The truth behind Survivor 49’s tribe swap: Matt Williams says he was ‘sacrificed without mercy!

Matt Williams knew he was in trouble on Survivor 49. A tribe reshuffling had left him in the minority on the new Hina tribe, with the four-person original Uli crew now running the show. After his team lost the immunity challenge, he had two options: stay quiet and hope for the best, or play aggressively and try to make a move to flip the script. Matt chose option B.

It didn’t work out as Matt floated taking out Nate Moore, but the Ulis stayed strong and decided to oust Matt instead of the other option Jason Treul. Does Matt regret playing so aggressively? Does he feel like he was done in by the tribe swap? And are financial managers actually all sociopaths? We connected with the fifth person out of the game to gain insight and intel.

MATT WILLIAMS: I get so many of those messages, but I don’t even know how to work the Instagram and TikTok. I try and heart them and like them and do whatever, but I don’t even read the content to be honest with you.

Let’s get into it. Were you screwed by the tribe swap?

In my opinion, absolutely! My thinking was to kind of lay low, provide for the tribe, don’t piss anybody off, and get to the merge and then really blow it open and start playing my game. But yeah, that tribe swap. I looked around at who had what color buff and I was like, this, “This isn’t gonna end well.” [Laughs]

What did you think was going to happen when you showed up at Tribal Council?

I thought there’s a 90% chance that this is it for me, but I was hanging on to the slim possibility that Jawan was going to actually pull through and write down Nate’s name. They didn’t really show how involved Jawan and I’s relationship was. We really started it at the journey we went on. Jake, Jawan, and I really meshed, and we spent some time together and built an alliance and we were going to get together at the merge. Nobody’s going to know we’re working together. It’s going to be awesome, it’s going to be great.

And, of course, Jake with his snake bite goes home and that screws that up a little bit. But Jawan and I were still really friendly, and we went fishing for three hours one day and talked stuff out and I really thought he might do it. It just was early in the game for a big move and the numbers were obviously on his side. I could see why he wouldn’t do it.

No. I thought, “What if Jawan writes down Nate’s name and we get this going, and then I throw my vote in the garbage and roll a Shot in the Dark? I’m going to look like the biggest chump in Survivor history.” So I just thought, “I’m where I’m at. It’s not looking good, but this is my one path forward. And if it works out, it’s going to be freaking awesome!” I never even looked at my Shot in the Dark. I never even considered it.

It looked like your arms were swinging on your way out. Did you forget your bag at Tribal Council?

There’s another thing that was left out of the edit. We were sleeping on that bamboo shelter, and it’s so uncomfortable. You’re trying to wedge articles of clothing between the bamboo, and you saw it in last night’s episode where Sophi was able to use Nicole’s shoes that she had left there.

And I even told Jawan, “If it’s me, I’m going to leave my stuff and you guys can use it. I got no use for this. What am I going to do with it back home?” And so I intentionally left it there, but then they gave it to me! They said, “You can’t leave this.” [Laughs] So yeah, I just thought: “Well, there’s my bag of stuff. Maybe they can use it to wedge it in the shelter and do something with it. No value to me at this point.” But they handed it to me after I left.

You should have left it back at camp.

Yeah, I guess if you leave it at camp, it’s fair game, but I had it with me at Tribal.

So the big question I think on everyone’s mind this morning is: What did you end up having more of at Ponderosa: cheeseburgers or beer?

I think an equal amount of each. I actually gave up drinking for the show. I wanted to lose some weight and get in shape. At Ponderosa, I wasn’t even in the mood for a beer. It’s a funny story. They asked me, “What do you want as your welcome back to the world [meal]?”

I said, “I want a bacon cheeseburger.” And then as an afterthought, I said, “With grilled onions.” I guess something was lost in interpretation. They thought I wanted like an eggplant or vegetarian burger. I opened up my burger and there was nothing but a s— ton of grilled onions on it and no beef patty. So that was my welcome back to the world meal — a big grilled onion and cheese sandwich.

Do you agree that financial branch managers are “sociopaths”?

[Laughs] I don’t know where she came up with that, but I’ll tell you — the blue-collar crowd is a lot more down to earth. I don’t miss corporate America at all. I really enjoy working class. They’re… I don’t want to say better people, but they’re more my speed. I would never go back to the white-collar world.

What happened on the balance beam at that last challenge?

I think I was just trying to get there too fast. In fact, I know that’s what I did. As soon as I slowed down, it wasn’t hard. It’s an easy thing to get across there. I put myself in that role thinking we need to win this challenge, and I don’t want somebody else screwing it up for me. So I volunteered for that particular role because it seemed a pivotal role in the challenge. And then I’m the one who screwed it up!

I fell off that thing three times, and honestly, it was just the adrenaline. I was all “I got to haul ass across this thing!” If I would’ve just said, “Oh, this is a piece of cake,” and just slowly walked across it, it would’ve been a piece of cake. It’s this weird mindset you’re in when you’re in the middle of a challenge, your brain just kind of turns off and you don’t think it through.

I followed you on a pretty extended idol hunt on day 2 that never made it to air. How much idol hunting were you doing out there?

Every moment I got. In fact, Steven pulled me aside and said, “Hey, bro, you can’t keep disappearing. People are noticing.” I was looking so hard for an idol. I’d go to catch crabs or collect snails or get firewood, and what would take three minutes to do would take me 20 minutes because I could hit every tree and every trail and every rock there.

A lot of that never made the show. There’s a whole bunch of survival type stuff, and looking for idols is one of many examples that didn’t make the edit. I guess it was just by the time they edit this stuff, they know when I left. And I guess it didn’t really contribute to the storyline.

What’s something else that happened out there that didn’t make it to air that you wish we had seen?

My tribe was actually calling me Survivor MacGyver. The outdoorsy stuff is just easy for me. I’ve been doing it for my entire life. I grew up outside. I thought they had a lot of footage that could make me look like a really cool, resourceful guy, and they never showed any of it. I was just like, “Okay, whatever.” It’s just like I got purple edited out. It’s kind of kinda disheartening. But I guess they’re more interested in hiding shoes than survival skills.

It’s the perils of being on a winning tribe. The winning tribe, you never see as much.

That’s true. We knew we weren’t going to get a whole lot of airtime. They’ve got to focus on the guys that are going to Tribal that night. And then when I did go to Tribal, that was my only shot

It’s Survivor. That’s how it is. I was really curious to see the other conversations that were going on. But immediately when I was talking with Kristina and Steven, the first thing I said is, “I want MC in on this.” And because I knew she would feel like we brought her in as the fourth to our group of three, I immediately went to her.

But, apparently, even 30 seconds later is enough to get that thought process going about, “Hey, they’re three already and now they’re coming to me.” Even though I really did immediately go to her. It was just, she wasn’t there during the initial conversation. So that’s where she took it. And I can understand her thought process.

You had the Section alliance you tried to form with Jawan. Was there a name for the original Hina alliance?

You know what? There was! I can’t even remember what it was. Kristina came up with something. Another thing that got cut is on day 1, Steven and I formed a final three alliance that Steven named. We were the Early Birds, and he would always go “Chip, chip, chip chip…” whenever we walked by. That never made the edit. But I told Steven, “You got two guys working together. We’ll win this game. We’ll just go to the end and you and I will make fire against each other at the end.” And that was our thing. I was talking with Steven after the game and he was like, “I was so on board with that.”

If you could go back and change one thing, what would it be?

I would’ve been more in your face. I would’ve played like Rome from 47. I would’ve hit the sand like Tony when he just ran off like a banshee into the trees to find an idol. I would’ve played it more not like I want to be a reality TV star, but I want to be noticed.

I just kind of thought I did the opposite of that. I was like, “I’m going to fly under the radar.” I wish I would’ve been like Jake with his shoe bandit gags. I would’ve been doing stuff that made it fun and got me noticed is what I would’ve done different.