Final Tribal Council
Survivor Final Vote Margins Over Time
The closest recorded final margin is 1 vote; the median across 50 recorded finals is 4.5. US Survivor data through Season 50.
The deeper read
A close season and a competitive final are not the same thing
Only 9 recorded finals were decided by a one-vote margin, while 5 were unanimous. That means the end of Survivor is often more decisive than the edit’s suspense implies.
Vote margin is partly a format artifact: bigger juries create room for bigger raw margins. Winner share and era medians are better comparisons than treating a 7–1 result as inherently more dominant than a 4–0 result.
At a glance
How decisive are Survivor juries?
Across 50 recorded final votes.
Every recorded ballot went to the winner.
Winner minus the next-highest finalist.
Raw margins should be read alongside jury size; winner share is the cleaner cross-season measure.
Median margin is less distorted by an unusually large jury or a single landslide.
What the numbers say
Key findings
- Margin compares the winner with the next-highest finalist, not with all losing finalists combined.
- Winner share makes different jury sizes easier to compare than raw vote totals alone.
- Only votes represented in the jury-vote source are included; unusual finale mechanisms should be interpreted in their season context.
Full results
The underlying table
| Season | Winner | Winner votes | Next highest | Margin | Winner share | Unanimous |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richard Hatch | 4 | 3 | 1 | 57.1% | No |
| 2 | Tina Wesson | 4 | 3 | 1 | 57.1% | No |
| 3 | Ethan Zohn | 5 | 2 | 3 | 71.4% | No |
| 4 | Vecepia Towery | 4 | 3 | 1 | 57.1% | No |
| 5 | Brian Heidik | 4 | 3 | 1 | 57.1% | No |
| 6 | Jenna Morasca | 6 | 1 | 5 | 85.7% | No |
| 7 | Sandra Diaz-Twine | 6 | 1 | 5 | 85.7% | No |
| 8 | Amber Mariano | 4 | 3 | 1 | 57.1% | No |
| 9 | Chris Daugherty | 5 | 2 | 3 | 71.4% | No |
| 10 | Tom Westman | 6 | 1 | 5 | 85.7% | No |
| 11 | Danni Boatwright | 6 | 1 | 5 | 85.7% | No |
| 12 | Aras Baskauskas | 5 | 2 | 3 | 71.4% | No |
| 13 | Yul Kwon | 5 | 4 | 1 | 55.6% | No |
| 14 | Earl Cole | 9 | 0 | 9 | 100% | Yes |
| 15 | Todd Herzog | 4 | 2 | 2 | 57.1% | No |
| 16 | Parvati Shallow | 5 | 3 | 2 | 62.5% | No |
| 17 | Robert Crowley | 4 | 3 | 1 | 57.1% | No |
| 18 | J.T. Thomas | 7 | 0 | 7 | 100% | Yes |
| 19 | Natalie White | 7 | 2 | 5 | 77.8% | No |
| 20 | Sandra Diaz-Twine | 6 | 3 | 3 | 66.7% | No |
| 21 | Jud Birza | 5 | 4 | 1 | 55.6% | No |
| 22 | Rob Mariano | 8 | 1 | 7 | 88.9% | No |
| 23 | Sophie Clarke | 6 | 3 | 3 | 66.7% | No |
| 24 | Kim Spradlin-Wolfe | 7 | 2 | 5 | 77.8% | No |
| 25 | Denise Stapley | 6 | 1 | 5 | 75% | No |
| 26 | John Cochran | 8 | 0 | 8 | 100% | Yes |
| 27 | Tyson Apostol | 7 | 1 | 6 | 87.5% | No |
| 28 | Tony Vlachos | 8 | 1 | 7 | 88.9% | No |
| 29 | Natalie Anderson | 5 | 2 | 3 | 62.5% | No |
| 30 | Mike Holloway | 6 | 1 | 5 | 75% | No |
| 31 | Jeremy Collins | 10 | 0 | 10 | 100% | Yes |
| 32 | Michele Fitzgerald | 5 | 2 | 3 | 71.4% | No |
| 33 | Adam Klein | 10 | 0 | 10 | 100% | Yes |
| 34 | Sarah Lacina | 7 | 3 | 4 | 70% | No |
| 35 | Ben Driebergen | 5 | 2 | 3 | 62.5% | No |
| 36 | Wendell Holland | 6 | 5 | 1 | 54.5% | No |
| 37 | Nick Wilson | 7 | 3 | 4 | 70% | No |
| 38 | Chris Underwood | 9 | 4 | 5 | 69.2% | No |
| 39 | Tommy Sheehan | 8 | 2 | 6 | 80% | No |
| 40 | Tony Vlachos | 12 | 4 | 8 | 75% | No |
| 41 | Erika Casupanan | 7 | 1 | 6 | 87.5% | No |
| 42 | Maryanne Oketch | 7 | 1 | 6 | 87.5% | No |
| 43 | Mike Gabler | 7 | 1 | 6 | 87.5% | No |
| 44 | Yam Yam Arocho | 7 | 1 | 6 | 87.5% | No |
| 45 | Dee Valladares | 5 | 3 | 2 | 62.5% | No |
| 46 | Kenzie Petty | 5 | 3 | 2 | 62.5% | No |
| 47 | Rachel LaMont | 7 | 1 | 6 | 87.5% | No |
| 48 | Kyle Fraser | 5 | 2 | 3 | 62.5% | No |
| 49 | Savannah Louie | 5 | 2 | 3 | 62.5% | No |
| 50 | Aubry Bracco | 8 | 3 | 5 | 72.7% | No |
Reproduce the result
Methodology and limitations
What we counted
We summed recorded jury ballots by finalist and season, sorted each final by votes received, and subtracted the runner-up total from the winner total.
Read this with care
Final formats and jury sizes vary. A large numerical margin in a large jury is not necessarily more dominant than a smaller unanimous result.
The generated CSV contains every row in the underlying table. See About the data for source provenance, update cadence, and corrections.