Exclusive: Bill Posley talks about 'Survivor: One World' (Part 1)

Bill Posley was voted out of his all-male Manono tribe at the fourth Tribal Council session of Survivor: One World during Wednesday night's fourth episode of the CBS reality series' 24th edition.


On Thursday, Bill, a 28-year-old stand-up comedian from Venice, CA, talked to Reality TV World about his Survivor: One World experience and his early elimination from the game -- including what his plan was heading into Tribal Council and why he agreed to vote to go to Tribal Council unnecessarily considering he had an idea that he was on the chopping block, who he was hoping would back him up and keep him around longer and what game-changing circumstances were playing out amongst his tribemates that he was completely unaware of at the time.

Below is the first half of our exclusive interview with Bill. Check back with Reality TV World on Friday for the second portion.

Reality TV World: In your final words, you said you went into Tribal Council having decided to "roll the dice." Does that mean you weren't surprised to be voted out?

Bill Posley: Yeah, I mean it meant that, you know, what doesn't -- not so much get seen [on TV] -- I'm out there strategizing like everybody else and I'm out there trying to win people's, you know, loyalty and alliances as well. So, going into that Tribal Council, I mean, it wasn't that I -- people are like, "How did you go?"


The main reason why -- the main reason why I went -- was I'm hoping and I believe in the alliances that I have. And I'm hoping that I can blindside [Colton Cumbie] and/or at least he gets voted off. I'm hoping that the three or four guys that I've been talking to and trying to convince to be on my side are ultimately going to see Colton for who he is and I'm going to expose him and they're going to back my vote.

Reality TV World: So who did you think you had aligned with that was going to join you and blindside Colton?

Bill Posley: I thought, you know, I would have [Jonas Otsuji], [Troy "Troyzan" Robertson], [Jay Byars], and [Michael "Big Mike" Jefferson]. And I thought I would win their -- in that final moment when I'm speaking and I'm feeling it and I hit my stride, I was hoping these guys were seeing that this dude isn't loyal and he's not a good person -- not not a good person, but not a good person to continue to have around.

Reality TV World: Looking back at it now, there seemed to be two possibilities to what happened last night. One was that your tribe was just pretending they were going to vote [Leif Manson] out and planning to vote you out all along, or the other was that they legitimately went to Tribal Council planning to vote Leif out but something changed once they got there and they all decided to switch to you instead. Most viewers seem to be thinking your tribe had planned to vote you out all along and all the talk about Leif was just a cover story to try and get you to agree to give up tribal immunity to the women. Is that your opinion as well?

Bill Posley: Yeah, I mean, that very well could have been. Again, one of the things that continued to come up was, "How come everybody was so afraid of Colton?" blah, blah, blah. I didn't even know that he had the [hidden Immunity Idol] that day. I didn't even know that he was running the show until last night.


I didn't know any of that stuff and you're looking at seven different men and you get seven different answers and playing their own game. You can only take -- you have to think that somebody's telling the truth out of this bunch or somebody -- I mean, if Leif was open enough to be honest with me about me not being liked and Colton trying to vote me off, then I gotta believe that there is this whole other side of it, this whole other...

There are going to be some people who are honest and will tell you how they really feel and how they really want to vote. So, yeah, maybe that was their plan the entire time, and then saying, "Hey meet me and let's get Colton, let's get Colton" -- them just nodding to blindside me. But either way, I got -- I tried -- but either way, I feel good because he didn't have control over me. That meant a lot.

Reality TV World: I need to ask you a few questions about how the whole "giving up tribal immunity" thing went down, because like Survivor host Jeff mentioned on the show, it's never happened in 24 seasons before, so it kind of has viewers fascinated.

How did you guys come to believe that giving up tribal immunity was something that you could even do? We've never even seen Jeff ask a tribe to confirm that they want to keep tribal immunity like he does with the individual immunity necklaces, so is giving up tribal immunity something that is listed as an option in the Survivor rulebook that you guys get or is it something that was not listed and you guys figured if it's not specifically listed [as prohibited] then you can do it? How did the whole idea come about?

Bill Posley: You know, I don't even know. It came about the way you thought. Colton suggested to Jonas and Troyzan and then it all got sent back -- got brought back down to -- sent out to the rest of us, and I thought I read that rulebook pretty thoroughly. But I didn't know whether or not I did. So, it just came up and I was like, "Yeah okay, that sounds cool."


Reality TV World: So what was the reaction when you guys first approached the producers and told them you guys wanted to give up tribal immunity -- did they immediately just say okay, or was it something they had to check the rulebook or get some kind of ruling on, or how did that all unfold?

Bill Posley: I just gotta check with [the CBS publicist]. Am I allowed to talk about the producers' thoughts?

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The CBS publicist states those are unbroadcast "behind the scenes" details that are not discussed].

Reality TV World: What I was really looking to ask was last night's episode seemed to go out of its way to suggest that the only way you guys could give up tribal immunity is if everybody in your tribe agreed to do so -- so just to clarify, was that one of the conditions that was in the rulebook or part of the ruling you got from the producers? Because that's something that the show did broadcast but didn't explain in detail.

Bill Posley: Right, right. Once the idea of giving up immunity was put out there, it came to our knowledge that it basically had to be all of us or it couldn't happen. I legitimately felt that either Leif was going home or I had a chance to get Colton, and that's why I went -- I legitimately felt those two things. It was a big move. It was a big move.


I wanted to make a big move and had it have worked, (laughs) -- had it have worked and we blindsided Colton, then you're talking to him about the greatest move that's ever been pulled on somebody and we're waiting to see what Bill does next. At the end of the day, I lost and -- not lost -- but I didn't have those guys backing me like I thought I did and they got me. 






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski