‘Survivor: Cagayan’ exit interview: Jeremiah Wood on Spencer’s idol, Tony, and endgame
Jeremiah Wood was a guy on “Survivor” who we really didn’t get to see that much of. Brice certainly wasn’t happy about him after he was sent home, but from that point on, most of his screen time was fairly limited. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but wasn’t on the right side of the numbers and was further doomed from having someone in his alliance in Spencer with an idol.
To be honest, these are all reasons why we were not quite sure what we were going to get from the guy during an exit interview with him today. This is why we were pretty surprised to find out that he was a pretty funny, affable guy who was a bigger fan than it showed on TV. He also gives away some pretty good information regarding his own search for the “Tyler Perry Idol” (named, in case you missed it, because the idea of it was suggested by Perry himself), and his surprise that Tony had it. It also sounds like there was more going on with a “fake idol” than we saw on the show.
CarterMatt – So let’s start off with this: How much conversation did you have with Spencer about the immunity idol, and was there a chance that he was actually going to play it on you?
Jeremiah Wood – We talked about it a lot in the water before tribal council. I knew he had it, and we were talking about whether or not he was going to play it for me or play it for himself. At the time Spencer was a bigger immunity threat that I was, and I got hurt pretty bad.
The bad thing about it was that nobody was going to budge on the other side. We had no hunch if they were going to target [one of us] over the other. I told Spencer ‘honestly, you got to go with your gut on this. You got to go with what your heart is saying.’ This is the time where if he had some sort of hunch, he would have played it for me in a heartbeat. I believe that with all my heart.
Before tribal, we knew that it was going to be me or him. We had a 50-50 shot and when he handed it to Jeff, he hesitated. I think he just went on his heart, and just because we had no clue and we had a 50-50 shot it just didn’t work.
You mentioned earlier that you were hurt, which we didn’t see on the show. Is that something you tried to use as a strategy, to say you weren’t a big threat?
I would play anything I possibly could! (Laughs.) I let them know ‘you might need me around, you’re going to pretty much beat me at a challenge.’ I tried to beat Spencer up too, I was telling them that he was the biggest immunity threat, and I was trying to get any kind of vote cast his way possible. I knew he was going to play it, and I was about 80% sure he was going to play it on himself. So I was trying anything I could to get votes to go his way.
So let’s talk Tony for a minute since he has been a big part of the season. What did you think of his shenanigans when he pulled out what looked like an idol? Did you believe him when he said it was fake?
Tony’s who he is. His mind is going 100 miles a minute on the show, and he’s so paranoid. It was killing me that everybody knew [his lies]. I called him out first thing at the merge when he was saying he was a construction worker. I knew he was lying to my face, I was sitting there saying like ‘he couldn’t answer me.’ I was doing my best to try to get this guy voted out. He’s playing a remarkable game. He’s entertaining, I have to give it to him; I wanted to choke him on the show sometimes, but that dude’s entertaining and he is playing the game hard.
It’s mind-blowing to know that nobody’s budging. They are playing the game strong with him. Watching him lie about LJ like he did; [even with the things that he’s doing] they’re not budging. Going into tribal last night, him having the fake idol. Me and Spencer knew that he didn’t have the idol at that time, but watching the episode I didn’t know he had found the special idol. I turned that jungle inside OUT trying to find that thing, and it was amazing seeing where he found it. It’s like when you’re cleaning or something; you’re always going to miss that one little spot, and it was just a tree that I never looked around. Mad props to Tony for finding it.
But when he pulled out the fake idol, we knew it was fake because it was square. Every idol that has been played so far was round and a necklace. So when he brought that out we were like ‘you’re playing a fake idol.’ He had said before that he had made one, and was going to use that for showing Sarah in the game. We knew it was fake, but that didn’t change Spencer’s decision. If I was in that position, I don’t think I would’ve played it for Spencer because we just didn’t know what to do.
Tony’s a nut, that’s for sure. (Laughs.) He’s an amazing guy outside the show, but inside the show he’s doing what he can to have a strong strategy. Right now, it’s working.
Would you have ever turned on Spencer and Tasha before the final tribal council?
It would’ve been to sit in the final two or three with both of them. Spencer was playing it up like I could be the JT to his Stephen. He was getting it in my head that ‘there is no way I could beat you, Jeremiah.’ Spencer was at the bottom of his alliance with his alliance with Tasha and Kass when I went to him [and we formed a bond], so it would’ve been hard to vote him out.
But in my eyes as the game went on, it would’ve been hard for me to sit in the final 2 with him or final 3 with him and Tasha. It would’ve been very hard; when you watch seasons past, you sometimes have to take two people you can win easily over. I might have had to suck it up and vote one of them out. I might have lost a jury vote and it would’ve been a tough decision … I could’ve [stuck with them], and I may have made a $900,000 mistake! (Laughs.)
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