Shan Smith

Shantel M. "Shan" Smith is a contestant from .
Placed on the ill-fated Ua tribe, Shan developed an alliance with fellow tribemate Ricard Foyé and bonded tightly with Yase tribe member Liana Wallace at the summit. Along the way, she deftly manipulated her tribemates into yielding their advantages to her, allowing her to cruise into a power position. After the Ua tribe was decimated down to herself and Ricard, Shan entered the merge down in numbers but quickly found herself leading the majority alliance. However, her high strategic threat level and possession of a Hidden Immunity Idol led her to be the target of a brutal blindside spearheaded by her former ally Ricard.
==Profile==
Retrieved from cbs.com
Age: 34Hometown: Toronto, OntarioCurrent Residence: Washington, D.C.Occupation: PastorHobbies: Running, improv, acting, comedy, dancingThree Words to Describe You: Passionate, authentic, resilientPet Peeves: Bad breath, second-hand embarrassment, and slow talkersWhat is the accomplishment you are most proud of? The accomplishment that I am MOST proud of is doing the hard work in therapy and confronting my demons, working through the pain and the feelings of injustice, and then being willing to cultivate a relationship with those who let me down when I was little.What is something we would never know from looking at you? I was in a gang.Who is your hero and why? My mom, because I saw her fight her demons until her dying breath. She experienced so much pain in her life, and my childhood was dark, twisted and complicated, but she was an extremely hard-working Italian woman. She always made sure I had a roof over my head and lunch money in my pockets. She did the best she could and I'm grateful. She gave me the best life she knew how and loved me with all the love she had in her. She is my image of beauty and strength. Also, Xena: Warrior Princess. Lucy Lawless taught me so much about how to be a strong, assertive woman and how to stand up for yourself in a world full of men. She was my childhood hero, posters all over my wall. I even had a Xena: Warrior Princess-themed birthday party… last year.Which past Survivor will you play the game most like? I think I am probably going to play the game most like Kim; strategically and relationally like Tai when it comes to idols, but I got some Parv in me too.Why do you believe you can win Survivor? I believe I have what it takes to win. I think living on the streets, developing a strong work ethic, practicing excellence in all that I do and put out into the world, having a high threshold for pain and suffering, endurance, perseverance, knowing that nothing comes easily but everything must be earned and worked for, rigorous self-examination, zero entitlement, trusting that self discipline is self love, believing in others and making them feel capable of accomplishing anything, my interpersonal skills, my wit and my grit, my reverence for God in others, my heart to serve, and an attitude of gratefulness and celebration for the small wins all make me believe that I will be the final Survivor.http://web.archive.org/web/20230204061456/https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/216559/
==Survivor==
Shan put in work from the start of the game building strong bonds with each member of the Ua tribe, while revealing to the audience that she had no qualms making and breaking alliances to progress in the game. Her strongest ally would be Ricard Foyé, whose similar love for scheming made them a powerful pair. Shan would establish a pattern of voting out players despite them trusting her prior to their exit, which was especially true for Sara Wilson and JD Robinson. Shan even succeeded in retrieving JD's extra vote before sending him home.
When Ua was down to three members, Shan and Ricard worked together to prevent Genie Chen from obtaining Ua's Hidden Immunity Idol. Shan subsequently activated it by saying the secret phrase, as did Xander Hastings from Yase and Naseer Muttalif from Luvu. After losing the last Immunity Challenge, Shan connected with Liana Wallace from Yase on their summit visit through their shared life experiences and the two women expressed their interest in working together at the merge. Back at camp, Shan had to decide between keeping Genie or Ricard. Her controlling tendencies worried Ricard, who feared that she would be perceived as the one calling the shots for them. Later, Ricard called Shan out for trying to get the Extra Vote she bestowed him back, citing this as similar to the move she pulled on JD. Despite this growing tension, they opted to continue playing the game together, voting Genie out on Day 11.
Following the merge, Shan reconnected with Liana and approached Danny McCray and Deshawn Radden to form the All-Black Alliance. Shan pulled in Ricard, while Danny and Deshawn pulled in Naseer, Erika Casupanan, and Heather Aldret, and Liana defected from the Yase Alliance to establish an 8-3 majority. However, during this time, Shan and Ricard's relationship continued to deteriorate, notably after she lost a Reward Challenge and Ricard tried to eat her papaya after being on the winning team. At the same time, Shan and Deshawn constantly bickered over their strategic ideas despite being in the majority. Following a contentious Tribal Council on Day 16, Deshawn grew tired of working with Shan and considered abandoning their alliance. Before that could play out, a twist put the two strategic forces in different groups for the upcoming Double Elimination. Within her group, Shan's initial target was Erika, but following Erika's immunity win, it came down to Heather and Naseer. Shan's preference was to keep Naseer for his loyalty to her and Ricard, but Ricard was concerned about Naseer's idol. Despite initial disagreement, Shan eventually concurred that this would be the best opportunity to blindside Naseer and flush his idol. That night, Shan used her Extra Vote to split the vote between the two options, and after a 3-3 initial tie, Shan aided in Naseer's blindside.
With eight players remaining, Shan began to believe she had to part ways with Ricard soon, as he had become a challenge and jury threat, but any plans to vote him out were put on hold due to Ricard winning the Immunity Challenge. With Ricard safe, Shan attempted to convince the All-Black Alliance to eliminate Erika, a quiet but effective under-the-radar player. Unbeknownst to Shan, Danny and Deshawn began to conspire against Shan by accepting Erika and Ricard's plan of a 3-3-2 vote split between herself and Liana. At Tribal Council, the conspiracy against Shan was realized, and Shan, who did not use her idol, was promptly eliminated at the revote with 6 votes.
At the Final Tribal Council, Shan was critical of Deshawn's social game and asked him if he always intended to use the All-Black Alliance as a front to his true endgame plans. Deshawn assured Shan that he was genuine about wanting the alliance to succeed until he felt he could no longer work with her. While Shan appeared to be satisfied with his reasoning, she chose to vote for Erika to win the title of Sole Survivor.
<tabber>Challenge History=
Episode 	TribeAffiliation 	Challenge 	Challenge Type 	Sit-Out? 	Result
1 	rowspan=7 	Marooning 	Reward 	No 	
1 	Bonus Track 	Immunity 	No 	 	
2 	Water Sports 	Reward/Immunity 	No 	 	
3 	Victory in the Bag 	Reward/Immunity 	No 	 	
4 	Running Down a Dream 	Reward 	No 	 	
4 	Kenny Log-Ins 	Immunity 	No 	 	
5 	Ramplified 	Reward/Immunity 	No 	 	
colspan="7" 	 	 	 	 	
6 	None 	Keep Digging 	Reward/Immunity 	No 	
7 	None 	The Game is Afoot 	Immunity 	Safe 	Safe
colspan="7" 	 	 	 	 	
8 	rowspan=5 	Puzzle Pieces 	Reward 	No 	
8 	Keep on Your Toes 	Immunity 	Yes 	 	
9 	Uncomfortably Numb 	Reward/Immunity 	 	 	
10 	Starfish 	Reward 	 	 	
10 	Hard to Handle 	Immunity 	 	 	
 	 	 	 	 	
Notes: The unchosen sit-out from the challenge (Erika) was exiled. There, she was given an hourglass which she may choose to break to strip the winning team of their immunity, transferring it to the losing team and herself. Erika broke the hourglass and Shan was given immunity. Shan elected to sit out of the challenge to help her tribe win a supply of rice.	Notes: The unchosen sit-out from the challenge (Erika) was exiled. There, she was given an hourglass which she may choose to break to strip the winning team of their immunity, transferring it to the losing team and herself. Erika broke the hourglass and Shan was given immunity. Shan elected to sit out of the challenge to help her tribe win a supply of rice.	Notes: The unchosen sit-out from the challenge (Erika) was exiled. There, she was given an hourglass which she may choose to break to strip the winning team of their immunity, transferring it to the losing team and herself. Erika broke the hourglass and Shan was given immunity. Shan elected to sit out of the challenge to help her tribe win a supply of rice.	Notes: The unchosen sit-out from the challenge (Erika) was exiled. There, she was given an hourglass which she may choose to break to strip the winning team of their immunity, transferring it to the losing team and herself. Erika broke the hourglass and Shan was given immunity. Shan elected to sit out of the challenge to help her tribe win a supply of rice.	Notes: The unchosen sit-out from the challenge (Erika) was exiled. There, she was given an hourglass which she may choose to break to strip the winning team of their immunity, transferring it to the losing team and herself. Erika broke the hourglass and Shan was given immunity. Shan elected to sit out of the challenge to help her tribe win a supply of rice.	Notes: The unchosen sit-out from the challenge (Erika) was exiled. There, she was given an hourglass which she may choose to break to strip the winning team of their immunity, transferring it to the losing team and herself. Erika broke the hourglass and Shan was given immunity. Shan elected to sit out of the challenge to help her tribe win a supply of rice.
|-|Voting History=
Episode 	Shan'sVotes	Voted AgainstShan
1 	 	
2 	 	
3 	 	
4 	 	
5 	 	
7 	 	
8 	 	
9 	 	
10 	 	
 	 	
Voted forSole Survivor	colspan="2"	
 In , Shan used an Extra Vote advantage, allowing her to vote twice at Tribal Council. Also, the vote ended with a 3-3 tie between Heather and Naseer, forcing a revote. Shan changed one of her votes to Naseer on the revote. In , the vote ended with a 3-3 tie between Shan and Liana, forcing a revote. Erika, Heather, and Xander changed their votes to Shan on the revote, eliminating her from the game.</tabber>
==Post-Survivor==
* As of 2021, Shan has left her pastorship and is pursuing a entrepreneurial career. She is also currently a religious content creator.https://www.patreon.com/shantelsmithhttps://screenrant.com/survivor-shantel-smith-patreon/
* In the spring of 2022, Shan competed on CBS's The Challenge: USA 1.https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/pictures/the-challenge-usa-cast-revealed-photos/ She was eliminated from the show in the fourth episode alongside her partner for the episode Xavier Prather, finishing in 11th place out of the 14 female Challengers.
==Trivia==
* In one of her first confessionals, Shan hummed a certain tune "when she's up to evil" which the editors turned into a full-fledged soundtrack known to the fans as the "Shanthem". The music can be heard whenever Shan was plotting.https://twitter.com/shantelmsmith/status/1441182521987788800 
* Shan is the first contestant to play with .https://www.instagram.com/p/CW4DPKIBh-e/
* Shan was initially assigned to the Yase tribe before being switched with Tiffany Seely.https://robhasawebsite.com/survivor-42-episode-11-recap/ (0:57:00)
* Shan is the only member of Ua not to receive a vote during the pre-merge phase of the game.
* Shan is the first Canadian contestant to find a Hidden Immunity Idol.
* Shan is the first contestant to vote for two different castaways at the same Tribal Council using an Extra Vote. She is the third contestant to vote for two different castaways at the same Tribal Council, after Stephen Fishbach and Sarah Lacina who both used the Vote Steal.
** She is the first contestant to vote twice on a revote, making her the current record holder for most votes cast at a single Tribal Council (with 4).
* Some time during the season, Shan lost her Shot in the Dark die during a storm and never recovered it.https://robhasawebsite.com/survivor-42-episode-11-recap/ (1:06:00)
* Shan lost 11 lbs. during her time on .https://www.facebook.com/Survivor/videos/295646045781324
==References==
Category:Contestants
Category:Female Contestants
Category:African-Canadian Contestants
Category:Survivor 41 Contestants
Category:Survivor 41 Jury Members
Category:Ua Tribe
Category:Viakana Tribe
Category:8th Place
Category:Survivor (U.S.)
Category:Survivor (U.S.) Contestants
Category:Survivor 41
Category:1987 births
Category:Living people