Tony Vlachos

Tony Vlachos is an American police officer known as the winner of Survivor: Cagayan, the 2014 season of the long-running the reality TV competition series Survivor.

Personal life
Tony Vlachos was born on September 10, 1973 and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. The son of Greek parents who emigrated from Greece, and grew up idolizing law enforcement officers, and dreamed of one day becoming one. He graduated high school in 1992, and after spending several years working in various different jobs while "partying" with his friends and working on his automobiles. He states that despite this recreational period in his life, he did not smoke, drink alcohol or do drugs.

He began bodybuilding when he was 20, an activity with which he says he was "obsessed". He began working out in his basement with plastic weights filled with sand, and in about a year's time, graduated to iron weights.

In 2000 Vlachos became a Jersey City police officer. On February 5, 2014, he saved a 69-year-old man who had a massive heart attack on his lawn in nine inches of snow.

In 2007, Vlachos began dating a fellow police officer named Marissa. They dated for approximately three years before he proposed to her on July 24, 2010. They married in August 2012, and their daughter, Anastasia Marie, was born on February 16, 2013, five months before Vlachos left to film Survivor: Cagayan. Two months after arriving home, Vlachos and Marissa discovered she was two months pregnant with their second child, a son they named Constantine, due in June 2014.

Survivor: Cagayan
Vlachos was cast on the 28th season of the CBS reality television show Survivor. The theme of the season was Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty. Vlachos was cast as a "brawn" and started out on the Aparri tribe. Before the first tribal swap, Aparri dominated the immunity challenges and did not go to tribal council. During this time, Vlachos formed an alliance, dubbed "Cops-R-Us," with fellow police officer Sarah Lacina. Despite this alliance, Vlachos lied to Lacina about his profession, claiming he was a construction worker. Vlachos also became close with Trish Hegarty, and was wary of the popularity of former NBA All-Star Cliff Robinson. During the premiere episode, Vlachos was also able to find the Aparri tribe's hidden immunity idol without any clues.

With 14 contestants remaining in the game, the three tribes were dissolved into two. The entire Aparri tribe, sans Lacina, was placed on the Solana tribe, along with "beauty" tribe members LJ McKanas and Jefra Bland. Solana lost the immunity challenge to Aparri, sending Vlachos to tribal council for the first time in the game. Although it would have been easy for old "brawn" members to vote off either McKanas or Bland, Hegarty bonded with McKanas and wanted to target Robinson. Vlachos, as the swing vote, chose to eliminate Robinson. Upon returning to camp, Robinson's closest ally, Lindsey Ogle, quit the game after a dispute with Hegarty. This caused Vlachos to bring in Woo Hwang to his alliance, making the five members of Solana strong. Solana won the next reward challenge and was allowed to raid the Aparri camp and Vlachos and Hwang were selected to go. Vlachos, wanting to target one of Aparri's strongest challenge competitors in Jeremiah Wood, gave him the immunity idol clue meant for the Solana tribe in front of everyone. Solana went on to win the immunity challenge, but Wood was not eliminated.

At the Final 11, the two tribes formed the merged tribe, Solarrion. Vlachos' alliance of five was at a disadvantage to the six-member alliance of the old Aparri tribe. When Hwang won the individual immunity challenge, the majority alliance disagreed on whether Vlachos and McKanas had immunity idols. Lacina, who had switched sides on Vlachos, did not believe that either had idols and became bossy, angering alliance-mate Kass McQuillen. Vlachos' alliance saw this as an opportunity to bring in McQuillen to vote off Lacina. At tribal council, Vlachos and McKanas were not convinced that McQuillen would vote with them, so they played their immunity idols on each other. Neither of the idols were played correctly, as the majority alliance voted for Bland. It did not matter however, since McQuillen had flipped to Vlachos' alliance and successfully voted off Lacina.

With a six to four advantage, Vlachos became recognized as the kingpin of the game. He was able to eliminate minority alliance member Morgan McLeod at the Final 10, despite receiving all four of the votes of the minority alliance. At Final 9, Vlachos became convinced that McKanas was targeting him. Vlachos recruited the three players on the bottom, Wood, Spencer Bledsoe, and Tasha Fox, to vote with himself and Hwang to eliminate McKanas, and they were successful. Despite leaving them in the dark, Hegarty and McQuillen realigned with Vlachos and Hwang at the Final 8. During this episode, Vlachos found another hidden immunity idol, this one with "special powers." This idol was able to be played after the votes were read at tribal council, but could not be passed to another player. After much deliberation, Bland decided to rejoin Vlachos' alliance at the Final 8 and eliminate Wood.

At the Final 7, the castaways participated in the auction. Vlachos and Bledsoe both strategically saved their money for an item that could give them an advantage in the game. When both Vlachos and Bledsoe bid all $500, they drew rocks to determine who would receive the advantage, and Vlachos won. The advantage was a clue to another hidden immunity idol. Upon returning to camp, Vlachos found this idol, his third for the game, and shared that he had it with his alliance. When Fox won immunity, Bledsoe was the clear target. Bledsoe was able to convince Vlachos that Bland was conspiring against him and was going to form an all-female alliance. With this knowledge, Vlachos teamed up with the minority alliance again with Hwang and booted Bland from the game.

At the Final 6, Bledsoe won individual immunity, making Fox the next target. Bledsoe and Fox tried to make a move against Vlachos by recruiting Hwang and McQuillen to flip on him, but neither went for it, sending Fox home. At the Final 5, Vlachos won the reward challenge and invited Hegarty to enjoy the pizza with him. Vlachos became extremely annoyed by McQuillen and wanted to send her home when Bledsoe won another individual immunity, but ultimately decided to vote out Hegarty because she was a threat to win the jury vote. At the Final 4, during a visit to the remaining castaways by their loved ones, Vlachos was visited by his best friend. At the immunity challenge, McQuillen won in a comeback victory, which marked the end of Bledsoe's game. At the Final 3, it appeared that Vlachos needed to win individual immunity to secure his place in the final tribal council, since McQuillen was considered to be an easy opponent to beat. When Hwang won the challenge, Vlachos had to convince him to take him to the Final 2. Vlachos argued that in order for Hwang to maintain the integrity he claimed to play with that he needed to take his long-time alliance and more worthy opponent with him. Hwang voted out McQuillen, allowing Vlachos to advance to the Final 2.

At the final tribal council, Vlachos received much criticism from the jury members, particularly Lacina, McKanas, Wood, Bland, and Hegarty. However, Bledsoe, as the final jury member to speak, gave a final speech to the jury defending Vlachos's game and insisting that, even if he was not particularly likable, he was the most deserving of the win due having played strategically. Ultimately, Vlachos beat Hwang by an overwhelming 8-1 margin, earning the votes of every jury member except Fox.

Aftermath
After his win, Aaron W. Fraser, a New Jersey congressional candidate, tried to get Vlachos fired from his job for showing himself to be a "trickster, liar, backstabber and dealer."