Season 49 of the acclaimed reality show aired Wednesday night, featuring a face San Antonians might be familiar with.
SAN ANTONIO — *WARNING: Spoilers for the “Survivor” season finale below
A mega-sized Season 49 finale of “Survivor” aired Wednesday night on KENS 5, and it featured the end of the road for an iron-willed competitor San Antonio viewers might be familiar with.
And for Savannah Louie, who spent two years as a Great Day SA reporter and multimedia journalist at KENS 5, the end of the road brought the $1 million grand prize and “Survivor” glory.
Louie, who has mentioned how her experience as a reporter for multiple stations helped her in the competition, emerged victorious in the show’s first all-female final three in a decade.
Louie emerged as a social and physical threat at the start of the season, but once Season 49’s tribes merged, she was seen as the game’s biggest threat. Her social game faltered as she became comfortable with her two allies, Rizo and Sophi.
From that point, Louie won four immunity challenges, which is tied for the most by a female competitor in “Survivor” history.
In the three-hour finale, Louie won her fourth challenge and got a boost when she voted out a competitor, Kristina. Louie managed to persuade her alliance to get rid of her after they were leaning towards voting off another contestant, Sage.
Louie lost the final immunity challenge to Sophi, who decided that Louie and Rizo – her two alliance members – would be making fire, a key show challenge. Whoever managed to spark theirs first went on to the final three; that turned out to be Louie.
The challenge set up a final three of Louie, Sophi and Sage. Louie won with five votes, with Sophi and Sage splitting the other three votes.
Ahead of the season premiere, Louie spoke with KENS 5’s Sarah Forgany and “Survivor” superfan Marcus Risen about the experience, which she described as “a mixture of incredible excitement but a lot of fear at the same time.”
“It’s very surreal that it’s actually come to fruition,” said Louie, who has watched the show since Season 1 as a child. “It’s been that constant thing for me where I can always go back and find a little relief and turn my brain off while watching.”