“Survivor 51” star Danny Kilby has had a lot to say since his elimination from the show.
Kilby spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about a host of issues. He became a popular contestant because of his “goofy, playful” personality, THR reported. For starters, Kirby revealed that he and Devin Way were like “oil and water” on the show even before Devin’s vote cast him out of the show.
In a second interview, with Entertainment Weekly, he described his elimination as “brutal,” saying, “Brutal. Like, honestly, heartbreaking. I would’ve genuinely rather found out — and this is opposite maybe to what a lot of people say — I would’ve rather found out I was bad at it. You know, like if people didn’t like me, my social game was bad, people betrayed me. You know, it wasn’t that. It was a stray bullet, not even really meant for me that takes away my dream in a snap of a second after two pretty fluky things in a pairs twist.”
Danny Kilby Said He ‘Could Not Stand’ Devin Way
Kilby lamented that his relationship, or lack thereof, with Devin was a problem throughout the show.
“People are sobbing when I’m leaving. I had a really, really good social game out there, except with Devin. And from minute one, he did that spirit tunnel on the marooning and I was like, ‘What the…,'” he told THR.
“I could not stand him from that moment on pretty much. I had this fiery rage whenever he was around me and I was like, ‘This is a guy that’s going to be a thorn in my side forever, we cannot get on the same page at all in this game.’ And it just drove me nuts.”
Kilby also discussed his strategies for the show at length during the interview.
Being Raised Poor Helped People Connect With Danny Kilby
Kilby gave some insight about his impoverished background and how that affected his chances on the show.
“Yeah, actually, me and Sharonda had a really touching moment where we talked about how for folks who grow up really below the poverty line, it’s really tough to do anything. So for me, Survivor was like, ‘I need to be excellent or I’ll be poor forever,'” he told THR.
“That’s been my whole life. Because if I’m not, the cycle of poverty continues, you know what I mean? Survivor really was that chance to break out of it. And so I remember sobbing with Sharonda one day about it out there at the Dina Tribe, after Linnea left. That was how I was trying to get back in good with Sharonda. I talked to Christian about it too. This is where I started bringing it up to make people feel closer to me.”
He said that people were sobbing when he was eliminated because they felt close to him. “I feel like people really were heartbroken at that moment. Thien An knew, we were so close. I think she’s like, ‘He needed the money. It sucks,'” he said in the interview.
Kilby also spoke about being poor to EW. “I was super emo. It was so sad for me. I grew up very, very poor. You know, I’m still pretty broke. Like, for me, this was: One day I’ll get on Survivor and I’ll be able to not be poor anymore. I’ll be able to buy my mom a house. We’ll finally have a place to live that’s comfortable. And all of that was in my head. I needed the money,” he said.
Danny Kilby Speaks Out About His ‘Survivor 51’ Elimination