‘Survivor: Kaoh Rong’ exclusive: Darnell Hamilton on snorkels, alliances, being first one out

Is Darnell Hamilton one of the greatest first boots in “Survivor” history? We don’t want to start running any sort of knee-jerk analysis here, but he’s got to be near the top of the list in terms of being a pretty good, entertaining player who was more a victim of circumstance than anything else. There was one mistake made with a snorkel at the immunity challenge, and it felt like that became the scapegoat-reason for some people to send him one.

In our one-on-one interview with Darnell today, we talked with him a little bit about having to go home early, dealing with the conditions in Cambodia, and also if he’s still got that hunger to go back and give this another go after being the first person sent home from his tribe.

CarterMatt – So was the whole thing with the snorkel really it? Was that the reason that people wanted to get rid of you?

Darnell Hamilton – It was a combination of things. I think it was more of an opportunity thing. I was forming a lot of bonds with people, and I know for Jason that was intimidating for him. So I think for him it was like ‘what should we do: Get rid of Alecia, and Darnell gets [in good shape later] and I can’t rid of him, or get rid of him now since I don’t want to take that risk?’ Scot just went with that plan, saying ‘he sucked’ and ‘he gotta go.’

So you think people were thinking a few tribal councils down the road, when you would’ve been more of a threat?

Yeah, I think I was forming a lot of bonds, especially with Jenn and even Alecia and [Cydney].

Let’s go back to the start of this game. What was the first day like for you guys, trying to figure out where you stand and how to survive at this camp?

Alecia was quickly like the odd one out. We were all looking at her like ‘why are you here, why?” (Laughs.) Eventually we were just like ‘okay, I guess,’ and we just went on to building a shelter. It was tough; the heat was extreme, the weather was extreme, but we meshed well as far as building our camp.

Did you get a sense as to how hot it really was out there? Triple digits has floated around.

I have no clue how hot it was, but I got sunburned. That’s how hot it was. (Laughs.) My whole back was eaten up. Even Cydney got sunburned. Everyone got sunburned. It was extreme, and we didn’t have water. We couldn’t make a fire. So there were things we didn’t have. We had to survive on coconuts. It was tough; it was really tough.

So when you guys first saw Scot, did anyone know that he was a basketball player?

Oh yea, some people knew. Cydney recognized him right away. I think a lot of us [figured it out]. If he had come up with some sort of lie and said he was a construction worker, we would’ve been like ‘no you’re not Scot.’ Then he just came out and said ‘I’m a basketball player’ and were just like ‘we knew, Scot.’ But there were already bonds, so it really didn’t matter.

Was there any talk about getting rid of Scot because he’d already made a lot of money in his career and had some time in the spotlight?

There were definitely conversations, but it was too early in the game to think about that. The first half of the game is about winning challenges.

How dangerous was everything going on with [Jennifer] and that bug? How long did it last, and was she better almost right away when it got out of her ear?

As soon as she got it out the pain went away, but it lingered for like two days. Probably from like night 1 to night 2 it really hurt, and we were worried because Jenn’s a strong woman. She down one minute, and then she was up working hard, then she was down. We don’t really know each other, so it was [hard at times to tell] what was going on. But it was dangerous. There was blood coming out of her ear.

Let’s talk a little bit about Jason, who came across as very maniacal in some of his confessionals…

When you’re in the lead, you can be like that. (Laughs.) Jason was going around making alliances with everyone.

Did you get a sense he was that sketchy when you were out there?

Oh yeah. Day one he came up to me and was like ‘wanna make an alliance, us guys,’ and then he was talking to other people. I wasn’t surprised. When the bios came out and he said that he wanted to play like Russell Hantz, I wasn’t surprised. (Laughs.) He didn’t hide it at all, he was just sitting there analyzing everyone.

This isn’t just a guy who wants to play like Russell, but he said that Russell is the only person to ever play the game right!

(Laughs) Did he win? That’s what I don’t understand! Though I do agree that Russell should’ve won his first season, but you gotta treat people a certain way. At the end of the day, that’s something [Russell] didn’t understand.

I’m curious about this, mostly because me plus everyone else thought you were going to be around a little bit longer. Had you stayed in the game for a little while longer, what was your long-term plan?

I wanted to build bonds, make a solid three or four, who you can really trust, and try to run it and go from there.

Was there a whole lot of looking for the immunity idol at camp?

I really don’t know. I mean, Alicia would disappear all the time, and every day we’d be like ‘where’s Alecia,’ and she’d be off looking for the idol. That had a lot of people paranoid.

Do you think that had the snorkel incident not happened, you still would’ve been going home?

I felt like I was in danger because like I said, when you’re not leading, you should be worried. Anything can happen. Cydney and I already knew that Jason, Jenn, and Scott were a link, and we had to do something. It was just me because I wasn’t in the alliance and I was making bonds.

At the tribal council was the whole 3-3 vote just a way of flushing out an immunity idol?

Yeah I thought so. When Alecia told Scot ‘I may have an idol, I may not,’ that was just them playing it safe so that one of them wouldn’t go home [because of a suspected idol]. That’s what I think that was about.

I’m a big proponent of the idea that you do a season full of people who got kicked off really early and you didn’t get a chance to know. Would you be down for that, endure the sunburn and everything else?

(Laughs) Absolutely! I’ll take the sunburn and go back. It was a great experience. It’s hard to explain. It was buck wild and I’d have no problem going back.

Finally, how tough was it keeping all of this a secret for so long? You guys filmed this almost a full year ago.

It was very painful, especially when you’re the first out! Everyone is congratulating you, like ‘oh congrats man,’ and it’s so sweet and short. That was the hardest part, because I felt like I let a lot of people down.

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Darnell definitely didn’t let us down either in this interview or on the show. We shall miss him dearly!

You can head over here now to get our review for the first episode of “Survivor: Kaoh Rong,” and be sure to also sign up over here to get some other TV news on everything we cover at CarterMatt via our official newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)