[3] This season, players sent to Exile Island had a choice of receiving a clue to the location of a Hidden Immunity Idol or a comfort item.

He defeated Susie Smith and Jessica "Sugar" Kiper in a 4–3–0 vote at the live finale to take the million dollar prize.

In addition, Bob won the $100,000 "Sprint Survivor of the Season" award, beating out Sugar and Matty Whitmore, who were next highest in the popular vote.

This season started with 18 people divided into two tribes, Fang and Kota, named after ethnic groups in Gabon through a schoolyard pick.

Former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson was initially cast for this season, but was forced to drop out for medical reasons; he was replaced by Bob Crowley.

It became evident that Gillian's tribe, Fang, was weaker, losing many of the reward and immunity challenges even after a tribal switch, but a core alliance between Matty, Ken, and Crystal developed.

On Day 22, both tribes were given clues suggesting a tribal merge; they enjoyed a celebratory meal, and discovered a hidden immunity idol nearby.

Bob won three consecutive immunity challenges, forcing the Fang alliance to turn on themselves and resulting in the eliminations of Crystal and Ken due to their strong strategic prowess.

Randy hit his head on the tribe's hut, requiring a visit by the Survivor medical team to put in several stitches.

Picked as the leader of Fang at Tribal Council, GC started the tribe's first fire and organized jobs to fix up the campsite.

At Tribal Council, Gillian's weakness at physical challenges was seen as a greater concern than Dan's potential of having the Hidden Immunity Idol and she was voted out.

During the Immunity Challenge, Ken secured Fang's victory by overcoming Kota's lead at the tile retrieval stage and solving the numeric puzzle before Bob.

At Tribal Council, Ace's attitude at camp was discussed, but the tribe chose to remove their weakest physical link and voted out Paloma.

Kota ranked Marcus as most important in their tribe followed by Ace, Bob, Charlie, Jacquie, Corinne, Sugar, and Kelly.

The new Kota was Marcus, Dan, Charlie, Randy, Corinne, Susie, and Bob, while the new Fang tribe consisted of Matty, Ace, Crystal, Jacquie, Ken, Kelly, and GC.

At the newly formed Fang campsite, Crystal noticed that Kelly felt like an outcast at the old Kota and invited her to join her alliance with GC and Ken.

Kelly's poor performance at the challenge made Crystal, GC, and Ken reconsider their alliance with her, as they now perceived her as the weakest member of the tribe.

Jacquie tried to plead her case to Ken and Crystal, casting herself as an outsider who was not allied with Ace and really wanted to remain in the game.

Kota chose to send Sugar to Exile Island for the third time in a row, with Dan stating that it was a strategy move to force her to play the Hidden Immunity Idol before the tribal merge as they wanted it back into circulation.

Although Crystal, Kelly, Ken, and Matty believed that the upcoming Tribal Council was the ideal time to blindside Sugar, they decided instead to grant GC’s wish to leave and he was voted out.

Unlike her last visit where she enjoyed the food with the comfort, Sugar felt guilty about eating while her fellow tribe members subsisted on three scoops of rice.

At the Kota camp, the alliance of Charlie, Corinne, and Marcus made Dan uncomfortable and he approached them feeling left out.

At the Reward Challenge, Kota continued their winning streak by shutting out Fang 3-0; Sugar was chosen to go to Exile Island for the fifth consecutive time.

Corinne announced that Fang was going to send Bob to Exile Island, hoping that he would find the Hidden Immunity Idol, but not knowing that Sugar had already found it.

The castaways returned to the old Fang campsite, found that they had received new food supplies, and named themselves Nobag ("Gabon" backwards).

Sugar joined the alliance of Crystal, Ken, Matty, and Susie, because she did not want to align with Randy and Corinne, and Charlie was sent to the jury.

For the second to last item at the auction, Corinne won a sealed bottle with a note that would give her an advantage at the next Immunity Challenge.

Bob won the Reward Challenge and chose to take Crystal and Ken along on the trip and to send Susie to Exile Island.

Marcus asked no questions of Susie, what Sugar would do to honor her deceased father if she were to win, and for Bob to give one example of a situation in which he was responsible for his decisions.

[48] Survivor: Gabon received some minor criticism from the Parents Television Council for a brief, uncensored glimpse of Marcus's penis when the tip was partially exposed through the fly of his boxer shorts.