John Cochran (writer)

John Cochran is an American television personality, primarily appearing on CBS. He first appeared on the 23rd season of Survivor, Survivor: South Pacific, and came in 8th place. He returned for the 26th season, Survivor: Caramoan, and ultimately won the title of Sole Survivor and the $1,000,000 prize. He later went on to become one of the writers for the comedy series The Millers.

Personal Life

Originally from Oakton, Virginia, Cochran attended Harvard Law School. Even at a young age, Cochran was already a fan of Survivor, having watched every season since the very first season, and even wrote a college thesis paper comparing the jury system of Survivor to the American jury system. He also, during high school, handed out Survivor newsletters, wore a Survivor-style buff on his arm whenever it was on (and even wore such buffs in his yearbook picture), and his senior year quote in the yearbook was simply "The tribe has spoken."^[1]

Survivor

South Pacific

Cochran was originally placed on the Savaii tribe, and ended up receiving at least one vote in every Tribal Council that Savaii attended, with 1 vote in their first, second, and fourth Tribal Councils, and 2 votes in their third Tribal Council. In the last episode before the merge, returning player Ozzy Lusth, in an effort to end the winning streak of Christine Markoski on Redemption Island, asked his tribe to vote him out, saying that he would tell Christine that his elimination was caused by Cochran using a Hidden Immunity Idol. Ozzy subsequently gave Cochran the Immunity Idol he had found, making him promise to return it when he came back to the game.^[2] When the merge finally came, Cochran returned the Idol, and then pretended to be the outsider of his former tribe when speaking to the other returning player, Benjamin "Coach" Wade. However, Wade quickly realized Cochran's intentions and instead decided to persuade Cochran into voting with the former Upolu members, promising him that he would outlast all of his former tribemates. When the vote that night came down to a split vote and the contestants had to vote again, it was Cochran who switched his vote and sent home former tribemate Keith Tollefson. He was immediately criticized by all of his former tribemates, but the former Upolu members, including Brandon Hantz, came to his defense.^[3] Soon afterward, all other former Savaii members were voted out in succession, with Ozzy, Jim Rice, Dawn Meehan, and Whitney Duncan all being sent home. However, once Cochran was the last Savaii member left, the former Upolu members turned on him and voted him out by a vote of 5/7, with only Cochran himself and former Upolu member Edna Ma voting for Rick Nelson instead. Thus, Cochran lasted for exactly 30 days, came in 9th place, and was the 5th member of the 9-member jury.^[4] In the final Tribal Council, Cochran voted with Rick and Edna for Coach to win, thus making him the runner-up to Sophie Clarke, who received 6 votes.^[5]

Caramoan

Cochran returned for the 26th season, the second season to be titled "Fans vs. Favorites," and was placed on the "Favorites" tribe, Bikal. He was joined by fellow South Pacific contestants Brandon Hantz and Dawn Meehan. Cochran once again aligned with a majority of his tribemates, under the alliance name of "Stealth R Us," named so by the unofficial tribe leader Phillip Sheppard. Even after the tribal swap in Episode 6, Cochran still remained on the Bikal tribe, along with Phillip, Dawn, fellow returning player Corinne Kaplan, and newcomers Julia Landauer, Matt Bischoff, and Michael Snow. The new Bikal tribe focused on eliminating all of the new players on the tribe, successfully voting out Matt and Julia before the merge came. However, when Phillip was eliminated due to a blindside by Malcolm Freberg, Reynold Toepfer, and Eddie Fox, Cochran became the default leader due to being viewed as Phillip's right-hand man. Over the course of the post-merge half of the season, Cochran went on to win three individual immunity challenges, in episodes 8, 11, and 14. He was also the only contestant in the season to win more than one individual immunity challenge. He managed to make it to the final three, where he was eligible to become the Sole Survivor, along with Dawn and newcomer Sherri Biethman. When it came down to the jury presentations, Cochran received nearly unanimous praise for the way he played the game strategically without letting emotions interfere, and for always sticking to his promises. As Sherri was considered to have ridden coattails to the end, and Dawn was criticized for her emotional instability, Cochran won a unanimous 8-0-0 vote.^[6] Combined with the fact that Cochran received 0 votes in any of the previous Tribal Councils, Cochran was only the second contestant in Survivor history to play what is called a "perfect" game: Receiving no votes in Tribal Council, while receiving every jury vote in the final Tribal Council. The first was "J.T." Thomas in Tocantins. Cochran became the third person overall to win a unanimous jury vote, after Earl Cole in Fiji and Thomas. He is also tied with Parvati Shallow for the 4th-highest amount of votes ever cast for a Survivor winner, behind Earl Cole's 9, Rob Mariano's 11, and Sandra Diaz-Twine's 12.

The Millers

Shortly after his second Survivor appearance, he got in contact with Greg Garcia, creator and writer of The Millers, through his connection to Survivor host Jeff Probst, and Garcia offered Cochran the job of writer. Cochran accepted the job and graduated from Harvard Law so that he could move to Los Angeles to begin working on the show.^[7] His job with the show was further displayed and explained in the reunion special for the next season of Survivor, Blood vs. Water, when Probst interviewed Cochran about how he got the job, and even showed a comedy sketch between Cochran and Millers star Will Arnett.

References

External Links

• http://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/62885/