Survivor: Defending the less touted winners in Survivor history

Michele Fitzgerald – Winner of Survivor: Kaoh Rong

Michele is one of the more controversial winners of all-time because many people felt that Aubry deserved the win more. Aubry was a good player, no doubt, but Michele proved in Winners in War that she belonged and she did so in a different way than that of her original game in Kaoh Rong.

Michele was fortunate on her season to not have to go to tribal council until there were only 10 people remaining in the game. Her beauty tribe did lose a tribe member due to a medical evacuation (and a brutal one at that), but before that, she had aligned with the two other women on her tribe.

At the swap, Michele was in an intriguing situation, as her and Nick were the only beauties on their new tribe. Fortunately, they won both immunity challenges and she avoided tribal council once again.

By the time the tribes had merged, Michele hadn’t been to tribal council, but she reconnected with Julia and the two of them helped get Nick out at the final nine due to him being a threat. Michele didn’t need Nick at that point, so cutting him loose was the best thing for her game.

She was left out of the Scot vote and could only watch as Julia and Jason were taken out next. She continued to claw her way up from the bottom, but was definitely bailed out by Joe being medically evacuated at the final five (Kaoh Rong was a brutal season). From there, Michele won the final immunity challenge and made it to the end.

She beat Aubry in a 5-2 vote and remains one of the more controversial winners to this day. Michele wasn’t a flashy player, but she won two immunity challenges including the final one that got her to the end. She had a strong social game, which helped her against Aubry and Tai in the Final Tribal Council.

Throw in that Kaoh Rong was the most brutal season Survivor has ever had (Caleb literally almost died) and Michele deserves all the street cred in the world for making it to the end and winning.

Michele gets a lot of flack from Survivor fans and she deserves more respect than that. I’m glad she had a chance to show what she was capable of on Winners at War. She got a favorable edit the second time around and hopefully people can respect her game now.