Survivor finalist Joe Hunter has revealed if there's anything he would change about his game if he could go back and do it all over again.

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"This is going to sound crazy, but no," Joe told Entertainment Weekly after Survivor's Season 48 finale aired on CBS.

"The wins were great, but your kids don't have the opportunity to see you. It chokes me up."

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The 45-year-old fire captain continued: "They don't have the opportunity to see you make mistakes. And, more importantly, how you handle them. So I embrace all the mistakes, and I made a ton."

Joe acknowledged, "Sure, maybe I'd handle this conversation different, I'd handle [that] conversation [different], but I'm really proud of how I played."

Joe was loyal, honest and trustworthy from start to finish of his Survivor 48 game. He therefore suggested that he's proud of the example he set for his kids.

"I want to show them how to handle those mistakes with grace. So I'm fortunate for those mistakes," Joe said.

Joe said it was "an honor" and "a blessing" to be able to watch Survivor 48 with his children, who were definitely proud of their dad.

"And man, if that's not enough, then I don't know," he concluded.

But Joe will have an opportunity to correct his mistakes -- and maybe even win the $1 million -- when he returns for Survivor 50 in Spring 2026.

During the Wednesday, May 28 episode of CBS Mornings, Survivor host Jeff Probst announced the 24 returning castaways who will be competing on Survivor's milestone season next year, and Joe will be one of them.

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Joe will also be joined by Survivor 48 winner Kyle Fraser and fourth-place finisher Kamilla Karthigesu.

Kyle was crowned the "Sole Survivor" and won Season 48 in a 5-2-1 jury vote on Night 26 of the game over Eva Erickson, who finished as the runner-up, and Joe, who claimed third place.

Eva had received two votes to win from Survivor jury members Star Toomey and Mary Zheng, while Joe had only received a single vote from Cedrek McFadden.

"Yeah, it kind of slipped through [my] fingers, and I'm just so competitive that it's brutal. It's brutal," Joe told EW in his post-show interview.

Joe admitted he thought he had "a pretty good chance" of winning Survivor walking into that Final Tribal Council. He assumed he had Shauhin Davari and Mitch Guerra's votes to win.

"I still thought I had a good dog in the fight, but you see the eye-rolls, you see the body language -- and I hate to say this part too, but you kind of wonder like, 'Man, how many came in like 60% already loaded? Yeah, they gave us a shot, but how many did?' And you don't know," Joe explained.

As the jury questioning progressed and Kyle revealed shocking truths about his impressive and deceptive gameplay, Joe apparently had a feeling he was going to lose.

Joe admitted it was difficult to transition from losing Survivor 48 to putting on a happy face for the aftershow, which filmed in Fiji immediately after Jeff had read the jury votes aloud.

"I'll be honest with you. I'm just so competitive. Here's the real deal. You almost feel like you can't say that it hurts because on one hand, you're Top 3. And I mean this, what an honor because of how great every player out there was," Joe reasoned.

"Everybody in my cast, I was impressed with everybody -- literally everybody. And so it's difficult to then, well, how do you complain at three?"

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Before the Survivor 50 cast was announced, Joe said he'd "absolutely" play the game again if ever invited back.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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