Jeff Varner

Jeffrey Keith "Jeff" Varner is a contestant from, , and.

In Australia, Jeff was remembered for stepping down at the first merged Immunity Challenge for peanut butter, only to be voted out at Tribal Council in a deadlock vote because of his previous votes from Debb Eaton and Kimmi Kappenberg.

After nearly 15 years, Jeff, (now referred to as Varner), returned to Cambodia playing a much more aggressive game, quickly adapting to the erratic and impulsive gameplay of the modern Survivor. However, a foot injury put his second chance to an end.

Profile
Retrieved from CBS.com

Voting History
In The Merge, the vote ended with a 5-5 tie between Jeff and Colby, forcing a revote. Nobody changed their vote on the revote, eliminating Jeff due to prior votes at Tribal Council.

Survivor: Cambodia
Jeff Varner was chosen from a pool of 32 candidates to be one of the 20 castaways to compete on the second chance season,. His tribe originally split between old school and new school players. Although Varner was an old school player, he wanted to prove he could succeed in new school Survivor. He voted with the new schoolers to send Vytas home, but did not intend on staying loyal to them. He saw how hard Shirin and Spencer were playing, so he worked on turning the tribe against them. After Abi was hurt by her own alliance fighting and making fun of her, Varner and his alliance had the majority, prompting Spencer and Shirin's remaining allies Peih-Gee and Kelley to flip as well. Shirin was voted out, and it looked like Varner was in a strong position before the swap.

Varner was on the only tribe with a Ta Keo majority, but unfortunately Woo, Peih-Gee, and Abi were not the tightest of groups. To make things worse, Varner found himself on the chopping block after Tasha called out him sending a message to Wiglesworth. Despite this, the attention shifted to Abi and Peih-Gee and Varner aided in sending Peih-Gee home. Ta Keo still had a 3-2 lead, but Woo, Abi, and Varner were working to eliminate each other and effectively forfeited control to Tasha and Savage. After a complete collapse in the Day 11 immunity challenge, the conditions and Varner's four consecutive Tribal Council visits seemed to take its toll on him. Woo used this to his advantage to convince the others to vote out Varner. Varner defended himself by citing that he had already proven his loyalty to them while Woo hadn't. Ultimately, Abi put aside her grudge against Woo (temporarily) and she, Savage, and Tasha opted to keep the tribe strong and vote out Varner 4-1.

Post-Survivor

 * On May 13, 2001, Jeff, along with Outback cast mates Colby Donaldson and Elisabeth Filarski appeared on . Jeff finished in 3rd place earning $1,000 for his charity which was for a burning center for the University of North Carolina.
 * On May 17, 2001, Jeff appeared as an panelist on  for Survivor Week along with the rest of The Australian Outback cast.
 * Jeff along with Alicia Calaway, Gervase Peterson, and Susan Hawk appeared on Big Brother 2. They competed against the final four in a luxury competition and won $15,000 to share between them.
 * In 2003, Jeff was one of several castaways who appeared on MTV's Men vs. Women: Rumble in the Jungle, a preview show for and offered his commentary in the debate of which gender was stronger.
 * Jeff worked as an entertainment reporter for KCBS in Los Angeles, CA then E! News Live, and then as a field correspondent and host for the TV Guide Channel. He was a weekend news anchor and field reporter at FOX 8 WGHP in High Point, North Carolina. In his first year in broadcast news, he won an Associated Press Broadcast News Award: Rookie of the Year, in 2005.
 * Jeff began his career in communications as a public relations assistant and corporate communications manager for Citicorp in New York City. He was part of the first team in the corporate world to utilize the internet to communicate project information as a manager in Citicorp's "Product Design and Development Division."
 * He used that background to transition into web development, working in developing web properties for Citibank, MCI, Harlequin Romance, and Martha Stewart Living Online. Jeff used his Survivor exposure to turn his web and PR career into a full-blown on-camera reporter, anchor and host.
 * In May 2007, Jeff left FOX 8 due to what he called "angry and unprofessional management" from the station's news director. He is now working for WWMT in Kalamazoo, Michigan as a News Anchor for the News Channel 3 morning news.Jeff was promoted November 27, 2008 to WWMT evening anchor. He anchors the 10pm CW7 newscast solo, then joins Judy Markee as co-anchor for Live at 11.
 * On July 27, 2009 Jeff was selected as one of the top 20 broadcasters nationwide to serve as finalist for co-host for a day on . Local new viewers nominated their favorites. For two days, Regis and Kelly viewers voted for the best, and on July 29, 2009 the nationwide vote selected Jeff as co-host. He hosted August 7 with guests and David Cook.
 * On January 9, 2010, Jeff attended Survivor ' s 10-year anniversary party.
 * In 2012, Jeff became a news anchor for the CBS affiliate WNCT in Greenville, N.C.  He left sometime in September 2014.
 * Jeff is planning to launch an Travel Company called Project Explorer.

Trivia

 * Jeff's luxury item was a coloring book and crayons. The pages were later sold on for charity.
 * Jeff was the second player eliminated at Tribal Council through the "previous votes against" tiebreaker. The first was Mitchell Olson.
 * Jeff received at least one vote at every Tribal Council he attended in The Australian Outback.
 * Jeff was the first male contestant to finish in 10th place, and the first male contestant to be on the merged tribe but not be a member of a jury.
 * Jeff has claimed to have stopped eating peanut butter after The Australian Outback.
 * Jeff revealed that he had a pre-game alliance with Shane Powers, who did not receive enough votes to return for Cambodia.
 * Jeff is the fourth contestant in series history to play in two seasons and be eliminated pre-jury both seasons. The others are Russell Swan, Francesca Hogi, and Colton Cumbie.