Russell Hantz

Russell Hantz was a contestant in Samoa and Heroes vs. Villains. He was considered to be one of the most devious constestants to ever appear on the show. He finished second in Samoa, while finished third in Heroes vs. Villains. He also participated in Survivor: Redemption Island, where he finished 17th.

Survivor: Samoa
Russell was placed on the yellow Foa Foa tribe. In the first challenge, he was chosen for the leg of the race that required strength by tribal leader Mick. Foa Foa won the reward challenge. From the beginning, he already demonstrated his preference to play through lies and deceit, making conflicting alliances with every tribemate (mostly females) coming into contact. He even created lies about his personal life, claiming that he was a Hurricane Katrina victim. Still not contented, he became fond of wreaking psychological havoc whenever possible, even sabotaging his own tribe, as seen In Foa Foa's first night, where Hantz dumped all water containers and burned Jaison's socks. This plan took its toll on Foa Foa, whose subsequent failure in eight out of ten tribal challenges and made them sacrifice six of their ten members. Marisa Calihan, Betsy Bolan and Ashley Trainer were systematically eliminated after they had caught Russell's dirty tactics. After Galu lost Russell Swan before a supposed double-boot twist in Day 15 because of a severe medical condition (which Hantz claimed was a sort-of victory for Foa Foa, for the rival tribe still lost a member), another loss sent Foa Foa back to Tribal Council, where Liz Kim was voted out when Russell H. felt she does not need her anymore. This prompted an early merger, with still twelve people remaining. The rival tribe Galu severely outnumbered Foa Foa, with an 8-4 supermajority.

His craftiness scaled newer heights when he made an unthinkable Survivor first, finding several Hidden Immunity Idols without using the provided clues. With these Idols at his disposal, he became merely invincible at Tribal Council.

When the tribes merged, Hantz gradually rallied the Foa Foa foursome (consisting of Jaison Robinson, Natalie White and tribe leader Mick Trimming) to victory when they concocted a "divide and conquer" scheme, attempting to make the former Galus turn on each other. This was proved effective when White turned the Galu women on cocky Erik Cardona, who was blindsided at the first merged Tribal Council as Aiga (unknown to everyone, they effectively flushed Erik's own Hidden Immunity Idol in the process). Hantz on the other hand, used his Idol, though no votes were cast against him. Hantz again surprised everyone when he revealed another Idol the following Tribal Council. This time, however, the effects devastated the former Galus, because it was revealed that they had voted for him. With all seven of Russell's votes spoilt, only the former Foa Foa's votes were counted, with all leading to an unsuspecting Kelly Sharbaugh, sending her to the Jury in a 4-0 vote.

After two consecutive ex-Galu blindsides, Russell convinced Shambo Waters shift allegiances to the former Foa Foas, for she felt unhappy with her own tribe and had a fierce hatred towards Laura Morett. This caused the remaining Galus (including Waters herself) were subsequently eliminated, starting from Laura. When they thought that their victory was imminent, the Foa Foa four's aspirations of being the final four were thwarted, when the last remaining (loyal) Galu member Brett Clouser went on to win a crucial Immunity Challenge, making the once strong alliance of four eliminate one of their own, a task they had not done in eighteen days. Clouser's win made Russell's closest ally Natalie as the next intended target, but Russell wanted to take her to the end, assuming that he would get more Jury votes. He turned the tables on Jaison instead, and he was eliminated. After a close final Immunity Challenge, Russell won immunity over Brett. As a last chance to stay alive, Brett tried to convince Russell to eliminate Mick instead. Though Russell considered Brett's idea, the remaining Foa Foas prevailed as the last Galu member took his fall in a 3-1 vote.

At the Final Tribal Council, Hantz was berated for being arrogant and overly two-faced. Despite his aggressive game plan garnered him votes from Shambo and John Fincher, though he eventually lost when the other Jury members voted for Natalie instead. In the reunion show, Russell bribed Natalie to surrender the Sole Survivor title to him for $100,000, for he felt he was more deserving than her, in which Natalie declined. His antics, however, made him earn the Sprint Player of the Season award, giving him $100,000.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Russell Hantz was a last minute edition to the cast of Survivor's 10th anniversary season. Since Samoa and Heroes vs. Villains were filmed back to back, nobody was aware of how Russell played the game, which gave him a bit of an advantage. Immediately upon arriving to Samoa for the 2nd time in about a month give or take, Russell started the game just like in Samoa by alligning with two young pretty girls, Parvati Shallow and Danielle DiLorenzo, and like his previous season, Russell would vote off whoever he felt was a threat to him, although it took a while for him to dominate the voting like he did in the last season as for the first 14 days his tribe either won immunity or he just went with what the tribe wanted (e.g., voting off Randy Bailey because everyone thought he was a weak player). But after Russell looked for the hidden immunity idol after Sandra Diaz-Twine said that anyone who went looking for the idol was dead man walking and everyone else agreed to it, Russell became a target. So Rob Mariano, who lead the majority Villains alliance had his alliance of 6 split the votes 3 and 3 against Russell and Parvati to flush out the idol in case Russell had it (which he did). But Russell managed to get Tyson Apostol to switch his vote from Russell to Parvati, and Tyson agreed to it. And at tribal council, Russell gave his idol to Parvati, which erased the 4 votes against Parvati and had Tyson voted off 3-2. However, since Russell's alliance only comprised of 3 members and the Villains tribe had 8, Russell was not in the clear. In fact, Rob would target Russell once again after Russell targeted Rob's alliance mates, Sandra and Courtney Yates. But since Russell managed to get Jerri Manthey to vote off Rob and Coach Wade did not follow Rob's plan and wasted his vote on Courtney, Russell's fiercest fival, Boston Rob, would get voted off 4-3-1. Russell was officially in control of the tribe, although the Heroes felt that there was an all girl alliance on the Villains tribe. Knowing that she and Courtney were next on the chopping block, Sandra told Russell that Coach didn't trust him, and when Russell's core alliance of Danielle and Parvati found out, they ultimately decided to vote Coach off along with Sandra and Courtney. However, Russell felt that Courtney was weaker and still voted off Courtney although Coach still got more votes than her. This would be the first time Russell Hantz would not agree with the vote at tribal council. After the immunity challenge on day 24, JT Thomas gave Russell a hidden immunity idol, thinking that he would use it to blindside Parvati. But Russell was just struck with hilarity as he knew it was a stupid move, although he'd be happy to exploit it. Parvati and Danielle would also find their own hidden immunity idol, but they agreed not to tell Russell.

Voting History

Survivor: Redemption Island
Hantz returned to compete for a third time along with Heroes vs. Villains archrival Rob Mariano to settle their iconic rivalry in the said season. After a draw of buffs, Russell went to the purple Zapatera tribe. Immediately after the tribe reached camp, Russell stated that he would be playing differently than his previous seasons. He laid it out by saying that he would not sabotage anybody or do the things he was notorious for in the past. Despite his claims, the new contestants still became suspicious of him. Nonetheless, Russell led the tribe to two successive challenge wins. Knowing he had a big target on his back, he made a familiar move by again making alliances with the petite girls, Stephanie Valencia and Krista Klumpp. After winning the Day 5 Immunity Challenge, the three found the clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol and tried to look out for it, but eventually failed, because Ralph Kiser already found it (by accident). Russell was then called out in the open by Ralph for stealing the clue, which angered the former. With no Immunity Idol, Russell feigned possession, with Stephanie holding her bag the whole day, so it would look like she is "protecting" the idol.

In Day 8, hungry for Russell's downfall, the six other tribe members concocted a bold plan to get rid of Russell. First, they would tell Russell that Francesca Hogi won the first duel (which in truth, it was Matt Elrod who won, potentially throwing Russell off-guard once he steps in at Redemption Island) and second, they will purposefully throw the next challenge, to have an opportunity to go to Tribal Council and vote him out. The idea would go as planned at the Reward/Immunity challenge, as David acted as if he was unable to finish the puzzle, giving the victory-hungry Ometepe tribe their first challenge win.

While Ralph had not yet revealed his possession of the idol to his allies, the majority alliance assumed that decided to split the votes between Russell and one person from his alliance. At Zapatera's first Tribal Council, Russell continued to stress out that he was a changed man, while Stephanie was trying to protect him, saying that his past experience will propel them in future victories. But the sextet went to their plan, with the vote ended up a three-way tie between Russell, Stephanie and Ralph. With five of the six-person alliance eligible for the revote, all their votes went to Russell. As Jeff snuffed his torch, a furious Russell walked out from Tribal Council and headed to Redemption Island.

Angry of being doublecrossed by his tribe, Russell vowed to defeat Matt. But in a surprise turn of events, the villain finally fell from grace after being defeated in the Day 9 duel. Much to the spectators' surprise, Russell was reduced to tears seconds after losing, stating that he had really changed. During his final words statement, Russell stated that he would never play again, because he felt he had nothing else to prove to himself and his family.

Post-Survivor
After the Redemption Island Duel which he lost, Russell said that he will not be returning to play Survivor. However, there is still a chance he might return, since he said to Jeff during a Skype chat after the airing of the episode that he may consider returning for a future season. Many fans were relieved to hear officially that Russell told Jeff to "keep his number" for a future season during the Redemption Island Reunion Show.

Trivia

 * Hantz was the first male player to make it to Day 39 more than once.
 * Hantz has never served on a Survivor jury.
 * Russell was the only male player not to make the merge in Survivor: Redemption Island.
 * Over his Survivor career, Russell possessed the most Hidden Immunity Idols with five.
 * His nephew Brandon is now a contestant on South Pacific.
 * Survivor Redemption Island is the only season where Russell never is in possession of a hidden immunity idol.
 * Hantz was the first male player to lose a duel on Redemption Island.
 * Hantz was the only player to be eliminated pre merge in Redemption Island to talk in that season's live reunion show.
 * Hantz is the first person to find a hidden immunity idol without using a single clue