RHAP: We Know Survivor - Andy Rueda Talks Survivor 50

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Andy Rueda Talks Survivor 50 Survivor 50 brings explosive gameplay and unpredictable twists as Rob Cesternino is joined by returning player Andy Rueda for a deep-dive Survivor Recap. Right from the start, Rob and Andy unpack a game-changing twist that rocked the latest episode, comparing it to iconic moments from both “Squid Game” and the Survivor canon. With shifting alliances and one of the wildest Tribal Councils in years, this episode puts the strategic and social skills of the cast to the ultimate test. Rob and Andy dig into the immediate fallout of a twist where pairs are forced together under mysterious circumstances—calling back to “festy besties” but with a Survivor flavor. They debate why fans overwhelmingly loved the twist and measure how much the drama stemmed from both strong design and the “satisfying” outcome of a major player’s exit. The conversation also highlights how the misdirection around idols and the Shot in the Dark adds to the round’s suspense. Rob gets Andy’s take on big Jury movements, “mayor of Ponderosa” myths, and who’s actually controlling the middle of the game, especially as Cirie, Ozzy, and Rizo play both sides. They spotlight how Cirie continues to steer the story, somehow dodging target after target, while Coach delivers classic gold in his fourth run. – The new duo-based twist and why it delivered high drama – Idol trickery, risk management, and successful (or missed) Shot in the Dark plays – Cirie’s masterful social game and why no one seems ready to target her – Rizo’s dream run as the cast’s “superfan” and why he’s unexpectedly beloved – What makes a strong “mayor of Ponderosa”—and whether that “power” really shapes jury votes As alliances shift and power players like Rick Devens deploy strategic chaos, Rob and Andy wonder who can maintain control in such a fluid game, and whether Cirie’s impeccable run can continue through the looming fire-making challenge. With alliances redrawn and big Jury threats exposed, who will rally the numbers and who could fall victim to their own Survivor mythos? Don’t miss this packed Survivor 50 recap—tune in for the twists, strategy bombs, and social game insights that could decide the next big vote! Chapters: 0:00 Welcome and Survivor 50 First Impressions 0:40 Breaking Down the Season’s Twist 3:00 Comparing Survivor 50 to Past Seasons 4:04 Why This Tribal Council Stands Out 10:19 Idol Power and Shot in the Dark 12:39 Coach and Chrissy’s Big Sendoff 16:02 Coach as Survivor Fan Litmus Test 21:22 Slicing Up the Honor and Integrity Alliance 22:13 Rick Devens’ Fake Idol Chaos 28:52 Evaluating Rizo’s Social Superpowers 32:43 Mayor of Ponderosa Debate 36:00 The Enigmatic Middle Alliance 42:03 Next Moves After Tribal Chaos 46:12 Why Cirie Dominates Survivor 50 0:53:09 Aubry’s Strengths and Survivor Fit 0:59:02 Unpacking All-Star Duo Pairings 1:04:32 Emily and Rizo’s Unique Jury Equity 1:10:01 Genevieve’s Arc and What-Ifs 1:14:36 Why the Survivor 50 Cast Survives 1:17:07 Listener Questions: Dream Alliances 1:25:53 What Should Survivor 51 Change? 1:32:38 Survivor’s Future — Themes and Tribes 1:37:15 Final Thoughts and Outro To pre-order Rob’s book, The Tribe and I Have Spoken, visit www.robhasabook.com Never miss a minute of RHAP’s extensive Survivor coverage! LISTEN: Subscribe to the Survivor podcast feed WATCH:  Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube SUPPORT:  Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks!

We all love Survivor, and in my first ever book, The Tribe and I have spoken, I'll tell you how this little show evolved from that juggernaut first season on the beaches of Borneo all the way into its landmark 50th season. I'm like a storyteller. That's what I do. What role did the greatest players, the unforgettable moments, and Jeff Probst himself have in shaping what Survivor has become today? And what contribution did we play in building this worldwide tribe of Survivor fans? Love you, Bay.

For you future players, I've also included my ultimate survivor playbook to help you win the million dollars, unlike me. It's fine. You know what, dude, it's fun. This hardcover edition is filled with beautiful survivor illustrations in every chapter and is an amazing addition for every survivor collector. I'm a meat collector. Pre-orders are everything for a book launch, so to say thank you to everyone who pre-orders, you'll receive an exclusive digital bonus chapter called the Ultimate Rights. of passage, my personal tribute to all the players who have ever competed on the show, all 751. This is huge.

I needed this. Free order wherever books are sold in hardcover and as an audio book at rob hasabook.com. That's rob has a book.com. Nicely done, Rob. Hey, everybody. What's going on? Rob, Sesterino, back here with a great friend. of me and the pod back to talk about everything after this wild twist in Survivor. It's the great baby Andy, Andy Rueta. Andy, how are you?

Oh my God, doing great. I'm so excited to be back on the pod. And the timing is amazing because this was a really, really great episode. I would say my favorite of the season so far, so super happy to get into it. I can't wait. I feel like that we didn't make enough of a. kerfuffle over this was the best tribal council in

quite some time. I'm trying to think back to maybe best tribal council of the new era. Is 50 the new era? We're still in the new era, right? You've got to count this as the new era, but this feels like a transition point. The way I hope to look

at it is that this is the culmination of the new era, and then the 50s we could hit the ground around. We all want to hope, but it might still just be the new era. You know, 40 was the end of something. Does this feel like the end of the new era? I don't think so. I don't think we pick back up in 51, and it's a totally new thing.

But maybe it's a changed era. I mean, it can't be the new era for like 20 seasons. So something has to change. And no, like, say what you will about 50 so far, which I'm enjoying. But it's bringing new ideas and new energies, I think. So we're witnessing some type of transition. We're witnessing something. Okay.

So Andy, how are you? Doing so well. Life is good. It's great to be, well, it's been, I think, two years since I came back from Fiji. So it's great to be back to real life. And this is such a fun time to be a survivor fan. So I'm enjoying it.

I watched the episode with, have you heard of Fruity Island in Brooklyn? I've heard a lot of fun. I've heard a little bit about it. What goes on at Fruity Island? Very great. it's the place to be in New York if you want to watch Weekly Survivor

Yes The hottest place in New York to watch Survivor is Fruity Island And anyway It's got everything Gay Brigato is the host of that But it's a can't miss event So

It was good But the audio was good as well So I paid attention I watched the episode I heard everything Didn't miss any beats I could be hit or miss The audio

Yeah Okay Well, I guess what's on your mind, top of mind, with this big twist from Survivor this week? Again, like I said, this was a really, really good episode. And like, say what you about a lot of it, like 50 is packed with ideas. Like every episode has got to be special in its own right. That's how they look at it. But this twist, like, I actually really liked it.

I like this twist a lot. I'm not someone who hates the twists for the sake of it. Obviously, they can be like overstuffed and overloaded, but this one, like, I think it added really, really good strategic wrinkles that we can definitely get into. Yeah. And it wasn't like broken. I mean, on the surface, it kind of was giving like festy besties,

if you remember that. Yes, of course. Yes, but it wasn't broken in that way. I think there was like a lot of very interesting strategic things to think about with who you partnered, even though you didn't have all the information of what was going to happen. Yeah.

But you know what's interesting? It was kind of like, and this is like another sort of reference, but it was like Squid Game Marbles. Yes, yes. Not in how the elimination was going to work, but in people pairing up under false pretenses, I think that usually you want the players

to kind of know what the twist is going to be so they could game it. I think this worked out really well for the episode. So it seems like in talking to people, I think that the approval rating for this twist, that Jeff said 63% of the fans voted for this, kind of blaming the fans, but I would say approval for this,

probably I'd say up around like 80, 90% of people were very happy with it. How much of it, because you think it was a really interestingly designed twist versus that this was an outcome where coach was maybe getting on some people's nerves and that you got to see their coat where Surrey came back and Surrey sends Coach and Chrissy out of the game who were from the other alliance that were going against

the people who were maybe some of the more fan favorite players at this point. I mean, when it comes to fan opinion, it's got to be a combination of both. The fact is you can look at a results base, but it led to a really good round of gameplay, I think. And it had what many would consider a satisfying conclusion.

If, like, if Sarin was voted out on this, even though it was great choose. Oh, people would be like, forget it. Worst twist and weird. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know what, though? Like, if that happened, and I'm rooting for Surrey, but if that happened, I would defend it because,

like, we've done a lot worse over the years with twists. I think it's really cool. I think it's cool to think about, even though they had imperfect information, there was a lot of, I think, like, when you pair up, and they do that in the new era. Yes. Like, people on 50 might have had some preconceived notions of what was going to happen because they've seen this in the new era, but baked into that decision is like calculated risk, because it's very uncertain.

And so I think it was like enough of an opportunity for people to think strategically about it, thinking about who you want to be paired up with, not totally. knowing what was going to be on the other side and the challenge. And what's also good is, listen, I don't know when like 51 flies out or whatever, but that's going to be probably top of their mind. And if they run it back and they do this again, like, it's repeatable because I think there's still good strategy to think about. Yeah.

If 51 cast kind of knows that this might happen and they pair up, it's not super gamable by an majority. I don't even think they need to do this. I think that if they just do this like two-stage immunity challenge where you pick a partner, I think that there will be fights breaking out from the cast of who's going to partner with whom, and it doesn't even have to be where they vote two people out at the tribal council. Did you do this in 47? Did you have this multi-stage immunity challenge?

And who was your partner? We did. So it must, it wasn't the first time it happened in the new era because I think that we had an idea when we're going to pair up. They've done this since 43. I think that when Gabler wins the immunity, it's actually the challenge that it looks like Jeff is doing next week. I think that that was the first time they ever did

this multi-stage immunity challenge with a partner. It was kind of the classic dilemma, even in the new era rules. Sam picked me really quickly. Yeah. And I thought that was interesting. We were kind of not on the best of terms at that point strategically. And I was happy because he's good at challenges.

And he was happy to have me because he was going to beat me if we got to the final round. Yeah. Yeah. So that was sort of the meta up until this point of like, well, who do I want to go up against when it gets down to two people because he always turns into then the last stages head to head. And that's what we've had. I think that they've done it maybe every single season. I'm trying to remember if they did it last season.

But all through like the 40s, they've done this sort of like multi-stage immunity challenge where you pick a partner. And so they really, like, it was a rugpole from the players. And like, they really set the stage for this. And a big twist where they find out, hey, they're going to be voting out two people with one tribal council. And it really set the stage for this. So were there any of the rules that you thought that they did not make the right adjustment? One idol protects the two players.

Yeah. do you know what I actually I thought about this I think they did a really great job I think they did a great job with the details and I don't know if they always do a great job with the fine print of the details when they come up with new twists this I liked for a few reasons well first of if we go back to like how they're going to pick and again they didn't know for sure but the strategy is still going on when they're picking their partner it's really interesting to think about who you want to partner up with in this type of situation where you would think you want to partner up with, like, maybe your ally. But I think probably everyone benefited who picked someone kind of random, someone off-kilter. So Jonathan did a really good, I think he had a really good instinct because he's the one who picked Christian. They're completely on different sort of sides, different trajectories. Because as it turned out in this round, right, like the juiciest targets are going to be people who kind of represent the same agenda. Yeah.

Right? So, like, whether they're at the top or the bottom. So, like, if there's that big honor integrity alliance and coaching crusier are kind of the faces of it, that's a juicy target because you, you know, you do one vote. You do a severing blow to them. If you also hate these these rotten middle people, this, which is like, we can talk about the semantics of that. I can't wait. But that also satisfies that agenda in a double sense. Whereas, like, let's say Joe and Tiffany, even though they did win immunity, even if they had any, it's kind of like, who does that satisfy getting rid of them? Because if you want, the people who want Tiffany out really don't want Joe out. And so that's really like the good instinct in this scenario. Kind of regardless of the rules, you just kind of want to be with someone non-intuitive, I think. But yeah, but in terms of the details, you know what I liked about this.

If someone had a bad draw or whatever, I liked that kind of it gave the idol sort of more power. and it actually gave a shot in the dark double the power. This was a great opportunity to play the shot in the dark. Yeah. So coached a job. Because, you know, you sacrifice your one vote, but in the one and six that it hits, both of you are safe.

And I think, I don't know this for sure, but I'm pretty convinced that if Chrissy had played her shot on the dark, it would have worked, and they would have had a one in three shot. Yeah. I think that that might have been a mistake, and I haven't had the chance to talk to Chrissy. I'm not sure if she's going to, do any more exit press.

It doesn't seem like that she's going to, but you would think that two shots in the dark here would get you to 33%. But I read a little bit of some of the exit press that Chrissy did. I got the chance to talk to Coach. I think that they thought that they had the votes going into this tribal council and the Rick Devon's idol changed the calculus of what was going on. But let's come back to that. back to that. Let's finish talking about

the actual twist and then we'll talk about the idle shenanigans. Yeah. So I liked when Christian said that this is a final six vote. You know, in a way it was, right, but there's still, I think it's a bit

more chaotic than a final six vote because, you know, this is another great detail. Like, you could vote as individuals. So there were 13 votes flying around. And I think, I'm a huge fan of these big travel councils, right? Where a lot of votes, a lot of people with a lot of different say in the matter. And it's sufficiently led to like, like I would say some of the rounds so far have been kind of weird and uneven with the level of strategic thinking. But I think this was a pretty

strategic round from a lot of different people. I think that Christian voting for Mike White was a very interesting vote. But other than that, the rest of the votes have been kind of of cut and dry. I guess Charlie getting voted out was a... Yeah, that was a close call. But this was far and away the most interesting tribal council of the entire season.

I mean, yeah. There was so much going on. And I just love to talk about it from different angles. But, no, I mean, yeah, it was cool. It was, it was sad to see coaching Chrisie. It was. Coach has brought a lot to the season, like he has.

there are parts of coach that I love that I'll always love. You know, he doesn't get enough credit for actually pulling out these quotes. He does not get enough credit for paying a Bill's fan. I have not met coach yet. I would love to catch him out of Bill's game. He's got a lot of Bill's fan,

cred, because although he's not from Buffalo at all, like he played the trumpet at a national game. It was like a playoff game. So that is very cool. Love him for that. but he pulls out these quotes I unironically think this is an incredible skill that he has like the quotes are always like

they always hit so I love him from that sense but this was like kind of a proper sendoff for him I think because yeah he he was the leader of this honor and integrity thing this is when he kind of annoys me a little bit with the grandstanding

but I don't know Coach 4.0 was a delay I think coach 4.0 gave you everything thing. You saw every side of coach here and if you're going to bring him back, like, I kind of like think about his run. And I know they're real people. But if you were sort of like writing the Survivor's story,

you have this character and like he has like this trilogy of things. It's like, we're bringing him back for the fourth one. And it's like, well, what do you want him to do in the fourth one? It's like, all right, well, he's got to like, he's got to give quotes. He's got to like, but he's got to like be, be a, new version, but also like get on people's nerves. And like, I think you got all of the coach things here. And it was really interesting in terms of his journey in the season because going back to Dalton Ross did this epic article before the season started. And did you read this?

No, I didn't read it. So Dalton Ross wrote this incredible article before the season started. And it was a lot of preseason information. And really the biggest takeaway is the kid. cast is in love with coach. They can't get enough of him. Everybody wants... Rick Davins is annoying people, but Coach is just universally beloved. They can't wait to play with the Dragon Slayer.

There are survivor characters of a certain pedigree, not very many have reached this point, where that's just going to happen. Like, there is an aura around them. Whether or not they built it up over time, like Coach, who is an always the most beloved character, but it's just, I could imagine, like,

for the new era players out there, how surreal it is to, you know, you're in the pregame, and it's, you know, coach, not just coach the fact that he's there, but someone like coach will always deliver coachness. And I just think, some people think it's like a schick.

I don't know how it could be. If he always kind of like delivers the same energy. So, again, I really appreciated it. The other part, the other character of this pedigree is Surrey who had an incredible episode like a really really she's had an amazing run again she's had an amazing run for for sure you know I want to ask you about we'll talk plenty more about Surrey you you talked to before we came on that coaches a litmus test for a survivor fan yeah what do you mean by that this is a direct reference to a recent Jeff Prophs interview and I I I tend

to agree actually. Here's what he said. He says that when he talks to fans who come up to him in real life, he throws him a test and the test is, hey, what do you think of coach? And Jeff says that if they say, oh, you know, I don't like coach, I hate coach, whatever, then they're not a true fan. Fake fan. And so this is something that Jeff said to coach at this tribal council. It didn't make the edit. I think maybe coach said this in an exit press, but like this came from Jeff at that tribal

counsel. And I think that's true. Whether or not like he's your favorite or you're like rooting for him per se, like I think he's so intertwined with Survivor Lord. Like you just have to, you just have to enjoy him on some level. Like he is a canonical survivor, survivor character. He was on the first season I watched fully. I had watched a lot of like some Survivor here and there when I was a kid, but when I got really, really into Survivor, it was token chains. And I was obsessed with Steven, Salas, he was my first favorite.

And coach is not my cup of tea. But I think as I grew in my Survivor Superfandum, I've come to see all the sides of coached at it. He's like, you know, if you put someone who's won in a billion on the show, like I think that's just like so valuable. And he's not dead.

He's still very much with us. But, you know, I really like, I'm trying to like look back at his entire survivor crew. Because I don't think, it's likely we see Coach 5.0. This does feel like that this was a send-off for Coach. And I think he really did change the entire way that the show is cast, where I think that he was the first of a new thing of the person of like, is this person for real or not? And I think even into this episode,

this final hour of coach, you still have that of like, what is it? But is he doing? this on purpose? Is he trying? Is he, is he being a shield? Does he think this is good? Is he losing it? Like what's going? He's singing to himself? Yeah. He just has multitudes, I think. The thing, mine just read on him, I never met him or anything like that. I just think he's actually like just a natural showman like he is. And it's like not in a fake way. Although maybe he lays it on with the Dragon Slayer stuff. I don't know, your mileage may vary, but I think his personality just loves the camera.

And he's kind of like born to be in front of the camera in that sense. But yeah, and he, listen, he made his mark on 50. Yeah. As a, oh, it's interesting. We're already in the early jury phase. But yeah, like he'll never be forgotten for sure. for sure. So this ends up being in coach's career. I think this

of his four finishes, third best. Even though I think he went more days in Heroes versus Villains. Yeah, probably. But this run was, he had more juice going in this run than the Heroes versus villains, I would say. Yeah. And he kind of hit a wall with this game where he ended up swapping and the, and the

Swap on the surface ended up being pretty good for him in terms of you swapped with Joe, swapped with Colby, had Chrissy, still was working with Genevieve. Like, he was in a pretty good spot post-swap. But I think that some of the other allies he had in the early days of Kalo, that it didn't go as well for them. He mentioned to me today that he, you know, had Charlie, he had Mike White. He lost some numbers in the post-swap phase of that. the game. And I think that after

the Blood Moon, he really was in a very compromised position in the game. Well, yeah. It was a huge testament to the sort of Coach 4.0 game he was playing to have the ability to make all these allies. I think that's good. It's a good way to spend your time in the pre-merge.

But I think it caught up to him in this fact that after the Blood Moon, you know, we're in the post-merge phase of the game. He is very much perceived as the head of this. dominant honor and integrity alliance. He's from what we can tell the face of it.

But there's a lot of moving parts. I think what's really cool and what makes me really excited for the rest of the game is that it's a really good balance. There's definitely groups that are recognizable, but it's fluid. And it is kind of a voting block type sort of set. Which is great for entertainment,

but not very good if you're the head of the sort of opposite. Although CERCIDC said Colby was the head of the snake. Well, I think that's, that might have been Ceres' take on, you know, maybe who would be kind of an ultimate jury threat or, you know, who might be the slipper, who knows. But, it was coach.

Like, or at least that's what the editor is telling you. I was, he's a natural born leader. What could we say? What could we say? But, yeah, so it was very smart. Going back to kind of the strategy of it, it's the natural move in this twist.

to take a shot that is kind of two birds for one stone. Like really, really decimating blow to what was kind of like the center of gravity on this tribe, which is obviously the honor integrity five. My hope is that it kind of, like it blows the game more wide open than it already has. So I'm excited to see, wasn't it? Let's talk about this fake immunity idol hidden the tribal council by Rick Devin, and we had the finally that it came into play last night. And I want to get your take on this,

that do you feel like it changed what happened at tribal council? Did Rick save himself with this move? I think it definitely had some movement. I think when Rick and Christian drew up this plan, it culminates in this episode, I think it hit like 80% of it. its potential of what it was going for. I think it landed

in that way. Did it actually shift the vote? Was he going home and now he's not going home? That is maybe to a no, I would say. But from his point of view, like this is Rick Devons, right? He's trying to play big. I've always

respected that. I think it's been so fun. And I think this is one of the the joys of a returning player season is that people really you know, get to play even freer than their first time. Just let loose. I think Christian and Rick have probably shown that

kind of more than anyone else. But yeah, like, I think that from his point of view, right? Like, his name was all over the place. Like, he could have gone home. And I think what was going through his calculus is like, there's no way I can, like, risk going home without making this happen.

So, like, I have to do it. It's got to be now. That's a really good calculator. Not just for like his game, but for just the plan itself. Sometimes you have a plan so sweet. You just like, it's a victory in it. I can't not do it. I can't not do it.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. My feeling is, and I'm going to go back and I'm going to really do some research here on what happened. I'm going to go shot by shot on this and really dive into the live tribal council. I feel like they had the votes to stay ultimately. I think it ultimately ended up switching some votes around. Now, Coach said he thought it was 50-50 going into that tribal council.

I asked him about it because he said, you did play the shot in the dark. He thought it was still a pretty, you know, fair chance that they were going to stay. And Chrissy, I saw, said that she also thought that they were going to stay. And it did seem like that they lost at least a couple of those votes in. Joe and Stephanie once Rick played it. Yeah, definitely. I mean, basically, if you kind of dig into the episode, I think the story that I told us was that Surrey put the boat. Like, it could have very well gone towards Rick and Aubrey,

Rizzo and Ozzie, who are part of, along with Surrey, like the actual middle, the actual swing boats. They were talking about how they were going to go that way until Surrey got back. So you would have, based off of that, you would think that they had the votes anyway. But yeah, I mean, yeah, like, that's not to say that Rick kind of blew it or made a mistake because, you know, obviously you're going off of imperfect information. You're just taking gambols. And it was well worth it to do it because, you know, like, this could be a multi-round play, you know? Like, I've really kind of changed my tune a little bit about like idols, even public idols.

When I was on 47, I was kind of like, I looked at the run of bad idol plays in the newer and maybe I had a little bit of recency bias. I'm like, yeah, we're really worth it, especially if they're public. But basically, since I played, we've seen...

Yeah, what was your hot take? You told Mike Bloom about idols. You're like useless. And, um, but I stand by kind of the spirit of that

where I feel like in the new era, people were kind of lost in the sauce with trying to, like, gain the advantage layer of the game and they lose sight

of the social strategic layer of the game. Um, and so, you know, like, along those lines, journeys I thought were for suckers. Like, you never want to, you know, you never want to lose your vote. Like, I thought that was more important than the hope of a public idol

that's going to be traced back to you. But that being said, it is the case if you're a bold player to Zig when people are zagging. He could make a multi-round play of this because the thing about, so what's great when you have a plan like this, like what Rick and Christian have been cooking since the start of the game, is that they know, they're designing this plan to cause chaos

in a short period of time at a tribal council, but they have all gained to think about it. So they have a huge step up in terms of how they're going to execute a live tribal like this.

So I think Rick played it really, really well, not just the fact that he pulled it out, but all the things that he said in terms of Stephanie, who was really astute, I feel like,

saying, like, challenging him to, like, show the idol, what he said was a good enough answer to keep the chaos going. Yeah. In the cold light of day, it doesn't really add up because I think, honestly, we can go through Survivor History, right? Sure.

It's basically a rule. There are a couple exceptions. But statistically, if someone shows the idol, they're not going to play the idol. If you really want to do an idol play where you're actually going to play, you hide it. And so kind of by that logic, there were tells that this was a fake idol play. But the beauty is that you're taking everyone by surprise.

In a tribal council where it could go, it's teetering and there's risk. And if you are part of this, if you're in the Stephanie, Joe, Jonathan, even though he voted the original plan, but if you're in this like Power Alliance and then you're met with something like this, I think 99 times out of 100, risk aversion is the biggest factor. Like people, it would take a lot, it would take a lot of Cajon at a live tribal council

for someone to be showing an idol and you say, hey, everyone, we're still piling our votes on that person. We're calling their bluff. Yeah. I would love to see that in the 50s, but like using history is tough tribal council. Imagine that they were trying to split the votes.

We saw last week where COVID, was trying to get a vote split against D and Tiffany, like in this scenario where it's like, all right, all right, that Rick and Aubrey, they might have an idol. Okay, so we're going to need to put, you know, four votes on them

and then now find another duo to split the idol. And they're going to put three votes on, sorry, Emily and Risgod. We're putting votes on you also. Yeah, but you know what? Actually, the way that the round

actually shook out. I think there was, listen, I don't know their intentions we're going to see the confessionals next episode. But I think there was some pretty good kind of vote-splitting logic from some of the people. So Jonathan, maybe he just was going to do what he said he was going to do, but to be honest, is this a hot take? Yeah, Stephen, if you ask Stephen, it's a hot take, but he's playing

a good game, Jonathan. Like, he's I think you can't argue that he has not improved from survival. For sure. For certain. Yeah, yeah. And so... I just thought, I thought that Rizzo had a better week than Jonathan did call his shot of that, like, look, I'm making D mad and I got D out of the game. And I think that that certainly sure, that that was maybe the most valuable person in that particular episode.

But I tend to look at the fishy as who has improved their chances most overall positioning in the long game? 100%. Like it's the balance the both. Yeah. It's like, okay, yeah, that was great, you got D out, but so what? Like, okay, that was a 14-person tribal council, and now D-Kame in 14th place,

and she's the mayor of the Ponderosa, and she's also kind of pissed also. I thought that Rizgod had a little bit more of some very, really good, but subtle moves in the game. Okay. Well, we could go in a lot of different directions. I have a hot take, actually. I think that the mayor of Ponderosa thing is a myth.

I don't think that's really very real. The mayor thing is not real. When you think about, oh, the first juror has outsized influence, I think, and this is kind of more natural, but it's way more situational than that. I do think that there are some... So who is your mayor of Ponderosa? So you all heard of Rome,

so he would not be the mayor of Fondrosa? Sierra was the first juror. Yes. And shout out to Sierra and Justin, and a gata baby, Adi, Adelaide. But Sierra was not pushing the agenda relative to some other jurors when it came to the Final Travel Council vote. She was kind of one of the more conflicted ones, right?

Not every person who gets voted out first who maybe has some outsized hold over the jury. I feel like that D might. I just feel like it comes way more down to the personality. I do think that if you have a cluster of influential personalities making up the early part of the jury, I think now that is something that could actually kind of grow a culture. But it's not necessarily, you know,

I think some people get a little bit too literal thinking it's the first person, even if the personality type doesn't match up or what have you. I would say, though, I mean, that's my take. on it having played. But what someone could do, I should have done this, but I did it. You could kind of prove this.

So like I would say any fan out there, especially the people running this data analysis, like let's do a data analysis. If in Survivor history, the first juror votes for the right winner

more often in a statistically significant sense than the average juror, then the mayor ponderos the thing is true. Then there's evidence that is. Yeah. But if you don't find that, then I think it's a myth.

Okay. That's my hot thing. All right. Well, we really went off on a tangent on the Jonathan versus Rizzo. I have been trying to say I thought that Jonathan in this episode, especially with Coach, I thought it was real, like as adept handling coach as Rizzo was in the previous episode when Rizzo said, coach, remember, we slay dragons. tribal council like that eyes oh yes but and you saw Jonathan

with coach also in this episode like hey coach remember okay we gotta try to be under the radar right you gotta lay low remember Jonathan is definitely showing some chops how's this for a comparison

uh Rob Roush yes no different same boy you know I think it's it's a listen same part of the country, right? I think that there's some Alabama for both of them.

But I think that there's, you could say the similarities is that both of them might not be showing all their cards. But I think that their, they're both, that their Trump card that they, is like their superpower is different. So I think that they're similar in terms of just trying to, you know, give you less than they're actually thinking, but, you know, I don't think it's necessarily

a one-to-one. Not a one-to-one, but I think you pointed out the similarities that I'm seeing. Yeah. Pretty well. And so, yeah, there's definitely potential there, but, I mean, if it comes on it, if we're talking about Jonathan versus Rizzo, you know, I'm a Rizzo fan.

I love Rizzo. He's playing in a game, like, just like, look at the, look at the layout of this post-merged tribe, right? You had this Honor Integrity Alliance, when you have the other side, which is just Tiffany at this point, you know, right? And then there's this giant

middle. The middle. We hate the middle. The middle. It is annoying from like, it's like semantically, right? Like, what are they talking about? Like, but there are a couple ways to look at it. I think probably what's happened is like that honor integrity thing is like

the top. And then Tiffany and Dee and Camilla and maybe were considered the bottom after the blood moon twist and they were blindside. Yeah. And so then there's like the messy middle. But I think what happened,

and so maybe that's where I got coined. And so what's left over is like, there's really just Tiffany left on woodside. So the middle's the new threat. But I think whoever coined that, I wouldn't put it past a survivor player. Like I think it's like really good gameplay to kind of brand a group in a way

where it's kind of like derogatory. You know, because I think what it insinuates is that they're flaky and they're flippy floppy and they're like nerdy super fans who you have to watch your back. And so it's like, you know, Survivor's just kind of like one big PR propaganda war. So I would say it's like pretty good gameplay to like throw labels around like that. Yeah. Whether they're actually in the middle. Who's actually in the pool?

It's of course Suri, Ozzie, Rizzo. that's what the edit is in spades. Yeah. And so they've dictated another boat, I feel like. Yeah. And I think that the thing that became clear to us in this episode was that Surrey and Ozzie and Rizzo were considered part of that honor and loyalty group. That's not necessarily how they referred to it, but that they were talking about,

hey, we have seven. We have like the five and then coach and Ozzie. And then I think that Rizzo was. like secretly the eight and they feel like they have this huge numerical advantage. That's very true, but I think that also goes to show like really

why that's the best thing going on in this game being the secret tie between Rizzo and Sari and Azi. I think Sari and Ozzie were seen as valuable numbers to the Honor Integrity core. And then Rizzo, they're just kind of like, they probably really under, I don't know if they underestimate them.

Actually, it's hard to, to actually pinpoint how exactly they feel about Rizzo in the game, besides him just being an unknown, right? But my sense was they roped him into the four horsemen, but was that, like, do you think that was real to Coach, or he's like, oh, this is like, I think it was real. I mean, when I talked to Coach that he said that Colby really had said, like, oh, like, yeah, I like, my son is Rizzo.

And yeah, I think that coach was kind of blaming Colby for, how he trusted Riz God. Dream run for a super fan in Rizzo to come back. It is like, he's jumbled. He said, Coach,

you changed my life. Coach sounded a little down on Rizzo today. That's not terribly surprised. After betraying him, but yeah, for Rizzo to be juggling these alliances with the likes of coach in Ozian 3 is probably really surreal for a minute.

It's, it's, I mean, this guy just like makes allies everywhere. he goes. He's proven to be a really, really good player in that sense. But, like, okay, if it seems like all the other alliances

are pretty much pegged, like, in this tribe, the secrecy factor of how much Ceres looking out for Rizzo and vice versa, and how much they got Ozzy locked in, it's kind of like, you know, that's the engine that's going to hope

that maybe they'll dominate the game and get to the end, I don't know. I want to go back Rick Devin's and what comes next for Rick Devin's. How's he received back at camp after all of this? Because you mentioned in the light of day, is this story going to hold up? Does Rick Devin's become a persona non-grata after pulling this shenanigans at tribal council? That might happen, but the thing is, that's when he's at his best, what he's persona non-grata. This might be kind of like Rick Devons unleashed, right? If people don't buy this fake idol, maybe he just goes scouring, looking for the real idol.

Yes. Well, if anybody could find the real idol then and then really have this, you know, great moment wherever it is like, okay, yeah, right, Rick, you have got the idol, sure. And he's like, well, like everybody thought I had this fake idol, but I've also got the real one. Rick being kind of like a nuisance and he thrives in that right but actually but that so as a side note though like how often in recent seasons

is there really just like something that's as simple as an idol in the jungle in the post merge? Maybe I'm like remembering this wrong but it's usually tied, okay like 47 like the only idol was tied to the auction in the post merge. Yeah Rachel got included the auction, idol. I don't know if nowadays,

and maybe I'm misremembering some, but like, being an idle hound historically is kind of like a skill that's repeatable. And Rick, you know, seems to have it just based off an edge of extinction, right? But I don't know if that's, I don't know if an idol is just going to be in the jungle

to save the day. I think about Mary Ann, who found, who just found one in the jungle after the tribal council with her andrea. And now, was just one that she found. And I'm trying to think of... 49 was there a, there was an advantage that was in the well, right? Is that the knowledge?

There was the knowledge's power that Sophie B. found. And then did Christina find an idol in the post-merge? I think that Christina just found an idol in the post-merge. I don't know. My 49 is such a fever dream to me right now. That actually tracks. I think that I think that I think... And then I was like, hey, Christina found an idol.

Although, you know what? Maybe it wasn't the post-merge. I think it was the post-swap, and then it was a whole thing, and then Stephen told Sage about it. But she had an idol. And maybe it was the original tribe idol for her tribe? Yeah. Suffice to say, in the 30s, there were idols all over the jungle and the, well, into the post-witch. I'm sorry, you know what it was?

It was actually during the, it wasn't the split, it wasn't a split tribal council. It was they were split into separate groups. and I think that when Savannah went off to go and join the other group's tribal council, I think that that's when Christina found the idol. That'll be a great Twitch question. One day, yes. Yeah, but I do think I am basically right

that there are fewer, free idols in the jungle and the post-merge. But it's 50. They should have those. Yeah. But anyway, where does Rick go? I think we're going to see some fun gameplay from him, but I do think that the middle is going to be the consensus target.

Yeah, the way I look at this is that I think that, you know, Surrey and Ozzie and Rizzo, I think that they're more likely to pick up Jonathan and Stephanie and Joe and Tiffany and now fold that all together and go after Christian, Rick, and Emily, and Aubrey. In terms of timing with their next step, I think that's pretty natural because, listen, If you're in that swing position, you know this more than anyone.

I don't have to explain this here, but like, you know, as soon as you weaken the one side, the other side, now they look more intimidating. You pick those pieces up, you swing, right? That could, uh, yeah, that could the end game if they play it, right? Can I throw something out there? Maybe this is a hot take. Okay, outside of the Surrey Rizzo-Azzi trio, the player in the best position is Tiffany. Yes.

How about that? She's in a great position. You know, it's kind of like a slightly varied version of, you know, a disaster tribe and then you're the lone survivor. You have runway. Now this is slightly different, but like, yeah, like, she's, she was part of an army that is perceived to have been vanquished. And so now she is a free.

She is a number. People are already, Joe has already taken the opportunity to build something with her that could be the first step. She really could make it run for it. She's got a friend on the jury already in D. And then if- The mayor may not be the mayor.

You may not be the mayor. You know, you kind of love that spot if she's the fourth in the Surrey-Rizzo-Azzi trio where if anything goes wrong in terms of the final four. Okay, how about this? Okay, we're gonna, with Tiffany in mind, the fans, I feel like the fan vote.

have been, you know, pretty much. And it's sort of like on election night, you get sort of like the first couple of results. It's like, okay, I think I have a sense of how all of the results are going to go over the course of the night. And the way that the fans are voting, I think they voted for Final Four Firemaking.

I think you're right. I think you're right. And then what, Jeff will be like, well, we voted. The, oh, I thought people don't like it. But then why did 51% of the fans vote for this? I think there's been a lot of discourse already over, you know, the democratic validity of this fan vote. But I think, you know, listen, I've actually had this thought for a while,

like prognosticating what the results are going to be. You know, you ask the superfans, you know which way all their votes are going to go. But at the end of the day, and I love the superfan community, it's a small, it's a small, it's a small, tiny bubble. the general audience, whether or not you want to call them the casuals, the general audience, you know,

they love the show, they interface with the show, but if you're presented with all of these binary options, one sounds more exciting, one sounds boring, the majority are going to pick the one that sounds more dynamic. It is weird that the people who don't seem to, they enjoy the show,

they tune in for, 90 minutes a week and they have the great time with the show but they really seem to feel like hey these people need to be knowing how to make fire they need to know how to catch their own food and they really like put a lot into the camp life part of it

and I do think that those people voted for firemaking and boy this a run that Surrey is on you don't think it could possibly end on another fire making right? That would be unfortunate That would be unfortunate.

But to be honest, I think that she might, her day might come before the final four. Oh, okay. Yeah. I mean, she's playing an incredible game. I want to, like, sing her praises. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about how good of a job is Surrey doing and the fact that nobody's even worried about what she's doing. It's just incredible.

It's incredible. Like I said, there's a certain pedigree of survivor player and character. and the beautiful thing about Surrey is that she can play all these games go all over the world, all these games, and she always recreates what she's good at and she never flops. Perorsesville is not a flop.

And so I just love Surrey so much. With a fluke more than a flop. Exactly. Well, yes, the beautiful thing about Surrey is, I'm going to actually, I'm going to nominate here for something. Please. Because there's all this talk of,

the Mount Rushmore, the Survivor Mount Rushmore. And as much as everyone loves Surrey, she's not always on that list because I guess you need to be a winner, to be a survivor winner to be on that list. But I think she's better than the Mount Rushmore. I think she's like, she's like the survivor president.

She's like the reigning survivor president, not a past president that you engrave in Stone, because she is the survivor's greatest ambassador. Because she plays Survivor a lot, but she goes on other show, she goes on international waters. He always does really, really well in that Surrey way. And I think she's proof of concept of this game we love so much.

Because if you're cynical survivor, you think at the end of the day, it's all just kind of chaos and luck. Yeah. But to see someone like Surrey who's got all these accomplishments and never has any good luck, really. She's got, she famously has terrible luck. But she always recreates the Surrey magic. and it's so perpetuating that on Survivor 50, everybody knows her game, everybody knows her reputation,

and yet they're drawn to playing with her. And I think it's amazing. And she's, like I said, she's Survivor's greatest ambassador and my pick for Survivor President. Yeah, there's a multitude of reasons why different fan bases love her from that as a strategist,

She has very few others that match her in that regard. It's just a sheer player of the game. She also has just this bubbly personality and warmth where people gravitate towards her both on and off of the island. But then also, as we saw last night in the montage that we saw, she really does embody the spirit that the show has tried to cultivate And I talked about this many times, including in The Tribe and I have spoken, available everywhere you can buy books and at robesbook.com. But Surrey soft-launched the new arrow when she walked across the balance beam.

That changed what the show was about. It's a show about discovering what's inside of you. And that was always her story from she was the woman who got up off the couch, but it put such a fine point on that when she walked. walked across it. We stopped what we were doing. The challenge was over. We had her repeatedly. She's going to go until she gets us. That there's more that we're getting out of this experience, that we are all on her journey watching her go across the balance beam. And it was such a shared victory for her and for everybody going across the balance beam. And we saw that again last night. And so she is really the poster person for what Survivor has become.

in the new era. And so you have all of this multitude of reasons. You know, you have maybe, I'm sure there's people out there, the same people that are like, hey, they should have to make fires. Like, but does she win challenges? Is she, you know, can she fish? You know, I'm sure that there are some three haters that are out there, but they're few and far between.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, it's a testament, and you can see it through the screen because it affects the fans just as much. she's unclockable because even if you know her track record, you just, you can't help but be drawn into her personality. And like,

it really is definitely the greatest social, she's the greatest social player of all time for sure. Yeah, absolutely. She's amazing. And for those, for all those reasons, like, I think she's got,

she and her skill, she built, some great runway in this game. She's in an amazing position, and she definitely can win. She definitely can win. But my, I guess, worry, thinking about what the other players are perceiving is that she is kind of that

ultimate, not that she's necessarily a shield for everybody, but she's someone that you can get out at five, six, or seven. And by the time you get to that kind of end game crunch, like literally everyone will be on board because I'm sorry. Like, I'm trying to think of

a scenario where someone would be willing to sit with Surrey and I just can't I can't really see that. Like I don't know, I don't know who would sit with Surrey, you know, except maybe Izzy, right? Like, I don't know. Chris said he would in the preseason. I just, I don't, when push comes to shove, I don't buy it. And, you know, like you could, I think you were talking about this with Stephen, like, you could maybe get some, oh, like, oh, I'll be, I'll be very well regarded for helping Surrey get to the one, but a lot more people would call you really dumb.

sitting at Missouri. They might call you dumb, but they would love you. Sure. Yeah, sure. You'd be beloved. But that thing said, that's not the only reason that's carried her up to this point in such a crushing position. She's done

obviously an incredible job. And like I said, I just look at this is the biggest trump card in the game, is the Surrey-Rizzo secret alliance. So it's really great. I was talking with our friend Josh Kettles recently. Yes.

I think he gets credit. He pointed out something really, really cool, really smart. Surrey, when you think about the kind of player she likes to play with, she's played with a lot of different types of players, but she gravitates towards the new and unknown player on the seasons that she's on. So that's Amanda Kimmel, even though it's not, that's kind of the same thing. But definitely

Zeke and Michaela on Game Changers. There's probably another example I'm blanking on. But then Rizzo. And then I just think that's one of her special skill sets is to kind of drawing the new unknown player.

I think she looks at that as a really cool opportunity to kind of build a relationship from scratch maybe because she has no preconceived notions of them. Maybe they're still star-struck, who knows? but that's worked out for her really well. Yeah, I think that maybe you could also include Izzy in this

where that she does seem to really love, oh, my fan is here. You know? I think probably in, and I'm not sure necessarily if this was a factor in the traders or not, but it's like the person who is like, okay, I think she can tell like early on, like, okay, this person is already like that, They're like, I've got them. Like, they're not. I trust this.

This is good. And I think she likes, like, having that person around. That person who is like, you know, very excited to be there and maybe a little, not as self-interested, but also interested and invested in Ceri's success. A hundred percent. But it's not just like the super fan. It's someone who is the Ceri fan. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Because if you don't have that natural serri love that you wear on your sleeve, I think she probably gravitates away from super fans who she might perceive as someone who's going to think cold and dry and just look at her as the threat that she is.

She's always on it. She always knows who to work with. That's great. Visit BetMDM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDMDM and Game Sense remind you to play responsibly, 19 plus 3. to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge.

BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. All right. From some of the perspective of these other players that we haven't talked about, tell me about Aubrey and where you think she goes from here. maybe I never told you this but Aubrey really really historically is one of my favorite players it goes back to Coralong for sure

but yeah it's just really cool it's really cool seeing her out there just in general before I played I thought one of my very favorite storylines in Survivor is her having a panic attack at the start of the game and then you know rising from that

and being like you know growing into her own. She's a historic slow starter. And that resonated with me. I really was drawn to that before I had any idea of what my... Oh, do you think that she manifested this for you? No, well, I don't know. I just like, it's a cool poetic thing, I think.

She was just... That storyline was one of my very, very favorites before, you know, Survivor even knew my name, right? But she, flash forwarding to 50s, She's just, it's a weird and an awkward spot, and it could really go either way in terms of where she goes. I mean, her storyline was really caught up in the Genevieve rivalry, which upset me great.

But she's not in the same exact spot as Tiffany, but she is kind of someone who, if she plays her cards right from here on out, could gain not just short-term security, but some traction. When we think of Aubrey's greatest strengths, you know,

I think she articulated it pretty well this episode. I think from a one point of view, it was a, and I agree with you on this, like she really could have held that onset idol. She really could have made a lot more,

you know, rounds happen with that idol. But she said something where she's like, you know, this idol was a barrier to me making deep, emotional relationships. And that really is Aubrey at her best when she has

the, she said. If she has the room and the time and the space to cultivate those, that's when we see the real upside of her game. And so as much as that kind of idol, which was sort of in, at least in people's perception, was tied to Rick Devons, which means it really wasn't very easily flushable, which gave her

some room to like hold on to it for a long time but she didn't and this was a very intentional choice I think that plays into her play style so I've come around on it and hopefully she can she can gain traction what is all what was initially worrying but maybe

we'll work to her advantages by osmosis she's been regarded as one of the middle people where I didn't think she was with that crew publicly at least but now she's considered part of the Christian Devons, Emily contingent,

but she won't be the first target at all if, are fired at them. Do you think that Aubrey might be a better 39-day player? Like, well, is the 39-day game more conducive to Aubrey's play style than the 26-day game? I think there's a good argument to be made that that's exactly what we're witnessing. We're witnessing that tension.

You're right. I think it's a hallmark of the 39-day game. game where, you know, there's all the off days, right? Yeah. And it's the kind of slower pace. Yeah, where I thought she's really like, okay, I'm really vibing with this person here as opposed to just like, go, go, go, go, go. 24 person season, 26 days, it's always moving.

We're changing the tribes up. I think that longer pace is a big advantage for certain flavors of the social game, like what Aubrey has. So I think that's really true. I think that's a really good point. Because it's been up and down for her, but I think we're in the middle of her arc. That's how I see it.

Yeah. I want to talk about these duos that were formed because I've been thinking about this a lot since the episode. And I just think that I love when the Survivor Gods are at play here. I think that all of the duos are interesting pairings in terms of like that there's something about all of them that made it so perfect.

And just to go through all of them quickly. Okay, you start with Coach and Chrissy. And Cesarie called them Mom and Dad, okay? And they were sort of like these two people who were close allies, but their play styles are so different. You know, Coach famously was a member of the Villains tribe. and where was Chrissy born from? She started this game as a hero. Wow.

You know, back and forth with both of them. You know, coach always wanted to be a hero. Chrissy was born into this game, a hero. They both are Final Tribal Council losers, and they come back, and they end up finding themselves here together. They're a final travel council losers still. Oh, there are a lot in this season, for sure.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Then, okay, we have, okay, Rick and Aubrey, of course, matched up from the same season. I'm trying to think of not too many people left who have played with one another, but for for Rick and Aubrey that they have that bond of both going, being from the edge of extinction, both being on the edge of extinction together, sending each other advantages in the game, or at least from Aubrey's perspective,

that's what happened, even though we know it was actually Christian that sent the advantage to her earlier in this game. You have Ozzie and Stephanie, who both are sort of like born into Survivor around the same time, Stephanie in season 10 and Ozzie in season 13, and both have the legendary competition beasts.

And here they are back again, and both of them have been brought back into seasons where they're brought back in sort of these captain seasons with Stephanie in Guatemala and Ozzy in South Pacific. Fun fact, if you play the Survivor card game, they are paired up. Oh, interesting, that's the same color? The same color, and that color is yellow,

which is the bandana that they wore for this. Oh, wow, how did they know? The synergy, yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe they did like, hey, in the car. game. We're on the same team. So, okay, then we have Joe and Tiffany, who on the surface, not that much with them together, but both of them were from these recent seasons where there were three people from their cast, and both of them are the only people left from that cast.

In a way, they've sort of found each other of like that, oh, they watch out for Survivor 48, watch out for Survivor 46. Well, guess what? It's only Joe and Tiffany now. And I mean, this is just a hunch. I'm curious about your take, but I kind of feel, once we put those puzzle pieces together, I think that they might kind of be good allies. I think so too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Tiffany could be someone who has a way with, with Joe, in strategizing. And, you know, we see on 50 and maybe 40 is, well, like, Not everyone enjoys the strategizing with Joe. But I think they might have some good chemistry.

She could work with Joe. She's got the experience. She's a straight shooter. She's not like a BSer. Yeah, exactly. And that's the key to working with Joe. Yeah, and the way that in which their alliance is kind of born is really organic, I think, which is always a good step. Yeah.

It was over some spaghetti and tirami Sue. Tijuana. And one. What? that was the spread for Operation Italy, actually, for the same thing. Tiramisou is kind of the centerpiece of that. We almost called, not almost, but we kind of almost called it Operation Tierami Su. That was thrown out there.

But then Genevieve was like, well, Sue has to be the target if it's Operation Tieramisu. Okay, yeah, can't do that. Her memories, good memories. What is this, Beast games? We're not doing that, okay? And then Emily and Risgod. And you would think on the surface, okay, this is the one, what's the connective tissue there? But they had that great moment at the end of the episode where Rizzo says to coach about like, coach, you literally change my life.

And Emily is like, oh, they're like brother and sister. I could see it now. Yeah. And I love Rizzo like I mentioned. But I think Emily is so delivering in this season. like she did in 45. It's been so great. And my kind of take on that is like,

I think she's kind of playing well in a way, where I feel like she's so, like her game instincts are so quirky and it's kind of causing all this damage, but the damage is never to her game. It's to other people's game. Yes. And I think it's just great.

I think it's kind of like the upside of what she brings because she's such a unique, she's got such unique point of view. I mean, that's so obvious hearing all of her confessionals. She's got an original take on things. And I think, though it's unconventional, I think something like that, Loki might give her, like, jury equity.

I don't know. I could be off. I have no idea. But I think if someone marches to the beat of their own drummer to that really kind of authentic sense, I think she could spin a good final trouble castle. I think so, too. She has, like, that Cochran upside where, you know,

Everybody's mad at dawn for dawn. You know, I was nice to you. Why didn't you give, like, why did you betray me? Like, does anybody really feel like Emily is, like, has their back? Like, you know, you just feel like, okay, she's, like, going to be very self-interested. She's going to play her game. And you don't really expect, like, okay, Emily's loyal to me no matter what. And the upfrontness of it all, I think, make her avoid the sneaky allegations that.

could bring bitterness to Final Tribal Council. It's just like, this is Emily, this is how she is how she paved her way. I could see, I could definitely see it, which would be, it's kind of, it's kind of a tough thing for any new era player to gain the respect of what this post-merge looks like, which is old era heavy,

even relative to how the cast started. Yeah. It, it's going to be a big challenge for, well, there's only three left. So I think Tiffany might have a good jury equity, but on paper, Emily and Rizzo would have a tough time at Final Trouble Counsel, just given the makeup. But I see it with Emily, for sure. This episode is brought to you by Tell us Online Security. Oh, tax season is the worst.

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all cybercrime or identity theft. Conditions apply. I want to ask you about Genevieve and what you think would have happened with her had she made it through that tribal council because I thought she was on such a upward trajectory where so many people from this season came back into this and they were like they were dealing with their wounds

and sort of like processing. and over-correcting for what happened to them in the past. I thought that she was like the one person, well, maybe not the one person, but one of the few people, I think Jonathan is also in this category, that they seem to have, not be dealing with wounds,

but they kind of had leveled up from where they were from the first time that they played. How far do you think that Genevieve could have taken this? I totally agree with your assessment. I think she was doing great. And you're right. I think she, you know, if some people undercorrect and some people overcorrect, she did the perfect amount of correctness, just in the sense. Her ability, like some of these players in the game, like had such a great ability to have allies drawn towards them.

And she was in such an incredible spot on her original tribe, socially and strategically. And it just felt like she was winning everybody over. I just mentioned with some newer people having trouble gaining maybe that respect factor, I don't think that's ever a problem with Genevieve. She has a crazy aura, right? And so I think people came in, maybe they were feeling intimidated by her in the pregame,

but built into that is respect for her. And for her to kind of fine-tune her game and just be able to make friends really easily gave her so much, so much potential. and she did have some horrifically bad luck going on in the game. Brutal. She acquit herself very well. She acquitted herself very well.

And yeah, the sky was the limit. The sky was the limit. She could definitely have no trouble winning a final trouble counsel if she were able to navigate her way there. Especially with the people that she was with, you feel like, I don't know who from that side, but I feel like among that, that crew. I feel like that maybe she ends up with the most friends. Well, that's a great poetic to season arc for her. No, it just, that came across.

She made a ton of friends. And, you know, like, I think that if the Blood Moon twist worked out differently, right? Just the fact that she had, like, a really good thing with Stephanie and Colby, I think would have really paid dividends because that's kind of her inroad to different types of people. and I think that the other side of things like the Kala women would probably work with her I think as well so she would have had

yeah she would have had right way definitely you know something else that's weird about this season because I felt like that Genevieve's whole tribe was kind of snake bit in terms of that she's got this great like six person alliance and then ultimately Kyle gets medevac and then Q gets swapped screwed Colby's not there Genevies not there

Angelina isn't there anymore. And it's interesting that you had the other tribe, Kalo, which we kind of saw the least from a lot. That tribe is also decimated. That now Mike White, Charlie D. is gone. Camilla is gone. Chrissy's gone. And we had a disaster tribe. And the disaster tribe was, oh, it's Christian.

Well, guess what? there are still, I believe, what, five people from that original tribe of like, how is the math mathing here? Surrey, Christian, Ozzie, Rick Devons, and Joe. Five people are left from the original tribe, which was the disaster tribe. That is insane. Wait, and then it was Jen and Savannah who left. It was, and Emily, and says there are six people. What the hell?

So good. That's, I mean, that kind of thing, I love that. That's kind of the unpredictability of a survivor season. It was like, they were the disaster tribe. They lost Jenna Lewis and Savannah. And then Ozzy and Emily and Christian brought their disasterness to a new tribe and took out Angelina and Mike White and Q. And so then, and then the blanche. Blood moon did the rest.

It's a battle-tested group. And you know what? I think it's not just that there's incidentally six of them left. It's a pogging. I know, right? But I think what is the sort of result of that is we talked about how the board is set on this post-wurst tribe, but I really do think there's a lot more fluidity going on

than what's kind of like shown necessarily. And I think if you look at the scramble this episode, like there's just like a lot of, a lot of fluid conversations going around. And one conversation in particular had a lot of those CELA original tribe members, the Orange Tribe. So it's like, because how else,

given the rest of that, like why is Surrey and Joe even kind of nominally in on a vote? And I think they just have these really, maybe a trauma bonding. They got these battle tested ties. There is something to that. I think it puts them in a really, really good spot. Yeah, because they've been to a lot of travel councils for sure.

Okay. That's been cool. I want to bring in some questions for you from the listeners. And so here's a question for you from Minton Hall, 2249. Andy, who would you have aligned with and who would you have played with this time, considering all the huge threats on Survivor 50? is Genevieve too obvious of an ally? I'm sure you must have given this some thought.

I gave it some thought for sure. Yeah. Twitter would be happy to know that I would have worked with Genevieve for sure. Why not? Please. I would have loved to work with Genevue. It would have been amazing. Would Genevieve have loved to have worked with you?

My optimistic self says yes. Because if I recall, I feel like that, you know, of course we have the great Operation Italy, but maybe it wasn't always that you two were on the same frequency. That's very true. And to be honest, it would have been hard to navigate having us on season 50 together, probably because, you know, as time goes,

Operation is probably the only thing they would remember to tie us together more than kind of downs. But it doesn't really matter. I would definitely would have I would have worked with her. And I think we would have worked well together. I do think so. I think after getting to know each other more,

um, developed greater understanding. And with that, would develop a, a really positive working relationship on Survivor. So that's, that's one. Really in my thinking of,

you know, what I might do hypothetically, um, my plan would have been really, really beyond that to just be very open and be very urge to be like present. It would be to go to the pregame and just kind of see what the vibe actually is

instead of forcing anything with preconceived notions or a game plan of who I might want to work with based off of how I view them on the show and just be present with that but also just kind of know at the back of my mind that like maybe myself more than some of the other 50 cast members I would have had a roll of decks of their games

and would have relied on that kind of in the moment. But who knows? Who knows? Genevieve is my answer. I work with Genevieve. Anybody else from the cast that you feel like that, that would have been a really good ally for me? The Bill's Mafia Alliance. Kyle?

Me coach and Kyle. That would have been cool. But in terms of, okay, like objectively, like who would I mesh the most with? My gut says that I would have worked with Chrissy. I think I would have worked with Chrissy. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, I think that, um, that's just, there's just some, there's, that's just what my gut says, that I think we would have had a really good understanding. And, yeah, I would probably, that would be one of my first names on the list. Okay.

Um, Here's a question from Lydia Martin. Do you think that the fake idol actually benefited Surrey the most? Because now she could say she was spooked into flipping her vote. All eyes are on Devons tomorrow. That's a really good question. Because now there's such plausible deniability for everybody. Like, oh, I thought Rick Devons had the idol.

That's why I was going to vote them out, but then he got the idol. That's a great point. I think Surrey will jump on that. and it's going to be really, really, it'll make the damage control easier and smoother, probably. But not for nothing, though, even if that never happened, this still would have been probably a smoother ride for Surrey. Because this is two of them going at once. And so it's not a bunch of people mad at her who have too much to do something. I don't think anybody's going to be mad at her.

I don't think regardless people would be mad at her. they would probably have bigger fish to fry from their perspective. I think Surrey would do great damage control regardless of this idol or not, although yeah, it does help. And then also

like, my guess is that Ceree's next move is to work with them anyway, so that would smooth pretty quickly. She's like, they tricked us. I can't wait. Yeah. Be a good scene.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. because I feel like that Surrey had this uneasy truce with or not even truth. I think that they, that Rick and Christian and Emily,

like they, they like the idea of working with Surrey. I think more than Surrey liked the idea of working with them. I think that she went along with them to get along, but it was like, Ozies were my real alliance.

And maybe that's leftover Cila ties, right? Yes, I think so. That Christian, name drop her as being in that alliance. And it really just goes to show, like, despite allegations of certain people being in the middle, like, it really is the likes of Surrey and Ozzie.

He was so happy when she came back from Exile Island. He said, oh, finally, the cavalry has come back. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. We went through the duos. We didn't talk about Christian and Jonathan, which, again, is just such a fun duo.

You know, Christian said that bro chachos are back. You know, it goes back to Christian's origin story of him and John Henigan and just like the juxtaposition of that opening challenge of David versus Goliath. Like it's again, just like it's there was a lot of poetry there. I really liked that. I thought that was cool. The contrast is is really visible and cool. And yeah, like I mentioned, like what's also great for them is that a combination like that, they were the safest. duo in the game because like how are you going to there's just no realistic scenario in which they would go because they would satisfy opposite agenda so it was really good for them how about this david versus goliath who do you think is going further in the game christian or jonathan

david versus i've loved christian so much he's been on a a great run and i just love that we've waiting for him so long and he's he's really delivered. And he's done very well, but I do think that Jonathan is safer than him for sure in the next few votes. I think the hammer is coming down on the Rick and Christian Alliance and I would see that. Yeah, I feel like one of them is probably due to, like it's going to take some real shenanigans to get through these next couple of votes. And I just feel like that Christian is kind of doomed to have a similar arc as. he had in David versus

Goliath where around like eight or so people start saying we can't let Christian get close to the end I do agree with that but I feel like he's like maybe not as

I think with David versus Goliath there was just a kind of a touch of love and admiration behind his threat level whereas in this season I'm trying to think of people He doesn't seem beloved. He doesn't seem beloved on this season, no.

So there's a chance maybe that works at his advantage, but at the same time, I don't think he can ever really escape that. Why is that? Why is he not beloved? We love him. I love it. Is it because he cost everybody a chance to be on the White Lotus?

Maybe it comes down to how he's playing, and maybe his close allyship, with Devons and Emily. Might be rubbing people the wrong way. But I think ultimately there was a PR narrative pushed against the alliance

that paints them as squirrelly flip-floppy snakes, which carries sentiment towards their games. Do you think that I'm just trying to figure out like where did this reputation come from? Was it voting out Mike White?

What snake? That probably could have been for sure. He was definitely a mover and shaker on the original CELA. I don't know if that caused burnt bridges per se, but he was very active. Listen, I think that Mike

White move was significant. It doesn't take more than one you know, public move to set your reputation on a trajectory like that. Do you think that Joe poisoned the well from where Joe

started with Christian and Rick, and he had more problems with Rick than Joe, but then he ends up then going to the tribe with Coach, and was Joe telling stories from the original tribe of like, oh, those guys, they're thickest thieves, Rick and Christian. I mean, it was probably, you think about those five people in the alliance, I think they've riled each other up probably.

I think that, yeah, I think, you know, And he burned Ozzy on the Mike White vote and Ozzy could be also you know, forgive but doesn't forget. And that's, you know, in some sense, that's just the byproduct of being kind of player who's made moves, right? Like David versus Goliath,

I don't think he was the head of any of these kind of line size that had his name on it. It was kind of a different game. He's playing a different game now. But it's very entertaining. It's been good. The original Kalo tribe that coach was on, are the only two people left from that tribe,

Jonathan and Tiffany? Yeah. Who's the last member left of the Kalo tribe? Do you think it'll be Jonathan or Tiffany? I think they both last a while. I do. I don't see the target coming for them in the near future. But who's the last Kalo?

The last Kalo between the two of them will be the person who's actually better at the immunity challenges. Hmm. So who is it going to be Tiffany or is it going to be Jonathan? I don't know. They've both been pretty good

so far the season. Yeah. But I think, yeah, I think it'll be one of, they both seem really like, you know, they'll rise to the moment, maybe so like,

one of them might be one of the challenge piece of the season. I mean, Jonathan was a fire away from making the final three in his original season. Do you think that people are looking at Jonathan as a potential final three person?

Are they underestimating his ability to win over a jury. I wouldn't bat an eyelash if he did end up making it that far. It depends. I don't know. I think maybe the inverse of this Christian, like he might be generally more popular

his tribe this time than in 42. He hasn't, you know, he's got a real alliance. They seem to think really highly of him. Jonathan? Yeah, Jonathan, yeah. Really that and Tiffany and

ultimately Camilla seemed like that they were the only people that didn't like him. That's true. That's true. But it's you know, it's counterbalanced by I think some people who would really like him. I think it's exciting because it's a little bit

hard to predict. Like I, my real prediction is that people from this, some people, maybe one or two people from this middle line to me the next to go and I think that's going to kind of reset the course. Yeah. And I think People have a chance to win the game. Okay.

You can see the end and maybe win a final trouble comes. Ben Gregory says, what's the best move for the middle people? Should they continue to push on Joe, Jonathan, and Stephanie? Or is that too short-sighted? Oh, that's a great question. What is their best? Well, that's hard to say because there are four distinct players, right?

Who we see is being this middle. Wow, I don't know. I don't know. I think they're, I mean, I think they are going to go on different. trajectories. I think Christian and Devons are going to speed up the pace. I think they're going to be playing hard. I think they're going to be making more noise.

And that gives the opportunity for what I think I wouldn't be surprised if Emily cuts bait and betrays them. I think that could be a move for her. For sure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I do want to go back to that other question that we got about that

did Rick do seria favor by taking out the fake idol there? Because I I wonder if that didn't happen, if it was just a straight vote, and then it was, whatever, an eight to five vote where, okay, coach and Chrissy get voted out, and now they go back to camp. And it's like, wow, Surrey, Ozzie, Rizzo, you flipped on us? and no and like I really kind of think that maybe did the Rick Devons got to make the big move but they I in a way like I think that they sort of like are could be set up to be sort of like used as like the pointy tip of the spear to have taken out coach and Chrissy and then

could be then really scapegoated I could see that I think I could see that so that would be highly beneficial to Ceres so part of me hope it happens a lot but at the same time though right like again let's say he didn't put out the idol and then maybe Stephanie and Joe and Jonathan are a little bit more upset with Ceree like what would their next move be in like what's the failure

case her game blows up they would have to go like work with Rick and Christian unless they could find numbers another way by like Rick and Christian wouldn't have crossed them it's like yeah of course you know we voted for coach and Chrissy. Like we never, you know, like we're saying that we're going to be with you. I guess they were saying, but like you didn't really believe we were with you.

So I think their lives might be a little bit easier in the future, but it comes to the expense of like coming through that travel council. Yeah, good point. So I mean, this is all kind of like converging on the heat is going to be turned up on Rick. It's for sure. So I'm really excited to see the next. so just to see the fallout, how he handles it. Like I said, like they've had a lot of time no plan

of what their second, third, and fourth move were going to be after doing something huge, like taking the idol out. So they probably thought of it. I really would love to know when the next episode starts, was Christian in favor of this? Was this premeditated? Because I thought the look on Christian's face

seemed like one of, and I don't know if he was acting or not, he seemed maybe a little, miffed that they took the idol out? It could go either way because he was in a space where he would be acting, so it's hard to say for sure. But I could also see that being true

in the sense where like, I think that Christian had sky high hopes for this planted idol. I think they wanted to probably, I think he wanted it to end up being the greatest whatever move in survivor history. It ended up being really cool and not a failure

for sure, but it came in a round where Christian was in no danger at all. So that could be kind of disappointing where Christian might be thinking, like, Rick, this was our last Trump card. Like, this was our, this is what we were going to do the round that we were blown up. And this might be around too early.

So I could see it going either way, but he might be, he might not be as thrilled about it as Rick, who probably just loved that he got to do it. So we got a question for you from Bobodo 45 to Andy, does Christian need an adult diaper? Absolutely, he does.

Of course he does. Right? It would have come to Andy. It's so much grief. I want to say there's so much creep. He could have used a baby Andy product for sure at the start. But I said, I told, I was talking with Mike and Leon on the

survivor B&B, like, he had a golden edit for pooping your pants. Like, I think it was supposed. and quite positively and charming. And it was reminiscent of Cochran getting all the sunburn and Carolyn Owen. It's funny, but it kind of came out looking better. So, yeah. He handled it with as much grace as one humanly could have.

And I think that tells you what kind of person he is. And I think that he understands the assignment. Exactly. Okay. How much it would have been for him if he was aware. an adult diaper. It would have had less screen time. True, true, true, true.

Yeah. Ivan says, we've seen the surrogate fan archetype on All-Star seasons from Rob C to Adam Klein. How do you think that Rizzo fills this role? It's interesting, right? If you go back through all of the All-Star seasons, that you do have the person who is kind of the fan. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's good.

Writing back was that? certainly in fans versus favorites. I think that's good because it enriches the lore that's baked into these all-star seasons, which it just runs so deep, especially if you're like a fan who, you know, who's seen every season. And so it takes, like all things in Survivor,

the story can only be told through the narrators who are the players. And so it is important and good, I think, to have a surrogate, like a player who, understands the lore and can call it out and that helps articulate how deep a season like Survivor 50 runs and so yeah Rizzo's the latest version of this

and it's been like the perfect version of it like I said it's been like a dream for him surely but it's kind of maybe he's going to retire this because it's kind of so textbook like picture perfect because it's so extreme It's a young super fan who was on the couch less than a year ago, plays on 49, comes into 50 and still has the stars in his eyes, hasn't seen himself on TV and whatnot. And then he's in super embedded with these legends, with Surrey, with Ozzy, with coach with all of them, right?

in my opinion it has really really been a huge part of it's elevated this season so yeah definitely kudos to riso but i think yeah i think uh he uh yeah he brings a lot to the cast yeah the response to him i think has been a very earnestly positive for rizzo and if you would have asked me if you would have just like given me like the readout of what this was going to be of okay you have this super fan who refers to himself in the third person the man the myth the legend as i i would say boy the internet is going to hate this they're not going to like this this like he's going to be talking about like how many idols this person found and and he's the biggest super fan he knows everything like, boy, this is exactly what the internet hates.

Right. I think that really speaks to Rizzo as an individual, right? Because there are a couple things. First of all, the 180 that someone goes through if they have preconceived notions of someone and they kind of subvert them in a way, that makes you like that person more than if you just started out liking them.

And it's, you know, notable that he wasn't a perfect stranger to these people. His first impression was on the 49 preview calling himself the man the myth of legend R-I-Z-G-O-D-R-G-G-R-G-G-R-G-G-G-R-G-G-G-G-R-Babby. And so he probably came in with a purse, like a hole. He was like dug in a whole perception-wise.

But I think that was like the perfect runway for him to show. And I think it's just really, really visible in all this scenes he has, having conversations with people, whether it's strategic conversations, whether it's personal conversations. although he wears his super fandom on his sleeve, right? I think there's a balance to it where I don't think he like gets lost in the sauce.

I think he holds on one hand how much he loves what's happening and like this dream run he's on. And the fact that he's on Survivor. But on the other hand, like he's kind of like all business and he's present in the game. And he can go and say, oh, great job, Rick for finding six idols and then, you know, do what he needs to do. And I think just that particular, just the fact that he's,

I think he's like really good at having strategic conversations. He's good at building allies. I think he's got a way of communicating that puts people at ease. I think all of the cartoonish stuff he says for the confessionals, which is doubly great for us, right, and a service to his game. So, yeah, like, he's, he's earned this. I think he's earned it. So, and I think that's why people are responding positively to it

because it's got the subversion of expectations, but yeah, like he's struggling in that way, so it's cool. Lee wants to ask you, please ask Andy how he likes his steak cooked. I don't know where this is going, but medium rare. Be rare, okay, that's good. New rare. Yeah. That's kind of the, that's kind of the,

socially acceptable. Yeah. What would be the unsocially acceptable answer? It was rare? It was on 48. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Rewind the tapes to Surveh 48. Charity said she had her stakes

meeting well and she was called a psychopath by her tribe. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, if you go, if you go darker, I would say like, okay, well, what if I like a really rare steak? What does that say about me?

Probably also bad in the wrong way. That's bad. You got to be in the sweet. fun. But from my understanding, if you do it, if you do it, uh, medium well or well, then you get, um, you get judged very harshly by the state community. You don't like it. Yeah. They don't want, they don't, because it's not the proper. Yeah, it's not the proper. Mm-hmm. And what else is, yeah, what else is in your survivor notebook? What else is in my survivor notebook? Um, do we mean like, actually, like, or just like,

I mean, you could tell us anything that's in your real Survivor Notebook. Do you have any other thoughts about this episode? This episode. It really was my favorite of this season. I have enjoyed 50 up to this point. It hasn't been good. But even recently, I was a little bit, not on the fence, but I'm like, let's wait to see, like, what direction this season takes. Because the expectations were so high.

I'm like thinking, like, where is this actually going to, like, a rank, especially relative to the anticipation for it? this was a huge step in the right direction. And so, like, this is like... Yeah. Not only was it a great episode, but... It's kind of like a great episode that could only be on a returning player season. You know, it's hard. Survivor is so forward-looking that the...

You have, you know, the truly great seasons. But for the most part, I think we love to look ahead to what's coming up in Survivor and the anticipation of 50. Was it ever going to be able to match, you know, all of... Like, this person's coming, this is coming back, this is coming back. And now it's... It's almost like it's almost over. And, you know, will it be, you know, regarded as like the, like the culmination of like years in the making?

That is something we're in the middle of. So we're not going to really know until this all this is out. That's what makes it exciting. I think it's cool to be a Survivor fan at the moment. I think this is, it has been really enjoyable so far and it has been super epic. but also and again as someone who's been enjoying the season

I'm actually really excited for it to be done and I'm like it's just been yeah like the anticipation has been years and years in the making there's been a probability to it there's been like a heaviness to it

I hope it just like really sticks the landing and people regard it well and then like we'll see what they we'll see what they do next What should they do next? We've talked about this before. Here's what they need to do next.

Something different. It can't be 51. I honestly at this point, I don't even really care what it looks like. It just can't look like 49. If it's like any change anything and I'm going to be really happy. Yeah. Because this is again a demarcation point like Winners at War kind of was, right? So I just, and we don't need to be.

We can slowly deprecate the new era title and the branding. Like, we don't have to call it the new, new era. We don't have to keep it in the new era. Like, it's just, yeah. And I just, yeah, I just hope it's fresh. In 49, it was really, you know, it was a slow start, and 50 was coming. And there's just, I did not feel the energy from the community for season 49. certainly had its moments, especially towards the end, but just people were kind of checked out,

I felt like, during Survivor 49. And it's been so nice to have everybody excited and all this energy in 50, and I don't want it to go away. No, I don't want it to go away either. Yeah, I know. I mean, with 49 was always going to be in a tough place. And I just, I do think, uh, not even saying too much about the season itself, but it, the newer effect, fatigue really started to show in 49 particularly. And I know people have been complaining about newer stuff since 41 and 42. I understand that. But I do think despite complaints from season to season,

the newer was something that was kind of growing and shaping and, you know, taking form. And a lot of the seasons, despite in numbers and stuff, they did have their own type of flavor. And it wasn't until 49 where it was just like, oh, this is just like another newer season. So I mean, maybe

but 50 is something, say what you, it's something different. So 50 is not obviously. Well, to build on what you're saying that the new era was born in a spirit of experimentation. We're trying

new stuff. Maybe it's going to work. Maybe it's not. Well, we're going to, but we're going to try it. And we sort of like reached a point where that there was experimentation, and then it was almost like that by the time they got, you know, I think 46 and 47 were great.

And then when we got to like 48, and then ultimately 49, it's like, hey, we figured out the formula, you know, that we're not really, we're not really experimenting anymore, you know, and the players are sort of like, they know what it's going to be,

and we're just sort of like just playing out the string until 50. I mean, yes, I certainly agree with that. And it's funny because the producers used to get so much flack for being the opposite. In maybe the 20s of the 30s, people were just so sick of them coming up with these new ideas every season,

with these new twists. It's like, come on, let's Survivor be Survivor. What is it's like Redemption Island? What is all this nonsense? Oh, we hate these themes. They're just like getting in the way. All we care about is like the bones of Survivor. and then the newer has been the opposite, right?

And people are feeling the other extreme of that where it's like these producers are, I think at their heart, they're creatives. You know, they identify as artists. Like they do, right? They're show business. Yeah, but they're also pretty like, I don't want to say stubborn in the bad way,

but they're kind of resilient to criticism. That's right. So they want to let things play out. And they have with the newer. But there has to be a, there has to come a point, and I hope it's 51, where even so for them on their own terms in their heart, they're like, okay, it's time for some new ideas. But not radical ideas. It's like we wanted to not be exactly the same, but not unrecognizable from what it was that we like, like what's the five percent change? that you could be doing every season

that makes it feel a little bit different from what came before, but not so unrecognizable that we're like, what is this? You know what? In my opinion, the way to get the sweet spot is really simple.

And it's not even new, off-of-wall ideas every season. It's just basic variety. It's the basic, like if 51 is two tribes... Oh my God. Oh my God, it would be so happy, right? It's two tribes.

It's called Survivor. Red Team versus Blue Team. We're like, oh, my God. I don't want to even make it. It's not even like politics. I'm just saying like, pick two colors. It's the blue team versus Orange Team. People would go nuts for that because it's like,

and we've had it a lot in the past, but not for such a long time. And two tribes is a completely different, like it is a different dynamic. Like, it's a different kind of vibe of a season. And so the best thing that they could do is just the basic

new player is cast. They're on 51, the 52, 53. And they're really not sure exactly what the season is going to look like. They're not going to know exactly what the colors are. Like with the new era, the colors are static as well.

You know your red, yellow, blue in the fall, orange, green, purple in the spring. Switch that up. Two tribes, three tribes, maybe sometimes there's toys, maybe sometimes there's not, you don't have to call it.

It could just be 53, 54, whatever. But a touch of unpredictability could go a long way. And then as long as you, all you have to do is kind of cycle that. And then the seasons will regain their distinct identities. Do you want them to say,

drop the five, keep the one? No, I don't. They should come up with something else, for sure. What do you think of two tribes? and it's Taghi and Pagong. What do you think about that? We're going to, let's... Well, are we going back to Borneo?

No, it's not Borneo. No, it's in Fiji. It's still Fiji. It's still Fiji. That's fun, right? Yeah, sure. Why not? 50 seasons ago, the two tribes waged war this season. It's a rematch.

Tagi versus Pagong. Are they going to have captains? Is it going to be Greg Giew? and who do we want from tommy. You want Greg? You know, Greg would do it. I mean, Jenna Lewis, you could certainly have her come back.

Who haven't we seen Sean? John Kniff. Sean Kinnif? I don't know. Yeah, I don't think you'd bring back a hatch. I don't think Sue would do it. You know,

they better, they better not bring back the Tagi tribe. That's sacred. Yeah. But in the spirit of that, Have fun with it, you know. Do a first boot season. Do a Borneo Redux.

Sure. Throw in, newbie seasons, throw in. What's the next All-Star season? When do we get in that? I have no idea. Give me a prediction. Pick a number. 54.

54. Okay. That's, yeah, that's my best guess, but whatever. I mean, you know, the whole community gets riled up in anticipation of, All-Star seasons and when they're going to happen, you just can't, you can't prognosticate. But I would think that would be good.

Like, I do think that, you know, mixing in returning player seasons, hey, listen, what if it's half and a half? I'd be fine with that as well. Like, just, yeah, just add some variety, have, like, year to year, we don't know exactly what to expect. Yeah.

And it's hard. Yeah. You don't have to like. The returning player season. They've never done a good job with coming out of the returning player season. Like, you don't think the season after has ever been good. I think that you could say, Co-wrong and second chance is the one time that I think it was,

and they shouted out of border. But I think that every season after the big returning player season has always struggled. There's probably some truth to that. Like, off the top of my head, it goes, here's first villains into Nicaragua. That's kind of tough. That's kind of tough. But while it is, I mean, and this isn't a hot take, but like, you know, with the new era, the pressure has been the pressure valve, you know, it's been building and building and building.

So 50 has to be this giant season. It's got to be three different seasons at once. You don't do that if you just, if you have a good cadence. And it doesn't even like the early 20s. Yeah, I think at this point I'm just kind of preaching to the choir, right? But my point is like it doesn't take these. gargantuan changes. All you need to do is kind of, you know, slowly, gradually, whatever, bring back some of the hits that we now and cycle them. Play the hits. Yeah.

Okay. All right, Andy, what's next for you? Just live in life and it's good. I'll tell you what. Here's what next for me. You know, I'm a Buffalo sports fan. But the deals are in their offseason. The Buffalo Sabres, you're not a hockey.

guy. No. Are you? No, you're not a hockey guy. They are, they are, they have just snapped a 14 year playoff drought. Yes, giving the Jets the longest playoff drought, I believe, in North American sports. And not only that, but they started the season off quite dreadfully as well. And then since then it's been, you know, a baby Andy-esque.

Sometimes, yeah, you need to really have a disaster to undo the disaster. and boom, they won the division and they're headed into the playoffs. Red Hot. I'm going to be locked into that. Yes. All right. Congratulations for you. Yeah, thank you. And then, you know, yeah, I got to do something big. You know, like, Eva Erickson, she goes all around. She goes to the best hockey game.

She always is the best seats. She needs to take me to a Buffalo Sabres games. How does she have such a good connect? Because she's a hockey player? I think so. I think so. She's got a big following on social media as well. Wow. But she's,

you know, she's over in Winnipeg with Genevieve. She's over, she's all over the place at the NHL. Get me playoff tickets, Eva. We'll go together. Okay.

All right. You heard of here first. All right. And then, Andy, where can people follow you? I'm on Instagram, Andy D.

Ruehita. And I'm, at this point, I'm a Twitter lurker. I just never have. I never have the need to share my opinion. That's like I think it's great when people do. I just fine.

We need more of that. I like to pop in. I like to pop in here like once a season. I like to see what's going on. Yeah. Yeah. I was checking. I was doing more of they have a 4 you page and then I have a lot of lists.

And for a long time I was looking at the 4U page. and I stopped doing that and I really just went back to just looking at just the people I follow and that was a much better experience. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah, I agree with that. In terms of, yeah, like,

you know, I actually enjoy tweeting about Big Brother way more than Survivor. I don't know, maybe I'm too close. Twitter is legendary. Big Brother Twitter is an entity unto itself. Yes, yeah. All right. So maybe I'll do that.

Well, thank you all so much for joining us. It was so fun, Andy. I always appreciated when you come by. It was Thanksgiving the last time that we did one of these. Yes. And I was very thankful for our. Yes, I was thankful for that. And we're so thankful for everything we've gotten from Survivor 50 so far.

Thank you so much, everybody. Take care of a good one. Bye.