‘Survivor 48’ star Chrissy Sarnowsky on the crying and screaming we didn’t see on TV

Some Survivor players hit the gym or get on a new diet to prepare for 26 days in Fiji — but Chrissy Sarnowsky might have gotten her best training growing up in snowy Chicago playing King of the Hill.

Chrissy spent the past few weeks trying to convince her tribemates to go after the king of the Survivor 48 hill, Joe Hunter, to no avail, getting unanimously voted out on Wednesday’s episode after Joe found out she’d floated his name on the chopping block.

The morning after her elimination aired, the 55-year-old fire lieutenant is well-rested (“I didn’t whoop it up,” she tells Entertainment Weekly over Zoom) and reflecting on her “diarrhea of the mouth” at Tribal Council, David Kinne’s unaired outburst, and the one “unlucky” moment that she thinks led to her demise in the game.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Hindsight is always 20/20, especially when you can watch it on TV. What’s been the most surprising thing you’ve learned watching the show?

CHRISSY SARNOWSKY: We all knew that the editing would be everything, and so it’s really cool to watch it because even though you were there, what they’re putting on TV is something that you didn’t see. And then my son, who’s 17, always comes running out whenever he sees me on a commercial or something. He thinks it’s really weird…. I thought I had a bigger handle on the game than I think I actually did. I’m watching these kids — I call ’em kids because I’m a lot older — and wow. They really were strategic. And as I watch and think back, I’m like, I definitely was not as strategic as some of them.

You started the episode trying to walk back your Tribal Council speech about going after the “big guys,” and then did it again the very next Tribal. Did you know you were going home at that point and just wanted to go out swinging?

Apparently when I go to tribal council, I just have diarrhea of the mouth. I can’t help it. I don’t know what it is. Everybody else is really good at skirting around and I’m just like, Everything’s got to come out. But yeah, I had a feeling it was me. Nobody was really talking to me, and I’m watching the big guys — Joe, Eva, Shauhin, the big group — none of them really talked to me. I went to go try to talk to Joe and he wouldn’t even look me in the face. He wouldn’t even turn his head to look at me, and that pissed me off even more. Now that I see [it on TV,] somebody went in Joe’s ear and told Joe that I was going after him. And once you tell the big dog that I’m going after him…. I knew that I was scraps at that point, so I was just like, f— it. If I’m going out, then I’m throwing names out there and trying to raise some awareness of what’s going on.

That didn’t go over well with David…

They didn’t show it but at one point, David was literally yelling at me. I remember turning around going, “Who are you yelling at?” I apparently got him so upset. But I didn’t know that David was pushing Kamilla. If he would’ve pulled me to the side and been like, “Chrissy, it’s you or Kamilla,” my whole strategy would’ve changed at that Tribal.

I would’ve had some background to go on and not force the issue. Kyle told Kamilla, so she had an inkling going in there and could word her answers towards letting people know. But I had no idea. I might’ve had a fighting chance if I would’ve known. I love Kamilla, but if it’s me or her, obviously, we’re going to fight it out.

Did it surprise you that people weren’t willing to turn on the big guys?

It’s funny, because in Chicago — and I love to use this analogy — we get a lot of snow, and when I was little, we would big these big mounts of snow and the toughest kid would sit on top of the snow and all the other kids would run up to snow and try to push the guy off the snow. It’s called King of the Hill.

And I just viewed Joe as King of the Hill, and Eva sitting on his little side. And nobody wanted to run up and push the king of the hills off the hill. Watching them in camp…. We would all go and walk and do our little side talks. They just sat there right in front of everybody and talked strategy. They didn’t even have to go hide it. And when you’re tired and you’re hungry and you miss your family and you’re watching this group of people run the show, it really gets you.

How emotionally challenging was this experience?

Do you remember last season, Andy had that freak out about how nobody likes him and stuff. And I’m watching it like, “God, Andy, grow up.” And now I get out there, and on night one I was freaking myself out. I was like, Nobody likes me. I’m not making these connections. This is awful. And the next day Kamilla came up to me and said, “Hey, what do you think about me, you, Kyle and David?” So even though later on we didn’t, having a strong Civa four did help me mentally to get through the rest of the game. So I thank her for that.

Did you feel that alliance falling apart?

I felt, and I saw that I was losing David. I think Kyle and Camilla were playing the middle. I think they would’ve went whatever way would’ve suited them. But I saw in David’s eyes…. They don’t show it, but I sobbed. I didn’t cry the whole time except the one conversation with David. I saw that he was going towards the Joe group instead of the Civa group, and I was trying to tell him that he would have a better chance with us. But David wanted to play games with Joe, that’s all. David really wanted to be the tough guy and do these games. And I was like, “You’re losing the whole point of the game! You want to win a million dollars!” And I think he just went the other way.

Anything you wish you’d done differently with the information you had in the moment?

Well, I wish I would’ve got a number one, for sure. I don’t know who it would’ve been, because it seemed like people paired up pretty quick. I should have seen the Kyle-Camilla connection…. But yeah, no, I’m alright with the way I played, I guess…. I always think I’m a lucky person, but I think when I got on the new tribe, that was a very unlucky pick. I had Cedrek, Sai, Bianca, and Mitch — all the people on the bottom.

I had nobody that was sitting on the top that I could form bonds with. Everyone else was forming bonds with people who are still there. I was forming bonds, but with people that were all going to be voted out. That was tough to overcome once we made the merge.

If they asked to play again, would you?

Oh hell yeah, I would.

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