Exclusive: 'Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance' winner Jeremy Collins talks (Part 2)

Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance declared Jeremy Collins the winner of its $1 million grand prize during the live portion of the finale broadcast on CBS.


Jeremy, who first competed on Survivor: San Juan del Sur, beat former Cagayan players Spencer Bledsoe and Tasha Fox in Season 31's final jury voting results, which host Jeff Probst revealed during the live reunion show.

Technically, Spencer and Tasha tied as the runner-up because Jeremy had a clean sweep of all 10 jury votes for the win. Kelley Wentworth finished in fourth place, Keith Nale finished in fifth, and Kimmi Kappenberg landed in sixth place.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World, Jeremy talked about his Survivor experience and victory. Below is the concluding portion. Click here to read the first half.

Reality TV World: You didn't win any Immunity Challenges until the very last one, which you needed to make the Final 3. Were you sort of holding back to not be deemed a huge threat? Because I feel like everyone viewed you as a physical threat and alpha male, but you weren't necessarily winning things to make them fear you. Was that on purpose? (Laughs)


Jeremy Collins: Oh yeah! I'm like "Joey Amazing!" I could win them all! You didn't know that? (Laughs) No way! I tell everybody all the time, like, "I suck at these challenges," and everyone looks at me and says, "Oh, Jeremy has abs or whatever, so he's going to win all these challenges."

I'm not good at Survivor challenges. So it's like, stop looking at me as a physical threat! I do well in team challenges because I can run a little bit and I can jump. I'm kind of strong or whatever, but I'm not good at the balancing. I'm not good at these puzzles. I'm not good at it, so stop looking at me like this big physical challenge beast.

Reality TV World: Did anyone at home give you a hard time about Keith, the old guy, constantly beating you in the challenges? (Laughs)

Jeremy Collins: I mean, not Keith, because he's just crazy. He's good at stuff like that. But, you know, the fire department, they kill me when I lose to someone -- like last year, I lost to [Missy Payne] and [Baylor Wilson].

You know, they kill me for that! But when I'm losing to [Joe Anglim] and Keith, it's whatever. The fire department is going to come at me because that's just what we do. We mess around with each other just to mess with each other. So it doesn't matter. I'm alright with that.


Reality TV World: If Keith had whipped out his fake hidden Immunity Idol during the Tribal Council he went home, whom do you think would've fallen for that? Would you have personally? It looked pretty legitimate.

Jeremy Collins: So, during the whole day, Keith takes off looking for an idol and we could see him in the brush looking. We were like, "Okay, he does not have an idol. We feel pretty confident about it." And then he comes back and he has something in his pocket and he's fiddling around with something. And we're like, "That's false," you know what I mean?

You don't do it blatantly like that. If you have an idol, you're hiding that thing and no one's going to see it. So I said, "If he does have one, it's not a real one, or he's just fiddling around with a rock or something."

And when I did that little thing to get Spencer out -- it actually wasn't even Spencer. I was motioning to Keith and telling him, "Tasha." I said, "Me, you and Spencer vote for Tasha" just to see his reaction.

He jumped up and he got the message wrong because he said, "Spencer," and he jumped up and went over to get some water and he's acting Tasha if she wants water. And I said, "He is so excited right now. He thinks he's alright for the night. He does not have an idol. We are fine. We are going forward with [the plan]."


Reality TV World: Oh okay, so when the episode showed you mouthing "Spencer" to Keith in regards to your target that night, it sounds like the scene was taken out of context.

Jeremy Collins: Yeah, that was just a mistake by Keith. He thought I was saying Spencer. I wasn't going to go after Spencer... So Tasha's game out there, Tasha's like me. We were paranoid. And that day, Tasha was telling me to "chill out, chill out."

And I was like, "That's not Tasha! You're supposed to be paranoid like me!" So I felt like something was wrong and that's when I made the mention towards Keith to see his reaction, and his reaction told me that he didn't have an idol. So I knew I was good.

Reality TV World: Abi-Maria Gomes asked the Final 3 what their best subtle move was, but no one asked about each person's biggest move. What would you say yours happened to be? Just out of curiosity.

Jeremy Collins: I don't know. I don't even know if I had the biggest move. I think I had a lot of strong moves. Maybe playing the idol for [Stephen Fishbach] or maybe even jumping with the witches' coven and going that route. I don't know.


I think I just made some subtle moves here and there, and I had a couple good idol plays. I just bonded with everybody, with a ton of people out there. They all trusted me at some point, so I think that was my biggest -- my social game was the best part of my game.

Reality TV World: I felt like you were sort of a rock, like you had a powerful stance in the game the whole way through. Was there ever a point when you didn't feel in control or you felt vulnerable? Maybe there was a time you had to rely on someone to keep you safe?

Jeremy Collins: My biggest part was I played the idol for Stephen and I didn't want to look like I'm the big boss out here. I guess Kimmi called my "The Godfather," saying I was acting like that. And I said, "Alright, Stephen, I'm stepping out of this. This is your thing. I don't even want Joey gone."

 I said, "I need Joey, so you do your thing. This is your move in the game to build your resume, and I'm stepping back." I saw everybody running around crazy, and I told Stephen, "Something is up. You've got to -- something is going on."

And he didn't believe me. He was arguing with me! And I felt so helpless. I was like, "I'm trying to step back and pull back a little bit." I said, "Stephen, you're messing up something. Something is going to happen," and he didn't believe me.


Reality TV World: There was an all-female alliance brewing at one point, which you and Spencer were pretty worried about. Why do you think that never took off? And looking at it from Tasha's perspective, were you surprised she never decided to flip on you two and go that route. She might've had a better shot to win the game if she went through with that move.

Jeremy Collins: No, Tasha was loyal, and she was loyal her first season. She was loyal with me from Day 1 and she stayed with me the whole season, being just a loyal person. Even when I would tell her things and make moves and go against what she thought, she still had my back.

So, I never thought that -- I was afraid of a women's alliance, but I never really thought it would happen. The girls didn't really get along, you know what I mean? I just didn't see them trusting each other enough to make a move on us. But, you know, it's always in the back of your mind, like, "Oh jeeze, here we go."

Kimmi initially [brought up] the women's alliance! She was the person who didn't want it. When [Monica Padilla] said she wanted one, [Kimmi] wants Monica gone. I just couldn't believe watching it. I said, "Kimmi really said that!?" I was shocked about that, like, "Kimmi doesn't want that."

Reality TV World: What do you plan to do with your winnings, and also, when is your son due?

Jeremy Collins: Yeah, so, the money, I gave the check to [my wife Val Collins] already. I said, "Do what you need and I'm going back to work." And the baby is due in less than two weeks! We'll see what happens!


To read the first half of Jeremy's exclusive Survivor interview with Reality TV World, click here. For more interviews with the Final 6 castaways, be sure to check our Survivor show page.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski