There are a few key Survivor players fans think of when they hear the phrase, “not going down without a fight,” and Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick is definitely at the top of that list. Each time she’s played, she’s adapted her game to ride out the bumps along the way—and there were plenty of obstacles the average Survivor player never even had to think about thrown in her path—and climb as high back to the top as she possibly can.
After her last two seasons saw her go from second place to second sent home, Survivor 50 has the potential to truly be her grand finale redemption moment, if she plays her cards right.
Stephenie’s Quick Stats
Survivor Career:
- Survivor: Palau (7th Place)
- Survivor: Guatemala (2nd Place)
- Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains (19th Place)
Total Days Played: 75 days
Total Votes Against: 16 votes
Individual Immunity Challenges Won: 1
Individual Reward Challenges Won: 0
Immunity Idols Played: 0
Advantages Played: 0
Survivor: Palau
When 20 new castaways are sent to navigate a boat to an island where an immunity necklace is located—first to it, gets it—Stephenie is one of two to jump, hoping to outswim the boat. Unfortunately, this caused her to be one of the last on the beach, but her display of athleticism led to her being one of the top choices in a schoolyard pick for starting tribes, placing her on the Ulong tribe.
Even as she held her own during challenges, Ulong couldn’t keep up, and they suffered a terrible losing streak, going to every single Tribal Council until only she and Bobby Jon Drinkard were left. In their weakened state, they still couldn’t pull out a win—though it was close—and were sent to Tribal Council once more where Jeff Probst introduced a fire-making twist as the deciding factor of who went home that night.
Stephenie beat Bobby Jon and went back to camp alone. Thankfully, the next morning she received tree mail telling her to gather her stuff as the Ulong tribe had been eliminated and she was now merged with Koror.
Though she was obviously on the outs, Koror wasn’t worried about their numbers over her and opted to vote out a more threatening member from within their ranks. At the next Tribal Council, Koror was ready to send Stephenie home until a tribe member shared they were ready to quit in order to let Stephenie stay since she wanted to be here. But the following night she wasn’t so lucky, and the Koror majority finally voted her out, making her the third member of the jury.
At Final Tribal Council, Stephenie voted with the majority of her fellow jury members for Tom Westman to win Survivor: Palau.
Survivor: Guatemala
Immediately returning after Palau alongside the other last standing Ulong tribe member Bobby Jon Drinkard, Stephenie started the game on the Yaxha tribe. They won the first immunity challenge before going on to lose the next two, which had her worried she was reliving her Ulong days.
But when she and her alliance endured a tribe switch putting them at a 4/4 split with the Nakum tribe, she convinced Judd Sergeant to flip and join her group, giving her the majority as they entered the merge. As they began eliminating the other tribe, one by one, she promised her former tribe mate Bobby Jon a spot in the jury and effectively voted him out second, making him the first jury member.
When her ally Judd bought a family visit at the Survivor Auction and took Stephenie, she promised his wife that they’d go to the Final Two together. But when Danni Boatwright won the next immunity challenge and Stephenie was forced to vote out a member of her own alliance, she opted for Judd who had lied the most in the game. But his blindside came at a cost, and he went to the jury extremely angry.
Stephenie won the following immunity challenge, but with Cindy Hall having just won the car reward and opting to keep it rather than give it up to give all other remaining castaways a car, Stephenie's alliance began imploding from the inside out. Rafe Judkins chose to flip and create a Final Two pact with Danni, forcing Stephenie to blindside Cindy, sending another upset player—who blamed Stephenie—to the jury.
When Danni won the Final Four immunity challenge, she and Rafe had a heart-to-heart where he told her she could make the choice of who to take to Final Tribal Council without the worry of the promise she made to him. Danni chose to take Stephenie to the end, and Rafe was livid at her decision as he became the final jury member.
But with all the allies Stephenie had seemingly burned along the way, she only received one vote in the end, Rafe’s, and was named runner-up of the season.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Stephenie returned to the game on the Heroes tribe due to her original underdog status from Palau. As the tribe formed alliance lines, she found herself—along with Colby Donaldson and former Palau castaway Tom Westman—on the outs.
In the very first challenge, she dislocated her shoulder and had to have a doctor pop it back in. Despite this and her outsider status, after the Heroes lost the first immunity challenge, they opted to send home Sugar Kiper, who was seen as a bigger threat to early challenge wins.
After their second immunity loss—where Stephenie had been featured on the puzzle-solving portion—James Clement started targeting her, even accusing her of being the reason any of her past tribes had lost. With James in the majority alliance, she became the second person sent home in a 6-3 vote.
Survivor 50 Predictions: How far will Stephenie go?
Stephenie’s downfall has always been the social side of the game, but her first two seasons were played alongside castaways who favored loyalty over strategy. When returning players are involved, the rubric for a winner shifts significantly, and what people value in the players they align with, who they send to the jury, as well as who they vote for at the end, is drastically different.
While this didn’t help out on her last anniversary season return, it could be her saving grace this time around. Being a fighter in Survivor 50 could be a trait others want kept around as a shield to protect themselves, which means she could actually make it pretty far before the blindside attempts begin. If she can keep herself one step ahead, she has the skills she needs to get to the end and earn the jury’s favor.
Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick Survivor 50 Player Score
Stephenie’s played the game differently each time, but at the end of the day it’s within the same genre of gameplay—outplay over everything else. If she can up her social game and manage a few big outwit moves to amp up her resume (and if she finds herself pleading for her case at Final Tribal Council) she could actually turn her Survivor luck around.
Outwit (Social Game): 4/15
Outplay (Physical Game): 9/15
Outlast (Strategic Game): 7/15
Wildcard Factor: 3/5
Total Player Score: 23/50
Will Stephenie’s underdog status from Palau come back out this season or will we see the more cutthroat strategic player who set up her alliance for a perfect path to the finals—until others started diverging—like we did in Guatemala? Or will she be one of the first to go due to her cursed challenge history? We can’t wait to find out!
Survivor 50 premieres Wednesday, February 25 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount +!