Russell Hantz

Russell Hantz was a contestant on three seasons of Survivor. He was a contestant on Survivor: Samoa on the Foa Foa tribe and then was in the merged Aiga tribe, where he held on to become the runner-up, despite the fact that he owns an oil company and makes millions of dollars. He was the main antagonist of ' and his second season '. In total he has found 6 hidden immunity idols.

Russell was a competitor on  and was on the Zapatera tribe until he was voted out. He lost to Matt Elrod in the Redemption Island duel and was subsequently eliminated from the game permanently.

Samoa
In the first episode, Russell sabotaged his tribe by emptying water canteens and throwing Jaison's socks into the fire. Throughout the season, Russell found several hidden immunity idols; many of which Jeff had never given any clues as to their existence. His tribe, Foa Foa, managed to make it to the merge with a mere four members: Russell, Natalie, Jaison, and Mick. Despite the tremendous handicap, they began picking apart the other alliance from the inside. He made a substantial move with his idol removing Kelly from the game in an epic display of strategy. He followed it up with multiple power moves taking down Dave, Monica, and Laura, all of whom were contenders for the prize. He was able to split Laura and Monica by convincing John to join him, only to betray John in the next Tribal Council. As it came down to the end, he had to choose his final three team. His pondered between Natalie and Mick, and Shambo and Jaison. Settling on the former, he had the other two removed. That action supposedly cost him the game, as with Shambo and Jaison, the Jury claimed they would have vote for him. He made it to the final three with Mick and Natalie, but lost the final vote due to his extremely poor social game, earning the loss. He offered Natalie 10,000 dollars for her to say that he was the "Sole Survivor", but she refused.

Heroes Vs. Villains
Russell was on the Villains tribe in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. His Villains tribe won the first Immunity challenge. He found the hidden immunity idol, and later used it to save Parvati from the vote, in which Tyson was voted out.

He had an alliance with Parvati, Danielle and Jerri.

He is a rival to Boston Rob, and Sandra. The battle between him and Boston Rob ended when Rob got voted out.

The Heroes believed Russell to be on the outside of the Villains Tribe because, since only male villains have been voted out, they assumed there to be an all-women alliance in the Villains Tribe (in sharp contrast to the truth, since the men were voted out for different reasons, and Russell is the mastermind in the tribe). So, they came up with a plan to weaken this nonexistent alliance, in which JT gave his hidden immunity idol to Russell after the Heroes won the immunity challenge, believing that all the women would vote for him and that if he used the idol, whoever he voted for would be voted out. JT and Colby told him to vote for Parvati, but naturally he did not, nor did he have to use the idol, and Courtney got voted out. He encouraged the Heroes' speculation, once they merged, that Parvati had the Villains' immunity idol and played it that night.

Unbeknownst to Russell, there was another hidden immunity idol hidden at camp, and Parvati and Danielle, his two closest allies, found it, and were keeping it hidden from Russell. Until the first merge tribal in Episode 10, where Parvati gave it to Jerri.

During the May 6th episode, Russell was given another clue to a hidden immunity idol by Jeff after the first of two Immunity challenges. The entire Yin Yang tribe went out in search of the idol. Sandra somehow located the idol before Russell and told no one. Rupert slipped a rock in his pocket at to try to protect himself, convincing Russell that he had an idol. Russell split the votes, and his tribe escaped him, allowing Candice to be voted off. Afterword, Russell wins immunity, seemingly securing Rupert's demise. He then decides to try to remove Danielle from the picture because he felt she was too close to Parvati. He teamed up with the Heroes to get Danielle removed from the game, despite the fact he could have removed either of the heroes from play.

With the other villains against Russell, he turned to the Heroes and made an alliance with them to get to the Final Three. As Parvati was a threat, he wanted to vote her out, but when she won immunity, Russell turned on Rupert and voted him out. In the second to last tribal council, where Russell had immunity, he chose to vote out Jerri instead of Parvati, as he was sure he would receive her vote. Before the final Tribal Council, Sandra threw Russell's hat into the fire.

Russell was on the Final Three with Sandra and Parvati, but received no votes.

He was scolded by his rivals (all of them), especially Danielle, Candice, Coach, and Rupert for his harsh treatment on everyone.

Sandra won the game. Russell's greatest victory in Heroes vs. Villains was possibly crowning JT as the dumbest player in Survivor, as he gave him the hidden immunity idol.

Interestingly enough, the first time Russell lost, it was to someone in his alliance. The second time, it was Russell's worst enemy post merge and his greatest ally that he lost to.

Redemption Island
On Redemption Island, Russell got back to his old ways. He immediately began searching for the hidden immunity idol. Unbeknown to him, Ralph 'Rooster' Kiser has already found it, and the two have butted heads. Russell has also started a small alliance between him and Krista Klumpp and Stephanie Valencia. However, after winning two immunity challenges, his tribe wanted to get rid of him before he found the hidden immunity idol, so they threw the next challenge, and despite last minute scrambling in the form of trying to get Julie to flip her vote, Russell was voted out for the first time in Survivor history. He then lost to Matt Elrod in the Redemption Island duel and was eliminated from the game permanently. Upon losing, Russell shed a fear tears before saying that he'll live on in this game through Kristina and Phillip (the former who was voted off that same episode), and confirmed that this will be his last time on Survivor saying that he has nothing left to prove.

Voting History
Samoa Heroes vs. Villains

Redemption Island

Trivia

 * The first time Russell ever got voted out was on Redemption Island. In his other seasons, he had always gotten to the finale and lost.
 * Prior to Redemption Island, no repeating male survivor has has ever placed higher than Russell in Survivor. The second highest placed males in Samoa and Heroes vs. Villians were Mick Trimming and Colby Donaldson respectively. Ironically, both of these players were considered to have very poor strategic games.
 * Russell is the second survivor to win the Sprint Player of the Season award twice in a row; the other being James Clement.
 * Russell won the final individual immunity challenge for the first two seasons he competed in. These were the two of the three individual immunity challenges he won.
 * Whenever Russell was part of a vote, the person he voted for was the one to leave, except:
 * In season 20 episode 8, when he voted for Courtney and Coach was eliminated.
 * In Redemption Island episode 3, he tried to get Ralph eliminated but was eliminated himself.
 * Some believe Russell had an advantage in Heroes vs. Villains because no one had seen his season. However all the Survivors were told that he was one of the top five male Villains.
 * Despite this advantage, Russell placed lower in Heroes vs. Villains than in Samoa.

Appearances

 * Survivor: Samoa (first appearance)
 * Survivor: Heroes vs Villains
 * Survivor: Nicaragua (mentioned only, appears at Reunion Show)
 * Survivor: Redemption Island