Anna Khait told us she would use a combination of smarts and flirty sex appeal to her advantage in Survivor: Kaôh Rōng, but the poker player got royal flushed out of the game after a tribe switch suddenly put her in the minority in her new tribe.
Anna called into Entertainment Weekly Radio (SiriusXM, channel 105) to tell us how it all went wrong and you can now hear the entire conversation right here on the InsideTV Podcast. Does she believe the tribe reshuffling was her undoing? Did she think about blowing up Tai’s game after he didn’t give her the immunity idol to take out Peter? And would she play again if offered a second chance? Here are a few highlights:
On the tribe contraction that ultimately did her in:
“I was excited to start playing the game for real. We thought we were in a good spot with the three girls and that we thought we could ride it through for a little while but you know how Jeff throws in those little twists and turns. At first I was excited and nervous to have my game face on, but then I noticed that the three of us girls, we had different buffs and I’m on a tribe where I completely lose my numbers.”
On throwing Tai under the bus after the tribe switch:
“As soon as I got to the new island I knew right away that I had to start playing the game. So I automatically started setting up Tai and putting him under the bus. He was a little injured and there were a lot of things I could use to set myself up for them not to like him and for them to keep me — because if we lose, and there’s a 50-50 chance, there’s a chance I’m setting myself up to stay as long as possible, so I really tried early on once we got back to the island to start playing.”
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On when she knew that she was the target:
“I knew well before Tribal. I knew I was in a bad situation. Everyone had their mind set that Julia was coming back and they don’t want Beauty to have the numbers and that they wanted to get rid of me. I started throwing different people’s names under the bus — in terms of Tai, when Joe told me he didn’t like Peter I thought Peter was great. So we were going back and forth between a few people. But when people were talking about voting out Peter, their body language wasn’t adding up to voting out Peter. They weren’t looking at me in the eyes.
“So I knew I was in a bad spot until that half hour before Tribal when Tai said ‘Hey, Anna. Hey, Scot. We’re going to switch up the game here because I have an idol.’ It would have been a cool move. We would have blindsided Peter and got him out and Julia would have come in and we would have the numbers.”
On if Tai gave Anna an indication that he would give her the idol:
“Yeah, that’s what he said. He said ‘I’m going to give you the idol.’ Because he knew it was me. I was hopeful that he would but I was not 100 percent sure that he would.”
On if she thought about blowing up Tai’s game after she had her torch snuffed by telling the others that he was lying and actually had an idol:
“I could have. It definitely crossed my mind. I thought in that moment about his game. I thought in that moment, I understand why he did what he did. I could have blown him up. I thought that it’s early and I thought I was out of the game. But in retrospect and thinking about it now, having that opportunity to play, in that spot again I think I might have. I had a lot of people ask me that yesterday and I was like ‘Oh, darn it, I should have said that!’ But in that moment I just thought it was a little wrong. I was out of the game and it’s not too classy to do that.”
Responding to Jeff’s Probst’s remark about possibly bringing her back to play again and whether she would like to go back for another season:
“I was very excited to see that. No, I haven’t spoken to Jeff about anything. If the time comes and they would want me back I would absolutely give it another shot. I have my fingers crossed. I feel like I had a lot more game to give. I feel like I disappointed people. If I was fortunate enough to get another chance I would definitely give it my all.”
To hear more from Anna including whom she pictured as her final three and the one thing that surprised her the most watching the season play back on TV, click on the audio player below to hear the entire interview. (The Anna Survivor interview starts at the 42-minute mark.) But that’s not all we have on tap this week. First up, Daredevil stars Charlie Cox and Deborah Ann Woll discuss season 2 of the Marvel Netflix superhero series, including an epic new fight sequence and the introduction of Jon Bernthal as the Punisher.
We also chat with Alicia Witt, who just came off a great performance as the rare female-villain-in-charge on The Walking Dead. What was it like to play Paula, and what went wrong in that final scene of hers that we didn’t see. Alicia reveals all! (The Alicia Witt Walking Dead interview starts at the 18 minute mark.)
You can listen to the whole podcast above. Or, since we’re on iTunes, you can subscribe for free and take the podcast with you. No iTunes? No problem. You can also download the entire podcast right here. To send a question to the InsideTV Podcast team, follow us on Twitter @InsideTVPodcast. And to hear more interviews and television discussion and debate, check out Entertainment Weekly Radio on SiriusXM, channel 105.