Colby Donaldson

Colby Donaldson is a contestant from, and.

Considered the serie's first "hero", Colby was regarded for his strength and continuous winning streak when it came to Individual Immunity. However in subsequent appearances he has failed to live up to his original performance being, even being likened to a "Superman in a Fat Suit".

Profile
Originally from Christoval, Texas, Colby Donaldson is a successful, self-employed custom auto designer and builder currently living in Dallas, Texas. He graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in business marketing and began working as a sales representative at an HMO carrier until he decided to leave the security of a successful corporate job to pursue a passion and start his own company.

Donaldson describes himself as imaginative, dedicated and flexible. A competitive athlete, he enjoys water skiing and mountain biking before gathering with friends for a barbecue. When not customizing cars, Donaldson enjoys designing and building furniture. His favorite sport to watch is football, however he prefers to play sand volleyball.

His birth date is April 1, 1974.

Survivor: The Australian Outback
In the beginning, Colby quipped that the trip to find their camp 'fired him up', because it was a good way to see what his tribemates were made of. He took on an early leadership role of the tribe, making a plan with Keith that he would keep the tribe moving along the creek bed while Keith scouted ahead to see how much farther the camp was.

He was a physical asset to his tribe, and helped his tribe win the first Immunity Challenge. However, the second Immunity Challenge was not strength based and Ogakor lost. Colby voted with the other Ogakors in unison to unanimously vote off Kel Gleason.

Initially, Colby and Jerri began some chemistry between each other, being mutually attracted to one another, though there was suspicion that the latter had ulterior motives. After Maralyn's poor performance at the third Immunity Challenge, Colby voted with the rest of his tribe to eliminate her. After losing their third consecutive Immunity Challenge, Jerri boldly alienated Tina and Keith by stating that Colby, Amber, and Mitchell are her friends. This gesture made Tina to ask Colby his opinions on Jerri, slowly broaching the subject of voting with them. Colby did not want to vote for Keith, who was the main target next Tribal Council. He bonded with Keith and saw him as a valuable ally to have later on in the game.That night, Colby voted with Tina and Keith to force a tie in Ogakor. Since Mitchell had received a previous vote at the last Tribal Council, he was eliminated. After Ogakor's three-time Immunity losing streak, all five remaining Ogakors remained intact until the merge. He became one of ten castaways who comprised the merged Barramundi tribe.

Due to Ogakor's plan to make Kucha believe he had received past votes cast against him, the rival Kucha tribe cast their five votes for him at the merge. Colby got the back of his Ogakor comrades and all of them voted for Kucha member Jeff Varner. After a deadlocked tie, previous votes were taken into account. While Colby had no previous votes, Varner already had two (from Debb Eaton and Kimmi Kappenberg), this caused Varner's ouster. Donaldson would later become a forced to be reckoned with, winning eight of the final ten challenges, while his core alliance of Tina and Keith had voted the competition off, thus leaving the threesome as the final three castaways. Colby's winning streak not only spared him from elimination, but also made a critical decision of taking either Tina or Keith. He felt that Tina was more deserving, sending Keith to the Jury.

Colby's decision of bringing Tina was considered by fans as a big mistake, and which was widely believed to have cost him the competition, because four of the seven Jury members gave their votes to Tina, making her the second Sole Survivor.

Voting History
In The Killing Fields, the vote ended with a 3-3 tie between Keith and Mitchell, forcing a revote. Colby did not change his vote at the revote.

In The Merge, the vote ended with a 5-5 tie between Jeff and Colby, forcing a revote. Nobody changed their votes at the revote.

Survivor: All-Stars
Colby was chosen to participate in Survivor: All Stars, where he was on the Mogo Mogo tribe and was the 7th person voted out. At the Survivor: All Stars televised second reunion show, Survivor: America's Tribal Council, Donaldson was voted by an online poll as the sexiest male castaway of all the first 8 seasons.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Donaldson returned to play for a third time in the 20th installment/10th anniversary season Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. Due to his "heroic" (yet deemed by some fans as a dumb move) move of taking Jury vote threat Tina over the despised Keith Famie and his legendary challenge performances, he earned a place on the Heroes tribe.

Colby initially became an alliance outsider, along with ex-Palau players Tom Westman and Stephenie LaGrossa. Together with the stress of the competition, he surprisingly performed weak in challenges, with James Clement (who visibly idolized him) even calling him, "Superman in a fatsuit." Despite being an outsider, he and the rest of the Heroes won the next three Immunity Challenges, securing that the Heroes and the Villains would enter the merge with five members each. But after a bold move done by Villain Parvati Shallow of giving two Hidden Immunity Idols to be used by Sandra Diaz-Twine and Jerri Manthey (Colby's Outback arch-nemesis), the Heroes were systematically eliminated, one by one. After fellow former Hero Candice Woodcock voted along with the former Villains to vote out Amanda Kimmel, he claimed that he and Rupert Boneham were the only remaining heroes. After losing the Final 5 Immunity Challenge, Colby ultimately gave up and admitted defeat to the remaining Villains. However, a short time later, Colby attempted to strategize with Russell Hantz, who criticized Colby for giving up and then attempting to make a move. Colby was the last of the Heroes to be eliminated, being voted out on Day 37. In the final tribal council, Colby felt that Parvati was riding Russell's coattails and voted for Sandra to win.

Post-Survivor
After his stint on reality television, Donaldson turned to acting, appearing on such shows as Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004), Reba (2002), Joey (2004-2005), and Bones (2006). He starred in several commercials as the spokesman for Schick razors, had a minor role as a secret service agent in Wes Craven's Red Eye (2005).

He was on The Rachael Ray Show as one of Rachael's "buddies" (2007-2010). He's also been on various celebrity/news shows, often in relation to his Survivor stints. See the Internet Movie Database for details.

Currently, Donaldson is the host of Top Shot, a History Channel TV competition where 16 sharp shooters compete in teams and then individually using historic and contemporary weapons, until only one survives. The first season aired in June 2010; casting for season 4 is in progress (April 2010). http://www.history.com/shows/top-shot

At the Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains Reunion Show, Colby was nominated for the Dumbest Move in Survivor History for taking Jury favorite Tina Wesson to the Final 2 over the despised chef Keith Famie in Survivor: The Australian Outback. Colby lost to his fellow Heroes tribemate J.T. Thomas. He owns a hot rod restoration business. He divides his time between California and the family ranch in Texas.

Trivia

 * Colby was the first player in Survivor history to fall victim to the Survivor Car Curse.
 * Colby's luxury item in Australia was the flag of Texas.
 * He is the first contestant from Texas, together with Kel Gleason.
 * Colby is the only player to vote for Sandra Diaz-Twine and to have his vote count.
 * Colby was the only male representative of Survivor: The Australian Outback to appear in Survivor: All-Stars, as well as the only runner-up to appear in this season.
 * Colby is one of three players (along with Russell Hantz and Coach Wade) to compete in three seasons and not participate in a Tribe Shuffle.
 * A Tribe Shuffle did happen in All-Stars, but Colby was voted out 4 days before it happened.
 * Along with fellow contestants Amber Mariano, Colby is the only other The Australian Outback contestant to appear in finale episodes of Survivor as both a finalist and a Jury member.
 * Colby is one of four contestants to play the game three times, but become a Jury member only once (the others are Stephenie LaGrossa, Amanda Kimmel and Parvati Shallow).
 * Stephenie and Colby are the only contestants to be in different phases in the game every season they participated in (eliminated pre-Jury, part of the Jury, become a Finalist).
 * Earned the title of "Sexiest Survivor Male" in America's Tribal Council.
 * Colby is one of eight returning players to return despite not making the Merge or Jury phase in the previous season. The others being Jerri Manthey, Jonathan Penner, Shii Ann Huang, Rob Mariano, Bobby Jon Drinkard, Russell Swan and Michael Skupin.