Benjamin 'Coach' Wade Reveals the Exact Moment He Knew His 'Survivor 50' Game Was Over (Exclusive)
Dragon Slayer down! Benjamin “Coach” Wade became one of the latest players voted off Survivor 50 after a controversial double-elimination twist left him tied to Chrissy Hofbeck, who also got her torch snuffed.
The four-time player had positioned himself within a tight alliance, but some players were growing frustrated with his affinity for haikus and pushing to control the vote. Rick Devens added to the chaos with a fake idol bluff that sent players scrambling at Tribal, though Coach says that only counted for "10 percent" of the reason they were voted out.
In his exit interview with Men’s Journal, Coach breaks down the exact moment he realized his game was over, the critical mistake that triggered his downfall, and why he believes his elimination may have come at the right time.
Scroll down to read the full interview with Coach.
Men's Journal: How are you feeling today and after watching the episode?
Benjamin "Coach" Wade: It's always surreal. We'll see if you get me emotional, like you did pre-game. But I'm at peace with it. It was when I was supposed to go. The further you can see this game, I played an amazing, brilliant game and amassed this huge army—Charlie and Mike and Kamilla and Angelina. It was like this huge army that was being picked off for no rhyme or reason, played an amazing game for 14 days, and it all just went to shit by myself. I think the more I would have gone in the game, the more I would have compromised myself and maybe tarnish my legacy. It was when I was supposed to go. I was getting messy and sloppy and stupid as it was.
Men's Journal: What do you think where a game went wrong?
Benjamin "Coach" Wade: When we hit the beach and we were all at that huge merge, people were coming up to me and I was having great conversations. I got to that point by having real conversations with real people and making genuine connections. Talk to Devens, talk to Christian, talk to Emily, and I even said, "Hey, you guys are kind of in the middle. Let's do this game together." And they were all about it, but I've made a huge mistake. I forgot Colby didn't have a vote. And so when Dee said, "I got you, Coach, you can step off," then in my mind, it's like, okay, we got Emily. Let's vote Emily off. I could have stayed up there longer. I could have beaten her. And so I'm sitting down, and Colby looks over at me, and he whispers, "Coach, we're screwed." I said, "No, we're not. We still got the numbers." And he was like, "I don't have a vote." And I said the F word, and they bleeped my mouth, and I yell it, because it's in that moment that I realize that we're cooked.
Men's Journal: Was it that last vote or did it start with the Blood Moon?
Benjamin "Coach" Wade: I scrambled, and I went to Dee and started talking about Emily, which was a huge mistake, but I started scrambling. And so then you get through that, and I'm losing alliances left and right, but we still got the numbers. And then we go to the Dee vote. It's a very simple vote. I literally was like, people were like, "Who do you want out?" and everybody was saying Dee. And then it's like, "well, who are we going to put as a second?" everybody wanted Tiffany, but nobody wanted to vote for Tiffany. And so it was preposterous to me that in Survivor 50, with all returning players that are supposed to be legends, that nobody wanted to split the vote. I said, "So Chrissy, you want to go 12 on Dee?" "Yes." "You're not going to vote for anybody else?" "No." "You should vote for Tiffany." "Nope." "Stephenie?" "Nope." "12 on Dee?" "Yes." "Okay, Joe, 12 on Dee?" "Yes." "You don't want to split the votes?" Nobody wanted to split the votes. I could not believe it. And so look, if we would have put 12 on Dee, and that shot in the dark would have hit and I would have gone home, then we would have been sitting here saying, "dang, I should have thought harder." But that's why I lost it. I was just like, "Dude, you guys," and I started making mistakes, saying to Devens about Christian—I knew they were close—the middle people, and then Rizo had to coach me back off the ledge.
Men's Journal: Do you think being tied to Chrissy helped or hurt you?
Benjamin "Coach" Wade: Obviously she came up to me, actually, and she says, "Coach, I messed up. I actually have been aggressive, like you were yesterday." And when she said that to me, I'm like, "oh, man, now we're really cooked." But it was like what it was supposed to be. Chrissy and I were day one alliances. We had a relationship that transpired out of the game. We had very real moments. I had a beautiful time when I realized it was my daughter's dance recital and that my wife was wrangling 270 dancers without my help, and that my daughter was sitting there dancing across the stage looking for me, and I wept, and Chrissy came up to me, and she put her arm around me, and it was just like a really great, beautiful moment. So we started together, we ended together. It was how it was supposed to be. I think that series of events, and I think that Devens' idol had about a 10 percent impact. I think that we were probably going into tribal 50/50, and then it became 60/40 or we were going in 60/40 and it became 70/30. But I don't blame Chrissy at all. I have nothing but respect for her. And if she doesn't care about Survivor, Survivor doesn't define her. 90 percent of the people on the season, it defines. It doesn't define me. It doesn't define her. We had that in common, we still have that in common.
Men's Journal: What did your family think this season, watching you?
Benjamin "Coach" Wade: They did support me coming out. I just knew that it was going to be hard for them. And if I would have said no, they would have been happier than if I said yes. They've had a great time. I live in a small town, and I'm kind of not top dog, but I'm just even outside of Survivor, I'm known. In fact, people are like, "we don't know you for Survivor. We know you for symphonies and drum line this kind of stuff, and for soccer." And so the kids do get a little bit of heat, which makes me sad, that people are like, "Oh, Dragon Slayer. Dragon Slayer." And the world today, it's just a lot of people don't choose joy and kindness and love, and that's what we're born with. We have that magic inside of us. And I put it out to everybody, and I want my kids to put it out to everybody. It's not always reciprocated, but as far as them enjoying the fact that I'm on TV, yeah, it's pretty cool. We've had some great Wednesday nights.
Men's Journal: Is there anything you want to clear up about the alleged pre-gaming "Zoom Alliance"?
Benjamin "Coach" Wade: I don't even think it's a point worth talking about. I wasn't on a Zoom. I think there were some people that FaceTime. I've got an Android, haha. I don't even do FaceTime, so we've got a Zoom account that they're doing that, it was kind of silly. I don't really know if it had an effect. I think that when people lose, then they're going to find excuses. I don't have any excuses, you know, I own my shit. I messed up, and it is what it is. I blame myself. But I think people are searching. I don't look at that much stuff, but I saw Q, he's like, "Oh, Coach, he knew what he was doing with the key." Dude, you're grasping at straws. Man, come on. Hey, I was inadequate. Hey, I didn't have a good gameplay. Hey, who cares about pregame alliances? When Dee said that she talked to Rizo before the game, my mouth fell low, but I was like, okay, that makes sense. That's an unfair advantage. You know, she was one of the few players that actually knew what Rizo was all about. It reminds me of Parvati knowing about Russell before Season 20. It is what it is. Once you're out there, who cares?
Men's Journal: What did you think about Rizo?
Benjamin "Coach" Wade: I think that he's like any 25-year-old kid that's going to let back-to-back seasons get to his head. But I think he's a good kid. I think he's got a good heart, and I was not going to play with him, but I listened to Colby put a stamp on him. I listened to Genevieve put her stamp on him. And I'm very grateful for Rizo, because he started the game—it didn't make the edit—but he started the game on that first day. He said, "Coach, you're my hero." He started the season that way. And Jeff said to me, "What do you think about that, Coach?" and I'm like, "I'm not used to people saying that." And then he said it at the end when I exited, that was awesome. I owe him a lot. I owe him a lot for the healing that took place this season.
Men's Journal: What was your relationship like with Ozzy?
Benjamin "Coach" Wade: It's always been love-hate. We've never had the privilege of being on the same beach at the day one. I think that would have changed a lot of things. I think like South Pacific, we would have been on the same beach. I watched during COVID, finally, the history of Survivor. And I thought, wow, if one person deserves to win Survivor, it's Ozzy, because he epitomizes the survival aspect of it and the challenge aspect of it. And then we got crossways, and it is what it is. It would have been a different story. And same as this one, we didn't play on the same beach. I felt really grateful for him to say to me, "you should have won South Pacific." It took a big man to say that. And so that was really cool, and I owe him for that. I think that we got crossways. I think that he's playing a better strategic game than I gave him credit for at the time. So hats off to him for doing that. Look, if he would have voted me off in a previous season, and if he would have called me out on my fabrication of what happened with the key, I would have been going for him as well. We were like brothers. We've patched things up. At first, I was really angry with him, but we're like brothers. We do have this fraternal bond. Like, I don't agree with his life choices sometimes outside of the game, and I let that cloud my judgment. But when I see him, I see this beautiful spirit that's trying to do the right thing. He really is. I saw him meditating down on the beach, and we had talks about that. So we've patched things up and I got nothing bad to say about him.
Men's Journal: If you had gotten up and started gaming more, would it have helped?
Benjamin "Coach" Wade: No. And I don't think I was cooked anyway, but I think I could have done that. I think it would have helped. I did it a little bit. I did a little bit, but at that point it was just like the Dragon Slayer's journey is transcending time. I'm actually making a TV show, and I'm going to just take it to the next level. It's actually happened on every season at about this time—I think it was about 14 days in Tocantins where I said, "If you cut off the head of the army and win the war, then you're going to slay the dragon." And so there's always come a time where it's like, "I'm going to go on a different path." And whatever happens in the game is going to happen in the game, but my journey will not be on the cutting room floor.
Men's Journal: Any regrets doing it? Does this close the Survivor chapter forever for you?
Benjamin "Coach" Wade: Regret is a wasted emotion. So it's very easy for us to sit here and for me to say... and I was actually kind of feeling that a little bit. Yesterday morning, I was on my front porch reading my bible. It's 40 degrees, I've got my coffee, I got my heater on, and Colby calls me. And he was like, "Coach, I thought you might be on your front porch reading your Bible." And I'm like, "Colby, I am." And he was like, "nobody's like you. You are absolutely one of a kind legend. Don't let the haters get you down." It was a great way to just be like, "yep, you're right." This is how it's supposed to be. I don't want to go on a bunch of shows. That's not my MO. And I don't really want to go back on Survivor again. Jeff's like our dad. And when your dad asks you to do something a lot of times, you want to do it. I did not want to go on season 50. I was open with you. You told me when Jeff... and I told you about Matt, and that was the tipping point. But when Jeff first talked to me on Zoom, he was like, "Coach, we can't really do season 50 without you." And I'm like, "Ah, come on." and I actually told him and Matt, I said, "Please, don't ever ask me again." I was hanging out with Jeff in Vegas at the Zac Brown concert. I said, "Jeff, please, don't ever ask me again." And he was like, "Oh, gosh." So I would do The Traitors. I think I would do The Traitors. And if I did The Traitors, then it is what it is. But if I don't get called for another show, or if I don't say yes to another show, I'm at a great place.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.