Ben Driebergen

Benjamin "Ben" Driebergen is the Sole Survivor of.

A strong strategic player when entering into the merge, Ben formed an alliance with Chrissy Hofbeck early on. Entering the merge, both joined the majority alliance where they controlled the first few votes. During this time Ben formed a rivalry with Joe Mena who attempted to paint Ben as the biggest threat. However, once the alliance splintered, he became apart of the Final Four alliance, but eventually found himself as the main target when everyone else viewed him as a huge threat to win the game. Ben fought back against the odds by finding three Hidden Immunity Idols, and reaching the Final Three in a hard-fought Fire making challenge, where his ability to make it to the end despite being a huge target won him the title of Sole Survivor in a 5-2-1 jury vote.

Profile
Retrieved from CBS.com

Age: 34 Hometown: Boise, Id. Current residence: Boise, Id. Occupation: Marine Hobbies: Circle track car racing, building and shooting guns, and camping with my family. Pet peeves: Whining. Three words to describe you: Hilarious, strong-willed, and motivated. What's your personal claim to fame? Being a good dad and husband. Who or what is your inspiration in life? Michael Blake Wafford because he gave his life for our country. We were together in Iraq and we were a team. If you could have three things on the island, what would they be and why? My cowboy hat, my boots, and my running shoes. Survivor contestant you're most like: I'm a mix of Russell Hantz, Boston Rob, and Joe Anglim. I'm a little conniving and manipulative like Russell, have the determination and confidence of Boston Rob, and the athletic ability of Joe. What's your reason for being on Survivor: Winning a million dollars and being on an island and living with nothing. Why do you think you'll "survive" Survivor? Because I have survived and overcome so many situations and met so many different people with different personalities. My social game is on point and my leadership and survival skills have been tried, tested, and proven.

Survivor
Ben was placed on Levu. Ashley Nolan and JP Hilsabeck immediately wanted to work with Ben due to his strength and perceived trustworthiness. Ben initially was close to Alan, but that relationship worsened after Alan Ball went off at Tribal Council. After Katrina Radke was voted out, Ben became closer to Chrissy Hofbeck. However, any further action with his fellow Levus was put on hold as a Tribe Switch occurred that put him on the Yawa with three Sokos (Mike Zahalsky, Cole Medders, and Jessica Johnston) and one Yawa Lauren Rimmer. Ben and Lauren became close as the only non Healers on the new Yawa tribe. Cole rubbed Ben the wrong way with his eating habits, and both Ben and Lauren tried to turn Mike against Cole.

At the merge, Ben was a swing vote between the original Soko's and the remaining Yawa's and Levu's, the latter two groups which banded together. Lauren initially wanted to work with the Soko's, but Ben's relationship with Chrissy and his rivalry with Cole caused him to prefer the Yawa's and Levu's. This lead to the Pagonging of the original Sokos until the final 9. During that process, Lauren told Ben about her advantage, Ryan Ulrich told Ben about his idol, and Joe Mena tried to use Ben's marine status against him. At that point, Lauren won a reward and included Ben, Ashley, and Devon Pinto to discuss making a move against JP, Chrissy, or Ryan Ulrich. This plan was also fueled by Devon's lack of trust in Ryan after he told both Devon and Ben about his Hidden Immunity Idol. During the reward, Ben found a second merged idol (the first being in Ryan's possession). Back at camp, Devon nominated Ben to act as a spy by voting for Mike in order to gain information from the new minority after the vote. The plan worked and JP was blindsided, and Ryan and Chrissy had no idea Ben was involved.

For the next few days, Ben pretended to be betrayed by Ashley, Lauren, and Devon, much to Joe's amusement. However, Ben's status as a strong player began to worry even Ben's allies. Ashley and Lauren considered voting Ben out before Joe, but Devon was unsure. Ultimately, they blindsided Joe and flushed Ryan's idol, relegating Mike to the minority along with Ryan and Chrissy. Things got heated on Day 33 as Lauren, Devon, and Ashley were caught by Ben planning to vote out Ben. Ben tried to target Lauren, who had found the rehidden idol as well as the Extra Vote advantage. Panicking for numbers, Lauren gave Mike half of her idol as a sign of trust. At tribal council, Mike threw Lauren's idol in the fire which allowed Ben to successfully eliminate his target in Lauren, despite needing his own idol to negate everyone else's votes against him.

At that point, Ben became the undisputed target. All the other contestants made it explicitly clear, though Ben continued to try to find other avenues. Unable to convince the tribe or win immunity, Ben resorted to finding idols and then taking out his chosen targets. On Day 36, Ben played his idol before the votes were cast and Ashley was sent home. On Day 37, Ben played his idol (which he found hours after the previous Tribal Council) normally and forced a tie between Devon (his target) and Mike (who received Devon's vote). Mike was voted out in the revote. With no more idols in the game, Ben thought he needed to win immunity to ensure he made it to the end. He came close on multiple occasions in what was a back and forth Final Immunity Challenge, but was unable to capitalize and Chrissy won the challenge. However, a Twist changed the Tribal Council from a standard vote to a forced fire making challenge. Chrissy saved Ryan and forced Devon and Ben to participate in the tiebreaker, in which Ben succeeded.

At the Final Tribal Council, Ben's argument to the jury was that he was constantly playing hard in all facets of the game, especially in finding hidden immunity idols. The jury (particularly Joe) panned Ben's social game, which Ben explained was the most difficult part of the game for him due to his PTSD from his marine tenure. Ultimately, Ben received 5 votes which made him the sole Survivor.

Voting History
In Playing with the Devil, the vote ended with a 4-4 tie between Desi and Joe, forcing a revote. Ben did not change his vote on the revote. In Not Going to Roll Over and Die, Ben used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating 6 votes against him. In The Survivor Devil, Ben used a Hidden Immunity Idol, but did not negate any votes against him. In Million Dollar Night, Ben used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating 3 votes against him. Also, the vote ended with a 1-1 tie between Devon and Mike, forcing a revote. Ben did not change his vote on the revote.

Trivia

 * Ben is the third castaway from Idaho, the first two being Sherri Biethman and Taylor Stocker.
 * Ben is the highest placing male member of the original Levu tribe.
 * Ben is the first person to negate every single vote but his own with the Hidden Immunity Idol.
 * Ben holds the record for the highest percentage of votes negated with the Hidden Immunity Idol at roughly 85.71%.
 * Ben is tied with Russell Hantz in, Tony Vlachos in , and Tai Trang in for the record for the most Hidden Immunity Idols found in a season, with 3.
 * Ben is the first castaway to play an idol at three consecutive Tribal Councils.
 * Ben is the first Sole Survivor to play an idol before the votes were cast.
 * Ben has the shortest time between playing an idol and finding another one, finding his third idol the in the same night he played the second idol.
 * Ben holds the record for the most votes cast against a Sole Survivor, receiving 11 votes in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers. This record was previously held by Survivor: Panama winner Aras Baskauskas, who received 9 votes in his season.
 * Ben, of all Sole Survivors, played the most imperfect game, receiving 11 votes against him and losing 3 jury votes, totaling up to 14 votes lost.
 * Ben is the ninth castaway to become the Sole Survivor without winning Individual Immunity, following Tina Wesson, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Yul Kwon, Earl Cole, Todd Herzog, Natalie White, Tony Vlachos, and Sarah Lacina.
 * Ben is the second castaway to become the Sole Survivor and win the fire-making challenge, following Bob Crowley.