Survivor winners: Ranking all 45 Sole Survivors by season

Best Survivor Winners No. 41: Natalie White (Survivor Samoa)

While many pointed to Erik’s closing jury speech as the reason why Russell Hantz lost Survivor Samoa, Natalie White deserves a fair amount of credit for building the relationships necessary to win her jury votes.

Yes, for the most part, she was riding on the coattails of Russell on the way to getting to the final tribal council. At the same time, she played the cards she was dealt with, knowing that people would hate Russell’s duplicitous play enough to get enough votes at the final tribal council.

She did not perform well in challenges at all, did not control the game, nor did she employ much Survivor strategy on a base level.

In fact, there was only one tribal council vote she didn’t attend, showing just how much others had underestimated her as a player.

Yet, as the only woman left on the original Foa Foa after making the merge, she hid in plain sight all the way to the million dollars.