Talking with T-Bird: Sandra Diaz-Twine

For everyone who wanted more T-Bird in the Survivor off-season, your wish has been granted as we once again start up the series “Talking with T-Bird.” Each episode, Rob Cesternino (@robcesternino) and Survivor: Africa‘s Teresa “T-Bird” Cooper (@tbirdcooper) will catch up with a former Survivor player and talk about anything and take listener questions. In the forty-seventh episode of “Talking with T-Bird,” and in conjunction with Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains‘s appearance this week at the top of the RHAP All-Time Survivor Season Rankings, Rob and T-Bird’s guest is none other than Sandra Diaz-Twine.

Sandra’s first Survivor appearance, and victory, came during the seventh season of the show, Survivor: Pearl Islands. Despite her alliance of Drake tribe members being overthrown early in the merge, she managed to maneuver through different alliances with her famous “anybody but me” strategy, winning the game by a 6-1 vote.

Thirteen seasons later, Sandra was welcomed back to the game as a member of the Villains tribe in the show’s historic twentieth season, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. Despite being on the bottom of the Villains tribe very early own after yet another one of her alliances was overthrown, she managed to make it to the merge using her same coined strategy that netted her the million dollars her first time. She tried working with the Heroes at the merge and with that also failing, her finding of a Hidden Immunity Idol plus her lack of a threat level, she managed to make it again to day 39, and winning again, this time by a vote of 6-3-0.

After another long layoff, this time of fourteen seasons, Sandra accepted the invitation for the show’s thirty-fourth season, Survivor: Game Changers. Being one of only three winners in the game, her target was monumental from the get-go. Right away, she played a more aggressive but still charismatic game, winning a power struggle over Tony Vlachos to take control of her tribe. She made it to both swaps and after being in a severe minority at the second swap, her tribe threw a challenge to vote her out on day 16 by a vote of 5-2, leaving her in fifteenth place.

During the show’s thirty-ninth season, Island of the Idols, Sandra was relegated to a different role, mentoring new castaways with her fellow Heroes vs. Villains tribemate “Boston” Rob Mariano. She spent thirty-six days on the island as a mentor this time.

Two weeks after filming Island of the Idols, Sandra was back for the show’s legendary fortieth season of all-winners dubbed Winners at War. Being the show’s only two-time winner going into the season, her target was massive yet again. She got herself into a good position right off the bat, and after being swapped onto a tribe of five, she decided to trade the Hidden Immunity Idol she bought from the Edge of Extinction to Denise for more fire tokens. Unbeknownst to Sandra, Denise had a second idol that she used to save Jeremy in addition to herself, and in a monumental blindside, Denise’s one vote took out the Queen of Survivor, again on day 6 by a 1-0 vote. This left her in sixteenth place, and immediately after going to the Edge of Extinction, she chose to leave and not battle for a shot to get back in the game.

You can check out Sandra’s statistics on the Survivor Wiki from her illustrious Survivor career here: Sandra Diaz-Twine’s Survivor Wiki Profile.

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