{"id":1271,"date":"2024-04-27T02:54:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-27T06:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/?p=329448"},"modified":"2025-02-07T17:03:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T17:03:05","slug":"survivors-sonja-christopher-dies-at-87-years-after-giving-spunk-and-love-on-season-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/2024\/04\/27\/survivors-sonja-christopher-dies-at-87-years-after-giving-spunk-and-love-on-season-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Survivor&#8217;s Sonja Christopher dies at 87 years after giving &#8216;spunk and love&#8217; on season 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Sonja Christopher, who starred on Survivor season 1, has died at the age of 87. She gave &#8220;so much spunk and love&#8221; to the gruelling original series, and was paid tribute to by a current show star.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Liz Wilcox, who stars in the current season 46 of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/tag\/survivor\">Survivor<\/a>,\u00a0posted the sad news on X. She met Sonja Christopher over Christmas and shared a photo of the two talking on FaceTime on her account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-survivor-s-sonja-christopher-dies\">Survivor&#8217;s Sonja Christopher dies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Sonja Christopher has died at age 87, years after she launched to fame on <a href=\"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/tag\/cbs\">CBS<\/a> show Survivor. She competed on\u00a0Survivor: Borneo\u00a0in 2000 and became the first to be eliminated from the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The musician, from Walnut Creek, California, was well-liked by her tribe mates. Three years before the show, Sonja was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and after treatment, resumed to a healthy life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before retiring, Sonja worked as an investment counsellor, tennis teacher and elementary school teacher. She was also a music therapist, playing the banjo as she led sing-alongs at Alzheimer&#8217;s centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>MONEY: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/shows\/survivors-liz-makes-six-figures-and-fans-cant-take-her-flaunting-her-wealth\">Survivor\u2019s Liz \u2018makes six figures\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-current-star-pays-tribute-to-sonja\">Current star pays tribute to Sonja<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Season 46 star, Liz Wilcox, wrote a tribute to Sonja. She wrote, \u201cToday, the legend herself Sonja Christopher of Season One passed away. I had the pleasure of meeting her on Christmas.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The star added, &#8220;She had so much spunk + love for Survivor and what the show brought to her life. I hope you\u2019re singing + playing your heart out somewhere beautiful, Sonja.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wilcox said people shouldn\u2019t send flowers, but advised donations to Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church in Walnut Creek, California, the Cancer Support Community in SF, or the Sjogren\u2019s Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-looking-back-at-sonja-on-season-1\">Looking back at Sonja on season 1<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Sonja made history as the first Survivor star to be voted out on season 1. She was voted out after several missteps led to her team losing that first week, even though she was well-liked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her continuous stumbling in the first\u00a0Immunity Challenge\u00a0caused\u00a0Tagi\u00a0to lose. At the first\u00a0Tribal Council, Sonja was voted out after being viewed as the tribe&#8217;s weakest member, with four votes against her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Today, the legend herself Sonja Christopher of Season One passed away. I had the pleasure of meeting her on Christmas. She had so much spunk + love for Survivor and what the show brought to her life. I hope you\u2019re singing + playing your heart out somewhere beautiful, Sonja. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/H2hqRX1Cjc\">pic.twitter.com\/H2hqRX1Cjc<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Liz Wilcox (S46) (@TheLizWilcox88) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheLizWilcox88\/status\/1783979083400978858?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 26, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>NEWS: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/news\/survivor-star-scot-pollard-desperate-plea-for-heart-transplant-after-three-year-sickness\">Survivor star Scot Pollard plea for heart transplant<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sonja Christopher, who starred on Survivor season 1, has died at the age of 87. She gave &#8220;so much spunk and love&#8221; to the gruelling original series, and was paid tribute to by a current show star. Liz Wilcox, who stars in the current season 46 of\u00a0Survivor,\u00a0posted the sad news on X. She met Sonja [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249734182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1358],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/realityshrine\/2024\/04\/27\/survivors-sonja-christopher-dies-at-87-years-after-giving-spunk-and-love-on-season-1\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Survivor&#8217;s Sonja Christopher dies at 87 years after giving &#8216;spunk and love&#8217; on season 1","url":"http:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/2024\/04\/27\/survivors-sonja-christopher-dies-at-87-years-after-giving-spunk-and-love-on-season-1\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/2024\/04\/27\/survivors-sonja-christopher-dies-at-87-years-after-giving-spunk-and-love-on-season-1\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Celine Byford"}],"creator":["Celine Byford"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Reality Shrine","logo":"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cropped-mX3_1x3z.png"},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2024-04-27T06:54:49Z","datePublished":"2024-04-27T06:54:49Z","dateModified":"2025-02-07T17:03:05Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Survivor&#8217;s Sonja Christopher dies at 87 years after giving &#8216;spunk and love&#8217; on season 1\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/thetab.com\\\/realityshrine\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/27\\\/survivors-sonja-christopher-dies-at-87-years-after-giving-spunk-and-love-on-season-1\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/thetab.com\\\/realityshrine\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/27\\\/survivors-sonja-christopher-dies-at-87-years-after-giving-spunk-and-love-on-season-1\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"\"},\"articleSection\":\"News\",\"author\":[{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"Celine Byford\"}],\"creator\":[\"Celine Byford\"],\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"Reality Shrine\",\"logo\":\"https:\\\/\\\/realitytvshrine.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/cropped-mX3_1x3z.png\"},\"keywords\":[],\"dateCreated\":\"2024-04-27T06:54:49Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-27T06:54:49Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-07T17:03:05Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/realitytvshrine.com\/p.js"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/249734182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7877,"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271\/revisions\/7877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}