LEAKED!!! ‘Survivor 50’: Colby Reveals Deleted Scene That Explains Emotional Tribal Council

Robert Voets / CBS

For the first time in Survivor history, three tribal councils took place in one episode. The Blood Moon triple elimination was introduced in Survivor 50 Episode 6, and it sent two new-era players, Genevieve Mushaluk and Kamilla Karthigesu, and one Survivor legend, Colby Donaldson, home.

Colby tells TV Insider that his fate was sealed before the votes were cast, and everybody knew it. The Season 2 alum, known as Survivor‘s first “hero” character, lost his vote in the Season 50 premiere and wouldn’t get it back until after his first tribal council. Unfortunately, Episode 6 was Colby’s first and last tribal. Complicating matters further was the fact that he had a foot injury that turned into an infection and was likely to get him medevaced out of the game soon after this episode.

Colby’s lack of a vote, combined with his injury, made him defenseless and an easy target. He tells TV Insider that tribal council was edited to create the appearance of suspense about the voting results, but in reality, his group told Jeff Probst that Colby’s elimination was “a done deal.”

“We all told Probst that, and so he pivoted tribal council,” Colby says.

The emotional moment when Colby, Cirie Fields, and Benjamin “Coach” Wade reflected on their decades-long Survivor history happened because they wanted to give these legends the chance to say goodbye.

Here, Colby shares what it meant to be given that platform for what he insists was his final episode of Survivor ever, and breaks down the alliance he tried to forge with Cirie that viewers didn’t see, and more.

I’ve got to ask about your foot first. Is it OK?

Colby Donaldson: The foot’s fine. Thanks for asking. It was a ligament injury initially, and then somehow, same foot, punctured it, which introduced some bacteria, and it turned into an infection. The infection is what was the worst, and that might have taken me out of the game had I not been voted out. But once I got out of the game, they were able to give me antibiotics and knock it out, knock the infection out. And then the, the ligament ended up healing. All good now.

I did wonder how close you actually were to being medevaced because people were speculating that in this episode.

Yeah, what we don’t see on camera is that all the players, I guess they’ve been doing this since the new era, but it used to not be this way, now you meet with the docs both before and after each challenge, and before tribal, you’ve got the opportunity to go meet with the docs plenty, right? They want to make sure you’re, you’re doing OK. You go into a tent that’s private, so you can confide in the doctors if you’re injured, if you don’t want the other tribe mates or anybody else knowing that you’re injured.

So, the ligament doc said, “Look, Colby, it’s gonna suck. You’re gonna be in pain. There’s not anything I can do for it, and you will eventually heal from this. It’s gonna certainly affect your performance in challenges, but it’s not something I’m gonna pull you out of the game for.”

The infection was a little different. The infection, we initially couldn’t find the point of entry. We couldn’t find the puncture, but it had to have come from a puncture wound to get the bacteria in there. And so he said, “We just got to watch this and see what happens with it.” And it kept getting worse and worse and worse. He talked to me right before tribal, and he said, “We got to make a decision on this because I can’t treat you until I get you out of the game.” And I said, “Well, I think I’m going home tonight at this tribal council. In fact, I’m quite certain of it. So let me just go to tribal, we’ll deal with the infection tomorrow.” Had some freak accident or freak twist happened and I didn’t get voted out, I would have met with him the next day, and we would have assessed it then.

That also played into, Kelli, how hard I scrambled to try to get Coach out instead of me. Coach is the guy I was playing with. He was my only option because the three women were locked in, so the only way for me to stick around is if they decided to get rid of Coach. But the harder I campaigned, I realized this doesn’t make any sense. If they send Coach home tonight and then I get medevaced tomorrow or the next day, then people like Stephenie, I didn’t know Genevieve was going home, but we were playing with Genevieve, we were playing with Joe, Jonathan. There were a lot of us that were aligned. It didn’t help their game if they lose both me and Coach, and so it seemed a little self-serving. The medevac was a real option with regard to the infection, more so than the ligament damage.

Your pitch to Dee was pretty strong. I wonder what other strategy talks you had before tribal.

It was very brief. I didn’t have any with Emily. I knew Emily was already set with who she was playing the game with. I certainly talked to Cirie just because I’ve known her for so long, and we played together briefly in Heroes Villains, but Cirie is so good. I know Cirie. It didn’t matter what she told me.

Her best move was to get rid of me, not because I was better than Coach or bigger threat or I was the head of the snake versus the tail, but Cirie is smart enough to know when you have a shot at somebody who cannot defend themselves, who doesn’t have a vote, doesn’t have a Shot in the Dark, that’s your best move, that’s your smart move right there. And so, if I just think strategically from their mindset, it made complete sense to get rid of me. So, I had a discussion with Cirie, but I knew it didn’t matter what she said.

Dee was holding court that day. She was sitting on that log that had washed up on the beach, and Coach was going up to her, Cirie. [Dee] literally did not move, and Cirie went and sat down beside her, and then Coach went and sat down beside her, Emily went, and it was because she had immunity. She was the queen of the court. And then I went and sat down beside her, and yeah, you saw my elevator pitch.

All I had to offer is, “Look, if I make it through. I promise to pull all those together that I’m playing with and in front of you so that you can see it, tell them, ‘Look, Dee’s the one that saved me. She stuck her neck out; she helped me out. Let’s target somebody else.’” It didn’t work, but it was the only poker chips I had left at that point.

In preseason, Cirie told me she really wanted to work with you. Did you guys have more opportunities to talk?

Yeah. Here’s some insight that I learned after the game. It did not help my game or any of us that Jenna [Lewis-Dougherty] went after Cirie so early, because Jenna’s old school and that really put Cirie back on her heels, because Cirie was thinking, “Hey, we’re all old school here. I thought old school was gonna work together.” But Jenna didn’t even try to hide it. Jenna made it public that she wanted Cirie out.

So then, if you remember, I did a journey, and I competed against Savannah [Louie]. Savannah was grilling me about all the people, and I said, “Look, you should know, going back to your beach, Cirie is somebody to watch out for.” That was a red herring. I knew Savannah would go back and tell Cirie that, and she did, but because Cirie heard that right after learning that Jenna was going after her, Cirie felt vulnerable. She felt like the old schoolers were maybe going to target her, and I know this because I’ve talked to her since.

When we merged, I had a brief moment at the merge beach when all 17 of us were swirling around trying to talk strategy. I went up to Cirie, and I said, “Cirie, when Savannah came back from that journey, did she tell you what I said about you being dangerous?” And Cirie did in her Cirie expression and Cirie’s voice, she’s sitting on the log by the fire, she said, “Uh huh, she sure did,” and I knew I was done.

I knew there was no coming back. I’m like, “Cirie, I told her that as a red herring!” I’m sitting there going, “Didn’t I do a good job? I told her that so she wouldn’t suspect that we were playing together at all.” The deal was done, and I think at that point she had already built bonds with other players.

That was the first time I saw Cirie and got to talk to her once we merged. And so, again, I knew my dynamic with Cirie was fractured the moment we merged on the beach, and that was before we did this little three-groups-of-five swap, right? So, I didn’t yet know I would end up on her beach, but I was going up and talking to her because I knew Savannah had gone back and said, “Hey, Colby said to watch out for you,” which I did say, but I did so as a red herring. I just didn’t have a way to explain it to Cirie.

It’s good to know that you went straight to Cirie during the merge and were like, “I have to clarify.”

Oh yeah, but you know Cirie. She wasn’t having it. She didn’t buy it. We just didn’t have enough background together. We haven’t played enough together. We were sort of opposed to each other, even though we were on Heroes Beach way back in Heroes Villains. She and I weren’t in the same alliance, and so we’ve never really played the game together as an alliance. It was just too little, too late for me with Cirie.

That moment in tribal with you, Cirie, and Coach, it was really moving. I feel like anyone who’s been watching Survivor for a long time couldn’t help but get emotional watching that. It felt like you were already saying goodbye, though. Is that how it felt for you before the votes?

Yes, it was. Obviously, they’re gonna edit the tribal down to where there’s a little suspense in there for the viewer, but everyone there knew I was going. Everyone did, and we discussed it, and so the majority of tribal was about, not just about me leaving, but it was a blessing that Coach and Cirie were both there with me because I had two of these players who have played this thing, and this has been as big a chapter in their life as it has been in mine. And so it was special for me to get to say goodbye to the game that I love with them being there, even though they were the ones who voted me out.

But yes, I knew I was going home, and so there was no scrambling, there was no conversation to be had at tribal that would potentially save me. It was a done deal, regardless of the way it looked; we all knew it. We all told Probst that, and so he pivoted tribal council, and again, it’s cut in a very creative way, and it works and it looks good, but the reality was Probst was even aware that I was getting voted out, which is why he gave me the platform as long as he did because he knew I was going.

Yeah, it’s bittersweet for sure. How did it feel to hear Jeff say, “One last time, Donaldson”?

I loved it. He hadn’t called me by my last name, since maybe All-Stars. I don’t even know that he did it in Heroes Villains, but that’s the way we used to talk to one another. We’ve always referred to each other by our last names. He doesn’t do it in the game anymore, but that was sort of his nod to me, his, “I got you, buddy.” It was awesome.

Probst has been a huge part of this experience for me, and I was so grateful that he gave me the chance, the producers gave me the chance, and that the Survivor community wanted me back. I couldn’t ask for anything else.

How do you feel about this being the end of your Survivor journey?

It is definitely the end, or at least in terms of playing. I will always be a champion for the brand, because it’s meant so much to me for so long, but definitely my last time playing.

I’m OK with the chapter closing. It’s not easy to go back and do something as demanding as Survivor 25 years after you did it the first time, and it’s humbling each time you go back. It’s fun, but it’s humbling. And so, I am OK with closing the book or closing the chapter on this, and I couldn’t have asked for a better gift and experience.

It’s been a gift for 25 years, not just the times I’ve played, not those four times, but all the times in between and what it’s led to. I ended up carving out a 20-year career in the television business, and none of that happens if not for Survivor. I didn’t anticipate any of that. I didn’t go play Survivor because I wanted to move out to L.A. and start pursuing all that stuff, but I was in the right place at the right time, worked my butt off, and took advantage of that opportunity, and I owe all of that to Survivor because none of it, none of it takes place [without the show].

I’m not married to my wife right now if not for Survivor. I had to connect those dots to her, and it was five degrees of separation. She had never even seen Survivor, never seen the show, never watched me on it, but the mutual friend who introduced us, I don’t meet that gal if not for Survivor. Survivor led to me moving out there and getting a show called Top Shot. Top Shot led to a business I started here in Texas. I was doing business with her, and one day she said, “Are you dating anybody?” I said, “No.” And she said, “I got a friend you ought to meet.” And so I connected those dots for my wife. We don’t meet if not for Survivor. It doesn’t happen. And I wasn’t even living in the same city as her when we met.

That’s what I mean when I talk about the gifts that I’ve been given by Survivor and by Probst and by all those involved, and it’s vast.

As you said, you truly never expect it. How could you ever predict that kind of thing?

You can’t.