Only one person has won Survivor twice: Sandra Diaz-Twine. But the Pearl Islands and Heroes vs Villains champion should know that someone is coming for her title, and then some.

I caught up with Survivor: Worlds Apart winner and Blue Collar castaway Mike Holloway on the red carpet of the season finale, moments after he collected his million dollar check in a decisive victory against White Collar and No Collar competitors Carolyn Rivera and Will Sims II. He was, in a word, pumped. The man’s back was against the wall for the final stretch of the game, willing his way toward victory thanks to an immunity run matched only by the most elite challenge competitors in Survivor history.

Not that he has anyone but himself to thank for having to play from the bottom; he was an obvious threat, for one thing, but he also painted an enormous target on his back when he made his gamble to buy an advantage at the Survivor auction, at the expense of the other players — and failed. With Mike surviving his ill-fated position and winning the game by such a wide margin, there’s a whole lot for the Texas native to be excited about. He went to work, and the work paid off.

But the work isn’t over. Mike told me that he’s only a third of the way through his Survivor aspirations. And his aspirations are very, very lofty indeed. Read on and let the man tell you himself.

Mike, this was going to be an awesome night for you no matter what. Either you were going to win, or as we found out, you were going to be part of the cast of Survivor: Second Chance.

Yeah, it was a win-win. But here’s what I wish they would’ve done. I wish they would’ve said, “Mike gets to pick his [replacement] spot.” If I could have picked a dude, Shane Powers is going.

Yeah. That’s a shock.

I’m pissed. I’m pissed. Dude, I wanted to see Shane play this game again. And we’re never going to see it now. Even on his own admission, we’re not going to see him play this game again. He swore on his son and he doesn’t break that, because Boston’s his… ah, man. I would have loved to see Boston out there again! You know what I mean?

And if they’d let me vote on a girl, which they wouldn’t have because it was a boy’s spot, but I would’ve gone with Mama C. That’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous that she’s not on. She did more than the majority of the girls that got on ever did in their season.

Let’s talk about Carolyn. Why did you bring her to the three? Why go to the lengths of the fire-making challenge? How much was that you putting on a show for the jury?

If you’ve been out on an island for 38 days, you gotta know how to make fire. I can say things about those two people all day until I was blue in the face. But we saw that nobody respected anything until I showed it to them, you know? We learned that with Dan. He wouldn’t listen, and then I finally showed you, look. I think it was more of a ploy to show the weakness of their game and the strength of mine.

I also told everyone, I wasn’t taking Rodney to the end. And that was early, the Joe vote, or the Hali vote. At that point in time in the game, I thought he was lazy. I thought he didn’t deserve to be there. That he was just a “mactor,” as we like to say. Later on in the game, I really started looking at Rodney and the Axis of Evil. How in the world did this 23-year-old kid pull together this eclectic group of people? Not only pull them together, but he’s basically telling these people what to do. He did a lot of it with humor. Being in the right place at the right time. That’s a reason right there why you don’t bring Rodney to the finals.

A lot of people raised their hands tonight about who they would have voted for if Rodney was in there, but I do think the vote would’ve been much closer in me versus Rodney. He doesn’t get nearly the amount of respect for the game that he played. He’s kind of just seen as this Boston kid…

A Boston kid who does a great Mike Holloway impression.

Yep! The kid’s smart, he has a lot of savvy in him, and he has a lot of game in him. He’s a hustler. That’s the best thing I can say about Rodney. That kid is a hustler. Everything that he’s had in his life. Maybe he didn’t hustle at the work aspect of the game, but you tell me something. If you are working around camp all day and I’m sitting in a chair, who is the smarter one? The guy conserving his energy, or the guy making sure that his camp’s running? So maybe I can learn some things from Rodney.

You were in good with the numbers for a while. Then it hits you that you’re outside of the numbers, right around the auction…

Josh, think about it this way. If you’re the head of an alliance of eight people? That’s a massive alliance to be trying to control the vote. You have to start thinking about picking one, two, three, or four people within that alliance of who you want to go with. We had a common enemy, which was Joe, which then became me.

And you knew that was about to happen.

A hundred percent. They came up to me, the producers, asking me, “What are you going to do when Joe’s gone?” And I said, “I’m just going to go on an immunity run.” And one of the producers said, “Oh, you’re going to go on an immunity run?” And I said, “Yep. I’m going to win five.” She goes, “Oh, you want to go on record with that?” And I said, “I’ll go on record!” And I wasn’t even thinking five, to tie the record. I was just thinking that it’s the number it would take for me to win. Sure enough, it was, and I did.

But you got yourself in a serious jam with the auction, with your scheme to buy the advantage while your competition bought their loved one letters.

I thought it was a strong strategic move. Very strong strategy, had I gone through with the move. But Jeff stole my line. I told him this exact same thing on the phone the other day: I did all the harm with none of the blessing. I knew it was going to go bad the moment I committed to the idea. But the thing that got me is that I really and truly did give Dan my word while we were standing there. I stopped playing the game for two seconds. Strategically…strategically? It’s a brilliant move, to get this advantage. But here’s what I should have done: I should have stuck to my guns, got the advantage, went back to camp, and instead of blowing up Rodney’s game, go over to Dan and give him the advantage. “We can’t let Carolyn win.” That would have been the best plan, if I was going to do it. Strategically, a savvy play. Socially? A murderous play.

And you suffered the consequences of that for the rest of the game.

Yeah. And there were many days out there where they just didn’t talk to me. They just ignored me. I’m a guy that likes to talk, obviously. That was hard.

But it worked out. You’re a big fan of the show, you’re the winner of season 30, you’re in this elite stratosphere of Survivor players with five immunity challenge wins…

One of how many guys? Come on, mister know it all!

I’m no know it all! But I think it’s… you, Terry, Tom, Colby, and I’m blanking on number five.

Ozzy.

Of course. That’s crazy company!

Dude, those are some names that I don’t even deserve to be in the same spoken breath with.

Obviously, you do.

Well, thanks for that. Honestly.

You’re not on Second Chance. But fans have always wanted to see an all-winners season…

It’s never going to happen.

Would you want it to happen?

Of course. I mean, who am I going to have to play against, Tony? That’s the only one? I mean…[Leans into microphone] I just threw 27 of you under the bus. Just. So. You. Know.

Throwing it down!

Look, I’ll say it to everybody. I really will. I’m going to be the first person to ever win this game three times. If that gets me in hot water with people listening or reading or whatever, just know. I’m coming. That’s something I walked into, pre-game, when I met with Jeff Probst. I told him the same thing. “I’ll be your first three-time winner.” I’m 33% of the way there, you know? Sandra can’t be all alone. She’s only going to be alone for a little bit. I’m coming for that title. And then it’s going to be Mike versus Sandra for the three. That’s the game plan. Let’s see how it goes.

Josh Wigler is a writer, editor and podcaster who has been published by MTV News, New York Magazine, Comic Book Resources, Digital Trends and more. He is the co-author of The Evolution of Strategy: 30 Seasons of Survivor, an audiobook chronicling the reality TV show’s transformation. Josh hosts podcasts about film and television on PostShowRecaps.com.

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