challenge giving them fishing equipment., leaving Pagong's only hope to eat the island's selection of rats. At the immunity challenge, a last minute decision to switch a weak Jenna into an athletic part of the challenge could have proven detrimental, but Pagong pulled through in the end. At tribal council, Stacey tried to shake things up by trying to recruit some of the older members to vote off Rudy, but in the end, only Kelly stayed loyal, and a surprised Stacey was voted off. The tribe has spoken.

At Tagi, everyone begins to get annoyed by Dirk who is very religious. Rudy admits he'd use the pages from Dirk's bible as toilet paper. Sean & Dirk go looking for Tapioka and talk about Sue behind her back they also realize that Rich, Rudy, Sue & Kelly have some sort of alliance. At Pagong, they are thrilled to win chickens. Joel & Gervase begin to have strong bond while people get interested when Greg & Colleen go off all the time together. At Immunity, Pagong wins. At Tribal Council, Susan recieves 2 votes, while Dirk recieves 4 votes and is voted out.

As Tagi and Pagong prepare to merge in to one tribe, both teams are looking to the future, but not all of them will make it there. As Rudy finally agrees to join with Richard, Susan and Kelly as the fourth member of the Tagi Alliance, the Pagong females are enraged when Gervase makes a nasty comment comparing girls to cows, and were even angrier at Joel for congratuling him on making the sexist remark. Also, as Pagong strategiszes, Susan makes her decisions about who she wants rid of, and Gretchen shocks her tribemates with a surprising remark. Pagong win the Reward Challenge, but are shocked to find the chickens they won in the last contest have been eaten by a lizard. To add to their sorrows, Pagong lose the final tribal Immunity Challenge, and are sent to Tribal Council, where Joel Klug, the 28-year-old Travelling Salesman from Arkansas, is voted off of the island. The tribe has spoken.

The two tribes merge into one, Rattana.

Colleen, Jenna, Gervase & Greg return to camp shocked that fellow castmate Gretchen was voted out. Jenna admits that their is some kind of alliance. Richard is angry after recieving a vote and decides to stop fishing to punish the tribe. Susan admits that she really wants Greg gone. Sean tells everyone is alphabet voting stratigy, which Susan calls dumb. At the Reward Challenge the winner would recieve a video from home. Jenna breaks down when Jeff tells her they never recieved a video tape. Greg ends up wining the reward and watches a video from home. Richard realizes that Greg is a big threat. At Immunity, Gervase wins. At Tribal Council, Jenna recieves 3 votes while Greg recieves 6 votes and is voted out and making him the 1st Jury Member.

The former Pagong members finally realize that Tagi members have an alliance. Kelly becomes close with Jenna & Colleen and tell them that their is no alliance. The girls including Susan decide that no more girls are going to be voted out. At Reward Challenge, Colleen wins and takes Jenna because she'll get a letter from home. As Jenna & Colleen eat bbq food they decide to stick together and form a BBQ alliance and that their first target is Richard. At Immunity, Rudy wins. Sean tells Jenna that he'll be voting for her because of his alphabet voting. Jenna tries to get Kelly to join them but Kelly admits she doesn't know who to vote out. At Tribal Council, Sean recieves 1 vote, Richard recieves 3 votes, and Jenna recieves 4 votes and is voted out making her the 2nd Jury Member.

It's a day of luck for Gervase - who, after hearing news of the birth of his baby boy, wins the Reward Challenge, giving him a chance to chat with his girlfriend, Carmella, about the baby, and a big slice of pizza. But his luck runs out there. He struggles with the Immunity Challenge and loses to Richard, whose alliance of four bands together to vote him out of the tribe. Before the vote, the relationship between Kelly and Susan reaches a tense boiling point, as the once-friends quickly turn to become each other's enemies. As Kelly's unwillingness to play the game "dirtily" emerges, the Tagi alliance begins to crack.

As the game of Survivor draws to its conclusion, the remaining six contestants fight it out for a place in the final four. The Tagi Alliance begins to crumble, as Rudy and Richard make plans to be in the final two, and Susan and Kelly's friendship begins to disintegrate. When Sean wins the Reward Challenge, he gets a night on a luxury cruise liner and meets up with his father. The Alliance is very divided, and at the time of the Immunity Challenge, where the six must stand on a plank in the sea for as long as possible, Richard, Susan and Rudy decided that either Sean or Kelly would be going home. When Kelly won Immunity, it seemed Sean was doomed to go home, but then the Alliance changed its mind, and with four votes, Colleen Haskell, the final member of the original Pagong tribe, was voted off of the island. The tribe has spoken.

It's day 34, and the five remaining Survivors are all members of the original Tagi tribe. As mind games and manipulation accelerates, Kelly and Susan get in to a heated argument, and Richard begins to realise that everything is playing to his advantage. The final Reward Challenge sees the Survivors make their way in to the mud volcano, and Kelly is the final winner, and receives a trip to a bar with Jeff Probst and the chance to see the first five minutes of the first episode of ""Survivor."" At the bar, Kelly admitted, ""The game's finally gotten weird."" As Sean finally realised that money was at stake, the contestants took part in the Immunity Challenge, which dealt with island superstition and folklore, and ended with Kelly winning (again). When it comes to Tribal Council, Sean Kenniff, the Neurologist and only member of Tagi not in the Alliance, was voted off of the island, sending Richard, Kelly, Susan and Rudy in to the final four. Who will win?

We're down to the Final Four - Richard, Kelly, Rudy and Susan, the original Tagi alliance. With alliances being formed and broken at a rapid rate, friendships crumbled, and when Kelly won Immunity at the first challenge, Susan was voted off of the island (following a tie vote between her and Richard). Then, the three remaining Survivors had to take a ceremonious walk past the extinguished torches of their old tribemates, and take part in an endurance challenge that pushed them to their limit. Kelly won Immunity for the second time and, with the sole vote cast at Tribal Council, voted Rudy off of the island, and propelled herself and Richard in to the final two. Following an emotional final Tribal Council, in which the two Survivors made their opening and closing speeches, and were quizzed by each member of the Jury, the seven former members of Ratanna cast their votes for who they wanted to win. In the end, it came down to a 3-3 vote between the pair. Greg cast the deciding vote, and w

In this special reunion of all castaways, Bryant Gumbel (CBS's ""The Early Show"") poses questions to the castaways about their 39 days on the island.