Steve Wright

Stephen Hough "Steve" Wright is a contestant from Survivor: Redemption Island.

A member of the Zapatera Six, Steve is best remembered for orchestrating Zapatera's throwing of an Immunity Challenge to blindside notorious villain Russell Hantz, as well as being accused by Phillip Sheppard of using racial epithets towards him after an argument regarding the Murlonio tribe's rice supply. He was eventually voted out on Day 30 and lost the subsequent duel.

Profile[]

Retrieved from CBS.com

Name (Age): Steve Wright (51)
Tribe: Zapatera
Current Residence: Huntington Beach, Calif.
Occupation: Ex-NFL Player
Personal Claim to Fame: Making the Dallas Cowboys with two other free agents out of 110 in 1981 and playing for 13 years. I'm also proud of my own start-up company and all it's accomplished.
Inspiration in Life: Regular people who do extraordinary things.
Hobbies: Photography, scuba diving and biking.
Pet Peeves: People who litter and people who don't respect others.
3 Words to Describe You: Honest, sincere and relentless.
Survivor Contestant You Are Most Like: Tom Westman - just a pretty normal likeable guy.
Reason for being on Survivor: To show how team work is done, win a million dollars and help my team the best I can.
Why you think you'll "survive" Survivor: With 13 years experience in the NFL, I have great teamwork. I made sure we all worked together for a winning cause. I have the ability to keep spirits high and keep people's eye on our goal.
Reason why you think you will be the Sole Survivor: I'm a fighter to the end and will bring anyone along that desires to work. I'll be stronger, fitter and wiser than the others. I've experienced trials others haven't. I've had my will tested and have always rose above all challenges.^[1]

Survivor[]

Steve was placed on the Zapatera tribe. It was soon revealed that Rob Mariano and Russell Hantz would be returning for this season. In a random draw of Buffs, Russell would be the one to placed on Zapatera, while Rob was placed on the Ometepe tribe. Steve and Krista Klumpp would be the only ones to be welcoming to Russell. It was also announced that when someone is voted out, they are not out of the game. Instead, they will be going to Redemption Island. When they arrived at camp, the Zapateras started working. Russell made a speech saying he was planning to make a different game this time. However, this was quickly disproved when David Murphy saw Russell making an alliance with Stephanie Valencia. Zapatera would win the first challenge, keeping the tribe safe. However, everyone was getting anxious about Russell as he was working on Krista and searching for an Hidden Immunity Idol. Ralph Kiser was able to win Zapatera its second challenge in a row for fishing gear and immunity. However, Russell grabbed a clue to the idol. Russell's attempts to find the idol were in reality a waste as Ralph found it by dumb luck a few days ago.

At this point, everyone not in Russell's alliance wanted him out for various reasons (his laziness at camp, callousness, untrustworthiness, brash strategic gameplay, etc.). The Tree Mail had a bag of marbles and a note saying to that the two to draw marbles would go witness the duel on Redemption Island. Steve drew a purple marble along with David, making them the witnesses to the duel. At Redemption Island, Matt Elrod defeated Francesca Hogi, eliminating the latter from the game. Steve and David decided to tell Russell that Francesca won the duel and not Matt, to throw him off his game when he reaches Redemption Island. The anti-Russell alliance started flirting with the idea of throwing the next Immunity Challenge to vote out Russell. Steve in particular was pushing for this. Julie Wolfe didn't like the thought because of karma and the loss could give Ometepe momentum. At the challenge, everyone (including Julie) went though with the plan. Because Stephanie was walking around with a stuffed bag that she refused to share, the alliance planned to split the vote between Russell and Stephanie. Russell and his alliance started working on Julie. At Tribal Council, Stephanie called out the tribe for throwing the challenge. The vote went as planned and Russell was voted out in the revote. At the next duel, Russell was defeated by Matt, and Russell was permanently eliminated from the game. Ralph and Sarita White told everyone about Russell's reaction to being eliminated. Most of the tribe was ecstatic that Russell was gone for good. His alliance, however, alienated themselves from the tribe. However, the others didn't really care.

Zapatera won the challenge again, earning them immunity and a barbecue feast. For the next challenge, Steve and Julie sat out. The tribe would lose the challenge. David was annoyed because he wasn't at the puzzle station. This led to a conflict with Sarita. Russell's former alliance decided to vote against Steve because he didn't contribute much to challenges or camp life. At Tribal Council, Krista caused a debate when she accused the main alliance of not playing strategically. This would cause her to get voted out. After the vote, Steve asked Stephanie why they voted against him. Stephanie's answer was that he was weak in challenges. This made him realize that he needed to dig deeper and called the decision to vote against him another dumb move. David started to align with Stephanie to oust Sarita because she was weak in challenges and she annoyed him. At the Immunity Challenge, Grant Mattos carried Ometepe to victory. At Tribal Council, loyalty outweighed athleticism and Stephanie was voted out 5-2. At this point, David and Sarita were gunning for one another. At the challenge, it was a close contest. Unfortunately, Ometepe barely defeated Zapatera. Steve complained in a confessional that the tribe was sick of losing and was hungry. In a tough decision, the tribe blindsided Sarita in a 4-2 vote.

The next duel was the re-entry duel, which Sarita lost. The tribes merged and had to move to a new beach. Everyone worked at the new beach to make it comfortable. Rob came up with the tribe name, Murlonio. On the wrong side of numbers, Mike Chiesl started working of Matt and his close friend, Andrea Boehlke to flip. Matt played with the thought but ultimately decided to stay loyal. Matt decide to vote against Steve because he didn't contribute at camp and was the least likely to get the Hidden Immunity Idol played on him. At the Immunity Challenge, Natalie Tenerelli defeated Mike for safety at Tribal Council. The Zapateras decided to vote against the athletic Grant. Unfortunately, after five Grant votes, the next vote had Steve's name one it. Everything was thrown for a loop when the remaining votes had Matt's name on them.

The Zapateras scrambled to break Ometepe. However, this was made difficult because of Rob's cult like control of his tribe. At the next Immunity Challenge, Steve was out in the second round. Grant beat out Mike and David for immunity. The former Zapateras were unable to find a Hidden Immunity Idol and failed to convince Phillip Sheppard that he was the low man on the totem pole. Mike was voted out in a 6-5 vote. At the next Immunity Challenge, the castaways were given the choice between eating burgers, fries, and coke over immunity. Steve and Phillip were the only ones to sit out. Eventually, Andrea won immunity. Although Steve was a target for being mentally out of the game, David was sent to Redemption Island for being the biggest Zapatera threat.

Steve, Julie, and Ralph decided to eat the remainder of their rice. Phillip noticed this and stole rice from Zapatera's bin. Steve refused to let Ometepe put their rice into Zapatera's container. This caused an heated argument been Steve and Phillip. Things became uglier when Steve called Phillip crazy, who the latter thought was as a way to ignore Black people. At the Immunity Challenge, Steve was able to compete the puzzle. But because Rob called in first, he won immunity. The Zapateras hoped that Phillip's behavior would get him voted out as they could afford to now. At Tribal Council, Julie was voted out after admitting she stole Phillip's swim shorts.

After Tribal Council, Steve apologized to Phillip. Steve felt that a man of wisdom would apologize first and didn't view Phillip as one. Likewise, Phillip viewed the apology as self-serving. Ralph and Steve talked about how they were next ones to go. At the Immunity Challenge, Ralph defeated Steve but lost to Grant in the final. The tribe was also given a mystery package to be opened at Tribal Council. In a desperate plea, Steve told the Ometepe girls that he and Ralph were voting against Rob and they should too. The girls told Rob this and he deemed Steve was going after Ralph instead of Andrea. At Tribal Council, Steve reminded everyone about Rob backstabbing Lex van den Berghe in All-Stars. Ralph was voted out. The package revealed that another Immunity Challenge would take place. Steve came close but lost to Rob again. Without immunity, Steve was voted out unanimously. Exhausted, Steve was unable to compete at the duel and was eliminated.

At the Final Tribal Council, Steve congratulated Rob and Natalie for withstanding the elements to last 39 days. He commended Natalie for being so young and lasting 39 days. Steve also referred Rob as a warrior for lasting 117 days as he buckled after 31 days. Steve said to Phillip that he felt sorry for Phillip being a shameful, sorry man. Steve gave his jury vote to Rob, who ended up winning in a 8-1-0 vote.

Episode	Tribe Affiliation	Challenge	Challenge Type	Sit-Out?	Result
1	Zapatera	Push It Uphill	Reward/Immunity	No	Won
2		Smash, Grab, Smash	Reward/Immunity	No	Won
3		Spin Cycle	Reward/Immunity	No	Lost
4		Toolin' Around	Reward/Immunity	No	Won
5		Smoko	Reward/Immunity	Yes	Lost
6		Beach Balls	Reward/Immunity	No	Lost
7		Crash Course	Reward/Immunity	No	Lost
Tribes Merged, Day 19
8	Murlonio	Roller Ball	Immunity		Lost
9		Meso Soup	Immunity		Lost
9		Gang Hang	Immunity	Yes¹	Lost
10		Mayan Pizza	Immunity		Lost
11		Log Jam	Reward/Immunity		Lost
11		Flashback	Immunity		Lost
Voted Out, Day 30
12	Murlonio	Rock Block	Duel		Lost
Eliminated, Day 31
Notes: ^1 Steve elected to sit out of the challenge to eat cheeseburgers.

Episode	Steve's Votes	Voted Against Steve
1	Zapatera Tribe Immune
2	Zapatera Tribe Immune
3	Russell; Russell¹	-
4	Zapatera Tribe Immune
5	Krista	Krista, Stephanie
6	Stephanie	-
7	Sarita	-
8	Grant	Matt
9	Phillip	-
9	Rob	-
10	Phillip	-
11	Rob	-
11	Grant	Andrea, Ashley, Grant, Natalie, Phillip, Rob
Voted Out, Day 30
12	On Redemption Island
Eliminated, Day 31
Voted for Sole Survivor	Rob

^1 In "Keep Hope Alive", the vote ended with a 3-3-3 tie between Ralph, Russell, and Stephanie, forcing a revote. Steve did not change his vote on the revote.

Post-Survivor[]

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Trivia[]

Steve is the oldest member of Zapatera.
Steve's former NFL teammate Gary Hogeboom competed on Guatemala, eleven seasons before Steve himself did so.
- Steve and Grant Mattos are the third and fourth contestants in the history of the show who were affiliated with the NFL before competing on Survivor, following Gary Hogeboom and Jimmy Johnson. He would later be followed by Brad Culpepper, Tyler Fredrickson, Alan Ball, Danny McCray, and Brandon Cottom.
Steve lost 33 lbs. during his time on Redemption Island.^[2]