‘Survivor: Kaoh Rong’ exclusive: Caleb Reynolds on evacuation, strategy, playing again, and more

Going into “Survivor: Kaoh Rong,” there is really no question that Caleb Reynolds was a character of interest. He was coming off of a season of “Big Brother,” and with that there were of course questions about how he would adapt and handle this game. As it turns out, he was doing a rather great job before suffering from severe heat exhaustion. He collapsed at the end of the reward challenge, and as a result of it was eventually medically evacuated from the game.

In our exit interview with him this morning, Caleb took us through re-watching those horrific scenes, what happened after his evacuation, and also how “Big Brother” helped him to socially prepare for being out in Cambodia.

CarterMatt – I imagine that this had to be a pretty rough night for you going back and watching everything that happened again.

Caleb Reynolds – I’ve never had to watch myself go through something like that in my entire life. I’ve lived a couple of other incidents through deployments and whatnot, but I only had to live through that and watch that once. So to go back and watch that on TV with my family, and watching them cry and be like ‘I hate this,’ my brother was like ‘this is my brother in the process of dying. Although medical’s doing a good job, I hate this.’ My mom’s in tears, my fiancee’s in tears, and I look at them and I’m like ‘holy cow,’ and then I’m in tears. It was this big emotional time for us last night, all sitting here together eating Papa John’s and watching ‘Survivor.’ I wasn’t awake for any of it, so with this my family had asked me before [how it went] and I was like ‘I don’t know what happened. I don’t know. All I remember is that I rolled a ball, make it, we win, and I fall over. That’s all I remember.’

Just to sit down and watch the experience and what I went through was emotional, and it sucked. But I can honestly say is that if there was one way in which I was going out, that would be the way.

So obviously you’re doing all right now and you’ve recovered pretty well, but how long did it take you before you started to feel like yourself again?

Man, probably three or four months before I started to feel like myself again. When it comes to full recovery, probably five and a half, six months.

When I was in the helicopter, I only woke up once and then I went out again, and then I woke up in the ambulance and I was like ‘dang, I’m out. They kicked me out. What’d I do, what happened,’ and none of the people on the freakin’ ambulance spoke English. That made it harder for me to realize what was going on. But then when I got to the hospital and they were like ‘hey, you’re going to be in ICU for a few days,’ and I was thinking ‘two or three days. That ain’t too bad.’ I ended up being in ICU for almost six days. It was like five full days, and like eight or nine hours the next day. I was pretty jacked-up, man. The American doctor was like ‘if you didn’t have the muscle that you had, you would’ve been dead. Thank god you have muscles, because if you didn’t you would have died on scene.’ I thought to myself at that point ‘wow.’ That’s how close it was and how crazy that whole event was for me.

I’ve spoken to a lot of people about the conditions, but you have an especially interesting vantage point thanks to what you had in the military — thank you for your service — and what you went through there. Is there any comparable there when it comes to the heat and the humidity?

This is the thing. The humidity and the heat and stuff doesn’t scratch the surface of Baghdad or Kuwait. In Kuwait you’re looking at 125 degrees the entire deployment. There are not cool days when the wind’s blowing and it feels cold; there is not any type of day. There’s no such thing as shade. You’re in the shade, you are still 120-plus.

As far as the heat and humidity, it was hot in both places. The difference between the two is that when I was there on deployment, I had an unlimited source of water on my back all day long. I was drinking gallons of water a day. Gallons. I was taking in nine or ten, sometimes eleven meals a day. It was really hot [during deployment], but I was conserving energy. In Cambodia it was really hot and I had no energy. There was nothing to store. You may drink honestly two or three full glasses a day. You go and get the water, you gotta boil it, you gotta let it cool off, and then by then you’re still drinking hot water that tastes like crap. It’s two different worlds, honestly. It’s really hot and the conditions are really the same, there are no AC units in either place, but the difference was that I had food and water all day [in the military]. In Cambodia I didn’t have that, and that made it that much more miserable.

Let’s talk a little bit about the game, since you had some good moments out there. So had the Beauty tribe gone to tribal council, would you have worked with the women and voted out Nick?

It would’ve been tough. If we had went to tribal council after the first challenge, Tai would’ve been the first one gone. We were all on the same page that he was being sketchy, going to look for an idol way too early. That’s kind of where all of our minds were. We were doing good, none of us were freaking out, and Tai’s out looking for idols. Not only that, but when he came back he was lying about it, and they caught him looking for it. They showed the part where they called him out and he admitted to it, but there was another part where he said that he was looking for food.

Tai would be the first one to go, and we were all on the same page on that. But, after knowing that he found the idol, this game is all about numbers — not all about, but there is point where it becomes a numbers game. You gotta think to yourself that we send the guy home, we’ve got three girls and two guys, and your votes are done. They’ll send the guys home and they’ll make it to the first merge and happily ever after. The thing is that you gotta think to yourself that if Tai has an idol and [he can play it], I’m definitely going with the girls because they want Nick out. I’m not gonna go against the girls. If they all vote for Nick and I vote for one of the girls, then they’re like ‘I can’t believe you voted for me’ and I’m at the bottom of the list. You have to do at some point what the numbers say to do.

If we had lost it would’ve been Tai first, and if he played his idol, I would’ve had to went with the girls and Nick would’ve had to go just because of the number game. It’s not because I’m more loyal to them or not because I’m just in an alliance with them. You don’t want to go against the numbers and expect it to turn out good for you.

I know there are a lot of people talking about you maybe playing again and I’m sure you’ll get a chance, but what about you and Tai as ‘Amazing Race’ partners? Seems perfect.

Hey, I’m ready! I’m ready for whatever show they throw at me. A lot of people don’t know that ‘The Amazing Race’ is the very first show I applied for, and producers talking to producers, it became ‘well, we want you on this show.’ I ended up doing ‘Big Brother’ and then ‘Survivor,’ and many don’t know about my best friend / sister. She was who I sent my ‘Amazing Race’ video in with. I called her my sister and she was my best friend for three years. I got her out of her drug addiction and she was really close to the family. While I was filming ‘Survivor’ she passed away.

I’m sorry.

Doing ‘The Amazing Race’ would mean the world to me, because I would do it for her. But, if they’re like ‘we want you to play Survivor again,’ Beast Mode’s ready. If they’re ready to fly me out, whatever challenge they got, I’m there. But me and Tai I think would be amazing TV for ‘The Amazing Race.’ I think it’d be great. I think he’d try to get many kisses out of the entire journey (laughs), which I just couldn’t allow to happen. If there’s something out there for Tai and me to do ‘Amazing Race,’ I’m ready to go.

So one last thing: How much did being on ‘Big Brother’ help your or hurt you on ‘Survivor’? We heard it mentioned on the show that you had a reputation for being loyal and that helped you get some trust.

[Due] to ‘Big Brother’ and being a loyal player and making it as far as I did [it helped], but ‘Survivor’ is a completely different game. It’s cutthroat, it’s more demanding. There are a lot differences about it, but there are a lot of similarities, too. As soon as Julia saw me, she said ‘I’m pretty sure he was on Big Brother, and not only that, but he had an alliance of nine people and they made it all the way to the end. All of them made it to the jury house and they did good, and his top three or four were there at the end. He must be very loyal if he played that and got them that far.’ So yea, it’s good that they see that.

The problem is I wanna be a beast in every challenge and not just some! When it comes down to individual immunity challenges I not gonna throw anything or look weak. I’m not gonna play that to where I stay. I will be a beast in every challenge that comes my way, and I’m gonna give it all I got. The moment I lose one is my downfall. ‘Big Brother’ taught me a lot. Would I say it got me ready for ‘Survivor’? No, but there was some game strategy and gameplay that I did in ‘Big Brother’ that I changed going into ‘Survivor.’ It allowed me to learn what to do and what not to do in a social game.

I believe in that aspect, ‘Big Brother’ helped me to realize that I needed to change a couple of things to strategically get further in the game, but at the same point being loyal is good. Being a physical competitor in challenges and carrying the team is good, to a certain extent. Once you hit that merge and you’re on your own, you’re a target. You go from being really wanted and needed to they want to kick you out. It has its ups, and later it has its downs. Hopefully if I get a chance to go back if I play my cards right and I plant my seeds enough, when it does come to the immunity challenges I’m not set up to be that first target ready to go.

—

Thanks to Caleb for his insight, and we’ll have our interview with Alecia up soon over at this link. Also, sign up over here to get some other TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)