Yahoo News Noelle Lambert reveals she was not holding the Survivor Steal-a-Vote at Tribal Council
Noelle Lambert knows how to compete — whether it was playing Division 1 lacrosse or becoming a U.S. Paralympian just two years after losing her left leg and setting an American record in the 100-meter dash. But her competition on Survivor 43 came to an end last week after Noelle was voted out by the tribe, becoming the fourth jury member.
Noelle was ousted after emerging as a true triple threat in the game. She showcased her social skills by always finding a new ride-or-die partner after her number 1 was voted out. She showed off her strategic skills when she stole Owen Knight's vote and then used it to fool (and eliminate) James Jones. And she spotlighted her athletic prowess by somehow getting over a narrow beam with her prosthetic leg and then winning the latest reward challenge.
In the end, her tribemates had seen enough. Nobody wanted to sit next to Noelle at the end, so they voted her off to the jury. What does Noelle make of her ouster? How was her reunion at Ponderosa with James? And what happened on the show that we didn't see? We asked the 25-year-old Paralympian all that and more, and learned she is just as inspiring in interview form as she is on TV. Watch the entire interview above or read it below.
Robert Voets/CBS Noelle Lambert on 'Survivor 43'
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What happened. Why are you talking to me right now? What went wrong?
NOELLE LAMBERT: I think the first and the biggest thing that went wrong is I put my trust in other people. When I was out there, I had a really great relationship with Jesse. I had a really great relationship with Cody. I mean, other than Owen, they were, I thought, my number ones — like diehard Vesi strong. They definitely saw me starting to make and build my résumé, and they did a really smart thing because I think if I were to make it to the end, I would've been able to plead my case a little bit. I put my trust in the wrong people, and they did an amazing job at blindsiding me.
What were you thinking was going to happen when you went to Tribal?
I was confident that I was definitely getting votes, but I was still confident that I wasn't gonna be going home. My plan going into it was that I thought we were gonna put three votes on Sami, three votes on Karla, and then the other two girls were gonna vote me. We wanted to have a backup plan just in case Karla played her idol because we were all kind of suspicious that she might have one just because of the beads. So my plan going into it was: The safest thing is to split the votes, have Vesi on Sami and then have Baka on Karla. And then Gaber, Cody, and Jesse all flipped.
What was the vibe when you got to Ponderosa, especially with James, whom you fooled with the Steal-a-Vote?
Oh, it was great. I walked in and I immediately hugged him and said, "I'm sorry." I mean, it had to happen. He was playing a really, really smart and strategic game and he was the type of person that a lot of people would go to and tell them their plans. I saw that James is a really great player and when I wanted to vote him out during the Dwight vote, I got blindsided. Dwight went home, I said to myself, "Oh my God, I need to go back to camp and I need to talk to James," and just basically suck up to him and tell him, "Whoever you want me to write down the next vote to gain your trust, I promise you you're on my side."
I was very, very close with Jeanine. She was one of my very strong allies. But I thought the smartest thing for my game was to gain trust with James, because we all had an inkling that when we got to final 10, it was gonna split up. And I knew that I wanted to use my advantage because everyone knew I had it. I was trying to get rid of it because it was kind of something in the back of my head that I was just like, everyone knows I have this thing.
So when we got to the final 10 and I saw that James was on my team and that I was gonna be going to Tribal Council, I said, "This is the chance. I need to make a big move." Especially having Owen there as well. And, gaining that little trust in the Jeanine vote with James, I mean, he never saw it coming. But the vibe back at Ponderosa, it was completely fine. I viewed James as kind of a brotherly figure because me and him argue and bicker back and forth like siblings would. But at the end of the day, we have nothing but love for each other. He played a really great game and I was just trying to build my résumé.
Robert Voets/CBS James Jones, Noelle Lambert, and Owen Knight on 'Survivor 43'
How did you piece together that plan of stealing Owen's vote but then using it on James?
Why I wanted to put [the Steal-a-Vote] on Owen and not James is because I still had in the back of my head, "Okay, Karla might have an idol, and what if she doesn't want her strongest ally getting voted off of this game?" So I thought stealing Owen's vote and telling James and Karla both, "Let's steal Owen's vote" — I didn't think that they would think in their head, "Why would she steal Owen's vote and then vote [James] out?"
And it worked out perfectly. 'Cause I'm telling James, "Listen, he won't be able to use his Shot in the Dark. He won't be able to do anything. He's a sitting duck. So this is a perfect plan." But then Sami goes on 10 minutes before Tribal Council and decides he wants to tell everything to Karla. And then comes out to me and says, "Listen, I told Karla everything." And I'm freaking out because James has his Knowledge Is Power as well. And so I'm thinking, "Is this guy gonna take my advantage?"
Owen still had my advantage at that point. I kind of reached in Owen's sock. It was James, Owen, and myself, and I reached in Owen's sock and grabbed the advantage because I didn't wanna have it. I thought for sure Karla was gonna go and tell James everything, and then they were gonna steal my advantage with the Knowledge Is Power and then they were either gonna vote me off or they were gonna still vote Owen off.
But it worked in Sami's benefit. After watching it back, I understand why he did it. He wanted to use Karla as an ally, and he wanted to keep her when the vote was over. Sami was very smart in thinking when he was in the bottom of an alliance, and he would use that to his benefit.
I think it's brilliant that Owen was holding that Steal-a-Vote and that you reached into his sock.
He had it the entire time. When Jeanine was giving Dwight the idol and Dwight was giving [people stuff], I gave it to Owen, and he had it for a few days. And that just showed my trust with him in the game. He was one of my strong allies. And I can't take full credit for that vote as well, because me and Owen went up to each other and we said it at the exact same time. He's like, "You're gonna steal my vote." I was like, "I'm gonna steal your vote." But when he was giving it back to me at Tribal, he kind of deadlocked me in the eyes and he was like, "Look at me in the face. We're good, right?" And I was like, "I swear to God, we're good." [Laughs]
And just to be a hundred percent clear, when you took it out of his sock, it was the sock on his leg that he was wearing, right?
Yeah! And the seating chart worked out perfectly on that, because if James was sitting next to me, or if he could see it, it wouldn't have worked.
And they mix up the seating at Tribal, so what was your plan in terms of, "Hey, what do we do if we find out that we're not sitting next to each other? Do I sort of sneak it to you as we're walking in or something?"
Honestly, that wasn't even a plan. We were just hoping, because I was gonna try to gauge at Tribal Council to see whether or not Karla was gonna vote for James. She does a great job of playing a poker face. But I had a feeling, and Karla and Sami were kind of talking and I heard Sami say, "What do you wanna do?" So I knew that Karla was thinking about it. Originally, I thought, "Okay, maybe I shouldn't play this advantage. I think we have the numbers."
But James came over to me and starts whispering in my ear and he is like, "You're gonna play it, right? You're gonna do this." And I just said, "You know what? If I don't play it, he's gonna be suspicious and something's gonna happen. He's gonna go up and now play a Shot in the Dark." Or I don't exactly remember how Knowledge Is Power works. I don't know if he can take it from me even after I played it or something. So it was the safest thing to do. And I'm so sick of this advantage to begin with. Everyone keeps telling me, "We know you have something." So I just wanted to get rid of it and I wanted to do it in the coolest way possible and use it in a way that nobody's ever done it in the history of Survivor before. So I thought that was really cool. [Laughs]
Robert Voets/CBS Nolle Lambert and Jesse Lopez on 'Survivor 43'
It sounds like it was a little more of a live Tribal if James was getting up and whispering to you and things like that.
It was like for two seconds. It was right when Jeff said it was time to vote and I was kind of silent. And he just came over to me and made sure. It didn't really make any sense, so I totally get why it wasn't put in there.
What was your first reaction when you get to that reward challenge for the loved ones letters and you see that narrow balance beam on the course? What was going through your mind when you saw that?
Oh my God. I didn't even think about who I would pick for the reward because I was looking at it and I'm like, "There's no way I'm gonna be able to do this. There's no shot." Before I went to any challenge, and I'm walking in when Jeff says, "Come on in," and I'm looking at everything, I think to myself, "How the hell am I gonna do this?" But that doesn't mean that I'm not gonna try. Just walking in and seeing it, I didn't even come up with a game plan as to who I would pick. That wasn't even like a thought. So I mean, actually winning, I think partly why I was crying as well is because I didn't wanna make the decision. [Laughs]
I know it's really hard to keep track of time when you're doing a challenge, but how long do you think you were trying to get over that balance beam?
I would say probably like 20 to 30 minutes. It was a long time. One of the best things about watching it play back — and I remember this — is hearing people cheering for me. I mean, everyone was at one point like, "Let's go, Noelle!" When you're playing in a game against each other for a million dollars, but also people have the heart to cheer me on… because I was sitting there for 20 minutes and I would've given up. But I'm hearing them cheer and I'm not trying to cry. I'm trying to think in the back of my head, "Okay, maybe because I'm trying so hard someone who wins will bring me because I worked my butt off."
But then once I got across it, I just remember having this feeling like, "Okay, this is a weird feeling. I feel like I'm gonna win this." It was confidence. It was so hot too. Like it was probably a hundred degrees. And the interesting thing with amputees and suctioning and sweating is — and especially me losing weight very dramatically — like when I started sweating even a little bit, my leg starts to move and then the suction comes off. And so it was just even funnier that I was literally holding my leg on and running at the same time. I thought that was really cool, because it's something every single amputee has to go through. And a lot of people don't realize that, but that was one of the difficult things about that challenge: "Oh my God, is my leg gonna fall off and I have to hop back and forth to get my sandbag?"
But when I threw it and it landed… I mean, you saw it. I dropped. And it's crazy because I'm not an emotional person. Ever since my accident, I'm not the type of person to show people how I'm feeling. So getting vulnerable like that and kind of expressing my emotions to complete strangers, but at that point they weren't complete strangers to me. You spend all this time with these people and they become like a family even if you're not working with every single person. You have this bond with every single person. So it was really cool to have them cheering for me. That really made the moment even more special. And it also made it harder for me to choose who I wanted to pick.
CBS The cast of "Survivor 43'
We heard people saying they didn't want to sit next to you at the end. How much was that in your head from the very beginning when you first got cast on this this show, that with your story and everything you have overcome, that people might not want to go against you with a jury vote at the end?
Yeah, it was definitely in my head. But what I was kind of telling myself was, I cannot use my amputation as a reason to get further in this game. I don't even wanna bring it up. Like, I don't wanna even talk about my story. I actually lied to everybody. I didn't tell them I was a Paralympian. I told them I was a lacrosse coach just because I don't want this huge inspiring story, and adding on to the fact that I'm also a professional athlete. Because I watched the show back and all these professional football players, they lie about their occupation. So my gameplan going into it was prove yourself from the beginning that you're gonna help in challenges, but also I was trying not to talk about my story.
I would tell them how my accident happened. I would tell them how I lost my leg. But I just didn't want this to be the only thing about me. it's hard because that's all that people see. And I don't think people didn't wanna sit next to me at the end because I had a prosthetic. I don't think people treated me any differently or just looked at me as somebody as just an amputee. At least they did a great job at making me feel that way. I mean, everyone was really amazing.
It's something that I totally get and I have to think about it. I have to think: You know what? People might not wanna sit next to me because of the fact of my story and overcoming all of this, being the first above knee amputee to play this game, and then using that and saying, "I should be the first above knee amputee to win Survivor. I should be the first amputee period to win Survivor."
So I get it. I totally understand. I respect it. But I think people respected me out there. They didn't just look at me as somebody who was an amputee. They looked at me as somebody who's playing the game pretty well, and so I'm grateful because, you know, I could have had a Kelly Bruno situation with someone like NaOnka. [Laughs] I'm kidding! NaOnka's probably the sweetest. I would love to meet her one day.
Robert Voets/CBS Noelle Lambert on 'Survivor 43'
I know you didn't want to talk about it in the game, but I have to imagine you've heard from people that watched you on the show and have been really inspired by the way you've been beasting your way through these competitions.
Oh, I've been receiving a lot of amazing support and people reaching out to me this whole entire season. But after last week, I've been getting nothing but love, and it is incredible to see people reaching out to me who have disabilities, who are amputees, or parents who have kids that are disabled, and they say they're putting their kid in front of the TV to watch.
That was the biggest reason why I wanted to come out here and play this game. I wanted to create a positive representation of the disability community. And I can't thank every single person enough. My social media has been blowing up still to this day. I'm just really grateful for that. I'm trying to read every single message and I'm really grateful for the support because I went out in the best way possible — to kind of have that reward challenge and my vote off in the same episode. I'm very happy that that's how it happened because it's paving away for people and it's getting people to realize that amputees — they're more than their disability and it doesn't mean that they're broken. They can do anything that they're capable of.
I was scared to death when I found out I was going on the show. And the biggest reason why I wanted to do it and to overcome it was for anybody else watching. That that was what motivated me is, "Okay, I'm doing this for myself, but I'm also doing this for the people that believe that they can't."
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