Pat Cusack was medically evacuated from Survivor: David vs. Goliath after suffering a freak boating injury during Wednesday night's special 90-minute premiere episode of Season 37 on CBS.
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Pat, a 40-year-old maintenance manager from Cohoes, NY, who currently resides in Watervliet, NY, was forced to leave the game on Day 3 after injuring his back on the boat ride returning from the season's first Immunity Challenge.
Pat begged Survivor host Jeff Probst to stay in the game and continue competing for the $1 million, but his pain was so severe the medics worried his injury might be very serious. Pat therefore had no choice in the matter.
"To be out of the game not by vote but by pure accident, it's gut-wrenching, but my life and my health is bigger than this game. And ultimately, I will pick myself up off the beach, dust the sand off, and get back on my horse. As a David, it's what I've done for 41 years; it's the story of my life," Pat said following his ouster.
During an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Pat talked about his short-lived Survivor experience. Below is a portion of what Pat had to say. Be sure to check back with Reality TV World soon for more.
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Reality TV World: Your tribe never went to Tribal Council, but did you think about or discuss which castaway would've been the first person voted out if you had done to Tribal with the Davids? From watching the episode, it sounded like Nick Wilson was your target?
Pat Cusack: Yeah, Nick was definitely going to be the one to go. You know, myself, [Davie Rickenbacker], [Carl Boudreaux], [Jessica Peet], and [Lyrsa Torres] had discussed it in depth, but we needed the numbers. We couldn't go in there with five. And if Nick had five, we would be going to stones.
So we had to get two more, and we were trying to get the nerds to come with us, which was [Christian Hubicki] and [Gabby Pascuzzi].
Reality TV World: The group you were working with, did you feel like you guys has established an alliance yet, or were you not at that point?
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Pat Cusack: I don't think it was an alliance at that point. It was really still too early in the game, but we knew that we wanted to take a solid group that worked well together. Because camp life is camp life, and [Nick] just wasn't doing his share -- his fair share around camp.
We're busting our humps, cutting bamboo and trying to build a shelter to keep everybody safe and warm, and Nick was just kind of, like, walking around and having, you know, a beach day! And it didn't go over too well with the majority of us.
Reality TV World: So was that all there was to it when it came to your issues with Nick, that he just wasn't contributing much?
Pat Cusack: Yeah. He was just being a lazybones, and when you're thrown on an island and all you have is dirt, you've got to try to pitch in around camp and make it home. And to just be walking around and taking it all in and going down to the water and sitting in the ocean or walking off in the back to go explore the island, at this time, we don't need to do that.
What we need to do is make sure everybody is safe. We need to make sure everybody has a place to put their head at night that's dry and not in the mud. And he just, like, didn't catch it, you know? And it got on a lot of our nerves right off the jump.
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Reality TV World: Looking back, do you think you'd benefit from taking a step back early on and not trying to be in charge, or if you were to play again, would you handle everything the same exact way? Because Gabby did admit when you got medically evacuated that she had "misjudged" you in the beginning.
Pat Cusack: Yeah, well the thing is, you know, I am who I am, and I'm not going to try to sugarcoat anything. It's who I am, you know? I'm a go-getter and I just try to make the best of a bad situation.
If people took it as me being, you know, a pushy kind of guy, like a [Russell Hantz], (laughs) I can't control that. It's just my natural being.
But if I was to go back and play the game again, then yeah, I will probably sit back a little bit and let someone else, you know, tell me what you want me to do. I don't want to be that guy again. (Laughs)
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Reality TV World: And just to clarify, would you like to play Survivor again if there was another Second Chances type of season? Is it safe to say you'd love to come back?
Pat Cusack: I would leave tomorrow if they wanted me to! (Laughs) Absolutely.
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Reality TV World: Based on your tribe's initial perception of you, had you stayed in the game, do you think there's a chance you would've been your tribe's target had you all went to Tribal Council together?
Pat Cusack: I am pretty confident that it wasn't going to be me, but you never know. I don't know what people were discussing when I wasn't around there. But I could be naive and it could have been me! I don't know.
But I was pretty confident in the solid five I had, and like I said, trying to get the two nerds in just as security to have the total number.
But yeah, it very well could have been me and I could've been naive in feeling secure in a situation where I wasn't. But I was pretty confident Nick was going to be the one to go, and from hearing from the people I was working with, they were on the same page.
And it was brought to my attention before I even said anything. Carl came up to me two hours into it and said, "Man, this guy, Nick, he doesn't help. He doesn't want to do nothing."
And that's when we were like, "Well, if he doesn't want to help, I hope he doesn't expect to have a warm and comfy place to sleep at night."
To read the first portion of Reality TV World's exclusive interview with Pat and all the details about his medical evacuation, click here.
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