Russell Hantz’s Top 100 Greatest Survivors Ever

10. J.T. Thomas (Tocantins, Heroes vs Villains, Game Changers)

J.T. Thomas played Survivor‘s first-ever perfect game, meaning he made it through the game without receiving a vote cast against him (despite being a huge threat) and also received every single jury vote. This made him one of the best winners of all-time and for good reason.

J.T. went into the merge down significantly in numbers, but he and his Jalapao tribe mates took advantage of the Timbira alliance’s hatred for one another and eventually took control of the game. He was the true master of the show’s motto of Outwit, Outplay, Outlast and he won in a unanimous vote against a tremendous player in Stephen Fishbach.

J.T.’s legacy took a hit the more he returned, as he’s now sadly remembered the most for giving Russell the Hidden Immunity Idol in Heroes vs Villains, which was then used to vote him out not long after. Ouch.

While this was indeed a stupid move, just think if it had worked out. It could have honestly been one of the best moves in Survivor history and, as Russell mentions in the video, if this worked out for him, he probably wins Heroes vs Villains and is the show’s first-ever two-time winner.

Game Changers was another rough go of it for J.T., as he was voted out early, but a fun fact is that he was the first person to ever get up at tribal council and talk to someone else. That had never been done before. J.T. is a trendsetter!

Despite the rough returns, I try not to let J.T.’s second and third appearance take away from his win in Tocantins because it truly was a fantastic win and falls in my top ten wins of all-time.

9. Jeremy Collins (San Juan Del Sur, Cambodia, Winners at War)

I’ll be honest – I didn’t expect to see Jeremy Collins this high on the list, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t deserving of his number nine ranking. Jeremy was on pace to win San Juan Del Sur, but was screwed over when alliance member Julie quit. He was then blindsided due to his high threat level.

He learned from his mistakes when he returned for Survivor: Cambodia and rode that all the way to the end where he won in a unanimous vote. There’s been a lot of debate if Jeremy played the show’s third perfect game due to him getting all of the jury votes, but the pushback is that he actually did receive votes throughout the season, though they were negated by him playing an idol.

Jeremy playing his idol for Fishbach in Cambodia was huge when it happened and was a brilliant move. He showed his loyalty to Fishbach while also getting who he perceived to be a threat out in Ciera. The fact that he won a season as tough as Cambodia, which was dubbed as Second Chance, in a unanimous vote proves even more how dominant it was.

While Jeremy was on the wrong side of the numbers early in Winners at War, he made it to the final seven despite being a huge threat. Jeremy does get overlooked sometimes when it comes to ranking the winners, but he is definitely a top-tier winner for his victory in Cambodia.