Survivor Live Internet Talk Show with Yul Kwon
Winner:  Survivor: Cook Islands
Segment 1 Transcript

DR:  Yul, welcome to the show.

Yul:  Thank you.  Pleasure to be here.

DR:  It was worth the wait to have you here.  This is interesting, in my interview I did with Yul about 48 hours before the game began.  I said straight up, "tell me why you're going to win this game."  His answer:  "Survivor I think requires a combination of physical skill, mental fortitude and the ability to social navigate and there's a lot of luck.  So I think outside of the luck department I think I have the different components that you'll need in the right combination to be successful.  I think I'm a pretty decent athlete.  Mentally I think I'm good at puzzle solving.  I think I can relate to different types of people.  I can relate to older people, younger people.  I'm a minority so I can relate to the people who aren't part of the mainstream but at the same time I think over the course of my professional career I've learned to talk the talk, walk the walk and integrate into mainstream society.  I think I can leverage a lot of those skills and experiences and hopefully win with a little bit of luck."   There it is.

Yul:  Wow. 

DR:  How about that.

JM:  And then we can talk about that little bit of luck being the immunity idol because I know I have been saying, "Oh my gosh, I really don't like the idol.  I think it gives people kind of a free ride."  I kind of gave you some crap for it, only because you had the idol.  But tell me, luck does play into Survivor, it has to.  Every winner was lucky at some point, a decision was made that went your way.  How lucky do you think you were to find that and how long did you look for it and how well do you think that you positioned yourself that even if you wouldn't have found it you probably would have done well?

Yul:  I'll say it flat out, I think I was very lucky.  I don't think you can win in this game...

JM:   For finding the idol?

Yul:  Just in general.  I think the trick to winning this game, obviously, I think luck is probably the most important factor.  You just get on the wrong alliance, you don't get sent to Exile Island.  It's not going to work out for you.  The difference lies in where you try to take advantage of the good luck that you have and you try to mitigate the bad luck that you have.  In my case I was very lucky to be sent to Exile Island when I did.  I got sent there when there were enough clues to figure it out but it was still pretty tough.  Fortunately I was able to kind of take advantage of it.  I was able to figure out what the clues were and find the idol.

JM:  How long did it take you to find it?

Yul:  It took awhile.  They made it look like I just landed on it.  When I got there it was getting dark already so I didn't even start looking for it until the following day.  I thought about the clues overnight.  I think I figured it out and then in the morning I started digging.  I dug in the right place but then I couldn't find it at first.  I realized that if I was a little bit shorter some of the trees would line up with the island on different ways so I moved about three feet over and I found it. 

DR:  We talk about the power of the idol and we asked Ozzy and Sundra this.  I said to Ozzy, "if you force that idol out there at five going into four, guess what dude, you win a million dollars.  If you take that last endurance challenge."  Obviously that wouldn't have happened because Sundra wasn't going to flip.  My question to you, Yul, is if you're on the other side of that, and you have someone else who has that hidden immunity.  You've been together, all four of you, this whole time.  You know, this is the time I've got to try to get it out of their hands.  Would you have made a play to force it?

Yul:  I don't know.  I think the thing that people didn't realize is that we were really, really tight as a tribe.  I think the one thing that I was able to do that I feel most proud of is that we were able to stay so tight.  It took a lot of effort, I think, because I don't think I was ever in danger of getting voted out.  Even the first part of the game where people didn't know I had the idol, my name never came up.  In the post merge situation I don't think it was the idol that kept people from trying to get it out of my hands.  I think we were really, really tight with one another.  I think that everyone believed that I was going to use the idol for the benefit of everyone in the alliance.  So I don't think that anyone had an incentive to try to get the idol out of my hands. 

JM:  You brought it up to Becky and you told her, you very much trusted her.  You guys were very tight but when you were at the food auction you were like, "I have it, let's just show everyone."

Yul:  That's a little editing.  At that point everyone knew I had the idol.  I told everyone in my alliance and when I told Jonathan to flip him over to our side, I told him, "Look if you're worried that you're going to lose votes on the jury because you're burning your own people, tell them I forced you to flip over, that I threatened you with the idol."  So he said, "Sure, I'm going to tell everyone in my tribe."  Honestly, everyone knew.  The only person that didn't know was Jeff Probst.  Every time we'd have the reward challenges he'd talk about the idol might be out there.  It's kind of silly.  Everyone knows I have the idol, he might as well know himself. 

DR:  You said you guys were very tight and I believe you but you wanted to get rid of Ozzy had he not won immunity.  You realized his threat, you were tight, you liked him but you had to get rid of him.  Let's say Ozzy had that idol and this was your chance to force him, then you maybe would have made a move.

Yul:  Let me clarify one thing.  I didn't want to get rid of Ozzy. I think Sundra and Becky felt threatened by him and we were considering it but from my perspective for strategic purposes I wanted to keep Ozzy around all through the immunity challenges.  The worst case scenario that I could see was if any of the Raro members made it all the way to the finals because I felt that there's so many Raro members packing the jury, they would win hands down.  Against anyone else in my alliance I felt I had a pretty good shot.  Against Sundra and Becky I had a good shot, even against Ozzy I thought I had a pretty compelling argument. 

JM:  We at home thought you all would have a fair shot against Jonathan.  That's why everyone was like, oh my God, why would you get rid of Jonathan.  We thought you would crush him.

Yul:  I think that's a fair point.  But we got rid of Jonathan because there's no way I would have been able to go to the final two with him.  In order to do that I would have had to screw over everyone in my alliance, that would have cost me their votes.  People saw me trying to play a game with somewhat of integrity and if I screwed over anyone in my alliance I would lose everyone's votes.  That would also not be giving enough credit to Jonathan because he's a smart guy. He's a player.  I think he's the only person who would have been able to organize a vote, a movement against me to flush out the idol.  I saw him as being my biggest strategic threat.  He would not sit passively by while I took him to the final two with me.  Like in fact he told me he thought he would have a good shot against Becky and Sundra so I just think at some point he would have turned against me to vote me out to go to the final two with one of them.  So for me to keep Jonathan around was a huge risk. 

DR:  And sometimes there is that respect factor that goes into a devious person in these final two.  You look at Richard Hatch, Will from Big Brother 2, what have you. 

Caller:  Yul, I want to congratulate you on your win.  I really appreciate your game play.  You are very classy and refreshing to see.  My question is, in which Reward situation were you most uncomfortable...naked in the hot tub with Ozzy and Parvati or when you were the meat in the big girl family sandwich (?)

Yul:  Gosh, I felt uncomfortable in both of them.  I liked being in between those two large women because it was a cold day, it was raining and that was really warm so I liked being there.

DR:  A little insulation going on.

JM:  The Cook Islands humpback whale got a little close to you. 

Yul:  Yeah, just seeing Ozzy's backside and Parvati, it was kind of weird for me. I didn't want to be there. 

JM:  And they were both drinking.  You weren't drinking. 

Yul:  No, I wasn't drinking. 

JM:  Drinking dehydrates you and then next day you have to go back to camp and the last thing you want to do is to be dehydrated. 

Caller:  Sundra's comment on yesterday's Live that she ranked you as a person second only to Jesus...I kind of had a feeling that the personal integrity of the final four kind of reflected this type of thinking.  Nothing but respect.  I want to know, Yul, how do you react to Sundra's comments?

Yul:  I'm flattered.  I think the world of Sundra, she's an amazing person, she has a huge heart.  I don't think I compare myself to Jesus Christ and if I did I don't think I'd ever get a date again.  I take it as a compliment.  I think she's a wonderful person.  I really do think we were able to achieve something special this season which is we genuinely care about one another and wanted to see all of us go forward. 

JM:  Do you think when the mutiny happened that basically fueled all of that fire? 

DR:  Yeah, I think so.  I think, being confronted with such long odds against such an overwhelming enemy really caused us to overlook our personal differences.  At that point in time Ozzy was still kind of more of an outsider but I think that really caused us to gel together as a team.  To trust one another because we really didn't have any other choice.  That ultimately worked to our benefit. 

DR:  If that had been a 10 second, you either gotta mutiny now or not and you see Candice goes out at 9 and Jonathan goes out at 7th, do you think it would have entered your minds, let's all jump off and make this individual?

Yul:  It did.  If I would have had a couple of additional seconds, I would have said, "let's all merge."  Like just force it right now.  But we weren't allowed to talk to one another. 

JM:  Even for the fans at home, when they mutinied, we said, "oh, I hope they lose, I hope they get crushed." 

DR:  Let's talk about someone who didn't make the final four, Adam and this whole arrangement with the vote.  I've always said, if you're trying to stay in the game, do what you can.  But have it be a bluff.  Don't actually let your voting, how you're going to vote, be on a deal you made in the game.  For your position, take a vote anyway you can get it.   But tell me your thoughts on separation of church and state here in terms of things happening in the game and how you vote when you're on the jury. 

Yul:  I wasn't comfortable with that situation.  If it furthers you in the game I can understand doing anything you need to do.  But that just seems a little bit kind of personal, just wanting to get rid of Jonathan.  At that point I figured, Adam was very explicit to me and said, "Look if any of you guys make it into the finals we're all going to vote for Ozzy.  We all like Ozzy. Followed by Sundra, followed by Becky and you're dead last.  None of us are going to vote for you. If you're going to have any chance of winning this game you're going to have to do what we ask you to do."  At that point in time I'm thinking, I like Jonathan a lot.  He's one of my closest friends now but I knew that he would be a strategic threat. At some point he was going to try to flush out the idol and arrange a vote against me.  He flopped twice already, there's no reason to believe he wouldn't flip a third time to ally with Adam and Parvati to go against me and try to pull over Ozzy, for example.  I knew Jonathan had to go at some point.  Everyone else wanted him to go.  The other Raros were thinking of me as the puppet master. 

JM:  Do you think that you made the decisions...like if Sundra and Becky wanted this person to go and you said this person, would you probably have won that discussion?

Yul:  Honestly, the way it worked out within our tribe, I think anyone would tell you this, it wasn't like I was dictatorial.  I didn't tell people what to do.  I think the reason why people listened to me was because I really listened to them.  I really tried to make it a collaborative consensus driven decision making process.  I heard what people had to say, took everything into consideration and so I think everyone felt they had a voice and a sense of ownership over what happened.  I think that's why no one ever felt threatened by me.  I think that no one ever felt like I was somehow manipulating them or pulling the strings.  That's why no one ever tried to get me out of the game. 

JM:  Because at one point halfway through the show I was going, oh my gosh, what's Yul doing.  He's being so honest. 

DR:  The conversation with Becky is the one where you say to Becky specifically, "I'm worried about the final two votes."   I'm thinking to myself, what is he doing.  This could be his competition in the final two, why are you telling her this.

Yul:  That was editing.  That was a very small snippet of a longer conversation and they kind of mixed some stuff around.  It was understood that I wanted to go to the final two with Becky.  I was clear and she had a standing offer to take the idol from me anytime.  So there's no question in her mind or my mind that we were going to go to the final two together.  So it's just the way that I kind of phrased it at the time.  It wasn't any kind of revelation. 

Caller: Yul, you guys didn't seem to like Raro that much in the game but after the game are you still friends with them?

Yul:  I like pretty much everyone in the game.  I'm very close friends with Jonathan and Candice.  I'm friends with Nate, Ozzy, Parvati so I don't hold ill will towards anyone in the game.  I actually think it's a very likable cast.  Outside the game these are all great people. 

JM:  I just recently read an article where you mentioned a little bit about Ozzy and him talking about how he wanted to go to college in the finals, that's what he would use the money for.  I read something where you said that he was going to build like a surfer house where all his friends could live and you said something like, "when I heard that I went and said, this kid can't win the million dollars."  So let's get a little bit more into that.  Was he kind of feeding us...was that crocodile tears?  Maybe he was just really desperate.

Yul:  Well, the crocodile...when he was tearing up talking about that...I think that's all genuine.  Ozzy's a genuine guy.  When I was talking to...I don't know about the college thing...he had never mentioned it to me before.  I don't think he mentioned it to anyone else in the game.  It's entirely possible he's sincere about it and wants to finish his education.  What I was referring to earlier was...this was before I got to know Ozzy...before the mutiny.  At one point I had a conversation with him asking, "what would you do if you won the million dollars."   He kind of very briefly talked about, "Oh I want to set up this kind of camp where we can surf with my buddies."  I didn't find out a whole lot about it but at the time I was thinking, "Huh, I don't get it."  So they asked me about it later on in one of the confessionals, I said, "if that's what he's saying that's just like a waste of a million dollars.  You're going to win that million dollars over my dead body."  They didn't show it and then after we got to know Ozzy better and I heard him talk about it a little bit more I understood where he was coming from.  He actually wants to make a camp where...it is true...where his friends can surf but he'd also want to get kids to go there.  I don't want to take anything away from Ozzy.  I think he has a great heart.  He's a really strong competitor.  He would have won, hands down, any other season. I kind of feel badly that there's only one winner because I can't say I deserve to win anymore than he does.

JM:  Well, you won, though.  You do deserve to win because you got that extra one vote. 

DR:  We gotta take a quick break. 

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