'The GOAT': Wendell Holland Describes How 'Survivor' Influenced His Gameplay on the Amazon Prime Series

Wendell Holland won 'Survivor,' but he wasn't able to take the crown on 'The GOAT.'

By Stephanie Downs

On the June 6 episode of The GOAT, one of the strongest competitors got the boot. Survivor alum Wendell Holland was knocked out of the competition after being directly put up for elimination by Bachelor Nation's Joe Amabile. Even though he had the chance to change his fate, a trio of hot dogs ultimately left him in the line of fire. PopCulture.com recently got to chat with the Survivor: Ghost Island winner about his experience on The GOAT, during which he revealed where he stands with many of his fellow competitors now. 

Wendell and Big Brother alum Da'Vonne Rogers were at odds throughout much of The GOAT's inaugural season, and he shed some insight into how this rivalry came to pass. He explained that he and Da'Vonne had a difference of opinion when it came to the Lauren Speed-Hamilton vote. While he went against Da'Vonne's plan to vote out Drag Race star Justin Johnson (Alyssa Edwards), he still thought that they would be able to work together. As Wendell explained, it seems as though the respective pasts on Survivor and Big Brother influenced how things would go after this specific vote. 

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(Photo: Amazon Freevee)

"Unlike in my world, my Survivor world where you can make a good move against someone and then work with that person the next day, it seemed like in this world or in Day's world coming from Big Brother and The Challenge, that's not something that they do," he explained. Still, he thought that they would be able to move past the voting drama in order to work together for the latter part of the game. But, he later realized, upon watching the show back, that Da'Vonne was not necessarily on the same page as him. 

"I want to talk to everybody at all times. First of all, it's good Survivor strategy. It's good competition show strategy to talk to everyone and make sure you're checking all your bases," Wendell explained. "In Da'Vonne's case, we were talking and it seemed one way face to face. And then upon rewatch, I'm seeing her saying all these things about me in the confessionals, cool. If that's how you feel, cool, that's fine. I didn't feel that way ever."

Despite being eliminated by his fellow "Goat" hopefuls and being a target for several weeks, Wendell isn't leaving the experience with any bad blood. In fact, he said about his time on the show, "I can call anyone in that house right now. Not everyone can say that. Not 50% of those people can say that."

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Wendell added, "Real life is so much longer than these weeks on these shows. That's one thing that I try to tell people, especially new people in the world."

While his time on The GOAT may be over, Wendell's reality TV journey may not be. In regards to Survivor host Jeff Probst teasing that the 50th season of Survivor would feature returnees, Wendell said that he would definitely be down to come back. He said, "I'd give Survivor one more shot because I think I owe to them and the fans, not because I think that I have a particularly great shot at winning, but because I love this game, I love the fans."

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