‘Survivor’ Reveals Season 43 Winner

15.12.2022 - 06:33 / deadline.com

SPOILER ALERT: This story reveals details from the Survivor finale.

Talk about a Christmas gift: Mike “Gabler” Gabler, a 51-year-old heart valve specialist from Houston, Texas, won Season 43 of Survivor. And he vowed to give all of his winnings to charity.

Host Jeff Probst revealed the winner in the jungles of Fiji, not in a Los Angeles soundstage in front of a studio audience. Even the aftershow took place minutes after Gabler’s win was announced.

Cassidy Clark, a 26-year-old designer from Plano, Texas, came in second and Owen Knight, a 30-year-old college admissions director from Bethesda, Maryland, was third.

Gabler vowed to give the $1 million in his father’s name, a Green Beret, to a charity honoring veterans struggling with mental health issues. “It has been a rollercoaster,” he told Probst. “Tonight was special because I got to tell all of the story …. Out here tonight, I was working it until the very last second. It feels bigger than you know, Jeff. We made history here this season. Only the second player in Survivor history over 50.”

“I have an amazing life at home,” he continued. “To take this million dollars … there is so much going on in the news that we don’t like to look at. That’s why we watch Survivor.”

The episode began with Probst sending the final five — Gabler, Owen, Cassidy, Karla and Jesse — to a new beach to start fresh. There, they were given the opportunity to vie for a final advantage, except it required their tired brains to unscramble a rather long message. Karla managed to solve it first and — though handicapped with an injured ankle — limped down to the beach to start her search for the hidden advantage. Owen was on her tail but he wasn’t fast enough; Karla found it.

But Owen had the