Jessica Michele "Sugar" Kiper[1] is a contestant from Survivor: Gabon and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.
In her first outing, she was heavily remembered for being a powerful force in the game after spending several days at Exile Island and finding the Hidden Immunity Idol on her first time there. Having been away from her tribe multiple times and having swapped tribes, the competing alliances fought to get her vote. However, at the Final Tribal Council, she became the receiving end of the harsh criticism from the jury, most notably, Corinne Kaplan. Sugar ended up having a completely clean vote record, neither having a elimination nor jury vote cast for her.
Profile
Gabon
Jessica Kiper prides herself on being flirty and fun. When she is not acting, this 29 year old works as a waitress named "Sugar" at '50s diners and enjoys singing and making music. Friends describe this single, free-spirit as crazy, funny and cool. Currently, this blonde pin-up model lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. with her dog, "Major P. Pants," but has spent time living in various places throughout the country including Florida, Rhode Island, Louisiana, and San Francisco and Los Angeles, California.
Jessica can be a bit of a goofball and her laugh is contagious. Although at first glance she may not look tough, despite being adorned with several tattoos, Kiper has been through a lot in her life, including the recent death of her father, whom she called her hero. Despite the struggles she's faced, Kiper has always come out on top. She is ready to bring her spunk, positive attitude and bubbly personality into the game of SURVIVOR and hopes to grow as a person after the experience and win enough money to "get off people's couches." Jessica was born on February 22, 1979.
Heroes vs. Villains
Jessica “Sugar” Kiper (29)
Tribe: Heroes
Hometown: Baton Rouge, La.
Current Residence: Los Angeles, Calif.
Personal Claim To Fame: “Becoming a retro pin-up model.”
Inspiration in Life: “My dad.”
Previous Finishes: Gabon: 2nd Runner Up
Favorite Past Moment: “Blindsiding Randy.”
Previous Survivor She Respects Most: Bruce Kanegai (Panama)
Previous Survivor She Respects Least: Corinne Kaplan (Gabon)
Why Did She Come Back?: “For the Survivor lovin’ viewers.”
Survivor: Gabon
Sugar Kiper was chosen by Ace Gordon to be on the Kota tribe, stating that it wasn't appropriate for a photographer to not have a model. When it was her turn to pick, Sugar chose Marcus Lehman. Kota won the first three challenges. However, the opposing tribe, Fang, made a comeback and won the next reward and immunity challenges. Fang exiled Sugar and this season she was given the choice of finding the hidden immunity Idol or living in a luxurious hut. She chose to look for the idol and revealed her strategy for eliminating "bad people" and her motivation was her father that recently died. She found that Idol, Something that Corinne Kaplan doubted she was capable of. Sugar agreed that Paloma Soto-Castillo was the weakest due to her dismal performance in the reward challenge was voted her out.
On Day Ten after ranking Tribe member in order of importance, a Tribe switch by Schoolyard pick occurred. Sugar was the person unpicked and was automatically Exiled and would resided at Exile Island until the losing tribe's tribal council. Having found the idol already, she chose the hut. After the immunity challenge was over and being informed that Fang lost, Sugar looked forward to heading to the Fang camp, Knowing that Ace and Jacquie Berg had both been switched to Fang. Much to her surprise, Jacquie was voted out over Kelly Czarnecki. The New Fang generally lost challenges, and Sugar was frequently exiled. Sugar felt guilty that she was eating the many foods of the hut(which she dubbed the "Sugar Shack"). Sugar was targeted by the Fang Alliance for her close relationship with Ace, but was spared because GC Brown wanted to leave and Kelly was irritating the Fang Alliance. At the next immunity, It was revealed that it would be a Double Tribal Council and the challenge was individual. Sugar made it to the final round with Ace and Marcus, but was the first person out. Despite that, Marcus gave her a second Individual immunity for the Fang. After realizing Ace had been lying to her, Sugar conspired with Crystal Cox and Ken Hoang to blindside him. In her confessional, she still thanked him for the wonderful time. The plan worked like a charm as Ace was blindsided at Tribal Council.
After the double tribal council, the tribes enjoyed what was thought to be a merge feast. Unfortunately, it was a setup for a second tribe switch. Sugar stayed on Fang with Matty Whitmore and was reunited with Corinne and Charlie Herschel from the original Kota, and introduced to Randy Bailey. The new Fang "who started pronounced it like the American pronunciation" won the next immunity challenge.
Sugar was shocked that Marcus was voted out. Jeff announced the tribes had merged and new tribe would stay at the Fang camp. The former Kota members tried to get Sugar on their side but she stayed loyal to her tribe and joined in voting out Charlie over Crystal. Bob Crowley told he had the Idol, but being the real holder of the Idol, she knew that was a lie. At the Survivor Auction, she brought a mystery item, which turns out to be peanut butter and chocolate for $340. Randy brought cookies for the tribe and offered Sugar his cookie. She took it and gave it to Matty, much to Randy's annoyance. Sugar agreed with the Alliance to vote out Randy for he was making camp life more unbearable. Bob told Sugar that his Idol was fake and she suggested to give it to Randy. At Tribal Council that night, Sugar laughed out loud when the Idol was revealed to be a fraud. Sugar also voted out Corinne who she had issues with but Ken voted against Matty as a fail-safe if Corinne had an Idol.
Matty was angered by this. Crystal starting yelling at him to keep his loyalty. Sugar witnessed this and viewed Ken and Crystal as bad people and helped in voting out the duo. Sugar was set on going to the Final Tribal Council with Bob and Matty. This would go up in smoke as Susie Smith won the Final Immunity Challenge. Bob convinced Sugar to vote against Matty, and being close with both men, Sugar decided to give Bob a fair chance. Bob won the tiebreaker and Matty was voted out.
At Final Tribal Council, Sugar gave incredibly poor answers to the Jury to the point of answering "You don't have to vote for me". During Corinne's speech she called Sugar an unproductive leech on society and she would only vote for Sugar if she was to receive anti-depressants so it would be sincere when she cried about her dead father. Sugar responded to the comment by flipping the bird. Sugar received no jury votes and finished as the second runner-up.
Voting History
| Sugar's Voting History | ||
|---|---|---|
| Episode | Sugar's Votes |
Voted Against Sugar |
| 1 | Kota Tribe Immune | |
| 2 | Kota Tribe Immune | |
| 3 | Paloma | - |
| 4 | On Exile Island | |
| 5 | G.C. | - |
| 6 | Kelly | - |
| 7 | Ace | Individual Immunity |
| 8 | Fang Tribe Immune | |
| 9 | Charlie | - |
| 10 | Randy | - |
| 12 | Corinne | - |
| 13 | Crystal | - |
| 14 | Ken | - |
| Matty | - | |
| Jury Votes for Sugar |
- | |
| Second Runner-Up, Day 39 | ||
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
| “ | Sugar, right on cue, you're crying. | ” |
—Jeff Probst | ||
Sugar was assigned to the Heroes Tribe due to her wanting to keep the "good people" around in her first season. In her brief stay in the game, Sugar's highlight was during the very physical Reward Challenge on Day 1, where Villains member Sandra Diaz-Twine attempted to fluster Sugar by undoing her bra. However, Sugar decided to let the bra go and rush to her tribe's finish mat topless and flipping the bird on Twine, winning a point for her tribe.
Sugar was shown to be a lot less helpful in camp than the other members of her team. She seemed more interested in flirting and cuddling with the guys, notably Colby Donaldson than anything else. In the first Immunity Challenge, she was placed on the puzzle station. Despite a strong lead, the puzzle portion of the challenge was where the Heroes lost their lead, and eventually, the challenge. Immediately after the loss, Sugar was seen in tears.
Back at camp, Sugar, being one of the puzzle builders, was one of the people to blame for the loss. Despite not helpful their tribe at all, some other tribe members considered keeping her around and voting off a player who would be more dangerous deeper in the game, such as Cirie Fields or Stephenie LaGrossa. When it came to the vote, the entire tribe, motivated by Sugar's personality quirks and potential liability in future challenges, unanimously sent her home in a 9-1 vote.
Voting History
| Sugar's Voting History | ||
|---|---|---|
| Episode | Sugar's Votes |
Voted Against Sugar |
| 1 | Amanda | Amanda, Candice, Cirie, Colby, J.T., James, Rupert, Stephenie, Tom |
| Voted Out, Day 3 | ||
Post-Survivor
- On January 9, 2010, Sugar attended Survivor's 10-year anniversary party along with all of her Gabon and Heroes vs. Villains cast mates.
- Sugar voiced the video game character Candy Edwards in the 2011 video game L.A. Noire.
- Sugar was a cast member on the fifth season of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which aired on VH1 on June 26, 2011. She claimed that she went on a downward spiral after Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains had aired. There, Sugar revealed that she attempted suicide as a result of being voted out of Heroes vs. Villains. She also claimed to have been evacuated from Samoa to Australia by the producers who feared that she would hurt herself by over-dosing.
- On January 12, 2014, Sugar was arrested after crashing into the back of a parked car. She was released eight hours later.[2]
Trivia
- Sugar is the first and thus far, only contestant to reach the Final Tribal Council with no votes against them and then receive no Jury votes.
- Sugar holds the record for the most Exile Island visits, with five during Survivor: Gabon.
- Sugar got her nickname when she was 18 while working at a San Francisco-based 50's diner named "It's Tops", where she worked as a waitress. The nickname was coined by a fellow waitress. She noted that she was "sweeter" back then.
- She is the most recent (and probably last person ever) to finish in the same place as the number of her season (20).
- Sugar is the first woman to find the Hidden Immunity Idol on her own with no help from others.
- Parvati found the Idol in Micronesia, but did not keep it.
- Sugar is the second female contestant to finish 20th following Marisa Calihan
- Sugar is one of two contestants to come in third place in one season and twentieth place in another, along with Jonny Fairplay.
- Coincidentally, both were voted out in 9-1 votes in their second seasons. However, unlike Sugar, Fairplay didn't make it to the final tribal due to his season being a Final Two season.
References
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