Adam Scott Klein[2] is the Sole Survivor of Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X. He later competed on Survivor: Winners at War.
A long-time superfan of the show, Adam started Millennials vs. Gen X on the Vanua tribe, where he found himself in the minority after the first Tribal Council. He ended up in a swing vote position after the tribe switch, and eventually flipped on the Millennials majority, voting out Figgy Figueroa. After the merge, he joined the majority and eventually became a member of David's Vinaka Alliance. Despite being on the wrong side of the numbers following a rock draw tiebreaker in which he took part, as well as finding and misplaying two Hidden Immunity Idols, he navigated to the final four as an active member of his alliance, and played a crucial role in the elimination of David Wright at that point. At the Final Tribal Council, his strong strategic and social game-play won him the respect of the jury and resulted in a unanimous victory.
In Winners at War, Adam attempted to play more aggressively. On Sele, he found himself on the hot seat early for leaving camp with ally Denise Stapley; when he figured this out, he managed to turn the tide and orchestrated the elimination of Natalie Anderson. However, his gameplay backfired disastrously after revealing a blindside plan to Rob Mariano, and he became a target for the remainder of his time in the game. Ultimately, he was voted out shortly after the merge in a memorable Tribal Council where he tried to play a podium decoration that he thought was a Hidden Immunity Idol. He finished in 12th place after failing to win the re-entry duel.
Profile[]
Retrieved from CBS.com
Name: Adam Klein
Hometown: Burlingame, California |
Survivor[]
Millennials vs. Gen X[]
Adam began the game on the Millennials tribe, Vanua. He seemed to be in a good position as the Triforce alliance prompted the formation of a counter-alliance that he was a part of. However, Michelle Schubert led the charge to cause three members of the "misfits" to flip and join her Triforce in blindsiding Mari Takahashi, leaving Adam and Zeke Smith on the outs. Both of them were upset with Hannah Shapiro after Tribal Council despite her desire to work with them in the future. Now in a vulnerable position, Adam tried to regroup the remnants of his alliance and found Vanua's Hidden Immunity Idol.
After the tribe switch, he was put on Takali with Millennials Figgy Figueroa and Taylor Stocker and Gen-Xers Ken McNickle and Jessica Lewis. At their only Tribal Council visit, knowing how powerful Figgy and Taylor were, Adam took the opportunity to blindside Figgy. This would cause Taylor to target him for the rest of the game, though Adam was unaware of Taylor's grudge against him.
At the merge, Adam found an advantage that allowed him to steal someone's reward. Later that night he attempted to build trust with Taylor by telling him about his advantage and advising him to target Will Wahl. Taylor however used the latter to turn the merged tribe against Adam. Despite Adam's paranoia after Will won the Immunity Challenge, which caused his own allies to distrust him, his alliance protected him by voting out Michelle, though Adam received four votes from the Triforce. Adam continued to worsen his position by arrogantly telling Jay Starrett that he was on the bottom, further angering his allies. At the next Tribal Council, Taylor attempted to turn the majority on Adam by lying about Adam eating the food Taylor stole and revealing the latter's advantage, which Adam confirmed. However, Adam was saved again and Taylor was voted out.
After that, the decisions got tougher as sub alliances began jockeying for position. Adam joined David Wright's alliance in blindsiding Chris Hammons at the next Tribal Council. At the final ten, Adam told David to play his Hidden Immunity Idol on Ken after Sunday Burquest lied to him about Ken being the target, which resulted in a tie between Hannah and Zeke. Then a rock drawing tiebreaker occurred, where Jessica picked the black rock and was sent to the jury.
At the family visit, Adam met his brother Evan. He then announced that he has an advantage to steal a reward, but will not use it. Jay won the challenge and chose to share the reward with Will, Sunday, and Adam. Evan shared information about their mother's battle with cancer. To show his gratitude to Jay for sharing the reward with him, Adam gave Jay the Reward Steal. Adam won the next Immunity Challenge. At Tribal Council, he played his idol on Hannah, which negated the four votes at against her, but it was unneeded as Will had flipped and Zeke was blindsided. On Day 34, Adam decided to target Will because he was trying to play both sides. Adam's plan worked as Will was blindsided. After Ken won immunity at the final seven, Adam wanted to split the votes between David and Jay to eliminate both Jay's idol and a major threat to win. However, Hannah wanted to vote out Sunday, leaving Adam conflicted. He told Jay to play his idol, and confided in him about his mother's cancer battle. At Tribal Council, Adam sided with Hannah and Sunday was blindsided. On Day 36, Adam, David, Hannah, Bret LaBelle, and Ken blindsided Jay. On Day 37, Ken won immunity. Adam and Bret decided to target David; Adam then searched for an idol, which he found. He told Hannah about his new idol and plan to eliminate David. At Tribal Council, Adam played the idol on himself but received no votes and Hannah and Ken sided with David, blindsiding Bret and leaving Adam shocked. On Day 38, Ken won the Final Immunity Challenge. Knowing he and David were the targets, Adam practiced for a possible fire-making tiebreaker, but at Tribal Council, Ken sided with Adam and Hannah and David was blindsided.
At the Final Tribal Council, Adam and Hannah argued about strategic decisions, and Adam finally admitted to the entire jury about his mother having cancer. Believing he played the best strategic and social game amongst the finalists, the jury of 10 unanimously voted for Adam to win the title of Sole Survivor, making him the fifth winner to win unanimously.
| Episode | Tribe Affiliation |
Challenge | Challenge Type | Sit-Out? | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vanua | Got to Choose | Reward/Immunity | No | Won |
| 2 | The Ocean | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost | |
| 3 | Going Coconuts | Reward/Immunity | No | Won | |
| 4 | Water Slaughter | Reward | No | Lost | |
| Angry Chair | Immunity | Yes | Won | ||
| Switched Tribes, Day 13 | |||||
| 5 | Takali | Holy Diver | Immunity | No | 2nd |
| 6 | Blind Faith | Reward | No | Lost | |
| It's in the Bag | Immunity | Yes | Lost | ||
| 7 | Matt Finish | Reward | No | Lost | |
| Bail Out | Immunity | No | 1st | ||
| Tribes Merged, Day 21 | |||||
| 8 | Vinaka | Fools in the Rain | Immunity | Lost | |
| 9 | All Mixed Up | Reward | Lost | ||
| Bo Diddley | Immunity | No | Lost | ||
| 10 | Ferryman | Reward | No | Won | |
| With a 10-ft. Pole | Immunity | Lost | |||
| Slither Me Timbers | Reward | No | Lost | ||
| Rusty Gates | Immunity | Lost | |||
| 11 | Rope A Dope | Reward | Invited | ||
| Push Me, Pull You | Immunity | Won | |||
| 12 | Wizard's Staff | Immunity | Lost | ||
| Pinball Wizard | Immunity | Lost | |||
| 13 | Tower of Power | Reward/Immunity | Invited1 | ||
| Draw the Line | Immunity | Lost | |||
| Operation Balance Build | Immunity | Lost | |||
| Sole Survivor, Day 39 | |||||
| Notes: ^1 After stealing the reward from David, Jay shared his reward with Adam.
| |||||
| Episode | Adam's Votes |
Voted Against Adam |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vanua Tribe Immune | |
| 2 | Figgy | - |
| 3 | Vanua Tribe Immune | |
| 4 | Vanua Tribe Immune | |
| 5 | Takali Tribe Immune | |
| 6 | Figgy | - |
| 7 | Takali Tribe Immune | |
| 8 | Michelle | Jay, Michelle, Taylor, Will |
| 9 | Taylor | Taylor |
| 10 | Chris | - |
| Zeke; Zeke1 |
- | |
| 11 | Zeke | Individual Immunity |
| 12 | Will | - |
| Sunday | - | |
| 13 | Jay | - |
| David | -2 | |
| David | David | |
| Jury Votes for Adam |
Bret, Chris, David, Jay, Jessica, Michelle, Sunday, Taylor, Will, Zeke | |
| Sole Survivor, Day 39 | ||
^1 In "Million Dollar Gamble", the vote ended with a 5-5 tie between Hannah and Zeke, forcing a revote. Adam did not change his vote on the revote.
^2 In "I'm Going for a Million Bucks", Adam used a Hidden Immunity Idol, but did not negate any votes against him.
Winners at War[]
Adam's eagerness to play with his favorite former players quickly put a target on his back. Although he succeeded in aligning with Denise Stapley on their way to the well, the two were away for too long which caused the rest of Sele to be suspicious of them. Ben Driebergen warned Adam of this development, which frustrated him as players were ignoring more obvious pairings. Adam tried to sway the tribe against Natalie Anderson and Jeremy Collins as their history in San Juan del Sur meant they were more dangerous than he was. This plan succeeded as Natalie was sent to the Edge of Extinction on Day 2. When Denise found a Hidden Immunity Idol, she told Adam about how she was instructed to give half of the idol to another player. Though she initially considered giving it to Parvati Shallow, Adam convinced her to make the safer play and share it with him. Adam would give it back to Denise prior to the next Tribal Council, where they successfully evaded Rob Mariano's impromptu bag search. Despite this, Adam still felt he had a good relationship with Rob to the extent of informing him of Adam's intentions of voting out Parvati at the next opportunity. Rob immediately used this information against Adam, prompting Adam's allies to not trust him and the other alliance to target him. He was spared by his alliance's decision to blindside Ethan Zohn instead.
Adam tried to make up for his blunder by doing more work around camp. His efforts would be undone by Parvati and Rob convincing the rest of the tribe that Adam was still scheming with them. A Tribe Switch occurred just in time, but it left Adam with an uneasy majority consisting of two players he had bad relationships with at this point: Ben and Rob. Despite their initial agreement to work together and vote out Sarah Lacina or Sophie Clarke, Adam was annoyed by Rob's "Buddy System" strategy and decided to vote out the Redemption Island winner. This decision ultimately boxed him into a corner as Ben grew closer to the original Dakal women than he did. Adam's constant searching for the idol (which Sophie had found the day of the swap) would cause friction with the rest of Yara, with Ben and Adam starting to butt heads more frequently.
His lack of strong allies and reputation as an unreliable ally put Adam in a familiar spot: an easy target shortly after the merge. Adam saw through the assurances he received that either Nick Wilson or Wendell Holland would be the target as no one would commit to solely either name. Adam narrowly survived the vote on Day 21 at Wendell's expense, but Adam was not content with maintaining the status quo. He spoke to Michele Fitzgerald about a possible idol at Tribal Council, hoping to make a move using it. Following the Day 23 Immunity Challenge, Adam pushed for Sarah to be voted out due to her closeness with multiple key players. This set off a series of dizzying strategic conversations. The madness continued into a live Tribal Council, where Adam continued to fight for his place in the game and his rivalry with Ben reached its climax. Upon realizing that he would be receiving enough votes to be voted out, Adam approached the pedestal to try to pry the emblem off of it. Thinking it was an idol but unable to remove it, Adam attempted to play it. After some teasing, Jeff Probst confirmed that it was not an idol, and a content Adam, knowing he did what he could, was voted out 8-2-1.
Adam was unsuccessful at any of the remaining tasks on the Edge, and was unable to win his way back into the game on Day 35. At Final Tribal Council, Adam asked Natalie what else she did besides returning to the game to warrant receiving his jury vote. He was pleased to learn that Tony Vlachos had implemented a "spy nest" into his strategy. Adam ultimately joined in crowning Tony the Sole Survivor of Winners at War.
| Episode | Tribe Affiliation |
Challenge | Challenge Type | Sit-Out? | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sele | Marooning | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost |
| Blue Lagoon Bustle | Immunity | No | Won | ||
| 2 | Draggin' the Dragon | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost | |
| 3 | Along the Watch Tower | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost | |
| 4 | Beyond the Wheel | Reward/Immunity | No | Won | |
| Switched Tribes, Day 12 | |||||
| 5 | Yara | Block in a Hard Place | Immunity | No | Lost |
| 6 | Rice Race | Reward/Immunity | No | Won | |
| 7 | Ball-istic Missiles | Reward1 | No | 1st | |
| Dishwalla | Immunity | No | 1st | ||
| Tribes Merged, Day 19 | |||||
| 8 | Koru | Get a Grip | Immunity | Lost | |
| 9 | New School | Reward | No | Lost | |
| Bermuda Triangle | Immunity | Lost | |||
| Voted Out, Day 23 | |||||
| 14 | Koru | Don't Call It a Comeback | Re-entry | Lost | |
| Eliminated, Day 35 | |||||
| Notes: ^1 An unaired Reward Challenge was held on Day 17.
| |||||
| Episode | Adam's Votes |
Voted Against Adam |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natalie | Jeremy |
| Sele Tribe Immune | ||
| 2 | Danni | - |
| 3 | Parvati | Ethan, Parvati, Rob |
| 4 | Sele Tribe Immune | |
| 5 | Rob | - |
| 6 | Yara Tribe Immune | |
| 7 | Yara Tribe Immune | |
| 8 | Wendell | Michele, Nick, Wendell |
| 9 | Sarah | Ben, Jeremy, Kim, Michele, Nick, Sophie, Tony, Tyson |
| Voted Out, Day 23 | ||
| 10 | On Edge of Extinction | |
| 11 | ||
| 12 | ||
| 13 | ||
| 14 | ||
| Eliminated, Day 35 | ||
| Voted for Sole Survivor |
Tony | |
Post-Survivor[]
Adam proposing to his girlfriend.
- Adam opened a non-profit fundraiser towards cancer research after the death of his mother.[5]
- On April 25, 2019, Adam appeared as a contestant on Let's Make a Deal.[6]
- Adam is currently providing casting coach services for reality television competitions including Survivor.[7]
- Adam, along with nineteen other former Survivor, Australian Survivor, Survivor South Africa, and Survivor New Zealand contestants, competed in the second Survivor-themed mini-competition of Sequester on June 20, 2020. He was eliminated in the sixteenth and penultimate round, finishing in 3rd place.[8]
- On December 17, 2021, Adam revealed in a tweet he had tested positive for COVID-19.[9]
- On December 6, 2022, Adam got engaged to his girlfriend, Kailey Maurer.[10]
- Adam and Kailey got married on April 26, 2024.[11]
- Most of his Millennials vs Gen X castmates attended, as well as Carolyn Rivera,[12] Kellyn Bechtold, and David Jelinsky.
Trivia[]
- Adam was the one who suggested the name Vinaka for the merged tribe.[13]
- Adam is the first contestant to find and possess the Reward Steal advantage.
- Adam is the second person to possess both a Hidden Immunity Idol and an advantage at the same time, preceded by Tai Trang. He was followed by Lauren Rimmer and Aubry Bracco.
- Adam set the record for the latest discovery of a Hidden Immunity Idol, finding his second one on Day 37. This would later be tied by Ben Driebergen in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, Rick Devens in Edge of Extinction, and Natalie Anderson in Winners at War.
- Adam is the second Sole Survivor to take part in a rock draw tiebreaker, after Tyson Apostol.
- Adam is the fifth person to win Survivor in a unanimous vote, following Earl Cole, J.T. Thomas, John Cochran, and Jeremy Collins.
- Adam has the most elimination votes against a unanimous winner, with six.
- Adam is the youngest contestant to compete on Winners at War.
- Being 28 at the time of filming, Adam is the oldest person to be the youngest contestant of a season.
- Adam is the second contestant to try to play a prop as a Hidden Immunity Idol, after Jaime Dugan.
- Adam received the most elimination votes in Winners at War, with 15.
- Adam lost 18 lbs. during his time on Winners at War. Upon learning his weight, Adam noted that he weighed 118 lbs. after the conclusion of Millennials vs. Gen X.[14]
References[]
- ↑ https://twitter.com/AdamForSurvivor/status/290983455519543296
- ↑ https://twitter.com/AdamScottKlein
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20230530052240/https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/215461/
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20230421151826/https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/216300/
- ↑ https://www.youcaring.com/lung-cancer-research-nonprofit-tbd-572269
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvuQvAtf36w&t=1s
- ↑ https://adamklein.com/casting
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNMcwCWh1Bg
- ↑ https://twitter.com/AdamScottKlein/status/1471726309122265095
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl2PPclJujT/
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/C6RsTigPJy1/?img_index=2
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/C6Rapfdx9RF/
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/5gel06/s33_merge_name/daroo0n/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij6WXsag3h0
| Preceded by Kaôh Rōng  Michele Fitzgerald |
Sole Survivor Titleholder Millennials vs. Gen X  Adam Klein |
Succeeded by Game Changers  Sarah Lacina |
| Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X Castaways | |||||||||||||||||||
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