- - Sage Ahrens-Nichols felt alone and confused after rough “Survivor 49” finale: 'People did not like me.'

Dalton RossDecember 19, 2025 at 10:12 PM

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Sage Ahrens-Nichols on 'Survivor 49'

“It's hard to separate emotion from game, but it kills me to think I might have hurt people.”

That was Sage Ahrens-Nichols during the after-show portion of the Survivor 49 finale. But it killed viewers even more to see the fan favorite say she felt that she didn't even deserve the sympathy others were giving her, especially after she did not appear to do anything wrong other than play Survivor.

Sage competed with her heart on her sleeve all season long, but she also played a cutthroat game when necessary, no more so than when she took out her ally Steven Ramm after concluding she could not beat him at the end. Sage thought her emotional connections and friendships on the jury, coupled with her gameplay, would win her votes and respect from her peers. But the jury was simply not picking up what the former military veteran was putting down.

We spoke to Sage to get her perspective on everything that went down on finale night, and how she is doing now after going through the Survivor gauntlet. You can watch or read the entire interview below.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Forget all the game stuff. Here's what I want to know: How many times total did you pee off the side of boats during your Survivor experience?

SAGE AHRENS-NICHOLS: Too many. Too many. I would consider myself a professional at this point.

I think for people that watched the finale, and maybe more specifically the after-show, the question they would have for you now is: Are you okay? Because you looked like you were going through it during the after-show, which is entirely understandable because having to go to a champagne party after a really tough final Tribal Council is a huge ask and you are far from the first person to have difficulty making that jarring transition.

Yeah, dude, it's so complicated and I wish we had five hours to talk about it because there's so much nuance. I'm not here to necessarily throw anyone under the bus, but the way Tribal was edited, it left out a lot, which is okay. It was Savannah's season and I'm super happy for her. The edit makes sense for her.

Tribal was brutal, dude. Like, people did not like me. And so at the end, when I was saying, "I am afraid that I hurt people" and "I don't feel like I deserve comfort right now" — I actually just watched that for the first time last night and it brought back so much. And then there's the painful awareness of cameras on you. I'm like: Oh, this is going to be misinterpreted as I'm bummed that I lost the game. I don't give a crap about the game, but the energy… there were constant eye rolls. Every answer I gave, there was an argument.

Even the question where I said, "Alex, you said when you walked out that that's what you get for playing both sides," he came back at me and was like, "No, you were fed wrong information." He was saying that was a wrong perception. And I just felt so confused. And in that moment, when I said, "I don't feel like I deserve comfort," because you could feel the disdain towards me from them — and then the answer was like, "Oh, no Sage, it's just a game." It felt like I was being gaslit.

I'm like: Wait, you guys hate me or not? Because that didn't feel like the game, that felt like way bigger than the game. And I don't understand it in this moment. And I'm overwhelmed. I've just been starved and sleep deprived on an island for 26 days. So it was a lot — overstimulated, overwhelmed, all the things.

Robert Voets/CBS

Sage Ahrens-Nichols on 'Survivor 49'

It's always the hardest thing. And the people that often get to the end that have made connections with people get a harder time than those that haven't. Meaning because you have a connection, when you vote them out, they take it more personally from you than someone whom they didn't have a connection with. Is that kind of what you felt was going on there at final Tribal?

Yeah, I think so. And I get it. All the whatever emotions were behind the reactions or the questions or whatever — I'm not judging them and I'm not saying that they can't have those. But I think the problem is that they were passing them to me for me to hold. And I'm a recovering people pleaser, so it's not my default to get defensive. It's always my default of: I want to understand because if you're saying that I've done something wrong, I want to understand, and I'm happy to own anything that I did intentionally.

But it felt like there was a lot of, like, Nate led this charge of telling me I cannibalized the seven person alliance. I was like, “What was the name of this alliance? And they're like, “It doesn't have to have a name.” But then the five person Sandwich Club alliance is not a real alliance? I don't know. But like I said in my pre-game interview, I will have real connections with people out there, but they're not going to factor into my gameplay.

And I think what happened is my strategy worked as coming in as myself. I am an emotional person. I knew that would be mistaken as an emotional player, but there is a very distinct difference. But if you're perceived as an emotional player, people think: I already know Sage's game. I don't really have to spend much time on her. And that's perfect for me. When people would come to me and have human moments, I'm wondering if maybe that was them being strategic, but for me in those moments, I'm just being a human with you, but it's not going to give you an advantage or a disadvantage.

The only person that was able to bypass that was Jawan. But everybody else, I'm like, this is compartmentalized. In my everyday work, I have to compartmentalize. It's a very important skill in social work and individual therapy. So that was really easy for me to do. But I think it was very unexpected and maybe caused people to think like: Oh, she just used me. But I think really the feeling is: Crap, Sage played me and I did not account for it. And maybe I feel embarrassed or ashamed.

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In the past, I've spoken to people in your position. They got to the end and they thought it was going to go one way at Tribal and then they get to final Tribal and they realize: Oh, it's not going that way. And that can be a shaking moment as well. Before Tribal, what votes did you think you had when you were doing the jury math back at camp?

There was so many different things that I was factoring in after the Jawan blindside. In my head. I was like: This is Savannah's game. She's going to win. So at this point, I just want to get to the end out of spite. And so I was doing the math. There's so much of Steven's game that wasn't shown. He was in on the Alex vote. I told him, “Dude, we have to flip on Alex. We have to pivot when Savannah knows that she's a target, she's volatile and she always gets saves her butt, which is brilliant, but when she's comfortable, she's more vulnerable.”

So I had to take my foot off the gas and pivot, but I was like [to Steven], “I think that you should vote Blue Sophi, because it gives the illusion that you are not as big of a threat, that you're on the outs, and it keeps access to Kristina’s idol.” But going back to part of your original question of who did I think I had in the bag, the only two people that knew my strategic game were Jawan and Steven. And I was hoping having them on the jury would give me an in for like: All right, I'm going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting at Tribal to show people I was playing the whole time. I know it doesn't look like it.

That was a part of my strategy. But I didn't factor in that Steven would be as hurt as he was. And Kristina, on her way out, she hugged me and she said, “If you make it to the end, you have my vote.” And so I was like: Okay, I think I have Jawan, Kristina, I think maybe Steven. But after Steven got voted out, he gave me this look like he wanted to kill me. And I was like: Oh crap, I miscalculated.

Sage Ahrens-Nichols on 'Survivor 49'

Kristina tells you, “You've got my vote.” Not a lot happened between then and final Tribal. Why do you think she changed it? Do you think it was talking to other jurors?

Yeah, maybe. I don't know. And I don't hold it against her. You're allowed to change your mind. For me, I'm just very intentional about words. So I try really hard to say what I mean and mean what I say. And so I am very selective in the words that I use with people. I think words are really important. But we live in a society where there's a lot of surface level talk and implied messages that I don't pick up on. So I don't know if I missed something there, but it's all good.

What happened after the after-show? How was the rest of the night for you and the rest of your time in Fiji while dealing with a lot of swirling emotions?

It was rough. I felt very alone because I genuinely thought we were all playing a game. And so… [starts to tear up]

It's all right. Take your time.

Yeah, it's hard to talk about. There's so much there that I don't think I'm necessarily allowed to talk about. And even if I was, I don't know if that I'm ready to talk about it. But it was a very familiar loneliness, like feeling just wildly misunderstood. But more than that, confusion. I have a really hard time tolerating confusion. It makes me overwhelmed, and so I was just confused. And I just was in my room processing and finally getting to….

I know I was referred to as emotional. I don't take that as an insult. I also don't think people are actually talking about emotional when they say that term. But I am an emotional person. I'm really proud of that. It's something that I've grown to really love about myself and I just need a time with myself to finally be able to feel the full extent of my feelings and process them in a way without worry of how they're perceived, how my emotions are perceived or interpreted.

Robert Voets/CBS

Sage Ahrens-Nichols on 'Survivor 49'

It's such an emotional experience out there. Then you get back and it's an emotional experience I'm sure watching it all play back again for everybody. Have you been able to hash it out with some of the folks you got the feeling were upset with you out there?

Most people have not reached out to me. I've made some attempts to reach out to people, and for me, my thing is I have so much grace to give, but I can only give as much grace as someone is willing to be accountable. And that goes the other way too. I want to be accountable, but when I'm asking like, “Hey, can you please help me understand?” And people are like, “Oh no, it's all good.” And I'm like, “You're saying that it's all good,” but your actions are suggesting something entirely different, and it's this defeating place to be in where there's nothing I can do.

If someone's not ready to talk about it, they're not ready. My job is all about having uncomfortable conversations. So that's something that I'm feel really comfortable in and confident in doing. And I try to navigate them with a lot of care and, and safety in mind.

But I will say, I love Jawan. I love and adore Shannon. And I also want to give a shout out to Sophie Segreti. It took a while for us to connect afterwards. She was somebody that I also really adored in the game. She called me because she wanted to just clear the air with everyone and make sure we were good going into it, which is understandable. I was like, “We gotta be real in this conversation. That's going to determine how good you and I are. Because if you're willing to just be a hundred percent real with me, I'm willing to meet you the other half. I'm not going to kick you when you're already down.”

Being accountable is hard. It's really uncomfortable and scary. And we live in a society that promotes so much shame around just being honest and being real. And I love Sophie because she is so real and she was just like, “All right, got it!” So I'm like, “All right, so how do you think I'm doing?” And we talked about final Tribal, and you know, we can't go back and change it. Again, I don't care about the outcome, but the treatment during Tribal, we can't go back and change it.

Dalton Ross

Sage Ahrens-Nichols of 'Survivor 49'

The next best thing is just acknowledging that it did happen, so we can move forward. But when there's no acknowledgement, there's this expectation that I sweep it under the rug and I just move forward. I participate in all group posts and trips and things like that. I'm like, “I can't do that because there's this elephant in the room that I can't get around without your help.”

But Sophie was able to validate. She was like, “Sage, we treated like a punching bag. And people, you know, are upset that they didn't make it to the end.” And I'm like, “And that's so understandable!” I would never judge somebody for feeling that way, but I do judge somebody for not owning those feelings and not giving themselves permission to feel it and instead trying to pawn it off on somebody else. And in this situation, I felt like it was me.

I'm not saying I deserved to win. But I definitely don't feel like I was given a chance at final Tribal. I mean, I was painfully aware of it going on, you could feel the energy. So I know I didn't have it in the bag, but I also thought I might have a chance.

And what you're saying has been backed up from other people in the final five that spoke to me in terms of that and said it was much worse than what we saw on TV.

Oh wow, really? That's shocking.

Sage Ahrens-Nichols and Shannon Fairweather on 'Survivor 49'

Survivor is about extremes. There are so many good things about it. I'll remind you, you made it all the way to the end and we're never voted out. As a Survivor fan, you made it the entire distance. And there are a lot of tough things that we're talking about now. Putting that all together, are you glad you did it? Are you glad you signed up to do Survivor?

Absolutely. For me, when I set my mind on something and I'm really determined, I can't pivot. I'll play the long game. If it takes me 10 years, it takes me 10 years. And most of my goals have taken five to 10 years to complete. But I just never lose sight. I would do it all again. I got Jawan freaking Pitts out of this experience. And Shannon, who is the epitome of grace, I mean, I'm sitting here crying about how I was treated at final Tribal. She got treated that way by the freaking world, you know? And she has done nothing but show up with grace. She held space for me.

I had to leave the finale party early. There was a situation that happened. She was holding space for me, knowing, not intentionally so, but the impact of how I felt about her in the game. As I said in the game, this is only based on her in the game. I don't know her personally, but my reactions to her influenced other people's reactions. And for that part, I am so regretful. It was never my intention, but it was the impact. And I would always be accountable for that.

Robert Voets/CBS

Jawan Pitts and Sage Ahrens-Nichols on 'Survivor 49'

Finally, anything that happened out there that you wish had made it to TV that we didn’t get a chance to see?

Definitely Steven and my strategic relationship as a whole, but I don't care so much about the game. I want to talk about a funny moment. And I know Jawan already talked about it, but I want to give my point of view because it was so good. I get back from taking a walk or something, and Jawan’s back from that fried chicken and fries reward. And he's helping put up this hammock next to the chicken coop that I've put so much time and effort into building, and they didn't even show it.

He looks at me and he lights up, and he runs over to me and he whispers, “Sage, I have fries in my socks.” And I look down and there's this massive lump in is dirty sock. And I f---ing died! I was like, “How did you smuggle that? And why is it in your sock? Why did you do that?” [Laughs] And then we're on the beach at night and I'm trying to explain to Steven without getting Jawan in trouble, like, “Jawan has fries in his socks. I'm going to pass you one.” And the fry dropped in the sand, found it, ate it. It was fricking gross, but worth it.

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