Survivor: Africa

The Survivor: Africa final four question CBS got wrong

CBS paid three second-place prizes of $100,000 for Survivor: Africa. At the final four, Lex van den Berghe's answer to a Fallen Comrades question about body piercings was marked wrong although it was also correct. CBS acknowledged the error in February 2002 and paid Lex and Tom Buchanan alongside runner-up Kim Johnson.

Confirmed CBS acknowledged the scoring error publicly and paid three second-place prizes. What the correct scoring would have done to the result was never established and cannot be.

Lex van den Berghe Lex van den Berghe Kim Johnson Kim Johnson Tom Buchanan Tom Buchanan Ethan Zohn Ethan Zohn

What the record shows

  • Confirmed At the final four Fallen Comrades immunity challenge, players were asked which female contestant had no body piercings. Kim Johnson answered Kelly Goldsmith, was awarded the point and won immunity.
  • Confirmed Lex van den Berghe answered Lindsey Richter. That answer was also correct, which producers did not know at the time.
  • Confirmed Producers discovered the error during the January 10, 2002 finale broadcast. About a week later CBS settled on a remedy.
  • Confirmed CBS declared three second-place finishers. Kim Johnson, Lex van den Berghe and Tom Buchanan each received the $100,000 second-place prize, an extra $200,000 out of CBS's pocket. Ethan Zohn kept the $1 million.
  • Admitted CBS spokesman Chris Ender called it an honest mistake, simply attributable to human error during the production of the series.
  • Unverified The often repeated fan account, that Lindsey Richter congratulated Lex in a green room at the finale and that is how the error surfaced, does not appear in the 2002 wire reporting. No source for it has been located.
  • Unverified Nobody has established what the game would have done if the point had gone to Lex instead. CBS made no such finding, the challenge was not replayed, and no source claims to know.

The question, and the second right answer

Fallen Comrades is the quiz challenge about the players already voted out. At the final four of Survivor: Africa it decided immunity. One question asked which of the women had no body piercings. Kim Johnson answered Kelly Goldsmith. She was given the point and she won the challenge.

Lex van den Berghe answered Lindsey Richter. Richter also had no piercings, so his answer was correct too. Producers did not know that when they scored it. The question had been written with one answer in mind and two of the women fit it.

How CBS handled it

The mistake surfaced during the January 10, 2002 finale broadcast. About a week later CBS decided what to do about it, and the network announced the remedy in February 2002.

The fix was money, not a rerun of the game. CBS declared three second-place finishers instead of one. Kim Johnson, the runner-up on air, kept her $100,000. Lex van den Berghe, who placed third, and Tom Buchanan, who placed fourth, each received $100,000 as well. That is $200,000 CBS paid out beyond the published prize structure. Ethan Zohn's $1 million was untouched.

CBS spokesman Chris Ender called it an honest mistake, simply attributable to human error during the production of the series. There was no lawsuit, no arbitration and no regulatory finding. The February 2002 payout is the end of the record.

Why the payout went to three people

The scoring error sat at the final four, which is the last point at which the three players below Ethan Zohn could still have moved. Paying only Lex would have required CBS to assert what the corrected challenge would have produced, and CBS did not assert that. Paying all three sidesteps the counterfactual entirely.

That is the part most retellings drop. CBS did not rule that Lex should have won immunity, or that he should have won the season. It equalised the runner-up payment across everyone whose placement the error could have touched.

The green room story is not in the reporting

The version that circulates in fan write-ups has Lindsey Richter running into Lex at the finale and congratulating him on getting her question right, with the error unravelling from there. It is a good story. It is not in either contemporaneous Associated Press report, which say only that producers discovered the error during the January 10 broadcast.

No source has been found for the green room detail, so this page does not carry it as fact. If someone produces a 2002 account of it, that changes.

People in this story

Questions people ask

What was the wrong answer at the Survivor: Africa final four?
Nothing was wrong with Lex van den Berghe's answer. A Fallen Comrades question asked which woman had no body piercings. He said Lindsey Richter, which was correct, but producers had only Kelly Goldsmith down as the answer and marked him wrong.
How much extra money did CBS pay?
An extra $200,000. CBS declared three second-place finishers, so Kim Johnson, Lex van den Berghe and Tom Buchanan each received the $100,000 runner-up prize instead of one of them.
Did the error cost Lex van den Berghe the win?
No one knows and CBS never said so. The challenge was not replayed and no finding was made about what a corrected score would have produced, which is why the payout went to all three players below Ethan Zohn.
When did CBS admit the mistake?
Producers found it during the January 10, 2002 finale broadcast, decided on a remedy about a week later, and the three-way second-place payout was reported in February 2002.
Did Ethan Zohn keep the million dollars?
Yes. The error affected the placements below him, and his $1 million prize was never in question.

Sources

Checked on 2026-07-26. If something here is wrong or out of date, we want to know: get in touch.