Going into Survivor 48’s finale, many fans predicted that Kyle Fraser would emerge as the ultimate victor. This prediction ultimately came to fruition when Kyle bested competitors Eva Erickson and Joe Hunter with a 5-2-1 jury vote.
The self-proclaimed “best average guy you’ll ever meet” may have just won Survivor, but he was anything but confident going into his impressive Final Tribal Council performance.
Here's what Kyle told Entertainment Weekly about what he was thinking heading into Final Tribal Council:
“I knew Joe was a big threat. Eva was a big threat... I knew Eva could talk. I knew Joe could talk. I know I can talk, so I was just sort of ready to take them on, but I was pretty terrified, to be honest with you.”
While each finalist’s tribal council performance seemed fairly even initially, it was the moment Kyle was the most scared for, the revelation that it was Kyle and Kamilla that facilitated Shauhin Davari’s blindside at the Final Six, that he began to feel more confident about his winning chances.
When fellow finalist Eva attempted to take credit for the move, it was final juror Kamilla Karthigesu's prompting that led to Kyle revealing the truth: that the "information" Eva and Joe Hunter received was completely fabricated by Kyle and Kamilla.
Kyle knew that Shauhin’s reaction to this information would determine the way the final vote would end up going, which ended up being in his favor. While he was uncertain about the votes of more unpredictable jurors, he correctly predicted that Shauhin was the swing vote who would become the deciding factor in his eventual victory.
Kyle would ultimately win over the jurors with this grand reveal and be crowned the Sole Survivor after a 5-2-1 jury vote. Jurors Mary Zheng and Star Toomey both voted for runner-up Eva Erickson, while the Mayor of Ponderosa (a fandom name for the first juror of the season) Cedrek McFadden would be the lone vote for Joe Hunter, who came in third.
Kyle will be remembered as a winner who played with strategic prowess in a season where the majority alliance pushed the importance of playing with honor and integrity. More prominently, he will be remembered for his partnership with Kamilla, who he frequently championed as his ‘number one ally’. Kamilla would lose the final four firemaking challenge and place fourth.
Survivor 48 may be over, but fear not, we have more Survivor content around the corner. The highly anticipated cast for Survivor 50 was announced on Wednesday, May 28th, and Survivor 49 will premiere in the fall.