Russell Hantz

Russell Dennis Hantz (born October 10, 1972) is an American television personality, best known for his appearances on the U.S. reality show, Survivor. He was the runner-up on Survivor: Samoa, and the second runner-up on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.

He also competed on Survivor: Redemption Island and Australian Survivor: Champions vs. Contenders, where he was the second player to be eliminated both times.

Hantz's performance on Survivor was very polarising.

This controversy has resulted in ongoing media attention and appearances, along with acknowledgement that his particular brand of ruthless gameplay can result in wins for those who employ it.

Most have strongly criticized his strategy, naming him one of the biggest villains in Survivor history.

Nevertheless, on both Survivor: Samoa and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, Hantz was voted by viewers the "Sprint Player of the Season", which came with a $100,000 cash prize.

He is one of only eight contestants to ever make it to the finals in more than one season (the others are Rob Mariano, Amanda Kimmel, Parvati Shallow, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Tony Vlachos, Natalie Anderson, and Michele Fitzgerald).

Hantz was nominated in the 2010 Teen Choice Awards for his performance on Heroes vs. Villains.

In the CBS Watch "Greatest Castaways" viewers poll, Hantz came in second for "being willing to do anything to win. His villainous nature always made for great TV."

After Survivor, Hantz starred alongside his older brother, Shawn, on the A&E reality documentary, Flipped Off.

After applying to compete on Pirate Master, Hantz was called by casting two years later to appear on Survivor: Samoa.

Assigned to the Foa Foa tribe, he began playing the game through lies and deceit, which included telling a false story about being a firefighter who survived Hurricane Katrina, and later burning his tribemates' socks and emptying their canteen water.

In an interview with Andy Dehnart, Hantz explained that the idea behind this strategy was to psychologically weaken the other players in order to manipulate them.

Early on, Hantz executed a successful plan to locate the hidden immunity idol before any clues were found.

When the Foa Foa and Galu tribes merged, he attempted to use his idol as a bargaining chip with his new tribe mates in hopes of forming a coalition against Laura Morett.

When she won the immunity challenge, the plan collapsed and word spread that Hantz possessed an idol.

Unaware of anyone's real intentions, Hantz played the idol at Tribal Council, but no votes were cast against him.

He later located a new idol, again without clues, and played it at the next Tribal Council, where he received seven votes, eliminating Kelly Sharbaugh (who received the other four votes).

Later, Shannon "Shambo" Waters and John Fincher joined Hantz's alliance and eliminated Morett.

Hantz then arranged Fincher's elimination in the next vote.

Due to the large number of Galu members on the jury, it was almost certain that Brett Clouser, Galu's last remaining member, would win the game if he won the final immunity challenge.

Hantz narrowly won immunity and Clouser was eliminated by a 3-1 vote at the next Tribal Council.

Ultimately, Hantz beat out fellow finalist Mick Trimming, but lost the title of Sole Survivor to his close ally, Natalie White, by a jury vote of 7–2–0, despite being "heavily favored" to win.

Host Jeff Probst believed his loss resulted from bitter feelings towards him by the jurors, rather than a positive attitude towards White.

Hantz complained that Natalie did not deserve the win, and insisted he did.

During the results show, Hantz offered White $10,000 for the Sole Survivor title, and then increased the offer to $100,000, but she declined both times.

Despite the loss, Hantz won the "Sprint Player of the Season" award, which included a cash prize of $100,000.

Nine days prior to the Samoa live finale, Hantz registered russellgotscrewed.com where he thanked his supporters and asked them to purchase T-shirts and/or donate money to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Hantz was invited back for Survivors 20th season, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, as a last-minute substitute for Survivor: Panamas Shane Powers, and was assigned to the Villains tribe.

Since Survivor: Samoa and this season were filmed back-to-back, no other player had had an opportunity to watch Hantz’ game, although they were told by the production crew that he was considered "one of the five most notorious male villains of all time".

During this season, an infamous rivalry developed between Hantz and "Boston Rob" Mariano.

Early on, Mariano organized his alliance to split the vote 3–3 between Hantz and Parvati Shallow.

The former then told Tyson Apostol that he also intended to eliminate her, which influenced Apostol to change his vote from Hantz to her.

At Tribal Council, Hantz revealed an immunity idol and gave it to Shallow.

The result was four votes for her, two votes for Hantz, and three votes for Apostol.

Since Shallow's votes were negated, Apostol was eliminated.

Later on, Jerri Manthey joined Hantz's alliance with Shallow and Danielle DiLorenzo and aided in Mariano's elimination.

The Heroes tribe began to blindly believe that there was an all-female alliance, headed up by Shallow, controlling the Villains tribe.

James "J.T." Thomas, Jr., of the Heroes tribe, had found an immunity idol earlier, and gave it to Hantz during an immunity challenge with instructions to eliminate Shallow, but Hantz chose instead to vote out Courtney Yates.

When the two tribes merged, Hantz gave his idol to Shallow, not knowing she already had an idol of her own.