‘Survivor 40: Winners at War’: Tony Vlachos Returned to Twitter to Support ALS Campaign
Cagayan winner Tony Vlachos hasn’t been on active on social media for a while as he made up for “family quality time” he missed while competing on Survivor. However, he recently returned to Twitter to assist Yul Kwon and other co-stars in the fight against ALS.
[SPOILER ALERT: This article contains information revealed in ‘Survivor 40: Winners at War’ Episode 7.]
Tony Vlachos on ‘Survivor 40: Winners at War’
After winning Cagayan (Season 28) and a short-lived stint on Game Changers (Season 34), New Jersey-based police officer Tony Vlachos returned to compete on Winners at War (Season 40).
Due to his previous flashy games, the Cagayan champ knew he would be an immediate target. Therefore, he put himself “on probation” and resisted the urge to look for idols, which got him into trouble last time.
The police officer also began placing more emphasis on his social game and quickly became very well-liked among his fellow Dakal tribemates. He ended up in the majority in a tribe swap alongside Sandra Diaz-Twine and Kim Spradlin-Wolfe with former Sele tribe members, Denise Stapley and Jeremy Collins.
Right before their first Tribal Council, Tony reverted to his old tactics and hid in a spy shack for a few hours. However, once he popped out, no one mentioned him as a target, and they agreed to vote off Denise.
Much to the surprise of everyone on the tribe, the Philippines champ played two idols, one on herself and the other to save Jeremy, and single-handedly sent the Queen to the Edge of Extinction.
In the most recent episode, NuDakal avoided Tribal Council by barely winning the immunity challenge, but Jeremy seemingly pegged Tony as a threat.
Tony Vlachos returned to Twitter to support ALS campaign
In Episode 5, Yul Kwon opened up about his friend and Survivor co-star Jonathan Penner and his wife, who has ALS. As a result of the disease, Stacy cannot talk or walk and requires constant care from her husband.
Yul revealed he returned to play for them and began a campaign to help his friends as well as others with ALS. The Cook Islands winner has already pledged to match the first $50,000 in donations, and several other Survivor stars are jumping on board.
Tony, who has not been active on social media thus far, returned to Twitter to join the campaign. He has responded to several fans so far, thanking them for their support and promising Team TV t-shirts are on the way.
Additionally, Tony clarified an Instagram mishap when the official Survivor Instagram page tagged an account, which contained a link to an inappropriate website, mistakenly believed to belong to the police officer.
Several fans took to social media to welcome his long-awaited return and called it the “best news of the year.” They also applauded the police officer for coming back to social media to help promote the campaign as they believe it showed his “awesome” personality.
Many viewers already think Tony might win this season, and now they are rooting for him more. One Reddit user noted, “the dude actually has a decent shot,” and someone else pointed out that “halfway into the season he has one of the best edits.”
Survivor 40: Winners at War airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.
