Survivor's Edna hits out at Hantz

Edna Ma says forming a strong alliance from day one is the key to winning Survivor. Photo / Supplied

Ousted Survivor player Edna Ma says viewers are getting "a sanitised" look at the nephew of infamous villain Russell Hantz on the latest season of the reality show.

Brandon Hantz has become known for random emotional outbursts on Survivor: South Pacific, but Ma says viewers see just a small percentage of what her tribe lived through 24 hours a day.

She told nzherald.co.nz Hantz's outbursts were constant and over the top.

"He had emotional outbursts and very little impulse control," she said.

"The audience sees a sanitised version of what actually occurred. There were more tears and a lot more angry outbursts, followed by a series of insincere apologies. I don't think he's programmed to be any other way."

Ma, who was eliminated after becoming surplus to requirements in her Upolu alliance, said the only reason Hantz was still there was because he had been taken under the wing of Upolu's leader, Benjamin "Coach" Wade.

"For some reason, Coach saw a lot of the way Brandon behaved as how he played the game the first time he played. He felt very protective and fatherly towards him."

Ma, a 35-year-old anesthesiologist from Los Angeles, said her mistake was failing to become part of a solid alliance from day one.

"Upolu was trying to maintain their original core five from the alliance they formed on the beach on day one. I was annexed from that tribe, I wasn't an equal team member," she said.

"There were promises made but you can't believe anything that you hear. Their line of reasoning baffled me so I didn't really take much of it into consideration. Coach didn't object to it, he did vote for me in that manner I guess he's endorsing me being voted out."

Being told she wasn't an equal team member was the hardest part of being on Survivor.

"In day to day life I have people's lives literally in my hands. Being out there and being told to sit out challenges and to be told I wasn't an equal member of the team, that was the hardest part for me - the lack of respect people had for one another."

* The finale of Survivor: South Pacific screens on TV3 on Wednesday. nzherald.co.nz will have an interview with the winner immediately after the show.