Survivor 47 star Andy Rueda details comeback from meltdown to merge

It’s been a wild ride on Survivor 47. All five eliminated players have been blindsided out of their proverbial socks, with the last three leaving in a befuddled stupor. But perhaps the wildest ride of all has been that of Andy Rueda. Andy had a crisis of confidence during his first three days on the island, talking to Jeff Probst as if his game was already over, and then having a mat chat meltdown after the challenge when he talked openly in front of the entire cast about how he thought about backstabbing his best friend in game (Jon Lovett) and how his own tribe did not like him and wouldn’t cheer for him when he opened a coconut. It appeared all too obvious that Andy would be voted out that night at Tribal Council.

Only that didn’t happen. Instead, Andy survived. And now, after helping to blindside tribe mate Anika Dhar, Andy is set to make Mergatory on tonight’s pivotal episode. It has been an unlikely, yet fascinating, ascent; for while Andy has still struggled in certain aspects of island living — witness his attempts to cut a rope with the wrong end of a saw during last week’s immunity challenge — he has finally gotten his footing in the game, forming an alliance with Sam Phalen and Sierra Wright to take control of the Gata tribe heading into the next phase of the battle.

What does Andy make of his journey so far? Does he feel bad about blindsiding Anika? What was it like watching his mat chat meltdown back on TV? And what happened out there that we did not see on TV? We asked the 31-year-old AI research assistant all that and more in this exclusive mid-game chat.

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s start by looking ahead. After everything that you went through early in this game, what was the feeling like to get that message to drop your buffs and that you were all moving onto one beach?

ANDY RUEDA: It was a very, very gratifying moment for me, because I had been scratching and clawing my way out of the bottom the entire time up to that point. Realistically, my game had been reduced down to only a single path, which was to pour all my energy into getting Sam and Sierra to trust me. I knew how important it was to just cling on and get to the next phase of the game, because that is where all my options would finally open up.

The thing I had going for me was self-awareness. I knew the other tribes looked at me as an underdog and a loose piece to be scooped up, and so I believed I would have many more options going into Mergatory.

I talked about how a tribe of six has 15 individual relationships; that’s nothing compared to a beach with 13 people, which has C(13, 2) = 13*12/2 = 78 individual relationships, as well as 2^13 - 15 = 8,177 possible alliances. The realization that I had a chance to move on over to the next beach and reshape my game was a great feeling.

What’s been the most interesting thing to see from the other two tribes as you’ve been watching the episodes on TV?

Honestly, I just think it’s really freaking cool that I’m on a season of Survivor. I get more fired up watching scenes of Lavo or Tuku than scenes of Gata, because I get to sit back and be proud that I was in the same cast as these people.

One thing that stands out is the confessionals. This is a group where everyone’s approach and view of the game is so unique, and it’s the ways in which those views clash that has led to such a dynamic pre-merge. So I’ve loved hearing everyone talk about their games in confessionals, because you can connect the dots on how each player is motivated to simply play the game in the best way they see fit, and yet it leads to wildly different and incompatible playstyles.

You helped pull off the big blindside of Anika last week. What was the feeling like when she turned around at Tribal Council after the votes were read and was so clearly devastated?

That was one of the most satisfying moments of my life. Obviously, it was tense, but there was no sweat off my back; it’s not like I was the one who betrayed her — she wanted me to go that night.

Anika was someone who had little respect for me, and I was thrilled that I helped turn the tables on her. She probably didn’t see it that way, but I think it’s pretty clear that I played days 4 through 10 with intentionality and purpose that earned me a spot over her in the final 13, and it paid off in a pretty glorious way.

If there was anything else on my mind in the moment, it was that I strongly considered straight-up asking her about why there were only four votes, because I figured that if she was in a state of shock and eliminated from the game that she would just be honest. However, I thought it would probably sketch out Sam and Sierra, so I refrained.

You are far from the first person to have an emotional breakdown out on the island, but how hard was it watch that first episode play back on TV when you were really struggling socially out there?

Obviously, it was something that I had a long time to anticipate. That was in many ways the worst day of my life, and I knew that it would be millions of people’s first impression of me, so that was a bit stressful. But honestly… I’ve crushed the airing portion of being a Survivor player thus far.

We’ve seen me be vulnerable about insecurities from the past coming back to bite me, but even over the course of the pre-merge, I learned a hell of a lot about myself, and found a deep well of self-assuredness and resilience that I was lucky to carry with me back home.

So in terms of watching everything back, I’ve basically stayed off social media completely. Maybe it’s better for me out there by now, I don’t really know. But the beauty is that I don’t care. I’m very uncurious about what people might think on a week-to-week basis. For example, you’re going to post this article and there will be Twitter and Reddit comments about it. I’m not going to read those. I’m on a really fun trip right now. That being said, I’ve been sent a lot of support, which is awesome.

We saw that montage of you falling out of the boat and all the stuff, and then using the wrong end of the blade to cut the rope at the challenge. Sam called you the George Costanza of Survivor. Are you that way back home as well, or is that unique to the island?

That’s just me. I’m clumsy, I’m spatially unaware, I have two left feet. In normal life I just don’t put myself in a position to have those flaws exposed as much: I can mostly sit around and look pretty, and people just assume I’m a lot smoother than I am.

But Survivor really is a chance to test yourself and see how you can perform outside of your comfort zone. I did find myself a bit surprised by how much the island life exacerbated that side of me, but if nothing else, I was highly aware of the benefits of being perceived as a doof in a game of threat management.

What would you have done on the journey if Teeny had refused to sacrifice her vote, meaning all three of you would lose them as well as the shared advantage?

Retaining my vote was a very high priority for me throughout the entire pre-merge, which obviously informed a lot of my previous decisions, including not wanting to go on the first journey, and putting back the Beware Advantage. So going into that journey (for which I was chosen to go by random pick), I knew I had to keep my vote at all costs, because I felt that I tentatively had Sam and Sierra’s votes, in which case the worst thing that could happen was losing my own.

I think the standard plan of action is pretty straightforward: come out strong and early about how it cannot be you, and never put yourself back on the table. But if the others are clearly not budging and there’s one grain of sand left in the hourglass, it could be better to relent, and at least get the Amulet (if that floats your boat), and the benefit of building goodwill with the others.

That being said, I figured Teeny and Caroline were pretty switched-on players and would think along those same lines, so even if it got to the last grains of sand, I would have taken the chance and waited for them to make that last-second panic move. My agenda to keep my vote was really that serious for me.

Some might see the Amulet as a worse fate than losing your vote for one Tribal Council, which might lead to a different strategy. That’s fine, but I didn’t see it that way. To me, your voting parchment is your strongest advantage in the game, and losing it is unacceptable. 

What's something interesting that happened in the pre-merge portion of the game that never made it to TV?

There was more happening on the Jon vote than was shown, and so I may as well tell my perspective. All my pent-up anxiety burst and flowed out after the immunity challenge, and so by the time we were back on Gata beach to scramble, I was mostly back to myself and ready to fight to stay in the game.

Jon’s plan was to rope in me and Sam to tie the vote 3-3, and push the threat of rocks in order to flip Sierra over to our side by force. I knew that simply wouldn’t work, because Sam and Sierra were evidently close allies, so why would Sam ever agree to that? Right after, I told Sam that I would be willing to sacrifice Jon that night and build an alliance with him and Sierra going forward. He liked that idea much more than what Jon was cooking, and so Sam and Sierra became advocates to keep me in the game over Jon.

What was your favorite moment you experienced this season leading up to the merge?

When I think about my Survivor memories, I separate them into two groups: the big moments that I immediately knew would make the show, and the small moments that I knew wouldn’t make the show.

I’ll go with the little moment. I got a really great night's sleep on night three, and woke up to a beautiful sunrise the next morning. The first thing I did was wade out and take a nice and peaceful aqua dump. In that quiet time, I had an epiphany that the worst was behind me, I’m still playing the game that I love, and that every additional day I get will be a gift.

An hour or so later, I had this really silly moment laying down in the shelter with Sierra, where she was trying to point out a lime in the tree above us for about ten minutes before she realized it was just a leaf or something. It really wasn’t that funny, but we couldn’t stop cracking up. For me, that morning was a hard reset, and I realized that beyond the million-dollar stakes, the gravitas of the Survivor franchise, the intense pressure and scrutiny, we were just a handful of people living in the jungle and playing a game. It was freeing.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.