Gervase Peterson finished Survivor: Blood vs. Water in third place behind winner Tyson Apostol and runner-up Monica Culpepper during the live portion of Sunday night's finale broadcast on CBS.
 
Gervase, a 43-year-old cigar lounge owner from Philadelphia, PA who competed on the debut season of Survivor, didn't receive any votes in the season's final jury voting results, which Survivor host Jeff Probst revealed during the broadcast.

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Veteran player Tyson, a 34-year-old former pro cyclist and shop manager from Provo, UT, seemed to receive seven of the eight jury votes, winning the $1 million grand prize. Returning castaway Monica, a 42-year-old former NFL wife and homemaker from Tampa, FL, earned herself one vote.
 
During a Monday conference call with reporters, Gervase talked to Reality TV World about his Survivor: Blood vs. Water experience. Below is the first half of Gervase's interview. Check back with us later this week for the concluding portion, as well as additional interviews with the rest of the season's finale castaways.

Reality TV World: Were you surprised you didn't get a single jury vote, and how had you gone into the final Tribal Council session expecting the voting to play out?

Gervase Peterson: Yeah, I was surprised I didn't get a vote at all. Going into it, I'm just like, "I got to make a great jury speech and hopefully people understand that Tyson has more blood on his hands than I do. Hopefully the jury -- and I'm speaking mainly of [Aras Baskauskas], [Vytas Baskauskas], [Tina Wesson], and [Katie Collins] -- aren't holding a grudge and respected my gameplay."

These new players always talk about big moves and blindsides. That's all they care about. That's all [Hayden Moss] was saying, "Blindside Tyson! Get rid of him. That's a big move in the game!"

But it seemed like everybody forgot I made the biggest move in the game; I got rid of Aras. And in turn, getting rid of Aras got rid of Vytas, Katie and Tina. I took out three people, four in total altogether, with one move. How can you not respect my gameplay for that?

Reality TV World: Do you think maybe the jury believed Tyson took Aras out and not you?

Gervase Peterson: No, that was me because I was the closest one to Aras. Aras knew that he would never get blindsided in the game because if I knew about it, I would tell him. That's why we were able to make that move happen, because we kept it away from everybody.

Me and Tyson worked everybody else and Aras never knew about it. It was my move to make, and Aras knew that he wouldn't be able to get voted out of that game unless I had a hand in it, and that's why he was so hurt by it.

Reality TV World: Did your expectation of how the jury voting was going to play out change after the jury questioning or did you still come away from the questioning thinking you were going to get votes? Did you think you may even have a chance of winning at that point?

Gervase Peterson: After the jury gave their speeches, I knew I was dead in the water, because some people didn't even ask me questions. So that's a bad sign, like, if you're not asking me a question -- "Oh Gervase, you played good, but I've got a question for Tyson..." -- It's like, "Uh oh, (laughs) that's not good."

Reality TV World: So do you regret not turning on Tyson or do you think, looking back at it now, there was no point at which you would have been able to turn on him and still make it to the end and get enough jury votes to win?

Gervase Peterson: Well, you know, that was everybody's thing, turning on Tyson. But it's like, if I turn on Tyson, I don't make the Final 3. Everybody's looking at winning, but you got to make Final 3 to win. So, you know, I think people just forget that. Making Final 3, that's your goal, because after you make Final 3, it really is out of your hands and it's up to the jury at that point.

And think about it, if I'm sitting next to Katie or [Ciera Eastin], do I win? No, because their moms are over there on the jury campaigning for them. If I sit next to their moms, do I win? No, because their daughters are on the jury campaigning for them. If I sit next to Hayden, do I win? Probably not because everybody liked Hayden and he made a really big move in the game by [convincing] everyone to draw rocks.

So, you know, looking at it, I'm like, "Wow. I really can't beat anybody in this game, can I? So who can I beat?" And still, my best option was Tyson and Monica, because we were the ones that were getting everybody voted out and put on the jury. So my plan was to make sure that they didn't like Tyson at all and that they liked me more.

Reality TV World: So were you rooting for Laura Morett to come back and then you would've had Laura and Ciera at the end? Do you think you would've had a chance if you had gone to the end with Laura and Ciera?

Gervase Peterson: No, because if Laura came back, Ciera was going to stick with Laura that time. She's not going to vote out her mom twice. I highly doubted that, and I don't think Laura would've wanted to get voted out a second time. I think Laura would've fought to win that game.

Reality TV World: But if you actually made it to the Final 3 with Laura and Ciera, do you think you'd have a shot to win the jury vote?

Gervase Peterson: No, I don't think so because that was another scenario. There would've been two people -- two "loved ones" -- so you have a good chance of winning because they're not going to vote that way. But I'm like, "No, everybody thought Ciera drew rocks and that was a big move and she voted her mom out."

I don't know if those were plays that people respected or some people didn't care for it. And Laura M. was a challenge beast. She was winning duels at Redemption Island. To fight and come off of it twice, how could you not vote for her to win? I was trying to stay away from those two definitely.

Above is the first half of Gervase's interview. Check back with us later this week for the concluding portion, as well as additional interviews with the rest of the season's finale castaways.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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