Exclusive: 'Survivor: Kaoh Rong' castaway Caleb Reynolds talks (Part 2)

Survivor: Kaoh Rong -- Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty castaway Caleb Reynolds was medically evacuated via helicopter from the game during the most recent broadcast on CBS.


Caleb, a 28-year-old Army veteran and former Big Brother contestant from Hopkinsville, KY, dropped to the ground after the Reward Challenge from what appeared to be dehydration and a dangerous increase in his body temperature. His Gondol tribe, the Beauty tribe, all cried when he left the game because they viewed themselves as a tight-knit family.

At the end of the broadcast, the To Tang tribe, or the Brawn tribe, ousted Alecia Holden, a 24-year-old real estate agent from Dallas, TX.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Caleb talked about his Survivor experience and medical evacuation. Below is the concluding portion. Click here to read the first half.

Reality TV World: I'm sure it was very disappointing and frustrating for you to have to leave the game at that point, especially considering you were in a pretty awesome spot in that tribe.


Caleb Reynolds: Yeah, you know, I felt that I was in a good position, although the girls are tight. I knew that as soon as one of the men left, it was that numbers game at that point. Same as Big Brother -- once your alliance has more numbers, it becomes a huge number game. And it was, ugh, I was in a good spot for the time being.

To know that I had to go out like that in a way, I'm proud of that, because I wasn't going to go out any other way. I wasn't going to quit, and I wasn't going to go home any time soon in terms of being voted out. So if there was one way that, you know, mother nature had to get me out, it was that way. I mean, I guess I'm proud of that.

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 gone to Tribal?

Caleb Reynolds: Well, there was speculation from the very beginning when Tai Trang was out looking for an idol. At that moment, we were all saying, "Well, if we lose, since Tai's being the sketchy one, Tai's going to be the first one to go." But the only issue was, we needed a Plan B.

Because if Tai did have the idol, we already called him out on it, so no matter what, if Tai knows the game like I know he knows it, he's going to play the idol no matter what. Because we all told him, "Tai, you're being sketchy! Tai, why are you looking for the idol?! We haven't even lost. Tai, why are you bringing all this stuff to the tribe? We're doing good; We're all connected."


And not only that, he admitted to it. He was like, "Yeah, guys, give me five more minutes. I'm just looking for the idol." He kind of threw up red flags with everyone. So at that point, we were all saying, "If we lose, Tai's the first one to go because he's being so sketchy for no reason."

And the only issue is, you always have to have a Plan B, because at that moment when we called him out, if we would've kept it a secret, and not said nothing to him, and we would've made him feel like [Nick Maiorano] was the one going or someone else was going, he wouldn't have played his idol and we would've been able to get him out.

But because [Tai] knew that we knew, he was going to play it no matter what. So Plan B for the girls and myself was Nick. But I was probably not going to let that happen because we needed Nick, so you know, honestly, we really didn't have a pick. We had no clue! Because we didn't know if Tai had the idol or not and I kept trying to express how important it is to have manpower that early in the game.

Obviously, I mean, look at the Brawn tribe. They sent home [Darnell Hamilton] first -- big mistake! You can't send home someone that's literally going to help you excel in the game that early, and same with us. Myself and Nick were the strong guys in the tribe.

I mean, what if in that boat challenge, they had sent myself or Nick home. Them three girls and Tai and Nick, or myself, would've never gotten that boat up on that thing. It just never would've happened. So, sending someone strong home that early in the game is really a big mistake.


It's not something you want to do. But we were all kind of in the air. Everyone was saying "Tai," because in a way, Tai to us was kind of like one of the girls. He wasn't really that strong, he was real small.

If we got rid of him, it would be kind of like losing a girl, although he brought a lot to the tribe because he knew a lot about that environment, plants and food and all that stuff. He helped catch fish, he was touching things in the water that I would never imagine touching, so he knew a lot about the environment. So I was like, "Man, I would like to keep him! Because he knows so much."

But then the girls were so tight, none of them would turn on each other, so it would've taken really good social game from one of us guys to turn one of the girls and send one of the women home first. And that, I think, was just not going to happen. So, it was all up in the air, but Tai was the No. 1 target when we started looking for the idol and all that.

So I would probably say Tai was going to be the first one to go if we did lose, but he had the idol the whole time. So, we would've had to go to Plan B (laughs) and I don't know how that would've turned out.

Reality TV World: Going into the game, you said you were worried about the perception your tribe might have of you because of Big Brother. Could you elaborate on that? And also, did you think Big Brother was going to serve as an advantage for you because you had practice playing a social and strategic game, or, a disadvantage because people might recognize you?


Caleb Reynolds: When I made that statement, I basically meant that going into Big Brother, I was called a "homophobe." I was called a racist. I'm from Kentucky and, you know, I was made out to be this person that just didn't like homosexuals, and I was made out to be this person that just didn't like black people.

Honestly, there was no reason, but that's what was being said. Well, I crushed that on the first week of Big Brother. [Frankie Grande], which is Ariana Grande's brother, you know, he's gay and he became my best friend in the house. Not only on top of that, my first alliance member was a black guy. So, all of the assumptions of everyone thinking that was thrown out the window from the very beginning.

But, you know, it's also how Big Brother portrayed me to look. They made me look like a crazy-stalker guy the first four weeks of Big Brother, and that's just not me. So a lot of people just didn't like me because of how I was looking on Big Brother in the very beginning -- although the second half of Big Brother, I won a lot of people over after the girl was out of the house.

But I just didn't want people to look at me and go, "Oh, well, I watched how he played on Big Brother. I don't even want to watch him on Survivor!" So that's where that statement came from.

And the second half of that question, do I think it gave me an advantage? I would say, no. I don't think it gave me an advantage. I think the only thing it had done was give me an idea of how to change my game around to do better. I don't think it helped me with social skills. I've always been a social kind of guy. I don't think it really helped me with really anything.


It's a completely different game; It's a completely different habitat. More so than anything, again, it just showed me what I could do differently to do better socially the next time, like things to say to people and things not to say and how to keep secrets and how not to keep them.

So, do I think me being known was going to be a bad deal for me? Not really because of how well I had done on the show and how loyal I was. I knew someone out there was going to [recognize] me and had watched me.

And that's what the girls were saying, like [Julia Sokolowski] talked to them and said, "This guy, I'm sure he was on Big Brother. I know who he was, and not only that, he had a nine-person alliance and the alliance made it all the way to the end. Literally, he's one of the most loyal people I've ever seen play the game."

So, for me, that's a positive note. Now, you know, later of course, someone like me is a target. But at the beginning of this game, and through this game, I didn't think me being on Big Brother would be a downfall for me in this game due to how I played my game on Big Brother.

So all in all, Big Brother, I don't think, really set me up for anything cool or set me up for anything I could really use for Survivor. I just think it taught me certain things I could change that I played in Big Brother to better it for Survivor.

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






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski