What an ending! After a thrilling two-hour finale, one castaway was declared the winner of Survivor 48, taking home the $1,000,000 prize. In Touch breaks down how the jury came to their decision.

Who Won ‘Survivor’ Season 48?

Kyle Fraser won season 48 in a nail-biting finale. He beat out Joe Hunter and Eva Erickson at the final tribal council, where the votes were shockingly split among them. Ultimately, he came out on top thanks to his convincing answers to the jury members’ questions at the final grilling.

Mary Zheng and Star Toomey voted for Eva to win, while Cedrek McFadden was the only person to vote for Joe. Everyone else voted for Kyle.

Who Were the Top 3 on ‘Survivor’ Season 48?

The top three of season 48 were Kyle, Joe and Eva. The night started with Joe, Eva, Kyle, Kamilla and Mitch squaring off in two immunity challenges, two tribal councils and the always dramatic fire-making challenge.

Who won immunity was going to be key, as Mitch needed to save himself as the only player not in an alliance. Joe and Eva proved unbreakable from day one, while Kyle and Kamilla rode their secret alliance through an initial tribal swap all the way to the top five. However, it was up to Joe and Eva to determine if they got played by Kyle and Kamilla the week prior in voting out fellow “Strong 4” alliance member Shauhin Davari. Additionally, Eva had an immunity idol given to her by Star in week 5.

It was Kamilla who won the first immunity challenge of the three-hour finale night. Eva used her idol at that night’s tribal council. Mitch ended up getting voted out. Kyle won the second immunity challenge of the night, choosing Eva and Kamilla to make fire to decide who would sit next to him and Joe in the final three. Eva ended up winning the fire-making challenge. At the final tribal council, Eva, Kyle and Joe all pleaded their cases to the jury in the hopes of winning $1 million. Kyle just had the better overall argument at the final tribal, revealing that he is a lawyer and was playing the field in multiple alliances all along.

The ‘Survivor’ 48 Jury Showdown Was Intense

Heading into the final tribal council, fans expected Joe to get a grilling by David Kinne. The stunt performer was initially part of the “Strong 5,” until Joe turned on David and joined in voting him out in week 9. But David playfully said he was tired of frowning and told a funny knock-knock joke at the final tribal council, which definitely lightened the mood. Joe actually didn’t end up saying a whole lot at the final tribal, which was shocking considering he dominated the season in challenges and social game.

The Buena Park, California, resident and the rest of the strong-person team agreed to play a fair and honest game old-school style. They wanted to forgo backstabbing and lying in favor of a loyal bond taking them to the end, along with racking up immunity challenge wins.

Joe’s moment in the game where he went against that credo was in voting out David. The group initially agreed to target Kamilla, which raised a huge red flag for Kyle. He successfully argued against taking out his secret alliance mate so soon.

David began correctly suspecting the two had an undercover arrangement, pleading his case to Joe, Eva and Shauhin to vote out Kamilla. However, Kyle got the others convinced that David was being a paranoid nuisance who needed to go. Without a word of warning, Joe wrote down David’s name in a brutal blindside.

Chrissy Sarnowsky was also expected to provide a rousing final tribal council grilling, as she had been highly critical of the “Strong 5” alliance and their refusal to get dirty in the “outsmart” portion of the game.

It was only Kyle and Kamilla that had any secret strategy as the season went on. The strong players were highly open about their alliance, and it showed in their refusal to go against each other.

As Mary Zheng put it the day prior to her week 11 elimination, the goal of the game was not to “outloyal” each other. But ultimately, that’s how the episodes shook out, much to the disappointment of some fans who called the season “boring” due to the lack of backhanded game play.