Age: 27
Hometown: Random Lake, Wisconsin
Previous Season(s): Survivor: Redemption Island, Survivor: Caramoan
Previous Placing: 5/18 | 7/20
Days Lasted: 37 | 33
Correctly Voted for Boot: 7 | 6
Votes Received: 9 | 13
Individual Immunity Challenge Wins: 1 | 1
Most Memorable Moment: First female to return from Redemption Island and first female to be voted off in possession of an idol.
What happened in her previous season(s):
Survivor: Redemption Island
It took a while for Andrea to emerge in her first season, she was part of a cast that was overshadowed by Boston Rob Mariano, who was playing for his fourth time. She started on the Ometepe tribe and quickly became a number in Rob’s alliance. We didn’t see a lot of gameplay from Andrea at this stage, but we did see her ability to form bonds. She had a flirtatious relationship with her alliance mate Matt Elrod, and the two started to grow close. The pair’s closeness caused Rob to lose trust in Andrea, believing that she would end up being more loyal to Matt than himself, and so on Day 5, without informing Andrea, he got his alliance to blindside Matt, sending him to Redemption Island. Even though Andrea was shocked and upset, she decided to stay loyal to Rob’s alliance.
On Day 21, Matt won his way back into the game from Redemption Island and the tribes merged. Andrea was in the majority Ometepe alliance, which Phillip Sheppard was now also a part of, and she also had her friend Matt back in the game. However, Mike Chiesl started to bond with Andrea and Matt and wanted them to jump over to the Zapatera alliance, promising to take both to the end. While Andrea considered the option, she grew fearful when Matt told Rob about the plan. Rather than suffer repercussions, she decided to join her Ometepe alliance in blindsiding Matt for a second time, sending him back to Redemption Island.
It was smooth sailing for Andrea for a while as the Ometepe’s dispatched the former Zapatera’s one-by-one, and she even won individual immunity on Day 24. But her physical abilities combined with her social skills made her a threat, and once the Zapateras had all been eliminated, Andrea found herself toward the bottom of the Ometepe alliance. She thought, however, that Phillip would be voted off before her given that he wasn’t an original member of the alliance, but on Day 32, Andrea was blindsided 5-1, her closest allies Rob and Grant Mattos plotting her elimination. Even though she was the underdog on Redemption Island, facing off against strong physical male competitors, Matt and Mike, and then later Grant, Andrea won both duels she competed in and returned to the game on Day 36.
Upon her return is when we started to see a more feisty, game-focused side of Andrea, the side we’d see more of in her next season in Caramoan. Her back was against the wall, but she tried everything she could to get the girls, Ashley Underwood and Natalie Tenerelli, to vote out Rob or Phillip. She even made up a lie about the men on Redemption Island telling her they’d vote for Phillip in the Final 3. After coming close to winning immunity, but losing out to Ashley, Andrea made a last-ditch to vote out Rob, telling the tribe that he’d obviously win in the end against any of them. But the tribe remained loyal to Rob (he had an idol anyway), and Andrea was again voted out, 4-0, and became a member of the jury where she voted for Rob to win in the end over Natalie and Phillip.
Survivor: Caramoan – Fans vs. Favorites
After being a passive player for the majority of Redemption Island, Andrea came into her second season wanting to play a more aggressive and strategic game. She got off to a hot start on the Favorites tribe, reforming the Stealth R Us alliance with her former ally Phillip, and recruiting Malcolm Freberg, Corinne Kaplan, Dawn Meehan, and John Cochran. Andrea voted out her friend and former cast mate Francesca Hogi in the first tribal council, a decision which demonstrated Andrea was there to a play a more ruthless game. She also worked on building a relationship with outsider and crazy-man Brandon Hantz, while also planting seeds to blindside her own alliance mate Corinne. This was definitely a different Andrea.
Andrea ended up on the Gota tribe after the tribe swap, where she maintained a Favorite majority with Malcolm, Brenda Lowe, and Erik Reichenbach. The Gota tribe was comprised of strong physical players, and they were able to win all the post-swap immunity challenges, keeping Andrea safe until the merge.
At the merge, Andrea put together a majority alliance consisting of all the Favorites, while also creating a sub-alliance with Cochran, Dawn, and Phillip. It seemed that she was mirroring her game somewhat on Boston Rob’s, trying to keep her original alliance together while at the same time nurturing a sub-alliance within that majority. But things would change when Dawn informed Andrea about Corrine’s plan to blindside Phillip at the next tribal council, which allowed Andrea to campaign to vote off Corrine, something she’d been itching to do for a while. Andrea persuaded Brenda and Erik to jump on board with the plan and Corinne was eliminated 7-5.
After Corrine’s blindside, Andrea had lost the trust of Malcolm and was becoming more and more of a target. But Andrea had been developing a bond with Eddie Fox, a relationship that had shades of her friendship with Matt Elrod, except here Andrea was using Eddie strictly for information. Because of her relationship with Eddie, Andrea was able to determine that she was the next target, and fearing an idol play, she convinced her alliance, plus Sherri Biethman, to vote out Michael Snow as a safe bet. An idol was played for Malcolm at the next tribal council, but it proved useless, as Andrea’s plan worked and Michael was voted out.
Andrea’s game started to come undone after Malcolm, and three Amigos (Eddie and Reynold Toepfer), played idols at the next tribal council and blindsided Phillip. She was now in a vulnerable position but was determined to keep the remaining Stealth R Us members together to vote out Malcolm and Reynold. She even stalked Malcolm around camp to make sure he wouldn’t find another idol. However, Andrea started to rethink her plans after a hard fought, three-hour stand-off with Brenda in a combined immunity/reward challenge, which Andrea ultimately won. The reward that Andrea won was a clue to a hidden idol, she shared the clue with her alliance, and they went looking. Erik found it and handed it to Andrea. Seeing Brenda as a threat down the line, Andrea tried to convince her alliance to blindside Brenda, but instead, Reynold was deemed a more immediate threat and was eliminated.
Back at camp after tribal council, Andrea continued to push for Brenda to go home next and even suggested to Cochran that Dawn needed to go soon too. Her willingness to blindside, combined with her idol and friendship with Eddie, became a concern for others. Cochran started to grow suspicious that Andrea wanted to bring Eddie to the final three over himself, and so he approached Dawn, Brenda, and Sherri about blindsiding Andrea. While Andrea thought everyone was voting Brenda, the Stealth R Us alliance made a plan to split the votes between Andrea and Eddie, hoping to get rid of Andrea and the idol in one fell swoop. The plan worked, and Andrea was blindsided in a 3-2-2 vote, leaving the game with an idol in her pocket. She took her elimination in good spirits and in the end, voted for Cochran to win.
Biggest Strength: Her challenge ability and her willingness to make a move.
Biggest Weakness: I think Andrea’s biggest problem is timing. She has a decent strategic mind but learning when to pull the trigger has been the cause of her downfall in both seasons. In Redemption Island she waited too long to make a move, and in Caramoan she jumped the gun, targeting Brenda and Dawn when she should have waited a little longer. If Andrea can work on her timing, she could be lethal.
What she considered her mistake: In post-show interviews, Andrea has said that her mistake was playing too hard, too early. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Andrea said: “I could have took a chill pill in the strategy sessions. I was always the one speaking up and plotting, usually planning things too early. I think I wanted to come in and actually play this time, not follow like I did in my first season– so I might have been a little too aggressive. I also should have stayed away from the boys! They always get me in trouble!” She also told People magazine that targeting Dawn was a huge error: “I should have known better to bring up Dawn’s name to Cochran – they were so tightly aligned.” Interestingly, in her interview with THR, when asked if she’d play a third time she said: “I had so much fun this season and I think playing another season would be a mistake. I would probably get voted out early since people see me as a strategic player, and then I would just be mad at myself for playing again.” It will be interesting to see if Andrea’s prediction comes true or not!
Andrea is one of twenty returning castaways who will compete on Survivor: Game Changers which premieres March 8 on CBS. Stay tuned to Inside Survivor for more cast retrospectives and other pre-season content.
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Are you serious?
He wasn’t talking about the season “Redemption Island.” He was talking about the first female to survive the challenges of the redemption island arena and return to the game. Andrea is one of my all-time favorites and I hope that she wins this time.
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