Survivor: Defending the less touted winners in Survivor history

Tommy Sheehan – Winner of Survivor: Island of the Idols

Last, but not least we come to Tommy, who won season 39, also known as Island of the Idols. Tommy wasn’t a bad winner, but a lot of people simply forget about him since he was honestly more of a “boring” winner, so to speak.

Tommy played an old school winning game in a new school era of the show, which is most impressive. He didn’t have any Hidden Immunity Idols, he didn’t win any immunity challenges, he didn’t have to make fire at the Final Four, and he didn’t even go to the Island of the Idols, yet Tommy was crowned the victor.

Part of why Tommy doesn’t get much respect is because he was the middle man through a lot of the season. He and Lauren aligned early on and stayed true to each other until Tommy knew it was time to flip on her, but leading up to that, it was clear he was wanting to go the end with Dan and Dean, two players he knew he could beat.

One of his best moments came when Lauren received an advantage that allowed her to get a Hidden Immunity Idol if either Noura or Elizabeth won the challenge. She shared this information with Tommy and the two of them talked all about breakfast foods around everyone in the hopes that it’d work and people would sit out of the immunity challenge so they could eat said breakfast foods. It worked, as only three players participated, and Lauren eventually received the idol.

Tommy was put into a bit of a bind when Dan was ejected from the game due to inappropriate touching, which kept Janet around and she needed to go next. Tommy and Dean were able to get Janet out with Dean’s Idol Nullifier and the next hurdle for Tommy was to convince Noura not to send him to fire making against Dean.

Tommy did a good enough job convincing Noura that Lauren was going to be tougher to beat in the end and she took the bait, keeping Tommy around and forcing Lauren to make fire against Dean, who won. At the Final Tribal Council, Tommy made sure to tell the jury that he played without advantages throughout the season and still made it to the end.

He was rewarded for his efforts, winning it 8-2-0 over Dean and Noura. Tommy isn’t an unpopular winner, but he’s often labeled as a boring one. It also doesn’t help that his season consisted of the Dan situation and that Tommy wanted to take Dan to the end, but that’s because he knew he could beat him.

Tommy might not be the most compelling winner, but he played a really solid game and it was kind of cool to see an old school style of play work out in the new school age of the show.