It’s been 15 years since we final noticed Amanda Kimmel on Survivor. In simply three years, the previous pageant queen performed the sport 3 times, however since then, she’s been one of the crucial elusive former gamers.
Kimmel’s first look was on Survivor: China in 2007. She got here in second place towards Todd Herzog, the winner, and Courtney Yates, second runner-up, in a 4-2-1 last vote. The Montana native returned for the next season, Survivor: Micronesia, and made all of it the best way to the ultimate tribal council as soon as once more. That point, she was a part of the ultimate two with Parvati Shallow, however as soon as once more fell quick, dropping 5-3.
In 2010, Kimmel returned for Season 20, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, and admittedly didn’t like how a lot the sport had modified within the few years since she’d final performed. This time, she completed in ninth place.
However what has Kimmel been as much as since then? TV Insider did a deep dive into the place she is now.
The place is Amanda Kimmel now?
Kimmel has retreated from the general public eye lately. In 2015, she bought engaged to her now-husband Matt Cooper, per an engagement announcement within the Each day Interlake. They tied the knot that August in Bozeman, Montana.
The couple reportedly has two kids and lives in Montana. Kimmel doesn’t have any public social media accounts and there’s no exercise on her LinkedIn profile.
In October 2024, the Drop Your Buffs podcast posted certainly one of Kimmel’s modeling photographs with the caption, “BREAKING: Amanda Kimmel Resurfaces.” Nonetheless, it’s unclear when the picture was taken, and there’s been hypothesis that it’s an previous picture.
Kimmel has just a few performing credit from her time after Survivor. She made appearances on Cinema Salvation, Parenthood, Bamboo Shark, and All Collectively Now. She additionally appeared within the 2013 actuality sequence Dwelling the Dream alongside MTV’s Trishelle Cannatella. The women had been documented touring the world whereas making an attempt to turn out to be skilled poker gamers.
Are Amanda Kimmel and Parvati Shallow nonetheless pals?
One of many greatest questions followers have about Kimmel is whether or not she’s nonetheless pals together with her Season 16 costar Shallow. The ladies had been aligned on the present and made all of it the best way to the ultimate 2 collectively. Shallow was named the winner, with Kimmel being topped runner-up for the second season in a row.
Each girls had been on Season 20, as properly, however on opposing tribes. Round that point, followers started speculating that they’d had a falling out, which Shallow primarily confirmed in a 2010 interview with The Los Angeles Occasions.
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“Amanda and I’ve critical belief points,” she admitted. “We’ve got an actual drawback really believing what everyone seems to be saying, so we don’t have a stable basis for a friendship. We haven’t actually had a friendship for the reason that recreation — after I gained, she actually had exhausting emotions as a result of we performed that recreation collectively from the primary day to the final day.”
Whereas showing on The Social Recreation podcast in 2025, Shallow didn’t appear to have a foul style in her mouth about her former tribemate. Though she didn’t focus on the specifics of their relationship, she mentioned, “She’s beautiful. That’s how they make ’em in Montana. She was a magnificence queen. She was, like, Miss Montana. However she’s been MIA for some time.”
She gave extra perception into the connection at present in an interview with Zachary Actuality in March 2025 the place she admitted she’d “love” to see Kimmel return for Season 50 of Survivor. “If they might get Amanda Kimmel on the market, then I’ll tune in,” she mentioned. “I will probably be cheering for my lady, who I haven’t seen or heard from in years. Let’s get her again on our screens and see what she’s bought.”
She continued, “I haven’t heard from her or seen her in ages. You recognize what I feel occurred? Two seasons in a row, she misplaced twice, again to again. That’s exhausting. And he or she was actually younger. I feel for her it was an excessive amount of and she or he needed to get out. I wouldn’t even need Survivor to be round my world if I had been her. However I might like to see her on 50.”
Will Amanda Kimmel play Survivor once more?
After being voted out on Heroes vs. Villains, Kimmel was adamant that she’d by no means return to the present.
“My Survivor profession is over,” she informed TV Information. “I’m actually proud that I went over 100 days. I by no means thought I might do something like this in my complete life, however, I imply, I wouldn’t come again. It takes a very long time to recover from. It’s exhausting to elucidate it, nevertheless it’s mentally and bodily actually exhausting in your physique and I don’t need to put myself via it once more.”
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She reiterated this sentiment in an interview with Folks, including, “I’ll by no means play Survivor once more. Russell [Hantz] has modified the sport in a approach I’m not curious about both. The present isn’t pure on any degree anymore. After I left, I mentioned, ‘Good riddance.’ I used to be glad to be accomplished with him. I’ve different issues occurring in my life.”
Two years later, she had a unique stance. “I nonetheless need to return,” she insisted on a 2012 episode of Rob Has a Podcast. “I nonetheless need to win. I’ve gotten off the present earlier than and I’m like, ‘I’m by no means doing that once more. I’m over it. Get away from me Survivor. I’m accomplished.’ After which just a little time goes by and that craving of profitable this freaking present is driving me loopy. I might love to return and do it once more. You study one thing each time and I simply need to win. I simply need to win the present.”
In 2022, a Reddit person additionally claimed that Kimmel did a uncommon journal interview and mentioned her want to return. The interview doesn’t look like obtainable on-line, however the commenter grabbed a screenshot of the alleged Q&A. “I feel it’s nonetheless humorous when folks acknowledge me in Montana. However I actually need to return yet another time,” Kimmel reportedly mentioned. “The aggressive a part of me desires to do it once more. I undoubtedly did some issues fallacious every time I performed and, I don’t know, I want I might return and redo it.”