Eva says 'Survivor 48' finale autism episode was much worse than what was shown on TV (2025)

“We’ve been saying this season that 48 is an unprecedented season. I believe you should select an unprecedented winner. We’ve had lawyers who played the middle before and win. We’ve had challenge threats play a well-rounded game and win. But you have never seen a player like me.”

That was Eva Erickson’s strong pitch to the jury on why she should be crowned the champion of Survivor 48, but when the votes were read back, it was Kyle Fraser who emerged victorious, with the show’s first openly autistic contestant receiving two votes, from Mary Zheng and Star Toomey.

While Eva may not have won the game, she won massive respect from those who watched her battle through her frustration and overstimulation to avoid Tribal Council in a challenge. She then battled again when she began to spiral while practicing for her impending fire-making competition. Her island ally and “superhero” Joe Hunter offered to step in and compete for her, but Eva wouldn’t hear of it, explaining, “No. No. This is my thing. I have to do it. I’m going to get it.”

And she did. But in the end, it still wasn’t enough to beat Kyle. Why would she not let Joe step in and take her own fast-pass to the final three? Why does she think the jury ultimately picked Kyle over her and Joe? And which vote surprised her the most? We asked the second-place finisher all that and more the morning after the finale, and she revealed that what went down with her finale autism event was much more intense than what we saw on TV.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I thought you presented a strong argument at final Tribal Council. Why did it ultimately not land with the jury?

EVA ERICKSON: I mean, multiple reasons. First of all, I had the biggest uphill battle in that final Tribal because I had cultivated this view of myself from the beginning because I knew that I was coming in as a physical threat, as a social threat. Those are two things I cannot hide. I cannot tone down who I am there, but I can try to diminish my intelligence so that people would not recognize me as this massive threat from the start.

And so everybody kind of assumed that I was just kind of dumb. Going in, the jury thought that I was going to be this zero vote finalist that they didn't see very much of my game. And so I was like: I have a big battle here. And I had to speak very, very well in that Tribal Council and not only convince people that I had played a strategic game, but also that I was just intelligent to begin with. I needed them to see these things about me.

And so I convinced them I was smart. I did not convince them enough that I deserved to win. But it's also hard when you're competing against two amazing other players who had their own great games. And Kyle had a lot of Civa out there that wanted to vote for him from the start. And my Lagi had been taken off during the swap.

How were you feeling about your chances as you walked into final Tribal Council?

I felt like I was at a significant disadvantage, but I figured there were people that I could convince and that knew me well, that they would recognize these parts of my game and parts of who I am that I had been kind of diminishing. Like Mary was someone that I thought I could convince. I had a fantastic relationship with her out there, but I knew I needed to earn her vote. Star, I knew that she wanted someone to wow her. She had said that before and I was like: I think I have a very wowing story.

I thought that I could convince David. I thought that he would believe in this game that I played where I was very honest, because that was the game he wanted to play. And I did it very successfully, but I was not able to get that one. And I was looking at Cedrek —I knew he'd be an emotional voter. I thought that I could make his emotions be swayed towards me, and I was wrong. I was hoping that I was going to get those four votes and that could be enough for me, and it didn't happen.

So those were the votes that really surprised you, Cedrek and David?

Not surprised me. I knew I would have to earn them and I felt like I let myself down there in not earning those votes.

What was your reaction when Kyle dropped the bomb that he completely lied about Shauhin and his non-existent idol?

It was not a bomb about this idol. It was the bomb that he dropped about he and Kamilla's relationship. I didn't believe that there was a fake idol, and he had not lied to me. Kamilla was the one lying to me about this idol, and I was like, “Why would I trust Kamilla, who I have never worked with in this game?” Kyle brought me true information because we were extremely close and are still very close as friends and we were allies in the game.

And he brought me the truth that Shauhin brought up Joe and my names at this reward. And then he handed it over to Kamilla to do the lying. And I was not going to take any lies from her. But I knew once I heard that Shauhin was coming for me and Joe, it was more this was not a strategic move and for me in that I was orchestrating the Shauhin vote. It was that I was orchestrating getting Joe to vote this way because I had to convince Joe that his closest friend on this island was coming for him.

And that took a lot. Joe is a very emotional person, and so it was not a bomb to me that there were lies as part of this plan with the idol, but it was very shocking how close Kamilla and Kyle were in this game that I was unaware of. And you can see that on my face when they say that in Final Tribal. I was like, “What?”

How hard was it to get that jury verdict and then immediately have to shift to the after-show celebration?

You would expect that as being the biggest loser in the game, I would feel this great sadness, but instead, when Kyle's announced as the winner, I'm the first person he hugs, and he apologized. He was so worried that he had lost my friendship. And to me, I'm so protective, so caring, so very loyal as I've shown to my friends, and when I saw that he was hurting and he had whispered to me as he was hugging me that he was like, “Eva, I'm sorry. I still love you.” And I was like, “Kyle, we were meant to go after each other in this game.”

And so then in that final, as we're doing [the After-Show] I wanted to make sure that I was showing him, “Look, I support you. I love you. I still care about you.” And so I wasn't in my head thinking about my own losses. I was thinking about I need to make him know that I'm proud of him for his win. And so I put my own emotions aside and did my best to show my energy, be happy for him in that moment because I am so proud of Kyle.

Let's talk about the fire-making competition. And let's start with the practice before. You started to spiral while you were practicing. Joe wanted to step in for you. You were adamant you would not let him. You also wouldn't let Kyle step in for you. Why not?

That was my thing. I was given this task and I'm never someone to back down from a challenge. And I think that that moment that we saw in the episode where I was having my own autism episode, that was actually greatly downplayed to the extent that it affected me.

When they showed Joe and Kyle hearing me screaming, they're not showing me. And this is probably a time where I was most affected, most impacted by my autism in the game where I was stimming, I was scratching myself, I was on the ground rocking in a ball, and I was almost disappointed this wasn't shown because I know it's important for people with autism to see me in that state. See just how low I was, how much I had to battle through for myself to get to the end of this and perform.

And so you are able to see a little bit that I was struggling, but I pushed through so much more than people were aware of and that the audience sees that only Kyle and Joe got to see out there because they were there with me and they supported me. Both of them begged for me to let them do it for me. And I was never ever going to let anyone take that moment away from me. I knew that I could do it. I knew I just needed to push past what was going on in my head. And once I got through that that I was going to make that fire, and I did.

Yeah, let's talk about that because then you have the moment you've got this raging inferno and then the wind starts, then it starts to drop down. We see you start to panic a little bit. How were you able to rebound and get to that place where then you win the competition?

Yeah, the wind is my worst enemy. I was like, “What is happening?” I had this huge fire and it was Joe and Kyle, both of them just assuring me that they're like, “No, you got this. You can do this.” And even Kamilla throwing that in. She's like, “Look, I don't even have anything. “I had so much support behind me and I felt so “Everyone believes in me, I can do this. I just need to change the avenue I'm going about.”

So I was trying to blow the flame. I was like, I can't just get stuck in what I'm trying right now because this isn't working. And so it was very, very hard to get myself to push through that and keep it up because yeah, I was starting to panic a little bit, but I did it. I got it going and thank God!

You're not on the jury at Ponderosa as they're talking and exchanging notes and this and that. So it's interesting at the end when Jeff polled people and they said that had Kamilla beaten you at fire that she would've won the game. What did you make of that?

I mean, I know that they wanted an underdog. I know they were very upset with how Joe and I dominated this game and that everybody gets mad about getting voted out, right? There are emotions that go into it, and in their mind, Kamilla was not someone who wronged them, and Joe and I were, so they were dying to have her there. And she is amazing, so I had to make sure I got that threat off the board for us.

What’s something that happened out there that didn’t make it to TV that you wish we had seen?

So many things that I wish were shown. They didn't really show my strategy, but that gave the audience the chance to watch me in that final Tribal as if they were a jury member because they did not see my strategy throughout the game. So it was very cool for them to be like, “Oh, wow, actually, my eyes are open to what Eva was doing.” So surprisingly, I'm no longer upset that my strategy wasn't shown.

It is the relationships that they did not show. I went on every chosen food reward except for family letters because I said, “I will not go on that one at all.” I didn't want my letters. And there is a reason for that. And it is not that I was just hungry and people felt bad for me. It was because of the relationships I built in this game that they didn't show. The only relationship they really showed was me and Joe, but Kyle and I were extremely close. He's a brother to me. I shared things with him out there that I do not talk to anyone about. And he shared things like that with me. We are extremely close.

Kamilla and I, while we did not work strategically together, the two of us talked nonstop about food and about hockey. She's a Leafs fan. These were people that I was very close with and they showed none of that. Mary and I were soooo close, very, very close friends, and they show me breaking up with her after David was voted out. And nobody understood why, but it's because Mary and I were very, very close friends and I love that girl. So it's these relationships that characterize how I made it so far in this game that were not shown that I'm like, my social game was my biggest game and you don't show it.

You mentioned you didn't want the letters from home. Why didn't you want the letters?

Because I didn't need them to fuel me. I long distance from my boyfriend. My parents live in Minnesota far away from me. I'm used to not seeing my family for a long time. I love Kyle and Joe and Shauhin so much, and I saw how hard it was for them to be away from the people they love. And I was like: They need it more than me. These are my allies and I want them to be fueled in this game so that my team can keep moving forward. And those are the people who need this fuel. So I was so happy that they all got to go get those letters.

What sort of reaction have you gotten from people, especially kids, in the autism community who have maybe never seen someone like you on TV before doing these things?

Oh my gosh. I have never seen any role model on TV present autism in the way that I portray it. Autism is a spectrum, so it's different for everybody. The broad audience has a general stereotype view of autism, and I break that stereotype. And there are so many people like me who also break that in their own way and they connect with my story, or they see elements of their life now shown on TV that they're like, “I get overstimulated too. And I saw this girl on TV struggle with that, and now I know that that is acceptable. It is okay. People will understand me. I can be proud of who I am and not ashamed of this part of me.”

And having just an infinite amount of messages from kids, from adults, from parents of kids with autism, so many people that are now recognizing how special and amazing they are for their autism instead of seeing it as a bad thing in their life. And that is the biggest message that I can ever give from this game, and I'm so, so happy I've had the opportunity to spread it.

Obviously, the connection that you and Joe have is so strong. The last time we spoke you guys hadn't had a chance to get back together in person. You've done that now. How was that?

It was amazing. I sat right next to him in the theater watching it last night. We were holding each other's hands, being there to support each other. And I feel so incredibly lucky to have met such an amazing person and just knowing that this was the first time I got to meet his amazing wife, and I know very soon I'll get to meet his kids and that it's just the first of many, many times that we will have together because we are bonded for life.

Would you do it again if they ask you to come back and play?

Absolutely. I need to go back and win. I'm too competitive to be happy with second place.

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