Kim Powers

Kimberly "Kim" Powers is a contestant from Survivor: Africa.

Known as a key member of the Younger Samburu Alliance and for her friendship with Brandon Quinton, Kim's relationship with Brandon became strained after the latter sided with the Boran Alliance at the final nine, and she was eventually voted out by the Boran Alliance at the final six.

Profile[]

Retrieved from CBS.com

Kim Powers was born and raised in Bridgewater, New Jersey, where she lived with her family prior to attending college. She graduated from Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications. Currently, she is a freelance marketing executive for an athletic wear company and is living in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia.

Powers's favorite hobbies include running, biking, boxing, growing herbs and vegetables, cooking and entertaining. She describes herself as extraverted, tenacious and competitive.

Kim Powers was engaged to be married for over a year, but less than three weeks before the big day, she called it off. Still single, she currently lives in a very socially complicated "tribe" with three other female roommates and her cat, Squirt. Her birth date is December 3.^[1]

Survivor[]

Kim P. was initially placed on the Samburu tribe. Right off the bat, Kim P. did not take a liking to Frank Garrison for his military style of leadership on the way to camp. At camp, Kim P. was the one to make fire, using the lens of the telescope in the medical kit. On Day 2, Samburu won immunity and fire. However, the tribe was quickly divided by age. The Older Samburu Alliance viewed the younger ones as lazy. Conversely, the Younger Samburu Alliance felt the older ones were overworking and overbearing, although the tribe did not have to worry as they won the next two challenges. In order to prevent a tie, the older alliance tried to sway Silas Gaither to their side. However, Silas chose the younger alliance.

On Day 7, the young got a rude awakening from the older members doing camp chores. Kim helped Lindsey Richter make friendship necklaces for themselves, Silas, and Brandon Quinton, further deepening the divide between the two alliances. After the opposing Boran tribe won the Reward Challenge back at camp, Carl Bilancione claimed to own some expensive cars, causing the younger members to view him as less needing of the money. During the Immunity Challenge, in which the castaways had to make a distress signal, Lindsey collapsed due to dehydration. Samburu later lost immunity because their distress signal was too much like the other villages. At Tribal Council, the vote was a deadlocked tie between Carl and Lindsey. Lindsey won the tiebreaker, sending Carl home and giving the younger alliance the majority. After Boran again won the next Immunity Challenge, Silas tried to get the older members to vote against Lindsey to make sure that she would be the only ones with past votes against her. However, they voted against Silas instead. Ultimately, Linda Spencer was the one voted out in a 4-3 vote.

After Linda's ouster, there was a heated argument on why Frank and Teresa Cooper had gone against the plan. Kim P. felt that they were punishing the younger group for not telling them who was going. Teresa countered that they stuck together because they were not told who was going out. Later, the tribe got Tree Mail, asking three members to go on a quest. Silas quickly picked himself, Frank, and Teresa to go on the quest. Later on, Kelly Goldsmith, Lex van den Berghe, and Tom Buchanan from the Boran tribe arrived, claiming they had bad news. They explained that they would be part of Samburu until the merge. This tribe switch shocked Brandon, Kim P., and Lindsey and set Lindsey in a state of panic. Although they lost the Reward Challenge, the new Samburu won immunity after the new Boran stopped trying halfway through in order to vote out the untrustworthy Silas. Samburu won the next Reward Challenge and a feast. Unfortunately, Kim P. was not able to eat as her stomach had shrunk. After Boran won immunity on Day 18, the original Samburu decided to vote against Tom because he was the least likely to win a nature quiz tiebreaker. However, the original Borans received a signal from former tribemate Kim Johnson that Lindsey had past votes. Using this, Lindsey was sent home after a deadlocked tie.

Brandon started distancing himself from Kim P. to save himself. The tribes then merged into the Moto Maji tribe at the next Immunity Challenge on Day 20, which Teresa won over Clarence Black. Afterward, Kim P. agreed that Clarence was too much of a physical threat and joined the majority in voting him out. However, Lex was disturbed that he had received two votes and set out find who voted against him. The following day, Ethan Zohn won reward and asked Lex to join him. Teresa used the time to reunite the original Samburu tribe. Noticing Lex's treatment of her, Kim P. asked Kelly to join them, but she refused to do so. Ethan won immunity and Lex came to the wrong conclusion that Kelly voted against him when it was, in fact, Teresa who did so. After Ethan won immunity on Day 24, Kelly flipped to Samburu to save herself. However, Brandon could not think of being aligned with Frank and voted out Kelly instead, much to the shock of his Samburu allies.

For the next Reward Challenge, the castaways had to pair up. In a random selection, Kim P. was a team with Tom. The two hit it off immediately. However, they lost in the first round to the eventual winners, Brandon and Frank. On the way to get Tree Mail, later on, Brandon tried to explain his side of the story and that Kelly was playing both sides. Kim P. told him that he could have told her beforehand. At the Immunity Challenge, Kim P. was the first person to make fire. However, Lex won immunity. Having lost trust in her friend, Kim P. joined in voting Brandon out. After Tribal Council, Kim P. had mixed feelings about voting out Brandon, but she stated that it needed to be done. At the Survivor Auction on Day 28, Kim P. brought a hot fudge sundae for 12,500 Kenyan shilling. Lex won immunity and Frank was unanimously voted out for voicing his political views. At the Reward Challenge, on Day 31, Kim P. became emotional seeing her mom on the video. Despite her best efforts, Kim P. lost to Lex. At the Immunity Challenge, Kim P. was the third person knocked out from the challenge and Tom won immunity. Teresa tried to convince Kim J. that she was on the bottom of the Boran Alliance and Tom, who had lost trust in Lex, decided to vote out Lex. However, the Borans stayed strong and Kim P. was voted out in a 4-2 vote.

At the Final Tribal Council, Kim P. revealed that she learned about herself from people like Frank and Tom, who she would never have had the opportunity to learn from. She noted that it was more about herself than what she learned. Kim P. then asked the finalists who on the jury they learned the most about themselves from and who they learned the least from and why. Kim J. said Kim P. herself, which the finalist pointed out was strange. Kim J. said it was because she was able to call off a wedding and being forgiving. She also said that she learned the least from Tom, despite the fun they had. Ethan said that he learned the most from Teresa because she was his safe place and her willpower is inspirational. He said that he learned the least from Kelly because of the lack of relationship, which he regretted. Kim P. voted for Kim J. to be the Sole Survivor because of admiration, though Kim J. finished second to Ethan, 5-2.

Episode	Tribe Affiliation	Challenge	Challenge Type	Sit-Out?	Result
1	Samburu	Trail Blazer	Reward/Immunity	No	Won
2		Stairway to the Stars	Reward	No	Won
2		Safari Supper	Immunity	No	Won
3		Rock n' Roll	Reward	Yes	Lost
3		Distress Signal	Immunity	No	Lost
4		Caught in the Web	Reward	No	Won
4		Movin' On Up	Immunity	No	Lost
5		Get Your Goat	Reward	No	Lost
5		Puzzle of Shields	Immunity	No	Won
6		Africa 102	Reward	No	Won
6		Spear-it Hunt	Immunity	No	Lost
Tribes Merged, Day 20
7	Moto Maji	When It Rains, It Pours	Immunity		Lost
9		Stomp-ede	Reward		Lost
9		Box Your Mind	Immunity		Lost
10		Obstacle Course	Reward		Lost
10		Light It Up	Immunity		Lost
11		Survivor Auction
11		African Folklore	Immunity		Lost
12		Know Your Loved One	Reward		Lost
12		Pot Shots	Immunity		Lost
Voted Out, Day 33

Episode	Kim P.'s Votes	Voted Against Kim P.
1	Samburu Tribe Immune
2	Samburu Tribe Immune
3	Carl; Carl¹	-
4	Linda	-
5	Samburu Tribe Immune
6	Tom; Tom²	-
7	Clarence	-
9	Lex	-
10	Brandon	-
11	Frank	-
12	Lex	Ethan, Kim J., Lex, Tom
Voted Out, Day 33
Voted For Sole Survivor	Kim J.

^1 In "The Gods Are Angry", the vote ended with a 4-4 tie between Carl and Lindsey, forcing a revote. Kim P. did not change her vote on the revote.
^2 In "I'd Never Do It to You", the vote ended with a 3-3 tie between Lindsey and Tom, forcing a revote. Kim P. did not change her vote on the revote.

Post-Survivor[]

In early 2002, Kim, along with all of her Africa castmates appeared on Late Show with David Letterman where they would present the top 10.^[2]
Kim attended the Survivor: Thailand Reunion Show.
In August 2006, Kim married fellow Survivor alumnus Alex Bell from The Amazon in Los Angeles.^[3] They currently reside in San Francisco, California and both also work for Backroads travel company.
- On January 9, 2010, both attended Survivor's 10-year anniversary party.^[4]
- Kim and Alex adopted a girl named Bella.^[5]

Trivia[]

Kim Powers and Kim Johnson are the first contestants to compete in a season with the same first name.
- They are also the second highest-placing member of their respective original tribes.
Kim's luxury item was a string necklace.
Kim is the first contestant to not receive a confessional in the episode in which they were eliminated.