J. T. Thomas (Survivor contestant) Biography
J. T. Thomas whose full name is James “J. T.” Thomas Junior is an American television personality known for his appearances as a contestant on the American television show “Survivor”. James first performed in the 18th season, Survivor: Tocantins in which he won the title of Sole Survivor and the $1,000,000 grand prize.
J. T. Thomas Age
Thomas was born on June 23, 1984, in Mobile, Alabama, he is hence 38 years old as of 2022.
J. T. Thomas Height
Thomas stands at a height of 1.71m, and his weight is about 72kg.
J. T. Thomas Family
Thomas was raised in Samson, Alabama, and went to Troy University as a business marketing major. He resides in Mobile, Alabama. Thomas operates a registered Angus Cattle Ranch as a farmer. In addition to preparing the land and working the cattle, this southern charmer is responsible for all the paperwork and marketing associated with running the business. Details about his parents are not available.
J. T. Thomas Wife
Thomas is happily married to Cameron Bush since 2015. Bush is an actress, known for Adventure Station. There is no information about their kids, it may be they have taken a low profile as far as their children are concerned.
J. T. Thomas Survivor the Tocantins
Thomas was voted the winner of Survivor by a seven-judge jury on May 17, 2009. He was to be given one million dollars and he also won the $100,000 prize for Sprint Player of the Season, after having beaten out fellow fan favorites Johnson-George and Reed. Actually, J.T. was the sixth person to win Survivor’s million-dollar prize, and he had no votes cast against him at Tribal Council. The other 5 in this category were Tom Westman, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Brian Heidik, Ethan Zohn, and Tina Wesso. Further, he was the second person to win the million-dollar prize as a result of a unanimous vote, the other person being Earl Cole (Fiji). J.T. was also the second consecutive person to win both a million dollars and $100,000, the 1st person being Bob Crowley of Gabon.
On the other hand, Thomas was the first player ever to win Sole Survivor by a unanimous vote, having not received any votes against him during the game. The other two survivors in this category were John Cochran in Survivor: Caramoan and Jeremy Collins in Survivor: Cambodia. However, none of the other two won the $100,000 prize for Sprint Player of the Season. The reason being, this prize had been discontinued by the time Collins won Sole Survivor.
Challenges
In the challenges, J.T. performed with distinction in Episode Four, thus he took 220 pounds and then dropped out, he actually tried the record previously set by Pearl Islands contestant Rupert Boneham. Rupert had also carried 220 pounds and then dropped out. Later, the immunity challenge followed and Thomas neared single-handedly winning immunity for Jalapao. This is when he caught four out of the five balls that were needed to win but eventually, it is Timbira that won the challenge.
J.T. knocked out a tooth that Jeff Probst saved, which he then gave to Thomas’s mother at the reunion special. Further, he won more post-merge reward and immunity challenges than all the others in his season. He actually got three reward challenges, that is the first two and the last one. In addition, he won three immunity challenges in the last three consecutive ones. And since Thomas had won the game unanimously, he was awarded the $100,000 player-of-the-season prize. Additionally, he won more individual challenges than all the others by a considerable margin, he was said to have played the first “perfect game” in the history of Survivor.
J. T. Thomas Heroes vs. Villains
Thomas was going to participate in the 20th season of Survivor as a member of the Heroes tribe. He was actually part of this tribe but he made side deals with Tom Westman and Colby Donaldson. He did this yet he was also in the majority alliance with Rupert Boneham, James Clement, Cirie Fields, Candice Woodcock, and Amanda Kimmel. Further, he switched his vote at the Heroes’ third tribal council, resulting in the elimination of Fields. Also foiling his original alliance’s plan to vote off Donaldson or Westman, who played his hidden immunity idol.
Even after this betrayal, J.T. still kept his place in the Heroes tribe and stuck with the majority after voting off Westman, who was their threat, and also Clement, who was, according to them a liability because of his injury at the “Schmergen Brawl” challenge. After several losses, Thomas’s tribe of Heroes rallied and went ahead to win the next few challenges maintaining immunity until the merge. However, when the Heroes tribe won a reward challenge in Episode 7, they found a clue to a hidden immunity idol and agreed to find it as a tribe. But J. T looked for the idol by himself and he found it. However, he wanted to keep it to himself for his own individual interests, but Kimmel noticed it forcing Thomas to reveal his find to the tribe.
J. T. Thomas Game Changers
It was known that on February 8, 2017, Thomas was going to be a contestant on the 34th season of Survivor, called Game Changers. Thomas was actually the first male winner to play three times of all the players that won on their first try. Although his challenge prowess allowed him to avoid the tribal council for the first two challenges, he started out as the sole former winner of the Nuku tribe.
Unfortunately, Thomas found himself in a precarious position when the first tribe swap occurred, he was placed as the only original Nuku member in the new tribe. He, therefore, took the new Nuku tribe fishing in the ocean so as to maintain his position. But he reached a place where he left the tribe and went back to the camp to look for a hidden immunity idol. He was not successful though but well, he was able to build social bonds with new tribemates Aubry Bracco and Malcolm Freberg.
Tribal Council
Thomas then set his sights on fellow Heroes vs. Villains castaway Sandra Diaz-Twine, because of the fear that Diaz-Twine was targeting the other former winners on the season so as to outlast them since they had been voted out the other previous winner on the season, Tony Vlachos, before the tribe swap. Jeff Probst then announced on day 11 that only one tribe would win immunity. Further, he said that the other two tribes would go to Tribal Council and Tavua is the one that won immunity.
Jeff then added that both Mana and Nuku would go to Tribal Council together and vote out one person. At the Nuku camp, Thomas suggested that they vote out Tai Trang because he was sneaky, but Diaz-Twine wanted Sierra Dawn Thomas to be voted out. However, during a chaotic Tribal Council, Thomas went to his former Nuku ally Brad Culpepper and leaked the plan. So everyone knew that Sierra was the target, urging him to vote for Diaz-Twine. This plan, however, backfired when Trang played his hidden immunity idol on Sierra. Mana, meanwhile, had targeted Freberg as the biggest physical and social threat to his tribe and voted him out of the game.
Television
Year Title Role Notes
2009 Survivor: Tocantins Contestant Winner
2010 Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains Contestant Eliminated; 10th place
2017 Survivor: Game Changers — Mamanuca Islands Contestant Eliminated; 16th place
J. T. Thomas’s Net Worth
Thomas J. T’s estimated net worth is $12 million which he has garnered throughout his career as an actor.