Visiting fellow castaway Rodger Bingham in Crittenden, Ky., last month was “incredibly” therapeutic for Survivor contestant Michael Skupin, whose family didn't know about his second-degree hand burns until Thursday's broadcast.

        “Rodger and I were up to 3 or 4 in the morning, and it was a tireless conversation,” said Mr. Skupin, 38, who was eliminated from the $1 million competition after falling into the campfire on Thursday's episode of Survivor: The Australian Outback.

Bingham

        “Rodger and I were able to vent about the whole experience, and for the first time talked about what happened,” Mr. Skupin said of his February stay at the Binghams' home with his wife.

        In a CBS conference call with TV critics Friday, the software publisher from Farmington Hills, Mich., said he decided in Australia not to tell his wife or three children about the injury until after the show was broadcast.

        “It was a personal decision,” he said. He also declined producers' offers to fly his wife to Australia, or to return home early.

        The Skupin family talked for two hours after watching Thursday's Survivor. “A lot of emotions came out, and the biggest one was how I was able to hide (the burns) despite how much pain I was in after I came home,” he said.

        Mr. Skupin spent a week in an Australian hospital, and another week as an outpatient. Surgery was canceled because “my hands miraculously healed in 10 days,” says the former surgical supply salesman. He can play hockey and basketball, and make snowballs without pain.

        Living 17 days in the outback was a “spiritual experience” that made him “a completely changed person.” He now works shorter hours and spends more time with his family.

        In the Kucha camp, he bonded quickly with Mr. Bingham, 53, who brought a Bible, and with Elisabeth Filarski, 23, of Massachusetts, also a Christian.

        “We prayed at every meal, although they only showed it twice. We did a lot of praying, and had a lot of discussions about God and spirituality,” he said.

        Survivor creator Mark Burnett told TV critics why he closed Thursday's episode with Mr. Bingham leading the Kucha tribe in prayer for Mr. Skupin, instead of showing his torch extinguished at the tribal council meeting.

        The tribal council “was meaningless television, and it demeaned what had happened,” Mr. Burnett said. “Breaking form was a big deal, but it was the right way to cut the show.”

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