Hey there. For those who don’t know I’m a huge fan of the CBS Reality TV show Survivor and I devote a lot of my time in watching and analyzing the show and its players. In this little series I’ll be sharing my Survivor winners rankings in which I analyze and rank the 39 winners we’ve had and the games they played. I will try to be critical of their gameplay and refrain from letting bias interfere, though I can’t promise to be 100% unbiased towards some of these winners. I’m starting from the bottom and we’ll go up my ranking from there.

Today I’ll be covering the winner I have ranked #36 out of 39.
Check the thread description to see what season they were on.

Previous winners - #39, #38, #37

With that said let’s get started.



#36 / 39 - Fabio Birza (S21 - Nicaragua)

Here we have probably the most shocking winner of them all. Fabio, while by no means a bad player, honestly is the single most WTF winner I can name if we’re not counting Chris Underwood. I don’t think going into Nicaragua live that anybody would have him pegged as the winner from the get go. He’s the youngest winner to date, winning the game at only 21 years of age, which is both impressive and a little concerning. Let’s not dwell on what he might have done with the money though, I’m only here to analyze his game.

Nicaragua revisited an old theme seen before in S12 Panama. It pitted people of different generations against each other, with Fabio obviously being placed on La Flor, the young people tribe. The opposing tribe, Espada, consisted of all people in their 40s or above. Seems fair right? Just go beat up some old people and it’s easy money. Well to combat this, the Survivor team decided to be a little funny and right after the opening of the season they introduced probably the most pointless twist I’ve ever seen, the Medallion of Power. This little medallion isn’t an individual item but rather a tribal one, meaning as long as someone has it their whole tribe will benefit. Right before any challenge, Jeff will ask whatever tribe has the thing if they want to use it, which would then give them an advantage in the challenge they’re about to do. The catch is that whenever it’s used, it will be transferred over to the opposing tribe. Luckily for Fabio, Brenda ends up finding the stupid thing so La Flor is the first tribe to possess it.

Going to their beaches, it was pretty clear from early on that Fabio’s age and inexperience were going to play a big part in how he plays. He looked absolutely clueless, generally giving no real strategic input and instead providing comedic relief by goofing around the island. Very endearing as a viewer, but I can see how someone like that would be frustrating as a player trying to get something together. Fun fact - Fabio wasn’t always Fabio. He originally started the season as Jud, even showing as Jud in the opening credits, but was later given the nickname by tribe mate Sash when he described Fabio as “retarded”. I think it originates from a dumb model cliché joke or something but I’m not too sure. Either way, Fabio became Fabio and from episode 2 onwards was shown as such in the opening credits. Anyway, back to the island. Fabio quickly lets us know that thankfully he’s at least aware of how he’s coming across. Whether he’s saying that because he believes it or because he wants to sound smart, I’m not sure. Either way, Fabio is then seen goofing around some more, picking up a crab arm that was torn off or something. Now Fabio doesn’t realize that those pinchers still work even after being chopped off, probably due to nerve endings or something. He learns this the hard way as it pinches down on his finger, making him shake his arm all over the place trying to get it loose. Yeah, I’m sure this guy knows what he’s doing.

While his whole tribe kind of just accepted Fabio being there, especially because he was actually pretty good in the challenges, there was one person who didn’t enjoy his presence whatsoever. This person is of course a certain miss NaOnka Mixon. You see at some point NaOnka lost her socks. Might not sound like a big deal but I’m sure out there in the rain and cold that’s like a death sentence. So what’s the logical thing to do when you lose your socks? If you said go look for them, well, you’d be right under normal circumstances, but this is NaOnka. She doesn’t like the norm. NaOnka instead decides that instead of her not having socks, she’d rather Fabio having no socks. So the only way to accomplish this is to essentially steal Fabio’s socks. Fabio shockingly notices he doesn’t have his socks on and goes to look for them, only to find them locked to the feet of NaOnka Mixon. He confronts her about it and she gets mad at him. Oh boy Fabio, no socks and no friends, how rough.

Fabio’s clueless persona did make him perfect material for an extra vote. More gifted players from the eyes of numbers and strategy saw him as a great option to expand their alliance and numbers. He was recruited by the likes of Shannon and Alina to form a majority alliance. After losing the second immunity challenge, hothead Shannon wanted Brenda out for being a scary player, but screwed everything up by just being an a**h*** at tribal council. Fabio, despite the writing being on the wall for Shannon, still stuck to what he promised to and was one of few people who didn’t write Shannon’s name down that night. Normally this would be pretty bad for you, I mean being left out of the first vote always sucks. But maybe because Fabio was so out there it actually made people more comfortable with him, knowing that he’s either too clueless to notice you scheming behind his back, or he’s loyal to the people he aligns himself with. Both good qualities for longevity in Survivor.

Fabio showed that the one side of Survivor he did have prowess for, the challenges, was enough to keep him in the game, as La Flor went on to win the next couple immunities.

The tribes swapped on day 12, but luckily for Fabio it was 5 La Flors against 3 Espadas, namely Jill, Jane and Marty. Fabio was automatically included in the majority La Flor alliance, and together as a tribe they went on to win the next immunity challenge.

The immunity challenge after that was a little different. Both tribes were visiting tribal council, but someone on each tribe would win individual immunity. Unluckily for La Flor, the person they wanted out, Jill, won immunity for herself, making them switch the target. They decided to put votes on Marty, who had already revealed to the whole group he has an idol, in an effort to establish trust. And also Kelly Bruno, a La Flor with a prosthetic leg. To this day I’m still not sure why she was the other person getting votes instead of Jane, but maybe I missed something. Anyway, before tribal council we see another instance of Fabio being clueless as Marty just randomly tells Fabio he’s a chess grandmaster, and proceeds to name some players he had beaten before (most of which were famous for other sports LMAO). Fabio of course eats this s*** up and believes it 100%.

At tribal council, things go as planned, and there is a tie between Marty, who didn’t play his idol, and Kelly Bruno for some reason. All you do now is vote Marty and you remain 5 La Flor, on top of flushing out an Espada idol. But no lmao this group of players has an IQ equal to Fabio’s so they vote out Kelly Bruno instead. Guess she really had a leg up on them huh.

They also lose the next challenge, but this time Jill doesn’t have immunity and is sent packing by La Flor.

And now we’ve hit the merge! Fabio’s doing alright so far for such a clueless player. He ends up winning the first immunity challenge, keeping him safe from any potential blindsides. He’s even included on the vote against Alina, because she is just a grade A dirt squirrel. Good for you Fabio. It falls apart pretty quickly after that though. Fabio’s alliance with Benry, Dan and Marty is all of a sudden attacked by an angry Brenda-led alliance. Despite winning the last immunity challenge, Marty is seen as such a scheming player that he takes the bullet instead. Personally I found this sad as Marty was one of my favorites. But Fabio lives on!

The next round is pretty straight forward as NaOnka wants Brenda out for being annoying and threatening, and well, you don’t disagree with NaOnka Mixon, so there Brenda goes. Fabio has seemed to have found his footing a bit, still with solid allies in Benry and Dan as well as potentially NaOnka and Kelly S? Well no, as they decide that like 30 days in (!!) it’s more worth it to quit the game to eat pizza. Look, knowing more inside stuff now, I kind of get Kelly’s decision, as production did royally f*** her over, but you would still think that the motivation of a million dollars, or even 100k for second place, would be enough to hang it out 9 more days. Guess not. But hey, Fabio is suddenly in the top 7!

But sadly his reign as a power player are short lived (if ever alive to begin with). The majority alliance of Chase, Sash, Jane and Holly want to split up Fabio, Benry and Dan. They figure old Dan with his busted knee isn’t a threat to anyone, so they decide to throw their votes on Benry. He’s a little worse in the challenges than Fabio, but with a bigger brain as well so that makes him more threatening. Fabio dodged a bullet here.

Now we’re at final 6, and lo and behold, Fabio clutches an immunity win! This should make Dan the odd man out, but partly because he’s so unthreatening, and Jane decided to throw water on the campfire, it is her who gets the unanimous boot. Good for Fabio, who is now going to have to rely on challenges to get anywhere deeper in the game.

And well, that’s what he does best. Fabio wins his third immunity and is now a lock for final 4, which sadly means Dan has nowhere to hide his 5 foot body behind, and he is unanimously voted out.

Not really much else to say for the final round. 3 people want Fabio to not win, and 1 person wants Fabio to win (being Fabio, if that wasn’t clear). Classic underdog story unfolds as Fabio wins his 4th and final immunity challenge, basically already securing the win before even pleading his case. At tribal they vote out Holly because she’s the only woman left. No I’m kidding but Sash and Chase were never voting each other off and Fabio has no reason to let Holly boost her resume by winning fire.

At final tribal council Chase and Sash try to argue that Fabio was clueless the whole game, but Fabio fights this by saying he purposely played the goofy guy so his challenge prowess wouldn’t make him a giant threat. Chase and Sash get a roasting from like half the jury and then Fabio wins 5-4. Might seem close but a few people have come out and said that they wanted Fabio to win but voted Chase so Sash would get less money (LMAO). Glad Fabio won though.

And that’s it for this 21 year old surfer who was attacked by bugs and crabs the whole season, made friends with a chess grandmaster and placed some coins on top of each other to win a million dollars! Oh and then got arrested for skateboarding on the streets, which is somehow illegal where he’s at, don’t ask me how. Perfect ending to Fabio though. Also shoutout to that one person in the finale audience who shouts out Fabio’s name a second before Jeff announces him the winner, love that soundclip.



Next up will be a barrel rolling competition champion, so watch out!