Shallow is doing the usual round of winners' interviews from her home in the much cosier West Hollywood suburb of Los Angeles.

The Survivor franchise, which started in 2000 with Survivor: Borneo and has spawned 30 international versions, isolates 18 to 20 contestants, divides them into tribes and pitches them into the wilderness where they compete for cash and prizes.

They vote each other off until the final two or three faces a jury composed of their former tribe members, who will cast the winning vote.

The show is renowned for adding new twists every season. This time around, the surprise was that the contestants would consist of tribes of 10 "superfans" and 10 "favourites". Shallow was a favourite, having previously competed in Survivor: Cook Islands.

"I put my mind to winning before I got the call for casting. I thought I'm going to go back and win, and I knew I was going to do whatever it took to make sure I won. I took some huge risks and made big moves which is ultimately the reason we took control in the end. I worked really hard so I definitely feel like I earned it."

The "hardworking" part involved Shallow forming an early voting alliance with favourites James Clement, Amanda Kimmel and Ozzy Lusth. Lusth and Kimmel got together this series and are currently dating.

Shallow later betrayed them by forming a new girl-power alliance with favourite Cirie Fields and fans Alexis Jones and Natalie Bolton behind their backs. They conspired and succeeded in voting out audience favourite Lusth.

The foursome added Kimmel to their ranks and went on to oust every remaining male with a combination of strategy, feminine wiles and outright lying. As Bolton said one episode when referring to fellow competitor Jason Siska: "I can't wait to floss my teeth with his jugular."

In a first for the show, the final four was all-female: Shallow, Kimmel, Fields and Bolton.

Shallow went head-to-head with Kimmel in the final tribal council and won with five votes to Kimmel's three.

"I was calm going into that final tribal council. Because I knew that Amanda and I had played two very different games and I was going to stand on my own platform, be really honest and say everything I'd done."

If she hadn't won the game, Shallow says she would have given her jury vote to Lusth, despite having engineered his removal. She revealed that she had voted for him to win during their stint together on Survivor: Cook Islands, although the prize then went to Yul Kwon.

"I feel like he is the survivor. He was the jungle boy and he was so good at it. I completely respected how he absorbed everything about the island and loved the game so much."

Shallow is a journalism graduate but works as a waitress and boxer.

She rubbishes comments that Fields played the best social game and should have won.

"If Cirie really had played the best social game, she would've won. That's all you can say really. She played a great game, but the winner is whoever plays the best game."

The next Survivor is set in Gabon, Africa.