"Survivor" alum Sonja Christopher, the first contestant to be voted off the island of the reality competition, has died at age 87.
Entertainment Weekly confirmed the news Sunday. No cause of death has been disclosed.
Christopher, a retired music therapist, was 63 when she participated in the inaugural season of the reality show "Survivor: Borneo in 2000." She would play on her ukelele to boost her tribe's morale, singing "Bye Bye Blues" to eventual winner Richard Hatch.
She made "Survivor" history when she became the first competitor to have a torch extinguished by host Jeff Probst after she was voted out at Tribal Council.
Taking to Instagram, Probst described Christopher as "one of the kindest people to ever play 'Survivor.'"
"Every interaction I had with her over the years was lovely. She would always greet you with a smile on her face and joy in her heart. I’m honored that our paths got to cross," he wrote.
Three years prior to competing in "Survivor," Christopher battled invasive breast cancer, an experience she opened up about previously with Entertainment Weekly
"I was newly recovering from breast cancer treatment. And I had been in a 11-year relationship and my partner got consolation elsewhere during that time of the cancer," Christopher said. "So I had moved to a senior retirement community, and I was by myself, no ties, my son was grown and taking care of himself. I was reading the morning paper, and it said something in an article about CBS looking for 16 Americans to cast away on a deserted island and see who could survive for 39 days."
Christopher was voted out on day one there, after struggling with the first challenge. Twenty years later, she admitted to having "mixed feelings" about it in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
"I was pretty beaten up ... to this day, I still have bruises that don't go away," she said. "Someone once asked me if I thought my being voted off early was due to ageism. And I said, 'Oh, no.' And you know why is because I had no concept of ageism. I was always good at sports and very active physically. I just didn't realize I was, to some of these people, an old lady."
Despite it all, Christopher later shared that she was still a big fan of the show.
"I may have the dubious distinction of being the first person ever voted off 'Survivor,' but I have not missed one episode watching it in the past 17 years," she said in a 2017 video shared on social media. "I've recently turned 80 and I intend to watch the next 17 years of 'Survivor,' and then I can happily hike off to the giant Tribal Council in the sky. I hope they don't vote me off."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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