| James Thomas, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 23, 1984 Mobile, AL |
| Known for | Survivor: Tocantins (Winner) Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains (10th place) |
James "J. T." Thomas, Jr. (born June 23, 1984) was the US$1,000,000 winner of the American television show Survivor: Tocantins.[1]
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Thomas was raised in Samson, Alabama and he currently resides in Mobile, Alabama. Thomas is a graduate of Troy University.
On May 17, 2009, it was revealed that he had been voted the winner, receiving all seven of the jury votes cast by Brendan Synnott, Tyson Apostol, Sierra Reed, Debra "Debbie" Beebe, Benjamin "Coach" Wade, Tamara "Taj" Johnson-George and Erinn Lobdell, thus beating out corporate consultant and friend Stephen Fishbach. In addition to his million dollar win, Thomas also won the $100,000 from the Sprint Player of the Season contest, beating out fellow fan favorites Johnson-George and Reed.
Thomas is the sixth person to win Survivor's million dollar prize without receiving any votes cast against him at Tribal Council, preceded respectively by Tina Wesson (The Australian Outback), Ethan Zohn (Africa), Brian Heidik (Thailand), Sandra Diaz-Twine (Pearl Islands) and Tom Westman (Palau). Thomas is also the second person to win the million dollar prize as a result of a unanimous vote, preceded by Earl Cole (Fiji), and the second consecutive person to win the million dollars and the player of the season prize of $100,000 dollars, after Bob Crowley (Gabon).
Upon winning the game unanimously without having a single vote cast against him, and winning an additional $100,000 for the Sprint Player of the Season, he has been said to play "the perfect game". In addition, he also won more post-merge reward and immunity challenges than anyone else in his season.
In Episode 4 at the reward challenge, Thomas tied the weight he was holding with Pearl Islands contestant Rupert Boneham, each carrying 220 pounds before dropping out. At the next Immunity Challenge, Thomas almost single-handedly won Jalapao the challenge by catching 4/5 balls, costing him a tooth (which Jeff Probst later gave to his mother at the reunion special) but was beaten in the process by Timbira.
Thomas was chosen to participate in the twentieth season of Survivor as a Hero. This season saw a much sneakier side of Thomas, who while on the Heroes tribe, had made side deals with Tom Westman and Colby Donaldson, although he was in the majority alliance of Amanda Kimmel, Candice Woodcock, Cirie Fields, James Clement, and Rupert Boneham. Thomas had also switched his vote in the Heroes' third tribal council, which led to the elimination of Fields, and not his original alliance's plan of voting off Donaldson or Westman, who played the hidden immunity idol.
Despite his betrayal, he still maintained his place in the Heroes tribe, and stuck with the majority after voting off Westman, who was seen as a threat, and Clement, who was a liability due to his injury at the "Schmergen Brawl" challenge. After a string of losses, Thomas' tribe of Heroes would finally end up winning the next few challenges, and maintain immunity until the merge. When the Heroes tribe won a reward challenge in Episode 7, they found a clue to a hidden immunity idol which they agreed to find as a tribe. Thomas, however, decided to look for the idol in his own self interest, but was forced to reveal the idol to his tribe when he was caught by Kimmel after he found it.
When the men of the Villains tribe were getting voted out, Thomas and the Heroes were under the misconception that there was an alliance consisting of the females over at the Villains camp, while the true power was with Russell Hantz, Parvati Shallow, and Danielle DiLorenzo. He then came up with the plan to give his tribe's hidden immunity idol to Hantz, believing that he would be eliminated next by the "female alliance", and under the idea that once the tribes merged, Hantz would side with the Heroes and they would be able to vote out the biggest Villain threat, Parvati.
When the tribes merged, Thomas and his tribmates still believed that Hantz was on their side, and he feigned his allegiance to the Heroes, despite the fact that Shallow had not been eliminated with the idol the Heroes had given to him. Sandra Diaz-Twine, who was on the outs of the Villains tribe, told Boneham what was really going on, and that there was no female alliance. Boneham relayed this information to the Heroes and warned Thomas that he shouldn't be putting all of his trust into Hantz, but Thomas did not listen, and he did not believe what Diaz-Twine had said.
However, Diaz-Twine was correct, and Villains stuck together at the following tribal council, where Shallow not only played her own idol for Diaz-Twine, but Thomas' idol he had given to Hantz, who he then gave to Shallow, and then to Jerri Manthey at Tribal Council, whom the Heroes had voted for. This led to Thomas' demise in the game, and he was blindsided by a 5-0 vote (Manthey's votes were negated by the immunity idol) and he became the first person to be eliminated after the merge, the third member of the jury, and the eleventh person voted off. At the reunion special, Thomas was awarded a trophy for the dumbest move in Survivor history for giving his immunity idol to a Villain.[2]
| Preceded by Bob Crowley |
Title of Sole Survivor Tocantins |
Succeeded by Natalie White |