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REALITY TV WORLD INTERVIEW -

Exclusive: Colton Cumbie talks about 'Survivor: One World' (Part 1)

By Reality TV World staff, 03/22/2012

Colton Cumbie, an openly gay 21-year-old college student from Monroeville, AK, was eliminated from Survivor: One World's Manono tribe during Wednesday night's sixth episode of the CBS reality series' 24th edition.

Rather than being voted out at the season's sixth Tribal Council session, Colton was medically evacuated and removed from the game after it was determined he appeared to be suffering from acute appendicitis and in need of emergency surgery.

On Thursday, Colton talked to Reality TV World about his Survivor: One World experience -- including whether he really had appendicitis and what his recovery process was like following his ouster from the game, what he had to say about his many insulting and offensive comments made throughout his time on the show, who he surprisingly wanted to give his hidden Immunity Idol to once he could no longer compete, and why he insisted he had problems with Bill Posley in lieu of criticism that he's a racist.

Below is the first half of our exclusive interview with Colton. Check back with Reality TV World on Friday for the second portion.

Reality TV World: How did things end up going for you health-wise after you were taken out of the game? I know your appendix surgery was back in last summer at this point, so I'm assuming things are fine, but how did things go at the time? Were there any complications and what was your recovery time like?

Colton Cumbie: Actually, what happened was, I was taken to a hospital in Samoa and then I was transported to a hospital in New Zealand. Because obviously, Survivor didn't want me to be operated on in a third-world country. But I went to New Zealand, and when I got to New Zealand, they found out -- initially they thought food poisoning.

We were like, "That's really ironic because we haven't been eating." And so, finally, they ran a test and they found out that I had a severe bacterial infection, basically, in my gut. And so I had to do a round of antibiotics in New Zealand and then whenever I got back home to the states, I had to do another round of antibiotics.

And whenever I got home, they did another CT Scan, because they still thought it could be appendicitis. And so, they did the CT scan and I had a bad reaction to the dye, and it was just a horrible state of affairs.

Reality TV World: So it wasn't actually your appendix then, right?

Colton Cumbie: That's what I've been telling people. I'm like anyone who's making a shrine to my appendix, you need to throw your candles away, because I still have it!

Reality TV World: So I've seen all 24 seasons of Survivor and been doing exit interviews with castaways for a long time, and I can't immediately recall anyone becoming so controversial in what ended up being such a relatively short period of time on the show. (Laughs) What are your thoughts about that?

Colton Cumbie: Yeah. (Laughs) You know, I'm obviously a polarizing character. I mean, but that's why people watch the show, isn't it? to see -- I mean, can you imagine watching South Pacific over and over and over or Redemption Island? But no. My thoughts on how people feel about me, obviously I've said a million times, I think my comments were ignorant -- some of them.

A lot of them, there really was an underlying humor to the things I said. You really just have to know me and understand me to appreciate my humor. But you know, I think there definitely were some people who were offended by the things that I said. Like, I think that they were actually hurt and offended and it was very off-putting for them.

And to those people, I do say, "I'm sorry and I apologize." I just don't probably feel that way about anyone. But I also think there were just people who were looking for any reason to hate me. And to those people, I say "You're welcome."

Reality TV World: Would you like to offer any specifics on who some of those people might be? (Laughs)

Colton Cumbie: I think there are some people who just -- from the moment they saw me, they see me as a feminine male. I'm not playing the gay card, so don't think that for a second, but I think some people see me and they think -- they make fun of the way I run or they make fun of the way I do things.

It's kind of ironic because I don't want to seem delusional, but I was actually pretty good at a majority of the challenges. You didn't see me in the first one, but I dominated the balance beam. The reason we won that second challenge was because I knew what it was from the Tree Mail, and so I actually lined the guys up on a log and made them practice before we went.

There were several challenges, like the basketball challenge, I head onto that ball for dear life, but look who I was competing against. If you put Michael Jordan against [Lebron James], [Kobe Bryant] and [Shaquille O'Neal], I mean, you're probably not going to do too well.

Reality TV World: You came across as very unlikable and unnecessarily nasty at some points during your time on the show. So are you saying that you didn't have an awareness of that while you were out there and it was a surprise to you?

Colton Cumbie: No, no, no. I was definitely aware of the things I was saying, obviously, but I didn't realize how nasty they were. Because it's one of those things where until you actually watch yourself back on television, you really don't get it. You're in the moment and you say things.

Anyone who says they've never said anything in the moment -- and then you have to put into effect, I mean, I'm not making excuses, but we're starving. We're thirsty. I'm literally dying. I mean, you're going to say things that you regret and it's a game. And that's the thing.

At the end of the day, the way that you are in the game is not the way that you are in life. Like I know that [Alicia Rosa] is not the way -- like she's really not that evil. You have to just really get to know people and that's the thing. Obviously the viewers at home, they're never going to know us. All they know is what they see on television.

Reality TV World: So for example, during last night's episode, Alicia and yourself appeared to be unnecessarily mean to Christina Cha to the point where it honestly seemed like a pretty ugly case of bullying behavior. What's your comment on that?

Colton Cumbie: Yeah, and that's the thing. Obviously, you don't see everything and so, it seemed like we were doing it just for the fun of it. But really, I don't know about Alicia, but I know they had problems back on Salani.

I can't speak for her, but for me personally, I had no problem with Christina whatsoever until -- I was very close with [Kim Spradlin] and Kim and I almost had like a brother and sister-type relationship. Christina came to me and told me, "Some of the girls want you gone. They don't trust you."

And I was like, "Well, who?" And she said, "Kim." And I just immediately was very -- that was very off-putting to me, because I was like, "You know what? I don't even have a relationship with you. I don't believe you. I think you're lying. I think you're just trying to weezle your way out of this." And that was one reason why I had a problem with her.

And then the second thing was, she was constantly basically trying to save herself, which no one can blame her for. But she would pull [Jonas Otsuji] to the side or pull [Leif Manson] to the side and try to whisper things to them.

Just like you saw when Alicia walked up on her, and I almost wanted to create a fear that -- like "Boston Rob" [Rob Mariano] style -- if you go against me or if you so much as even talk to her, I will send you home. And so that's kind of where it came from. Did I take it to a whole other level than it ever should have went to? Yes. But there was some strategy involved. It wasn't just me being downright nasty.

Reality TV World: Last night's episode showed Jonas suggesting that your appendicitis may have been karmic payback for your prior behavior in the game, and some viewers have been voicing similar sentiments today saying it's an example of God punishing you or things like that. (Laughs) What are your thoughts about that?

Colton Cumbie: Call it "Divine Intervention," call it karma, call it whatever you want. At the end of the day, I found out the hard way there is indeed a bigger b-tch than me. So...

Reality TV World: The show danced around it a little when it happened, but it was suggested there were racial issues behind your dislike of Bill. So I just want to give you a chance to respond to that.

Colton Cumbie: Definitely not. I think Bill knows this. I mean, everyone knows this. I'm not racist at all. I'm a very live and let live type of person. I have no problem with anybody because of something like that, especially something they can't help. My issue with Bill was I felt like -- when you're out there, every day seems like strategy.

Everything -- when a person eats a certain way, when they breathe a certain way, it seems like strategy. So with Bill, what I think looking back on it, I've obviously -- I'm eating, I'm drinking, I'm more level-thinking now or whatever -- level-headed and I actually can think about the situation now and assess it better.

I think Bill was literally just telling us about his life and he was telling us things like, "I'm really poor. I've grown up poor. I'm a struggling artist." He never told us about serving in Iraq or anything like that, he just told us he was struggling and he didn't have a home -- that he was basically homeless and went from couch to couch and was always sleeping on a different couch.

And my thing was, I know what this guy's going to do. I know he's going to get to the end and he's going to play this card and then obviously, it's human nature to give it to someone in need. And so, if I'm sitting there beside him in final three, people are going to totally not even think about how well I played this game and executed every plan that I wanted.

But they're going to give it to him just because he needs it. If I'm sitting on the jury and there's someone sitting there saying basically, "I really need this money," then I'm probably going to give it to them. And so, that was my issue and I again, took it to a whole other level that it never should have gone to. But again, there was strategy behind it.

Reality TV World: What made you decide to keep the hidden Immunity Idol instead of giving it to one of your allies? A lot of viewers have criticized that as a pretty selfish move.

Colton Cumbie: I wanted to give it to someone on Salani. I wanted to give it to Jay, but I was told I had to give it to someone on Manono. And so at that point, I was like, "You know what? I'm just going to keep it."

Reality TV World: Why Jay? We didn't see a lot of you and Jay being particularly close.

Colton Cumbie: Yeah, you didn't see it, but we were allies from Day 1. Jay was actually my closest ally in the entire game. He was the one person that I 100% percent under no circumstances would have ever voted out.

Reality TV World: So it wasn't Tarzan? Because Tarzan kind of seemed to be like your right-hand man to your little Godfather-like role. He seemed to come to your defense all the time.

Colton Cumbie: Tarzan was, yeah. But yeah, so did Jay. You don't see it, but so did Troy, so did Jay. I mean, a lot of guys came to my defense. They just chose to show Tarzan. That Tribal Council with Bill, Troy and Jay also came to my defense and came to my aid, but you just didn't see that.

Check back with Reality TV World on Friday for the second half of our exclusive interview with Colton.

CARTERMATT.COM INTERVIEW -

‘Survivor: One World’ interview: Colton Cumbie on fan reaction, endgame plan

When it comes to polarizing contestants, Colton Cumbie may take the case as the poster child for “Survivor: One World.” There are some out there who respected what he brought to the game strategically; however, these same people (like many others) were disgusted by some of the things that came out of his mouth.

If you want to see what Colton has to say about his behavior towards Bill specifically, head on over to this link. Since this ground has already been covered, we didn’t really feel the need to retread upon it in our limited interview time. Instead, we asked the villain of the season (at least in the early stages) some about his strategy along with what it has been like for him to look back at this experience.

Cartermatt.com – First things first, I’m curious as to what it has been like for you to watch yourself the past couple of weeks. How have you dealt with the reaction to you being on the show?

Colton Cumbie – Obviously, watching certain parts like episode 4 — I was uncomfortable watching that. I don’t want to be viewed as someone who is treating people that way.

As far as dealing with it in my personal life, there haven’t really been that many people — actually there haven’t been any people — who have attacked me. I kind of feel like when people want to go on the attack you use the internet, since you can hide behind a screenname and a Twitter account.

[As for] people who have meet me in life, I’m recognized all the time. If people don’t recognize me from looking at me, I open my mouth and they’re like ‘I know that voice.’ There have been people who were admittedly not fans of mine who said ‘we thought you were the most deplorable person on planet on earth,’ and then they get to talking with me and I take pictures with their kids, and they’re like ‘you know, you’re really not like what you are like on television.’ I’m like ‘of course not, because that’s what it is: television.’ We’re totally different people in the real world than we are on television — in some cases.

I will say this: strategically, the show may be pretty boring without you.

Well thank you, I appreciate that. I feel like my men are going to crumble, I feel like [they're] not going to know what to do without their Queen. (Laughs.)

So if you had made the merge, did you already have your plan set out for who you wanted to take to the end? You obviously were playing an aggressive game, and sometimes you have to make a very specific argument in order to win with that.

I had it all planned out. I had a producer tell me on day 3 ‘you’re the first player we’ve ever had in the history of the show that when everyone else is on day 3, you’re on day 33.’ I had a plan, I know who I had to get rid of, I knew where I needed to get rid of them. I was actually getting rid of Alicia — I was about to send her home. I knew about her relationship with the women — she just didn’t think I did. I had gotten rid of Monica because I thought that Monica was a threat, and I honestly thought that Monica and Michael were close … I knew that if I kept Christina, she was a serious threat to go with the guys — and I think she honestly would have because she didn’t have a leg to stand on.

Going into the merge, I was planning to get rid of Chelsea immediately because I knew she and Kim were close, and I wanted to cut off Kim’s right arm because I wanted Kim to have to come with me. My ideal final four was going to be Jay, [Troyzan], Kim and I. I knew there was no way I was going to win the final immunity challenge. If Kim won it, I was going to get rid of Troy — if Troy won it, I was going to get rid of Kim and if Jay won it, I was going to get rid of Kim.

Sitting in the final 3, I was going to make the argument that ‘look, I was the most underestimated player in this entire game, I never thought I’d get here, and I literally had to scratch, claw, and fight my way here.’ I think I would have had a valid case. But, we’ll never know.

So would you be as frustrated with leaving and talking with us today if you had been blindsided rather than going out the way you did?

Yes. That’s the thing — I feel like I don’t have closure to my game. Had they said ‘let’s get rid of Colton and the idol, let’s blindside him’ I would have been like ‘props to them. They got me.’ But they didn’t get me — I got taken out by something that was totally out of my control, their control, everyone’s control. It was how I was taken out that was disheartening about it.

I didn’t get blindsided. I feel like I was in the middle of writing my ‘Survivor’ story, and then I just ran out of ink and can kind of left there to dangle in the wind.