Survivor Edge of Extinction: Ranking the top five players of the season

4) Chris Underwood

Survivor: Edge of Extinction may have given us the most unexpected winner of all time. Chris Underwood came in wanting to play a perfect game, only to be the third person voted out from the season.

Chris got almost a month on the Edge of Extinction to think about where he went wrong and what he would need to do to win if he got back in. He was able to outplay Joe and the others to reenter the game, outwitted Lauren into playing her idol for him, dominated the final Immunity Challenge, and made a bold move at the fire-making challenge.

The reason why Chris is number four on this list isn’t that he did anything wrong. He played a masterful social, strategic and physical game in the four or so days he returned. The key word in that phrase is four days.

Not only did he have to win just one challenge to get back in, but Chris returned to the game as the sixth castaway remaining. That meant he only had to survive two Tribal Councils until the fire-making challenge. To top it all off, Chris was given the two-half idol, so as long as he made it through the first vote, he was basically guaranteed to make the Final Four.

We also can’t overlook the fact that he spent so much time with the jury members on Extinction Island, getting on their good side and gaining information. Chris did play the best game out of the Final Three, but it’s hard to deny that his route to the end was much easier than most of the cast this season.