‘Survivor: Winners At War’ Finale Recap: Tony Vlachos Wins Season 40 In Virtual Episode

On Wednesday night, Survivor ended season 40 by declaring the Winners at War winner. This season on Survivor, 20 of the show’s past winners over the last 20 years came back to compete for a grand prize of $2 million. 

Tony Vlachos joined Sandra Diaz-Twine as the only Survivor contestants to win the show twice. Diaz-Twine had previously won Survivor: Pearl Islands and Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains. Vlachos beat out Natalie Anderson and Michele Fitzgerald in the final three with a respective 12-4-0 vote. 

Since season one, there has been a live final for each season of Survivor, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, the finale took place virtually. The Survivor host, Jeff Probst introduced the shows season finale from his garage at home and connected with the 20 contestant that participated this season through their own living rooms. 

The episode captured the last few days that the contestants spent in Fiji going from the final five, through two more tribal councils and down to the final three. The final five contestants that were left included Vlachos, Anderson, Fitzgerald, Sarah Lacina, Ben Driebergen and Denise Stapley. 

This season the Edge of Extinction was in play, meaning that when a contestant is voted out they do not leave the game, but go to a separate island awaiting for a challenge that will gain one player entry back into the game. This episode showed Anderson winning the challenge that allowed her to gain re-entry. Anderson, who was voted out on day two, competed against 14 other contestants and won using multiple advantages that she had acquired on the Edge of Extinction. 

Over the course of the episode, Stapley and then Driebergen were voted out. With Anderson winning the final immunity challenge, she forced Vlachos and Lacina to go head to head in a fire-making challenge leaving Vlachos, Anderson and Fitzgerald left in the final three to plead their case to the jury. 

On night 39, the final night of the game, the jury asked Vlachos, Anderson and Fitzgerald about their social strategy and game play before casting votes on who they thought should win the grand prize. 

Before reading the votes, Probst said, “you outlasted 17 of the best people to ever play this game. Win or lose, you should be proud of yourselves.” After the reading, Vlachos was shown the $2 million check that will be sent to him for winning. 

Other notable Survivor winners that participated in season 40 included Rob Mariano and his wife Amber Brkich, Ethan Zohn, Parvati Shallow and Tyson Apostol.