Exclusive: 'Survivor: Worlds Apart' castoff Tyler Fredrickson talks (Part 2)

Survivor: Worlds Apart's merged Merica tribe eliminated Tyler Fredrickson from the game during the eleventh episode of the CBS reality competition's 30th season.


Tyler, a 33-year-old ex-talent agent assistant from Los Angeles, CA, was the twelfth person voted out of the game and therefore became the season's fifth jury member. His Merica tribe got him out on Night 32 at the season's twelfth Tribal Council session.

Tyler was hoping his alliance would target Dan Foley to flush out his Survivor auction advantage, but instead, both Carolyn Rivera and Sierra Dawn Thomas turned on him and voted him out along with outsider Mike Holloway. Tyler and Carolyn, both former White Collar players, were the closest of allies all season long.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World the day after his ouster, Tyler talked about his experience on the show. Below is the second part of his interview. Check back with us soon for the concluding portion.

Reality TV World: The fact Carolyn voted with Sierra and Mike to get you out, do you think that was a sign she flipped on the former Blue Collars to work with Mike going forward or do you think she just needed to do that for that one vote?


Tyler Fredrickson: You know, that might've just been a one-vote thing. I don't know. She's still -- it seems like, at this point with the alliance, now that I'm gone, everyone's kind of crumbled, right? It seems like the game has now shifted to an individual game, where it's sort of like, you just get in where you can get in.

There's got to be a group of four there that's going to have to pick off and defeat the group of two, whatever that may be. I was in the group of four going to defeat the group of three, but I'm gone. So now it's like, who's going to be the swing? Who's going to rock and roll? And that could be any one of them now. So, it's anyone's game.

Reality TV World: What did you think when you found out Sierra also was the person to flip and vote for you? Did you see that coming at all and do you think she can take credit for making a big move in the game now?

Tyler Fredrickson: Not so much. When I came in at the mix-up, I got down next to Sierra and she looked at me, and she said, "Don't think the Blue Collar tribe is all super tight, close and loyal. We have our cracks." And I had been looking for a girl that I could kind of work with, who was sort of beat up and maybe had some issues and wanted to potentially get a little bit of revenge.

Carolyn was my girl that I felt like I could maneuver and manipulate, but Sierra seemed like somebody who wanted to get revenge, and I worked on her, or I tried to pull her in. I actually told her something that I never told Carolyn, which was, "I promise to take you to the very end if we work together."


And I maintained that to this day, that I would have taken Sierra over [Will Sims II] and [Rodney Lavoie Jr.] had we had a chance to work together. Sierra was the queen of saying, "I'll go -- I'll make a move. Let's go. Let's break with the Blues."

At the time, she was like, "Mike has been so out of control. Dan did me dirty at the first Tribal that we went to. Now, it's time to make a change." And she continued over and over to return to the Blues, to return to Mike and to return to Dan, and make moves with them.

She hasn't been able to pull the trigger, and I think the jury recognizes that. There's not a lot of Reward that comes to people who not only NOT make big moves, but say they are and not make them. That's even more detrimental.

Reality TV World: Carolyn seemed to think she was running the show at this point. Would you agree with that? And based on your answer, do you think it was a bad move for Carolyn not to give up her Reward to Rodney? Rodney seemed to take that very personally.

Tyler Fredrickson: He did. He took it extremely personally, which I loved, because that meant we could potentially go after her. But, then again, apparently she knew what I was doing, because I'm at home talking to you right now and she's still out, you know, playing the game.


I think she made the best decision. I think she made a snap decision that gets her another six days in the game -- if she plays her idol successfully. But again, there's still people out there. There's still, you know, what kind of moves did you make? And have you not alienated anyone on the jury by the good and the bad that you do?

So if Rodney gets on the jury and Carolyn's there [in the Final 3], I don't know if he's excited about it, you know? If he's in the Final 3 and she's on the jury, it probably doesn't matter because she got some food and a great experience. So, it just kind of depends on how it plays out.

Reality TV World: At the Tribal Council prior to your vote-off, yourself and Will voted for Dan. I think everyone's consensus though is that Dan was a very emotional person in the game, like he played with his heart and he was all about staying loyal.

Tyler Fredrickson: Mhmm.

Reality TV World: So did you worry about that when deciding to vote for Dan instead of someone like, say, Sierra? Was it Dan's two-vote advantage that made him that big of a threat to you? Because I figure you'd fear Dan getting so upset he'd blow up the alliance of six.


Tyler Fredrickson: No, it wasn't [the advantage]. Mike basically said at that Tribal, "[Shirin Oskooi] is voting down Tyler and I'm writing down one of the other y'all." And that could've been me, so it sounded to me like, it's probably not going to be me.

I [thought], "I've got to do something," because in the crazy world Mike lives in, there's a one percent chance he may throw that idol to Shirin. He may. We've seen people bluff with idols before the actual votes are read, and pretty much 100% of the time, they're never played.

But Mike has been known for kind of making huge moves that on the surface seem really stupid and somehow surviving them. So, on the chance that he gives it to Shirin, I've got to come up with a different name. I just have to.

And the only thing I can think of was the name that Mike had been kicking around at camp for the last three or four days -- "Dan's coming for you. Dan's talking this. He's saying this to you, Carolyn! He's saying this to you, Rodney! Dan's doing this."

Mike was getting so frustrated with the way Dan kind of pushed him aside. They were really tight and then Mike was completely ostracized after the auction. And so Mike's job was to constantly throw people under the bus and constantly try to mix things up to see if there was a crack. And there were cracks. There were cracks.


We were staying strong, so all I could think was, "If I'm going to vote for one of these guys," my thought was, "Okay, who could he write down possibly outside of me? I gotta go with Dan because he's been talking about Dan for the last three or four days. I just have to go with it."

And I still have no idea where Will pulled Dan out to this day. But that's what I went with. And Dan and I were actually really close. When Mike kind of blew up, I kind of took Mike's place, and we became really, really close friends. We spent a lot of time fishing and sharing our life stories, and we're still really close today.

And so I told Dan, like, "Look, this is my game. If I sit back and don't write anything, or if I just write Shirin's name down, I'm not even playing. I'm sitting on the couch watching it. I've got to write somebody. And the reality was, Mike was gunning for you. So I wrote your name down because Mike is the one who's been stirring it up."

And that got me very quickly back in with Dan because it made him realize, "Mike is still the bad guy."

To read the first part of Tyler's exclusive interview with Reality TV World, click here. Check back with us soon for more.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski