Jeremy Collins

Jeremy Collins is the Sole Survivor of. He originally competed on.

Jeremy was a major physical and strategic threat from the outset of San Juan del Sur. He helped his tribe win five out of six pre-merge immunity challenges, and helped to orchestrate the entertaining blindside of Drew Christy at the only Tribal Council he attended during that time. He then struck first against his strategic rival Josh Canfield after the merge, sending him to the jury, only to be blindsided himself at the following Tribal Council due to the threat he posed. He also has the distinction of being the first person to win a Hero Duel.

Returning for Cambodia, Jeremy developed a more aggressive but honest playing style. Highlights of his game included his timely use of two Hidden Immunity Idols, his low-key but enduring partnership with Spencer Bledsoe and Tasha Fox, and his perfect execution of a "meat shield" strategy in which he disguised the seemingly obvious threat he posed by aligning with higher-profile targets such as Andrew Savage and Joe Anglim. In a season characterized by paranoia and constantly shifting voting blocs, Jeremy was able to maintain steady control of the overall action of the game, and at the Final Tribal Council, he became the Sole Survivor in a unanimous vote.

Profile
Retrieved from CBS.com

San Juan del Sur
Jeremy started the game on Day Zero with his wife, Val. The next day they were split: Jeremy was designated to Hunahpu, and Val was assigned to Coyopa. When Jeff then announced there would be a Hero Duel|Hero Duel, Jeremy eagerly volunteered for the opportunity, not knowing his opponent. When Jeff explained he would compete against his wife - the loser going to - Jeremy was ready for the challenge. He got out to a fast start in the challenge and never let up, winning soundly and sending Val to Exile; he then chose Keith from his own tribe to join her based on his profession.

Hunahpu was dysfunctional for much of the pre-merge, but were buoyed by their challenge dominance. He did, however, visit Exile Island with John Rocker during the second episode, as he was chosen by Julie. There, John promised he would do what he could to protect Val back at Coyopa. However, Val bluffed too hard, claiming she had two idols. John's plan to save her revolved around her playing an idol - an idol she didn't have. Val was voted out on a revote at that Tribal Council.

On Day 7, Jeremy saw his wife had been voted out, and forced John to confess to his tribe that he had tried to save Val, leading to John's ouster the next day. Hunahpu then visited Tribal for the first time on Day 10 after Drew threw the Immunity Challenge. Jeremy voted with the women of his tribe, blindsiding Drew 5-2-1-1.

After the tribe swap, Jeremy remained on Hunahpu with his allies Natalie and Julie, but they were outnumbered by the alliance of Josh, Reed, Alec, and Wes. Luckily, they didn't lose any Immunity Challenges after the swap. They did, however, have to trade most of their belongings for a new supply of rice, as they had overeaten and were entirely out of food.

After the merge, two factions arose: Jeremy's alliance, including Julie, Natalie, Baylor, and Missy; and Josh's, including Reed, Alec, Wes, and Keith. This left Jaclyn and Jon as the swing votes. On Day 18, it seemed as if Josh had successfully roped in Jon and Jaclyn, and they were targeting Jeremy. However, he was spared by the fact that his ally, Julie, quit.

In the next episode, Jeremy won his only individual Immunity Challenge, narrowly defeating Josh. Some chauvinistic comments and actions by a member of Josh's alliance - namely, Alec - offended Jaclyn, causing her and Jon to flip over to Jeremy's alliance. They successfully voted Josh out on Day 21, 6-5.

The next day, Jeremy won the Reward Challenge, but along with Natalie opted to give their respective rewards to Jon and Jaclyn as repayment for their votes the night before. Jon returned the favor by sending Jeremy to his second stint on Exile Island. There, he realized that Jon, the previous inhabitant, had found the Hidden Immunity Idol.

Baylor won immunity on Day 24, and Reed, sensing he was in trouble, scrambled to shake up the vote. He found Keith's Hidden Immunity Idol clue in his bag and brought it to the attention of some of his tribemates. However, what ultimately changed the tribe dynamic was Jeremy's confronting Jon about his possession of an idol, which Jon denied. Jon then rallied together Jaclyn, Baylor, Missy, and Reed to vote Jeremy out. They did so successfully, eliminating the Foxborough firefighter, 5-3-2, to become the second member of the jury.

At Final Tribal Council, Jeremy made a speech advocating for Natalie, praising her as the best player of the season. Jeremy voted for his former ally Natalie to win, which she did, 5-2-1.

Cambodia
Jeremy was chosen by public vote from thirty two candidates to compete on the "Second Chance" season,.

Jeremy was a part of the Bayon tribe. After hitting the beach, he immediately formed alliances with Andrew Savage, Keith Nale, Joe Anglim, and Tasha Fox. His intention is to surround himself with shields in the form of more vocal players such Savage and physical threats such as Joe. On Day 5, Andrew told the tribe a heartfelt story about how he met his wife and this made everybody cry. After the story, Jeremy left the shelter so that he could be alone. He then stated in a confessional that his wife was pregnant with their third child, so he was playing for them. Bayon won nearly all the Immunity Challenges even after two tribe swaps. Even though there were two tribe swaps, Jeremy always remained on Bayon.

After the first tribe switch, he formed a bond with original Ta Keo member Spencer Bledsoe. On Day 9, he found a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol and found the idol during the Immunity Challenge. After Bayon lost their first, and only, Immunity Challenge, Jeremy and his allies Stephen Fishbach and Monica Padilla agreed to vote out Kelly Wiglesworth, an original Ta Keo member who joined the Bayon tribe at the first tribe switch. However, Kimmi Kappenberg told him that Monica tried to start an all girls alliance, which infuriated him. As a result, at Tribal Council, Jeremy, along with Kimmi and Stephen, voted together to blindside Monica.

The tribes officially merged with 13 players remaining. His alliance was the majority alliance over Kass McQuillen and Ciera Eastin's minority alliance. Despite being in the majority alliance with most of the original Bayons, plus Spencer and Kelly, the multitude of intertwining relationships as a result of the tribe swaps resulted in everybody creating temporary voting blocs to take out common threats. Jeremy was able to find his second Hidden Immunity Idol and played it on Stephen during the final ten Tribal Council, thus sparing Stephen from elimination and blindsiding Ciera. However, Stephen was voted out at the next Tribal Council. With 8 players remaining, they got to meet their loved ones. Jeremy met his wife Val Collins (whom he competed with as her loved one previously in ), and she told him that they were going to have a boy. However, Jeremy stated in a confessional that he was not going to tell anyone, believing that it could jeopardize his game.

With six players remaining, Jeremy was in the majority alliance that consisted of himself, Spencer, Tasha, and Kimmi. However, Kimmi jumped ship to Keith and Kelley Wentworth's side. Spencer and Tasha warned him about Kimmi possibly flipping, but Jeremy did not believe them. At Tribal Council, both Jeremy and Kelley played their idols, each negating the three votes against them. This was the first time in Survivor history that no votes did count for anybody at Tribal Council. Jeremy, angry that Kimmi voted against him, decided to vote against her at the revote. He skipped to the voting booth and happily voted against her, which the jury did not like. However, both Tasha and Kimmi were tied with three votes each. Then Jeff asked them if anyone was willing to change their votes and all of them said no. Afterwards, Jeff gave Jeremy, Spencer, Kelley, and Keith Nale two minutes to decide whether they were going to send either Kimmi or Tasha home. Otherwise, both would become immune, and Keith would be eliminated by default. Jeremy and Spencer still wanted to eliminate Kimmi. Consequently, both Kelley and Keith then decided to eliminate Kimmi, sending her to the jury so that Keith wouldn't get voted out.

After the Tribal Council, Kelley won the final five Immunity Challenge. Back at camp, Jeremy whispered to Keith to vote out Spencer. At Tribal Council, Keith did not put out the fake idol Kelley gave him, and Jeremy stayed loyal to Spencer and voted against Keith, sending him to the jury. Later, Jeremy won the Final Immunity Challenge. Despite having an alliance with Spencer and Tasha, he very briefly considered taking Kelley to the end. However, Jeremy decided almost right away that he was going to vote out Kelley. At Tribal Council, Jeremy pretended that his vote was up in the air. In response, Spencer threatened to vote for Kelley to win and sway the jury to vote for her as well, if Jeremy were to vote him out. As planned, he honored his alliance with Spencer and voted out Kelley, making her the final member of the jury.

At the Final Tribal Council, Jeremy was praised by Stephen for his loyalty and playing with honor and integrity. However, Andrew criticized him for skipping and being arrogant during Kimmi's elimination, and Kimmi chastised him for replacing her with Spencer in their alliance. When Kelley asked the finalists what their second chance was about, Jeremy said that he was doing it for his family, including his unborn son, and that he struggled with keeping his wife's pregnancy a secret for the entire game. Ultimately, the ten jurors voted for Jeremy, making him the Sole Survivor of , and the fourth person to win by a unanimous jury vote.

Voting History
In You Call, We'll Haul, Kelley used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Jeremy's vote against her. In Lie, Cheat and Steal, Jeremy used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating 3 votes against him. Also, Kelley used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Jeremy's vote against her. Because Jeremy and Kelley both used Hidden Immunity Idols and negated all the votes cast at Tribal Council, a vote restart was held between all the non-immune players. This vote ended with a 3-3 tie between Kimmi and Tasha, forcing a unanimous decision tiebreaker. Jeremy did not change his vote on the tiebreaker.

Post-Survivor

 * In July 2015, Jeremy's wife Val revealed on her Twitter account that she was pregnant with their son who was due to be born in December.
 * Val gave birth to their son Remy Bodhi Collins on December 21, 2015.
 * Jeremy and Val attended the wedding of Jon Misch and Jaclyn Schultz on August 16, 2015.
 * Jeremy, along with Joe Anglim, appeared in an episode of  on January 27, 2016.
 * Jeremy, along with Tina Wesson, Rob Mariano, Rupert Boneham, Cirie Fields, Woo Hwang, Natalie Anderson, Kelley Wentworth, and Joe Anglim, competed on a Survivor edition of The Price Is Right primetime special that aired on May 23, 2016. Jeremy and his partner, Matthew, did not make it up on stage.
 * Jeremy, along with Woo Hwang, Kelley Wentworth, Joe Anglim, and Caleb Reynolds, competed on the series premiere of the game show Candy Crush, which premiered on CBS on July 7, 2017. Jeremy and Woo competed against Kelley and Joe.
 * On June 16, 2017, Jeremy and Val welcomed their 4th child and second son, Lenyx Kai.

Trivia

 * Jeremy was one of three firefighters competing in . The others were tribemate Keith Nale and his son Wes.
 * Jeremy and Val are the only couple in San Juan del Sur to be married during the time of filming.
 * Jeremy was the lowest placing Huyopa member to win individual immunity.
 * Jeremy lost 19 lbs. during San Juan del Sur and 30 lbs. during.
 * Jeremy is the only person to compete in a Hero Challenge twice. He competed in his first Hero Duel against his wife, Val, on his first season. He also competed in a Hero Challenge against Andrew Savage and Terry Deitz in .
 * Jeremy is the third African-American winner of Survivor, following Vecepia Towery and Earl Cole. They were followed by Wendell Holland.
 * Both Earl and Jeremy won their seasons in a unanimous jury vote.
 * Jeremy is the fourth winner to win in a unanimous jury vote, following Earl Cole, J.T. Thomas, and John Cochran. They were followed by Adam Klein.
 * Jeremy and Adam hold the record for most jury votes received in a single season, with 10.
 * Jeremy is the first Sole Survivor to have only won the Final Immunity Challenge and no other individual Immunity Challenge.
 * However, he did win an individual Immunity Challenge in San Juan del Sur.
 * If you don't count negated votes, Jeremy becomes the third person to ever play a perfect game, following J.T. Thomas and John Cochran.
 * He is the first to do it in an all returning-player season.
 * Jeremy and Kelley Wentworth are the second and third castaways in Survivor history to have both votes cast by and cast for them negated by Hidden Immunity Idols in a single Tribal Council.
 * The first was their fellow San Juan del Sur and Cambodia castaway Keith Nale who achieved the feat in San Juan del Sur.
 * Jeremy only went to one Tribal Council before the merge on both of his seasons.
 * Jeremy is the first male to win a season featuring only returning players.
 * Jeremy is the sixth of seven castaways to earn the title of Sole Survivor in a subsequent attempt, preceded by Amber Brkich, Parvati Shallow, Rob Mariano, John Cochran, and Tyson Apostol and followed by Sarah Lacina.
 * Jeremy is the second firefighter to win Survivor, following Tom Westman from.