Survivor’s Pia Miranda On Her Iconic Win & The Hate She Copped For Luke’s Eviction
Actress-turned-smiling assassin Pia Miranda, was crowned the winner of Australian Survivor last night, the cherry on top of one hell of a season.
Facing Baden Gilbert in the final tribal council, Pia pleaded her case, with her pitch laying out all the big moves she had orchestrated in her game and it was simply much more impressive than Baden’s.
In the end, Pia won by an unanimous vote with every single jury member picking her as sole survivor — the first time this has happened in the history of Australian Survivor.
We chatted with Pia about her iconic win and gameplan.
On her iconic pitch at final tribal:
“I stayed in the shelter for days and days, and weeks and weeks just planning my speech. Planning what my answers would be and from watching Survivor [in previous years] I knew that as long as you own your moves and were honest, you can do really well in a final tribal. If you try to own moves that you didn’t make, that’s going to go against you. So I thought be honest and fight hard.
“I was never going to feel completely confident but I knew Harry wasn’t going to take me to the end so once Baden won immunity, I was happy to go to the end with him as I felt that I had a better argument to win.”
“He [Baden] definitely fought more than what they showed in the edit. He was feistier than they showed and he really fought hard to win but at about halfway through that tribal, I felt like I had it in the bag,” she said.
“Some people were giving me a hard time. They were like ‘You were too mean!’ and I’m like “I was fighting to win!””
On the difference between the US and Australian versions of Survivor:
“I think Americans are more likely to reward a big player and also having three at the end allows for a bigger player to sneak their way into the finals. But in Australia, if you play a big game, you’re going to go home.
“You can play a big game but you have to do it under-the-radar. If someone looks like they’re making big moves, there will be a target on their back. I think that’s just who we are as people. We don’t like people who talk themselves up too much. Australians are ready to get rid of anyone who is too confident. It’s a fine line to play that game.”
On whether the Champions had agreed to vote for a Champion to win:
“By the time we got to the end, we weren’t Champion strong at all. We were fractured and everyone that was there knows how hard it was to get there and they really take it seriously.
“I would have been willing to vote for a Champ or Contender. If it was like Harry Vs. a Champion, I would have happily voted for Harry.”
On winning every single jury vote:
“On the night it was really overwhelming as I wondering why they weren’t [reading out the votes] like two votes then two votes to increase suspense. There was a couple of votes I wasn’t sure I was going to get like Shaun or Johno, because Johno and I were starting to align together and then I voted him out.
“Abbie was not convinced she was going to vote for me, she told me when she walked in and then eventually changed her mind.”
On the hate she copped for voting Luke out:
“It was tough. I knew I was going to get some backlash but I found it weird that it was all directed at me because I was the one who was actually willing to give him a shot and I was really emotional about it. Which people thought was fake, which it wasn’t, it was truthful.
“I’ve never really suffered online bullying or trolling before but it was a really intense 24-48 hours and I was absolutely shocked by some of the things that were said to me. I’ve never written anything bad about anyone on the internet and after reading all that stuff, I never would. It was a lot of people, there were hundreds just really going for me.”
“I don’t want to call it out as a double standard for men and women but I will tell you that I was really shocked that it all came down to me. Everyone was angry because they loved Luke, so that makes sense, but I was shocked Baden didn’t cop any hate and I copped it all. Because they were tight, Luke and I weren’t aligned at that point but Baden and Luke were aligned for a lot of the game. Luke and I had turned on each other a lot during the game.”
On it all being worth it for Luke’s GoFundMe page:
“We all promised ourselves and our families that we were going to play to make the right moves. Luke would have done it to me and Luke respects my moves, like we’re still tight. I’m so excited for him that there’s this massive GoFundMe page and he’s probably going to get more than he would have won on Survivor. I know he’s really excited.
“At the end of the day all of that stuff probably led to everyone rallying behind Luke. So if I had to cop 24 hours of hate for him to get $5ook then I’ll take it on the chin.”
On what she plans on doing with the prize money:
“I haven’t really decided yet, I haven’t got it so I think it would be nice to put some of that on my mortgage and ease some of the pressure on my family. Take the kids to Disneyland and then do something really good with the rest of it.”