Welch—who lives in Ford City, Pa., and works in customer service for a pharmacy that supplies nursing homes and hospitals with resident-specific medications—asked to be voted off after coral became embedded in the heel of his foot, and his tribes obliged.

He had surgery on his foot shortly after ending his run on Survivor, he reported.

'When you can't walk on your foot, that kind of does you in on the game of Survivor,' said Welch, 48. 'It's not disappointing because I had an incredible opportunity. I got to be picked for Survivor—one of about 300 in the nation who can say that. It was an incredible experience; I learned a lot; I made some great friends out of it.'

Welch indicated that he also made a couple of new friends, namely, Tracy Hughes-Wolf and Kathy Sleckman. His least favorite fellow Survivor participant was Jason Siska, he said.

'It was tougher than anyone thought it would be [ because of ] the weather conditions, the lack of food, the lack of shelter, the personalities,' Welch said. However, he added that he would absolutely do it again.

'I went on Survivor to be a certain person—I was going to be kept in the tribe because I was the funniest person ever in Survivor. That's my personality,' Welch said. 'But I could see within the first hour of the game that that was not going to be the case.'

Welch said being gay did not impact his fate in the game 'at all.'