From lying about his job to throwing challenges, Andy Meldrum was one of the sneakiest players we’ve ever seen on Survivor.
But unfortunately for him, his camp mates could no longer trust him and he became the 13th person voted out.
Yet even as he left the tribal council, he threw a grenade into the camp by letting everyone know that David has an immunity idol.
The former advertising exec and poker player may not have taken the title of Sole Survivor, but he certainly stirred things up and told us if he’d do anything differently if the opportunity to play came up again.
TV WEEK: We’re sorry to see you go, are you pleased you went out in style?
Andy: Well the one good thing about a unanimous vote is that you don’t end up second guessing too much! Being voted out is all part of the Survivor experience for almost everyone who plays so it was good to have a bit of fun with it.
TV WEEK: You caused a lot of chaos towards the end, if you could re-do your Survivor experience, would you do anything differently?
The game is so full of door A or door B moments that it’s almost impossible to point to any one thing. In the end though, it was definitely my social game that cost me. For example, if I had been able to build a closer relationship with Daisy, she may have come to me with her concerns leading up to the coin toss vote.
This is what eventually saw the original Contenders not able to take advantage of our 7-2 numbers advantage after the swap. A ton of credit has to go to Dave and Luke though for exploiting that crack to both make it through to the merge!
“In the end though it was definitely my social game that cost me.”
(Image: Network Ten)TV WEEK: You are the ultimate Survivor super fan, how did you prepare to star on the show?
Andy: In the show we actually saw some snippets of some of the preparation I did. On the physical side I focused on yoga, swimming and cross fit training. I also did a lot of specific challenge practise – puzzles, holding my breath, throwing, untying knots underwater, although I obviously forgot to practise untying knots whilst blindfolded.
But of course the hardest part of the game to practise is the social game. After watching Pia and Dave play though, I think I might advise future Survivors to invest the time in acting classes!
WATCH: Andy is the ultimate Survivor superfan. Post continues after video…
TV WEEK: What was the food situation like?
Andy: The lack of food out there might be the hardest element for the show to bring to life. On the original Contenders tribe, before we eventually earned flint, we were living on raw, soaked beans!
Because the Champions dominated the early reward challenges, there were a few of us who didn’t eat anything other than rice, beans and coconut (and maybe a few termites and sea slugs) for almost three weeks until we finally won the toastie reward.
TV WEEK: And how much weight did you lose?
Andy: I ended up losing 11 or 12kgs in the month I was out there.
Andy lost between 11 and 12kg during his month on the show.
(Image: Network Ten)TV WEEK: Who are you still in contact with from the show?
Andy: Everyone! We have a chat group set up for the cast where we compare notes, chat about the episodes and share some of the memes that we find on social media. We’ve all been through a truly extraordinary experience together and I think that’s something that binds the entire Survivor community together in a really unique way.
TV WEEK: Who’s most likely to win and who would you want to see win?
Andy: I would love to see Shaun take it down! He’s also a huge fan of the show and was great value to have around on the tribe.
Having lost our numbers advantage by the time merge came around though, I’m concerned that it’s going to be an uphill battle for the Contenders from here. So much as I hate to say it, I think we might see another Champion win this year.
Andy reckons it’ll be a Champion who will win this year.
(Image: Network Ten)Want more on Survivor 2019?
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Where is Australian Survivor filmed? Well, not in Australia
The ‘gram has spoken! Where to follow your Australian Survivor favourites on Instagram
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Australian Survivor: AFL star Shaun Hampson on why he isn’t a Champion
Who is Survivor host Jonathan LaPaglia’s wife? Here’s what we know
Why every Survivor fan needs to check out host Jonathan LaPaglia’s Twitter account
Real-life survivor: The Australian Survivor stars lucky to be alive
