Exclusive: 'Survivor: San Juan del Sur -- Blood vs. Water' eliminee Kelley Wentworth talks (Part 1)

Survivor: San Juan del Sur -- Blood vs. Water switched up the tribes and the new Coyopa tribe eliminated Kelley Wentworth during Wednesday night's fifth episode of the CBS reality competition's 29th season.
 
Kelley, a 28-year-old marketing manager from Seattle, WA, was voted out of her Coyopa tribe -- whose members had been shuffled at Survivor host Jeff Probst's instruction -- on Night 13 at the season's fifth Tribal Council session.


Kelley's father Dale Wentworth is still in the game, playing as part of the same Coyopa tribe. He's now on the outside of the majority alliance along with Keith Nale.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Kelley talked about her Survivor experience. Below is the first half. Check back with us soon for the concluding portion.

Reality TV World: What had you gone into Tribal Council expecting would happen? Did you anticipate you'd be the one voted off or did you think it was going to be your dad or Baylor Wilson?

Kelley Wentworth: Yeah, great question. I actually did know that I was on the chopping block. I knew that it was either going to be me or Baylor, and it being me was up to [Jon Misch] and [Jaclyn Schultz] to decide.


And I thought there was a small chance that they would go with me and my dad just based on the fact that we had multiple conversations, talking about how both [Missy Payne] and Baylor were a little bit sneaky and the other was a flipper. So, it didn't work out that way, but I definitely did know that it was possibly going to be me.

Reality TV World: Why did you think it was going to be you voted off instead of your dad?

Kelley Wentworth: Yeah, I just think that I was a bigger threat, and in other things, that I had been gunning for Jon when I was on Hunahpu. I wanted to get Jon out because I knew Jon and Jaclyn would be a big threat come the merge, and Missy caught wind of that and told Jon that I wanted him out.

So, obviously being on a tribe with both of those people was not good. So, you know, if they had a choice to get me or my dad, they knew that I probably wouldn't work with them in the future. I also had alliances on the other side that I could go back to, so I was the bigger target.

Reality TV World: So you said you thought there was a small chance you would be safe. Why was that, had you gotten some kind of vibe from your tribemates that Jon and Jaclyn were definitely leaning in the other direction?


Kelley Wentworth: Well, I thought that there was a small chance, and I'm saying "small" as in, like, five percent I wasn't going only because Jon and Jaclyn approached my dad and myself. They were the ones who came to us and said, "Hey, we don't really trust Baylor and Missy. Would you guys be down to get out Baylor?"

And after that initial conversation, I had conversations with Jaclyn alone. We went fishing and she said to me again, like, "Hey, you know, what do you think about Baylor? I really don't trust her," and you saw all that in her confessionals last night.

So, I thought, "Well, you know, this might actually work." But then, right before Tribal -- about an hour before -- no one would really talk to me. And so, I felt like, "Oh, man. This is probably going not the way I was hoping it would."

Reality TV World: Did you have any idea the loved-one pairs would be splitting the vote or was that a surprise to you?

Kelley Wentworth: I actually didn't know about the splitting of the vote. I did not know about that, but again, I knew that between my dad and myself that it would be me, because he doesn't really have any alliances left. So, he's an easy vote to get out later. It was interesting.


Apparently, when I watched the episode, Missy thought I was leaving to look for an idol, which is total crap. She just made something up so that the Bullseye would be off of her. So, I guess, kudos to her. But I was not looking for an idol. I mean, I really didn't think that I was threatening at all, but that must've been why they split the votes that way.

Reality TV World: Your dad seemed to be the one that Missy and Baylor had a problem with. People also talked about how he was weak in the challenges and things like that. You think that was all just a big smokescreen, that you definitely knew they were coming after you?

Kelley Wentworth: Yeah, I did. Because again, you know, I was going after Jon, and Missy and Jon were actually really close. It was almost like a mother-son relationship. It was very strange. They knew that I was probably not going to align with them, especially come the merge, and I did try. I did try to talk to everybody.

And I just think, again, my dad, he didn't really have any alliance members. So, why would they go after him? He's easy to get out next week or the week after that or even come the merge. He's not really tied to anybody.

Reality TV World: Would you say it's more like Missy and Baylor just deferred to whichever person Jon preferred ousting? And Jon was more concerned about you than your dad?


Kelley Wentworth: Absolutely. Honestly, none of those people are gamers. I think they've seen maybe like five episodes of Survivor. It was very disappointing for me as a fan that they beat me, like, oh my gosh, I'm so embarrassed. But I think that Jon kind of listened to [Drew Christy] and Drew said I was a threat.

And then going into this tribe, I had brought up Jon's name and he knew that, so I feel like he was the one of all those people to say, "Kelley is coming after me, so let's just go after her."

Reality TV World: So the way they split the votes was even, kind of, a little strange. Missy voted for one and Baylor voted for the other and Jon voted for one and Jaclyn voted for the other. The turn of events made it look like they left it up to [Keith Nale] to decide. What are your thoughts on that?

Kelley Wentworth: Oh my gosh, Keith wasn't deciding anything. He just went wherever they told him to go. I mean, I tried talking strategy with that guy and it was like talking to a brick wall. I mean, he just did whatever they said, and he and Missy, I think, were also pretty close.

So, you know, the votes were very strange. I'm still weirded out that Jon and Jaclyn didn't go with us based on the fact that Baylor pretty much flipped on every Tribal Council and threw the girls over. But whatever.


Reality TV World: You mentioned earlier that Missy had gone to Jon before the swap and confided in him that you -- at least -- were looking to get him out next.

Kelley Wentworth: Mhmm. Yup.

Reality TV World: What had you come out of that Tribal after Drew was voted out thinking? Did you assume you had a tight four-girl alliance going on with Jeremy Collins as well?

Kelley Wentworth: Yeah! Well, I did. The thing is, it was really interesting because I was really close to Jeremy and [Natalie Anderson]. We were a pretty close three, and that's what I wanted going into this game, was one or two people that I really felt like I could trust.

And then beyond that, I wanted to branch out. So Missy was really close to Natalie, so you know, Natalie and Missy -- Missy was voting with us because Natalie basically told her to.

I mean, Natalie's awesome, like a great gameplayer. That girl is amazing. So, I think that Missy was closer to the guys than you maybe saw, and Drew, she really only voted against Drew because he got really nasty towards her. But she's kind of floating with everybody, you know, just playing both sides.


Reality TV World: So it sounds like you didn't have a great relationship with Missy before the swap.

Kelley Wentworth: I didn't have a bad relationship with Missy at all. We were fine. We, like, slept together in the shelter, she was kind of like a mom, she was fine. But again, I don't think that out of everyone on our tribe, we had the closest relationship.

And obviously she was closer to Jon because she told him that I was trying to vote for him. So, you know, between the two of us, she's going to pick Jon over me every time.

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






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski