RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 49 Finalist Exit Interviews

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

Survivor 49 Finalist Exit Interviews Survivor 49’s unforgettable finale gets the full exit interview deep dive with host Rob Cesternino, as he sits down with the finalists Savannah Louie, Sophi Balerdi, Rizo Velovic, and Kristina Mills. Savannah Louie walks through how she went from controlling alliances on Uli beach to being blindsided, battling from the bottom, and mastering the art of playing “small” and non-threatening. Her key immunities and repaired bonds with Sage and Juwan proved clutch. Rizo Velovic breaks down his revolutionary public idol strategy, targeting “soft” middle threats and advancing Tres Leches through vote splits and social maneuvering. Sophi Balerdi details her under-the-radar social moves, her critical knowledge is power advantage usage, and her approach at Final Tribal Council. Kristina Mills offers insights on physical challenges, jury management, and the emotional connections that resonated with fans and shaped vote decisions. Rob presses the finalists for real answers on fire-making, strategic reward choices, and the reality of pushing loyalty and betrayal to the limit. – Savannah Louie’s shift from dominant alliance leader to resilient underdog – Rizo Velovic’s bold idol strategy and soft target gameplay – Sophi Balerdi’s final tribal council pitch and knowledge is power explanation – Kristina Mills’ take on jury questions, fire-making, and emotional storytelling – The role of reward decisions and camp relationships in the endgame Rob Cesternino asks the big question: can playing from the bottom unlock a win, and will Survivor 49’s adaptive gameplay reshape strategy for season 50? Whose move truly changed the endgame, and how did jury perception tilt the final vote? Chapters: 0:00 Survivor 49 Finale Interviews Begin 6:12 Savannah’s Game Flips From Top 13:44 Savannah, Rizzo, Sophi Alliance 16:24 Immunity Record, Villain Role Reflected 17:17 Sophi Responds To Finale Outcome 20:17 Sophi’s Knowledge Is Power Move 22:46 Sophi’s Fire Making Dilemma 25:21 Final Five Vote Frustrations 29:08 Rizzo Reveals Idol Strategy 34:45 Trio’s Impact On Jury Votes 39:06 Rizzo Teases Survivor 50 Return 41:11 Kristina Reflects Challenge Struggles 42:43 Kristina’s Family Names Jury Question 44:39 Kristina Explains Vote For Sophi 46:52 Missed Opportunity With Sophi Segretti 48:03 Sharing Vulnerable Moments With Viewers 49:46 Unseen Nate Vote Strategic Move 51:18 Reward Decision Wasn’t For Strategy 52:28 Uncle Jeff Catchphrase Speculation 53:56 Kristina’s Social Game Reflections To pre-order Rob’s book, The Tribe and I Have Spoken, visit www.robhasabook.com Never miss a minute of RHAP’s extensive Survivor coverage! LISTEN: Subscribe to the Survivor podcast feed WATCH:  Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube SUPPORT:  Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks!

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. Hey everybody, what's going on? Rob Cisterino, back with you for our exit interview special after the finale of Survivor 49.

We have interviews today with four of the people that made it to the finale of Survivor 49. We will, of course, talk today with the winner, Savannah. Then we will talk with our runner-up, Sophie, the R-I-Z-G-O-D, Rizgod Baby, and Christina are going to be here with us for exit interviews today. Following the finale, Sage was not able to join us today on Thursday for an exit interview. We will work on getting an exit interview with Sage coming up on Friday. So be on the lookout for that. Last night, I got together with Sam Phelan, and we broke down the episode.

talked a lot about Survivor 50 in the trailer. You'll definitely want to, especially if you, like Stephen Fishback, went to bed early on Wednesday night. Check out our recap of everything from the finale. I thought it was a really good time. I didn't even mind how late it was talking with Sam Phelan. And then later on today,

I'll get the chance to catch up with Stephen Fishback. We'll do a proper know-it-alls to break down everything from Survivor 49 as a whole. I'm sure Stephen will have some thoughts as well about the Survivor 50 trailer so we are going to jump into all of our interviews here today let me just say before we jump into this if you have not been paying attention closely all during the season i have a book it's called the tribe and i have spoken i've tried to take the story of survivor the history and the lore and the legacy of everything from 25 years of the greatest reality tv game and i tried to put it all here, all of my thoughts, into one beautiful book, The Tribe and I

Spoken, available at Rob Hasabook.com. And with that, let's go ahead and hear from Savannah. All right, we are here with the brand new winner of Survivor. Of course, it is the great, so far one-time player. Savannah, Savannah, how are you? Dude, I'm so stoked to talk to you. You say one-time player, one-time winner, maybe two-time winner. Maybe 50.

I don't know. We don't know. It's really, yeah, it's, you know, that anything is possible right now here in between 49 and 50. But, Savannah, congratulations to you. And let me say that a fishy award deserving performance, I thought last night. Wait, do you guys not do fissies for the final episode? I haven't talked to Stephen yet. Stephen's not going to stay up late to watch the episode. You got to give me his direct line. I got to make a phone call after this. I'll talk to him later on today. But enough about him. Let's talk about you. So it really was such an impressive game that you had and you really had two different games where you had a game where you were really like in control of things in the pre-merge and then very suddenly things flipped. And now you were playing from the bottom for most of the post-merge. How did you go about that change in how you had to approach the game? Oh my gosh. It was so wild.

And honestly, like when I started the game and I was at the top and I literally had alliances with everybody on. like I that's how I thought it was going to be playing this entire game when Nate was blindsided and when I was blindsided and we were on the bottom I will say I think that's probably the best thing for my game because not only in the game but like in real life when I'm at the bottom or when I feel like I have to like work my way up it like ignites something in me and it like helps me reach this new level you know what I mean and my strategy changed because instead of being this big, aggressive, dominant personality. Yeah, I'm going to steal your advantage. Yeah, I'm going to be a little bit obnoxious, maybe in the matchats. I had to make myself so small.

And I had to make myself seem so non-threatening. And there would be so much time when I would just kind of keep to myself on the hammocks because I'm like, I don't want anyone to think I'm strategizing or I'm doing anything crazy. And then I'll say, too, when I won those immunities, it gave me the freedom to try to foster and create different bonds. And, try to also repair some of the bonds that I had broken with Sage and Jouan. So that was a pretty clutch moment. Yeah, it was really interesting because you had to play this game from the top so much in the premurge.

And then to see you play from the bottom, it did seem like that based off of some of your natural skill sets, which I've really admired your tenacity, I feel like that you have such a sense of purpose when you are trying to set out to do something that I feel like that that is a lot more conducive to playing from the position that you were in post-merge, as opposed to you talked about a Kim Spradlin, who's somebody who's really great at playing from the top and having like a big tent, you're the type of player. I would never want to have you backed into a corner because watch out. You know, it's so interesting because in my own personal life, like those characteristics show,

but in totally different ways. So in my real life, like if I'm reading a book, I will be so laser focused on this book. I will ignore my boyfriend. I'll ignore everything else. Like, I'll just focus. And that totally translated to my Survivor game. And then it was also a little bit similar to, like, in my real life, I honestly, I hate making decisions.

I love letting other people make the decisions. And so when you're at the bottom in Survivor, there's less decision making that you necessarily have to do. And it's more like, okay, how can I just get through this and survive this? I didn't have the luxury of looking at, you know, 10 other people I could vote out. It's literally like, hey, like, who's the one week link? how can I possibly create something out of nothing or seemingly nothing here? So it was honestly like a great position for me to be in, even though I hated it at the time.

In hindsight, I'm like, okay, thank goodness I was where I was at. So in the final five, you had a very interesting round where you won the reward and you chose to take Sage with you on the reward. Can you talk through that decision? Absolutely. So with Sage, you know, earlier that day, she and I had talked, I think. She had gone the longest without eating, so that was part of it. And then when I won, I knew I had just taken Rizzo and Sof, so I'm like, you know, they don't need to eat. It was between Sage and Christina.

Christina and I had butted heads throughout the season. And the thing with Sage, we had such an interesting relationship throughout our entire time on the island. You know, we had an all-girls alliance at the very beginning, which I know she felt like she was at the bottom, but I genuinely, like, wanted to work with her from the very beginning. If you listen to confessionals in the first two episodes, you never hear me say, like, this core four is my only way to go forward because my alliance with Sage and Shannon was just as real to me. And when we got to the merge and I found out I had been hurting Sage's feelings and I had been rubbing her the wrong way and she thought I was, you know, being mean to her.

I felt so bad. And it for me was stuff that was even like beyond the game, like just human to human. Like I felt like I needed to apologize. I don't want to hurt someone's feelings like ever. whether it's in Survivor or real life. And so, you know, when I talked about trying to repair some of those bonds, especially with Sage, like, I felt that responsibility not just in the moment to save my own butt in the game, but like even as we got further in the game, you know, I just, I wanted to make amends from a personal human standpoint. And I thought the world of Sage when she was out there, she is such a fun player. She's such a genuine person.

And she has this authenticity that I think is so rare to find in the real world sometimes. I appreciated so much about her. And so that final reward for me was about like, hey, I know we've had our ups and downs, too, but let's just have this meal together. I want to go further with you. Let's celebrate and let's try to see how we can get to the final four and enjoy this steak dinner. So what I thought you were doing, I said, wow, look at Savannah. This is such elite jury management.

But then you came home from the reward and said, no, Sage isn't going anywhere. Christina needs to go, which I felt like ends up. up being an interesting decision because it was no secret. You and Christina were not on the same page. I kind of felt like that maybe you might want Christina next to you in the final three, as opposed to being somebody who was going to have a jury vote, not to mention a tough jury question. So why was it important for you to sort of get sage further than to potentially have Christina as somebody who people did not seem to be very concerned about her as a jury threat? They only seem concerned about her as a firemaker.

Exactly. And I mean, I think that kind of goes to my overarching goal. I really wanted to sit at the very end with Rizzo and Soap. And it's not because I thought I could beat them. I know that sounds crazy. But like I really just wanted to be up there with my allies and people who I had played this game with. Like I felt very confident in my game.

I knew it was different from Rizzo and Sof's. And I knew people on the jury didn't like me. And if, you know, it really wouldn't have mattered if in some cases who I was up there against, they would never vote for me. And so I really wanted to finish the game with Rizzov's. Rizzo and Sof. And so that's why I was so focused on who might be making fire at four. Even if Christina would have been easier to be at the final three, I had seen her make fire. I had never seen Sage make fire. I'd never seen Sof make fire. And Rizzo was like, he was fine.

I mean, Rizzo's okay. He has a lot of strengths, but maybe firemaking is not his best strength. And so at that moment, I'm like, okay, how can I, what's the best opportunity for getting my group of three to the final three? and I saw that as being hopefully taking sage out at fire. Something that I felt like was a little bit of a disconnect was that from everything I've learned about you in these couple of months, you seem so driven, so focused, you take nothing to chance. You're prepared for all of these scenarios. The fact that you, at least from what you told us, were not prepared to make fire was surprising to me.

dude i was like i've seen this i've seen so much survivor and it's to the point where i'm like how does someone get to day 25 and not know how to make fire they're they are so dumb like how can you possibly do that for the biggest experience of your life you must be a moron and then i'm literally there that moron right and you know i was preparing so much with all of my workouts i was doing so many puzzles i was reading books on social strategy i was doing everything i just didn't have time to sit down and make a and do the fire stuff for me i i also liked working out and doing the physical stuff and i love puzzles so that was more fun to me and fire just wasn't a priority and i was hoping i could learn it on the fly i guess and then i actually got there and i'm like oh my god shoot now

i actually have to learn it on the fly um i'm glad it worked out the way that it did yeah dude that was yeah not a lot of foresight i don't really know how to do it either i'll be honest uh like i've seen it on TV. I feel like how hard could it be, but yeah, I haven't really spent ever a lot of time doing that. So what did you want Sof to do when Sof came back and she had won the challenge? What were you hoping her decision was going to be? Well, I wanted her to take me. Yes. I'm being honest. But here's what I would have done if I had won the final four immunity. My goal, seriously, was to get me Rizzo and Sof to the end. And so I would have sat the three of us down. We would have had a little powwow and said, okay, who wants to go up against Sage?

in fire. And honestly, knowing Rizzo, like, I feel like he would have almost wanted that moment to say, hey, I have this big resume builder. I'm not afraid of anything. You saw me with my idol. You saw me trying to take a competitor out of the game with fire. And I did. So I thought Rizzo would honestly be really open and eager and willing to do that. And you kind of see him talk about that too when he's telling Sov, put me in fire against Sav. Like, that's, it was my read on Rizzo at the time. And so, yeah, I thought it could be a group decision. Savannah, I think you and Rizzo had such an interesting relationship in the game because it was one where it seemed like that there was no doubt whatsoever about the loyalty between either of you. But it was sort of like unclear if either of you ever felt like, oh, I can't beat the other person.

Was there ever a moment when you thought, hey, one of the moves I need to make is getting Rizzo out? No, I was so, well, actually, no, actually, let me answer this. When we started on Uli Beach together, like day two or something, I connected so well with Shannon. And I remember walking with her and saying, dude, I love Rizzo. I want to play with Rizzo, but we can not sit next to Rizzo at the end. He's so charming. He's so charismatic. He's going to kick both of our butts.

So that was day two. And I will say that that changed over time just as I got to know Rizzo. You know, you hear me talk about Sauf and how she's like a friend from back home. But with Rizzo, I have a younger brother. He's the same age as Rizzo. They're both like similar mannerisms, similar personalities. They're so positive and full of light. and I truly felt like playing this game with Rizzo was so similar to playing this game with

a little brother. And I felt like, you know, at the merge, when we had been so blindsided, you see me at the bottom, but I don't think people understand. It really felt like people had nothing, didn't want anything to do with me. And in that moment, it was really just Sof and Rizzo, who truly had my backs in that moment. And that's when I'm like, you know, screw it. It might be harder to go to the end with them, but I don't even care. Like I'm right or die for these people. They're kind of protecting me in a sense. And I want to do as much as I can to try to sit next to them and run this game together with them. And so yeah, at that point, I'm like, I got to be with both of these people. Savannah, so we got to see the trailer last night for

Survivor 50. And there you, I was like, oh my God, Savannah's on Survivor 50. And so it must have been a challenge for you as the winner of Survivor 49. to then go to Survivor 50 because you probably, if you have lost Survivor 49, it's probably easier to sort of like make any adjustments. Did you come away from Survivor 49 feeling like, hey, this is the formula, this is what I need to do, or were you thinking in your head

that there were adjustments you would need to make if you were to play again? Yeah, I mean, Survivor's all about adaptability. And I think my strategy that worked on 49 would not have worked on, I don't know, 48, 47, like literally most of the other seasons, right? It's so, like, particular. You kind of have to, you know, tailor your strategy versus who you're out there with. And so I will say one thing that I was like, okay, I got to do this differently is the social stuff. I made a point

in 50 to try to remember everybody's moms, husbands, kids names. And I mean, that like honestly like it scarred me in a sense. But I thought that I would have a better chance if I just kind of evaluated the people around me and adapted from there. So I'll leave you with that. Okay. Well, we'll have plenty more to think about as we head into Survivor 50. Is there anything else that you wish they showed about your game that we didn't get to see? You know, I think overall Survivor editors did such an amazing job at showing me for who I am in all of my podcast. positives and strengths, but also my flaws. And I love that there are people out there who see this villain character who is not always the nicest person, who can be a little abrasive at

times, but who is still able to win the game. And, you know, when I got on the show, I've been such a fan for the longest time. And I told myself, I want to put myself out there and I need to be 100% authentic to myself. And the fact that honestly, like, I love that people love me, but the fact that some people don't like me too. Like, I think that's such a cool thing because it shows that, you know, we have people who are multidimensional and who can be absolutely, you know, villainous at one time's cut throat and emotional in the other and you might not always get them. But it was such a cool thing to be part of.

I do wish they showed some of my softer moments with Rizzo and Sof because we had so many silly moments out there. But overall, like, I hope it encourages other people, especially other women to play with, you know, holding nothing back and to go for it and to be unafirmative. afraid and bold and embrace their inner villain. Yes. I don't even know if you have to say villain. I think it was just really impressive to watch.

And I just was so taken aback all through, especially the second half of the season, just how driven you were. And I thought it was really cool to get to watch. So congratulations to you. Congratulations on tying the record for women winning immunity challenges. And looking forward to everything we get to see next, Nevada. And I hope that one day we'll have a much longer chat. about all of this.

I can't wait to see you. I'm cheering so hard for you. Yeah. Listen, that one day, one day that I could definitely see that being something that you might be good on also,

down the road. About that when I'm not on a CBS. Yeah, down the road. But we don't have to talk about that right now. Okay. All right. Thank you so much, Savannah, and all the best, okay?

Bye. All right, take care. Hi, Sophie. What's going on? Good morning. Rob, sister, how you doing today? I'm doing so good, Rob.

I'm so, I'm on cloud nine right. now. It was a crazy survivor finale. I feel like I ended on a high note. Obviously, I did win. I would have loved to wake up to a million dollars, but Savannah did buy me a coffee. So I'm benefiting a little bit by just being her friend. So yeah, I'm proud of myself, so I'm happy. Yeah, I thought that you did not seem too bummed out with the overall outcome, considering all the adversity that you went through and then ultimately in the final travel council. You seem that you were even like a surprise that you got votes at the final tribal council yeah i'll be

honest with you rob after sab one fire i'm a very self-aware person i knew what the perception was like you know i'm sitting at to someone who wins four immunities ties a record with the women from survivor who won immunities one fire so something else some more ammo for her resume i didn't think i had a good chance, but I did a really good job in the final tribal. And so much so that SAV turned to me before Jeff read the votes. And she told me, you just won this game. Like, there's a lot that they edited out, but I did really good at that final tribal. So, and also Nate, Alex and Steven told me they were 50-50. So I had a chance even against SAV. So I'm proud of it. I was stoked because I didn't think I had a chance. And the fact that like I was still respected even through

everything, I, you know, I was, I was happy. The gratitude for my experience and for getting that far kind of outweighed the loss, even though I still cry. I always bummed that. I get that. I get that. And you have a great attitude about the whole thing. So you got two votes from MC and from Christina, but I was a little surprised that Alex wasn't a vote for you. Were you surprised by that? Of course I was. You know, you don't think I had some work with him after the time. I don't know. What's your problem, Alex? I think he was a little jealous. that I outlasted him and I got his ass out of the game because, you know, I was the last Keller standing

and he can never say that. No, I, you know, I think Alex spent enough time with the jury to kind of observe and make his own decision. I respect his decision. I, you know, I did have my words with him. I was like, I would have given you my vote, what the hell? But it is what it is, you know.

Yep. But from watching your game, and I was really impressed with you all season long, I hope you know that. You were really in that class. position we see in the new era where you were much like a snake all sorry Jake that you were like sort of like laying low and you were primed to strike and you had a couple of chances at the end of the game that didn't ultimately go your way. I want to revisit knowledge's power where I know that you were even in the episode talking about you should have taken Rizzo's idol. Was there ever a thought about potentially taking Rizzo's idol and also voting. Rizzo out, or was Stephen always going to be the person who goes home at that tribal council? So one of the responses I had at Final Tribal that I wish made air because that's what M.C.

told me, convinced her to vote for me was the explanation for the knowledge of power. So after Christina used her advantage or her idol on Stephen, the only thing left for me to take with my knowledge as power was Rizzo's idol. And I had mentally prepared to do that. I was going to do that, but I was waiting for the last possible moment. And part of my game was convincing Rizzo not to use the idol. Like there was a lot of times, yes, he came in bluffing the idol, but he considered actually using it.

But I would tell him, like, no, I don't think you should do that yet. Like, let's use SAB's extra vote instead of your idol. Because as long as Rizzo had an idol in the game, I had an idol in the game, and he was catching all the heat for it. So I could steal it from him at any moment. But I never really needed to. I just wanted to make a flashy move because I felt like I needed something else. to differentiate myself

to feel comfortable enough sitting next to them at the end and at that point at final six I knew that I was like too under the radar to beat them but Stephen was a bigger threat than Rizzo in the game at that point I knew perception is reality

I knew the game Rizzo was playing I respected it as all hell I knew what he was doing but that didn't matter to me I knew what the perception was of the jury and Stephen had won two immunities So I thought taking Steven's advantage and getting credit for that move was enough to make me feel comfortable sitting next to Sav and Rizzo

because I had the relationships and playing that knowledge is power correctly at all a move on my resume to justify sitting next to that at the end. So I didn't take it. I was afraid that Rizzo would have gone home. I didn't want to compete in another immunity challenge with both SAB and Stephen. because, I mean, I love my boy Rizzo, but, like, I was doing better than him. Me and Christina were doing better than him in immunity challenges.

So, like, come on. I, you know, I feel like getting Stephen out was going to give me at least a chance to win. And ultimately, who knows if Stephen was there in the final four if I would have won the final immunity. Yeah, so you won that final four immunity and you had to make the decision of what to do with the firemaking. You talked about how, you know, Savannah is the big threat. Did you ever consider at some point, should I, I put myself, did I pull the Chris Underwood move and put myself in the fire against Savannah?

All day long, Rob. That's why I told them not to talk to me because I wanted to, first of all, I didn't want anyone to be able to say that they convinced me to do something. Like, I didn't want that to happen. So I sat on the beach for hours and I thought there was only two options,

either Sabin Rizzo going fire or I go against Savannah and fire. And I knew that if I beat Savannah and fire, I would have won for sure, but I just had gone through so much in that game that I felt like I almost kind of convinced myself that I earned the spot in the final three. And to some degree, I still think that. And there's a world where I still could have won. Like I know, based on what the jury has told me, that if Rizzo won fire, I would have won.

So who knows? Like, I don't think I needed to do that. It's still a chance for me to win. And even then, I got votes and people were telling me they were 50-50 sitting next to Sav. So who knows what would have been the right decision. I could have lost that fire too if I put myself there with Sam. You never know with these things. Yeah. So Sophie, could you talk me through the final five vote? Because we really, in the episode, it seemed like that you were back there with Rizzo and Christina and you seem like that you were on board to, hey, we should vote out Sage. And then

Savannah comes back and then says, no, it needs to be Christina. And we see Rizzo and Savannah really sort of like talking that through, but we didn't really get to see your perspective and ultimately what you wanted. So can you talk a little bit about how that decision got made from your perspective? Sure. So Sapp was not going to vote Sage out at all. At that point, she felt really close to her and she didn't want to sit next to anyone she didn't like in the final three potentially. And her and Christina were always budding heads. They didn't respect each other in the game. And so that was that's why I was like, it was more an emotional move than a logical move at Final Tribal when I said that. And then me and Rizzo wanted to get Sage out. We didn't want to vote Christina out because at the

very least we get to Final Tribal, we're going to get second place sitting next to Christina. It was just the most logical thing to do because we didn't know where Sage stood with the jury. So, but ultimately what happened was Rizzo was kind of afraid at, he thought that Sav was going to get upset with him if he didn't vote Sage out. And then when he ultimately told me he was going to vote Sage out, I was like, okay, I guess I guess I would Sage out too

because what, I'm going to vote Chris, I'm going to vote. We can't make Savannah upset. I'm going to vote Christina out too because if I. I didn't care. I was like, Rizzo, who cares at this point? Like, we're either making fire or you're winning the immunity challenge. Like, who cares if you make Sav mad?

And I'm, Sapp told me, she's like, I don't care what you guys do. I'm just not voting sage out So I was like what the hell I was about to get up at that tribal council I'm like let's vote freaking Sage out What are we doing? Because at that point again

We didn't know if she was going to get her friends To vote for her in the jury Because she had more friends there than we did I don't know I still stand on we should have voted Christina out Because I don't think Christina would have had Joanne's vote at least But it is what it is

I don't think it mattered either way Yeah And potentially They would have been third place Christina or Satan Another person who could have beat Savannah in the fire maybe Yeah, and that was another thing. The Saab did not want to be able to say she lost fire against Christina.

She kept saying that she's like, if I lose fire against Christina, I will never be able to forgive myself. That's not how she talks, Sophie. Come on. I know that's true. She's probably going to hate me for imitating her like that. But I don't know, whatever. It is what it is. It's still worked out.

You were really great on social media. You get my social media MVP of the season for. the best player from Survivor 49 on social. You had a tweet last night, you said, and y'all were calling me Mitch. I don't know if we could put that up on the screen. I know. I feel bad now about that.

Because it wasn't really a shape. I feel bad about it because I might have said it. Oh, God. Well, it wasn't as much as shade. It wasn't shade to Mitch at all. No, no, no. Oh, yeah. I want to do a video of that, like, instead of the tweet,

but I didn't have time to do it. But it was just like, First of all, I don't, I don't think it's fair for people to say that about Mitch, but people were comparing me to Mitch saying that, you know, we weren't making moves. And that's what I did. It was more like a screw you to the fans who were saying that more so than to Mitch. It wasn't against Mitch at all. I got, no, I got it.

And I knew it would get traction. I knew it would get traction. You know what works. Yeah. Exactly. It was a drama. And I hope he's not too mad about it. Yeah.

And let me ask you this question because I feel like that it just as well could have been you also, who went to Survivor 50, how did it feel from your perspective that the people that your closest allies, and it was really, Tres Leches, it was really the three of you in the post-merge, Rizzo and Savannah, both are a part of Survivor 50 and you're not. Yeah. Oh, are you asking me how I feel about it? Yes. Oh, I mean, I'm so happy for them.

Like, they're genuinely. But from your perspective, I don't. care about what if you think they should be on it yeah um i think it's well deserved i think both of them played incredible games very good tv like better than me i think with the start that i had i lost a lot of um not momentum but in terms of like good tv i was i was just i had no energy towards the end of the game and so i feel like all around like for production just well-deserved. Like, I think it's going to be so fun to root for them on. Okay. So I do need to run. I hope we have more time when you have an even better connection. And we're looking forward to

talking more, but we have all these interviews stacked back to back to back. And they're calling me and saying like, hey, where are you on the next interview? Sorry, sorry. But I do want to talk to you more. Let's do it. Let's send it up. Okay. You are so fun and all the best. Okay. Okay. Bye. Wow, the holidays got here fast. If you're scrambling for last-minute gifts or trying to make your home ready for guests, Wayfair is going to save you a ton of stress.

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king to a god and so it's so nice to get the chance to talk to you i thought that you gave us so many interesting things from this game to talk about and i really want to commend you because i felt like that you talked about it at the survivor after show i do feel like that you did advance the gameplay specifically around the hidden immunity idol with what you did this season and i think that for years to come i think that people are going to be talking about what you did in this season Thank you, Rob. Yeah, that means a lot. I think for me, going into it and my origin story with Survivor started all the way back in Token Chins. And, you know, I don't want to say his name three times before he'll appear. But the next season after Token Chins was obviously Russell Hans. So I'm watching idols being a monumental part of Survivor strategy. And I think as we progress into the survivor ether, idols became less advantageous over time. And people were like, I don't even want this thing. And I'm like, how? Why? I took a lot of inspiration in my game from Ferret. from Australian Survivor and from Tony from Kagayan.

And I saw the power they brought back to the idol. So I said, if I'm ever on Survivor and I have an idol, God bless the rest of those people on the island because I am going to make every single use out of it. And I think we saw that I was able to make a public idol, implicit immunity. I literally brought a God idol back to Survivor without having property you'll had back at Cook Island.

So it was a testament to my strategy. It was a testament to my social capital. But most importantly, I wanted to be a hashtag, that game changer, and I feel like I did that with the idol. Yeah, I was wondering whether or not it was something that you sort of like adapted on the fly or if it was something that you came into the game with. So that was something that you knew you were going to do this if you ever got the idol coming into the game.

Yes, I don't think what I will say that I adapted on the fly was, is I didn't think, I didn't anticipate being a public idol so early on. But I said it earlier on the season, it's like, I'm going to embrace this. I'm going to strike fear in these people's hearts. And I think I was lucky that a lot of the players on my cast were risk adverse. They weren't willing, they were playing a little fearful while I was playing a little fearless. And I think we saw that each and every time that I was in danger. Instead of splitting the votes or instead of putting the vote on me in Savannah,

I was just like, you can vote on me in Savannah. I'll play the idol on me in Savannah. And one of you guys will go home. And then once I said that, it's like, all right, let's vote Alex. Let's, it can't be us. So it helped a lot of the strategy. And I think a lot of people on the jury at least at the time before I went to jury were like, you know, I don't, you guys got here because we blew up on our own. And I was like, no, like me, Savannah and Sulf literally caused this implosion. You guys blew a seven three lead. And here we are in the final four as a three person minority from the final 10 as a three person majority in the final four. Yeah. I mean, when you talk about Russell Hans, I mean, that was pretty close to what he does in Survivor Samoa as well, where he stuck with his people. And I've always said the people.

who have the tightest number. It's not about the biggest number. It's really about the tightest number. And you certainly had that with Savannah and Sof, while the other side had lots of fractures. Something that Stephen first identified about your game also was that you seem to have a real knack for going after soft targets in the middle

as opposed to all-out war against the other side. Was that something that was also intentional about your game? 100%. I think I'm a survivor super fan that I am, and like listening to exit interviews and listening to all this content before I went on Survivor is like, you need to find a common enemy, right? Because while if you're going shot for shot, blow for blow, you're going to be one of the people that get the target. But why not find a common denominator? I knew once I got MC out, because MC was the nucleus of Hina, I thought

this is about to be a breeze. I, for votes, set up Alex should have been the target all the way back at the merge vote because Alex did drop like a nugget to me, like Juan and Sage Mike Fliss. And I was like, I don't think they're going to flip. So I go to Joanne and Sage. I'm like, Alex is saying you're going to flip. And obviously they ended up flipping. But that nugget allowed me to just throw Alex under the bus. Then when it came to Joanne, obviously, I honestly, I wanted Sage to go.

But I needed Yellow Sophie to feel like she was a part of us. And I did that at the MC vote. So seeing her flip to getting Juan out was great. But then I flipped the script right after that. I'm like, Sophie thinks she is in the middle. She thinks it's our trio. and then Christina, Stephen and Sage over here. Let's get her out of here.

And then same thing with Steven. Stephen thinks he has the majority here. Let's get him out of here. So you need to find a common target on Survivor. And I think I was able to pinpoint who that was each and every round. And I'm very happy with how it played out. I think in terms of my strategy was well displayed on the edit on the show. And I think that's how I played the game.

And I'm very happy to know that the intention that I had on the island was displayed on the season. Okay, so we did not get to see you and Savannah go head to head in the final tribal council. Did you feel like that you could have beaten Savannah out in the final tribal council? I think it depends who we're sitting next to in the final three. I genuinely believe if it was Trey's Lach's in the final three, there's a world where Savannah and I actually both lose to Sophie because the jury was very anti-Savanna and I because they thought we were cocky. They thought that we thought we had everything right, which we did. But I think people were anti against us. And I think what was best for Savannah and I's game is that one of us lost in fire because the other one can go into the jury and pitch why we deserve to win. I think what people

underestimate is when you're such a tight trio, it has its advantages because you guys are in lockstep, but it also has its disadvantages because you don't know, like the jury doesn't know what's truly happening. So a lot of the jury's perception was, oh, Sage is clearly like flipping the script on all of us. When the reality is, is like, and I want to give Sage credit. Like, Sage did a great job. But like we use Sage and Joanne as numbers to kind of flip every single time. So I was able to give that clarity. But to answer your question, how did it be me and Savannah and Christina, let's say? I think I have the social and strategic acumen and the resume to pitch why I win. The reason for all my tribal

against was like Ferris and Tony, they did a lot of things behind the scenes. And when Savannah's winning immunity after immunity, that's all the jury is seen. I need to differentiate myself from my counterpart. How do I do that at tribal council with all the theatrics talking about, I have this idol, making the fake idol play to show the jury, I know who they're voting for and they're not going to go home. I don't need to play an idol on them. I needed to show the jury that

I was truly running the game behind the scenes. And I think I did that. Did it rub them the wrong way? Yes, but I think it did only because they kept thinking of themselves, how is he getting away with this each and every time? I don't think it was like, oh, we hate this guy. So I think if I pitched

my case, or if I pitched my case at the end, I had a really good shot at winning. But my true path to victory is beating Savannah at fire and sitting next to Soph and Sage or Sosej and Christine whatever to win the game. What was going on there with the fire? I feel like, I thought, you know, I was going to say, I think I just

choked. Yeah. Because I, I said it there. I honestly, had I want individual immunity, I probably would have thrown myself against Savannah and fire, pull a Chris on wood. Thank God, that didn't happen because how great of a legacy would I have left there. But I just, I just didn't get the spark in. But under normal circumstances, you're a good firemaker. It just wasn't happening that day. You didn't have it. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah. Okay. I want to talk about the final five vote because I thought this was interesting where, okay, you and Sof are on the beach and you're saying, okay, it's going to be Sage and Savannah comes back and says, no, no, we're keeping Sage. Christina has to go home.

And it seems like that there's two of you, you and Sof, and there's only one of Savannah, and somehow Savannah gets her way there at the final five. Why? How did that happen? I want to give some clarity because could I have played my idol on Christina? Sure. Could I have just told Sof, let's just vote out, sage. Sure. But for me, at that point, after Savannah secures her fourth individual immunity, Jeff is talking about Savannah is in a group of five other women. And I'm like, all right, Jeff is glazing Savannah to the jury. This is very bad. And I needed somebody at the final four to give an opportunity to beat Savannah. Because if Savannah wins her fifth individual immunity,

we're cooked. Like there's nothing to say she makes history. So Christina is, A, a good firemaker. And B, I love Christina, but she was not winning a challenge. She was probably plus a million to win an individual. But in fairness, you weren't either. 100%. 100%. I will say, we have to be fair. Yes, I will say, you're 100%.

Right. So the reason why I kept Sage was I needed somebody to beat Savannah at an immunity challenge so I can go against Savannah and fire. And everyone's like, oh, but you know, you could have saved Christina. Like, let's, if everything works the way it works out, Savannah or like, if Savannah wins final five or final four individual immunity, she was going to put me against Christina in fire. And I love Christina now.

But in our relationship, our relationship in the game was not that good. So had I lost to Christina in Final Four, I would have been very sour. I would have been very bitter because I'd rather lose in Final Four knowing I'm helping propel my ally Savannah winning than losing to Christina. So I don't regret it. I think I was in the exact same spot I would have been. I wanted to make fire against Savannah. That's what ended up happening.

And I obviously just didn't win. So Rizzo, this is not the end of your story. From what I understand, I think I spotted you in the trailer for Survivor 50, and so that it's my impression you'll be back for the big season 50, and you have the opportunity to maybe change something about your game that maybe didn't go the way you wanted it to. What was the one thing from Survivor 49 that you thought about tweaking, if anything, before 50? you know i am in such an illustrious group that less than 10 players have ever gone back to back

and i had the luxury of nobody knowing how i played so for me it's like if it ain't broke don't fix it my social and strategic game is what got me here um so i was going to keep that or i'm going to keep that heading into season 50 i think if there was one thing i fix is knowing how to do puzzles and knowing how to make fire when needed so i think that's probably what I'm going to be focused on heading into 50. But besides that, in terms of my strategy, my social acumen, I wouldn't change the thing. Okay. Can I give a message to myself from six months ago? Absolutely. Hey, Rob, listen, don't be so hard on Risgod being on Survivor 50. This guy's going to do a lot of interesting, exciting, inventive things. And this guy is going to deserve

a spot to be there in Survivor 50. So get your head out of your butt, Rob. They'll be a hater. That means a lot coming from you, Rob. Seriously, like I've been a fan ever since I was a kid and knowing that I'm getting the respects from one of the greats means a lot. Hopefully I can see that my legacy on 50.

Okay, well, listen, we'll see what happens in February, but I just want to say you did an incredible job and it was very fun to watch and see what you were going to come up with week after week. Thank you, Rob. It means a lot, seriously. All right. Rizzo, all the best, and we'll hopefully talk to you again soon. Absolutely, Rob.

All right, take care. Bye. All right, we are here with Christina. Christina, how are you doing? Oh, my gosh, what a finale. I'm just like, I remember when I got booted out and just feeling like very accomplished and I did what I wanted to do and I felt proud. And watching it all back, same thing.

Like, I'm feeling really proud of the game. How are you holding up in terms of the physical toll you took in some of the challenges? Because it really seemed like you were going through it. And Jeff was like, Christina, you can't give up. I'm like, Jeff, maybe she should just take a minute. We have challenges where we're like answering questions about people instead of all of these like balanced things. Yeah, my grandmother watched everything back and she said, how are you feeling? And I was like, well, my knees really hurt, but I just kind of like, it's fine.

You all did not see how many times I actually fell in that last challenge. It was probably like eight times off of that barrel. Yeah. You had such a big moment in the finale also from the jury where you asked a question. And, you know, I personally, I loved it because it was such a throwback of like this is what, this is to me what Survivor is. Exactly. Do you know the names of anybody in my family? Yeah.

And it was it was just so fun then to watch Savannah squirm. and try to answer that. So in terms of like how you, you and her had a complicated relationship, can you talk a little bit about that from your perspective? Yeah, so throughout the entire season, if you look at different challenges we did, you will hear people say,

do it for this person, do it for that. And so that kind of was like our thing was knowing family members. And you mentioned kind of like the throwback. One of my favorite moves in Survivor history is season one when Kelly, like avoids getting voted out and gets immunity because she knew someone's last name. And I love that.

And Jen is kids' names? Yeah, exactly. And I'm like, you knew these, you knew this information. And I value a social game. And I actually wanted Savannah to prove me wrong. I actually in that moment, I was like, maybe she'll prove me wrong. She didn't. But, I mean, just our complicated history, I think you all saw a glimpse of it.

But we're going back to episode one, you know, Matt chats. different things she would say. And I was like, I don't know if I really like her. And when I finally gave her kind of the benefit of the doubt, and I was like, okay, let's have an actual like conversation. And we got to talk about kind of some personal stuff. I was telling her why I was feeling the way I was feeling that day. And then we like switched to game.

And it was just this instant like, so who are you voting for? And I was like, wait a minute. Your tone? Like, we were just here. And now everything has changed. And I was like, I don't really like this tone switch. I did not walk away. I want people to know that.

Like, I actually was like, I don't like your tone. It's just a timeout. Yeah, I was like, let's do a timeout. And we like went right back into it. But we just had, we definitely had just kind of very complicated relationship. Can you talk a little bit about your vote in the final tribal council? Because I was a little surprised that you ended up being a vote for SOF as opposed to Sage. And it seemed like that maybe Sage was also a little surprised by that from the Survivor After show.

So could you take us through your, was it really? from the fallout from where you were both on the same page and then had to go after each other for who gets to stay at the final five? I think it, one, I really did connect with SOF a lot. And I don't think our relationship was really shown. We were very close ever since that split tribal where we were on, you know, the island, the four of us together. And so me and her were very, very close. And I saw the way that she was playing. And I mentioned it in the after show. it was exactly the game that I was trying to play as well, like knowing everything that was going on

and just like having one or two ride or dies that you stick with to the end. So I already had already, I was already leaning towards Sov and Sage during the final tribal, I don't think she owned her game. It was very much like we were telling her, like this is what we saw.

Why were you doing it? And it just, it wasn't translating well to actually owning it. And I actually kind of felt a little, like the emotional social game that we had, I questioned whether our relationship was real or not based on the answer she was giving in that final tribal. And I was like, I just don't know if I can vote for that.

Yeah. Can you talk about your relationship with Stephen? Were you surprised in the episode where he ends up going home that he characterized you as a sloppy ally? Were you surprised to have heard that from Stephen? I was a he had given me a heads up so I knew that that was potentially could get aired but Rob I did not sleep the entire time I was out there okay on a normal day fully fed I have mom brain which is a real thing okay and so having mom brain I do not I do know that is true and I do know it's so true and so and then I didn't sleep so yes did I I may have like yeah forgot what lies we were telling and things like that but like like, hey, one Hina remained at the end. So that's all I'm saying.

Yeah, you're the last. Yeah, if self gets to say, I was the last Kella, you're the last Hina. Do you have one point where you feel like that, oh, there, you know, looking back, we had this big lead on the, on the trio, and there was one thing that, that we did or that you feel like that you could have changed. What would it have been? I think I really wish I fostered the relationship with Sophie Sogretti more. Yeah.

I think the universe was telling us, you all need to be each other's number ones. We were on every single tribe swap together. And I think her feeling like she was on the outs and she kind of came that swing vote. And I wish I would have fostered that relationship way earlier. Yeah. Me and her, we just had such a mutual respect for each other. as like being on the show she was kind of we both were strategic she had the the physical but I had the social and we just kind of saw each other as like we cannot we cannot we're we're just

opposing but I wish that I would have really fostered that relationship Christina you had the really powerful moment during the season where you shared about the story about your mom passing and how you really missed her I bet you really got overwhelmed with people reaching out to you that also were dealing with their loss and probably reached out to you. What was that like to get that kind of response from people? It was very emotional and overwhelming in the best possible way. And I'm trying so hard to go through and just answer all of them because I think I'm

obsessed that people are trusting me with this information. and I want them to know, like, I see you. And I'm glad that it's inspired you. And I've actually had people that are in therapy and rehab right now because they heard that story. And so that just means, it means so much to me. Yeah. It's, I know it must be really, really hard because, you know,

that's not the type of person that I am on television in terms of like, like, okay, I'm going to be so vulnerable to everybody. And it's something I've talked about in the past with Carolyn, where when you open yourself, to that, then people now feel like that they can come to you and they're going to share a lot of their trauma with you and because they feel like, okay, this is a sympathetic ear, but I'm sure then it's a lot for you to take on too. Yeah. I'm okay with being the safe space for people and I want to be that for them. But mental health is also very important. And so honestly,

when I, I know the messages are there and I'll say, you know what, am I in a mental space? to really sit down and respond at this moment. And that's kind of how I separate it. It's like, am I in a good space? Okay, I really want to give everyone attention and, like, really let them, you know, trust me with that information that they're giving me. And so I do kind of just make sure that I am in the right head space

before I talk to people. Was there a move that you felt like that you had made in the game that you were disappointed to not have seen in the show? Yeah. I think it's with the Nate vote. it was very much portrayed as the safe vote, but it was not at the time at all. Like Nate, back on that last tribe swap,

and I was on the tribe with him, I was like, oh, he's good. He is, he is insulated with everyone. He wanted to work with MC, who was one of my closest allies. He did not want to work with Alex or me at all. And I really think with just his charisma and everything, I think he could have gotten MC.

and that with MC comes Stephen and comes stage and you know like comes this big group of people and I knew I was like he has to go and so I phrased it obviously as like this is a very safe move guys but like no I needed him gone yeah so can you talk about uh you made the decision to take joan to go on give up you gave up your spot to juan for the reward I had felt like I like I don't I know. I feel like that this might be a move. Was any part of that strategy or was it just that Joanne had me eaten? No, not at all. It was actually very much a ripple effect, a domino effect from just MC being voted out in the conversations that were had based on that and how he was feeling me having a black son and wanting people to like look out for him one day. And so it was

very much just like this ripple effect of like you have to eat. I see you. I see you. I see struggle you're going through there was zero strategy at all when you talk about the conversations that were had with mc and joan were you disappointed that that didn't end up being part of the show that everybody saw i was because i do think it was it was a factor out there in the game i mean it's it's it just was such a big it was just such a big moment and we saw what was happening we saw that the jury was becoming the cookout. I was like, guys, we got to stop this. And so it really was a factor.

And again, it's the reason I gave the reward up in the first place was because of all these conversations that were happening. It's the reason that, you know, I didn't really trust Juan after the Alex vote. It was, I mean, it was a factor out there. And I wish it was shown a little bit more. Okay. And then the last thing I'll ask is there was such a big response to Uncle Jay.

And Joanne, also, Uncle Jeff. So I'd love to hear. Do you think that this will stick? Do you think that in the future, that maybe, unless Savannah and Rizzo bring it to season 50, maybe do you think in the 50s, we will see the continuation of Uncle Jeff? I think it might be dead. We'll see. I mean, half the people actually were okay with it, understood that it's the southern thing.

It's what you do, okay? He didn't mind it. It made me feel comfortable. Like, I truly did not think this was going to be a thing. I called Jeff that the entire casting process. Like, this was not like a, oh, she wants to, no, it literally, that's just my name for him. Okay. Chris, anything else you want to tell people?

Oh, man, this was just the best ride at, like, the best adventure and just getting to have this transformative journey and letting you all see it. Like, I wish you would have saw how my social game was like, it was so strong and I knew how that's hard to show on TV. I know, I knew exactly what that jury was thinking. I knew where their votes were going to go, and I made moves based off of that. Yeah. Well, it was very fun to catch up today and all the best outside survivor, okay? Thank you so much. I take care.

Bye. All right. Thank you so much for listening to our exit interviews, very fun stuff, and we will hopefully have that interview with Sage coming up on Friday as well. We also are going to be doing something very fun. A lot of people have heard the news that I'm going to be a part. of the Traders season four premiering on Peacock on January 8th. And so to get you ready, we have been doing a series of podcast, the Traders Season 4 player previews. And so Puyazamakili

has gone through and done his homework with lots of different fun guests about every person from the Traders' Season 4 cast, the first of which, in no particular order, is going to be premiering today. So be on the lookout here on RHAP YouTube channel and of course on the podcast to listen to our traders daily player profiles as we are starting to get into only three weeks from today when you will see the premiere of the traders season four. So make sure you subscribe. We'd love to hear. We have to say in the comments, thank you so much for being on this ride with us all through season 49 of Survivor. We will have plenty more about season 49, season 50, and the traders, all right here on Rob's the podcast.

Take care, everybody. Have a good one. Bye.