‘Survivor: San Juan del Sur’ interview: Josh Canfield on Jaclyn’s decision, strategy, that Baylor vote

We’ll start here with a mea culpa: We thought for a while that Josh Canfield was going to win “Survivor: San Juan del Sur.” We even predicted him to win before the season.

Why did we think that he is going to do so well? It was a combination of him being extremely smart, very strategic, and also athletic, but not in a way that was as obvious as some of the other guys. In the end, you could argue that his exit was just as much the fault of his allies as some of the decisions that he made along the way.

We had a chance to speak with Josh today in a conference call with reporters, and he helped to make things a million times clearer than they were on the show. It also was another reminder of how sad we are that he’s gone.

CarterMatt – First of all, how frustrated are you that other guys burping and farting is the reason you were sent home?

Josh Canfield (laughs) – Yeah, there was a lot of reasons I ended up getting screwed, but that was one of them. It sucks that was a reason why people feel they were being disrespected.

Did you get a sense when you were out there with her that some guys like Alec, Wes, and Keith were rubbing her the wrong way?

I was there for some of that. You’re not always there, because you’re doing interviews, getting water, so you’re not around the whole time, [but] I did get that sense.

I was on Jaclyn the whole time, trying to make her feel included, trying to involve her in any conversation. I was conscious of that. That’s something that they didn’t show [last night] at Tribal Council. Jaclyn was like ‘all the guys had been really mean to me and not talking to me,’ and I called her out on it. I said ‘are you saying that I haven’t been talking to you and I’ve been rude to you,’ and she was like ‘uh, everyone except Josh.’ And I was like ‘uh, okay … and you’re going to vote me out.’ (Laughs.)

Was there any thought that ever came into your head about working with Jeremy? We saw that strategy be used a little by Tony last season, were he [kept another target around] In Spencer.

There’s that thought that goes through your brain, because when you’re out there, every thought goes through your brain. You’re trying to figure out how in the world [you] can get further in the game.

When I first met up with Jeremy, Reed had told me that it was Jeremy who threw him under the bus day one, and that is why Reed ended up not being in an alliance with anyone at Hunahpu. Jeremy saw Reed as a threat, and through some events that they didn’t show because Hunahpu kept winning, Jeremy basically turned everyone against Reed.

That’s where the whole Blood vs. Water thing comes into play. By the time that I got over to Hunahpu for the tribe swap, Reed said ‘don’t trust anything Jeremy says,’ and ‘he’s been going behind my back and saying things I never said.’ That was my first interaction coming into [the situation] with Jeremy, that he’s this horrible person. That’s not someone I want to work with.

We were actually going to consider maybe taking out Julie or Natalie at one point, and we talked with Jeremy at one point to see if we could include him. He was so cold and so negative that it was like ‘okay, we clearly cannot work with this guy. It will never happen.’

I know you’ve probably been asked about this a ton today, but that Baylor vote in the first three days. Do you wish that you had told her about it beforehand, and did it have any role whatsoever in you going home?

That was not a factor at all. She was just throwing that back to find a way to justify voting me off; it had nothing to do with it.

That first vote, I couldn’t talk to her about it because I actually made the decision at Tribal Council. We were voting Nadiya out, and I knew where all the votes were. John at one point pointed to Baylor, because someone was talking about her or something [was happening], and to me, he was like tapping me and pointing at Baylor.

All of a sudden it hit me: What if I used this moment to play dumb with my alliance and say ‘I thought John was telling me to vote for Baylor.’ I can vote for Baylor right now, and then they will never think that Baylor and I are the closest allies. Nadiya’s already going home, they don’t need my vote, this is perfect.

So I couldn’t talk to Baylor about it, so it was hard to explain to her what I did. It worked out brilliantly actually, because for the next vote John trusted me to vote for Baylor. It was me, him, and Dale who were supposed to vote Baylor, and Alec and Wes were voting Val. He didn’t trust them to vote Baylor because Alec and Wes were flirting with her. No one knew that Baylor and I were that close, and I got to save Baylor with that second vote because of that.

So [that vote] had nothing to do with [me going home], and it was a little juvenile that she brought that up. She was grasping at straws.

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Are you going to miss Josh on “Survivor: San Juan del Sur”? Let us know in the comments.