Survivor Season 40 ended oddly, but the Winners at War winner was revealed late Wednesday evening.
During the two-hour penultimate episode, Nick Wilson and Jeremy Collins got voted off Survivor: Winners at War.
That left five people still in the running for the $2 million prize when the Survivor Season 40 finale finally took place on CBS. But this wasn’t a final like any that fans have seen before.
Winners at War season finale
With so much ground left to cover, host Jeff Probst revealed to viewers that the final episode was going to be three hours long. They had to scrap the Reunion Show because there was too much footage left to show.
He was also broadcasting from his garage, where producers had sent materials to set up a replica of Tribal Council where he could speak with the fans and then the final three cast members online.
At the start of the episode, Denise Stapley, Sarah Lacina, Michele Fitzgerald, Ben Driebergen, and Tony Vlachos were still standing. But it was time to bring back someone from the Edge of Extinction.
In a battle between everyone that was still in the game out at Extinction Island, it was Natalie Anderson who won a place with the main tribe again. She was the person voted out first this season, so she had nearly spent the whole show trying to battle herself back.
Last night, one word: EPIC! ? If you missed the 3-hour season finale of #Survivor: Winners At War. Watch it now on @CBSAllAccess: https://t.co/iA1I8a553k. pic.twitter.com/dewAVSL3XI
— SURVIVOR (@survivorcbs) May 14, 2020
Through the course of the next three hours, the tribe worked its way down to a final three that would then appear in front of the Winners at War jury to hear why these people felt they deserved to win the $2 million.
Michele won the final-six challenge. Then, at Tribal Council, Natalie, Tony, and Ben all played Individual Immunity Idols, leaving the vote between Sarah and Denise. Denise was voted off Survivor in 15th place.
Tony won the next immunity necklace, with Ben getting voted out in 16th place. It got to that point because Natalie found another Idol and used it for safety.
That left just Tony, Natalie, Sarah, and Michele battling it out for the final spots.
At the final Immunity Challenge, Natalie won an intense competition, choosing to then take Michele with her to the final three. Tony then had to beat Sarah in a fire-making challenge to also make it to the final three.
When it came to the vote and deciding who would be the Survivor Season 40 winner, the final tally ended up being quite the landslide.
For controlling most of the game, winning many challenges, and playing the best game, Tony Vlachos was named the Survivor: Winners at War winner.
Tony Vlachos named Survivor Season 40 winner
By a vote of 12-4, Tony beat out Natalie, with Michele not receiving any votes this time around. The only person who didn’t participate in the vote was Sandra Diaz-Twine, who left the game rather than spend time on Extinction Island.
Tony Vlachos and Sandra Diaz-Twine are now the only two-time winners of the CBS reality competition show.
Survivor is currently on hiatus but should return to CBS in fall 2020.
I feel like there was definitely more content to be shown… they went straight from Tribal when Ben was voted out to the next comp the next day. No back to camp discussions etc. And why were all of the players online last night but they only showed 3 of them. There has to be more content coming. Please. Pretty Please.