Survivor 48 is here! Every week, Parade.com’s Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the castaway most recently voted off of the island.
“You honestly will never know what’s gonna come out of my mouth. My lack of filter, it gets me in trouble sometimes – a lot of the time, it gets me in trouble.”
Those were some of the first words we heard Saiounia “Sai” Hughley say, and they were all too appropriate for her scene-stealing two weeks on Survivor 48. The marketing professional was never one to mince words out on the island, as her candid and sometimes blunt language had her earning friends, enemies, and enemies turned friends from her first day to her last. She set Survivor records with her confessionals and Tribal Council performances, receiving votes all six times she visited Jeff Probst. But, for all the running Sai did to grab advantages in the game, she could not outrun her eventual fate, getting her torch snuffed just before jury.
In one of her many premiere talking heads, Sai declared that this was her season. And she acted upon that credo from the jump, working the first few hours of the game to not only form a majority alliance, but also find the first idol in the game. In a microcosm of her perception, while her efforts to not care about secrecy were adamant, they quickly put her on the radar of those she wasn’t working with. And that usually culminated at Tribal Council, where Sai would get into heated exchanges with outsiders like Stephanie Berger and Mary Zheng, but ultimately survive the day and get her way. She was, however, admittedly one to hold grudges. And while she was able to eventually form an unlikely partnership with Mary before the swap out of mutual respect, the same could not be said for Cedrek McFadden.
By the time the swap hit, Sai had escaped elimination by the skin of her teeth. But it wasn’t without some residual anger for putting her in the line of fire in the first place. Upon hitting a new beach, Sai attempted to distance herself from Cedrek, hoping to find a fresh game with new faces. When she received yet another vote at Tribal Council, she refused to talk to him, none the wiser that he actually put in a last-minute plan to save her. Regardless, she was able to finally start her revenge when the merge hit, voting for Cedrek and even changing her handwriting to mask her identity. Unfortunately, she never got a chance to cast a second. The Final 12 castaways were split into two groups. And Sai was put on a beach with someone she personally bristled with in Chrissy Sarnowsky, someone who had voted for her twice in Mitch Guerra, and three people she just met. As much as Sai prided herself on being the cat with nina lives, her reputation had preceded her, as her chaotic and conflictual nature wanted her competition to make sure this kitty wasn’t sitting pretty on the jury.
Now out of the game, Sai talks with Parade about her reaction to being perceived as “chaotic,” her complicated dynamics with Cedrek and Mary, and how she would have voted if she made the jury.
Related: Read our Survivor 48 pre-game interview with Saiounia “Sai” HughleyLet’s start with where things ended. Tribal Council was your home away from home by the time you were voted out. And you acknowledged that you know you were on the bottom. After an afternoon of putting in the work, what did you think your chances were of surviving a sixth time?
I knew my chances were low. I even say it, like, “I know I’m on the bottom. I know I’m an easy vote.” I think I had a little more faith in my castmates to do something that wasn’t so predictable. At any point you could have gotten rid of me. I had no allies, I had no advantages. I was very much predictable. And I was a little disappointed in the predictability of it all, but I also understood I was the wild card. I was the chaos maker. I was the one who they couldn’t predict what she was going to do. And it’s true! You weren’t going to be able to predict what I was going to do. I was going to be slashing throats left and right, and good on them for getting rid of the one person who made them all so interesting.
Throughout this season, we heard so much about how others considered you a “chaotic” player who rubbed people the wrong way. What’s your reaction to that perception, and did that affect the way you played when you found that out?
Honestly, I didn’t think I was that chaotic. What’s funny is this was the toned-down version of me. Literally, in my head, I was always like, “Okay, tone it down. This is the polite way to say it.” So that version of me was the toned-down version. And so to hear that when I was eating fruit, I was a chaosmaker, was insane to me. All I’m doing is eating kiwi that we already divided up, that was mine, that we won from our previous challenge. So I don’t know why me eating first was an issue. I was a little taken back by how much they thought I was chaotic, because I really did think I was reserved. I truly did. I was like, “No, I’m chilling! I’m really laying low.”
You mention in your final words that, if you had survived, they would have regretted their decision. If Mitch had gone instead of you, was there anyone in particular you were trying to move forward with?
Yes, Killa Kamilla! I even had a conversation [with her]. I noticed her immediately when we made the merge. I said, “It’s something about Kamilla. She’s a thinker. I was just observing her.” I was laying low when we first got there. I was like, “I’m observant. I’m going to observe what everyone is doing, who’s talking to who, drinking my coconut, doing my own thing, intentionally not talking to people, to not look like I’m causing chaos.” Because the moment I walk away with someone, they’re like, “She threw your name out.” And I’m like, “That’s not true! Just ask me if I threw your name out. I’ll tell you I didn’t throw your name out.”
Kamilla was a biggie. Kyle, I had a separate conversation. I knew they were a duo. I knew it. I was like, “You guys walk away too much with each other. And you act like me and Cedrek in a different, much more toned down version of it.” And I peeped it immediately. Those were the first two that you never got to see that I pulled when we were all getting wood for the fire. Well, they were getting wood. I was not picking up no wood. But I had a conversation with them. Those are the two I would have loved to work with. Shauhin was also a biggie for me. I actually was very happy that I got to see that he understood me. I’m not into the niceties. I’m very much, if I vibe with you, I’m locked in. And so I didn’t want to do that with everyone on this island and then turn around and vote you off after I just heard about your mom, who you love so dearly. How can you do that? That was hard for me to realize. It’s like, “You guys are smiling in each other’s faces and then cut each other’s throats. That’s weird to me.” At least when I cut your throat, you’re like, “Oh, well, you never liked me, so…”
Let’s go back to the very beginning of this roller coaster of a game. You hit the beach literally running, immediately making an alliance with the guys. Why did you decide to go for them right out of the gate?
Honestly, I really did think I was laying low. I waited a pretty amount of time before. And I reached out to the girls first. I wanted to work with the women. I think people forget that I got shot down. I was the one who was like, “I’d love to work with you guys.” And I wasn’t privy to a conversation that Steph had with Mary, telling Mary that I didn’t trust Mary, which never happened. I never said that I wanted to work with you guys. It wasn’t until you guys shot me down that I was like, “Okay, I gotta pivot,” because I pivot in my everyday life. So the pivot was then the boys, which I would later come to regret. Because you can’t trust men, as I’ve said.
[Laughs.] You were doing a lot in those first few days, whether it was very publicly loooking for the idol or getting into it with people at Tribal Council. What caused you to play so out front so early on? And were you aware that it was making you a threat in the process?
I just didn’t think that being me was too much, because that is who I am in real life. What you see is what you get. The people that I normally surround myself with, I welcome with open arms. They get me. I’m never told I’m too much. I’m never told to do this, don’t do that. So maybe I didn’t understand that it was too much for them. But again, I’m not going to change because you can’t handle it. And I also think that you should appreciate a valuable player like me who’s just going to tell you. You’re always going to know where I’m at mentally, and how I feel about things. And I do take into consideration other people’s feelings. There were so many times where Cedrek told me, “Let’s not do that.” And I was like, “Okay, I’m working with you, so I’ll take your input.” So I guess I didn’t realize that looking for the idol and doing all of those things was putting an even bigger target on my back, because I thought that me being honest was good enough.
You mention Cedrek. I feel like we could spend 15 minutes on your relationship alone. You two spend the entirety of the game together until, ironically, when you’re split up and both voted out this past episode. But despite your closeness, you clearly harbored a grudge against him voting for you twice at one point. Give me your thoughts on how you negotiated all of that.
So let me start with going to Tribal and not having him there. The ironic thing about that is, the whole time I wanted to get away from Cedrek, and it ended up being my demise in the game. I didn’t realize when we were playing that I’m better together than apart from him. So that is my biggest regret. Te one thing I wish for I finally got, and then I end up going out. Now, our complicated relationship made for great TV. And I’m very grateful for the way we interacted with one another and how patient he was with me, because he was driving me up a wall. But that’s just who he is. He’s very even killed. He’s very patient, and he’s very kind, very grateful. I would not have had the same game if Cedric was not there, because I definitely would have gone home first if somebody who wasn’t rational and saw that there’s value in a player who’s being honest with you, wasn’t present.
Let’s talk about the other Vula who made the merge in Mary. After being enemies for so long, you agree to work together right before the swap. Talk to me about how that happened. And what was your reaction to seeing her at the merge, considering you seemed happy to be reunited, and she felt quite the opposite?
So before the merge, what you don’t see is we had an in-depth conversation where she cried and I got to see her for her. And I was like, “This is taking a toll on her, and I think we’re stronger together.” That’s where you end up with the confessional of, “I think we’re stronger together.” I’m very much what I say is what I mean, and what I say I’m going to do is what I’m going to do. So when we squashed it, I was like, “Okay, cool, we squashed it. And she verbalized that to me. So moving forward, I was like, “Perfect. This is someone I can work with.” Had she been honest with me and said, “Oh, I appreciate your apology, but I genuinely can’t get past all of the things that we did,” I would have went to that beat. She came over to me and hugged me; let’s not forget. I didn’t run over to her. You came over to me. So to me, in the back in my head. I’m like, “Okay, we had this conversation. She’s now coming over and approaching me. She’s now feeding me the information that it’s a Charity vote. We’re working together, and we’re cool.” So I was a little – not taken aback, because I don’t care that much. But I was a little surprised that that was her reaction, because you didn’t have that same energy in person. And I’m very much energy in person. The energy you’re gonna get in a confessional is the same energy you’re gonna get in person.
You’ve talked a lot about how upfront and honest you are as a player, and how you would have struggled to do what others did and lie to your face. Ultimately, do you feel a person can succeed with that type of game on Survivor?
I do think there’s a world where it can work. You just have to have people with as thick as skin as I have, and you’re not going to get that there. I’m a very specific type of person, and I attribute it to being raised in Philadelphia. There’s a lot of my friends who are very much like me and get me. And that wasn’t what I got on the island. And I played the game. I went into the game knowing that I was going to be surrounded by a bunch of people who are not like me. Do I wish I had scaled it back and like been more reserved and maybe not been so much Sai? No, I have no regrets for being myself. And I’ve gotten so many DMs that say, “I’m so glad you showed up unapologetically yourself.” And especially as a Black woman, I’ve constantly been told in corporate America that, “You need to smile more. You need to tone your voice down.” I didn’t want to do that, and I wasn’t going to do that. I was on the island 100% me, and what you see is what you get. And I’m so grateful. I love every every moment of the game that I played. I have no regrets, except for not making the jury! [Laughs.]
On that note, let’s say Joe had outlasted David and you had made the jury. I know everyone hopes to be an impartial juror. Do you know how you would have regarded things on Day 26 when it comes to voting for someone?
Being impartial is insane. I would have 100% been partial. I would have been like, “Oh, my God, I love you. You’re getting my vote.” Or, “None of y’all deserve my vote, and Jeff is getting the money.” Um, “I 100% would have given them a run for their money. I understand why they didn’t want me on the jury. Is it a loss? Yes, I think I would have been way more entertaining on the jury. And I think that I would have been asking the questions that the fans would have wanted to see. I would have been pushing back on the narrative of like, “This is why I deserve the money,” or ” This is the game that I played. This is the move that I took credit for.” I would have been like, “Yeah, no, not really. That’s not how that happened.” I would have loved every moment of it, and they know that.
Finally, despite not getting the win, you made a major impact during your time in Fiji. You broke the record for the most confessionals through seven episodes. You tied a record with Rory from Vanuatu for most consecutive Tribal Councils where you received a vote. And I honestly can’t think of a more polarizing prejuror in recent history in terms of fan reception. So how do you look back on your experience both on and off screen?
I love this question. I love every moment of it. The beauty about Sai is that she causes conversation. I am very polarizing, but that is great for TV. You’re having conversations about me. Whether you love me or you hate me, you’re still talking about it like I enjoyed every moment being out there. And I also had so much resolve with the end of my game, because I knew I was being me. If you didn’t like me, you didn’t like me because of me, and I’m not everybody’s cup of tea. And if you love me, you love me because of me. It was everything that I could have imagined and more. You have no idea how grateful I am so glad that I showed up as myself. I have no regrets. I’m so glad I said everything I wanted to say. I went out of the game feeling like my job here is done.
