Whitley County’s Elaine Stott thankful for ‘Survivor’ experience

Wednesday’ night’s 12 episode of CBS’s, “Survivor: Island of the Idols,” ended with Whitley County’s Elaine Stott having her torch extinguished, but even that couldn’t extinguish her love for the experience.

“That’s life! You take it on the chin and keep on keeping on,” Elaine said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon.

From the beginning of the episode, Elaine knew she had to do something, or she would be the one on the chopping block.

In last week’s episode, Elaine had found and played a hidden immunity idol, though, after the votes were revealed, she learned she could have kept it as the vote was split between Karishma and Noura.

When she failed to find the idol, Elaine turned her focus to the immunity challenge. However, Dean came away with the immunity necklace as the seven remaining contestants prepared for the upcoming tribal council.

Still, Elaine did not go down without a fight, attempting to sway enough of the tribe to vote for Noura and keep her in the game for another week.

“She’s going for it,” Boston Rob said of Elaine as he watched with Sandra from the hidden hut where the renowned contestants and mentors sat each week.

“I love her,” Sandra replied.

Elaine said knowing she had earned the respect of Rob and Sandra was a great consolation prize.

“I think they just saw the realness,” Elaine said of the duo.

However, she did see a drawback to that, admitting that she likely would have been voted out much sooner if either of the veteran contestants had been in the game.

Elaine said Thursday that it wasn’t anything personal that made her the target. As several of the contestants admitted at tribal council that if Elaine made the finals her personality and gameplay made her the favorite to win the $1.

“That is one of my best qualities,” Elaine said Thursday.” I’m just down to Earth with people.”

“Going into the game, I thought it would be my greatest asset,” I didn’t realize it would be my biggest liability,” she said.

In the end, Elaine said there were no hard feelings for the vote.

“My grandpa used to say, ‘You are right where you are at, because of you,’” Elaine said.

“I had a chance to win immunity. I had a chance to save myself and just couldn’t get the win,” she said.

Elaine said the response from both the local community and fans from all across the country who have reached out to offer their support has been tremendous.

Even today, she continued to reply to messages from fans.

“I’m completely humbled and I appreciate the support,” Elaine said.

“I appreciate every single one of those people,” she said.