‘Survivor’ Alum Kim Spradlin-Wolfe Shares Season 42 Insights

Getty Kim Spradlin at the "Survivor: One World" reunion show (2012).

Kim Spradlin-Wolfe, winner of “Survivor” season 24, “One World,” sat down recently with podcaster Rob Cesternino to discuss the ongoing season of her reality show alma matar. She shared her thoughts on the most recent episode, as well as the players she thinks viewers should keep an eye on.

Kim also has a new reality show on HGTV called “Why the Heck Did I Buy This House?” in which, as the website describes, she “comes to the rescue of homeowners feeling major buyer’s remorse.” In Kim’s hometown of San Antonio, she “uses her expert skills to reinvent lifeless spaces and make homeowners finally fall in love with their home.” The show premieres March 30 at 9 p.m. Eastern on HGTV, directly after “Survivor.”

Here’s what you need to know:

Kim Thinks The ‘New Era’ of ‘Survivor’ Is ‘Totally Different’

Having not seen “Survivor 41,” the most recent season of the show which Kim is familiar with would be season 40, “Winners at War,” which she competed on. Diving into the post-season 40 “new era” for the first time a few weeks ago, Kim said in a Rob Has a Podcast interview Thursday that the contemporary showcase of twists and advantages made the show “totally different” from the one which she knew. “I knew enough that I wasn’t totally blown away,” she said about starting the season, “but it’s totally different. I mean, they’ve really changed it a lot.”

When Cesternino said that being able to “vibe with” fellow contestants now seemed to trump actual alliances or formal voting blocs/pacts, Kim agreed that this was the case now, but said “I don’t think it used to be that way.” Now, she said, “people [aren’t] looking to these long-term alliances the way that they used to be, obviously. That was the big thing that felt like a transition to me from [seasons] 24 to 40 … there really is no loyalty.”

CBSThe Salani “All Girls” alliance in “Survivor: One World.”

In her original season, with the exception of the young and temperamental Kat Edorsson, Kim played a fairly loyal game to the women who formed her original tribe, and with whom she had a secret all-female alliance, all the way to the end. She famously even decided to go to the final 3 with her closest allies Chelsea Meissner and Sabrina Thompson, over the seemingly much more beatable Alicia Rosa and Christina Cha, due to their tight social and strategic bond. In the podcast, Kim mentioned that she was still friends with Chelsea and Kat to this day.

Kim added that the sheer number of advantages may make it so that at this point, it’s practically safer to not have or find any, rather than the opposite, which has been the norm for dozens of seasons now. As she explained:

You used to be watching these people take risks … you watch that pay off for them, and … the evolution of it is now you’ve got a bunch of people coming in going, ‘I’m gonna risk it all!’ So I do wonder if a good play would just be not opening those things, just play it safe every time! It does seem like the consequences have gotten a lot more intense.

Kim Could See Maryanne ‘Going Far,’ But Has Another Winner Pick

When it came to the castaways themselves, Kim said she was particularly fond of Maryanne Oketch, of the Taku tribe, even saying that, “in a totally different way,” she reminds her a bit of Kat from her season. “It’s like a complete opposite personality,” Kim said of the two, “but kind of playing the same role in the tribe, which is like never-ending energy, so funny, so off-beat, source of entertainment but also sometimes you wanna take a nap.” Of Maryanne, Kim said, “I think she’s darling.”

Kim added that she believes Maryanne could go far, mostly due to her upbeat and “effervescent” personality, which can be truly uplifting on a “Survivor” tribe:

There’s something about her – I think that goodness, that I think when you’re out there … there’s just something about being around people that are having fun, that make you feel good, you’re so miserable … even if it’s subconscious … you want to be surrounded by people that we feel are for us, that are good-natured, that are making us laugh. So I don’t know the reality of how much they’re enjoying her … [but] I think she could stay in it a long while.

When it came to her winner pick, however, Kim chose a different castaway: Maryanne’s tribemate, Omar Zaheer. “I like Omar,” she said. “You can tell people like him, he’s easy to talk to, he’s smart, he’s engaging. He just seems to have a good head on his shoulders, I just have a good all-around feel about Omar.”

Of the Ika tribe, which wasn’t showcased much in episode 3, Kim said, “I really don’t have a lot of thoughts about them.”

However, she did share her thoughts on 24-year-old Tori Meehan, who said she “100%” wanted to play the game most like Kim in her CBS bio. Tori, Kim said, gave her “a little bit of a backstabbey vibe,” though added that that could be entirely because of the edit. “It feels a little bit like she’s overtly like, ‘I’m gonna do this,’ and ‘I’m gonna do that’!” Kim said. “I never felt like I was doing that, I don’t think. I was just trying to not get voted out.”

“Survivor 42” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern on CBS. Check out Kim’s brand new show, “Why the Heck Did I Buy This House?” immediately after “Survivor” airs, at 9 p.m. Eastern on HGTV. The show premieres Wednesday, March 30.