“Keep the tribe strong.” It’s a simple but effective mentality that hundreds of Survivor contestants have used over the years. One of them is Eric Abraham, who was confident the difficult conditions and challenges of season 41 would keep him safe in the short term. It ended up being an incorrect assumption on his part, as the members of the Yase tribe ended up changing the strategic syllabus for the former college professor, blindsiding him in the very first vote of the season. The Yase tribe literally started up a creek without a paddle, and learned quickly why Jeff Probst touted their season as the “most dangerous” to them. Abraham kept to his game plan despite the new circumstances: If you’re winning, you’re not voting. Unfortunately, Yase failed to win in the next challenge, meaning they would be going to the first Tribal Council. Despite feeling comfortable with his strength and stamina, Abraham turned the vote onto Tiffany Seely, painting her as the weakest on the tribe. But Yase did not say “yes” to that choice, fearing that line of thinking would put some of them on the chopping block next. At Tribal Council, despite some shade thrown about Tiffany about him talking in circles, Abraham was confident it would be her last words. But the tribe instead added injury to insult, coming together to vote him out unanimously. Now out of the game, Abraham talks with Parade.com about his reaction to Tiffany’s words at Tribal Council, the various twists that were thrown his way, What was the experience like to watch the premiere last night? We saw how pumped you were to play Survivor right out of the gate, but it ends up being an episode that shows your downfall in the game. I was in a room with 35 of my friends. They got a chance to be my cheering squad and say, “No, don’t do it!” They got to see my adventure unfold. Three days was an adventure that I can never even quantify in words to them. And they got a chance to share it with me, so I had a great time. You vocalized how surprised you were at being voted out. What shocked you so much about the outcome? That’s a twofold thing. On the one hand, I was like, “My name shouldn’t be on the chopping block. I came to work.” If you look at the challenges, I put in work there. If you look at previous Survivor episodes, the workhorse never goes first! They either want to keep the workhorses or use them as shields, so they’re not noticed. So when I came in there and said, “Tiffany’s my person because they don’t pull their weight,” I was good to go. What I didn’t know was that the other five people were on a different. They weren’t on my page! (Laughs.) Who were you most surprised voted against you? I was surprised at Xander, Liana, and Voce. I knew Evvie was on a different page. But I was surprised that they all didn’t say, “Hey, let’s keep the tribe strong. Let’s try to stay out of the voting booth.” But Survivor moves at such a fast pace this season. And you just got to make a decision that benefits you the most. Let’s talk about Tiffany. What made you decide she would be the one to target out of everyone on Yase? At the fast pace that we played Survivor, you have to pick out the low-hanging fruit. And Tiffany was my low-hanging fruit. I said, “You know what? I got to target somebody.” I have to have somebody where everybody looks at her and be like, “He’s right. She didn’t get the oar when we were on the boat. She was nowhere to be found in the challenge.” I couldn’t pick someone like Xander for the same reasons I wouldn’t pick myself, as someone who’s going to actually hold up the tribe in physical challenges. So going through the whole tribe, Tiffany was my logical target. And sometimes, you got to get messy with that. And I got messy. (Laughs.) It just didn’t work in my favor. So did you actually believe Tiffany was the weakest member of your tribe? Or were those just arguments you propped up as an easy reason to target her? It was twofold. First, I thought, “If you’re not gonna pull your weight, you’re gonna go regardless of who you were.” And secondly, she was a good target. Because I didn’t have to think of anything. I didn’t have to make up anything or create some type of adversity in the tribe. I was like, “Y’all saw her sitting in the boat. We were looking at exact same thing.” She was my first easy target. I had a couple of other targets in mind, but she just was the easiest one for me. Who were you other targets? Evvie was going next. She was making my chopping block. I know you said you wanted to come out and slowplay the game in the preseason. How much did the 26-day season and all the twists and turns thrown out in the first episode change that mindset? Being that face-paced change the whole concept of how we played. The smaller the tribe, the less places to hide. So you look at it and say, “Okay, how do I get to that next day?” And I said, “Hey, I need to push somebody out in front of the truck. So someone puts a weaker link out there and see how that works out for me.” I thought the vote, at least at a minimum, was going to be split down gender lines. No, they came out straight at me. In a way, I’m honored that they voted me out. Y’all knew what was coming, because I was winning! At Tribal Council, Tiffany accuses you of talking in circles and not really giving any answers. What was your response to that? “Please don’t say something on TV that you regret.” (Laughs.) At that moment, I didn’t care what she said. I was like, “Whatever. I’m voting you out. I know you’re going home; you’re going to say whatever it takes to try to save yourself.” It made me feel like everyone was on the same page. And they were, just not with me. Was she calling out a conscious strategy on your part? Was that something you were trying to do out there? I don’t know where Tiffany got that from! It was something she put together. I know it solicited a response from me. But I was like, “Man, I don’t really care what you’re talking about. I’m here to play the game, and you’re low-hanging fruit.” Yase starts in rough shape, and you have to set up camp without any supplies while two members do the water collecting challenge. How tough was it to get started? At that point, it’s a group of people that have never met or spoken to each other to try to come together and form a team. I figured these younger guys could walk that beach and feel that I’ll go up here build a shelter, which we agreed to do. What I didn’t realize was bamboo is heavy! I had to walk through the jungle quite a bit. And it’s just exhausting mentally and physically. You haven’t eaten, you haven’t slept, and you’re just trying to get it done. I know Voce was worried that the two people who did the water challenge would be separating themselves from the tribe. Were you doing any plotting against them while they were away? Mike, we were cutting their throats! (Laughs.) You’ve got 26 days. We don’t have time to sit around and be like, “Hey, let me get to know your whole life.” You need to think, “Do we get rid of Voce now? Or should we wait on Him? We’re going to see how he returns back to the game.” They were out of the loop; nobody came down to the beach and watched them. But when they came back, we knew they were down there actually doing the challenge and not talking. So we just got to enjoy putting together our shelter, getting to know each other, and feeling each other out. Seeing what their stories were and saying, “Oh, is this believable? Can I believe the story that you’re about to tell me that you’re a school teacher?” Evvie didn’t tell us that she was a Ph.D. student; she was kind of alluding to what she did. It was a learning experience to figure out if you could trust someone in a short amount of time.To that point, what was the reaction to Xander when he came back from the summit, considering the detailed story he gave of what happened? Xander was the only one we kind of looked at and said, “He probably won’t lie today.” For the rest, I thought, “Ah, you look shady. You’re a doctor, so you lie every day to patients. You’re a school teacher; you probably lie to kids every day.” We figured Xander was probably our best option for somebody that’s going to go and report back what they found out. And when he came back, he was solid. I can see on TV that he was truthful. At the time, I gave him a 75/25 split that he was truthful.You played on a tribe with two 20-year-olds in Xander and Liana. Considering your previous history as a college professor, did you have an easy time connecting with them? Yeah, you get an opportunity to understand where their perspective is, what their conversational topics are, and you just got to fit in. And I knew things about Xander as he spoke that I could talk on. He’s in cybersecurity now; I’m in cybersecurity. Liana is a Georgetown student; I’m a previous college professor. You ground yourself in their conversation based on where they’re at in their lives. So it was a great opportunity to talk.If you ask every Survivor player what their greatest fear is, it’s being the first voted out. How do you reconcile what happened with getting to have that “three-day adventure” you mentioned before? First of all, nobody wants to be the first boot, including myself. I never thought I would be voted first. I dealt with it this way. I was on Survivor, the greatest show put on by CBS. I don’t care how long my time was; I was on the show. So you combat that. And then you tell CBS, “You know what I’m bringing to the table; bring me back to the table.“Next, read our preseason interview with Survivor 41 host and executive producer Jeff Probst
