Just as he had hoped, Survivor 46 star David Jelinsky became a legend after all, despite what fans of the franchise might have to say about it…
During his short stint as a member of the Yanu tribe — which consisted of Jelinsky, Q Burdette, Bhanu Gopal, Jess Chong, Kenzie Petty, and Tiffany Nicole Ervin — Jelinsky sure gave the beloved competition series his all, volunteering for three different challenges all during the first few days in Fiji. Although he volunteered, the 22-year-old had little to no success, failing the “Sweat” portion of the “Savvy or Sweat” challenge, failing the puzzle portion of the Immunity Challenge, and losing his vote after going on a journey and failing the challenge against Nami member Tevin Davis and Siga member Maria Shrime Gonzalez.
Because of his failure to deliver time and time again — being deemed the weakest link of the Yanu tribe — his “Sweat or Savvy” partner, Q Burdette, orchestrated a blindside against him, causing the slot machine salesman to be unanimously voted out during the first Tribal Council of Survivor 46, something that he deemed to be a “huge blindside.”
Failing three challenges back to back to back, Jelinsky also “cut his feet up on the ‘Sweat’ task, discovered he was allergic to coconut, lost his water bottle, and got pinched by a crab,” according to Survivor writer and reporter Mike Bloom. Could his time on the Emmy Award-winning series have gone any worse?
Believe it or not, Jelinsky is at peace with his Survivor 46 journey, sharing his reactions and thoughts in an exit interview with Entertainment Weekly after watching it all back. Keep scrolling to see for yourself what the Las Vegas native had to say…
“What has it been like for the past nine months sitting with this, knowing you were the first one out, you never got to cast a vote, nobody even spelled your name right on the way out? It can’t have been easy,” Survivor writer and reporter Dalton Ross asked the ousted castaway, and in true Jelinsky fashion, he sang like a bird.
“I honestly feel like I’m doing pretty good. In fact, leading up to this point, everyone in the entire cast, even once the jury made it back to the states, they told me, ‘Jelinsky, you are a legend. There genuinely has never been a first boot like you,’ and that kind of made everything easier. You don’t know what CBS is going to show in the show, but I honestly feel like my essence was translated throughout the entire game… I really feel I’m really at peace with it, and I think the cast and everyone’s just made me feel real good about what went down out there.”
“Every single day I would choose to be the first boot and go out guns blazing, legendary, and remembered than to be someone who was voted out way down the line and not remembered at all,” he concluded passionately, and we could not love this outlook more if we tried. Survivor is about the journey, not the destination!
While the “legendary” David Jelinsky is already missed on our television screens — failing to take home the title of “Sole Survivor” and the million-dollar cash prize — who will ultimately be crowned the champion of Survivor 46? To see for yourself, tune into brand new episodes every Wednesday evening at 8pm ET/PT on CBS.