Yung "Woo" Hwang is a contestant from Survivor: Cagayan and Survivor: Cambodia.
Best known for his carefree and entertaining attitude, Woo followed through his moral code by taking his ally Tony Vlachos to the Final Two instead of the unpopular Kass McQuillen. This was perceived by the jury as playing passively, which ultimately cost him the million dollar prize.
Returning in Cambodia, Woo found himself in an alliance with the "old school" contestants and later, at odds with tribemate Abi-Maria Gomes. He was blindsided a day before the merge because Ciera Eastin and Kass McQuillen believed that he was too closely aligned with Andrew Savage.
Profile[]
Retrieved from CBS.com
Name (Age): Yung "Woo" Hwang (29) |
Survivor[]
Cagayan[]
Woo was placed on Aparri, the Brawn tribe of Cagayan. An avid basketball fan and card collector, Woo immediately recognized former NBA player Cliff Robinson, whom he proceeded to align with. The tribe proved to be successful in the beginning, winning every single challenge prior to the swap. When Tony Vlachos lied to Sarah Lacina by saying that Cliff and Lindsey Ogle were gunning for her, Sarah convinced Woo and Trish Hegarty to come into their alliance and throw the upcoming Immunity Challenge to vote Cliff out, followed by Lindsey. Cliff, however, single-handedly saved himself by winning the challenge for Aparri despite Sarah, Trish, and Woo's attempts to throw the challenge.
At the tribe switch, all the Aparri members other than Sarah were switched to the new Solana tribe with original members Jefra Bland and LJ McKanas. After losing the next Immunity Challenge, the original Aparri members agreed to vote out LJ. Trish, however, had bonded with LJ and, after managing to pull in Tony, joined LJ and Jefra in blindsiding Cliff. Upon returning to camp, Trish and Lindsey then got into a heated argument, which resulted in Lindsey quitting the game and leaving Woo firmly on the outs.
Solana won the next Immunity Challenge, allowing Woo to make it to the merge and became part of the merged tribe, Solarrion. Being down in numbers, the new Solana Alliance needed Sarah's vote, but Sarah overheard her former allies (along with Jefra and LJ) yell "Top 5!" at the previous challenge, which made her feel excluded. Woo won the first individual Immunity Challenge, but his alliance was still down in numbers. Trish saw an opportunity when she noticed Kass McQuillen's continued arguments with Sarah. At Tribal Council, Kass flipped from the Aparri Alliance and voted out Sarah, who became the first member of the jury.
After being part of the winning team at the next Reward Challenge, Spencer Bledsoe retrieved a clue to a Hidden Immunity Idol and took it back to camp with him. While by a stream, Spencer was spotted by Woo, who picked up his pants from the ground, resulting in the clue falling out. Woo spotted this and immediately picked it up and quickly sprinted back to camp to share it with everybody in his alliance which angered Spencer. This sparked a massive hunt for the Hidden Immunity Idol, which was ultimately found by Spencer.
After LJ was blindsided by Tony and Woo, Jefra felt insecure about Tony's deception towards everybody and confronted Trish to try to gun for him. Trish and Kass, however, were able to assuage Jefra's fears and pull her back into their alliance. Several days later, however, Tony and Woo began to fear the possibility of an alliance forming between the remaining women and decided to blindside Jefra.
The team of Woo, Kass, and Spencer then won the next Reward Challenge, where Kass and Spencer tried to convince Woo to vote with them and Tasha Fox in flushing one of Tony's Hidden Immunity Idols. Though hesitant, Woo agreed to the plan but was later approached by Kass, who had changed her mind. At Tribal Council, Kass and Woo stuck with Tony and Trish, sending Tasha to the jury.
The following morning, Woo confessed to Tony that he had considered aligning with the Aparri Alliance the previous night, noting that Kass was also in on the plan. Tony later confronted Kass, though he claimed to forgive her and noted that he planned on going to the end with her and Trish. Kass, unsatisfied by this, revealed this to Woo, causing him to doubt his own alliance with Tony. This angered Tony, and led to Kass plotting with Spencer and Woo to break up the pair of Tony and Trish. At Tribal Council, Woo reflected on his position on the tribe as the "foreign exchange student" within the dysfunctional personalities that remained in the game. At the vote, Woo and Tony joined Kass and Spencer in blindsiding Trish.
The next day, the Final Four were surprised when they were visited by their loved ones, including Woo's cousin. After failing to win the next Immunity Challenge, Spencer decided to scramble because he felt insecure about his position. Spencer took Tony out to the woods to explain his theory that there would be a Final Two and whoever won the next challenge would choose somebody to be in the other position. Spencer claimed that if either Kass or Woo win, they would take each other to the end. If Tony vote Woo out and Spencer won the following Immunity Challenge, he would take Tony with him. Tony, however, decided to stick with his alliance and voted Spencer out at Tribal Council.
Woo and Kass agreed that voting Tony out next would be in their best interests and agreed to take each other to the end. After Woo narrowly defeated Kass to win the Final Immunity Challenge, both Tony and Kass made their case to Woo. Tony appealed to Woo's sense of honor, pointing out that the jury would see him as being disloyal if he voted Tony out. Kass, on the other hand, stressed her being less than popular with the jury after her move at the merge. At Tribal Council, Woo shocked everyone when he voted Kass out, taking Tony with him to the Final Two.
At the Final Tribal Council, Woo emphasized his adherence to the five tenets of Tae Kwon Do—discipline, integrity, loyalty, respect, and harmony between mind and body—in spite of the deceitful nature of the game. However, Woo's loyalty and obedience also made the jury question Woo's desire to win. Kass lambasted Woo for his decision to take Tony to the end instead of her, while Spencer compared Woo to a dog loyal to its master. In the end, Tony got 8 jury votes to Woo's sole vote from Tasha, leaving Woo as the runner-up.
At the Reunion Show, Jeff Probst polled the jury on who would have voted for Woo had he taken Kass with him to the end, with 8 of 9 (including Tony) raising their hands.
| Episode | Tribe Affiliation |
Challenge | Challenge Type | Sit-Out? | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aparri | Draggin' the Dragon | Reward/Immunity | No | 2nd |
| Phish Farm | Reward/Immunity | No | 1st | ||
| 2 | Mazed and Confused | Reward/Immunity | No | 1st | |
| 3 | Haulin' Oats | Reward | Yes | 2nd | |
| Octopus Garden | Immunity | No | 2nd | ||
| Switched Tribes, Day 12 | |||||
| 4 | Solana | Kicking and Screaming | Reward | No | Won |
| Gate Crasher | Immunity | No | Lost | ||
| 5 | Idol Hands | Reward | No | Won | |
| Styx | Immunity | No | Won | ||
| Tribes Merged, Day 17 | |||||
| 6 | Solarrion | Bermuda Triangles | Immunity | Won | |
| 7 | Rise and Shrine | Reward | Lost | ||
| Keep on Your Toes | Immunity | Lost | |||
| 8 | Supertramp | Reward | Lost | ||
| Living Color | Immunity | Lost | |||
| 9 | Rove, Rove, Rove Your Boat | Reward | Lost | ||
| Hard to Handle | Immunity | Lost | |||
| 10 | Survivor Auction | ||||
| Inside Track | Immunity | Lost | |||
| 11 | Challenge Pitch | Reward | Won | ||
| Combo Platter | Immunity | Lost | |||
| 12 | Mud Run | Reward | Lost | ||
| Jacob's Ladder | Immunity | Lost | |||
| 13 | Vertigo | Immunity | Lost | ||
| Roundabout | Immunity | Won | |||
| Runner-Up, Day 39 | |||||
| Episode | Woo's Votes |
Voted Against Woo |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aparri Tribe Immune | |
| Aparri Tribe Immune | ||
| 2 | Aparri Tribe Immune | |
| 3 | Aparri Tribe Immune | |
| 4 | LJ | - |
| 5 | Solana Tribe Immune | |
| 6 | Sarah | Individual Immunity |
| 7 | Morgan | - |
| 8 | LJ | - |
| 9 | Jeremiah | Jeremiah, Spencer, Tasha |
| 10 | Jefra | - |
| 11 | Tasha | - |
| 12 | Trish | - |
| 13 | Spencer | Spencer |
| Kass | Individual Immunity | |
| Jury Votes For Woo |
Tasha | |
| Runner-Up, Day 39 | ||
Cambodia[]
Woo was one of the twenty castaways chosen to compete on Survivor: Cambodia for a second chance at Survivor.
Woo was a part of the Ta Keo tribe. After hitting the beach, he immediately set up camp along with old-school players Kelly Wiglesworth, Terry Deitz, and Vytas Baskauskas. After losing the first Immunity Challenge, Ta Keo immediately went to Tribal Council, where Woo along with the old-school players minus Jeff Varner and Peih-Gee Law voted for Abi-Maria Gomes because of her volatility. However, Vytas was voted off. After losing their second challenge in the row, Woo, along with the others, targeted Shirin Oskooi and his Cagayan castmate Spencer Bledsoe for playing too hard. At Tribal Council, they split their votes between the two and Shirin was voted off.
On Day 7, a tribe switch occurred. Woo along with Abi, Peih-Gee, and Jeff were switched to the new Angkor tribe, joined by original Bayon's Tasha Fox, who played with Woo in Cagayan, and Andrew Savage. Noting Savage's reaction to the swap, Woo told his original Ta Keo members to stick together and vote him out first. However, after losing the Immunity Challenge, both Peih-Gee and Abi targeted each other. At Tribal Council, Woo sided with Peih-Gee and voted against Abi, but Peih-Gee was voted off. Abi was upset that Woo voted for her again. After Angkor lost their second Immunity Challenge in a row, Varner was targeted for being a strategic threat but Abi wanted to vote Woo off for voting for her twice. At Tribal Council, both Jeff and Woo pledged loyalty to the majority alliance, but they chose to eliminate Varner in order to preserve Woo's strength in challenges. In big part thanks to Woo, Angkor finally ended their losing streak on Day 13.
The next day, another tribe switch occurred, with Woo and Abi switched back to Ta Keo with Andrew. They were joined by Spencer Bledsoe, Kelly Wiglesworth, Ciera Eastin, and Woo's other Cagayan castmate Kass McQuillen. After the Reward Challenge, Woo along with Andrew, Abi, Kass, and Ciera decided to target Spencer if they lost the Immunity Challenge. After losing the Immunity Challenge, they confirmed their plan to get rid of Spencer, while using Ciera as a decoy. However, Ciera was unhappy about that and worried that Woo was too closely aligned with Andrew. As such, she rallied Kass, Abi-Maria, and Spencer to blindside Woo. The campaign was successful, and Woo left the game in 14th place by a 4-3 vote.
| Episode | Tribe Affiliation |
Challenge | Challenge Type | Sit-Out? | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ta Keo | The Marooning | Reward | No | Won |
| Quest for Fire | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost | ||
| 2 | Yank Yer Hank | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost | |
| Switched Tribes, Day 7 | |||||
| 3 | Angkor | Draggin' the Dragon | Immunity | No | Lost |
| 4 | Stomp-ede | Reward | Yes | 1st | |
| Blind Leading the Blind | Immunity | No | Lost | ||
| 5 | In the Barrel | Reward | No | 2nd | |
| Air Raid | Immunity | Yes | 1st | ||
| Switched Tribes, Day 14 | |||||
| 6 | Ta Keo | Slip n' Slide | Reward | No | Won |
| Cambodian Catering | Immunity | No | Lost | ||
| Voted Out, Day 16 | |||||
Post-Survivor[]
Woo and his partner, Inge, with Drew Carey on The Price Is Right.
- In late August 2015, Woo got engaged to his girlfriend Kristina Hamilton.[4] The couple married on July 7, 2017.[5]
- After Survivor, Woo opened a gym in Huntington Beach, California.[8]
- Woo, along with eight other former castaways, competed on a Survivor edition of The Price Is Right primetime special that aired on May 23, 2016.[9] Woo and his partner, Inge, lost their pricing game and were unable to make it to the Showcase.[10]
- Woo announced on Twitter that he would be in the music video of David Guetta's song "This One's for You".[11]
- In 2017, Woo starred in a Fandango movie commercial.
- Woo, along with Jeremy Collins, Kelley Wentworth, Joe Anglim, and Caleb Reynolds, competed on the series premiere of the game show Candy Crush, which premiered on July 7, 2017.[12]
- In 2019, Woo appeared as a guest star in the YouTube Original reality show Escape the Night.
- On October 3, 2019, Woo guest starred in an episode of Grey's Anatomy.[13]
Trivia[]
- According to Woo, the Survivor medical team "strongly considered" pulling him from the game after his fall from the papaya tree.[14]
- Woo is the first castaway to win a three-person Final Immunity Challenge since J.T. Thomas in Tocantins.
- Woo was the first Asian-American finalist since Yul Kwon and Becky Lee from Cook Islands.
- Woo is the first and only Asian-American finalist in seasons with a Final Two format.
- Woo lost 19 lbs. (8. kg) during Survivor: Cagayan.
- In Cagayan, the only pre-merge Tribal Council Woo went to was the fifth one. In Cambodia, it was the reverse, as Woo went to every pre-merge Tribal Council except the fifth.
- In Cagayan, Woo won the first and last Individual Immunity Challenges.
- He was also the only person to win Individual Immunity Challenges that was not an original member of Luzon.
- In Cambodia, Woo was the only returning castaway from Cagayan who was not present at the Final Tribal Council, as he was voted out pre-jury while Kass became the first juror, and both Tasha and Spencer made it to the end.
References[]
- ↑ https://twitter.com/YungWoo23/status/1636446271941771265
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20230128134415/https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/214800/
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20230201101615/https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/215129/
- ↑ https://twitter.com/YungWoo23/status/635464500385202176
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzn79PXgRT6/
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CcLzZr8vjaV/
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/Cgs8wbJLECm/
- ↑ http://parade.com/420870/joshwigler/woo-hwang-reveals-his-new-survivor-ninja-speed/2/
- ↑ http://parade.com/472671/joshwigler/survivor-big-brother-amazing-race-the-price-is-right-photos/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zguryBwlc4E
- ↑ https://twitter.com/YungWoo23/status/741737996546756608?lang=en
- ↑ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/candy-crush-big-brother-survivor-alums-compete-premiere-1013620
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/dczxaa/spotted_woo_on_greys_anatomy/
- ↑ http://realitytvmagazine.sheknows.com/2014/05/23/exclusive-woo-hwang-nearly-medically-evacuated-from-survivor-cagayan/
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