Ben Watson

**Ben Watson** is a contestant from *Australian Survivor: Blood v Water*.

Ben's cocky attitude and emotional behavior occasionally rubbed his fellow contestants the wrong way, but he was able to persevere throughout the pre-merge thanks to his strong challenge performance. He would eventually take charge of the blindside against Croc Crocker and make enemies with Croc's loved one Chrissy Zaremba as a result, leading to his blindside and elimination in a surprise fire-making challenge shortly before the merge.

## Profile

*Retrieved from 10play.com.au*

**Ben, 33, Tradie, Queensland**
Partners Ben and Shayelle realise the value of having each other on their Survivor journeys, especially when the going gets tough.
Standing at 6'4", Ben is a standout in the crowd kind of guy and has a drive to win. He hopes to be a player who is a beast at challenges but also someone the tribe trusts.
**What will be your strength in the competition?**
My drive to finish this game on top, I have the urge, desire, strength and ability to push whoever I need to out of my way to get me to the end.
**What's the strategy you're both adopting going in?**

We're both going in to play our own game, but not knowing what we're up against in *Survivor*, we're just going to be happy to adapt in any part of the game.

## Australian Survivor

Ben was placed on the Blood tribe, while his partner Shay Lajoie was assigned to Water. On Day 7, after Blood lost the Immunity Challenge, Ben clued Sandra Diaz-Twine that David Goodchild is going after her. He agreed to work with Sandra to take David out. At Tribal Council, Ben placed a vote for Kate Tatham in case of an Hidden Immunity Idol play. David played his idol to negate the votes against him, and Kate was voted out with three votes against her. Ben would later aligned himself with Croc Crocker, Jordan Schmidt and Sophie Cachia, which was noticed by Sandra. On Day 9, after Blood lost an Immunity Challenge, Sophie ended up being voted out, blindsiding Ben's alliance. Ben, Croc and Jordan felt vulnerable after Sophie's blindside. On Day 12, Blood managed to avoid Tribal Council thanks to Ben, who single-handedly outlasted eight people from Water to win the Immunity Challenge.

On Day 14, after Blood lost the Immunity Challenge, Ben joined Croc and Jordan in splitting the vote between Amy Ong and Jay Bruno, which ended up blindsiding Jay. On Day 15, the two tribes switched, and Ben joined the Water tribe. Ben's new tribe were bothered by his emotional outbursts after losing in challenges, thus putting a target on his back. On Day 21, Jesse Hansen and Sam Gash agreed to vote out Ben next. This plan almost came to fruition at the next Tribal Council, where Ben received the majority of the vote. However, Blood, who watched the Tribal Council as part of winning a reward alongside immunity, found out that the reward would let them kidnap a player from the Water tribe, but only those who had received elimination votes. Blood decided to kidnap KJ Austin to their tribe, leaving Ben on the bottom of the Water tribe.

On Day 23, after Water lost the Immunity Challenge, Ben was approached by Croc with a plan to blindside Jesse. Ben, under the impression that Croc voted against him the last time, revealed this plan to Jesse and Sam. This led to Croc being blindsided with an idol in his pocket. Chrissy Zaremba, Croc's brother-in-law, was devastated over Croc being voted out. When she found out that Ben orchestrated Croc's blindside, she decided to go against him. On Day 25, both tribes were sent to a Double Tribal Council. As Ben did not win immunity, Chrissy convinced Jesse and Sam to vote Ben out. At Tribal Council, Ben tried to convince Khanh Ong to use his idol, but to no avail. Before the votes were read, it was revealed that the two people voted out from their tribes would compete in a fire-making challenge, where the winner would stay in the game. Ben was voted out from Water while Mel Chiang was voted out from Blood. In the challenge, Mel defeated Ben, thus taking Ben officially out of the game right before the merge.

### Voting History

**^1** In "Episode 4", the Blood tribe was subjected to a mock Tribal Council where the player they voted out was switched to the other tribe.
**^2** In "Episode 10", the Water tribe was subjected to a mock Tribal Council where the players voted against were eligible to be kidnapped by the other tribe.
**^3** In "Episode 12", both tribes attended Tribal Council to vote someone out. The two players voted out would then compete in a fire-making challenge where the winner returned to their tribe and the loser was eliminated. Ben was voted out by Water and then lost the challenge, eliminating him from the game.

## Post-Survivor

* In July 2022, Ben and Shay ended their relationship.

## Trivia

* At both Tribal Councils where Ben was "voted off", there was a twist involved that would allow him a chance to stay in the game, those being the Kidnap Vote and Fire-Making Challenge. He is the second Australian castaway to have this happen, with the first being Tegan Gasior.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt9aAYWgQwO/
2. ↑ https://10play.com.au/australian-survivor/participants/season-7-blood-v-water/ben/pa220121fycdj