Jed Gets The Goodbye

Jed Hildebrand, a 25-year-old dental student, is the third survivor - and first member of the Sook Jai tribe - to get voted off the "Survivor: Thailand."

In an interview on The Early Show Friday, Jed was asked "what happened, what was his downfall?"

He said there was a big split over priorities among his tribe mates. He and some of the others believed it was important to search out food and water so that the tribe remains strong and healthy; the remaining tribe members chose to put all their effort into building shelter.

Did he have a strategy for playing the game?

"My strategy was to keep everyone strong and healthy," he said. And that's why he didn't help build the shelter.

"Everyone was complaining by the sixth day that they were starving. And if you're starving, you can't produce on the challenges. But luckily, me and Robb and Stephanie were still eating and still drinking water, so we were able to fix on the challenges."

Julie Chen wanted to know if there was anything he could have done to prevent being voted off.

"Well, looking back you can always say 'I should have done this. I should have done that."'

Chen noted that not only did he not help build the fort, but that he didn't sleep under it much. Was that because he felt guilty about not helping?

Not really, he replied. The bamboo floor was uncomfortable.

"It was like sleeping on bumpy concrete." The sand was much more comfortable. "It forms to your body. It was really nice."

He was asked if he was surprised by the vote.

"Well, no," he said. "You talk to people about who they're going to vote for and who they're not. I was pretty sure, when people told me who they were voting for, that they were going to follow through. But when it comes around to people voting, I guess you can have your own strategy."

For the first time ever on Survivor, a reward challenge resulted in physical violence between competitors. Jed was eliminated for knocking off someone from the Chuay Gahn tribe outside the "attack zone."

After reviewing a replay of the competition, Jed said, "Well, I mean, as I look back on the replay - you don't look down right when you're about to attack somebody - or else you'll get thrown in the water." Still, he admitted the ref made a fair call in ousting him. "It's a fair call. It's what the ref said. So you just gotta go with it."

Despite his easy-going ways, Jed did take a leadership role in the immunity challenge, even though it didn't work out.

"At the end, I realized when you have Ken, one of our biggest men, sitting out of the immunity challenge, I knew something was amiss. I knew someone had to take control. I basically over-thought it. I thought you should go to number two and build it up and then go to number three. And by that time it was me, Robb and Stephanie doing pretty much all the work. And we were just drained. And everyone else was just sitting around. It was tough. It's like you're fighting against your own team."

Jed also got in trouble for his actions on the "net patrol" when the fishing net disappeared.

"It's interesting," he said. "Because the first three hours me and Robb were watching the net. And everone was sitting in the hut. Then after a while, you're like... We had Jake and Penny sit out and watch the net and Jake rowed out and checked it out. And we went to bed because we were exhausted. And I wake up, and everyone is sleeping around us. I'm like -- wait a second."

He figured that he was blamed because "Me and Robb took it out. I guess if you take something out you gotta bring it back. I take the responsibility. I mean, I should have gone and tried to find it."

Jed said that when he went on the game he was just being himself, otherwise "you'll sit back there and double-guess when you're off. So I was myself and I was true to my actions and my beliefs of what was important, what wasn't. Then I could only blame myself. And I would have no regrets."

He was asked about his luxury item.

"The frisbee was just for throwing on the beach. Some relax time. To kind of bond everybody. And so basically what we do is - me and Robb and Stephanie - go throw the frisbee. And I wrote all my Bible verses that my family sent in to me on the back. So, like, during the morning I would have my quiet time and just read it all. And it would, kind of, get me at peace. And before challenges, before meals and stud, I would read one to the group to share what I believe."

The dental student was asked which castaway would get their first root canal on the island - without painkillers.

Like so many other survivors, Jed wouldn't bad-mouth his companions. "Oh, I don't know. There's no real hard feelings right now. What people say on the show, I mean, you're in the heat of the moment."

Survivor is an edited show. Jed was asked what wasn't shown on the show that had been shot.

"Basically, just having fun," he said. You know I was there with all the people to enjoy Thailand. And what they show is, yeah -- we were doing food. But we're out there body surfing and throwing the firsbee. Trying to enjoy why we were there. The show pretty much is accurate.

"It's just, if I'm sitting - if I'm going to be lazy - it's not laziness. It just what people's thoughts are of what's important. If laziness is making food and water and doing all that, and not shelter, then I was lazy. It just people's perception of what is lazy and what's not lazy."

And the hardest part of being on the island?

"The hardest part was probably the lack of food. Because you're sitting there and it's all day one and you know you're going to have to give 110 percent in the challenge and you're taking from nothing. You're withering away."