Denise Stapley

Stapley competed on the 25th season of the reality TV series Survivor, Survivor: Philippines. Originally placed on the ill-fated "Matsing" tribe, she and Malcolm Freberg were the only two castaways remaining when the tribe lost the first four consecutive immunity challenges, voting off Zane Knight, Roxanne "Roxy" Morris, Angie Layton, and Russell Swan by unanimous votes each time. Afterwards, Freberg was sent to the "Tandang" tribe while Stapley was sent to the "Kalabaw" tribe. Kalabaw subsequently lost the next two consecutive challenges, and in the first of these two tribal councils, Stapley received one vote from Sarah Dawson, while everyone else voted out Dawson. When the merge came, Stapley was on the winning team in the first two consecutive team-oriented reward challenges, and otherwise won the first individual immunity challenge right after the merge. She and Freberg managed to ride out the conflict between the members of the two former tribes, since both were perceived as outsiders who had no conflict with anyone else. However, Stapley was almost eliminated at the final seven, when she received the three votes of Jonathan Penner, Abi-Maria Gomes, and Carter Williams. However, Stapley, Freberg, Lisa Whelchel, and Michael Skupin voted for Penner, eliminating him instead. In the final two consecutive tribal councils, Stapley found herself receiving the sole vote of the person who was eliminated, while everyone else voted for said person: Gomes at the final five and Freberg at the final four. Stapley ultimately made it to the final three, alongside Whelchel and Skupin, where all three were mostly grilled by the jury of eight. However, Stapley was occasionally praised for making it to the end as a perceived underdog, surviving the ill-fated Matsing tribe, and the numerous tribal councils she attended. When the time for voting came, Stapley received six votes (all except Williams, who voted for Skupin, and Roberta "RC" Saint-Amour, who voted for Whelchel), thus winning the title of "Sole Survivor" and the $1 million prize.

As a result of her win, Stapley became the oldest female winner in Survivor history at age 41. She also set a Survivor record for becoming the first (and currently only) person in the history of the show to attend every single Tribal Council in the entire season.[2][3] In a 2015 interview, host Jeff Probst named Stapley as one of his top ten favorite Survivor winners ever, and one of his top four favorite female winners.[4]

Stapley would return to compete on the series' 40th season, Survivor: Winners at War, the first all-winners season in Survivor history.[5][6] Her most memorable moment in the season came on Day 16 when she single-handedly voted out the self-proclaimed "Queen of Survivor" Sandra Diaz-Twine, the (then) only two-time winner in Survivor history, by playing two immunity idols, including one Diaz-Twine had given her herself, to negate the votes of all four other players, therefore saving herself from elimination and eliminating Diaz-Twine with a single vote. Her move earned her the name of "Queenslayer" from other players and the press, and received a lot of praise from critics.[7] She was eventually voted out on Day 36 in a rare Tribal Council situation that saw no vote counted during the first vote due to the use of three immunity idols, resulting in a second vote during which the four other players had to vote out either Stapley or Sarah Lacina, who were the only players without immunity. All four chose to vote out Stapley, who finished in sixth place. Overall, she received 14 votes against her (including negated votes), more than anyone else during the season.[8] As a member of the jury, she voted for Tony Vlachos to win.