He may not have won Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X, but Bret LaBelle provided the moment of the season, according to host Jeff Probst, so that has to be worth something. Not a million dollars, but something.
How hard was it for Bret to announce he was gay on national television? How crazy did it make him to watch people keep leaving David in the game? And how does he think he would have fared had he made it to the end? We asked the police sergeant all that and more when Bret called into EW Morning Live (Entertainment Weekly Radio, SiriusXM, channel 105), and here are the highlights from our chat.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So, how are you feeling, my man?
BRET LaBELLE: I can’t complain, I’m excited to be on Entertainment Weekly.
Well, you should be! It was an awesome season, you were a big part of the season, and we’ve got a lot to get to with you in a short amount of time.
Well, I will tell you, I’ve been subscribing to Entertainment Weekly since I was in high school, so I was so excited to see a picture of Gen-X, but when my picture wasn’t on it, I was bummed out. I was like, ‘This is my one chance to get in Entertainment Weekly,” which I’m a big fan of. But anyway, go on.
Who’s to say that’s your one chance, Bret?
Ah, well, listen, you know, who knows? You’re right. You never know.
Let’s get into it. First off, when you guys were down at five people, it looks like you’re covering for Adam while he goes to look for that idol so David does not get it. Did you go out and look for it yourself as well, or not?
Yeah, we had an idol dash, I call them, which I was hoping would hashtag. But we were all running through the thing looking for them. And of course, you’re always looking. Everyone’s always looking, and we were looking. And Adam and I had been working together since after the merge — we had kind of a little side alliance going. So I trusted him that if he got it, he wouldn’t use it against me. I was hoping either one of us would get it, and we were kind of watching out. While he was looking, I’d look out, and he’d do the same while I was looking, and stuff like that.
Take us through your frustration level, between one and 10, as Hannah insists on keeping David around. Even before your vote. Not just getting rid of you, but for Sunday as well.
That’s simple, that’s a 10, Dalton. Because you’re sitting there, you’re speaking English, you’re explaining to these people, “Listen, I know you love David, I know you love this person…” I love David — because David and I had a great relationship out there — but I was like, “You cannot beat him. You cannot beat him, I cannot beat him, Adam cannot beat him. Nobody beats David that gets to the end. So let’s just get rid of him. We can get rid of him tonight!” And they’d go, “No, we’re not going to do it.” It was just ridiculous. It felt like these people didn’t know how to play this game.
I mean, we all knew who the biggest threat was. You have to take out the biggest threat, especially the guy that could win the million dollars when you’re trying to win the million dollars, you know? All eyes were on him, everyone agreed to it, but they just wouldn’t go for it.
If Hannah had kept you, and it had been a final three of Hannah, you, and Ken, who do you think would’ve won?
I win, hands down. I win all the votes, every vote. Well, maybe not Jess. I might not have had Jess’s vote, I might not have had David’s, although I think I would’ve won David’s, too.
You had what Jeff Probst called the moment of the season on that reward over beers, as you come out to Zeke. Was it difficult for you to do that? Not just to Zeke, but there’s a camera right in your face so you’re doing this to the entire country as well. What was that like?
You know, I had come to terms with the fact that I was ready for people to know about this for a few years now. My close friends and really close family knew already. I knew I would be talking about it, it’s part of my story. And I wanted it to come out naturally, and I didn’t want it to be lost. And I think that they did it perfectly.
I legitimately like Zeke. Zeke’s easy to get along with. Me and Zeke had some great conversations while we were out there after the merge, and I was bonding with him really well, and I wanted to solidify that bond by just saying, “Hey, I’ve gone through a lot of the same struggles that you have.” And I just think it came out so natural and just so normal, two guys having beers talking about their lives. So I was really happy with it.
It was a big deal in my head, and it’s been a big deal for all my life. And I think that… listen, I’m a huge fan of Survivor. They have Jeff Probst, who’s great, the host since it started, and for him to come out and say that’s it’s one of his favorite scenes of the whole season — actually he even said privately, it’s tops in Survivor— how do you not love that as a fan of the game? So I enjoyed that. What I didn’t enjoy was Chris running around saying I was in love with him. That’s the thing that stressed me out the most.
Yeah, that was a little awkward at the reunion when he started doing that.
He’s a nut. I’m going to get him today.
Tell us what you consider your best and worst moves in the game.
I made a lot of good moves in the game. Obviously, you don’t see them all. But listen, I had relationships with everybody — everybody found it very hard to vote me out. One of my best moves was the Michaela vote. And I love Michaela, we all actually got along really well. But Sunday and I knew that we were on the bottom, and we started forging relationships with Jay and Will. Sunday really took up the Will vote, but Will and I get along great. So that week I really formed a really good bond with Jay. He’s from Fort Lauderdale, I’ve been down there a lot and I knew a bunch of bars, restaurants, bar owners, and stuff that he knew, so we were getting to know each other pretty well. And then as time went on, it was really hard to figure out who was going to go home. Everyone thought it was me. But I’ll tell you, going to that Tribal Council, I was not nervous, as you would’ve thought after watching that show air. So I thought that was a great move.
The one thing I could’ve done stronger was towards the end, I started to get frustrated with, obviously, Ken and Hannah, and I needed to reform those relationships a lot earlier than day 37. So maybe my words would’ve meant more to them.
You can listen to audio of all the Survivor finale interviews below! Also make sure to also read Dalton’s full Survivor finale recap as well as Jeff Probst sharing intel on the next season of Survivor: Game Changers. And for more Survivor scoop, follow Dalton on Twitter @DaltonRoss.