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John Burton Roberts III[1] is a contestant from Survivor: Pearl Islands.

Burton earned the distinction of being one of the first two people to re-enter the game after being voted out (alongside Lillian Morris), and also the first person to be voted out twice in one season, due to being an Outcast. After returning, he and Jonny Fairplay took control of the game, blindsiding Rupert Boneham and leading the next two votes. However, Sandra Diaz-Twine convinced the remaining women to vote out Burton next, and he was blindsided in 5th place.

Profile[]

Retrieved from CBS.com

Burton Roberts was born in Houston, and raised in St. Louis. He is currently single and residing in San Francisco, where he works as a marketing executive for a start-up tech company in the video gaming industry. Previously, he worked as a marketing and business development consultant and an alliance manager. With bachelor degrees in both business and philosophy from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, he is most proud of earning a Masters Degree in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Illinois (one of the top business schools in the world). His favorite hobbies include adventure racing, mountain biking and traveling, and he describes himself as adventurous, funny and a hard worker. He owns five Texas longhorns on his family's ranch outside of Austin, Texas. His heroes are his mom and dad who have worked so hard and have achieved success in life while being so dedicated to family. He thinks he'll do well on Survivor: Pearl Islands because of his experiences as an Eagle Scout and an adventure racer. Additionally, he believes his strength, smarts and his ability to take care of himself will serve him well. His birth date is April 10, 1972.[2]

Survivor[]

Burton started the game on the Drake tribe. He made a strong but obvious alliance with Michelle Tesauro and Shawn Cohen, which isolated the rest of the tribe barring Jon Dalton. After winning the first three Immunity Challenges, Burton decided to end his tribe's winning streak to eliminate some of the weaker tribe members. Little did he know that the rest of the tribe wanted to throw the challenge as well to target his alliance. After winning the challenge, the Morgan tribe won the right to kidnap someone. They decided to kidnap Rupert Boneham, which resulted in the tribe being mad at Burton. Rupert being kidnapped put Jon in the swing vote position, and Christa Hastie was nervous because she didn't know where his head was at. At Drake's first Tribal Council, the Drake Alliance deemed Burton untrustworthy, Jon stayed true to them, and he was subsequently blindsided.

He later returned as an Outcast, which gave him one more shot to return in the game. Burton introduced the Outcasts tribe confirming their tribe name, and led them to victory over both Morgan and Drake. At Tribal Council, Burton expressed his passion for the Outcasts tribe, how he wanted one of them to win the game and promised he would never lie to whoever he was with should he be selected. In part due to his strength in challenges and leadership, they elected Burton and Lillian Morris to return to the game. Burton was sent back to Drake, where he made amends with his old tribe, while Lillian was still resented by hers. Burton used these dynamics to convince Lillian to flip to Drake. Burton won the first individual Immunity Challenge after the merge, but due to the Outcasts twist he already had immunity and was given the choice to either give up immunity to a castaway of his choice, or keep immunity resulting in the Outcasts immunity being useless. He ultimately decided to give immunity to Rupert Boneham due to the fact that Rupert was a member of his alliance.

Once the Drake Alliance began picking off Morgan, Burton found himself in a powerful position and created a sub alliance with himself, Lillian, and Jon, although Burton grew much closer to Jon. They noticed how tight Rupert, Christa, and Sandra Diaz-Twine were and if they did not make a move soon, they would be stuck in 4th or 5th place at best. Despite his promise to Rupert, Burton gave his reward to Jon so Rupert would be as weak as possible going into the next Immunity Challenge. Rupert was suspicious, but was confident Lillian was still on his side because of how much she valued loyalty. Burton quickly targeted and eliminated Rupert in the Immunity Challenge on Day 27, eventually winning it. This allowed Burton and Jon to pull in the Morgan women and Lillian to blindside Rupert. He then conspired with Jon to eliminate the women, flipping between the duos of Christa and Sandra, and Darrah Johnson and Tijuana Bradley, getting rid of Tijuana, followed by Christa.

At this point, Burton and Jon were certain they had the path to the Final Two sealed, to the point where he selected Jon to join him on a reward, thinking that the women would still want to target themselves. However, this gave Lillian, Sandra, and Darrah time to conspire to get rid of Burton and Jon. After talking to the women when he returned from the reward, Burton was sure that he was safe. Along with his final three deal with Jon and Lillian, he made one with Sandra to ensure Lillian would be the target in case Darrah won immunity. Unknown to Burton was that Sandra was still planning to take him out next. Darrah would indeed win immunity on Day 36, and Burton was then blindsided by the three women, becoming the fifth member of the jury.

At Final Tribal Council, Burton gave his jury vote to Sandra, who won in a 6-1 vote.

Episode Tribe
Affiliation
Challenge Challenge Type Sit-Out? Result
1 Drake Cannon Carry Immunity No Won
2 Bountiful Chest Reward No Won
All Tied Up Immunity No Won
3 Sprung A Leak Reward No Won
Pull Your Weight Immunity Yes Won
4 Float-It Notes Reward No Won
Boarding Party Immunity Yes Lost
Voted Out, Day 12
7 The Outcasts Pirate Prison Break Immunity No Won
Returned, Day 191
Tribes Merged, Day 20
8 Balboa Keel Hauling Immunity Won2
9 Signal Fire Reward Invited
Mixed Nuts Immunity Lost
10 Rats In The Rigging Reward Won3
Killer Immunity Won
11 Loved Ones Overboard Reward Lost
What Do You Make Of This? Immunity Lost
12 Water Obstacle Course Reward Lost
Musket Love Immunity Lost
13 Let's Give It Another Go, Mate Reward Won
Corks And Keys Immunity Lost
Voted Out, Day 36
14 Jury4 Tribal Draft Immunity Won
Notes:
^1 After Burton was voted to return to the game, he was randomly assigned to the Drake tribe before the merge occurred the next day.
^2 Burton gave up his immunity to Rupert. By virtue of the Outcasts twist, he still held individual immunity at Tribal Council.
^3 Burton gave up his reward to Jon.
^4 Burton competed as part of the jury against the final four.

Episode Burton's
Votes
Voted Against
Burton
1 Drake Tribe Immune
2 Drake Tribe Immune
3 Drake Tribe Immune
4 Christa Christa, Jon,
Sandra, Shawn, Trish
Voted Out, Day 12
8 Michelle,
Nicole
Michelle,
Ryan S., Trish1
Returned, Day 19
8 Andrew Individual Immunity1
9 Ryan O. -
10 Rupert Individual Immunity
11 Tijuana Darrah, Tijuana
12 Christa -
13 Lillian Darrah, Lillian, Sandra
Voted Out, Day 36
Voted for
Sole Survivor
Sandra

^1 In "What the...? (Part 2)", Burton voted for two people he wanted to bring back into the game, while Michelle, Ryan S., and Trish wanted him to return. His votes are enough to bring him back to the game. As part of his resurrection, he was given immunity at his first visiting Tribal Council. Also, Burton had won individual immunity, but gave it to Rupert during Tribal Council, because he was already immune due to returning to the game via the Outcasts twist.

Post-Survivor[]

  • In the summer of 2005, Burton, along with Gervase Peterson, Jerri Manthey Richard Hatch, and Susan Hawk, competed on the Bravo reality show Battle of the Network Reality Stars. He and Richard were on the dark blue tribe.[3]
  • Burton is the executive producer of Around The World Productions company.[4]
  • On January 9, 2010, Burton attended Survivor's 10-year anniversary party.[5]

Trivia[]

  • Burton is the only Outcast who voted for two contestants of the same gender during the Outcast returnee vote.
  • Burton and Lillian Morris are the first two people to return to the game after being voted out.
  • Burton is the first person to possess two individual immunities simultaneously (he had immunity as a returning Outcast and as the winner of an individual Immunity Challenge).
  • Burton is the second contestant to give away individual immunity at Tribal Council, following Jenna Morasca. They would be followed by Erik Reichenbach, Brandon Hantz, and Chris Underwood.
    • Burton is the first to do so and not receive votes at that Tribal Council, followed by Chris.
  • *Burton is one of three to do so and survive that Tribal Council, along with Jenna and Chris.
  • In "The Great Lie", Burton became the first person to win individual immunity, only to have it rescinded after host Jeff Probst discovered that he erred in his ruling.
  • Burton became the first person to be voted out more than once in a single season. He was the only one with this "distinction" until Matt Elrod and Andrea Boehlke were both voted out twice in Redemption Island. Their "record" was broken when Ozzy Lusth was voted out three times on South Pacific.
  • Burton is tied with Lillian Morris for the most elimination votes received at Tribal Council in Pearl Islands, with 10.
  • Burton was nominated in Survivor: America's Tribal Council in the "Sexiest Male" category, but lost to Colby Donaldson.

References[]

Survivor: Pearl Islands Castaways
 Andrew
Morgan
S7 andrew t
 Burton
Drake
S7 burton t
 Christa
Drake
S7 christa t
 Darrah
Morgan
S7 darrah t
 Jon
Drake
S7 jon t
 Lillian
Morgan
S7 lillian t
 Michelle
Drake
S7 michelle t
 Nicole
Morgan
S7 nicole t
 Osten
Morgan
S7 osten t
 Rupert
Drake
S7 rupert t
 Ryan O.
Morgan
S7 ryano t
 Ryan S.
Morgan
S7 ryans t
 Sandra
Drake
S7 sandra t
 Shawn
Drake
S7 shawn t
 Tijuana
Morgan
S7 tijuana t
 Trish
Drake
S7 trish t
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