The latest contestant to leave “Survivor” has revealed the reason why he thinks he was voted out of the show. Speaking in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Matt Williams reveals that the tribe switch, which saw all the contestants swapped around as the Uli tribe was eliminated completely, was partly to blame for his own ousting from the island. The castaway was voted off “Survivor” season 49 as the fifth person to leave the show.
Matt Williams Explains How the Tribe Swap Affected Him
Williams was placed in a tricky spot during the week 4 episode after host Jeff Probst revealed that a rare tribe swap was to take place, reducing the number of tribes from three to two. This led to members of the eliminated Uli tribe, along with those from Hina and Kele, being combined into new teams.
The end result was that Williams found himself on a new tribe with Rizo, Jawan, Nate, Savannah, and Jason. When asked a question about whether he was screwed over by the tribe swap, Williams responded, “In my opinion, absolutely!”
“My thinking was to kind of lay low, provide for the tribe, don’t [annoy anybody], and get to the merge and then really blow it open and start playing my game,” he says. “But yeah, that tribe swap. I looked around at who had what color buff and I was like, this, ‘This isn’t gonna end well.’”
Despite that, the ”Survivor” competitor did think that he had a chance of making it through Tribal Council. He explains, “I thought there’s a 90% chance that this is it for me, but I was hanging on to the slim possibility that Jawan was going to actually pull through and write down Nate’s name.”
“They didn’t really show how involved Jawan and I’s relationship was. We really started it at the journey we went on. Jake, Jawan, and I really meshed, and we spent some time together and built an alliance and we were going to get together at the merge. Nobody’s going to know we’re working together. It’s going to be awesome, it’s going to be great.”
Jeff Probst Pours Cold Water on ‘Golden Survivor’ Idea
At 52, Williams was one of the oldest contestants on this year’s season of “Survivor.” However, fans shouldn’t expect a senior-only version of the hit reality series any time soon. Long-time host and showrunner Jeff Probst discussed the idea of a golden version of the series in the style of “The Golden Bachelor” on his “On Fire with Jeff Probst” podcast, shooting down the possibility.
“Here’s the truth as I see it,” says Probst. “Based on the number of people over, let’s say 50, who apply and who we believe are interesting and compelling enough to be on the show and we believe can truly handle the intense physicality — I think if you just limited it to 50-and-over casting, it would be difficult to do two times per year. You’re looking at 40 people. I just don’t think it would work, personally.”
Jeff, you underestimate us