Exclusive: Victoria Baamonde talks 'Survivor' and why jurors held her in high regard -- My edit definitely bummed me out!

Victoria Baamonde finished Survivor: Edge of Extinction in sixth place during the three-hour finale event of Survivor Season 38 on CBS.


Victoria, a 23-year-old waitress from Bronx, NY, was voted out shortly after Chris Underwood returned from the Edge of Extinction and rejoined the game.

Although Victoria only received two of the six votes read aloud at Tribal Council on Night 36, the two main targets -- Rick and Chris -- were safe because Rick played a hidden Immunity Idol for himself and Lauren O'Connell played her idol for Chris.

In the end, Chris won the $1 million and was crowned "Sole Survivor." Gavin Whitson finished in second place, Julie Rosenberg placed third, Rick Devens finished in fourth place, and Lauren placed fifth.

Chris ultimately received the following jury votes to win: Victoria, Reem Daly, Julia Carter, Eric Hafemann, Aubry Bracco, David Wright, Joe Anglim, Dan "The Wardog" DaSilva, and Ron Clark.


And Gavin earned votes from Lauren, Rick, Aurora McCreary, and Kelley Wentworth. Julie, however, didn't receive a single jury vote.

During an exclusive interview with Reality TV World following the finale broadcast, Victoria talked about her Survivor experience. Below is a portion of what she had to say.

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Reality TV World: Chris was shown telling Lauren and Julie that based on his conversations with the jury members on Extinction Island, Rick and yourself were the biggest threats to win the jury votes. Why do you think the jury held you in such high regard? Do you think they had certain moves you had made in mind?

Victoria Baamonde: I think for most of the season, at least for viewers, they were like, "We have no idea what the jury thinks of Victoria because no one has ever commented on it."


Because I did make a couple of moves that were mostly -- at least Aubry and Ron -- were all me. And then there were several others that I did have a big part of. Even if it wasn't me leading the charge, I still had a big part in the plan coming together.

And a lot of people who weren't in on the vote wouldn't necessarily know that, but once they get voted out -- like, for example, when I got voted out, I don't know exactly what happened and who put that plan together.

I didn't know whom to give credit to -- until I'm voted out and then the next person comes. So when Lauren comes, she's able to explain to me what exactly happened. So once the jury is all there together, they can all explain to each other who did what and whom they think is the one leading things over there that other people may not be aware of.

They can explain things other people may not be aware of. So I know I definitely had some people on the jury, like, hard-core campaigning for me. I know Julie and Wardog were the main two, letting everyone know exactly what I had done.

I think the Aubry vote was a huge line on my resume. And I do think Rick would definitely have won by a landslide [against me], but in terms of people who were left, I had a lot of strong support as well.


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Reality TV World: Jeff Probst commended you on being such a stealthy player during the reunion special. From a viewer's perspective, you started off the season pretty aggressively, saying you didn't care about making friends and what not. But then the editing kind of portrayed you as coasting through the game. How do you feel about you edit overall and do you think it was accurate?

Victoria Baamonde: I feel like, I mean, I know Jeff hates it when we complain about edits, but I was bummed. I definitely was bummed. When you see the final confessional count, I have far less confessionals than people who were voted out pre-merge.

It does make it look like I did nothing, so I do understand a lot of the social-media comments, people being like, "Oh, she doesn't deserve to win." Because based on what was shown, it's true, it doesn't look like I deserved to win.

But there are a lot of things that weren't shown, like what I did to Aubry, everyone found that so impressive. I was able to lie very easily to someone while presenting them with a fake plan.


And I did that to several other people. I did that to Ron. I did that to Wardog. I'm always able to make somebody very, very comfortable by cluing them in on a plan that isn't actually happening.

I was giving them, like, an option A, B and C plan and saying, "Let's get into that third-layer plan." What are the odds you're still being lied to?

And that's what made people pretty comfortable around me. What I also physically did was express doubt in a plan that somebody presented to me, even when I knew it was a lie.

So Wardog, when he was going home, was trying to tell me that we were going to vote out Gavin, which was a lie from him -- he wanted to vote out Aurora. And I just expressed doubt in the plan, saying, "Well, if we're voting out Gavin, why isn't Gavin more nervous?"

So if I'm questioning his plan, of course I think it's real, right? And that was my strongest suit, but throughout the season, you never saw the Plan B that was put together, especially if Plan A panned out.


So I guess it's just not great for television and it's not necessary to the story, I guess, if Plan B never actually has to happen. But that was my game. I was the person who was involved in several layers of plans.

I always knew who was voting for whom and who was going home. I guess it just doesn't make for interesting television, but there were several times when I remember things specifically happening.

Like, I know I had a great confessional about this or that, and I know I had an exciting moment here but it was just not shown. So it was clear my storyline wasn't going to be the one that makes it to the end.

Yeah, I was definitely bummed because I know I did a lot more than it looks like I did, and I'm not boring! (Laughs) In the first half, you're right! I didn't sound boring. I thought I was maybe going to get a villain edit.

I was excited about that, but then I just disappeared. And I know Jeff said it was a compliment that my game was so stealthy, but my game wasn't THAT stealthy! I was very much in it. I wasn't hiding; I wasn't coasting.

So I didn't really take it as a compliment. (Laughs) I think Hannah Shapiro commented on it on Twitter. She was like, "Victoria wasn't hiding; they just didn't show her."


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Reality TV World: It looked like you were trying to spearhead Chris' elimination right away instead of Rick, so you must have been pretty frustrated about Lauren's decision to play her hidden Immunity Idol for Chris. What's your take on Lauren's move there? A lot of people are criticizing it as one of the biggest mistakes in the game.

Victoria Baamonde: It was definitely the biggest mistake of her game... But he didn't need it that night and I guess it was just a line for him on his resume to get someone to do that.

But it was just so bizarre. I thought watching it back I would get more clarity on how and why it happened, but I really didn't. I still don't understand what in the world prompted her to do that. She said it herself -- she had that thing since, like, Day 2.

Why in the world, when there's one day left in Survivor, would you not play it for yourself and play it for someone else whom you haven't seen in a month?!

It's very confusing and definitely up there with one of the biggest mistakes in the game. (Laughs) And I'm sure it's a huge regret for her. That would be the thing that would keep me up [at night].


To read the first portion of Reality TV World's exclusive Survivor interview with Victoria, click here. And be sure to check back with us soon for the last part! (Also, check out our Edge of Extinction show page for more interviews with the Final 6 castaways).






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski