Each weekday, EW will post the answers from a different player.
Earl Cole hadSurvivorwinner written all over him.
And win he did.
Monty Brinton/CBS Photo Archive via Getty Images
Read on for more intel and inside scoop from the champ!
What is your proudest moment ever from playingSurvivor?
Making history as the show’s first unanimous winner ever, as well as the first African-American male winner.
Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS
What is your biggest regret from yourSurvivorexperience?
That our season did not have a family visit due to the then political climate of Fiji.
However, it never made it into the episode!
I never knew why.
How do you feel about the edit you got on the show?
I was totally fine with my edit.
Of course, my edit had to be favorable being that I was the eventual winner.
Overall, I liked my edit.
My mother said I looked like a true hero.
:)
What was it like coming back to regular society after being out there?
Was there culture shock or an adjustment coming back?
There was definitely an adjustment period (around 30 days) getting acclimated back into regular society.
Every night my mind would be racing in deep thought as if I was still on the island.
The paranoia and fear of being voted out stays with you for a few weeks!
I always lightly compare it to aspects of a soldier returning from war.
Only people that have been actually playedSurvivorknow what it’s really like.
I never regretted going on the show.
No matter how hard it got, I knew I was made of the right stuff to win.
I stayed positive and stayed focused.
Even after the show, I was proud of what I did, win or lose.
Fortunately, I did win, so that made it even better.
Whom do you still talk, text, or email with the most from your season?
We’re all still family in some sort of way.
I do watchSurvivorwhenever I get the chance, although more rare now that I have kids.
Some great, good-hearted people out there that I have watched from afar.
What better way to build friendships than suffering together on that ratchet island and playing this crazy game!
Maybe I’ll go back again one of these days, if the timing is finally right for me.
Who’s one player from anotherSurvivorseason you wish you could have played with or against and why?
Richard Hatch because he was the first and there were no recycled gameplays back then.
The other two would be Sandra and Tony.
I think it would be fun to play against two two-time winners.
If you could make one change to any aspect ofSurvivor,what would it be and why?
I would make the “hidden” immunity idol more hidden again.
I had to work really hard to get my two idols, now they just literally grow on trees.
I like the Fire Token idea, so I hope to see more expansion of that.
The main change I’m really happy about is CBS' newcommitment to a 50 percent BIPOC cast!
Glad to see that changes like that are being made.
Finally, would you play again if asked?
Maybe fifth time a charm?
