When you think of Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, you might not immediately think of Chrissy Hofbeck, but you should! Even though Ben Driebergen ultimately got the win—effectively unlocking the key to idol hunting—Chrissy played an incredibly impressive game that was extremely underrated by her jury.
Not only did she tie the all-time women’s immunity challenge win record, she was a part of 52% of all challenges wins across the season (25 challenges in 39 days). And on top of that, she secured herself immunity at Final Four, ready to take two allies she curated to the end with her, knowing she played a winning game as long as she got Ben out. And what does Survivor do? They change the rules! Chrissy’s journey is a huge part of the history books and what she does next in Survivor's biggest season ever is going to be just as important.
Chrissy’s Quick Stats
Survivor Career: Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers (2nd Place)
Total Days Played: 39 days
Total Votes Against: 7 votes
Individual Immunity Challenges Won: 4
Individual Reward Challenges Won: 2
- One combined reward and immunity challenge
Immunity Idols Played: 0
- Chrissy was gifted a super idol, but didn’t use it before it expired
Advantages Played: 0
Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers
Starting on the Levu tribe made up of “Heroes,” Chrissy immediately bonded with Katrina Radke, another mom on the tribe. After they lost the first immunity challenge, she found a super idol in her bag anonymously gifted by Ryan Ulrich. It was only good for the first Tribal Council, but she didn’t end up playing it as she voted unanimously with the tribe for Katrina.
The next day she saw cracks in the Levu alliance and chose to connect with Ben Driebergen. Luckily, they won the next two immunities, avoiding Tribal Council. But on day 9, a tribe switch sent her and fellow Levu JP Hilsabeck to the Soko tribe where she met Ryan and he revealed he sent her the super idol.
Soko lost the next immunity—a challenge Chrissy struggled with—and Chrissy went to talk strategy with Roark Luskin who pushed her away, deeming her untrustworthy for only wanting to talk strategy before Tribal Council. Chrissy flipped the script and put the target on Roark by telling JP that Roark proposed an all-women’s alliance, and she went home that night in a 3-2 vote.
Soko lost again, and Chrissy stayed aligned with JP and Ryan, staying safe from the vote, which got her through to the merge on day 17. She was able to reconnect with Ben and the four joined the majority alliance, which was much needed as the Soko Alliance was gunning for Chrissy due to her intelligence. But her alliance kept her safe.
Chrissy contributed to a win for a team reward challenge that led to her and Ryan discovering a clue for a hidden immunity idol back at camp while on reward. But their tribemate Cole Medders also saw the clue and raced Chrissy to uncover the idol. Neither of them was able to find it because Ryan had already retrieved it.
The next few eliminations began causing friction within the majority alliance as they started fighting over who was the right person to send home. After a couple of votes, Chrissy and Ryan discussed blindsiding her ally Ben. But the next Tribal Council actually found Chrissy blindsided when her closest ally JP was sent home.
Upon returning from Tribal Council, Chrissy assumed she, Ryan, and Ben were on the bottom—unaware that Ben was playing double agent and had been a part of the JP vote. He went behind her back at the next vote as well, finally signaling to her that he wasn’t trustworthy, causing the two to argue.
After Chrissy won the loved ones reward and got to see her husband, Ben apologized for backstabbing her and gave her key information about Lauren Rimmer having both an idol and an extra vote. So that night at Tribal Council, when Chrissy’s alliance told her to vote for Ben, she refused. It didn’t matter anyway as he played an idol and blindsided Lauren.
She and Devon Pinto won the next reward challenge and took her ally Ryan, where they made a Final Three pact at her suggestion. She won immunity and the majority wanted to target Ben, but she wanted to vote out Ashley, who she feared most socially at the end. Ben played another idol at Tribal Council—before the votes were cast—and Chrissy convinced the others to send Ashley to the jury.
When Chrissy won the next immunity challenge—combined with reward—she and her allies searched for a clue to another idol, but were unable to find one. She came up with a plan to make Ben believe that her expired super idol was the most recent idol to go back into the game, preventing him from looking for another one—unknowing he’d already found the real one. She continued the charade at Tribal Council until Ben played his idol and caused a 1-1-0 tie between Devon and Mike, forcing a revote where Chrissy and Ryan had to vote out Mike.
She went on to win the Final Four immunity challenge, but this season it came with a twist. Rather than the four voting someone out at Tribal Council, she would choose one person to go to the Final Three with her, leaving the remaining two to duel in a fire-making challenge. Deciding Devon had a better chance at beating Ben, she saved Ryan, but Ben ended up winning the challenge and a spot at the end.
At Final Tribal Council, she was praised for her individual immunity wins, but criticized for her social gameplay as well as the fact that she and her allies seemingly allowed Ben to go off and find so many idols. In the end, she received two votes, earning her second place behind Ben, who was chosen as the Sole Survivor.
Survivor 50 Predictions: How far will Chrissy go?
I expect—just as her jury did in season 35—our returning players might underestimate Chrissy just a little bit this season. While she is a challenge record holder, it’s been nine years since she last competed, so they might not think much of it, despite the fact that she’s clearly kept herself trained for exactly this moment. And as far as the social game goes, she has the ability to bond under the radar and make people think she’s going along with their plan while also planting ideas in their heads. I don’t know if she’ll make it all the way to the end, but I can definitely see her going far.
Chrissy Hofbeck Survivor 50 Player Score
Chrissy is a threat and either everyone’s going to see that up front or it’s going to become apparent more than a few votes into the merge. By then, she might already be on a winning streak. But we also have a lot of other really good physical and social players. I think we might see her calm coordination outsmart one of our master strategists—and it’s going to be very exciting to witness!
Outwit (Social Game): 6/15
Outwit (Social Game): 5/15
Outlast (Strategic Game): 7/15
Wildcard Factor: 3/5
Total Player Score: 27/50
The true redemption moment for Chrissy will be if the fans voted to keep the fire-making challenge and she earns a spot in the Final Three by making fire. There are still so many aspects of the game we don’t know about and I can’t wait to find out at least a few when Survivor 50 premieres Wednesday, February 25 at 8 p.m, ET on CBS and Paramount +!