Easily one of Survivor's fiercest competitors ever, Jeremy Collins was willing to go an entire season without ever talking to his tribemates about his wife expecting a baby to ensure he had a better chance of winning. On top of that, Collins has revealed that he worked hard to prepare for Survivor before he was even cast on the show, and once defended players copying each other's puzzles.
Based on everything that is known about Collins, it seems very obvious that he would give his all during every Survivor challenge he could compete in. Despite that, he once made the choice to completely sit out of a challenge. Recently, Collins explained exactly why he was willing to make that move that seemed so out of character for him.
Jeremy Collins sat out of a challenge to vote a specific player out
Before Survivor 49 began airing, Jeff Probst announced that Jeremy Collins would be co-hosting the show's official podcast episodes that would accompany that season.
During the Oct. 8 episode of On Fire with Jeff Probst: The Official Survivor Podcast, Collins was asked by the podcast's third co-host, Jay Wolff, about whether he would ever sit out of a challenge. In response, Collins revealed that he once sat out of a challenge because he'd decided that one of his tribemates needed to be voted out and he wasn't willing to full-on throw the competition. Collins also revealed that he still had some regrets about sitting out that challenge.
“I did sit out a challenge before, you know," Collins said. "There was a time when I knew my tribe needed to lose, we needed to go to tribal council. But I'm not going to throw a challenge. So, I made up a story that I wasn't feeling good and I sat out a challenge. Strategically, I had to sit out, you know, and we lost, and we went to tribal. and it worked. But even looking back, I look at the challenge and I say, “I wish I played that challenge.“
In response to those remarks from Collins, Probst asked him the obvious question. "Who'd you vote out that episode?"
Without missing a beat, Collins confirmed that he sat out a challenge to ensure that his Survivor: Cambodia — Second Chance tribemate Monica Padilla was voted out. "That was Monica."
Since Collins won that season and the move resulted in the player he wanted gone being voted out, it may seem strange that he still had regrets about sitting out that challenge. However, that comment makes more sense when you learn what else he had to say about sitting out of challenges. Before Collins confirmed that he did sit out of that challenge once, he told Probst and Wolff that not giving his all to win a competition like that goes against his nature.
"I'm not sitting out challenges, first of all. Like the competitor in me, I want to play. I want to go and show my skills, and I want to win for my tribe. The game player in me is I want to experience all these Survivor challenges that we've seen all these years. And I want to play it and say, ‘Hey, I played in this one, I played in that one.” And I want to tell my story to everybody later."
Listen to Collins on the On Fire podcast weekly on Wednesdays after new episodes of Survivor 49!