Who won ‘Survivor 43?’ The controversial victory, explained

Back in December of 2022, the highly-anticipated finale of Survivor 43 premiered. With a victory that sent Survivor superfans into a frenzy, the episode will go down in history as one of the wildest ones to date!

While the entirety of Survivor 43 was phenomenal, what made this season finale so spectacular?

Keep scrolling to see who took home $1 million and the title of “Sole Survivor” during Survivor 43, and to learn what exactly went down…

Who won Survivor 43?

To the surprise of Survivor superfans worldwide, the one and only alli-Gabler emerged as victorious at the end of Survivor 43.

During the highly-anticipated season finale, Cassidy Clark won the final immunity challenge and decided to take Owen Knight with her to the end, ultimately forcing Jesse Lopez and Mike Gabler to face off in the infamous final four fire-making challenge. Gabler won the challenge with the fastest time in the history of Survivor (which was quickly passed up by Heidi Lagares-Greenblatt in Survivor 44), ultimately knocking out the obvious frontrunner of the season. Little did he know this would be one of the key moments that led to his sweeping victory!

At the final tribal council, Gabler received a great deal of praise surrounding his final four fire-making win, as well as his strong social bonds, however, he was criticized that his oddball personality overshadowed his gameplay. Because of this, Gabler talked the jury’s ears off, explaining that he was an “alli-Gabler” throughout the entirety of Survivor 43, playing in the middle and hiding in plain sight. He did not get a single vote all season long — how wild is that?

Spitting facts that left the jury’s jaws on the floor, Gabler beat Cassidy and Owen in a 7-1-0 vote in the end, garnering votes from every jury member with the exception of James Jones.

After winning $1 million and the title of “Sole Survivor,” the heart valve specialist did what no other castaway has done before. He donated his winnings to charity, supporting veterans in need — Mike Gabler is truly one of a kind!

What did winner Mike Gabler have to say post-finale?

In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly after his wild win, Gabler discussed how people did not give him enough credit all season long, and his speech at final tribal council is what sealed his fate.

“My game the entire time was a relationship game, and the edit showed a lot of it, but also left out a lot of it,” he prefaced. “I actually thought the season’s edit was fantastic because it left everybody guessing. No one knew exactly who was gonna go into it. There were a lot of strong players in the final. I mean, the final five was five sharks in a bowl together trying to make it out. I felt pretty good no matter who I went up against. I had a strong story to tell because I had been playing the entire time.”

“I’m a better orator than I think I got credit for, so a lot of the game, I believe people underestimated me,” Gabler explained. “I mean, I’m a reasonably intelligent individual, and my oratory skills and all that stuff are more potent than I think folks gave me credit for, and that was their mistake, not mine.”

“Even the fire making, which broke an all-time Survivor record — early on in the game, I couldn’t make fire, right? [Winks] I hunt and camp and do all kinds of stuff, but it’s not my advantage to show people that I can make fire very well early… I’ll gather wood, I’ll do whatever you need me to do, but I hid that card up my sleeve until the final four and I blazed into final three,” he explained, ultimately revealing that his fire-making skills were kept under wraps all season long — what a genius!

What did runner-up Cassidy Clark have to say post-finale?

Some Survivor superfans may argue that Cassidy was robbed of $1 million and the title of “Sole Survivor” on Survivor 43, but what went wrong?

As we know, Cassidy sent Gabler into the final four fire-making competition, ultimately emerging as victorious and knocking out the season’s obvious frontrunner: Jesse. During the final tribal council, Cassidy’s ally-turned-enemy, Karla Cruz Godoy, reprimanded her for this decision — who would have thought a seemingly innocent fire-making challenge could have costed her the win?

After sharing some choice words, Karla ultimately convinced the rest of the jury members that if Cassidy would have pulled a Chris Underwood (giving up her individual immunity to make fire herself), she would have been able to take credit for knocking Jesse out of the game, something that the jury deemed to be the difference between a win and a loss.

“[Putting Gabler into the final four fire-making competition] was definitely held against me, which was just offensive honestly, because I earned that last challenge. That was a crazy amount of pressure to work under and the biggest immunity of the season… I was so proud of myself, and I didn’t feel like it was fair to basically say, ‘You have to give this up or you’re not getting my vote. You have to risk it,'” Cassidy shared in an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, prior to revealing why she thinks she didn’t win the game.

“I think they were just upset that Jesse got out and that I was a part of a big reason why he got out because I made that decision,” the Austin, Texas native dished. “I think they all had their minds made up for Jesse to win, which I don’t blame them. He was playing an incredible game, but once he was gone, I think they were looking at me like, ‘You’re the reason, and you should have done this and that’ and just trying to undermine my win and the fact that I got to make the decision to put Gabler in.”

“Obviously, Gabler made the fire, but I was a huge part in getting the biggest threat out of the game, and it hurt that they really felt like I had played such a bad game that I needed to Chris Underwood it, who wasn’t even playing. He wasn’t even in the game, so I just felt like that was unfair to hold that against me and to expect that of me,” she concluded.

While Survivor 43 will go down in history as having one of the most controversial winners of all time, our fingers are crossed that Survivor 45 has a much different outcome this fall. Catch the premiere this Wednesday (September 27), followed by weekly episodes from 8pm to 9:30pm ET/PT on CBS — it is sure to be a season to remember!