‘Survivor: Kaoh Rong’ exclusive: Nick Maiorano assesses his game, talks challenges, tribal council

Nick Maiorano was a guy this season on “Survivor” who definitely had a lot going for him. He was athletic, charismatic, and knew and understood the game probably far better than many of the other people who were out there.

So why was he voted out the first time he went to tribal council? You can blame overconfidence for some of it, but also being a big target and the other players having so much time with Neal’s evacuation figuring out what to do before Tribal Council. There’s a lot of really great insight from Neal in the interview below, so let’s not waste any more time getting to it.

CarterMatt – Let’s start with this. Is it cool to go so far in the game without going to Tribal Council, or upsetting because you were voted out the first time you went there?

Nick Maiorano – It’s definitely not cool (laughs). It’s funny. It’s interesting because RC went out that way too if I’m correct, and I think we’re the only two to go out that way.

After going through all of this, was it a detriment to you to never go to Tribal Council before this and feel that sort of jeopardy?

I think it’s a terrible thing to win throughout until the merge. You need to see where the chips are going to fall earlier on within your tribe, and for someone like me, a bigger guy, who needs to stick around for the strength of the tribe, you really should lose early, not often, but early and enough where you know where things lie.

I want to go back to the early part of the game because for much of the first episodes, much of the story was about Tai and Caleb with a little bit of the women’s alliance in there. Where did you think you stood at that point?

The first couple of days I was over-strategizing and over-socializing, and I got myself in trouble a couple of times and that’s what put me on the outs around day four or five. Early on, Anna and Julia were the ones who wanted to work with me and wanted to work with Tai, but I was never comfortable working with Anna and Julia because I was always their third or fourth option.

Once Caleb went out, Michele and Julia supposedly wanted Tai out. I was never the next vote, because Anna couldn’t swing them against me. I always felt good within the group, but I knew I was on the outs once Caleb left for sure.

So for you I’m sure you were chomping at the bit for the tribe swap, since while you weren’t the next to go, it’s not great to be the person going after that person.

Yeah. [It’s not great] being one of the two options, especially since Tai had an idol. We didn’t know that at the time. That was a really dangerous spot for me, and it’s my fault because I put myself in that position.

On the show they really wanted to put you in this position as this overconfident very devious sort of guy, but you were always smiling and it felt like you were having fun with it. How much of what we saw was you almost playing a character, as opposed to your real personality?

I think it’s a little bit of both, but more so I know it’s a TV show. I know as a contestant that I’m there to A) win and B) provide content. If I won, guess what? They’re going to show the highlights of me being arrogant and being funny. It’s a two-way street, and I have to accept that and all of the contestants do. From a narrative standpoint you have to give them something, all of the contestants do. That’s my mentality, because I’m okay with looking a little silly or a little arrogant. That doesn’t affect my ego (laughs), which just shows how arrogant I am!

So once you got to the Chan Loh tribe, you guys kept winning so we didn’t see too much of it. Where did you fit in on that tribe? Were you and Michele really that closely together, because they did show that whole ‘I don’t need to be carried, bro’ scene.

The ‘I don’t need to be carried, bro’ thing is kind of funny, at least to me, because Michele was going to be voted out days one through three on Beauty because Anna and Julia wanted her out, but then she got in with the girls. She needed to be carried, or protected as I like to say, there. As soon as we got to Brains, she was the first person who everybody wanted out. Cydney, Jason, Debbie, and Neal, they all told me ‘hey Nick, are you cool with voting out Michele?’, which of course I would [say] ‘yes’ [to] but really I’m like ‘I’m not voting out Michele! She’s my ally.’ That was frustrating for me because I always felt like I was protecting Michele, and I took that out on her which was wrong.

So she was going to be the one who was going to be voted out after that first challenge, if I wasn’t able to flip it, but eventually I worked my way in with both Brains and Brawn to not vote Michele off for the second potential Tribal.

Eventually you get to the merge and you win the first immunity. How much more of a target does that put on you?

It’s frustrating because A) I knew I didn’t need to win it and I did anyway, which was silly of me, and B) it really killed the momentum. I let my fear get the best of me, and I just wanted to be sure that I was safe for that one vote, that first vote because it’s so important. What hurt even more was that I didn’t realize that it was going to kill my momentum, and I didn’t correct that since Neal didn’t get voted out at Tribal.

I meant to talk about this a second ago, but what was your relationship with Debbie really like? You guys had the whole ‘Greek God’ scene and you seemed to get along, but she was one of the people who wrote your name down.

She’s an incredibly intelligent woman, and I’m always down to listen to someone who is smart, who has stories, and was even a little eccentric. Cool, you get to entertain me because you’re interesting. I loved Debbie for that reason.

The only issue I had with Debbie was ‘don’t be so public with how much you like me as a person or whatever.’ That’s when I had to sever ties with her, and that upset her because I wasn’t going to ruin my game with her game so obvious and in front of everybody. She was ruining her game, too, by doing that. If she does it in private, I’m cool with it, but that’s what turned me off from Debbie.

This immunity challenge was super-interesting on many levels. I want to start with this: You didn’t get off for food because you wanted to ensure the Brains did not win, right?

That’s 100% correct.

Then, Tai ended up mentioning publicly that he didn’t want one of the Brains to win, and that’s something you then mentioned when you went out of the challenge later. Had Tai not said that, would you have brought it up?

No, that’s why it was such a bummer! Whenever I was with Tai, I always felt like I was protecting his game, too, and that’s awful for me to say because I feel like I’m ‘I was always protecting Michelle, and I’m always protecting Tai.’ In that instance, yeah Tai opened up his mouth and he was doing that a lot with the tribe. He would get his foot in his mouth. I wanted to back up my alliance member, and that really annoyed Debbie and it really annoyed Cydney.

Do you think that this was the moment people really started to turn on your, or are you able to pinpoint so far removed another moment where that happened?

That was a spark and I shouldn’t have backed him up, but my downfall was more because of the way that I spoke and handled Michele. I didn’t do it properly, and she was rightful for voting me out and going against me, emotionally at least.

Who would you have wanted to go to the end with?

At that point, it would’ve been Michele, but I was worried about putting a lot of women on the jury because maybe they would side with Michele because of that, not to say that they would have just because she’s a woman. She could outplay me easily. Julia would’ve been there almost by default, but I wouldn’t have really wanted her there because she’s so intelligent and can speak her mind so easily. But, I would’ve had to keep her because Michele and Julia were so close.

Earlier this season Debbie was saying that she wanted to get rid of Jason because he was lazy around camp. Was there any truth to that, or was that her just coming up with a reason to target him?

I never saw Jason as being lazy or whatever. Yeah, he’s loud and he’s kind of annoying and obnoxious, or at least to Debbie he was. She didn’t like some of the things that he was doing, and she told me that she didn’t like the way he was acting. But, I would have never voted out Jason at that point, and I don’t think Cydney would have, either.

I’m assuming that you would want to go out and do this again in a second.

Unfortunately it’s a very addictive game for a number of reasons. It’s hard to say no to.

What would you change and adjust in your game if you went back?

My main downfall is how I spoke to Michele, so it’s correcting that somehow and having better dialogue with that sort of situation. Everything else, I had sort of come around once we got to about day 7 or so. I’d been working my rear end off socially and strategically, and that really was doing me in. So really just communicating better, which was my fault.

 

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