Survivor Millennials vs Gen X: Paul Wachter On His ‘Very Humbling’ Experience

Paul Wachter was my first interview during the press day before Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X. He offered an ominous prediction about his fate in the coming game: “I’m either going to be the first one voted out, or I’m going to win.”

Well, Paul made it a little further than the first one out, at least.

The treasure hunter and rock singer originally from Huntington, New York (a hometown we have in common) became the first man voted out of the season, the second Gen X-er, and the third person overall when former allies Jessica Lewis, Sunday Burquest and Lucy Huang joined forces with David Wright, Ken McNickle and CeCe Taylor to blast him out of the game. In his wake, Paul’s buddies Bret LaBelle and Chris Hammons are left picking up the pieces of the party. Where did it really go wrong for Paul? Did Ken and David’s anti-Paul campaign finally pay off? Was it really something Paul said? Is there more to the story?

Click here to read my pre-season interview with Paul, and keep reading for his thoughts on why he was blindsided, how his alliance formed and came apart, his medical scare, and more.

Wigler: My first question is the most important question you’re going to get all day. Have you really never had milk brought to you in a drone?

Paul: (Big laugh.)

Wigler: Because, it’s pretty cool.

Paul: No. No! I’ve never had milk brought to me in a drone. (Laughs.) That’s funny sh– right there. (Laughs.)

Wigler: Let’s talk seriously. What happened here? Was it as simple as it was presented on the show, that Jessica, Sunday and Lucy reacted to your answer on the guys’ alliance question?

Paul: Well, the alliance we had was six people strong. The boys, Chris and Bret, were just as surprised as I was that I got flopped on, because it wasn’t necessary. We didn’t have to do that. Even if that was the situation, it didn’t need to happen right there. There was no reason. All we were trying to do was make it to the merge. It was a knee-jerk reaction, I think. What I thought I said and what I said on TV are two different things. I don’t remember it going down like that.

Wigler: How do you remember it going down?

Paul: I remember when they asked that question, it was funny, because when they asked it, I was answering it as an alliance, as a group. What they perceived me saying as I’m going with the boys, they were with the boys, so we were all together. I didn’t separate it as a boy and girl thing. It’s just me and my big mouth, that’s what it is. Nobody’s fault but my own.

Wigler: How did this alliance of six come together?

Paul: What happens is… if you’ve ever had friends over at a party and you kind of get along with everybody, and then you try to have them over for the weekend, and you find out that one of your friends is a total jerk? That’s what happens on Survivor, to me. At first, everybody is best friends, and then as you go through the process and get to meet people and learn their personalities, you become friends with some, and some? Not so much. I couldn’t connect with Ken. Nobody could connect with Ken that I knew of. Bret couldn’t connect with him. We tried to get him in the alliance. David? Same scenario. He was always off chasing an idol, so he scared everybody. You align with people you can work with. Everybody that was in that six person alliance — Jess, Lucy, Sunday, Chris and Bret — we all got along great. There were no (sighs) moments. Where as Ken and I clashed all the time. It’s because he has a completely different personality than I have. I don’t think he wanted any part of me.

Wigler: What did that look like? Because we’ve certainly seen their perspective on things, a lot of scenes with David and Ken wanting to go after you, and Ken especially frustrated with your leadership style. What happened between you and Ken that we missed?

Paul: Ken and I had a couple of moments where we got to talk and strategize about food and things like that. But whenever it came time to talk about the game, Ken wouldn’t talk to me. We didn’t talk very much about the game. What you didn’t get to see is that you didn’t see Chris and me and the girls talking about trying to get Ken to come over to the other side, and what the problem was. Why wasn’t he talking?

Wigler: Little did you know it’s because people have been calling him Ken Doll his entire life, and he’s very sensitive!

Paul: (Laughs.)

Wigler: Did you call him Ken Doll by accident early on?

Paul: No, no man. I wouldn’t call a guy Ken Doll. He wasn’t a Ken Doll to me! (Big laugh.) He’s a model, and he talks about me being a singer, and having this big personality. But the dude’s a model! What you didn’t get to see about Ken, and hopefully you’ll see in the future, is right there at the end of Tribal Council, when he’s talking about the way people use words as a symphony… we got that every day. He would go off on these magical mystery tours, and you would kind of look at him like, “Okay! I got it!” It was kind of funny.

Wigler: So while he’s texting out the word “y-o-u,” he’s also texting y-o-u full scale poetry.

Paul: Oh, he’s definitely texting poems, in real life, and what life’s all about, and his perspective on colonizing snails.

Wigler: His perspective on what?

Paul: Write that down. File that away. Colonizing snails. Ask him about it some day. It wasn’t on the show, but it was a very funny moment.

Wigler: You were viewed as the leader of your alliance. Did you view yourself that way?

Paul: No. Not at all. I never felt like I was the leader of that alliance. I actually felt like I was brought in by Chris and Bret. I felt like the sleeper here is Chris. He’s an awesome, super nice guy and he’s not only physically and mentally strong, which is like Bret, but Bret has a bit of a bigger personality like me. Bret can tend to spout off. Chris remains very reserved. He holds his tongue. I don’t know. He was my sleeper pick, and he was when I got there, as soon as I got there. When Jeff Probst stands up and you’re at a challenge and he says, “Survivors ready? Go!” And this guy is light years ahead of everybody. I mean, he’s gone. We’re all getting started, and he’s gone. You go, “Holy moly! What does this guy do?” I had no idea he was an attorney.

Wigler: And a former football star.

Paul: He’s still a football guy, I can tell you, man. He might not have played in a while, but boy oh boy. Talk about a guy who is fast.

Wigler: Let’s talk about the summit. You got to meet some of the Millennials before you left. Did the summit change your impression of them at all?

Paul: Nah. They were peanut butter and jelly kids. It was Figgy being Figgy. She has this big, bubbly personality. Jay and Taylor, they came and asked me a million questions. As soon as we got done eating, we all went for a swim. You didn’t see it that much, but if you look, you’ll see me in the middle of a circle with all the kids around me. They’re asking me — me, no one else — millions of questions about the survival side of this. How do you sharpen your machete, and how do you do this, and how do you do that? It was funny, how much the kids, when we saw each other in pre-game… you can’t talk to each other, but you see each other. We all had little connections just from looking at each other, and we wanted to get to know each other. I really wish I could have made the merge, man. I think I would have been great with those kids.

Wigler: Did you have any sense of the Figgy and Taylor thing, or were they good at hiding it?

Paul: We had no idea… until we got to that moment, when we had that little peanut butter and jelly thing, because the kids told us, right away. Immediately.

Wigler: (Cracks up.)

Paul: Immediately, they said, “These two are in love!” And I’m like, “Are you kidding me?” (Laughs.) They showed a blurb of it on TV, but that was a long time. We were there for quite a while. We got to talk a lot.

Wigler: So the passion between Taylor and Figgy was so hot that they couldn’t even hide it from the rival tribe?

Paul: Oh, no way. No way. We didn’t even finish cutting the bread, and they were talking about it.

Wigler: And what are your thoughts on showmances on Survivor, Paul? Good idea or bad idea?

Paul: It’s always a horrible idea to have any kind of romance on Survivor. It immediately puts a bigger target on your back than opening your mouth, as I did. People who watch can decide for themselves, but from someone who was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to get onto Survivor and actually go to the island and play the game, I can promise you that what you think you’ll say and what you think you’ll do are completely different from what will happen. That little showmance they had, there was no chance that wasn’t going to happen. As soon as you meet Figgy, you’ll see it right away. She’s an awesome person with an awesome personality and she loves to flirt, so those kids didn’t have a chance.

Wigler: Talk me through the health scare — the lead-up to it, the moment itself, and the aftermath.

Paul: It was heat stroke. When you’re that dehydrated and that beat up… the day before, I felt pretty weak, but everybody was pretty weak. Having a strong personality like I do, I surely wasn’t going to say, “Hey, I feel sick.” Everybody felt rough. Everyone was very dehydrated. The problem was, the next day, it was super hot. We worked really hard, and I had sweated so much that… I don’t know. I sat down, and Bret came up behind me, and Bret’s a friend of mine and said something, I forget what he said, but I just went, “Just give me a minute.” That’s not me. I kind of barked at him. It was so unlike me. I don’t even remember laying back, when I saw it on TV. I told my wife about it, I told my family about it, and my daughter still cried. Once they gave me some fresh water and electrolytes, the next day, I was like the king of the world. That’s what it took. Five or six hours of rest and getting my body going again. Doctor Joe explained it to me. I told him I had never had anything like that happen to me — I’ve been dizzy before, but not like that. He said he’s seen it in a million times. He said, “Paul, you’re really good, really good, really good… bad. It happens very quickly, and that’s what scary.” But I can tell you that Jeff Probst has got it going on. They had a medical team ready to fly me out if need be, ready to do anything. Checking my heart and everything. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know where all these guys came from so quickly. We were in the middle of nowhere. It was awesome to see and to know that I wasn’t going to die out there. It was incredible. We weren’t at a challenge. A lot of people fall down at challenges, and obviously everyone’s there at challenges, but when you’re on a remote island, there’s nobody there. It’s cameras and producers. It was incredible.

Wigler: You talked a lot about control in that second episode, how you’re always in control, and suddenly you weren’t. You certainly weren’t in control of the vote last night. What did Survivor teach you about your relationship with control?

Paul: The person you think you act like, and the person you do act like, can be a little bit different. It’s very humbling when you see yourself on TV and you say, “I didn’t say that!” And then you see that you said it. (Laughs.) I said it before and I’ll say it again: I cannot fix that. This is the way I am. This is the way I was brought up, and the way I’ve reacted. I’ve been on my own my whole life and I’ve always made my own rules, and sometimes, I don’t try to hurt anybody’s feelings, but sometimes you do. I think what I’ve learned from this and what I can take away from the experience is sometimes you have to step back and take a second look and make sure what you’re doing is right for the tribe — whether it’s family, friends, or whatever — and not just right for that moment.

Wigler: Last question for you is that we haven’t seen much of anything from Lucy yet. Previews for next week show that we’re about to see that she’s a force to be reckoned with. You can’t weigh in on that, but you can certainly weigh in on who Lucy is. What are we not seeing from her? What was your experience with Lucy?

Paul: Lucy started off very quiet and then immediately took over the kitchen duties and things like that. She could turn rice into food we could eat. It was awesome having her there. She has huge food experience. And her personality began to come out. I think you might see that with Lucy… her fuse can be a little bit short. (Laughs.) Every once in a while, she would have that same “JUST GIVE ME A MINUTE” moment. (Big laugh.) She’s not a kid. She’s got a great personality. She’s an awesome personality. But her fuse can be short.

Check out our recap of Paul’s exit episode.

Josh Wigler is a writer, editor and podcaster who has been published by MTV News, New York Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Comic Book Resources and more. He is the co-author of The Evolution of Strategy: 30 Seasons of Survivor, an audiobook chronicling the reality TV show’s transformation, and one of the hosts of Post Show Recaps, a podcast about film and television. Follow Josh on Twitter @roundhoward.