Survivor’s Tyrone Davis Talks Elimination & Race Plus Preview New Episode!

Following the merger of the older and younger teams, Tyrone Davis, a 42-year-old Fire Captain from Inglewood, California found himself the latest Survivor outcast to be eliminated.

In a new interview with PEOPLE, Tyrone discusses the chicken controversy, why he was a threat, and whether or not his race played a role in his elimination or how he was perceived by his teammates. Excerpts from Tyrone’s interview below –

Let’s get the most important question out of the way. How much of that chicken did you actually eat?

Not a lot at all, seriously. I was the last to get a piece of chicken. I made sure everyone got some first and then I cleaned their bones when they were done. I was eating gristle. I was not Fred Flintstone eating a giant pterodactyl thigh. I was eating what other people said they were finished with and I made sure to ask if they were done.

Do you blame the chicken-eating incident for your ousting?

That was probably some of it. But I blame several things. One was the power thing. As a leader, you have a big target on your back. My strength: I was a threat because did well in all of the challenges. Holly’s switch: There was a generation gap. I think there was probably some racial motivation as well.

That requires further explanation.

Please don’t spin it that I was playing the race card, but things took place that weren’t shown on TV that lead me to believe that [race] was a [possible motivation] with some people, like the unfounded intimidation comment. I didn’t do anything to try to intimidate anyone. I wasn’t barking orders. Every time I spoke, I spoke with a soft tone. Some people have other issues that spilled into the game. That speaks to their insecurities. Racism is an insecurity, in my opinion, and it exists in America. I don’t think the vote was based solely on that. I’m not even saying that it was based largely on that. This is a social game. All those things – insecurities, biases, backgrounds – come into play and it was still on me to manage those things to my benefit. I didn’t.

Moving on to tonight’s episode of Survivor. The 6th episode of the season titled “Worst Case Scenario” will leave the cast surprised “following a shocking announcement, it’s every man for himself when the fight shipwrecked individual immunity. One of the leading intellectuals of the game points to two enemies and sets up a plan to overthrow one of them, along with an immunity idol at tribal council a most memorable season.”

The new episode airs tonight at 8/7c on CBS.

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