Joel Anderson thought he ran the show at the Airai camp on Survivor: Micronesia. He successfully blinded Mary Sartain and Mikey Bortone at two consecutive tribal councils. However, on last night’s episode, things changed when Jeff Probst mixed up the tribes. Suddenly, Joel found himself working with the enemy. He devised a play with Ozzy to get rid of Chet after the new Malakal tribe lost both the reward and the immunity challenges. Little did Joel know that Cirie had hatched a plan of her own to get rid of him before he could get rid of her. Cirie successfully swayed Ozzy and Amanda to vote Joel out – a move he didn’t see coming until it was too late. Today, Joel spoke to BuddyTV in an exclusive interview.
Below, you will find the complete transcript and mp3 of the interview.
Hey everybody, this is Gina from BuddyTV, and today I’m talking to Joel from Survivor: Micronesia. Hey Joel, how are you?
Good, how are you doing Gina?
I’m good. Thanks so much for doing the interview. I appreciate it.
Hey, thank you.
Well what the heck happened last night? I was totally convinced once again that Chet was going home and it ended up being another strong player. What happened?
Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think it’s by any effort Chet’s putting forth that he’s staying there, which is part of the most frustrating thing to watch. He’s somebody that I think some of the other stronger players are looking at going, “Hey, you know what? If I can keep this person around until the merge, there’s no chance of them winning individual immunity. And if I can keep this person around till the end, there’s no chance of anybody voting for him to win the million.” So strategically it’s kind of smart, but entertainment-wise I think it’s frustrating quite a few viewers.
Well Mikey was pretty bitter that he got sent home instead of Chet. Were you bitter about last night’s vote?
No. I just think watching it especially and seeing what they were talking about in the conversations that were going on that I wasn’t a part of, I think they made a real smart move. Cirie got wind of what the plan was and realized that if Chet goes now that she’s probably next. She got to work changing that and got to work fast. It makes sense. She went over saying “Oh well, not as strong as she thinks she is, or blah blah blah,” but if I was one of the weak players then she would have been rallying for my vote to vote somebody else out, because she paired up with Tracy and Chet. She didn’t pair up with Ozzy and Erik and Joel.
Did you know that it was going to be you at Tribal Council or were you blindsided?
It was a little bit of both. First of all, I never would ever go to Tribal Council without everything that I had with me, because I just respect that forum. I said it when I first went to Tribal Council, I said “If anybody ever shows up here thinking that it’s not them going home, then they’re stupid.” It can be anybody, any night, and then we voted. So I think it was a little bit of both last night for me. I didn’t think it was going to be me, but about halfway through Tribal Council a light bulb went off and I went oh, well, I think I see the direction that this is going.
I heard that Tribal Councils can go on for hours. Were you prepared for how long they can go?
Generally the early ones go a little bit longer, and once you kind of get down the process of it they shorten up. I think that one was probably about an hour, give or take.
Do you have any regrets or do you feel bad about dragging Chet around through that challenge? Would you have done it the same way again in that reward challenge last night?
I would do it the same way again. Probably my regret would be not putting up a fiercer fight that he not be my partner for that challenge. You walk a thin line trying to be a team player and trying to make yourself look as good as you can. Who else were we gonna pair him with that was gonna be a winning duo? Who are we gonna put him with? It’s kind of like you know what, I’ll take the bullet. I’ll take the bullet and I’ll do the absolute best I can. If that means dragging him through the fence then I’ll drag him through the fence, but I’m gonna work my butt off to try and get that flag off of their backs. It just didn’t turn out that way. I don’t have any regret about doing that and giving a hard effort. I have no regrets about that. But the game is a physical game, and if you’re not prepared to deal with injury and everything else then you should stay home.
Well the fans have lost two strong players in a row with you and Mikey. Do the fans stand a chance here against the favorites this season?
Yeah, I think the fans stand a chance. I think Erik said it best when he said, “There’s a whole lot more to strength than just physical strength.” I guess Mikey was a physically strong player. I don’t know, I didn’t see it while I was there. But if that’s what wins the game then I think we have a whole lot different winners from every season. But strength isn’t just physical. We saw Cirie pull a whole lot of strength out last night in getting people to do what she wanted them to do, and I wouldn’t say she’s a physically strong person.
What’s next for you? Anything exciting in your future, Joel?
I have no idea. Right now I’m at home, back at home with my wife and my two boys. I’ve got a two and a half year old and a seven month old. Tomorrow morning my shift starts again with the Phoenix Fire Department and I go back to serving the city of Phoenix. Pretty much any opportunity that comes my direction that’ll make a positive impact on my family, I’m gonna consider. So yeah, if anybody’s making offers, I’m looking at them. But right now it’s just back to fighting fires and doing the EMS calls.
Well we hope to hear more from you in the future, Joel. I just wanted to thank you for your time. Thanks.
– Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
