How ‘Survivor 48’s Kyle Fraser ‘Threaded the Needle’ to Walk Away With a Win He Can Be ‘Proud’ Of (Exclusive)

Survivor winner Kyle Fraser is “proud” not only of his victory on Season 48, but how he got there.

After Kyle was voted the winner of Survivor 48 during Wednesday’s finale, the lawyer opened up to PopCulture.com about being “scared” going into that final Tribal Council alongside the season-long duo of Eva Erickson and Joe Hunter, having sent his own partner-in-crime, Kamilla Karthigesu, into the fire-making competition against Eva.

“I thought I had a good chance [going into the final Tribal Council], but I’m not going to pretend that I wasn’t scared,” Kyle confessed. “I said it out there on the island — I thought it was anybody’s day.”

“Truthfully, that started at the merge,” he continued. “I looked around. Everybody was such a big threat, including myself. And as we whittled down to five, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, anybody can take this.’”

But as he prepared to plead his case for Sole Survivor to the jury, Kyle “knew that [he] was going to believe in the game that [he] played” and knew that he would be able to explain it to the jury. “I’m just glad that I bet on myself,” he added.

Betting on himself meant cutting ties with Kamilla before the final immunity challenge, as the two allies mutually agreed that they wouldn’t be taking one another to the final three if they walked away the victor. It was a no-brainer decision so as not to split the secret duo’s vote, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a difficult one to make.

“I was really, really terrified about how it was going to end, because that relationship matters to me,” Kyle said. “So I’m so glad that she opened that door, because I don’t know what I would have done. I think I would have pulled it out, but I’m so glad that she gave me that sort of license to pull it out myself.”

“I don’t think people realize how hard that is, because there’s a lot of feelings there too,” he continued. “But I’m so thankful for her.”

Kamilla continued to advocate for Kyle during the jury segment as she set him up to explain his role in undercutting Joe and Eva to get their ally Shauhin Davari out. “It’s just representative of our partnership,” Kyle said of Kamilla’s assist. “This is a game where you can’t trust anybody. Yet, I trusted the person who probably had the best lying skills out there. The most strategic, [and] I think regarded as the most intelligent person in our season. And it was scary.”

He continued, “But Kamilla knew that if it was me sitting over there [on the jury], I would have done the same thing for her, and she did it for me. That’s the game that we played.”

Looking back at his Survivor journey overall, Kyle admitted the game was a lot more emotional than he expected it to be when he first applied in 2021.

“You saw me cry on TV — that’s the first time I’ve cried in 10 years,” said Kyle, who admits he’s been “accused” by family members of “not being the most emotionally available” person. “I thought I was going to go out there and be cutthroat — and I was — but it was way harder than I thought it was ever going to be. I don’t think people realize that.”

“You know, call me soft, call me whatever, but those people matter to me,” he continued. “There was a narrow gap for me to win and to feel good about myself, and I threaded that needle. I don’t think a lot of people can say that.”