‘Survivor 50’ star Jenna Lewis-Dougherty is ‘here to f— you over’

“I’m not here to play with integrity.” So says Jenna Lewis-Dougherty, who is ready to bring some old-school spice straight into Survivor’s kinder, gentler new era with her return to Survivor 50 (premiering Feb. 25 on CBS).

Jenna is no mere token, there simply to represent the very first season of Survivor (where she placed eighth after being on the wrong side of the first alliance in reality television history). The former Pagong tribe member says she is bringing a no-holds-barred attitude back to the game after her 42-season absence (which came following a third-place finish on Survivor: All-Stars).

No contestant has ever gone so long between appearances, but Jenna — who played her games before immunity idols and advantages — insists there will be no learning curve on her third time out. And while the 48-year-old real estate agent is coming in guns blazing behind-the-scenes, she has a plan to win others over to her side (witness the compliments she will and won’t give Genevieve Mushaluk).

Take cover while reading, because Jenna Lewis-Dougherty came into this interview firing when we spoke in Fiji just days before the game began. You have been warned.

(This is one of 24 deep-dive, on location interviews with the Survivor 50 cast. Links to the other interviews will be posted at the bottom of this article as they become available.)

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Jenna, tell me why you’re going to win Survivor 50.

JENNA LEWIS: I’m going to be completely underestimated, and this could be good or bad, detriment or asset. Nobody knows me. It’s been two decades, so even if they did watch me play the first time, they don’t necessarily even think that I’m the same person. If you watched Kyle just win right before we come out here, how much do you think he’s going to be able to change his game and how much of a target does he have on his back because he’s fresh in our mind? I’m like stale milk at the back of the fridge. Nobody is thinking that I’m going to win this and that’s great for me.

Also, everybody thinks us old schoolers had no strategy. Did they watch All-Stars? No, they all got caught up in the Romber. I ran that s— from the day I landed. I targeted winners because I needed people to vote for me to get Tina Wesson off. It cemented Rupert to me, who wanted to quit day 2 and I was like, “No, you big lug, you’re going to stick with me.” And he did. Did we vote out the next winner? No, we did not. We went Rudy and we would’ve gone Jerri next. I wasn’t about the winners. I needed a way for people to vote with me. That’s exactly what I’ll be here. I’ll be someone else’s numbers until there are no other numbers.

Give me the life update. What you’ve been up to since you last played Survivor?

I’m not in the Survivor-verse. I’m like the only person who doesn’t go to any of the premieres. I don’t even have any of these people on social media. Not one. I’ve remarried and very happy. My life is just so freaking beautiful. My daughters are 29. They were three when I filmed [season 1] and are 29 years old right now and going to law school. I have a 14-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl. We’re at tennis tournaments every weekend. My business is booming. I’m like top one percent of the nation in real estate agents in California. I have a really hefty bank account, a house in Tahoe.

You’re not the same person as the last time you played. You’re a different person. So how does that impact how you play this game?

So I am in different circumstances, but I am the exact same person. That’s the truth. They did our psychological evaluations and they said, “We now have three on file for you, and we have no one else here that is the exact same. I don’t think I’ve met anyone that secure in who they are.” So I am the exact same person, just living in better circumstances. So I guess the base for me is: How do I play when I have this stable, beautiful foundation of love underneath me?

I’ll tell you what: I have not thought once about home. Not once. They’re not going anywhere. I have no anxiety about what happens after this. I’m going to go back to this gorgeous life and they are there and I’m not giving it one thought. Am I doing this for them? No, I’m not. I’m doing this for me. I started this long before I had these two. I’m doing this for me. I have this one last shot.

Do you have any personal regrets from your previous times playing?

I think in old-school era, if you watch it, it’s highly edited to be what they wanted the storyline to be, and now what I really think is beautiful about the game is that I really do think that they’re trying to tell each individual’s story. I really do feel like they’re trying to capture your story, and I think that that is a game changer in how I expect to be perceived because maybe now I can actually be perceived as the person that plays.

I don’t think I was ever perceived as the person who plays, although I did run it. You hear Ethan telling them like, “Jenna thinks she’s the godfather because she’s got everyone voting the way she wants.” You’re goddamn right I did! But did everybody know it? No, I didn’t want them to know it. Not until the end, but that’s exactly how I’m going to play right now.

Was it frustrating to watch All-Stars play back on TV?

Definitely. It was very frustrating to watch that I got edited essentially to just be like a hanger on to Rupert, who tried to quit day two, who would have quit day two, but I pedaled him along. I would be like, “Rupert, get me fish.” He would bring me extra fish. I had him wrapped around my finger. I was Parvati before Parvati was Parvati.

Not only do you have the longest gap of all the contestants here, but nobody in Survivor history has gone longer between seasons. It’s been 42 seasons since you last played. What’s it like to have that long of a layoff before coming back?

There’s really good points to it and really bad points. Obviously, some people are going to think that maybe I’m off my game because it’s very fast-paced now, but the gap actually has helped me mature. I’m not playing from a level of desperation. I’m not playing for fame, which was another thing.

You got really famous after season 1 and you’re like, “Oh, this is kind of fun. I want to be famous!” I don’t care if I’m famous now. I care if my kids think I look kind of cool sometimes on the show, but I don’t care about fame. I’m out here to scratch an inch that I started 25 years ago.

I’m not out here for my family. My family is going to love me no matter what. They’re not the ones playing. I’m here to play for me. I have one more shot. This is my Eminem moment — one shot, one opportunity. I am not even kidding. And that’s it. I have had a long time to think about the things that I could do better. I played a pretty goddamn good game. If you go back and watch All-Stars, I got mixed up on every tribe and I still got control. My only regret is that they did not have a final three or I would have won. I don’t care what they say three months later in New York — hands down, I would’ve won out there.

So with the faster game, more advantages, crazy twists, you don’t think there’s going to be a learning curve for you out there?

Well let’s break it down. First off, how hard is it to go out here and suffer for 26 days versus 39?

39 days is much harder. 

Exactly. Especially day nine, that was always the clincher. I played twice at 39. Day nine, you’re f—ing done. We had a tornado or a hurricane come through Panama on day nine and it destroyed everyone. Three people quit. Jenna [Morasca], I know with [her mom], Sue right after, Rupert wanted to quit that morning — again, stuff that never got on TV.

It was the worst night. Ethan, who has fought cancer, still says that that night was the worst night of this life. To look down the barrel of that and go, I have a month left — that was brutalizing and that’s why 39 days will always be harder.

Is it quicker pace now? Yeah, but I played a quick pace in All-Stars. But let’s also break down the other thing. You said the word advantage. What does that mean? That means help. These are ways to help your game. That is like if I tried to get them to go back to pre-internet, write me a really great story without using Google. Go research at a library with the Dewey Decimal System.

That’s how we played. You have advantages, you have ways to change your game and make your game better without only having to rely on social dynamics. I couldn’t use anything outside of my social dynamics to make my game progress. Nothing.

Well, the biggest difference between then and now is that now they give you treated water.

On All-Stars, I thought they were going to kill us. Like, Rupert and Rudy would stand up and pass out. Ethan and I were the last ones that were able to keep starting fire. These guys don’t know how easy they have it. What a luxury this is. The bugs in Borneo and Panama — I had a thousand on the back of my legs. My children got gnats lately and I was like, “Let’s look at a photo of season 1 mommy” We counted 300 on the back of my legs. There’s nothing here that can hurt you. There’s not even bugs. Sure, it will rain, it rains on every season, but that is trivial.

Tell me some of the people that you want to work with and then some of the people of which maybe you’re a little wary.

I definitely want to work with Ozzy. I want to eat and I like winning. So that pretty much wraps up old school. So now let’s go to middle school. Middle school would be Devens, Chrissy, Angelina, Mike, and Christian. I would work with Angelina and Mike [from that group]. I don’t think I’d work with any of the others.

Why those two and why not the others?

Because Angelina gets things quick on the uptake, which I really like. She’d be easier to convince than some of the others. Mike is quick on the uptake too, but I don’t know whether he has big strategy or he just kind of has a really good charismatic personality that kind of carries him far. Devens is a chaos player and I’ve got a couple of those. I do not want to play with chaos. I did not wait 22 years to get out here and have my game ruined by a f—ing hide-and-seek game. Absolutely not. Or a Q-Skirt or whatever he calls it. So I don’t want to be ruled by chaos. So no on Q.

I would work with Angelina but Chrissy, there can’t be two moms. That’s bottom line, just cut her. I can’t have a hag alliance. So then you get into new school. Let’s see… I definitely would not work with any of the trios or duos. I don’t want to be the fourth in a pecking order of Joe, Kamilla, and Kyle, but if they’re alone, I would definitely work with Kyle or Kamilla.

Joe lives 15 minutes from me. Maybe I work with Joe, I don’t know, but I’m not into that whole integrity and nobility because I’m not here to play with integrity. I am here to f— you over in every way, shape, or form. You are going to hear me flatter you with lies about my kid thinking you’re the greatest because I want to project to you the image that you want to project to me. I’m going to be playing on the fears and your insecurities in a good way.

How do you think these other players see you?

That’s a good question because that’s the one thing I think I need to make myself very aware of how I’m perceived. I think that they will see me as naive. I think they probably think, “Oh my gosh, she can’t do this quicker new stuff. She never even had to look for an immunity idol.” Bitch, I’ve got to look for keys at 47! Have you ever tried to find your keys? I can find an immunity idol.

Self-evaluate for me. What’s your biggest weakness?

I might be susceptible to somebody else playing on my vanity. I need to be aware that I can talk a lot, but I don’t know if that’s going to be a problem amongst this group. I’m looking at the group and these are big personalities. There are not a lot of float-under-the-radar kind of people here. Survivor 50 is not gen pop. This is death row, so you need to do some s— to get here. This is not the infant play area. These people have records.

So I’m going up against some really tough people. That’s good for me because they have no idea how I’m going to play and they’re going to have bigger targets that I can paint. I’m going to sit in back of Jonathan with that billboard of a back and just paint the largest target you’ve ever seen. He’s given me a lot of canvas.

How much pre-gaming did you do?

Zero.

Come on, Jenna. I know the way this works.

I promise on my children’s lives. I don’t even have any of them on social media really. The only person I spoke to at all was Ethan, and that was the day I left. He said, “Don’t ever lie to me again. We are past that.” I’m not kidding. I did zero and I kept it that way on purpose.

Why?

If I pregame people, then I lose the advantage of naivete. I lose the advantage of being underestimated. I want people to know that I did not pregame. They’re all going to come out here. Those things break down so fast. I watched it on All-Stars.

I was there for the very first iteration of bringing people back. It hadn’t been done and we all hung out like family outside of that. So when you took someone down, it wasn’t like, ‘Oh dude, you got me.” It was a murder. It was a murder and there was blood on your hands and people hated you. There are relationships have never been healed from All-Stars.

So if you think that I am not ready for this, I’m ready for this. I didn’t need to pregame. I know those relationships can break down very, very quickly.

Did you lose hope at any point about ever coming back again?

Yeah, I think I did. Right before Winners at War [which, originally, was not going to be all winners], I was called, sent the contract and went to get all my shots and was given a date. I was being flown to L.A. and I was like, “Amazing. I’m going!” I was an alternate for Heroes vs. Villains all the way to the end. But two years ago, I woke up and I had a dream, and I wrote it in my journal that I was called to be on Survivor 50. I told my husband and he was like, “Oh, that’s funny. But you wouldn’t do it.” I was like, “F— you! Do you want to get divorced now? Of course I’d do it! You know me, right?”

How disheartening was it to get so close those other times but not make it back?

It was very disheartening. It’s always partially in the back of my mind and why I go and do eight-hour hikes. Sometimes you got to keep in shape. You got to be able to test yourself. I will go sleep outside in Tahoe — it’s really cold, it’s buggy, I can do it. I go and I do little mini-Survivors because I’m like, I just got to make sure that I’m still up to it.

What do you make of Mike White being here?

The only thing I think about Mike White in all honesty is I’m going to have to do a lot of acting here and a lot of lying. He’s on the other end of a camera, so he might know when I lie, but Mike doesn’t know me, so I’m going to be able to lie to Mike White just as easily as anyone else. Do I care that he’s in Hollywood? I do not. Am I here to be on f—ing whatever? What is it? White Lotus? No, I’m not Angelina. Wasn’t she an extra? All of the people were like, “Oh, he’s casting for the next season.” I’m not here for that and I will slit his throat if I need to.

I actually haven’t even given Mike much thought. The only reason I said I would work with Mike is because I think Mike was very malleable. I don’t feel like he came in with a ton of strategy. But I need to tell you about the Survivor-verse.

Excuse me?

I have the Avengers here. Okay, you’ve got Thor in Jonathan, the Black Panther is Q, you’ve got Captain America is Joe or Colby. I mean if we get Australian Colby, he can get Captain America back, but if we get Heroes vs. Villains Colby who couldn’t bowl, I think that we got to kick him out and Joe is Captain America. The Black Widow is Savannah. I think there’s something about her that’s cunning and agile. I think she’s going to be he Black Widow. Captain Marvel is Stephenie. Have you seen her guns? You’ve got Ozzy as Aquaman and we’ve even got Coach as our own Doctor Strange. We’ve got a gamut of these superheroes that we get to all take out. It’s kind of like a Comic-Con if Survivor was dressed up as the Avengers and DC.

Are you concerned at all about the season 49 players, considering that it’s hard to have a dossier on them since they’re an unknown quantity?

No, but like I said, this is not gen pop. They did some s—, so they’re going to either have great big egos, or one of them won, or they’re dating, or they’re married, or their sister and brother. We don’t know. So it’s just like people with me: They think they might know who I am, but they’re going to have to find out. I’m going to have to find out with thing one and thing two. I’m just going to have to try to get to know them and we’re all out here to lie to each other anyway, so it doesn’t really do me any good to watch their season. They’re all going to come out and try to play different.

Do you feel any responsibility in terms of carrying the old school flag?

Yes. A little bit for those people. I wanted to say no, but I do. I feel pressure that I took somebody’s spot, right? I don’t want to be here just as some token old-school Survivor season 1 player. I want to win this game because the longer I’m in this game, the bigger my target gets. I could out-story Cirie in a final three. The first Survivor, I learned my lessons, come back, make the final three, would’ve won if there was a final three. Then comes back two decades later, never having used an idol, not knowing one of these people, while every single person here has played with someone else or hung out with them or is on their social media.

I would have hands-down the best story. My target gets bigger, so my job will be to convince you that you can beat me from the get-go. I lay plans to tell you how amazing you are. I have this form of flattery for every person. If I think that their self-esteem might be lacking or you’re known for being smart, I want to flatter you in some other way.

For instance, Genevieve. Genevieve is tall, elegant, she walks like a princess. That’s because she was probably taller than all the other girls in class and so she slouched. And as an adult woman, she stands tall, so I’m not going to compliment how pretty she is. She was known as a strategist. I’m not going to compliment her on that either.

I’m going to compliment her on her grace and I’m going to pull a Princess Diaries and be like, teach me how to walk [like] you. She will innately be like, “Oh my goodness!” So it’s conjecture, flattery. I just sit and I think of things, and I watch them and figure out what’s something that they want to project or want to be seen as that they haven’t. We’re all here for a redemption story, right?

I almost hesitate to even ask you this because I don’t want to manifest it, but what if it doesn’t go your way? I know how competitive you are. What if you get out here and it doesn’t turn out the way you wanted to or thought it to after this long layoff? How is that going to sit with you?

Well, I mean it won’t sit well, but they do have a Survivor 51, right?

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Other Survivor 50 deep dive player interviews:
• Survivor 50 star Ozzy Lusth opens up about hitting ‘rock bottom of my life’
• Survivor 50 star Aubry Bracco opens up about the ‘freedom when you fall from grace’ 
• Colby Donaldson reacts to playing Survivor for the first time without Jerri
• Angelina Keeley refused to do Survivor 50 unless they gave her a jacket
• Survivor 50‘s Coach goes deep on evolving from an ‘arrogant ass’ into the… Tide Walker?