Tyson Apostol

Tyson Apostol
Born	(1979-06-17) June 17, 1979 Provo, Utah
Occupation	Reality show contestant, former professional bicyclist
Television	Survivor: Tocantins Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains Survivor: Blood vs. Water (winner)
Spouse(s)	Rachel Foulger (m. 2014)

Tyson Apostol (born June 17, 1979) is an American reality television personality, best known for his appearances on multiple seasons of the CBS reality television show Survivor. Apostol originally competed on Survivor: Tocantins in 2009, returning as a villain on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains in 2010. In 2013, he returned to the show for his third season, and ultimately went on to win the million dollar prize, on Survivor: Blood vs. Water.

Apostol is a former professional cyclist and starred in Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars 2 with his then-girlfriend, now-wife, Rachel Foulger. He is a frequent guest on the Reality TV Podcast, Rob Has a Podcast, hosted by fellow Survivor contestant Rob Cesternino, and hosts News AF, a weekly news podcast.

Early life

Apostol was born in Provo, Utah, on June 17, 1979. He was raised in Lindon, Utah, and currently lives in Heber City, Utah.^[1] He is a bike shop owner and has cycled professionally in Switzerland, Belgium, and Austria, most notably riding for the Austrian professional continental team, Team Volksbank.

Apostol attended Brigham Young University where he earned a swimming scholarship, but did not graduate. He spent two years in the Philippines as a Mormon missionary.^[1]

Survivor

Survivor: Tocantins

Apostol was placed on the Timbira tribe, initially sticking with the majority alliance and forming a particularly close bond with Benjamin "Coach" Wade, who dubbed Apostol his "assistant coach". Early on, Apostol wanted to blindside fellow contestant Erinn Lobdell; however, he eventually sided with the majority and voted out the ill Jerry Sims. At the merge, Apostol won the first individual immunity by outlasting former tribemate Debbie Beebe. Apostol went on to win immunity again with nine contestants left as well. Coach and Apostol aligned with Stephen Fishbach, James "J.T." Thomas, Jr., and Beebe, blindsiding Brendan Synnott with Lobdell and Tamara "Taj" Johnson-George's cooperation. Sierra Reed became the target, but Thomas, Lobdell, and Fishbach joined the other group, deciding that Apostol was a bigger threat than Reed; Apostol was voted out and became the second juror. He eventually voted for Thomas to win the game.^[2]

Jeff Probst stated that Apostol was one of his favorites of the season because he was maniacal and unpredictable.^[3]

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains

Apostol accepted an offer to participate in the Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains season, where he was assigned to the Villains tribe. Apostol's tribe dominated the initial immunity challenges. He formed an alliance with Jerri Manthey and fellow Tocantins participant Benjamin "Coach" Wade.^[4] He appeared to be safe after joining the alliance of Rob Mariano, Sandra Diaz-Twine, and Courtney Yates, along with Wade and Manthey. This group held a majority over the bloc of Russell Hantz, Parvati Shallow, and Danielle DiLorenzo. When both the Heroes and Villains tribes had to vote someone out consecutively, Mariano directed his alliance to split their votes due to Hantz's possession of a hidden immunity idol. Hantz manipulated Apostol into disobeying Mariano's plan, and instead of forcing a tie, Apostol switched his vote to Shallow. After Hantz gave Shallow the hidden immunity idol and she played it, Apostol was eliminated by a vote of 3-2 (Hantz's idol negated four votes against Shallow). Had Apostol stuck to Mariano's plan, he and Hantz would have tied 3-3, and Hantz would presumably have been eliminated on the revote. Apostol was the sixth survivor and the second Villain to be voted out of the season. Apostol's essentially voting himself out of the game has been called "one of the dumbest moves in Survivor history."^[5][6]

Survivor: Blood vs. Water

Apostol returned for Survivor's 27th season, Survivor: Blood vs. Water. This time, he and his longtime girlfriend, Rachel Foulger, were both cast as contestants.^[7] Apostol was assigned to the Galang tribe and Foulger to the Tadhana tribe. Foulger was the fourth person eliminated from the game after being the second contestant to be voted out in a Tribal Council.

Later on, a tribe switch put Apostol on a tribe with fellow former Galang members Gervase Peterson and Aras Baskauskas, as well as former Tadhana members Hayden Moss, Ciera Eastin, and Caleb Bankston. Using the clues to the hidden immunity idol's location, given to him verbally by Moss and Bankston, Apostol found the first idol by himself and kept it a secret. Apostol formed an alliance with Peterson, Moss, Eastin, and Bankston. At the merge, this alliance joined with Monica Culpepper and Eastin's mother, Laura Morett, to take out Baskauskas, Baskauskas's brother, Vytas Baskauskas, and Tina Wesson. From here, Apostol began looking further past this alliance of seven, orchestrating Morett's return to Redemption Island and voting out Bankston, who was conspiring to blindside him. In this tribal council, Apostol used his idol, even though no votes were cast against him and Bankston still received the majority of votes.

With the sudden revelation that he had had the idol all along, Apostol began facing rebellion within his alliance from Moss and Eastin, who continuously appealed to Culpepper to switch her vote and go with them to vote against Apostol and Peterson. However, Apostol maintained control of Peterson and Culpepper, and even found the idol a second time, utilizing the clue that Eastin was given. He later won the final two immunity challenges and, in the penultimate tribal council, gave his second idol to Peterson and negated the votes cast against him, sending Eastin to the jury.

Apostol won the final immunity challenge, thus guaranteeing himself a spot in the final three. He decided to vote out former Survivor winner Tina Wesson, who had just returned from Reunion Island, recognizing she was his only remaining threat for jury votes, and thus going to the finals alongside the poorly liked Peterson and Culpepper. Both Peterson and Culpepper were widely viewed by the jury as riding Apostol's coattails, letting him make all the decisions, and doing little to play their own games, with Culpepper especially being criticized for failing to make a big blindside move against Apostol and Peterson despite numerous opportunities to do so. Culpepper was also razzed for her lack of social bonds with any of the other players outside of her alliance, and broke down crying during Final Tribal Council. Though Apostol was responsible for most of the jury members' eliminations, his method of playing the game was praised, and he was voted the $1 million winner, receiving 7 of the 8 jury votes (with Culpepper receiving only the vote of Vytas).

Personal life

Apostol proposed to his girlfriend of six and half years, Rachel Foulger, during the finale of Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars 2. The episode aired on March 13, 2015.^[8] On March 15, 2015, Apostol and Foulger confirmed that in the time since filming Marriage Boot Camp, they had gotten married. Apostol's Survivor: Tocantins co-star, Stephen Fishbach, performed the private ceremony.^[9]

Foulger gave birth to the couple's first child, a baby girl named Bergen Rose, on June 25, 2015.^[10]

References

External links