Survivor type TV Show network CBS genre Reality Where to watch Close Streaming Options

Perhaps because he wasn’t busting out impressions, complaining about his birthday, or belittling the women on his tribe, Tyler Fredrickson kept a relatively low profile on this season of Survivor: Worlds Apart. But he was the biggest threat left without immunity, and that made him expendable.

Tyler was voted off last night after his biggest ally, Carolyn, decided to take him out when she had the chance. Was he surprised she turned on him? We asked Tyler that when he called into Entertainment Weekly Radio (SiriusXM, channel 105) this morning, and you can now hear the entire interview right here on the InsideTV Podcast by clicking on the audio player below. Here are a few highlights of the conversation:

On being voted out by Carolyn:

“It was completely and utterly a blindside. I don’t know if she did the right thing. I kind of felt that we had something golden going forward.”

On whether he thought Carolyn might share her idol with him:

“I think there may have been too much trust with me in regards to the idol. I’ve seen seasons past where people used the idol in conjunction with somebody else, and it’s gone selflessly well. I was kind of hoping for that for Carolyn. Not to say that she wasn’t savvy enough, but I don’t think that was something that ever came on her radar. It came to the point where I realized and was like, holy cow, this is now an individual thing. She’s not really looking out for me here. And I’ve been bringing her quite far—telling people… ‘No, Carolyn doesn’t have an idol. She’s not a threat.’ And really sticking up for her. And it came back to bite me.”

On toning down his bigger personality for the game:

“That became my strategy. I wanted to be large and someone who could talk people in and out of things. And then I get out there and suddenly I’m with people like Shirin and Dan, Mike, Rodney—these guys who want to be at the forefront of everything. I’m not going to use the word ‘tryhards,’ but people who were so excited to be on Survivor that they wanted to play to the cameras and be bigger. And suddenly I realized—there’s other people who don’t necessarily feel comfortable in that arena. And I thought, well, what if I can connect with them? With the guys who were all, ‘I don’t want to be about the show. I want to be about moving forward in this game’? It became extremely relational for me. I thought that everyone was looking for an ear.… That became my strategy. It was not to stand out and explode and be large, but it was to sit back and be quiet and be relatable. And suddenly I found myself going further and further in the game because almost every single person at one point or another on this cast this season trusted me. For me, that’s a win, even though I’m in seventh.”

On the ugly comments from Dan and Will toward Shirin:

“We are a close cast. Some people have said we’re one of the closest casts in the history of the show, if not the closest cast. A couple of these episodes have broken that apart a little bit. It’s been very difficult to watch. Not only from the sense that I’m watching some of my friends get into really huge arguments and things that are probably over the line a bit, but also because we had so much fun. There was so much strategy. There was so much laughter. There were jokes. There were impressions. There was incredible game play. And I think a lot of that has been overshadowed, unfortunately, by issues that are obviously extremely important and very much in the zeitgeist right now. But I’m slightly torn because I want to see more interesting stuff.

“I’ve got a couple of friends who have never watched the seasons before, and they’ve tuned in and they’re telling me, ‘Hey, great episode but I had to let you know—I fast-forwarded though a lot of the scenes tonight or last week or the week before.’ And that kills me, because I’ve never fast-forwarded through Survivor in my life! I’m drawn to every single minute! But people are saying, ‘Hey, very difficult to watch. It’s not fun to watch. You have a family show on network television, primetime TV, and I’m fast-forwarding because it’s too difficult.’ Again, not to take away from the difficult issues we should be discussing—but I feel like a lot of the goodness, a lot of what drew us all as fans of Survivor to start with was overshadowed by some very, very heavy stuff. And for me it just sort of sucked the life a lot from what is known—or should be known—as a really strategic, fun season.”

On what might happen when Jeff brings up the ugly comments at the reunion:

“I don’t know how or what Jeff is going to say or how he is going to approach it, but I know that everybody is thinking about that. I plan on getting on the phone with Dan and Will in the next few weeks and talking them though it, and being an ear for them. Shirin and I have had great conversations, and Shirin has an incredible support network up in the Bay. So I would love to see things be handled intelligently and patiently, but as you guys are well aware, we’ve got incredibly explosive personalities—people who feel like their voices weren’t necessarily heard or respected by the edit, and it’s up to them to deal with the issues and work though them as they see fit. “

To listen to the entire interview, click on the audio player below. (The ‘Survivor’ discussion and interview begins at the 30 minute mark.) But first, we sit down with Bart Simpson. And Ralph Wiggum. And Nelson Muntz. And Chucky from Rugrats. Because they’re all the same person! Or at least voiced by the same person, Nancy Cartwright. Nancy popped by the studio to talk The Simpsons and her career in voice acting, and busts out a few of her famous characters in the process.

We stay with the funny by talking to comedy legend—and host of Showtime’s Inside Comedy—David Steinberg. Do all great comedians have a dark side? Why was he partially responsible for getting the Smothers Brothers canceled? What was it like getting the seal of approval from Johnny Carson? And which interview has he done on his show that surprised him the most? It’s a great chat you will not want to miss. (The Steinberg interview begins at the 15:45 mark.)

You can listen to the whole podcast below. 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.