00:00I thought that people might think that I would be a traitor also, and I really wanted to be a faithful.
00:04And I told Alan, please make me a faithful.
00:07I want to come in and be able to be myself and not have to carry the baggage of being a traitor.
00:13And I thought that if I did so, I thought that I could play a really fun game of taking it to the traitors in a way where I thought I would be able to logic out who the traitors might be.
00:24And I thought that that would be a really, really fun way to come into the show.
00:27On top of that, did you suspect that this would be the season that the show would ultimately veer away from no gamers in the turret?
00:34I plan to tell people that, hey, maybe this is the season that there are no gamers in the turret.
00:40I never imagined that it would actually be the season where there were no gamers in the turret.
00:44I have to say to the producers of the show, I think that they needed to do this to keep the franchise healthy.
00:51I just wish they would have done it on a different season.
00:53I agree. I agree. Because you had gamers kind of dominating, even if they didn't win the first three seasons, getting so much screen time and having the power.
01:01And here's season four.
01:02And they kept each other safe, too.
01:03Yeah, I really thought that if somebody was in the turret from Survivor or Big Brother, I thought that they would have been watching out for me.
01:09So, you know, we saw that you suspected that there was a murder in plain sight happening, but we didn't get to see who you actually thought were the traitors at the time of your demise.
01:18So what was going in your mind about who you actually were pinpointing as suspects?
01:22So I thought that there were a couple of traitors.
01:23I thought that Dorinda was somebody who I thought was very likely to have been a traitor because I thought it made so much sense for her to get brought back.
01:31And then, OK, how do we keep Dorinda safe this time? Why don't we make her a traitor?
01:36And the thing that really sold it for me was when she got the casket in her grave and she was in my boat.
01:42I was like, oh, my God, Dorinda, I can't believe they did this to you.
01:44And she was like, ah, say lovey.
01:46So Dorinda, they're going to try to murder you again.
01:48She's like, ah, whatever happens, happens.
01:50And I was like, what? Dorinda is Zen now?
01:53What? Since when?
01:55And then I also thought that Jam Jam was a traitor because I thought that they would have made a gamer one of the traitors.
02:02I didn't think it was Tiffany.
02:03And obviously it wasn't Ian.
02:05And I didn't really feel like it was Natalie.
02:07And so by process of elimination, I thought it was Jam Jam.
02:11So of the three traitors, did Candace have you the most snowed?
02:14Because it seemed like you really trusted her.
02:16And it seemed like she really did.
02:17You, your presence.
02:18It seemed like she really got a kick out of you.
02:20You know, I thought that I had a really great relationship with Candace.
02:23And in another world where I don't fly as close to the sun to find out about the conga line,
02:29I think that Candace might have kept me around for a little while.
02:31But that Candace was somebody who I just identified as somebody who is smart and charismatic and funny.
02:39And I just thought that she was going to be a key player in the season.
02:43So I was hoping that she was one of the faithful.
02:45But I thought that even if she was a traitor, I thought she'd be a good person to stay close to.
02:50What would the game have looked like if you were a traitor?
02:52I mean, I assume you want to protect the gamers and stuff.
02:55But was there something like a strategy implementation that you were going to put into the turret there?
02:59Like if you became a traitor?
03:01So I didn't put a ton of thought into how I was going to play as a traitor.
03:06I just felt like that I had this great cover story of wanting to be a faithful.
03:09And I really thought about a lot of strategies to play as a faithful.
03:13But mark my words, if I was ever a traitor, all the boring people who don't talk, who don't have any confessionals, gone.
03:20You're dead.
03:22Your time is over.
03:23Because with all due respect, we don't need to name them.
03:26But there's a good bunch of them on this season that are just purple blank, if you know what I mean.
03:32The castle already has enough furniture.
03:35Right, exactly.
03:36You should have been a traitor just for that reason alone.
03:39For real.
03:39Were you trolling by always sitting next to Donna Kelsey?
03:43Because I feel like every time you were sitting next to Donna.
03:45Was that on purpose?
03:46It was not trolling.
03:47I had a good relationship with Donna.
03:48That's why it was so frustrating to see Donna.
03:50You put me on your short list of people to murder?
03:52Why?
03:53Donna, what happened?
03:54I thought we had a good thing.
03:56Now we have bad blood?
03:58What?
03:59I really, I like Donna a lot.
04:01She was in my car to come to the castle on the first night.
04:05And I think she might have been a little bit over her head, bless her heart.
04:08But Donna is in her 70s.
04:10And I felt like that she was somebody who I wanted to help as much as I could in the challenges.
04:15Because I thought that she was somebody who I thought was overlooked.
04:18I didn't think that people really wanted to connect with her too much.
04:22And maybe it's because they had suspicions about her being a traitor.
04:25But I was very friendly with Donna.
04:28And so it was a little bit of a surprise that she put me on her list.
04:30She needed some guidance, I think.
04:32Having her as the sole secret traitor was questionable, with all due respect to production.
04:37But that's a different story.
04:40I'm a huge fan of the podcast.
04:41And I know that you plan to cover the rest of the season.
04:44But how will that be for you?
04:46Watching and covering it and doing the episodes every Thursday night.
04:49What's that going to be like for you?
04:51I think it's going to be super fun.
04:52Because I feel like now I have a perspective on I've gotten to meet all of these people.
04:57I know what it's like to be in the castle.
04:59And so I can't wait to see what happens with the rest of them this whole way through.
05:05And I really want to look at things from the perspective of how a faithful would look at them.
05:10So much of the show is traitors focused.
05:12And I really would love to really take the hood off and try to look at it.
05:16If you're a faithful, what information do you actually have to go off of?
05:21I love that.
05:22You've also been open about that you were in the mix, as many people were, Survivor 50.
05:25And obviously that didn't pan out, which, again, pissed off about, but whatever.
05:30When you were eliminated from traitors, did you look back on ultimately not making the Survivor 50 cast with a different perspective, whether it be more positive, more negative?
05:37I definitely asked myself the question of if I went to go to Survivor 50, how far could I have gotten in Survivor 50?
05:46But, Eric, there's every possibility that if I went to Survivor 50 that I could have been out as early in Survivor 50 because there are way more people on Survivor who know what I've done in my career.
06:02And so I think that people would say, OK, he knows everybody.
06:06He knows all of the history of Survivor.
06:10He's definitely somebody that we need to worry about.
06:12And I think that I would have a much harder time processing losing on Survivor than to have lost on the traitors in the way that I did.
06:20This has been such an amazing experience.
06:22And even though I didn't go far, I've really just I love the edit that I got and I really have been so touched by the outpouring of support that I've gotten.
06:33Absolutely. And right before we wrap, I want to know, tell me about the book.
06:36It's coming out in May. Right. I want to give you the chance to kind of give us a little details.
06:40Yes, appreciate that. It's called The Tribe and I Have Spoken.
06:44And it's really a love letter to Survivor in that I have built this online fandom up.
06:52I feel like over these last 16 years and I wanted to tell the story, which I don't think anybody has of what it's like to watch the show from the perspective of, OK, it was this phenomenon in season one in Borneo to ultimately where it is now.
07:0825 years later, heading into season 50, all of the lore of Survivor and all of the greatest moments and the greatest players and how do you play the game?
07:17And it's also the story of my experience over 25 years with the show.
07:24And so I think it's going to be a really fun read for people.
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