Kyle Fraser Survivor 50 The run ended not with a blind side, but with a torn Achilles tendon. The Season 48 winner entered the big season with one of the biggest goals in the game, yet seemed to be navigating it — embedding himself into multiple alliances and even quietly learning about this season’s unexpected Billie Eilish Idol before most of his tribe knew he existed. But that momentum came to an abrupt halt when he ruptured his Achilles tendon during the immunity challenge, forcing a medical evacuation in the first episode that aired this week — just as his strategy began to take shape.
In an exit interview with Hollywood Reporter Below, Fraser explains the moment he realized his game was up, and why he believes he was in a strong position despite his threat level and who he was targeting before production intervened. He also thinks about building a close strategic partnership with Genevieve and what it means to leave the game not by vote, but by circumstance.
***
How do you feel, how’s your ankle?
it’s good. Achilles recovers. I’m out about eight months. I started running a few weeks ago, so the next step will be consistent running, then fast running. After that, the world is my oyster.
Dr. Gu thought this was the injury. So it was a torn Achilles?
Yes, it was a complete tear of the Achilles tendon. I had to have surgery right away when I came back, so the recovery period is eight to 12 months. As an athlete – and I don’t consider myself an athlete – but if you are an athlete, this is probably the worst injury you can have. So that’s what it was, but that’s what it was.
More Read
We saw that you were very reluctant to leave, but I assume that the idea of a life-debilitating injury was something that clicked in your head like, “Okay, I can’t really go on.”
Yeah, I went back and forth with Jeff [Probst] And Dr. Joe for some time, and that’s what I wanted to know. I’d say, “If it’s otherwise, I’ll stay. But if it’s something that could end up causing harm,” I said, “I should get out of here, I guess.”
Let’s get back to how you got hurt. What wasn’t shown was that you actually climbed onto the wall, but stepped back to help Colby up.
More Read
Q ran to the wall first, then I ran, and I got up there myself, and then Colby was the engine of this thing. Q and I were pulling people from the top, and Colby was pulling people from the bottom. This is a really difficult task. I think Colby was pretty gassed, and now the wall is also covered in mud, so a lot of force has to be put into the wall. Colby is an athlete, but he is in his fifties. So I had to get down and help him up, and then I had to try to climb the wall again with the mud.
I made two more attempts, so what you saw is my second attempt, but that’s not actually where I tore my Achilles tendon. This was the third attempt, which the doctor told me was from putting the foot into the wall back to back in quick succession. This, unfortunately, led to a rupture.
Did you know how bad your injury was, or did you think, “Okay, I can get through this?””
When I first got injured, I thought it was just a sprained ankle. Although when it happened, I looked at my foot, and it was hanging off to the right, and I said, ‘I’ve never sprained my ankle, and I’ve never had ankle problems,’ but I don’t remember people saying that’s the case. And it was also really sore, and I couldn’t put any weight on it at all.
So when it happened at that moment, I was like, “Oh man.” In fact, Dr. Joe came to camp the next day and did another exam in the morning and said, “We think it’s a torn Achilles. We’ll give you a little more healing time to see if this thing gets better, but this is probably a complete tear, and at that point we’re going to have to pull you out.” When he did the scan, even though I was trying to wiggle my toes in and out of it, he came to the conclusion that it was probably a complete tear, which is how I knew I was getting pulled.
And when they come back again, which we saw in this week’s episode, you know it’s not good. What goes through your mind when you know your time is up?
I was really frustrated, because I also think that not only was my game over, and it’s not over for anyone in my tribe, but Colby just lost his vote. S lost his voice. Fortunately, Genevieve found this idol, but she was unable to keep it. And Genevieve and I were doing a great job of running these narratives together, so I was trying to put myself in her shoes, and I felt really bad. Obviously I felt sad for myself. I loved the experiences I had, and my tribe members were absolutely amazing. So it was hard to swallow.
Let’s go back to Marooning, what was your first impression of your clan when the reinforcements were unlocked and you saw who you would be working with?
I was very scared at first because I didn’t know where I would fit in. I was also very afraid about Rizzo. Well, I thought Rizo was cool, and I loved seeing him and playing with him in the game, but I didn’t see where I fit socially in the tribe yet, and I’m glad it worked out well for me, because we meshed together really well.
Physically, I was excited, because I thought Stephanie was going to be a secret weapon for us. It can do some of those useful things. Aubrey also has a unique skill set then Genevieve in puzzles and stuff. Hence, Colby, Q, and I probably had the most muscle mass collectively out of all the other tribes. I thought to myself, “Okay, these early challenges should be ours if we play them right.”
As the game progresses, you seem to have some key people you can work with and the beginnings of what could be a powerful alliance. Who was your real number?
Genevieve was my number one, without a doubt. Then Genevieve and I formed a quartet with Stephenie and Colby. And after that, Q and I also became very close, and after that, Q, Genevieve, Rizzo, and I, who Genevieve was getting close to and I was getting close to as well, formed a foursome. I know Q was a bit worried about the new era and the old era. That was kind of the narrative he was pushing. So Genevieve and I had to keep having conversations about who we really wanted to work with the most. To be honest, I was leaning more towards Colby and Stephenie, but I really liked Q and Rizo too, so we were kind of going to see how it goes.
On the other hand, Angelina and I were close in person. Angelina and I have talked about life, and we get along really well. I really enjoy it. I thought maybe she and Aubrey were a couple, but she made it clear to me that wasn’t the case when I asked her, just as we were feeling each other out, and she was like, “I want to be your number one.” Then Angelina and I started working together, and I formed a threesome with Angelina and Aubrey, but I told Genevieve that. I was saying, “I’m going to be transparent with Genevieve about everything, because I don’t want Genevieve to hear anything from someone else, and then that will stop good things. I need someone to manage these narratives.” I was in the middle of everything, which could have fallen apart, but I was having so much fun.
Genevieve shared her Billie Eilish Idol info with you, has she been your Camila this season?
Yes, of course. I mean obviously what Camila and I had couldn’t be replaced, but I wanted to do something cool and new with Genevieve. She sees the game in a really great way. Genevieve, she’s confident but not arrogant, and she’s also very intelligent and easy to talk to. I think that’s a very good combination as a human being, but also as a person Survivor player.
And so I really enjoyed getting to know Genevieve. This was really on my mind a lot. It’s like you were a kid getting pulled out of class a little early when they were going on a school trip the next day or something. I was really looking forward to playing the game with Genenieve and continuing to develop the friendship as well. So I loved working with Genevieve so much.
You knew that with Season 50 there would be some surprises, but what were your thoughts when you saw the Billie Eilish Idol reveal? This may not be on your radar.
Clearly, Genevieve found that with Stephanie, L Stephanie put it in her bag. Genevieve steps up and says, “I have to show you something before Stephenie tells you,” because Genevieve wants to be transparent with me. And then, Genevieve told me, we don’t want people to think we’re close, so she said, “Pretend like you don’t know.” Then you tell Stephenie, and Stephenie comes and talks to me, and I pretend I don’t know the information.
Stephanie says, “Well, we found the idol,” but she says, “Please don’t laugh.” And I say, “Okay, what’s going on?” It’s like, “It’s Billie Eilish Idol.” But I just start to crack. She said, “Who’s next? Beyoncé?” It was a great moment between me and Stephenie, and like our relationship, it was kind of fun and interesting.
If you stayed in the game and lost the next Immunity Challenge, who would you most likely target?
Aubrey. I had a working relationship with almost everyone, including Aubrey, but it’s very difficult to read. Aubrey had deleted Genevieve’s name, so Genevieve and Rizzo’s names were floating ashore a bit. Looking back, she wasn’t too bothered about it, which was very funny to me, because I would have been like, “Yeah, what?”
Then of course, I wasn’t aware of that interaction between Genevieve and Aubrey that was in the episode at the time, but obviously Genevieve was very closed off to Aubrey because of the way Aubrey acted during that conversation, and Aubrey threw her name out, so I would have probably pushed for that.
What’s something we didn’t see you’d like to edit?
This Stephanie thing was really funny. And my working relationship with Angelina, which I talked about, I had a really great relationship with her. Honestly, probably more than my conversations with Colby. I think it’s great for people to see that. Colby and I come from different places, although we’re not that different, I grew up in southern Virginia. But we are in different stages of life and have lived different lives, however Survivor He is at the center for both of us in so many ways during these essential formative years.
And the way Colby sees life and thinks about the world and being open to it and possibilities. I see the world in a similar way, and I think it was great for viewers to see the relationship we had. Oh, also a question, man. Q is a wonderful, charismatic, charming guy, and he’s very funny on screen, but I don’t think people realize how human he is and how much fun Q is to be around.
In your time on Survivor She was victorious and the medical evacuation was completed. Are you satisfied with your experience or would you play again if asked?
both of them. I’m satisfied with both seasons, 48 and 50, for very different reasons, but I learned a lot from those two seasons. I just love the game. I’m looking forward to my wife having this daughter, us raising her, spending time with my family and slowing down my life now. Because it was like, go, go, go.
But in a different chapter of my life, kind of like what just happened to some of these guys who are 50, the older members of the cast. I would love to have that for myself. I’d like to see what a little buffer can do for me too.
