“I Don’t Have the Best Filter Sometimes” – Reality News Online’s Exclusive Interview with Survivor: Redemption Island’s Francesca

As you’ll see, Francesca was in very jovial spirits during this interview and we actually laughed even more than I show below. It really is too bad we didn’t get to see more of her! She has a good attitude and was very willing to explain everything that happened. Frankly, I wish all my interviews went this well! So let’s get to it.

Reality News Online: Hello, Francesca – or is it Francesqua!

Francesca: Oh, David!

RNO: Sorry, I have dry mouth.

Francesca: Are you getting treatment for it? It’s very important to get treatment for it.

RNO: Ha! Well, thanks for talking to us here at Reality News Online! To jump right into it, you were so close to winning the duel on Redemption Island last night – what went wrong?

Francesca: What did go wrong? (Laughs.)

RNO: I know I may be your first interviewer of the day, so the way it works is I ask the questions and you give the answers!

Francesca: (Laughs.) I was really excited to watch because I did not know how I lost! I still don’t know how I lost (laughs again). I’d say my stick probably wasn’t strong enough and I got lucky that it was strong enough to get the first two keys, which were nearer; but when I added on to it to get the third key, the foundation wasn’t strong enough and I had to go back to reinforce the foundation of the stick. That took too long and Matt was able to catch up to me.

If I ever have to build a long pole with sticks and string, I think I’ll do better. I didn’t practice for that. Too bad it wasn’t a game of Scrabble, I’m good at Scrabble… not as good at Survivor apparently.

RNO: Going back to your Tribal Council, I have to admit that I’m confused – what exactly was the plan heading into the vote? Which of you was going to vote for whom?

Francesca: The plan heading into the vote – I had no idea that Rob already knew about Kristina’s immunity idol. I knew it was a possibility because she told Phillip and I didn’t trust Phillip. We agreed she wasn’t going to, but then she did. But as it turns out, that’s not even how he knew about it – I didn’t know he saw her looking for the clue.

We thought that Rob and his alliance would vote for Kristina – that was kind of what had hoped and kind of expected to happen. Phillip wanted to vote Rob, Kristina wanted to vote Rob; I wanted to vote Natalie but my one vote wouldn’t matter. I told Kristina I wasn’t going to vote Rob and wanted Natalie out. Had everything gone to plan, I would have voted Natalie and Phillip would have voted Rob and Kristina would have been the tie-breaking vote; she was going to decide whether to vote for Rob or Natalie. That was the plan.

RNO: Did you and/or Kristina tell Phillip that your vote was switching from Rob to Natalie?

Francesca: No. I absolutely knew that Phillip couldn’t be trusted, so I didn’t want to tell him – if he knew who I wanted to vote for, he would screw it up. I was happy for him to think I wanted to vote Rob because we thought we only needed two votes. Let Phillip think I’m going to vote for Rob, I don’t need him to know my real strategy.

RNO: What was your plan if the vote had successfully gotten rid of Rob or a member of his alliance? Even if things went 100% your way, you would still have been part of a minority alliance.

Francesca: My feeling at the time was that if we got rid of Natalie, we could swing Matt and Andrea to our side and I thought Ashley would follow. I thought Natalie was the key in breaking apart Rob’s alliance.

RNO: How did you end up on an alliance with Phillip?

Francesca: (Laughs.) By default, certainly not by design. My preference would have been to align with Rob and I don’t think they showed me and Rob talking about being in an alliance on Day 1. It just didn’t work out that way. I certainly did not choose in an alliance with Phillip or Kristina; it was by default because we were not part of the groupies— I mean fan club— I mean alliance with Rob. I thought I had more time to kind of put myself in a better position. That was my mistake.

RNO: So, do you think Phillip really was a federal agent, or is he just some sort of nut?

Francesca: You know what, I think I’d be very curious to know if he cries every time he sees the question mark under his name because CBS is questioning his integrity. If the producers don’t know, I couldn’t possibly know. I never questioned that at all [in the game]. Okay fine, you’re a former federal agent, I just don’t care – it doesn’t impact anything in this game. I haven’t seen any evidence to support that he was but he could still be under cover – he could just be that good. (Laughs.)

RNO: Why were you on the outside of the main Ometepe alliance? Did you try to get in with the main group?

Francesca: I think now I just – there’s no way I could have gotten in because Rob wanted me out. I got along well with Rob and everyone in his alliance. I heard and read that “she didn’t make an effort to get along,” but I totally got along with them. It was just a matter of they might have liked talking to me but Rob wanted me out of the game because he thought I was going to go after him, which I would have – not first or probably even second, but eventually.