Kristie Bennett

**Kristie Bennett** is the Sole Survivor of *Australian Survivor* (2016).

A lifelong superfan of *Survivor*, the slightly kooky Kristie initially started the game in Aganoa with intense paranoia; however, she soon mellowed out and formed a bond with multiple members of her tribe, including Lee Carseldine and El Rowland. Once on Vavau, Kristie avoided being voted out multiple times and was the instigator of power player Phoebe Timmins's blindside.

Despite this, Vavau entered Fia Fia with a severe numbers deficit. Kristie, on the other hand, outlasted her entire switched tribe and slipped through the cracks to avoid elimination, in turn outlasting Saanapu as well; she became infamous for her loyalty to El and Lee, flabbergasting many jurors as her sole bet to make the Final Two was to win the Final Immunity Challenge. Against all odds, she won the challenge and took Lee to the Final Tribal Council.

Facing an apprehensive jury, Kristie's intense articulation and confidence floored many and gave her a landslide victory, becoming the first female Australian Sole Survivor.

## Profile

*Retrieved from 10play.com.au*

**Age:** 24
**Occupation:** Senior Accountant Executive
**State:** NSW

Sydney-based Kristie describes herself as independent, brutal, defensive, effervescent, tactful, curious and stubborn and says she is in *Australian Survivor* to win.

In preparation for her time on the island, Kristie upped her exercise routine and started yoga and meditation to help her handle the fast pace and strategic game play. She also prepared by not washing her hair for the six weeks leading up to the show.

Candid, confident and kooky, Kristie shares her love of *Survivor* with her father and wants to make him proud. She says; "Since season one of *Survivor*, my dad and I would watch and strategise the show together. I told him I would get on *Survivor* and win it for him."

Proud of her strong will and "never say die" attitude, Kristie already knows what will set her off with her tribe mates; "People's inability to make decisions and take action makes my blood boil. Stop faffing about, if you say you're going to do it, bloody well do it."

A senior account executive, Kristie likes meeting new people, studying cognitive psychology and behavioural change and "getting up to mischief" in her spare time.

## Australian Survivor

Assigned to Aganoa at the beginning of the game, Kristie was initially on the outs of the eight-person tribe, being described by tribemate Evan as "having trouble fitting in". Despite this, Kristie managed to form a bond with Aganoa's bossy leader Kat and help vote out Des for his unwillingness to help the tribe around camp. After his ouster, Kristie mistakenly believed that someone stole her bag to mess with her, causing her to have a breakdown. A kindhearted pep talk from El eased the situation, though the tribe still believed that she had accused them falsely. As the game went along, Aganoa would lose challenge after challenge, sending them to Tribal Council multiple times, though they did manage to win immunity on Day 5. During this time, Kristie aligned herself with the women and voted out Evan under Phoebe's influence. Losing immunity again for the third time on Day 11, Kat was set to leave for being the weakest link. However, due to Peter quitting on Saanapu, Tribal Council was cancelled. Seemingly on the outs with the majority alliance, Kristie wound up safe as Aganoa went on to win the next three Immunity Challenges.

Kristie became a member of Vavau on Day 19 after her former tribe lost the special Reward Challenge where the winners would be able to be in control of a tribe dissolve. Kat, Phoebe, and Rohan accompanied her on the new nine-person tribe. Knowing she was on the outs, Kristie attempted to integrate herself into the majority Vavau alliance. The new tribe lacked challenge prowess against new Saanapu, sending her back to Tribal Council. While Phoebe tried to get her and Kat to vote out Sue in an attempt to take control of the tribe, Kristie went along with the majority alliance and split the vote between her and Rohan, ultimately sending the latter home once the former played a Hidden Immunity Idol on herself. Now completely in the minority, Kristie said a tearful goodbye to Kat as she got voted out next for being a weak link. With no choice left, Kristie realigned with Phoebe, who had another idol in her possession. To her surprise, Kate joined in their alliance to help oust Vavau's biggest liability in strategic threat; Andrew. Though he tried to reinforce a last minute deal with Kristie to vote out Kate, both reneged and Andrew was blindsided in a 4-3 vote. Losing their fourth Immunity Challenge in a row, she and Phoebe schemed to make sure the alliance didn't split the vote between them. With their plan in motion, at Tribal Council Phoebe used her idol to negate four votes against herself, shocking everyone. With the duo voting for Craig, he was blindsided in a 2-0 vote. Angered with Kristie for lying to them, Conner, Kate, and Sue opted to target her over Phoebe, putting her in hot water. As expected, Vavau went along to lose the next Immunity Challenge, further burying Kristie. Oblivious to being targeted, at Tribal Council, she and everyone else was shocked by Brooke's decision to bring Sue over to Saanapu. As a paltry tribe of four, Vavau lost again, sending them back to Tribal Council for sixth time in a row. As revealed by Kate that Phoebe had been scheming against her, Kristie joined Conner and Kate in blindsiding Phoebe unanimously.

When the tribes merged on Day 32, Kristie turned on Vavau and joined the majority Saanapu alliance in eliminating Conner and Kate via split votes. During this, Kristie was seen by many as a floater, going with whatever the majority wanted to keep herself in the game. Still going along without a solid alliance, she later joined the core alliance in voting out Nick, Kylie, Sue, and Jennah-Louise, with the latter two being in split votes with herself.

As the majority alliance turned on each other, Kristie's bonds with El, and especially Lee brought forth a new alliance of the former Aganoa's. With Flick's help, the new majority alliance picked off Brooke, Sam, and Matt, who repeatedly tried to convince she and Flick to turn on the strong power couple to no luck. Believing that she could rely on winning the Final Immunity Challenge to get herself to the end, Kristie refused to force a fire-making tiebreaker with Flick, joining the power duo in voting her out at the final four and to assure a final three with all original Aganoa members. At the Final Immunity Challenge on Day 54, a battle of endurance between Kristie and Lee commenced in the famous *Hand on a Hard Idol* challenge. Coupled with her father's moral support and swearing on her father to Lee that she'd pick him to go to the Final Tribal Council, after nearly six hours, Lee came down, awarding Kristie her first and only individual immunity, the most important one at that. Going with her stronger bond with Lee, she voted out El at Tribal Council, leaving herself and Lee as the Final Two. At the Final Tribal Council, the jury was apprehensive to both, as they believed Kristie played a floater game, but was mostly annoyed with Lee's sanctimonious attitude towards strategy and his preaching on honesty, loyalty, and integrity. Kristie's answers to questions, intense articulation during her opening and closing statements, and sheer confidence intrigued and inspired many, earning her the win and title of Sole Survivor in a 8-1 vote.

### Voting History

**^1** In "Episode 13", instead of a traditional vote, Brooke (a member of Saanapu) was allowed to attend Vavau's Tribal Council and choose one member of Vavau to join her tribe.
**^2** In "Episode 16", Nick used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Kristie's vote against him.
**^3** In "Episode 23", the vote ended with a 2-2 tie between Matt and Sam, forcing a revote. Kristie changed her vote to Sam on the revote.

## Post-Survivor

* Kristie attended the Reunion Show of *Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X*.
* In 2020, Kristie was inducted into the *Australian Survivor Hall of Fame*.

## Trivia

* Kristie is the youngest member of Aganoa.
* Kristie is the only contestant who reached the jury phase of *Australian Survivor* (2016) to have never been a member of Saanapu.
* Kristie is the first woman to win *Australian Survivor*.
* Kristie is the first contestant to win the *Network Ten* incarnation of *Australian Survivor*.
* Kristie is currently the youngest winner of *Australian Survivor* at the time of filming, being 24 when she was announced as the Sole Survivor of her season.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/a6j8r1/happy\_birthday\_kween\_kristie/
2. ↑ https://10play.com.au/australian-survivor/participants/season-1/kristie/pa191010sbjyt
3. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BODAlPqBXFB/

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