RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 49 Preseason Interview: Rizo Velovic

Episode Date: August 23, 2025

Mike Bloom sits down with Rizo Velovic, the self-proclaimed "Riz God," in this preseason interview for Survivor 49. As the first player of Albanian descent in the show's history, Rizo brings a unique perspective and infectious enthusiasm to the game.

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play responsibly. As a B-Mall Eclipse Visa Infinite Cardholder, you don't just go to dinner. You get rewarded for dining out. And you don't just buy gas. You get rewarded for filling that tank. Because you get five times the points on things like groceries, gas, takeout, dining, and ride share. So you get more out of life. Apply now and get up to 60,000 points. Which is a lot of points. For more info, visit bemo.com slash eclips. That's our website. Terms and conditions apply. Summer's here, and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days, delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well-groom lawn delivered, but you can get a chicken parmesan delivered.

A cabana? That's a no. But a banana? That's a yes. A nice tan. Sorry, nope. But a box fan, happily, yes. A day of sunshine? No. A box of fine wines? Yes. Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost. Anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by Regency app for details. Hi, everybody. Mike Bloom here and welcome to day three of our Survivor 49 pre-season interviews here on RHAP.

Today, we are talking with Rizzo Velovic, or as he refers to be known as, at least to us, the man, the myth, the legend, R-I-Z-G-O-D-R-G-O-D-R-G-G-G-D-R-G-G-G-G-D, baby. We will approach the altar at the Risgod's Temple hear a bit about his own background, his fandom with the show, and why he feels he's deserving of this Deneres-Targarian-like title. Of course, if you missed it, I already have conversations out with Rizzo's fellow tribe members, Joanne and Nate.

If you want to avoid missing future interview a podcast, you can go to we know survivor.com to subscribe to our survivor only feed and watch RHAP.com or search Rob has a podcast in YouTube for the video versions of these interviews. Here is what you need to Nizzo about Rizzo. I am so sorry for that. Moving on. Rizzo Velovic is 25 years old, originally from Yonkers, New York, currently lives in Yonkers, New York.

He works in tech sales. Rizzo holds the honor of being the first player of Albanian descent to play Survivor. His parents immigrated from Albania to the United States. Rizzo obviously made a major impression from the jump when he was one of the first voices we heard in the teaser trailer for Survivor. 49 at the end of the season of 48 finale, never since the summer has been talking all about who is the Riz God. For what it's worth, the title that Rizzo bestows upon himself, the man, the myth, the legend, R-I-Z, G-O-D, Riz God, Baby is an identity that he wants to keep in the confessional ring, in a manner of speaking. He wants to present a bit differently to his competitors. He gets into all

of that with me in a very fun interview. Of course, we are putting out these interviews on the daily. We are not resting on the weekend. So hopefully you've been enjoying these so far. Tomorrow, we will start talking about the women of the Uli tribe with Sage, Arons, Nichols. But today, it is time to talk with the man, the myth, the legend, R-I-Z-G-O-D-R-Z-R-I-Z-G-O-D-R-G-G-G-G-G-R-B, baby. Here is my interview with Rizzo. My name is Rizzo. I'm 25 years old. I'm from Yonkers, New York, and I work in tech sales. Okay. Is this something that you've always wanted to get into sales or tech in general? To be honest, I didn't grow up saying I want to be in tech sales. Actually, funny enough, my dream job as a kid,

well, at first when I was a toddler, was to be a farmer because my grandfather was a farmer. and then I kind of got older and being from the city of New York or the streets of New York rather where it's the concrete jungle you don't really see much of this so I was like all right scratch that I'm not going to do that

and I actually wanted to be in broadcast journalism kind of very similar to what you're doing here I went to school for it I covered sports I did the whole nine yards and then as we got towards you know post college and looking into a career I actually support a lot of my family

in terms of like helping my parents and like my younger brother so I mean, I don't know, I'm sure they're paying you well. But, you know, broadcast journalism doesn't really pay that much to start off. Yeah. You're pretty much working for free. And for someone in my position, it was like, ah, you know, I can't afford making $13 an hour when there's a lot more that needs to be done. So I ended up segueing into something that I'm really good at, which is people, you know, I'm really good with people. And I thought, what better way to do that than kind of get into sales. And the tech company that I work for at least isn't really commission based.

So it's not much where it's like, all right, it's like that car is sleazy salesman where it's like, you really want this 2002 Toyota Corolla with 600,000 miles on it. It's a steal of a deal. I'm not nothing like that. I essentially just sell tech to people. And if they buy it, great, if not, on to the next. And I've been there for the last four years. And I love it.

I've got two of my best friends into the company. So I really can't complain. It allowed me to be here. So can't complain. Well, let's go from tech sales to no tech, but a lot of selling, I imagine on your way to that million dollar pitch talking about your history with Survivor and what made you decide to make that leap from fan to player for sure I think well growing up I watched a lot of TV like a lot of TV both my parents immigrated from Albania so they are blue collar workers they're both

custodians they basically clean shit for a living and they still do to this day so a lot of my childhood was just like watching TV so I was at home raising my young brother babysitting my younger brother while the TV was babysitting me. So I was really into like Legends of the Hidden Temple. Hell yeah. Guts like all those Nickelodeon shows. And I remember and I said this during my casting process because it's such a core memory. I was scrolling through the channels and I just see Jeff is like, J.T. Do you want your tooth back? And J.T.'s like yeah. And then he just flicks it to the side and I'm like, what is like what is this? Like this is insane. So I was a nine your eight or nine year old kid watching token sheans for the first time and that episode got me

hooked i just figured out how to watch you're at an age where the tooth fairy was around you're like i didn't realize that he looked like that yeah and honestly it was just surreal that jt was like yeah give me my tooth bag and you just flicked it away and then still did the challenge and they ended up winning immunity um and i guess like it worked out because the challenge they did was like very sporty and i'm a big sports guy so i was like this this is sick and then you get into you know survivor and keep watching and from that point on i fell in love of at the show, I consider myself like a super duper fan

I'm a student of the game like I'm sure I don't know who you like who have you talked to so far they're like oh I'm like a fan like I'm telling you like I live breathe die this shit I'm in I'm not like an RHAP Patreon so I'm sorry Rob but like

Not yet at least. Yeah I guess not yet but I like I'll listen to like the exit interviews I'm very familiar what you do with what Dalton does like I love this shit like and the fact that I'm here I've always manifested when I'm telling you when I saw that episode it went from I'm gonna be on guts

to I'm a beyond Survivor and 16 years later here I am Just protect your teeth Yeah that's something that I got to do Even though I don't think I You know JT's a country boy Like I'm from the city I'm not throwing I'm not gonna do some crazy shit so

Well let's look back upon the Survivor history You've fallen in love with so much Give me a winner and a non-winner Who you identify with the most All right I'm gonna give you two because I'm going to give you two of both. Okay. So, and the reason why I do that is because both winners I'm going to give you and both non-winners are on opposite sides of each spectrum. Okay. So the first non-winner I'm going to go with is David Wright. I think David Wright, I think what, so JT and Tokin Cheans was like my love of Survivor as like a casual fan.

And then I think Millennials versus Gen X. I was around 17 years old is when I really got into the online survivor community and like everything like in terms of the content. And David Wright was somebody that I just admired. I absolutely loved. And I think his game and what he stood for really resonates with me and my life. I think David went from zero to hero very quickly. He went from nothing to the best player of his season. He went from bottom of the barrel to never giving up. And the big mantra that I go by is never give up.

Shout out John Cena. That's my idol. But it's just that never quit attitude. and that's something that I take in my life to never quit. And that's exactly what David Wright did and embodied. And that's what I hope to do. I don't, you know, David's hilarious because, like, he was, like, crying on day one and day two is like, what am I doing here?

Then to realizing his self-worth. Like, he went through this whole arc. And I'll go to my second favorite plan on the opposite side of the spectrum, which is pretty much a deep cut. But it's actually D.K. Chilling. Oh, that's the name I haven't heard in years. And you might be asking, like, Why, D-K-Chilling?

So, I go by the nickname, the Man The Myth the Legend, R-I-Z-G-O-D, Riz God, baby. That's like, that's my thing. I feel like, yeah, Riz has had a resurgent, or resurgence, if you will, too. And it kind of cringes me out because I, I pat, oh, I didn't patent it, clearly, but I, like, made that shit up in 2016, where my nickname originates from. I remember, it is self-proclaimed, by the way, but just going through my life, you know, with how I was raised and with raising. my young autistic brother and just so many things that went through my life I as I grew older

start having these conversations with friends colleagues whatever I'm like what did you do or whatnot and they'll be like oh man like I just went to Little League and this whatnot and I'll be like damn like I'm 14 years old doing my parents taxes and I'm like helping my parents close their first house at 21 and like I'm doing all these things and it's like it doesn't line up to what other people my age at the time kind of went through so I kind of was like damn like I'm what a lot of kids say these days like I'm him like I'm that guy so I was kind of workshopping growing up like

who like I need to give myself like a nickname and I was like I'm a god and I was like that doesn't really sound good and then I was like wait Riz God and it flows really well off the tongue and it's kind of something I live by my friends and family my co-workers even call it to me until like the people watching I'm sure as me like oh this fucking tool

like this guy who calls himself Riz God and broader spectrum like bigger picture like that's what it is. It's kind of like a confidence boost. Like when you really get to know who I am, it's just kind of like what I live by. It's like my inspiration, kind of like that never give up. Like if you're not dreaming big, dream bigger. You know what I mean? Like I want to inspire people. I want to inspire my family. I want to prove to them all the sacrifices my parents made at home is worth it. Not only because I made it on Survivor, but like I'm doing the damn thing. Like I'm,

I'm crushing it in life. And I just want to inspire that to other people. You know what I mean? Like I think for Survivor for me, like I look at JT, I look at David and like they inspired me to like push through perseverance and like I want to do the same for the next generation. Yeah. So the D.K. Chilling thing comes back to it because Dean, even though he started off kind of slow, had that like I guess alter ego, D.K. Chilling, right? Once he started to get advantages or his foot under like his, you know, feet on the rug or whatever the saying is like ready to play the game. he started to get more confident. And even though, like, as a fan, I knew Tommy was going to win, like, it was like, wow, Dean's about to put up a good fight at FTC.

You know what I mean? Like, he's got that heart that you need to win at the end. And I think my whole mantra out here is going to be like, I'm Rizzled to everybody. But behind the scenes, in my confessionals, like, I want to have a fun time. I'm the man, the myth, the legend. R-I-Z-G-O-D-Z-D-R-I-I.

I was going to stand there on day one and be like, Jeff, call me Riz God. No, so I say this to everybody. I'm not going to introduce myself, like, how I met you. I don't introduce myself as Hey Mike, I'm the man the myth legend, Rizzi JOD, risk God, baby. It comes off pretty facetious at the start. But once you get to know me,

I pierce a hole in that armor, like, then maybe I'll bring it in. I don't intend to bring it into the game because I don't want to give these people ammunition. But I think the man the myth of the legend is going to make a stamp here on season 49. And then to segue into the winners. Yeah, talk me about some winners. Yeah, I'm going to go with JT just because that's where my love for the season,

or my love for Survivor started. JT's my favorite player ever. And he kind of gets a lot of hate. I don't want to say hate, but a lot of people discredit what he did on token chains because of his last few performances, which hot take, I do think what he did in Heroes v. Villains,

given the information he had at the time was the right move. I feel, I feel you there. And the only reason why, and not to go too deep into it, but when you don't know who Russell Hans is, you don't get any idea or any inkling what it is, like, Harvety ran the Black Widow

brigade. So with JT's mindset, it's like, dude, if I give him this idol, he's going to flip with us. And if it works, JT probably could have been the two-time winner. You know what I mean? Not to mention there's the whole thing where like he found the idol in front of his tribe and the tribe was like, oh, let's do this thing. It's he can't be like, no. Right. Right. So, you know, I think obviously if you flip the coin, everything's different. It's a whole game of what it's. But I think he could have played well. And then game changers, you know, he had that beautiful Michaela, didn't play the idol, whatever. But what J.T. does that I admire. Meyer is he always plays hard. Jeff always says if you're not going to play this game hard,

realistically there is only one winner at the end of the day. Are you going to play fearful or fearless? A lot of the times the people that win play fearless. And that's what I intend to do. And that's what JT does a lot of the time. So even though the more he plays, the worse he does, he'll always be a hero in my heart. And listen, he won in his first try. It could be the same thing with you. And it was a perfect game. Yeah. So I mean, you know, like I said, with the other games he's played, it's kind of gone in the gutter. But like, it's, objectively, like, one of the best games ever played. Yeah.

So I hope to kind of replicate that. That's kind of my strategy a little bit in a sense. Like, I want to be the guy that everybody loves. And then to go, well, actually, so I'm a really big Tony. I like a lot of players, but I won't go too much into it. Tony is someone that I like, but he's not who I admire. The other winner is Denise Stapley. Ooh.

I think Denise Stapley kind of going back to the David Wright thing, embodied, never give up. Imagine if I told you before you go on Survivor that you're going to go to every single tribal council. Right. You're going to be like, put me on the next season. Like, that's brutal. And Denise, I mean, the new era is a shit show in terms of like disaster tribes. But Matt Singh was the OG worst tribe of all time. And Denise and Malcolm, who I admire a lot too, went through the fucking shitter.

And Denise, every single time got back up. And Denise didn't like play this, you know, Boston Rob, puppet master kind of game. But she had grit. She had heart. And she had what it needed to take to get. to the end and win. And even though it was cutting her close ally at number four, she was sitting next to scooping and I think Lisa,

and it's like it was kind of a clean sweep at that point. So that's kind of what I'm taking into this game. I never want to quit, never die attitude. No matter if I'm on the bottom, no matter if I got blindsided, no matter if everything looks bad, I'm going to fight because Denise proved it that you can go to every single tribal

and still win this game. So let's talk about what from your life has, you know, you're bringing into this to help make the R-I-Z-G-O-D what he is. What's one life experience you feel has prepared you the most for what you're about to undergo? You know, so I don't, I think, I think when you think of successful in America, right, I think of super wealthy, super rich, has a lot of things going for them. And I feel very rich in other aspects. I think things that matter more to me in terms of values, core memories, stuff like

that. So for me, I wouldn't say I had like this life altering experience, but I think just my upbringing in general. I kind of touched about it earlier. I think coming from an Albanian immigrant household and fun fact, I am the first Albanian player or Albanian descent player to ever play Survivor in 49 seasons. So I'm taking that as a badge of honor. I want to represent my small Eastern European country. Hell yeah. I want to prove to everybody that and sometimes Albanians kind of get a bad rap with like the mafia and all these movies and stuff. But like I want to show people that we're good people and that we can come out on Survivor and win too but just with that aspect my parents both came here and they came here arranged so they married each other off a photo back 25 26 years ago

and they moved together nine months later I popped out and from there in a 500 square foot apartment in New York we kind of got raised and we went through the motions there then my young brother comes in and this last season or currently going on 48 really touched me because my brother was diagnosed with autism at a very young age and you know my parents being from Eastern Europe they're pretty ignorant to like you know autism and like stuff like that at the time obviously of course yeah um so it was hard because now as i don't want to say i'm the golden child but like as someone that my parents rely on to go chase the american dream right they come here to sacrifice so their kids can go live out the American dream.

I'm out here going to live the American dream. Well, I also have to worry about my brother because my brother, you know, lacks social cues, doesn't really have that many friends. Like, I'm his best friend, and he doesn't even know I'm out here because he has a big mouth. I'm sorry, I didn't tell you.

But he just thinks I'm on a work trip. But it's something that I held very close to my heart because I want to help him succeed and just knowing that all the PTA meetings that I went through, Everything that was needed to help raise him while raising myself was a lot. And I had this funny casting story, which is still true. And I brought it up earlier is once I got to a certain, like once I became a teenager,

my parents literally just threw all the bills, all the responsibilities on me. They're like, Rizzo, you have school, you go to school, like here it is. So I remember I was a 14 year old kid. My parents threw the W-2s at me. I'm like, mom, what the fuck am I supposed to do with this shit? And she's like, you go to school, figure it out. I was like, bro, what? So whatever, I'm going on Google.

and figure out who to call and figure out what to do and all these things just to kind of help them and alleviate their pressure because I can't blame them. They're working two to three jobs, cleaning shit just to put food on the table for my brother and I. So I'm very grateful for the life that I have. And kind of me being here is almost like paying tribute or homage for my parents and showing them that their American dream

was for me to fulfill mine. And here I am doing it. Incredible. So give me your biggest superpower and your biggest piece of kryptonite coming into this game. You know, it's funny because I think my superpower is my kryptonite. Oh. So my superpower, I think I have a lot of them.

But my superpower is that I feel like very quickly I get along with people. I think it kind of comes from this like motivational, inspiring mindset that I have. I'm very optimistic, which is kind of crazy, given the circumstances I grew up with. Some people would just sit down and die and quit. Yeah, but sometimes all you need is hope to get to the next day. Exactly. And kind of going back to the quote that I really, live by it's if you're dreaming big dream bigger yeah and i think for me just that mindset of always knowing that something great's going to happen i always knew i was going to be on survivor and now here's

the day and i'm going to go out there and play hard god forbid knock on wood i'm first boot which would be brutal at the end of the day i'm going to have two hours that i get to watch my friends and family two hours that the whole country of albania will watch and say wow there's somebody of our dissent on this TV show. Worst case, I'm going to have two hours of memories that I'll show my kids, my kids' kids, like you know what I mean? Like a, just a log of me playing my favorite game of all time.

Yeah. But that's not going to happen. I'm going to go out there. I'm going to kick some ass. And I think just me being that people person with it being in sales, just that inspiring mindset, I'm hopefully going to get along with a lot of these people.

And I think it's going to do really well. And it's not going to be me being like, I'm the man, the legend. You saw me win immunity? like it's nothing like that I think I'm a very empathetic person too you know what I mean I think when Survivor is great on TV

because they get all the best moments but reality there's a lot of downtime in here and there's a lot of lows for people and if I'm that person that can kind of comfort them kind of what Joe did to Eva and like that was such a big thing in my household my brother doesn't even watch Survivor but I made him watch that episode just to realize that he is seen

he is felt and it was such a powerful thing and Joe kind of not that he inspired me because I was going to do it regardless but it proves that you can be a human and do well in this game and I hope to have that relationship with everybody here and obviously I can't be friends with everyone because you got to backstab all of them to get the prize at the end but that being my superpower just being a good people person and really being empathetic and being there for people and being a good listener I think that's my superpower I think my biggest weakness is probably sometimes being maybe too confident. Survivor is a game of ups and downs, and as a student of the game, I'm aware of that.

And I don't think this is going to be my problem in the game because I'm so dialed in. Like, I'm in such a good headspace. Like, I'm ready for this shit. Even though I've never been camping a day in my life. I've never slept outside. It's never happened. This is going to be the first time I do it on the island. No time like the present.

Right, exactly. So I think my biggest kryptonite though is like maybe getting two in my head. If everything goes well and I'm puppeteering everything and everything's going well, like I need to look at my blind spot. I need to make sure that I'm aware at all angles because at the end of the day, everybody's playing for themselves. And even though we voted together for six straight tribals, it doesn't mean they owe me anything on the seventh. So I think it's really just being on my toes and not letting the past or the present affect the future. Let's talk about some of these people that you're hoping to connect with out on the island. Let's talk about some vibes you're getting from these players. So we'll start on the good side here. So you can give initials. You can describe them to me. Who are some people that you're like possibly already eyeing as rider dies if you hit the beach together? So I don't know how much content you want.

I've thought of, so going into Ponderosa, obviously all we have is downtime. I didn't realize how much fucking downtime we had. Right. So all I brought was a notepad. I didn't bring no books. I didn't bring no iPods, no CD players. so all I've been doing is just watching these people and I've actually associated a past player

with every single person just because I've been that bored and I've had that much time so if you're up for it I'll go down the list as much as the people I can think of. You know what? Let's do it. Hell, we got nothing but time out here too. Fantastic. All right. So the first one is not a player. It's just a person that I like just right off the bat. There's this guy that's Canadian

because I could tell from his passport and he looks exactly like Connor McGregor. So I call him Canadian Connor McGregor. He looks just like it. His vibes there's a lot of people that are giving me straight RBF which is in a weird fucked up way like I'm attracted to that. It's like you know what the fuck you're doing like you know not to give these people any inkling what you're thinking

anything like that and to me that shows strategy like you're thinking about what people perceive you as there is a lot it's kind of like a lot of good vibes and a lot of bad vibes. I don't want to say bad of Nobody's done anything to me personally, but like strategically as a game player. So we got Canadian Connor McGregor. There's one, her initials are MC, I believe. She gives me like heavy missy vibes from.

I don't know the idols. Yes. Just because she's very like tone. She's very fit. She's big. She's another one that's not giving me anything, which I like. So strategically, I feel like she's going to be a big challenge presence. And we'll see what she is in the social game.

There's one, a woman by the. name of S.B. She gives me Chelsea Walker vibes from Island Island. I don't know why Island of the Isles is coming up, but anyways, Chelsea Walker, um, God, I gotta go down the list.

SS, she's giving me heavy Carra K vibes from David versus Goliath, very bubbly, always smiling, giving everybody like, happy go lucky energy. Um,

there's this one guy, I, W, has a goate long hair, gives me Mike Turner vibe. He's like, I don't mean to age him, so I don't know his age, but he gives me like very unk vibes. You know what I mean? Like, he's like the guy at the barbecue where he's like, like, he's like, he gives me like a grunt.

I'm like, thanks, man. Like, I appreciate that. So he's going well there. This is a deep cut. There's this guy with, he's bald with a beard. He gives me heavy genre bear vibes from China. Oh my God. And the only reason why I say that is like, I don't know why.

He just looks like a fucking poker player. like he just gives me poker player vibes like he's so calculated he also doesn't really talk much or like give much so like John Rabeer is just someone that I fucking love because he's so stupidly funny but stupidly bad so that's another good one

man I gotta keep listening to him off let's see what else alright well I don't really have I mean I could go down the list but they're not really coming up actually okay I'll remember there's S.A she gives me she kind of like I guess if you say like archetype She kind of looks like charity.

She has a lot of tattoos and everything like that. But she gives me heavy Wentworth vibes. Like I feel like she's going to be like the fan fave. Yeah. She gives like like queen energy. Like I don't know. It's just like the way she walks. Like her like her or like I don't want to like give her too much credit.

I don't even know her. But like her aura like radiates like badass player. So she's one. Dude, all I'm thinking about is Canadian Connor McGregor. No, that's fine. Listen, you get you got an exhaustive layer. No, I know. He's, with my luck, he's probably going to be on my tribe. And the only reason why I say that is because, like I said, I've been looking at people. So I wore red crocs to kind of see like if anybody would be like, oh my God, is he on the red tribe? And Connor McGregor wears red shoe. So like, I don't know if he was on the same type of timing as I'm on. But like, I'm looking into everything, truthfully. So I'm like, you know, if he's on the red tribe, God bless me because, you know, with the new era, I think four out of the the eight seasons, there's always this disaster

tribe and I'm fucking praying to God, it's not me. So yeah, I think that's probably my good vibes. All in all, I think there's a lot of people that are not giving me nothing, which I like, and then there's a lot of people giving a lot of people a lot of things which I don't like, because I think that's sloppy gameplay

and I don't want to really work with that, but I'm just judging a book by its cover. Yeah. We can step on the beach and all that's out the window, so. Well, let's move into maybe some other things you hope to recruit in the form of idols, advantages. journeys. What's your approach to that? Are you going to grab it? I think the new era in some ways deteriorates a lot of players from idols and advantages. And I would be lying if I said I wasn't one of them. I think 46 kind of scared the fans and people like myself a lot because I think five straight

were found and not played. And 47, I think Rachel was the only one that played one to be. I don't remember. I mean, Roman Gabe played theirs like the first opportunity they could. Right. And that's because they didn't want to be like 46. And I think idols and advantages in this game. And, you know, the journeys is one thing that I kind of have a qualm about as a super fan because like 48 for instance, like Justin and Bianca literally had no say in their votes. Right. And then they got fucking fucked. Yeah. So obviously every season is different. But I think I would love to go to the journey because information in this game is key. I can control

who I say things to, what I say things to whoever goes in another journey, we can convolut and decide what we want to say. Information in this game is key and I rather know where advantages and idols are than don't. I don't necessarily need to have them in my pockets even though

the fan fiction superfan in me would love it because I'd love to do things that I've never been done before that I got it. Kind of like Tony I forgot what he said in game changers. You had a spy shack, a spy nest, and a spunker. Like I have some weird shit I want to do too But like you need idols to do that And I don't think I'm hitting the beach

Looking for idols I think that's where I if it comes to me If I'm looking for firewood and I you know Browse and I see something I'm gonna absolutely go for it My only thing is is that now it's all about The Beware Advantage. A big thing that I actually really loved

And hope they bring back is the Birdcage Idol I think that was a good concept Because it got everybody on their toes Like they'll know where the idol is Oh my God it's gone who the fuck has it Whereas everything else is kind of like a mystery, but I worry, because I'm not the biggest puzzle

guy, so a lot of these beware advantages, like, figure out the puzzle or some shit. And, like, the lore with the idol is, like, you don't want to tell anybody, and the beware advantage kind of, I don't want to say it forces your hand, but it almost lets you use it as a token

of trust because you kind of have to work together. And I don't know if I really like that, but I can't really complain. If I find the idol and I have a trusted ally, if I can find my Steve into my JT, Like, I can't complain. What is your hottest survivor take? I know you've got some loaded up in the chamber.

Oh, man, I really do, but so I think the biggest, or actually I'll have two. Okay. This isn't really a hot take. Maybe for production, it's a hot take, but I think they need to bring touchy subjects back. Ooh. It hasn't been back, I think, since San Juan del Sur. Yeah. And I get it from a production standpoint, like the majority alliance can kind of game it.

But, like, figure out a way behind it, like, don't have the drama be manufactured through advantages and idols have the drama be manufactured within the people like imagine everybody's just like who's playing the best game so and so oh fuck now i got to figure out how to combat that perception i think it's needed especially it's never happened in the new era they brought the auction back why not bring touchy subjects i think it's a must um but that's not really a hot take i think my hot take and i think this is a hot take now because of the winners that we've recently gotten i think in the new era the majority of winners and when i was bored of two. I was like going through all the winter list and I was like, all right, what would I classify

this winner as like a complete winner in terms of social strategic physical? Is this a physical winner? Social winner? Strategic winner, whatever. I think five out of the seven I had are all social players. Yeah. And I think the new era kind of favors social players that are like really good one-on-one interpersonal relationships. So I think my hot take is that the best player doesn't always win the season. Okay. And the reason why I say it's kind of a hot take is I think a lot of the fandom, like, whether it's Survivor Twitter or Survivor Reddit, they always say like,

whoever got the jury votes at the end and whoever it was like deserves to win. And I agree. If you're at the end and you get the jurors to vote for you, you 100% deserve the win, but I don't think that crowns you the best player. Like I go down the list and I think of like, David didn't win his season. David, right. Omer didn't win his season 42. Jesse didn't win his season.

And the list kind of goes on and on. And I think that's not a bad thing. You don't have to be the best player to win the season. But I think a lot of like people online say like, oh, if you won the season, you're the best player. And I don't think that's true. Well, on that note, let's put yourself in this juror's shoes. Because to your point, the interesting thing about the jury vote 25 years going strong is that everyone has a different piece of criteria. Right.

What would be your, at this moment, like core value you would use to vote for somebody? If the sentence was, if I was a juror, I'm voting for blank, fill in the blank. I think objectively, I'm voting for the best game and what that means to me is somebody that had the most pull strategically. I think what made me fall in love with the show as a super fan, as a student at the game as I am, is the social politicking, it's the strategic mindset, it's the manipulation. It's like, and not everybody plays this way, but like you think about the survivor grates, right? It's Survivor Mount Rushmore, which I'm hoping to be on. There we go. Obviously, you know, when you think of Survivor of Mount Rushmore, you think of Sandry, you think

of Tony, you think of Boston Ride, you think of Parv, you think of Surrey. They've all played multiple times. So for my journey to being, because I didn't come to Survivor just to be a winner. I came to Survivor genuinely, and I mean this, like to be one of the greats. Like I said, dream big, dream bigger, yeah. It's like, why do I want to just be the winner? Like, I want to be one of the fucking goats. I want to be one of the greatest of all time.

and that's what I'm aiming for but when I go back to kind of like as a juror I like people or I respect games that people had a say in right yeah people conducted blindsides people were able to avoid the vote like Tony's winners at war games like never had a vote

cast it against him he didn't get every single vote but like he ran a lot of the game like his extortion episode where he just had whatever 20 confessions got all the fire tokens blindsided I think Sophie that episode like it was fucking cinema yeah unbelievable Like shit like that gets my adrenaline going. Uh-huh.

And I hope whether, I mean, I hope it's me and I know it's me. But if it's not, I hope the winner that represents our season has a lot of say in that. And like I said, this is not to cut anybody out. Like Kenzie, for instance, I think Kenzie played a great game. But I think if you look at my criteria, Charlie should have won. But I think Kenzie is another one because I think Kenzie, for someone that plays a social game, I think she was one of the more well-edited social players. It's a really tough thing to edit because it's like when so much of these relationships

are transactional, at least from our perspective, it's tough to for sonify living out there with that person 24-7. Right. And I think Kenzie, for instance, was well-edited compared to like maybe a Michelle from Co-Rong where we didn't really see the interpersonal relationships and people are like, oh my God, she got robbed, but like we don't see the behind the scenes. Whereas Kenzie, I think we saw a lot more of it. So for me personally, I want to vote for the best.

best player, which in my criteria is someone that orchestrates a lot of the game. Last but certainly not least, if you could bring a celebrity or a fictional character out as your loved one for the loved ones visit, we're bringing it back. Who are you picking and why? Man. All right, so I'm going to go with my two idols. I think number one, it's Mr. You Can't See Me, John Cena, like I said earlier. I wasn't watching Survivor. I was either watching the New York Yankees play or WWE wrestling and John Sina I'm like in a

Kmart Walmart, Walmart, broke boy version like inner John Sina like I have the grit, I have hustle, loyalty, respect. You don't need these iPods. You just have the bat, ba, da, blah, blah, playing your head at all times. Literally, it's like either that or fucking I, the tiger. It's like I just got it replaying in my head

gets me so amped, gets me so motivated. And with the persona, like the man the myth of legend, R-I-ZGO-D-R-God baby, it's kind of very like WVE like, you know, So I would love for John Cena to come out here because if I was down in the dumps or shit's not going right, he'll grab me by the shoulder

with his fucking 250 pound chiseled cell and we'd be like, Rizzo, walk the fuck in. You made it on Survivor. Don't let these people see what you're doing. Let the producers see that you're going to win this game or I don't know, some cringe shit, but John Cena is definitely someone that I would love.

And another one I would say is probably Derek Jeter. I think being a New Yorker, I was 10 minutes away from the Bronx, I still am. He embodied, like, all the media, all the attention. Like, all the lights were on him. He was El Capitan. Exactly. El Capitan.

He never fumbled. He never made a mistake in 20 plus years in the media. Like, I don't recall a story of a bad story or bad press coming out about him. And I think that's how I kind of hold myself. I want people to look at me and respect me as a person and obviously as a game player. And I think the way he carried himself, it would be very, like, loving on the island, he's going to be like, hey, man, with a soft tone voice. Like, you got this.

Like, if I led the Yankees to Five World Series in the late and early 90s and 2000s, like, you could just fucking win this silly game. So I pick a lot of people that would inspire me or already have inspired me. And I think it would go a long way for me on the island. You came into this interview, man, with a torpedo bat. Speaking of the Yankees, like, this passion that you have for this game is so palpable. And it's clear that, you know, you live in. breathe so much that the show has brought for you that you hope to carry forward.

So this has been such a delight to get the chance to talk with the man, the mid, the legend, R-I-Z-G-O-D himself. Mike, this is why you're one of the best at the business, because all I did, I probably said it maybe three to five times and you already picked it up. And that's what I hope the audience picks up too on the confessionals is I'm imagining a little Timmy coming up to me and like, you're the man the myth of the legend. And I'll be like, get a picture, you know, that was very egotistical. But like, you could kind of get the bond.

Thank you.