Survivor: Defending the less touted winners in Survivor history

Bob Crowley – Winner of Survivor: Gabon

Bob’s winning game in Gabon wasn’t necessarily an eye popping one, but when you consider that he was the oldest man in the game, managed to win immunity, and make it to the end despite being a threat, that’s pretty impressive!

From the get-go, Bob joined the “Onion” alliance on the Kota tribe and was part of the majority. He remained with this group after the first tribe swap, but the second tribe swap saw him on the wrong side of the numbers. His ally Marcus was taken out and that was the first time that Bob was on the bottom.

At the final eight, Bob knew he needed to start scrambling, so he made a fake idol and used it to his advantage. He promised Sugar that he’d give the fake idol to Randy to “save him” and that’d gain favor with the rest of the Nobag tribe. He made a second fake idol and told Corinne that it was fake and had planned to use it to convince the majority alliance to split the votes.

This ended up being the move that helped Bob win the game, as the splitting of the votes caused a fraction in the majority alliance and Bob was able to stay alive. Not only that, but he won immunity three times, which helped keep him in the game. He didn’t win at Final Four, however, but he had formed a close enough bond with Sugar that she made it a tie vote, forcing Bob to make fire against Matty.

Bob, of course, beat Matty and the rest is history. He didn’t have the greatest Final Tribal Council performance and honestly received some votes simply because people couldn’t stand Susie or Sugar, but at the end of the day, a win is a win. Bob wasn’t a great strategist, but he was one of the best survivalists on the show and going on the challenge tear that he did at his age was very impressive.