“She was completely furious with me,” says the ousted player.
The Hunter finally became the hunted.Hunter McKnightsolidified himself as a challenge beast onSurvivor 46.
Why didnt Hunter play his idol?
Hunter McKnight on ‘Survivor 46’.Robert Voets/CBS
Did he ever consider using it on partnerTevin Davisthe Tribal before?
Why were he and Venus going at each other?
And what was up with that upside-down challenge hang?
Hunter McKnight on ‘Survivor 46’.Robert Voets/CBS
We asked Hunter all that and more the morning after his televised demise.
Robert Voets/CBS
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What happened?
Why are you here talking to me?
Hunter McKnight, Q Burdette, and Tim Spicer on ‘Survivor 46’.Robert Voets/CBS
HUNTER McKNIGHT:So, yeah, I did not play my idol at Tribal Council last night.
Not my best moment.
I’ve got to get some foundation of trust with people.
Hunter McKnight and Tevin Davis on ‘Survivor 46’.Robert Voets/CBS
Well, obviously, Venus was the one who went around and told everybody.
Yeah, it wasn’t a huge shocker, but it wasn’t that bad of a thing.
We saw where Tiffany talked about playing her idol and it caused people to scramble.
Soda Thompson, Hunter McKnight, Tevin Davis, Liz Wilcox, Randen Montalvo, and Venus Vafa on ‘Survivor 46’.Robert Voets/CBS
Kenzie came to me and told me, The three Sigas are writing your name down."
And so I told her, That’s fine.
I’m playing my idol.
Hunter McKnight of ‘Survivor 46’.Robert Voets/CBS
And so she was very honest and very candid with me.
Kenzie was the one I was trying to foster a relationship with.
So what about when you got to Tribal?
And then Tiff went at Q absolutely went at him.
And what was shown was a portion of how heavily she went at him.
And it wasn’t a bluff.
At least to me, it didn’t feel like it.
And so that would make Ben go home.
And I’m like, No, hey, Q is the person we can beat at the end!
But she was so convinced to vote Q.
There’s no way I can change it.
And so that was the gamble that was going on in my head.
What was going on with all the Q questions you were asking at Tribal?
When I’m constantly asking people, I’m trying to read: Is this person telling the truth?
Why don’t we just do the Jeff, we’re all voting Q.
And I should have known when Venus was like, No, we’re voting.
We’re writing his name down.
It was just all a blur.
But that was the gamble that I took.
Because if they went three-three and I played my idol, then Q still goes home.
Anyways, that was a bad read on my part for Tiffany.
Tiffany was the only one I misread.
The rest, I knew where they were going.
I want to see the realness.
I want to see that it matters.
So, what was it like for you after you walked off that Tribal Council set.
How were you feeling and what was going through your mind?
It is just a blur.
Most of that Tribal Council was such a blur for me.
That’s how it’s going.What was worse was they had to go and revote!
And I was like:I got to sit here and just wait for my doom.
I know what’s happening now.
And I was like: Oh, well, I am alone.
This is the end, and it’s coming.
And so, it was just sad.
It was all a blur.
And I was like, let me go get my stuff.
And they all want to be like, We love you.
You’re so great.
You’re such a good person.
You played such a great game.
And you’re like: That feels so insincere to me right now.
It’s kind of hard to hear that after you just voted me out.
But it is what it is.
The upside-down hang after winning the pole endurance challenge?
Did you regret that about 30 seconds after you did it?
People are like, He’s so arrogant.
Why would he do that?
I love these games.
I love these challenges.
That was something where I was like: I wonder if this would work.
I wonder if this flipping back that would be a thing.
It wasn’t me trying to showboat.
It wasn’t me trying to be impressive, but I just wanted to see if it would work.
Surprisingly, it works really well.
So if anyone has that challenge in the future, it locked my legs in place.
The reason I popped back up so fast was because Jeff started yelling and ran over there.
I thought I was getting in trouble.
I was like: Oh, was I not supposed to do that?
So I hopped back up and came back down.
And so that was a lesson I was telling myself.
But I love the challenges so much.
I love getting to play them.
They’re just like games from when I was a kid.
And that is a flaw in my game.
After Q got mad that Tiffany and Kenzie were talking to Ben too much heaven forbid they talk!
he came to me and told me Tiffany was after me.
So now I’ve got to give a shot to bridge over to Charlie and Maria.
When I approached Charlie and Maria, I’m trying to foster a relationship there.
Tevin is a great player in this game and would beat me in the end.
Because the Yanu bridge was burned.
And so Tiffany was done with me.
And so my only hope now was to venture to get in good with Charlie and Maria.
Lets talk about Venus.
She came at you pretty directly, you told her she was always mad, she didnt appreciate that.
How would you describe your dynamic together?
I’ve never spoken an ill word about Venus in any of my confessionals.
They didn’t show it because it wasn’t there.
Venus, I think, read me wrong.
Obviously, I’m not a huge social person.
I’m not someone who’s just always chatty and things like that.
And so she saw that as being stonewalled.
Because it just causes divisions, it causes splits when you see it.
And so she considered that stonewalling.
But the thing about me is I want to connect with you in other ways.
I love camp life, I love doing things like that.
Me and Soda connected a lot with doing things like that.
Me and Tevin connected.
And she even came to me with the Tevin vote.
She knew they were voting Tevin, but she wouldn’t tell me who it was.
I was like, It’s not you, because that’s when it was Tiffany.
But she was like, Well, Hunter, it’s not who you think it is.
I was like, Well, then who is it?
She’s like, I won’t tell you until you tell me.
I said Just know it is not a Nami.
I am keeping Nami as best I can.
And so she considered it stonewalling.
And so she was pretty frustrated, but I had nothing against Venus.
It was very much a little sister, big brother relationship.
I knew Venus wasn’t in a good alliance with people.
And so the easiest person to vote for was Venus ,and I could go and do damage control.
Probably how much time I spent with Kenzie, and how much I was working my game with her.
The moment Siga showed up on the beach, I knew Siga could not be trusted.
I wanted to do Yanu three with me, Liz and Tevin.
So I spent a ton of time solely with Kenzie.
We were out picking flowers at the Siga beach.
I showed her my secret room that never made the edit at the Nami beach.
We spent time picking up shells.
We talked about family history.
And so it created a rift that wasn’t going to work.
But we spent a lot of time hanging out.
