Rick Devens finished Survivor: Edge of Extinction in fourth place, losing to the season's winner Chris Underwood during the three-hour finale event of Survivor Season 38 on CBS.

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Rick, a 33-year-old morning news anchor from Blacksburg, VA, who currently resides in Macon, GA, was seemingly seconds shy of making the Final 3 because Chris, a 25-year-old district sales manager from Myrtle Beach, SC, who currently resides in Greenville, SC, managed to build a fire that burned through his rope first when the two men had competed in the season's highly-anticipated firestarting challenge.

Chris ultimately 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.

And the season's runner-up, Gavin Whitson, earned votes from Rick, Aurora McCreary, Lauren O'Connell, and Kelley Wentworth.

Julie Rosenberg also made the Final 3 but did not receive a single vote. Lauren placed fifth after Rick, and Victoria claimed sixth place.

During an exclusive interview with Reality TV World following the finale, Rick talked about his Survivor experience. Below is the concluding portion of what he had to say.

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Reality TV World: When you were sitting with Chris on the beach and he asked you if your idol was real, did you hesitate to tell him the truth even though you knew you didn't want to betray him again?

Rick Devens: I had pretty significant hesitation telling him that, but at that point, I had been playing on my own for so long, that I wanted a partner so badly! And we did have this trust, so I did put it out there.

Reality TV World: Were you surprised Chris never told anyone else your hidden Immunity Idol was a real one after that conversation?

Rick Devens: I am a little surprised he never told anybody that. I'm pleasantly surprised, and it does go to show, like, he and I made a deal for the Final 4. And he was totally loyal to that.

Even though it seems like he betrayed me, he really didn't. And I feel even stronger about that now that I've seen he was good to me about it.

Reality TV World: From a viewer's perspective, you had such an easy time finding hidden Immunity Idols. Could you talk to me a little bit about that?

Rick Devens: I didn't have an easy time finding idols at all. I mean, I didn't find an idol in less than six hours of solid looking. Well the last one, I did find that very quickly, the final one. Because we were all searching that morning; it was a mad scramble.

But they are really hard to find! And listen, the other folks did look, but because of their place in the game, it was more dangerous for them to look because their alliance members might get suspicious.

They also didn't have the incentive [to look] because they weren't getting voted out. But those things are hard to find!

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Reality TV World: Do you think there are just too many hidden Immunity Idols in the game at this point though and they've sort of taken away from the strategic gameplay longtime Survivor fans have come to love?

Rick Devens: Not even a little bit! Not even a little bit. (Laughs)... I think they bring a lot to the game! There were a lot of big moments because of those that would have otherwise been -- I mean, how predictable would it have been that I'm going home if there's no Immunity Idols out there?

I don't think that's an exciting game. And I know how hard I worked to find those idols, and it is no joke! So no, I think that's kind of a fallacy.

Reality TV World: What was going through your mind when Chris basically quit that Final 6 Immunity Challenge to coach Julie so she'd win against you? Did you press him about that afterwards, and if so, what was his answer and did you believe it at the time?

Rick Devens: Yeah, that bugged me big time! That definitely made me go, you know, "Chris is playing more than just me. He's got more angles going on, clearly."

Because why would you not go as hard as you can from an Immunity win? So that gave me a lot of pause, and he didn't have a good explanation for it.

He kind of tried to sell me that he wanted to bring Julie in to work with us, but at that point, I knew that Julie would never want me in any type of deal that took us further. So that gave me a lot of pause.

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To read Part 1 of Rick's exclusive Survivor interview with Reality TV World, click here. And to read Part 2, click here. (Also, check out our Edge of Extinction show page for more interviews with the Final 6 castaways).


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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