Exclusive: 'Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance' castoff Kelly Wiglesworth talks (Part 1)

Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance's merged Orkun tribe snuffed Kelly Wiglesworth's torch during Season 31's ninth episode Wednesday night on CBS.


Wiglesworth, who previously competed on Survivor's inaugural season and lost to Richard Hatch by one vote, became the ninth castaway voted out of the game and the season's third jury member.

The Orkun tribe ousted Wiglesworth via a 6-3-2 vote instead of Kelley Wentworth and Ciera Eastin respectively at Tribal Council on Night 24 of the game. She assumed the majority alliance was just splitting their votes for Wentworth and Ciera.

During an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Wiglesworth talked about her Survivor experience. Below is the first half of what Wiglesworth had to say. Check back with Reality TV World soon for more.

Reality TV World: Is it safe to say you were blindsided? Were you definitely convinced your alliance was splitting the votes between Wentworth and Ciera, with Wentworth being the main target?


Kelly Wiglesworth: Yeah, that's what I thought was going on. It's what I thought, but not what happened! (Laughs)

Reality TV World: What was your relationship like with Stephen Fishbach, Spencer Bledsoe and Jeremy Collins? Because obviously those are the people who flipped on your alliance and voted with the witches' coven. Did that really surprise you?

Kelly Wiglesworth: Spencer, I wasn't surprised. Fishbach, ultimately not surprised. Jeremy was the surprise and, you know, sort of the kind of hurtful vote. He had initially approached me, like, "Hey, I want to be in an alliance with you. I got your back; I got your back. We're solid, we're solid, we're solid."

So, you know, we were talking about our families and talking about my son and sort of my motivation for doing things, and him expecting his first son, and that kind of thing. So just kind of on a personal level, it was like, really?! I thought we were better friends I suppose.

Fishbach, you know, was surprising but not [enough] to be hurtful. It was just surprising in that he really made an effort that day. He was sort of following me around pre-Tribal Council, like, "Hey, so, we're good right?! We're good? We're good?"


And I'm like, "Yeah, dude, we're good." If I give you my word, I give you my word, and we're good. I don't need to constantly be reassured or that type of thing. So it was just kind of like, well, that was unnecessary.

Reality TV World: Jeremy was definitely the most hesitant to make the big move because even though they were trying to pass it off as a temporary voting block rather than a betrayal, he was nervous to blindside Tasha Fox, Kimmi Kappenberg, Keith Nale and Joe Anglim. Aside from the fact their decision resulted in your ouster, do you think Jeremy and Spencer made the right choice for their game or a huge mistake?

Kelly Wiglesworth: Well, I mean, I think everybody saw it as the right choice for their game. It was no secret to me that everyone saw me as a threat be it challenges or social game or whatnot. I mean, it was said to me numerous times jokingly or whatever, like, "You're going to win. If you get to the end, any jury is going to give it to you."

So, I knew that going in. And when you go far in the game like a lot of us had, it's really, you know, I think we had the hardest time trying to get far or even further [now] because we got far in the first game for a reason, and people know that. (Laughs) Those are the biggest threats. Those are the people you want to get out first.

I also think to your question of whether it was a big mistake for them, I also think people know that I'm not a bitter person. So whether they put me on the jury or whether they keep me around, I think people saw that too as, "Well, even if she is on the jury..." I'm not going to be bitter or not vote for someone just because they wrote my name down. I think people knew that of me as well.


Reality TV World: Joe is probably the biggest threat in the game right now both in challenges and socially. But it appeared you two were so close that you wouldn't have gone after him. Could you confirm that for me?

Kelly Wiglesworth: No, never. I would've never written his name down. Never. Not in a million. Not FOR a million! (Laughs)

Reality TV World: So it sounds like you were aware you'd be making an emotional decision rather than a smarter strategic one, and you'd be fine with that?

Kelly Wiglesworth: Yeah! Definitely.

Reality TV World: Okay. Just to clarify, whom did you believe was your sub-alliance within the huge majority alliance. Where did you think you fit into that?


Kelly Wiglesworth: Well, I definitely saw myself as sort of being on the bottom of the larger sort of "Bayon strong" alliance. But as someone sort of on the bottom, part of my gameplay was like, "Alright, I have to be on the bottom right now. I have to just sort of go with the flow and vote the way I'm sort of being told, and wait to get the numbers down to make a bigger move."

In terms of a sub-alliance, it was myself, Joe, Kimmi and Keith. And I thought -- we thought -- Fishbach was going to be a part of that. And we were like, "Oh man, that's brilliant! No one is going to see Joe and Fishbach working together."

So that was another reason why I was kind of surprised at Fishbach because, you know, we had made this whole plan of the brilliancy of him and Joe being in a super-super secret sub-alliance. "Oh! This is great! This is great! Yeah we're still good, and let's do this!" And, "Okay!"

Reality TV World: What was your ideal Final 3 scenario then?

Kelly Wiglesworth: Final 3. Myself, Joe and Kimmi.


Reality TV World: Everyone knew Fishbach had received some type of advantage. Was anyone brave enough to ask him directly what it was after the challenge, and if so, what did he say?

Kelly Wiglesworth: Oh, we all asked him! (Laughs) We all asked him, "Hey, what is it?!" We all asked him as a group and I think everyone asked him individually. And he just kind of laughed it off, like, "I'm not telling you."

He's like, "Or I might tell you one by one as a private kind of thing." And we were like, "Yeah, sure dude. Right. Like you're going to tell us." But any time he went off to talk with anybody, it was like, "Hmm. What are they talking about? What is Fishbach's advantage? What's he saying?"

Reality TV World: So do you think because of that advantage people wanted to make Fishbach a closer ally or it just painted a huge target on his back?

Kelly Wiglesworth: A little bit of both. I definitely saw people putting a target on his back, but you could also see people trying to get closer to him. With Wentworth playing her idol, it definitely -- I mean, I never saw her and Jeremy speak to each other when we merged until after she played her idol.

And then it was like, all of a sudden, they started having meetings in the hammock and whatnot. So, yeah, you definitely kind of see a little bit more of that when you're like, "Hmm, someone's got an advantage. Let's see how that can become my advantage."


Reality TV World: Spencer and Fishbach, both being Super Fans and students of Survivor, were ironically the only ones who jumped in the water for the advantage at the challenge. Did your perspective on the two guys change after that or do you know if anyone else started viewing them differently, like, "They're more dangerous than we thought and only worried about themselves?"

Kelly Wiglesworth: No, I mean, I think that was kind of apparent about both of them from the beginning, that they didn't have that strong of a physical game so to speak, or winning challenges sort of thing. So being Super Fans, it was more like they were seen as more strategic threats.

Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion of Kelly Wiglesworth's exclusive Survivor interview.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski