Jonathan Young struggling to process his 'Survivor 50' loss -- "I played the better game"

Jonathan Young has opened up about how he's devastated to have lost Survivor 50 to Aubry Bracco, especially because he thinks he deserved to win.


"I believe deep in my heart that I played the better game. I know I did," Jonathan told Entertainment Weekly in an interview following the three-hour finale event of Survivor 50 that aired May 20 on CBS.

"But because Aubry's played [four] times, that weighed on a lot of the jury votes. And is that fair? That's up to the fans and up to Survivor to decide."

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He added, "But if that's a jury, then I'm confused, you know?"


Jonathan admitted that he was left with "a lot of questions" after the finale, which featured Survivor host Jeff Probst reading eight jury votes for Aubry to win and only three for Jonathan in front of an audience in Los Angeles.

(Survivor 50's third-place finisher, Joe Hunter, received zero jury votes).

Since the finale ended up being a celebration for Aubry, Jonathan lamented, "It hurt me so bad."

"Because I know I did everything I could do, because I had thought about Survivor for four years, and I don't think I could've played -- I don't know what I could've done different," Jonathan said.

"I keep trying... I keep going back to, 'What do I learn from this? God, what do you want me to learn?' And I don't know yet. I don't know what I'm learning... I'm sure it'll hit me and maybe that's a spiritual thing God's going to have to show me."


Going into the final jury questioning on Night 26, Jonathan said he "didn't know" if he was going to win or not.

"Because there were three people that didn't tell me their vote. It was [Christian Hubicki], [Emily Flippen], and [Rick Devens]," Jonathan revealed.

"They did not tell us who they voted for. I had hope but very little going into the Final Tribal, and they voted in a way that was very, very hard to see."

But Jonathan confessed that deep down, he "knew in my heart" that the game "was over" for him once Aubry won the final Individual Immunity Challenge.

As a result, he said "nothing surprised" him about the jury votes.


"I knew. I mean, I called it going in," he reiterated.

"I knew that if I kept Aubry and [Tiffany Ervin] around, that it would be hard for me. I knew that the shot for me to win was clear. I had to get Joe and [Ozzy Lusth]. If you go back and watch the season, I wasn't mistaken on a lot. I knew what was going on."

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And Jonathan repeated how he knew that if he went to the end with Aubry or Tiffany, he "would lose the game."

Jonathan, however, acknowledged that his loss doesn't necessarily mean he "played a worse game."


"But I know the jury. So I knew how it was going to go. I could've told you who was going to vote for me and who wasn't the whole time," Jonathan insisted.

In fact, Jonathan believes that everyone already "had their mind made up" about whom they were going to vote for walking into the Final Tribal Council on Night 26.

"For example, Ozzy not voting for me, I would've thought that he would give the credit because he's a challenge beast," Jonathan told EW.

"I outsmarted Ozzy in a lot of ways, and I didn't really get credit where credit was due, and I don't know where to go from here yet, but I will because I want to grow."

Jonathan went on to allege that Ozzy may regret whom he voted for.


"I talked to Ozzy about it at the premiere, and he's like, 'Well, yeah, I should've voted for you,' or whatever, or 'Maybe that was the move I should've made.' It's just he even kind of admitted that he was bitter, I guess, which is very odd, but I don't know what to do," Jonathan lamented.

"Like, if someone's bitter, does that mean your game wasn't played correctly where you made them bitter? I don't know. That's what I'm trying to figure out."

Jonathan therefore wondered if he should take accountability for poor jury management.

"Like, was there any possible move that I could've made that would've made some of these people vote for me? And I don't know. I really don't," he noted.

"Is that a me thing? Is it? Because I don't know yet... That's what I'm trying to work through."

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Jonathan claimed that had he made the Final 3 alongside Joe and Rizo Velovic, he would've won. He alleged that both Ozzy and Devens had told him it would've been an "easy" victory for him.

"I mean, [two more votes], that's enough right there to make it a tie," Jonathan said.

While Jonathan -- who placed fourth on Survivor 42 -- said he played his "very best" and gave Survivor 50 "everything" he had, he simply he has to live with the fact Aubry walked away with the $2 million prize.

"That's $2 million. That's life-changing money. I was going to build a ranch for women and children down in Honduras. That was what I was going to do with the money," Jonathan shared.

Jonathan is apparently crushed about his defeat because Survivor "means so much" to him.

"I used to tell Mr. Jeff, 'I'd cut off my left hand to be on Survivor'... and I don't joke around about that because I did think about it for four years," Jonathan shared.


"Every day of my life, I thought about Survivor and how I could change it and have people like [Rob "Boston Rob" Mariano] that could point me in the right direction and change my game and tell me what I did wrong, because I'm not one to think that I know better than others."

Rob apparently told Jonathan after the game that he should be proud of himself and keep his head held high.

"And I am proud of my game. I really am. Getting three votes on Season 50 is amazing. I just, now I've got to go back and critique my game and figure out where I need to change my game," he concluded.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski