Mike Holloway

Michael Anthony "Mike" Loving Holloway is the Sole Survivor of.

A true blue collar, Mike was the unofficial leader of Escameca, being a workhorse around camp, but his overbearing personality rubbed his tribemates the wrong way. Through the three-tribe and tribe swap phases of the game, he was able to secure a tight majority alliance going to the merge. However, a bold move at the Survivor Auction caused his alliance to turn on him. Ultimately, Mike's numerous Immunity Challenge wins and use of the Hidden Immunity Idol allowed him to make it to the end. His aggressive game play and subtle social game won him the title of Sole Survivor.

Profile
Name (Age): Mike Holloway, 38

Tribe Designation: Blue Collar (Escameca)

Current Residence: North Richland Hills, Texas

Occupation: Oil Driller

Personal Claim to Fame: Paying off my house in 2 ½ years. It took a lot of Ramen noodle nights, but to see the focus and drive pay off, was priceless.

Inspiration in Life: Don Couch-He is the man and I call him “Dad.” Even though we are in no way related he took it upon himself to teach me how to be man. He is a man of morals and values and he is a man of his word. He means what he says and is who he says. What a mentor.

Hobbies: Disc golf, running and picking up the ladies! Haha!

'''What is your favorite sport? '''When I was younger, it was playing football because the sound of someone losing their air is awesome. Now that I am older, it is disc golf because I love the challenge of me against the course.

Pet Peeves: People who are bad at time management. If you say you’re going to be somewhere at a certain time, be there! Also spelling, I can’t stand it when someone can’t spell.

3 Words to Describe You: Loyal, Ambitious and Clever.

If You Could Have 3 Things on The Island What Would They Be and Why? 1. Any ball because I can make a game out of anything, MacGyver-ish in this case. But it would be nice to have a ball. 2. Toilet paper because it kind of stinks rubbing your bum with your hands. 3. Tooth brush because it’s refreshing not having yuck mouth.

SURVIVOR Contestant You Are Most Like: Cochran, because he knows the game and how to move pieces; Ozzy because that dude has the best posture of anyone and he’s a bad ass; and Rob Mariano because he takes over and gives 110% at everything.

Reason for Being on SURVIVOR: There’s a competitive fire inside me. I can’t get enough. I live to compete daily in my own life. If you guys let me loose on the challenges you will see. Also, I want to see if I am as good of a manipulator as I think I am.

Why You’ll “Survive” SURVIVOR: I have a never-quit attitude. If I have to die, I will before I quit! I am also confident in who I am and what I can do and can’t do. The ole ‘fake it till you make it’ applies here. I also am a leader; people naturally flock to me because of my outgoing attitude on life.

Why Will You Be the Sole SURVIVOR: My life is constantly changing. At work, I must adapt to what the oil well is doing and sometimes drastic measures need to be taken. In my personal life, I have had to overcome being molested and bullied when I was young and not having a father. Learning to be influenced by the right people has been no easy chore. I have grown into my own skin - I know who I am and what I am about. My faith has made me whole, my family and friends have me strong, and my experiences have made me adapt. Let’s get it on!!!!

Survivor: Worlds Apart
Mike started off on the Escameca (blue collar) tribe. He initially formed an alliance with Kelly Remington and Dan Foley, and he was viewed as the leader. However, he began to earn the ire of his other tribe members Rodney Lavoie, Jr., Lindsey Cascaddan, and Sierra Dawn Thomas when he repeatedly insisted that the tribe do more work around camp. Nevertheless, the tribe did well in challenges.They won the first three immunity challenges so they avoided going to tribal council for the first eight days. However, the blue collars finally lost their first immunity challenge on day 11. After the challenge Mike, Dan, and Kelly aligned with Rodney. Rodney wanted to vote for Lindsey for her outbursts at camp, but Mike and Kelly taught about voting for him. But at tribal council, they stuck with Rodney. The four of them split their votes between Lindsey and Sierra and eliminated Lindsey in the revote. On day 12, a tribe switch occurred. Mike remained on the blue collars tribe with Rodney, Dan and Sierra but lost Kelly. However, he gained white collars Tyler Fredrickson and Joaquin Souberbielle, and no collar Joe Anglim. However, Joaquin and Rodney started bonding which scared Mike and Dan. They won the next immunity on challenge. In day 16, Mike decided to throw the immunity challenge to save Kelly. So the blue collars threw the challenge. After the challenge Rodney, Joaquin and Tyler targeted Joe because he was the biggest challenge threat but Mike and Dan wanted to get rid of Joaquin because his friendship with Joaquin was too strong. Joe joined them in order to save himself. Then they tied to get Sierra on their side because she was the swing votes but she was unsure. At tribal council, Sierra sided with Mike and Joaquin was blindsided in a 4-3 vote. Later that night Mike explained to Rodney why he got rid of Joaquin but Rodney was still angry.

On day 17, the tribes merged and Kelly joined Mike’s side again. He was also able to gain former white collars Tyler and Carolyn Rivera and former no Collar Will Sims II. Joe won immunity on day 19 thwarting the blue collar’s plans of getting rid of him so Mike targeted Jenn Brown. However, at tribal council, Jenn played her idol negating the seven votes cast against her blindsiding Kelly in a 4-1-0 vote. After Joe received a clue to the hidden immunity idol he showed it to Tyler but Mike caught them. Then Tyler told Mike about the clue to keep the Blue Collars' trust. Though Joe couldn't find the idol, Mike decided to frame him by claiming that he saw Joe find it, which sidelined Joe from continuing his search; Mike continued looking, and eventually found the idol. Joe won immunity again on day 22, so the alliance targeted Hali and she was blindsided in a 7-4 vote. Tyler won immunity on day 24 ending Joe’s immunity streak then Joe tired to trick Mike into keeping him by showing him a fake hidden immunity idol claiming it was the real one. However, Mike knew he was lying but asked him to give it to him. At tribal council, the votes were split between Joe and Jenn but Mike used Shrinn’s swing vote to send Joe to the jury. The next day Mike overheard Rodney’s inner alliance consisting of Rodney, Carolyn, Tyler and Will plotting to vote him out next. At the Survivor Auction, Holloway held out from participating in order to have all of his money for a game advantage; though all of the castaways agreed to purchase letters from their loved ones, Holloway sneakily reneged; after earning the ire of his tribe-mates, Holloway relented, and subsequently lost the lottery to earn the advantage, which went to Dan. Now Mike was kicked out of the alliance and was made public enemy #1. However Mike saved himself by winning immunity on day 27. At tribal council, Jenn was eliminated. He won immunity again on day 29. At tribal council, Mike bluffed about giving the idol to Shrinn so the others would switch their votes. Will and Tyler switched their votes to Dan, but Mike did not give the idol to Shrinn and she was sent to the jury. On day 30, Mike, Sierra and Carolyn were team up for reward. They initially had a lead due to Rodney forgetting to bring the balls with him on the obstacle course, losing a lot of time for him, Dan, and Tyler, but they later caught up. However Mike managed to win the reward challenge, but his team did not give it up to Rodney which made him mad because it was his birthday. During the reward trip Carolyn considered teaming up with Mike. After getting back from the reward challenge Rodney acted like he wanted to quit so Mike would not play his idol but Mike knew he was lying. Carolyn won immunity but Mike was safe due to him having the hidden immunity idol. Mike wanted to get rid of Tyler and try to convince Carolyn to vote for him which she pondered over. At tribal council, Carolyn and Sierra sided with Mike. Mike played his idol negating the four votes cast against him blindsiding Tyler in a 3-0 vote. That night Carolyn told Mike about Dan’s advantage and they decided to get rid of Dan next. Mike, Carolyn and Will won the next reward challenge and during the reward Mike proposed a final three deal with them which Carolyn considered. On day 35, Mike narrowly defeated Sierra to win immunity. After the challenge Rodney asked him if he was voting for Dan which he taught about. He then told Carolyn and Sierra that Mike, Rodney and Will are voting for Carolyn. At tribal council, Carolyn played her hidden immunity idol, negating the five votes cast against her, and her and Mike’s votes sent Dan to the jury. On day 36, the final five met their loved ones. Mike saw his mom. Then the final five competed in a reward challenge. Mike won, and then he got to spend time with his mom and got an advantage for the next immunity challenge. He told his mom that everyone is targeting him and he is glad that she is here. The next day Mike and his mom go to the location of the challenge. His advantage was that he and his mom get thirty minutes to practice for the challenge. However, they did not make any progress which worried both of them. Nevertheless, Mike was still able to win the immunity challenge. Then both he and Carolyn decided to vote for Rodney. Sierra joined their side. Then he talked to Rodney and Rodney told him that Sierra has done nothing to upset the jury. So Mike was unsure whether to vote for him or Sierra. However, at tribal council Sierra accidentally told everyone that she was a threat so she was blindsided in a 4-1 vote. Mike won the final immunity challenge. After the challenge Rodney told him to vote for Carolyn but Mike wanted to take her to the end. Ten Mike told her that tonight there will be a tie between her and Rodney and so there will be a fire making tiebreaker challenge.Then he starts prepping her for the challenge. At tribal council, both Carolyn and Rodney were tied with 2 votes so they had to compete in a fire making tiebreaker challenge. After an hour Carolyn won and made it to the end.

At the final tribal council, Mike was praised for winning numerous challenges and making it to the end despite being public enemy #1 but was criticized for playing a bad social game. At the end, Mike received six votes and won the title of sole survivor while Carolyn and Will received one vote each. He received votes from all the no collars, all the white collars and Dan the only blue collar.

At the reunion show, Jeff Probst polled the jury on who would vote for Mike or Rodney if Rodney made it to the end instead of Carolyn and Four people would have voted for Mike so Mike still would have won. He revealed that he has repaired his friendship with Dan. He was also one of the thirty two contestants eligible to return for Survivor Cambodia. While he was one of the top ten males, his victory on Worlds Apart disqualified him from returning.

Voting History
In Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner, the vote ended with a 2-2-2 tie between Lindsey, Rodney and Sierra, forcing a revote. Mike did not change his vote on the revote. In The Line Will Be Drawn Tonight, Jenn used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Mike's vote against her. In Holding On for Dear Life, Mike used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating 4 votes against him.

Post-Survivor

 * In July 2015, in an interview Mike gave his thoughts about how his former castmate Joe Anglim would do in.
 * He stays very close to the Survivor  cast.

Trivia

 * Mike coined the merged tribe name, Merica.
 * Mike was one of 32 contestants eligible to be selected to compete on .  However, despite him being in the top ten males, his eventual victory on Worlds Apart disqualified him from returning.
 * Mike is the fifth person to win five individual Immunity Challenges in a single season, the first four being Colby Donaldson, Tom Westman, Terry Deitz, and Ozzy Lusth.
 * Of those, Mike and Tom are the only ones to win.
 * Mike is the first Sole Survivor to receive enough votes to be voted out, but be saved by a Hidden Immunity Idol.
 * Mike is the first Sole Survivor to receive only uncounted votes, as the only other Sole Survivors to void votes against themselves with an idol also received at least one counted vote.
 * Mike is the first male winner from a blue tribe.
 * Mike's Luxury Item was a giant Texan flag.