Survivor since 2000: Reliving the game’s greatest moments year by year

Survivor 2007: The first player to go home with two idols in their pocket

Once Survivor China started to roll around, gameplay and strategy vaulted into prominence for convincing winners. You needed to be a schemer and put yourself in a power position in controlling the votes in order to secure a resume necessary for winning, and Todd Herzog certainly was a pioneer of this type of gameplay.

Once of his biggest feats was getting James on his side early on. He let James know where to find an idol to balance out the numbers on his own tribe, hoping he would secure numbers capable of swinging votes at the merge. Instead, James Clement managed to have two in his possession, securing a late-game spot in the game had he played them when necessary.

However, Todd had other plans in mind. He convinced James that the vote was going one way, even though other players had pointed the finger back at him. Despite a present danger to his gameplay made aware to him, James was so foolhardy that he didn’t use one of his two Hidden Immunity Idols, going home in 7th place and being the first to go home with any possible protection items in his possession, let alone two.