If anyone got a raw deal on Survivor: Fiji this season, it was Michelle Yi. With a solid alliance set up as the tribes merged, Michelle fell victim to a cruel twist that placed her at the mercy of four non-alliance members. It’s rare when you can look back on a Survivor elimination and find that there was nothing that person could do to stay alive, but that was certainly the case with Michelle. Michelle took some time earlier today to speak with us about her experience on Survivor: Fiji.
Below you will find both the written transcript of the interview and the full mp3 audio.
Can you tells us a little bit about how you found yourself on Survivor? Were you a fan of the show beforehand?
Well, I was a fan of the show and I’m always on the hunt for new experiences and adventures and it actually started when me and my sister applied to be on The Amazing Race. And after interview after interview, before I knew it I found myself on Survivor instead. It was a much more challenging experience than I had first anticipated, but well worth it.
Last night was pretty crazy episode. First you merge, then you get to the challenge And are split back into two teams. What were your thoughts at that point, before Jeff explained anything?
Oh, gosh, what a disaster. Well, I figured having to split up into teams was enough of a twist, but then it was really when he read the note that said we had no time to deliberate before the tribal council that was the most awful part. I think I would’ve been in an alright spot of we were given time to talk to each other, but since we had no communication whatsoever I was a little worried.
I assume two of the votes you received were from Stacy And Alex. Do you know who the other one was from?
Yeah, it’s from Dreamz. And it’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly what happened with Dreamz. He doesn’t like Stacy and he was, before that, going to vote for Stacy. It might have been a spur of the moment response, the fear of tribal council, you know, because of Alex’s statements. Or maybe it was a strategic move.
Was there more to that tribal council than what we got to see on TV?
It was actually the shortest tribal council I had been to and so I would say that’s the gist of it. There wasn’t much more to it. It was so quick. Before we knew it, Jeff’s all “It’s time to vote,” and you can’t really say anything after that.
How frustrating is it to be voted off through, really, no fault of your own.
It does make me sad. I mean, I’m a victim of a twist. My ducks were all in a row and I’d like to think I was generally well-liked, but man, those twists. They go for the jugular. There’s not much I can think of…I kind of take it on a positive note, at least, because it’s not like I played a poor game. I was a victim.
Was there anything edited out over the course of the season that you wish they would have shown more of?
Well, asides from…I wasn’t really a high visibility character. I think they did a great job in the editing in portraying all of us the way that we were out there. A lot of the scenes that you don’t see are not pertinent to the plot and were just hypothetical, “What are we going to do if this happens or that happens,” but other than that I’m really quite impressed with what we’ve been seeing at home.
What happened there when you fell off that ledge in the challenge?
(Laughs) During the blindfold challenge I was more focused on Yau-Man, directing him, and I didn’t even realize I was standing so close to the edge. So after careening off the platform…it’s funny because i got up with a nervous laugh, looked around and realized nobody saw it because everyone else was blindfolded. You’ve just got to get back up there and finish off the challenge, and we ended up winning too.
What are your plans for the future?
Well, I graduate from the University of Cincinnati in Fashion Design in June, so I guess we’ll see where my passions take me after that.
(Interview Conducted by Oscar Dahl)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
