Rick Devens did not winSurvivor: Edge of Extinction.
But he still won a fair chunk of change anyway.
This has become something of a regular occurrence for Sia.
Rick Devens on ‘Survivor: Edge of Extinction’.Timothy Kuratek/CBS
But Sia wasn’t done.
And then after last season ofSurvivor: David vs. Goliath, Sia gave $14,000 to Davie Rickenbacker.
There was no clear frontrunner for this year’s “Sia Award” so Rick was not expecting it.
And he certainly wasn’t expecting $100,000.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First off, you’re $100,000 richer thanks to a gift from pop superstar Sia.
Tell me about your reaction right now, because this just happened only about an hour ago.
Sia single-handedly took what was a very depressing night, watching my demise, and turned it around.
My wife broke down in the front of the audience.
She was going nuts.
Did you get to actually meet her backstage or afterwards at all?
I got to meet her afterwards and she’s so nice.
I mean, obviously, I’ve got nothing bad to say about her.
She just made me feel like the greatest guy in the world.
And, really, it was so great to meet her.
Just tell me what it was like for you.
How tough was that?
So everything was leading up to get in the final four.
How do you think you do in fire if you were going up against Gavin or Julie?
I think I would’ve beat anyone left at fire, except Chris.
And my flame was right there.
So I was very confident going against anyone but Chris.
You voted for Gavin to win.
He was in a lot of decisions, he never had a vote against him.
I was also real close to voting for Julie.
It’s really hard to stay in the game.
I couldn’t do it.
I got voted out once.
And so the fact that Gavin and Julie had stayed in the whole time… Maybe that’s just my bias.
But he just came in so late.
That being said, I think he’s a deserving winner.
He plays very hard.
Oh my gosh, the advantage is monumental.
He came back, that you didn’t see, with written notes from some of the contestants.
He had a written note from Ron, telling Julie to trust him.
I mean, these are monumental advantages in the game.
So that’s also something that came into my thought process when I gave Gavin the vote.
Ron gave him a note to give to Julie, saying to trust Chris?
And I saw that note.
Were you almost writing a script?
It was a little bit of both.
Definitely going into the game I thought, “You know what?
Tribal Council is the most like a news studio.
I’m going to feel a lot more comfortable there.
Let’s play this by ear.”
I wasn’t trying to steal credit for that vote.
I was surprised by it.
So some of it was planned.
How were you able to find so many idols?
It’s really just I was working a lot harder at looking for them.
And because I had nothing to lose.
You got to think about things like that.
So I had nothing to lose.
And it is hard work.
It’s like, I’m digging around for eight hours through cobwebs, through this island.
How much weight did you lose out there?
I lost 31 pounds.
Wardog and I, I think, ended up losing the most weight of anyone, at 31 pounds.
That’s theSurvivordiet right there.
Yeah, and I’ve kept about 15 of it off.
Well, I definitely feel like I got buried in the edit.
I was a bit of a wallflower.
It would’ve been nice if they gave me a little more airtime, as for edits.
[Laughs]No, I’ve loved it.
I feel like they did me justice.
Like all my little funny lines, I was surprised at how many they put in.
So I got no complaints, other than obviously they can’t show all the relationships.
I was very close with Gavin.
We actually had an unofficial wedding ceremony, we got so close.
But I got really lucky with my cast.
It was so much fun.
Wardog was one of my favorite people out there.
David, I obviously had a great relationship with.
So it would be those little relationships, that how could they show them?
But those are the things that you really appreciate, thinking back.
No question in my mind you will be asked to come back to play this game again.
So what will you say when you get that phone call?
I’ll be like, “Is Dalton still covering it?
If Dalton’s still covering it, I’ll go.”
It was so much fun and such an adventure.
It’d be hard to say no.
I would have a go at make it for sure.
Well, I’m sitting here going, “Hey.
David and John Cochran are working on thisStar Trekstuff.
I don’t have any writing talent, but can I get in on that?”
