It's the Dreamz that keep on giving. And Earl Cole clearly benefited.
The unassuming 35-year-old ad man hailing from Kansas City, Kansas, was named the winner of Survivor: Fiji Sunday night, taking home the million-dollar prize and becoming the first castaway to capture all the jury's votes, his 9-0 final tally marking the first shutout in the reality game show's history.
When host Jeff Probst finally announced the vote tally live on CBS from New York City, in the hit series' 200th episode, Cole had managed to outwit, outplay and outlast 42-year-old civil engineering manager Cassandra Franklin and 25-year-old cheerleading coach Andria "Dre" Herd, otherwise known as "Dreamz." It was the first time the final Tribal Council voted on three contestants.
But the two-hour finale preceding the verdict was not without its share of controversy, thanks to a particularly stinging betrayal courtesy of Dreamz, who in the first hour reneged on a deal with fellow tribesman Yau-Man Chan. Chan, undeniably Survivor: Fiji's most popular player and, at 54, the tribal elder, had won a truck in a reward challenge in the previous episode and offered Dreamz the vehicle in exchange for the immunity necklace should the latter win individual immunity and both reach the final four.
As it turned out, Dreamz did indeed win the next immunity challenge when he was the last contestant to hang onto an angled, water-soaked plank. And in a backstabbing moment of Richard Hatch-like proportions, Dreamz decided to keep the necklace for himself, rationalizing that if he did give it away, he wouldn't have made it to the final three. As a result, Chan wound up being voted out and the last member of the jury.
Dreamz's treachery proved costly as the nine jury members rejected his explanation for his disloyalty.
For his part, a classy Chan told the scheming Dreamz to keep the truck and enjoy it, but challenged him to explain why he changed his mind.
In any case, the jury's largely hostile reception of Dreamz and Cassandra sealed the deal for the soft-spoken Earl who apparently played it so cool that not once during the course of the season did he receive a vote in favor of his ousting, even going into the final round.
After declaring in his final statement that his strategy had been to maintain his integrity and therefore receive the "respect vote," Earl earned just that.
In a series milestone, the jury for the 14th installment of the Outward Bound-style reality competition voted unanimously to make him the sole Survivor. Also noteworthy, this was the first time in which African-American contestants made up the final three.
While Survivor: Fiji had its tensions within, it also had its external conflicts.
Two days before filming the final Tribal Council, a bloodless coup by a Fiji military leader toppled the government on the main island, a 30-minute plane ride away. The upheaval forced Mark Burnett & Co. to consider evacuating the production, but, after assurances from Fiji's government that the cast and crew were in no danger, filming continued without incident.
For its 15th edition, set to shoot later this year, Survivor's brain trust plans to abandon the tropics and head to mainland China, making it the first American television series to film an entire season in the communist country.