Phillip Sheppard

Phillip William Sheppard is a contestant from and.

In Redemption Island, he became infamous for proudly boasting of his former life as a federal agent, though his blustering demeanor, social unawareness and penchant for malapropisms seemed to belie these claims. His standing was not improved by his habit of wearing pink briefs that made his fellow competitors feel uncomfortable and/or ridicule him. This made him a favored tool of eventual winner Rob Mariano, who correctly identified him as an easy goat to take to Final Tribal Council.

In Caramoan, Phillip was again considered deeply eccentric by his tribemates. Despite this, he applied the strategic lessons he claimed to have learned from Rob in his previous game, and was at least nominally the leader of the dominant Stealth R Us alliance. However, he was eliminated when Malcolm Freberg used two Hidden Immunity Idols to force Phillip out of the game.

Profile
Retrieved from CBS.com

Survivor: Redemption Island
Phillip rubbed his tribe the wrong way from day one, with his tribe did not taking kindly to his bossy attitude and outrageous statements. They were also skeptical of his background as a former federal agent. After Ometepe lost the first Immunity Challenge, he was approached by Kristina Kell and Francesca Hogi to work together to get rid of a member of the large Rob Mariano-led alliance, most likely Natalie Tenerelli, who was viewed as one of the weaker players. However, at Tribal Council, Phillip worked self-defensively and called out Kristina and Francesca's (i.e. mispronouncing her name several times despite corrections) Hidden Immunity Idol. In a confessional, Phillip revealed that he had been acting as an annoying, controversial contestant intentionally as part of a well-hidden strategy to make his tribemates believe that he is the perfect person to bring to the final three.

After losing yet another Immunity Challenge, Phillip approached Rob and told him he "owned his vote". Rather than risk Phillip opening his mouth at Tribal Council again, Rob simply put his hand on Kristina's shoulder before he voted, indicating that he wanted Phillip to vote for her. Out of fear, Kristina decided to play the idol, not knowing Rob swerved the vote toward Matthew Elrod's direction instead. Despite annoying his tribemates with his dictatorial approach, outbursts and odd comments, Phillip lasted through the merge at Boston Rob's expense.

After the merge, his peculiarities continued to be a constant source of discourse with the former Zapatera members. While Ometepe had the numbers advantage, the Zapateras outwardly showed their disdain for Phillip. When Steve Wright finally snapped and called him "crazy", Phillip lashed out, stating that Wright was subconsciously implying him the derogatory "N" word. This gesture sparked controversy around camp, where Phillip's alliance partners rallied to Steve's defense and let Phillip know that he was overreacting. That afternoon before Tribal Council, Julie jokingly stole Phillip's shorts, much to his dismay. At the next Tribal Council, the heated discussion between Steve and Phillip was a main topic of discussion. After admitting she stole the garment, Julie faced the wrath of Ometepe, voting her out. The next day, Phillip miraculously found his shorts under a rock, wearing them to the duel to surprise her. As predicted, the remaining Zapatera members, Ralph and Steve, were subsequently voted out, forcing the six Ometepes to turn on each other.

When Andrea returned from Redemption Island, she zeroed in on Phillip as being the next to go. Rob got wind of the plot and managed to convince the tribe to vote for Andrea instead. Phillip managed to make it to the final three along with Rob and Natalie. During the Final Tribal Council, he was lambasted for his strange behavior and odd comments. The only person that voted for Phillip was Ralph, the only jury member who seem to have a liking for Phillip (on account of Phillip saying that Ralph was the hardest worker of the Zapateras), which apparently was mutual. This one vote landed him sole possesion of second place ahead of Natalie Tenerelli who received 0 votes, losing to Rob by seven votes (8-1-0). Despite the single vote, Phillip is regarded by many as the biggest and most obvious finals goat in Survivor history.

At the live Reunion Show¸ Jeff Probst introduced a special guest - a certified federal agent named Diane Hardy. She revealed that Phillip was indeed a former federal agent.

Voting History
In You Own My Vote, Kristina used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Phillip's vote against her.

Survivor: Caramoan
Phillip returned as one of ten Favorites that comprised the Bikal Tribe. Phillip, using strategies he had learned from his time being an ally of Rob Mariano in, formed a second incarnation of Stealth R Us with fellow Redemption Island returnee Andrea Boehlke, Dawn Meehan, Malcolm Freberg, John Cochran, and Corinne Kaplan. This alliance put Phillip's rival Francesca Hogi, Brandon Hantz, Erik Reichenbach, and Brenda Lowe in the minority. Francesca attempted to let Phillip know she was over what happened in their season, but Phillip (who had already buried the hatchet with Francesca) became annoyed with her for being stuck in the past. At the first Tribal Council, Francesca was voted out 6-4 for being a strategic threat.

Over time, Brandon became more annoyed with Phillip for his arrogance, and after Phillip referred to him as "middle management", Brandon told the rest of the tribe that Phillip was the biggest bully he had ever seen. The feud between Brandon and Phillip reached its climax when Brandon dumped Bikal's rice and beans shortly before the fifth Immunity Challenge. The tribe mutually agreed to forfeit so they could boot Brandon, which they went through with. Brandon took the time to lash out at Phillip for demeaning the other tribe members with the Stealth R Us codenames before he was unanimously voted out 8-1. After Brandon's departure, The Bikal tribe gained Gota members Michael Snow, Matt Bischoff, and Julia Landauer while Phillip's alliance only lost Malcolm and Andrea.

Corinne's budding friendship with Michael became a concern for Phillip's alliance, but despite this, Michael was spared at the next two Tribal Councils and reached the merge. At the merge, Dawn spilled the beans on the counter alliance that consisted of Eddie Fox, Malcolm, Corinne, Reynold Toepfer, and Michael after they had approached her to join them. Phillip and his alliance voted out Corinne at the following Tribal Council due to her betrayal.

Phillip and Stealth R Us decided to focus on targeting the three stronger males on the outside at the next Tribal Council (Eddie, Malcolm, and Reynold), but once Andrea caught wind of being a target, she became paranoid and the alliance switched it up to Michael just to be safe. With Michael now gone, Phillip and Stealth R Us enjoyed a 7-3 advantage over the alliance of Malcolm, Eddie, and Reynold. At the Immunity Challenge, Phillip sat out voluntarily due to a childhood incident and did not want to be underwater for a long time (oddly enough, Phillip had participated in the previous Immunity Challenge, which was mainly underwater).

The alliance's target, Reynold, won Immunity and to make matters worse, Malcolm (the next target in line) found Reynold's replanted Hidden Immunity Idol. This left just Eddie vulnerable, but at Tribal Council, Malcolm stunned everyone when he pulled out two Hidden Immunity Idols, giving them to himself and Eddie. Phillip's alliance was forced to target each other, but decided to stick with their plan of vote splitting. Phillip became the 10th person voted out of Caramoan and the second jury member when he was voted out in a 4-0 vote due to Eddie and Malcolm playing the Idols.

At Final Tribal Council, Phillip "revoked" Sherri's membership from Stealth R Us for riding coattails and chastised Dawn for her constant emotional breakdowns being disruptive at everyday camp life. Phillip praised Cochran for his strategic game. In the end, Phillip voted for Cochran and thanked him for joining Stealth R Us.

Voting History
In Tubby Lunchbox, the vote ended with a 3-3 tie between Julia and Michael, forcing a revote. Phillip voted for Julia on the revote. In Zipping Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Malcolm used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Phillip's vote against him.

Post-Survivor

 * In Feburary 1, 2013, Phillip released a book entitled The Specialist: The Costa Rica Job through Amazon. contestant Holly Hoffman wrote the foreword of the book. He plans to write a sequel to his book in the near future.
 * In May 2013, Phillip revealed that he had been cast in the critically acclaimed comedic web series Development Hell as "Dr. Dick Emerson", a character which pokes fun at "The Specialist" character Phillip played on Survivor.
 * In April 13, 2015, Phillip released another novel entitled Legends of Things Past.
 * Phillip attended the Survivor edition of The Price Is Right primetime special that aired on May 23, 2016.  However, Phillip himself did not compete.

Trivia

 * Phillip was the oldest contestant on both  and .
 * Phillip was the second person to be the oldest person in two separate seasons, the first being Rudy Boesch.
 * Phillip became the third contestant to be the oldest castaway of the season and make it to Final Tribal Council. The first two were Kim Johnson and Lillian Morris and were followed by Carolyn Rivera. All four finished in 2nd place.
 * During Phillip's Redemption Island confessionals, his occupation was presented as "Former Federal Agent (?)", stating that the editors could not tell if he was joking or not. But in the reunion show, Jeff Probst and a woman named Diane Hardy confirmed that Phillip did work for the government.
 * Phillip was the only Ometepe member at the merge that did not win an Individual Challenge (Matthew Elrod won duels on ; Grant Mattos, Rob Mariano, Ashley Underwood, Andrea Boehlke, and Natalie Tenerelli had all won a Individual Immunity Challenges during the merge).
 * With 17 votes, Phillip had the most votes against one person who made it to Final Tribal Council. He initially had the record for most votes in a single season overall, outdoing Jonathan Penner's record of 15. This fact was referenced by during the Final Tribal Council of.
 * Phillip's record would be quickly tied by Ozzy Lusth in  and eventually broken by Laura Morett in  with 19 votes against her.
 * Phillip also had the record for most votes for a first time player. Baylor Wilson would tie this in , and the record was eventually broken by Jenn Brown in  with 18 votes.
 * Unlike the other Caramoan returnees from the first two Redemption Island seasons, Phillip was never sent to Redemption Island.
 * Amongst the Favorites on Caramoan, Phillip is the only one to reach Day 39 on his original season.
 * He is one of two people to be a member of both incarnations of Stealth R Us. The other is Andrea Boehlke.
 * Phillip is the first contestant to opt out of an Individual Immunity Challenge without being tempted by food. He would be followed by Missy Payne in.