Survivor Philippines: Ranking the top 5 castaways of the season

1) Denise Stapley

Let’s get this stat out of the way: Denise attended every single Tribal Council of the season. Was it by 100% skill? Maybe not. Did she control a majority of the votes? Not really. However, her strong social game carried her forward. In her first tribe, not only did she form an alliance with Malcolm, but even Russell felt that he had Denise on his side.

After she joined Kalabaw, she faced back-to-back Tribal Councils. Even though she was the odd woman out, it was her social game again the motivated the guys of Kalabaw to place more trust in her as opposed to the other two girls who they spent 13 days with! Throughout the early merge phase, Denise floated around until her and Malcolm were successfully able to persuade Skupin and Denise to stick to their Final Four commitment.

She didn’t play a perfect game, but her confidence and resilience allowed her to survive every Tribal Council, and she wasn’t afraid to cut off ties when she needed to… which ultimately gave her the edge over Malcolm. Denise also performed great in Final Tribal, proving that she was the only one out of the three who deserved the title of Sole Survivor.