The Survivor has announced the winner (Picture: BBC)
The Survivor winner has been announced as Matthew after 34 gruelling days on the BBC series.
In the last episode, each of the three finalists – Christopher, Matthew and Leilani – had to convince ‘the jury’ made up of former contestants that they were the worthy winner. The trio were grilled with probing questions about their experience as well as gameplay and had to remain confident in their worthiness.
Six out of eight of the voters deemed Matthew to be the most deserving in the Tribal Council, and so now he’s pocked the life-changing prize of £100,000 and the title of Sole Survivor!
The 21-year-old Hospitality worker from Cumbria found the final scenes where the votes were counted to feel like an ‘out of body experience’ that provided an ‘adrenaline rush.’
Upon finally hearing his name called out there was only one thing Matthew wanted to do – give presenter Joel Dommett a big hug. Sweet!
‘When Joel announced me as the winner that was the best moment of my entire life,’ he recalled.
Matthew has been named the sole survivor (Picture: PA)
‘I was really emotional thinking about how proud my family and friends were going to be. I felt like all my hard work had paid off, it was a dream come true! I just wanted to give Joel a massive hug!’
For the month-long experience, Matthew and his fellow competitors lived on a beach and took part in physical, mental and psychological games to survive.
Now that he’s back home from the Dominican Republic Matthew has had time to eat all the takeaways that he missed on the island and reflect on the series. He sweetly shared how he feels ‘so proud’ of himself.
Matthew felt emotional after his win (Picture: BBC/Remarkable)
‘I outwitted, outplayed and outlasted 17 other players by playing the social game perfectly,’ he stated.
‘I anticipated before the show that I would be underestimated because I was the youngest player, so me being aware of that definitely helped me in the game.
‘I never burnt any bridges with anyone, because I wanted to have options and multiple routes to the final because being able to adapt my strategy and game plan as time went on was really important to me.’
Matthew wanted to give Joel a hug (Picture: Instagram/Joel Dommett)
Matthew had to make bold choices to be victorious, and he has no regrets.
‘The biggest move I made was definitely when I flipped on my original Caleton alliance. I knew that if I wanted to win, I would need to eliminate all of the threats whether they were in my alliance or not,’ he shared.
‘I didn’t want to leave with any regrets and I had to put myself first, to give myself the best possible chance of winning.’
Matthew has been competing in challenges for 34 days (Picture: BBC/Remarkable)
The winner isn’t the only one who is feeling pride: ‘My family and friends are so proud, and that for me means everything.
‘I’m just from a little town in West Cumbria so to be able to represent it is so special to me,’ he concluded.
Now he just has the small matter of spending £100,000…
Catch up on Survivor on BBC iPlayer.
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So sweet!