‘Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance’ exclusive: Terry Deitz on leaving the game, son’s health, and show experience

Terry Deitz was someone we were very excited to see back on “Survivor” this season. He was someone who was such a big part of “Exile Island” so many years ago, and we know just how close he got to being cast on other seasons before this one.

Unfortunately for him, this was not the journey he expected. He left the game after learning that his son was in serious condition and he needed to come home. Since that time, he has underwent a heart transplant and is working his way back to health. It is an emotional story that far surpasses this game, and we don’t really feel like a lengthy introduction this time is necessary before getting to the interview. The good first half of this interview is mostly about his family situation, and what the journey has been like for him as a father the past few months. From there, we’ll get into some talk about this season.

CarterMatt – How are you doing? How is your family?

Terry Deitz – The family’s doing all right. It’s been a pretty amazing run, a couple of weeks on ‘Survivor’ and 79 days in the hospital here. My son is doing fine, thank you so much for asking. He is walking and riding a couple of miles a day, his girlfriend is visiting right now, and he’s back driving. [He’s able to] run down with the football team and catch some passes once a week, and go to a ‘Friday Night Lights’ football game. It’s great, thank you.

I know you had this big moment in your personal life that played out on television last night, and everyone got to see a sense of your story. Now in talking about it so many times today, is it something that is easier to do because things are getting better, or is this rather difficult for you? I have to imagine that watching the show back last night had to bring back a lot of emotions of being in that moment.

You know what? It gives me the opportunity to tell Danny’s story a little bit, and as his Boston Children’s Danny Strong Fund kicks off for choroidopathy and all of that stuff, it has given us a wonderful platform.

Yeah, some of the emotions [of that night] have come back up. My wife and I have had some really good moments, but we’ve also had the worst days of our lives. I don’t know if you have any children, but when you’re not in control of what is going on and when your child’s life is in someone else’s hands [it’s difficult]; luckily, we had some of the best professionals in the world at Boston Children’s to help us get through this. If you ever met Danny, if he was any more laid back, he’d fall down. He’s never asked ‘why me,’ and he’s just been inspirational for all of us and he’s just made me a better man.

I cannot thank Jeff [Probst’s] team enough for getting me back in record time from some beach in Cambodia all the way to Boston Children’s. I don’t know if you know this, but Dr. Liza [Siegel], the company psychologist, she was right by my side the whole time and was just wonderful. We landed in Boston at 10:00 p.m. Saturday night [after leaving the game], and Sunday afternoon she was back on a plane to Cambodia. It’s a story that needs to be told. Some people out there don’t realize what the whole ‘Survivor’ team and us as contestants and the ‘Survivor’ family go through. We base going out to play on the support system we have back home with our families. To hear Kass, Ciera, and Savage talk about what it means to them, it’s [important]. And again, Jeff wasn’t able to tell me much on the beach on TV about what was really wrong with Danny … Once they take away your support structure, it’s game over and you need to head home.

I read an interview Jeff Probst gave to Entertainment Weekly where he said that not long after the cameras were off you had a chance to call back home and speak to your family. Was getting that information immediately helpful?

As soon as we get out of camera sight, he handed me the phone and said ‘Terry, call Trish.’ And he didn’t really know that much either, so I called her and then when we got a bigger boat I could Facetime her. So we Facetimed, so I got to see Danny and Trish and my daughter, and they got to see me. Service was [spotty] so we went back to a regular phone call by the time we got back to base camp.

To find out that Danny was in the best place in the world and he’s stable, not that this was the end-all, be-all because he was one step away from crashing, but he was in really good hands. That put my mind at ease. That and I was able to talk to them at base camp, talk to them in Phnom Penh, talk to them in Hong Kong, but then there was a 16-hour flight where there was no communication at all. That scared the living crap out of me. To have to go home and have no control over the matter [was horrible], not only for Danny but for my wife and my daughter as well.

There was a limousine waiting for us at Boston Logan to whisk us over to the hospital, Liza and I. At that point I was able to take a lot of the weight off of my wife’s shoulders.

There’s no easy transition between talking about some of this and then what happened in the game, but I want to talk a little about some of the events this season, as well. Going into it, you admitted openly that one of your weaknesses was in the social game the first time around. This time, you seemed to have better moments and you even commented on it in the confessionals. Did you think that you had improved in that regard, and could have been in a position where had you made it close to the end, someone may have wanted to take you?

I think I was a little unnerved about the speed of the game, especially on this show because there were no slackers. I think we did [start strong], but then I got a little overconfident in the numbers that I had. A group of us were building the shelter, and I thought I had solidified some stuff with Spencer and Varner and Peih-Gee. Even with Wentworth I had conversations. I thought it was going to be pretty good, but I was a bit overconfident. You had the people who were playing the game on numbers, and then those who were playing on relationships. I was in the [first] group. When I overheard Varner say something to Wentworth and Peih-Gee at the first tribal council and then say to Jeff ‘this is my second chance, and I can’t leave anything to chance.’ At that point I knew we had at least five [votes] at that point [at tribal counci], with that being a worse-case scenario. I did not think that Spencer was going to roll and that Varner was going to roll.

You always think that what you’re doing is good TV (laughs), so as I walked over to vote as I was one of the last people, I walked up to the podium, I’m looking at the camera, and I go ‘there goes a Varner bomb! Holy crap!’ I thought that would get coined because he had some Varner bombs early on. At that point, I knew Varner was gone, and I hoped that Peih-Gee and Spencer were still there. They all left. Luckily Varner was kind of protecting me with that group, and some of the girls were bummed out about Vytas, and I was lucky to stay that night. I was on the bottom the next day.

[You did survive until the tribe swap], but what was it like for you watching some of the scenes of Kelley just openly throwing you under the bus to some of the people in the [new Ta Keo]?

She and I knew we were on the bottom with four from Bayon coming over, and she’s playing the game hard. Trish [while watching it] went ‘wow, look what she’s saying about you,’ but I was out looking for the idol and I was doing this and doing that because I was on the bottom. She had the idol the whole time, but it was pretty funny. I texted her saying ‘nice job, Kel!’ It’s all good.

I had conversations [out there] with Joe, saying ‘hey, we need to stick together because if it’s me who goes, they’re going to vote you out,’ and maybe they were afraid of me going on another run of challenges. Then, talking to Kass, she and I were former Navy … up until the day before I left, we were a strong six. Then, they were a strong five and I was out of the picture. It was pretty interesting; as soon as I saw [them forming that alliance on TV] I texted Keith and said ‘strong five and I don’t see myself in the picture. I think I want my shorts back that I lent you.’ (Laughs.)

I know little would have changed the end of your game, but do you think you would have been in a better spot if your old pal Shane Powers was out there with you?

Yes. That’s the short answer.

After everything that you have been through in the game and at home, is there a desire to go and do this again?

Timing and casting are everything. Obviously with my son’s health right now and with me getting older, we’ll see where it goes. I’d like to go back, it’d be fun, but the timing has to be right. I’ll see if I get an offer.

Do you feel fulfilled now that you got a second play at this game?

Yeah. It was fun going back to play against these people. It’s always an exciting part of your life leading up to it, and I like that. It gives me an impetus to work out. At my age there’s no World Series or Super Bowl, so you got to get excited about some stuff.

—

As mentioned earlier, you can head over here to support the Boston Children’s Danny Strong Fund.

We’ll have our full review up with Woo shortly at this link, which contains our full “Survivor” archive. Also, you can sign up here to get some other TV news and exclusive updates sent right to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)