Shannon Elkins

Shannon Elkins was a contestant from Survivor: Nicaragua. He finished 19th.

Profile
He is married at the early age of 19 and currently has three children.

Survivor: Nicaragua
Being 30 years of age, Elkins was placed on the La Flor tribe.

He was one of the La Flor members who agreed to give the Medallion to Espada, stating that they can easily win over the older tribe without the Medallion's assistance. Upon reaching their camp, Shannon immediately approached Chase Rice for an alliance and told him that they should not let a woman win (stipulated that two women have won the two preceding seasons Samoa and Heroes vs. Villains). But his plans were put on hold when La Flor won the inaugural Immunity Challenge.

After losing the second Immunity Challenge, Shannon initially planned to vote out NaOnka Mixon because of her weakness in challenges and combative demeanor. But when Alina came up to him and told that Brenda was more of a threat because of her closeness with Chase, Shannon immediately came up to Chase and asked him to vote the latter's closest ally, leaving him in distraught. Unbeknownst to Shannon, NaOnka and Brenda were gunning for him because none of their tribemates approached them for strategy.

At their first Tribal Council, Shannon berated Chase for keeping Brenda. The rest of the tribe then openly questioned Shannon's trustworthiness. Confused about the outcome of the then heated conversation, Shannon verbally attacked Sash Lenahan when he asked the latter about his sexuality. Fabio rebutted to Shannon that he is making too much conflict to the tribe, but Alina defended Shannon, stating that he never lied to anyone, but Chase did. But eventually, the majority of the tribe deemed that Shannon was creating too much tension, and was voted out in a 7-3 vote.

Post-Survivor
The tension-filled Tribal Council stirred controversy because of Shannon's seemingly derogatory remarks about the LGBT community. In an interview, Shannon declared that he is not a homophobe, neither a sexist. He then apologized to Sash Lehanan for what happened and it was not he intended to say. He somewhat blamed the editing of the episode, for he claimed that the viewers did not see the whole Tribal Council proceeedings and he did not intend to hurt anyone. Additionally, he made a Youtube video with Fiji's Boo Bernis (a fellow native from Lafayette, Louisiana, and a close friend of Elkins'), to clarify the incident (see Links).

Trivia

 * Elkins is the third Survivor contestant from Lafayette, Louisiana, following Boo Bernis from Fiji and James Clement from China, Fans vs. Favorites and Heroes vs. Villains.

Links

 * Shannon's response to the gay-bashing incident
 * Shannon's Official CBS Profile