J.T. Thomas

'''James "J.T." Thomas, Jr.''' is the Sole Survivor of. He later competed in and.

He is known for his southern charm and physical ability in challenges, particularly a key moment involving his breaking a tooth. He was beloved by fans and fellow contestants alike in Tocantins, commanding very strong loyalties even to the point that some players explicitly stated that helping J.T. win the game was as important as, or more important than, winning the game themselves. His force of personality helped him become the first castaway to play a "Perfect Game", not having a vote cast against him all season and then receiving all of the jury votes at Final Tribal Council.

He returned to a leadership role in Heroes vs. Villains, continued to play with charisma and decency, and managed to make the merge. However, he committed one of the most notorious blunders in Survivor history by granting his trust and his Hidden Immunity Idol to the infamous villain Russell Hantz, which gave Hantz and Parvati Shallow the resources they needed to pull off J.T.'s blindside.

In Game Changers, J.T. settled into a comfortable position in the original Nuku tribe. However, a tribe switch put him on the bottom of the totem pole, which was exacerbated when he leaked Nuku's plans at the Joint Tribal Council, leading to Malcolm Freberg's blindside. Despite being a challenge asset and finding a Hidden Immunity Idol, he was voted off when he decided not to play his idol.

Profile
Retrieved from CBS.com

Tocantins
Assigned to the red Jalapao tribe, J.T. was popular and well-liked by all his tribe mates and his physical prowess in challenges made him very valuable to fellow tribe member Stephen Fishbach. As of Day 2, they created a rock-solid alliance and with the help of Taj Johnson-George became the power-players, eliminating Sandy Burgin, Spencer Duhm, and Sydney Wheeler back to back in Jalapao's three straight Tribal Councils.

Despite his persona and the various ways he benefited the tribe, J.T. was on the losing end when it came to tribal numbers. When Jalapao merged with Timbira, Jalapao was down in numbers 4-6. It was Coach Wade who approached him and Stephen to create a new alliance, known as the Warrior Alliance. Due to the medical evacuation of Joe Dowdle and Timbira slowly self-destructing, J.T. was able to play up his social game and play hard when it came to individual challenges, earning the respect of those voted out.

In the final few rounds of the game, J.T. began winning consecutive individual Immunity Challenges sending strategies into a tailspin after he became a target. Despite all this, the original alliance he created with Stephen was honored when J.T. took him to the Final Two over Erinn Lobdell. In the end, he became the eighteenth Sole Survivor by a vote of 7-0, the series' second landslide unanimous vote and was the first Sole Survivor to play a "Perfect Game" with no votes cast against him.

Heroes vs. Villains
J.T. was assigned to the Heroes tribe, known for their honor and integrity. It was here that the farmer employed a far different strategy than his original season, creating conflicting deals with James Clement and Tom Westman. In the opening days of the competition, he was relatively comfortable within the tribe and nobody had begun to notice his intentions. Most of the tribe began to see him as their leader and tried to remain on his good side.

Just as it seemed that their rivals had the upper hand, after losing two consecutive Immunity Challenges, where Sugar Kiper and Stephenie LaGrossa were voted off the Heroes bounced back and won immunity. However, their luck ran out when they lost the next three Immunity Challenges, where Cirie Fields, Tom Westman and James Clement were voted off. The now five-some were a force to be reckoned with and decided together that, after finding the Hidden Immunity Idol clue after winning a Reward Challenge, they would find the Idol together and use it to enable them to become the final five. J.T. upon returning to camp went looking for it alone and was caught by Amanda Kimmel, forcing him to reveal his find to the rest of the tribe. Some time later on, the Heroes began noticing that the men from the Villains were being systematically voted out, alluding to an all-female alliance. J.T. led his Heroes to the belief that if they were to give the idol to Russell Hantz and use it, they'll merge with a Villain on their side and still keep their final five deal.

J.T. wrote a note, wrapped it with the Hidden Immunity Idol and during the Immunity Challenge he handed it to Russell. When the tribes eventually merged, Russell stayed with the Villains and J.T. was blindsided after two idols were played at the first post-merge Tribal Council.

At Final Tribal Council, J.T. gave his jury vote to Sandra Diaz-Twine who would win in a 6-3-0 vote.

Voting History
In Going Down in Flames, Parvati used a Hidden Immunity Idol on Jerri, negating J.T.'s vote against her.

Game Changers
JT started on Nuku which on the first two challenges. He was the only member on Nuku to remain on Nuku after the Tribe Switch. He was joined by Mana's Malcolm Freberg, Jeff Varner, Aubry Bracco, Michaela Bradshaw and fellow Heroes vs. Villains castmate Sandra Diaz-Twine. J.T. stranded his new tribemates out on the ocean while on a snorkeling trip in order to look for a hidden immunity idol, but failed to find it. On day 10, he tried to convince Malcolm to target Sandra. On day 11, Tavua won immunity but the losing tribes (Nuku and Mana) had to go to a Joint Tribal Council and vote out one member instead of two. JT wanted Tai Trang out for being sneaky but Sandra wanted Sierra Dawn Thomas out. At tribal council, JT leaked to Mana member Brad Culpepper that Sierra was the target and they should vote for Sandra. However, this backfired with Tai played his Hidden Immunity Idol on Sierra and Mana's votes sent Malcolm out of the game. After returning from tribal council, JT was confronted or leaking their plan to Brad, but he denied it. The next day he managed to find a hidden immunity idol. After the reward challenge, J.T. and Michaela squabbled over the latter's consumption of the sugar they had previously won. In order to keep the two fighting, Sandra ate the rest of the sugar, causing J.T. to accuse Michaela of the act. Nuku lost the immunity challenge. JT talked to Aubry, Jeff and Sandra about voting out Michaela. Aubry sided with him while Sandra plotted with Michaela to blindside JT, so Jeff was the swing vote. JT decided not to bring his idol to tribal council. However, this backfired as Jeff sided with Sandra and Michaela so JT was blindsided.

Voting History
In The Tables Have Turned, Tai used a Hidden Immunity Idol on Sierra, negating J.T.'s vote against her.

Post-Survivor

 * In Summer of 2009, J.T., along with the other first eighteen Survivor winners, appeared on a TVGuide special "Survivor Millionaires: Where Are They Now?".
 * At the Reunion Show, J.T. won the award for the "Dumbest Move in Survivor History" for giving up his Hidden Immunity Idol to Russell Hantz, the leader of the Villains tribe who was not in any danger like J.T. thought he was.
 * When asked about his winnings in a 2011 interview, J.T. replied: "I bought my sisters some new cars and some of my sisters' kids; I decided to help them out with their school tuition costs. I also gave my mother and father some money to help them out, and the majority of it, I invested. I wanted to help my family out and because I have a lot of nephews and nieces, I promised my family I'd pay for my nephews and nieces to go to college one day. I'm just trying to invest in their future and give back to my family."
 * On January 9, 2010, J.T. attended Survivor ' s 10-year anniversary party along with all of his cast mates.
 * In February 2010, J.T. appeared on  as Top Ten List Presenter #3 along with nine of his Heroes vs. Villains cast mates.
 * J.T. got married to his longtime girlfriend, Cameron, on April 12, 2015, with the ceremony being performed by fellow castaway Stephen Fishbach.

Trivia

 * J.T. became the second winner to receive all jury votes in a season, following 's Earl Cole, and was the first contestant to have played a "Perfect Game", having had no votes cast against him during Tribal Council while receiving every jury vote.
 * J.T. was part of every individual reward in Tocantins. He had won three of four post-merge Reward Challenges, and he was picked by Stephen Fishbach to join him on his reward.
 * Among all winners from seasons with as a season-long twist, J.T. is the only winner to never be exiled.
 * J.T. lost 16 lbs. (7.2 kg) during his time in Tocantins.
 * J.T. is the only Hero to vote with the majority at all five Tribal Councils the tribe attended.
 * J.T. lost 13 lbs. during his time in.
 * J.T. is the first of three winners to be a jury member in a subsequent attempt of Survivor, followed by Aras Baskauskas and Tina Wesson.
 * J.T. was the only member of the original Nuku tribe to remain on Nuku after the Tribe Switch.
 * At both of the Tribal Councils in J.T.'s Survivor career where he received votes against him, Sandra Diaz-Twine was one of them.
 * J.T. was the only member of the original Nuku tribe not to make the merge.