“You Really Were Dealing with Some Huge Egos” – RealityNewsOnline’s Exclusive Interview with Survivor Hero Tom

Tom was certainly one of the biggest – if not the biggest – heroes in the Hero tribe. And in my opinion, he’s even more of a hero because after this interview was done, he mentioned that he reads Reality News Online and complimented my Survivor writing. So that’s another bonus point for him! But as far as this interview, how did he so quickly end up on the outs within that tribe? Did he expect to make it farther in the game or did he know he was a potential target? Tom discusses all this and more right here!

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Tom, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us once again here at RealityNewsOnline.

Tom: My pleasure.

RNO: Knowing this was an all-star season, what was your planned strategy going into the game?

Tom: You know, going in I really didn’t overthink the whole thing. I wanted to make it as close to last time as I could. I wanted to go in and pick the people [I wanted to align with]. I didn’t try to make any alliances [ahead of time] with people I knew and expected to be back there. Maybe I paid the price.

RNO: That seems to be a running theme with the first few players voted off this season.

Tom: I missed the invitation to sit down at whatever bar in L.A. they were at to start filling out the vote-off sheet.

RNO: Did you expect to make it further in the game, or did you know going in that your previous win might make you an early target?

Tom: I did. Even in a pre-game interview, I said I was the last one on the beach last time, I’m entering knowing it’s a possibility to be the first one off it this time. Of course you want to go in and try to win another million dollars, the question is whether it’s worth getting on the plane with the strong possibility that you might be the first off. I knew it might happen and was at peace with that.

RNO: How did you so quickly end up in the minority alliance?

Tom: One of the mistakes was thinking J.T. was onboard with Stephenie, Colby, and I. He was never onboard and it stopped me from seeing the obvious, that the group was already set with Rupert, Amanda, James, and J.T. They were already a group and the people I needed were Cirie and Candice.

I came to them with too little, too late. The fact that J.T. didn’t come over and check my pulse enough on Day 2, and every conversation was initiated by me, we realized [something was up]. But by that point, we were in trouble – Stephenie was already on the way home. When we came to [Cirie and Candice], we needed them and they went the safe route and stayed with the powers that be.

Losing Stephenie hurt me and the numbers went totally against us. Rupert was going after her and they didn’t know each other well enough for that to be persona. I think he saw Stephenie as somebody who could take his crown as fan favorite. Some of us were trying to get rid of players who might the money from us. Rupert was trying to get rid of somebody who might take some camera time from him.

RNO: During Cirie’s exit interviews, she said she approached you right off the bat for a potential alliance, but you were not interested. Do you have any regrets about not allying with Cirie?

Tom: Cirie and I have spoken about this. The only overture she ever made was saying, “My mom said I should stick with you.” I told her she should listen to her mom. That was the only time she approached me. Even through the rest of the game, she just sat back and watched and waited and then said, “You didn’t come to me.” Well, you didn’t come to me with any plan either.

That was a smart move, but we were both hurt by people warning about each other before the game. There were people in our ears telling us, “She’s gunning for you,” “He’s gunning for you,” and instead of walking on the beach and embracing and seeing how far we could go as a team, we walked out with our dukes up and said we have each other in the crosshairs.

We had that time to swing that momentum in the game and Candice was on board but Cirie just didn’t have enough faith in Colby and I. We told them every one of those people in the other Heroes alliance would have gone home before Candice and Cirie, but I couldn’t get that sale closed.

RNO: When J.T. saved you last week, did you think he was with you permanently or did you have a feeling it was just that one week?

Tom: I thought he was with us. I thought we were about to write a really good chapter. I knew I had to get Rupert on board with that. I kind of appealed to how he was going to be edited. “Do you realize how you’re going to come off being Amanda’s puppet? Is that okay with you?” I tried to get him onboard to play this and stick by our word, but he’s not that smart a player and just kind of grabs on and lets somebody be his keeper out there. This time it was Amanda.

RNO: Heading into your final Tribal Council, did you pretty much know that J.T. wasn’t going to help you out this time around?

Tom: Yeah, Candice gave me a heads-up before we left and she worked it really hard. I thought I had Candice and J.T. and it was going to be James. But then they went into a half-hour heated conversation where you could see passions were up; I realized it wasn’t going to happen. Maybe I should have tried once more to intervene but I’d already stated my case and it is what it is. He knows I’m more valuable to the team than James, but J.T. was not willing to go against his alliance again.

I understand it. I think a lot of what we saw being played out there, while it seems illogical, the key point is that there were people on the Heroes tribe who have friends on the Villains tribe. If J.T. was going to swing over to us instead of Amanda, James, and Rupert, with that foursome he’s got more friends over there, maybe one two or three people. He’s close with Courtney and Amanda is close with Parvati. They’ve got a bigger picture. It’s not as critical as it would be in a normal season to merge with bigger numbers because they have numbers waiting for them on the other side.