Survivor's milestone 50th season premiere saw two contestants get eliminated in different ways
NEED TO KNOW
After their exits, they are speaking out about how things really went down
Find out what the episode didn't show
Warning: This story contains spoilers for the Feb. 25 premiere episode ofSurvivor's 50th season.
Survivoris one episode into its 50th season, but two contestants are already gone.
Jenna Lewis Dougherty, who was on the show's debut season in 2000 and returned for the first all-star season, was the first person to be voted out and have their torch snuffed byJeff Probstat tribal council. In addition, season 48 winner Kyle Fraser had to be medically evacuated from the game after injuring his Achilles' tendon during the first immunity challenge.
Both Jenna and Kyle talked to PEOPLE after the episode debuted, sharing what really happened in Fiji.
Kyle Fraser
It's been eight months since this all went down. How'd it feel to finally watch the episode?
Kyle: It was good. It's crazy to know that the world has seen it now, so I'm excited that I can be open about it now. I had fun watching the episode, I really did.
Since you had to keep your appearance onSurvivorsecret, did you have a cover story for your injury between filming and now?
Kyle: I told everyone that I was coming down for a rebound in basketball and tore my Achilles. Which, if you know me, is very funny because I'm notoriously bad at basketball. I played lacrosse in college, but I suck at basketball. My close friends figured it out, but my colleagues at work and stuff like that don't know my basketball skills. So it worked out.
When did you realize the injury was the end of your game?
Kyle: I really tried to be optimistic. But in the middle of the night when I had that first sleep, I woke up and I was in pain. I was resting my foot on two rocks — Aubry had helped me put up two rocks to elevate my leg. I just felt the functionality of my foot, and it just was not there. I thought, "I would stay as long as they let me, but they're probably not going to let me stay." It creeped in my head.
But when I woke up, I was like, "I need to keep playing the game. Because if I do get to stay, how would I feel if I just gave up?"
Did you fight to stay?
Kyle: Oh, yeah. There was quite some negotiation with Jeff and Dr. Joe. I cited James fromHeroes vs. Villainsas precedent [for staying with an injury]. When Jeff brought up the liability thing, I actually came back at him. I was like, "I'm a lawyer. I'll sign a waiver." He appreciated the advocacy, but he was exactly right in making sure I was helped.
The episode didn't show it, but you went back down the wall to help Colby up. That's when you got injured. Was there any guilt from him?
Kyle: I think that he was sad, and there was guilt, but it was misplaced. Colby was at the bottom. He was the engine getting people up. He's gassed after lifting literally everybody up, and now the wall's covered in mud on top of it. After everything he did, it's near impossible for him to get up. So I'm like, 'I need to get down and help my teammate who's been helping us.' Because Colby's an athlete, because he's a good person, he was beating himself up a little bit, but it wasn't his fault. Every athlete eventually comes to the understanding that these things do happen, and this was not my day.
Despite the injury, are you happy you went and played again?
Kyle: Oh, hell yeah. I had such a good time playing. And listen, this injury sucks. There's no doubt about it. But I've learned so much about myself. I've had time to learn about patience. I mean, this is an eight-to-12-month recovery. I go to [physical therapy] three times per week. I stayed in the gym three, four times per week. I'm stronger, from an upper-body perspective, than I've ever been in my life. I've learned more about myself as a person that I didn't know. It stinks, and the payoff isn't immediate, but I'm feeling the payoff as we speak. I get to say I'm a part of season 50. Who gets to say that? Only a couple people, so it's awesome.
You have ababy on the way! Will that interfere with you making the live finale and reunion?
Kyle: I don't know. Of course, I would love to be there. I'm still a part of the season, even though it was just for a blip. But first and foremost comes family. Who knows? There's a very narrow window where it could work out. If not, maybe they'll zoom me in like Brenda.
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Jenna Lewis Doughtery
Sorry to see that you're the first one out. How are you doing?
It's easier on this one. The other two, they came to air like a month or two months after we played. This one, it's been eight months. I've had a little time to decompress. But I will tell you, it's also been eight months of the guillotine hanging over my head, especially as you gear up and start doing pre-press. You're waiting to see what the edit's going to be because you're thinking about every dumb thing you said, every dumb thing you did. So once it was actually over, I'm like, "Okay." I felt better, actually.
It felt like you came in hot, especially putting Cirie's name on the chopping block in front of several people.
I will say, it was not me who said Cirie's name first. Not me at all. First day, I felt so uncomfortable. Seemed like everyone else had this rapport — which come to find out, everyone did have that rapport. There were a lot of pre-connections that I was unaware of, but I felt. So I was chatting withChristianday one, trying to bond and "What do you think of the group?' And in his Christian way, he said, I'm going to go over and sit down to who I think is the biggest threat.' He goes and sits next to Cirie while I talk to Devens about Fortnite. And he comes back over — and I will sit in a deposition with Christian — he said, "She's the biggest threat because if there's a swap or there's a merge, she's lost to the wind." That's almost a dead quote. "She's lost to the wind." So I'm like, "Okay, Christian could be an ally." I thought there was an opening there.
Rick Devens goes to the water hole and tells Cirie, "Jenna's saying your name." I probably was, but it was after I was trying to get inroads with Christian and Emily and Devens. Christian made sure I wasn't going to be aligned with Cirie and Ozzy, and it worked. I fell for it. I fell for it because I knew there were these factions that I just was not in on. Christian absolutely masterminded it.
And did you want Cirie gone yourself?
I did think she was a liability. Premerge, you cannot keep someone who is going to make you tank challenges.
Did anyone tell you about Ozzy as a possible candidate to be voted out, like Emily proposed?
Three of them came to me like, "We can do Ozzy." I was like, "Ugh. Are we really going to get rid of one of our biggest challenge beasts but also keep the one who's actively making us lose? I don't think that's a good tradeoff. If we're going to go for one of them, I think it should be Cirie."
Cirie's a lovely woman. I didn't have anything against her out there. I just thought she was a liability.
What about Savannah and Joe in all this?
Savannah and Joe just couldn't come together. Could not be cohesive. It's not like they 100% with either group. They couldn't get it together. I really tried. I mean, obviously — that's why they said I was playing so hard because I felt that I was on the outs of these two groups.
For two new school players – in fact, the two newest school players — they weren't playing fast.
When did you know it was you getting voted out?
I knew that I would definitely get Ozzy and Cirie's votes [going into tribal council]. I didn't know Christian, all this. I think he absolutely masterminded it.
As a mom, what do your kids think of you coming back onSurvivor?
They are completely like, "Whatever, mom." I tried to show them oldSurvivoror even the cover ofTimemagazine and be like, "Hey, this is pretty cool. Don't you have a cool mom?" They could give two craps.
Survivorairs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
Celebrate 50 seasons ofSurvivorwith a newspecial edition of PEOPLE, featuring exclusive interviews with Jeff Probst and the milestone season's cast as well as a nostalgic look back at the show's history, fan favorite players and more.
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Survivor 's milestone 50th season premiere saw two contestants get eliminated in different ways NEED TO K...
