Yamil "Yam Yam" Arocho
The loud, warm Tika castaway whose three-person alliance refused to die, and who walked away as its brain.
Sole Survivor
- Won Survivor 44 (2023) after 26 days.
Known for
Yam Yam built his game on Tika the old-fashioned way: by genuinely bonding with the people next to him. He, Carolyn Wiger and Carson Garrett became a tight trio, and that loyalty mattered more once the merge arrived and they looked outnumbered. Instead of getting picked apart, the Tika Three wriggled out of the bad spot and took hold of the end-game.
Against the odds, all three made the final four together. Carson fell in the fire-making challenge, and at Final Tribal Council the jury saw Yam Yam as the one steering the alliance rather than riding along. They rewarded that read with a 7-1-0 vote, handing Survivor 44 to the man who had kept his trio intact from the first week to the last, proof that a loyal little alliance can still beat the numbers.
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 44,” Wikipedia, accessed September 28, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_44.
- “List of Survivor (American TV series) episodes,” Wikipedia, accessed September 25, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Survivor_(American_TV_series)_episodes.
- “Yam Yam Arocho,” Survivor Wiki, accessed September 28, 2026, https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Yam_Yam_Arocho.