Survivor's Kyle Fraser Calls Fire Decision 'One Of The Hardest Things I've Ever Had To Do In My Entire Life'
The following contains spoilers from Wednesday's season finale of Survivor 48.
A new Survivor winner has been crowned and his name is Kyle Fraser!
Sometimes playing the middle pays off. Literally! Kyle spent a majority of the game with his foot in almost every alliance, building ties with the Strong 5, while strategizing hard with his real No. 1 Kamilla. While he did find himself caught between loyalties a few times throughout, Fraser was able to win the Final 4 challenge (Simmotion!) to secure his seat at the Final Tribal council. When the jury votes came in, he won the million dollars by a vote of 5-2-1, beating competitors Eva Erickson and Joe Hunter. (Read our full recap here.)
Below, Kyle details his winning game for TVLine, plus fills us in on what wasn't shown on TV, his hardest game decision, relationship with Kamilla and so much more.
TVLINE | First off, congratulations! How are you feeling right now?
KYLE FRASER | Thank you, thank you! Honestly, I'm feeling pretty good. It's been pretty fun.
TVLINE | How hard was it keeping such a huge secret for nearly a year?
Oh, it was terrible because you play this game, you're lying the entire time, and then I get out the game, I get married a month and a half later, best day of my life, but people know I'm on the show. It's so tough. It was hard, but I'm glad it's off my chest finally.
TVLINE | When Jeff went off to tally the final votes, how confident were you that you secured the bag?
I'll be honest, I was worried up until I heard Jeff say, "The winner of Survivor 48." I went to the end with two very strong competitors. If you zoom out, Kamilla and Mitch were terrifying to me as well. Everybody was an absolute threat. I think that's the theme of our season. Threats go to the end. But I knew that I made my case and I owned my game, and I'm really proud of the way that I did that. So if I'm putting a number on it, probably 70% confident, but you never know. I'm a lawyer. Juries could do whatever they want to do.
TVLINE | I loved how Kamilla set you up so you could really explain the Shauhin vote, but there were so many other aspects of your game that weren't mentioned at Final Tribal. What else did you tell the jury that didn't make the TV edit?
I talked about the David vote. David and I had a very, very close relationship. In a lot of ways, he was actually my No. 1 at the beginning of the game for quite some time. So that was a very big move in a lot of different ways. I talked about managing information. Kamilla's extra vote, that never came up again. Jeff never read it. We were able to use and leverage that information to work my way into the majority alliance and let Kamilla be a mole in the minority. So I talked about that. I talked about my relationships. I played an idol, I won challenges, but I think in a lot of ways, I was a very social player. I had very close bonds with Joe, very close bonds with Eva, and very, very close bonds with people on the jury, which was scary to me because a lot of people who went home were burned the most by me.
TVLINE | You and Kamilla both decided that you couldn't sit next to each other in the Final 3. Did you always feel that way? Was it always the plan to cut one another at four?
It was not always the plan, but I think around seven or six, we could see the writing on the wall. Kamilla and I had had a lot of conversations out there about one of us winning the game. I mean, hell, after that idol play, we realized that we were perfect partners in this game and we continued to do things in the shadows. Both of us realized the game that we were playing, but we also realized that the other people around us didn't. They didn't know. We wanted our game to be represented. We didn't want to just kind of get lost in the reels, so that was very important. But I would say after the Shauhin vote, both of us saw the writing on the wall. There was only one way for one of us to win, and it was not sitting with one another.
TVLINE | You put in work trying to keep the target off Kamilla, even a couple times when it put your own game at risk. Did you ever consider cutting her and running with the Strong 5?
The David vote was a particularly tough pivot in my game. The Civa 4 was an alliance that meant a lot to me. I really wanted to go to the end with that four, especially going into the merge. And I saw a world where maybe the Civa 4, plus Joe, Eva, Shauhin, [them] thinking we're doing this multifaceted alliance, and at the end, we eat them. Of course, I developed relationships with Joe and Eva and we sort of pivot in a lot of ways, but David and I were smack dab in the middle of whatever majority alliance you could sort of envision at the beginning of the merge. And we were in the perfect position, but I think that we both wanted different things. And so it made it really hard to have to break paths with somebody you're playing the game with so tightly, because you have different visions of how you want to go to the end.
TVLINE | What was the hardest vote or decision you had to make this season and why?
Wow. Fire was a really, really tough day. I knew that I was going to take Joe because emotionally, Joe was like a brother to me. We're very, very close. That was a relationship that meant a lot to me out there. Strategically, also, I couldn't give him one more thing, to put a notch on his resume that could maybe make him sort of pull away from me. At the same time, Eva and I were very close, and I knew the moment that I said, "Hey, I'm putting you in fire," to see the pain that she went through to get ready for that particular circumstance, it's one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my entire life. I can't even imagine what it was like for her. The cool thing about that was that she was not gonna let me take that away from her, and she was not gonna let Joe take that away from her. Then on top of all of that, I just talked about Kamilla, who I've been with the entire game, even though I knew that we couldn't sit together and win next to one another. To part ways that way was very, very difficult, but it had to be done, I guess.
TVLINE | Speaking of Eva, how much did her reaction pull on your heartstrings and how close were you to actually changing your decision and perhaps going into Fire yourself?
Oh, there was a point where I was 100% ready to do it. And when I'm doing that confessional and I'm like, "I'm no coward," I'm being very serious, And there were even points during that Tribal Council where I wanted to raise my hand, but again, Eva is the strongest person I know in so many different ways. I feel like I'm learning from her every single day. The moment I told her she was making fire, despite everything that she went through, it was hers. It was no longer going to be mine, and she would have bucked back 10 million times over. I wanted to do it so bad, but it was hers. It was hers and she did it.
TVLINE | Was there anything about your game that wasn't shown on TV that people should know about?
In terms of getting to the mid-merge, I really was in the middle, and managing that many narratives is an incredibly difficult thing to do. I'm usually accused of being, in my real life by my friends and family, a very emotionally unavailable person, but in that game, I was probably the most emotional guy out there, which is so ironic. But I had the majority alliance that I was so ingrained in. My relationship with Shauhin was so great. We were very close out there. They showed me and Kamilla's relationship, but the minority alliance, I was in there too. Me and Mitch were very close. Me and Star had incredible conversations. Me and Mitch were gaming every single day. And so while I felt like some people had the luxury of managing one narrative, I sometimes had 10 or 12 to manage in my head. And I think I did an OK job. I only cried once, maybe twice.
TVLINE | How hard was that Simmotion challenge and what was it like playing that Survivor classic?
That one was so much fun. It's tough because the beginning of the game colored how I looked at the challenges so much. I'm an athletic-presenting person, I was a college athlete. I thought I was gonna go in and crush it. I see David, I see Joe and then I failed multiple times at the beginning of the game, and it really made those challenges very tough. I felt like I was coming in scared for a lot of things, but by the time we got to the end, I was just myself again. I could still hear myself in my head. I was going, "Right, right, right, right, right. Left, left, left, left, left." It was just fun. I think that was the story for me out there. I was just being myself and having fun and finally letting myself be vulnerable. That's what you need to do to win, so that was literally the most fun I've ever had. I don't think I was nervous until I actually won.
TVLINE | You won the game, so clearly you did a lot of things right. But was there anything you wish you would've done differently? Any decision you regret out there?
The one glaring mistake that I think I made that could have bit me really badly was telling Kamilla about the Safety Without Power. People think this partnership with Kamilla was easy-peasy. No. I was very well aware that Kamila was the most dangerous player out there from a strategic perspective, yet I trusted her wholeheartedly. But I never gave her anything concrete that she could use against me, except for the Safety Without Power.
I think at 5, if Kamilla — which she wouldn't have done because we were gonna go to the end. We wanted our game represented — but if there's a world maybe where she tells Eva and Joe, "Hey, Kyle's been doing this behind your back," and they'd be like, "Well, we don't believe you." But she could have been like, "I know about your Safety Without Power," which is one of the only things that was hidden in the game. So it's a little nuanced, but that was me slipping up by giving her something concrete she could have used against me. You gotta play with dangerous people, that's the beauty of the game. The reason we were able to do everything so well together is because I think that we're both good players. So, you have to look over your shoulder, but you need relationships like that to leverage and win too.
TVLINE | I know you just came off a big W, but would you ever play again, and if so, is there anything you'd do differently?
Oh, I would play in a heartbeat. Please, please! I would love to. I don't think I would want to play the middle again. The middle was fun. It was also incredibly difficult at some points, and as you saw, emotionally hard as well. I don't think anybody would let me do that again. I think if I played, I'd either want to be in the majority or a minority alliance, find a couple of idols, win a couple immunities or something, but I don't think I can do the middle again.
TVLINE | We've seen people riding the middle called out and cut many times in the past!
Exactly! I don't want to play that again. It's too much heat!
TVLINE | We're on the precipice of finding out who's going to be heading out for Season 50. Anyone in particular you're hoping to see on that cast list?
I would love to see like a Cochran, a Christian Hubicki. It's funny. I was in the strong alliance, but I think of myself as one of the nerdy guys. I know it's a hot take, but I love watching Cirie play. I'd love to see her. She always figures out a way. So, I'd say those three and I'll leave it at that.