“I Was Always Thinking Out There” – RealityNewsOnline’s Exclusive Interview with Survivor: Gabon’s Ken

RNO: Here’s a topic that has been simmering for a little while. Charlie told me that when Dan, Susie, and Randy came over in the tribal switch, they told him you had been calling him “fag” behind his back. Do you want to explain what that was all about?

Ken: I’ve never said that f-word. During the early days of Fang, everybody was talking about everybody in the other tribe. People mentioned Charlie and said he’s definitely gay. Randy was like, “You should snuggle next to Charlie,” but I said I’d rather snuggle with the hot girls. Randy would say the f-word, but once the tribe switched, it was great strategy for him to talk down on us so he could get into their group. He said anything he could to make us look bad and stay with them at the merge.

When the tribes merged, I finally met Charlie and he kind of distanced himself from me. I tried to talk to him and he thought I was a homophobe. When we went to Tribal Council, I knew Charlie was going home and I made sure to note that Charlie wasn’t going to go home because I was discriminating against his sexuality. I don’t’ discriminate against anybody. I told Charlie, I never called him the f-word. Are you going to believe me or Randy? You can believe hearsay but I made sure to tell him. I’m voting you off because you’re a strategic player and the idol [event] and I made sure he knew I took him out because of that.

RNO: Why did you have such a tight alliance with Crystal?

Ken: I had a tight alliance with Crystal because we were together since Day 1 out there. She was an Olympic gold medal champion and I was a video game champion.

She was so real out there and I knew someone real, whatever she said, she wasn’t lying to me. She was expressing her heart to me. I knew she wasn’t going to flip on me. I gave her my word, “I’ll be with you no matter what.” Who would have thought me, the video gamer, would get along with Crystal – she’s huge compared to me, it was the craziest alliance. I loved her and I still love her today. She’s just great. We got along really well.

RNO: I heard from some previous contestants that Sugar received a princess edit, leaving out some of her more unlikable behavior. What do you think?

Ken: I think it’s true. Sugar got the best edit of the season – they gave her the sweetheart role and she wasn’t like that. She cried a lot and was annoying a lot of people out there. She was very demanding and wanted things her way. I would cook rice with tuna and she’d insist that the tuna was on top of the rice. I’d ask if we couldn’t just mix it in and she’d say no, it had to be on top. I’d have to cook it her way.

For the edits, I was the evil guy – they made me to be the villain. My cockiness came from confidence in the confessionals. I played the game and took out people who were in my way. I knew I had to throw out all emotions and play the game. I get so attached to people and take care of them, like I took care of Sugar. It’s just hard, you can’t play with emotions.

RNO: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?

Ken: In the beginning of Fang, they made us seem like we didn’t have any alliances, but I made an alliance with GC since Day 1, he was one of my close friends out there. I feel bad about the way they edited him out there. He and I were the providers of Fang in the beginning. Everybody had alliances – Matty and Susie flipped out of my alliance with Crystal and GC.

Other than that, Gabon’s a great place. I enjoyed every minute out there. It was a crazy experience to even play Survivor. I was happy to even be cast to play one of my favorite games.

RNO: Thanks again, Ken!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out all of our other Survivor: Gabon post-finale interviews and other articles here on RealityNewsOnline:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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