Survivor: San Juan del Sur -- Blood vs. Water eliminated Nadiya Anderson during Wednesday night's premiere of the CBS reality competition's 29th season. 
 
Nadiya, a 28-year-old project coordinator and crossfit coach from Edgewater, NJ, was voted out of her Coyopa tribe on Day 3 at the season's first Tribal Council session. Her history on The Amazing Race had her tribe worried she could backstab them without difficulty.

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Nadiya's twin sister, Natalie Anderson, is still in the game and competing with the opposing Hunahpu tribe.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Nadiya talked about her short-lived Survivor experience and where she think she went wrong. Below is the concluding portion of Nadiya's interview. Click here to read the first half.

Reality TV World: Because you competed on The Amazing Race, were you surprised the issue the castaways had with you didn't seem to be that you had already been given a couple of chances to win a million dollars? Instead, last night's episode suggested the castaways worried about whether you'd be trustworthy going forward based upon your actions on The Race.

Nadiya Anderson: Yeah, you know, that's the thing. Yeah, I had a chance at a million dollars. Have I won a million dollars? No! So, (laughs) that's totally just like a different storyline. And yeah, it was surprising to me that I knew people were going to judge me based on that regardless. I just didn't think it would happen so early on considering we were losing.

The fact that we were losing, I thought, was actually going to play in my favor. Like, "Alright, they might feel a certain way about me being on The Amazing Race, but since we're losing, they might keep me around." I figured as long as I was sitting next to people like [Baylor Wilson] and [Jaclyn Schultz] and even [Dale Wentworth] -- who's like totally over the hill and useless at challenges -- I thought I was safe.

Reality TV World: What made you decide to make Dale the target of your all-girls alliance? Did you really feel he was the weakest competitor or was that just an excuse?

Nadiya Anderson: Yeah, for me, like I knew he was the one that was a The Amazing Race-super fan. He actually told me he had applied to be on The Amazing Race before. So I knew he was the one that was most aware of The Amazing Race. And if he felt that way, I knew his stupid daughter felt that way too. So I was like, "Alright, he's probably at the top of my list."

And then on top of that, he's already made fire for us. Let's be real, he's probably done the best thing he could've done for our tribe. We probably had no use for him after that. So I was just being honest. And then the fact he's just totally unrelatable too and he was the most aware about me and Natalie's The Amazing Race past. So that's why I wanted him off.

Reality TV World: It looked like the all-girls alliance was your idea. Was that really the case or was it a joint decision amongst all of you? Based upon what you said, it sounds like you didn't enter the game planning to make an all-female alliance. Did you feel that was the only option you had left at that point?

Nadiya Anderson: Yeah, basically, I had gone in wanting, like, a mixed group. And then it ended up being a girls alliance because I knew the guys were just -- it was such a bromance or like frathouse at camp that I had to kind of like use [Val Collins] coming back. Having that number, made me motivated for an all-girls alliance, including [Josh Canfield].

And it was not even just all-girls. It was kind of like the underdogs slash minorities on camp. You know, like, we had the girls, we had Val and me -- who were the non-white people -- and then we had Josh, who was the gay guy. So I was like, "Come on, guys! Let's do this together," kind of stuff, you know? The women, it was like, "Let's get together and get these guys out of here!"

So it wasn't my first choice, but it was kind of like what I felt was my best chance for making an alliance that would stick. I didn't think I was going home obviously. I just wanted to make a solid vote together and in an alliance.

Reality TV World: How did Natalie and yourself come to end up on Survivor? Was it something you both had wanted to do and been campaigning for? Did you have little interest but then producers reached out to you?

Nadiya Anderson: It was a mixture. They obviously ask you these questions when you're on CBS shows, and they were like, "Would you guys do Survivor? Would you guys do The Amazing Race again? Would you do Big Brother?"

What it was, they were generic questions. And me and Natalie said, like, "Oh my God, we would love to do Survivor because it's so badass and it's like the ultimate test of our relationship and each other's strengths."

For me and Natalie, we just love putting ourselves out there and doing crazy stuff, and this just seemed like the best scenario for us. After The Amazing Race, it's like the only way you can go up.

Reality TV World: Jeff Probst has talked about how the season was really supposed to begin with 20 castaways yet two women had to be pulled from the game at the last minute, which obviously left the women with a disadvantage of eight to 10 guys right from the beginning. Do you think that played a significant role in the dynamics of what led to your ouster? Do you think things would've been different had there been five women on your tribe and it had been gender-balanced?

Nadiya Anderson: Yeah, it would've been a huge difference if we had another girl around camp. And there were supposed to be Asian girls, so there would've been a minority as well in that sense of the term.

I feel like it would've been a totally different game. It sucked going in with the numbers against you and then this whole Amazing Race thing. It's just like, I got dealt a sh-tty hand, and it didn't help that my tribe was a bunch of idiots. So, you know, altogether -- bad scenario.

Reality TV World: Do you think the fact you were voted out so early is going to help or hurt Natalie's own chances in the game? Do you think she might be viewed as less of a post-merge threat by her tribe now or do you think it might be the opposite -- that she'd be someone with less value to take to the merge because she doesn't have you on the other side?

Nadiya Anderson: Yeah, it could go either way. As we've seen, this game is so unpredictable, so it could go either way. I feel like, you know, the one good thing is that me and Natalie don't have to go against each other in these, like, loved ones-duels. Now, Natalie doesn't have to worry about Exile Island for however much time is left. She doesn't have to worry about being sent to exile, so that's a plus.

But then I'm like, you know, stupid people get emotional and they're like, "Alright, well, we voted one sister off, the next easy thing is to vote off the other sister." I just have no idea how it's going to go, but all I know is that Natalie is going to be so f-cking mad if they kick me off that it's going to fuel her fire so much.

So, either way, she's going to be crazy and mad and reckless. I just don't know how it's going to work -- in her favor or not. If she comes out just acting a fool, you know, who knows what's going to happen. But I know she's going to be upset and she's going to want revenge. She's going to be going for blood now. I know that.

Reality TV World: You obviously new this season was going to be another Blood vs. Water format when you started the game with Natalie. But were you surprised to find out there wasn't going to be Redemption Island this season, that it was being replaced by Exile Island? Do you think that changed the gameplay in any significant way?

Nadiya Anderson: I was so upset that they were done with Redemption Island. Honestly, based on my stupid tribe, I would've almost rather go to Redemption and be by myself and rock out like solo duels than be stuck with my idiot tribe Coyopa. So, finding out that there was no Redemption was so gut-wrenching, because there's no second chances!

And that was one of the most appealing things about Blood vs. Water the first time around, is seeing the emotions and the connections and the relationships people built at Redemption, working with people in Redemption to kick off the third person and then family members. I was very disappointed obviously for me, because I got eliminated first. Redemption Island would've been an awesome thing to have. 

Reality TV World: I don't know how bad Dale's vision is, but what was your reaction to him breaking his glasses to build fire for you all? That seemed like a pretty extreme hardship he was willing to endure for the rest of the game. Do you think that had a significant impact on the rest of your tribe and his ability to work his way into the group?

Nadiya Anderson: Yeah, no. I mean, Dale would've been gone for sure. If he didn't make that fire, like, everybody would've gotten rid of him. He was kind of annoying around camp and he was like -- the guys -- nobody gave a f-ck about Dale until he made that fire. If he didn't do that, he would've been gone first. Nobody would've listened to him about The Amazing Race.

But after he made this fire, the guys -- everybody was like, "Oh my God, Dale! Oh my God, Dale!" Everybody was obsessed with him. Rightfully so, because he had given us fire for the night and that's how we had water and we stayed warm. So, yeah, he definitely made -- that was a game-changer and a big move for him to make fire.

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


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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