Survivor: San Juan del Sur -- Blood vs. Water eliminated Drew Christy during Wednesday night's fourth episode of the CBS reality competition's 29th season.
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Drew Christy, a 25-year-old traveling sales representative from Winter Park, FL, was voted out of his Hunahpu tribe on Night 10 at the season's fourth Tribal Council session.
Drew confidently thought he was the "King Pin" of his tribe, calling himself "a badass" and master manipulator. Drew had trouble taking into account his tribemates' opinions, so he rubbed even his alliance members the wrong way in trying to make all the decisions without their input.
In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Drew talked about his Survivor blindside. Below is the first half of his interview. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion.
Reality TV World: So I'm not really sure where to begin, but I guess maybe I'll start with, what did you go into Tribal Council expecting would happen? Whom had you been expecting to get voted off, and how unified had you been expecting the vote to be?
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Drew Christy: Well, I knew that kind of after I threw that challenge and I got back to camp and saw everybody kind of going in opposite directions, especially all the guys that were in my alliance, that it was kind of going to be ugly for me. I knew that [Jon Misch] or I had, kind of, a target on our head -- and same with [Julie McGee] and same thing with [Kelley Wentworth] and then same thing with [Keith Nale].
So I really didn't know what was going to happen. It all happens really fast out there, and your perception is kind of your reality. It's what you believe is going to happen, so you know, you don't always know the whole truth at all, by any means. And there's a lot that happens out there that the audience, frankly, never gets to see.
Reality TV World: How unified did you feel the five men were? Because like Jeff Probst pointed out at Tribal, there were only four women and they didn't have the numbers.
Drew Christy: Yeah, I knew that the men weren't unified at all and I knew that that's why we were in trouble. [Jeremy Collins] was emotionally stuck on voting off Keith, because Keith told everybody that Jeremy had an idol when I don't think he did.
I was stuck on Kelley because she was the biggest threat to me. Jon was definitely stuck on Julie because he thought she was a single and that she should be eliminated because of that reason, and that we should try to keep the game to couples.
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Reality TV World: But you weren't aware of any of that before you made the decision to throw the challenge?
Drew Christy: Well, the day before, I went to Exile Island and I kind of made a plan with Jeremy and Jon and [Natalie Anderson] to, "Hey, let's throw this challenge and vote off [Reed Kelly] or Julie!" And everything kind of changed after that.
I was gone in exile for 24 hours and obviously things changed other than the fact that Jeremy and Jon sat out of the challenge, you know, our strongest competitors. And so, I went forward with throwing the challenge, which was kind of our game plan. I really did it not just for myself, but kind of to prove to them that, "Hey, I'm in your alliance and we're good and let's roll together."
Reality TV World: If the game plan of your alliance had been to vote off Reed or Julie, why did you suddenly decide to change it up and be so insistent on Kelley instead?
Drew Christy: Well because, I think Julie was just going to kind of roll out with me -- even though she obviously voted against me that night. But, yeah, like I said, there's a lot of things you didn't see. So, really, I just felt threatened by Kelley and I knew that she was stirring up a game plan with [Missy Payne] and Natalie and Jeremy. I mean, and this all happened within, you know, an hour.
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There was a lot of dialogue that kind of got exchanged and it could make me look like the bad guy, some of the things they had me saying and edited me doing. (Laughs) But I was really kind of cool with everybody and chillin' out there and having a great time. I definitely over-played the game and shot myself in the foot there.
And, you know, I was a little bit delusional after not drinking water and eating and sleeping. In 11 days, I mean, I lost 23 pounds in those 11 days. I was fighting for my life (laughs) out there, literally. So, you know, I turned into a bit of a Looney Tunes character with all the elements and all the emotional and physical stress out there and kind of snapped.
Reality TV World: So it sounds like your obsession with voting Kelley out only happened after you lost the Immunity Challenge? When you were throwing the challenge, you were still anticipating Reed or Julie to be the next target?
Drew Christy: That's pretty much -- yeah. That's pretty much on-point there. Julie wasn't really a threat to me anymore, and Reed kind of jumped alongside with me after. I kind of expected -- really, I was trying to get Reed out because he was kind of all over the place between the girls and the guys. He really wasn't trustworthy to me until everything got real.
And that day, I honestly felt it with Reed and I should've just joined forces with Kelley and Reed. I should've just played way more low-key. I put a target on my back and I think I was threatening. I probably would've voted myself out too, honestly!
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Reality TV World: Can you talk a little bit more about why you saw Kelley as such a huge threat? We really haven't seen much of her on the show so far. You were shown citing Kelley's knowledge of every Survivor episode as an example, but super fans frequently don't do well in the competition.
Drew Christy: I was just losing my mind and I thought Julie was going to be kind of an asset to me. After that, I really wanted to vote Reed out, but nobody wanted to vote Reed out anymore. I then went to my next-biggest threat, which was Kelley, and I was really strong-minded on wanting to vote her out and I didn't want to take "no" for an answer.
The second you think you have it all figured out, you realize you don't. So, I think the biggest challenge in the game was myself and you kind of never see the whole truth of things out there. And Kelley was just really overlooked by a lot of the other players, and I think that she mentally was very strong.
And if she went further in the game, she definitely would've thrown out some of the best players, because she knew that they could beat her -- that she couldn't beat them -- like Jon, Jeremy and I. And I kind of said that and nobody really believed me, but you guys just gotta watch and see what happens now.
Reality TV World: Jeremy clearly wanted Keith gone, Jon wanted Julie gone, and you wanted Kelley gone. Did you ever consider compromising on someone other than Kelley, and if not, why? I mean, I could see that if you were fixated on eliminating a girl, Julie would be...
Drew Christy: I was fine with Julie gone too.
Reality TV World: Well that's what I was going to say, and you were really close with Jon. So why were you and Jon butting heads so much over the vote?
Drew Christy: Because we couldn't agree. We couldn't agree on it. I mean, and Jon just kind of turned into a knucklehead. We were, like, best bros the whole time out there, and then at the last second, he's like, "Okay, I think I'm going to vote Keith out." Like, nobody else was even talking about Keith other than Jeremy, and he didn't even vote for Keith at Tribal!
So, I mean, your mind kind of plays tricks on you out there, especially at Tribal. Some of the questions Jeff asks kind of get you thinking and will even change your perspective and change the outcome of the whole game -- just at Tribal with the questions he'll ask. So, yeah, Jon and I couldn't agree, Jeremy and I couldn't agree, and it was just really downhill from there.
So, I wish that I was just more low-key and just said, "Yeah, let's vote Julie out." Because I didn't think she deserved to be there anyways, and I said that at Tribal, and they didn't show that. I definitely didn't agree that, you know, Julie had any business of being on that island with us. She didn't carry her own weight and she was just kind of "Survivor Barbie."
I don't think she did very much. She went and got some twigs for firewood with green leaves on them still, she walked around in wedges. She was alright to look at for the first three or four days, but after that, I was like, "Wow, what's happening here?!"
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So, it was a great experience, I loved it. Of course I have regrets, but I learned from them and I'm going to move on from here and try not to let myself get in my own way anymore, you know? But I'm definitely thankful for the opportunity and it's something my brother and I won't ever forget.
Please check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion of Drew's exclusive interview.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski