Brandon Keith Hantz is a contestant from Survivor: South Pacific and Survivor: Caramoan.
In South Pacific, then-19 year-old Brandon, a married, Born-Again Christian and nephew of notorious villain Russell Hantz, struggled with keeping his true identity from his fellow Upolu tribemates, as well as the moral dilemma the game presented. Although he made it to the final five with his alliance, he was goaded into giving up individual immunity, which lead to his blindside at Tribal Council. He lost the subsequent and final duel to Ozzy Lusth.
Brandon returned in Caramoan, where he promptly gained further infamy through his altercation with Phillip Sheppard. In a rage at what he perceived as Phillip's belittling treatment of him, Brandon poured out all of his tribe's food reserves. This incident, in conjunction with his increasingly unstable overall emotional state, resulted in the Bikal tribe deliberately forfeiting the Immunity Challenge to vote him out in an impromptu Tribal Council.
Profile[]
Retrieved from CBS.com
Name (Age): Brandon Hantz (19)
Name (Age): Brandon Hantz (21) |
Survivor[]
South Pacific[]
Brandon started as a member of the Upolu tribe, which would soon be joined by returning player Coach Wade. Within the first three days, Brandon became a member of a majority alliance in Upolu consisting of himself, Coach, Sophie Clarke, Albert Destrade, and Rick Nelson. Brandon hid the fact he was the nephew of former player Russell Hantz (going as far as to wearing his shirt covering the upper portion of his back where he had a Hantz tattoo while he was fishing), but ended up seeing it as too much of a burden to keep to himself, and told Coach on Day 4.
Brandon also struggled with temptation and began to conspire against tribemate Mikayla Wingle. The Upolu five managed to control the merge and boot Christine Shields Markoski (who openly threatened returning players on the first day), Stacey Powell, and Mikayla at the three Tribal Councils Upolu attended. Although Brandon began to unravel and struggle more and more with his personal beliefs, he remained loyal to the Upolu five. When only the members of the original Upolu five remained, Brandon was the target for the Tribal Council, but surprised everyone when he won his first individual Immunity Challenge.
Later on, Albert was called out on his deceit by Sophie, Brandon, and Rick. However, Brandon later made amends with Albert before Tribal Council, and gave up his immunity to Albert, feeling that he owed him. Brandon found himself betrayed by his allies in a 3-2 vote. At the final Redemption Island duel, despite putting up a good fight against Ozzy Lusth, he was beaten and became the seventh member of the jury. At the Final Tribal Council, Brandon was mainly bitter towards Albert, asking him if he knew if he was going home and only wanted a yes or no answer. When Albert said he didn't know, Brandon simply uttered "you lie" and sat back down. In the end, he cast his vote for Sophie to win Survivor: South Pacific. Sophie ended up winning in a 6-3-0 vote.
| Episode | Tribe Affiliation |
Challenge | Challenge Type | Sit-Out? | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upolu | Thrilogy | Reward | Yes | Lost |
| Coconut Conundrum | Immunity | No | Won | ||
| 2 | Crate Escape | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost | |
| 3 | Hitching a Ride | Reward/Immunity | No | Won | |
| 4 | Shoulder the Load | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost | |
| 5 | Pig Out | Reward/Immunity | No | Won | |
| 6 | Losing Face | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost | |
| 7 | Family Ties | Reward/Immunity | No | Won | |
| Tribes Merged, Day 19 | |||||
| 8 | Te Tuna | Cococnut Cradle | Immunity | Lost | |
| 9 | Get Crackin' | Immunity | Lost | ||
| Bow Diddley | Immunity | Yes1 | Lost | ||
| 10 | Price On Your Head | Immunity | Lost | ||
| C.A.T. | Immunity | Lost | |||
| 12 | Second Chance | Reward/Immunity | Lost | ||
| 13 | Flip Out | Immunity | Lost | ||
| 14 | Batman Wall | Reward/Immunity | Won2 | ||
| Voted Out, Day 35 | |||||
| 15 | Te Tuna | Get a Grip | Duel | Lost | |
| Eliminated, Day 36 | |||||
| Notes: | |||||
| Episode | Brandon's Votes |
Voted Against Brandon |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upolu Tribe Immune | |
| 2 | Christine | - |
| 3 | Upolu Tribe Immune | |
| 4 | Stacey | - |
| 5 | Upolu Tribe Immune | |
| 6 | Mikayla | - |
| 7 | Upolu Tribe Immune | |
| 8 | Keith; Keith1 |
- |
| 9 | Ozzy | - |
| Jim | - | |
| 10 | Dawn | - |
| Whitney | - | |
| 12 | Cochran | - |
| 13 | Edna | Edna |
| 14 | Sophie | Coach, Rick, Sophie2 |
| Voted Out, Day 35 | ||
| 15 | On Redemption Island | |
| Eliminated, Day 36 | ||
| Voted for Sole Survivor |
Sophie | |
^1 In "Double Agent", the vote ended with a 6-6 tie between Keith and Rick, forcing a revote. Brandon did not change his vote on the revote.
^2 In "Then There Were Five", Brandon had won individual immunity, but gave it to Albert during Tribal Council.
Caramoan[]
Brandon returned for a second time as one of the ten past players comprising the Bikal tribe. Brandon developed a close bond with tribemates Francesca Hogi, Erik Reichenbach, and Brenda Lowe, ultimately joining their alliance. After Bikal lost the first Immunity Challenge, Brandon began to gun for tribemate Andrea Boehlke, believing her to be a dangerous player in the game and believing former South Pacific castmates Dawn Meehan and John Cochran to be on their side. However, that was not the case as his ally Francesca was voted out in a 6-4 vote. Angered by the idea of how cold the majority alliance was for voting out Francesca first for a second time, Brandon flirted with the idea of borrowing some ideas from his uncle Russell Hantz by sabotaging his tribe by, such as urinating on their rice, but managed to restrain himself. Phillip Sheppard, the head of the Stealth R Us alliance, adopted Brandon to his alliance, and like everyone from the alliance, Phillip christened him by giving him his code name, "The Conqueror." Brandon and the rest of the Favorites would remain unbeatable in challenges, winning the next five.
Over the course of his time on the island, he developed a rivalry with Phillip, after the latter referred to him as "middle management." Brandon retaliated by saying that Phillip was the biggest bully he had ever met in front of the other tribe members. On Day 13, the rivalry between the two came to a head when Phillip and Brandon got into an argument following their Reward Challenge win. Brandon apologized to Phillip for losing his cool. However, shortly before the Immunity Challenge, Brandon confronted tribemate Andrea and learned that Phillip was still considering voting him out, despite making amends. Phillip and Brandon got into another argument, resulting in Brandon pouring out Bikal's rice and beans as a way to legitimise his elimination, much to the shock of his tribe mates. Though Erik Reichenbach attempted to take the bag of beans away, he was ignored by Brandon, who began taunting Phillip to fight him as he walked away. Dawn also tried to calm Brandon down, but to no avail.
Appalled by Brandon's mercurial personality, Phillip and the other Favorites leaned towards forfeiting the upcoming Immunity Challenge outright so they can vote Brandon out. At the Immunity Challenge, Brandon launches a tirade against his tribemates, telling the Fans that he was their "second chance" before taking the opportunity to continue bashing Phillip, telling the fans about Stealth R Us and that the code names Phillip had given everyone were demeaning. Brandon also insulted Corinne Kaplan for trying to be nice to the Fans, when they clearly didn't respect them. Jeff Probst called Brandon over to him to cool him down after manifesting intentions to physically harm anyone. However, he got into another argument with Phillip, prompting Jeff to calm him down again. Regardless, Bikal forfeited the challenge anyway, and right there and then, the Favorites verbally voted Brandon out unanimously.
| Episode | Tribe Affiliation |
Challenge | Challenge Type | Sit-Out? | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bikal | Water Slaughter | Reward | No | Won |
| It's a Long Way to the Top | Immunity | No | Lost | ||
| 2 | Plunge, Pull, Pop | Reward/Immunity | No | Won | |
| 3 | Cell Block Sea | Reward/Immunity | No | Won | |
| 4 | Head and Shoulders | Reward | No | Won | |
| Smash and Grab | Immunity | No | Won | ||
| 5 | Nut Bucket | Reward | No | Won | |
| Crate Outdoors | Immunity | No | Lost1 | ||
| Voted Out, Day 13 | |||||
| Notes: ^1 Bikal opted to forfeit the Immunity Challenge, giving the win to Gota by default.
| |||||
Post-Survivor[]
- At the South Pacific Reunion, Brandon revealed that nobody from his family had come to support him since most of them were disappointed and angry over how Brandon played the game. Russell Hantz, Brandon's uncle was present at the Reunion Show, but was not there on behalf of his nephew, whom he ended up insulting after host Jeff Probst talked to him in the audience and wanted him to critique Brandon's game play. During an episode of Rob Has a Podcast, Russell claims that the reason that nobody from Brandon's immediate family were there was because Brandon sold the tickets that were supposed to be for them.
- Brandon was nominated as "Male Villain" in the Reality Wanted Awards 2014. He lost to Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank.[4]
- In 2012, Brandon divorced his first wife, and had since left the Hantz oil tankering business and worked as a salesman for Racing Electronics.[5]
- Brandon appeared in the Russell Hantz Show on May 30, 2017. He appeared again on September 27, 2022 on a live stream.
Trivia[]
- Brandon is the youngest contestant to compete on South Pacific.
- Brandon is the first relative of a former contestant to compete on Survivor as a first-time contestant, by virtue of being Russell's nephew.
- Along with Jim Rice, Brandon set the record of holding 240 lbs. on his shoulders in the Shoulder the Load challenge.
- Brandon is the fourth contestant to give away individual immunity at Tribal Council, following Jenna Morasca, Burton Roberts*, and Erik Reichenbach. They would be followed by Chris Underwood.
- Brandon is the second to do so and be eliminated at that Tribal Council, following Erik.
- In an interview in Rob Has a Podcast, Brandon's uncle, Russell, said that he believed his nephew gave up the Immunity Necklace because he wanted to quit. Brandon's father (and Russell's brother) Shawn, who appeared during the South Pacific Family Visit, claimed that during his time with his son, Brandon had already visibly checked out of the game.
- Brandon lost 30 lbs. during his 36-day run on South Pacific.[6]
- Brandon is the youngest member of the original Bikal tribe and the youngest man to compete on Caramoan.
- Brandon in Caramoan is the second person to be verbally voted out, without a formal vote taking place, after Ian Rosenberger in Palau. They would be followed by Jeff Varner in Game Changers, Tori Meehan in Survivor 42, and Bhanu Gopal in Survivor 46.
- Brandon was banned from attending the Caramoan Reunion Show, making him the first person in Survivor history to be excused from the live reunion show. According to Brandon, he was set to attend the reunion in the days leading up to it, and Jeff Probst only called him to ban him from it after his uncle Russell threatened to fight Phillip on social media. He agreed to not attend after CBS agreed to still pay him the $10,000 he would have gotten for attending.[7]
- According to Erik and Corinne Kaplan,[8][9] Brandon's exit from Caramoan was actually an ejection, only to be manufactured as an impromptu Tribal Council with a verbal vote. Brandon himself said on his uncle Russell's podcast that he was put in a separate tent while putting his microphones on and waiting for the challenge to start, further implying this.[10] Also, according to Francesca,[11] after his exit, Brandon was immediately sent home and did not go to Ponderosa.
- Brandon's uncle Willie competed on the fourteenth season of Big Brother.[12] Similar to his exit from Caramoan, Willie was ejected from the show for fighting one of the other contestants.
References[]
- ↑ http://www.tvrage.com/person/id-359346/Brandon+Hantz
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20230321035707/https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/62890/
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20230322095438/https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/203520/
- ↑ http://www.realitywantedawards.com/nomineedetails
- ↑ http://www.sbnation.com/nascar/2012/2/25/2823721/survivor-brandon-hantz-nascar-2012
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dupxBybsLc
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNNJuJMRZAU&t=3035
- ↑ https://twitter.com/CORINSANITY/status/1205202501131063296
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6kD4ycp0GM&t=150
- ↑ https://youtu.be/QQFaP_9e9YY&t=609
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/7r5qlr/comment/dsuhk8y/
- ↑ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/big-brother-14-cast_n_1651560
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