'Survivor: South Pacific': The winner speaks! And delivers parting shots at fellow finalists

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/12/19/survivor-south-pacific-sophie-finale/

It may have been the Coach and Ozzy show (with a side order of Cochran) for much of Survivor: South Pacific, but in the end, it was the medical student who took home the million dollars and the title of Sole Survivor. Sophie Clarke won challenges when she needed to — including the decisive last one against Ozzy — and handled the bitter jury better than Coach or Albert, leading her to victory and a celebratory chat with yours truly. Sophie called in to discuss how she won (a certain emotional breakdown at Tribal Council certainly didn’t hurt), and don’t think she’s above taking a few parting shows at her fellow finalists along the way.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So, at any point did Albert ask for your million dollar check, but offer to give it back if he ever thought you were in financial danger?
SOPHIE: Uh…no comment.

What I want to know is; Where’s the oversized novelty check? For me, that would be almost better than the real thing.
You mean like when you go on The Early Show and they give you that huge thing?

Yeah!
I don’t know! I want a huge one. What am I gonna do? I’m going to have to photo copy this one or something.

Go to Kinkos and blow it up?
I think they probably gave it to Coach by accident.

Which is better: being named Prom Princess in 11th grade or Sole Survivor?
That’s a tough call. I’m gonna go with Prom Princess. Survivor is great and everything, but it’s associated with the pretentious brat thing. When I was a Prom Princess, everyone was calling me wonderful and beautiful and smart. And there was also a crown involved. The only person that ever got a crown from Survivor is Sandra and I think she probably bought it herself.

Sophie, there were a lot of comments made about your character in the finale. Would you describe yourself as warm or fuzzy?
Wait, are you seriously asking me that question? That is so funny because when I was in college I overheard this girl talking about me and her friend said to her, “Who is this girl you’re talking about?” and the girl said, “Her name’s Sophie and she’s not warm or fuzzy or anything!” No, I am neither warm nor fuzzy. I don’t want to be either. Would you ever want to be described as warm or fuzzy?

You don’t think I’m warm and fuzzy, Sophie?
No. C’mon. I’m not friends with many warm or fuzzy people. The only person I’m friends with who’s warm and fuzzy is Dawn, and I think she’s genuinely the only warm and fuzzy person in the world.

It’s actually kind of scary how genuinely warm and fuzzy she is.
I know, right? It’s terrifying!

You had an emotional breakdown at Tribal Council, and while I’m sure you were mortified by that when it happened because you pride yourself on being such a strong woman, do you think that helped you with the jury in that it showed your softer side and that you too could be vulnerable?
Definitely. At first I was like, “Oh my God, I just ruined everything. Nobody wants a crybaby for a winner.” But then I got back to the beach and started thinking about it, and the reason I was being called out was I was being told I had this hard exterior and came off too blunt and arrogant and I came off like a bitch. And by crying and being a little bit more vulnerable, I squashed that. I think I did win part of the jury over right there.

How comfortable were you going into that final Tribal when you first arrived, and then how comfortable were you after the jury questions when they went up to vote?
I knew that I had a shot. The thing that shocked me was Ozzy starting it off by saying, “This game is yours to lose, Coach,” and that shocked me. Because I thought I was going to go in there with a good claim for the million, and all of a sudden I was on defense. And then after all the questions I could tell that Coach was really hammered. I mean everyone was getting hammered, but he was getting hammered the most. All they wanted was honesty, and I was the only one at the final Tribal to give them honesty. All Coach had to say was “I manipulated all of you,” and he would have gotten the million. I was the only one to own up to things. I was just brutally honest with people and didn’t just say what they wanted to hear. Cochran asked me, “What was the best move of the game?” and I immediately said, “Well, it wasn’t yours. Yours sucked!” And, you know, Albert would never say that. Albert would think that was the surest way to lose a jury vote. I could tell the jury didn’t want to be messed around with. They’re not stupid people.

Who didn’t vote for you besides Cochran?
I actually thought I was going to get more votes than I did. I came out of Tribal, thought I won, thought about it a lot over this year, and I was pretty sure that Cochran and Edna had voted for Coach. Why Edna voted for Coach is beyond me. But I think Coach’s third vote was Rick, which is surprising. But I really screwed over Rick. Rick was truly a very bitter juror, because Rick never had an alliance with Coach. Rick and I had a final three alliance. And he was very bitter at me. So I was actually really terrified when I saw the third vote. I was like, “Oh my God, I was completely wrong. I thought I won!” I started to practice my gracious loser face in my head. It was terrifying.

Tribal Councils are always much longer than what we see on TV. Tell me something else big that was said by either you and the finalists or the jury at that final tribal that didn’t make the final cut.
Well, like the whole season, there was also more religion than what was shown. I was asked how I felt about the religion thing and had to give a politically correct answer. I think the religion thing really screwed Coach over because Dawn is a very religious person and Brandon is a very religious person and to them it was really unnecessary and too personal.

When you said, “I’m not a used car salesman,” that was totally directed at Albert, wasn’t it?
Yeah, I took a lot of shots at Albert at that final Tribal. Actually, that’s one of the main things you never saw throughout the season. Every Tribal, I took shots at Albert, which is why he starting hating me. I would try to take playful shots at him because I was really worried. Albert was really buttering up the jury. And I was getting really worried that he might win. So the time he gave Cochran the massage I called him out hard at Tribal.

Speaking of Albert, that was a pretty bold move ordering him to pick up your pieces for you during the house of cards challenge.
Albert is the worst challenge player in the history of Survivor. I feel confident saying that. Even like, Courtney Yates won a challenge, right? I mean, whatever, he won one challenge. We all agreed that none of us would win the million if Ozzy got to the end. The main thing was to beat Ozzy. I didn’t know if Jeff was going to let us do it, but might as well try. And you hear Albert, “Oh, I’m almost there.” He had what, two pieces on his thing?!? And then at the final challenge you saw him just kind of follow me wherever I would go, and he would do that at camp too. I think he got a reality check last night, so that was good.

Let’s say Ozzy had won that final challenge and voted you out.…
Oh, no. I wouldn’t have been voted out. Coach and I were really tight, which they didn’t show, and he wouldn’t have betrayed me. Coach would have voted with me and I would have done a fire-making challenge against Albert, and I probably would have beaten him, Ozzy would have won the game but I still would make the final three.

Well, let’s just say you didn’t beat him and went to the jury. Whom would you have voted for to win?
I think I would have voted for Coach at the time because I hated Ozzy, and I didn’t respect Albert’s gameplay, so I would have voted for Coach.

'Survivor': Coach says he would have won 9-0 had jurors been separated prior to final Tribal Council; calls Ozzy a 'whiny little bitch'

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/12/19/survivor-south-pacific-coach-finale-ozzy/

The third time was not the charm for Benjamin “Coach” Wade on Survivor: South Pacific. An outcast at the start of the game, he socially and strategically worked his way into an alliance of five that took him all the way to the end. But once he got there, the jurors resented all the “honor and integrity” talk from a man who ended up deceiving them. Coach is clearly shaken by his loss, as I discovered when he called in to chat about what went wrong at the end.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I thought you had it, man.
COACH: So did I. I really did.

You are a man who goes by many names: Benjamin, Coach, the Dragonslayer, the Zenslayer, the Maestro, Zeus. How much did you want to add the title of Sole Survivor to that list?
I do not care about the title of Sole Survivor, but I did want to win because no competitor enters the final challenge expecting or hoping to lose. So it was a tough pill to swallow, but it is what it is.

How comfortable were you going into Tribal, and then how comfortable were you after the jury questions when they went up to vote? You were feeling good at first, I imagine.
Yeah. You know, here’s the thing. I’m going into final Tribal and I’m feeling really good because I felt like I had the most to overcome in this game. I had a target from day 1. Psychological studios show that if you think someone is a jerk-off before you meet them and then all of a sudden they’re not and your first impression is wrong, they say psychologically you’ve bonded deeper with that person. Obviously that’s not the case with these people. But I came in with everything stacked against me and I overcame and I really controlled the game from start to finish. And I did it in a compassionate way. I really wanted to lead with respect and appreciation and kindness and I feel like I did that. You’re going to have to eviscerate people at a certain point in the game and it’s just unfortunate that the last few people that were voted off were so bitter. You know you watch the Ponderosa clips and it looks like I’m going to win in a landslide. You take all those jury people and you sequester them and they don’t talk to each other and feed off each other and get into a feeding frenzy, then I think I would have won nine to nothing. So I felt pretty good going in. After the jury, I was really asking myself, what could I have done differently? And that’s a question I struggled with for several weeks coming back. I thought there was still a chance I would win. I knew when I was at Tribal exactly what they wanted to hear. They wanted to hear me say, “Look, guys. I played you. None of the connections were real. I did it for a million dollars.” That’s what they wanted to hear, but in the eleventh hour, Coach was not compromising, and of that I’m proud.

What was the fatal flaw in terms of you not getting the win: Was it over-promising things to people? Was it not bringing people like Rick and Edna to the end whom you could have beaten, or was it your final Tribal performance?
It was not the final Tribal. That whole thing was just for show and a chance for people to postulate and articulate their inadequacies in not being in the final three. I know it, I’ve been there. So it’s kind of a chance for them to grandstand. So it’s not that. I mean look at Ozzy’s question: “Sophie, you’re a pretentious bitch, but oh well, I’m bitter because I think I should have been the last man standing and I’m a whiny little bitch so I’m actually going to say, Sophie, you deserve to win.” The whole thing was bogus. I will tell you this as a fact: I take Rick to the end, Rick wins. I take Brandon to the end, Brandon wins. And I take Ozzy to the end, Ozzy wins. That is fact. I don’t care what anybody else thinks. I could have taken Edna and Cochran to the end but if I did that who is going to beat Ozzy in that final challenge?

Look, Coach. You know I have no problem with doing whatever it takes to get yourself farther in the game, because it is just that: a game. But was your problem that you put out this honor and integrity thing, and when you hold that up as the shield for what you and everyone else should strive for, you’re setting yourself up for a lot of criticism at the end?
I know at the final Tribal Council Ozzy said, “Honor and integrity — what a bunch of crap,” and Cochran said, “You have to answer my question without saying the words honor and integrity.” It does become a safety blanket out there. I wanted to explain it. I wanted to say, “Ozzy, we got into a deal and you lied to me over and over again so that deal was revoked. Brandon, you and I got into a deal and you lied to me.” I’m not perfect. I made mistakes. I did try to ply the game like that. But I agree — especially if you say it over and over again — and I’m watching the game and I saw it three weeks ago on the show when it was airing and I was like, “Please don’t ever say the words honor and integrity again, because you say it so much and it almost becomes like you’re trying to hide something. Which I wasn’t, but that’s the impression that it gives off. And I’m telling myself “Stop using those words. Why are you using those words so much?” And it’s kind of like a safety blanket. But who’s to say that maybe if I hadn’t used those words — maybe I would have been cut off. People really did trust me out there and that’s part of the reason why I got to the end.

What are the odds you get invited to a Hantz family Thanksgiving feast?
The chances of me getting invited back to Survivor are pretty good. The chances of me getting invited to a Hantz family feast is zero percent.

What did you make of Russell’s comments at the reunion?
I don’t want to criticize people, but he said it and I can just use his words. He wants to be identified with Survivor, and I’ve always said Survivor is a great experience, it’s a great adventure, I love it, it’s opened up doors for me, but it’s not something that’s going to identify me. And I realize that the public identifies with me on Survivor, but it’s not going to be my identity. I’ve got a lot of other great things going on in my life. I thought he was somebody that wants to hang on to those 15 minutes and stretch them to 30 and 45 and without question he’s a very prominent player. He’s a great player. I think his ship has kind of sailed — and he’ll be reading this interview I’m sure — but his ship as far as Survivor is considered has sailed because everybody knows his game and nobody’s going to want to play with him. And that was obvious the third time he played. The only reason he got away with what he got away with in Heroes vs. Villains is that we didn’t see him play.

Where’s the hidden immunity idol you didn’t use?
I will say there was a moment of vanity. I put that necklace around my neck on day 30, and I was like, man, this necklace is sweet! It would look awesome if I wore it back home. Now I’ve never worn it, but really thought, I want this as a souvenir. I didn’t want to turn it in and have it go back into the Survivor cog where I never see it again. So it sits in my living room, hanging up.

You should have worn it last night!
That’s funny. I should have.

Sooooo, will the fourth time be the charm? It was for Boston Rob.
It was just a joyous season for me and I don’t want to taint that. I don’t want to come back again and have this relationship of 97 days — the last 39 which were completely idyllic — tarnished. You’ve seen the last of Coach on Survivor. But 180 [Coach’s feature-film debut] is coming out, and even more exciting than that is I’m gong to have my own show this next year and you can look for that in the fall. You’ll see Coach back on television and maybe it will be Coach 4.0.

Winning six straight duels (and an immunity challenge after that) was not enough for Oscar “Ozzy” Lusth to take home the million dollars on Survivor: South Pacific, but it did win him a cool $100,000 as the winner of the fan favorite vote. The fourth place finisher called in to chat about his final challenge blues, bizarre sprints, living-on-the-edge strategy, and why he voted for “spoiled brat” Sophie to win.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What’s up with the sprinting out of Tribal Council every time? I love that!
OZZY: I have no idea. Tribal Council is always taking too long in my opinion. So I kind of like to speed it up a little bit, like when you need to walk from your seat to go vote. I’m just trying to hurry things up a tiny little bit. I understand that there’s a solemness to the whole occasion, but I don’t know, it’s kind of my thing in a way.

We talked before the game about you going to Redemption Island on purpose, which you ended up doing, and we talked about you collecting all the jury votes there and then coming back to win, which you were so close to doing as well. Dude, our pregame strategy sessions rock!
Yeah, man. It was the one time my strategy really almost paid off. I tried to stick with that plan and was very, very close. But one thing I didn’t count on was how incredibly weighty the pressure would be at the end. It’s one thing to be going to the duels, where of course if you lose you’re out. But to know you’re at the very end and this puzzle is a million dollar puzzle — it was just so hard. My mind went blank, pretty much. It was really difficult.

Well, the mental exhaustion of having to perform in your eighth win-or-go-home contest must have been immense by that point.
Coming so close and having it slip right through is tough.

Compare this to the two other times you played. In general, you seemed to be having a ball this time out.
Oh, yeah. This time I wanted to really just enjoy the experience and embrace everything about the experience as it went on. And I think I did it. I wanted to play the game to show people that you don’t need to play the game from a place of fear. I think fear really ruins Survivor a lot of times. The game could be so interesting if people would just embrace the fact that they’re out the in the elements and don’t need to be afraid of things. Yeah, you might go home, but at least you played a cool, really awesome game, and that’s something to be proud of. I just think it’s so annoying when people go out there and play from a standpoint of fear. They make really weak moves because of it. So you might as well go out there and give it everything you got. And if you fail, you fail knowing that you played as hard as you possibly could, and that’s exactly the way that I wanted to do it.

In the so-close department, which one is more painful, this one where you knew you’d win if you took that last challenge, or Cook Islands where you lost by one measly vote?
Cook Islands, because this is all my own doing, if that makes any sense. It was all up to me and I just have to take some solace that there is some grand master plan that is bigger than myself that I can’t quite perceive at this moment. Maybe I just don’t need that million dollars. I’ll just have to make my million dollars the old fashioned way. Walking away with $100,000 plus is not too bad either. I didn’t get first place but I basically got second if you look at it monetarily. And in my opinion I really did win the game in terms of how people saw it play out at home.

You called Sophie a spoiled brat and then wrote her name down for a million dollars. Why?
Because you got to respect. I thought she played like a spoiled brat with me, but at the same time we both have very strong personalities and we weren’t able to jibe out there. All of a sudden when the cameras turn off and the game is over you find that the people that you despised end up being the people that you like the most. Eliza is a perfect example. I could not stand her in Fans vs. Favorites, and once the game was over and we were hanging out, I was like, “Damn. This girl is really, really cool.”

You and Sophie have clearly kissed and made up. What about you and Coach?
I think Coach is going to take this hard for a while. At final Tribal, I gave him a chance to win my vote. I lobbed him a softball and I just wanted him to come out and say, “Look, I know I didn’t play honorably. I may have tried to but I didn’t. And the fact is, I still played a damn good game.” I just wanted to hear some more honesty. I would have voted for him, but the fact is, he didn’t do that for me and own up to the way he played.

Any regrets besides losing that last puzzle challenge?
One thing I wish is that I had told Coach — it probably still wouldn’t have changed anything — is that I wish I would have said, “Hey, man. Do you want to lose to me or do you want to lose to Sophie? Because you’re not going to win this game. So who do you want to lose to?”

Sophie, Coach, and Albert all called you arrogant. Are you arrogant, Ozzy?
I don’t think so, There might be a little bit of that. But when it comes to playing the game, and being out there and surviving — yeah, I know what the hell I’m doing. I really do. And I love it and I have a lot of fun. Maybe a little bit of that arrogance is just confidence and comes across the wrong way.

Jeff Probst talks about the 'Survivor: South Pacific' finale

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/12/19/jeff-probst-survivor-south-pacific-finale/

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Considering what an outsider Coach was among his tribe when he first arrived on the beach, he did an amazing job in getting to the end, but what was his fatal flaw? Was it making promises to too many people? Was it not bringing people to the end that would have been easier to beat, like Rick and Edna? Or was it all his double-talk at the final Tribal Council? It seemed like instead of just owning what he had done, like Todd in Survivor: China, he waffled and made apologies that probably didn’t seem sincere to a lot of the jury members. Where did Coach lose this game?
JEFF PROBST: His number-one mistake was bringing Sophie to the end. Ozzy and Albert both warned him. He didn’t see it. The fumbling at final tribal is inevitable when you play the way Coach did. But a more strategic move to keep Rick and lose Sophie may have resulted in a million dollars. On the other hand, without Sophie, Ozzy very well might have won the final challenge and beat Coach anyway!

Take me back to the house-of-cards challenge. I actually thought that was pretty smart of Sophie to try and convince Albert to join forces to beat Ozzy. I don’t think we’ve ever seen anyone try that before. Were you all surprised by that and was there any quick on-the-spot discussion by you and the other producers (or the CBS standards and practices person that is on hand at all the challenges) over whether something like that would be allowed?
No discussion. Ganging up in any overt way is just not allowed. The definition of overt is a judgment call that CBS trusts me to make.

Wow. I can’t even begin to imagine what the holidays are going to be like at the Hantz household this year. Was that one of the simultaneously most riveting and uncomfortable reunion moments you’ve ever had, when Russell lit into his nephew and Brandon talked about how hard his family had been on him because of how he played?
Yes. Sad that a game can disrupt a family so severely. I felt for Brandon the entire season and the reunion show was no different. Very uncomfortable.

Instead of teasing us up for next week you get to tease us up for next season. Drop your first hint about Survivor: One World right here and right now!
Clue: There is still more to be revealed.

Congrats to Ozzy winning the fan fav vote again. lol coach.

Yeah Ozzy should have won but he sucks at puzzles!

At least he got some money in $100k.

I do think the right person in the final 3 won.

Sophie was the best choice and I would have voted for her as well.

» 'Survivor: South Pacific': Meet the Cast!
» Official Survivor South Pacific Thread!
» Big Brother 13 Winner Rachel Winner Article!
» WD Survivor 4 Redemption Island: WINNER ANNOUNCED!
» 'Survivor' winner Ethan Zohn's cancer is in remission