He gave away an immunity idol.
He won the final four fire-making challenge against Jonathan Young.
HE EVEN SCORED HOBOKEN POINTS!
Mike Turner on ‘Survivor 42’.Robert Voets/CBS
But the one thing Mike couldnotdo was win the million dollars.
Was Mike shocked by the jury result?
Which votes surprised him?
Mike Turner on ‘Survivor 42’.Robert Voets/CBS
And did the 58-year-old’s integrity platform ultimately do him in?
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First off, how much pizza did you actually eat during that after-show?
MIKE TURNER:I’m going to tell you right now, I couldn’t get enough.
Mike Turner on ‘Survivor 42’.Robert Voets/CBS
Listen to this: I’m a Jersey guy.
Pineapple pizza is a no-no in Jersey, but they only brought pineapple.
I said, “Give me three pies.”
I kept stuffing my face.
I had so much pizza.
I lost about 32 pounds when I was done with the show.
By the time I got done with that pizza, I gained about 15 back.
Let’s get into the final vote.
I played the game hard from day one until day 26.
And when I won fire, I let my guard down a little bit.
I’m saying, “What could they say wrong about me?”
But sometimes you don’t notice the room is dirty if you’re standing in the room.
And kudos to Maryanne, she came in guns a blazing, she spoke well.
I wasn’t as prepared as I thought I could have been.
Did it feel that way to you?
Yeah, that’s exactly what happened.
Because mentally, I should have been prepared to say, “You’re right.
Hai can say, ‘Oh, you said you’re with me, and then you blindside me.’
Omar [can go], ‘You’re my friend, and then you go against me.'”
And, in my mind, I had all great reasons why I did.
I still think I had to do it.
I don’t think I would’ve went to the end unless I took them out.
But maybe I shouldn’t have based my whole platform strictly on the integrity of it.
Again, we’re playingSurvivor, so I just maybe misunderstood how they would take it.
Equally, he’s pissed at himself too.
And then we become friends.
And maybe that’s not how they perceived it.
I should have looked at it from their side of the coin.
What was going through your head as you felt everything slipping away in real time?
You know what it’s like?
But then you realize there’s grease on that vine and you’re starting to slide.
And before you know it, you slip and you fall off the mountain.
And that’s what it felt like out there.
I felt like I had it in my grasp.
I was holding it.
And as it went on, I almost couldn’t catch up to what was going on out there.
And the fact is that I was still hungry.
I was beat up.
Mentally, I didn’t come in thinking that’s how I was going to be questioned.
And the truth is, who I blame?
I should have been more prepared.
They asked the right questions.
They had the right to ask those questions, and I wasn’t prepared.
And quite frankly, Maryanne played a good game.
I think some of them were locked in already.
It doesn’t matter really if they raised hands or not.
At the end of the day, what happens, happens.
And everything happens for a reason.
So I understand that.
Could I have handled it better?
Ijust spoke with Maryanneand I asked her if any of the votes surprised her.
She said the Rocksroy vote surprised her.
Any votes surprise you?
Lindsay’s vote surprised me.
I thought Lindsay was a Jersey girl.
We worked hard together.
I think she took it very personally when I chose Jonathan over her.
That’s the only one that really surprised me.
Other ones, some I thought could have went either way.
I felt that I had a chance at Rocksroy’s vote.
I felt I had a chance at Omar’s vote.
Listen, I didn’t think I was going to clean slate it, that’s for sure.
Let’s say Romeo takes your suggestion and puts you against Maryanne at fire and you beat her.
How do you do in a final three against Romeo and Jonathan?
I think I win easily.
I think Jonathan doesn’t get the votes of the girls.
I’m just saying, I know that they weren’t crazy about Jonathan.
I felt that Romeo didn’t play the game good enough to win.
And that’s why I felt that if I went against them, I would win easily.
I was just trying to be the best player out of the final three.
Let’s say youloseat fire to Jonathan, who gets your vote for the million dollars?
Jonathan was very loyal to me from the merge on.
And then that told me that Lindsay wasn’t being honest with me.
Lindsay knew about the nullifier.
But she did not tell me.
I could see the emotion on your face winning that final five challenge.
You suck at these challenges!"
And I’m like, “You know, I do suck at these challenges.”
But I know what’s coming.
So I’m saying, just bide your time.
I played it off.
I said, “Yeah, it’s a tough one, I don’t know.
How could I possibly beat Lindsay and Jonathan in any of these challenges?
They’re so great.”
So what’s the deal with you and the fire?
Were you not making it out there at all?
That was absolutely strategy.
So we get to Vati, nobody can make fire.
I go, “I don’t want to make fire.”
It fell to them.
But nobody was making fire!
So I said, “Okay, I got to make fire, we need fire.”
I make fire really quick, and it was noticed.
And I decided right then and there, I would not make fire again unless I had to.
So I never made fire again.
And it was easy not to, because Jonathan really, really loved making fire.
They all made fire, so they didn’t put it on me.
All they needed to know was the angle of the knife against the flint to create the right spark.
Jonathan [used] little pieces, because he was used to the wood that we used at camp.
It was little small pieces of wood and they were wet.
So we had to try and nurture [it] a little more.
I felt pine would burn faster.
When did you find out and what was your reaction?
I was watching that with my brother and his family, and my wife and kids.
And then Omar says that, and I go, “Oh, my God!
Omar helped me out, he was good to me.”
And then he goes, “It was a lie.”
I literally fell over.
Everybody looks at me, I go, “I had no idea.”
I started to question everybody that talked to me, that it was a lie.
So inSurvivor, you just have got to be ready for everything.
It could have been the truth.
And I trusted Jonathan because I believed in him, that it was real, and I was right.
And that’s the beauty of the game though, right?
Yeah, I wore that sweatshirt in honor of my father and my son’s wrestling coach.
My son’s wrestling coach really took good care of my son when my son wrestled at Wesleyan.
And I knew I was going to miss the graduation.
And I remember the day he graduated, because I was nervous about it.
One of the proudest things I can say is my son graduated from Wesleyan University.
Would you play again?
How could you not?
It’s the most iconic game in the history of games.
I would go out there and play chess as a human every day.
It’s a challenge.
