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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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 concluding portion of Gervase's interview. Click here to read the first half. Also, check our Survivor show page for more interviews with the season's finale castaways.
Reality TV World: During the jury questioning, Aras Baskauskas asked you guys who deserved to win if you couldn't win yourselves and you went first and said Tyson deserved to win, but then Tyson didn't return the favor and say you -- instead, he said Monica. Did that surprise you, and what was going through you head when that happened? Do you think Tyson was being honest there?
Gervase Peterson: No, he wasn't being honest. (Laughs) I think that was a great move on Tyson's part, you know, still playing the game by calling out Monica. You throw her a bone. You make it look good, like, "Yeah, Monica did a great job! Yadie yada."
I was mad I didn't do it, but I had to go first. So I'm like, "Man, why did they ask me to go first?!" I wanted to go second to hear what other people say and then play off of that. I think that's what Tyson did.
ADVERTISEMENT
Me saying Tyson -- for him to say me, that kind of looks bad, like we're patting each other on the back and Monica gets no love. Because Monica has to pick one of us too. So if you throw her a bone and you say, "Monica," you make me look bad, like, "This jerk. He said me and I'm going with Monica." It was genius! I loved it.
Reality TV World: There were many times during the season when you'd insist you were the one making the decisions and you were just letting everyone think Tyson was the one making them. Did you really believe that or were you just saying that? And now that you've watched the season play out, has your mind changed on that at all?
Gervase Peterson: No, I mean, me and Tyson were so tight that we talked about everything. Every decision we made in the game, we talked about it and figured it out together. So it wasn't so much that Tyson was making the calls or I was making the calls. We just made them together.
So he was like, "Hey, who are you thinking about getting out next?" I'm like, "Yeah, let's get rid of Ciera." And he's like, "I think it should be Monica." Well, "Why?" He'd give me his reasons and then I'd give him my reasons, and then one of us would say, "You know what? That makes more sense. Let's do that." And we would do it!
So everything was kind of just a partnership going through it. Just again, with the edit on TV, they're always showing Tyson doing it. So, I can't do anything about the edit, you know what I mean?
ADVERTISEMENT
Reality TV World: But the jury members didn't watch the edit and they still seemed to feel that way too.
Gervase Peterson: Yeah, and again, just because Tyson was looked at as the leader. When we were in Galang, everybody looked at Aras as the leader. So everything that happened, Aras was the focal point. Same thing. I'm second-in-command in a sense, like, I got Aras as a shield. So if you vote out Aras, I'm safe. That's how I wanted to play the game.
I wanted Tyson to be in the forefront; I wanted him to look like the leader. I wanted him to look like he was making the moves. Think about it, when [Hayden Moss] and [Caleb Bankston] were talking about getting rid of our alliance and breaking it up, who did they want to vote out? Tyson.
That buys me three days to come up with a new plan. That's what I wanted, and I think that's a smart way to play the game. Why would you want to be in the forefront? And if you think that's a good way to play the game, ask Aras! He got voted out because he was "the leader." You don't want to be that guy. It's bad news.
Reality TV World: So would you have done anything differently if you could?
ADVERTISEMENT
Gervase Peterson: No, not really. I mean, my best bet to win this game was to sit next to Monica and Tyson and then make it look like Tyson just had more dirt on his hands than I did.
Because I felt like there was no way I was going to beat anybody else that was sitting on that jury, because there were too many "loved ones" and connections there. Me, Monica and Tyson were the odd people out. We had no "loved ones" on the jury except for Caleb and Hayden.
Reality TV World: Like you pointed out, it had been 13 years since you played Survivor. What were the biggest changes and differences that you noticed -- both gameplay and maybe production-wise versus your first time around?
Gervase Peterson: I mean, the biggest thing is that the players now -- the new players just really care about blindsides and big moves. That's all they talk about doing, and they make alliances right away and they don't care who's in it. So like, Day 1 on the beach, [Colton Cumbie] came to me and said, "Hey, here's our alliance. It's me, you, Aras, Monica, and [Kat Edorsson]."
And I said, "Colton, say I don't like somebody in that alliance, I got to play with them for 39 days?" And he's like, "Yeah." I said, "That's the dumbest sh-t I've ever heard!" (Laughs) And he's like, "Well friend, you better get onboard because if not, you're going home next. This is how we play the game."
ADVERTISEMENT
I'm like, "Well you're playing the game wrong, like that doesn't make any sense. I want to get to know people and figure out who I can trust, who I can play with."
Reality TV World: And what about production-wise?
Gervase Peterson: Production-wise, it's just bigger, you know, it's just a bigger production -- the crew, I mean, helicopters on-call 24/7. You have multiple producers at camp 24/7. It's just bigger.
Reality TV World: How did you end up coming back on the show? Obviously it's been a long time and they've had a few different all-star seasons.
Gervase Peterson: They called me back for all-stars, the first one, Heroes vs. Villains. But I just didn't get picked. So I knew I was always on their radar to come back. It just had to be, in a sense, the right situation, and this was it!
Above is the concluding portion of Gervase's interview. Click here to read the first half. Also, check our Survivor show page for more interviews with the season's finale castaways.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski