Exclusive: Hope Driskill talks 'Survivor: Caramoan -- Fans vs. Favorites' (Part 2)

Hope Driskill, a 23-year-old pre-law student from Jefferson City, MO, was eliminated from Survivor: Caramoan -- Fans vs. Favorites' Gota "Fans" tribe during Wednesday night's third episode of the CBS reality series' 26th edition.
 
Hope was voted out of her tribe at the season's third Tribal Council, the second elimination vote for Gota, after she joined a foursome alliance that the majority alliance has been picking off one by one.


In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Hope talked about her short-lived Survivor: Caramoan -- Fans vs. Favorites experience. Below is the concluding portion of Hope's interview. Click here to read the first half. 

Reality TV World: [Before you were voted off,] do you think [Reynold Toepfer] and [Edward "Eddie" Fox] felt they were dead men walking in that one of them was going to be the next to go after you, or do you think they kind of felt confident your tribe's majority alliance would finally get around to voting out [Shamar Thomas] next?

Hope Driskill: We had done so much strategizing, so much work, and so many situations could have worked out in our favor -- they could have. [Matt Bischoff] could've voted with us early on and he didn't. [Laura Alexander] could've switched her vote. [Julia Landauer] could've switched her vote and she didn't.

So things kept happening and, you know, our alliance was slowly being taken out. And so, I know that I'm positive they probably went back to camp after I got voted off very, very frustrated with everyone and very nervous that they could be the next ones to go.


Reality TV World: So even though they were confident they brought a lot  to the tribe physically to help in tribal challenges, Reynold and Eddie weren't that convinced they could still be safe until the merge?

Hope Driskill: I mean, I think they were still pretty nervous because our alliance is just being completely taken out up until that Tribal Council.

Reality TV World: Last night's episode showed Shamar claiming he was going to quit the game and then basically changing his mind and saying he was going to stick around for his alliance, not himself. What are your thoughts about that whole thing -- how aware of that were you while you were out there, and did you think he was ever really going to quit or do you think he was just being dramatic?

Hope Driskill: Shamar was making everyone miserable. He was probably making himself miserable. And in my opinion, I don't think he really even wanted to be there. So, when there were talks of him quitting and all that, I honestly believed that he wanted to go home.

And so, yeah, that was, what I think, so frustrating for me -- was that I was like, "Come on guys. Let's just put him out of his misery. He doesn't want to be here. Let's just do him a favor and send him home." And unfortunately, that's not how it went down.


Reality TV World: So you believe the editing of Shamar has been accurate thus far on the show, it sounds like? (Laughs)

Hope Driskill: (Laughs) I actually think it's hilarious because I really don't even think that the editing does it justice. He literally was making everyone miserable. Like the cameras were on us 24/7 and he was exactly like that 24/7. So I don't even think it does it justice.

Reality TV World: Do you think the Shamar viewers have seen on TV is the same Shamar he is in real life, or do you think the Survivor situation just kind of brought out a different side of him?

Hope Driskill: Oh you know, I have no idea. I don't know Shamar outside of the game. I'm assuming I'll remain on his "no talking list" for life, so I just have no idea. I know that everyone plays the game differently and has different strategies going in, and I just have no idea what that says about him in real life. I only know the Survivor Shamar. I don't know real-life Shamar.

Reality TV World: One of the things "Survivor Shamar" was shown saying last night was that he basically didn't know what he was getting into when he decided to do the show -- which seemed like a odd thing for him to say given yourself and all of the season's other new castaways are supposed to be huge Survivor fans. What are your thoughts on that? 


Hope Driskill: Right, right. It's kind of funny too. Granted I will say that I'm a fan of the show and I kind of in the back of my mind thought, "Okay, like there must be something going on behind the scenes of the camera, like they probably have a granola bar stashed behind the cameras and it probably isn't as hard as they make it look."

But man, I'll tell you what. It is very, very real. We had absolutely nothing and it was much harder than I had anticipated. And so, you know, maybe that's what he meant when he referred to that, but I don't know at this point about what Shamar says.

Reality TV World: Did you ever have any conversations with Shamar or did he ever mention how familiar he actually was with the show before competing on it?

Hope Driskill: I have honestly no idea because, like I said, I was on Shamar's "no talking list." So we had very little in depth conversations. (Laughs)

Reality TV World: You were saying you were pretty familiar with the show, however. Could you elaborate on that a little bit?


Hope Driskill: Yeah, yeah. All throughout high school I kind of, well not grew up watching the show, but it was definitely a TV series that I enjoyed watching.

And so, whenever I got the opportunity to go on it, it was just the most exciting thing in the world because I could never imagine actually being a competitor, being like so many of the others I had watched for so long on TV. So yeah, it was a very surreal experience and it ended up being so much more real and so much harder than I had anticipated.

Reality TV World: Last week's Survivor broadcast showed Reynold revealing his hidden Immunity Idol at Tribal Council. Did that surprise you? Do you think he should've denied the accusation or what are your thoughts on that whole thing?

Hope Driskill: That whole Tribal Council was kind of a blur for me, because I was kind of in shock, you know? Those were two people -- Reynold and [Alexandra "Allie" Pohevitz] -- who were two people I was in an alliance with that I trusted, and I had no idea that he had the idol.

But I kind of think in that situation, he did the right thing, because he was kind of backed into a corner and didn't have much else he could've done.


Reality TV World: You formed your alliance with Reynold, Eddie and Allie really early in the game, and when I talked to Allie last week, she said you guys thought you also had Matt with you -- which would've given you five people -- but you didn't seem to have that sixth person you would need to have the majority at the first Tribal...

Hope Driskill: Well our strategy going in -- well my strategy in particular was to align myself with other strong players, to align myself with the strongest players. Because I knew that winning challenges, especially early on, was really important. And we didn't think of us as an alliance of four necessarily. I didn't.

I thought of us more as an alliance of five. We really, really thought that we had Matt voting with us. And if it had worked out as planned, as our strategy had gone, then we would've had Matt vote with us. We could've potentially voted Shamar out and then would've had the numbers for the following.

Reality TV World: There's obviously a lot of talk about whether something was going on between yourself and Eddie out there.

Hope Driskill: Right.

Reality TV World: What can you tell me about that?


Hope Driskill: That was blown way out of proportion. (Laughs)

Reality TV World: Could you elaborate a little further on that?

Hope Driskill: Oh yeah, no. I mean, I think Eddie is hilarious. He is just so goofy and loves to make everyone laugh. He's definitely someone I could see myself being friends with, but there was never any sort of romantic feelings, at least from my end.

Reality TV World: How were you cast on Survivor? How did you come to end up on the show?

Hope Driskill: Well I was a former Miss Missouri and I competed at Miss USA and I think that whenever I sent in my video and application, that they saw me as someone who is competitive enough to compete on the show and also saw me as a pageant girl. And so, I think that they thought it would be entertaining for viewers to put me in such a harsh environment and see how I'd react. So then I came on the show.

Reality TV World: Was it your first time applying for the show?


Hope Driskill: Yes, yes. I got so lucky!

Above is the concluding portion of Hope's exclusive interview with Reality TV World. Click here to read the first half.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski