Brandon Hantz

Brandon Keith Hantz is a contestant from and.

In South Pacific, then-19 year-old Brandon, a married, Born-Again Christian and nephew of the notorious villain Russell Hantz, struggled with keeping his true identity from his fellow Upolu tribemates as well as battling temptation, and the moral dilemma the game presented. He was remembered mainly for giving up Individual Immunity which lead to his blindsided at the Final Five Tribal Council. He returned in Caramoan where he had gained infamy from an altercation with tribemate Phillip Sheppard, prompting him to pour out all of their food reserves, which resulted in his tribe verbally voting him out at an Immunity Challenge.

Survivor: South Pacific
Brandon was a member of the Upolu Tribe, which would soon be joined by returning player Coach Wade. Within the first three days, Brandon became a member of a majority alliance in Upolu consisting of himself, Coach, Sophie Clarke, Albert Destrade, and Rick Nelson. Brandon hid the fact he was the nephew of former player Russell Hantz (going as far as to wearing his shirt covering the upper portion of his back where he had a Hantz tattoo while he was fishing), but ended up seeing it as too much of a burden to keep to himself, and told Coach on Day 4. Brandon also struggled with temptation and began to conspire against tribemate Mikayla Wingle. The Upolu 5 managed to control the merge and boot Christine Shields Markoski (who openly threatened returning players on the first day), Stacey Powell, and Mikayla at the three Tribals Upolu attended. Although Brandon began to unravel and struggle more and more with his personal beliefs, he remained loyal to the Upolu 5. When only the members of the original Upolu 5 remained, Brandon was the target for the Tribal Council, but surprised everyone when he won his first Individual Immunity. Later on, Albert was called out on his deceit by Sophie, Brandon, and Rick. However, Brandon later made amends with Albert before Tribal Council, and gave up his immunity to Albert, feeling that he owed him. Brandon found himself betrayed by his allies in a 3-2 vote. At the final Redemption Island duel, despite putting up a good fight against Ozzy Lusth, he was beaten and became the seventh member of the jury. At the Final Tribal Council, Brandon was mainly bitter towards Albert, asking him if he knew if he was going home and only wanted a yes or no answer. When Albert said he didn't know, Brandon simply uttered "You lie" and sat back down. In the end, he cast his vote for Sophie to win Survivor: South Pacific. Sophie ended up winning in a 6-3-0 vote.

Voting History
In Double Agent, the vote ended with a 6-6 tie between Rick and Keith, forcing a revote. Brandon did not change his vote at the revote.

In Then There Were Five, Brandon had won Individual Immunity, but gave it to Albert during Tribal Council.

Survivor: Caramoan
Brandon returned for a second time as one of the ten past players comprising the Bikal Tribe. Brandon developed a close bond with tribemates Francesca Hogi, Erik Reichenbach, and Brenda Lowe, ultimately joining their alliance. After Bikal lost the first Immunity Challenge, Brandon began to gun for tribemate Andrea Boehlke, believing her to be a dangerous player in the game. However, his ally Francesca was voted out in a 6-4 decision. Angered by the idea of how cold the majority alliance was for voting out Francesca first for a second time, Brandon flirted with the idea of borrowing some ideas from his uncle Russell by sabotaging his tribe by, such as urinating on their rice, but managed to restrain himself. Phillip Sheppard, the head of the Stealth R Us 2.0, adopted Brandon to his alliance, and like everyone from the alliance, Phillip christened him by giving him his code name, "The Conqueror." Brandon and the rest of the Favorites would remain unbeatable in challenges, winning the next five.

Over the course of his time on the island, he developed a rivalry with Phillip, after the latter referred to him as "middle management". Brandon retaliated by saying that Phillip was the biggest bully he had ever met in front of the other tribe members. In Day 13, the rivalry between the two came to a head when Phillip and Brandon got into an argument following their Reward Challenge win. Brandon apologized to Phillip for losing his cool. However, shortly before the Immunity Challenge, Brandon confronted tribemate Andrea and learned that Phillip was still considering voting him out, despite making amends. Phillip and Brandon got into another argument, resulting in Brandon pouring out Bikal's rice and beans and taunting Phillip to fight him as he walked away.

Appalled by Brandon's mercurial personality, Phillip and the other Favorites leaned towards forfeiting the upcoming Immunity Challenge outright so they can vote Brandon out. At the Immunity Challenge, Brandon launches a tirade against his tribemates, telling the Fans that he was their "second chance" before taking the opportunity to continue bashing Phillip, telling the fans about Stealth R Us and that the code names Phillip had given everyone were demeaning. Brandon also insulted Corinne Kaplan for trying to be nice to the Fans, when they clearly didn't respect them. Jeff called Brandon over to him to cool Brandon down after manifesting intentions to physically harm anyone. Regardless, Bikal forfeited the challenge anyway, and right there and then, the Favorites verbally voted Brandon out, 8-1.

Post-Survivor
At the South Pacific Reunion Show, Brandon revealed that nobody from his family had came to support him since most of them were disappointed and angry over how Brandon played the game. Russell Hantz, Brandon's uncle was present at the Reunion Show but was not there on behalf of his nephew, whom he ended up insulting after Jeff Probst found him in the audience and wanted him to critique Brandon's game play.

During an episode of Rob Has A Podcast, Russell claims that the reason that nobody from Brandon's immediate family were there was because Brandon sold the tickets that were supposed to be for them.

After Survivor: Caramoan, Brandon and his ex-wife Candace got back together.

Trivia

 * Brandon is the first relative of a former contestant to compete on Survivor (Russell Hantz is his uncle).
 * He is the only relative to do so outside of.
 * Debunking popular belief that he was recruited for the sake of stunt casting, Brandon revealed in his EW.com interview that he auditioned for Survivor.
 * Brandon is the fourth contestant to give up individual immunity, following Jenna Morasca, Burton Roberts, and Erik Reichenbach.
 * Brandon is the second contestant to give up individual immunity and be voted out at the same Tribal Council, following Erik.
 * Coincidentally, both he and Erik returned for Caramoan.
 * Along with fellow South Pacific contestant Jim Rice, Brandon set the record of holding 240 lbs. (109 kg) on his shoulders in the "Shoulder the Load" challenge.
 * According to his Ponderosa clip, Brandon lost 30 lbs. during his 36-day run on South Pacific.
 * In an interview in Rob Has A Podcast, Brandon's uncle, Russell, said that he believed his nephew gave up the Immunity Necklace because he wanted to quit, with his brother Shawn (Brandon's father, who appeared on Survivor: South Pacific during the loved ones challenge) claiming that during his time with his son, Brandon already visibly checked out of the game.
 * Brandon is the second person to have been voted out outside of Tribal Council, after Ian Rosenberger from.
 * Brandon mentioned that because of the events of the Tribal Council in which he was voted off on South Pacific, he and Albert Destrade don't talk anymore.
 * Brandon was banned from attending 's Reunion Show, making him the first person in Survivor history be excused from the live show; and one of two contestants to not attend a reunion show in person, along with Brenda Lowe, who couldn't make it because of her pregnancy.
 * Brandon's other uncle Willie Hantz participated in Big Brother 14, but was expelled due to head butting another houseguest.
 * Brandon only voted against returning contestants from Survivor: Redemption Island on Caramoan.