Survivor

16 SURVIVORS STRANDED IN OUTBACK
January 28, 2001

Survivor is back, and on day three, Debb Eaton, a 45-year-old corrections officer, became the first Survivor to be voted out of the Outback.

Survivor's premise is simple: Abandon sixteen average Americans, chosen from all walks of life, in the middle of one of the most unforgiving places on earth—the Australian Outback. Every three days, the Survivors must gather to vote someone out of the tribe. The lone Survivor at the end wins one million dollars.

It began with an unforgettable plane ride aboard a DH-C4 Royal Australian Military aircraft. As the plane bounced up and down to a destination in the middle of nowhere, 16 men and women quickly realized they were in for the adventure of a lifetime. "The moment I stepped off that plane I was like, uh oh, this place is going to be tough. I knew we were in for it," noted Alicia Calaway, a personal trainer currently residing in New York City. (

See airplane with Jeff Probst sitting at its edge. )

Kucha on the long trek to their new home

The Survivors were separated into two competing tribes: Kucha (derived from the Aboriginal word meaning "kangaroo") and Ogakor (derived from the Aboriginal word meaning "crocodile"). None of the contestants were allowed to speak to anyone until the aircraft had abandoned them; this way, the tribe members would be complete strangers to each other as they began building their respective tribal societies. Two crates of supplies were placed at the end of the airstrip. The Survivors were given only five minutes to salvage whatever they could carry and start a grueling 5-mile trek to their new camps.

The tribes split up and headed off in opposite directions to find their new homes. The camps were separated by four miles of treacherous terrain along the bank of the Herbert River in Northern Queensland, Australia. Finding these sites was the first unofficial challenge that the tribes endured. It was also the first opportunity for the tribe members to begin establishing relationships with each other; the group dynamics were quickly apparent.