Denise Stapley
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(Born: January 1, 1971
Hometown: Cedar Rapids, Iowa Occupation: Sex Therapist Seasons: Philippines; Winners at War Placing: Winner (Philippines); Sixth (Winners at War) Tribes: Matsing; Kalabaw (v2); Dangrayne; Sele; Dakal (v2); Koru Total Challenge Wins: 10
Days Lasted: 75 Votes Against: 14 (6 Cancelled out with Hidden Immunity Idol) Awards: Strategy With A Smile (Philippines); Social Butterfly (Philippines); Best Strategic Move (Philippines/Winners at War); Bamboozled (Philippines); Meal Ticket (Winners at War) |
Survivor: Philippines
Denise was inititally placed on the Matsing Tribe, which was led by returning evacuee, Russell Swan. She formed an alliance with Zane Knight quickly. However, after losing Immunity, Zane told his Tribe that he wanted them to vote him out, while secretly targeting Russell. However, his plan backfired as they voted Zane out. After losing another Immunity, Denise formed a close alliance with Malcolm Freberg and were joined by Angie Layton. Together, they got rid of who they perceived as the weakest, Russell's ally, Roxy Morris. After losing their third Immunity in a row, Denise and Malcolm struggled, as Angie was their ally, but Russell was much better in challenges. They opted for strength and decided to vote their ally out. However, they lost another Immunity and voted Russell out as well. At the next challenge, Jeff Probst revealed that Denise and Malcolm would each be placed on one of the other Tribes, Kalabaw and Tandang. Denise went to Tandang, which was led by the returning Jonathan Penner and Malcolm went to Tandang, which was led by Michael Skupin.
The Tribe was currently split between the girls and boys, with Dana Lambert, Sarah Dawson, and Katie Hanson on one side, and Jonathan, Jeff Kent and Carter Williams on the other side. However, when Dana became ill, she was forcibly removed from the game. Because of the numbers shift, Denise decided to align herself with the guys after losing the next Immunity Challenge. She sided with the guys and took out Dawson and then Katie, who was easily the weakest link, despite Jeff and Carter's readiness to take out the returning players.
The Tribes would then Merge and Denise won the first Immunity Challenge. Denise, Jeff and Carter aligned themselves with Artis, Pete, Abi-Maria and Malcolm from Tandang in a mission to take out Jonathan and then Michael. However, Jonathan played his Hidden Immunity Idol and saved himself, sending RC Saint-Amour to the Jury. They then came at Jonathan again at the next Tribal Council, but he won Immunity, so they switched focus to Michael. Lisa jumped in to try and save Michael and switched Pete Yarkowski, Abi-Maria Gomes, Artis Silvester and Malcolm to take out Jeff. However, at Tribal Council, Jonathan, Jeff, Carter, Denise, Malcolm and Michael formed an impromptu alliance to take out Pete and the "Tandang Bullies".However, Jonathan screwed up the vote by sending his vote to Abi instead of Pete, so Jeff was taken out. However, at the next Tribal Council, Lisa flopped with Michael, giving them the numbers again, and allowing them to blindside Artis. They followed by taking out Pete and flushing Abi's Idol. However, Abi would win Immunity next, so they were forced to eat one of their own. Denise, Malcolm, Lisa and Michel formed a Final Four alliance and voted out Jonathan, followed by Carter, who was a huge Immunity threat in a Final Four situation. They then finally took out the annoying Abi. When it came to the Final Four, both Denise and Malcolm lobbied Lisa and Michael to take out the other, and they would eventually side with Denise and voted Malcolm out.
At the Final Tribal Council, Denise won with a 6-1-1 vote against Michael and Lisa and was crowned the Sole Survivor.
The Tribe was currently split between the girls and boys, with Dana Lambert, Sarah Dawson, and Katie Hanson on one side, and Jonathan, Jeff Kent and Carter Williams on the other side. However, when Dana became ill, she was forcibly removed from the game. Because of the numbers shift, Denise decided to align herself with the guys after losing the next Immunity Challenge. She sided with the guys and took out Dawson and then Katie, who was easily the weakest link, despite Jeff and Carter's readiness to take out the returning players.
The Tribes would then Merge and Denise won the first Immunity Challenge. Denise, Jeff and Carter aligned themselves with Artis, Pete, Abi-Maria and Malcolm from Tandang in a mission to take out Jonathan and then Michael. However, Jonathan played his Hidden Immunity Idol and saved himself, sending RC Saint-Amour to the Jury. They then came at Jonathan again at the next Tribal Council, but he won Immunity, so they switched focus to Michael. Lisa jumped in to try and save Michael and switched Pete Yarkowski, Abi-Maria Gomes, Artis Silvester and Malcolm to take out Jeff. However, at Tribal Council, Jonathan, Jeff, Carter, Denise, Malcolm and Michael formed an impromptu alliance to take out Pete and the "Tandang Bullies".However, Jonathan screwed up the vote by sending his vote to Abi instead of Pete, so Jeff was taken out. However, at the next Tribal Council, Lisa flopped with Michael, giving them the numbers again, and allowing them to blindside Artis. They followed by taking out Pete and flushing Abi's Idol. However, Abi would win Immunity next, so they were forced to eat one of their own. Denise, Malcolm, Lisa and Michel formed a Final Four alliance and voted out Jonathan, followed by Carter, who was a huge Immunity threat in a Final Four situation. They then finally took out the annoying Abi. When it came to the Final Four, both Denise and Malcolm lobbied Lisa and Michael to take out the other, and they would eventually side with Denise and voted Malcolm out.
At the Final Tribal Council, Denise won with a 6-1-1 vote against Michael and Lisa and was crowned the Sole Survivor.
Voting History
Episode |
Denise Voted For |
Voted For Denise |
1 |
Zane Knight |
--- |
2 |
Roxy Morris |
--- |
3 |
Angie Layton |
--- |
4 |
Russell Swan |
--- |
5 |
Sarah Dawson |
Sarah Dawson |
6 |
Katie Hanson |
--- |
7 |
Individual Immunity |
|
8 |
Pete Yarkowski |
--- |
9 |
Artis Silvester |
--- |
10 |
Abi-Maria Gomes |
--- |
11 |
Abi-Maria Gomes, Carter Williams, Jonathan Penner |
|
12 |
--- |
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13 |
Abi-Maria Gomes |
Abi-Maria Gomes |
14 |
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14 |
--- |
Jury Vote: Abi-Maria Gomes, Artis Silvester, Jeff Kent, Jonathan Penner, Malcolm Freberg, Pete Yarkowski |
Survivor: Winners at War
Denise was originally on the Sele Tribe, where she struck up an early alliance with Adam Klein. However, they got into hot water early after disappearing for a long time and became the targets for the first vote. However, Rob Mariano and his Old School Alliance began to target Natalie Anderson, wanting to split her and Jeremy Collins up, saving Denise and Adam as Natalie was voted out.
The next time they lost Immunity, Danni Boatwright wanted to turn on her fellow Old School Alliance member Parvati Shallow, but Boston Rob wasn't having it, so he went around and collected enough votes to blindside Danni instead.
They then lost their second Immunity Challenge in a row and Parvati was once again a target. However, Adam told Rob their plan, angering most of the Tribe after Rob told Jeremy and Michele Fitzgerald what Adam had done. Because of this, everyone considered voting out Adam instead. They also considered voting out Ethan Zohn instead, which would be unexpected since Rob thinks they might target Parvati. In the end, they went with Plan C and Ethan was voted out.
There was then a Tribal Switch that saw Denise and Jeremy on Dakal in the minority against Sandra Diaz-Twine, Kim Spradlin-Wolfe and Tony Vlachos. After losing Immunity, it seemed like Denise would be the target but she had a Hidden Immuntiy Idol. However, Sandra came up and offered to sell her her Hidden Immunity Idol that was only good for the next Tribal Council, in exchange for one Fire Token before Tribal and one after. At Tribal, Denise played Sandra's Hidden Immunity Idol for herself and her own Idol for Jeremy, using her one vote to blindside Sandra.
The Tribes then Merged and Denise found herself on the majority, with Adam, Nick Wilson, Wendell Holland and Michele on the outs. Originally, Jeremy pushed to vote out Nick, while some people considered voting out Adam, but Ben Driebergen and Tyson Apostol eventually decided to target Wendell, who was considered a bigger threat and Wendell was voted out.
The next time around, the majority was targeting Adam and Nick. Even though they originally had an alliance, Adam was targeting Sarah Lacina, who is Tony's top ally, so Denise went along with splitting the votes between Adam and Nick and Adam was voted out.
The battle lines were then drawn as the majority split into two groups, with each pulling the bottom members into their alliance. On one side was Denise, Kim, Jeremy, Tyson and Michele, on the other was Tony, Sarah, Sophie, Ben and Nick. Denise's alliance was targeting Sophie, and Kim had a Hidden Immunity Idol that she was considering playing but didn't know who to play it for. At Tribal, worried that he was the target, Jeremy used his Safety Without Power advantage to leave Tribal Council, leaving Denise's alliance down in the numbers. Sarah then used her Steal A Vote to steal Denise's vote, leaving them even more in the minority. Kim used her Idol on Denise, but it was Tyson who was voted out.
Knowing that they were down in the numbers, Kim and Denise decided to join the majority in order to split the votes between Jeremy and Michele in order to get Jeremy out. Jeremy and Michele wanted to target Ben and even though Denise and Kim agreed to their face, they were really going with the other plan to vote out Jeremy. However, Tony and Nick decided to go with Jeremy and Michele instead and used the splitting of votes to their advantage in order to blindside Sophie.
Later, Kim and Denise were still sticking with the plan to vote out Jeremy. However, Tony and Nick were still sticking with Jeremy. This time, they pulled in Sarah and Ben and used their new numbers to vote out Kim, who everybody saw as a big threat.
Even though she was blindsided at the last Tribal, Denise still planned to stick with Ben, Nick, Tony and Sarah in order to finally get out Jeremy, as Jeremy tried to go after Ben. This time, Tony stuck with his alliance as they planned to split the votes between Jeremy and Michele. Michele played her 50/50 Coin Flip Advantage to make herself immune and Jeremy was finally voted out.
Now that it came down to the alliance and Michele, the target seemed to be either Nick or Denise. Nick pulled in Michele to try to convince Sarah to vote out Denise, but she stuck with her original alliance and Nick was voted out.
Natalie would then win the final Edge of Extinction challenge and rejoin the game. Natalie was the immediate target, since she had a lot of friends on the Jury. Tony was concerned that Natalie had a Hidden Immunity Idol but neither Ben or Sarah were willing to believe that and throw votes on Denise just in case. However, at Tribal Council, Natalie played a Hidden Immunity Idol, prompting Tony and Ben to also play Hidden Immunity Idols. This caused no votes to be valid across the board, as Natalie and Michele had voted for Ben. And since Michele had Immunity from the challenge, they had to re-vote for either Sarah or Denise and Denise was voted out and went to the Jury.
The next time they lost Immunity, Danni Boatwright wanted to turn on her fellow Old School Alliance member Parvati Shallow, but Boston Rob wasn't having it, so he went around and collected enough votes to blindside Danni instead.
They then lost their second Immunity Challenge in a row and Parvati was once again a target. However, Adam told Rob their plan, angering most of the Tribe after Rob told Jeremy and Michele Fitzgerald what Adam had done. Because of this, everyone considered voting out Adam instead. They also considered voting out Ethan Zohn instead, which would be unexpected since Rob thinks they might target Parvati. In the end, they went with Plan C and Ethan was voted out.
There was then a Tribal Switch that saw Denise and Jeremy on Dakal in the minority against Sandra Diaz-Twine, Kim Spradlin-Wolfe and Tony Vlachos. After losing Immunity, it seemed like Denise would be the target but she had a Hidden Immuntiy Idol. However, Sandra came up and offered to sell her her Hidden Immunity Idol that was only good for the next Tribal Council, in exchange for one Fire Token before Tribal and one after. At Tribal, Denise played Sandra's Hidden Immunity Idol for herself and her own Idol for Jeremy, using her one vote to blindside Sandra.
The Tribes then Merged and Denise found herself on the majority, with Adam, Nick Wilson, Wendell Holland and Michele on the outs. Originally, Jeremy pushed to vote out Nick, while some people considered voting out Adam, but Ben Driebergen and Tyson Apostol eventually decided to target Wendell, who was considered a bigger threat and Wendell was voted out.
The next time around, the majority was targeting Adam and Nick. Even though they originally had an alliance, Adam was targeting Sarah Lacina, who is Tony's top ally, so Denise went along with splitting the votes between Adam and Nick and Adam was voted out.
The battle lines were then drawn as the majority split into two groups, with each pulling the bottom members into their alliance. On one side was Denise, Kim, Jeremy, Tyson and Michele, on the other was Tony, Sarah, Sophie, Ben and Nick. Denise's alliance was targeting Sophie, and Kim had a Hidden Immunity Idol that she was considering playing but didn't know who to play it for. At Tribal, worried that he was the target, Jeremy used his Safety Without Power advantage to leave Tribal Council, leaving Denise's alliance down in the numbers. Sarah then used her Steal A Vote to steal Denise's vote, leaving them even more in the minority. Kim used her Idol on Denise, but it was Tyson who was voted out.
Knowing that they were down in the numbers, Kim and Denise decided to join the majority in order to split the votes between Jeremy and Michele in order to get Jeremy out. Jeremy and Michele wanted to target Ben and even though Denise and Kim agreed to their face, they were really going with the other plan to vote out Jeremy. However, Tony and Nick decided to go with Jeremy and Michele instead and used the splitting of votes to their advantage in order to blindside Sophie.
Later, Kim and Denise were still sticking with the plan to vote out Jeremy. However, Tony and Nick were still sticking with Jeremy. This time, they pulled in Sarah and Ben and used their new numbers to vote out Kim, who everybody saw as a big threat.
Even though she was blindsided at the last Tribal, Denise still planned to stick with Ben, Nick, Tony and Sarah in order to finally get out Jeremy, as Jeremy tried to go after Ben. This time, Tony stuck with his alliance as they planned to split the votes between Jeremy and Michele. Michele played her 50/50 Coin Flip Advantage to make herself immune and Jeremy was finally voted out.
Now that it came down to the alliance and Michele, the target seemed to be either Nick or Denise. Nick pulled in Michele to try to convince Sarah to vote out Denise, but she stuck with her original alliance and Nick was voted out.
Natalie would then win the final Edge of Extinction challenge and rejoin the game. Natalie was the immediate target, since she had a lot of friends on the Jury. Tony was concerned that Natalie had a Hidden Immunity Idol but neither Ben or Sarah were willing to believe that and throw votes on Denise just in case. However, at Tribal Council, Natalie played a Hidden Immunity Idol, prompting Tony and Ben to also play Hidden Immunity Idols. This caused no votes to be valid across the board, as Natalie and Michele had voted for Ben. And since Michele had Immunity from the challenge, they had to re-vote for either Sarah or Denise and Denise was voted out and went to the Jury.
Voting History
Episode |
Denise Voted For |
Voted For Denise |
1 |
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2 |
--- |
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3 |
--- |
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6 |
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8 |
Individual Immunity |
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9 |
--- |
|
10 |
Steal A Vote (Sarah Lacina) |
|
11 |
--- |
|
12 |
Individual Immunity |
|
13 |
--- |
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13 |
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14 |
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14 |
For Sole Survivor: Tony Vlachos |
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Trivia
- Denise is the only member of Matsing to not receive a vote before the tribe's dissolution.
- Denise is the only contestant to reach an official Merge without being immune at any point before it and without winning a re-entry challenge of some kind.
- Stephenie LaGrossa reached the individual stage of Survivor: Palau, but Palau did not have an official merge. Mookie Lee reached the individual stage/merge of Survivor: Fiji, but the Ravu tribe was awarded tribal immunity for the fourth Tribal Council despite losing the Immunity Challenge.
- Stephenie LaGrossa reached the individual stage of Survivor: Palau, but Palau did not have an official merge. Mookie Lee reached the individual stage/merge of Survivor: Fiji, but the Ravu tribe was awarded tribal immunity for the fourth Tribal Council despite losing the Immunity Challenge.
- Denise is the only person to attend every Tribal Council as a contestant over the course of a season. She attended all 15 Tribal Councils of Survivor: Philippines, inclduing the Final Tribal Council.
- Denise is also the only contestant to witness all eliminations in a single season. In addition to the 15 Tribal Councils, she was also present for Dana Lambert's quit.
- However, Denise is not the only record holder for the most Tribal Councils attended in a season. Mick Trimming, Natalie White, Russell Hantz (in Samoa), Spencer Bledsoe (in Cambodie), Ken McNickle, Lauren O'Connell, Rick Devens and Michele Fitzgerald (in Winners at War) also attended 15 Tribal Councils.
- Denise is also the only contestant to witness all eliminations in a single season. In addition to the 15 Tribal Councils, she was also present for Dana Lambert's quit.
- Denise successfully voted out all of her original Matsing tribemates during Philippines.
- She is the second of three players to vote out every other player on their starting tribe, after John Cochran in South Pacific, and followed by Cydney Gillon in Kaoh Rong.
- Because one of Cochran's tribemates, Ozzy Lusth, returned to the game via Redemption Island, Denise is the first to contribute to the permanent elimination of all her original tribemates by voting them out, and second (following Stephenie in Palau) to contribute to the permanent elimination of all her original tribemates in some manner.
- Unlike Cochran and Cydney, Denise did not need any revotes to accomplish this feat; Cochran switched his vote to Keith Tollefson after initially voting for Rick Nelson, and Cydney switched her vote to Darnell Hamilton after initially voting for Alecia Holden.
- She is the second of three players to vote out every other player on their starting tribe, after John Cochran in South Pacific, and followed by Cydney Gillon in Kaoh Rong.
- Denise is the third first-time player to win against a returning player, following Danni Boatwright and Sophie Clarke.
- Coincidentally, all three of them are women and received six votes to win.
- Coincidentally, all three of them are women and received six votes to win.
- Denise is the third-oldest winner at the time of filming (behind Bob Crowley and Tony Vlachos) and oldest when crowned Sole Survivor, at 41 years, 11 months, and 15 days old.
- Denise is the shortest Sole Survivor, at 5 feet tall.
- Denise is the oldest castaway on Survivor: Winners at War.
- In both of her seasons, Denise started on a blue Tribe, was then swapped/dissolved into a red Tribe, and then merged onto a black Tribe.
- Denise is the first contestant to buy an item with a Fire Token from somebody still in the main game.
- Denise is the second person to negate a unanimous vote with a Hidden Immunity Idol, after Ben Driebergen in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers.
- Denise won the first individual Immunity Challenge in both seasons she competed on.
- Each time Denise has won Individual Immunity, the challenge has had two winners: one man and one woman.
- Denise is the first person to become the 14th member of the Jury.
- Denise lost 6 lbs. during her time on Winners at War