Call it a season of firsts.
First, Survivor: Cook Islands generated heaps of controversy over its producers decision to segregate the initial four tribes by race. On the CBS season finale Sunday night, it marked the first time three contestants, not two, ever went before the final jury, and the first time none of the finalists was white.
Plus, it was the first time Yul Kwon was ever handed a million-dollar check.
The 31-year-old management consultant, who just weeks ago made People s Sexiest Men Alive list, took home the top prize on the granddaddy of reality shows, edging out second-place finisher Oscar Ozzy Lusth, a 25-year-old surfer and waiter, in a 5-4 vote. (Third-place finisher Becky Lee, 28, failed to score a single vote after an embarrassing attempt to start a fire in front of the jury in a tiebreaker contest.
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It s the first time I ve ever felt bad that somebody didn t win, host Jeff Probst said of Lusth s defeat, after the last remaining Hispanic tribe member won five of the season s six individual immunity challenges. It was so evenly matched.
Kwon, on the other hand, didn t feel quite so badly about his win.
The key to winning the game is maximizing the good luck and mitigating the bad, he said.
Skill doesn t hurt either.
The Stanford and Yale Law grad became known as the 13th season s puppetmaster, playing a strategic game after finding the hidden immunity idol early on in the season.
On Sunday night, he systematically beat out the four remaining contestants mdash;three of which were part of his Aitu tribe mdash;beginning with the last Raro standing, Adam Gentry.
The first challenge of the finale was a combination ropes course and puzzle, which Probst deemed the most difficult puzzle we ve ever had.
Kwon managed to take the early lead, but quickly fell into second place after Lusth.
Gentry was voted off at that night s Tribal Council, at which point he praised the alliance formed between the Aitu tribe.
Ozzy, Yul, Becky and Sundra, you guys got us good mdash;you knocked us all out, he said.
I am so glad that the winner of Survivor is going to be from a minority community, Kwon told cameras, bringing the season s theme full circle.
I think it speaks volumes, that oftentimes the strongest teams are the ones that have a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds.
The next day, the remaining four headed into their final Immunity Challenge.
Per tradition, each finalist was forced to stand on a small steel perch in the water.
But this time there was a twist mdash;the perch diminished in size every 15 minutes until it was half the size of a postcard.
Lee was the first to fall, followed by Kwon and Sundra Oakley, leaving Lusth scoring the immunity necklace. Oakley was ousted during a pathetic tiebreaker challenge in which neither she nor Lee was able to start a fire with flint in an hour, resulting in a scolding from Probst.
After 38 days out here, you should both know how to make fire, he said, before giving each a book of matches. The results weren t pretty: Both still struggled mightily, but Lee managed to get a flame going after Oakley ran out of matches, while members of the jury variously yawned and rolled their eyes.
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