Who Won ‘Survivor’ 48? Winner Crowned After Infuriating Fire-Making Challenge

The Tribe Has Spoken

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[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Survivor Season 48 finale.]

Two alliances have been controlling Survivor 48 all season long: Joe Hunter and Eva Erickson, the public alliance, and Kyle Fraser and Kamilla Karthigesu, the secret alliance. While Joe and Eva maintained control over the game with their majority alliance in the first half, Kyle and Kamilla made more influential moves in secret in the final episodes, especially the penultimate that saw them trick Joe and Eva into voting out one of their biggest allies, Shauhin Davari. Their successes continued in the Survivor 48 finale on May 21, on CBS, as Kamilla won the final joint immunity and reward challenge, securing her spot in the final four, and Kyle won the final immunity challenge, securing his and one other spot in the final three. One infuriating fire-making challenge later, Kyle, Eva, and Joe made their pitches to the jury before a winner was named the Sole Survivor.

Mitch Guerra was the last player voted out of Survivor 48. Kyle and Kamilla wanted their ally on the jury to help each of their chances of getting votes. Eva and Joe felt Mitch was too well-liked by every player to be comfortable sitting next to him in the final three. Kamilla’s immunity win meant that she would never be voted out. She never received a single vote all season long, which could’ve been a great addition to her resume had she not lost at fire. And what a frustrating scene that was.

CBS

For starters, Joe and Kyle considered stepping in for Eva in fire during her meltdown while practicing. Eva, Survivor‘s first openly autistic player, has cried semi-frequently during moments of emotional overwhelm throughout the season. She knows how to take care of herself in those moments; she asked Joe early on to give her a squeeze to help regulate her nervous system in these times. He did that while she cried in frustration while practicing making fire.

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Joe wanted to take her place, but Eva was rightfully annoyed by the suggestion. Kyle even considered sacrificing his own immunity and sending himself to fire just because he felt bad that Eva was crying. Insane!

Thankfully, Kyle didn’t make that choice. Eva can handle her own even when crying, as proven by the fact that she won the fire challenge after the wind almost killed her blaze. Kamilla, sadly, was not able to get a fire started at all despite succeeding repeatedly in her practice rounds. It was a sad end for one of the season’s best players, someone who the jury agreed in the finale after show would have won it all had she made it into the final three.

Kyle, Joe, and Eva gave their pitches, and the jury chose Kyle in the end. In a rare occurrence, all three finalists received at least one vote. The votes went in Kyle’s favor because he gave the best pitch. Joe and Eva’s pitches were criticized for not having details about specific strategies. That was true; neither of them proved that they made any major moves other than staying loyal to each other and not using select advantages. Kyle’s game was won when Eva and Joe took credit for the Shauhin vote. Little did they know that Kyle’s plot twist was about to be revealed with an assist from Kamilla. Kyle revealed every detail of how he crafted the lie to vote out Shauhin and recruited Kamilla to successfully carry out the plan. It went off without a hitch, and despite Joe’s suspicions earlier in the episode, he and Eva never caught wise. Joe and Eva’s pitches never recovered after Kyle pulled the rug out from underneath them.

Stay tuned to TV Insider tomorrow for an interview with the winner of the $1 million. And on May 28, the Survivor 50 returning players cast gets announced.

Survivor, Season 49 Premiere, Fall 2025, CBS