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Silas Randolph Gaither[1] is a contestant from Survivor: Africa.

Silas is best known for being the leader of the Younger Samburu Alliance. After eliminating Carl Bilancione and Linda Spencer, a new unexpected twist, a tribe switch, left him on Boran without any of his allies. Thus, he became the first victim of the tribe switch when former Samburu outsiders Teresa Cooper and Frank Garrison flipped on him.

Profile[]

Retrieved from CBS.com

Age: 23
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Bartender
Hometown: Germantown, Tennessee
Luxury Item: His Pillow

Silas Gaither, originally from Germantown, Tennessee, recently moved to Los Angeles. Gaither graduated with a BA in Finance from University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2000, and is currently bartending in West Los Angeles while pursuing a career in acting.

During Gaither's senior year at Houston High School (1996), his soccer team won the State Championship. In addition, he played high school football, wrestled and was voted "Mr. Houston" by his peers. While attending U of T, he was the boxing champion in his weight class three years straight.

Silas Gaither's three favorite hobbies include kayaking, fly-fishing and backpacking. He describes himself as happy, spontaneous and exciting. Gaither is single and currently lives with two roommates and his dog Max. His birth date is January 28.[2]

Survivor[]

Silas became Samburu's dark horse in challenges, leading them to an early three-challenge winning streak. Despite his indispensable status, he was disliked by the elder Samburu alliance for his arrogant behavior. Silas formed an alliance with Brandon Quinton, Lindsey Richter, and Kim Powers to eliminate their elder members, causing the elders to make their own alliance out of necessity. After losing their first Immunity Challenge in Day 8, the two conflicting alliances clashed at their first Tribal Council, where the younger members wore "unity necklaces", while the elders had none. The clash carried over at the vote, where it ended in a 4-4 tie vote between Richter and elder alliance member Carl Bilancione. When the revote did not help, a tiebreaker challenge commenced, with Carl losing.

After Carl's elimination, Silas and his alliance partners congratulated themselves for having a voting advantage over the older alliance, having to continue rubbing the elders in the wrong way as they continue to slack around camp, while the elders are doing all the chores. After losing yet another Immunity Challenge in Day 12, Silas plead to the elders to continue voting on Lindsey to keep his alliance strong (should the younger members will be in jeopardy during a possible future tie, only Lindsey will be vulnerable since she was the only one from the pact that has votes). The remaining elders felt that the plan will not benefit them one way or another, they decided to vote Silas at Tribal Council, making him vulnerable in future votes as well (though yet again losing one of their members, Linda, in the process).

Feeling secured over what they thought was their impending victory over the older alliance, the younger alliance was devastated of what happened on Day 13. On that fateful day, both tribes were to sent three of their own for "a quest". Silas sent himself, Teresa, and Frank, the two remaining members of the elder alliance. Things were turned on its head when Jeff instructed them, along with Boran's representatives to switch tribes, much to Silas's chagrin, for he will now compete against his allies. Upon reaching Boran, Silas wasted no time to persuade his new tribemates to eliminate Frank and Teresa. Unknown to him, Teresa was also working to oust him. Frank and Teresa swore loyalty to Boran if they eliminated Silas first. Teresa then proposed to forfeit the next Immunity Challenge to vote him off. During the Immunity Challenge, the tribe followed the plan while Silas was frantically performing. Back at camp, Silas then approached Ethan and Clarence and told lies about Frank being devious and untrustworthy. But at Tribal Council, Silas's lobbying backfired when he was blindsided, being unanimously voted out in a 5-1 vote (in large part of Teresa and Frank's continuing vendetta over the Younger Samburu Alliance for allegedly mistreating them).

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
Safari Supper Immunity No Won
3 Rock n' Roll Reward No Lost
Distress Signal Immunity No Lost
4 Caught in the Web Reward No Won
Movin' On Up Immunity No Lost
Switched Tribes, Day 13
5 Boran Get Your Goat Reward No Won
Puzzle of Shields Immunity No Lost
Voted Out, Day 15

Episode Silas's
Votes
Voted Against
Silas
1 Samburu Tribe Immune
2 Samburu Tribe Immune
3 Carl;
Carl1
-
4 Linda Frank, Linda, Teresa
5 Frank Clarence, Ethan,
Frank, Kim J., Teresa
Voted Out, Day 15

^1 In "The Gods Are Angry", the vote ended with a 4-4 tie between Carl and Lindsey, forcing a revote. Silas did not change his vote on the revote.

Post-Survivor[]

  • In early 2002, Silas, along with all of his Africa castmates appeared on Late Show with David Letterman where they would present the top 10.[3]
  • After Africa, Silas worked in some movies and TV series and he also participated in ad campaigns and commercials.
  • On January 9, 2010, Silas attended Survivor's 10-year anniversary party.
  • Silas opened restaurants along with Survivor: Nicaragua contestant Benry Henry in Santa Monica and Los Angeles.
  • Silas was arrested on November 25, 2019 on charges of rape and aggravated assault that took place in 2018. He was released from jail on $50,000 bond.[4][5]

Trivia[]

  • Silas is the youngest member of the original Samburu tribe and the youngest man to compete on Africa.
  • Silas is the first person to be voted out by his switched tribe before the merge.
  • Despite his occupation being announced as "Germantown bartender" in the show, Silas said in an interview he never was a bartender in Germantown.[6]
  • Silas's luxury item was his pillow.
  • Silas's nickname was Chip, apparently because of his amateur boxing career. Because his father used to be a boxer too, people said he was "a chip off the old block". When Frank Garrison voted against Silas at the fourth Tribal Council he wrote on his ballot "Silas a.k.a. Chip".

References[]

Survivor: Africa Castaways
 Brandon
Samburu
S3 brandon t
 Carl
Samburu
S3 carl t
 Clarence
Boran
S3 clarence t
 Diane
Boran
S3 diane t
 Ethan
Boran
S3 ethan t
 Frank
Samburu
S3 frank t
 Jessie
Boran
S3 jessie t
 Kelly
Boran
S3 kelly t
 Kim J.
Boran
S3 kimj t
 Kim P.
Samburu
S3 kimp t
 Lex
Boran
S3 lex t
 Linda
Samburu
S3 linda t
 Lindsey
Samburu
S3 lindsey t
 Silas
Samburu
S3 silas t
 Teresa
Samburu
S3 teresa t
 Tom
Boran
S3 tom t
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