Survivor's Amanda: I'll Never Play the Game Again

In addition to helping Survivor celebrate 10 years and 20 seasons on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, China and Micronesia finalist Amanda Kimmel celebrated an important personal feat during her time on Samoa: She became the first player to reach 100 days of the game. Unfortunately, the third time was not the charm for Amanda, who fell short of making it to her third tribal council. Looking back at her reality TV career, Amanda says she's proud of what she's accomplished, but has zero plans to return for round four. "My Survivor career is over," she says. The 25-year-old Kimmel spoke with TVGuide.com about her biggest mistakes, why she felt the game "got too crazy" and why she won't put herself through another season.

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TVGuide.com: As you entered that tribal council, what did you think your chances were of going home?
Amanda Kimmel: I knew they were good because a lot of talk happened before the tribal council, like Russell pulled Candice aside, and then I pulled her aside after that, and then he'd pull her back and it was like a tug of war between me and Russell with Candice. I knew there were good odds that I was going to home. But I really did think that Candice was going to vote with us, just because I really tried to explain the benefit of her voting that way instead of just saying she had to save me.

TVGuide.com: Why do you think Candice flipped to Russell's side?
Amanda: I think Russell got in her head, to be honest. I think he told her he wanted to be in the final two with her or something and she bought it. Candice and I had a rough relationship at the beginning of the game. We didn't like each other, we didn't trust each other and then we kind of fought everything out and I thought we had a really solid bond, so I was surprised that she, even with Sandra wanting to vote with us, wanted to go with the Villains ... Candice had a plan and I didn't want to do the plan and that was another reason why that happened ... I think she was nervous with all the power Russell had over people. I think she wanted to be the first one to switch over.

TVGuide.com: Why did the Villains decide to vote for you rather than another Hero?
Amanda: I was aggressive. I stole the thing from Danielle. Of course, they want to pick out the one that's causing the most trouble and I was definitely doing that ... After the reward when I didn't get the idol, I knew it was my bad. I was looking for it the whole entire time. Colby was there but he didn't help me a bit and I hand the bowl of popcorn [with the idol] to Danielle. So I totally took responsibility for it, for going home, because I've made so many mistakes. You can't make mistakes in this game. If you make mistakes, you're pretty much going home.

Survivor's JT: I wouldn't give Russell the idol again

TVGuide.com: Obviously one of the big moments was the fight between you and Danielle for the clue. What was going through your mind at that time?
Amanda: I knew that my team was going to be toast if I didn't find that. I've never heard any rules over the clues, because this is really the first time they've done this, so I seriously thought that whoever had it, had it. Like anyone can see it, anyone can have it. I don't know what the exact rule is, so I didn't know that the first person is that one that has it. I thought anyone could have it. So I was like, why not just take it? If I don't, we're toast, and Colby's here, so it's two against one, so we might as well just try it. I grabbed it and I should have just ran. I wanted to run to the bathroom, lock the door, read it and get rid of it, but that didn't happen. Colby obviously didn't help me. He made me feel so bad about it.

TVGuide.com: You also said that the game was getting to be too crazy for you, what did you mean by that?
Amanda: It was just really messy. It was exhausting because at any second, Russell was trying to turn every single person on your tribe and getting into everyone's heads ... I don't even know how the guy slept a single wink the whole entire time because it was just chaos. It was complete chaos. Anytime we had to vote or do anything or who won the reward, we had to think so far ahead. Playing this twice already, I was seriously exhausted.

One thing too is that on my tribe, I really didn't have someone that I trusted that I could play with ... You can't really play it by yourself. ... I kind of felt like a lot of things were all on me and I think that messed me up a little bit. I felt like I had way too much pressure on myself in my tribe.

TVGuide.com: How does it feel to be the first person to reach 100 days on? If they asked, would you play Survivor again?
Amanda: No, my Survivor career is over. I'm really proud that I went over 100 days. I never thought I would do anything like this in my whole life ... but I mean I wouldn't come back. It takes a long time to get over. It's hard to explain it, but it's mentally and physically really hard on your body and I don't want to put myself through it again.