Mike Gabler
The Baka elder, decades older than his tribemates, who made one loud move, then hid in plain sight all the way to the win.
Sole Survivor
- Won Survivor 43 (2022) after 26 days.
Known for
Gabler found Baka a tough fit at first, but he built the Baka Boys with Sami Layadi and Owen Knight and carried an idol from the Day 2 summit. When Sami told him Elie Scott and Jeanine Zheng had searched his bag, the trust was gone, and at the merge Gabler rallied players from every tribe to vote Elie out. After that he went quiet on purpose.
He formed the Ride or Die alliance with Cody Assenmacher and Jesse Lopez, helped blindside Ryan Medrano and Noelle Lambert, then planted doubts about Cody with Jesse and about Karla with Cassidy Clark. Both targets fell, and nobody traced it back to him. Cassidy picked him to make fire against frontrunner Jesse, and he lit it in just over four minutes. At Final Tribal he sold the hide-in-plain-sight plan, pointing out that no one had ever cast a vote against him, and he won 7-1-0.
Background: Survivor Wiki
The season they played
Photo and logos: CBS
Seasons played, finishing positions, day counts, jury status, ages and hometowns come from the contestant table in each season's Wikipedia article, cross-checked against the series overview before publication.
Sources (3)
- “Survivor 43,” Wikipedia, accessed September 28, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_43.
- “List of Survivor (American TV series) episodes,” Wikipedia, accessed September 25, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Survivor_(American_TV_series)_episodes.
- “Mike Gabler,” Survivor Wiki, accessed September 28, 2026, https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Mike_Gabler.