The ousted player also talks about his fake idol, not winning challenges, and what happened at Ponderosa.
You talkin' to me?
You talkin' to me?
Danna Massa on ‘Survivor 44’.CBS
Was Danny blindsided by the vote and idol play?
What does he make of Carolyn’s seeming disdain for him?
How did he react upon learning his number one ally in Heidi had voted for him the previous Tribal?
Carolyn Wiger, Brandon Cottom, and Danny Massa on ‘Survivor 44’.Robert Voets/CBS
And is he bummed that the fake idol he planted for Matt never got played?
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When you walked into Tribal, what did you think was going to happen?
Did you think you had the votes to take out Carson?
Danny Massa on ‘Survivor 44’.CBS
DANNY MASSA: Me or Carson.
I’m so scared to get knocked out."
You go out swinging and it’s possible for you to’t be attached to the results.
Danny Massa on ‘Survivor 44’.Robert Voets/CBS
You’ve got to be attached to the journey.
And as soon as you do that, that’s like Zen.
All right, man, the work is done.
Danny Massa on ‘Survivor 44’.CBS
What do we got now?
Carolyn did not seem to be a huge fan of yours after your brotastic journey with her and Brandon.
What was going on with you two out there?
This is what I’m going to do when it comes to that situation.
Did me and Brandon hit it off?
He’s from Philly, I’m from the Bronx.
I’ll definitely say this: I vibed more with Brandon than I did with Carolyn.
It definitely was highlighted as a negative.
When it comes to the lunch, I’m not going to defend myself.
Clearly, I’m biased, I’m a fan of myself.
But I will say this: Brandon is one of the most compassionate, sweetest people.
Even though he’s this big monster of a human, he’s very considerate.
it’s possible for you to ask anybody who’s ever interacted with Brandon.
He’s very considerate.
He can walk into any room and have a conversation with anybody.
Maybe I was just some bro-ish show-off, and maybe that’s something I have to reflect on.
That guy is a Renaissance man.
So I can’t defend myself.
I’m a fan of myself, but Brandon’s a sweetheart human.
So if anybody feels negatively about that, I would disagree with them.
Could you tell after that moment as you guys moved into the merge that Carolyn wasn’t feeling you?
She’s a nice person so she’s never mean, just in general.
Nobody on the show is mean.
So she was never a dick to me or anything.
I knew we weren’t the best of friends, but it’s a game.
So a lot of the times situationally, you could be at opposition.
Yeah, take out the great players.
You take a shot at the king, you best not miss.
I took a shot at Carson.
I took a shot at Brandon.
Another thing they didn’t show is how calculated Brandon was.
He was terrifying to me.
I’m like,Whoa, dude, this guy is seeing this game.
And you know, he’s a huge physical threat.
Same thing with Frannie.
And you could see from Frannie she started to figure things out.
It was never personal to me.
It was strictly business.
I said this a bunch of times: I came out here to make lifelong friends and beautiful relationships.
Your mother comes to New York, I’ll pick your mother up from the airport.
But if I meet your mother out in Fiji, I’ll put votes on her tonight.
I have no connectivity towards my life, my heart, and my voting.
Like, I loved Frannie out there.
Me and Fran did breath work every day together.
It’s like poker.
Am I not going to bluff my friends just because I like them?
You save Frannie with the idol and then you almost immediately come after her.
Is that just different needs at different points of the game?
Yeah, and I truly believe this: If I get to the end, I win.
I didn’t want it to be any question.
If I got to the end, I wanted to be the Sole Survivor.
When it comes to making that, I knew I had a successful idol play at my hands.
That’s a huge feather in my cap.
It was purely selfish, to save my ally at the time and to move further in the game.
What was your reaction when you finally found out that Heidi had voted for you at that previous Tribal?
Because at the time, I said to myself:Logically, there’s no point for her.
Basically, that was me saying, “They don’t want you to know this.
They think you’re going to flip on me, but you would never do that.”
I just couldn’t put it together.
And I knew Yam Yam was so smart.
Just the way he interacts with people, his emotional intelligence is just sky high.
But I’m like,It’s not smart for Heidi to go against me.
It doesn’t work out for her.
Heidi’s a smart player.
Yam Yam’s a smart player.
Who does this help?And I’m like,Alright, it helps Yam Yam.
Therefore, it has to be Yam Yam.
Yeah, it was an absolute bummer.
It’s the nature of the game, man.
But I’m like,You know what?
I can’t guarantee I’m making it to the merge.
And when you’re on your first beach and that birdcage is there, that paranoia was overwhelming.
People are like, “Who has it?
Who has it?”
Are you still pissed off you never won an individual immunity?
Yeah, that’s a bucket list thing.
The way my mind works though, people come back and playSurvivoragain.
So, to me, I don’t look at that as a failure.
I look at that as next time.
I ain’t dead.
That’s a beautiful part ofSurvivor.
That’s a beautiful part of livin'.
Shout out to Cody, I ain’t dead.
I’ll hit it one more time.
It’s just a loss.
It ain’t a failure.
It’s a failure when they say I’m done.
So yeah, I want it bad, man.
Lauren whipped my ass.
Frannie whipped my ass.
Yam Yam whipped my ass.
Kudos to them., I never felt poorly that I didn’t win.
A stoic doesn’t not experience emotion.
They let it come and go.
I let my emotions come and go.
I go and show respect.
My parents taught me [to] always show respect [to] the winner.
Don’t take their moment.
We did breath work on the beach and meditation every single day.
Frannie led us through some beautiful meditations.
So it was cool for both of us to see that aspect of our lives.
With Jaime, just how tough and how much of a camper Jaime was around camp.
She knew more stuff than most people.
Those are things I would have liked to have seen more.
That was very cool.
What do you mean?
You know what I did, bro!
I got reunited with my bromance Brandon!
Me and Brandon bro-down!
[Laughs] No, man, it was cool, to be honest.
You get voted out and you feel originally poor ‘cause you wanted to win.
You start like,Maybe I should have done this better, that better.
Maybe I didn’t play as good a game as I thought.
And then I see who I’m sitting there with legitimately straight savage competitors.
I’m with Matt, Frannie, Brandon Kane is a genius.
And I truly believe that.
Like,Okay, I have so much respect for these people.
They got voted out before me.
It’s not a matter of worth or whatever that human beings like to give.
