Youngest ‘Survivor’ player would do it all again

The youngest player ever to compete in the “˜Survivor’ game and a hardcore fan of the series, 19-year-old Spencer Duhm saw what was coming but was powerless to stop it. A poor challenge performance and the wrong words whispered in the right ears turned his tribe against him in a flash even though he was in one of the strongest alliances. Spencer talked to GlobalTV.com about how his game went wrong, what it was like to live out his dream and his relationship with “˜Survivor: China’ winner: Todd Herzog.

John Powell: I am still shocked that you were kicked out over one challenge. Was that the real reason you were booted?

Spencer Duhm: Yeah, it was surprising to me too. I definitely woke up that morning feeling really, really safe based on my position in the tribe, the alliances I had made and what had been going on in our tribe. It was surprising how quickly everything went down. I guess it is true that things can turn on a dime in the game. Something like a challenge can put a target on your back. Right when the target was on Taj, Joe went to Sydney and told her that it was either me or Taj. She went back to the guys and told them she was willing to vote out Spencer if it saves her. The target was on my back just because of the challenge, that was rough.

John Powell: I couldn’t understand it myself because as we have seen in previous editions of “˜Survivor’ there have been individuals that have been solely responsible for a challenge loss and they have lived to tell the tale.

Spencer Duhm: You are preaching to the choir here. It wasn’t the only thing at play. The target was on my back because of the challenge but Stephen had been in Sydney’s ear for a week prior to that. I was in an alliance with her. He was telling her how she couldn’t trust me and I was devious. He was just trying to convince her that I was really sneaky and couldn’t trust me. They all were kinda wary of me. It was a little presumptuous on their part because I was a big fan. They were all wary of me just for that reason. I wasn’t doing all that much behind the scenes. They thought I was far more devious than I really was. All of those things combined.

John Powell: We have only seen limited play for Sydney. How much influence does she have on the tribe?

Spencer Duhm: Sydney was working really closely with me for a long time. We would bounce ideas off of each other and how we should bring someone else into our alliance, like Joe. She was definitely close to me but how she interacted with the individuals; it was definitely centred around her flirting. It worked really well on J.T. It worked well on Joe. Stephen and I were not really receptive to it. I don’t think she tried that much with Stephen any way. That is pretty much what you get from her out there. She was a great girl and I worked with her but obviously she had other plans. The producers have shown a pretty accurate assessment of her gameplay as far as the flirting goes.

John Powell: In a throwback to the “˜Amazon’ edition, it looks to us viewers that the men are ganging up on the women in your tribe. Is that the case and how did that come about?

Spencer Duhm: It definitely was a men versus women thing but it was more like men versus the unsuspecting women because on Day Two all of the men built the shelter by themselves. The women went off on their own and gathered rocks and got stuff for the roof. We knew Sandy was on the outs and Carolina was getting on people’s nerves. The girls were already kinda split and the guys worked really well together right off the bat.

We were pretty laid back out there. That is when the guys really bonded. We knew one of the women would go home first and from then on, we had the numbers. The four guys actually created an alliance. I was looking at the other guys and I realized I was the youngest. I could be considered the weakest. I figured Sydney might be the last girl standing, she is really cute and she is young. So, if we got down to five, I wanted Sydney in my back pocket and we needed to pick one more guy up to go along with the plan. That way, we would be safe down to the last three people on our tribe. That was my thinking. That is why I had the extra alliance with Sydney and Joe. I was just watching out for myself thinking I would be the first guy kicked off.

John Powell: Those are the best alliances in “˜Survivor’. An alliance that is no more than three or four people and that nobody knows about. Sort of like what happened on “˜Palau’.

Spencer Duhm: That is what I wanted to do but Sydney told Taj some point during the game that we were in an alliance or Taj asked her and she just wasn’t going to lie. That kinda left me hung out quite a bit. I just didn’t realize how hung out. (Laughs) It was obvious we were buddy-buddy. I wanted to keep our alliance a secret but it didn’t turn out that way. That is how the rest of the tribe found out I was working two sides of the fence. That is kinda why I got myself into trouble. I created that on my own by accident.

John Powell: You kinda of addressed it on the show by talking about how you didn’t want to tell the guys you were gay. You were worried about how they would react. Did you really feel that way out there?

Spencer Duhm: Going into the game, not knowing who I was going to be with, I even told casting I probably won’t tell my tribemates I am gay because sometimes people don’t pick up on it with me and it would be just another reason or thing that would separate me from the rest of the tribe. It was like Taj and her NFL husband. That is one thing that separates her from the group when we found that out.

I didn’t want subconscious red flag to go up that separates me in their eyes from the rest of the group. I have had experience in the past of being discriminated against. They were nothing major but I have had experiences with that in my life so I didn’t want to risk that in a game worth a million dollars. This is high stakes. This is “˜Survivor’. I thought it wasn’t a big deal. If they ask me about it, I would be more than happy to tell them but if they are not going to bring it up, I am not going to offer it up as it could hurt me.

John Powell: Word is that you are dating Todd Herzog, the winner of “˜Survivor: China’. Is that true and did he offer any advice to you before the series?

Spencer Duhm: As you can possibly imagine, I cannot really speak on that but I did not meet Todd before I was cast or anything like that. It was definitely a post “˜Survivor’ experience.

John Powell: Darn. You could have picked his brain a bit. Were you happy with your edit on the series?

Spencer Duhm: I am okay with it. Basically they portrayed me to be the naïve, happy-go-lucky, 19-year-old, who is just happy to be there. I was really happy to be there and for the most part, I was fairly optimistic but there was a lot more strategy involved. They didn’t show any of it and my whole bio is about how I am this super fan but none of that came across on television. That was a little disappointing but I realize they cannot tell everyone’s story. I understand why they didn’t do it. I am not pissed about it. I am just a little disappointed because there was a lot more to my character than me being happy-go-lucky and eating grubs. It wasn’t a bad edit. Trust me, I definitely cannot complain.

John Powell: Having wanted to be on the series for so long, what really surprised you about the experience?

Spencer Duhm: Probably two things. One, the boredom. There were days where you don’t have anything to do. You wake up when the sun comes up and go to bed when the sun goes down. Between that, there can be 12 hours of nothing. It was really hot and there were chores to do but not many chores so there is nothing that takes up the entire day. You have to be always on alert. You cannot be sleeping or something because someone could be talking about you. That part is really frustrating. The other thing is the first challenge we went to. We had only slept for two hours in two days. We had one bottle of water. I had only eaten two bananas. The temperature was 120. The challenge was hard enough without those factors.

John Powell: Would you come back for an “˜All-Stars’ edition?

Spencer Duhm: I would absolutely go back but there is no way in the world they would ask me. Why would they? (Laughing) I was completely irrelevant for the entire season. I would go back in a heartbeat but I do not expect that call any time soon. (Laughing)