“Alone” Winners – Where Are They Now, and What Winning Actually Cost Them

TLDR: Winning Alone on the History Channel comes with a $500,000 prize that shrinks significantly after taxes for American contestants.

Most winners have struggled to return to normal life after months of extreme isolation, and several have built post-show careers in wilderness education.

One Season 2 contestant who did not win, Tracy Wilson, died in 2019 at age 48 from a sudden illness.

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The History Channel’s Alone asks its contestants to do something genuinely extraordinary: survive in complete isolation in some of the world’s most unforgiving environments with ten items of their choosing and no contact with the outside world.

The ones who make it to the end walk away with $500,000. What they do with that prize, and what it costs them to get there, turns out to be as compelling as anything that happens on the show itself.

Alan Kay, Season 1

The man who started it all was a corrections officer from Blairsville, Georgia, who had spent fifteen years teaching wilderness survival skills on the side.

Alan Kay survived 56 days on Vancouver Island in the autumn of 2014, outlasting nine other contestants in relentless rain and near-freezing temperatures.

He stood 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 240 pounds when he arrived. He weighed 180 when he left.

The $500,000 prize became approximately $280,000 after federal and state taxes. He used the money to help his father retire, pay off the family mortgage, and fund eye surgery for his son.

He and his wife subsequently divorced, though the specific reasons remain private. Today he runs the Wildland Studies Group, offering wilderness survival instruction across the United States.

Nathan Olsen, Season 12

Season 12, filmed in the Great Karoo desert of South Africa and aired in summer 2025, was won by Nathan Olsen, a 52-year-old CEO and wilderness therapy advocate from Buhl, Idaho.

He lasted 34 days in extreme heat with scarce water, built a dry-stone shelter he named “Fort No Regrats,” and secured his victory on Day 32 by catching a 50-pound catfish that provided roughly 10,000 calories when he needed them most.

Online searches for “what was the controversy surrounding the Season 12 winner” refer to forum criticism of the season’s short length and editing, not any misconduct by Olsen himself.

He is married to Erica Olsen and continues to serve as CEO of BestNotes, a behavioral health software company.

Tracy Wilson, Season 2

Tracy Wilson did not win her season. She tapped out on Day 8 of Season 2, filmed on Vancouver Island, after a bear encounter triggered severe PTSD linked to her military service in the Gulf War and her years in law enforcement.

She left on her own terms, explaining to the camera that she wanted to step away from a state of hyper-vigilance rather than continue in survival mode. The survival community respected her for it.

Tracy Wilson died on September 16, 2019, at age 48, from a sudden illness while attending the Rabbit Stick primitive skills gathering in Rexburg, Idaho.

False rumours that she died by suicide were actively corrected by her family and are false.

What Winning Actually Costs

The $500,000 prize is taxed as ordinary income in the United States, meaning American winners typically take home somewhere between $250,000 and $300,000 after federal and state withholding.

Canadian contestants have historically fared better, as Canadian tax law generally does not treat windfall prizes as taxable income.

The psychological cost is harder to quantify. Multiple winners have described the reintegration into modern life as more difficult than the isolation itself.

Alan Kay talked about returning to what he called a “hyper haze” of modern distraction after weeks of acute sensory focus in the wild.

Several winners have channeled that experience into teaching others how to find the same clarity without spending two months alone in a wilderness. Sounds like a good deal, no?

Alone Winners: Frequently Asked Questions