Kelley Wentworth Reacts To Survivor 48 Players Being Forced To Gamble Their Vote [Exclusive]

Since Survivor premiered in the year 2000, new fans have to figure out which seasons to watch first. That longevity has allowed Jeff Probst's beloved reality show to have many remarkable moments, like when the first player was medically evacuated and when the best winners were crowned. While some former players have refused to return, some of Survivor's best players from the greatest seasons have played repeatedly.

Widely recognized as one of the best players who never won, Kelley Wentworth competed on Survivor three times. As a result of how many times she competed on the show, Kelley has a unique perspective on Survivor history. One example of that is that Kelley can perfectly explain what was so awful about one Survivor 48 journey.

Kelley Wentworth Explained Why It Was Horrible That Survivor 48 Players Were Forced To Gamble Their Votes

Over the last several years, journeys have become a staple of Survivor. When players are sent on a journey, they typically find themselves in a position where can gain an advantage or lose their votes.

In some cases, the players have been able to choose whether they want to put their vote at risk or not. Failing that, players typically get to choose whether to go on the journey. Finally, almost every journey has involved the person playing a game that tests their skills and that decides whether they win or lose. In all of those cases, the player has a significant amount of control over whether they lose their vote.

During Survivor 48, Episode 3, three people went on a journey and were forced to play a game to either lose their vote or gain a second vote. However, that game was entirely based on luck as the players were told to roll dice and their fate was decided based on the results. While talking to TheThings, Kelley Wentworth explained why she thought it was wrong for Survivor players to have their fate decided by luck.

In April 2025, TheThings journalist Matthew Thomas interviewed Kelley Wentworth about the current state of Survivor.

During that conversation, the journey with the dice was brought up. In response, Kelley explained that she is against players not being able to decide whether to risk their vote.

The dice game, the ability for people to not choose to lose their vote or not lose their vote, that's where I start to have an issue.

As a former three-time Survivor player and a huge fan of the show, Kelley understands the game better than almost anyone. As a result, what Kelley said next was extremely revealing.

When the most passionate fans watch Survivor, they formulate opinions about what the game should and shouldn't be. However, since fans only get to see a small fraction of what happens on the island, their opinions aren't as informed as someone like Kelley's.

Since Kelley Wentworth last played Survivor, she has become a popular social media influencer with more than 88 thousand viewers on Instagram. Kelley posts her hilarious takes on Survivor, other reality shows, scripted television, and anything else she wants to on her account.

With that in mind, it was fascinating when Kelley explained to TheThings exactly why it is wrong for Survivor players to not get to choose whether to risk their vote.

“Your vote is currency. Like, Survivor is based around voting other people out.”

For fans watching at home, it can be easy to forget how much value the players' votes have in the game. After all, the majority of players are voted out by a wider margin than just one vote. As a result, Kelley's remarks about how important having your vote is should be a lesson to every viewer.

While talking to TheThings in April 2025, Kelley Wentworth explained how difficult it can be for a first-time Survivor player to figure out how to play. “The first time I played, I just didn't know what I was doing. Everything was new. I had no idea what it meant to go talk to a producer with a camera in your face and answer questions about the game. I was afraid of getting voted out. I was very timid.”

Still not done imparting her wisdom, Kelley elaborated on the aspect of the rolling the dice journey that made it go wrong.

“And so when you go and you have to roll dice or you have to play a certain game, and they don't say, ‘You can play this game and choose to lose your vote or you cannot play and keep it.’ When they just say, ‘You have to play and you're gonna lose it or you're gonna keep it.’ That's where I think we've gone too far.”

During the Survivor 48 journey that involved rolling dice, three players were there. One of those players, Bianca Roses, volunteered to go on the journey. On the other hand, the other two players, Justin Pioppi and Kamilla Karthigesu, weren't given a choice as they were told they had to go.

While interviewing, Kelley, TheThings' interviewer brought up that Justin and Kamilla had no agency at all during the journey. They didn't choose to go on the journey, and they had no control over whether they won or lost because that came down to luck. In response to the interviewer stating it was "outrageous" that Kamilla and Justin had no agency, Kelley completely agreed. "So true."

When Justin and Bianca went on the journey and had to roll the dice to decide the fate of their votes, both of them lost.

As a direct result of losing their votes, Bianca and Justin went on to be voted out shortly after. While they could have done a better job socially handling the fact that they lost their votes, that still means that Justin and Bianca were mostly voted out of the game based on bad luck.

Kelley Wentworth Told TheThings About Gambling On Survivor Without Risking Money

While talking to TheThings, Kelley Wentworth explained why she didn't like Survivor 48 players being forced to gamble their votes. However, Kelley also told the outlet how much she likes the app Bracketology, which allows Survivor fans to bet on the outcome of the show for fun without putting any money on the line.

For many years, sports fans have put in hours of work into running fantasy leagues. While talking exclusively to TheThings, Kelley explained that the app Bracketology allows fans to bring the fun of fantasy sports to the reality show genre.

“My husband does fantasy football. I love football, but I don't play fantasy football. This is a very similar concept. So, basically, you have a league and you get points. You pick people every week for whatever show.

I do Survivor. They have Top Chef, RuPaul's Drag Race, so many different shows. They did Jeopardy recently, and you basically get to choose your squad or your team for the week, and then you get points based on how they perform, things they do, like things they say, finding idols, who's the winner at the end. And it's just a really cool platform where you don't have to figure out how to do it."

On top of explaining that Bracketology users earn points based on how players perform, she explained that they can lose them too if things go wrong. Kelley then explained that Bracketology users don't have to do the work of tallying the points for themselves since the app takes care of that.

"It's really fun. And it just takes away, like, I know people kind of have their own ways that they do these different leagues. But if you're looking for something that is already set for you, the rules are already set, you can have a bunch of different teams, have different people playing. It is really fun, and they just make it very easy. So I've enjoyed it a lot."

While talking to TheThings, Kelley also revealed that she likes Bracketology so much she has worked with the company.