Kim Spradlin: Immunity was key to my 'Survivor: One World' victory

Kim Spradlin claimed Survivor: One World's $1 million grand prize during the live portion of Sunday night's finale broadcast on CBS from New York City.


Kim, a 29-year-old bridal shop owner from San Antonio, TX, beat Chelsea Meissner, a 26-year-old in medical sales from Charleston, SC, and Sabrina Thompson, a 33-year-old high school teacher from Brooklyn, NY, in the season's final jury voting results, which Survivor host Jeff Probst revealed live during the broadcast.

Kim received all but two votes, as Sabrina received two votes from Troy "Troyzan" Robertson and Leif Manson. During Survivor: One World' live reunion show following the finale episode, Jeff also revealed that Kim would receive $100,000 as the winner of the season's "Player of the Season" home viewer vote in addition to her million-dollar prize.

During a Monday conference call with reporters, Kim talked to Reality TV World about her Survivor: One World experience and victory -- including whether she thought she received seven of the nine jury votes because she dominated the Individual Immunity Challenges or if she believed that had nothing to do with it, whether she felt she still would have won the game had she brought Alicia Rosa and Christina Cha to the end with her instead, and what her response was to Troy "Troyzan" Robertson claims that she seems sweet on the outside but is actually a "lying and deceitful person" not only in the game but in real life.

Below is the first portion of Kim's call. Check back with Reality TV World tomorrow for the concluding portion.


Reality TV World: How big a role do you think your four Immunity Challenge wins in a row played in your victory? Specifically, do you think the other women might have actually turned on you and voted you out if they had actually had a chance to do so, and do you think the immunity victories were one of the primary reasons seven of the nine jury members voted for you?

Kim Spradlin: I think I'm really glad we didn't have to ask that question whether the women would've voted me out or not. (Laughs) I think that there's a chance that they might've had to struggle with that. I've been laying the ground work for a long time with all those women, hopefully making them believe that I was a good person and this and that.

Even from watching the show back, I feel like they were -- at least a couple of them -- were pretty convinced of that. So, I don't know. I think it's a toss-up on that, but I think winning those to get votes is huge. I feel like that is one of the things that men have a really hard time ignoring. So, like, when I think of [Jay Byars] and [Mike Jefferson], I think me winning those challenges was really important.

Reality TV World: During the final jury questioning, I'm paraphrasing, but you basically seemed to say you decided to take Chelsea and Sabrina to the end instead of Christina and Alicia because you felt you needed to show the jury that you could be loyal to someone. Could you elaborate on that a little bit more, and looking back at it now, do you think you still would have won if you'd gone to the end with Christina and Alicia instead?

Kim Spradlin: You know, I don't remember saying that. (Laughs) I remember saying that I decided that if I was going to win, I was going to win against anyone and if I was going to lose, I was going to lose against anyone -- and so I would rather see Chelsea and Sabrina win the money. So you know, I don't know.


I'd like to think because the jury wasn't bitter and they decided to vote the way that they did, that I possibly would've won against Alicia and Christina as well, but you never know. I mean, it's crazy. You send Sabrina and Chelsea to the jury and that maybe changes everything and maybe not in my favor.

So Sabrina had made it pretty clear to me since Day 1 that she was not going to get votes -- that she did not play the best game, but that if we blindsided her, she was going to be pissed. So that was a big determining factor in keeping her around for me.

Reality TV World: When the jury addressed the Final 3 at the last Tribal Council session, Troyzan said if you answered his question wrong you'd probably lose your shot at winning the million. However, he said if you answered right, your chances of winning were pretty good. So although the outcome of his plan was irrelevant due to the fact you got seven of the nine votes, did you ever figure out what answer he was looking for? Did you ever get an explanation as to when he believed you "demolished his chances of winning?"

Kim Spradlin: No, and honestly, I don't think if I had told Troyzan -- if I read his mind out loud in front of everyone -- I could've gotten his vote that night. But I don't know what the answer was. I think a lot of people thought that was the answer, so I'll have to ask him that.

Reality TV World: Did his comment that you had "demolished his chances of winning" concern you at all? Did you believe you had done that?


Kim Spradlin: Yeah, I think those are the types of comments that make you start second guessing yourself. So, yeah.

Reality TV World: You did say the moment when you believed you were destroying Troyzan's game was when you voted out Jonas Otsuji. Could you talk about that response a little bit and why you thought Jonas' ouster ultimately led to Troyzan's demise? Did you just mean that Jonas' ouster was when the men versus women tie was broken and the women were in control after that, or was there more to it?

Kim Spradlin: I think that was absolutely how I feel even still to this day whether he thinks that or not. I was thinking that's when the women had the opportunity to make it men versus women. We then at that point had the numbers if we did have everyone we thought we did, which we, in hindsight, did.

And I think Jonas is such a cool guy. He's very convincing, he's a great strategist and he's fun to have around. I think if we had three more days with Jonas around at camp, that could have just as easily been me going home that second vote-out after the merge.
 
Reality TV World: When I talked to Troyzan a few weeks ago, he said although you looked like "Ms. Perfect" and batted your eyes and just smiled, you were the greatest deceiver and liar out there in the game. He said that's who you are and you're not a sweet person -- and that the way you played the game is exactly who you are on the inside and how you are in real life. What's your response to that? Does that offend you and would you argue you're a totally different person outside of the game? It sounds like you believe you can have two different personalities, one inside and one outside the game, right?

Kim Spradlin: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I went out there and played the game. I think Troyzan himself, he said that "it aint Survivor till you're lying." So I think of it as a "game" game. It was important to me to go and make real connections with people.


I am not offended by that comment. I know that this was rough on Troy and I think you may have caught him at a bad moment. But if he really feels that way, then I would be surprised, but it's just like, I wanted to play the game. I wanted to win really badly. I kept trying to remember that I had good friends at home, and there were some really cool people, but a million dollars is a million dollars, so.

Reality TV World: During the final Tribal Council, Mike said you might've made the "stupidest move ever" by basically announcing that you were behind mostly all of the blindsides and eliminations. Did what Mike said register at all with you or do you think he was way off base? What are your thoughts on that?

Kim Spradlin: You know, I mean, I think, yeah. I think any time you make a big move in Survivor, anybody can say that. You can take it one way or the other -- it's either brilliant or it's stupid -- and I guess it just depends on people's reactions and that's why the game is so fascinating to me. Sabrina could've won last night and acted as if she played a better game -- no matter what I did.

So I think that no, it didn't really surprise me when Mike said that. I think that was very true. I think that's kind of how I felt. I'm about to find out whether it's stupid or not, but I just wanted to go and be in the driver seat. I didn't want to end up sitting in the Final 3 because of anyone else. I wanted to make sure that I did everything to sit there and feel like I did that. So, no regrets.  

Above is the first portion of Kim's call. Check back with Reality TV World tomorrow for the concluding portion.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski