Exclusive: Shirin Oskooi talks 'Survivor: Worlds Apart' (Part 2)

Survivor: Worlds Apart's merged Merica tribe eliminated Shirin Oskooi from the game during Wednesday night's tenth episode of the CBS reality competition's 30th season.


Shirin, a 31-year-old Yahoo executive from San Francisco, CA, was the eleventh person voted out of the game and therefore became the season's fourth jury member. Her Merica tribe got her out on Night 29 at the season's eleventh Tribal Council session.

Shirin and her only ally left in the game, Mike Holloway, were on the outs against a six-person alliance -- which actually included a tight foursome and two castaways on the side. Mike hoped his hidden Immunity Idol would do the trick, but Shirin still went home.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Shirin talked about her Survivor experience. Below is the concluding portion. Click here to read the first half.

Reality TV World: Dan Foley appeared to apologize to you on Will Sims II's behalf. Were you buying it? Because a few moments later, Dan went off to the cameras about how you're this supposed "liar and drama queen who likes to play the victim."


Shirin Oskooi: No, I could tell that his apology wasn't sincere. I think that's why I said to him, "Which part of it? Which part are you sorry for?" I was calling his bluff. I'm saying like, "You tell me exactly what was wrong, and if you use the words 'it was wrong,' then I'll believe your apology."

But he never said those words, so no, I knew it wasn't sincere. With that said, good on him for at least trying to talk to me and be civil towards me -- at least to my face.

Reality TV World: What was Dan even talking about? Viewers saw how the castaways found you annoying and some of them disliked you because of that. But we didn't see you really go off on anyone or attack anybody. Dan insisted you treated people the same as Will had treated you. Could you talk about that a little bit? What was he referring to?

Shirin Oskooi: Yeah, no, what happened was [Joaquin Souberbielle] always hated me, and when the tribes swap happened, Joaquin poisoned the well and he made all of those Blue Collar guys have a baseline of absolute disrespect for me.

Dan readily absorbed all of that and never gave me a chance. He never got to know me and never overcame that impression that Joaquin painted for him -- and same thing with [Rodney Lavoie Jr]. And so, you know, I'm sure that if I was doing ugly, horrific things, it would be shown. That's TV as well.


It would explain so much more of this, right? Because everyone sitting at home is being like, "What is it? Why?" No one wants to tell a story, like, that's an untold story. People want to see why.

If they could show why, they would. The fact of the matter is, the well was poisoned, I had nothing to do with it, and yeah, I was a little annoying. But nothing, nothing warrants an attack like that.

Reality TV World: As a huge Survivor fan, what did you think of Dan's advantage from the auction in which he'll get an extra vote at Tribal?

Shirin Oskooi: I think it's really interesting. I like that it empowers even-numbered Tribal Councils. So like, this Tribal Council was an eight-person one, or say a six-person one, it enables a tied-group scenario to gain power. The fact that it's fallen into the hands of a Super Fan who cannot do basic math, I think it's comical. (Laughs) And I, you know, don't think he's going to be able to use it effectively.

Reality TV World: How do you feel about Will now? Are you both still filled with hate towards one another or did you ever get that apology you wanted so badly from him?


Shirin Oskooi: I mean, I never hated him. He hated me. I try to avoid that kind of ugliness. I don't have the room in my heart for that. I don't think he's a good person; I think he's a bad person. But no, it's still an ongoing issue. Nothing is resolved.

Reality TV World: Carolyn Rivera still has a hidden Immunity Idol in her pocket. Did you ever think about someone having an idol in that majority alliance or maybe have an inkling Carolyn did?

Shirin Oskooi: Yeah, [Jenn Brown] thought that Carolyn had it. I was like, "No way! Carolyn was the only person who never went looking for it," (laughs) which in retrospect, I'm so dumb. Of course she wasn't looking for it, because she had it! But yeah, Jenn suspected.

Reality TV World: Jenn and Hali Ford didn't really want to be around you until you started working with them in the game and then things changed. You seemed to get pretty close to those girls, so did you view them as sincere friends while you were out there and did you think they were being genuine to you?

Shirin Oskooi: Yeah, Hali was always really kind to me. Hali and I got along from the start. She, I think, was just annoyed by [Max Dawson]. Jenn genuinely didn't like me (laughs) and I initially thought that she was -- I mean, I didn't understand her at all. I didn't understand her personality.


And then Hali and I -- after Max was voted out -- had a really mature conversation. And so, I knew at that point that Hali was being genuine and honest with me and that I could trust her. With Jenn, it took me a lot longer to kind of figure her out and befriend her and win her over.

But by my last week out there, she and I just became so incredibly close. We're actually, like, two sides to the same coin. We're similar in a lot of ways even though we're opposite in a lot of ways. But yeah, she's probably one of my closest friends from the show.

Reality TV World: Whom did you envision going to the Final 3 with?

Shirin Oskooi: In my mind, I would go to the end with Carolyn, [Sierra Dawn Thomas] and even Will frankly. Some combination of those three could get me to the end with four votes from the jury.

Reality TV World: Do you think the other castaways underestimated you in the game? They seemed to treat you as a joke but you were always strategizing and had support from the No Collars on the jury.


Shirin Oskooi: They thought I was just a dumb nobody. They didn't know anything about me or my life or the fact that I am this intelligent successful person because they didn't take the time to, right? And what kind of game is that? So, that's why I was underestimated.

And I figured I would have the votes of No Collars, Mike and Sierra on the jury. I think that those five would vote for me to win, but I also knew it's not like I can get the other four or five people to even take me to the end.

Click here to read the first half of Shirin's exclusive interview with Reality TV World.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski