Aras Baskauskas
Encyclopedia
Aras Baskauskas is the winner of Survivor: Panama
Survivor: Panama
Survivor: Panama — Exile Island, also known as Survivor: Exile Island and Survivor: Panama, is the twelfth season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. The season was filmed in the Pearl Islands, off the coast of Panama. This location was previously used for Survivor:...

. He is of Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

n descent, holding Lithuanian and American citizenship.

The maternal grandson of Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...

actor Macdonald Carey
Macdonald Carey
Edward Macdonald Carey was an American actor, best known for his role as the patriarch Dr. Tom Horton on NBC's soap opera Days of our Lives...

, Baskauskas appeared on the show in 1988 as one of the children listening to Dr. Tom Horton (played by Carey) read the Christmas story.

Baskauskas played collegiate NCAA Division I basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 at UC Irvine from 2000 to 2004, where he was an honored as a Big West Conference
Big West Conference
The Big West Conference is an NCAA-affiliated Division I mid-major college athletic conference. When the conference began in 1969, its name was the Pacific Coast Athletic Association . After nineteen years, in 1988, its name was changed to the Big West Conference. The conference stopped...

 scholar athlete for three seasons. He received his B.A. in philosophy in 2002 and his MBA in 2004. After college he had chance to sign contract with professional basketball club Alita
BC Alytus
BC „Alytus“ is the major basketball club of Alytus, Lithuania participating in the Lietuvos Krepšinio Lyga and the Baltic Basketball League....

 in Lithuania but he decided to go to South Africa to learn more about yoga.

Baskauskas currently resides in Venice, CA. He is the CEO of TundraGear.com, a winter hat company. He also spends much of his time and energy teaching yoga in Santa Monica. Additionally, he is part of The Cheshire Project, a non-profit that benefits people with disabilities.

Survivor: Panama

Originally part of the Younger Male Viveros tribe, Aras did not become a target early in the game, leading his tribe to victory in the first immunity
Immunity (reality television)
Immunity in reality television is a concept that is widely used in weekly elimination-type reality television shows by which a contestant participating in such a show may not be "kicked off" or eliminated from competition in a particular time period...

 challenge. In Episode 2, Aras became a member of the Casaya tribe and formed an early alliance with Shane Powers, Courtney Marit and Danielle DiLorenzo
Danielle DiLorenzo
Danielle DiLorenzo is a medical sales professional and became part of the reality television show Survivor: Panama, finishing as runner up. She returned to Survivor to compete on the 20th season: Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains as part of the Villains tribe, and finished in 7th place.-Early...

. But the alliance was threatened with extinction when Shane wanted to quit the game, having smoked three packets of cigarettes a day prior to Survivor
Survivor (U.S. TV series)
Survivor is an American version of the Survivor reality television game show, itself derived from the Swedish television series Expedition Robinson originally created in 1997 by Charlie Parsons. The series premiered on May 31, 2000 on CBS...

. But Aras convinced him not to quit and the alliance voted out Melinda Hyder instead.

In Episode 5, Aras led the charge to vote out Bruce Kanegai due to their clashing points of view, but Courtney, Danielle and Cirie Fields felt that Bobby Mason was much more of a threat than Bruce and they voted Bobby out. When the tribes merged in Episode 7, the ex-Casaya tribe members consisting of Aras, Shane, Bruce, Cirie, Courtney and Danielle had the power in numbers against the four ex-La Mina tribe members. Due to Terry Deitz
Terry Deitz
Terry Deitz is a pilot, television host, and former contestant on the American reality television show Survivor: Panama.-Biography:...

, the largest target, winning immunity, the alliance voted out Nick Stanbury, Austin Carty and Sally Schumann in three straight tribal councils.

At the Final 7, Bruce was evacuated out of the game due to constipation, causing him immense pain. When Terry continued to win individual immunity, the alliance was forced to turn on themselves at the final six. Shane, together with Cirie and Aras targeted Danielle, but Courtney, together with Terry, Danielle and Cirie wanted to vote out Aras. Not happy with any of these options, Cirie brewed a plan of her own, and together with Aras and Danielle, voted out Courtney, whom Cirie believed was aligned with Shane.

At the final five, Terry continued his immunity winning streak and once again the alliance was forced to take out one of their own. Shane, believing he was safe, targeted Danielle. But once again Cirie had her own plans and together with Aras and Danielle, they voted out Shane, whom had aligned with Terry. At the final four, the long-standing rivalry between Terry and Aras was once again raised when Aras won a reward, much to Terry's dismay. When sent to Exile Island, Terry and Danielle formed an alliance against Aras and Cirie with plans of ousting Aras.

But Aras managed to win immunity, making him safe. Terry, due to the widely-known fact that he possessed the hidden immunity idol, was also safe. This created a 2-2 tie between Danielle and Cirie, whom competed in a fire-building challenge to determine their fate. Shown over two episodes, Danielle won the challenge and Aras' ally Cirie was eliminated. With Terry's idol now useless, it was now fair game between the final three, Aras, Danielle and Terry.

At the final immunity challenge, Danielle out-balanced the two guys to win immunity, giving her the power to choose her opponent in the final two. Danielle eventually chose to eliminate Terry, making him the final member of the jury and propelling Aras into the final two.

On Day 39, while he and Danielle had glasses of champagne, Aras slipped on a wet rock and fell, sending shards of glass into his hand and back. His wounds required seven stitches by the medical crew.

In the end, despite the injury, Aras Baskauskas beat out Danielle DiLorenzo to become the Sole Survivor in a 5-2 vote, gaining the votes of Austin Carty, Sally Schumann, Courtney Marit, Cirie Fields and Terry Deitz.
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