Survivor Live Internet Talk Show with Yul Kwon
Winner:  Survivor: Cook Islands
Segment 3 Transcript

DR:  Time for Minus Ten.  We're going to give you ten categories, give me your answer in 10 words or less.

DR:  Number 10, mutiny

Yul:  bad when it happens, good in the end

DR:  Number 9, Ozzy

Yul:    phenomenal competitor, should have won in any other season

DR:  Number 8,  Lambda Phi Epsilon 

Yul:     my fraternity, great group of people committed to helping out other minorities

DR:  Number 7, Jonathan's hat

Yul:    oh, God, much more than it should have been

DR:  Number 6,  I understand you're a Risk fan, so what continent do you take first and why?

Yul:   North America, most armies, fewest spots to defend

DR:  Number 5, naked hot tub threesomes

Yul:   scary, scary, please get me out of here

DR:  Number 4,  Joe Lieberman

Yul:    great politician, works across the aisle, good luck

DR:  Number 3,  Becky and Sundra's fire-making abilities

Yul:     it was windy, they tried, it was long

DR:  Number 2, Jenna Morasca's game play...critique

Yul:    she won, proof is in the pudding

DR:  Number 1, your thoughts on one million dollars

Yul:   more than the number of fingers and toes

JM:  Has it sunk in yet?  Because you said that was the first time you'd ever rewatched the tape of you winning.  It takes a little while to sink in.  You won Survivor. 

Yul:  Yeah.  Honestly, I've been bombarded with so many interviews that I haven't been able to just sit back and process it.  The other day I was just doing something, I think I took a nap, I woke up, I was like, "Holy cow, I just won Survivor." 

DR:  And this guy hasn't slept in about 60 hours and look at this sassy bas****.   Look at his hair.  He's looking good.

Yul:  I got a shirt that's all pressed, too, it's all Brad. 

DR:  Brad is stylist to the stars now.

JM:  He's a very, very handsome man.  He's also single. 

Yul:  Maybe not. 

JM:  Not dating Becky, though?

Yul:  I'm talking about Brad, I'm sorry, are you talking about me?

Yul:  I'm still single, yes.  I'm very popular with the grandmas. I get a lot of people saying, "If I were  30 years younger..."  Ozzy gets all the younger ladies. 

Caller:  Did you vote Cao Boi out because he was trying to flush out that immunity idol?

Yul:  It was that and the fact that he was trying to get out Becky.  I honestly was surprised.  We didn't have an explicit alliance but I thought that we came from the same tribe, we talked about trying to stick with one another and get farther in the game.  I was so stunned that after the first merge he was trying to vote out Becky.  You know, we almost lost Becky and I just realized that it was only a matter of time before he tried to get her out again.  He was also trying to flush out the idol and I didn't feel safe letting him know that I had the idol.  I figured it just made sense to let him go. 

DR:  I don't want to make you blush here Yul but it's really amazing listening to you talk about all these decisions because a lot of times we get contestants in here and we ask these things and it's always just, "I don't know, he was kind of getting on my nerves",  everything seems to be so thought out meticulously and it's impressive. 

JM:  A lot of times you do a very heat of the moment decision, like for me, but that didn't seem to happen to you.  Was it because you're very controlled normally in real life and if you ever had a moment like that you walked it off and thought about it?

Yul:  Yeah, I mean, I think people watching the show think I'm this very super rational...oh, I've heard Yulbot mentioned a bunch of times.  I'm actually when you get down to it a more emotional person, I act more with my feelings but you know we're playing a game.  I think the one thing that was a strength for me is that I don't have a big ego.  I don't feel like I need to be the one making all the decisions and taking all the credit.  If somebody has a difference of opinion I'm totally cool with that and respect it as long as it doesn't hurt me.  So I think in a game situation like this it wasn't hard for me to put my feelings aside. 

DR:  It was very telling to see Yul's reaction when the mutiny first happened.   Obviously you guys were upset about it, we saw Ozzy sort of spitting.  But it galvanized you all and you moved past it.  Then you came back to Jonathan and brought him back.  Look at the other side, the Raro people who are calling Jonathan names and starting fights and so emotional about it.

JM:  They also confronted you.  Candice said, "Yul said this..."  You were like, "wait a second, I didn't say it like that."  That was also a situation where I think they were trying to put you on the spot. 

Yul:  I think what else they would do is sort of divorce people within the game and outside the game.  Within the game it's a weird environment, it's artificial, you're under a lot of stress and it brings out the worst in people.  Outside the game I'd probably be friends with all these people.  You don't need to be mean or not treat them with respect. 

Caller:  At first you rejected the moniker of godfather and then kinda you just conceded that 'okay that's who I am.'  Even though it all worked out to your advantage was there any point in retrospect where you thought 'maybe I acted a little bit too out of character' or against your ethics or against what you would normally do or you were very conflicted about a decision that you made?

Yul:  The whole Godfather thing, I realized they were going to stick me with that label no matter what I did.  The more I tried to say that I wasn't the godfather that they would say I was lying.  So I thought fine, if that's what they're going to call me I might as well use it to my advantage.  There are lots of points in the game, especially towards the end where I felt very, very conflicted ethically.  At one point I had pretty much convinced everyone in my alliance and Jonathan as well that I wanted to go to the final two with them.  I felt I had to do this in order to keep our alliance tight otherwise at some point it would splinter off.  If people knew that Becky and I were tight they'd start thinking, 'oh gosh, we're going to have to go against them'.  I didn't feel good about that.  I felt like I had to do a lot more manipulating than I would do outside the game and I really felt guilty about that.  I do recognize it's a game.  It's not like we're stealing candy from kids or taking their lunch money.  We all came knowing what to expect.  At the same time I don't quite agree with what Jonathan was saying.  I don't think it's like playing Monopoly or playing a poker game because the truth is, this has a real impact on people's lives.  Everyone is watching this and if you come across badly on the show it can affect you outside the game.  I've heard from other contestants that it really has affected them for better or worse.  How far you stay in the game also has a big impact on the rest of your life.  That really weighed on me.  I didn't feel comfortable making choices that could have a profound impact on people I barely knew.  But the end of the game I was really kind of sick of it.  I thought I played the game well but I didn't want, I didn't feel comfortable having such power over people's lives. 

JM:  And then the million dollar check came around.

Yul:  That made me feel a little bit better. 

JM:  It's a delicate balance because you want to stay around long but then there's some things that you have to do in order to make that happen.  It is a game but I do in fact know people who are severely scarred from the game. 

Yul:  That's so sad.  I read all the blogs, whatever...

JM:  Oh, you read the Sucks board?

Yul: Sucks, I read all that stuff.

JM:  Yul!

Yul:  It's really tough.  People say really mean things.  

JM:  They're pretty brutal on there.

Yul: I don't think that they recognize that we're people and we have feelings and it's hard not to internalize a lot of what people say. 

DR:  When you sign up to be on a reality show you are signing up for that.

JM:  That's right.  With The Real World, they're actually living on TV.  We're playing a game on TV.  A lot of times the character we are on TV is a little bit of us but we're not that vicious in real life because we're not trying to vote people off. 

Caller:   I have a question about Becky.  I know you guys were close but at any time in the game did you have feelings for her?

Yul:  Within the game, absolutely not.  I knew coming into it that letting your feelings get involved would be a huge mistake.  Becky is someone I think the world of.  I have so much respect for her.  She spends so much time trying to help battered women, doing nonprofit work.  We just became really, really good friends and in my mind I almost feel like having a dating relationship would sort of take away from the purity of our friendship. 

DR:  Becky was part of the funniest Survivor clip since Rafe was trying to get up that ladder in Guatemala.  Let's check out that fire-making tie-breaker.

<video clip>

DR:  First of all how long was that total?

Yul:  It was long.  It took awhile. 

DR:  Two hours?

Yul:  Yeah.

DR:  Wow.  You talked about wanting to save Becky and maybe give her the idol if she wanted it.  Were you confidant enough that you were getting Sundra's vote or did you think, maybe it's better for me if Becky doesn't win this because I know I'm getting her vote?

Yul:  I thought that but my commitment was to Becky from the beginning.  I made a lot of ethical compromises in the game but I wanted to stay loyal to the people that stayed loyal to me. 

DR:  Becky got shut out.  I think she knows she wasn't going to win. 

JM:  I really felt bad for her. 

DR:  How was she doing in the aftermath of it?

Yul:  I actually think she was happy with the vote.  She told me afterwards that she was glad she didn't divert any votes and she was glad that I won.  I don't think she has any issues with that.  I think the editing over the course of the season has been entirely unfair.

JM:  We've barely seen her.

Yul:  Right.  The truth of the matter is that she's a very strong player.  We would collaborate on everything, strategizing together.  I don't know what it is.  I don't know if her presence is so behind the scenes that it would have been hard to incorporate it. 

JM:  There were also a lot of other big characters.

DR:  Not to take anything away from you but they were obviously playing you up as this big mythic figure on the islands.

JM:  This Jesus like figure.

Caller:  Everybody keeps talking about you and Becky.  I thought maybe you and Sundra had something going on.

DR:  She's hot.

Yul:  She is hot.  She's stunning on the outside and the inside.  We're friends.  Just me personally I loathe to compromise a friendship because if it doesn't work out then you lose a friendship. 

Caller:  Yul, you ran a very political game on Survivor.  Did you ever consider running for office?

Yul:  I love politics.  I'm very interested in public service.  The best job I ever had was working for Joe Lieberman.  Doing something that I feel really makes a difference on a bigger scale...I'm actually kind of more of a shyer person.  I think I can sort of walk the walk and talk the talk when I need to.  I'm a sociable person.  I have a lot of friends but I don't like being in the spotlight that much.  I think I'd be more comfortable doing something behind the scenes.  I really do want to do something where I can make a difference.  I do know that if you're a public figure you do have more leverage.  So I don't know.  I haven't decided that yet. 

DR:  In politics you do have to get down and dirty and your a guy who doesn't like to upset people.  

Yul:  I think I'd make a pretty decent politician because I'm good at building coalitions and getting people aligned and working towards the same goal.  Campaigning, fundraising, all that would be tough. 

Caller:  I wanted to thank Jenna for her comments yesterday about Ozzy's contributions in helping the tribe sustain til the end.  I think that has to be mentioned over and over again.

Yul:  Absolutely, yep, yep, yep.

Caller:  And thank you for being a part of what I consider to be the best final two ever.  The two of you were like ying and yang in terms of what you contributed.  As you were preparing for the final tribal council, was there any question in your mind that you were dreading that the jury would ask you because you didn't think you had a satisfactory answer?

Yul:  I don't think anything in particular.  All the Tribal Councils I played a kind of PC, UN type of answers.  At the final Tribal Council I wanted to be very honest.  I think I did kind of lay it on the line.  My one fear was, a lot of people would be slamming me for making myself out to have all this integrity but at the same time I was really manipulating people.  I was worried that people would be kind of harping on me.  But that didn't really come up.  I told people upfront that I was misleading people, I was deceiving people.  I still tried to play with as much integrity as I could.  I think people didn't really give me a lot of crap for that. 

DR:  Did you think you'd won these past few months.  Did you think Adam was going to hold up his end of the deal.

Yul:  I thought I had a very good shot.  I knew it was going to be very close with Ozzy.  I didn't sweat it too much because honestly if Ozzy had won or Becky had won, I would have been very happy for them.  Adam is a very straight up kind of guy.  If he says I'm gonna do this, he'll do it.  So I was pretty sure.  I knew that Parvati, I didn't think I'd have her.  I knew she kind of had a thing for Ozzy. 

DR:  Adam didn't seem like he wanted you to win.  He wanted to force the immunity idol.  He basically used his jury question just to have Ozzy diss you. 

Yul:  Everyone was sort of getting sick of the fact that every time we were together we always said good things about each other.  So he just wanted to see us talk smack about each other. 

JM: And we love when it's a really close vote. 

Yul:  I'm glad it was such a close vote.  Kudos to Ozzy.  He is just a phenomenal competitor. 

JM:  Yul, are you going to pay your taxes?

Yul:  Yeah.  Either that or move to Canada where you don't get taxed on prize money. 

JM:  Anything else you're going to do?

Yul:  My family is sort of the classic immigrant story.  My parents came here without a lot of money.  They made a lot of sacrifices to get me and my brother through school.  I want to be able to take care of them and let them do some things they never got to do. 

JM:  Good for you.

DR:  Very nice.  Let's take a quick peek at Survivor: Fiji.

<video clip>

DR:  Looks like they're going with the twice is nice theory with the hidden immunity idols.

JM:  Yeah and a controversial decision.  Maybe somebody gets into a fistfight?  Everything else has been done already.

DR:  Yul, congratulations.  Well, well played. 

JM:  This season was one of my favorites.  I loved it.

DR:  Whether you were rooting for Yul or Ozzy you couldn't go wrong with whoever was going to win.  Survivor: Fiji will be back early in the new year.  We'll back here with you.

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