Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance's new Orkun tribe snuffed Andrew Savage's torch during Season 31's eighth episode Wednesday night on CBS.

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Savage, who previously competed on Survivor: Pearl Islands, became the eighth castaway voted out of the game and the season's second jury member. His Orkun tribe ousted him via a 9-3 vote instead of Kelley Wentworth because she unexpectedly played her hidden Immunity Idol at Tribal Council on Night 21 of the game.

Savage referred to his shocking vote-off as "stunning," and he certainly didn't mean his blindside was beautiful. In fact, he admitted his exit ripped his heart out of his chest.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Savage talked about his Survivor experience. Below is the first half. Check back with us soon for the concluding portion.

Reality TV World: There were 12 castaways last night and only three of them were not part of the majority alliance. Spencer threw out the idea at Tribal Council that idols could be in play and could flip the game, so why didn't you guys choose to split the vote between Wentworth and Ciera Eastin just in case?

Andrew Savage: Yeah, so as you saw in the prior Tribal Council, we split it between Ciera and [Kass McQuillen]. And the reality is, splitting the votes just takes a couple hours to strategize about, to figure out who's going to receive the votes, who's going to vote for whom, and making sure that it's going to be perfectly executed. And it's exhausting.

It's also risky to split votes and it can end very wrongly for someone. So, the thought was, first of all, we didn't know idols were in play. Wentworth and [Jeremy Collins] were the only two with idols. They kept it to themselves. Me, [Joe Anglim], [Tasha Fox] and [Stephen Fishbach] spent hours looking for idols.

Every Reward Challenge, every piece of every Reward Challenge, we scoured looking for clues to idols. We found nothing. So, the thought was that none of us had an idol. We also thought that Wentworth didn't think she'd be going home. So, why not load her up with votes? We didn't have the energy to strategize and figure out what's the best way to split the votes.

You didn't see this in the episode, but my toe was ravaged by a poisonous spider. In fact, it got infected and I was very sick. I didn't have the mental energy to split the votes. So we thought -- and Joe and I wanted Fishbach gone, and that was clear in the episode.

Jeremy made a decent case for why Wentworth should go. She's the only female physical threat but the bottom of the pecking order. And, you know, [Abi-Maria Gomes] and Ciera certainly have little capability to win immunity. So we thought, "Let's take Wentworth out. Let's load her up with the votes. And then we'll take care of business at the next Tribal."

So that was the thought and it was (laughs) a massive blunder, of course. And it was ridiculous that I didn't split the votes -- that we didn't split the votes.

Reality TV World: Joe is obviously a huge threat in this game both in challenges and socially. If Joe hadn't won immunity though, you still didn't want to go after him because you loved the guy and you were solid. Do you think that was more of an emotional decision rather than strategic, and if so, was that smart?

Andrew Savage: It was completely an emotional decision, not strategic. I am the first to admit I am not a great strategist from a Survivor standpoint. I don't think I'm made for Survivor in that sense. I'm loyal to a fault.

And Joe and I bonded and we were good friends -- and with Jeremy and Tasha. That was an emotional decision. If Joe had not had immunity, I still would not have written his name down even though Fishbach wanted to go after him. If he didn't have immunity, I would not have been okay with that.

Reality TV World: At some point, the "bros alliance" is going to have to turn on one another. So when you were thinking ahead in the game, what was your plan? Were you going to take Joe to the end and just believed you could beat him, or, when did you intend to knock him out?

Andrew Savage: Yeah, and so I was thinking -- and we had talked about this -- that the Final 4 would be Joe, Jeremy, Tasha and myself. And from a strategic standpoint, that's not the wisest decision on my part because Jeremy, Joe and Tasha could easily beat me.

What I wanted to do -- if I had stayed in Survivor, what I actually would've done is have the four or five strongest players in the Final 5 and then let the best person win. And that's what I wanted to do. It's an epic season; It's an all-star season.

So let's have the best of the best duking it out right until the very end and may the best person win! So that was my thinking. I am not a big fan of taking goats to the Final 4, Final 5, Final 3. And that's why I wanted to keep Joe, Jeremy and Tasha around.

Reality TV World: You seemed to have hard feelings toward Fishbach even before you caught him approaching people to take out Joe. Did you lead him to believe you two were close and what did he do exactly to leave a bad taste in your mouth?

Andrew Savage: So starting on Day 1 with the Bayon tribe, we hit the beach and Fishbach comes up to me like a little kid bubbling, saying, "I just can't believe we're on the same tribe! I'm a huge fan of yours from Pearl Islands. Man, you were the leader. It's truly an honor to play this game with you."

And it was nice of him to say, but it wasn't believable. It just didn't ring true. He's not a very good actor. It wasn't genuine. So that just set red flags up. And then he said he was going to get some firewood, so he went down this little path and came back 45 minutes later, and he had like two little pieces of wood.

I was like, "Huh, (laughs) that's odd, because I went down the same path and 10 minutes later, I had an arm full of firewood." So, I knew he went off looking for an idol, which is totally fine. Except at that point in the game, we had enormous work to do.

Now, I'm an old-school Survivor. We had to build shelter, we had to find a food source and water and all that stuff. And it just told me that Fishbach is looking out for himself, that he doesn't give a crap about the tribe. Right? So that was the second red flag that went up.

And then just looking at his mannerisms, he was always scheming -- always scheming. He just looked at me like he's always playing the numbers and [thinking] how he can build his Survivor resume by making big moves and taking big threats out of the game.

So, that was the basic foundation, if you will, for my distrust of Stephen. But I'll tell you this about Stephen. I consider him a friend and he was just playing the game. That was just gameplay.

Reality TV World: Just to clarify, if you were still in the game and Wentworth went home, would your alliance's next targets have been Abi and Ciera?

Andrew Savage: No, Fishbach. I got the sense, Beth, and you can see it in the episode, he was going after Joe. I could just see he wanted one of the big alpha males gone. And my whole thing was, let's try to strike right before he makes his big move and let's try to beat him to the punch.

And so, if I had my way, that's why it would've been Fishbach, and he would've been gone. He didn't have an idol. But Jeremy's argument was the most popular.

Reality TV World: Abi, Ciera and Wentworth decided before Tribal to go after you instead of Fishbach. Why do you think they made that decision? Do you think it was still over Ciera harboring negative feelings toward you after that little blowout you had?

Andrew Savage: (Laughs) I think it was personal with Ciera. I mean, my bad for putting her up as a decoy to get out [Spencer Bledsoe]. I was insensitive I suppose. I shouldn't have done that. I should've put my own name out there as a decoy.

I just didn't because I knew Spencer was going to come up and ask me who was going home. And obviously I couldn't say "me." I needed a plausible story, and so I thought Ciera would be plausible. You know, I probably should've said [Yung "Woo" Hwang] or whatever. So I think it was personal, them coming after me.

And you saw at Tribal that there were pretty much four of us running the show. Joe, me, Jeremy and Tasha. And there wasn't one of us that was the ringleader or making the decisions. We were all joined at the hip and collaborating with each other and making decisions as a team, if you will. And Ciera saw that, and Abi and Wentworth saw that.

It's just a surprise to me that they didn't target Jeremy instead of me, because he's -- I'm the old guy out there. He was younger and a real physical threat. So I was surprised. My first reaction was, "Oh man, [Kelley] played the idol. That's horrible for Jeremy. He's going home." (Laughs) Not so much!

Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion of Andrew Savage's exclusive Survivor interview.

About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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