Survivor: Defending the less touted winners in Survivor history
Natalie White – Winner of Survivor: Samoa
Natalie won Survivor: Samoa and many people have her dead last when it comes to their Survivor winner rankings. While Natalie isn’t a top tier winner, she’s not as bad as people label her. For one, she was nearly invisible the entire season because production insisted on giving Russell over 100 confessionals while poor Natalie, the freaking WINNER of the season, had 15 total.
Natalie might not have played the flashiest game, but she knew what she was doing every step of the way. She saw what happened when the other women on the Foa Foa tribe were aggressive or talked down to Russell and that was their torches were snuffed and they were sent packing. So, Natalie knew she needed to stay quiet and follow Russell’s lead.
What Natalie did that Russell didn’t was she formed bonds with people. Social games might not be as much of a winning strategy now (or if someone does play a good social game, they’re targeted much sooner), but season 19 showed it was still a respectable way to win the show. That’s what Natalie did.
Even with her tribe being down eight players to four at the merge, Natalie formed bonds with the Galu women and that’s what helped her at the end of the day. She convinced the Galu women to vote off Erik, which was the beginning of the end for Galu.
From there, Natalie did mostly follow Russell’s lead, but when it got down to the Final Three of her, Russell, and Mick, that was when Natalie needed to sell her social game. This jury wasn’t fond of how Russell had treated them. He was arrogant and rude while Natalie sat back, got to know them, and they liked her. That’s how she ended up beating Russell in a 7-2 vote.
Natalie has received a lot of hatred from Survivor fans and that’s unfortunate. Did she play an aggressive game like Russell? No. Does that make her any less deserving of winning Samoa? No, it doesn’t. Russell failed to realize that jury management was a huge part of the game while Natalie knew that and used her relationships with her fellow contestants to her advantage. She outsmarted Russell at his own game.
Somewhere on the inter webs is a version of Samoa that’s edited more fairly and doesn’t give Russell 100+ confessionals. It might have been taken down by now, but it gives a much better understanding to Natalie’s game and why she’s under appreciated as a winner.