Survivor 5: Thailand boxscores
Episode 9: "Desperate Measures"
By Jeff Pitman | Published: July 3, 2024
Survivor: Thailand Episode 9 boxscore

Filmed: July 4-6, 2002 |  Aired: November 14, 2002
Brian wins RC
Video reward, sort of
Clay wins IC
Ken out, 5-3

 

  • Ep.9 RC: "Wicker Ball Relay" - The tribes get a preview of their videos from home, finally merge, and compete in a (semi-) individual RC. Brian "wins," gets lemonade to share with all, and his full video to share with all ... which he clearly would prefer not to, for good reason.
  • Ep.9 IC: "Thai Numbers" - It's sort of an individual challenge, except six people are eliminated almost immediately, then eventually Clay beats Ken, who apparently can't follow directions or count.
  • Ep.9 Tribal: Ken voted out, 5-3 over Ted.
Episode 9 scoring notes
  • The challenges: Both were bizarre multi-stage ones, with the RC initially done in pairs, with two first-round heats, the winners of that doing the exact same course again, then the winning pair facing off in a spectacularly simple puzzle (the one Evvie made out of beads to practice). The IC wasn't much better with a simple memory test eliminating six people on two questions, then Clay and Ken facing off in a complex treasure hunt. The RC should technically be scored as a team RC for rounds 1 and 2, but Helen didn't really win anything except a chance to compete in the finals, and I'm tired, so meh.
  • The SurvAv leader: With Ted picking up three votes and the Sook Jais all voting incorrectly, this is the point where Brian permanently takes the lead in SurvAv. He'll continue winning a challenge here and there, and voting correctly to the end. He had been tied with Ted and Jake. No more.
Vote count:
  • Ken received 5 votes, from Brian, Clay, Helen, Jan, and Ted (voted out, 5-3).
  • Ted received 3 votes, from Jake, Ken, and Penny.
Episode 9 boxscore - challenges

Reward challenge Immunity challenge Overall score
Contestant ChA ChW Plc % Fin ChA ChW Plc % Fin MPF
Clay 0 1 t-3 0.69 1 1 1 1.00 84.4%
Ken 0 1 t-3 0.69 0 1 2 0.88 78.1%
Brian 1 1 1 1.00 0 1 t-4 0.38 68.8%
Helen 0 1 2 0.88 0 1 t-4 0.38 62.5%
Penny 0 1 t-5 0.31 0 1 3 0.75 53.1%
Ted 0 1 t-5 0.31 0 1 t-4 0.38 34.4%
Jake 0 1 t-5 0.31 0 1 t-4 0.38 34.4%
Jan 0 1 t-5 0.31 0 1 t-4 0.38 34.4%
Episode 9 boxscore - Tribal Council

Tribal council stats Overall scores
Contestant VFB VAP TotV TCA SurvSc SurvAv
Brian 1 - 8 1 1.53 9.18
Jake 0 - 8 1 1.06 6.78
Jan 1 - 8 1 1.04 6.43
Clay 1 - 8 1 1.50 6.18
Penny 0 - 8 1 1.06 5.61
Ted 1 3 8 1 1.26 5.18
Helen 1 - 8 1 0.96 4.43
Ken 0 5 8 1 1.04 3.28
Erin - - - - 1.22 4.14
Shii Ann - - - - 0.89 1.93
Robb - - - - 0.48 0.94
Stephanie - - - - 0.17 0.43
Ghandia - - - - 0.56 1.37
Jed - - - - -0.07 0.41
Tanya - - - - 0.33 1.56
John - - - - -0.75 0.00
Glossary of terms
  • Challenge stats
    • ChW: Challenge Wins. For tribal challenges, a contestant earns a fraction of 1 win, depending on if they participated (no points for sitting out). So in a five-person tribe's win, each participant gets (1/5) of a point, or 0.2 points. Duels (or individual RCs as in Ep1) at Redemption Island count as half a challenge (and half a win). Individual challenge wins count as a full point.
    • ChA: Challenge Appearances. Used to calculate ChW%. Fractional for tribal challenges (same as ChW), except sit-outs get charged for an appearance, because they could have participated.
    • ChW%: Challenge Win%. Simply, ChW% = ChW / ChA.
    • SO: The number of times a contestant sat out of a challenge.
  • Tribal Council stats
    • VFB: Votes For Bootee. The number of times the contestant has voted for the person who was ultimately voted out. Applies only to initial votes (no points for revotes in case of a tie). Special case: In a final three TC, where only one vote is cast (by the F3 IC winner), only that vote counts.
    • VAP: Votes Against the Player. The total number of tribal council votes cast against the contestant. Again, only initial votes count (no penalty for revotes), and here a hidden immunity idol (if played) erases the votes. In the special case of a final three tribal council above, only the F3 bootee receives a vote against.
    • TotV: Total votes cast during the tribal councils the player has attended (again, only initial votes count). Used to adjust for different vote totals as tribes shrink.
    • TCA: Tribal council appearances. The number of times a contestant has attended tribal council (at which they voted).
    • TC%: Tribal Council percent. Attempts to reward voting for the bootee (which players controlling the vote almost always do), while punishing receiving votes yourself. The formula is: TC% = [VFB - (VAP/TotV)] / TCA.
    • wTCR: weighted Tribal Council Ratio. Very similar in intent to TC%, but calculated as a ratio of VFB to VAP, while also scaling to a uniform number of TC appearances. The formula is as follows: wTCR =2* [VFB / (4+VAP)] x (14/TCA). I originally tried (1+VAP) to avoid dividing by zero, but this overly rewarded getting zero votes against relative to just one vote against, which seemed silly. (4+VAP) scaled that effect back comfortably. 14 was used as the scaling factor for TC appearances because there are usually 14 episodes, then a final scaling factor of 2 to bring maximal scores up to roughly even with ChW and JV% high scores.
  • Jury stats
    • JVF: Number of jury votes for the contestant to win. Maximum nine (Earl Cole, Fiji), theoretically.
    • TotJ: Total number of jurors. Necessary to not punish unanimous 7-juror winners (JT Thomas, Tocantins).
    • JV%: The percent of total jury votes cast for the contestant, or Jur% = JVF/ TotJ. This number is used, raw, in SurvSc, and is scaled in SurvAv (multiplied by six) to make it similar in size to ChW and wTCR.
  • Overall scores
    • Survival Score (SurvSc). It's simply the sum of Challenge Win% (ChW%) + Tribal Council% (TC%) + Jury Vote%, for a maximum possible score of 2 (3 after the finale).
    • Survival Average (SurvAv). It's a simple sum of fractional Challenge Wins (ChW), weighted TC Ratio (wTCR), and (eventually) a weighted Jury%. The latter two max out at six points total, for a theoretical maximum score of around 18 or so.