The winner of the inaugural season of Survivor: Australia V The World scored $250k after earning a near-clean sweep of the votes.

An international Survivor champion described by one of her fellow players as the “greatest of all time” took home the win during Sunday’s finale of the inaugural season of Survivor: Australia V The World.

American player Pavarti Shallow, 42, triumphed over Aussie players Janine Allis and Luke Toki, scoring all but one of the votes from the jury.

The victory makes five-time player Pavarti a rare double Survivor winner, having previously won Survivor: Micronesia — Fans vs. Favourites in 2008.

Back then she won $US1 million for her efforts, but 17 years on and playing for an Australian audience, the money’s a little more modest – $AU250,000, which equates to around $164,000 in US dollars.

Pavarti is now a rare two-time Survivor winner.

Survivor’s final three: Pavarti, Janine and Luke.
But as Shallow told news.com.au, her near-20-year love affair with Survivor has never really been about the potential cash windfall that comes with a win.

“I’m just excited to win! Truly, playing this game was not about the money for me, it was this redemption story. I feel like I deserve to be a two-time Survivor winner. So it was about the title for me,” she said.

And besides, she joked, “it’s probably gonna be $25 by the time I’ve paid taxes, so … I better be happy with the title.”

This was a super-short season, especially by Australian Survivor standards: Just 16 days in total, compared to some previous seasons that have stretched out to almost two months. Those who make it close to the end of those seasons have often undergone dramatic physical transformations, losing muscle and strength that can take many months to regain.

Keeping her game face on during the gruelling final challenge.
Shallow said she was grateful for the short, sharp season, which meant “it was much easier to recover after the game.”

“It was just far easier to bounce back,” she said. “The easiest part is, like, you’re not starving for that long.”

But she said there were also difficulties to navigating a quick game, filled with all-star players from around the world who wanted to hit the ground running.

“I think the hardest part about this was having to navigate the relationships so quickly, and form solid alliances immediately that I could trust and rely on, knowing how quickly the game was gonna move,” she said.

“And then being able to cut ties with certain people at the right moment… I really had to stick with the fast pacing of the game and cut people at the right time.”