Jeremy Collins Says Fellow Survivors 'Should Have Fought' for Him on 'The Traitors'

Survivor winner Jeremy Collins was hoping he’d stick around The Traitors castle a little longer.

The Cambridge firefighter, 46, was sadly murdered during the Thursday, January 16 episode by the traitors, after they put him in a coffin and left him pleading for his life in the game.

“I take full responsibility for my murder,” Collins exclusively tells Men’s Journal of his demise. “I think I talk too much. I think I talk to the wrong people. I try to trust in people I don’t know. But listen, I think I had the right people on board, but they just didn’t want to go with me… Maybe if I kept my mouth a little bit. Let me say this. I don’t talk much out there. There are a lot of big personalities. I let everybody else do their thing and then I’ll throw out here and there, and hopefully what I say means more because I don’t talk that much. So the people that I did talk to, I wanted it to really stick with them. But, I mean, I guess it wasn’t enough.”

His murder was mainly due to his accusation against Big Brother alum Danielle Reyes who he correctly suspected was a traitor, which he says “felt good” at the very least. “I felt so strongly about Danielle because me and Danielle, we were cool. We were real good. We talked on day one. We talked throughout the first couple days and everything, and we were really good. But she did a few things that I was like, nah, that ain’t it,” he says. “And she’s crying. I’m like, I don’t believe that cry at all. And I told Derrick [Levasseur], ‘If she asks for a shield, she’s a traitor because she doesn’t need a shield. Nobody’s after her right now.’ And she asked for a shield. So I was like, ‘Yo, she’s a traitor, dude.'”

Collins played the game with three other Survivor alums – something he thought would be more of an advantage, especially because, unbeknownst to him, two of them were actually traitors. “It’s always good to see people that you know. I have a really good reputation on Survivor, so I was like, ‘Yo, I need these people to spread that reputation to everybody.’ So it was good to see them,” he tells MJ. “I know Tony [Vlachos], Tony’s crazy. I know how he plays. Me and Tony are good. So I was super glad to see him out there. Carolyn [Wiger], I was happy. [Boston] Rob [Mariano], I wasn’t sure of, because the way we left off on Winners at War. I wasn’t sure. But still, I was like, ‘Yo, this is Rob. I’m a Survivor. We played together. This will work out.’ You know what I mean? So I don’t know. I’m always happy to see familiar faces.”

Unfortunately, those Survivor bonds didn’t hold up enough for traitors Mariano and Wiger to convince Reyes not to murder him. “I think they both should have fought,” Collins says. “I was disappointed that they didn’t have my back. At one point in the game, I talked to all three of those traitors, or the other three aside from Danielle. I talked to those three and told them we are good. ‘I have your back. If your name comes up, I got you.’ So looking back, I’m like, ‘There’s no way they would be traitors.’ I had their back. You’re like, ‘I got you.’ And for them to turn their back, I was like, ‘Oh.’ It’s not even good gameplay to me.

Even though his time in the castle was cut short, Collins doesn’t seem to regret competing on the show. “Listen, I love Traitors… I had a really good time,” he says. “I would do Traitors again.” 

As for other reality shows, he tells MJ in jest, “People call me for different shows and stuff and I’m like, ‘Come on, I’m at the fire station. Leave me alone. You know what I mean? I’m coaching my kids sports. Leave me alone. I’m busy.”

New episodes of The Traitors drop weekly on Thursdays at 6pm PT/9pm ET.