RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 48 Pre-Game Day 12: Civa Tribe

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

Survivor 48 Pre-Game Day 12: Civa Tribe Rob Cesternino (@RobCesternino) and Mike Bloom (@AMikeBloomType) are here to share with the listeners their reactions to the cast reveal of Survivor 48! Join us to learn a bit about the 18 new castaways to be tested on the islands of Fiji Survivor 48 is gearing up with […]

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Today stands for total fun savings adventure. Maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Hey everybody, what's going on? Rob Cisternino back here with another Survivor 48 Tribe preview. Today we are gonna be seeing the Cebu tribe here with the guy who went to Fiji just to interview them. Give it up for Mike Bloom. Rob, happy Valentine's Day. Yes, happy Valentine's Day to you, Mike.

They often they often say interviews are like a box of chocolates and that you never know what you're going to get. And today we've got six really fascinating people to talk about. You would want to say Siva wouldn't want to be a, but you might want to be this tribe, Rob, because at least physically, this is a very stacked group of people we're going to talk about. Yeah, strong tribe, lots of personalities.

We will talk about them all here as we preview this tribe. Of course, we have been dropping for these last couple of weeks. Now, all 18 have aired here on RHAP, both on our YouTube channel and in the We Know Survivor feed. So you could hear any of these interviews if we happen to peak your interest on any of these players,

you can go back and listen to their full interviews with Mike Bloom. Then we will be talking about all six of them today. We will also be talking about some of their interests in terms of who they are thinking about working with and how many overlap with people that are here in this tribe to get a little bit of a sense of how the tribe is going to go. So looking forward to that. We've also done previews of the other two tribes as well, which you can find in the same place here at We Know Survivor.

All right, Mike, how are you doing today? Happy Valentine's Day to you. Thank you. I mean, this this does feel odd, you know, and we always find these different ways to go through these cast members. But I don't know, this one kind of feels unique in that I have received such warm words about this cast from the people that have been checking these interviews out, which, you know, gives me a lot of pleasure. Hopefully the people that I've actually been interviewing that we're gonna watch over the next three months

have received similarly warm words, but it's always an honor and a jervis to get the chance to go out there, especially on set, and get to talk with these people. And this cast is no different. And again, it's a very unique group of personalities, Rob. I think especially this tribe, a lot of people have been saying that there's a lot of old school vibes to some of the people in this game. And they're represented here on SEVA particularly.

And we'll just echo the words of the listeners, Mike. You've done such an incredible job getting so much fun stuff out of these players and making every single one of them feel like, you know, you're hanging on their every word. And so it must be a long day for you to do this. Is this all in one day or is this over two days with them? No, so actually a little bit of a state secret here. You may have noticed that in my interviews, we are in two separate locations and that's because they were broken up across two days

just due to timing logistics. I think I did about six to several on the first day and then the rest on the second day. But oftentimes, you know, we do usually get it done in about like a day and a half. But still, it's a lot of back to back to back. But what does keep me energized are the fact that I do get to sit down with a new face

and really get to know a person every 30 minutes or so, especially people like these. Yeah, speed dating for you. All right. So, Mike, let's go through. We'll bring up the pictures and try to show you the best as we can, who we're talking about. If you're listening to the podcast feed, of course you can see this all on our YouTube channel

at robiswebsite.com slash YouTube. And we'll start off with Charity, Charity Nelms. Yes, we finally found who Gabler gave his money to. So now she's looking for a second million in the game. Gabler or Diggler? Could be Diggler. Diggler and Yahya. They went in together to give all their money to Charity. And here she is.

All right. Here is Charity. She is a flight attendant, but more recently, she is a wellness coach for people. She talked about how she got into that here with Mike. She had a great story, I thought, about how, you know, she had been watching Survivor for 10 years, and she felt like, well, I can't do this. Like, you know, I don't want to wear a bathing suit.

I don't want to go that. And then she has this weight loss journey. And now she's like, hey, well, now I can. Yeah, it's a really interesting lens that she looks at with this game is making up for lost time that she'd always wanted to do it But for many reasons to not feel comfortable enough to do so and now that she is she's like great I'm kind of playing as the most fully realized version of myself in this moment And so I am going to really seize all 26 days here to the point that you know She talks about that at the end that, you know, she talks about that at the end with me.

Yeah. I'll look for advantages. Yeah. I'll look for idols. Yeah. I'm not afraid to speak my mind to be able to, to call together what I want to. Yeah. Maybe I will be a villain.

We need villains nowadays. And so I think, so I think charity, which also be very fun. It's like calling a big guy tiny is like having someone named charity become the villain of the season. Yeah. She said she really does like villains. She's accused. Not even a villain. Russell Hans is the goat. So maybe she could be the villain. I mean, you could argue in heroes versus villains. He was a goat. That is for sure. Sure. She loves Tony the rat. Tony the rat. I will say maybe the impression needs some work. I don't know if everyone can be

on your level, Rob. She did her own because I think she's from Michigan or Minnesota, I want to say. So she did sort of like Nicole Fransel cross-bred with Tony with I'm sitting in my spy shack. Right. She loves Jane Bright. And she said Jane Bright for Survivor 50. I saw Jane Bright not too long ago. And she was very into it. We were talking about how she watches in the sauna. Yeah, it's interesting. Like charity making an absolute deep pull. Maybe her and Justin will be able to connect over their mutual love for survivor Nicaragua. But like she authentically loves the farm strong attitude.

Farm strong. Yeah. That Jane was able to personify. Yeah. She get that like bracelet farm strong. I suppose I'm trying to think. I mean, Nicaragua came out in like 2010 I'm like I feel like that the window had lapsed on the think so is over I feel like the Livestrong place. It's my to go. I'm trying to remember cuz I do remember I think Tom Westman might have Worn a Livestrong bracelet out there that early. Yeah, I think it was like an oh four or five type of thing

Okay. All right. So She is outspoken, no BS. She loves Steph. I'm sorry. I'm reading in my notes that she loves Stephanie. Not Stephanie LaGrosse. Stephanie that when we talked about who she likes, she identified Steph as a person that she likes.

Tall girls gotta stick together. And in this way that, you know, charity is someone who will get clocked as well as a bit that she likes. Tall girls gotta stick together. And in this way that charity is someone who will get clocked as well as a bit on the taller side. And so she very much sees eye to eye, perhaps quite literally with Stephanie. And then she has this interesting connection with Joe. She says like, Oh, that was Joe?

And she says, yeah, somebody with forearm tattoos is a deep well. And I'm like, I don't know who that is. Well, maybe she's looking to get some water out of him, though don't fall in Rome style. But yeah, I think it's, I believe I'm clocking Joe from the tattoos. And also like, again, knowing his story,

he does seem like someone that you could tell it has a lot on his mind, even in pregame while he's sitting around. And so yeah, you can tell that like, she also has an interest in working with interesting people as well, which does make a lot of sense given her own story. She talked a little bit about it in her CBS video as well that like she basically hit a fork in the road and not the new amazing race twist of like she was employed at this mega church after she had went to ministry school and then was like,

I'm not going to be what other people want me to be. And they decided nine days later to become a flight attendant. So, again, if you're looking for someone to make independent decisions based on what they feel is best for their game rather than somebody else's, I think Charity would be maybe one of the number one candidates to do so. Mike, would you think of Charity's cast of Celebrity Survivor that she told you she has for Celebrity Surviv, it's a Jack Black. Maybe Mike White could talk him into it. Snoop. Yep.

Shaq. Martha Stewart. Which I feel like now we're starting to get a little bit into like Trader's territory, like let's not bring on too many preexisting relationships on to survive. And Cesar Millan, her hero. Yes. So Caesar Milan, again, maybe it's the Joe thing. And she sees that dog in Joe that she's like, he's able to pick up on energy. That would be an interesting group.

Usually we did a brain steal about this last summer, Rob, when we talk about celebrity Survivor. We usually are thinking about who are fans of Survivor that are celebrities. This is more so like, would it be fun to see Snoop out there, you know, searching through the green for his own form of green? Could be good. Maybe one day. By the way, Mike, just a total aside,

since you brought up the celebrity superfan brand steal that we did, my family has been binging Young Sheldon repeatedly now. I hear the Young Sheldon theme song on loop 24 hours a day. Shout out Medium Sheldon. Have you transitioned them into Georgie and Mandy's first marriage so they can keep up with the latest property? Mike, it's all a thing. They went right, they skipped the Big Bang Theory.

They went right to George and Mandy. My wife says Big Bang Theory is too inappropriate for them to watch. They're not allowed to watch Big Bang Theory. Only- Well, yeah, especially early on, there are a bunch of perverts out there. And so probably not the best education.

Nobody cares about this. This is fine. Anyway, so all right, Charity. Let's see, you know, if she could create a Big Bang out there on survival. Yeah, I'm really intrigued by Charity. Cause I think Charity has a lot of good stuff going for her. You know, she checks that box that I have been professing to the high heavens

about how service industry jobs can really help you. And she talks about that a bit in both my interview and her bio about how obviously being a flight attendant, you're dealing with a myriad of different personalities wanting a bunch of different things. I think she even writes in her bio that being a flight attendant is, quote, playing survivor, but in a metal tube, which sounds like actually the plot of Silo on Apple TV+. But I think that Charity is someone who obviously

is in great shape as well, which could bode really well from an individual perspective. She does say that she is someone who's not afraid to be vocal, which could certainly put a lot of eyes on her early on if she does want to be the leader of Siva. But I also anticipate due to their physicality, there's a good chance that Siva might not go to tribal council much, if at all, in the pre merge. The problem I see was ordinarily,

I would say charity is a, is a pretty sizable winner candidate. She has a lot of good stuff going for her. The only thing is that there, as we'll be talking about in this podcast, as we have throughout, she's being clocked by a lot of people. And some are for good reasons. Some are saying, you know, Camilla later on will say, I'm going to I would jump off a cliff for this woman. Well, there are also some that talk about her as like being a little cold,

as being a little hard to read. And we sometimes see in the form of Caleb, like if you don't interact with these people until the merge, that pre-season perception might immediately become the first impression upon meeting them at the merge. And so there's a chance that we might get a situation where all of a sudden, almost like Genevieve, everyone's like, all right, Charity's too dangerous.

She's the number one target. She's gotta go at this point. Otherwise, I think she's got a lot of good stuff in her resume. Okay, the folks that she talked about, Stephanie and Joe, neither of them are on her tribe. So we don't have any matches for her in terms of people that she is looking to work with.

Let's move on to somebody she will be on a tribe with, and that is Chrissy Sarnowski, the firefighter. Yes, the oldest person this season, 55 years old. And again, Chrissy is such a different soul, truly I think blue collar, talks about how she has basically spent this, a good amount of time and also invested in this passion of helping people.

She talks about in her video, which is being a paramedic, being a nurse, being a firefighter as of late. And she is just she's just built tough, man. Like if tough as nails was still a thing. Oh, yeah. I think she slipped through our fingers. Yeah, I've been loved. Yeah. Well, yeah, please think Chris would have been... She slipped through our fingers. I've been de-gloved. Yeah, well, yeah, please don't describe that process.

You know, I think that, especially when she talks about, like, oh, she goes through everything with 65 pounds of weight on her, like, that's a tough as nails challenge right here, right there. Dragging stuff through the mud with firefighter equipment on. Yeah, okay. So she tells the story of her relationship with the show. She does not love the super fans. She thinks that the people that are copying the puzzles over and over again, that's basically cheating.

Yeah, which is interesting. I mean, listen, Chrissy's maybe just picking up on the discourse that was going around in the survivor fandom a couple of years ago. And I think, again, maybe represents an opinion that is not typically assigned to the casting in the new era. Like Chrissy seems someone like someone who has been watching from the beginning, you know, she might not have a fascination or, you know, a proclamation for names, but she is someone that has been paying attention to the show. But she's also somebody that might feel like, no, this old school spirit of it's

a fun adventure where you bring together all these people who would never cross paths in the light of day in real life and they get to interact with each other. And so I'll be really intrigued to see what kind of spirit of the new era she embodies. Right. This is different than a Sue who came in to the interview with me last season and was like, I'm basically the female Tony. I don't know if Chrissy is somebody who would necessarily hit the jungle idol hunting immediately.

She might be the person that would be more likely to just kind of stay back at camp, get a feeling for what's going on and build a familial dynamic amongst the people around her. Yeah, I think that her social game is going to be a big part of what she does. She wants to be the cool aunt. Yeah. Well, listen, nowhere to go but up for Uncle Bruce in my opinion.

You know, I think that maybe just a good cop to the bad cop in that way. But I think again, Chrissy is also very down to earth as well. Like, she just seems like a cool hang in addition to the cool ant. So I can absolutely see it. I don't see a situation where you really get rid of Chrissy in the pre-merge, because I think she also comes across as like relatively non-assuming, especially if she is kind of being strong. Yeah. As I would imagine, it's sort of like the workhorse of the tribe as well. Someone who is not going to necessarily tire out and will always make sure to contribute to Cam.

If you see that and you see that she's not necessarily doing anything to make her a huge strategic threat, why beat her when you can join her at that point? Okay, Chrissy, her likes, the people she was vibing with, Beard Guy, Shaheen. Yeah, she was getting a good vibe from Shaheen and Cedric. Cedric too. Neither of those two people are going to be on her tribe. But her dislike, such a polarizing person. Snooty blonde.

Sounds like Stephanie to me. Yeah, so the story that Chrissy told, right, was like, somebody tripped. Chrissy said, are you OK? And apparently Stephanie shushed her because they're not allowed to be talking. So there's a rule follower, you know, it's a classic white collar, blue collar situation.

All right, there's Chrissy. Anything else on Chrissy, Mike? No, I don't believe so. I, again, shout out to Yaya, absolutely love it. With the winner of Carolyn season. Yes, exactly. So just drop the M, keep the YA I suppose. Sure.

Get groceries delivered across the GTA from real Canadian super store with PC express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC optimum points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Let's talk about somebody who has, of course, made a lot of waves since he was revealed. It's David Kinney. And Mike, I thought that David was actually a lot different than I

expected in the interview with him. I kind of expected just like total meathead bro. And I found David to have a lot more depth than I was expecting. Well, this might be a very surface level of comparison, Rob, but maybe it's just because I've been seeing him a lot on NBC. I feel there's a lot of comparisons, maybe not gameplay wise, but between this David and David

Janet from Australian Survivor and also Deal or No Deal Island in that I think he has, to your point, this big physically demanding presence, but like he's got a personality as well. And I think he's someone who is going to be very fun in the Confessionals because already he is not afraid to cut a sound bite about how good he is. Yeah. He's, you know, confident in a very fun way. He talks about himself as a nerd in a jocks body, but his favorite, I believe was like a, probably the plot of a high school movie from 1983 or something. Yeah. Maybe is it like a, some sort of like freaky Friday situation? Is there some, uh, there's some, uh, jock in the nerd's body somewhere?

Yeah. Or like the plot of the Jumanji movie, speaking of Jack Black. All right. He told a funny story about how he did not know who Jeff Probst was in his casting. Uh, so funny that, uh, you know, he's's he's trying to look up like when you're doing a regular interview of trying to Google like the CEO. OK, I'm talking with Jeff Jeff is a pronounced Proust, Prost, like the toast that you give. Oh, oh, oh, that's the guy. OK. All right. So David, the people that he is looking to work with, smiling oldest woman.

Chrissy. Chrissy. That's good. And Cedric. And Cedric. And he also mentions a shorter Asian guy who I don't know if he got good vibes from called him a force to be reckoned with. My best guess would be Kevin.

But that's also interesting as well, because we'll talk about someone like Mitch, who is very adamant to say, no, keep all the buff guys around because I want to surround myself with that. I don't know if David, and maybe this is due to like his lack of knowledge about the show really is coming in with much of a meat shield strategy. No, I don't think he necessarily knows what that is. Did he say that he disliked anybody? So he said he was getting bad vibes from quote a Marianne looking. Yeah, I wasn't sure what he said. I wrote down Marianne looking girl.

I wasn't sure if I misheard what he said. Now, it's tough because obviously there are just cosmetically two choices you would go between. But I would say like, say it's shorter, like on the Marianne side of things, but Star has more of the Marianne personality. So that's why I'm having trouble distinguishing what that might mean. Yeah. His loved one was Anthony Hopkins he'd like to have come out.

Yeah, because he feels like every time he delivers something, it's like a monologue. Jeff should bring out Anthony Hopkins to do the opening speech. Yeah, that would be really incredible. If they wheel him out. Because the Survivor is like a Westworld in and of itself, its own park.

Yeah. OK. Anything else on David, Mike? Yeah, I mean, again, David, such an entertaining I'll say arrogance because he mentions arrogance. He says it's an asset. He says something very fun in his one minute video. It's not ego. It's history. Everything I've done, I've come out ahead. So I think that this is going to be a guy that I would just imagine from his physique alone,

they are going to want to keep him around for. I will be very intrigued to see how this guy does in the post merge, because, look, he is already trying to manifest for himself, winning six individual immunity challenges, which, depending on the math and how many times, how many times they go to tribal council in the post merge, it's going to be like more than half of them, if not three quarters of them. But I mean, being a physical presence does not necessarily automatically mean you're going to get voted out in these early slots. Look at someone like Jonathan Young, who David compared himself to, who was one fire making challenge away

from making it to the final three. So it could be a matter of like if people realize that David is not as on the up and up about the show as other people that actually might make him less threatening, right? That was the sort of conversation about Kyle last season was like, do we really need to get rid of him now? Because eventually he will lose a challenge and he gives all these percentages. So I think there's actually a decent chance that David could make it further than we might think just based on, you know, how he appears. And I hope that is the case because

I think this guy, the longer he lasts will grow only more arrogant. And if and when that blind side happens, we will drink it down like a nice tall glass of chocolate milk. Yeah, okay. Camilla, okay. You had a fun interview with Camilla and she was delightful to hear from. She's a gamer, but she watches one show on television. First off, let me just apologize to Camilla's parents. I am very sorry for my involvement in anything inappropriate that you may have seen once upon a time.

Exactly. I mean, I was going to say you were not directly involved, but you did, I believe, actively tell Jeff, get the girls some chocolate and peanut butter probes. So you were enabling it if anything. the, get the, you know, get the girls and chocolate and peanut butter probes. So you were enabling it. If any, there was a lot of premeditation that went on and I, and I, uh, said that all the ideas, there were no bad ideas in brainstorming. Yeah, there we go. Speaking of their parents, actually, again, I keep going back to these woman to videos cause they're so much fun. Camilla said that when she was growing up, quote, I was intentionally annoying and that still hasn't really changed for me. Okay. So she had some fun stories about her fandom playing video games. She's a Canadian.

She is a Canadian. And I think the Erica comparison, Eric comparison, if you will, is very apt in that when I'm prognosticating how she might do again, if I'm assuming that this tribe might not go to tribal council, I think ordinarily you would think on the surface, okay, if they go, Camilla would be in immediate danger. But I think she is somebody like we've talked about with Star and Stephanie, where like, if she gets into the post merge, I think there's a chance that she could really make a meal out of this game. I think maybe the hardest portion of the game for her would be early on if people just regard physical strength as the lone asset to keep someone in. She has admitted that she is, you know,

the shortest in the game, but only by one inch. I think Bianca's five two and she's five foot one, but she talks about how, you know, she went to the gym for this show and this show only, basically. But I do think that if she makes it to the individual portion, that's when, you know, that performance might end up turning around and she'd be able to go from the beta version to the actual release proper and be able to make some really interesting things happen. Rob, she wants to make this fluid season happen. She doesn't want a tribe strong,

Reba strong thing happening automatically. So I think she could be a real chaos bomb if she makes it to the individual portion. She could be, and I think she could be very fun television. She talked about how that she is impatient. That is her kryptonite, Mike. She told you she's too impatient for podcasts? Yeah, she has to read the transcript.

Camilla, you could listen on 3X. Listen, I'm more than happy. People want to revert to the written version. Give me those clicks over at Pray.com. But yeah, also watch the videos as well. You can choose whatever speed you want to. We're in the year of our Lord, I mean, Jeff, 2025. You can watch a video at 25 times speed if you want to get it done

in one minute. Okay. She would do anything for one woman. We've identified that as Stephanie. Well, so I thought it was charity. Oh, okay. So what was her description? There was somebody here I'll do anything for. So it was a woman who had had her hair down for a while, but now she's been tying it back. Ah, okay. Got it. I use the context clues in that Charity had her hair tied back in a tight bun both days that we were there for the cast photos and interviews. Take your word for that.

I can be corrected about this. I assumed it was Charity over Stephanie. And she says there are three Chad's here, but she's most impressed with Giga Chad. That would be David. And so- It's gotta be David, yeah, yeah. Which I believe is the first Twitchy mote that's been actively referenced in an interview on Survivor.

So thanks for breaking new ground here, Camilla. She does not want Giga Chad to go anywhere. Yeah, and what's interesting is that she's almost pivoting some of her strategy around Giga Chad. She said like, your vote is incredibly important. Ordinarily, you should not give it up. However, if I share a buff color with this one man, I'm gonna go for every single advantage that I can

because there's a fat chance we're going to tribal council. Okay. She's one of two people in this tribe that really roasts Boston Rob. I know. I really hope that her and Mitch will find this as a connection point. That would just be too, too good. It's almost the opposite of redemption Island where people connect over how much they dislike over Boston Rob. Yeah. Which is so much fun.

I felt bad for him after listening to these two people just run him over. Listen, a Rob, he's fine. B he's found a new legion of fans through the traders. But B again, I think this is an opinion that like is certainly held by a good portion of the fan base. And so I love it being represented here. I get it. If it's like, Hey, you know what? Boston Rob overrated. He's not as good, but like, you know, to go like he basically he sucks. I mean,

like, let's not let's not get too carried away. You could be overrated. It doesn't mean that you're you suck now. Maybe Camilla was just a big net 10 fan. Maybe the day. Maybe. OK. Anything else on Camilla? No, I feel like, you know, Camilla comes in with sort of this, this narrative to her of

always being underestimated, right? Due to her size, her gender, her ethnicity. She even is currently in a field in software development where she feels like nobody listens to her. And so again, this is the story we got with Erica. I could see a very similar narrative here. But the players are so smart. Do you feel like that the meta might be like, oh, she could be like an Erica.

Watch out for her. Like, I don't know. Erica, Erica was so long ago, though. Not that long ago. I mean, I think there's going to be much more pressing comparisons on the brain that like, oh, we don't know. She could be an Erica. Plus, it depends on what you took away from 41 as well.

It could be less so like, uh, Erica slipped her way to the end and won. It can be more so like, I don't want to be a Xander and get robbed at the end. Or I don't want to be a record and take out my number one ally and only to get clipped later on. I mean, I don't know that this is not a season of SuperFans. So maybe people are not going to be looking at that. But I do feel like that, at least like in 47, I think that there were people who were on the lookout for sort of like, oh, like, you know, who wins?

It's not so well, we're not worried about Sam. We're worried about, you know, Rachel, like, you know, people were talking about the the medium threats of the people that win the game. Yeah, I will say, though, that just as likely as Camilla is to blow up the game, she's also very likely to blow up the game, she's also very likely to blow up her game as well. So even though I have some stunning prospects for her, especially if she makes the merch, I could also see a very likely situation where she's like, no, too boring.

Here we go. And everyone's like, what did Camilla just do? Camilla did that? Oh no, no, no, no. We got to get rid of her post-haste. Okay. Let's go on to Kyle. Okay.

You talk about a medium, a medium thread. This is the guy who the first opening line of his one minute video was like, you know, I think I'm pretty athletic. I think I'm pretty smart. I think I'm pretty funny. I'm the most average guy you'll ever meet. Not sure about that. I think that when you are above average and everything, I don't think that then you just become average. Well, it could also be a bit of a curve, right? I might be the most average player you'll meet out on Survivor because of the types of people they usually bring onto the show. Yeah.

I think that to really bring your threat level down, I think you have to have an obvious weakness and I don't see one here for Kyle. It might be diving, as he says. Maybe they don't dive that much. Okay. He found Survivor during COVID that he was watching. They were watching Winners of War and he moved in with his girlfriend's parents. And so that's how he found the show.

He really loves Survivor Millennials versus Gen X. He has some hot takes about that. Yeah, I don't know if he just watched it before coming out. Because he said that he really vibes with Jay. He feels like Jay was incredibly underrated and his hot take was that Adam was not the best player of the season. He listened about half a dozen people that he thought were better players than Adam. Hey Adam, you and I finally have something in common.

Great Rob, are we married? All of these, you don't think he got coached by Adam Klein and then he's like, hey, Adam's like, when you go out there, trash me so no one knows. That's my secret symbol. That's the Carol Burnett tugging on her ear. You slam me. Okay, he loved a quote from Dr. Mike. This is what I love about that question too,

is that especially this season, I feel like some obviously we got a couple of mentions of Eric giving away the necklace or these other types of moments. But then you have like Shaheen saying Ozzy bidding 420. You have Stephanie saying Parvati's first confessional ever of is that kosher? And then Kyle with the like he has a ferocity that transcends this game. Hey, Kyle, call me. Yeah. I hope not. All right, so yeah, he loved that. Okay, so let's talk about the people that he like,

tall or blonde, getting good vibes from Stephanie. Everybody has a strong opinion about Stephanie. I think Stephanie really did stick out as we talked about. I think she just has this like really unique vibe to her. And as she spoke about it it it really interestingly masks this very Calculated corporate persona that will be very fun Hopefully if she makes to this individual portion and she has all these people that are looking to work with her, okay He talked about Clark Kent Mike who is Clark Kent in this cast

Oh, well, who's the only person with Clark Kent glasses is Cedric Well, I don't think it's less so about Clark Kent, and it's more so about the comparison to his alter ego. Interesting. Okay, so you think he's talking about David? I think he's talking about David. Yeah, I think he's a... That's the Superman comparison happening. Maybe Kyle's just recognizing him in Civvies. He's doing what the rest of people in Metropolis couldn't do.

Yeah, okay. I mean, I feel like you call somebody Clark Kent, they gotta have glasses. Well, I think maybe it's also that David has a little bit of like the quaffed hair, which I guess maybe Superman more so have with like the one little curl in front. Okay, all right. So David is on Kyle's tribe, so he will be there.

Yes, and then Bad Vibes, Shaheen, he just says that he can't read him. So again, you take the good, you take the bad with Shaheen. It seems no matter what season it is. Yeah. Okay. He, uh, he wants to be in an Alliance. Uh, he's a big Alliance person. He thinks that voting blocks is not real.

Yeah. He says people first and he doesn't necessarily mean like, okay, now I won't look for advantages. He talks about actually how he is a little impulsive and how he will be happy to search for idols and advantages, but that he more so is trying to go along with this formula that we try to practice of like, you know, social bonds are the currency of the game. You make it first and then you spend it strategically. And I think that's what Kyle, Kyle feels like people move like fire tokens. Exactly. He wants to create his own survivor economy again. He feels that people move too fast. Like fire tokens. Exactly, he wants to create his own survivor economy again. He feels that people move too fast

in just trying to automatically jump in and start gaming. And so he is, I think, trying to play it cool initially, get in good with everybody so that when push comes to shove, he'll be able to broker it. And to that point, Rob, I don't know if it's the lawyer, I don't know if it's, again, the sort of like average, quote unquote, average guy in the sea of personalities. I don't know if it's the fact that they found survivor the same way getting a lot of Charlie vibes from Kyle. Okay. That's interesting

comparison. Yeah. Cause I think that again, Charlie was somebody who was able to kind of weather the sea of the multitude of personalities and polarities around him. And I think Kyle's a very mild-mannered person that would be able to do the same. Yeah, okay. We got one other person in this tribe and it is Mitch. Okay, Mitch, of course, spoke a great deal

about his speech impediment. And obviously you will hear that in Mike's interview with Mitch, but he has a great backstory about all that he has overcome to be here on Survivor. For the second time in this try, I gotta apologize to somebody else in this try, but Mitch was very inspired by Christie Smith. Yes, a lot of throwbacks to the Amazon, Rob.

And you had Stephanie talk about how it was a mid-season. Now you have two people who have it as one of their core memories. So it all balances out. Yes, core memory, loves Christie. Okay, I thought it was, he said, you asked, who's your favorite winner? And he started off like, well,

this is gonna be a little controversial. And then proceeded to say that Todd is a really good winner and had a very good final travel council. I mean, again, depending on how it was the controversy. I mean, it depends on how tuned in you are to the fan base. Maybe he thought that he was already prepping his hot

take of like, I'm not saying Boston Rob or Parvati or Sandra or Tony. Therefore, it's a hot take when no, the deep sea of the survivor Internet has some very good things. Yeah, absolutely. OK. all right. He talks about vibes, okay? Girl with the slick back hair, okay?

That's gonna be charity. Yeah. He was a like or a dislike for him? It was a like. He said she was very flirty, very confident. Okay, and beard guy. Shaheen looks so excited to be out there, not realizing that he was actually out there for a second time. Yes. OK. He says he wants to be the center of attention.

Yeah. And so he also then kind of adds on to it that he is looking at the physicality of this cast. Now, Mitch is also in incredibly good shape. He says he's in the best shape of his life, particularly from an endurance perspective. He's ran like a marathon recently. He did a half Iron Man. And so he picks up that there was a very good chance

that if the merge hits, or when the merge hits, we should say, he is going to get all eyes on him as a physical and social threat. And so he is already at the meat market here, Rob. He is already priming out some cuts that he wants to surround himself with in the hopes that they will kind of get grabbed at over him when it comes to getting rid of these big threats. I mean, it makes sense.

Okay. And then he would most like to see as a loved one, his famous person to come out to visit him would be Serena Williams. Is that what Kendrick Lamar wished? Is that how she ended up making a cameo at the Super Bowl? Yeah, I should have released my pre-talk interview with Kendrick. Is she going to trip walk out to see him? I mean, that would certainly be tough to do on the sand, but all the power to her. But yeah, I hope Mitch had a great time with the halftime show after getting to watch her surprise appearance, okay

We're not talking about SZA. We're talking about SEVA today Yeah, maybe get the SEVA prize Yeah, exactly put the V in SEVA. Okay. All right, Mike We got to try to figure out How this tribe is going to sort itself out now that we've talked about all of these players. And this is a tricky one. It's interesting because this is probably the tribe out of the most of them that had

certain vibes about each other. It's also tough because again, if you have the assumption that they're not going to go to tribal council early on, that's a lot of time for different dynamics to develop. And that could work for and against people. There are some that I would deem pretty much like automatically safe in the pre-emerge, barring some unforeseen circumstances. Yes. I would say those are Chrissy and David.

Okay. Chrissy and David. Yeah. I think that they're going to work together and I think that let's put them at the Chrissy and David. Okay, Chrissy and David. Yeah, I think that they're gonna work together and I think that let's put them at the core of the tribe. Okay, of course. Yeah, because I would also imagine if, you know, you feel that they are the safest in this group, then you would probably want to utilize them the most

as sort of constants in your voting plan. Okay, Chrissy, the firefighter, David, the stuntman. Yes, okay. Where do you see Charity in all this? I see Charity in a pretty good place as well. I could see a situation where if Charity does decide to speak up towards the beginning that she gets some side eye towards her.

But again, it seems like everyone kind of wants to get good with Charity. And I feel like once they get to know her as well, I think they're going to fall as much in love with her as apparently Camilla already is. Who does Charity like? Farm Strong? I think she's going to dig Chrissy.

I could see Charity and Chrissy becoming a duo. CC Music Factory going on. Yes, okay. And maybe David is giving a little Tony the Rat for her. So, you know, I think that she is probably going to not be turned off by you know His ego or anything these are type people that she likes So, all right, maybe charity Chrissy and David are sort of like in the power in this tribe I could see Camilla though trying trying to act upon that pre-season connection

she has with charity. Like trying to make something on the side. I don't know if Camilla, you know, I'll be intrigued to see the conversation that she'll try to strike up with Giga Chad. Obviously he's incredibly important to her plans, but like it'll be very intriguing, which is the whole concept that Chrissy's talking about

to see like, will they be able to you know? Get along as people let alone as possible Alliance members together. Yeah. All right. I mean, no, no, I don't know actually She's a software engineer David is a big PC head. So actually they might have a lot of stuff to talk about the more I think about it Okay, so now we have Kyle and Mitch that we haven't really placed and so I want to talk about Mitch for a second here because obviously he has an incredibly unique story. And I mean, it's something that we spoke about as well, just sort of calling it out that you have

an incredible narrative that brought you onto this beach in the first place after 10 years of applying, how much is that going to work for and against you? And I think, in terms of the pre-merge stuff, I think it will work for him. I think Mitch is going to be an incredibly friendly guy. I think people will be incredibly eager to hear his story. I think he brought up a good point in my interview

that he feels the more that he opens up about what he went through, the more it will inherently open up other people as well. And then maybe that will sort of broker a strategic agreement. Not to also mention, Mitch will most likely be an asset in challenges as well. I think the big difficulty for Mitch is going to come in the post merge. Like, I think that's and that's why he's already preparing for it, right? That's why he says, surround me with as much meat as possible.

You know, there's a chance that he's going to get cut towards the end because nobody wants to sit next to him at a final travel council. The thing is, there's a chance that like if Mitch is as physically adept for this game as he has been preparing himself for, there's a chance they might not be able to get rid of him. He might run the table at the end. Mike, with a tribe such as this, where we have like so many strong players, you know, this was actually a factor last season in on Tuku where they because they had a lot of strong players on their tribe, they were able to vote out of TK where probably the other tribes wouldn't have made that move. Is it possible that a David could be

like a first casualty from this tribe? I would say yes, if David is more externally braggadocious like he is in some of these interviews and in some of these sound bites. Now, I think David has enough sense to know how to contain the ego a bit. I mean, the man is used to working around Hollywood sets. He kind of knows how to behave if you want to get what you want at the end of the day.

But if he goes like full Emmett from Australian Survivor and just start saying like, yep, I'm calling all the shots right now, despite the fact that he hasn't really seen probably the least amount of survivor out of any contestant in the new era, then that could absolutely set up this tribe to say, we're too tired of him. He's going to take a hard fall, much like he's used to doing in his daily life. We haven't talked much about Kyle. Where do you see him fitting into all this? I see Kyle as this like, again, maybe it's the the Charlie comparison, but like as probably one of these pivotal swing votes. I don't know if he's like full glue guy, but I could see Kyle as somebody who's in good with everybody, though I don't know if he'll like find a rock solid ride or

die number one in the way that Charlie did with Maria, but like he's someone that you could bring in for a vote if you need another number. And so I also think that Kyle would be relatively safe, barring like he doesn't act on his impulses and like completely, you know, throw himself into the spotlight for doing something to mess up the tribe. It's a really good point about to go Rob that we especially in the new era of three tribes, only six people a piece, we ascribe a lot onto physical strength in the pre merge.

That might not be the case. If Kyle, the quote unquote teacher gets thrown onto a puzzle, and he told me in the pre-merge. That might not be the case. If Kyle, the quote unquote teacher, gets thrown onto a puzzle and he told me in the preseason, I'm not good at puzzles. In fact, I steered away from practicing in the preseason and he botches it like, again, this is a very physically strong tribe. But if they're like, Kyle's given us nothing in the puzzles. That could be a reason to get rid of him. Well, yeah, I think that that could be the one bugaboo for this tribe.

I think it's really going to come down to Camilla being the puzzle person. And she didn't really mention anything specifically about puzzles. I'm just making the leap of her being a gamer to be. But it didn't help Rome to be a gamer and then do the puzzle. So, I mean, it doesn't matter how fast you get done with the physical part. The puzzle is going to be the great equalizer. So we'll see if they're going to be able to knock out the puzzles. Yeah. All right. So Rob, we've talked about this with the other two tribes.

Who do you think from SIVA will make it the farthest this season? Hmm. This is a tough question, but I'm going to say Chrissy. I think that's a very good pick. I could see, in fact, I could say a word where Chrissy makes it to the final tribal council. Because again, especially if she comes across as kind of unassuming as the way that she, she did so jovial, you know,

I could see especially if we are going with the meta of the new era where it's essentially big game hunting and SnipyPillow, bam, bam, bam, bam. Maybe there's an opportunity where almost like Charity's beloved Jane Bright, people are all like, everybody loves Chrissy. Chrissy hasn't wronged anybody. We've got to take her out. But I think she stands a fair chance of going far. I'm a little nervous because I've been saying for years that I feel like

firefighters, it's not a full five hole, but like they have a leg up in fire making challenges because they understand the nature of fire. Chrissy opens her one minute video by saying, I know how to put out fires. I don't know anything about making them. Yeah, I don't know why we necessarily make that jump that every firefighter is good at making fire.

I mean, their day to day job is job is about, like, how fires grow. And so, I think there has to be at least some contextual knowledge. Yeah, sure, but there's like a... You know, I feel like that making a little fire out of kindling is not necessarily the same principles as, like, the building is on fire. I would also put charity in this category as well. Again, I could very much see a world where people are like, charity has this game wrapped around her finger. She's way too dangerous.

I'm not picking up good vibes from her. We've got to get rid of her. But I really do think she is somebody who will be able to make. I mean, again, not only as a flight attendant, but as a fitness coach, she is a master of like making these one on one relationships. And I think that's something she could really excel at. So if she is able to evade the targeting long enough, I could see a situation where people are quite literally giving money to charity at the end.

Okay. All right. Mike, anything else from Siva? I mean, I throw Kyle in there too. Again, I think Kyle, you talk about the medium threats, you talk about, you know, picking off those that are the superlatives, right? The best at this, the best at that. And so Kyle is somebody that I could see you blink and you open your eyes from the final 10 to like the final five. And you're like, oh my God, Kyle is still there. Though, again, if people are seeing Charlie comparisons with Kyle the way I am, that's not going to bode well for his chances. Because now people are going to be like, they let Charlie slip through to the end of the game and he didn't win, but people thought he should have.

Could they feel a similar way about Kyle? Yeah, I don't know if they necessarily make that same exact leap. My only concern with Kyle, I think he has a very impressive resume. I just wonder, and you met him out there in person, that do you get the sense that he is? especially outgoing I Mean he certainly was a very smiley warm presence when I got the chance to speak with him

I think he is very personable. I mean look he is an attorney I think he has to deal with clients of sort of all shapes and sizes So I think he can go along to get along I don't think he's necessarily like a withdrawn introvert or anything. Yeah. No, I thought maybe he could be like a little reserved with these quirky characters. I mean, he also might be in this mold of like, to your point, these are people are all, you know, getting enough rope to, you know, die later on.

Like, let me just hang back right now and wait for them to take themselves out of the game and then I'll take charge. Okay. All right. Mike, there you have it. There is SIVA and we've done it. We've talked about 18 players and three tribes once again and kudos again to you, Mike, for the incredible content, the hours and hours of preseason content that you've graced us with. The pleasure seriously was all mine. I've said this before. I said this in the audio versions of these interviews. This is one of my favorite things I ever get to do. Just getting the chance to sit down and talk with these people

before they become players and getting to know them before any of the guises of the game and the elements end up, you know, transforming them into a different person we might see on the show. It's just cool to, you know, shoot the into a different person we might see on the show. It's just cool to, you know, shoot the shit with 18 new friends that we're going to get to know over the next three months. So again, I am so incredibly grateful to you, Rob, for always giving me this opportunity to CBS for letting me go out there.

And of course, to these players for volunteering so much of their time, their energy, and ultimately their story to me so that all of these people out there can get to know them before the big day happens. Rob, less than two weeks away. Yeah, less than two weeks away. And we are still gearing up. I'll have Issa Look coming up with Bryce next week. We'll have the podcaster draft as well. A couple days before the season starts, I think the Monday before the season starts. Mike, while I have you here, I saw a little hubbub on Thursday on social media about the Survivor 48 Tribal Council. Can you tell us anything about what's going on with that? Let's talk about this, shall we?

Because yeah, very fortuitous timing. So I mentioned this in our kickoff, right? That the concept for this Tribal Council set was probably the wildest that I've heard in Surviv survivor history. And again, your mileage may vary. Ozzy auction idea. Yeah, I think you would bid 420 for this actually to make another reality show reference.

So Hung, who won season three of Top Chef for one quick fire challenge made like a smurf village out of a bunch of Froot Loops and candy. This is kind of like the survivor version of that. So to describe the concept, Zach Jensen, who is the head of the art department that comes up with everything from challenge props to scenery to the flags and iconography, had this thought one day about a mythical civilization

that has come and gone. The Isadega, not Isoluk, Isadega, Isadega, they are a tribe that once populated the islands of Fiji, but they are gone. But they are certainly not forgotten as the Survivor 48 Tribal Council set is almost like a tribal set on top of a tribal set in that this was the council gatherings of the Aizadega tribe before they mysteriously disappeared. Yes. Okay.

Well, perfect to invent a new civilization that can't be offended by us using all of their stuff, their culture. It's absolutely wild iconography, especially like you obviously won't see it during the day, but like these were bright, phosphorescent onion bulbs are essentially how the eyes of Dega have constructed their, you know, huts and domes of choices. The tribal council is one giant blue and purple onion bulb that has a big face, scary face painted on it. Okay. The eyes are a big thing, Rob. I mean, you could quite literally translate the name to

Eyes of Daga. In fact, Jeff pointed out there was an Easter egg in the logo of Survivor 48, where in the bushes there are a bunch of random eyes. So the Rob and Sandra booth isn't back in play? No, the Eyes of Daga are not surveying the Tribal Council. They have shuffled off this mortal coil. They are donezo, but we are here to take over in their stead. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, Mike, thanks for talking us through all of that. Of course, make sure you keep it right here in our survivor feed for everything else we have coming up here in Survivor 48. We know survivor.com.

Mike, what other exciting things are you working on? So again, if you haven't checked out the individual interviews and you know, your fancy got properly tickled by our try previews, they are available for you, not only in audio form, not only in video form, but also in written form over at parade.com. Camilla, we got it for you.

There you go, just for you Camilla. But I also have a couple of roundup posts that I've been doing from the preseason as well. I've got one more coming out where Rob, you talk about the likes, dislikes, good vibes, bad vibes, whatever you want to say. I'm doing a big roundup of like who everyone clocks for either good reasons or not so good reasons so that people can do their own sort of a Punnett Square logic puzzling to figure out who might work together and who might not. But the big thing is going to come when Survivor 48 premieres in less than two weeks.

Of course, I had the great pleasure of being out there from the first three days. I'll have a good amount of intel as to what happened. I'll have probably a piece going up during the opening, during the marooning about stuff that you may have missed during the edit of it. I'll have some intel about the episode itself. I'll have an interview with Jeff that I did minutes after that Tribal Council sitting down looking at the Aizadega huts around us talking through what happened. And of course plenty more. I'll have weekly exit press over at Parade.com and I can confirm the RHAP

B&B is back. The Isodega may have gone, but we certainly have not. Myself and Liana Bars will be back next weekend recording our preview pod for season 48, looking forward to yet another season of goofiness and accompanied by hopefully another podcast of goofiness as well with Liana. And then Rob, I can also make an announcement too. Yes. Do a little bit of double dipping this time around

because we're doing things a little different on Australian Survivors. Jonathan LaPaglia likes to say Shane and Gus is doing episodic recaps this time around. Almost know it all is asked right after the episode, quick takes about the action that we saw. And I have the great pleasure of being one of the weekly hosts there.

There's going to be three of us. It's going to be Chappelle, Pouya, and myself. One of us each on an episode, getting on with Shannon right afterwards, talking through our reactions to, surely there will be a lot of calamity to follow. So excited to cover AU in a larger capacity with Shannon as well.

Yeah, and that kicks off, I believe, next week, right, Mike? Yeah, Monday the 17th is when Survivor AU Brains vs. Brawn 2 premieres, as opposed to SEVA, which is basically just Brawn vs. Brawn. And of course, we try to make it so accessible for the international Survivor fans to get to watch Australian Survivor with watch parties

that we have for our patrons. You can find out more about that and everything else we're doing, including Josh Wiggler and I doing a very special 15 year anniversary rewatch of Heroes vs. Villains, a big anniversary season of Survivor that maybe, you know, we've passed his prologue, gives us a sense of like what Survivor might be looking for

when they bring back a bunch of all-star players. Yeah, and actually the Heroes vs. Villains opening challenge mentioned a couple times, right, including by David in our very interview. Yeah, so we are doing that. 15 years ago, Heroes vs. Villains came on the air and a podcast was born to cover it all. And you could hear us go back and reminisce about Heroes vs. Villains and a podcast was born to cover it all. And you could hear us go back and reminisce

about Heroes Versus Villains and the podcast that was born in its wake. When you go to Robitswebsite.com slash patron. Mike, anything else for you? Yeah, final thing I will advertise is, of course we are focused in on Survivor, but there's a lot of reality TV happening. And if you wanna find out any breaking news

that might be happening in this wide world, you can always check out the Reality Flash. Of course, that is our RHAP News podcast where I come in any time a piece of breaking news hits my desk with what you need to know about who you need to know, why you need to know it, and what people are saying about it. And actually at the time this is being released,

there should be an episode coming out, if not already up, where the Challenge 41 cast has allegedly started to depart for the filming of their season. Much like Survivor, you know, sort of looking ahead at what comes next after this big milestone season. And for fans of Survivor, there may or may not be a couple of familiar faces.

So I talk all about that rampant speculation with Brian Cohen, and you can check it out at therealityflash.com. there may not be a couple of familiar faces. So I talk all about that rampant speculation with Brian Cohen, and you can check it out at therealityflash.com. All right, thank you so much for joining us here. We love to hear what you have to say here in the comments on YouTube at robinswebsite.com slash YouTube. Take care, everybody.

Have a good one. Bye.