Massachusetts Firefighter Wins 'Survivor'

It was over a year ago that Foxborough’s Jeremy Collins was voted out of Survivor. Only 13 months later, he has found redemption as the sole survivor. Wednesday night, Collins made the most of his second chance, winning the reality television game show and the $1 million grand prize.

During the live reunion show, it was announced that Collins won all 10 jury votes, but it almost didn’t happen for the Cambridge firefighter.

With six players remaining in the game, Kimmi Kappenberg attempted to blindside Collins with Keith Nale and Kelley Wentworth. With a blindside coming and Collins taking Kapperberg at her word that she was voting with him, it took Wentworth playing her hidden immunity idol for him to play his second idol.

Then things got interesting.

With two idols in play, any vote for Collins and Wentworth would not count and no one could vote for Spencer Bledsoe, who had won the immunity challenge. For the first time ever, there were no votes at tribal council, with Collins and Kapperberg both earning three votes. The deadlock exposed the attempted blindside, much to the anger of Collins.

“So disappointed, so disappointed, in you,” Collins said to Kappenberg.

In the revote, contestants could vote for anyone but Collins, Wentworth, and Bledsoe, with Kapperberg and Latasha “Tasha” Fox both receiving two votes, advancing the vote to a third round.

In the next vote, the four contestants who did not get any votes in the last round had to come to a unanimous decision on who to eliminate, with anyone with an immunity idol or had a vote immune. If the group could not make a decision, the contestants would pick rocks and the odd person out would be eliminated. In this case, it meant that Keith, the only person to not get a vote or have immunity would leave the game.

When it looked like Nale was going to leave the game, it was Kappenberg who walked away, bring the number of contestants down to five.

In the next tribal council, Nale would lose on a 3-2 vote, with Collins getting both votes. The vote was done on alliance lines, with Collins; Bledsoe, and Fox voting for Nale and Wentworth and Nale voting for Collins.

Collins earned himself a spot in the final vote in the last immunity challenge. In a game where contestants had to tie a hand behind their back, drop a ball down a shoot, catch it at the bottom, and put in back in the top. With more and more balls going down the shoot, Collins was victorious with five balls in play, winning his first immunity challenge of the season.

The win all but locked up a trip to the finals for Collins, Bledsoe, and Fox, with Wentworth receiving three votes to Bledsoe’s one.

In the final tribal council, each finalist had to answer questions from the jury justifying why they should be the winner. For Collins, it was never about him. Rather, it was about providing for his family.

“My second chance story like everybody knows, I’m here for Val, I’m here for Jordan, I’m here for Cameron,” He said. “I’m doing this for my family and nothing else.”

The win makes Collins the show’s 31st winner.

Photo Credit: CBS