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 previously been shuffled at Survivor host Jeff Probst's instruction -- on Night 13 at the season's fifth Tribal Council session.
ADVERTISEMENT
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 concluding portion. Click here to read the first half.
Reality TV World: Do you think you still would've been in the game if there hadn't been a Tribal Swap? How had you seen the next couple of Tribal Councils playing out after Drew Christy was gone if things had stayed as they were?
Kelley Wentworth: Oh [Jon Misch] was next for sure, for sure. It would've been me, [Jeremy Collins], [Natalie Anderson], and [Julie McGee] voting for Jon. Because he was too big of a threat come the merge. So, when the Tribal Swap happened, I knew it was coming. I'm a fan of Survivor. That's what I said when I pulled my buff off, "Ugh, I knew it!"
ADVERTISEMENT
And just the way the tribes ended up with the three couples, it was not what I expected. So, I think that I would've been in a pretty good position had the Tribal Swap not happened. I mean, at the end of the day, it was up to me to save myself and I wasn't able to do that. So, I'm not blaming the swap, but it definitely hurt my game more than it helped it.
Reality TV World: Jeff Probst seemed to think it was a big deal that you guys lost the Immunity Challenge because you had the three couples and should, I guess, all know how to work together. But it honestly looked like you were at a huge disadvantage as soon as the swap happened, because not only did you have four girls, you had the two older guys as well.
Kelley Wentworth: And an old woman! I mean, come on! (Laughs) They had all, like, athletes on the other side. We had Jon and then my dad [Dale] and Keith and [Missy Payne] -- [Jaclyn Schultz], me, and Baylor. It was not really fair.
Reality TV World: So is it safe to say that as soon as you saw the buffs come out, you kind of figured things probably weren't going to be looking good going forward in the next few challenges?
Kelley Wentworth: Oh, absolutely! I thought, "Oh my gosh!" First of all, I thought, "Crap. This is not the tribe I want to be on," and second thing, "This is going to be very difficult unless we get a challenge with a puzzle, because I'm super good at puzzles." I was like, "We are going to be in big, big trouble."
ADVERTISEMENT
Reality TV World: Last night's episode showed the tribe openly complaining to Jeff about how poorly their rice had been managed after that Immunity Challenge. What was the reaction on your tribe when that happened? Did that make Missy think twice about how she was handing out the rice in big portions or did your dad practically explode?
Kelley Wentworth: No, we didn't know that they did that. I didn't know until last night that they were trying to bargain with Jeff for the rice. I knew as soon as I left Hunahpu and the swap happened, I knew the rice situation was really, really bad over there.
And let me tell you, I told everybody, "We need to ration the rice. We are eating way too much." But no one wanted to listen to me. That's fine. So, we didn't know that happened, so there were no conversations at Coyopa about them bartering -- because we didn't know.
Reality TV World: How tense did things get between your dad and Missy over the rice? We did see you saying your dad was going to blow up over it and you could kind of feel that coming.
Kelley Wentworth: Yeah, well, I mean, Missy is a bit of a diva. Let's be honest. And she thinks her way is the right way, and then you have my dad who is also a little bit older and set in his ways. So you kind of have these two older, mature if you will, people and two totally different personalities that have different views on the food situation.
ADVERTISEMENT
I mean, honestly, I'm going to side with my dad, because look at the Hunahpu rice! I mean, Missy was the rice cooker every single day and they had nothing. So yeah, they should've listened to my dad, and she shouldn't have gotten so upset about it. It's absolutely ridiculous. He was right.
But I saw him kind of blowing up because he felt like, "Oh, she's coming in, Hunahpu's rice is gone, and now she's going to run through all of our rice. What's going to happen come the merge?"
So I just took him away just so that there wasn't a blowup, because I could see it happening, like him getting upset and her being super defensive -- and [Baylor Wilson] getting involved even though she had no business being involved in that situation. So, I just took him away before it got worse.
Reality TV World: Last week, obviously we saw Drew accusing you of being this sneaky mastermind and thinking you were a huge threat. That seemed to surprise viewers because we hadn't really seen a lot of you so far this season. He mentioned you were a massive fan of the show, but there have been many cases in which super fans do poorly in the game. Did that surprise you or did you have any suspicion about that?
Kelley Wentworth: On Drew calling me a mastermind and trying to get me out?
ADVERTISEMENT
Reality TV World: Yes.
Kelley Wentworth: Yeah! Well, I take it as a compliment. Thank you, Drew, that's amazing! I do see where he was coming from. He knew that I was flying under the radar. I had alliances, but people didn't really know who I was aligned with, because I didn't make it super obvious. I didn't want anyone to, like, target me -- Natalie for example.
And so, you know, I think he was just threatened by me. And I also didn't really approach him, because he and Jon were super close, and there was no getting through those two. They were just like "Dumb and Dumber," walking around, looking for idols and acting all crazy.
So, I didn't approach Drew because I was like, "He's never going to work with me. He thinks he's tight with Jeremy and he obviously thinks he's tight with Jon."
But yeah, I do think -- I wish I went further in the game. I know that I have a few tricks up my sleeve. But Blood vs. Water makes it so hard because, having couples, it's just really hard to weasel your way in if you're not with the right people.
Reality TV World: Besides Natalie, whom did you believe you had alliances with?
Kelley Wentworth: So Natalie and Jeremy were my two main people, and then we kind of had Julie and Missy, who were like in the alliance but not the core alliance, I guess. And then on the outside, I guess it would've been Keith, [Reed Kelly], Drew and Jon.
Reality TV World: Did you have any idea that Drew threw the Immunity Challenge on purpose?
Kelley Wentworth: Oh yes. I knew. Jeremy told me; We talked about it. I knew and I told them. I said, "It's a terrible idea. We should not throw a challenge. I've seen tribes totally lose everything once you throw a challenge," and they did it anyway. So.
Reality TV World: Is that what made Drew a target for you at that point or when did he become one in your eyes?
Kelley Wentworth: Oh no, not at all. Actually, Jeremy, Natalie and I had already talked a few days before that Tribal Council. We said, "Hey, if we go to Tribal and we want to get Drew or Jon out," I was gunning for Jon just because I think Jaclyn is a stronger partner than [Alec Christy].
ADVERTISEMENT
But we all decided on Drew because Missy would not vote for Jon. So we decided ahead of time that Drew was going to go, so it had already been set. We didn't really talk about it after we lost.
Reality TV World: So how much of a consensus was there for throwing the challenge? Who exactly was in on it? Was it something Drew just basically wanted to do by himself?
Kelley Wentworth: No, it wasn't. I mean, no, I knew Jeremy knew, Natalie knew, I think Reed knew. Almost half the tribe knew. I just don't think everyone was on the same page about who we were going to get out.
That's really where Drew kind of went down in flames, so a lot of us knew it was happening. And I know that Reed and myself were just, like, "No, no, no. Absolutely not. We cannot throw the challenge." And he did it anyway.
Reality TV World: How did you get cast on Survivor, how did you end up on the show? Was it something where you applied and you got your dad onboard or vice versa?
Kelley Wentworth: Yeah, actually, we both had been fans. I haven't applied. We did apply for The Amazing Race and then we were approached about doing Survivor, and it was a no-brainer. We're both fans. I was like, "Why have I not thought about this before?!" So yeah, we both were in it to win it. It didn't happen for me, but that's how it went down.
Click here to read the first half of Kelley Wentworth's exclusive interview with Reality TV World.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski