Forget Immunity Wins, Ozzy Lusth Set A Not So Great Survivor Record This Past Episode

There’s been a lot of on-screen talk during Survivor 50 about fan favorite Ozzy Lusth potentially setting the record for most individual immunity challenge wins of all-time. We’ll have to wait and see if he gets there, but during this past episode, he quietly set another record that the show isn’t exactly hyping up. The Jungle Boy turned Jungle Man now stands in first place with the highest number of total votes received at tribal council in the history of the show.

Ozzy is, of course, still in the game, but during episode 9 (“I Deserve All Of This”), he received two votes from Emily Flippen and Rick Devens. Their plan to blindside him and save Christian from his ridiculous disadvantage failed, but it did add two more career votes to his resume, which bumped his total up to a whopping 37 according to Survivor-Reference. That was enough to pass Andrea Boehlke, who had been sitting in first place since Game Changers with 36.

So, how does a person get to 37 career votes? Well, playing a bunch of times helps. On Ozzy’s first season Cook Islands, he only got 1 vote against him during the entire game, which, it should be noted, came from well-remembered pre-merge standout Billy Garcia. He came back to make another deep run on Micronesia and picked up 9 votes. In South Pacific, he got a total of 17, largely because he was voted out three different times thanks to returning on multiple occasions from Redemption Island. He picked up another 7 on Game Changers, and he’s picked up another 3 votes on Survivor 50. 1+9+17+7+3=37.

In case you were wondering, the only other players with more than 30 career votes against them other than Ozzy and Andrea are Kellie Wentworth (35) and Ciera Eastin (33). Aubry Bracco has 22 and is still alive on Survivor 50; so, there’s a chance she could get there too if she’s the victim of a pile-on vote or she starts repeatedly catching strays at some upcoming tribal councils as the back-up plan. I don’t really think she’s going to catch 15 though; so, Ozzy’s record is likely safe, until at least the next returnee season.

I think there’s a chance we’ll see either Kellie or Ciera play again, but if we’re looking for the New Era player most likely to break Ozzy’s record eventually, I’d probably pick Q Burdette. I’m not sure there’s a single Survivor fan that doesn’t want to see the confessional machine play again, especially after he was swap screwed on 50. He’s already picked up 18 votes in just two appearances, and I think there’s a good chance he could end up playing four or five times before he’s all said and done.

Regardless, I don’t really think this record reflects that poorly on Ozzy. As I said, it’s a sign of playing a lot of times, and it’s also a sign of being looked at as a threat during his seasons. Plus, he asked his own alliance to vote him out on South Pacific so he could make sure another player went home at the Redemption Island duel. They did. He won the duel and got himself back in the game. Those votes aren’t a scarlet letter, as an example, they’re a reflection of being a legend.

I have no idea what’s going to happen the rest of the way on Survivor 50. Ozzy recently won his 8th individual immunity challenge, which puts him one behind Boston Rob’s all-time record of 9. Maybe he breaks that later this season. Maybe he doesn’t. Maybe this is finally the season where Ozzy picks up his win and outlasts this all-star cast. Maybe it’s not. We’ll have to see how everything plays out, but if nothing else, it’s already been a great reminder of why he’s one of the all-time great characters in the history of the show, even if he doesn’t exactly have Sandra Diaz-Twine’s ability to push the votes onto someone else.