How ‘Survivor’ Prepared Kim Wolfe for HGTV’s ‘Rock the Block’

Survivor may not have much in common with Rock the Block, but it did prepare Kim Wolfe to compete on HGTV.

Wolfe rose to fame as the winner of Survivor: One World in 2012, and went on to compete on Survivor: Winners at War in 2020. She went on to star on HGTV’s Why the Heck Did I Buy This House?, which ran for two seasons from 2022 to 2024. The series followed Wolfe as she used her design skills to help homeowners fall back in love with their houses.

Now, she and her fellow Survivor alum Chelsea Meissner are one of the four teams competing on Season 7 of HGTV’s Rock the Block. While exclusively chatting with TV Insider about the show, Wolfe shared how Survivor has impacted her career as a home renovator and designer.

“I’ve always loved being outdoors. And I think spending that amount of time with no distraction, no phones, just really kind of bored and lying around and gazing up at a blue sky and palm leaves and sand, there was this deeper appreciation that came from being in nature,” she shared. “And so, I do feel like I am always looking for ways to kind of bring the essence of that feeling into houses and into spaces through design.”

One way she incorporates her love for nature in her design choices is through color. “That comes with just the outdoors in general. And obviously, so many colors to choose from,” she explained. “But I feel like there is something in us that does feel more at peace when we are surrounded by things that do feel natural or are in nature. And so, I love trying to figure out ways to make people feel that feeling in their homes.”

Rob Pryce/HGTV

Wolfe said it was a “dream” to reunite onscreen with Meissner for Rock the Block Season 7, which premiered last month. “We’ve stayed such close friends, and yet, we’ve never lived in the same place again. We talk on the phone. We get to see each other a few times a year. So, to spend six weeks together in Las Vegas and get to spend time with her baby… we had the best time,” she gushed. “And we promised ourselves going into Rock the Block that we were just going to have so much fun, and we really did. There was not a day where we were not enjoying being there together, doing it. So I feel really blessed to have gotten to do it.

As Rock the Block continues to air on HGTV, Wolfe has been tuning in to the milestone 50th season of Survivor on CBS. As it turns out, this season marks the first time she’s tuned in to the reality competition series since she was on it.

“[My kids hadn’t] seen one episode, and we have watched every single episode,” she shared. “I have to say, I am rooting for Cirie [Fields]. I can’t help it. I love her so much. I always have, and nothing would be better to me than for her to pull out the win. I don’t know if it’s possible, but it would be amazing.” (Wolfe shares her three kids with her husband, Bryan.)

As for whether she’d be interested in returning to Survivor if asked? “I left saying I would never, ever, ever, in a million years, do it again. But it’s kind of like childbirth. The further you get from it, you get this amnesia about how terrible the experience is, and you start to think [differently],” she joked. “I’d like to end on a good one. I feel like I shanked a ball and then left the field. And so, it would be fun in some way. But will I ever do it? I don’t know.”

Off the small screen, Wolfe recently teamed up with Wayfair to share her “Modern Americana” home design picks ahead of the Fourth of July holiday hosting season. “Coming from Texas, I feel like I grew up around a lot of vintage Americana vibes. And so, it was fun to get to go looking for some of those things that feel that way to me on Wayfair,” she stated. “So a lot of faded — and I say faded because I love a good time-worn red, white, and blue, and then, mixing it with some organic materials like leather and wood and bamboo and sisal, so that it feels kind of layered and collected and not just like fresh out of the box.”

Rock the Block, Mondays, 9/8c, HGTV

Survivor 50, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS