Monday, December 17, 2007
Todd Herzog, a flight attendant from Pleasant Grove, Utah, has won the US$1,000,000 grand prize on the CBS American reality television series Survivor: China. Herzog, 22, defeated New York City waitress Courtney Yates and former Miss Montana USA Amanda Kimmel in the final vote.
Herzog was voted ‘Sole Survivor’ by four of the seven jury members, while Yates received two votes and Kimmel received one. He was described as being the smartest and most strategic of the final three contestants. When making his opening statement to the jury, he said, “The main thing I can ask tonight is that you are able to see the difference between my strategic game and the relations that I actually built with you because they were all real.”
Herzog, who was only 14 years old when the first season of Survivor premiered, was once the founder of his school’s Survivor club and was voted by his graduating class as “Most likely to appear on Survivor.”
The finale aired on December 16, 2007.