“You Really Don’t Get It Until You Watch Yourself” – Reality News Online’s Exclusive Interview with Survivor: One World’s Colton

Like so many other players before him, the Colton we saw on TV and the Colton who spoke to me in this interview could well have been two different people. There are multiple explanations for that, ranging from him saying that he’s changed to his explanations that a lot of what we saw him saying were strategy or attempts at humor. Or it could be that, as he also says, he can be very charming when he wants to be. No matter what you might have thought of him on the show, you will definitely be interested to read what he has to say – his strategy, explanations, and plans for the later game that he was never able to enact.

Reality News Online: Hi, Colton, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us here at Reality News Online! First of all, how are you doing now?

Colton: Physically I’m fine. After being pulled, I was transferred to a hospital in New Zealand where they found I had a severe bacterial infection. I did a round of antibiotics and still had to do another round of antibiotics when I returned home to the states. When I got to the U.S., my liver enzyme levels were still high. I had to do a CT scan and was allergic to the dye. It was one thing after another.

RNO: So it wasn’t it actually wasn’t appendicitis?

Colton: I still have an appendix!

RNO: So, appendicitis would have just been random bad luck. But was this infection related to your time in the game?

Colton: They thought it was foodborne or waterborne. Actually they think it could have been something I ate individually, like a bad crab that just I ate and nobody ate. It could have been any number of things. That’s the thing about the show – a lot of people don’t realize how really real it is. Things really do happen to people – Mike Skupin and I are poster children for that.

RNO: Let’s jump into the topics I know people want to hear about. After the episode in which you had plenty to say about Bill, you posted to Twitter to say that your comments were ignorant and you were a 20-year-old brat, but you’ve learned that you don’t have to be funny at somebody else’s expense. How has this experience overall changed you?

Colton: It’s changed me kind of like of I said. I know my comments were ignorant. Not that this is an excuse, but I was a 20-year-old kid. I’d never been outside of my own little world. I’ve led a very sheltered, privileged life.

First of all, I think some people think I really meant what I said. There’s humor behind everything I said except some of the harsher things. Why I went there with Bill was Bill would remind us, “I’m a struggling artist. I’m a starving artist. I’m poor.” I honestly thought, “He’s going to get to the end and play that card.” It’s human nature that if there’s three people at the end and one says he really needs the money, they’ll vote for him.

Did I handle it the right way? No. Were my comments ignorant? Yes. But I never meant them as racist. When I called him ghetto trash, that wasn’t directed at his race but his level of poverty. I’m not trying to justify what I said, just explain it.

RNO: What do you say to those who doubt that there has been a real change yet, such as Monica telling me last week, “It’s an arduous process to change as much as he needs to at this point”?

Colton: The people who say I haven’t changed – people think it’s a back-and-forth thing. I don’t think you can go through that and not grow as a person. I was running that game and you can call it karma or divine intervention – I don’t think you can help but take a step back.

I was more angry when I left because I was thinking, “Why did this happen?!” But when you watch it back and see how you treated people, you really don’t get it until you watch yourself. Then it was this uncomfortable feeling about, “Oh my God.” There really is no justification for it.

When I called Leif the names I did, it was supposed to be funny. But it was a little too critical or harsh for some people. But basically, if you say that, you don’t know me as a person.

RNO: What about the comments you directed at Christina this week?

Colton: Christina was another story. First, let me say I do love her. She was the one person [with whom] I had a complete turnaround in the game. When we started out, I was really close to her when she came over – I leaned on her for support. I was also really close with Kim. When Christina came over, she told me Kim was trying to get rid of me – I don’t know to this day if there was truth to that. It was more that Kim said I couldn’t be trusted and I didn’t believe that. So at that point I don’t trust [Christina].

Another thing was she was trying to pull my guys to the side and get them to go with her. It was strategic – it was mean, but it was strategic to call her out because I wanted people to be afraid to talk to her, almost in a Boston Rob Redemption Island scenario.