David Kinne says girlfriend left him after he did not win ‘Survivor 48’

David Kinne was great at reading the room. He correctly figured out that Shauhin Davari was trying to get closer to Kamilla Karthigesu on Survivor 48. And he also correctly deduced that Kyle Fraser was a lot closer to Kamilla than he was letting on. But while David was great at reading the room, he wasn’t great at speaking to the room.

David rubbed fellow alliance members the wrong way with what they considered paranoid ramblings… even if they weren’t. It didn’t help when he accused Joe Hunter of breaking his word on the previous vote, which Joe vehemently denied. It also may not have helped when he lost the immunity challenge and then immediately told host Jeff Probst that he should have won — an immunity victory that would have protected him from elimination.

What does David make now of his alliance turning on him? Does he think Joe broke his word (again?) by voting him out? Did he make up with Chrissy Sarnowsky over at Ponderosa? And whatever happened with his girlfriend back home that was fed up with David’s money issues? We asked Captain America all that and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Tell me the feeling when you saw your name keep coming up at Tribal Council.

DAVID KINNE: The first time I saw my name, I knew it was over. Because why else would anybody be voting for me? The people on the outs wouldn’t be voting for me if they didn’t think that there was the majority, and the majority wouldn’t be there unless my allies had turned on me. And if that had happened, I knew that I was going home. So once I saw my name read the first time, I knew it was over.

It seemed super tense and awkward after Probst announced it was you. Tell me about the looks you exchanged with folks like Joe as that all went down.

There are so many emotions going through that moment, and the worst part about it is I truly believe they got it wrong. And you can see I believe that in the edit. And so it was heartbreaking to me because I truly was doing everything I could tokeep my alliance intact. I was the ride or die kind of guy. I was going to go to the end with them.

And so to see my name written down, I knew that basically they had been manipulated. That was unfortunate for me because at the end of the day, obviously, I was going home. But then also I feel as if they screwed up too. And I knew that almost their game was tanked at that moment, so to speak, or at least maybe I thought it was.

There was a lot going on, and so I did blame Joe mostly because he was the one I knew that had to have flipped, because as you saw on the log, there was this consensus among the group — me, Mary, Eva, and then obviously Joe conceded, “Okay, we’re going to do Kamilla.” And then Shauhin and Kyle did a great job of manipulating Joe, and even Eva to an extent. And they changed the vote back to Kamilla at the last second, which I predicted they would. And he didn’t stand his ground. He didn’t.

And so that was a hard moment. I felt he stabbed me in the back, and he did. He swore on his kids that he would never stab me in the back. He would just give me a sword rather than a dagger to the back. He would just give me a sword and we would fight it out. And I truly believed him, and I think when he said it, he meant it at the time. And so giving him that look was definitely like, “Man, I thought you were better than this,” basically.

It seems like there was really nothing said between you and the others during or after the vote. Was that the case or was stuff edited out of the final cut?

No, that was just it. That was just silence. I mean, they didn’t deserve any words, so I just walked off. I am sorry, but I feel I had a pretty good game. I have nothing but respect, by the way, for all my fellow contestants and players. We’re all good friends outside of the game. But in that moment, yeah, it’s hard not to feel betrayed.

You were trying to play this honest, upfront game. We saw that scene where you said Joe broke his word by switching his vote from Kamilla to Chrissy and he said that he never breaks his word, which leads to the obvious question: Do you think Joe broke his word in voting you out after you all made an alliance together?

Oh, absolutely. There’s more obviously that the edit cannot show, but there was one particular moment during the reward where it was me, Mary, Eva, and Joe. And I had a strong suspicion about Kyle and Shauhin working with Kamilla, and I felt it. There was other signs, there was little things here and there, which obviously is really hard to pick up on for a lot of people, and especially for the cameras.

So I told Joe “Look, man, this is what’s going to happen. I know this is going on and I’m right about this. This is how you know that I’m going to be right. We’re going to switch the vote to Kamilla. They’re not going to like it and they’re probably going to give you a little bit of pushback, but eventually they’re going to be like, ‘Okay, fine, the vote’s Kamilla,’ and they’re going to be really uncomfortable.” Which you saw clearly as day.

So I laid out this whole plan and then I told them, “And then they’re going to go along with Kamilla for the most of the day, and then one of them — either Shauhin or Kyle or both — is going to come to you right before Tribal Council and they’re going to tell you, ‘This is bulls—. We need to switch the vote back to Chrissy. Kamilla makes no sense.’”

I predicted everything that they were going to do, and Joe said and promised me that if that moment happened, he would stay on his ground, that he wouldn’t keep Kamilla. And he didn’t do that. Not only I gave them it on a silver platter and I said, “This is what they’re going to do. This is how without a doubt that they’re working together.” And they fell right into my trap, right into my prediction, and Joe still did not keep his word.

Do you think you telling Joe he kind of broke his word is what got you voted out of this game? Like, was he so offended that it pushed him into flipping?

Yes. Look, Joe’s an incredible man. He really is. He has an incredible family. I have so much respect for him. I look up to him in many different ways. He was not playing the game in that moment, or at least not in a smart way, I don’t believe. And he’s obviously being manipulated by Shauhin and Kyle in this moment and that was frustrating.

And what can you do? It is such a hard thing and a fickle thing, not being aggressive. I’m not being condescending. I’m not raising my voice at anybody. I’m just saying with the whole log thing, it’s me pushing back on Kyle. Kyle’s literally trying to gaslight myself and my allies, so of course I’m going to push back. And Joe going against his word, it’s like I know I’m sort of screwed at that point. What am I going to do if one of my number one allies, the guy who’s supposed to be the ride or die, never going to stab me in the back kind of guy — if I can’t even have a basic conversation with him, if I can’t trust him to keep his word, then what am I doing at that point? My game’s already dead.

It’s really fascinating because usually on Survivor when you’re watching and all the players like, “Oh my God, this person is so paranoid” — usually that person is being paranoid. But you were actually totally right that Shauhin wanted to get closer to Kamila, and you were right that Kyle and Kamilla had a thing.  So does that make it easier to go down knowing you were on the right track, or does it make it harder that no one would listen to you?

It’s kind a big mix of both, to be honest. I feel as I had my finger on the pulse of the game for sure, and pretty much on everybody. I had a good read on almost everybody. I knew everybody’s exact position in the game. I did. And unfortunately, again, it doesn’t matter sometimes how right you are. Unfortunately, you have to play with other people.

I thought I had a great relationship with everybody on the island. Nobody was targeting me until they did in the very end. Nobody was looking at me as this threat. Although I think subconsciously maybe that plays into Joe’s and Eva’s decision ultimately. But yeah, it was tough because I don’t feel as if I overstepped any boundaries. If Joe and Eva saw me as the equal, it would’ve been an easy vote on Kamilla. So obviously they didn’t, and there was something else going on there and what are you going to do?

You have to push, because that to me was such a pivotal vote and the one that I got voted on, if we survived those two votes, we’re good. We have the numbers, we’re safe. Even if there’s an idol or something like that, we should be pretty much okay. And so to me, those two votes, yeah, I’m going to be a little on edge.

But the thing is, you have to assume people are playing their best game. Joe and Eva just weren’t doing that in that moment. And that’s what kind of cost me my game is them not looking at the big picture and saying, “How does this person get to the end? How does Kyle get to the end? How does Kamilla get to the end?” If you just take a step back and you ask yourself that simple question, it was pretty easy to see what was going on. But they just were so caught up in their own hubris that I guess, yeah, they kind of screwed themselves. And me, of course.

Let’s talk about that last immunity challenge. What happened because it looked like it was all yours?

I think my years of sports and football kicked in because I was looking at the shadow of the ball basically, and I saw the ball moving, and so when something’s moving forward, I want to move forward to catch it. And so that was just my natural instinct is to catch it. And, of course, I saw that Joe was teetering on the edge and I thought that maybe he was going to drop soon, and there’s a little bit more that goes into that.

But basically I guess you could say I lost focus for a quick moment and then my instinct kicked in and rather than push up, I went forward to try to catch. It just been ingrained in me my whole life playing football and sports and that kind of screwed me in the end. But I had a sinking feeling that it wasn’t just the challenge that I had lost in that moment.

Do you think that may have rubbed Joe the wrong way when you said after that you should have won?

If someone were to say that to me and they truly meant it, I don’t think I would’ve been offended. But Joe is very easily offended, and he takes things very personally, and you see that in the edit sometimes. And so yeah, I definitely think he took that to heart even though I didn’t mean it in a negative way. I mean, nothing to take away from his win. Of course, he did a good job. He fought. But at the end of the day, yeah, I clearly had a lot more left in the tank.

I lost focus for a split second. That’s Survivor. And I am glad that he got the win to a certain extent. And I even said as much afterwards. Shortly after that, I was like, “I can’t wait for your kids to watch you pull that all out.” And I did mean that too, but obviously in the moment, yeah, I’m pissed at myself. I don’t think I should have lost that challenge. That’s something that kept me up at night quite a bit, for sure.

What was it that caused you and Mary to get so close, because we didn’t really see that happen in the edit?

Oh, Mary, I love Mary. She’s great. She really is. And this was a tough part in the game to navigate because Mary latched onto me, and rightfully so. When the tribe swap happens, I just wanted to protect her, because I knew that she’d been through so much, and that’s just the kind of person that I am. And so I wanted to really get close to her and basically just make sure she doesn’t go home.

But my number one ally on the swap was Eva. I really wanted to work with Eva long term. Mary sort of latched onto me and I did the best I could to keep her at arm’s length, but she was just everywhere and she was following me around. And again, not to take anything away from Mary. She’s a great player and she’s a great person, but I couldn’t separate myself from her in the strong five.

She was close with Eva and she was close with Joe, and so I think she was working with us and Joe and Eva saw that, “Okay, she’s part of the group, I guess.” So I know a lot of people were like, “Well, David brought in Mary,” and it really wasn’t like me bringing in Mary. It was Mary sort of inserting herself into the group and then attaching herself to me. And it just came to the point where I’m like, “I can’t do anything about Mary. She’s here. We might as well use her for a number.”

And so it was the strong six in front of Mary. When Mary was not around, it was the strong five. She was always going to be the sixth boot, which I don’t think was ever really truly clarified.  

What was the reunion like at Ponderosa with Chrissy? You all had that big back and forth at the previous Tribal Council, so how did that go?

What’s funny is Kamilla was talking about jury management, and the thing is, Chrissy and I had a great relationship. And when I got back to Ponderosa, they had both told in those exit interviews or whatever that you see in social media that I was going to win. Chrissy would’ve voted for me. Cedrek would’ve voted for me. I had a great relationship with pretty much everybody on the island. I did.

Chrissy came to me, and I think she saw me as her closest ally, and there was a moment where right before that vote, basically it was just her and I at the water well, and she started crying, and it got me teary eyed because I did care a lot for Chrissy. And that’s the thing people don’t understand is I was myself out there. A lot of people go out to play Survivor and they pretend to be someone. That was not me. That was not the game that I’m playing.

And so when I’m having an “argument” with Chrissy, it’s out of respect. It’s out of love, and it’s out of friendship. I’m not trying to walk on eggshells. I’m not trying to do anything else. Chrissy and I had a relationship that was real, and I don’t think people understand that. And so the jury management might apply to a lot of people that aren’t being themselves, but that was like me arguing with a family member.

We had those moments because we respected one another and we were friends and we loved each other to a certain instance because we were family. And so there was no bad blood whatsoever. The moment I got back to Ponderosa, it was just nothing but hugs and smiles and cheers and reminiscing on the good times that we had.

You talked openly on the show about how you needed to win the million or your girlfriend would not stay with you. That was 10 months ago. What is the status of that whole situation now?

Well, a few weeks after she found out I didn’t win, she was out the door. So as many people probably laughed at that whole thing, it was unfortunately true. But things are going now. I’m dating the most incredible woman. She’s phenomenal. I’m truly feeling blessed right now. So yeah, I’m almost glad I didn’t win a million dollars on that.

Can someone win Survivor by playing a completely honest game?

Oh, absolutely. I think it’s possible, and I think we were well on our way. I think Joe and Eva were astute enough to notice the true happenings what was going on then I think that we would’ve been pretty successful. I really do, and we’ll see how the rest of the season plays out, but I think if I still were still in the game that at least I personally would’ve rode all the way to the end with Joe and Eva, and if it was us in the final three, then obviously that prediction would’ve came true.

So obviously I’m not in the game, so it’s hard, but I do think there was a pathway to play an honest game. And again, it is Survivor, right? When you say honest, it’s like: This is your core group. These are the people I’m going to stick with and I’m going to lie as little as possible. But obviously you have to every once in a while send a lie or tell lie to someone on the outs.

I think that’s something people don’t understand. Honesty and integrity is just really, when you have a core value and core belief system and you have this alliance — those are the people that you hold in high regard and that’s the game you’re playing, right? And so not turning your back on those people is, to me, the honest and integrity part. And I know that gets twisted a lot, but I do believe there is a path to forming an alliance, even as many as five or six and riding them all the way the end. I haven’t seen all the Survivor seasons, so I’m not sure if that has been done before. But yeah, I think it is possible, even in the new era.

Finally, what is something that happened out there that did not make it to TV that you wish we had gotten to see?

There’s nothing really big aside from the reward with Joe and Eva where Joe did go back on his word and did promise me, and he also promised me he would never vote me out, but here we are.

There was one moment where we were considering bringing Mary into the strong five, and Shauhin came up to me by himself and he just randomly said, “I know you’re pretty close with Mary and she makes a lot of sense, but what about Kamilla?” And it was just the way he said it, right? And just like that little bit of pushback that just planted the seed that “Okay, he obviously is at least thinking about working with her.” And there are other moments like that that led to me being suspicious of Shauhin, and it’s very hard for them to include those things. So there were a lot of little tiny signs that ultimately painted a picture of which I was like, “Wait a minute, something’s going on here.”

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