Jason Treul is proud to be from “Survivor” Season 49.
Treul, the latest person to be voted off the CBS reality hit, exclusively told The Post how he feels about the portion of the fandom that has called the season boring and uneventful on social media after the first five episodes.
“I’m actually not that social media brained. Like I love a good season of ‘Survivor’ — I actually think I’m a bigger fan than some of the super fans with how much negativity I hear about stuff,” the 33-year-old law clerk said.
“I think that ‘Survivor’ to me is about, do we see these people’s journeys? Are they compelling and telling us things that matter to them?” Treul continued. “I don’t really care about big blindsides and boot orders that are boring. If I could just go on a little bit of a tangent… I feel like you can have the most amazing episode of ‘Survivor,’ but then the vote in the last five seconds is predictable and people are like, ‘Ugh, boring episode.’ And ‘Survivor’ is so much more than that, right?”
Treul, who was initially an alternate on Season 49, explained that “my opinion on the show is already different than the internet’s opinion, so I don’t really take it to heart.”
“And I feel like the season been really different for me to experience this because I’m on it,” he added. “So I feel like I can’t even really participate in the conversation.”
Following the tribe swap in Episode 4, Treul and Matt Williams ended up in the minority on their new tribe. The former Uli tribe members, led by Savannah Louie, voted out Williams and Treul at the next two tribal councils.
“I feel a little screwed,” Treul told The Post about his elimination. “Here’s the thing, though. The best players overcome their worst matchups. So I got swap screwed. Would Boston Rob have gotten swap screwed. Would Sandra have gotten swap screwed? I don’t know.”
“You can’t blame the game when you know that the best players would have been able to get out of that spot,” Treul noted. “So it’s like I was dealt a tough hand, but to me that makes me think I wish I could have played that bad hand. I don’t feel screwed by it, but I do feel like I didn’t rise to the challenge.”
Treul also said he regrets not communicating with his former Hina tribemates to throw the challenge and save his life in the game.
“I’m the guy that’s outside of the cage right now. I can walk over to the other tribe and tell them to throw,” he recalled of his thought process after he was voted out. “Clearly I was so on the outs socially that I had no idea what the hell was going on. It had to have been at the challenge for me to have lived that night. Those are thoughts that I had — but maybe a couple hours too late.”
“Survivor” airs Wednesdays at 8 pm ET on CBS.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
