RHAP: We Know Survivor - David Genat’s Front Row Seat to the Chaos of Survivor AU Redemption

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

David Genat’s Front Row Seat to the Chaos of Survivor AU Redemption Australian Survivor Redemption host David Genat joins Rob Cesternino to break down the wildest season of Australian Survivor yet. The former Golden God, and now show host, joins Rob to break down the most unpredictable moments of this season’s Australian Survivor. With the season’s “Redemption” theme front and center, this episode dives into returnees’ big moves, surprise underdog rises, and a post-merge that’s all about shifting loyalties and secret plans. Did giving the underdogs the “passenger” label actually unite them and spell doom for the returning big dogs? Rob and David walk through the chaos of Tribal Councils, where whispering, live negotiations, and even a creative (but illegal) “two rocks” bluff from Simon left everyone scrambling. They spotlight how key players like Keeley, Ben, Sally, and Jackson stepped into power, sometimes with wild moves like selfless idol plays or near-miss advantage errors. The pair also pull back the curtain on what it’s like to host Survivor as a former player, especially when friends like Brooke are on the line, and every torch snuff has emotional weight. Did the passenger strategy backfire, allowing new faces to seize control when it mattered most? Fun behind the scenes moments with idol mechanics, torch snuffing, and the challenges of setting your own host style. Concrete breakdowns of how the final four, Sally, Loz, Jackson, and Caleb, found their paths to the end, and what could matter at final Tribal. Theories on leadership vacuums, chaotic Tribals, and why Ben’s late-game rise and Keeley’s idol game made them must-watches. Production insights into how live reunions and social games shape the biggest moments in Australian Survivor. With the finale around the corner, who can own their big move at Tribal and convince the jury they played the best game? Listen or watch now for all the to hear all the strategies, torch snuffs, and power shifts from Redemption! 0:00 Finale Preview and Spoiler Warning 6:00 David on Hosting Survivor Transition 12:00 Letting Players Shine This Season 18:00 Crafting a Distinct Host Identity 24:00 Chaos at Tribal Councils Escalates 30:00 Redemption Theme’s Personal Meaning 36:00 Underdogs’ Rise and Power Shift 42:00 Keeley and Ben’s Breakout Games 48:00 Brooke’s Struggles and Exit 54:00 Big Moves and Jury Resume 1:00:00 Final Four Player Deep Dive 1:06:00 Caleb’s Social Play Spotlight 1:12:00 David’s Survivor Legacy Vision Never miss a minute of RHAP’s extensive Global Survivor coverage! LISTEN: Subscribe to the Survivor Global 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!

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free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. When Westcham first took flight in 1996, The vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion. Inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s,

one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. Hey, everybody, what's going on? Rob here, getting you ready for very fun podcasts that I'm bringing you with the host of Australian Survivor

the great David Jene is going to be joining me. David had wanted to come on and talk a little bit before the finale convinced me to catch up on Australian Survivor so we could talk about it. And so here is my conversation with David. We will have spoilers about Australian Survivor. So if you are not yet caught up, I highly advise that you do so. Of course, we make it so easy for the patrons of Rob is a podcast to check it out with all of the great international watch parties and such that we have available for you. And of course, check out all of our normal Australian Survivor coverage that Mike Bloom has been bringing you after every single episode in our Australian Survivor Feed.

And here is my conversation with David. Hey, everybody, what's going on? Rob Sestradino, and I am so thrilled. This is so fun that I am here with a man who has recently made some incredible, history that he has gone from winning a franchise to now becoming the host of Australian Survivor. Of course, we know him also as the winner of Deal or No Deal Island. Please welcome back.

The Golden God. It's David. Junae. David, how are you? Rob, I'm so good. It's very early in Australia at the bottom. It's very early. Very, very good.

And I appreciate you making some time for us here as the Australian Survivor finale. is coming up in just a couple of days. It's been an incredible season, I guess as per usual, on Australian Survivor, but this one has been really, really fun. It's been a really chaotic post-merge. I've had the pleasure of catching up.

So we will do spoilers and talk about all that. But let's catch up for a minute. How have you been? Yeah, I'm good, man. I just flew back into Australia because we're doing a live announcement. Oh. and the whole thing, the reunion.

Everything's going to be taped in Australia for our finale next week. So I'm back to do that and I've been going really good. Like it's been such a good season. It's so bizarre as a huge fan of Survivor to get to be on the other side of things and like see how things are done and then watching

the edit back from the host perspective. Yeah. Really, really trippy, Rob. I'm sure. I'm sure. Because I really was thinking about you and this position that you're in because it's so unique. And I was just trying to think about the number of people that have done what you've done. And it's really very few

people that there's my friend, Kristen Kish, who she won Top Chef and now she's the host of Top Chef. I think some people have come out of The Bachelor and now they have a different Bachelor hosts who have come out of the show. But really that your position is so unique because that the Australian Survivor or the Survivor hosts really have not changed much that, you know, Jeff has done all the seasons and for all of the talk of like, oh, one day Boston Rob is going to host Survivor. It's never happened. But here you are to come with this such a unique background of having played so much Survivor, but now sitting on the other side of tribal council and being the host and being behind the scenes and all of that, it must be so surreal.

It is, it is. But it's amazing. I think like, I think that, I think that. transition from play to host is probably the smoothest you can get, as opposed to someone who doesn't know the game. And like, maybe there's people who would be good at hosting and crafting that. But there's just so much that happens in Survivor and having to understand all the nuance of the game and being able to facilitate a game without giving away people's game play. Like, I think I had a pretty distinct advantage, especially because I'd played so many days of Survivor before I took over, you know? Yeah. Now, whenever I get away from Australian Survivor,

I sometimes I forget just how great Australian Survivor is. And I don't ever need to come on and pooh-poo the American version of Survivor because we're having season 50. We have all these players that are back right now. And so

in its own ways that there is an epicness to Survivor 50. But Australian Survivor is just always so good. It's so good. And it's so pure. I think this room for both. There's room for both shows. Yeah. I'm not here to dunk on the, on the US Survivor. I just that it's really you, you forget sometimes when you spend some of time in the US Survivor.

Like, oh, like, yeah, this is, this is Survivor. We're playing Survivor. It's great. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's great. I just think it's like, they almost exist. It's the same kind of core concept. They're just quite different shows. Yeah. You know, and I think there's a few things. that make Australian Survivor different. It's like a lot longer, there's a bit more challenge-centric. It's a lot different. It's kind of like, yeah.

So there's a few things that make it distinctly different. But in a way, it's almost like there's two separate versions of the show. And I love both. I love American Survivor. I obviously love Australian Survivor. I'm not trying to put you in a position to, you know, say, and neg the U.S. survivor, you know, like, but I just, I want to talk about, like, how satisfying Australia,

alien survivor can be because to me it's such a especially in a season like this it's such a war of attrition and the u.s. survivor i think that they wanted to be hey it's it's fast it's you know everybody's on their toes you don't know what we're going to do next but you know what sometimes it's like really fun to just let people play survivor yeah and that's that's really what we wanted to do this season is like that game exists like let the players play it and we give them all the pieces of the puzzle and they have to put it together how they want and then when you're relying on the players to do that they their creativity shines through you're not worrying about producers having to do creative things like we'll add some twists or we'll put an advantage

or something in there but like our cast they're amazing people and we're like casting these people who are so creative and love the game and like want to play some of them don't know the game that well but like we they want to play and then that creativity is what gives it a spark Yeah. You know, and I love that. I think it is a real purity to that, you know. And I want to talk about all of the big moves in this crazy post merge, but I'm just,

I've been so interested watching you because I knew that this conversation was coming up and having you go through this first season as the host. And I bet it must have been a challenge to sort of like find the line of you don't, you want to be fun, but you don't want to be too wacky. you don't want to come in and sort of take up because I feel like, and I hope you take this right way, as a player, I felt like that you were always the center of attention. I feel like you enjoy that in your gameplay.

You are the golden god, but I almost feel like that as host, I almost feel like that you are trying not to make it about you. Oh, 100%. Like I wanted to just let the players shine a bit more. Like for me, the show of Survivor has always been about the players and investing in. When I was watching, there was players that I wanted to emulate or I'd be like, oh, I'd do it like that. Or like, you're thinking about the strategy of how that goes.

And that never really included for me the host. So I wasn't going to host a show and become like this big character. Now, I think it's good for me to have like little banter and funny moments and like interact with them is super important. But in terms of like being. a character on screen. For me, it's always about the players. And so that's what I wanted to do this season, just to make sure that you gave the players a chance to shine, especially when we've got, we had four attorneys, but we had 20 new players. And like, for the show to be successful, we need stars. We need people to play and become big and become big characters so that people are invested

in them if they come back for another season. So I was there more to facilitate that than anything, you know. Do you think in any ways it was harder for you to come back in a season that had returnies where I kind of feel like that if it was just straight up new players who came in, that it's a little bit more that, okay, you're unimpeachable, but you have people, not only returnees, but also somebody that you played with in Brooke. Yeah. Yeah. Were there challenges there of like, okay, all right, now I'm not your friend David anymore. Like, I'm the host. Yeah. They're definitely.

There definitely was some challenges with that, but I liked it. I think it added, it kind of gave me a bit of like respect mystique because these are people who I'd played with who already respected me from the game. And when you're coming in as the host, you need the, you need them to like listen to you and respect you. And you can get that, you build that. But when like a previous host already has that respect built in, you're walking out going like, whoa, there's Jeff.

Like there's an instant feeling of that, right? And so I had to have that built in from day one, having never hosted. So I'm trying to find that rapport with the players, how I want them to interact with me, how I want them to respect me, how I want them to listen to me. But because I had those four returnees there, there was always going to be that little extra bit of banter because two of them are pretty close friends with. Like Brooke and Harry have been like for good friends of mine, Brooke especially. Like we're very, very close.

So there was a lot of this like having to keep up almost like a bit of a fence with Brooke. But obviously, some of the times on the inside, I was wanting her to do well. Like, and a lot of the challenges, you know, you're seeing an actual friend, like, struggle through these painful moments. And I'd have to be in my head being like, no, no, you'd done that before. It's not that bad. She'll be fine. She'll be fine.

But I kind of really like that. I really like that human element to it. And then, like, with Brooke, obviously, like, I hugged her after. Yeah, that was a really nice moment. Yeah. And I think those kind of things are what makes Survivor special. Because it is human stories, right? We're telling these human stories.

They're going through an incredible, like, ordeal. But it is really about that story of, like, where they've come from, what they've pushed through and, like, what they've achieved to be in that moment. And the torch stuff is a really special moment. Like, everyone who's sitting there has seen that happen on screen, but they've also, like, earned that spot. So I wanted to make sure that felt like a really big moment for them. They've just blown their chance at a lot of money.

and to sit in that space and like a lot of them are coming from like their head spinning because they've just been blindsided, you want that to be their big moment because it's the last time you'll kind of see them on screen other than that little tale interview or if they make jury. But like I wanted that moment to just be really, really special for all of them, you know? And so you're trying to keep up that mystique about you, you know, but then with Brooke, I just kind of, she was like, can have a hug? I was like, yeah, of course, come back. Yeah, it's a unique relationship.

I mean, I don't think we've ever had anything like that before in Survivor. Now, the torch snuff, that's a very important part of the job. Did you practice that a bunch before? Yes. Yeah, man. Plenty of times. I mean, we did a lot of rehearsals. There's a lot of pre-production that goes in.

Just even with camera placement, because I'm a much bigger person than Jonathan as well. So when they're like setting up tribal council, it was just from the stool height to the height of the torch where it's going to sit, what my hand is going to do for clarity of filming. There was a lot of thought going into that because I'm like 6'4. So it's like a lot of the players are smaller. I noticed I think maybe there's the Cameron vote out. I was like, wow, like David is like, is he standing in a hole? So I should have just like knelt down a little bit.

You should dig a hole for you. You just like step into it. The driver's fucking. But there's a lot that goes into it. And I got to do it like a bunch of times. I think the first time you're hosting this show that you love, there's so many surreal moments that happen because you're saying these things where it's like 24 players, 45.

You know, you're doing all these things that are like, oh my God, I'm actually doing this. But the torch stuff for me was the biggest. And we ran through that so many times. And there's also some like, you know, health and safety stuff where they're like, the guy that's in charge of fire and stuff, make sure you don't want to like set someone on light, you know.

Oh, wow. There's a bunch of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a lot of technical stuff behind. the scenes they do. So I got to practice at heaps here. You know, I think it must be very hard to come in and host Survivor and just not do a Jeff impression or a JLP impression. And I think that that must be like the instinct of just,

okay, I say all of the things, say it the way that they were saying them. And I think it's probably really hard to find the things to put your own spin on them. Did you find that a challenge to sort of like find your own voice for this? Yeah, a little bit. I mean, did you ever watch Seinfeld? Yeah. Did I watch Seinfeld? Yeah.

Yes. And I like that when you said, you said in, I believe it was in All-Stars that you said to Jericho, that's gold, Jerry, right? Gold, Jerry. I remember that. Because I was a huge, I was a huge Seinfeld fan. But yeah, it's like it really is these pretzels are making me thirsty. Like, how many ways can you say that? Yeah.

And there's certain beats in the script we have to say. Like, you have to say the tribe has spoken. So you've got to try to find that rhythm of like how it flows naturally. You want it to like really mean something, put some gravitas behind it or whatever you're trying to do. And not sound exactly like the other guys who have said it or done it. Yeah. So for me, that was more just about like being in the moment and letting it flow as that was going. But it is tricky because the framework is good for a reason.

Like Jonathan was great. Yeah. Like I don't want to change too much about what Jonathan did, like especially some of those beats. but like, you know, you've got all these scripted things you have to hit, and then you're able to ad lib inside that little environment. But like, it's been created for a reason. And Jonathan's the mouthpiece for a script. I'm a mouthpiece for a script.

I'm not sure how much scripting Jeff does, but it's like that's kind of how. You haven't wrapped yet. I haven't. I haven't. I haven't. I haven't. I'm not sure I will. I don't want to disappoint anyone.

Not very, not my bars aren't nice. Yeah. But watching you as a hope. I feel like that a big influence on you, what I'm seeing, I feel like that I see Joe Maggielo from Dondi. Is that part of your hosting influence? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I took a lot of stuff from Joe.

I think he, I spoke with him a lot about doing this. And he's kind of like stancing. I mean, I put a lot of weight on because of Joe. Like I was when we were trying to figure out how to differentiate myself from players, he's like, he's like, dude, just get big. Get bigger. So, yeah, get bigger. So that was kind of like something I intentionally did before the season to try and like lift a lot of weights to make myself get more stature. But yeah, I picked up a lot of stuff from Joe.

I talked to him a lot about it and like what he bought. And the thing that Joe did for us with Dondy is like I was always locked onto him. Like his presence when he was there and like, hosting, I was always like, whoa, are you really listened to what Joe was saying? Yeah. Sometimes he was saying some crazy contrived stuff because of the challenge, to the challenge. But, like, he just had this presence to him. And that's more what I wanted to emulate is like that, that experience that Joe gave us a body.

Being the host of Survivor is, as you know, a very hard job. You're the umpire, but you're also the voice of the audience in the show. you're also the play-by-play person in the challenge. You know, it's hard to find the line between the player's friend that they turn to and also the cop who's calling them out when they're breaking the rules. How do you know where to go in the different, like, roles of the host of Survivor? So a lot of it, a lot of it is our team. Like, I would love to be like, oh, it's just me, like, freestyle it out there.

But like we have a whole team of like producers and directors and story producers that give you direction based on what the challenge is going to do. And we'll rehearse it a couple of days before. And like they'll have a dream team run it. So I'm already have an idea of where I want to take it with commentary on a challenge because we've run it with like fake players. Yeah. So then when it comes, obviously the players always do some crazy stuff that I'm like,

who would have even thought of doing that inside the bounds of this challenge? but you just kind of run with that as it goes. But we already have these beats that we want to hit, how you want it to happen. And then you just come out from a place of authority. If they're doing something that's illegal or not supposed to be doing, I just have full license to be like, look, stop, we're going to do this. You can't do that.

And then you just kind of like, you know, play a little good cop, bad cop. And for the most part, the players are generally pretty, don't break too many of the rules. Like they try to be creative or they try to think outside the box and do stuff. but for the most part, for the most part, they're pretty good about staying inside the bounds of the game that we provide them. You got thrown into the deep end of the pool here this season because both Jeff and JLP,

they got to grow with the show. It was season one, the players didn't really know what they were doing, everybody sort of just like figuring it out. You come into this season, and this has been one of the crazier survivor season, specifically at tribal council, than I can ever recall, watching. And so you're doing your thing. You're in the zone. You're asking people questions and constantly

there's whispering. There's people doing like turning to each other. Do you have an idol? Okay. I'll give you the idol. Okay. Okay. And then people get up and they walk around. How do you practice for, okay, do I stop what I'm saying? Do I address the people that are talking? Do I do, am I doing play by play of like, okay, all right, well, Keely just got up and now she's talking, what do you think? Like, how do you prepare for that? I love that.

I love, love, love that. So when that was kind of happening, I just wanted to let that happen. And there's, there's like, in these environment, especially a tribal, there's a real power in silence for me sometimes. Where like, because you'll be, you'll be bouncing that ball around with some questions

where people just don't want to answer it. Yeah. But like, they're reality TV. they want to be reality TV stuff. Someone will talk. So a lot of times I will use silence to let something come out when where people are, oh, maybe they're a bit buttoned up and they don't want to talk about this or they don't want to give something away. And you can, you can use silence to just be like, and then someone will sit and then I can chase them. So these moments when people were like standing up, if I was in the middle of a question, I'd let someone kind of finish. But like,

I want that to resonate with the guys who are sitting down. I'm like, you see what's happening here. And a lot of times I would, sometimes I'd point it out to him because I look a bit confused, but I'd be like, there's only two people standing up. You're saying you don't have a move to play here,

but there's only two people standing up and there's three of you sitting in these seats. So, I mean, that must mean something, surely. And that was like, that,

for me, that was really fun when they were doing that. I know it kind of like felt a bit chaotic, but to me it added like this really good tension and energy to our tribal councils. And I think probably Mark, Mark Warnock set the tone with that when he was so good. votes by SNET. Yeah. Yeah. And once that started happening, now, now other people want to do it too,

you know. So it sets this pace of like, oh, I want, I'm going to do that. I want to, I want to part of this. And I love those side chats at travel. In a way, it's easier when they get up and they stand up and they've sort of like, that's actually happening. But in sometimes it's like, they're like, like, they're whispering to each other. Side whispers, yeah. But you're in the middle of talking to somebody, it must be hard to say, okay, do I pull out of the questioning? Do I just ignore it? Like, Brooke, is there something you want to share with everybody? You know, it's like, how do you make that call of like, am I blowing up their game? It's really just, it's really just feeling it as it's happening, right? Because, like, sometimes, like, they are nervous to chat.

It's like kids in a, in a school yard in a way. Like, they know they probably shouldn't be talking because someone is speaking. But there's also, like, I've spoken about this a little bit, but like, there's a real tribal craft for players, like good players have this tribal craft where they can construct their narrative and they can hold court in tribal and speak and they're going to be like, here's the story of what's happening where there's this undertone of what they're actually going to do. So tribal craft is really, really important. And if I thought it was something that was affecting like someone's grand moment that was doing a setup, yeah, maybe I'd call it out or go with it. But a lot of times those little sidechats are just paranoia for people being like,

are we good, are we good? And there's not much to it. And sometimes I could hear it. Sometimes I couldn't hear it. And so just depending on what thing to follow, it really is based on what that person I'm engaging with at the time is saying. And like I set tribal up because, you know, we have that idea of who's going to go home or what the story is going to be for this tribal council. And like if you're gone home, Rob, I want to get a grab from you that's basically talking about how safe you feel. So a lot of these things are going through like a motion of getting you to point where I've like, oh, we got Rob. You know, he's like, he's said what we need him to say.

And then you can, you know, you go through those motions of the vote and everything happening. So as long as it wasn't affecting too much of that stuff, I love those little, little side chats in the drama. Do you feel like that you have a unique training for this job where, okay, you're at tribal council, you know what story the production is looking for to, okay, this, this is like the, what is happening in the episode. And so, whereas if you, if you,

were at tribal council, you might be operating a certain way. It's almost like that now you're using it's in some ways it's a similar set of skills of like here's what I want to accomplish at this tribal council. Yeah, definitely. I think the difference is when you don't have all the pieces of the puzzle, like when I was a player, like I went into a tribal and I was like, this is what I'm trying to accomplish at this tribal council. And I just 100%, like unless I got a really bad vibe from someone, I was like really believed in what I was doing. You had to kind of, I had to trust myself that like I had a good read from the scramble that I'd come into tribal and I'm like, all right, this is the story I'm going to craft for the audience, for Joe,

for the other people I'm playing with who I need to pull the wool over their eyes. And that's how I would operate. I would talk irrespective of what I thought was happening because you have to at some point trust for the people you're playing with. Now, you don't trust them all the way. But like in that scenario, if you're going in there being like, oh, I have no trust in Rob. He's like, it's going to ruin my whole.

my whole shtick at tribal. Whereas for me, now that I've got all, I know where these guys are all sitting and what their general vote is going to be in the tribal council and what we want to get out of story for tribal council. It's more about like not giving their game away and giving them a chance to tribal,

to have that tribal craft, to do what I once did when I sat there without blowing their spot, but also keeping them a little bit accountable. There's an expression in a straight about playing a straight bat because in cricket you play a straight bat. It's a very defensive maneuver, maybe like bunting in baseball.

And a lot of people play a straight bat, and we don't want straight bat because that's terrible TV, right? Like we want people to be able to talk about what they're doing or like weave their web or their lie. And so a lot of those times it's more me just trying to get them to not play a straight bat. Like give me that grab, like give me something related to what your game is. So people at home, we're making a TV show.

Like you need to entertain. You need to tell your story without just being like, I don't know, it was a good day. No, I really love Robbies. You know, like there's just all these things you have to work through. But it's just finding it in that moment. But having knowing what I wanted to achieve as a player gave me incredible insight as a host. So then I could give that to them in most scenarios, you know? This time of year, the weather is crazy.

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asked I figure what the exact quote was that you asked Cameron if he was going to pull an icarus and he was like what wait why don't I say and then you used I thought it was a very fun, lighthearted moments. You know what, I'm done. We're done with you. Jackson, okay, let's go to you now. But yeah, I think that that's, you know, really just fun stuff that you've brought to it. I want to talk about there was a moment in the season where I think this was another one where you must have been like in uncharted waters where Simon has told Jackson earlier in the season that, hey, if we go to a tie, I'll pull a rock for you.

I'll take two rocks out of the bag. Simon and confessionals is like, I can't do that. That's like as the rules. And it was a little bit at tribal council. I didn't know if you were going to reveal that or not. You had a moment where you said, what's that two rocks?

How does that work? We had a big, we had a big, meeting about this. We had a big meeting about this. Because if someone does ask me to clarify a rule, I do have to clarify it, right? But we also loved, it comes back to that creativity of our players, right? Like, finding, this is what I love about Survivors. Just when you think everything's been done, someone finds just like this little angle or a new bluff. And for me, what Simon was doing with that, I thought it was so fun and creative that he would even think of that, which is what makes Simon such a great player. But yeah, there was a big meeting where we were kind of discussing like, do we blow his

spot on this? Like, how do we let it happen? And it needed to be addressed and hinted at, but unless there was going to be a direct questioning of the rules, how do we handle it? But there was a lot of, there was a lot of chats around it. Because it's just like those little fun things, we know we're going to be moments for the show. You know, someone comes up with something you're like, oh, that's going to be so good. We're going to love like expanding on that. And I actually really, I really, really wish they had to go to the rocks on that one. We all did. Yeah.

In the moment. Yeah, they tease us with rocks so much this season. Unfortunately, it never ended up coming to pass. I love the theme of the season. Redemption is, and again, I can tell you about the U.S. Survivor, how I really missed the themes. I think this was a really, really great theme. I think that unofficially, this idea of redemption. and having sort of these wounds

that the players, especially the returning players, has been kind of an unofficial theme in Survivor 50, but I love how you all have leaned into it in this particular season of Australian Survivor. Did the theme redemption mean anything personally to you? I mean, definitely when I kind of heard it, and obviously stuff was coming out about me hosting and it was being super well received

and everyone was very upset about Jonathan being removed. I was like, oh, it did start to feel a little bit for me. Because I thought, you know, I'm going to be able to do a good job here. I'm going to do my best here. And I hope at the end of the season, like, people have changed their attitude towards me being in host. So, yeah, definitely did have a bit of a personal element for me. And I think for me, themes, like people, I love the theme. I just think it's a great story plot that people can hold on to.

And our game is long, Rob. like there's a long, long time out there and small things that you wouldn't think matter become big deals. Like even just socially, right? Like the way you eat rice can become a problem. So like these things with like themes. And I'd seen it when I'd played. My first season was champions versus contenders.

Yeah. And like that became a big deal. Like the people who were being called champions, like it's really divisive. And it works. Those kind of things work. So I think for us like with redemption and I don't know, some people go, I don't know, let's see what the point of the theme is.

But like, these guys were coming in. And like, even if they just messed up a move, they were like, oh, I want redemption for this. And it made them play, like, really hard. And a lot of the players who their idea of redemption was maybe they hadn't quite succeeded in their life or being where they wanted to be in their life, that became their own personal redemption, you know. And so for me, I just, I loved it for story because I think, like, they grabbed it, you know?

And it's like they're not, you're not always seeing it on screen where they're like, I need to be a routine. But like they, they really, it was a good, it was a good thing. See, I can't speak for you as a survivor player, but I think that every survivor player that I've met, whether they won or not, they're all chasing some kind of redemption. They all feel like that something didn't go right. Even the ones that won, but they didn't show me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, or I didn't get enough credit. My edit wasn't what I exactly said it was or this person said I wasn't the best winner. And so all the survivor players are chasing. But I think that this theme is like these first-time players,

like everybody, not just survivor players, every human is in some way, shape, or form is like looking for redemption, no matter what's happened to them. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. 100%. I completely agree. And I think it's quite a relatable theme for most people because everyone just wants that

little do-over, especially if you're talking about people who had played before. Like I know hundreds of people who have played that would love redemption for their Survivor game. They thought they were coming in doing one thing. It wasn't that. It was perceived the wrong way. And so just to give them that opportunity, I think it's like, it's huge. Yeah. Even this way that the season has played out where it was a season that was dominated by, you know, the returnies and Keeley.

And even like some of the first-time players really, like, they stepped into the, the spotlight and they had their moment like Ben and like Cameron and they're all gone. Every single one of them is gone. But in some ways that it was these people that were called the passengers at times. Like this is like a redemption for the players who were told throughout so much of the season. It's like, hey, we're calling the shots. You're the background characters. you're not the stars

and somehow that ultimately their redemption is here that's the final four but well it's so brilliant right of the returning players to set that kind of feeling up because they've seen an edit they've seen an edit come out

the new players have never had that experience because there's multiple experiences when you play Survivor as you know the experience of what actually happened to you on the beach the experience that you have no clue about what people were saying about you, all that kind of stuff, you being voted out,

the divisive stuff behind your back. But then the edit is a completely different experience. And once you've gone through that, you realize there's this language that exists that if you use it, it's going to be on the show. And so for the returning players to just kind of set that thing up of like,

well, you're not doing anything. You're the riffraff. You have got passage and you all this stuff. We're seeing that as the audience. Now, if you haven't played, don't really have the advantage of like doing that. I don't think it's particularly true that these guys were passengers like that. Yeah. But they, they, just the language that's getting used by the returning players sets them up so that now our final four have this, oh, they were passengers, they were, but they're

there. They're the ones that are there. They're the ones who have done it. I thought it was so interesting to talk about this. And when, you know, we've certainly had this idea of this is something that Tony and US Survivor talked about the lions versus the hyenas of like, okay, the big players need to stick together. But I want to know from you if you think in some way it backfired on the returning players and the big dogs in that they set up this environment where they kept telling these people that were on the bottom, you have no chance. You've made no moves. There's no way you can win. The only thing you could ever do is work with us. That's the only chance you'll ever have because that's your only move. And they ended up sticking together in a way. And I forget if it was

Ben or Cameron who said, hey, you know what? We have nothing to lose and we're not afraid. And they ended up setting up this situation where it's like, hey, none of us can win anyway. We have no winning chance. So our only winning move is to stick together. And in some way, I think that that became such a powerful weapon that undid those people that were at the top.

Oh, 100%. 100%. I think you nailed it. Like they were using that kind of language that really, and I think at one point, Ben was calling it the revolution, but they banded them together in that way. But what I really loved about this season is that even though they were kind of taking swings, we haven't had, yes, there are the people who have kind of stuck together, but they've been stabbing each other in the back, like every second tribal. So they were like, they were really focused on having to make a move, which I'm like, that's what Survivor should be. You should be making a move. And I don't think in our final four, we've got someone there that can't say they weren't responsible for something happening in the show.

Now, yeah, of course, they kind of banded together. But, like, people have been, like, Jackson took out ban. Like, there's the, you know, there's been this, like, backstabby moments of, like, people having to vote their friends out, even Keely with Brooke. But it was that initial setup. And this is why I love returning cast so much, you know, because they just, they really, they really raise that level of, like, forcing these guys to, like, figure it out and play really hard. And you're right. I think they kind of dug their own graven that way. I think that this is a very interesting season for you to be the first host of,

because I think that this season is almost the exact opposite of the season that you won, where we have a season where you dominated, you had all kinds of records for confessionals. And, you know, I think that to most of the viewers, it seemed like a foregone conclusion, for the most part, David's got this. And then, you know, it wasn't a season with a lot of like twists and turns in terms of like the outcomes. It was, you know, sort of like a, you know, listen, I mean this as a compliment, a steamroll for you. You said what you like it. No, it did.

This is not a steam roll. This is the opposite. Rob, I'm just that good. This is the exact opposite. Yeah. But I think the other thing is when I had played, we were only, we were on our fifth season of a Australian Survivor. And we were in this mode where people kind of felt like our winners hadn't been physical

players, hadn't been like good at challenges or hadn't had like the chops to kind of like really get where they were. So no one believed I was going to win All-Stars until afterwards. And they were like, oh, yeah, that was a lock. It was so obvious. But I was up against it the whole time where the fans were like, there's no way after season four this guy's going to win. And then the narrative started changing after the actual peck of the same.

real time, I'm sure it very much seemed in doubt, but like, I think that it was. It was so obvious. Yeah. But this is, this is very much not that in terms of, it's not that. We haven't been able, there hasn't been someone that's really being able to step into that leadership role because they've always been usurped, which I think is fantastic for the game. It's just been so interesting for this season.

And like, even our pre-merge was really, really solid. Like, and just after merge, it's just ramped up. Like, people have been swinging and shifting and changing a line. and it's just, it's been magical television. You've, you know, all the returnees brought so much to the game coming back. They all did great. None of them ultimately got their redemption, but they all, I think, can hold their head up high that they played really, really hard and brought a lot to the show.

But I'm really fascinated by some of the first-time players that you found. And I feel like Keely has to play again. Oh, man. Cheeley was unbelievable. I thought she was going to win up until the point that she went home. I really felt like, okay, this is going to be where, you know, she worked with the returnees and they forgot to get rid of her. And I really thought that she was good.

To me, she was just so brilliant that the tribal council were her and Brooke. One has the real idol. One has the fake idol. That was just one of the most fun things I've ever seen on Survivor. Yeah, I mean, I just, I think Kili's game has been, was incredible, was absolutely incredible. And I think like when you come in to play Survivor, you've got a 1 in 24 chance of winning that money. But you've got a 100% chance of becoming an absolute legend

if you make these moves and you do stuff. And for me, Kili has just taken her game into her hands and she's not going, oh, I might, oh, maybe I'm going to win that one. She was like making sure that if she sat at the end, she was going to win that thing. Yeah. And like the selfless idol plays.

And like those are the things we love to see, especially when it's done successfully. And like it takes real like Moxie to be able to do those kind of moves. And like Achilles is just like a diamond in the rough when it comes to players, you know, because she was down to do that stuff. And unbelievable.

She was so fun to watch out there. I really came to love Ben also where he kind of came out of nowhere. And I was like, oh, like, who is this guy? He's sort of like the leader of the resistance. But then for, and then I was like, wow, this guy really, I felt like he really came

into his own and now I really I want to see him play again also. Yeah, well Ben Ben's narrative is he kind of came out of nowhere because that's what happened out there. Like he was, I thought, oh, we got a true, we got a true hero here. We got someone that's like, I'm not going to lie. I'm just going to be honest about how I'm playing this game. And then at some point, he was like, ah, let's got it. And he just like completely came out of his shell and started playing so, so hard. And Ben was like, I mean, one of my favorite characters. like super, super physical, playing really hard, standing up to, like, no one really wants to step into that leadership.

Leadership is tough because you know you're going to get taken out, right? If you ban the people together and you're like, listen, I'm the figurehead for this movement. You're going down. But for him to like actually do that was like, oh, so ballsy. And he was just a great, great player this season. He really was. And he really came into his own in the confessionals.

And he really, it was just fun to watch him over the course of a couple episodes. Really. but like where did you come from? Well, it also, it takes a little time for them to get used to the camera and be okay with them. Because there is that element of like, I don't know. And Australia also our cultural, like, it's a bit different to America where like, I think Americans, when they're playing, like, are good to go with sound bites and, like, they're happy to just, like, jump in and give us our best.

Whereas Ozzy, it takes a little bit to warm up because it's like culturally not that cool to be like, yeah, I'm here. This is me. I'm good. And I think that Ben it just took him a bit of time to warm up But once he figured out what he was doing with that Oh my gosh, he was amazing

Yeah Even Cameron had a moment where then In the vacuum of leadership After Ben was gone Where then Cameron all of a sudden Became this larger than life character Where he took over for a couple episodes And so it was like every time

Like even Mark goes out Like oh who's gonna fill the vacuum for Mark? It's just like then And Brooke picked it up and Keely picked it up and Ben. And so it's just like it's been like one person after the next has just like taken the torch in terms of like becoming the big character that's going to meet the moment. And it's going to be interesting in the final week to see, you know, who of this four really rises to that occasion? And grabs the torch. And I think they're all positioned in different ways to be able to do it.

But yeah, it was like it was funny seeing Cameron. Cameron, like, his big exit episode where he was like talking smack to me, that was Cameron the entire time. But it's just like, how do you put that into the edit? Like, it would have just got, the audience would have been like, oh, dude, well. But he was just constantly doing that smack talk and trying to banter with me and like being funny. And I loved Cam. He was a lot of fun out of it. Somehow in this season that has been, every vote has been like so tight where it's one vote is the fortune somehow at the final.

somehow at the final seven. It was six to one against Cameron. Everybody's just like, we had it with this guy. That's how bad it got. It was crazy. That was the one definitive vote. Yeah. These guys got to go.

Yeah. So I'd love to just talk through as somebody who has such a background playing this game, do you feel like, did you see the moment where it sort of got away from the returnies in Keeley? because it felt like for a little bit, they just kept getting through tribal councils. I can't believe they did it again. And then ultimately they just ran out of horseshoes and four leaf clovers.

Do you feel like you saw where that happened? Yeah, yeah, we did. And I think like as you're watching it, it unfold too. And then like also there's something that happens with the physicality because we're now 40 days deep where people haven't been eating. And I could really see on Brooke. there was like a big kind of physical change. She was a very small person as it is, but about 40 days in, just the way she was moving and talking and the brain fog happening to

people. And I was like, oh, she's losing steam here. And I think a couple of shifts and a few things change. You saw how she fumbled the half idol with Caleb. Like that's not Brooke. You know, that's just like game fatigue, I think. And a couple of things go a little bit differently. And I think Brooke could have maybe jumped through a few more tribals, but you could feel that kind of shift in the tribals, in the body language, and being at the bottom, like, playing off the bottom, man, it's tiring. It's like really, really tiring. And she went through so many weeks of that, so many tribals that I was just like, oh, I think,

I think we could be cooked here. And, like, you can feel the energetic shift as they were just kind of, like, piling on and piling on. but she just did so well to scrape through so many of those tribal councils. Yeah, she was really clicking for a minute there, and I really felt like that she had a good shot. I'd love to hear your thoughts about Simon, who I just, you know, I've always loved watching Simon. I think that he is always that he is like, he gets so excited,

and then the rug gets pulled out from under him, but he doesn't give up. He keeps coming back, and, you know, it just felt like I, didn't think he was going to get to 100 days. I thought they were going to pull the rug out from him right under. And then he ultimately, you know, I guess he never was going to get all the way there. But, you know, I wanted to believe that Simon was going to win this one. Yeah, I mean, I thought Simon played so well this season.

I think there was, you saw all four returnees kind of played it in different ways. And especially pre-merged, Simon was really kind of like playing a bit. the radar. I thought we would see him because I knew Harry and he were quite tight. I thought we would see him step and like really push to play with Harry and bring Harry further through the game, which he did. And he kind of took a bit more of a backseat on a lot of the strategic stuff at the start. So that when Simon did kind of come out as a force, I was like, oh, this is going to be trouble here. And he had quite a contentious relationship with Loz, which we didn't see too much of that in the edit. But there was a few things where I just saw Simon became so.

dominant as he stepped into this leadership role where he was making other people believe they were the leader. And I think that's really good gameplay. I think that's, we're talking about grabbing that torch and running with it. You kind of want to be the person behind the person pushing them with the torch and being like, that's the leader. And I think Simon had done such a great job of that, but like, I love watching Simon on TV. I think like there's this great thing with Simon about like you really want to see him win, but like when he doesn't, it's fun to watch him fail. And he's just such a good sport about about the whole thing like the show and the fans and he just loves loves loves the show and he doesn't take anything personally and that's that can be tough in our business

because like our fan base is very very opinionated and very loud about opinions um but people love seeing simon just dust himself off and stand up again and i think uh he's just he's fantastic at doing that yeah he was really really fun to watch and you know mark also became such a big character in this season and he played in his first season, of course, in a season with Ferris and Kirby, and they had so much going on that you sort of lost track of Mark, but he really came back. He was Godfather Mark this season, and that was so fun also. 100%.

100. It was amazing. And I think he had come back. He'd come off a season where he was in these other two people's shadow, and he was like, now I'm going to cast a shadow. And he just stood up and was going hard, Rob, like, that was, evident from the start, we'd be in our meetings and I'm like, oh, Mark, dude, you were really, really going for it.

But I think Mark's whole thing this season was more like better to, you know, burn out than to fade away this season. And he really wanted to just like grab it and he did it. And like, it was so fun to watch him out there because he was just like really, I love proactive gameplay. Like I love, love, love it.

And Mark was just on the front foot the whole time, pushing, pushing, pushing this and that. He had a few little missteps here with some of his alliances. but he was incredible to watch this season. I love the moment in the tribal council where Rich ended up going home, and he asked Rich about how he was doing, and Rich was like, yeah, I'm fine, and to me, that's triggering for me because I'm married. And I know if somebody tells me they're fine, it means they're not fine.

And so it's like, Mark, it's my hero. I just, I also just really love. Like, I know Survivor in some places has got to this point where everyone's just like, oh, it's just great. It's just so happy to like do this and I love real like little savage things. Whereas like Mark was like, you know, you should have voted for me. Oh, I did. Like I love stuff like that.

I just love when people like stick the knife and a little bit on the way out and do take the game personally. Like there's so much on the line and it's like so, so serious. And I just love these moments. And like Mark got a few really good ones. with like the thing with rich, the bit with faith, like those kind of like little passing shots at tribal, I love. Yeah. I think it's just savage and I just love it. I can't ever remember another season of Survivor where so many things are happening at tribal council where, sure,

you know, you have like, of course, all of like the normal stuff that happens at tribal council, but so many side conversations and like one-on-one. Even like Simon and Jackson, when on the vote where Ben goes home where, you know, Simon's trying to pull him in and Jackson's like, no, I'm not I'm not with you. But then he does vote with them. I mean, it was just really, really, there's been such great theater at tribal council this season. It's been great.

But I think also that that thing for Jackson came from wanting to make that his move. He wanted to be able to claim Ben Sting and, you know, having Simon be like, oh, you know, da-da-da-da-da-da. And he's like, no, I'm not playing with you. I want it to be my move. And then obviously, obviously, watching it back in retrospect, you get to see Simon's great work. in like planting the seeds but it comes back to that idea of like with

survivor whose move is it yeah if you and I are like basing on something and we're on the beach and you're like you know it would be great to like vote Jeff out this season and I'm like yeah that is a good idea and then I start to mobilize and get my people is it your mover is at my move so you got to figure out how you can claim those kind of things and make really distinctive moves for your resume and I think that was Jackson's way of being like no no it's my move I'm not playing with you yeah so but then yeah that's yeah that's a great way to talk about the resume and the big moves.

Because I think that that's also been such a big part of the season where everybody is just very concerned about resume and big moves. Now, you're somebody who's won the show before. Do you think that that's overblown all of the resume and big move talk? No, I don't. I think also it was something that I was fostering a lot as the host. Any kind of chance I'd get, I'd be like, you guys need to move. Like, you get into the end game.

Like if you feel like you haven't done something, like now's the time. You got to sit there at the end and say you had something. Like you've got to craft your narrative. You've got to craft your story. And I know it's something where I think like the fans hear it. They're like, oh, big moves, this and big moves. That what's a big move? But like I just want moves.

Like I want people to make steps. Sure. To do something so they can sit at the end. Like I don't want someone sitting at the end being like, ah, yeah, I was there. And then I had a little conversation with Rob about this. And then that happened. And like our finale this year is so tight. It's so, so tight.

I really, really can't wait to film it. You and I, we're in the same boat on wanting the big moves and wanting people thinking about their resume because it gives you all a great show and it gives us stuff the podcast about. We're happy when the big moves happen. For the players, though, I'm just not sure that it's always in their best interest. But I think that we both want them to happen. But I think that sometimes for the players...

I agree. I think sometimes it's not in their best interest. But I also think it comes back to what I said. Like, you have a one in 20... There's a lot of luck that happens in Survivor for you to get to that position where you're in the winning spot. So, yes, there's really great players

and there's good engineers and there's good game players that get there and they're in that winning spot. And I agree with you also. I feel like that it's so hard to win. You might as well just go for it and see what happens if you get lucky. And if you don't win it, at least you have a chance that maybe you became a legend.

Exactly. Exactly. And like that, like, I think Luke Toki on my very first season of Survivor had said something to me is like, you don't want to be sitting at home after you've gone through all this thing and not be seen because you did nothing on the show. Right? Like you just were going along with things. You didn't make any definitive moves or any stuff happened. And like if you're not in the edit, a lot of the times is because you didn't really get to make. make the moves you wanted to make. So do something like play. And it's also like the stuff with these game pieces that exist, right? Like for we put, we put pieces of the puzzle into play to make things interesting to happen. And there's so many small opportunities in Survivor that if you don't grab those ones that come to you,

like you might miss it and not do anything. So it's making these big moves and like, and I know big, even saying big moves makes to go, but like making moves and getting stuff to happen and trying to make shifts. don't always have that opportunity. You don't always have the social capital to do it. So when you do, you've got to move. You've got to make it happen. You find an idol. You've got to

use it. You've got to play it. You've got to play those advantages. I just think playing like that ensures that you're going to be like well remembered in the show. And then if you're at the end, you're going to win. If you leave those things aside and you don't play them or you just kind of like don't let it happen, it's to me it's like anti-game. And I think there's this contingent of players that kind of come in, the anti-game. They see a thing and they just let it slide or they let this happen or they don't want to do that or they don't want to play the advantage or they're not sure they play the advantage. Like, get it, use it. Yeah, who's that fun for? That would be my number one piece of advice. Right. Where are my gloves? Come on, heat. Any. Winter is hard, but your groceries

don't have to be. This winter, stay warm. Tap the banner to order your groceries online at voila.com. prices without leaving your home. You'll find the same regular prices online as in store. Many promotions are available both in store and online, though some may vary. I want to talk to you about this final four, and maybe we could go through them one by

one and give us a little bit of a preview from what you're seeing for these four players that are left, that one of them is going to be the sole survivor. And I guess, when we start with Sally, who kind of had her coming out party this week? she did yeah i mean

Sally has been a pretty pretty big part of the game out there she won the car so coming from that kind of like carcass history side of things

like it was really interesting for me especially in the edit to see Sally coming out and really trying to make things happen and uh you know she was even that move with brook where she was like listen give me the half idol I know a lot of people like as if Brooke would let that happen

obviously brooks a very seasoned player would have wanted to let that happen, but that's the kind of effort you need to see in the game. Now, I think we got into a situation with a half-addle last night, which kind of turned into a bit of anti-game, but it's

Sally's first run, and I think she is just trying to, like, think on her feet in terms of, like, what's my story, what's my narrative? She's trying to figure out what she'll say when she sits at the end. And Sally's had a pretty great social game. Like, she's played well, she's got a good story,

and she's been moving through things strategically. But I love her. I think she's like, she's been a really good, good part of the season. Yeah. She had that interesting move with the half idol with Keeley at the tribal council where I think did she wanted to demonstrate to the jury like,

hey, I have things. I know what's going on. Keeley, let me get your half idol. And then I'm actually not going to do anything with that. I just wondered did she antagonize Keeley with that. That's the way I kind of read it. And to me as well, that's where I go, oh, it's a bit anti-gaming.

Like, if the move was to get it and then use it, like play it in a way that then benefits you, even if you do blindside Keely with it. To me, like, the not play. But again, like, in that moment of like, you're so close to the end, you don't want to mess anything up. She does want Keeler to go home. Yeah. Like, is it contrived to then use the idol to put her out of the game?

Like, so there was a couple of things. She was on, she was a bit in the hot seat. And then also, Keeley revealed to her the half idol at tribal. If she had advanced knowledge of that, you probably have a bit more time to go, okay, here's how I'll do it. I'll, I'll, I'll just vote Keeley. I'll get everyone else to vote on Caleb and then engineer it a bit better. But it kind of came out at the tribal.

And now she's going, oh, okay, she had to think really, she had to think in a feat in a moment where she hasn't eaten food in like 41 days. So you know what I mean? So I can see why she still wanted Kili to go home and why that kind of happened. But obviously there was other things you could have done with it. But it's easy to be on the couch and be like, oh, yeah, this is what I would have done with the Adela. I would have clicked it into place.

Yeah. And Kili is the big dog. So, okay, that's sort of like a nice pelt to put on the wall. But how do you show the jury, hey, this was my move and I'm taking credit for it. So I'm going to take away her thing and not use it on her. So I think that that's where it came from. I'm not sure if the jury sees that way. But let's talk about laws who also...

Rob, I'll tell you actually, let me tell you one funny behind-the-scenes thing with that idol. So our art department are amazing. They're like working on these game mechanics like non-stop months and months beforehand. They made this really great magnetic idol. So that thing had this really definitive like click into place. Yeah. And we were all waiting for this moment of like her at the tribal. She almost did it.

She was sitting there. She put the two pieces together. We've got a great shot of it. And she got the, and then changed her mind and didn't put it together and then stood up and walked over. And when she came over to give it to me,

she actually turned away from the cameras and put it together. Yeah. And then came out with it as a whole idol. And the art department collectively were like, no. It worked so hard on this, like, magnet. I was impressed.

Like, when it went together. I'm like, oh, that's pretty good. It was so beautiful. Like, when I'd seen it in. in like testing it was amazing and then the moment kind of like completely got washed because she did it with her back to the camera. But yeah, Loz, sorry, we're going to you round.

Yeah, well tell me about Loss who she also came into her own really the last like two weeks and we got the backstory about her father. She had this really great story about how she started to bond with her dad who was dying about Survivor

and I always think that's really cool. when people like families that they, you know, that's what they connect around. And, you know, I hear from a lot of people like that. And so she has this great story with her dad. And then she goes into training. And now here she is with a shot to win. Yeah. I mean, I, like, I, I, it was really relatable for me because that was a big part of my deal or no deal story, right? Because my dad had passed. And so Loz and I kind of related on that a lot. And we actually had some moments where some of her challenged things and challenged which she was talking. about her dad that just didn't really come to light in the edit um but i think for loz that family connection

and it's playing for her two girls she's got a beautiful story she's a lovely lovely person laws and like socially this season has been almost untouchable she's i i think like for me she her social game was akin to kind of like shan who i played with where it's like they they've got these like they've got strategy but they're social socially they just make people feel comfortable and they get pulled into these situations. And yeah, I really, I really love Laws of Story. Okay. We're about Jackson, who also has come into his own where he was a right-hand man with Ben.

But then he was like, then he flipped. And this was like wrestling where he then like, oh, he's a good guy now. Now he's on with it. Now he's with the people we're rooting for with all due respect. Yeah. But it was like a face turn. It was like, you know, he came and he hit Ben with. steel chair and then the crowd went wild.

He's like, yeah, now he's working with Brooke and Keely and Simon. He's in the fore. And this is great. And then he wins immunity this episode. He's coming into his own a little bit. And here's Jackson. He's an entertainer. I mean, he's a wrestler.

I saw that from the start with his, when we were in tribal because Jackson was always kind of one that was easy to go to for a grab. Like he understood that concept exactly of like of tribal craft of being able to do those kind of big gregarious takeaways. I think he I think strategically he he moved quite well through the game. Socially he's been he's been good like he hasn't rub people the wrong way too much. He's like kind of come into his own physically like he's won that he's won that challenge. but he wasn't too imposing

like Ben is this like imposing like challenge beast character and Jackson kind of just like he never overplayed too much of that stuff you know and I think the thing I love about Jackson is that he just he's just an entertainer like even if it came down to like little beast sometimes I'd be like why is he so upset at Caleb

but I think a lot of it especially the start would be him just he's just like I need a rival You know, I need my, I'm going to be the heel, I need my face. And so he was finding these moments. It was really, really fun having him out there. And, yeah, Jackson, Jackson was great this season. Do you know what his wrestling persona is? Do you know anything about his wrestling character?

Scott Green. Scott Green, that sounds like my neighbor. Yeah, no. Well, so we have Grayson Waller. Yes, of course. Who had played Australian Survivor. And it's a good friend of mine, actually. and Scott had kind of come from their very close friends.

And so there was already this like tapestry that had been woven between him and Harry and Waller and like all that kind of stuff where, so he was coming in with that conscious thing of like wanting to get revenge for Grayson. So they had like this little narrative outside the game that didn't play too much in the edit. But a lot of him coming after Harry

was basically just like trying to get revenge. The Grace Waller on his season of survival, which didn't really play for us coming into the thing. But it was fun. Yeah. That was his redemption. Yeah. Okay. And then let's talk about Caleb who is interesting.

I think in a lot of ways, to me, like, Caleb has been like the Joker this season. Yeah. Yeah, he has a little bit. He definitely has that. I mean, he gives great confessionals. I think it was the interesting thing. Sorry. Chaos Caleb.

The craziest one for me with Caleb was when he came into that, he was an interloper on one of the tribal councils. And I thought he was just going to be like, oh yeah, okay, cool, cool, cool. And he came and it was like, Returnies and got to go. Like was immediately like dumping on the returnies. Yeah.

Whoa, okay. Settled out there, buddy. But he's had a really unique position of like playing like middle, like middling. So he's been between a lot of these alliances where, you know, usually you see someone has to pick a side at one point be like, this is where we are. And you've seen him kind of like group up with Loss and Sally and that towards the underdogs towards the end. But like he was playing very close with Mark.

Like he was playing both sides of these alliances. And to see someone middle, because middling is tough. He's a really tough spot to be. And often they get cut like really early. And yeah, to see him do that, it's been pretty good. Yeah, he had that one big vote. I think it ended up, was it the rich vote where he, ended up where he went to Ben and told them what Mark was up to. And then he went to Mark

and then told him a whole thing and really set off that crazy tribal council. He has. Yeah. So he's been doing a lot of that. He's been like playing both those, both those sides of alliances. But I think the thing for Caleb is like he's just a fun guy to have on the island. And like, you know, when you've been playing a lot of Survivor and everyone's like got no energy and you da-da-da-da. Caleb is just fun to have around because he'd be like, oh, let's do this or let's do that or like, I'll entertain you a little bit and keep things light. And like, when you're out there,

you want to be having fun. You don't want it to be dark, dark days all the time. Like, you want to be playing Survivor and having fun. And Caleb's been very good at doing that and entertaining those guys. And, like, it's a really unique skill to have. I saw it a lot in Luke Toki would probably be how I feel a bit,

like Caleb has those kind of similar vibes of like Luke would always just find fun in like the most down situation. He'd be like, oh, no, come, we'll just do this, you know? And that Caleb kind of has that, has that same energy. Well, that's all you have. You need to have, like, some kind of a motor where you're enjoying it. And I think that finding the fun in things, I think that that's the only way to, you know, keep it going at, like, where you have nothing left.

But if you're enjoying yourself, if you're finding the fun, I think that that's a survivor's superpower. It's a superpower. And not everyone has it, but it's a superpower on all these shows, like traders. like you see it because it's pretty combative. Like we're going at each other. Like you're trying to get people actively out. There's a lot of money on the line and it can get really intense and heavy.

And the players that can just be fun and like make you have make you feel good. Like you had good vibes. Like you can sit on a jury and like, well, you know what? I had a good time with that guy. Like those, that's, that really is a superpower. And it's a superpower in all these competitive reality shows, you know? Yeah. So you're approaching the end of your first season hosting the,

the show that how are you preparing for the live or the or taping the the finale yeah i mean um i am just going into it with the same attitude i've had for for the season um i've been like of like i've been really studying what's been happening in the show because you have to watch really closely to edit because obviously there's a lot of stuff i haven't seen and like i want to i want to unpack and i'm just kind of like uh like finding those little moments and talking to people. I'm like, did you find this interesting? I want to know more about this because that's what a lot of the, you know, a lot of the reunion is going to be. But I'm excited, man. I can't wait to, we've got a big like audience. There's going to be like

900 plus people there. So they do it. Yeah, they're doing a big one. I've never hosted anything live like this before. So I'm excited. I think it's going to be a new challenge and it's going to be a lot of fun. Do you think there's going to be any bad blood at the reunion? I hope so. Yeah. right? A little bit. I like that you said that. Just a little bit. Yeah. Ozzy's a pretty good. I think they like, you know, at the end of the day, it's like, you know, it's the game. Like what's happened on the show. But then like, once you watch it back in real time and you do hear what some of the people were saying, you know, maybe a little bit of blood there.

So we'll hopefully bring out some of that. Are you hearing where there's any smoke between any of the contestants? Like, are you hearing rumors of anybody who really, hey, I really want to. I really want my turn to go after this person. Yeah. No, I mean, I generally try to stay out of the contestant conversations as much as possible. Like, I do keep touch with all of them and, like, make sure when they voted out, I send them a no just to, like, thank him and I stay in touch in that way.

But yeah, there's definitely, that group chat is pretty hot, I heard. I have heard this. But they don't add, you do it or you know what? That would be inappropriate for you to be in the group chat. It would be very inappropriate I'd be in the group chat So I just like let the little birds tell me what's going on now Is there any

Like mark that you're trying to Put on the show now that we've entered The David era of Australian Survivor Um Oh what's the mark? No I mean I wouldn't I wouldn't say there's anything really specific I just want like the thing I love about Survivor is You laugh

you get emotional, but you feel something when you're watching it. And yeah, it's just like, it's just this whole rollercoaster of like these players and these characters in our game. And so for me, I just want to keep that. I want the purity of our game to stay intact. Like, I want that game to exist and the players to play. And I don't want any, like, interference with it from production side of things or any, anything.

Like, I want those players to play and the best player, because I want it to be a winnable show. I don't want it to be in this situation where there's this random crap thrown at you all the time. And like it's purely luck. Like I want skill to be the reason you win Australian Survivor, you know? Yeah, I think that's a really great point. Is there anything that you would say to fans who haven't checked out Australian Survivor? Could you make the pitch to them of why they should be checking out Australian Survivor Redemption? I just think Australian Survivor Redemption is the best reality show on television.

the gameplay this season is unparallel. We've got every episode hits and makes you feel something. You might not be happy at the outcome when someone your favorite gets voted out, but you will feel. And I just think we have 24 banger episodes this season. It's unmissable television. David, what could the fans do to support Australian Survivor even more? Because I know the people who love it, they really love it, they don't want it to go anywhere. What, like, what can the fans be doing to help the show? I mean, talk about it, post about it, watch it. I think, like, for it, we, we love our American community. We know it's, like, so hard to get a hold of the show over there. We really, really want Paramount Plus to put it on, but there's a few little

obstacles there that we're not, you know, not able to do anything about right now, or Should they let it be in the hands of the fans? Should they have a vote? I mean, the fans want to watch it. They might have to start being a bit more vocal. But no, we want it on Paramount Plus so the American fans can get it because we love that fan base.

I mean, I live in the States. And, yeah, I love the US, and we want that fan base to have easy access to it. But because you can't, we need you to get a VPN and please stream it on Channel 10. It helps us a lot. Okay. Anything else you want people to know about Australian Survivor and your first season is the host?

No, I mean, I think I think it's kind of spoke for itself. I think we've got a really, really great season and it's been exciting. And I think the conclusion is going to blow people's minds. You know, three eps left. So, can't annoy. For us fans in America, could we be hoping for another Australian Survivor versus the world? I think you definitely should be hoping for that because I really, really want that to happen.

I think it's on the cards. It's just a timing issue. Yeah. Well, that was such a big hit where I feel like that people just were talking about that and it's like I didn't even know you knew how to watch Australian Survivor. It just seemed like that that one really did break through.

I mean, it really did. But also, Rob, what you guys do with the podcasting and stuff like it's just huge for us. So we really, really appreciate you. We love it. We can't get enough. And I'm so glad that I, you know, we set this up and I got the chance to watch all of it. Yeah. Can I answer you a question?

And this is maybe a little woo-woo, but I think you'll go here with me. I love who-woo. I always am so impressed when I think about what you did on Deal or No Deal Island, where that you were able to just tap into just another realm where you were able to communicate and whether it was your dad talking to you or the universe where you were able to, you just took the banker, they were the banker's worst nightmare.

I just wonder, were you able to, in any ways, in hosting Australian Survivor? Did you ever tap into anything that was like really helping you in that way? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think, it depends how we want to get here.

But like, I'm just very big. We're an hour and 10 minutes in. You can get as well as you want. I'm very big on this flow that happens with what we do. Like, what we do is it's pretty extraordinary. We get put into these situations and games where you need to rely on like almost like an energy or a third, like an instinct that happens. And I could feel that with this season where I would just be like, like letting the game

happen and come to me. And I would like manifest or think about what I would love to. to happen in each tribal council. And so many times we would go in and that would happen or exceed where I'd hope it would be. And I just, there's this interesting thing where it's like reality is stranger than fiction, right? And a lot of times, like, unbelievable things happen on reality shows where you're like,

there's just no way that could possibly happen. And it does. So there's this great serendipity that kind of occurs. And yeah, for this season, as I was hosting, I was really trying to channel that as much as possible and just like using those and the players delivered like I didn't really I was just like feeling their energy and pushing it back to them and they were just so so good this season. Would we ever see you wear the leather jacket as the host? Well yeah we might. I got to film a I got to film a little something on Thursday night to bring

that earn in. So okay. Oh, that's exciting. I still got it. It doesn't quite fit as well as it did. Yeah. Okay. I literally tried it on yesterday. and I was like, oh. Is it so, is it just one jacket that you wore across seasons? It's one, it's one jacket I've worn for all iterations of pretty much every show I've done. Wow. I just get it cleaned. I get it dry cleaned after and it's, it hangs in.

That's incredible. What a commercial for the jacket. I know, shot perfecto. There you go. That's the jacket. Yeah. Yeah, because I was wondering, like, well, is the leather jacket part of the golden god character? and now that the golden god is retired

and that this is David Jenei host of Australian Survivor. Do you think about it like that? Well, you've got to pay homage to your past. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not trying to disguise the fact that I played the show. No. I think that's a huge advantage. I think there was obviously a lot of chats when we were having,

of like, oh, you need to distinguish yourself as a host. And I get that. You do need to do that. But, like, I never forget where I came from. Like this show as a player gave me everything. Like from that first time I played to Dondy to apprentice to rush to now host of Australian Survivor. Like all came from that leather jacket. So it's gone nowhere.

I got it. That's my omen. What are you going to do in the off season? Ooh, I would love to play traders. Oh, okay. Yeah. So we'll see. We'll see.

We'll see. I mean, yeah, we got it. We're doing a lot. to film in this year. So if things kind of line up, we'll see what happens. But I'm always, I'm always working on. Well, you would be such a force in the traders for good or for bad, I think, perhaps. So I think that you would be somebody who, again, I just think back to, you know, as a faithful. You really, I think, like, I think that you could really tap into something. I think that as a traitor, I think that you would be somebody like who was, you know, I think really get everybody feeling good about you.

I'd never want to be a traitor. Yes, that's good. That's good to say. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, David, I really appreciate you making the time to talk about Australian Survivor. It's great to have your thoughts on it.

It's been such a fun season. And I think that everybody that I know that's been watching it has just absolutely. been loving it. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's been a really, really good season. I think it's got that old school survivor feel that people like really love. It really does. It just feels big like this season, you know? Yeah. I can't say it enough. It's just like that Australian Survivor is survivor for people who love Survivor. If you ever wanted to like watch a bunch of people get to play survivor and it's not like, all right, today, you five people are going to vote. Like, wait, what? but what about my alliance?

No, it's random. So this has been really just like such a fun. It's like reading like a great novel. It's just like all these twists and turns and these characters that you're so invested in after all this time. It's just really, really rich.

Yeah, I agree. And I just, it's like what I said before. Like we want our game to be winnable and we want skill and social acumenist strategy to be at the forefront. of the game, not crazy twists. Like, you know, like, we've got to throw some in there so that it doesn't get still with some of the stuff.

We really want it to be a winnable game. Let me also commend you on that we have an Australian Survivor season and that this is not always the case, but there's no like bonkers, non-elimination, stuff that the whole post-merch, you know, we've gone straight through now. Maybe you have something up your sleeve for next week. but I feel like we've been like so good so far through all of these episodes in the post-merge. Yeah, well we have

requirements for television. Yeah, I know you have to make a certain number of episodes. I get it. We have to make a certain number. So that that is an unfortunate, but we also like, I wanted to make sure that our non-alims mean aren't just like a throwaway thing. Like there is a way to battle back from that thing.

And if you do it in the pre-merge, like it's one thing. But I think in the post-merge, It's been a really good pace. So kudos on all that. So congratulations on all the success with the show. Anything else you want people to know? No, that's it. Watch it.

Go watch a Australian Survivor. It's amazing. Okay, check it out. And then, of course, check out all of our coverage here. Mike Bloom has been filling in for Shannon. We let Shannon go on maternity leave for this season. You know, maybe, you know, a little rude for Shannon to, you know, plan to become a mom. How dare she?

this great Australian Survivor season. But she's been checking in. I think she's still watching. She's watching every episode and immediately posting thoughts. So she is doing great. But David, thank you so much and check out everything else we have going on here on RCHP.

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