Heath became the 13th person voted out of Australian Survivor overnight, in a dramatic tribal council that saw the Contenders soaked in a rainstorm.
The ominous vibes only added to the tension as our favourite sassy host Jonathan LaPaglia read out the votes, while Heath and Fenella hoped their efforts to secure alliances at camp would be enough to save them.
Unfortunately, their plan was unsuccessful and a shocked Heath was eliminated.
“I actually had no idea I was going home on that night,” says Heath. “I thought we’d done enough beforehand to get the girls on our side to vote someone else. I knew myself and Fenella were on the bottom, so we sort of scrambled to try and get some numbers.
“I had a target on my back from being in an alliance with Tegan and playing that idol, unfortunately for me I didn’t have another one to play on that night!” he tells TV WEEK.
Despite being eliminated, Heath walked out with a big smile on his face.
“At that stage it was flogging down rain, I was soaking wet, freezing cold, starving, and I got to go home and see my girls, my two daughters and my wife. It was a bittersweet moment but that smile on my face was pure happiness!”
After sitting through this rainy tribal council, Heath was ready to go home.
As she submitted her vote, former Champion Sharn told the cameras that if Heath had come to her earlier, she might have forged an alliance with him.
“It’s hard. Because we won challenges, we won immunity, there were really no strategic chats going on. It was sort of like it wasn’t spoken about because we didn’t need to,” Heath admits, though it’s now clear in the episodes that Benji and Robbie were laying down their strategy, with or without the threat of tribal council.
“I don’t know how much earlier I could have gone to her, but it’s just the way it unfolds and I don’t have any regrets over how I played the game, or the moves I made, or the people I aligned with. That’s just how it worked out for me. Unfortunately I didn’t go through to day 50 but day 30 is still pretty good.”
After weeks of unexpected twists, Benji has finally succeeded in his ‘dethroning’ of the Contender’s King and Queen, Heath and Tegan, but will it backfire now that there are only four Contenders against eight Champions heading in to the merge?
“I don’t think it was a good idea. I think the {Benji and Robbie] were led astray by the Champion girls,” says Heath. “I think they sort of sucked them in and told them everything they wanted to hear and I think once they get to the merge it will be a different story.
“We sat at that tribal council and the Champions said they will pick the Contenders off one by one, and I’m sure that’s going to happen.”
Has Benji made a mistake placing his trust in the Champions?
Though he was happy with the game he played, Heath felt some guilt over leaving Fenella in the tribe alone.
“Knowing that she’s voted with me, so she was on the outer, I felt pretty bad,” he admits. “It would have been OK for her to vote against me to keep herself safe, but she decided to go with me, which I think was a decent thing to do. That showed me she’s a decent and trustworthy person. I did feel bad for leaving her there but, you know, it was so close to merge and I knew eventually she was going to be back with Shonee and they would be reunited.”
When the merge finally arrives in tonight’s episode, Fenella and Shonee will be reunited. With the two of them up against eight Champions and two ‘traitorous’ Contenders, we’ll just have to wait and see how these two strong ladies try to turn things around.
“I’d love to see one of the original Contender girls win!” Heath says. “Shonee or Fenella could take it out. It’s anyone’s game from merge, it’s going to be really interesting to see how it all plays out from this point on.”
Australian Survivor continues tonight, 7:30pm, on Network Ten.
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