Teresa Cooper

Teresa Wright Cooper (also known as T-Bird) is a contestant from Survivor: Africa.

Emerging as one of the most memorable early castaways in the series' history, Teresa was a largely likable and respected presence among her tribemates. Following the merge, her decision to cast a stray vote for Lex van den Berghe would unintentionally set Lex off on his infamous "witch hunt." After the betrayal and subsequent elimination of Brandon Quinton, her remaining alliance members were voted out consecutively until she was alone. After finally confessing to her vote for Lex and making a last-ditch effort to fracture the dominant Boran Alliance, Teresa was eliminated at the final five as the last Samburu remaining.

Profile[]

Retrieved from CBS.com

Age: 42
Marital Status: Married
Occupation: Flight Attendant/Real Estate Agent
Hometown: Jackson, Georgia
Luxury Item: Lucky Bullet Necklace

Teresa Cooper was born a fraternal twin (to her brother, Don) and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated from Georgia Southern University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology.

Cooper is a 20-year veteran flight attendant for a major airline, for whom she flies as a German qualified speaker and also as an international flight coordinator. She is a certified real estate agent, and works full time as a recruiting and sales representative for a cosmetic company. A former aerobics instructor, Cooper is a competitive runner. She has participated in marathons, half marathons and 10Ks, including one while she was 9 months pregnant.

For the past 13 years, Teresa Cooper has lived in Jackson, Georgia on a 161-acre farm with her husband, Brian, and two children, Tyler, 9, and Ellie, 5. Besides running, Cooper's other hobbies include investing in real estate, biking with her children and studying the German language. She describes herself as energetic, loyal and driven. Her birth date is May 5.^[1]

Survivor[]

Assigned to the Samburu tribe, Teresa faced a rough start to the game. Despite her tribe's early winning streak, tensions arose at camp, where her fellow older members complained about the younger members' laziness. This created two conflicting voting blocs. When Samburu lost their first Immunity Challenge, the alliances held, thus enforcing a 4-4 tie between Teresa's ally Carl Bilancione and younger alliance member Lindsey Richter. Carl lost the tiebreaker, and Teresa, along with Frank Garrison and Linda Spencer, were put in a death row situation, with Linda going next after losing another Immunity Challenge.

Teresa and Frank found themselves in serious trouble for being on the outs, though things changed after a game-changing event on Day 13. After receiving a strange Tree Mail instructing them to send three members "on a quest," Silas Gaither (the ringleader of the younger alliance) sent the two remaining elders and himself. When they met Jeff Probst, together with Boran's representatives, things turned on its head when Jeff swapped their tribe affiliations, thus sending Teresa, Silas, and Frank to the rival Boran tribe. Upon meeting their new teammates, Teresa immediately approached Kim Johnson, Ethan Zohn, and Clarence Black to eliminate Silas in exchange for swearing loyalty with Boran. She pleaded to purposefully lose the next Immunity Challenge in order to have an opportunity to oust Silas. Teresa's plan came to fruition when Silas was blindsided in a unanimous vote. Still bitter about the Younger Samburu Alliance's mistreatment of them, Teresa informed Kim J. about Lindsey's previous votes, with the latter then informing her former tribemate Kelly Goldsmith about it before a Reward Challenge. Lindsey eventually paid the price because of the valuable information.

Come the merge, the original Samburu members were in a precarious position, having a 6-4 deficit over Boran. During the first post-merge Immunity Challenge, Clarence and Teresa were the only ones remaining after six hours. After Teresa promised Clarence that she would not vote for him if he let her win immunity, an exhausted Clarence proposed a game of rock-paper-scissors to determine the winner of the challenge. Teresa won, and Clarence stepped down as promised, giving Teresa the first individual Immunity Challenge win. At Tribal Council, she kept her promise and voted for Lex van den Berghe, though with the rest of the Moto Maji tribe voting against him, Clarence was still eliminated. After Tribal Council, however, Teresa's vote became the center of controversy, as Lex was trying to track down who voted against him. With Lex not suspecting her at all, Teresa decided to keep the "mystery vote" for herself, while Lex mistakenly accused Kelly as the culprit. In an unprecedented move, the outcasted Kelly turned to Teresa and the other Samburus and attempted to blindside Lex. Unfortunately, the plan fell through when Brandon Quinton went rouge and joined the Borans in voting out Kelly.

Feeling betrayed by Brandon, she would join the rest of the tribe (sans Lex) in voting him out at the next Tribal Council. The remaining loyal Samburus would then be systematically eliminated, leaving Teresa as the only former Samburu come Day 34. Knowing that she was next, Teresa stirred some conflict when she attempted to turn Lex on Tom and revealed that she had cast the "mystery vote". Lex was stunned but thanked her for being honest. Despite the last-minute hustle, the ex-Borans stayed strong, leading to Teresa's elimination (and Samburu's extinction) on Day 36.

At the Final Tribal Council, Teresa asked the finalists if they would take back anything that they have said. Kim J. said that she regretted accusing others of the mystery vote. Ethan said that he regrets accusing Frank of the mystery vote. Teresa thanks the finalists for their answers. Teresa deemed Ethan as more deserving, and she voted for him.

Episode	Tribe Affiliation	Challenge	Challenge Type	Sit-Out?	Result
1	Samburu	Trail Blazer	Reward/Immunity	No	Won
2		Stairway to the Stars	Reward	No	Won
2		Safari Supper	Immunity	No	Won
3		Rock n' Roll	Reward	No	Lost
3		Distress Signal	Immunity	No	Lost
4		Caught in the Web	Reward	No	Won
4		Movin' On Up	Immunity	Yes	Lost
Switched Tribes, Day 13
5	Boran	Get Your Goat	Reward	No	Won
5		Puzzle of Shields	Immunity	No	Lost
6		Africa 102	Reward	No	Lost
6		Spear-it Hunt	Immunity	No	Won
Tribes Merged, Day 20
7	Moto Maji	When It Rains, It Pours	Immunity		Won
9		Stomp-ede	Reward		Lost
9		Box Your Mind	Immunity		Lost
10		Obstacle Course	Reward		Lost
10		Light It Up	Immunity		Lost
11		Survivor Auction
11		African Folklore	Immunity		Lost
12		Know Your Loved One	Reward		Lost
12		Pot Shots	Immunity		Lost
13		Swahili Scramble	Reward		Lost
13		Second Chance	Immunity		Lost
Voted Out, Day 36

Episode	Teresa's Votes	Voted Against Teresa
1	Samburu Tribe Immune
2	Samburu Tribe Immune
3	Lindsey; Lindsey¹	-
4	Silas	-
5	Silas	-
6	Boran Tribe Immune
7	Lex	Individual Immunity
9	Lex	-
10	Brandon	-
11	Frank	-
12	Lex	-
13	Tom	Ethan, Kim J., Lex, Tom
Voted Out, Day 36
Voted For Sole Survivor	Ethan

^1 In "The Gods Are Angry", the vote ended with a 4-4 tie between Carl and Lindsey, forcing a revote. Teresa did not change her vote on the revote.

Post-Survivor[]

Teresa worked at CBS Atlanta following her elimination.^[2]
In early 2002, Teresa, along with all of her Africa castmates, appeared on Late Show with David Letterman where they would present the top 10.^[3]
Teresa attended the Thailand Reunion Show.
Teresa had since divorced Brian and on April 16, 2016, Teresa got remarried to Glenn Carroll.^[4]
Teresa currently co-hosts Talking With T-Bird with Rob Cesternino on Rob Has a Podcast, where they talk with past Survivor contestants.

Trivia[]

In a discussion with Rob Cesternino on Twitter, Teresa revealed that she appeared as a contestant on the CBS game show Card Sharks in 1987.^[5]
Teresa is the first contestant to reside in Georgia during filming.
Teresa's luxury item was a lucky bullet necklace.
According to Teresa, her fellow Samburu tribemates called her "Tina" earlier in the game.^[6] In response to this, Teresa asked her tribemates to call her "T-Bird".^[7]
Teresa is the first woman to win the first individual Immunity Challenge of the season.

Teresa Second Chance Voting — Teresa's publicity photo for the voting of the *Cambodia* cast.

Teresa is the highest-placing member of the original Samburu tribe.
Teresa is the only Samburu member to win individual immunity.
Teresa was considered for All-Stars, but did not make the final cast.^[8]
Teresa was one of 32 contestants eligible to be selected to compete on Cambodia,^[9] but was not chosen in the final vote. This makes her the only pre-All-Stars candidate that was not chosen to return.