RHAP: We Know Survivor - Know-It-Alls: Survivor 49 Finale Recap
Episode Date: December 18, 2025Know-It-Alls: Survivor 49 Finale Recap Survivor Know-It-Alls is back as Rob Cesternino and Stephen Fishbach dig into all the drama and gameplay twists from Survivor 49. Rob and Stephen break down the ...intense dynamics after the Survivor 49 finale, highlighting everything from Savannah’s strategic dominance to Rizzo’s risky idol antics. The hosts go deep on how pre-season spoilers about tribe assignments and possible winners shaped gameplay and perception all season long. In this episode, Rob and Stephen dissect Savannah’s journey from being the social hub of her tribe to clutching immunity wins when she needed them most. They talk through Rizzo’s creative use of the idol and how it played with both the jury and the audience. Stephen weighs in on Sage’s difficult road as a middle player, comparing her final jury struggles to Dawn’s classic Survivor heartbreak. The hosts also debate the importance of challenging the edit, jury management, and the “must-win” immunity stat, exploring how Survivor 49’s players navigated new era twists and emotional voting blocks. – Savannah’s climb to the top as a loyal alliance leader – The fallout from Rizzo’s idol strategy and aftershow moments – Sage’s tough final tribal and the perils of playing the middle – The debate over physical challenge wins and their timing – Survivor 49’s most memorable “villain energy” moments As the dust settles on Survivor 49, Rob and Stephen explore whether the new era’s gameplay is all about loyalty or if underdogs can still pull off a win. Chapters: 0:00 Survivor 49 Finale Breakdown Begins 6:30 Spoilers Impact Winner Perception 11:05 Importance of Must-Win Immunities 14:35 Social Game Influences Crucial Votes 17:37 Fire Making Contest Anxiety Discussed 22:01 Survivor After Show Criticisms Raised 29:01 New Era Winner Rankings Debated 32:26 Savannah’s Multi-Stage Game Highlighted 34:52 Sage’s Emotional Jury Response Explored 39:35 Final Tribal Council Tactics Examined 42:52 Comparing Savannah and Past Winners 44:46 Survivor 50 Twist Reactions Surface 52:26 Speculating on Celebrity Involvement Impact 58:27 Fifty-State Immunity Idol Launch 1:01:31 Potential Themes for Future Seasons 1:12:20 Jury Segment: Improving Survivor Storytelling 1:17:01 Which Players Will Return Next? To pre-order Rob’s book, The Tribe and I Have Spoken, visit www.robhasabook.com To pre-order Stephen’s novel Escape!, visit stephenfishbach.com To request a limited edition Escape! map, email proof of hardcover pre-order (within the US) to escapefishbach@gmail.com with the subject line MAP. Previous hardcover pre-orders are also eligible! Buy tickets for Stephen’s book events here! stephenfishbach.com/events 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!
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This episode of Rob is a Podcast is presented by 20th Century Studios Send Help from the Twisted Mind of Sam Ramey, Director of the Evil Dead, and Drag Me to Hell, starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien.
It's a new film that begs the question, what would you do if you were stuck on an island with your terrible boss?
Do not answer if you work at Rob as a podcast, okay?
In Paradise, HR, can't hear you scream.
only in theaters in 3D on January 30th.
Survivor No, It All.
Yeah, that's right, the Survivor know-it-alls are live after a Survivor finale on Wednesday night.
So for the first time here in the Survivor 50 preseason, it's Steven Fishback.
Steven, how are you?
Oh my gosh.
We're in the Survivor 50 preseason.
I guess we've always been in the Survivor 50 preseason.
Right.
Well, like our whole lives we've been in this Survivor 50 preseason.
Yes, it's all been one long frog march to season 50.
Well, we are a little late and, you know, that's how it is.
That's how we do.
We're late.
I don't know.
I thought it was three.
I mean, listen, this is like my third podcast.
about the finale. If anything, you're late.
You know, I'm late. I know, it's me.
Yeah. All right. Wow, third pot.
What was number two? I did all the exit interviews
earlier today. I talked with, of course,
our winner. We had
Savannah, Soph, Rizgod, and Christina.
We're all part of the exit interview
spectacular Sage. Could not make it today. I have an
exit interview scheduled with Sage coming up on Friday.
So be on the lookout for that. All that's up
on Rob has a website. And then
also on our YouTube channel. And then
Great chat with Sam Phelan into the wee hours of the night.
Do you think it heard him when he was there in front of the jury, the fact that his last name is Phelan?
Like, he's Phelan. He's failing right in front of us.
No, because they said, like, oh, is he a Nepo baby?
Is he related to Jimmy Phelan, who's going to be on Survivor 50?
By the way, Stephen, this week I was reading, of course, the great novel, Escape, exclamation point, available for pre-order at stephenfishback.com.
And my favorite part in the book is when in the middle of the show, Escape, when Logan Paul showed up and gave out the Logan Paul prime fishing gear to the contestants who are playing the show, Chef's Kiss.
Yeah. Brilliant. That was inspired. Right. Yeah. Feast. I mean, you know, what. Go ahead. And then when Stephen Colbert was way.
weighing in on some of the decisions in terms of like where the shelter should be.
That's, they said, like, I, what will Stephen Colbert say?
That's how you know it's a real primal jungle experience is when you're getting
CBS celebrities telling you how to play your idol.
I am very excited to see how that plays out.
I cannot wait to see what Jimmy Fallon has to say.
I mean, oh, my gosh.
Wow.
It's going to be so excited.
Seeing Rick Devin's screwed over by the Billy Ilish boomerang idol.
Oh my gosh.
What more could I ask for from Survivor?
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Well, we have a lot to break down.
But Stephen, as is going into a very busy season himself,
Stephen, I understand you've added more tour dates.
Yeah.
I don't know if this is more,
but we have talked about some of these.
But I wanted to just once again mention that,
Dates are selling out.
And this is basically my last opportunity.
You know, the survivor season is over.
By next survivor season, Escape will already be out.
Can you believe it?
Yeah.
What will I talk about?
But January 27th, I will be with Dalton Ross at politics and pros.
I think we're, I'm trying to, I'm planning the after event for that now.
So if you are in the area.
After event too.
Well, yeah, yeah.
And same with my New York event that the Strand, January 30th, Emily Nussbaum.
It's got a big crowd.
And so I'm actually hoping to do like a, like a good after event.
I've been straining calls with someone at a venue.
But like the survivor alums are like, hey, can I come to the after party?
You can get tickets to the event.
Like, you know, you could also come to the reading.
But, but, you know, so I think it'll be, it'll be fun.
I think it'll be like legitimately fun.
Okay.
Well, sounds good.
Be sure to get to stephenfishback.com to get all of those tour dates.
Okay.
Well, before we begin, can I just say in the chat is buzzing about this?
You look phenomenal.
We love your green shirt.
I comment on it before the podcast.
I think it's been.
My green shirt is a little like a Savannah in terms of that it's polarizing.
Some people have really liked it in the comments.
Some people say that it's giving Buddy the Elf.
I saw a comment.
He doesn't like Buddy the El.
Looks like I should be making toys in Santa's workshop right now.
Yeah.
I mean, what better thing could you do as a human than make toys for children?
I guess, I guess.
Yeah, I guess that some people wouldn't like that, okay?
Grinches, we call them.
Yes, all right.
So, all right, let me know in the comments.
What do you think about my clothes?
And that's how I'll make my decision.
It's my wardrobe's in the hands of the fans.
Oh, boy.
But ultimately.
Where's Mr. Beast?
Yes.
Ultimately, it will be Jimmy Fallon, who's making the choice about what you're going to wear.
Listen, as far as I'm concerned, Omer, the wildlife veterinarian, he will always be my Mr. Beast.
Oh, that's pretty good.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
So, Stephen.
Tell me about it.
So give me your experience of watching the Survivor 49 finale.
I was like, okay, that's a finale.
It's an episode of TV that I just watched.
Yeah.
No, it was great.
I really enjoyed it.
I mean, it was good.
It was good.
There was like,
it was enjoyable.
It was like not the greatest,
most exciting finale.
I do think there was a lot of expectation that Savannah would win.
And I do think that's kind of hurt this whole season is the sense that people went in kind of
of thinking Savannah was going to win.
And part of that was because the,
three tribes or Survivor 50 were spoiled and that people knew who,
that there was a winner on one of them.
Okay.
Well, yeah, let's pull back the curtain a little bit in terms of all of all this.
Okay, so of course, yeah, it had been like widely talked about during the summer over
that Rizzo and Savannah were going to be on Survivor 50.
Yeah.
I really, I have, I know you are in the weeds with like the.
tribe. I really, I still don't even know who's on what tribe in, I'll keep, I'll keep it. We'll keep it, we'll keep it, you know, we're not going to talk about that yet. Yeah. But, but, but yeah, I mean, you know, there was also, you know, Marianne was cut, Savannah went in. There was like some talk of this might be, this might be, uh, uh, you know, she might be a winner. Yeah. Okay. So, in terms of winner edit for Savannah, were you seeing it this season? Yeah, absolutely. You know, so I, I think like Savannah played a great game and she got an edit that kind of spoke to that game. And,
In the premurge, she was a huge social force on Uli, right?
It really seemed like in those early episodes when kind of this Uli groups were forming,
Savannah was the center of all of it.
You know, she and Rizzo kind of had this question of like, are we going to go with the Nate
group?
Are we going to go with the Jawan group?
You know, so much of the antipathy between her and Sage seemed like it was because
Sage thought she was part of the core group and learned that she wasn't.
And so like it seemed like Savannah was kind of this central social figure.
year at the merge you know into the into the post merge she has um and we saw that you know we saw
her talking about that we saw her um into the post merge she's in this minority position
and we see her claw her way back you know she wins these key immunity challenges right
when she needs to when she needs the most um she like is able to make a few key strategic
moves you know one thing savanna did extremely well was she was the glue for her alliance
And I think this is like the best spot to be.
You know, if you're the person who's holding your, she'd had the number one relationship.
The glue gal.
The glue gal.
She had the relationship with Blue Sophie.
You know, she had the best relationship with Rizzo.
It seems like she had the best relationship with Yellow Sophie, although we saw that a lot from Rizzo's perspective too.
And so she kind of had her core group.
And then when it came to the jury phase, her allies respected her and appreciated her.
And her enemies respected her too.
And I think like for someone like Sage, who plays the middle.
and I say this a lot, like, it's such a hard position to play the middle.
You're bouncing around.
Everyone is mad at you.
Everyone feels betrayed by you.
Everyone feels like you stabbed them in some way.
They were your ally.
You know, and you saw that was Stephen's jury question to Sage.
You know, like, we were part of this huge group and now we're all gone.
And Sage was like, I'm here.
You know, I made it to the finals by doing those things, which is true.
But she did it by like alienating her enemies.
I'm sorry, alienating her allies, whereas Savannah was kind of like so true to her own group
that she really like kept her allies close and her enemies knew they were her enemies
like they were like spliced it you know um i mean that's going back to the 48 laws of power
and i don't know the numbers and i know that there is uh you want to work with your enemies
rather than your friends because your friends will let you down your friends will take advantage of you
that they will take you for granted whereas when you work with an enemy that you're very clear
your enemy is going to try to like prove themselves to you and like a
At the end of the day, like, everybody knew where they stood with Savannah.
It wasn't, I talked about this with Sam last day.
There wasn't any one person who was on the jury or who went to the jury who felt like
that Savannah screwed them over, whereas there were multiple people on the jury that felt
like, Sage, you know, you really screwed me.
We were good and you screwed me.
Yeah.
And I've said that I think like most of the most dominant winners are the people who, like,
they're in an alliance, right?
Like Jeremy Collins in 31, you know, he had his allies and then the other people were its enemies.
And it's the people like, you know,
like Ryman in that season who, you know,
bounce back and forth who the jury is really mad at, you know,
and,
and, you know,
Tony's obviously always the exception.
Tony's the exception to everything.
Tony can do what he wants.
Yeah.
But, but, you know,
and she made,
you know,
her immunity wins were clutch.
Yes.
Because they were when she was on the chopping block.
And she did a good job of expressing that at the final travel council,
which was like,
if she had not won those immunities,
you know,
it wasn't just like,
you know,
she wasn't like Kyle in season,
um,
47, where like, okay, he wanted immunity.
And then, like, at some point, they're like, okay, we want to get rid of Kyle.
Yeah.
But, you know, she needed those immunities.
And so ultimately, they were kind of strategic for her.
They were a part of her game because she was a huge target and she saved herself.
It wasn't just like I did this physical thing.
You know, I solved the puzzle.
I, you know, balanced on the balance beam.
It was like, I saved myself in the game.
Yeah.
When I needed it most.
This is such a good stat.
And I can't believe it's taken us through 48 seasons to come up with it.
But it's not necessarily, oh, I won this immunity.
challenge, I won this immunity challenge.
I do feel like that there is something to the must-win immunity wins, where the must-have
immunities, I don't know, the MHI will come up with a good name for it.
But when you can stand there and say, like, I would have gotten voted out this night if I
didn't win, I would have gotten voted out on this day if I didn't go to, you know, be immune
from this or play my idol correctly on that night, I just think that there's something to
that where it's more meaningful to the jury than just compiling, oh, yeah, I was fine. I was in the
majority, but I won the challenge. Right. I mean, I think that helped, like, Mike Holloway, for
example, you know, he won these crucial moments when his back was against the wall. And so, like,
you really had to kind of respect him for, or Rachel is another, you know, I mean, Rachel had a great
game across, she won, like, a few crucial immunities. Um, I was really rooting for Savannah to beat the
record simply because you had a very funny comment in chat PCC about, like, Rachel's rooting for
She didn't deny it.
Yeah.
But, you know, it's fun to see a record being beaten,
but she was very graceful when, when Sophie did win.
I thought her move to vote out Christina was very smart there
because, you know, she says, said over and over,
I don't want to go against fire, you know, against Christina.
She knew that if she didn't win that immunity,
she probably was going to be the one because all of them recognized her
as the as you know the likeliest to win so therefore like she's the
likeliest to go into to be thrown into fire and if there's someone she doesn't
think she can be like getting getting christina out probably was crucial to her game
like if she had not gotten christina out it is likely that that she could have lost right
because if christina was as good at fire as everybody is saying yeah it's really interesting
let's talk about that final five because i think it was very illustrative of a lot of the
things going on in the season where okay we have savannah she ends up winning the
immunity challenge, she takes Sage with her. And I asked her about this in the exit interview about
why she wanted to do that. I think that part of it was also that she had just taken Sophie and
Rizzo on the Trace Laches and that they just had the reward. It's already part of the culture of the
season. Well, who hasn't gotten to eat? So it was an easy decision for Savannah to feed Sage
over Christina. Where my thought was initially going was that, okay, here's Savannah trying to
butter up Sage before she sends it to the jury.
But Sage and Savannah, like they really do hit it off.
You were talking about this of like that, hey, Sage thought she was good with Savannah this
whole time back in the beginning.
And so they end up mending some fences.
And we see where Savannah says, no, Sage isn't going anywhere.
It has to be Christina.
Whereas Rizzo and Sophie seem to want to vote out Sage.
And who ultimately won out in that battle?
When things came to a head in this disagreement that it will.
we saw Rizzo say, I don't want to make Savannah mad.
Yeah.
I mean, like people, you know, there was less emphasis on her social game,
but it was definitely there.
And I mean, I think that was true too with the MC vote, right?
Where, you know, I gave Rizzo credit for that because we saw a lot of it from Rizzo's perspective.
But I definitely think Savannah was an important part of that vote too, where her social
game kind of tip the scales for Rizzo where it looked like he might have been on the, you know,
he might have been in trouble.
And just her presence of being there where she ultimately would have gone
home had she not won that immunity. And I think that her number being there, Jawan didn't know that
she wasn't actually going to cast a vote at that tribal council also did a lot. But just in terms
of that final five vote, so I asked a lot of the players that I spoke to today about their perspective
on it, because there was some thought about like Rizzo, this was a chance that he could have stood up
to Savannah. He could have made a move to the jury and played his idol to be able to say,
okay, Savannah wants Christina to go home.
I'm going to play my idol with my implicit immunity.
Nobody's voting for Rizzo.
I'm going to use my idol after all this,
and I'm going to play it on Christina.
And he said that he didn't really want to do that
because he felt like that having Christina there,
even if she was somebody who was going to beat Savannah in the fire,
he felt like that he needed a move to beat Savannah.
Like he wanted to be in that spot going up against Savannah
in the Final Four fire making.
So he felt like that even having Christina go another round,
he felt like that it was going to make it harder for him to be able to make his mark
that really would have put him over with the jury.
Let's talk about this question of firemaking because we have these super, super fans.
You've got Savannah who's talking about how hard she trained physically for this.
Rizzo has been like playing these ORGs.
He's like, you know, thinking like what strategies?
Well, in fairness to the Rizzo on the ORGs.
They don't have you make fire.
too often, from what I understand.
Sophie's been watching this since she was a child.
Not one of these people practiced fire.
Like, not one of them.
Like, what are you doing?
A firemaking contest?
Me or you?
Like, me and you are right there.
We are, now again, we both played in the era of Survivor, which is predates the final
four fire making, although you played in an era where it could have come up at a final
four tire breaker.
So if we had, like, we're there, we got our Hessian.
We got our little sticks.
We got our big sticks.
We have our flint.
I got to tell you, Rob, I got very good at making fire in token jeans.
Like, Taj and Tyson gave me the tutorial.
Are you good at fire?
But I might panic, though.
I do like, I do get very flustered.
So I could see it going either way.
Are you good at fire?
So in when I was in the mix for Survivor 50, I did for the first time, you know, give it, give it a try.
So I can do it.
I would not say that I am especially well.
at it. I mean, I feel like I have seen it five million times, but seeing it is certainly not
doing it. I have done it a little bit. But I think that would be an exciting. Like if they ever had
like one of these survivor beach drops where they could let us do that. I think that would be some,
you know, we should do, Rob. If it was you and me, you know, in the firemaking, what we could do is
we would stand up and just hug for so long until the whole jury applauded and we're like,
give it to both of them. Give it to both of them. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's what I would know.
I would just hug you. Yeah, that'd be exciting.
Yeah. So ultimately, though, Rizzo felt like that he wanted to make his move.
I asked Sof, if she considered doing the Chris Underwood and putting herself into the final four fire making against Savannah.
And she ultimately felt like that she didn't want to do that because she felt like that she felt like she felt like she deserved her spot in the final three.
And also felt like that, you know, if Rizzo could have beaten Savannah, she felt like that she could have beat Rizzo.
Yeah, I do think, I think that she would have beat Rizzo.
I mean, I think it's interesting to count the votes there, but, you know, just based on having heard what Stephen had to say about how the jury was perceiving Rizzo, my guess is that she would have beaten Rizzo there.
Yeah.
It's hard with, yeah.
Go ahead.
It's hard with Rizzo also because I feel like that we don't have a full picture of how the jury would have ultimately voted with him.
because it does seem like that going in, the jury was down on what Rizzo was putting out there.
But he did, I thought in a couple different places, like in the after show, he was able to talk
about like what he did with the hidden immunity idol.
And it wasn't just like a willy-nilly, the boy who cried idle, that he did have a strategy
to what he was doing.
So I do wonder if it could have fallen on deaf ears from the jury, but is there a chance that
maybe he gets cooking at the final tribal council and is able to sway a couple of people.
Right.
You're absolutely right.
Like, it's so hard at the counterfactual because, like, you just don't know how much they're going to be able to present themselves.
And you're right.
Like, you know, they, I mean, I just had the sense that they all kind of filmed like, oh, you goofy kid.
You know, even when he was talking about it in the, in the after show, like, Nate kind of like, yeah, yeah, you.
You know, it wasn't like, wow, you mastermind.
It was like, you know, kind of like a vuncular to like the young kid.
about you're right like I just don't know I mean you know he might have been able to pull it off in a way that really resonated and you know if you're looking at those actual numbers right like who's voting for Rizzo who's voting for Sophie in that in that world in that counterfactual like you think Sven is probably a vote for Rizzo like you could see Stephen voting for Rizzo you could see Nate so like it really would come down to like one or two probably votes and there's a world where where he does take that the survivor finale itself I do feel like at three hours I
I felt like not to be a little bit of a complainer,
but I felt a little bloated in terms of the,
like the whole first act to find an advantage,
which ultimately like is not that big of a deal in the challenge.
Like it just seems like that you could easily cut half an hour out of it.
And it's just a lot of challenges.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I mean, I hear you.
But like, yeah, like, you know, what couldn't be edited?
Like, what's perfection?
Sure.
perfection is not a reasonable
And then I felt like that the final five
challenge and the final four challenge
did feel a little samey same.
Yeah, that's true.
It's true.
I mean, I kind of like that it wasn't
some motion again.
I don't need to be traumatized yet again.
But also, no, but really, like,
just to, like, do something a little different
felt, felt good.
I don't know.
I honestly, like, I...
Minor complaint.
It just felt like a lot of, like,
a, everybody's running around
to then go right into the challenge
and everybody's running around
You were watching like, you know, 45 minutes of people running before anything happened.
I like the bags into the puzzle pieces into like a level sort of like looking around,
totally clueless.
Like I thought that was a fun advantage.
I mean, the challenge with these advantages is always how much to wait it.
If it's too powerful, then the immunity challenge feels broken.
And here where, of course, where it's underpowered, you're like, what was the point of that?
I mean, it feels like they should have just like eliminated one stage.
If they just like eliminated the latter stage entirely, then that might have been a good balance.
But I'm sure they thought this through, you know, for us like at home, we're like,
oh, but this is the way they should have done it.
You know, I'm sure they did their best and like it was not perfect.
And like it's like, you know, but it's like I think a little bit of a relic of a bygone era and
maybe a future era where you, okay, it's a two hour finale followed by the one hour reunion show
catching up with the cast.
And then the survivor after show, you know, you did have a raw moment with Sage.
And I don't know if you say that that's a point for or against the survivor after show.
but you just like are really that hour of the reunion show used to be the best part of the
three hour finale right i really i mean i think like the whole fan base really just oh i mean i don't
know if the whole fan base but like nobody wants the stupid after show anymore we get it it saves
them money it's logistically a lot easier for them you know they get like jeff gets to have fun
and eat some pizza and like you know not have to worry about flying in everybody and their family
members. But it was
better. Like it was just, I'm sure
it was much more expensive too. I have to pay everybody
$10,000 to appear. Sure.
But we've watched nine of them and I think that
really if they would have just, you know,
here's your winner at Savannah.
We'll see you next season. That they could
have just like ended the show
there and other than
here's the trailer for what's
going to happen next season that
there is, you count on one
hand, the number of memorable survivor after show
moments that there happened to be in the
40s. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's mostly, honestly, most of those memorable moments are just that
third place contestant looking absolutely traumatized. You know, that's like what I like truly like looking
back at the memorable moments. It's mostly just like the, the loser like in their heads and their
hands. Like Owen, I remember like Jake. You know, I mean, that's, that's really like,
F the survivor after show the day after it aired. Yeah. I'm, I'm with him. I mean, I think we don't want
to see it anymore. It's just like, it's mostly you're like witnessing people's trauma. And then
And everybody else is like, yeah, we had so much fun.
Yeah.
Woo!
It was on the ballot to do the live after show for season 50.
And we have to hope in our hearts to hearts that it's such a great success that they said,
like, oh, how could we not do this again?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, again, like I get that it's like a big undertaking.
But also it's like a CBS TV show, you know?
Like, let's make the most of it.
You've got a show on CBS prime time.
That's pretty good.
Yeah.
But it doesn't even need to be like the spectacle that it actually is, even if it's just
that they got together.
with the 18th contestants and there's no huge live audience and it's just on a soundstage and
you in like it could be done it doesn't need to be the massive live production that it has
been in the past every season yeah um yeah that makes sense um yeah I mean it's just you're right
like but it's like giving people a little time to reflect like we love the glow up we love
I mean I like getting all the random you know like give me a contest you know I want to
to hear what the first person off this season had to say who was it Nicole Nicole yeah like
all right hey and trashy annie we're gonna go to break you play a play us in okay yeah exactly
trashy annie has a new track it's it's called like a blue tribe blues uh here we go take you
i mean that's the commercial with russland now yeah yeah exactly uh and that's you know that's
sake who got his big break. Yes, certainly. Now he's touring all over the place.
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so i don't know like what else what else big happened in the oh can i make a small gripe rob sure sure okay
that first i think was the first challenge when they're digging under the beam into the sand yes once again
we are 49 seasons into Survivor,
literally only Sage bent the correct way.
You know, you go under your back.
So you've an issue with the strategy of the players.
Everyone knows.
You know, Rizzo, what do you do it?
Now, no problem with Savannah.
Savannah ate that challenge.
She flew right through that.
You can't blame her.
She did it wrong, but it wasn't an issue.
But both Rizzo and Sophie really struggled getting under there.
And if they had just gone on their backs, so future players,
you go on your back because your body bends this way.
Your body bends this way.
It doesn't bend this way.
You can't bend around the beam like that.
I want to open up to the audience that we are live.
We can take your questions here this afternoon with Stephen.
So go ahead and put them in the chat.
The bending.
No, I could not care less.
I got to be honest.
I think if I was on the show, I would not even be thinking about that.
I think just get through it as quick as possible.
Okay.
Steven, what do you think about Christina's jury question?
I thought it was great.
I mean, so fun to like how, you know, like, that's what, like,
I do feel like the virtues of this season are like Savannah,
probably had the most villain energy of anyone you know any finalists we've seen in the in the 40s
right like who's who had more villain energy than savanna as a 40s you know you we were talking
about her edit and i didn't get to weigh in on that i think it was a layered edit where it was
not historically the survivor edit where she was a hero one note and and they whitewashed
anything that was negative about her you got to see good things about her and you got to see good things about her
and you got to see some of her negative qualities
in how people felt about her negatively.
And I thought that this was like a really rich survivor edit.
And it was one that people came away feeling like some people were like,
okay, I love Savannah.
She's my favorite.
And other people said, I can't stand Savannah.
So, yeah, Jeff, I think, had it right.
I think that he might have said on the on fire,
called her the type of person that you either love or you love to hate.
Yeah, I think that's right.
And there's been so much discourse, obviously, around villains on Survivor.
And I feel like this was the right amount of villainy.
You know, she just had like some, like, you know, just like some villain energy, you know,
where she had these confessionals where she was like reveling in the fact, not just that she got to eat,
but that everybody else didn't get to eat.
You know, her enemies didn't get.
Oh, I love thinking of that.
I got camp starving.
It was a good conversation she actually had on the On Fire podcast where she talked about how, like,
hey, a lot of the great villains that you care about, they just have a very intense point.
of you. You don't agree with it. And that's why you think that they're a villain. But in their
mind, they're doing the right thing. And they are acting passionately about a cause that you just
happen to think is not the right cause. I mean, I don't think, I mean, I think that might be
underselling, you know, her specific villainous energy where she's like, you know, making these
faces at Joanne and his tribal council knowing that she voted him out or like literally
mocking the people back at camp for not getting it, being able to eat. But she also was super
loyal to her alliance. You know, she really had, um, you know, she was mad at Sophie for like not
automatically like taking her to the end, you know, for like putting two of her allies in fire.
So, um, I think, you know, like you're saying, like there's, there's, it's a, she's a, she's a human
being. It's layered. Um, but I do feel like, you know, it wasn't just like I have a, I have a
warped point of view. It's not, you know, there was some, there was some literal. There was some
bill any there. I'm working on a podcast coming up next week. I want to do a new era winner ranking.
A lot of people would say, Rob, that's a hot stove. Don't touch it. I said, listen.
But did the people want it? Is that what the people want? So do you have a thought? Not asking you
for a list. That would be, again, arbitrary and reductive. But if you were trying to place Savannah
in the new era winner ranking, like what ballpark? What, what you're, let's, let's let's
overall thoughts on that.
Let's quick,
can we just quickly list the winners?
Sure.
So Erica.
Erica, Marianne, Gabler, Jam Jam,
D.
Kenzie, Rachel, Kyle, and Savannah.
Honestly, it's a pretty impressive list.
I mean, that's why it's hard.
It's like, even the person that's like,
this is the bottom.
Like, okay, but they're still very good.
Gabler, you mean?
Might be Gabler.
Might be Gabler. Might not.
Yeah.
You mean Kenzie?
No.
I, um, so I, first of all, you know, to me that, I mean, like D and Rachel are, you know, Kyle played a really good game too.
Um, they're getting better, it seems like. Yeah. It really is. They really, yeah. Um, I mean, she's right there. I do the thing about Savannah's like, you know, there was that partnership and she like so much of the strategy came, you know, from Rizzo. But like, you can't blame someone for having a great ally. Yeah. Working with them really.
well. I really liked how like Shannon Gus, speaking of Shannon Gus, were we, um, had
this, um, what? Yeah. Um, you know, she was like Rachel like played like the best underdog game.
You know, the idea of like people playing different types of games, you know, where like D was more
of a top dog. Um, maybe Savannah's like right there. And it truly like, she's like three or four,
I think in that in that ranking. What do you think? So it's interesting because I kind of feel like
that there's been an evolution of the winners across the new era where I feel like that,
the winners in the first half of the new era really maybe the first two-thirds
where and d is probably more like the people in the in the back half of the
the 40s and kensi is probably a little bit more like the first half of the 40s in the first half of the
40s you had sort of like social butterfly types who were not necessarily seen as like the big
threat at any given point and who weren't really dominant challenge competitors and
And then in the back half of the 40s, you had people who really were very savvy strategic
players who also on top of that happened to dominate in challenges, with Kyle being probably
the exception, where he couldn't dominate in challenges because Joe was winning all the challenges,
but in a different season, you know, Kyle could have won five immunities.
Yeah.
What I want to say about Savannah that I think really elevates her is that she was exceptional
and, you know, at every stage of the game.
You know, she really was that dominant social player in the beginning.
And then when her situation flipped, suddenly she became that great scrappy underdog player
who was winning these clutch immunities.
And then at the end, she had the social capital to get her way at a few crucial votes.
So, you know, I think for a lot of winners, like, they have a period where they can kind of coast a little bit.
And then like, but when they needed to, they turned it on or like right at the end.
That was where it really mattered.
but I feel like Savannah was a big player
and kind of like the right type of player
at every point in the game
where she was like adjusting her strategy
and acting you know
whereas like if you look at some of these people
you're like well you didn't really do very much
in the pre-merge or like you know
kind of the premurge like was handed to you
I don't think that was true for Savannah
and I think that that is a real testament
to the type of player she is
where she was behaving correctly
and differently in different situations
yeah it's a really tough exercise
I'm looking forward to figuring out the exact criteria.
I think also part of it is how many times did this person get blindsided?
How many times did this person that obviously they didn't go home?
But how many times did a vote not go according to what they thought was going to happen?
Or how many times did they try to execute something and they failed?
So I think there's going to be some criteria I'll have to go through as we start to figure out a list.
I'd love to also have some sort of a fan voting component to it also.
Sam's head is exploding as we're talking about this.
But I want to get this right.
Wow.
I don't want to be just vibing.
In the hands of the fans.
In the hands of the fans.
Okay.
Stephen, what else with Survivor 49 in the rearview mirror?
And I'm sure we'll talk about season 50 a bit.
I'm just looking at my notes.
What about Sage?
We haven't really talked about her.
Sage had a tough time.
She ultimately had to deal with at the Survivor after show a little bit of looking to the jury like,
hey, you know, what happened?
like that there what was the disconnect i am coming in uh as as your friend and would love asking
this question of like was is there any part of you so as somebody who went to a tough tribal
council final tribal council um did is there anything that you could add to what sage might
have been going through i mean i think that you know i just feel like it's just like a lot of
emotion. You know, you played so hard. You made really hard choices. You, you know, she played with her
heart. She really was there. But at the same time, like constantly. And then just to see it so
aggressively rebuffed and not liked, you know, I think does. And, you know, to get some of that
hostility from people, you know, I think that what's hardest, I remember the hardest thing is like,
you know, for someone like Sage and for someone like me, who's also very emotional, like, you know,
you make these really tough decisions to cut these people who,
you know, because your strategic head says it's the right choice.
And you could, you know, with Sage and Stephen.
And then they come at you with this, like, heat and this fire.
And you're like, oh, I mean, some of that is like what you're supposed to do with the final tribal, right?
And then you just feel just so broken about it.
And honestly, like, you know, like afterwards as they all like, you know, oh, we love you.
No, no, no, don't feel bad.
We love you.
And it just takes a moment.
And that's why you kind of need that space to, um, to sort of, you know, come back, you know, come back to like just reminding yourself.
Yeah.
You know, of, you know, and then feeling that love.
I mean, even like, Joanne's vote for her, which like, like, lovely for him to vote out
of loyalty.
But then when he justified her, it was like, well, I didn't think you played the best game.
And I had to go with my heart.
You didn't, I didn't, in my head, I didn't like the game you played, but like, you're my friend.
I was like that way.
First of all, you were right there every step of the way.
Exactly.
What do you mean you don't like the game she's playing?
Yeah.
So I felt like maybe he was.
I honestly wondered if that was, like, for TV.
Like, you wanted to make sure that, like, the fans watching were, like, knew that he knew that, like, she wasn't had to play the best game.
But, yeah, it's really, really hard to go through.
It's such like a, it's literally, like, a dramatic event.
And, you know, you don't get that vitriol through the TV screen that you feel when you're sitting there.
These people are, like, standing up and kind of telling you, well, how badly you did.
I also, I mean, but, like, I wanted to say that Savannah had also a great final tribal.
You know, she like really
Well, she had the one
tough moment in terms of
answering Christina's question.
But I thought that she kind of did that well.
She's like, I actually can't do that, you know?
But then she proceeded to try.
I was asking Sam last night
do you think that she should have
should she have not even made the attempt
of like I think that looks for us.
I thought about that too.
Listen, this question is out of order.
Yeah.
I go to hell, Christina.
We've seen people just be like,
I don't care about your.
vote like you know said i don't think that will fly in the new era as well i think the attempt
was more like who who are some what are some of the great people were like i'm not going to answer
your questions you feel we were talking about this last night of that we had eric riking back with
sherry beefman in survivor caramoan um you had brandon with ethan zon in survivor
africa uh come to mind yeah i think of who else was getting a little a little testy with the jury
I mean so Savannah did push back and I was like I can't do that and then Christina is like I'd like you to try I feel like at that point she would it would resonate worse with the jury almost you know rather than to be like hey I'm really sorry I'm really sorry and then like I feel like when she comes to me and it's like I don't really know I wouldn't I would feel almost bad I'd be like uncomfortable like you know I wouldn't feel like mad at her for not knowing I'd be like oh this is really awkward to watch like I'm sorry Savannah I'm sorry sorry I wasn't clear about who my loved ones are so I honestly think that like just in terms of like the jury's psychology at place like
slightly better and plus like then she gets like address each of them like hey i know you you know
something with your with your daughter yeah you know um and then you're and then you almost feel bad
yourself for like not up being being um more obvious about what did you think of what did you guys
think of sof's final tribal i thought she did really well yeah i thought she had a pretty good night
and she seemed like that she was really starting to come into her own it felt like that she was
somebody and i asked her about her tweet that she had posted last night you all said that i was
Mitch and she was somebody who was like it's hard because she was laying in the weeds waiting
for her opportunity to strike and that opportunity with the knowledge of power ending up flaming
out and then she thought she was going to have a chance at five which she didn't ultimately
have but she then got that opportunity to put Savannah into the fire and then ultimately
Savannah is able to come through the crucible and that she's able to get to the final
tribal council so for self it just seems like in another season i could certainly see her as a winner
of survivor yeah i mean she played a great premerge game right she really did do such a good job of
like bouncing around and you know the whole thing where she was like watching Alex you know from the
bushes that that she talked about with with jeremiah he didn't vote for her after that
you think that was where he lost where uh she lost his vote um and i thought she did a really good job
of saying that point that hey it was my social
game that enabled us to have
the information we needed because people were talking
to me. I mean, that's a really good point, you know?
Savannah was there winning challenges. Rizzo had his idol
and was dangling in front of you. But like, the only
reason we knew where the votes were going was because people
were talking to me. Yeah.
Well, as we were talking through like sort of like the new
era winner rankings, it's almost like that
Sophie is a person like that could have
been like a very viable winner from
Survivor 41 to 46.
And she just happened to play in Survivor 49.
yeah she's not like a person that has like you know three immunity wins and you know played an idol successfully on her resume
yeah i mean again like neither was kyle kyle i think did win i think did he win two i don't know you know he
won and really he was up against where joe had won a number but did joe win any clutch immunities
um i don't think so i don't think there was ever a point that was on
a problem with
Samar 48.
I think Joe was
ever in danger.
Yeah.
I really liked
Sophie,
yellow Sophie's
jury question.
I thought it was a
really fun.
What did she ask?
She asked,
you were all a part
of duos or trios,
what was your role
and how is it different
from the others?
I thought that was such a smart,
interesting question
that gets at the core
of how people play Survivor
because usually the question is
like, what are the moves
you pulled?
Like, what did you do?
What's you,
you know?
But to say,
Like, you know, we're all part of alliances, and that's kind of essential to like how we maneuver
through this game.
Like, how, what were you in your alliance?
And like, why is that different from all the way of the others?
Like that, what an interesting question.
I think that's like a totally unique and new question.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
How would you have answered that in token chains?
I would have probably flubbed.
I mean, I basically was like, I would have said like, well, I'm the, the loser of the alliance.
I'm the lesser one.
No, you're not.
But that that wasn't true.
You know, look, I think that I would have tried to make, I mean, it was whatever.
We don't need to get too much into the weeds here.
But like I made, I thought that I could make.
But I don't have that, you know, in terms of like having like a solid duo in my Survivor experience.
No, I mean, I was like part of different groups, but I'd never had like that ride or die person that I could say like or this is my, these are my three people in Survivor.
Yeah.
I mean, look, now I can answer that question very well.
like 46 year old me
like hovering over a 28 year old me's shoulder
would be like listen this is what you say
I still would have lost but I would have given
a better TV answer maybe I would have been brought back sooner
maybe 26 instead of you know 31
yeah um
Cochran kind of a like Jim Rice screwed you over
yeah yeah yeah um
the other thing
what do you think of Sage's final travel performance
so I think it was a little bit of a mixed bag
because she ended up revealing
that she was an army officer and tried
to have a reveal about her game,
but it just did not resonate
with the jury. And I'm not sure
necessarily what she could have
done differently in terms of
that she was a little bit
tell me if this is too far fetch.
Sage was kind of the mom
of we've gotten away from the
mom, the dawn
speaking of Karamo and how could you
do this to me? I opened
up to you. You know, we
had an emotional connection
and you betrayed me.
Savannah and sort of like
the Cochran mold was never
Savannah did not go there with you
unless you were her like Rizzo
maybe sof that she
did she was like very much on
a game level Alex we talked
about work a lot whereas
Savannah or Sage
we had this like
real connection we are
like you know my heart
is open to you sage
and how could you do this to me
I think that Sage without actually
being a parent was kind of the archetype of the, you know, mom who is,
uh, gets raked over the calls at the final travel council.
Yeah.
I think that's a really, really good comparison like that.
And even just like, you know, her gameplay was kind of similar to Dawn's where she had
these relationships and then she did play the middle.
You know, you had Dawn kind of like going back and forth, like using information she was
getting from these like human relationships and then people feeling really betrayed.
by her. I think it's a really, really good comparison. Yeah, you know, and she tried to say I was super
strategic and this was all like my like sciops. I think that's a really tricky move to play at
tribal to say like everything you thought about me is sort of true, but like mostly there's this
whole other side to me. You know, you really, that's a tough reveal. Like I think you kind of have to
broaden people's existing perspective of you to say like, yes, I'm the strategist, but I also like use my
strategy socially, you know, or like, or yeah, you know, like rather than be like, I have got
this whole other thing, you know, um, that like, you guys have no idea was happening.
And it was all this like other secret thing and like, you know, it's hard for the jury to
connect with that.
Steven, earlier today, I spoke to Rizzo and I said to Rizzo that I wanted to have a Mia Kulpa.
And I wanted to speak specifically to myself from earlier this year.
And I wanted to say to myself that, hey, you're.
being a little hard on the ris god being on the cast of survivor 50 and now you at the time you said
hey this is great i love everything this is uh this is what they do they bring in all the new people
what are you going to do uh where i was like do we need do we need people from 49 in season 50 i will
say that i feel like if you're going to now i still will maybe question the decision of do we need
12 people from the new era.
But if you're going to fill the 12 spots from the new era,
I think that Riz God is worthy of one of those 12 spots.
I think both of them.
Yeah, but I mean, we both specifically, yes.
Specifically, yeah.
Yes, I totally agree.
I think he more than earned his place.
Like, I think he was so thoughtful.
Like the idea of like saying like, like, this is how the idol is being played.
I want to do something completely different with it.
I want to use it in a new way, like, harkening back to like the way it was used of
your and to successfully do that is I mean he really you know and he did bring some theater to
it which was like you know maybe didn't resonate with the jury but I'm sure resonated with the
producers uh you know so I do think that like he absolutely deserves this spot you know five people
from the last two seasons it's hard to just like looking locally at Rizzo and Savannah I do think
like both of them are great journeys I feel like that in terms of when you say the five people
from the last two seasons like
I feel like that
both Risgod
and Savannah I think
are a little bit more
unicorns in terms of like
what they've brought to Survivor
I think then
Joe though is like Joe is kind of
a pretty I mean like he had such a moment
okay but
he had a moment
with somebody who's not going to be on Survivor 50
so I don't notice
like yes that if you want to have like some sort of like
Survivor moment Hall of Fame and say
that should be there.
But it with all with like, yeah, I know this sounds like taking cheap shots at the 48 people
that are on season 50.
And I apologize, but I just don't know if they necessarily broke the mold in the way
that the 249 people we saw were just a little bit more.
Okay, that was kind of one of a kind what they did.
Yeah, I agree.
I agree.
Like, you know, you're, I think like if they were the 48.
were not on 50, you would be like, okay, that's fine.
Like, I'm happy to see, you know, someone else from the past.
I'm happy to see, you know, Amanda Kimmel, but like to not have, to like not have,
yeah, like these two really were exceptional players.
And yeah, again, like with Savannah, I think like a really fun, interesting new era
character, like type as well.
Sure.
And I also leave room for me to say in May, hey, mea culpa to, from stupid Rob in
in December who said, hey, I don't know if the 48 people did a ton of stuff to be in Survivor
50, then you idiot, you were so wrong.
Look at what they just did.
Don't be so hard on your yourself.
There's this quote that really has stuck with me.
I heard it some time ago.
And it's if you know a person's story, you will, you'll know.
You'll know them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Do you have any cultural references?
That's it
That's all I got
Yeah
Steven
Should we
Let's
We got to talk about
Survivor 50
Of course
One last
One last question before
Do you think people
care about the life
Like the shocking life
Reveal
Because we've seen that in two seasons
Now right
We saw Sue do that
In 47
Obviously didn't affect her
And Sage do that here
Does that is that a thing
Like you didn't know
Was that I'm secretly
Some other job
then, you know, I'm secretly, you know, whatever.
Like, does that matter?
At the final travel counsel, I'm trying to think of the time when it actually was impactful.
Now, in this past season, a Big Brother, which I know is one of your favorites, but just in case you forgot, that there was the woman who won Big Brother 27, spoiler alert, was Ashley, who hid that she was a lawyer.
And people kind of thought that she was a little bit of, oh, I'm ditsy.
And then at the Final Tribal Council, she revealed.
that she was a lawyer.
Kyle also, I think he did that at the final tribal council.
I don't know if that necessarily won him the game that he revealed that that job.
But I think that if it sort of like goes against type enough, like I think it can buy you something.
But I'm really struggling to think of the time that in the final tribal council, in what we've seen in the new era is that game information that has been secret when that comes out at the final tribal council.
That ends up being the thing that ultimately is, wow, okay, I didn't know Marianne had the idol.
Like, I didn't know D really was betraying Austin this whole time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Like having some reveal about something that happened is really big, but not like about yourself.
Because I just don't think they care.
All right.
Steven.
So something we do care about, okay?
I'm hearing that Escape is on the new list
of the most anticipated debut books.
Yeah, this is something I was really excited about,
Debutiful, which focuses on debut books,
gave me this incredible blur.
Wordplay.
Yeah, this is the great American reality TV book
we've been waiting for.
Yes, it's thrilling, but the best parts about it
are the interiority of the characters,
including players on the show
and the producers behind the scenes.
This isn't just a reality TV novel from a guy who's on a reality TV show.
This is a novel that perfectly blends beautiful literary prose with page turning pace.
How about that?
It's pretty good, right?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, congratulations to you on that, okay?
And congratulations to us on making it to the Survivor 50 preview, the highly anticipated promo, which got kicked off by your former castmate, coach.
Yeah, with a Magellan quote.
I didn't even know Magellan had quotes.
Apparently, I looked it up, apparently.
I think there was like a slight misuse of intrepid, but otherwise, yeah, I missported
Shakespeare, you know, it's like, it's a little bit, it's like, it's mostly there.
Yeah, I was great.
It's exactly what we want from coach, right?
What a perfect way to start the, the Survivor 50 preview.
It was very fun, like, it was funny watching this both on chat, BCC and in my discord where I was
trying to remain active and like the hype and oh my gosh this is so epic this is so perfect i can't
wait for this season and there's zach brown and the jimmy ballad idol and the billy isish
double idol just like to see the fandom deflate yeah it does it's it's surprising i guess that
they wanted to really lead with this uh and the response that i've seen and again we're not in the
has been mostly negative
around the thing
that people were very excited about.
Yeah.
I do think there's like inherent
I mean, look,
it wasn't my favorite thing to see
it was all this like celebrity stuff.
I think that, you know,
so much of the narrative around this has been like,
oh, this is a celebration of the whole series
and then like,
hey, we've got your special guest stars.
Feels a little bit kitsch.
But I just like, I want to be cautiously optimistic.
You know, Survivor in its heyday
had a lot of really corny
product placements, right?
There was a lot.
I mean, obviously,
Jack and Jill is the most excessive.
But, like, there was a lot of them, right?
Back in the day,
there was, like, the Target stuff
and, like, whatever, like,
car company was sponsoring the show that week.
You know, there was a lot of super corny stuff
that happened in the seasons that we love the most.
And, like, you know,
they packed it all into this 30-second trailer.
Yeah.
But maybe spread out across a season,
it's not going to feel so toxic.
Yeah.
I think that people are sort of bummed out,
like, wait, this is what they're doing.
But you make a good point in terms of if celebrities are the sort of like the new product placement.
Whereas like in Heroes versus Villains, instead of that there being a challenge that, okay, here's stuff from Sears or in Survivor All-Stars, here's stuff from the Home Depot challenge.
Now this is like the Billy Elish reward.
here is the
Jimmy Fallon reward
does it take away from
like if that's how we should just sort of look at it
and sort of like framing it.
Look, I'm ready to be mad about it
if it justifies being mad.
But like I'm also, you know,
I want to like focus on the positive.
You know, I've got to this,
the world is hard.
You know, I've got enough like negative things
in the world right now.
Like I want to just like focus on how fun it was
that like to see Colby back.
You know, and like I was so excited.
there's Colby in his chiseled jaw, you know?
Oh my gosh, there's Surrey.
Like, that's going to be really fun.
And like that is going to be very fun.
I guess that's what people are really excited about, but it's a little bit like, hey,
waiter, there's a Zach Brown in my soup.
Exactly.
Yeah, but you still have a great soup, you know.
What's he doing, the backstroke?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was, it was such a funny, like, negative bar.
I mean, it was just like, does they see like the energy like a leak out of like the hype
and then the down?
but yeah yeah but do you think that is there anything to it where like is it possible that
any sort of like pushback around this sort of just gets all expelled now and then when you know
Christian is sort of put into a bad place because Jimmy Fallon has put us a we're like
Jimmy Fallon took his vote are we going to be less mad when come comes around to
when the season starts.
Right. That's a really good point that we're like
sort of expelling, you know, we're like reconciling
ourselves to this bad thing now.
And then so we're like, okay, so we'll
like have resigned ourselves to it by the time it happen.
I mean, maybe there's something there. Like if this is it,
you know, if it's just these three, we're like, okay,
like I knew about that. I knew there was going to be a Billy Ilish
boomerang idol. Like, that's fine.
Yeah. Yeah.
So we saw what, Zach Brown, we saw the Billy
eyelish boomerang idol.
We saw that. Jimmy Fallon is going to like
that Christian seems concerned about whether, what
kind of mood Jimmy Fallon was in, which, I don't know, that could be either going the way.
And then we said, and there was a Mr. Beast show up.
What do you think is in the suitcase, Rob, like a change of clothes?
No, I bet it's some kind of like advantage.
I think I, I feel like I saw like a beast coin in the air.
Oh, I really feel like it's got to be money, right?
Like he's like doubling the prize or something.
Oh, I mean, that would be classic Beast games in terms of, you know, Mr. Beast says flip a coin and
then we're going to double the money.
Yeah, I feel like there's got to be money in the briefcase.
money in the briefcase for somebody to walk
maybe like if Jeff
can win the challenge because we see Jeff like doing the
challenge I'll give you 50k
if you step out and go right into Beast games
yeah wouldn't that be a negative
if they flip the coin and they're like nope
didn't work out okay see you later
like there's no world where that happens they flip the coin
and like the prize spot remains the same
hmm you think it's like a loaded coin
mr. beast doesn't do that double-sided coin
Jimmy wouldn't do that yeah yeah okay
Jeff
doing the challenge
like 500,000
to leave right now
that's interesting
Oh take that take that
But like they made like
You know it's such as like a huge
Huge cast
Like maybe they were like counting on that
Mm-hmm
Yeah that would be I would love to see that
Okay
I would take that for sure
We saw Jeff also doing the challenge
in this now
What do you think is going on there
Is there a point where is there like
Some sort of like reward like can you beat Jeff
in the challenge you'll win reward
for your tribe?
Like is that
is that something
and should they do
stuff like that?
That I like
you pick your champion
pick your champion
and you go up against Jeff
and Jeff's in pretty good shape
right?
He looks like Jack
he looks like more Jack
than ever in this trailer.
Yeah he is like
yeah if you if you can outlast Jeff
you win reward for your tribe
like that'd be pretty ball
like
yeah it's like the banana's backpack
from the challenge right
you have to like go against
C.T.
and the person's like the last, the longest against CT wins the challenge.
People would love that.
Yeah.
If Jeff could outlast you and then you don't get reward?
Nobody gets anything from.
No Tierra Missou.
Sorry, got nothing for you.
I won the challenge.
I'll be going to the sanctuary by myself.
Yeah.
And opening my letters from my family.
Okay.
Stephen, have you followed at all the promotion about the immunity idol in 50 states?
I am in Washington, D.C., so I'm trying not to get my hopes up.
Yes, but did you see the promotion?
Well, I saw that, I mean, I just saw that there's a thing.
Like, can you tell me more about the thing?
Yeah, I heard Jeff describe it on fire, and it sounds like that their survivor, if people
haven't heard about this, Survivor is going to be hiding a hidden immunity idol,
one in each of the 50 states.
Now, again, if you live in a very small state or very unpopulated state, you have a big
advantage.
But, hey, that's what Mike White said.
hey, keep it small states, that's going to be dangerous fun for people.
You know, you live in a big state, you know, too much, hard to follow the story.
Yeah.
But there is 50 states and there is going to be a hidden immunity idol hidden in each state.
And there is a, I'm not sure if it's a website or a phone number that you sign up and then you'll start to get clues to find the idol.
And then there are prizes.
Now, do we know, is this a regular idol or is this a big?
Billy Eilish Boomerang Idol.
That's, that's maybe, maybe it's like a beast idol.
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
What are the prizes?
Do we know what the prizes are?
I don't know.
Jeff says it's going to be a really good prize.
So could be something around the finale of like, could there be some sort of event for all
of the idol holders?
Could that be the cast of Survivor 51?
Now, luckily for a lot of the people who are in the south,
I believe Russell Hans is out of the country.
So you don't have to worry about Russell finding your state's idol without the clue.
Yeah.
Where is he?
Yeah.
Stephen, I'll share with the listeners of the podcast just to mess with people.
Yeah.
I've been hiding fake idols all over North Carolina.
Rick Devons says, okay, Rob, that would be hilarious.
Do it.
So people are going to find, congratulations, you found the.
real North Carolina tar heel idol you're entitled to a all expense paid trip to Stephen
Fishback's house where he will read to you all through the escape yes you'll get a signed copy
and like jokes on them it's not a real prize I'm just going to show up in my house anyway though
yes yes back okay and then I gave and then I put Christian Hubicki's phone number to text for
details oh good good good yeah so I do that I put
with about like 27 of them around.
Mostly my neighborhood, though.
That's nice.
I was lazy.
You can find them.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Boy,
wish the traders would do stuff like this.
Yeah.
Can we hide a shield in every state?
Then what happens?
Come on.
Come on, Peacock.
Let's go.
What happens then?
Okay.
You're safe.
Stephen,
you want to take some questions from the listeners?
Yeah, in so long.
I'd love to.
I'm excited.
about the questions. Okay. And you could still post along and give us your questions.
Yeah. Right. Okay. Sure. All right. Let's see. Here we go. And how about,
who do you think wins if it's a Trace Lechay's final tribal council? I think it's still
Savannah, right? I mean, it sounds like, I mean, we had Sophie versus Savannah. I don't think Rizzo is
pulling that many votes away. And honestly, there's a world where like Savannah wins. Who's
Chowan voting for here without, without Sage.
I think he could vote for Rizzo.
Really?
Rizzo?
Maybe, okay.
And then maybe like, who else those were voting for Rizzo?
So I guess of the five Savannah votes does.
And Sage is probably voting for Savannah or so.
I think that Nate is still locked in.
And again, now we have to also imagine that Rizzo got to give his final
Tropic Council speech.
Does he sway anybody.
He's been voting for, I think Stephen always said that, you know,
Stephen we know didn't necessarily think so, so highly of Rizzo.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I mean, I asked him about Rizzo.
He did not seem particularly impressed.
I don't think that Sophie is budging.
So who else?
I think Alex is a possibility, but it seems like that Rizzo and Alex were not necessarily totally
on the same page.
So.
Yeah.
I think it's still Savannah.
Yeah.
I think that the scenario that Rizzo had talked about was that he thought that there was a
possibility that him and Savannah could split votes.
and Sof could end up getting maybe to four,
but she was up against Savannah and only got two.
So I'm not sure necessarily like how that would play out.
I think Savannah's got it.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
How about,
I mean, yeah, yeah.
How about a question?
Steven, this is from Dolores wants to know.
Do you think we'll ever go back to theme named seasons?
You know, you've talked a bunch about what's the most important season this,
51 and I really agree with you because they got to do something they can't just go back to this
format this format is played out we need to make some changes yeah hopefully I'd love to see
the theme I was very anti theme names because it felt like silly but it did end up driving a lot
it makes them memorable I remember like almost every tribe and I could really I could not
distinguish one contestant from another in the 40s like what was his name wrong yeah when we had
the themes. We said, okay, get rid of the themes because, and listen, the grass is always greener
on the other side of the fence, but... I mean, the best was the locations. You know, that's the dream.
It's like, but like, that'll never happen again. But that was the best. But when we first got the
themes, we thought they were corny, but it was like, okay, like, brains versus beauty versus
brawn. Okay, we get, we get this. And then, you know, worlds apart might have not been so good,
but we also... No color. You know, we had David versus Goliath. So there were,
themes that did hit, I mean, Australian Survivor does some version of champions versus
contenders every single season.
Exactly.
Underdogs versus top dogs.
And what was interesting about the themes too was the way people would define themselves
in relationship to the team.
What it means to be a David is this.
And they would drive themselves into like contortions kind of explaining what it meant to be
a David.
And like it was kind of interesting to see how a theme could affect a person's
psychology, you know?
Yes. And it looks like that the new season of Beast games, Stephen, is some sort of like
strong versus smart. And so maybe Mr. Beast, maybe Jimmy might get in Jeff's ear and
inspired.
Honestly, just do something pure. That was always the problem with survivors. They got cute.
Like, heroes, healers, hustlers.
Yeah.
Just do something where I understand what it is.
Just three things with alliteration is not a theme.
Yeah, exactly. You need like some kind of like real like.
red states versus blue states.
I mean, they would never do it, but they ought to.
You think so?
You think that that would be inspiring?
I don't know.
It would be inspiring, but it would be interesting.
I think it would be interesting.
So that has long been an idea.
Yeah.
And only gotten more toxic.
That we have certainly gotten more polarized.
I do think that there is some interesting storytelling where it could unfold.
I would not push for it, but like it would be interesting to get to the
cross-cultural alliance, you know, where we got to, understanding happens, you know, would the polarization
that happens, like, in our world, like, okay, do I necessarily agree with every single person who
ideologically I agree with? Or are there people that I don't agree with ideologically, but I prefer
their company? Like, I think it could be a little bit of, like, okay, well, like, yeah, you don't
have to only associate with people that you have the same exact political philosophy.
Fias. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of, like, ways to do it. Still don't do it, but it's something.
I think it'd be cool. Why not? What's so bad about it? Why not? Well, I think that maybe you
could do it where it's like people who are not like on the real extremes. Like I think, you want loons.
No loons. Right. It's like, in parentheses, no loons. Right. So it was like sort of like, okay, you know, moderate, moderate Republicans versus like, like,
you know, center left
Democrats, like, social Democrats
versus centrist Republicans,
perfect.
I don't know.
Maybe you have like a few people like on the extreme.
Again, you know what they say that, you know,
conservatism isn't a monolith, Stephen.
Yeah.
I, what are some interesting themes?
Oh, so many.
Like, well, to go back to street smarts versus book smarts.
Yeah.
I mean, that's the stuff.
You know, like that sort of was like white collar versus blue collar versus no call.
I mean, honestly, the no caller tribe actually, there's something too day.
It's just like it was like weird, like calling it no collar.
Well, okay, how about this?
Okay, this, I think this would be like a one that gets people interested.
Okay.
Stephen, okay, this is sort of like, some sort of like financial disparity of like the people like that they are, hey, I'm struggling.
And it's like, hey, we are made, you know, we are.
in the, like, I don't know how it's, like, but some sort of like rich versus poor season.
Yeah.
What's hard is like, they always will mix it up and you'll put someone like, but, you know,
he's not rich, but he's rich in life, you know, like, no, no, like he's always like
he's a Goliath in his career.
So they have like some sort of like rich try and also like Keith Nail would be there also.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I think that that would, the, the perfect theme for Survivor is something that makes somebody
who doesn't care about Survivor say, hey, oh, they're doing that.
Okay, let me tune in.
And I want to check out how this is going to go.
Or somebody who hasn't watched Survivor in a long time say, okay, oh, it's a rich versus poor
season.
Okay.
Let me see how this is going to play out.
And it's something that sort of like invites conflict to it and has like a little bit
of sizzle and appeal to people who, oh, hey, it's.
just the next season of Survivor.
You got to give people a reason to tune in to see why this one is going to be different.
Yeah.
And especially with the 40s where there was like nothing, you're like, I don't even know what 40
it is.
You know, there was just like, it's like it was all became sort of a blur.
So I do think like you're right that they need to really distinguish, distinguish them.
Yeah, even if it was like, you know, believers versus atheists.
Like something like, like something that's just, okay, they're here, these two different
groups of people that have like very different philosophies on life where you have people who are
very much feeling like, hey, there's a higher purpose and that I'm like, you know, this this higher
power is rooting me on in the game. And then you have people who are, you know, just like very much
like analytical of like, okay, like that would be exciting. And maybe you call it something like,
you know, you know, believe going to heaven versus going to hell. Yeah, something, something like that.
How about this, Stephen?
Okay, this is the season.
No, but I like that.
Heaven versus hell, where it's like people that are like these,
we have found like these like godly, like amazing people versus people who are like self-reporting.
Yeah, like, I'm going to hell.
Like, you know, I'm like not criminals necessarily, but just people who are sort of like from
the wrong side of the street.
Yeah.
Well, I do think there's something to that where like it's also that creates like,
I mean, so much of what Survivor aspires to be is a place where you have these profound social conversations.
And framing it around these things, I do think, would create space for those conversations to happen.
Yeah.
So, listen, we're not saying we have all the answers, but this is like this is the kind of stuff.
I feel like that most people that are in the Survivor are the people that love Survivor.
I think these are the types of swings that people might be interested in as opposed to which we've tried this with the new era.
Yeah.
And I feel like, okay, there was, it's not all bad, but I feel like that there are things that we could be doing in the next phase of the show to help keep people like very invested.
Yeah.
Because I worry that there's a lot of people that are like, okay, I'll watch 50, but then I'm probably going to check out.
right well you can't take the audience for granted that they're gonna just keep showing up year after year
after year and because there's more and more stuff that happens you know that keeps on happening
and i hope it's oh here goes cesterino complaining about everything but i i really like uh nobody
outside of like maybe like uh you know people that like that that that is like that they work for the show
is more invested in the success of this franchise than me i need this franchise to keep going
going on so that I have a place to promote my next book.
Right?
No.
Okay.
My favorite part of my week is talking about Survivor with you.
I much prefer this to watching.
I love,
I mean,
obviously,
I love watching Survivor,
but like this is great.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Okay.
Then let's see.
Somebody said homeschoolers versus public schoolers.
That might be getting a little too in the weeds.
Versus private schoolers.
No,
that's great.
Homerschoolers,
public schoolers,
private schoolers?
That's amazing.
I love that.
versus 17 other rappers I see in the chat.
Okay.
Even the East Coast versus West Coast.
Like, uh, let's go.
You could do like, yes.
Or like just do like New York versus.
I mean, like, you know, there's a zillion seasons of this show.
It doesn't all have to be regionally diverse.
Just do like, you know, New York versus Alabama.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, I don't know if we necessarily want to do North versus South.
Why?
Survivor Civil War.
Okay. All right. How about this? This is from M. Eliot. Do we like the jury speaks segment we get in the finale?
I really like this, M. Elliot. I hope I'm not alone. I like, you know, I'm a big rights of passage guy. I felt like this was a really good way to integrate the kind of rights of passage vibe where we had like, you know, a little bit of a snapshot of who that person was and what they meant to the contestants. And then also how it's going to impact the game, you know, where they're talking a little bit about what they're thinking is for the jury. So it's not purely retro.
perspective. I know everyone thinks rights of passages that air, but here it felt like this is meaningful
because this is what it's leading to is this jury vote. I loved it. Where are you, Rob? Yeah. I felt like
it was a little bit just like filling out the time. I feel like in the past, I've been a little
bit more into it, but I don't know for whatever reason. It might have been just that like it was a late
night and it wasn't really hitting for me here in terms of, did you feel like that anybody gave you
any information that helped you understand where they were coming from? I don't know. I mean,
You're like the jury stuff, it's like, you know, it is sort of, you know what?
I was talking to reality, Steve about this.
And Steve had this idea of like, what if you integrated like Ponderosa stuff into the show
itself, like not have like, not have like the Ponderosa videos, but like, you know, the start
of the episode is the eliminated contestants showing up at Ponderosa and they're like, I'm so
mad like this person did this to me and this person did that.
I mean, there's 90 minutes.
And if you had like one few minute segment where the person who was eliminated is talking
about their perspective, I feel like we'd have so much more insight into the game.
What if they took that and put it online?
So hear me out.
Hear me out.
Okay.
You take the footage.
You take the footage of the person that goes to Ponderosa.
And like every week this could come out.
Okay.
And then they could be like, hey, to see more about this person, like go to.
our website and watch
this video of people
at the Ponderosa. But I mean, to make it part
of the narrative. But I don't know necessarily
like what that would buy you
with all. Because it does two things, okay?
Like first of all, like it
gives you some of the context for what actually happened,
right? Which we do kind of get in that segment
at the start of the episode where they're like, oh,
I didn't want to vote for him, but I had to.
You know, you do get that in the nighttime confessionals.
But what I think it would do is pressurize
the rest of the season because, you know,
all of Survivor is competing for these jury
votes, but we have no freaking clue, you know, like you don't have a sense of that.
Like the point of Survivor is competing for the jury votes, but you don't have a sense
of the pressure of that at all until like right at the end of the last episode.
But if every single episode, you had that juror coming and being like, I'm so pissed.
Sage, I'm never voting for you, you know?
Or like, oh my gosh, Savannah, you killed it out there.
Suddenly, like, the pressure of the jury and this like mounting sense of their opinion
becomes like a part of the narrative.
And like, that's what the contestants are playing for.
Yeah, you know, I'm not buying this one.
I just, I think to start off the next episode, like if, if, let's say that this week's
episode started with Stephen at Ponderosa, like, oh, like, Sage, I guess it might help inform
why Sage doesn't do well in the final tribal council, but I think that the show has always
been from the POV of the players who are in the game.
I think that's what sort of like makes the final tribal council.
exciting in that you don't know what these players are thinking or what like you loved it when
David looked so mad and he stood up uh you were you were you were waiting for you know you're waiting
for hear what David had to say to Joe and he's like I'm kidding but I think that that would sort
of like take us out of the new episode I think it'd be hard to like get us back into the flow of
things when we're starting things off like you got to have vision Rob you got to have there's a way
to do it I'm telling you there's a way to do it I'm telling you there's a
way to do it.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
But I'm definitely open to this type of thing.
And I think that one of the things that has been one of the better things about the
new era have been sort of like the chances that they've taken in terms of like editing
and presenting the show.
So I think I'm open to these types of ideas being in the 50s.
I just think that going to Ponderosa and following the story of the people who are like not
in the game to open the episode, like even if it was like we've, we followed them to
Ponderosa like at the end of the episode a little bit of like getting like Stephen like
we're taking his medicals and everything I don't even see the medicals well but while they're
doing I mean that's how they used to do the Ponderosa videos it's like okay all right I know but I'm
saying this would not well whatever this is really where this is far from but if you wanted
it in the television show I feel like after the vote I think that you know I could see maybe
five more minutes of like you know listening to as they're like he's coming out of the game like
hearing from him.
Yeah.
Okay.
You're out.
All right.
I'm kind of like, yeah.
I'm out.
When I make, you know, my fortune on these five minutes of content, you're going to be, I'm leaving you out.
You're not getting a penny on it.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Let's do one more question.
And this is from Metro Fanatic.
Who from this cast will come back on a returning season?
Well, I think, I'm going to say Rizzo, I think is going to definitely come back.
Yeah.
I think Rizzo and Savannah.
I can see.
I think there is definitely.
possibility. I'll give you the whole cast.
Let's skip, with all due respect, we'll skip the
premurge. Nate.
I don't think so.
I like Nate a lot as a character.
I wish we'd seen more of him.
I don't feel like he, just because he went out right,
maybe if we'd seen Nate all the way to the end, there was
possibility. I don't think going all the way to
MC.
Again, someone I really liked, just because
she went out as early as she did, I feel like we didn't get
enough. And we really like all of them. You don't have to say
it every time. Well, but I'm the one
saying no. Okay. Yeah. I think
emcee is probably uh you know that we bring back so few people like i i don't think that mc is is there
how about after mc it was alex who was my winner pick no no probably not and then after
alex and it was juan i think yes yes to juan yes totally viable very fun character very earnest
played hard great moments like good on camera yeah i would definitely i'm i'm in on juan i'm buying
to want. How about Yellow Sophie? I'm selling Yellow Sophie. I wouldn't be mad at it. I think that she
actually gave us, you know, some fun moments. And I think she was really good at the confessionals.
And she was actually kind of a challenge beast also, but probably. I thought she was great. I
loved her jury question too, but I'm out. I'm selling my stock. Okay. Then after Yellow Sophie,
it was Stephen? I think we need him working on important science projects. Right. Yeah. I
He was good.
He was a very fun character.
I think so.
Okay.
After Stephen, then it was Christina.
No.
Yeah.
Jeff said on fire podcast that he said that he wants to bring Christina back.
Huh.
Okay.
He loved it.
I mean, he loved the moment.
I think that we got from her and he was a huge fan.
She was really tough in the challenges.
I mean, you know,
I think what Savannah was saying about her during her little montage.
she had the fewest confessionals
I think of anybody
like she had like 20 something
confessional I don't know if they talked to all season
but like you know in terms of like
the late gamers she was like not even in the realm
and I had a great chat with her
today in the episodes yeah
I had a great chat with her today
and you know I think that there were things
that she you know she like
was easy to talk to
and I think that people really liked her out there
but in terms of just in terms of
you know she struggled so much
in the competitions also
and it seemed like at times like
the game was getting like a was just uh she she was you know sometimes i felt like that the game
was going a little fast for like she was one i mean like even her allies were saying she doesn't
really know what's going on you know i don't know like i would not i think she was a very fun i mean
you know we're always saying like we don't want just a bunch of game bots not everyone has to play
but like didn't seem like she was really you know you want like a someone who's going to drive the
game even though they don't know what they're doing not someone who's going to be more of a passenger
even though they don't own with it.
Yeah.
I did not love.
I mean,
she was totally good character.
I just wouldn't,
I wouldn't want to see her back.
I mean,
I wouldn't need to see her back.
What about,
uh,
was it who was for,
a Riz God,
a Riz guy,
we talked about the Sage.
Yes.
Well,
that Sage is a tough one,
I think.
I doubt Sage would accept it again.
You know,
she seemed really,
um,
I would say,
reading the tea leaves.
I feel like that Sage
really had a difficult time with all of this.
Even outside the show,
I'm looking forward to having the chance to talk to her tomorrow,
but I know from some of her
Instagram posts.
that she has made.
She seemed like that this was like a difficult experience for her.
I want Sage on Survivors Playbought on the Clock Tower.
I want Joanne on Survivor's Play Blot on the Clock Tower.
Like I think Sage I know is like really into like games like social games.
I didn't know that.
Well, yeah, yeah.
But so I think that like.
Did she reveal that at the Final Travel Council when I was like.
I was like pre pre.
It was like her pregame press.
Like she was like I love to just play like I get obsessed with these like games.
I mean she plays like code names.
It's not like you know, but like you know, she might be she might be great.
It's Survivor's Play, put on the clock tower.
Yeah.
Okay.
And then Sophie B.
I think definitely, yes.
Buy Sophie B.
I think there's, she would be great.
She was so charming.
She played a great game.
I can see her winning a returning player season.
I can see her being the type of person and people coming in.
They're not worried about her.
Oh, she's just fun.
She, but, you know, oh, she like Rizzo and Savannah did everything.
And then she comes in and runs a returning player season.
I can see that too.
And I would love it.
I mean, she's like super charming.
She's like a big fan, obviously, of the show.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then obviously we've got that then we've got Savannah who obviously coming back.
Okay.
All right.
Steven, we'll have more to say with Survivor 50.
I know you and I are talking about some other podcasts here in the next couple of weeks as well.
Anything else that's on your mind?
No.
But, you know, I'm just looking at the premarges if there's any like real crazy standout here.
Jake, I think is probably the person that you can see from.
Yeah, Jake would be not.
impossible to see especially because that there is the thought that okay he didn't go out in a
regular way he was giving a lot in terms of entertainment to the show like a shoe bandit stuff
he was a big character he was personable seemed like that yeah was good strategy i don't think he was
going to win but it seemed like that he would had more game to play i definitely seemed like that
he is the type of person that would come back yeah i can see jake coming back as well um
yeah yeah um jake versus joe dowdell season medevax let's go
what about shannon anything there i don't think so i mean you know
she was very impressed with her also listening to the on fire podcast yeah she was a big
character vis-a but like you know even like again like you know i think hurt by being you know number
four s name brunette on this season you know like how many of that you know so i think that's
gonna be that's okay all right um yeah uh you know please like this is probably my last chance in front
this big audience that the pre-orders like so you know if you have are considering buying escape
pre-ordering it would be awesome i'm super close to being on some of these lists and so people
pre-ordered um it would truly be life-changing for me um at stephenfishback.com or buy from barns
and noble where you can be entered to win the merchandise contests and i can give you my endorsement
as well about three quarters of the way through escape it is really fun and stephen did an
incredible job of you know capturing the perspective of these reality
stars who, uh, what their mindset is like outside of the show, what their mindset is like
inside of the show in a way that as far as like we've seen confessionals, we've heard
interviews, we've never gotten inside the mind of a reality TV contestant. And through
Steven's writing, he takes you to places that we've never explored in, uh, reality television.
So it's been a really, really fun read. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, truly like, I was like, that was like
the breakthrough for me as in writing it, not to like belabor this, but like, I was like, you know,
like, because you think like reality shows I'm already getting that unvarnished perspective.
I have that confessional.
The confessionals are where people are telling me what they really think.
But I was like, you know what?
Like having been there,
confessionals are our type of performance themselves.
Like you're kind of like performing for the producer.
They're asking you these questions.
You're trying to please them.
And then the questions the producer's asking you are kind of like shaping what you're thinking.
Anyway, I tried to get after all that.
Yeah, there's one scene that I had been reading recently where, you know,
the characters are on some sort of like a strenuous journey.
And one of the characters is like trying to come up with this.
to say in the confessional and it's like rattling through different like oh let me try this let me try
this let me try this and try and like no that's not right that's not right yeah well thank you very
much i mean truly that means a lot coming from you because you have certainly seen it all yes speaking of which
you know you you you too have a book to pre-order uh you sure uh yeah the tribe the tribe and i have
spoken uh this was actually really cool today i got the now steven am i using the correct from the galley
copy. Wow, that's exciting.
Yeah. So, uh, so, so I've been
holding up this book here. No more
cookbook. Uh, yeah. So this is, this is
a cookbook. This is this, it's
a cookbook. Uh, this is, this
is a book, uh, that's called
uh, eat plants
bitch. And, uh, it has the cover
to my book on it. And I've been holding
that up. But so today,
I actually got sent to me
the copy. Now this is,
uh, the, the real book is
going to be hardcover. This is a soft cover.
And there's lots
of illustrations in
art in the book. And it will be all
this, the book will be in full color.
But this is like a
like paperback black and white copy of
the book. But it is
really, it's like
it's really cool to now. What a thrill.
How cool. Like hold it in my hands.
Like this is like the real, the
real thing. That's so
awesome. Isn't it amazing you open the box?
It's like, this is my book.
Here's a, here's a, here's a,
Here's like the many, the many different faces of me.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Yes.
Okay.
So, yeah, this is really, really a momentous day here.
And you could, of course, check out.
Rob has a book.com.
Let's share some other things I worked on today.
I got exit interviews, Savannah, Sophie B, Rizzo and Christina.
I thought they were all great today.
And check out what they have to say.
I'm hoping that we can do some longer interviews with everybody.
I don't know how the availability is going to be for,
Sophie B and I'm sorry for Rizzo and Savannah so we'll see if they will let them do any
season 49 press so we'll see about that but certainly we'll work on bringing you some
survivor longer interviews coming up here then on Friday I will be live at 3 p.m.
Eastern for the post finale Q and A so be on lookout for that coming up on Friday for
the patrons go to Rob's website.com slash patron then also all of our finale
wall-to-wall coverage in the we-know survivor podcast feed on the B&B, of course, with Shannon,
don't call me Colleen Gus on Global Survivor, Why Blank Lost, and the Purple Pants podcast Survivor
News.
And then we also announced even the live shows coming for the fall.
Right now, we've got three live shows set for March 11th in Los Angeles, April 22nd in Toronto.
And then on May 6th, the day after the tribe and I have spoken is out.
I will be in New York City for a big live show for.
Survivor 50. And of course, for our patrons, we're going to always give the tickets to the patrons
first. Okay? So Robbinsbobs.com slash patron to make sure you don't miss out on the best seats for
the Survivor 50 live shows with maybe more to come. Okay. Steven, where did you do you know that
I was on the traders? Did I, did we talk about this? Hmm, what? Yes. Yes. Yes. You remember in the
summer, I was gone.
Yes. But you, okay.
So you were on a reality. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. So I
actually, I went to Scotland and I was on
this show. It's called The Traders.
It's a social strategy show. And there's like a few people
that are like they're trying to like kill
everybody and then you figure out who did it. And so
I did this show. It's going to be coming out on Peacock
January 8th. And so
that I have a whole bunch of new cast
members that I was on the show with.
Puyazamakili has player profiles to get to know every single member of the Traders
for C cast, starting today with me as we will have a great show.
Mike Bloom and Eric Stein will be giving you a preview of me.
Whoa.
You know what you should do, Rob?
You should have trading cards, you know, like trait, trading cards.
Yeah.
I don't own the copyright.
The R-A-I-T-I-N-G?
Yeah.
You get it?
The one?
The joke, trading.
I got it.
Then also, of course, it's on chat PCC.
That's where all the survivors are hanging out.
There might have been me traders hanging out now.
On chat, BCC, go to robins website.com
slash VIP chat for that.
And then, Stephen, I know that you had the chance to participate on the big D&D murder on the Holiday Express coming to R-H-J-P this Saturday.
This was so fun to be a part of.
I really like, what, like an unexpected street that this was.
It's coming this Saturday.
That's like that's so exciting.
Yeah, premiering this Saturday.
And this was something that we were approached by Kane and Frannie from Survivor 44.
They said, hey, we want to do a holiday themed D&D special on RHAP.
And we said, okay, go for it.
And they did such a great job.
Stephen and I both participated in it.
And I can't wait for you to check it out this Saturday.
that was amazing okay and then of course the tribe and i spoken is available at rob has a book
dot com all right stephen anything else for you of course uh the end of another season of the
know it alls wow and the next know italls is going to be for survivor season
next survivor no at all's next survivor know it all is going to be and we're going to be talking
about the james cordon idol and you have to sing a song i don't know it well
I don't know about James Gordon Idol.
Now it's like, what's on after Colbert?
It's a good thing they didn't do a Colbert idol.
I mean, it doesn't matter.
Oh, boy.
Yeah, truly.
It's canceled.
They canceled that idol.
Yeah.
Imagine if it was a Jimmy Kimmel idol and not a Jimmy Fallon idol.
And then, like, we've got to hope.
What if, what if Jimmy Fallon gets pulled?
They take a show off the air before it's five 50 stars.
Oh, my gosh.
Or like, you know, any of these people, they could do something terrible, you know?
Hey, fishy for Savannah in case it wasn't clear.
Final fishy.
I, by the way, I didn't even know that I hadn't given a fishyy.
I just, I mean, she's been so great all season long.
But I do think like when she and Rizzo have made a move, like it seemed like the strategic part of that has been Rizzo.
So I probably was, and she's obviously one of these challenges.
But I didn't even realize I didn't get her fish yet.
But she certainly knew all these people, these people on Twitter.
Yeah, they are.
Yeah.
Okay.
I'm honored to be a part of the conversation.
Good.
All right.
Well, it just goes to show you how coveted that the fish.
She is.
And sometimes, you know, you have these great actors that they've never won an Oscar.
So, you know, it just goes to show that awards aren't everything.
That's right.
That's right.
All right.
Thank you so much for joining us for another season of the Survivor No-Dals.
Always fun getting the chance to talk to my great friend, Stephen, every week.
So thank you for tuning in and letting me have this great thrill that I get to have every week during the Survivor season.
Yeah, truly.
So fun.
And this was another delightful episode.
Rob.
All right.
Thank you all.
You got the pond trait, trading cards, trading?
Oh, oh, you know what?
I missed it.
And now, now, now light bulb went off.
Okay.
All right.
This could be huge.
This could be huge.
Between this and, like, going to Ponderosa for the first five, ten minutes of the next
episode, like, this is, this big ideas.
And then also the red versus blue survivor.
Like, this is like a think tank.
You're going to Samoa.
All right.
Take care, everybody.
Have a good one.
Bye.
