First ‘Survivor 42’ Juror Reveals Who They Want to Win

YouTube Chanelle Howell gets her torch snuffed in episode 8 of "Survivor 42."

On Wednesday, viewers of “Survivor 42” saw Chanelle Howell become the first member of the jury, after the wrath of her former Vati tribemates became too much to overcome. Since her exit, Chanelle has taken the time to provide some clarifications to fans surrounding her exit, her reaction upon being voted out, and who she was rooting for to win the game.

Here’s what you need to know:

Chanelle: ‘Everyone Could See’ That Romeo Was ‘Unraveling’

In her Rob Has a Podcast exit interview, Chanelle spoke about her last day on the island, and what happened that led to her being blindsided.

Chanelle revealed that, although she knew she was on the outs, she didn’t realize she was the #1 target, partly because (although we didn’t see much of it) she was strategizing and having conversations with every virtually contestant on the island. This, along with his increasing paranoia, led her to believe that the real target was Romeo Escobar.

“Romeo was very clearly, like, kind of unraveling,” she explained, “and everyone could see it. It was like, whoa. If I just kind of play it back a little bit, perhaps I might be in the clear.”

However, as we saw, 57-year-old Mike Turner’s grudge against her for casting a “safety vote” his way in episode 5 was basically a deciding factor for him. She said that she underestimated the extent to which Mike was “emotional” in his gameplay, especially considering how they made very similar moves – he, for instance, voted for her the same night she did for him – though she never took it personally, as she knew it was all strategy.

CBSThe Vati 4 shortly before the “Survivor 42” “fake merge.”

In addition, referring to the four former Vati members as “that girl,” Chanelle revealed that both Ika and Taku were coming to them to form an alliance as soon as the “fake merge” took place in episode 6. As she put it: “Vati truly could have been kind of where Taku was, as a strong 4.” However, this was simply unfeasible due to the deep-rooted grudge held against her by the other Vati members, namely Mike and Hai Giang.

Chanelle Is Rooting For an Unlikely Contestant

In an ET Canada exit interview with “Survivor 41” winner Erika Casupanan, Erika asked Chanelle about her disdainful reaction to her tribemates upon being voted out (in which she basically ignored those who were telling her they loved her, rebuffing them with quiet and off-handed remarks). In response, she said that she was so stunned that she basically has no memory of the several minutes surrounding her torch being snuffed.

“I don’t remember any of it to be quite honest,” she said. “I [was] just, like, speechless honestly. Like, completely speechless.”

When asked who she was rooting for the most of the players that remained, Chanelle responded with perhaps an unexpected answer: former Taku member Lindsay Dolashewich, mostly because of how she relates to her. “Lindsay is very adjacent to me,” Chanelle explained. “Like, very level, very even, very good social player…stays out of the crosshairs, as I tried to do. So I’d like to see someone adjacent to me take it home.” 

Although we didn’t see much of Lindsay and Chanelle together, we haven’t really gotten to see much of Lindsay at all so far. In fact, she has received the least amount of confessionals out of any player on the season thus far, which has even led to Lindsay herself joking about her sparse edit. However, it was Erika who, at this same time last season, was receiving a similar “purple” edit, and she ended up taking it home in the end. If Lindsay makes it to the final 3, we know she has at least one friend on the jury.

“Survivor 42” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern on CBS. The three-hour finale will air Wednesday, May 25, 2022.