Julie Rosenberg finished Survivor: Edge of Extinction in third place behind runner-up Gavin Whitson and winner Chris Underwood during the three-hour finale event of Survivor Season 38 on CBS.
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Chris, a 25-year-old district sales manager from Myrtle Beach, SC, who currently resides in Greenville, SC, won in a 9-4 jury vote against Gavin, a 23-year-old YMCA program director from Erwin, TN, after he had returned from the Edge of Extinction.
Chris received the following jury votes to win: Reem Daly, Julia Carter, Eric Hafemann, Aubry Bracco, David Wright, Joe Anglim, Dan "The Wardog" DaSilva, Victoria Baamonde, and Ron Clark.
Gavin earned votes from Aurora McCreary, Lauren O'Connell, Kelley Wentworth, and Rick Devens. But Julie did not receive a single vote.
Rick finished in fourth place, Lauren placed fifth, and Victoria claimed sixth place.
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During an exclusive interview with Reality TV World following the finale broadcast, Julie talked about her Survivor experience. Below is the concluding portion of what she had to say.
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Reality TV World: At the Tribal Council when Victoria got voted off, whom did you vote for? The episode didn't show the voting results other than Rick receiving three, Victoria earning two votes, and Chris receiving one.
Julie Rosenberg: Right, so, Victoria's vote was on Chris. She thought that Chris was the Plan B if Rick was playing his idol and it was real. And my vote was -- I can't remember how Lauren, Gavin and I split the votes, but we needed to put some votes on Rick and obviously the others on Victoria.
So, it's so crazy, but I don't remember if I was somebody who was writing Rick's name down or writing Victoria's name down. Regardless, I basically knew Victoria was going to be the one going home.
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I was also pretty sure that Rick's idol was real. I guess I couldn't say I was 100 percent [sure], but I was banking on the fact it was real and we were blindsiding Victoria... I want to say I put Victoria's name down, but my first choice would've been Rick if he didn't have that idol.
Reality TV World: How do you think the endgame would've played out had everything gone according to plan and you were able to oust Rick at Final 6? Were you thinking about which players would be in your ideal Final 3 at the time?
Julie Rosenberg: It's so funny, I was. When Chris, first of all, got back in from the Edge of Extinction, I was really happy it was him. There were certain people [I wouldn't have wanted.]
So I was like, "This is good. I have a good chance against them in the Final 3 because Chris was voted out third. He got blindsided. That's his game." So I didn't really think he was going to be a threat to win this game!
I think a lot of other people thought that way too. So, when he did get back into the game, I thought, "Okay, wait, this is a good person for me to sit next to in the Final 3," so I was probably thinking in my mind I would've liked to be with Lauren and Chris in the Final 3.
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I know Lauren would have gotten votes, but I wasn't so sure she could've beaten me or that she would've gotten way more votes than I would. She had her friends and I had my friends from Kama.
I think it would've been a lot more even that what maybe she thinks. I know she's said I'm someone she wanted to sit next to in the end, but I kind of looked at her in the same way. So, I would've picked Lauren (laughs) and Chris probably still would've won the game at that point!
But who knows! Everything would've changed if Chris didn't beat Rick in fire and he didn't win that last immunity. There are too many unknowns to know what would have happened. Rick wouldn't have been able to give Chris his idol, you know, it's a strange thing to think about.
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Reality TV World: Lauren suspected the second idol she had found in the game might be fake because Rick and yourself had also found idols around the same time. Lauren didn't think three idols could be in play at once, but we didn't see you expressing the same concern. Did you suspect your idol was fake?...
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Julie Rosenberg: No.
Reality TV World: Did Lauren ever warn you that your idol might be fake?
Julie Rosenberg: No! (Laughs) No. It's shocking to me now, looking back at it. Like, why didn't I suspect it?! It makes no sense that I didn't suspect it. But I guess when I found mine, Rick found his and he found it right in front of my face.
I was just like, "I cannot believe this!" And I guess because two idols had been played the night before, in my mind, there were definitely two idols that were going to be out there.
So, Rick found his and I found mine. I was just so excited! And it's really frustrating because in my confessional, I don't think they showed the whole thing I said, but I was like, "There's one last thing I checked off my Survivor bucket list -- this hidden Immunity Idol."
And then I'm holding it up and was like, "This is the biggest piece of homemade crap I've ever seen, but it's my idol!" Even saying that, I still didn't think anything.
And I guess it's because Rick had made it look so much like the one he had played. I just thought, "Okay, this is the real one." So I found mine and it never dawned on me that it was fake. And I found it in the spot where he had found his original one before the one that day.
So I was like, "Okay, it's in a good spot," and whatever. And then Lauren later, when she found the clue and then got her idol, yeah, it should have dawned on me!... I don't know what I was thinking, (laughs) but yeah, it should've dawned on me and it did not. It did not.
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To read the rest of Reality TV World's exclusive Survivor interview with Julie, click here for Part 1 and click here for Part 2. (Also, check out our Survivor: Edge of Extinction show page for more interviews with the Final 6 castaways).
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski