Kamilla Karthigesu says “Survivor 50” players were openly talking about pregaming during season
Kamilla Karthigesu says “Survivor 50” players were openly talking about pregaming during season
Dalton RossThu, April 2, 2026 at 3:57 PM UTC
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Kamilla Karthigesu on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBS
There’s not much Kamilla Karthigesu enjoys more than throwing people under the bus in the game of Survivor. But she got thrown right out of Survivor 50 when Jonathan sided with Chrissy and Stephenie to take her out of the game. Kamilla was clearly blindsided by the move, even though she had blindsided Jonathan at the previous vote when she took out his ally in Charlie.
How shocked was Kamilla by her ouster? Did she buy that Chrissy was giving up and had accepted her fate? And what was her long-term plan in the game had she stayed? We asked Kamilla all that and more and you can now watch or read the entire interview below.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was going through your mind when you heard your name came up three times at Tribal Council?
KAMILLA KARTHIGESU: So the first time was expected. I actually thought that was Chrissy's vote with the smiley face. I was like, "Oh, that's cute." Now, the reactions that were in the show, the one where my jaw drops and I go, "Bro…” that was my reaction to the second vote. 'Cause when I saw that, I was like: Mike wasn't lying. When Mike went on his journey and he came back and he told us all that information, he was not lying, unfortunately.
So what made you think Jonathan was with you after you all had blindsided him on the previous vote?
So my thinking was, and this once again goes back to the knowledge that Mike has brought back to us from his journey with Savannah and Colby. I thought that everyone knew it was open knowledge. People were talking about pregaming alliances very openly this season. And so I thought maybe he knew, like, "Hey, if I wanna signal to people at this 17-person merge that I am not locked down, that I am willing to play with other people,” that would've been the perfect time to do that. And so I seriously thought he was gonna do that.
Kamilla Karthigesu of 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBS
So give us the intel that Mike gave you when he came back from that journey.
Like, part of me believed it, part of me didn't because it's such a ridiculous thing to come back and tell us. It's like, “Why did Colby say all this?” But apparently at this journey, Savannah goes into full reporter mode. That was what I was told. Like, she just goes into reporter mode and starts grilling people. And she just straight up asks Colby, "Oh, I heard there's a Zoom alliance. What's this about? "
And Colby starts dropping names. I'm not gonna drop all the names. I will say three of the people that were in my swap tribe were the names that were dropped. And so when I first saw the rock draw, I was like, "We're eating Applebee's. I hope Mike was wrong. I hope Mike made that up." I thought maybe Mike made that up and told us to get us to work with him as an old schooler and not work with the rest of them. And yeah, I guess he was right. Like it wasn't a lie.
Well, I don't know if you read my cover story, but it was pretty obvious that there was a lot of chatting going on before you all arrived in Fiji. –
Yeah.
Genevieve Mushaluk and Kamilla Karthigesu on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBS
I see a triple elimination and the thing that goes through my mind first and foremost, Kamilla, is: Did you have to wait until the other two Tribals were over to go to Ponderosa or did you get your own boat?
No! I had to sit through them. And they do the exit confessionals. So obviously I had to sit through it all in a tent by myself, with lots of Huntsman spiders. I actually needed one of the handlers to stay in the tent with me because I don't like spiders. And I had to sit through for both Tribal Councils. And then they all got to do their exit confessionals before I did. I was the last person on the boat.
Did they at least let you watch their Tribals?
No. Nothing.
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Tell me about Chrissy before you all headed to Tribal. Was she playing it up like she was going to be going home?
Yeah, she was, like, crying to me about how bad it was the first time she played. And I'm like: No one's gonna just roll over and die, not on 50. I mean, honestly, not even in the new era. Like, this was just weird. I immediately go to Jonathan and I'm like, "I know my name's the decoy vote. You're not actually writing my name. Like, don't actually write my name down." And he goes, "No, I would never. Don't joke about that." And I'm like, weird reaction. But I was like: Don't get paranoid, don't get paranoid, don't get paranoid. That was it. I should've just listened to my gut.
Kamilla Karthigesu on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBS
We kept hearing Chrissy was annoying people on original Kalo. Was she annoying you?
I think her gameplay was a little irritating because we're all sitting around camp, and anytime more than one person walks off, Chrissy announced it to everyone. And it's like, we don't need this every single time. Like, no one's saying anything when people walk off. We just understand that that's Survivor. And then also, she said a thing ... Or I don't know if she said this. Mike said that she said this this sentence. And I was like, "That's wild."
According to Mike, Chrissy had said that all the new era players wanna get the old era players out to undermine their feeling insecure about playing 26 days. And I didn't want this to be old era versus new era. I wanted everyone to work together. I can't speak for everyone, but I feel like everyone on my tribe wanted everyone to work together too. Those are the things that I'll say on actual exit press.
Was Mike just causing drama with everything he said? Looks like he was stirring the pot.
That's the thing! I don't know what if this is real and what isn't. Turns out after talking to everyone who went on that journey together, Mike was not lying about what he heard from Colby
Jonathan Young, Dee Valladares, Mike White, Kamilla Karthigesu, Charlie Davis, Tiffany Ervin, Benjamin "Coach" Wade, Chrissy Hofbeck of the Kalo tribe on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBS
Why were you torturing Mike about the hermit crab he accidentally stepped on?
Because this man was talking about how he was vegan and all that stuff. So I'm like, you can't just kill, take away life. and then not eat it. Someone here has to eat it. Really, he should have been eating it because he killed it.
Was your long-term plan to run it to the end with Dee and Tiffany or was it something else that we didn't see?
So I heard from Rizo that he had some friends on his starting tribe, particularly Genevieve. All all these people that went off in different places in the split and the new people that I met during the swap, I wanted to meet their people. I knew Cirie was good with Ozzy, so at the merge beach, immediately I'm talking to Ozzy. I heard Tiff was good with Aubry, so I'm like, "Oh, let me talk to Aubry."
Unfortunately, I heard that Genevieve and Aubry were oil and water, so I'm like, "Ah, damn, this whole group can't work together." But I wanted to have Dee and Tiff there, but also I wanted to kind of work more with the people that I guess are cut from the same cloth as me, I would say. Maybe Christian, Aubry, I know I burned Devens, so that wasn't gonna work, but Genevieve. I wanted to work with other people too.
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Kamilla Karthigesu and Rizo Velovic on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBS
Before you all got split up into the three groups, could you sense at all how things were shaking out in the big merged tribe, and where did you stand in that?
So I knew Christian, Emily, Devens, they were good. I saw Joe was also good with a lot of people, like Emily and Aubry, and I'm like, "Oh, look at that. He's talking to non-honor and integrity, non-strong five people. That's awesome."
I will say there was a moment where anytime I approached a group, everyone would scatter. Emily made it quite obvious one time where I walked up to a group and she's like, "All right, well, I guess I'm out." And I'm like, "Damn!" I go and I sit on a hammock by myself. Coach comes back from a confessional singing “All By Myself,” and I'm like, "This is the last thing I wanna hear in this moment. I'm not feeling good. Coach is singing at me. Like, I'm not having a good time."
He wasn't singing at you. He was serenading you.
I'm sorry. he was serenading me. You’re right.
Kamilla Karthigesu and Charlie Davis on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBS
Listen, you've played Survivor enough. That's not a good sign if what you're saying is true. So why do you think that is, Kamilla, that groups were getting silent when you walked up?
I mean, I kinda left Devens out of the last vote, so I could understand why he would go back to people and be like, "Don't trust her." The story with Jonathan, I think it's funny because as soon as Charlie's torch got snuffed, I turned to him, I'm like, "We saved you. " And Dee was like, "We’ll talk when we get back." We didn't see what happened at nighttime after Tribal Council, but I go and I tell Jonathan all the things Charlie has told me about him, which were all true. And I was like, "He was gunning for you. " And so I thought he had genuinely believed that we had saved him. I mean, I talked to people out of the game, it sounded like he did believe that,
And I could see Joe was burned by me and Kyle on 48. It's possible he didn't wanna work with me either because I was trying to approach groups that had Joe because I was trying to get time with Joe, but he just wouldn't look at me. Yeah, it was hard.
Was there more honor and integrity talk on 48 or 50?
I think on 50, people didn't do it in front of me. But on 48, it was just everywhere. People didn't care.
Is it your destiny to just be on honor and integrity seasons?
It might be. I might be the person that, like, attracts honor and integrity. Like, people just see me and they're like, "The only way to play around this is with honor and integrity." So it might actually be my fault.
Kamilla Karthigesu on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBS
We saw you get all emotional when you saw Kyle had been medically evacuated, but are you telling me a part of you wasn’t like, “Well, this is much better for me!”?
It took a while for me to even realize that, okay? Like, I was so sad the whole time, because there's another thing where it's like, damn, people actually have these preexisting relationships. People know each other from Survivor events, and really, the only people I knew were Joe and Kyle. I don't like to socialize with people. I don't like to make friends. I didn't really get to know anyone else.
So I'm like, "Man, my, my one friend is gone. I don't have anyone here. I'm lonely.” I was sad. And it wasn't until we got back from the challenge where Dee pulls me aside and she's like, "Kamilla, I know it sucks, but this is good for your game." And I was like, "Oh my God, you're right!" I'm sure I would've eventually got to that, but at the time I was just so sad for him and also just, like, Man, my one friend's gone.
It’s never fun getting voted out as Survivor, but is there that extra layer to it when it's one day before the jury?
Oh, yeah. But I had a little thing at Tribal Council where it's like: Last time when I played Survivor, I had no standards, I just didn't wanna be the first boot. This time, I have standards for myself. I wanna at least make the jury. I'm so glad they cut that out.
Kamilla Karthigesu on 'Survivor 50'Credit: CBS
How much Zelda talk was going on?
It was just that, pretty much that whole conversation. Also, I've never played a Zelda game. There's blood moons in other video games, but I am aware of the blood moon in Zelda. But me and Tiff both took our Switches to pregame Ponderosa. We were talking about gaming a little bit.
What’s something that happened out there that didn’t make it to TV that you wish we had seen?
Oh, the episode that Charlie got booted, I was not the swing vote. I actually didn't want to get rid of Charlie or Rizo. I wanted to get rid of Jonathan, and I told people, “A swap is coming. We're not gonna be in the same tribe tomorrow.” Especially after Rizo told us that there were two swaps on his season. I was like, "Oh, maybe they're doing a trial run for 50." And no one believed me. They thought we needed Jonathan for the challenges, and if I got him out, things would be different.
Kamilla Karthigesu of 'Survivor 50'Credit: Dalton Ross
Did your tribe throw the challenge?
Oh, that's another thing! Every single person on my tribe was talking about how they wanted to throw the challenge. Jonathan wanted to throw the challenge to get rid of Rizo. Charlie wanted to throw the challenge to get rid of Rizo. Dee wanted to throw the challenge to get rid of Charlie. Rizo wanted to throw the challenge to get rid of Charlie. Everyone! Everyone! I told them, "Please go into the challenge, and if Jeff says food for reward, can we please, please not throw? Please!”
And did anyone throw it?
I'm pretty sure people threw it. Not just our tribe. I don't remember the name of the tribe that Joe was on, but I'm pretty sure they threw as well.
Kamilla Karthigesu on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBS
Have you secured your season 4 White Lotus cameo yet?
I don't really watch TV. Like, I watched The White Lotus when I came back because I'm like, "What's this guy about? " You know, I hadn't seen anything that he's been in or he's written or directed or whatever, so not me. It’s not something I'm about.
So he calls you up and asks you to be on The White Lotus, you're gonna say no?
I don't think he would call me because he knows I'm not about TV.
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