RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 50 B&B Ep 7 Recap w/ J.E. Skeets

Episode Date: April 12, 2026

Survivor 50 B&B Ep 7 Recap w/ J.E. Skeets With a new Survivor season upon us, it’s time for Mike Bloom and Liana Boraas to re-open the RHAP B&B! On the B&B, Mike and Liana are inspired by the lighter side of Survivor, featuring a series of segments and games based on what’s happening on Survivor that week.  This week, Mike and Liana are joined by “No Dunks” and “No Buffs” host J.E. Skeets to talk about Episode 7 of Survivor 50! Mike Bloom and Liana Boraas welcome J.E. Skeets to the Survivor B&B for a lively breakdown of Survivor 50, episode 7. This episode dives deep into the chaos of the merge, where a tribe swap breaks up the season’s core alliances and launches new power dynamics, especially as a once-quiet pair steps into the spotlight. Mike, Liana, and Skeets explore the pivotal role of the Beware Advantage: Whether it’s smarter to share the secret to build trust or keep it close for strategic leverage, risking paranoia and blindsides. They discuss how players use idol threats not just for protection, but as bargaining chips to drive the vote. Camp drama and challenge mishaps add fuel to the game, with the hosts debating whether work ethic and performance still carry weight in the late game or if social bonds are the true currency. The “swing” duo plays both sides, but the risk of showing their hand too soon could cost them control or lock in their path to the merge. At Tribal Council, backup plans and decoy names swirl, turning whispers into a last-minute strategy flip. Mike, Liana, and Skeets trace who truly pushes the vote, who just follows, and how journey bonds and swapped tribes complicate trust. Highlights: – How the tribe swap lifts a quiet pair into a powerful position – Idol secrecy vs. trust: the strategic trade-offs – Challenge performance as late-game leverage – Decoy plans and journey bonds: benefits and risks post-swap Looking forward, the hosts ask: Will the middle pair lose their grip or secure merge power? Does the Beware Advantage spark trust or set up the next big blindside? Survivor B&B brings playful analysis, games, and plenty of laughs. Don’t miss their take on Survivor’s most unpredictable moments! 0:00 Merge begins, jury starts forming 6:05 Coach ignites drama at hammock 13:05 Coach haikus and tribal missteps 18:46 Coach dances, Aubry awkwardly joins 26:42 Rizo confronts Coach, dragon talk 32:03 Dee’s downfall, split vote plans 40:41 Aubry’s idol mistake exposed 48:47 Cirie reads Stephenie’s Exile lie 55:00 No one wants journey twist 1:02:44 Dee boot predictions judged This week’s charity shoutout is the Atlanta Angels, which provides relational support to fostering family and mentoring to youth in foster care by engaging the community. Click here to make a donation. Check out Peace Corps: https://peacecorps.gov/serve 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!

We all love Survivor, and in my first ever book, The Tribe and I have spoken, I'll tell you how this little show evolved from that juggernaut first season on the beaches of Borneo all the way into its landmark 50th season. I'm like a storyteller. That's what I do. What role did the greatest players, the unforgettable moments, and Jeff Probst himself have in shaping what Survivor has become today? And what contribution did we play in building this worldwide tribe of Survivor fans? Love you, Bay.

For you future players, I've also included my ultimate survivor playbook to help you win the million dollars, unlike me. It's fine. You know what, dude, it's fun. This hardcover edition is filled with beautiful survivor illustrations in every chapter and is an amazing addition for every survivor collector. I'm a meat collector. Pre-orders are everything for a book launch, so to say thank you to everyone who pre-orders, you'll receive an exclusive digital bonus chapter called the Ultimate Rights. of passage, my personal tribute to all the players who have ever competed on the show, all 751. This is huge.

I needed this. Free order wherever books are sold in hardcover and as an audio book at robhatsabook.com. That's rob hasabook.com. Nicely done, Rob. Mike and the honor gather playing some games. Mama that they're not super lane And if that all sounds cool I can tell you the name

It's the R-H-A-P-B-M-B-M-B Mike and the Yonah gotta play in some games Let a pray to your mama That's up there not super-lane And if that all sounds cool I can tell you the name It's the R-H-A You can stay for free

Hi everybody and welcome to the R-H-H-A B&B for week 7 of Survivor 50. My name is Mike Bloom. After the false alarm, last week, the jury has officially begun. The merge has officially begun, though only half the people competed in the Immunity

Challenge. But regardless, no other shenanigans here, except for the shenanigans the castaways were providing. And there was a fair amount here. We had arguments at the hammock. We had coach assuming the position that he has several times in the past.

we've had haikus a plenty. I'll use one to introduce the person sitting to my right here. Leanna Boris co-host there was here. How are you doing? I mean, honestly, pretty much just as good as coaches, if not better, because I think that was actually a haiku. I'm doing fabulous. Look, this was, I think, a really fun episode.

Yes, sure, only half the people got to compete for immunity, but there was still, like, who cares, whatever. We got to see everybody all together. Sad to lose D, but really excited to see all the shenanigans that happened in this episode. And I'm sure the more that we'll get as the season continues. Well, I am thrilled to be welcoming in this fine gentleman to break this all down. Because look, some could say that the post-merge of Survivor is like the playoffs, where you finally made it to the echelod and all that's ahead of you is the championship.

And this guy knows all about the playoffs. that's sorry, he's about to dive into the NBA playoffs on his MO, the No Dungs podcast, but you may know him from the No Buffs podcast as well. We are welcoming in the one, the only J.E. Skates. Thanks for having me. I am now set if I ever make it onto Survivor. I will be using that exactly to tickle the balls of one Jeff Probst with the metaphors of the playoffs and the merge and all that.

He'd love that. He'd eat that up. I would love it. I do think that people should check. at tribal council people making metaphors. If Jeff's like shifting uncomfortably in his seat, I do think he feels the metaphoric ball tickling. And, you know, they're all getting a little bit of pleasure out of it in that form.

They're sort of appeasing Jeff. Jeff himself is getting rather tantalized in the moment. And so it's a win-win all around, except for the person who's voted out. Yeah. I'm very excited to be here. I've said this before. At least I think I tweeted it once.

Mike, you are an incredible podcast host. and I can say that as someone who has hosted like 5,000 NBA podcasts. I'm a Survivor historian fan as well as well as this one. So I'm really excited to be here before I have to focus on the NBA world for the playoffs. Well, the pleasure is all mine. Thank you so much, Skates, for coming on. I actually want to focus on you more before we go into Survivor 50 here. What is your Survivor origin story?

When did you get into the show? Were you watching religiously ever since? Did you bow out for a period of time? Yeah, I definitely bowed out for a little bit. I started with season one. I was actually living in Australia at the time. And when it launched season one, and I remember I was in a hostel, and it was sort of, you know, we all had to decide on what we were going to watch over there communally.

And we decided to give that a go and everybody was in. And I was hooked like most people and I'm sure a lot of listeners. And then stuck with it, stuck with it, stuck with it. And then I don't know when I sort of dropped off, but I did. and then probably, let's call it 15 years ago or so, I was going to get into running and I was going to do a lot of treadmill work. And I was like, oh, I could watch shows on the treadmill.

What am I going to watch? And I said, oh, I should just catch up on all these seasons of Survivor I missed. And then I was back being hooked again. So I like did a lot of miles watching, you know, whatever, season 21, 22, 23, whatever it was. Some of those seasons you want to run away from? from. You're like, no. Some of them. Yeah. One world. I need to get away. It was, it was just amazing how quick, like, I guess 40 minutes or so could go back in the day on the treadmill. So I just love it. And then we started doing the no buffs podcast around Survivor 40, you know, sort of COVID times and

sort of like, oh, okay, no MBA going on and decided to do a little bit of coverage on Survivor, even though it's well covered with your podcast and many others. But we have a blast talking about it. So we've been doing it for 10 seasons, I guess now. Leanna, do you think Survivor is one of the best reality shows to watch on a treadmill? Do you think it actively encourages running? You know, actually, I was going to ask if you can track your mile time with each season. Like, do you run faster when it's a bad season? I feel like I would just be like, oh, my God, this is a slog as both running and watching the episodes.

I wish I had tracked all of that. That would have been brilliant. That's a really, yeah. Dend the lab, folks. Christian, if you're listening, let's try to like get some. biometrics going there. Because I would imagine maybe it's something where like if you're paying attention to how riveting something is,

like maybe you're going at a higher pace if you're feeling anxious about something. I mean, I would say on paper if you had to choose a CBS reality show to keep a pace at, I feel like the amazing race is like the chalk pick, right? Yes, true. But I do remember there was a certain speed that I couldn't

hit because like then you're bouncing too much and like then it's like you're sort of disoriented or maybe you've got the captions up. So I had to into just a groove pace. I wasn't sprinting. So I feel like it was pretty consistent with the seasons I caught up on.

And then I was right back into it. Well, Skeets, let's talk about the pace that this season is going so far. Obviously, you know, maybe people thought they had a little bit of a bump last week with the Blood Moon twist. But what have your thoughts been we're pretty much halfway past

the, you know, midpoint of season 50 right now? What have your opinions been on this incredibly anticipated season? of the show. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I've loved it. I've absolutely loved it. I almost felt guilty having the NBA show and then like I said, starting no buffs in our Survivor coverage when we did over the last couple years of Survivor, these seasons to maybe new people or people that have come in. They're like, what? This show? And it's like, I'm like, no, no, there are like better seasons.

Trust me. So to now have Survivor 50 and I feel like it is delivering for the most part. it's been fun to see some of these newer fans like, oh, okay, I get it. Yeah, returning players is fun. These big characters. You know, the twists, I'm sure we'll debate and stuff like that, but at least there's some action and a lot of things to talk about. So I've loved it. The Blood Moon didn't love two Canadians going home in the Blood Moon Massacre,

but back to a little bit more normal here this last one. And I think we're ramping up to some like fireworks here over the last half of the season. I think it's been so refreshing to have genuine conflict, like actual real genuine conflict. And I know you want to be, oh, good game guys. L.O.L. J.K., like, good game. Like, you just want to hug it out at the end. But I'm like, oh, to see people really dislike each other is also just such a blessing. That's so true.

Non-stop in all of our no-bust coverage. We're always talking about like we want villains. We want some headbutting. We want people going at each other. And like, and I, you know, you want everyone at the end to be like, it's just a game. And like, then you leave it there. And it's not personal, maybe offline and stuff like that. But a couple seasons, there hasn't been a lot of this.

So even to have Dee and Jonathan, you know, going at it with coach, pouting in the hammock. Like, that was fun. It was riveting television. Yeah, we got headbutting and we got butt heads from a certain perspective. If you ask about Tiffany's opinion about some of these people. Yeah, I mean, I think, I also think it comes a bit corollary to the returning player aspect in a couple different ways. A, these people are, as I'm sure

we'll get into with someone like coach, incredibly comfortable with like being themselves in front of the camera. And so I think even if the optimal gameplay is to like fight your tongue, don't let them see how mad you are. Sometimes from some people's perspectives, they're just like not, do I really need to do the safe option here?

I don't give a shit. Let me just yell at this person. Dee certainly felt that way. She has expressed that well, you know, maybe Jonathan did get a rise out of her to a certain perspective. Like, Part of the reason why she had this blow up with him is because she was like, I've got nothing to lose. I pretty much think I'm gone no matter what. So like, sure, why don't I just make a lot of fireworks on the way out?

And the other thing as well is that there are preexisting relationships. Obviously, the boot of Charlie might be one of the most impactful ones that we will see this entire season, considering how it is already keeps bearing fruit down the line. Obviously, that's a large reason why Jonathan is going to lead the charge against D. in this episode. And so there is also a little bit of, I don't think Jonathan and Dee were necessarily friends before this game,

but like coach and Dee certainly had some friendliness to them. And so there is a level of like almost personal hurt as well. You know, obviously we'll get into this with Emily, who ends up being one of the reasons D goes home, albeit secondhandedly, when she tells this information to the leaky faucet and essentially is surprised when there's a flooded bathroom next to her. and she sort of ends up getting done in

by the person that she knew the most and arguably trusted the most going into the season. So there's a lot of emotions, I think inherently mixed into this, which as you both mentioned, is a little surprising on paper given, hey, this is some people's fifth or six times playing the game. They clearly know that it's all just left out on the field.

But I think getting to come back can sometimes make things even messier, given how much you know this experience. the impact of others can make an impact on yourself. Yeah, one trend we've seen the last couple episodes, too, that I like is these people having played before, when they make a mistake,

they're able to recognize it right then and there. You know, coaches have done it for crying out loud. Oh, I put my foot in my mouth and D has done it and set it here in a confessional and a couple others. And it's like, there's something fun about that. They're like, they're so locked in. They're so good at this game because they've done it a couple times. They're like, oh, I shouldn't have done that.

How can now I rebound? It's fun to see that, like, right then in their playout, in addition to getting on, getting able to root for some of these people that are like legends in the game. Like, that's a part of it too. Like, there's a lot of people going, oh, it'd be cool. If Surrey could pull this off. Or, wow, Ozzy, what a crazy transformation.

He's actually approaching this game a little differently. So that, that returning factor, just like, if you are a survivor fan, like this is just like, it's like an all-star game to compare it to the NBA. There you go, Jeff. How about that, Jeff? This is like an all-star game. And much like the new era, it feels like the format of the All-Star game is changing every year. Oh, yes, yes. I was thinking that before I jumped on, I'm like, I mean, I've podcasted about the NBA for 20 years now.

I've been a Survivor fan, you know, watched every season, of course. And like the comparisons is like people think the NBA has changed. Some for the better, some not, right? Like they're always coming up a new twist, the play in-tour tournament, what we're doing for the All-Star game, the NBA in-season tournament, all this stuff. And you got people saying, just leave it the way it was. that was better, you know, but then other people saying, no, you got to get more people involved. There's like, there is a lot of comparisons to like the sport of basketball and the NBA,

what they've sort of changed and try and tweak to what Survivor and Jeff has done. Somewhere in California, Jeff Probst is just giggling at how much his balls have been tickled over the past 30 seconds. So happy. I'm just trying to get on the show, you know. I got to drop a million. We're happy to be your backdoor application. Yeah, good. Oh, man.

Well, I mean, Joe, didn't Joe apologize for his metaphor? I'm like, Joe. Well, yeah, well, yes. because everyone simultaneously like shit on it and also utilized it. Yeah. Yeah. Like perverted it past, but he was like, listen, in the fire in the firehouse there's a hierarchy. And so he's like,

we're a long way from there, buddy. This is not the Tyler Perry show that you'll be a part of down the lies. And everyone's like, yes, much like Joe's firehouse. I also believe that there is a hierarchy here. And Joe's like, believe me out of this. Please. I was just trying to have any confessions this episode. I'm just trying to contribute here. He was like, oh man, what am I done?

was actually one of the funniest things I thought Joe has said in his two seasons of Survivors. Like, oh, that was actually funny. What he's like, ah, yeah, I shouldn't. Last time I bring up a firehouse metaphor. Yeah, yeah. All right, well, let's talk about someone who lit at least the confessional game on fire in this episode and not talking about Joe. We got to talk about coach here because coach was back in prime form. As you mentioned, Skeets, he pretty much lampshades and of like, you all wanted to see me back.

And here I am. It's like, yeah, that's great. But good luck to you, buddy. Because as we saw, part of the coach package that we have loved through the first three iterations of him is the fact that not everyone loves the first three iteration of him. In particular, he had everyone wrapped up in a tizzy. He called Christian Squirrely. Rizzo is now part of the four horsemen of the apocalypse apparently. I mean, I got to get your thoughts on coach here, both in the previous six episodes.

And, you know, what we have here, which you talk about. the maturation of Ozzy, almost the reversion for coach, which again, he seems to celebrate almost in this moment. Yeah, it's sort of, he's the old rock band where it's like, for the first couple episodes, he's like, I'm going to try some new stuff. Everyone's like, hey, play the hits, man. He's like, all right, I'll play the hits. And this is the old coach, which I love.

Do we have any dragons in the audience? Yeah, exactly. Ben, get up here, get on the guitar. It's, I love it. He's just like one of the most fascinating people in reality television history. He really is. And, you know, I was getting into it with Nora, who does the show with me, my wife. And she's not a coach fan where JD, who I also do the show with, is a coach fan.

And, you know, I go back and forth. Can't take my eyes off them. I can't go, like, stop going, like, what are you doing? And it really was, it's one thing with the dragon slayers and the nicknames and the alliances and the Tai Chi and all that stuff. Like that's whatever. That's coach. But when he was doing the scolding to everyone of like, okay, you're doing this and then you're doing this. And hey, if you don't do this, then you're not winning this game.

It's like, read the room, man. Like, it's one thing to do it with newbies. Whole other thing to do with returning players. You shouldn't be doing it with either. I want to make that clear. But like, definitely not with a bunch of legends and returning players. but he's just like he seems clueless to it. So look, long-winded way to say,

I'm loving now that coach is back to being coach. He's never going to win like this, but could he be there at the end? I mean, I'd almost be silly not to take him to the end, I think, I don't know, I think it's too annoying. I think at a certain point, these people are like, this guy is too chaotic too. Because also, like, if he is trying to exert dominant will over this game

of not only, as he mentioned, like, Not I wouldn't play this way, but the winner shouldn't play this way. It's like, I don't know if I could. It's almost like the argument they had about and with from a certain perspective, Joe, all the way back in episode two, right? Like, if you are a rock in the middle of this game, do you really want to, you know, navigate the train tracks around the rock? Or do you just want to take a stick of dynamite and blow it up and be able to do whatever you want with the train tracks?

Mm-hmm. I mean, each season of Survivor kind of. has its own social norms and mores that they play by. And so when you have somebody who just sticks out so much, because even Jonathan, for all his honor and integrity, right, still is like,

I'm going to rage bait D. And let's see how it goes. So even he's still a little messy. Cry harder, D. Yeah. I'm like trying to be strategic and all of that. Whereas coach is just such an unmovable force.

Yeah. When he is basically general coach walking around, telling everybody exactly how they have to, vote in the situation. Like people aren't going to want to play with that. So I do understand that frustration of just, can we just remove this so we can actually like play and have a good time. Yeah. I guess the counter is who no one is ever going to vote for him. So like if you're close enough with them and if you can put up with enough haikus to last all the way to the end, like yeah, he just does himself in because the biggest thing is he's a hypocrite. I think it's the number one thing

that people like, no matter, no matter what he would say at the end at final tribal council, It's like, come on, man, but you say one thing, you do the opposite. So it's like, nobody respects that part of Coach's game, I think. Yeah, I will say as much as we are talking about him lovingly going out and repeating the classics, the haikus is a new one. Yeah. And I love this. Not only because, as you mentioned, Leonez, so we heard three throughout this.

The first was technically incorrect. I believe the syllable pattern was I think I calculated like 6, 8, 5 instead of 5, 7, 5. the other ones were done a little bit more within the confines of what we typically think of with a haiku but I think my favorite part of it was how proud of them he was like when he's sitting on the hammock by himself and when you have Emily like sitting there

I think what was Jonathan and Rick being like what's he doing? Is he making haikus right now and he's just sitting there on the hammock his apparent new throne counting off the syllables and like cackling to us all to be like mom, dad, look what I just did. Put my haiku up on the fridge.

Like, that's great, buddy. Good job, Coach. It's just so incredible. I do actually have a clip that I wanted to share that I would love to get both of your comments on. I posted this on social media, but I'm still obsessed with it all these days later. So as I mentioned, Coach was doing a lot here,

and there's one particular, like, B-roll interstitial of Coach in this episode that I have not stopped thinking about to this day. here is just a little blast from the past as to one, again, like 10 second moment we saw from this 90 minute episode

that I cannot stop making about. But having the old Dragon Slayer rear his head again, I feel brilliant. Hey! Hopa! So it's just a sequence of coach dancing in the middle of camp, and you think, okay, this is just another

haiku, literally dancing with myself. You just have it as, enjoying, you know, getting his kicks in out there. And then it cuts to Aubrey. Who makes this entire clip for me? Like, I think she's into it or she's trying to feign interest where she's bopping along and trying to mirror what he's doing. I have so many questions about this.

Honestly, Coach's gameplay has a lot of questions. This might be the top of my list right now. Then the Opa to end it is. Yeah. Well, it's just, with coach. Okay, so obviously you got the, I'm here to play the game, a little bit of new man, reflection, blah, blah, blah, whatever. But it's like at the end of the day, he's still just such a weird, goofy dude.

And I think maybe it's just because less food, you get worn down out on Survivor. And then that's when your real personality emerges. And so for coach, apparently it's just him dancing around going, opah, with the haikus. That's just what his natural state of being is. That's what we've exposed. I agree with that.

He's already coming in day one. a kooky guy, like a unique guy. But then, you know, seven, eight, whatever, I mean, even further in, of little sleep and lack of food, I think coach starts to go really up the deep end. I do. And I start to think, like, he thinks this is a real war. He's always saying war, war, war, war. It's like he goes out those places in his head where it starts to become a reality.

Oh, he's gone full Kurtz right now. He's gone into the heart of darkness and he's become so enraptured in it. But what I'm also really intrigued by is, Was this a self-promoted dance? Was it like, oh, I remember when I was in Mekanos and I got invited to this Greek wedding off the street. And someone's like, coach, can you show us how to dance? Or I wonder at this point, people are so over him that we are past those days, right? Like Camilla would have absolutely done that.

We see in the first episode, people are like, coach, tell us a story. coach show us your grody toe ring i think now perhaps the bloom has fallen off the rose and coach is like hey don't you guys want to see me do my dance and Aubrey's like I do and everyone else says no way Jose yeah it's like yeah it does feel like there's probably one person whether it was Aubrey here or it's sometimes somebody else like there's just one person that like placates him and goes okay yeah what what what was the wedding like and then you know that's it and he's off and running and he's like he loves the cameraman And let's be honest, this guy, he sees these cameras around.

He sees these boom operators, which I can't believe they didn't show us when they were talking about boom operators. Right? That was crazy. Yes. I was like, where's the shot? Where's the quick one second shot to the boom operators? I literally couldn't believe it. But yeah, coach is he just, he loves it.

He loves the crowd. He loves the show that he can put on. He really does. I think that's such the one of the things I was going to bring up in our conversation was basically not just coach, but the player's reaction to coach. And I think such a great example of this is the Jonathan Emily sitting there being like, is he talking to himself? Just like let him talk to himself. And then the fact, Mike, that you showed the, like, I didn't remember that at all. And just seeing how other players are almost like this guy or do you kind of placate him?

Do you engage with him? Like, what do you do with a player like coach? Especially when not only, I mean, you're all dealing with sleep deprivation and lack of food. It just must be almost like a hallucination to watch this man sort of france around camp spouting haikus and you know pretending like he's at a Greek wedding. Well, I'm so glad you brought that up, Leanna,

because let's maybe talk about the other side of the spectrum of coach reactions. So this is yet another blink and you miss it coach moment that occurs when Rizzo and Ozzie are back from their stay in the boom boom room that was Exile Island. This is coach just talking to Joe but the camera work in this is absolutely impeccable.

So like if you read all that, Arthurian legend, the strongest on the roundtable was Gala. Okay? He was undecuted. This, by the way, the real MVP of Survivor 50 has been this hammock. Yes. It keeps delivering. Like, we had the Christian where he's peering through it. Every time Surrey and Rizzo are talking there on it, like, we've been a lot of

good hammock moments. And this is what a reaction. It's like Joe, it looks like he like just took his buff over his eyes. Like, are you talking to me? Like, what a way to wake me up? Yeah. I mean, it looks like he is having a dissociative episode right now.

He's just maybe his mind sticking like, what would happen in the firehouse if this was occurring? We have a hierarchy there. We have a structure. You know, well, I think that's the other thing too that's so interesting. I don't know if Joe falls in this camp, but certainly Rizzo is a, a good example of this, where it's somebody who's watched coach, I mean, you know, first of all the survivor legends,

but coach on television and has like this vision of him, right? Like I have this vision of who coach is and what coach is like, but goddamn, like that's an edited down version. Imagine experiencing that in real life. That's the reaction. Like Joe's face, that's the reaction to coach in real life when it's not this pared down edited little snippet that's really fun.

If you're constantly having to deal with him talking about the roundtable, Oh my goodness gracious. I'm, I'm in the ocean. I don't have time to deal with him. You're just running straight for the water. Oh, let me.

Actually, this, these scenes might actually be the perfect treadmill stuff to watch because they're just like, get me away from coach as much as you can. I think I'm stopping running. I'm just like, I'm done for the day.

Yeah. But it is a great point, Leanna, like, is it like when we see coach, and like I said, I love it. I want to make this clear.

Oh, yeah. Every single second of this. But if you are, out there on the island and he is just doing this nonstop, like literally blow my brains out. Yeah. And then you can't say, shut up, man. Like you've got to be like, you know, you got to dance around it.

Literally dance around it. If you're operating. That would do your head in that. That really would. And that goes to what you were saying, Mike, like, are they just going to be like, this is exhausting and annoying and let's just put them out so we can sort of play how we maybe want to play or, uh, or will there be enough people to be like, okay, it's annoying. We hate the haikus,

but keep them around because that helps our chances. We all love Survivor. And in my first ever book, The Tribe and I have spoken, I'll tell you how this little show evolved from that juggernaut first season on the beaches of Borneo all the way into its landmark 50th season. I'm like a storyteller. That's what I do. What role did the greatest players,

the unforgettable moments, and Jeff Probst himself have in shaping what Survivor. has become today. And what contribution did we play in building this worldwide tribe of Survivor fans? Love you, Bay. For you future players, I've also included my ultimate Survivor playbook to help you win the million dollars, unlike me. It's fine. You know what, dude, it's fun. This hardcover edition is filled with beautiful Survivor illustrations in every chapter and is an amazing edition for every survivor collector. I'm a meat collector. Pre-orders are everything for a book launch. So to say things,

thank you to everyone who pre-orders, you'll receive an exclusive digital bonus chapter called The Ultimate Rights of Passage, my personal tribute to all the players who have ever competed on the show, all 751. This is huge. I needed this. Pre-order wherever books are sold in hardcover and as an audiobook at rob hasabook.com. That's rob has-hazabook.com. Nicely done, Rob.

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Well, one of those people who might fall into the latter camp is Rizzo. And we need to talk about Rizzo at this point, because there are these people who will come back to Survivor, and even if they don't make it as far as their first time out, will arguably impress even more, given the caliber of people around them, given what they've been able to pull off. I do feel like after 49, people were like, oh, he's a fun character.

He did some interesting things or maybe did not do, you know, flashy things with the idol or did flashy things by not playing the idol. But like, did he need to be on season 50? I am so happy. Rizzo is on season 50 because this guy, as you mentioned, Skeets, his first season of Survivor was token chains. He coach is part of his foundational origin story for falling in love with the show that eventually got him on two seasons in a row. and he got to stand in front of that man and say, we slay dragons at tribal council, we do not slay dragons at cab.

Ski's, I gotta get your thoughts on all things. The man that met the legend, R-I-Z, GOD, Riz God, baby. Oh, no, akin to, you know, a nickname you might find among one of the many NBA players who discussed. Yeah, I think you said it well. I think some of us were like,

really? He's coming back for 50? Like, you know, there's so many other legends that you would say, give the spot to him or her. but he's delivered. He has been amazing. Obviously, the alliance that he has going with Surrey and Ozzy. Now he's like placating coach here. And is he in the four horsemen or is he not?

Like, he's in a great spot. Just the fact that Surrey alone is telling him things. And in confidence, they do seem to be working together. That's all I need to see. Like, oh, yeah, he can play. Like, she trusts him. She believes in him or whatever. See something.

Now, again, like she maybe wants to. be there with them because she could beat him. But to get there, she sees a path along with him. He has knocked it out of the park. And he's like, he gets to be this fun extension of us sometimes because he's like, oh my God, I'm out here with coach. Like, this is, this is crazy. Now I got to like take grandpa for a walk and walk him off the ledge. And like, so he gets to like give us those in confessionals. Like, I, like he's freaking out, but he's also doing a great job of playing with these people. It's like trying, I guess like for another weird metaphor, would be like when we started working at NBA TV, it's like, whoa, there's Charles Barkley.

Whoa, there's Shaquille O'Neal. Like, whoa, there's Isaiah Thomas. Like, I'm a basketball fan, so I'm like sort of freaking out inside. But I'm like, no, they are a colleague. Play it cool. You know, like they will like me, but we got to slow play it. So, yeah, that's the similarities there. And Rizzo's doing a great job, I think.

And he's been amazing so far. It's been so interesting to watch Rizzo's relationship with the icon old schoolers. specifically, right? Because we saw his relationship with Colby highlighted. We see his relate. I know. Oh, Gramps. We see his relationship.

He didn't get to see his reaction to what he came back at Colby wasn't there. I know. I know. Colby, you see his relationship with coach. We see his relationship with Surrey by extension Ozzie, which by the way, is it,

Ceree's. Okay. Let's talk about this. Ceres, Wizard of Oz. This feels like we're going full Tyler. Perry here in terms of like sponsored or like produced by Surrey, you know, that Surrey is a mega producer.

Tim Burton's nightmare before Christmas. Though in this case, she is directly involved. I love the alliance. The name I think needs a little bit of time to be. This is the worst alliance name ever, guys. We can say it the way it is. This is like, you can't. Why the possessive?

Why are we saying Surrey's Wizard of Oz? You are propping her. up on a pedestal by be like, no, Sarri, this is your alliance. You own us. You can't put your own names in the alliance name. See, this is where coach has it figured out, you know? I got to give him that, right? This is where he, I guess, dominates Surrey in the game of Survivor coming up with the

alliance nicknames. They need to, JD was throwing around on no buffs. It was off the odd couple. So he was going the odd thruple. I like that. I like that one. Did it in line. Nora wanted more of something along the.

Polly relationship that they joked about. So power Polly or something. I think they're both better than the Ceres Rizard of Oz. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like that's one of those situations where maybe Rizzo came up with it and Ceres like he's excited about it. So Ceres just sort of, yeah, that's great. That's great Photoshop.

Sure, we can go for it. Because yeah, it was certainly, I mean, first of all, it's not even that easy to say, which it doesn't roll off the tongue. And it's a bit of a mess. So just, yeah, all around. Not my favorite. Yeah, I think that I like those suggestions that you threw out there,

Skeets by proxy of your co-host. I mean, you could go Orc, ORC, if you're going with the first names of these three. I guess the other thing, too, is that, as you mentioned, putting your name in the alliance name is a choice. That's bad. And also, listen, these are adept players. They're not going to get caught overheard being like, yeah, I've got to stick loyal to Seriz, Wizard of Oz.

that they happen to do so, you have named every person in that alliance. Yeah. Yeah. That's a tell right there for sure. Ozzie can't be like, no, no, no, it's a different Ozzie. No, I'm Oscar. Yeah, I'm Oscar. Yeah, I'm Oscar this season. Well, okay, if we go off the orc thing, Lord of the Rings, is there something there with that? I don't know. I think all of these ideas are better than Cerise Wizard of Oz. So it's a low bar, a low bar to clear. Well, let's get into some more stuff that happened in this episode. And let's go back to one of our first topics we discussed in the conflict that occurred here.

This and really the downward spiral of D. Though I guess the question is, is it a downward spiral? She obviously had power in the Charlie vote. She had power in the Colby vote. But she seems to think that she was pretty much DOA, for lack of a better term, the second she lost immunity. What do you think, Skeets? Do you think there was any room for D to navigate here or was she cornered no

matter what once we hit the beach of 14. She was in a very tough spot, having been a previous winner, I think. It just becomes so easy for everybody else to be like, just get rid of the winner. And then we're like, oh, then we're all on even playing ground. You know, I do, I feel like that's a part of it. And she's like really, really good. Like, this isn't just, of course, she won. She could have won again. Like, she is that good a player, obviously physically is a beast and challenges. Can like sort of control alliances and relationships. Like she's got a, like she's loud, right?

And she doesn't hide it. So I understand why they targeted her. And it was sort of like a quote unquote easy target. So she's in a tough spot. I don't know if there was really anything she could do. The edit's going to say, oh, it's because the leak to Emily and then it gets back to Rizzo. And that's going to play a part in it.

But that's, I think, more of them coming up in the edit of like, this is why not, well, she's a previous winner and they're just going to like focus on her and get her out. That's my opinion on it or read on it. Yeah, I was predicting that this would have gone one of two ways. One is D is the easy target.

Dee and Tiffany are kind of a pair. So split votes between them, which is what we see coach come up with for his general plan. But also the other option was, well, if Rizzo does feel strong enough about his relationship with D and, you know, D and Tiffany, ah, they're just a pair. They're not a threat. Like, not a big deal. You know, Jonathan hates D. They're never going to work together.

maybe we should shoot at the honor and integrity alliance, which kind of was the coach shot, even though that was just due to him being annoying and actually didn't really have anything to do with strategy. But that was kind of where I thought that the cards were headed, one of those two directions. You know, it's tough to say how much the D. Emily Rizzo leak situation played a role in her boot.

But if I was Rizzo, I mean, that's a pretty good reason to be willing to let her go, right? Like, because it's going to take a lot of effort to go out and rally the numbers. How do we save D? It becomes a saving D mission where if you're like, I trusted you and you let that information leak,

goodbye, plus the winner of it all and being the last winner and all that stuff on top of it. Yeah, I think that's what it came down to is how much was he willing to stick his neck out? And Ceree as well to a certain extent, because D told me that she actually worked very closely with Ceri. Her best friend's claims were, you know, left in the wind.

They were not heard whatsoever. by D when she actually played on Survivor 50. But how much they were willing to sort of expend their own social capital and make that stand? As much as Jonathan and coach were declaring, it's not a line in the sand, it's a wall in the sand. Soon to still soon at the end of the day. I think some of these people were like, yeah, things could crumble very easily. So like, let me lose this battle to possibly win the war. Maybe it was a little bit of like the edit tail wagging the dog here in that I feel like

if there was something going about like, okay, they were going to make take advantage of the split vote to do a plurality and get rid of coach. I think we would have seen a lot more as to like who was specifically being brought on board. It was just more so of an Emily being like, have you thought about trying this? I don't know. Maybe Emily felt bad that she

incidentally ended up sinking D's game in the process. But I think we talk about this all the time, especially in the new era, the past 10 seasons. The merge vote is the most anybody but me vote. Honestly, that exists in Survivor outside of maybe the first

vote of the season. It is all about there's a lot of new faces and alliances around me. I just need to get my bearings. And if that involves voting for the lowest common denominator, let me do so. And so I think for a lot of these people, even with the dreaded

middle folks that coach was disparaging, they're sort of like, listen, I know that there's a chance they might be coming for me at some point, but let's just play nice. Let's be hunky dory in the moment and we'll work on crossing that bridge when we get to it.

So I think it was just going to be such a tall task. I know that I think that Dean was trying to whisper at somebody's ears, so many people's ears to do the really fun thing of being like, no, Ozzie, you don't understand. I got Emily. I got Christian. I got Surrey. I got Rick.

We could do this. And they go to Emily and be like, yeah, I definitely have Ozzy at this point and just lie to everyone's faces that you have everybody else in the hope that those assumptions will be correct and she will have everybody else. Yeah, I also like with this one, this is where I wished that the boomerang idols didn't exist and that they could be played on other people at this point of the game.

That just opens up a whole bunch of other possibilities. But like, you know, Aubrey's just going to burn it. And that's fine. That's her decision. I sort of get the understanding too. But it had been cool if she could have done something with that and actually sort of like flipped it and blindsided somebody. Maybe she could have, but she forgot. Yes, that's right.

You forgot. I just forgot. I just thought it was a trinket. Yeah. I love your point. It's that like these people are so self-knowing that they'll be like, yep, I definitely made this mistake. I'll rectify it.

But I cannot believe that Aubrey had the audacity to try to. I guess it was her first tribal council that she's gone to in like nearly a decade. So maybe she's a little out of practice. But when she's like, oopsie, you know, I was so caught up in all of the iconography. around me. I was drawn in by the visuals and I totally forgot what I

was supposed to do. I'll definitely do it next time though. You don't have to worry about that. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it was because they had three tribal councils to get in that night and like these usually take hours but just like we got 10 minutes. Let's go here. She's like, well, what? Well, and the thing

is, is like, okay, yeah forgot. You could tell that because basically everybody knows about her idol. But the people who gave you, I mean, she thinks it was Devons, right? But like tell Christian and Devons, hey, I figured since Genevieve was, you know, we could keep it for us. We can do something together. Like use it as some kind of tool, even if, of course, your justification is that you were being selfish and you were like,

I can get away with not playing this so that I have it for me for a later stage. But just tell even the, are you trying to work with people? Because Aubrey's reaction in this game so far has been, oh, this person's trying to work with me. I'm going to go dance with coach instead. Like between Genevieve, between her interacting with Christian and Devin's. I'm like, these people are trying to work with you. Like, give them something in return. Oh my God, I did not understand Aubrey in this episode at all.

I mean, eventually she played it. So sure, she rectified her mistake, I guess. Yeah. But the decision making just makes no sense to me. Counterpoint to that, though, I found it really interesting that these two are obviously apoplectic about Aubrey's claim of her reasoning. but they say if we knew that Aubrey wasn't going to play the idol we would have voted her out

and it's like, why did you give the idol to Aubrey for the express purpose of working with her was the allure of getting the idol back? I mean, these are a couple of showmen, right? They hid the fake idol and tribal council that we keep getting mentioned. Oh man, they keep telling us. Don't forget about that, yeah. We got to see it pop out at some point.

But it is interesting that if Aubrey for whatever reason is like, no, I trust in you guys, let's use this idol for us. If she claimed that logic before the Genevieve vote, there's a non-zero chance. These two guys would have been like, you know what? Let's flip on Aubrey. Sure. That way we get the idol back to us.

That's exactly what I proposed on no buffs the week prior. I was like, man, I could see these two if they realize, oh, she's not going to play it. Why don't we just like try and target her and get it back in our hands? And like, they're going to think it's with Rick. It's actually with Christian, like that angle too. But yeah, not. She was like, I'm going to play.

it. They're like, okay. And then didn't, said she forgot, admitted it was a mistake. I liked when she was like, man, I got to start actually playing here. She's not having that all season long. She's like, are you there, Aubrey? Let's go here. These aren't really good players. But yeah, she ends up just burning it.

It's like at that point, why don't you just sit on it again? And just say, I forgot again. Keep leaning into that. That would have been hilarious. I mean, and it's so funny because they didn't get to see Rizzo's idol, withholding, I suppose, in 49. So it's just, it's really funny when Aubrey's, everybody knows about the idol, this is now

useless. Rizzo in the background, like, I mean, could have been a tool. I love the idea you have, Skeets, of her just saying she has very specified idol amnesia. Listen, I'm going to write it on my arm next time. So I don't forget, I'll set a reminder on the tree calendar

that today is the day I have to play the idol. I'm so sorry I keep missing these standing appointments. but you know it gets so busy it was such a scramble going on I had a lot of rice I needed to work on that day I was dancing with coach all day I couldn't sit down I'm tired yeah but she could have yeah like

Memento style like she starts writing it on her arms Or let's not say I forgot to play it what if she forgot to bring it what if she claimed she's like she's like oh Jeff let me do this and she digs through her bag and she's like oh crap oh I was going to play this I swear

I left it in my other pants. I'm so sorry, guys. But I'll wear these pants next time, I promise. What if she's like, oh, yeah, she's like rifling through her bag. She's like, I could have sworn it was in here. And she's like emptying out her bag. Then goes, oh, I think it fell behind the rock there. And she thinks it's she grabs the fake.

Maybe we're setting up for some crazy weird switcheroo here. Oh, that fake idol better. I mean, it's continuously being mentioned. So I am waiting for. this thing to show back up. This better be a blowout. I can't wait. I'm really excited for it. I hope it's not just something dumb. I mean, not that Adam Klein trying to play the pedestal was dumb in Winners at War. That was amazing. No notes. But I just hope it's like, oh, we tricked coach into trying to get this idol and then he played it. It's kind of a plump, plump type

moment because they just keep mentioning it and keep hyping it up. I'm expecting something. So what's the perfect play then, at least to you, like they convinced, people that it's a real idol. So I think, yeah, there's two different paths we could go down. There's the original reason why it was planted, which is if they're in trouble, they can say, I got a clue to an idol hidden at tribal council and I'm playing it. The other one could be. Now, this would take a lot more legwork on their part because if I was approached by somebody,

arguably my competition for a million dollars, and they say, you won't believe it. There's an idol hitter at tribal council. You should find it and play it. I'm like, receipts, please. Can I, am I just going off from hearsay what you're telling me? But it would be pretty amazing if they're so P-Oed at Aubrey that they're like, you're not going to believe it. We have another idol that you can find.

And it's at tribal council. And she's like, all right, Jeff. This was the scarlet letter last time. But this time I'm like, the great Gatsby living the high life, only to find out that she is as podunk as Jay Gatsby was prior to the war. I think it's got to be in the delivery, right? I think you can't do that. But I think if they had stuck it where you could maybe see a little bit of the burlap kind of sticking out amongst the rock, be like, hey, coach, have you noticed there's this like weird burlap thing sticking out of this rock?

Next time we're at tribal, you should like look for it. And you kind of maybe like subtly build it that way. Lay the bread comes. Yeah, exactly. Where then it's not enough. And people just kind of like, oh, yeah, that's really interesting. interesting. Let me investigate it. And then it becomes on that person, not necessarily being like, that idol.

Yeah, you'll go grab that. Well, now here is where, unfortunately, the celebrity angle is going to sabotage this plan. Because if it's a special idol, where's the sponsor? Where is the person? So even if you wrap it up in the note, if they say, oh, it's hey, Billy Eilish, like, no, this isn't it. You have to like hand-scrawl a note that's like, hey, it's me, young, Sheldon. You found Young Sheldon's tribal council idol. Bazinga, now you get to put the game on its head. Hey, it's Elsbeth. Here is your idol.

Objection. Yeah. I'm also like, I can't wait to, like, this has to pay off. I think we're all agree with that. Otherwise, why are the editors doing this? Like, they're really telling us every episode. But, like, I can't wait to see who takes credit for whatever inevitably happens? Because it is the two of them will one, will Rick try and take more of a credit than Christian or will he or vice versa? Like, or is that just a joint collaboration here? I'm sort of interested to see that part how that like plays it. Yeah, it is a good question because they've been in pretty much lockstep. But the unfortunate thing with Christian's comparison all the way back from episode one is that like there weren't, you know, merits given away in Star Trek to like, okay, who was the better person to execute on this

away mission? This is, in fact, they live. in a society that existed without that capitalistic aspect. Here there has to be a winner. There has to be someone who has to take credit for it. And is it the person who is the captain Kirk who they're saying like, well, Rick was really out front. He was doing all these things. And he got to the end.

Or is it Christian being like, I was the one that came up with the ideas. And Rick was the one who executed on them. It's tough to really distinguish from there. And it's also a really interesting point in that these two, obviously they were split apart at the swap. but they have been pretty simpatico since they came back together. Could this be a possible point in division for the two of them? If they feel like inevitably their games are too similar,

too intrinsically tied to one another to feel like they can go to the end together. Who came up with the actual idea to put it at Tribebe County? Was it Rick? Yes, Rick did. So Christian told Rick that he found the idol. And Rick's like, I have a great idea. I made a face. let's hide this. And Christian was more than happy to go along with it. He was the fall guy,

literally, to take away the attention from everybody so Rick can do this. Okay. Oh, that's right. Yeah. I think it's going to be interesting to see, yeah, how it plays out. I think they must know, though, that they need to exist with each other, at least until you get closer to end game. So I would imagine that if you're, I mean, if you're Christian or your Devons, you're looking at each other, basically, you know you can't sit against one another in the final three. but you do have a lot of gameplay left in order to get there. And as the undesirable middle people or whatever coach was calling them, you know, you've got maybe a more difficult path to navigate to be sure that you make it there,

especially if people are perceiving you as squirrely or flighty or unreliable in some capacity. And Christian also, it's not like it's been a super smooth path for him, right? He has his issues with Ozzy, which could then impact his relationship with Rizzo and Surrey in their polycule. So I think that it's just if you're sort of counting numbers and oh, and you've got Emily, the biggest liability on the planet like over there spout and God knows what. How is she going to feel when there's a fake idol and she didn't know about it, right? Like who knows what the ramifications of that will be? So I just think Christian love him to death. I think he's got a very difficult path to the end.

Fake idol, yes or no in play. Yep. There's a world of opportunity out there beyond the typical nine to five where purpose and grit and the American spirit come together. The Peace Corps. It's been called the toughest job you'll ever love. Tough because it asks so much of you. And the love part, it's knowing your hard work can transform lives and build bridges across

cultures. After 65 years, the Peace Corps is still the toughest job you'll ever love. Explore opportunities in more than 60 countries and apply at peacecore.gov slash serve. One last thing before we get into our usual B&B fair here. I want to talk about Ceree. Surrey's Riz, not the Rizard of Oz, but let's talk about the seamer Stephanie comes back from exile. You're not going to believe it, gang.

We had benchmarks in this endurance challenge. I had to last half an hour, and then I got my vote back, and if I wanted to try a little bit extra, put a little bit of sprinkles on the top. If I lasted an hour, I would get an advantage. and gosh darn it, don't you remember my bum shoulder?

I couldn't last longer than 30 minutes. I still last 30 minutes though. And Ceres look, even in the moment. And obviously, I think for many reasons, the show cannot say traitors. But if you watch the two of them on that show, you knew this inevitable encounter was coming that Stephanie would try her best to lie about something

and that Ceree, but not only immediately, clock it, but clock it to Stephanie that she clocked it. Yeah. I mean, this is chef's kiss. This is why Surrey is one of the greats. Right there. That was the perfect example. She clocks it right away. Doesn't say anything there. Takes her to the water well or gets there at the water well. And then even how she does it like jokingly, oh yeah, I believe you with that smile and the charm and the Riz, like you said, to the point where somebody's like, okay, yeah, you know, okay. All right. Like, it's just, she's the incredible ability to read obviously people and then just the way she delivers the

information in such a disarming way that you know that's why she is one of the best to definitely the best to never win it was incredible it was amazing I would give surrey my social security number if she asked I and my mother's maiden name I just know I would and I think that that to me is the more interesting part so I'm so happy that you brought that up because yes her clocking Stephanie. I'm sure everybody was like, I don't know, Stephanie is telling the truth.

But it's that approach at the water well that just immediately, like, Stephanie can't help but share exactly every single detail. It's, again, as you said, chef's kiss, brilliant. Well, it's also, it's a little bit like trying to lie to your parents, right?

And like trying to look them in the eye where it's like, you already know that I'm lying. So like, I can't help but confirm it basically. And I love the way it was delivered as well where somebody's like, no, listen, I believe you. We can keep telling this fairy tale.

And somebody goes, listen, bitch, I got the fucking advantage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nora, it's funny, you said the parents angle there. Nora compared it to that's like a sibling knowing that you're lying. Like maybe you're trying to get something across or a lie to mom and dad or whatever. And your, you know, brother or sister going, you're like, yeah, right. Like just, okay, I'm not going to say anything out here in public. But as we're talking alone, you can tell me.

you were smoking a pack of cigarettes because, you know, so, uh, it was still great. It was so good. Now, I do wonder how many of these other people, like, like you said, Leona, like, how many of the other people are like, yeah, right. Like, what does she have? Or like, give me a break. Like, Stephanie really should have done what she even said in confessional. I'm in like, oh, it was a puzzle or some sort of like count the triangles or something like, I'm just not good at that stuff. As soon as it was, as soon as it was like, Stephanie, you're doing it. Like you are still a challenge beast here. I think it's a combination of that And I also do think it's a combination of the fact that she kept her vote

Right? Like I feel the assumption is that when you go on a journey, you either get an advantage or you lose your vote and there is no in between. And this is a vote of 14 people the easiest way or time to get away with pretending like you don't have a vote. Right? Because Jeff's probably not going to read all the votes anyway, especially if there's the plurality of majority. Oh, so easy. like just say you lost your vote. I love the puzzle. I love the puzzle.

Say you lost your vote. Done, dusted. Probably the most believable lie that you could tell in that situation. Yeah. And then you find your specific people right and you're like, or you don't need to. Who the hell needs to know that you have your vote unless you really feel like the numbers are so tight? You know, maybe this interferes with coaches big, grandiose plan to do the split

because now he has to get one of those depraved middle individual. in on the plan. You have to get your hands dirty, I suppose. Just make sure you wash yourself afterwards when you interact with them. But I do think that this is, as you mentioned, Leanna, the easiest way to kind of get away with it.

I would say on the one hand, like I'm surprised more people don't lie about losing their votes more, but I do feel like, especially in the small tribe aspect of the game. And we saw partially with Colby, like that kind of makes you a dead person walking, makes you a very easy target.

but Stephanie was so surrounded assumingly, firmly with so many people that it's not like everyone's gonna say, ooh, Stephanie, does it have a vote? Me thinks we take a shot at her before she could write any of our names down. Yeah, and she didn't, like, she didn't choose to go on the journey too.

That's a part of this. This was like, she wasn't like desperate to go and try and get something. It was like nobody wanted to go, probably wisely. And then, you know, unfortunately, her name came up on the shot in the dark die. So, yeah, That's a great point about all the votes not even being likely not being like red.

So it's like, oh, well, no, I didn't have a vote. Yeah. The easiest time to ever get away with it. It just makes sense to do it there. Yeah, I also will say the fact that nobody wants to go on a journey, maybe says something about the journey. I feel like we are done with the meta of the journey because, yeah, you have people who the vast majority of the time

the strategy is not to play at all. We're going full war games here that like, is that really a game mechanic you want to actively keep in your game? Something where the emergent strategy is to make a random draw happen to guarantee that you don't go. It's pretty faulty there.

And we've seen a couple of times now how much those screw people over. I wouldn't say that Colby was completely done in by not having his vote, but not great. Q, yes, there was a little bit of a wrinkle here in that he sold his vote, but still not great. It just feels like, yeah, it was an interesting moment to get Stephanie to highlight her past and remind us that like she was one of the most tenacious and biggest fan favorites of the early era of Survivor.

But A, I don't think we necessarily needed as much time dedicated to it because there was so much stuff going on at camp. And B, again, when it just ends up happening by random. There's not a lot of intrigue to someone getting picked to go on a journey in the first place. No, that's where it's only fun when people are like desperate to go because they're like, I am dead man walking here. I could really use an advantage or an idol. It's like, okay. And then there's like people like, no, I don't want you to go.

Like that's sort of fun, that conflict. But yeah, in this case, it was like, nobody wants to go. So it's like, okay. Like they should have right then and there say, we're not going. And the boat guy just turns around. He's like, he's doing it. Matt Revolts. Like, no, you know, they did this all the way back in Borneo,

when they actually protested initially. Remember the reward when they, the reward was watch a cut of the first episode of Survivor in a bar with Jeff? So that was all made up on the fly. Initially, it was just like a beer, like one Budweiser bottle and everyone protested. They're like, we're not going to do this shit

unless you actually give us something worth playing for. And so they said, okay, well, we'll make this makeshift bar in the middle of our hotel and make this happen. I feel like these people have a, enough pull that they could do that if they want to. Now look, it's going to be tough to have 14 people stand strong with that. You might have a couple of scabs cross the picket lines.

Be like, no, maybe we'll go on the journey. But still, they had the power in their hand that they wanted to make something and truly say, like, listen, might be in the hands of the fans, but it's in our hands right now. And our hands are refusing to grab that boat and go on any journey anytime soon.

Maybe they need to add like an incentive in the form of food or drink or something like that. Like, then they'd be probably clamoring to go on said journey. Yeah. Maybe. Let me tickle Jeff's balls a little bit more here, Skeets.

Is it not comparable to the argument about anti-tanking in the NBA nowadays? We're like, technically speaking, it is in the worst performing team's best interest to just not care about the end. And you can put in all the sort of bells and whistles that you want to to try to counter what is the most beneficial idea for them at this time. It's a great, great metaphor. I see it. It makes sense.

And these players are just too smart. They're like going away from camp, dumb, going and to do whatever I do, coming back even lying or telling the truth, they're going to think the opposite, dumb. Like it's like a lot of, it's like no win situation doing these half the time. And it's, yeah, for us, the viewers, it's like, it is a little boring. Like that one was like, you know, it was, I guess, fun flashbacks and all that, but it went way too long. There was no real debate whether she was going to be able to do it either. I'm sorry. Like, I know it was the other shoulder and all that. Give me, she's going to do it. Yeah.

Oh, my God. I was so boring. I was like, I'm just watching someone do this. Yeah. It's just not interesting from a TV perspective. What I'm confused about is especially in this group where it's 14 people, why did they not have multiple people go on the journey? I know they do it in the premurge right to give cross-tribal interaction. But that's an interesting dilemma as well, right? Like if they face off against each other and the person who holds their arm up longer gets the advantage and the other one loses the vote, there's something interesting there. Could someone like beg the other person, I need my vote more than you do?

Could this form an unlikely alliance between the two? Can they come up with a story together? Do they immediately turn on one another? I think we need more of those elements, especially if we're going to bring journeys into the post-merge, let's not make them an individual sojourn because, yeah, it very much literally alienates them, puts them on an island to be like, well, this person did this special thing that we don't know about. And so they're a target now. Yeah. And just having two or three people doing it, like obviously we're going to get conversations between them, you know, building alliances or not, whether they're going to keep secrets or not. Like at least we just get some interaction between players, obviously. So, yeah, just her just standing there looking at a camera guy holding their hand above her head. Her head. So. And like another just poorly planned thing was the fact that both this challenge and individual immunity was like holding something above your head. She was in so much pain. I felt so.

I actually genuinely did feel so bad for Stephanie. Like she must be so furious. Like fuck my drag. Like you just had me hold my arm above my head for an hour. And luckily I used my non-dominate good shoulder. And now I have to hold both of them above my head. Yeah. And like then like what Savannah and Colby played like Tetris, right?

Like wobbly Tetris. Like what? Not really that hard. Yeah. All right. Speaking of Tetris, let's see how the blocks fell in place when it comes to our preseason predictions on D. So, Leona, obviously, Dee, in a very unique position. Only one of three winners to enter season 50 and arguably the one with the biggest reputation.

So how do you think that was going to affect her ultimate? time in the game. Yes. So I did have D pre-jury. Oh, so close. So close. I said that D enters the game as a clear threat because, duh, she's a recent strong winner, which immediately leads to her being an option for the first

boot on Kalo before the tribe pivots to Charlie instead. Speaking of, uh, what'd you say? What's a Taylor Swift song? Reputation. Reputation. Yeah. Speaking of reputation. There we go. Anyway, D uses that time well, forming a solid trio with Camilla and Tiffany, eventually.

pulling in Mike White to create a potential majority. However, as Collo continues to win, players like Jonathan and coach grow increasingly uneasy, keeping a strong female winner in the game. This sets up a tribe divide. Chrissy coach Jonathan versus D. Camilla, Tiffany, and Wright. Oh!

Until Tiffany loses her vote on a journey at the worst possible time. Not wanting to go to rocks, Mike flips back, leaving D dead in the water. When Callow finally returned to tribal right before, urge. So close. The numbers are clear and D is taken out

as the biggest threat remaining. Allies, Camilla and Tiffany, enemy, Jonathan, and coach. Look out of this. Pretty impressive. Pretty dang impressive. Yeah.

I mean, listen, obviously, just give her the award already, but I will try to slog through mine right now, which listen, it's not like too bad, but absolutely pales in comparison to the master class you just put on there

in terms of predictions. So I also had D go pre-jury slash D jury. D comes into Survivor 50 with a resume longer than her big toe. Despite this, she's able to stay away being a dead woman walking due to Callow's challenge

streak. Wanting to mimic her winning strategy from last season, Dee tries to lock in a majority alliance early on as the day is weighing a clear Kalo coalition coalesces with Dee, Charlie, coach Camilla, and Tiffany. Coach each dubs them a night of the

roundtable, complete with a comparison to an Arthurian legend. Unfortunately, much like when Merlin was trapped in a tree, the nights are scattered when the swap occurs. I don't even know if that's accurate. That's like pulling from the reasons of my memory. Luckily, Dee has some armor in still maintaining an original Kalo majority, plus getting the opportunity to reconnect with her season 45 compatriot Emily.

When Dee finds her tribe's idols, she's officially put her foot on the neck of this game. During the post-swop phase, people online even begin the conversation as to whether she may be one of the greatest players of all time. Going into Travel Council right before the merge, Dee feels truly padded on all sides to walk into the proverbial hall brawl that is the individual game. But she has no idea how much of a rebellion has been stewing underneath her feet,

feeling she has way too much power. The non-cullo majority will be able to successfully swing Jonathan over, pitching him to boot a possible challenge threat. But surprisingly, the killing shot comes from Emily. as she becomes paranoid that she may get got by Dee the way she did only five seasons ago. So in the biggest move of the first half of the season, Dee is stunningly taken out by her closest allies and with an idol in her pocket. Her closest allies were the roundtable,

and her enemies were Jonathan and Emily. I mean, Emily did kind of sabotage her game. Unintentionally, I would say. I don't know if it was done purposely this time. Yeah. Yeah, that's really interesting. Also, I did Google Merlin trapped in a tree. And yes, in our theory and legend,

Merlin is famously trapped inside a tree or sometimes a cave by the lady of the lake. So that what, I don't know where you've got. I mean, your brain works and mysterious way is my- The lady of the lake. Hey! I love it. Well, Skeets, our guest typically has the job of being able to adjudicate and figure out who is more on the money here.

But I think you've got a rather easy pick this week. Yeah, I'm going with Leona on this one. That was pretty impressive. I was like, wait, when did you write this? when did you come up with this? I was confused for a second. I'm like, what's going on here? That was pretty good.

If those are preseason predictions, man. Let's go. I love it. Thank you. I'll take the point. All right. Well, let's see if you keep putting up points here, as we'll be talking about some teams

that certainly have been this NBA season. So Skeets, given your background and your day to day, especially given, as you mentioned, the encroaching NBA playoffs. I thought it was the perfect time to do our own. bone-bill-tickling metaphor-making here by making some comparisons between the cast of Survivor 50

and the NBA. So what I did was over the past few days, I created a survey that lists out basically 12 NBA teams of varying qualities, thanks to Skeets for providing all of that intel, arguably 12 of the most interesting teams to talk about. And viewers were asked

to basically say which Survivor 50 contestant reminds them the most of which team. So basically the way that we're going to do this is kind of like the initial showdowns that happen on Family Feud, where we're going to go team by team and you're each going to pick a name of a Survivor 50 contestant. Could be someone who's been voted off. Could be someone who's currently still on the season.

And depending on the percentage points that that answer was, you will get that amount of point. So if you get a name that was 33.7% of the vote, I'll be generous. I'll round up. You get 34 points for that particular answer. So we'll go back and forth here. But first, I have to ask, Skeets, I mean, are you someone to try to mix your two worlds here? Do you often make comparisons between some of the NBA legends that you sometimes work with and watch versus some of the contestants you watch on Survivor? Not really. And I got to be honest, Mike. I was dreading this when you came up with it. pitch school. I was like, God, all I do is talk about the NBA, man. Oh, I do. I want to talk Survivor. I'm happy we had an hour just talking about the episode. I was like, no. So no, the answer is no.

But I found this very difficult. Like, extremely difficult. Some were like, okay, that person is that team, that person, that team. Others, like, I had coach in like five different spots. I could not decide where I wanted to put coach. I mean, it's an all too adequate name for sports comparisons. Right. Your nickname is coach. You're bound to show up. anywhere. Yeah, yeah. So, okay, but I did not realize that I'm actually trying to, like you said, decide who the majority is picking for said. That changes this a little bit. And so you can also offer your perspective as well, like if you have a personal comparison. But yeah, as you mentioned, it's a little bit like the infamous touchy subjects

challenge that they no longer do where it's not necessarily what you think. It's more so what you think the majority things. Okay. Yeah. Wow. Getting in the heads of Survivor fans, we know it's in the hands, but now we're getting in their heads. Well, Skits, I'm going to stick on you here. Let's test this proposition here. So we are going to start with the Oklahoma City Thunder, our reigning NBA champs. Which survivor contestant do you think the audience said reminded them the most of OKC? I think they're not going to overthink this and they're going to go with this idea that they're champions.

So that leaves us with obviously, you know, three people that were in said game that were champions. and D being the most recent to leave. I think. I think that's how people approach it. Okay. So I will go with D. I will go with D. Yeah.

All right. And OK, see, it's pretty good D as well. Leanna, what about you? Oh, see,

that's so interesting. I had similar logic and also, yes, my husband helped me with a sports thing. Okay. Although I am wearing

my Timberwolves jacket. Okay, shout out Timberwolves. Anyway, yeah, I know. It's very, it's very subtle.

There it is. Anyway, okay, so I was, same logic. I was, I was actually debating between Rizzo and Savannah, between basically like kind of Rizzo, this like new hot player. Obviously, Savannah, most recent winner that we saw. I'm ultimately going to go with Rizzo because I think like Savannah's early boot might play into why they might not pick Savannah. So I'm going to go with kind of Rizzo, young hot shot,

really excelling in this season. All right. I can confirm that the number one answer for the Oklahoma City Thunder was D 25% of the vote one quarter of the fans voted for D here Number two, Savannah

at 15.2%. She was leading for a portion type which also makes sense she's the most recent winner they were the most recent winners and number three not far behind is Rizzo at 12.2%. But also slightly behind him is

Surrey which I thought was also very interesting. I actually and I will go with my selection because I'm not doing the whole like just, okay, they won, so it's got to be a winner. I'm trying to think a little more cerebral, right? So I went with Christian as the Thunder. Oh, okay, yeah. OKC is cited as having one of the most like data and analytics department in the league. And him being a robotics professor, you know, always crunch the numbers thinking that way analytically. Now, yes, he hasn't won. Maybe he will. Tough sledding, I think, but that's where I went. So I went, I went Christian as the Thunder.

For what it's worth, Christian was number six. It's 7.3% and above him was Kyle. So again, I think all three winners are in the top five. Makes a lot of sense to me. All right. Let's move into our next team here. Leanna, which survivor contestant reminded the fans most of the San Antonio Spurs? Yeah.

Okay. Let me see. Okay, so that's interesting. So here is where I see. Now I'm trying, I'm like getting in my own head. Okay, D was the answer, the top answer that I had here. I think, like, again, like a discipline, sort of dominant player, that was the first option that we and I were thinking for this.

Okay. You are going with D hoping to capitalize on back-to-back D answers here. Skeets, where are you going? I am going to go with a Rizzo play here. I saw somebody respond to you, Mike, to your tweet about this with the Google Forum to fill this out. I think it was Darth Johnson was the name. and I loved it, and this is where I was thinking. Young guy with not too many expectations going into 50,

but surprised everyone by being a prime contender. Spurs are like a 60-win team, sort of out of nowhere. I mean, they've got Wembeenama. I guess Rizzo is Wembe. He is the alien here. He's the Riz God. So I'll go Rizzo. I like that thinking there from Mr. Johnson.

And so did a lot of the fans as well. Rizzo, number one, with a bullet, 36.2% of the fans. of the fans went with Rizzo. I saw a lot of comparisons to Wemby as well. So I think it also makes a lot of sense of like young lanky kid who's somehow overextending himself even past what you might expect.

Leanna, some not so great news. You got 1.8% Let's go! That's two points. So number two, much like how she usually is sitting alongside Rizzo, was Surrey with 17.8% of the vote.

I have seen some logic there of like the Spurs consistently good, Cerise has that very similar quality. And then with 8% we have Jonathan and we have Colby. Colby isn't like he's a Texan? I'm not sure. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, the Texan connection.

All right. Let's move into our next team here and we'll travel out West. Skeets, which survivor 50 contests reminded the fans the most of the Los Angeles Lakers? I'll go with someone you just said. I think it's going to be Colby. I think it's going to be this

legend angle. Like the Lakers this year, Luca just went out with an injury. Austin Reeves just went out with an injury. That's what Colby did. It was maybe actually sitting okay. The Lakers had got some momentum going, but yeah,

it's not looking good now. For the Lakers, it wasn't good for Colby when he was voted out there. So I'll go Colby as my pick and what the people will say. I agree with that as well. Actually, I'm really, Colby was easily my top choice for the Lakers.

I'll stick with sort of the legend dynamic of it I will go Surrey here just because I think that she could potentially slot in. I do think though Colby is probably that top pick. Technically, they both are the top pick. They are tied in exactly 19% Colby and Surrey.

This was a very divided vote. Obviously, certainly compared to the San Antonio Spurs, but it pretty much was divided up by the legends here. So the top three were Colby with 19%, Surrey was 19%. Ozzy with 18.4%. Maybe him, winning his Dissimunity

challenge was like LeBron-esque in terms of him being able to still get that under him. 60%. Mike White. LA? What? Yes. Yeah, because of L.A. Holywood. White Lotus? That's weird. Yeah, but then Coach is number five at 11%.

So yeah, definitely that old school legend mind. Yeah, that makes sense. It's a marquee franchise in the Lakers. Well, let's stick at California here, shall we? for maybe less of a marquee, certainly by comparison. Leanna, which Survivor 50 contestant reminded the fans the most of the Golden State Warriors.

Yeah, I had two options here. I'm going to go with Christian Kubicki. I feel like the sport of... Yes, I know, because, well, I mean, I'm Jeff. We do totally have a couple of Christians on this season. It's true. We're coach holding his crucifix. I feel like there's something about like Christian being like the smart sort of analytical

player and the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry being like the smart analytical team, you know, fan favorite question mark. But yeah, I'm going to go with Christian. Okay, skeets. This is the one I struggled the most with in finding my own comparison. So I have no real idea putting myself in the voters. I think they're going to go with a winner here too because of the warrior's success, but now they've aged out.

I'll go Savannah, but I am really just guessing here. I don't have a good feeling about this one. All right, let me see where Savannah is. Well, Savannah got a vote. Okay, well, so I was way off. You're on the table. So you get one here. But Christian ends up getting significantly more.

9.2% for who Bickey, as Jeff likes to call in. But the top couple are up at 16%. D. So I went between Savannah and D, and I went Savannah, I guess because I already said D. I didn't want to say it. Yeah, okay. And maybe that's another concept brand of like, she is the,

the person who has won the earliest out of those three winners, aged out of it, perhaps. Yeah. 14.1% is Ozzy. Oh, damn it. Third, Colby, 11.7%. And then fourth with Christian at 9.2%. Okay.

Yeah. All right. Leanna, you're making up some ground here. You are, I would say, significantly behind. Just shut up. All right. Well, I'll go to ski. go to Skeets then for this next one.

And again, we'll stay in California. Which Chimira 50 contestant reminds the fans the most of the Sacramento Kings. Who's lighting that beam? Okay. I don't think people are going to overthink this. I think they're going to go with Joe here because of the Sacramento ties being a firehouse captain there in Sacramento. In addition to being married to Katie Christensen, who is a former WMBA player who actually does television analyst work. for the Kings.

This would not be my pick in picking a player, but I will right now stay with Joe, as what the people will say. All right, I definitely want to get your pick after we hear from Leanna here. So, Leanna, who's your pick? Okay, this was all Puyah. Jenna Lewis was who he

chose for this. The logic was like the almost team, specifically in the early 2000s. So, you know, foundational to the league, but often associated with like what if moments. That was his logic.

It's good. It's good logic. What was your choice, Skeets, personally? I, I, like,

I had coach here for a bit, because I don't think coach is ever going to win the game of Survivor. Um, but I actually wanted to go with Emily, with sort of this chaotic WTF energy that she's bringing, uh, to this season. And,

uh, the kings are like always a mess. Like, what are you doing? You should be losing. now you're winning. Obviously, you should be trying to win, you lose. I cheer for them, but they're frustrating. So I went on sort of weird, different route there. But I'm going with Joe. That's my answer. And you should because Joe got 10.1% of the vote.

Not a lot. But 14.5% of the vote went to Jenna Lewis Doherty. Wow. Wow. I'm actually shocked by that. Well, you might be until you remember that Jenna Lewis is also based in the Sacramento area. Oh, I forgot. Yeah, I didn't know that. Thank you, fans. Yeah, so thanks to the geographically minded fans. Yes, those were by far the top, do not by far,

because then shortly behind Joe, tied with 9.4% Aubrey and Q. Maybe Q is sort of like we were talking about schemes in terms of just like doing chaotic things, zicking when you think they would zag. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's really good. Tiffany also got 8.8% of the vote. All right, we are finally leaving California here. Leanna, which Survivor 50 contestant reminded the fans the most of the Detroit Pistons.

Okay, interesting. Yes. Okay, so we, okay, we had two options for this. I'm not going to say both, but the top option that I'm going to go with is Stephanie Lagrosa. Okay. for kind of like scrappy blue collar story just like pure grit energy

all right skeets where are you going for this one man that's good that's good yeah pistons are like defensive minded um you know do the dirty work and I'm like sort of struggling to think who fits that stephanie makes sense um who are people going to say I do not have a good read on this one I'm going to go like a big guy, I guess. I'm going to go.

I'm going to go Jonathan. Okay. That was my second name. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, Leon, it should have been your first because Jonathan was the number one answer. Ooh.

Take that one. Only 10.4%. So this was a very scattered vote. Stephanie did pretty well. Got 3.1% of the vote. But Jonathan definitely in first. I'm trying to look right now. Joe second with 7.4%.

I think that makes sense given the sort of blue collar background. Chew was in third with 6.7, and then Emily had 6.1%. Okay. All right. Skeets, which Survivor 50 contestant reminded the fans the most of the Boston Celtics? Oh, I'm so happy I get to answer first here. I am not overthinking this. I am going with Kyle, who, you know, is a recent champion.

and looked like he made me set up quite well to try and get another one under his belt. But he got injured, just like Jason Tatum of the Celtics. It was even the same injury. So I'm going Kyle. Wow. Kyle is just such a great ball fan that he ended up injuring himself

just like Jason Tatum did. And who would have thought he's a Celtics fan? Somebody wrote into No Buffs, the concept, and I'm like going to forget the order of everything, but this idea, like, before Kyle left, he saw an injury, the torn Achilles. He went out, tore his own Achilles, and then came back and Halliburton was tearing his Achilles.

It was like this weird, like... Oh, poor Kyle! Yeah, it was crazy. I was like, oh my God. And like, I did go through it. It was like it all mapped out in terms of like when they'd be shooting and stuff like that. I'm going to, I forget who did it. I love that.

I love that Kyle's like, I need to escape my torn Achilles. Let me just turn on some NCA. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And then like game seven, it's like, oh, there goes Halliburton's tornikili. So, yeah. but I will go Kyle with the Celtics. All right, Leanna, was this answer your Achilles heel?

Who did you go with? I was also thinking in the winner circle. I went with D here. Okay. D. Oh, no. One point two percent. scrolling.

The vote here. Kyle, on the other hand, take that one and add another one on top of it, 11 percent. Should I say 10? 11 percent. Not the number one choice, though. There was. I was tracking this in real.

time. He was a number answer for a while because I saw a lot of comparisons, as you mentioned, with the recent championship with the Jason Tatum comparison. Number one, though, Surrey Fields. Oh. Okay. And there's a little bit of like reputation there, right? Like that old schooler vibe, yes, has had some recent success, but like has had a good amount of it through the years. And to that point, Ozzie, second place, 12.3%. Kyle was had 11%. Stephanie also had 11%. And then Colby 9.8%. Yeah, it's like the Lakers. When people think the NBA, they think Celtics and Lakers.

And when you think Survivor, you think maybe Colby, you think Surrey, you think Ozzy. Yeah. All right. Well, let's stay on the East Coast here. Leanna, which Survivor 50 contestant reminded the fans the most of the New York Knicks. Okay. Yeah. So here I had coach.

So I had coach sort of like this dramatic theatrical, like, large. than life energy. Again, also, I think a team, I mean, maybe not one of the top teams when people are like just listing off NBA teams, not saying like the best. But I do think that the Knicks are up there in the conversation. It feels like coach felt appropriate here. All right, Skeets, what do you think? I had coach on my short list, but I'm really going with my own personal opinion here

because I think the Knicks are like Surrey because the NBA is better when the Knicks are good or relevant and Survivor is better when Surrey is on it. and that was my reasoning. Also, the Knicks are good this year. Like, could maybe win it all? Could Sarree? I don't think she's going to be high on this list, but I'm still going with it. I don't care.

Surrey with the Knicks. I had to co-sign that the Atricality thing. I actually went to a Knicks game a couple of days ago for the first time in like decades. Wow. And it was so gloriously over the top. It was completely coincidental. I now hold the honor of being the first person to ever eat an impossible burger in Madison Square Garden. so put that on my tombstone at this point.

What do you mean? What are you talking about? I went to Madison Square Garden because they opened an impossible burger and I got the invite and I got handed a burger and they said just so you know this is the first impossible burger that's been ever served at Madison Square Garden

and it was like a triple layer burger and they have a picture of me somewhere out there taking a big old honk and bite of this thing. No McDonald's CEO energy here. They literally said that to me, Leanna. They said don't do a McDonald's CEO. Wow. Oh, this is incredible.

You're a celebrity. Oh, God. Oh, yeah, in infamy more so. But all that being said, the number one answer was coach. Speaking to that, the actuality, 15.8%.

Surrey, a respectable 8.5% as well. But the number two answer was Christian, which is interesting. Oh. Hmm. Okay. Rizzo got 9.7%. I think that's a little bit of like a,

hometown connection. I don't know. He's a Knicks fan, I think, isn't? Is he? He told me that his favorite player was Luca. Like, I asked him, like, what celebrity would you want to bring out to the island? He said, like, Luca is his number one player.

But I guess he would be a Knicks fan. makes sense. He's, like, New York, Gordon, and bread. I think he is. Yeah. All right. Let's move northwards. Skeets, which Survivor 50 contested reminds you the most of the Toronto Raptors

who lost to the Knicks when I attended the game in which I, ate an impossible burger. Yes, the infamous impossible burger game. We could forget. Well, I'm not going to overthink. It's got to be one of the Canadians on this season. So, you know, I just flip a coin, flip a Canadian tony.

I'll go, I'll go Genevieve. I think Genevieve feels more like a Raptor than Camilla. But I love both my Canadian queens, but I'll go to Jenny. Yeah, I mean, yeah, Genevieve for me is the answer. but I will say Camilla, the other Canadian icon. And it is the answer by a resounding 39.8%. But it's so weird because Camilla, who comes in at 19.9%, is the one from Ontario, is the one for Toronto.

Genevieve's all the way in Winnipeg. So it's so odd. But I guess there is only one Canadian basketball team. So you have to kind of just pick your poison. Yeah. And Genevieve, like just more of a personality, bigger personality in her playing survivor than Camilla, who's great, obviously. but I think that's probably a part of it.

Yeah. Yeah, like Genevieve really making waves, right? Whereas Camilla was a little bit more subtle and under the radar. Where are my gloves? Come on, heat. Any day now? Winter is hard, but your groceries don't have to be.

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pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. All right. Well, Leanna, let's see if this next answer will sting as much as you did getting left out of Genevieve here. Speaking of Sting,

which survivor 50 contest and reminded the fans the most of the Charlotte Hornets. Mm-hmm. Yeah, okay. So, um, I went with Charlie.

Charlie, okay. I went with Charlie here. Um, I think the, like just missing the championships, kind of having like a friendly vibe, but like deceptively sharp, again with the Hornets.

There's a pun there. So yeah, I went with Charlie. All right. Skeets, what about you? Struggled with this one. And I have no idea who people are going to pick for the Hornets.

Like the Hornets are like this sort of up-and-coming team. They've been bad for a very long time. But this year, they're probably going to be in the play. Well, they're going to be in the plan or maybe the playoffs even. And people are like cheering for. them and rooting for them because they're young and exciting.

And for that reasoning, I'm going to go Tiffany, who I like really, really like as a player and I have high hopes that she's going to go quite far here still. I don't think people are going to vote for her, but I'll go Tiffany just to make things a little interesting. Well, you were right

on that. You certainly made it interesting in, you know, maybe not necessarily hit at the top of the board here. Tiffany, 6.7% but certainly a little bit more compared to Charles. who got 3.1%. But, Skeets, it is the logic that you mentioned that gave

Rizzo, the top answer on the board here, 23.3%. He's got that conch-nuple energy. Emily, second place, 18.4%. That's interesting to me. I don't necessarily see it necessarily. Emily also, maybe she lives in like the DMV area. Maybe they felt like that's North Carolina adjacent. Close enough.

Yeah, our South Carolina, I guess, is Charlotte. But yeah, I also will say, by the way, it's been a, you know, I've only become a very belated fan of the NBA as of late skates, but like, what happened to the badass Hornets logo from the 90s? That was all over all the memorabilia. Why did they go all corporate on it? I know, I know. I mean, they are starting to, like, bring a lot of those back

for like city edition jerseys and stuff. Like, you're talking the teal that everybody was rocked. The teal and, like, the actual anthropomorphized the mascot that was on there. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They used to have a guy that like would go and jump off the trampoline and then like do the bug splat on the backboard which is always pretty funny. I think that guy, that character's gone, whatever, that was like a secondary mascot.

He was like in a dump contest. See, listen, if coach is going back and channeling his shenanigans, Charlotte Hornets needs to do that as well. Take a page out of his book. It's actually so funny that you mentioned. I had, this is such a weird situation. I was in as a, my mom taught art in France. over the summer when I was a kid.

And so I would get to go with her because, like, she, anyway, I remember I needed a notebook. And we went to a store in France. And the notebook I picked out was the Hornets. It was like had the logo on the front. And it was my favorite notebook as a child. So little Leanna also 100% agrees with you that that needs to come back. Yeah, the 90s teal hornets. It was a look.

Yep. All right. Well, while our marketing ideas might be like, on the launch pad. Let's see if we can blast off with this next team. Skates, switch of our 50 contestant reminds the fans the most of the Houston Rockets. Houston Rockets. Okay. I'm going to go with a big guy. It's like, are people, NBA fans filling this out or not? I'm fascinated by that crossover. There was a surprising amount, I would say, of NBA fans who are at least providing the rationale. The ones who's

going to look up the most. Okay. Well, that's great. I'm going to go with Jonathan here then. The Rockets play a bully ball, the offensive rebound. I do think like the Rockets are like Jonathan, like the Rockets is like, I think he's improved here in this run. And I think the edit's been pretty kind to him. I think he's going to ultimately come up a little short rocket struggle in fourth quarters. I'll go Jonathan Young here. All right.

Leon, it's the fourth quarter for you. Yeah. I get to come up here. I think that's a great answer. I'm going to go with Colby. I'm also sort of similar logic, but I'm also hoping that the Texas connect. can help me out a little bit here.

It's good. Smart. Well, for what it's worth, you two did get the top two answers on the board here. But the number one was Jonathan with 14.3% and number two, Colby 10.6%. Number three is Emily with nine points. I don't know why people keep seeing Emily in all these teams. That's weird. I don't know, maybe Emily's fans are actually the biggest NBA devotees that exist out there in the Survivor fan base. All right. Last but certainly not least, listen, Leanna, there is no way to catch up here, but maybe you can cover the spread.

Which Survivor 50 contestant reminded the fans the most of the Atlanta Hawks. Yeah, okay. So, let's see. What did I have written down? Yeah, okay. So again, two names. I was kind of going back and forth between, I think I'm going to go. I'm going to go with Aubrey here as my answer. I think, again, like the smart basketball angle has to be considered while Aubrey might not be playing that smart this season from what we've seen. I do think that that's sort of her legacy and what people think up when they think of Aubrey. All right.

Skeets your final answer. I thought she was going to say my pick. Aubrey, I'm going to go Ozzie for my pick here. I don't, I don't feel confident in people picking them, but my reasoning I think is sound. The Hawks this year, I'm in Atlanta, so I go to a lot of Hawks games. they switched it up this year. They traded Tray Young. They were always like a good team,

but they were sort of average, and then they decided to move off of Tray Young. They get back some vets. They switch it up. They start playing defense. So the idea of like, Ozzy has like sort of done this here so far through Survivor 50s,

like not just played the Aussie game. He's like, more than anything, he's like, hey, Surrey, tell me what to do. And that might be a sound strategy or it has been so far. So the idea of like a midseason sort of switch up or like a changing and realizing that you got to play defense to win NBA games, I'll go Ozzie for the Hawks.

Well, listen, you did play some good defense here, Skeets, and that you still kept a resounding lead here. But actually, Ozzy got 7.4% of the vote. And Aubrey got 9.3. Ooh, there you go. So Aubrey ends up getting more here. But the number one, again, when in doubt, just go to the region.

Rick Devons with 14.2% of the, vote. I could not think of a team for Rick Devons when I was going through this. It just like nothing was working. I was like, no, no. Is there a team that got eliminated from playoff contention, but then somehow made their way back into the competition? Right. Maybe that's the struggle. No, that's, that's rare. But then also got beat by another team that came back even more. Yeah. Yeah. Good point. Yeah. I mean, the Clippers started this season like six and 21 and then have turned it around and are in the play in. But yeah. And then in number two, number two was Q actually, slightly ahead of Aubrey as well.

So, Skeets, congratulations. You were the winner of this. But I wanted to thank you for the patience it took to go through this entire experience, to mix work and play a little bit. A lot of people actually had a lot of fun with this when I sent out the survey. So thank you for satiating, you know, the Venn diagram of sports fans and Survivor fans whims everywhere. I'm very happy that there were people coming up with sound. reasoning. Liana, I thought you did well.

I got some help, of course, but that's okay. Yeah, no, that was actually, that went way better than I thought when you first pitched it. All right. Well, keep on the roll here with me, Skeets. As we do at the end of every week here on the B&B, we shine a spotlight on our guest to highlight a charity or cause that is important to them that they want the listeners of this podcast to check out. So for lack of a better term, the ball is in your court. Who do you want to spotlight this week? I'm going to keep it local and go with the Atlanta Angels, which is a charity here, I guess based in Alpharetta, which isn't very far from

Atlanta. They mentor children to like make this lasting impact in their lives in terms of like foster care and helping people make that reality and support they need to do that. So yeah, I've been involved with them for a couple years by extension through friends. So the Atlanta Angels is who I'll go with. Which would be a great alliance name. Yes. Yes. I've been Savannah and Rick a lot of it could have been. Well, you were an absolute angel here, Skeets. I was so happy to have you on. I'm such a big fan of all the stuff that you do

from all the no buffs and no dunks perspective. And so I was so happy to finally have you on to get the chance to chat Survivor, to play some games, to talk some malarkey, and Offrop might be happy, what might be happening next with all this. Now, as you mentioned, you podcast a ton not only about basketball,

but about Survivor. So how can people check out all the incredible work that you're doing? Yeah, easiest thing to do is obviously search no dunks for our MBA podcast and we go live every day at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube and flip it into a podcast. So if you want to get that on Apple, Spotify, wherever you download and listen to podcasts, just search for no dunks. If you're an NBA fan, I hope you know about us because we've been doing this a very, very long time. But no buffs for all the Survivor fans out there. We do our recap podcasts like a lot of people, but we have a lot of fun doing it. I do it with

my wife, Nora, J.D. and then Trey, the two guys I also do the show with. And no Buffs, just search for that. We go live on Thursdays at around 1 p.m. Eastern. So we give it a little time to marinate and then we go live and just have a blast. And we have some fun on Instagram too. No Buffs Pod.

P-O-D at the end there. My wife, Nora, is the meme queen. So we crank out the memes and we got some shorts and stuff like that, which is always fun like when like, I think coach just liked one of our recent shorts. So it's like, oh. And like commented on it, you know? So it's always a big deal here. Yeah.

You were dancing as much Oh yeah, Opa, you'll know, no buff. I know coach liked it. So yeah, no buffs and no dunks. That's my world here, at least for the next couple weeks for the Survivor 50. Fantastic.

Well, you can check out all the stuff. Leanna and I are doing, of course, with the pal as Leanna sits down with the aforementioned NBA fan in Puyah to talk to all the musings of the week. I got the chance to talk with D for Parade. I'm also talking with Puyah as well as a couple people about this wild wrap-up to a wild season of Australian

Survivor. if you've been checking out Australian Survivor, we're coming to a close very, very soon, and then we'll be focused predominantly on what's going on with 50. And we need to, because it seems like next week, it's going to be a doozy. Seems like we've got something with doubles, double the consequences.

Do not know what that means, but we do have to shed a good amount of people. We did the whole blood moon, but we still, fuck it's ticket. So what's the best working theory here? Is it going to be like people are tied together and like one's voted out, the other goes too? Like, whoa.

That is. my leading theory. Because there is precedence for this. Survivor South Africa, they have done this, and the twist called TIE Destinies, where people were paired up. If one person won immunity, they both won immunity. If one person had an idol on them, they both had an idol used on them. And if one person got voted out, the other person got voted out as well.

So it could be that. It could be as simple as just, hey, you voted somebody out, and now we immediately vote again. That's probably the cleaner one. But given how much they want to judge things up in season 50, it would not surprise. prize me to least. And if that is the case, we're certainly going to have a lot to discuss next week, shall we? People, depending on who obviously would be tied with said person that got voted out, we could have a revolt on our hands here for those survivors fans. All right,

well, hopefully this podcast was not revolting to you all out there. Such a fun time. Of course, send us any game ideas you might have. RHAP, BNB at gmail.com or hashtag RHAPB and B and B on social media. Special thanks for the entire team behind the scenes at RHAP for packaging this podcast for your eyes and ears and one from America for his incredible theme song. Leon and I will be back next week trying to figure out whatever this twist might mean and the subsequent fallout. Until then, everybody, we'll check you out at your next day.