‘Survivor 50’ star Jenna Lewis-Dougherty says she was done in by pregame alliances

Jenna Lewis-Dougherty said she was back on Survivor to “f— you over in every way, shape, or form.” It was welcome show of aggression for fans, but her aggressive Survivor 50 gameplay — including targeting Cirie Fields pretty much out of the gate — ultimately got her voted out first in the anniversary season.

It was a bummer for both player and viewers as Jenna was the only representative form Survivor’s first season, and also waited a record 42 seasons before coming back to play again… only to watch her return brutally cut short after just three days.

Does Jenna wish she had pumped the breaks on her warp-speed gameplay? Was she surprised by her early exit? And how much does she think pregame alliances were to blame for her early ouster? We spoke to the OG legend to get the full scoop and you can now watch or read the entire interview below.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You waited 42 seasons to come back, the longest anyone has ever gone between seasons, only to be voted out first. I know how competitive you are, Jenna. How tough was that to swallow once you got over to Ponderosa and had to sit with it?

JENNA LEWIS-DOUGHTERY: You just keep going back and dissecting it. I was upset, of course, but I felt like there was so much that was out of my hands. Like when they say I am playing too hard, you watch the episode and all the other people on the other islands, literally they’re getting bamboo on the first day, which is like probably an hour in, and they’ve got their alliances to the end and they’re already talking about who they’re voting off.

So I was playing no harder than anyone else, but on my tribe there were definitely groups that had a lot of pregame connections that I felt like the second I landed, it was off and I was like, “Ugh!” I kept trying to find an in, and Christian felt like he was a little bit of an in. And it’s funny ’cause it was actually Christian who brought Cirie’s name up first. So it’s kind of funny that he went and told Cirie, or actually sent Rick Devens, his little beyotch, to go tell Cirie. So Christian has got a lot more hands in this game than people are gonna think.

You think he was setting you up by doing that?

I think that he was setting them up to make sure they’re not gonna recruit me. They were probably worried about the old school — you know, Cirie, Ozzy, and I — so he started that before Ozzy even came back from whatever he was with Q. So I think they were just trying to start something with Cirie, going “You keep your name outta my mouth,” and stuff like that.

Cirie and I had good conversations. I like Cirie! But then he sends Rick Devens over, which is another whole thing. Christian already said in it that he was gonna be Spock and Devens was gonna be his Captain Kirk. And I think he says, “I’m gonna be the brain and I’m gonna send him to do the dirty work. He’s going to do the work.” Then it shows Rick Devens going to tell Cirie. So I think he manufactured a lot of that just to make sure that we weren’t being a cohesive group over here. Which is smart.

A returning player game is so different from a new player game because of all the relationships. I asked everyone before the game what pregaming they had done before they came out to the island, and most people played very coy about it. You’re obviously saying you think it played a big factor. How much do you think that ended up playing a role out there?

I mean, it was the only role, especially if your tribe goes to Tribal Council first. You haven’t really gotten time to know anybody. You haven’t had any real big discussions. Especially with Ozzy gone for the first day and a half, and the challenge takes up almost the first whole day. And the challenge takes almost the third full day.

So the first vote is gonna be really hard. You really just have to find an outlier, right? You have to find somebody to throw the blame on so that you can get ’em out. That’s why I think Christian was manufacturing, so that I wasn’t kind of going with Cirie. And him and I had already talked about like, “She’s a huge threat.” She’s always a threat. She’s the biggest threat out there. If you ask anyone who just saw the roster of Survivor 50, “Who’s the biggest threat?” they’d be like, “Oh, Cirie.”

So yes, she’s a threat, but she’s also a liability. So it was also the grouping. You’ve not only got Ozzy and Cirie, but in one of the pregame interviews, Christian was talking about how he considered Emily outside of the game a really good friend. Those were his words. That must be nice to go out into a social game with a really good friend — to have one person, even like Ozzie and Cirie had, and like Christian and Emily had. And I think Devens too. I think that’s a whole manufactured thing with those three from the get-go before the game ever started.

Everyone needs a ride or die in this game, a partner in crime to get to the end. Were you trying to get Christian in that role because you knew you needed that to move forward?

Right. And I was trying to get in with Christian because I felt like Christian already had that group of Devens and Emily. But I was also trying to bring over Savannah and Joe, because Savannah and I had one conversation pretty early where we talked about like: We don’t know where we fit yet. And I was really trying to recruit her and Joe. It shows a blip of it when we’re at the water well, and I’m going, “What are we doing? Like, we have to decide on someone.”

And at that point Joe looks over at us and goes, “Well, let’s just get through the first challenge.” And I’m like: I thought you guys were supposed to be playing all fast? And no, they were not. He didn’t even wanna talk about it. And then you see him on the log right before Tribal Council. He didn’t wanna vote for me, neither did Savannah. But I think they both were really concerned that whoever said, “No, we’re gonna vote over here,” that the other group would be able to recruit the other one. I think that was really what it came down to.

 It didn’t make it to air, but in your final words after being voted out, you said that “I really did do a lot of research on this new era, and all I heard was how fast it was. So I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to be really prepared to start playing fast.’ So that’s what I did.” Was that the problem, do you think, that you just came in too hot?

No. It wouldn’t have mattered. I think you’re gonna hear this refrain from many people that come out, that pregame alliances and just having somebody that… it doesn’t have to be that you guys call each other and like ride or die, but when you get out there, you know them, you know that how they play. I mean, some of these people have played four games together, like Colby and Stephenie on the same tribe.

All the OGs except for me had somebody. I was really upset about that. Stephenie and Colby, if you listen last night, she’s like, “Oh my God, I trust him implicitly. I’m gonna play my whole game with Colby.” I’m like, “How great would that have been? I would’ve loved to be with Colby. I would’ve been like, “Colby, let’s go all the way to the end.” And then Cirie and Ozzy, so both of these pairs got this comfort person to help them get further, and they know that I don’t know anyone. They know I haven’t been in the verse. And I was thrown in there. I feel like I was kind of sacrificed.

 How much trouble did you think you were in at Tribal, because that Tribal Council was very kumbaya and how much you all loved each other, and really no drama at all, and I feel like if you knew you were in serious trouble that you would have fought more.

I thought honestly that Savannah was voting with us — and us being like, Christian was the one who set this whole thing up that was like, “Yeah, let’s vote for Cirie.” In fact, Christian, the day that we were voting came up to me and was like, “Don’t worry. I told Emily what to do.” And I remember thinking in my head that’s a weird word — told. Like, “I’m putting everyone into their place for exactly what I want.” And I remember it like, Hmm….

But it was really reassured. Devens and Christian reassured me, and Emily [did]. And I know for a while — it might’ve been right up until we went to Tribal — that I think they were on the fence a bit because I don’t think they got Joe until right before. Because I remember seeing them talk and I wanted to go talk to Joe, but they do this thing now where it’s “on ice” and they’re like, “Okay, no more talking.”

[At Tribal Council] Emily said, “there’s other criteria,” and I was like: Hold on, I’m just processing that. Like what other criteria? You were the one that was all on board for Cire like an hour ago. So I really thought that Cirie and Ozzy might vote for me, but I really believed when I was talking to the others that they probably saw that not only is Cirie a threat, but she’s a liability.

Yeah, tell me about that. I was out there so I know how long it took Cirie to land that monkey’s fist. What was going through your mind as she keeps missing and missing and missing?

Well, I kept thinking how nice it must be for her to have people that she can count on for that. But I was like: This means that there will be collateral damage. That’s the problem. I kept going back to: Cirie will make you lose. She just will. This is why people carry her to like between six and eighth place all the time because they’re like, “Oh, we can just keep her as a vote. Let her feel good. And then we cut her, ‘cause we know she’ll never win an immunity challenge.”

It’s just smart. it’s already written in the stars before she ever played. I mean, I don’t know, maybe she goes on and wins. If she does, I was right. She’s a huge threat. I didn’t want her out, but I did wanna win challenges. And you saw that. On TV, it looked like two minutes. It was not. It was around another 20. Not hyperbolic.

Yeah, we were talking about and think it was about 20. That sounds about right.

Can you imagine standing there for 20 minutes?

Look, Jenna. None of us old schoolers are getting any younger. I was thinking about this last night: Do you think this is the last time we will see someone from season 1 back on Survivor?

Yeah, I do think it’s the last time you’ll see anyone from season 1. Probably anyone from season 1 or 2, actually. I think actually this was kind of put together a little bit heavy with the new schoolers because I really think they wanted a new schooler to take the reins and pass the torch, so to speak. So we’ll see if that happens. But I truly think that that’s why it was really heavy on the new side and a little bit lighter on the older side with the OGs.

What’s something that happened out there that did not make it into the final episode that you wish we had seen?

I wish that you could see all of the conversations that we did have, especially trying to pull in Joe and Savannah. And you saw they were kind of on the fence. They were like, “Why aren’t we voting for Cirie? Like where I’m going, “Joe, do you really want duos? You just got screwed over by a duo! It never ends well for the people outside the duo! All-Stars! I’m not pulling the same trick. I’m not gonna be third to another duo. We gotta break these two up immediately.”

It’s so hard going through Survivor, and then getting voted out and having this early exit, and then you gotta relive the whole thing over again like eight months later and watch it back. And you’ve had to watch it back a lot with all the premieres and screenings and things. How was that experience for you?

It was tough because you don’t know what’s gonna make air. And so for eight months, I’ve been feeling like I’ve got like a guillotine above me. I’m just waiting for it to drop, ’cause I know it’s going to and I don’t know when and I don’t know how it’s gonna look. So that’s what I was worried about.

You go back and you think about every single thing you said, like: What did I say to this person? What did I do? Did I not fight enough? Did I fight too hard? You go back and you go through all that and you’re thinking: Oh my God, they could make me look so dumb.

But when I saw it, I think that number one, it was an edit that felt true and real. Because I did feel like I was on the bottom from the get go. I truly did with Savannah. So I felt like I had to fight from like the second I landed. And they were really good to me. I think they gave me a beautiful edit for only being there for three days. And I think they captured the essence of how I was trying to play.

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