Tony Vlachos

Vlachos was cast on the 28th season of the CBS reality television show Survivor. The theme of the season was Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty. Vlachos was cast as a "brawn" and started out on the Aparri tribe. Before the first tribal swap, Aparri dominated the immunity challenges and did not go to tribal council. During this time, Vlachos formed an alliance, dubbed "Cops-R-Us", with fellow police officer Sarah Lacina. Despite this alliance, Vlachos lied to Lacina about his profession, claiming he was a construction worker. Vlachos also became close with Trish Hegarty and was wary of the popularity of former NBA All-Star Clifford Robinson. Vlachos was able to find the Aparri tribe's hidden immunity idol with help of the clue he found in the reward they received after winning a challenge.[10] At the final tribal council, the jury ultimately chose him as the winner with a vote of 8-1, beating martial arts instructor Woo Hwang.[11]

In March 2020, Briana Kranich, writing for Screen Rant, ranked Survivor: Cagayan the best season Survivor.[12] In a 2015 interview, host Jeff Probst listed Vlachos as one of his top 10 favorite Survivor winners ever, and one of his top 6 favorite male winners, commenting, "I like Tony because he's unlike any winner we've ever had. He's the Tasmanian Devil. He played an incredibly reckless game, but he was so gifted that he could make a mistake and recover because he was lapping you so that he was able to actually catch back up and fix his mistake. It's almost like he had his own time machine. I've never seen anyone play with that much energy and juggle that many balls at once, and pull it all off."[5] In 2016, Vlachos became a part of the Survivor Hall of Fame, along with Tina Wesson and Rupert Boneham. Due to Xfinity TV's discontinuation of the award in 2017, he is the newest Survivor player (by season recency) to be inducted.[13]

At the end of the reunion show for the 33rd season, Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X, Vlachos was confirmed to be a participant in the 34th season: Survivor: Game Changers.[14] Vlachos adapted his style to approach the season with a gameplay distinct from his Cagayan strategy, which involved an alliance with fellow police officer Sarah Lacina, surveillance from a spy nest, orchestrating attacks upon vulnerable targets,[15] beginning his search for idols immediately after arriving at the beach in full view of his tribemates, framing others by planting an idol in someone else's belongings, and feigning an intimate personal bond with multiple tribe members. Dalton Ross, writing for Entertainment Weekly, called this strategy "one of the most aggressive games ever."[16] However, when he informed Diaz-Twine about his spy nest, she informed other tribe members, and ultimately campaigned to have him voted out. Despite this, Vlachos later stated in an interview with CBS that because she was voted out after him, the two of them became friends during the considerable time they spent on the pre-jury trip to Vietnam.[15] In a January 2020 interview, he stated that losing Game Changers helped prepare him for Winners at War.[16]

During the promotional trailer for the season during the reunion show for the 39th season, Survivor: Island of the Idols, Vlachos was confirmed to be a participant in the 40th season: Survivor: Winners at War.[17] Vlachos started on the Dakal tribe.[18][19] At the final tribal council, he garnered 12 of the 16 jury votes,[20] earning him the season's $2 million reward.[21][22]