Jeremy Collins is the Sole Survivor of Survivor: Cambodia. He originally competed on Survivor: San Juan del Sur.
Up against the wall for most of his first season and using his physical game to get out of it, he was known for his rivalry with Josh Canfield. However, after being deemed a threat, he was blindsided by his own alliance. He also has the distinction of being the first person to win a Hero Duel.
Returning for Survivor: Cambodia, Jeremy developed a more aggressive but honest gameplay, finding two Hidden Immunity Idols, aligning with bigger targets so he would avoid being targeted and forming a close bond at the merge with Spencer Bledsoe and Tasha Fox that proved to be beneficial and dominant enough, despite paranoia and constantly changing voting blocs, to help Jeremy reach the Final Tribal Council and become the Sole Survivor.
Profile
Retrieved from CBS.com
San Juan del Sur
Name: Jeremy Collins (36)
Tribe Designation: Hunahpu
Relationship to Significant Castaway: Val's husband
Current Residence: Foxboro, Mass.
Occupation: Cambridge Firefighter
Personal Claim to Fame: I am proud of making it to the professional indoor football league without playing college football.
Inspiration in Life: My mom because she helped raise seven children while my dad worked. I don't know how she didn't lose anyone and she fed and put clothes on our backs – not to mention the amount of laundry she had to do.
Hobbies: Basketball, working out, fantasy football and coaching my daughters.
Pet Peeves: One-uppers and know-it-alls.
3 Words to Describe You: Athletic, straight forward and smiley.
If You Could Have 3 Things on The Island What Would They Be? 1) Bracelet from my daughters 2) Pictures of my daughters 3) Picture of my mother
SURVIVOR Contestant You Are Most Like: I always liked J.T. Thomas and James Clement but I think Tyson Apostol (the third time he played) is similar to how I would have played.
Reason for Being on SURVIVOR: The million dollars but I also feel my personality, body type and mind set is perfect for this game.
Why You Think You'll "Survive" SURVIVOR: I will help out around camp gathering wood for fires or shelter and getting coconuts. I will also be a monster at physical challenges.
Why You Think You Will Be the Sole Survivor: I believe my whole make up is prime for this game. I don't need to eat much, I am athletic and I am likeable. I also can make people feel like I like them even if I don't which will help in blindsides.
What Does It Mean to You to Play Survivor with Your Loved One? Playing with my loved one would be stressful and emotional. I know it is going to be tough out there and I will worry about my wife being hungry, cold and tired.
Cambodia
Season: Survivor: San Juan del Sur
Previous Finish: 10th place
What will you do differently this time around? "1. I need to do a better job picking my alliance. Last time I was on, my alliance turned their back on me at the first chance they got, so I would pick more trustworthy and loyal people. 2. I would try to improve in my Immunity Challenges.... I was terrible in those! 3. Lastly, I would enjoy the moment. I was thinking so much about the game that I didn't take in the moment and it was over just like that [snap fingers]."
Survivor: San Juan del Sur
Jeremy started the game on Day Zero with his wife, Val. The next day they were split: Jeremy was designated to Hunahpu, and Val was assigned to Coyopa. When Jeff then announced there would be a Hero Duel, Jeremy eagerly volunteered for the opportunity, not knowing his opponent. When Jeff explained he would compete against his wife - the loser going to Exile Island - Jeremy was ready for the challenge. He got out to a fast start in the challenge and never let up, winning soundly and sending Val to Exile; he then chose Keith from his own tribe to join her based on his profession.
Hunahpu was dysfunctional for much of the pre-merge, but were buoyed by their challenge dominance. He did, however, visit Exile Island with John Rocker during the second episode, as chosen by Julie. There, John promised he would do what he could to protect Val back at Coyopa. However, Val bluffed too hard, claiming she had two idols. John's plan to save her revolved around her playing an idol - an idol she didn't have. Val was voted out on a revote at that Tribal Council.
On Day 7, Jeremy saw his wife had been voted out, and forced John to confess to his tribe that he had tried to save Val, leading to John's ouster the next day. Hunahpu then visited Tribal for the first time on Day 10 after Drew threw the Immunity Challenge. Jeremy voted with the women of his tribe, blindsiding Drew 5-2-1-1.
After the tribe swap, Jeremy remained on Hunahpu with his allies Natalie and Julie, but they were outnumbered by the alliance of Josh, Reed, Alec, and Wes. Luckily, they didn't lose any Immunity Challenges after the swap. They did, however, have to trade most of their belongings for a new supply of rice, as they had overeaten and were entirely out of food.
After the merge, two factions arose: Jeremy's alliance, including Julie, Natalie, Baylor, and Missy; and Josh's, including Reed, Alec, Wes, and Keith. This left Jaclyn and Jon as the swing votes. On Day 18, it seemed as if Josh had successfully roped in Jon and Jaclyn, and they were targeting Jeremy. However, he was spared by the fact that his ally, Julie, quit.
In the next episode, Jeremy won his only individual Immunity Challenge, narrowly defeating Josh. Some chauvinistic comments and actions by a member of Josh's alliance - namely, Alec - offended Jaclyn, causing her and Jon to flip over to Jeremy's alliance. They successfully voted Josh out on Day 21, 6-5.
The next day, Jeremy won the Reward Challenge, but along with Natalie opted to give their respective rewards to Jon and Jaclyn as repayment for their votes the night before. Jon returned the favor by sending Jeremy to his second stint on Exile Island. There, he realized that Jon, the previous inhabitant, had found the Immunity Idol.
Baylor won immunity on Day 24, and Reed, sensing he was in trouble, scrambled to shake up the vote. He found Keith's Hidden Immunity Idol clue in his bag and brought it to the attention of some of his tribemates. However, what ultimately changed the tribe dynamic was Jeremy's confronting Jon about his possession of an idol, which Jon denied. Jon then rallied together Jaclyn, Baylor, Missy, and Reed to vote Jeremy out. They did so successfully, eliminating the Foxborough firefighter, 5-3-2, to become the second member of the jury.
At Final Tribal Council, Jeremy made a speech advocating for Natalie, praising her as the best player of the season. Jeremy voted for his former ally Natalie to win, which she did, 5-2-1.
Voting History
| Jeremy's Voting History | ||
|---|---|---|
| Episode | Jeremy's Votes |
Voted Against Jeremy |
| 1 | Hunahpu Tribe Immune | |
| 2 | Hunahpu Tribe Immune | |
| 3 | Hunahpu Tribe Immune | |
| 4 | Drew | - |
| 5 | Hunahpu Tribe Immune | |
| 6 | Hunahpu Tribe Immune | |
| 7 | No Tribal Council | |
| 8 | Josh | Individual Immunity |
| 9 | Keith | Baylor, Jaclyn, Jon, Missy, Reed |
| Voted Out, Day 24 | ||
| Voted For Sole Survivor |
Natalie | |
Survivor: Cambodia
Jeremy was chosen by public vote from thirty two candidates to compete on the second chance season, Survivor: Cambodia.
Jeremy was apart of the Bayon tribe. After hitting the beach he immediately formed alliances with Andrew Savage, Keith Nale, Joe Anglim, and Tasha Fox. On Day 2, Andrew told the tribe a heartfelt story about how he met his wife and this made everybody cry. After the story, Jeremy left the shelter so that he could be alone. He then stated in a confessional that his wife was pregnant with their third child, so he was playing for them. Bayon won nearly all the immunity challenges even after two tribe swaps. Even though there were two tribe swaps, Jeremy always remained on Bayon. After the first tribe switch, he formed a bond with original Ta Keo member Spencer Bledsoe. On Day 9, he found a clue to the hidden immunity idol and found the idol during the immunity challenge. After Bayon lost their first and only immunity challenge, Jeremy and his allies Stephen Fishbach and Monica Padilla agreed to vote out Kelly Wiglesworth, an original Ta Keo member who joined the Bayon tribe at the first tribe switch. However, Kimmi Kappenberg told him that Monica tried to start an all girls alliance which infuriated him. As a result at tribal council, those two along with Stephen blindsided Monica.
The tribes officially merged with 13 players remaining. His alliance was the majority alliance over Kass McQuillen's and Ciera Eastin's minority alliance. Despite being in the majority alliance with most of the original Bayon's and Spencer and Kelly, the multitude of intertwining relationships as a result of the tribe swaps resulted in everybody creating temporary voting blocs to take out common threats. Jeremy was able to find his second hidden immunity idol and played it on Stephen during the Final 10 tribal council, thus sparing Stephen from elimination and blindsiding Ciera. However, Stephen was voted out at the next Tribal Council. With 8 players remaining, they got to meet their loved ones. Jeremy met his wife Val Collins (whom he competed with previously in San Juan del Sur), and she told him that they are going to have a boy. However, Jeremy stated in a confessional that he was not going to tell anyone. With six players remaining, Jeremy was in the majority alliance that consisted of himself, Spencer, Tasha and Kimmi. However, Kimmi jumped ship to Keith and Kelley Wentworth's side. Spencer and Tasha warned him about that, but Jeremy did not believe them. At tribal council, both Jeremy and Kelley played their idols negating the three votes against them. This was the first time no votes were cast at tribal council in Survivor history. They then had to vote again. Jeremy, angry that Kimmi voted against him, decided to vote against her. He skipped to the voting booth and happily voted against her which the jury did not like. However, both Tasha and Kimmi were tied with 3 votes each. Then Jeff asked them if anyone was willing to change their votes and all of them said no. Afterwards, Jeff gave Jeremy, Spencer, Kelley and Keith Nale two minutes to decide if they are sending Kimmi or Tasha home or else they would become immune; and since Keith would then be the only one of the remaining four not immune, he would be eliminated by default. Jeremy and Spencer still decided to eliminate Kimmi. Consequently, both Kelley and Keith then decided to eliminate Kimmi sending her to the jury so that Keith wouldn't get voted out. After the tribal council, Kelley won the final five immunity challenge. Back at camp, Jeremy saw Keith's fake hidden immunity idol but thought it was real and then he whispered to him to vote out Spencer. At tribal council, Keith did not play his fake idol, and Jeremy stayed loyal to Spencer and voted against Keith sending him to the jury. Later, Jeremy won the final immunity challenge. Despite having an alliance with Spencer and Tasha, he very briefly considered taking Kelley to the end. However, Jeremy decided almost right away that he was going to vote out Kelley. At tribal council, Jeremy pretended that his vote was up in the air. In response, Spencer threatened to vote for Kelley and sway the jury to vote for her if he votes him out. As planned, Jeremy honored his alliance with Spencer and voted out Kelley, making her the final member of the jury.
At the Final Tribal Council, Jeremy was praised by Stephen for his loyalty and playing with honor and integrity. However, Andrew criticized him for skipping and being arrogant during Kimmi's elimination, and Kimmi chastised him for replacing her with Spencer in their alliance. When Kelley asked the finalists what their second chance was about Jeremy, said that he was doing it for his family, including his unborn son, and that he struggled with keeping his wife's pregnancy a secret for the entire game. Ultimately the ten jurors voted for Jeremy, making him the Sole Survivor of Survivor Cambodia.
Voting History
| Jeremy's Voting History | ||
|---|---|---|
| Episode | Jeremy's Votes |
Voted Against Jeremy |
| 1 | Bayon Tribe Immune | |
| 2 | Bayon Tribe Immune | |
| 3 | Bayon Tribe Immune | |
| 4 | Bayon Tribe Immune | |
| 5 | Monica | - |
| 6 | Bayon Tribe Immune | |
| 7 | Ciera | - |
| 8 | - | |
| 9 | Kelly | - |
| 10 | Ciera | - |
| 11 | Joe | - |
| 12 | Joe | - |
| 13 | Abi-Maria | - |
| 14 | Kimmi2 |
Individual Immunity2 |
| Keith | - | |
| Kelley | Individual Immunity | |
| Jury Votes for Jeremy |
Abi-Maria, Andrew, Ciera, Joe, Kass, Keith, Kelley, Kelly, Kimmi, Stephen | |
| Sole Survivor, Day 39 | ||
^1 In You Call, We'll Haul, Kelley used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Jeremy's vote against her.
^2 In Lie, Cheat and Steal, Jeremy used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating 3 votes against him. Also, Kelley used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Jeremy's vote against her. Because Jeremy and Kelley both used Hidden Immunity Idols and negated all the votes cast at Tribal Council, a vote restart was held, and both gained individual immunity. This vote ended with a 3-3 tie between Kimmi and Tasha, forcing a revote. Jeremy did not change his vote on the revote.
Post-Survivor
- In July 2015, Jeremy's wife Val revealed on her Twitter account that she was pregnant with their son who was due to be born in December.[1]
- Val gave birth to their son Remy Bodhi Collins on December 21, 2015.[2]
Trivia
- Jeremy was one of three firefighters competing in Survivor: San Juan del Sur. The others are fellow tribe mate Keith Nale and his son Wes.
- Jeremy and Val are the only couple in San Juan del Sur to be married during the time of filming.
- Jeremy was the oldest male member of the post-Switch Hunahpu tribe.
- Jeremy was the lowest placing Huyopa member to win individual immunity.
- Jeremy lost 19 lbs (8.6 kg) during San Juan del Sur.[3]
- Jeremy is the only person to compete in a Hero Challenge twice. He competed in his first Hero Duel against his wife, Val, on his first season. He also competed in a Hero Challenge against Andrew Savage and Terry Deitz in Survivor: Cambodia.
- Jeremy is the third African-American winner of Survivor.
- Jeremy is the fourth winner to win in a unanimous jury vote, following Earl Cole, J.T. Thomas, and John Cochran.
- Jeremy holds the record for most jury votes received in a single season, with 10.
- Jeremy is the first Sole Survivor to have won the Final Immunity Challenge, but no other individual Immunity Challenges.
- Jeremy, following previous season winner Mike Holloway, is the second winner to receive only uncounted votes.
- Jeremy and Kelley Wentworth are the second and third castaways in Survivor history to have both votes cast by and cast for him or her negated by Hidden Immunity Idols in a single Tribal Council.
- The first was their fellow San Juan del Sur and Cambodia castaway Keith Nale who achieved the feat in San Juan del Sur.
- Jeremy is the first male to win a season featuring only returnees.
- Jeremy is the sixth castaway to earn the title of Sole Survivor in a subsequent attempt, after Amber Brkich, Parvati Shallow, Rob Mariano, John Cochran, and Tyson Apostol.
References
| Preceded by Worlds Apart  Mike Holoway |
Sole Survivor Titleholder Cambodia  Jeremy Collins |
Succeeded by Kaôh Rōng To Be Announced |
| Survivor: San Juan del Sur Castaways | |||||||||||||||||
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