Island drama.
Nicole Mazullo, the first boot of “Survivor” Season 49, exclusively told The Post that she “didn’t get along” with tribemate Jake Latimer as she weighed in on whether or not her vote-off was “personal.”
“Yeah, I think it felt personal,” the financial crime consultant said. “You know, I don’t believe that any vote out is personal, right? Because it’s a game.”
“That was a discussion during tribal that we had a lot — it didn’t make the episode — but is this a personal vote or is it not? I think there were some sort of rifflings between Jake and I where we just didn’t get along,” Mazullo continued. “And Jake had a lot of social capital in this game, and he along with a lot of folks.”
“So yeah, it might have it might have been a little personal,” Mazullo added, “but everything’s a little personal.”
During the premiere episode, Latimer hid one of Mazullo’s shoes and called himself the “Shoe Bandit” privately to the cameras, which Mazullo found out about after her elimination.
“So I knew that someone on the island was throwing around my shoes. I’m just like, that’s cringy, honestly. That’s a little cringy but whatever,” Mazullo said. “Because it reminds me of Russell Hantz. Just let Russell have that.”
“So I found out after. Someone had called me and gave me the heads up that that might be in the episode, which I was very grateful to that person,” the Philly native explained. “And then when it aired in the episode, I honestly was just like, that’s cringy.”
Mazullo also admitted that she didn’t expect to be the outcast on her six-person tribe.
“I’m the type of person that I can get along with anyone. Like, truly, I know I can get along with anyone. I’ve never had a difficulty making friends or being in friend groups or anything like that,” she said. “And so I was like, ‘Okay, this is going to be great. I’m gonna work with Annie, I’m gonna work with J [Jeremiah].’ I felt like anyone was an opportunity to connect. And then it just didn’t translate when we got out there.”
“So it was kind of hard to break into that group. It was a little bit difficult,” Mazullo added. “But when I was first looking at my tribe, I thought we were going to be strong. Honestly, I thought we were going to be a really good tribe. I was not expecting to lose the first challenges at all.”
“Survivor” airs Wednesdays at 8 pm ET on CBS.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
