“My name is Kyle Fraser and I’m going to win Survivor 48 because I’m the best average guy you’ll ever meet. I’m well-rounded, and I’m going to use all the tools I have to win the game.”

That’s what Kyle told Entertainment Weekly out in Fiji just days before the game began, and damn if he wasn’t right. Kyle was crowned the champion of Survivor 48 as the jury rewarded the undercover lawyer with the coveted title of Sole Survivor and the million dollars that goes with it.

Kyle played the game in tandem with partner-in-crime Kamilla Karthigesu, but then split with his ally when he won the final immunity challenge — putting Kamilla into fire against Eva Erickson. But would he have made that move if Kamilla had not told him first that she planned to do the same thing? And how does he react to the jury saying Kamilla would have won at the end? We asked the newly-minted millionaire about all that and much more — including how close he came to doing fire himself and which votes surprised him the most. Read on for intel and insight from the champ!

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How confident were you feeling walking into that final Tribal Council?

KYLE FRASER: Not at all. I knew Joe was a big threat. Eva was a big threat. I’d seen them both sort of speak at different times during the season and they both had very final Tribal moments during the season where they spoke out. They talked about their game. So I was really scared. I knew Eva could talk. I knew Joe could talk. I know I can talk, so I was just sort of ready to take them on, but I was pretty terrified, to be honest with you.

Could you feel momentum swinging your way during Tribal?

I knew that Shauhin was going to be the swing. I didn’t know how it was going to go, so he was somebody that I was keying on the entire time. All three of us had split during the final day when we were eating the breakfast and I was walking through every single jury member, people like Cedrek, Shauhin, Chrissy. They didn’t show some of those relationships, but I saw Shauhin sort of swinging. That’s where I knew momentum was coming my way.

What votes surprised you the most?

I think Mary was probably the biggest undecided vote. She was a massive threat and I don’t think people realized that going in. And before Mary got voted out, she actually told me, “Kyle, are you out here playing the game that you want to play?” And I couldn’t tell her about my game. So it made it very scary in my mind.

I knew I was playing the exact game that I wanted to play. I knew that I was a threat. I knew that I would be able to sort of speak my mind at final Tribal, but I didn’t know what her rubric was going to be. The entire final Tribal, I was sort of waiting to see if I could catch one hint because we had a good relationship out there. We never had the chance to really bond. We were in the most adversarial position, but she was the one who was going to surprise me the most.

Did you ever consider not telling people you were a lawyer at the end in the fear that some people might be like, “This guy doesn’t need the money”?

So it’s actually funny. There’s a scene where I tell Kamilla that I’m a lawyer, and one thing that wasn’t shown was how elaborate that conversation was, because the reason I asked her was at that point, Star had gone out and Mary had gone out. And on their way out they were like, “Joe’s a massive threat. Do you know what you’re doing?” And I was like, “Absolutely.”

And I had confidence in my game, but I asked her, “Does it move the needle, Kamilla, if you know that I’m a lawyer and I have one more thing?” I think that speaks to Kamilla and my relationship because to trust her unequivocally in that moment just to workshop it — “Can I win?” — is a crazy thing to do.

But yeah, I do think there was part of me that didn’t want to reveal that. At the same time, that was my entire game. My entire game was in the shadows, and I think that was the theme and I had to reveal that at final Tribal, “Hey, you don’t know who I am. You kind of know who I am, but I’ve played this game. It’s been right under your nose the entire time.” And I’m glad they were receptive. I put my little blazer on, if you didn’t notice.

I’m sure you had a plan in terms of how and when you wanted to take credit for the Shauhin thing at final Tribal, so what was the plan walking in?

Yeah, listen, I’m an attorney. I sometimes make my bread and butter speaking for a living, and I’ve realized that I need things to come up organically. When things look rehearsed, it does not work. So I just wanted to go with the flow and see. I wanted to answer the questions as they came.

And, fortunately for me, when they brought up the duo point and Eva and Joe were able to speak on their relationship, it made a lot of sense for me to bring that up with regards to me and Kamilla. And I loved it because I think people wanted me to own my game. You saw that Mitch say “Kyle better own his game,” and it’s exactly what I did. When people were like, “What were the moves that you made?” I was like, “I was in the shadows.”

And everybody told me on their way out — they showed Mary, they showed Star — but every single person starting with Chrissy leaving that game told me, “Are you going to hand X person a million dollars?” Sometimes it was Joe, sometimes it was Eva, sometimes it was somebody else. And I knew my game was great, so I owned it, and the Shauhin vote was to make sure that I assured my place with a check on my name basically because I knew the game that I played, but sometimes I’ve seen players who haven’t been able to explain it. So Shauhin was the last permanent thing that I needed to do to make sure that my stamp was on that check.

The jury said Kamilla wins at the end if she beats Eva at fire. What do you make of that?

Absolutely. Kamilla and I played the exact same game, but let’s not get it twisted: She had this entire underdog story that she was selling every single Tribal Council, and say what you want about the jury. I’ve argued in front of a jury before, I know what it’s like to be liked for a jury. I know what it’s like to be not liked by jury. I can tell when people are not the biggest fan of me.

Every single Tribal Council, they were nodding with Kamilla at every single listing thing she said. They were not nodding along with me or maybe other people in the game at that time. And I think that Kamilla and I played the same game. She’s one of my closest friends. She’s going to hate that I said that. I really do have so much respect for her.  But if she had gotten to the end, I know that she would’ve gotten those votes over me and that’s why she had to go.

My entire game was intentional. It was about timing. I was going to take people out. I was not going to let you take me out. And I wanted to make sure that I always had to leverage any situation I was. And at four, Kamilla had a lot of leverage and it was very scary. So she had to go, and that’s the beauty of our relationship because she would’ve said the same thing about me.

Well, let’s talk about that a little bit. Kamilla comes to you before the last immunity challenge and says “I’m not taking you, which gave you, as you like to call it, the moral go-ahead to not bring her. What if she doesn’t say that to you. I’m assuming you still make her go to fire, but how do you handle that conversation then?

I honestly think I would’ve lost my mind on that island because Joe and I were extremely, extremely close. We had a lot of conversations out there that mattered to me. I think I had one confessional about how to betray these people is to betray that relationship, to betray those conversations. Eva and I, our relationship was very, very important to me. And I think she would say the same to you, and I think he would say the same to you.

So by the time we’re at the final four in a way, after the Shauhin vote, when I knew that Kamilla was going to get to four, I was really scared about what’s going to happen. And Kamilla coming into that to me in that moment…. I knew that we would split if we went to the end together. I knew that she had a chance of winning.

I also know that it’s a very strong chance of Kamilla and I are sitting there that maybe Joe or Eva wins the game. You play out those votes with every single person that goes home, you’re thinking about it. So when she came to me, it was already on my mind, and I was just so glad that she did because it gave me a chance to sort of go full tilt as Jeff says, and take a shot at the million.

We saw you contemplating going into fire yourself after Eva was really struggling. Did you ever actually make the offer to Eva to go into fire in her place?

Yeah, so after Joe and Eva had been together… I think that Eva is one of the strongest people I’ve ever met in my entire life. She’s like a sister to me now, and she was a sister to me out there. And in my confessional, what I was struggling with the most was the moment that I knew that I told her, “Hey, I’m putting you in fire” — it was hers. And I would have to beg to get it back from her. And that’s exactly what I almost had to do.

I walked up to her, and before I could even get words out of my mouth, she said, “Absolutely not. You made a promise, and I’m going to do it myself.” I don’t think anybody in the entire world knows how strong Eva is, the obstacles that she deals with — everybody has their own obstacles. I have mine. I have tons of flaws. She doesn’t, but she has things that she overcomes every single day, and it was really tough. It was really tough. There were times where I wanted to put myself in fire, but the moment that I told her on that log together, I knew that it was not my decision anymore. It was hers, and it was the right decision on her par,t too.

What’s the key to Simmotion?

So you could see me talking to myself the entire time, and the words that I was saying were, “Right, right, right, right, right. Left, left, left, left, left, right, right, right, right, right, left, left, left, left.” And the best part about that challenge is that everybody had a different strategy. Eva had a count that she would drop the ball on a cadence. Joe was just locked in as Joe always is being the patient dad. Kamilla, I don’t know what the hell she was doing, but it looked good.

And I was just like, I am going to put the ball in at the same time every single time, and it’s either right or left. So I guess the key is figure out what works for you. When you walk out and the sun is beaming down on you and Jeff is looking like Tom Cruise just jacked up and I’m like, “This is what we get to do for a million dollars today!” It was the best moment. It really was the best moment of my life, except for getting married.

What’s something that happened out there that did not make it to air that you wish we had seen?

It is really interesting. I think I told you before going into the game that I think that my social game would shine a little bit, and I really did think that I was going to hit on all cylinders. But day one, it was really, really hard for me. We lost the first mooning challenge. I think I had a part to play in that. I lost the first supplies challenge and immediately I thought I was going to get voted out first. It was really scary, but I sort of kicked in and my social game shined. I was in the middle of my tribe at the beginning, and I think some people experience loss at different points in the game that allows them to sort of go into overdrive.

That was day one for me. Everything out there was intentional, but also everything out there was raw, so beaten down and I just worked. Every single day, I was working my ass off to make sure that I was going to make it another one and just manage my threat level, because I thought that once I got to the merge, I could get Kalebed. I thought that once I got to around six or seven, I get, oh, Omared, Jessed, Ricarded. I thought once I got to the final four, “Can I explain my game?” I need to look at players like Austin. I need to look at players like Charlie.

And then once I was there, I was like, I know I have it. So every step of the way, I was trying to figure out what do I need to do to make it one more day and am I going to put myself in a place to win the game? And that’s what I did. I don’t know if it was social. I don’t know if it was strategic. I don’t know if it was physical. I think I hit on all cylinders and I got to play a game that let me shine through on all three. It’s awesome.

What are you going to do with the money?

I’m going to hang out with my wife and my dogs. I’m going to take care of my parents. I’m going to have a lot of fun. I’m going to throw a party in mid July. That’s going to be awesome. And I’m going to be happy. I paid off part of my student loans. It is f—ing awesome. Oops. Excuse me.

Would you do it again?

In a heartbeat! Yes! Call me back. I will be there immediately. I love Fiji. I love the stars. I can turn my cell phone off. Believe it or not, I actually am a lawyer. I am tired of working every day so hard. Please! Yes!

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