Top 10 biggest ‘Survivor’ upset winners of all time: Tina Wesson, Mike Gabler …

“Survivor” is a game that ends with one person claiming the life-changing $1 million prize, but sometimes the winner is not the one people expect. The title of Sole Survivor is the result of taking out the biggest competitors, being likable in the cast, and appealing to the jury, all while arguing the case of why you’re the most deserving of the win. While many of the champions are well-deserved, at least according to the passionate fans at home, others spark massive debate when Jeff Probst reads their names out loud. Scroll through our photo gallery above (or click here for direct access) where we detail the Top 10 biggest “Survivor” upset winners of all time.

Tina Wesson (Season 2 — “Survivor: The Australian Outback”)
Back when “Survivor” was watched by almost 50 million people, Colby Donaldson was the young, fit, charming cowboy who the public wanted to prevail — and he almost did, making it to the Final Two. Unfortunately after winning the final immunity challenge, he made his own bed by taking Tina Wesson instead of Keith Famie, whom he had a better chance of beating. Tina was ultimately rewarded for her cunning strategy and playing in the background, winning in a 4-3 vote.

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Jenna Morasca (Season 6 — “Survivor: The Amazon”)
Going into the finale, it was all but certain that Rob Cesternino would win the sixth season of “Survivor,” with his dominating gameplay, pioneering the moves, and consistently managing and flipping on alliances to the quantity that has never been done on the show prior. Unfortunately, he fell one day short when he lost the final immunity challenge to Jenna, who scrambled to stay in the game after Rob betrayed her by winning immunities towards the end and in one particular challenge, stripping off all her clothes for peanut butter and chocolate. Jenna beat Matthew von Ertfelda by a 6-1 vote.

Natalie White (Season 19 — “Survivor: Samoa”)
In probably one of the most unexpected wins ever was when Natalie White defeated Russell Hantz in Samoa. The entire season was portrayed from Russell’s perspective to the viewer where he still has the most confessionals of any “Survivor” player to this day. Contrast that with Natalie, who was the least visible winner with a mere 15 confessionals throughout the season. Natalie winning was a prime example of how overconfident Russell was in his gameplay and his jury management in which most saw his game as unethical, and she defeated him by a vote of 7-2-0 against Mick Trimming.

Sandra Diaz-Twine (Season 20 — “Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains”)
Another person that Russell Hantz was not pleased to lose to was Sandra Diaz-Twine, who also defeated Parvati Shallow. Both Russell and Parvati as villains delivered some of the most jaw-dropping moves that made the season iconic to its name. But the jury of returning players did not respect Russell’s social gameplay, giving him no votes at the end, and also used that as a knock against Parvati for aligning with him. Meanwhile, Sandra’s attempts to switch sides and warn the Heroes, along with her clear disdain of Russell, was enough to win against Parvati by a vote of 6-3-0.

SEE‘Survivor’ winners list: All seasons

Sophie Clarke (Season 23 — “Survivor: South Pacific”)
Another victim to being an under-edited female winner was Sophie Clarke, who was never front and center in the season due to being in an alliance led by a returning player in Benjamin “Coach” Wade. After making the Final Three with him, Sophie was able to use Coach’s actions against him after he was lambasted for leveraging religion to his advantage and won against him and Albert Destrade in a 6-3-0 vote.

Michele Fitzgerald (Season 32 — “Survivor: Kaoh Rong”)
One of the biggest wins that still spurs the most discussion was Michele’s victory over Aubry Bracco in Kaoh Rong. While both women were commended for their formidable transformations as the game progressed, Aubry had rubbed some of the jury members the wrong way after she took them out while Michele worked her underdog story to be in the majority despite not voting until the merge. She won against Aubry and Tai Trang in a 5-2-0 vote.

Ben Driebergen (Season 35 — “Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”)
While many fans were rooting for Ben to win the game, most of the merge in Season 35 was spent on trying to get him out for being such a massive threat, but he kept finding idol after idol to avoid elimination. When they could no longer be played anymore at Final Four, many believed that his time was over when he lost the final immunity challenge in a tight race. But due to a new fire-making twist, he was able to win the challenge against Devon Pinto and beat Chrissy Hofbeck and Ryan Ulrich in a vote of 5-2-1.

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Chris Underwood (Season 38 — “Survivor: Edge of Extinction”)
Chris Underwood’s win is arguably the most contested victory to date for the sole purpose of that he was voted out early in the game and that he spent a majority of his time on the Edge of Extinction, which was a new twist that allowed players to reenter the game at two stages. Many fans were rooting for Rick Devens, who beat Chris back into the game at the first entry, but Chris was able to win the last stretch of Edge of Extinction and make a lot of risk-taking, calculated moves during his last five days of the game. His biggest feat was giving up immunity and beating Rick in fire-making, to win over Gavin Whitson and Julie Rosenberg in a 9-4-0 vote.

Erika Casupanan (Season 41 — “Survivor 41”)
The first season in the new era of “Survivor” was true to form in delivering a surprising winner in Erika. Like Michele Fitzgerald, Erika also never went to tribal council before the merge and was in and out of alliances at the right time. But because of her under-the-radar game and low visibility, many assumed Xander Hastings’ underdog story and threat level would edge out in the final three. Instead he did not receive any votes to win and Erika almost swept the jury vote by 7-1-0, also beating Deshawn Radden.

Mike Gabler (Season 43 — “Survivor 43”)
Many fans rode off Gabler early in the game due to his lack of social awareness and his poor position on the Baka tribe due to his physical deterioration. But after eliminating his rival tribe mate Elie Scott when all the tribes coalesced, he was able to form social bonds and weaved through multiple alliances with the other tribes. After winning fire-making against the biggest game threat in Jesse Lopez, Gabler secured an almost perfect game defeating Cassidy Clark and Owen Knight in a 7-1-0 vote.

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