Kaleb Gebrewold (‘Survivor 45’ exit interview): ‘I never gave up’ and ‘I fought until the very end’

On Wednesday’s seventh episode of “Survivor 45,” Jeff Probst threw another twist at the 12 castaways. He randomly divided them into two groups of six and then had them compete for two individual immunity necklaces that would protect them from the two Tribal Councils that would see two players going home. As the unanimous decision to go home at the previous cycle, Kaleb Gebrewold became the easy vote for his group to make and though it wasn’t a slam dunk this time, he was finally sent packing. Read on for Kaleb’s “Survivor 45” exit interview from the end of the episode.

Kaleb’s group consisted of three original Reba players — Dee Valladares, Austin Li Coon and Julie Alley — that were a solid block that would be tough for him to crack. Luckily he had Katurah Topps and Jake O’Kane from original Belo on his side and wanting to keep him around, but Kaleb’s commitment to transparency ultimately became his downfall. His decision to disclose to Katurah that Bruce Perrault found the Belo idol and the entire tribe except for her was in on it showed Katurah that she was on the bottom there and pushed her to side with the original Reba players in the vote against Kaleb.

“Right when I thought my game was about to take a turn, I got voted out,” Kaleb said, shocked that Katurah had flipped on him. Earlier in the episode Kaleb had expressed that he believed he was building loyalty with Katurah through his transparency with her and that quality of connection was better than quantity of connections. For him, that was the case… until it wasn’t. Perhaps the charismatic salesman had been too transparent after all.

“I couldn’t have played a more different game than the one I thought coming on to this beach. First member of the jury – not at all the place that I wanted to go,” Kaleb added. “But I never gave up that I fought until the very end and so I am really proud of how I pushed through this game.” In his elimination, Kaleb assumed the spot of the first juror that would stick around to help vote for the eventual winner. His departure left his ally Emily Flippen as the last remaining original Lulu player in the game.

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