Colby Donaldson/The Australian Outback

Colby Donaldson is a contestant from Survivor: The Australian Outback.

In The Australian Outback, Colby was known for his love-hate relationship with Jerri Manthey and becoming the first ever contestant to win five Immunity Challenges in a single season. He notably voted out Keith Famie at the final three, and took Tina Wesson to the Final Two with him. However, Tina was awarded the title of Sole Survivor in a close 4-3 vote, thus leaving Colby as the runner-up.

Profile[]

Retrieved from CBS.com

Name: Colby Donaldson
Age: 26
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Custom Auto Designer
Hometown: Dallas, Texas
Luxury Item: Texas Flag

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, but he prefers to play sand volleyball.

His birth date is April 1, 1974.^[1]

Survivor[]

At the start of the season, 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 in the tribe. He then made a plan with Keith to keep the tribe moving along the creek bed; Keith scouted ahead to see how much farther the camp was.

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

Initially, Colby and Jerri seemed to have some chemistry, although there was suspicion that Jerri had ulterior motives. After Maralyn's poor performance at the third Immunity Challenge, Colby voted with the rest of his tribe and eliminated her. After losing their third consecutive Immunity Challenge, Jerri boldly alienated Tina and Keith by stating that Colby, Amber, and Mitchell were her friends. This gesture caused Tina to ask Colby his opinion of 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 and so that night Colby voted with Tina and Keith to force a tie in Ogakor. Since Mitchell had received a previous vote in the last Tribal Council, he was eliminated. After Ogakor's three-time Immunity winning streak, all five remaining Ogakors remained intact until the merge. Colby became one of ten castaways to comprise 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), which caused Varner's ouster. Donaldson would later become a force 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 to the Final Tribal Council. Although he thought Keith would be easier to beat, he felt that Tina was more deserving, sending Keith to the jury.

At the Final Tribal Council, Colby's decision to bring Tina was considered by fans 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 and leaving Colby as the runner-up.

Episode	Tribe Affiliation	Challenge	Challenge Type	Sit-Out?	Result
1	Ogakor	Bridging the Gap	Reward/Immunity	No	Won
2		Butch Cassidy	Reward	No	Won
2		Tucker'd Out	Immunity	No	Lost
3		Water Torture	Reward	No	Won
3		Lock Step	Immunity	No	Lost
4		Mastermind	Reward	No	Lost
4		True or Falls	Immunity	No	Lost
5		Triage	Reward	No	Lost
5		The Maze	Immunity	No	Won
6		Blind Leading the Blind	Reward	No	Lost
Tribes Merged, Day 20
7	Barramundi	Perch	Immunity		Lost
8		Return to Sender	Reward		Lost
8		Don't Fence Me In	Immunity		Lost
10		Double Play	Reward		Won
10		Hanging in the Balance	Immunity		Lost
11		Survivor Auction
11		Fire and Water	Immunity		Won
12		End of the Line	Reward		Won
12		Blue Plate Special	Immunity		Won
13		Survivor.com	Reward		Lost
13		Fugitives	Immunity		Won
14		Survivor Pentathlon	Reward		Won
14		Memory	Immunity		Won
15		Fallen Comrades	Immunity		Won
Runner-Up, Day 42

Episode	Colby's Votes	Voted Against Colby
1	Ogakor Tribe Immune
2	Kel	-
3	Maralyn	-
4	Mitchell; Mitchell¹	-
5	Ogakor Tribe Immune
6	No Tribal Council
7	Jeff; Ineligible	Alicia, Elisabeth, Jeff, Nick, Rodger; Alicia, Elisabeth, Nick, Rodger²
8	Alicia	-
10	Jerri	-
11	Nick	Individual Immunity
12	Rodger	Individual Immunity
13	Rodger	Individual Immunity
14	Elisabeth	Individual Immunity
15	Keith	Individual Immunity
Jury Votes for Colby	Amber, Nick, Rodger
Runner-Up, Day 42

^1 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 on the revote.
^2 In "The Merge", the vote ended with a 5-5 tie between Colby and Jeff, forcing a revote. Nobody changed their vote on the revote, eliminating Jeff due to previous votes against him.

Trivia[]

Colby's luxury item in all of his seasons was a Texas flag.
Colby and Kel Gleason are the first contestants to reside in Texas at the time of filming.
According to the All-Stars DVD commentary, Colby's dog, Deuce, ate the hat that Colby wore on The Australian Outback.
Colby was the first player in Survivor history to fall victim to the Car Curse.
Colby was the first man to win the Final Immunity Challenge.
Colby is tied with Terry Deitz for the most individual challenges won in a single season Survivor history, with 7 individual challenge wins in The Australian Outback.
Colby also ties Terry for most consecutive individual Immunity Challenges won, winning five in a row in The Australian Outback.
- Colby is tied with Tom Westman, Terry Deitz, Ozzy Lusth, Mike Holloway, and Brad Culpepper for the record of most individual immunity wins in a single season, with five.
Colby was the first man to finish as the runner-up.