Survivor has been known to have some big personalities play the game in the last 21 years. But very seldom do those players make it to the end and, if they do, they usually don't win. Troyzan Robertson is one of the seldom few that did actually make it to the end in Game Changers (and didn't win), but it was his previous reputation from One World that most fans remember him for. In total keeping with his notorious persona, the alum shared recently how he was like the Jack Nicholson of his One World season.
Well first, let's rewind the clock back to Survivor: One World, where the tribes were initially divided by gender. The dominant all-girls alliance persevered and started to systematically take out all of the men in the final legs of the season. Troyzan Robertson's own legacy was solidified in those crucial moments as he was able to win individual immunities and talk his enemies into keeping him around when he didn’t.
But he got into a lot of trouble and arguments along the way, so it wasn't to be. Troyzan Robertson was voted out on Day 30 by the women (plus Tarzan). However, he got a lot of love from Survivor fans who appreciated his underdog storyline – as well as from past alums and even Jeff Probst’s own wife and dad. Robertson revealed to Entertainment Weekly that he was absolutely sure he was going to at least win the fan-favorite vote for One World and its $100,000 prize money. As sure as if he were Jack Nicholson, apparently. (But that wasn't to be, either.) He said,
Again, it was what I was hearing from people, not so much that I thought everybody was going to vote for me or something. But it's kind of like when someone is up for an Academy Award and everyone is telling them, ‘Hey, Jack Nicholson, you're gonna win an Oscar tonight!’ And you sit in the audience waiting and hoping that it's you… and then they announce somebody else's name and you just have to sit there with his fake smile on your face.
The fan-favorite vote for Survivor: One World ultimately went to the all-around season winner, Kim Spradlin. She was the real Jack Nicholson of the show and her Sole Survivor title was like the equivalent of Nicholson’s Oscar wins for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Terms of Endearment, and As Good As It Gets, all rolled into one.
Let me just explain why. Unlike Troyzan Robertson, Kim Spradlin kept a cool, level head that enabled almost everyone (except Robertson) to trust her until their torch was basically snuffed out by her. Moreover, Spradlin was able to lead one of the few and far between successful “girls alliances.” The last one, a.k.a. the Black Widow Brigade, was almost four years prior. It's a very tricky social strategy to pull off in Survivor, a game where it’s already very hard for women to win at all.
But Troyzan Robertson isn't too salty about his loss to Kim Spradlin, at least not anymore. In fact, he ranked her among the top four best winners of the game, alongside Sarah Lacina and two-time winners Sandra Diaz-Twine and Tony Vlachos. We can only hope that there are more of these god-tier, Jack Nicholson-level players in the new season of Survivor.
At the time of writing, only around two months are left until Survivor premieres the long-awaited new season. Tune in to CBS on September 22 at 8 p.m. EST to tune in!
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