Survivor 46’s Tiffany Ervin explained why she didn’t play her Immunity Idol

Survivor 46 has been a season of blindsides and Tiffany Ervin became the latest person to be surprised by her elimination.

With the castaways down to just eight people competing for the $1 million prize, Q Burdette was the vocalized target again.

Q became an even bigger target at the Reward Challenge when he didn’t select Liz Wilcox as one of the people to enjoy the Applebee’s feast.

But a plan was in motion thanks to Kenzie Petty, who feared that if she didn’t strike first, Tiffany would target her soon.

Despite everyone knowing Tiffany had the Hidden Immunity Idol, and despite Tiffany knowing that everyone knew, she kept it in her pocket during Tribal Council.

Tiffany made the same mistake that Hunter McKnight had made at the previous Tribal Council, and she joined him on the Survivor 46 jury.

Why didn’t Tiffany use her Immunity Idol on Survivor 46?

“Okay, so going into any Tribal, especially with an idol in your pocket, I know it’s a 50/50 chance that me not playing this is a terrible decision. But I was taking a risk!” Tiffany told Mike Bloom in a new interview.

“I’m a gambling girl. I’m a risk taker. That’s why I’m on the game of Survivor in the first place. But I think there was a lot more that went into that decision than just me trying to skate by, because me and a couple other people had had conversations out there about possible plans to do things the following week with my idol,” Tiffany added.

During Survivor 46, Episode 10, a conversation was shown where Tiffany and Kenzie were joking around about the final six. It also led to chats about what she could do to ensure she made it to the final six at the following Tribal Council.

But Tiffany made the mistake of looking too far forward and missed that Q was being used as a smokescreen again. It may have been easy for viewers to spot what was happening, but not so much for someone in the thick of it.

Tiffany also stated that she felt very close with Charlie Davis, especially when he proposed blindsiding Maria Gonzalez. So she felt that Charlie wouldn’t turn on her, even though he did exactly that.

In the end, Tiffany got greedy. Rather than ensure she made it to the final seven, she was willing to take the risk at that final eight Tribal Council. She was blinded by the possibility of keeping her Immunity Idol for one more week, and she got burned.

More from Survivor 46

It was shockingly revealed that Liz Wilcox was offered a spot at the Applebee’s feast. This was after her meltdown in front of the world.

Here is the reaction from host Jeff Probst to Liz’s meltdown. He was surprised when it happened, but asked Survivor fans to think about it from Liz’s point of view.

Survivor winner Adam Klein also got married. He appeared on Survivor 33 and returned for Survivor: Winners at War.

Previous episodes of Survivor are available for streaming on Paramount.

Survivor 46 airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.