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Blame it on the beer. Carl Boudreaux certainly loves his suds, but did getting drunk at a reward feast hasten the truck driver’s exit from Survivor: David vs. Goliath? Well, it certainly didn’t help. Carl helped flip the script in the game by using his Idol Nullifier to bring the Davids back from the brink against their Goliath adversaries, but the power seemed to go to his head, and he started delivering orders to his fellow Davids instead of allowing any sort of input from his partners. In the end, that lack of collaboration got him booted from the game.

Does Carl think there is anything to the claims that he wasn’t including others in the decision-making? Why did he opt for nachos (and beer, natch) over competing in an immunity challenge? Should he have won immunity for coming up with an 11-letter word as host Jeff Probst instructed? When did he and Nick decide to combine their advantages? And just how drunk did he get anyway? We asked Carl all that and more when he called into EW Morning Live (SiriusXM, channel 105) Thursday morning, and here are some highlights from our chat.

Image zoom Robert Voets/CBS

EW RADIO: So I’m watching that immunity challenge last night and Jeff Probst tells you to come up with an 11-letter word, and you do exactly that with “Perceptions,” and yet you don’t win. Should you have been awarded immunity?

CARL BOUDREAUX: No, because they had their word in mind. I came up with perceptions and the only thing I can say as far as that goes is I hated the fact that Jeff announced my word out loud, because the minute that he announced my word out loud I had Davie to my left and Alison along the way, and as soon as he announced it, it gave them a clue and basically put them right on the word. And I just didn’t have enough time to move my letters around, and unfortunately Davie came up with the word before me.

I don’t know, man. I would have argued it. It’s a good thing I wasn’t out there because I would have been like, “You said to come up with an 11-letter word. Here’s your word!”

Right?! I gave it my all. I have to say I was the first person to come up with an 11-letter word. I wasn’t expecting it to be the wrong word. It sucked because I went home that night so having that immunity necklace would have been a whole lot better for me. But it’s the game of Survivor. You never know what they have in mind.

Once he said the original word was wrong, did you figure out the one they were looking for?

Once the original word was wrong, I looked at it and I saw it. But I had to remove and replace blocks where they already had half of the word up there so just had to move one or two blocks to get the correct word. So I was behind the 8-ball once that took place.

How shocked were you when you saw your name keep coming up at Tribal Council?

I was really shocked because we as the David tribe, we fought so hard. Nick, Davie, & me played advantage after advantage to save Christian and keep our five alliance because we knew the Goliaths were trying to pick us apart one at a time. So for Gabby and Christian to then flip on me, it was kind of shocking. But it’s the game. I let my guard down and they got me.

Do you regret keeping Gabby out of the decision-making loop?

I mean, we talked to Gabby. And it’s that’s the case that has to be me, Davie and Nick. We talked to her. Gabby just didn’t have the advantages that we had. We kept her close, but we were also afraid of Gabby because for myself I knew Gabby had gotten close with Alison, so it was always scary for me. When I went to my final confessional I said, “If I can just get Alison this vote right here, then perhaps me and the guys have to get Gabby because Gabby is ready to flip on us.” I knew it was coming. I just thought I had one more Tribal left in me before it happened.

The other players were all saying that you were acting almost as a dictator, sort of giving orders instead of having consensus conversations. Do you agree with that assessment and that you could have done a better job of making people feel a part of the decision-making process?

I mean, I felt as if everybody was in the decision process. I wasn’t fixing to do all the scrambling and run out on the beach and all of that. I stayed in the shelter. I was the third oldest person on the whole cast so I tried to save all my energy as much as I possibly could. I talked to people, but hey, has there ever been anyone in 37 seasons labeled the Godfather? Not to my recognition. So, I’ll take that.

Dude, how drunk were you on that reward feast?

Oh my God, man. Honestly, I have to say after that reward I was wasted. I regret it now, but I was having fun. I mean, c’mon, I was on an island in Fiji drinking beer and hanging out with people! You get lost in the moment. Yeah, I was wasted. I was wasted. Every time there was alcohol involved, whether it was me or whomever else, we all came back to camp drunk. Everybody did. It just so happens that that the edit for me showed me as being the guy who got drunk. But, hey, it made for great TV.

Speaking of which, tell us about the decision to sit out that one immunity challenge for nachos, margaritas, and beer. I know you had not been on any post-merge reward feasts, but I also know how important immunity is, as you found out just a few days later. Take me through your decision on that and was that an easy one for you?

Before we got to the reward, I had talked to my alliance and we discussed it. And they knew that I hadn’t had anything to eat other than the merge feast. So I told them, “Iaf it looks like a challenge that I know I don’t have the strength or energy to even put up a fight to win, then if there’s food, are you guys okay with me sitting out?” And they all said yes. So when it came to it and I seen it I was like, there’s no way I can stand up there and beat two of these people let alone all of them. So I had to make that decision to get some food.

When did it hit you that you and Nick basically controlled the entire vote for that one Tribal Council by combining his steal-a-vote and your Nullifier?

We all walked and talked about it and Gabby didn’t want me to play the Nullifier. They just wanted to go with the steal-a-vote. And, for me, it was like, “Okay, that’s something we can do, but if things don’t line up perfectly, then just stealing the vote isn’t going to work.” So I was hell-bent on playing the Nullifier because it’s a sure thing. We caught wind about Dan’s second idol by the fact of him going to the Tiva beach, and Gabby and Christian both said that nobody found the idol and Dan wasn’t really gung-ho in looking for it so they felt that maybe he had already found it. So at that point it was like, okay, this is our chance.

And if you go back and look at that Tribal and count the votes, Dan had six votes, Christian had three and Angelina had two, so if I don’t play the Idol Nullifier, Christian goes home. So it was the perfect time to play it. We had a real strong feeling Dan was going to play his idol and it worked out. First time in Survivor history. I absolutely enjoyed it.

Finally, I think I know the answer to this but who was in your final three with you?

To be honest, my final three was going to be me, Davie, and Nick. And we just felt that we go together to the final three and may the best man win because we were super-tight from the very beginning of the game, although the edit didn’t show it.

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