Michele Fitzgerald is crowned the winner of Survivor: Kaôh Rōng.
The 24-year-old bartender from Freehold, New Jersey won a reward advantage to remove a jury member in a final three challenge. She chose to remove Neal from the jury believing he would argue a good case for Aubry. In the end, Michele argued her case to the seven jury members, explaining her social game and how she worked her way into the majority alliance.
Michele won 5-2, receiving votes from Cydney, Debbie, Jason, Julia, and Scot. Aubry Bracco, the 29-year-old social media manager from Cambridge, MA received two votes from Joe and Nick and finished as runner-up. Tai Trang, the 51-year-old gardener from San Francisco, CA received zero votes and finished as second runner-up.
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Congratulations, Michele! She totally earned it!
Yay, I guess.
I wrote multiple times that Michelle wins. I am happy that I guessed right, although Cydney or Aubry would be better winners.
I think those statements are quite unfair.
If Cydney had learned how to make fire, perhaps she wouldn’t have gone out the way she did. If Aubry had been more confident in her statements in FTC, perhaps she’d have been the winner. They both really messed up when it mattered the most.
Grim end to a great season
For what it’s worth, she did well when it counted. Just shows that it’s never about big moves, but correct ones.
I bet Michele wrote all of these ‘Joe’ posts
Aubry deserved to win. Her game utilized exceptional networking skills and interpersonal communication. She was formidable in challenges, as well. Surprised that Jason, whom she took to the wire in the pot challenge, didn’t vote for her.
Her FTC performance was lacking in confidence, quite honestly. Just goes to show that while you’re in Day 39, you actually have to do great in that portion to win.
Michelle’s victory bumps this season from top 5 to bottom 15. I could have understood it if she hadn’t been sitting next to Aubry, but since Aubry was in the final 3 Aubry should have won. Aubry better make it to season 34! I think that Kaôh Rong was superb until Michelle won the advantage of voting out Neal. I truly wish that Aubry had won that challenge.
Personally, I think Michele won it fair and square. Basically, she did well when she needed it most.
Take it for what it’s worth, but I think people who thing #BigMovez are the way to win miss the point entirely. At the end of the day, you win by making people like you enough to vote for you. Aubry didn’t that while Michele did. That’s all there is to it.
It’s not that Michelle didn’t deserve to win, I just feel that Aubry was more deserving. Aubry was fighting from the beginning and started making moves (not necessarily big moves) early on, while Michelle took longer to get into the game. Aubry entered the merge on the bottom but managed to get herself to the top even after her closest ally was med-evaced. I tend to appreciate smaller moves more than larger moves, but even in this I think Aubry would best Michelle. Michelle didn’t really do anything until it was too late. Aubry did play a detailed and at first subtle game. Yes Michelle won fair and square, but I don’t agree that her victory is justified. I know that if I were ever to make a Survivor jury I wouldn’t care who got me to like them, I would vote for the best player. I would be hope that the winner of my season to be one of the best winners ever.
That last sentence made no sense, I am so sorry. ‘I would want the winner of my season to be one of the best winners ever’.
Michele deserves to win! Just because she took her time and waited for the game to come to her instead of initiating moves herself doesn’t mean she didn’t play well or shouldn’t have won.
Obviously she played well because she made it all the way to the end of the game. She also deserved to win because she convince a jury (whom everyone thought would never vote for her over Aubry) to vote for her.
Michele won a total of 13 challenges (both tribe and individual)
Aubry won a total of 6 challenges (tribe and individual)
Michele only received 4 votes to go home through out the entire game (and two of those were wasted votes from Tai)
Aubry received 6 votes.
Except for Joe, all of Aubry’s closest allies during the game voted for Michele. Debbie took care of Aubry when she had an anxiety attack; she voted for Michele. Cydney worked closely with Aubry for most of the post-merge game; she voted for Michele.
Michele laid low and stay under the radar for the first half of the game. She made moves when she had to, even voting out her closest allies (Nick and Julia) from the beauty tribe. She won immunity when she needed to. She used her advantage in the Jury vote-out correctly. She proved herself in the FTC with great (HONEST) responses.
Going into FTC I thought Aubry was a lock and Michele (as much as wanted her to win) wouldn’t have a chance. But she slammed it and swayed the jury to her side.
Outwit (under the radar, swayed the jury); Outplay (won 13 challenges); Outlast (Made it 39 days, and received votes from jury members that everyone was sure would vote for Aubry).
Face it . . . Michele WON this game. And she deserved it too.
Debbie voted for Michelle, Nick voted for Aubrey? how’d you get that? I thought it was Michelle-Nick, Aubry-Debbie
Neal revealed on Twitter that Nick was the other Aubry vote. Aubry herself confirmed this in one of her post-game interviews. 🙂
I’m sorry. I don’t agree at all that Michele deserved to win. I definitely feel that Aubry was the clear winner and lost due to a huge case of bitter jury syndrome. I mean, Aubry never gave up. Michele stepped out of a challenge to eat. So, Aubry didn’t cry. Well, if that’s all it takes to win, my three year old is a shoo in. This is ridiculous. I’m shocked at Debbie and Cydney. The others I’m not all surprised. What a bunch of babies. I apologize for sounding crazy and I rarely ever comment on these things but this just really irritated me. I hate hate hate seeing people who do nothing except win a few last minute challenges and bat their eyes at the jury win over people who worked all season. .Aubry deserved to win and I really hope something good comes out of this for her!
And in my personal opinion (take it or leave it but it’s mine) flying under the radar does not mean you outwitted anyone. It means you let someone else make the moves and play the game for you. Then you used anger and jealousy to win the votes. I get that some people consider that a strategy but I think it’s not worthy. However, like I said its my opinion and and everyone is entitled to their own. I do not feel that Michele represented herself well at FTC though. She didn’t really have great responses. She looked confused and tried to act like she was going to save Cydney when she clearly had no idea Tai was not with her. I think it may be a personal pet peeve of mine though but it seemed like every time she opened her mouth she said “Um yeah blah blah blah…” That may be a factor in my irritation. Lol. No, really. I truly feel Aubrys game play was smarter and better and that the jury was just bitter. But they so often are so what can you do?
In fairness, Michele had more confidence (and dare I say, articulation) in her statements than Aubry. If Aubry had the same, if not more, confidence, she’d have won.
Hence, I think your opinion doesn’t hold much water at all FWIW.
Well, thank you for you responses but as I said they are my personal opinions and that is perfectly fine if you don’t agree. No need to fight about it. I’m sure my opinions mean nothing to you at all but I was under the impression that this was a place for anybody to express their thoughts. Even if other people think they are wrong. That being said. I’ve thought back and remembered a few things: like Michele killing it in that memory challenge and also working Nick when he tried to manage who they were going to go with. So maybe I was too quick to judge and in my haste, I forgot some things. However, MY personal favorite is still Aubry. I still like her game better regardless if you do not agree or how many times you imply I do no GET something or that my opinion holds no water.
I understand the sentiment for Aubry. Of the final three we had to choose from I probably would have voted for Aubry because of how hard she played the game.
Unfortunately, the viewers do not get to vote. We also only get to see what the producers allow us to see which is very VERY little of everything that goes on.
That being said, since the jury picked Michele to win, I look at everything she did to deserve the win. And when you look at what Michele did, it is still quite impressive! Maybe not as impressive as Aubry, but still impressive.
My beef about people who are down on Michele is that they are making it about her. Many of them are just being haters. If the Aubry people want to be mad that she didn’t win, they need to be mad at the jury, not at Michele.
Jules: I totally agree with you! You summed it up right. She flew under the radar the whole time whereas Aubry was really making the game. I think this season was good , full of characters but Michele was by far the easiest to forget!!!!! Plus… I cannot stand her voice. I think if Neal was there for the FTC, he might have had some powerful speech to convince the jury to vote for Aubry.
Bitter jury sucks…
Thanks Ota. Like I said in response to Joe though, I may have been somewhat hasty in completely writing Michele off. I had forgotten about that awesome memory challenge when she totally blew everyone else away. And they way Nick treated her and she managed him. But I still think Aubry was better all around. And I agree about Neal. That really was a blow but I’m not sure if he could have swayed the bitter trio.
You may not agree with the results, but like it or not, Michele won with not exactly having flashy moves but with emphasis on relationships and well-timed moves. At let’s face it: that IS the essence of Survivor. If you don’t like that, then I question whether you GET things.
I agree Joe! If you want proof of the importance of the social game, you only need to look at Russel Hantz. He played hard. He played tough. He lied, cheated and manipulated. He won when he needed to.
I don’t like him, but his strategy got him to the end of the game. What it didn’t get him were jury votes.
Brawns and brains will get you to the end, but it takes a good social game to win.
And I completely disagree with everyone who says that laying low isn’t a good strategy. If it gets you $1 million dollars . . . it was a good strategy.