There have been many changes to the game over the years, but there have been a few elements that have stuck with it as well. There are three guarantees in life: death, taxes, and tribal councils on Survivor.
For this list, I’m only including eliminations decided by tribal council voting results. No medevacs, quits, or sudden death eliminations like the Final 4 tribal councils in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers. I will include tie-breaking outcomes that take place after a vote. So if a sudden death elimination came after a vote in order to resolve a tie, then it can go on the list. Also, the criteria is for a vote-off to be not only satisfying, but also wonderfully edited and told. So even when it’s not the person we wanted to see get voted off, it’ll still make the list if the outcome was well-presented. Finally, we’ll also include vote-offs that had an equally-entertaining timeline of events that led up to that tribal council.
100. Jennifer Lanzetti – Survivor: Kaoh Rong
99. Bradley Kleihege – Survivor: Ghost Island
98. Rick Nelson – Survivor: South Pacific
97. Crystal Cox – Survivor: Gabon
96. Danielle DiLorenzo – Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
95. James Miller – Survivor: Palau
94. Elyse Umemoto – Survivor: South Pacific
93. Shawn Cohen – Survivor: Pearl Islands
92. Cao Boi – Survivor: Cook Islands
91. Roger Sexton – Survivor: The Amazon
90. Gabriel Cade – Survivor: Marquesas
I don’t blame the Rotu tribe for voting him out, either.
89. Garrett Adelstein – Survivor: Cagayan
88. Libby Vincek – Survivor: Ghost Island
87. Matt Elrod – Survivor: Redemption Island
86. Jessica ‘Figgy’ Figueroa – Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X
The logical thing for Adam was to stick with the pair from his original Millennials tribe. The problem was that the pair from his original Millennials tribe was lovebirds Jessica ‘Figgy’ Figueroa and Taylor Stocker.
Their love eventually hit a breaking point with him and pushed him over to Jessica Lewis and Ken McNickle from the original Gen X tribe.
85. Dan Barry – Survivor: Panama
84. Randy Bailey – Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
No one voted even against her. Everyone voted out Randy.
83. Susan Hawk – Survivor: Borneo
82. Brandon Hantz – Survivor: South Pacific
81. Stacey Stillman – Survivor: Borneo
80. Hunter Ellis – Survivor: Marquesas
79. Brenda Lowe – Survivor: Caramoan
78. Chris Noble – Survivor: Ghost Island
77. Paul Wachter – Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X
76. Lucy Huang – Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X
75. Peter Baggenstos – Survivor: Kaoh Rong
74. Cirie Fields – Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
73. Burton Roberts – Survivor: Pearl Islands
72. Joel Anderson – Survivor: Micronesia
71. Jenny Guzon-Bae – Survivor: Cook Islands
70. Kelly Remington – Survivor: Worlds Apart
69. Jonathan Penner – Survivor: Cook Islands
68. Sandra Diaz-Twine – Survivor: Game Changers
67. Jeff Kent – Survivor: Phillippines
66. John Rocker – Survivor: San Juan Del Sur
65. Ozzy Lusth – Survivor: Game Changers
64. Ben Browning – Survivor: Samoa
63. Sean Rector – Survivor: Marquesas
62. Ami Cusack – Survivor: Vanuatu
It was a well-played, well-documented, and well-edited swan song for Vanuatu’s once-powerful player.
61. Courtney Marit – Survivor: Panama
60. Jamie Newton – Survivor: Guatemala
59. Baylor Wilson – Survivor: San Juan Del Sur
58. Robb Zbacnik – Survivor: Thailand
For a very polarizing and hotheaded contestant, he was surprisingly chill and at peace with the results.
57. Sarah Dawson – Survivor: Phillippines
56. Kat Edorsson – Survivor: One World
The tribe then responded with, “You want a blindside? You got it!”
55. Trish Hegarty – Survivor: Cagayan
54. Jessica Lewis – Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X
53. Jeremy Collins – Survivor: San Juan Del Sur
52. Kelly Goldsmith – Survivor: Africa
51. Keith Tollefson – Survivor: South Pacific
50. Jeff Varner – Survivor: Australian Outback
49. Andrea Boehlke – Survivor: Caramoan
48. Sarah Lacina – Survivor: Cagayan
47. Wes Nale – Survivor: San Juan Del Sur
46. Russell Hantz – Survivor: Redemption Island
45. Carl Bilancione – Survivor: Africa
It was the only occasion that a trivia contest determined who got their torch snuffed. Though I understand why it only happened once, it is a fascinating one-off shoot experiment that truly heightened the intensity of the situation.
44. Jonathan Penner – Survivor: Phillippines
43. Shannon Elkins – Survivor: Nicaragua
42. Erik Cardona – Survivor: Samoa
41. Jaime Dugan – Survivor: China
40. Lillian Morris – Survivor: Pearl Islands
39. Laura Morett – Survivor: Samoa
How did that work out for John Fincher and his Galu alliance? Well…
38. John Fincher – Survivor: Samoa
It didn’t take long in the next episode for the other members of the Galu alliance to figure out that John Fincher was the one that flipped.
The best part of this vote-off was all of John’s facial expressions during the tally. Mick got the first vote, and he had a very big closed smile on his face.
Then the next vote was for Dave Ball.
John got his first vote of the night, and he nodded his head, accepting the fact that he got voted against.
But then a second vote against John was revealed, and he was like, “Wait, another one?”
Then he got a third vote, and he was all of a sudden like, “Something’s not right about this.”
After he got a fourth vote, his jaw was open, while his mind was like “What the fuck?”
37. Ace Gordon – Survivor: Gabon
She didn’t just flip. She wrote down “Ace-hole” on the parchment. (Get it? Because he’s an asshole.)
36. Brad Culpepper – Survivor: Blood vs. Water
The vote was tied between him and Ciera, but the move still lingered on everyone’s mind, especially Hayden and Vytas, the other two that voted against Ciera. During the revote, Hayden hesitated with his vote and stopping between the pen movement before finally committing to voting out Ciera. Vytas, on the other hand, switched his stance and voted against Brad. The outcome was 3-1, and Brad was sent to Redemption Island.
35. Jason Siska – Survivor: Micronesia
34. Boston Rob Mariano – Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
33. Eliza Orlins – Survivor: Micronesia
32. Steve “Chicken” Morris – Survivor: China
31. Shane Powers – Survivor: Panama
30. Judd Sergeant – Survivor: Guatemala
29. Tyson Apostol – Survivor: Heroes vs Villains
While you cannot vote yourself out at Tribal Council without quitting, Tyson’s elimination was a rare occasion where he figuratively did vote himself out, because he fell for Russell’s story hook, line, and sinker. If he hadn’t, the outcome would’ve been different.
28. Francesca Hogi – Survivor: Redemption Island
She thus became the first person to be sent off to Redemption Island, and eventually became the first official elimination after losing the first duel to Matt.
27. Gretchen Cordy – Survivor: Borneo
26. Rupert Boneham – Survivor: Pearl Islands
Well-known Survivor historian/analyst Mario Lanza said that Rupert’s vote-off episode, “Swimming with Sharks”, was edited like a Greek tragedy. Entertainment Weekly also said, at the time, that “Swimming with Sharks” was the best episode of the entire series.
I didn’t like Rupert, but I understood why he was enormously popular back then. Still, whether you loved him or not, his vote-off provided some engaging television.
25. Richard Hatch – Survivor: All-Stars
24. Jerri Manthey – Survivor: Australian Outback
23. Drew Christy – Survivor: San Juan Del Sur
22. John Carroll – Survivor: Marquesas
21. Michaela Bradshaw – Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X
“WHAAAAT?”
20. Andrew Savage – Survivor: Cambodia
19. Ozzy Lusth – Survivor: South Pacific
For this list, I’m using his third vote-off. The one at the final 4. The one that ended his game on Survivor: South Pacific for good.
18. Cliff Robinson – Survivor: Cagayan
17. Dan Foley – Survivor: Worlds Apart
16. Coach Wade – Survivor: Tocantins
Whether you loved or hated Coach, it was a fantastic bookend to the story arc of arguably the most significant character of Tocantins.
15. Randy Bailey – Survivor: Gabon
14. Matty Whitmore – Survivor: Gabon
13. Katie Collins – Survivor: Blood vs Water
12. JT Thomas – Survivor: Heroes vs Villains
11. Jay Starrett – Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X
10. Tyson Apostol – Survivor: Tocantins
It became another moment where a Survivor season took a turn for the best.
9. Kelly Sharbaugh – Survivor: Samoa
Nobody knew what Kelly was known for in Survivor: Samoa prior to this moment. And after it, nobody knows what Kelly was known for in Survivor: Samoa. Except for being the victim of a monumental move.
8. Cirie Fields – Survivor: Game Changers
7. Greg Buis – Survivor: Borneo
Funny thing is that if we did this list 10 years ago, back on our first Reality TV Guide blog, and right before the Micronesia premiere, this would’ve been the clear #1 on that list. No other vote-off before February 2008 had ever come close to that.
Rudy told Rich that he believed it for a minute. Rich responded, “You believed him?” Rudy responded back, “For a minute.” Yeah, he did give it away when he used a quote from The Jerk. Even with that, for an iconic first season, this tribal council was a prime example of what happens when you have the right cast.
6. Philip Sheppard – Survivor: Caramoan
5. Scot Pollard – Survivor: Kaoh Rong
4. Malcolm Freberg – Survivor: Game Changers
3. Ozzy Lusth – Survivor: Micronesia
2. Alexis Jones – Survivor: Micronesia
1. Erik Reichenbach – Survivor: Micronesia
Are there any you agree on? Are there any you disagree on? Are there any you think that we missed? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @realitytvguide about your opinions. This is Turk182 for Reality TV Guide, and the tribe has spoken.
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