John Cochran (Caramoan)
The second perfect game came eight seasons later with John Cochran winning Survivor: Caramoan aka Fans vs Favorites 2. Cochran was initially on Survivor: South Pacific in 2011 and made the ultimate decision to flip on his alliance at the merge, which ultimately sealed his fate a few votes later.
Cochran was a fan favorite from his original season, so it’s no wonder why he was invited back to play just three seasons later for Caramoan. His second time around was much different, as he ran things from early on, teaming up with Dawn and the two of them taking out the big threats when necessary.
Cochran was actually a challenge threat in Caramoan winning four individual challenges (I know, right?!) and was running the show, but he made it through the course of the season without his name being written down.
Unlike J.T., Cochran didn’t go up against the best competition in the end, taking Dawn and Sherri with him to the final tribal council where he won in a landslide. Cochran also was on a Fans vs Favorites season, so he had a leg up over half of the contestants there, as this was his second rodeo in the game of Survivor while half of the people were playing for the first time.
This isn’t to say that Cochran’s win wasn’t impressive because any time someone can maneuver their way through the game and not receive a single vote while also receiving every jury vote, it’s obviously a tough thing to do and Cochran was only the second ever person to do so.
Cochran won challenges, was a student of the game, and everyone liked him, so why didn’t anyone target him? He was able to make moves against people before they tried to turn things around on him and was always one step ahead of everyone else, as evidenced by the Andrea blindside and the Brenda blindside.
What followed was Survivor‘s second only perfect game.