Exclusive: Katrina Radke talks 'Survivor' -- I'm not surprised Chrissy Hofbeck didn't save me, she was afraid of me

Katrina Radke was voted out of the Heroes tribe during the premiere of Survivor's 35th season called Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers on CBS.


Katrina, a 46-year-old former Olympian from Minneapolis, MN, was voted out of her "Levu" tribe through a unanimous vote after the Heroes tribe finished in last place at the first Immunity Challenge of the season.

Katrina cast her vote, however, for Ashley Nolan, a 26-year-old lifeguard from Satellite Beach, FL. Katrina's exit leaves Ashley, Alan Ball, Ben Driebergen, JP Hilsabeck, and Chrissy Hofbeck on the Heroes tribe going forward and a total of 17 castaways remaining.

During an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Katrina talked about her short-lived Survivor experience and whether she saw her elimination coming. Below is the first portion of Katrina's interview. Be sure to check back soon for more.

Reality TV World: I'm assuming Chrissy didn't share the news of her secret idol with you prior to Tribal Council. When did you find out about Chrissy's secret advantage, and what was your reaction?


Katrina Radke: I found out during the summer, maybe, I think it was. And, I don't know, I wasn't too phased I guess! (Laughs) I don't think she would've used it anyway for me, so it didn't really matter. It became a moot point in the game, I think. 

Reality TV World: You and Chrissy both seemed to recognize you were potential targets before Tribal, and it appeared you were Chrissy's only true ally out there given your tribemates labeled you two the "mom squad." So why does it sound like you're not surprised at all that Chrissy opted out of playing the idol for you?

Katrina Radke: The way it was portrayed is way different from actual reality, I guess. Because we all talked to a lot of different people at different times about working together. So they created that idea, that the two of us were together and on the outs of the four, but it wasn't so much that way. Because in many ways, there were times when the other people could be working together.

But I have to say this as a shout out to all us moms out there, that it's funny how people have this perception that we're weak. Man oh man, I could've run circles around some of those people! (Laughs) And you know, being a mom is a [tough] job to raise healthy, good kids.

So I look forward to seeing how some of those people might do that in 20 years. It's not as easy as it looks!


Reality TV World: You would think Chrissy would have a better chance to stay in the game if she had kept you around, because one number is better than having no numbers. What do you think Chrissy's explanation would be for choosing to keep her idol under wraps?

Katrina Radke: I think she was afraid of me from the beginning. I kind of got the sense of that right away, you know, when we first got on the boat for the Reward Challenge. So, I think it's easy when you see somebody who is of a similar age to imagine them being your competition rather than working together.

And I think that was her philosophy. I could have tried to work with her, and more specifically, to actually go far in the game, and I think she was afraid.

When you look at the way this game is played, there's only two people over 40 years old who won the game, and that's usually because they have older people with them.

Usually if there's younger people in the Final 3 with an older person, the older person does not win. And so, there were not that many older people in this group. I don't consider myself old, by the way! (Laughs) Although that seems to be what other people thought.


But I was the oldest person out there and I think, ideally, it's a numbers game. So, if the older people can work together, it definitely helps.

Reality TV World: Do you think Chrissy actually bought into the idea that she was in an alliance with Ben and Alan? Do you think that played a role in voting you out?

Katrina Radke: Oh gosh, you know, there are so many different things that happened. Things change so rapidly in this game, as you can see in former seasons and this one too. So there is so much that could've happened, who knows.

As things move forward, I think Ben and [Chrissy] might become really tight, I would say more than -- I think she's definitely more comfortable with guys than girls.

Sometimes people get funny, you know, females can be funny with other females when it comes to actually working with them.


Reality TV World: Before Tribal, you mentioned having faith in your alliance with Alan, Ben and Chrissy at one point. Did you really mean that? If not, did you trust anyone at all heading into Tribal?

Katrina Radke: I knew I was just doing that for the purpose of having to, because what happened was, Alan actually used my name against me to tell Ashley and JP that I'm the one who said to him that they had the idol because Ashley and I had been talking before that happened. And so, he freaked out, so I called him on it. And there's a lot of stuff that happened there.

And so specifically by the time we got to Tribal, there was a lot more disarray than what was actually shown. So Ben was worried that I was making all this stuff up, because Alan told him that I'm the one who told him about this idol, and I told [Ben], "That's not the case."

And so I wanted Ben to know that, "Hey, the game is a long 39 days, right? If you want to be with somebody, you've got to earn trust and build trust." And so I'm like, "Okay fine, you guys want to do the group of four or five, fine, we'll do that."

But believe me, I didn't want Ashley out, because to me, Ashley, JP and I could've worked together. At that point, I think Chrissy was a little bit more along the lines of working with Ben and Alan.


Reality TV World: So when Tribal Council came around, did you think you were working with anyone, or were you just hoping for the best?

Katrina Radke: Oh I knew I was going home! I knew I was done.

Reality TV World: So you definitely weren't blindsided then. (Laughs)

Katrina Radke: Uh-uh. Uh-uh. It was kind of funny because the medical team called me up like a couple of days later, because post-game you're still there, right? Obviously. And they were like, "Do you know what happened to your medical stuff? I can't find them."

And I was like, "I have it." And they were like, "Well how did you know to take it?" And I was like, "I knew I was going home!" (Laughs)

I don't know if you watched [Sandra Diaz-Twine] get voted off this past spring, like, you know. You just know. If you pay attention, you know what's happening.


Reality TV World: Side conversations you weren't involved in? Things like that?

Katrina Radke: Yeah, you just kind of energetically feel it. You know?

Check back with Reality TV World soon for more from Katrina's post-Survivor elimination interview.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski