James Jones

**James Jones** is a contestant from Survivor: Bermuda.

Despite bonding with most of his tribe, James found himself in trouble after he messed up on the puzzle during the first challenge, and costed Reba the win. After he lost the challenge for his tribe, they saw him as a liability and James became the first person to ever be voted off Survivor in a 4-2 vote, with only his ally, Abi-Maria Gomes sparing him.

## Profile

Retrieved from *Parade.com*

**Age:** 38

**Hometown:** Philadelphia, Pa.

**Current Residence:** Philadelphia, Pa.

**Occupation:** Event Planner

**Favorite Hobbies:** Curating events, finding the best cocktails in the city, reading/writing

**3 Words to Describe You:** Confident, casual, self-aware

**Pet Peeve(s):** Really bad customer service. Pushy sales people.

**What is the accomplishment you are most proud of?** Winning the United States Chess Open (largest chess tournament in the USA) for my rating bracket when I was 12. You are playing against grown people, and I won $1,200. That was like $100,000 to me at the time! It gave me the confidence that I could do almost anything.

**What is something we would never know from looking at you?** I grew up in the church. I was an usher and sang in the choir from age 6 to 17. My dad was a deacon and my mom was a deaconess. I have a deep faith but it is my own faith. I don't talk about it a lot but I am a big believer.

**Who is your hero and why?** My mom. She overcame a lot to raise me and give me the foundation to be the person that I am today. She made sure I was raised in a safe house, made sure I went to church to develop a moral compass, took me to black history workshops as a child so I had a sense of self worth. She made sure I got into the best public school in the city, then made sure I could travel the country as a middle schooler playing chess. She passed away five years ago, and as I grow older, I grow to admire her more each day.

**Which past Survivor will you play the game most like?** Sandra's "anyone but me" will always be my strategy, as long as I see a path to the end and I am with people, or have people, in which I trust. If I don't have that, I will be an agent of chaos Russell with charm. I am playing to win and not for 7th place.

**Why do you believe you can be the Sole Survivor?** I thrive, and find a certain comfort, in chaos. Managing events at a club on a Friday night anything can happen, but whatever issues pop up you have to handle. That takes interpersonal skills if it is dealing with people, and it takes general problem-solving skills when dealing with a venue, and you still have to make sure everyone at your party has a great time.

## Survivor

Starting the game off on the red, Reba tribe, James helped his tribe win the first reward challenge, alongside the blue, Belo tribe. Once his tribe got to their camp, James contributed into building the shelter, but he also managed to get some good talks in with Karishma Patel, Austin Li Coon, & Abi-Maria Gomes. Abi and James later decided to work together to keep themselves in the competition. Before the first immunity challenge, a huge argument for who gets the water formed between James and Sami Layadi. At the first Immunity Challenge of the season, James was doing amazing on the first half and made the Reba trie the first team to get to the final part of the challenge, the puzzle. However, after him, Austin, and Flick Palmateer failed to finish due to Austin and James arguing about what puzzle piece goes where, Reba lost the challenge sending them to the first ever Tribal Council.

Now that Flick, James, and Austin were targets due to James and Austin's miscommunication, James wanted to make sure the target was changed to Sami so that he could make an alliance with Flick and Austin. He managed to get Abi-Maris to vote with him, however it was hard to get the others to vote Sami with him, due to it mostly being James' fault Reba lost the challenge. At tribal council, Flick and Sami both called out James for miscommunicating with the others and costing the challenge. Before voting James tried to get Austin and Karishma to vote off Sami or Flick, however it wasn't enough as he became the first person to be voted off *Survivor* in a 4-2 vote, with only his ally, Abi, voting Sami with him.

## Trivia

* James is the first person ever to be voted off the *Survivor My Way* franchise.
* He is the first male to be eliminated first.