RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 50 Cast Reveal Reactions

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

Today, Rob Cesternino is joined by Mike Bloom to discuss the recently revealed cast of Survivor Season 50!

Coming to you live from my apartment, it's Rob has a podcast. And now here's the guy who's not at LAX. I am Rob Cisternino. Hello, everybody. And welcome back to Big Day Today. Survivor 50 live cast reveal just happened on CBS Morning's. Jeff Probst revealed the 24 names of people that are headed to Fiji as we speak for Survivor 50 and no better person in the world to talk about it all here than this man.

Give it up for Mike looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Enolo's dose nice peek into what CBS mornings looks like we had not only the big cast reveal but subsequently Jeff's Conversation with you know, the greatly valued hosts of CBS mornings as we're talking about RHAP mornings Rob Is this a way for us to step in and possibly my own so I'm gonna do it every morning. Let's freaking go I've got the time. There we go. Listen, umada Amu is not represented in this season, but we could certainly do it in the form of a morning show. We'll do a lead in for Taran in the live feed update. Exactly. If you want your like coffee and survivor chat, we maybe got you covered over the course of the summer because Rob now officially, I think, begins the concurrent off season. The Russian nesting dolls of preseason coverage between 49 and 50 which also contains 49 therein

Yeah, stay tuned for in the third hour of bloom and the bad boy will tell you about which Survivor merch is really trending this week stay tuned for that and coming up later Keith Faevey will teach us how to make rice in the studio All right. Anyway, we're super excited that you're here. We got a great live audience here this morning. We are live live and ready to go. We'll take your questions if they're good, if they're civil. We'll take them here in the show as we go through person by person.

I really do want to see all the feedback about all this. So we've got the great live chat going, but make sure you leave comments in the comment section proper as well, because I can go back and read those after the fact. So we will get into that. We've got a podcast coming up on Thursday as well. Stephen Fishback will join me for a survivor know it all reaction to Survivor 50 cast. I believe we're going to be live at 3 p.m. on Thursday. Mike, who knows what news we'll have by then. And of course, a chance for Stephen to weigh in on all of that. So make sure you subscribe to the podcast, to the YouTube channel. Whenever news breaks, we will be here to talk about it. All right.

How are you doing, Mike? I'm doing well, Rob. I mean, this has been quite a long process of speculation. Of course, when Jeff officially announced, as was heavily assumed, but officially putting pen to parchment that Survivor 50 would be a returnee season, the fan base has essentially been lit ablaze for the better part of a year and change, trying to figure out who would best represent, the fan base has essentially been lit ablaze for the better part of a year and change trying to figure out who would best represent the show up to that point. Who they would wanna see on this milestone season and

in getting the chance to do the wish list over the summer. Going through every single season, every single cast away. It was so interesting to see all the different pieces of criteria that people would wanna have for season 50. Given the number of the season, would you want to see big names and legends from the old school days on the show? Would you want to give second chances to those who haven't had the opportunity from the late 30s? Do you want a bunch of new era stars to get the opportunity to go back to Fiji within the past few years? And CBS and Survivor Production answered yes,

all of the above. And as a result, we get 24 castaways. 24 people in 26. And I think they must have thought like, hey, what if we, if we, it's so hard to get this right. If we can bring 24 people, will be happy I mean listen we all know that fishing is a key quality and survivor and one of the tenants

therein is to cast a wide net cast a wide net more people everybody will get something for everybody but we end up with a cast that is really heavily leaning towards the new era and not even specifically the entirety of the new era. Leaning very heavily on the cast from the last two years. Yeah, so- Very sparse first couple of years of the new era. Well, let's get into some of the number crunching here. Much like a certain member, I'd say a couple of members of the cast might be very much into number

crunching, perhaps something they can bond over on the beach, because as we're looking over sort of the grand spectrum of this cast, I'll read some some stacks out to you here. I mean, as you mentioned, it does end up working out where we have 12 players out of the 24 from the new era, including our two mystery contestants from Survivor 49 and 12 players from Season 40 and before. Now, all that is to say at this moment, I am absolutely in the dark as it's concerned with like what the tribe divisions might be. We don't even know the season length because if we're doing 24 castaways in 26 days, they better have a masseuse on site, Rob,

because that just sounds stressful AF. Yeah, very stressful. Not our problem, but that there has never been any sort of hint that Survivor was thinking about going past 26 days. I feel like that wasn't even on the ballot for In the Hands of the Fans. They didn't say 26 days, 30 days, 34 days. That was non-negotiable, I feel like, from Jeff and everything that he's ever said.

So even if it is a little bit longer, I can't imagine it is much longer. Yeah, that's the thing is that Jeff gave an interview with Dalton Ross in the midst of when in the hands of the fans was announced. And he basically told him outright, like 39 days is no longer on the table. However, he didn't necessarily say that maybe anywhere between 26 to 38 days wasn't on the table. So again, I don't want to put any concrete information

out there. Hopefully we'll be finding out, you know, more incredibly soon, but- Maybe more information to come. But at this point, I think that it's reasonable to assume that we have 24 people in 26 days. Yes. And so looking at this cast, again, we are divided equally between 12 from the new era,

12 from the old era. And yet talking about recent seasons, Rob, only one person from the new era is representing seasons 41 through 44. And on paper, yes, this is an absolutely wild apportioning to look at, but in reviewing the wish list last summer, I think I was able to come to the conclusion that recency bias is sort of a drug

that Survivor has partook in pretty much every returnee season. You know, as an example, let's look back to Survivor game changers, where out of the 20 cast members, six were from Korong and Millennials versus Gen X. You look at something like Heroes versus Villains, you have what? Six from Gabon, Tokenshin's and Samoa combined. Survivor has always kind of baked in this idea at look, you know, what have you done for me lately and looking at some of the biggest faces to come from their most recent seasons. But if I may respectfully push back on that, where I think again again one particular member of the cast would respect that yes, so That we have had always had recency bias on the all-star seasons that I think that a lot of people

Really were most excited about survivor 50 is a celebration of 25 years of survivor and I don't want to say that any of the newer players who there are not worthy of returning on a season but to me I kind of felt like that Survivor 50 was going to be like a Hall of Fame of You go to the Hall of Fame you celebrate the entirety of when you go to the baseball Hall of Fame It's not just mostly stuff about what happened in the last two or three seasons It's about the entirety of the sport. So I think that most fans that I've spoken to

Would have liked to have seen and I am NOT this is not sour grapes for me not being here or being there But maybe a little bit more of an even distribution Across all of the seasons where survivor 40 to survivor 50 the new era is only 20% of the show's history, but ends up taking up 50% of the real estate on the landmark season. Yeah, maybe there's a new era initiative or a half had to be represented in the form of the Seeds of 50. Yes, can we get an old era initiative going?

And I really, I really, I hope that I know this is going to, this sounds like sour grapes. I assure you, like I'm fine. But the, this is probably going to be the last time that you're going to bring back people. This was the last chance for most of these people to come back. And so if you weren't going to have like the Rob and Sandra and poverty and and and the people that we just saw on winners at war, then maybe this was going to be the last time we might ever get the chance to see like a Jonathan Penner ever play Survivor again.

And so that, it feels like that opportunity was a little bit wasted, whereas some of these younger players who've just played, it does feel like that there would be time to bring them back in a future season. Yeah, I think that is incredibly valid, that look, we have seen over the past 24 hours or so various castaways, especially from these older seasons

come out of the woodwork to express, be it in written statements or you know, certain videos, the length of like a music video, their, you know, announcement that they were perhaps in the running for Survivor 50 and were no longer considered and honestly my My heart goes out to them because it must be such a tough process and look Certainly some of these people have been through it a certain number of times and I again, I don't necessarily disagree with you. I think Again, if you ask 10 survivor fans how much new era era representation they wanted on 50 you get 10 different answers I think a lot of people were pushing for like a specific new era all-stars And then maybe trying to kind of winnow down from there to put them on to 50

I mean when we look at the span of the cast we do get Representation from the very first season to the one that is coming out this fall But yeah, the the weight of it all is a little a little unbalanced. They went too long without an All-Star so it's like okay well now we did 50 and now we're still we're so far behind it's like we got to get three people from David versus Goliath and Rick Devins in there okay we owe them it's like they're gonna have to have another All-Star like okay we missed all the people from 40 through 45 okay we got to do another All-Stars and we're gonna really load up there so at some point in the last ten seasons

I think that they should have done a Returning player season, but this is you know all you know cold takes and well done. It's all in the past We have no more hourglass to smash Rob. They got rid of that one all right so Mike Should we start getting into talking about these 24 names? Yeah, because I think that again while we look at maybe the the chronological weight in terms of season and this cast, it's also really interesting getting into their own respective history. So just to lay out again, some more numbers here in this this cast we have out of the 24, 17 second chances, 17 out of the 24 are

coming back for a second season. We have one three time player, four, four time players, one five time player. And as we will get into a six time player, if you're counting international seasons of the 24 players, half of them, 12, made it to the final tribal council at least once. They were either a runner-up or the winner proper and then six more were the quote-unquote fallen angel of their season, a position Rob you know all too well, either getting the last person eliminated, be it you know getting voted out or Final Four fire making, the lowest anyone on this season has placed

in their first time out was eighth. And so again, there can be some stuff to quibble with in terms of who might've got on versus who didn't. But I do think when you look at the grand spectrum as to who is taking up these 24 spots, it's clear that depending on what they were looking to get, they are really shifting heavily towards those who made a big impact in their season,

which will be incredibly intriguing when we have these two mystery players from Survivor 49. Okay, all right. Mike, any other numbers you wanna float past us? I think all my numbers have floated by at this point. Let's not sink this podcast any further. So we got it all started, and Gail King let us know. Wow. Wow. Their survivor text chains are blowing up. People got lots of thoughts about this.

And the survivor group texts were blowing up all over this past weekend where a lot of this basically this cast list was out there. A lot of people said, okay, I'm going to wait till Wednesday to get the judgment. Turns out that the list that was out there turned out to be accurate. Jeff confirms it. What do you think of the Jeff taped reveal of taking the names out of the urn? See, I actually really enjoyed it. Obviously there was, you know was a previous precedent for this considering that Alan Cumming did something very similar

for the Traders cast last year, which also featured some survivor players where he was just kind of sitting there reading off a list of names. But I liked given the survivor aspect of it. Ironically enough, maybe this was all like a final travel council where you did wanna see your name in the urn read by Jeff. Yeah, okay. All right. Here we go. I'm gonna play actually what Jeff said about each person

And there we go one thing to hear. Okay, so here we go I'm excited to announce the players who will be appearing in Survivor 50 in the hands of the okay I'll read the names Okay Okay. I'll read the names. Okay. From our very first season, 25 years ago, one of the original castaways, Jenna. Jenna. Jenna. First name treatment. Jenna. Yes. First name treatment because she now has two last names.

But coming back for her third season, this is Jenna. She married Chris D'Arty? I mean, listen, if you can't win a season, you might as well get close to the million dollars in some way. No, different door. Oh, different door. Jenna is back. Of course, as Jeff mentioned, Survivor celebrating its 25th anniversary on Saturday, May 31st. And Jenna was a major part of that first season, part of the ill-fated Pagong tribe. I think most famously known, unfortunately, for the tragedy of not getting a video from her loved ones. Back in the

day, Rob, these survivor players didn't go to no sanctuary to get letters. They just got a big old Betamax videotape that got to be played at a little AV cart they rolled out at camp. Yeah. Jenna Lewis is here. I think that the show really wanted some representation from Borneo. I think that there was probably a few different directions they could have gone for the season one representation. Jervis had played on Blood Versus Water.

I think that he was probably somebody they considered. I would have, with all due respect to Jenna Lewis, who I have gotten to know well over the years. Your fellow All-Star. I'm very happy for Jenna. I think if you were going to have one season one person, I would have loved to have seen Greg. I'm not even going to say Colleen. I mean, that would be the most wishful. seen Greg. Of course. You know, I'm not even going to say Colleen. But I mean, that would be the most wishful. What a coup that

would be. I don't know if either of those people were contacted or interested. But Jenna Lewis is a threat. Jenna Lewis is a mercenary. OK, that I don't think that the new era is going to know what hit them with Jenna Lewis.

It's interesting because I think when people look back upon Borneo, they say like, okay, this feels like a different show. There was no strategy. But if you look at Jenna on All-Stars, she was the one that really came in and was the biggest mouthpiece against like, all right All right these winners their days are numbered and Not to a mouthpiece for sure. I don't know if 2025 is ready for Jenna Lewis. Okay, and take this to the bank Okay, I don't know what the tribes are gonna look like Jenna Lewis's number one ally in this season will be

Jonathan, okay. She's looking for Jonathan. Okay. She's looking forward. And let's portmanteau it the biggest guy and she's looking to. Okay. Let me be the brains of the operation. And that will be what her game plan is. Watch out for Jenna Lewis. I'll be very intrigued to see the discourse around bringing in a season one player into season 50 people will be talking about it till the cows come home.

Rob. Yeah. Okay. If you're looking for a tough mom on Survivor, Jenna Lewis is it. She is a realtor now, so maybe her and Q have some synergy, but Jenna Lewis as her castmate once said, she's not going to be there to make friends. Okay, she's not looking to socialize with these people. She is here to get that money Yeah, and I mean if we're talking about brief connections, you know She does have one and probably the next person that we are going to talk about. Here we go Let's go to go back to Jeff. Here we go

From season two survivors first all-american hero Colby Okay, I think we were missing like some applause I think I put it like a you know applause track Why you need to undo like they did with the soup and bring in like five members to lightly applaud okay? All right Colby is back last seen on Survivor heroes versus villains by the way Jenna Lewis has a 42 season layoff in between playing layoff in between playing layoff in between Survivor 50 and Survivor 8. Well, we only know one way to do a returning season as epic as this, and it's full tilt.

And that is how Colby gets brought in here. Of course, one of the biggest players to come out of one of the biggest seasons in Australian Outbackback people were naming their kids After Colby Rob for all we know one of the farm 9 cast members might have been one of those kids of course Colby one of the icons of early survivor most recently played on survivor heroes versus villains my one reservation here is that Colby I think that there were legitimate questions Did Colby have anything left in the tank in season 20?

Well, they say he was 15 years ago Mike He was Superman in a fat suit But as James Gunn has shown Superman story can be revived at any point in any time what James Clement Yeah, well what I'm intrigued by with Colby is that since his, you know, immense amount of time away from Survivor, not nearly as long as Jenna, but Colby has done a fair amount of reality TV, but from the other side of the camera, he's hosted all these shows like Top Shot, like was it like American Butcher, like Alone. American Butcher.

Something like that. Yeah. Again, don't make reality shows of anything, Rob. I mean, what I'm also incredibly interested with with Colby was that in season 20, and I say this with no offense to the Hershey bar himself, he maybe felt a little bit behind in terms of his survivor lore. You know, there was one of those moments

where he like pulled Candace aside and was like, you know who any of these people are? I think to say that season 50 would be an order of magnitude even greater than that. Imagine how confused he's gonna be this time. Like a boat's gonna come for a journey is gonna be like great I finally get to get away from camp and he's just gonna stand there bum-puzzled perhaps add a puzzle of like wait what's a knowledge is power? Yeah I don't think he's gonna know who the old-school players are. Yeah I mean I think Jenna could very much be the Candace in this

very similar situation. Yeah so I don't know I look I think Jenna could very much be the Candace in this very similar situation. Yeah, so I don't know. Look, I have no idea. I have not talked to Colby. He showed up in 2017. We had a RHJP event in Austin. He came there. He captivated the room. He was great that night. So I don't know like how much interest he has. Maybe he feels like he needs redemption from heroes versus villains. Who knows? Maybe he's going to surprise us all. But I mean, I think that, look, I guess if Colby wants to do it and he's got, you know, a fire in his belly for it, if it's Survivor 50, I don't have a problem with Colby being here.

Yeah. And he's about to hop on a flight to Fiji. I hope it's a red eye considering how much he knows that term. All right. OK, so then we have a little bit of a gap in terms of the classic survivor. OK, I have to go from one to two to 10. From season 10, the only player to ever be on a tribe of one, Stephanie. Okay, Stephanie, LaGrosse, Kendrick, Stephanie's had a real renaissance in these last couple of years where we didn't see or hear from Stephanie for, I don't know, like a decade in terms of the reality TV space. Yeah, essentially a decade. So Stephanie, the last time we saw her on Survivor,

she was at the reunion of heroes versus villains hawking Gigi's filet mignon pizza. And now, much like a nice dry aged rib eye, she has come back for another bite of this proverbial steak. But yeah, I mean, she had been away from reality TV, let alone Survivor for a while. She comes back in 2023 with kind of this one to punch of yes, snake in the grass, which is maybe alongside someone else that we'll get into. But chiefly, the first season of the U.S. version of the traders. And I think after that, a lot of people were wondering, especially with 50 on the

horizon, like, Oh, would Stephanie make a return? Because again, when we talk about the sign of the times, she was far end away. As much as Colby was the first all-American hero, Stephanie might've even overshadowed him at her apex. I know some people I'm reading in the chat might be down on Stephanie. I don't have a problem with this. I feel like, especially because we really didn't get to see her

in Heroes vs. Villains, she's only in two episodes. Yeah, who would have thought that two enemies of James Clement end up making their way onto Season 50? I really think that an issue with bringing back a lot of, like, the really old-school players is that are they going to be able to compete physically? And Stephanie is somebody who I'm sure is still in tremendous shape. She's a legend. I think this was kind of an easy one

to have Stephanie Kendrick, Stephanie LaGrosse Kendrick here. She just came off of Traders. I don't know if the Traders war is going to be canon in terms of is she going to trust Saree, who's also here?

I have a feeling we won't see that talked about in the episodes, but I'm sure it's something that might be on Stephanie's mind. I mean, you never know. Big Brother Reign your game, then there being a crucial part of the backstory of two contestants on Traders. Maybe the reverse is true that Traders could be the make or break point for these two. I mentioned before, but Stephanie, you know, Colby

was one of her only allies on Heroes versus Villains as well. So again, it cannot be overstated for Survivor fans that we're not necessarily going through at the moment, like how big Stephanie was. As Jeff talks about, it was an unprecedented situation. She was the only person left from her tribe personified as one of the biggest underdogs in the show's history. There were people that when she came back in Guatemala

and descended from those Maya pyramids, people were saying, I applied to the show because of you. So again, it seems like the philosophy behind this casting was a little mixed, but I do think if you're looking more so towards the idea of like bringing back some of the most hallowed figures in survivor history, despite being, you know, 15 years away from the island, I think Stephanie would be up there.

I think that Stephanie can get spicy. I think that there could be conflict I think that there could oh, yeah, I mean listen if you looked at the The difference between her Palau edited her Guatemala edited is quite literally night and day Yeah so if we're looking at this from like all the different perspectives of somebody who's like a Classic somebody who is gonna you know maybe have some gas in the tank, some fire, gonna maybe create some good television. I really do think that Stephanie was a good pick. Yeah, Stephanie LaGrosse, Kendrick Lamar

is bringing the mustard to Survivor 50. Wendy's most important deal of the day has a fresh lineup. Pick any two breakfast items for $4. New four-piece French toast sticks, bacon or sausage wrap, biscuit or English muffin sandwiches, small hot coffee, and more. Limited time only at Participating Wendy's,

taxes extra. All right. Here we go. From season 12, she needs no introduction, returning for a record-tying fifth time, the beloved, Seree. Okay. All right, Jeff, can I push back on that a little bit?

Yes. Five with an asterisk here, because Rob, this is outright survivor history being made. We know that three will be on the upcoming season of Australian Survivor Australia versus the world representing these United States. And they didn't they didn't care about that. I mean, I'm a survivor is survivor, I suppose. But I thought they didn't like it. Well, for Cerise is able to defy any sort of consternation

that might be coming in, considering that she is also, you know, a traders convert, a big brother did 90 days on Big Brother. Exactly. And so Cerise is officially playing Survivor for the sixth time, which is a Survivor record. Rob's fact checker, if you're listening, has Saree done more reality TV days than the entire new era cast? Let me know. That's very true. I mean, Saree might, depending on how many days Australia vs. the world world was, like she might have a decent shot at passing Boston Rob's record of most days played. Boston Rob, of course, played in five seasons and was an advisor for one. Same with Sandra. We're going to be talking about Ozzy, who will be playing for a fifth time as well.

But Seri is an institution when it comes to Survivor. I think as thrilled as I am to see her again, I think that, as Jeff said, she needs no introduction in terms of the impact that she has had in this show in general. I can understand a lot of fans feeling maybe slightly. I don't want to use this word, but slightly fatigued with Saree, considering that she hasn't been back on the island since thirty four. But she has been on our screens very recently.

I hear that I really do. And I know that there is like this feeling of like that There was this chance to see some of these other players that we haven't gotten to see but you know if you're going to do a survivor 50 and if you're going to lean towards Mostly no winners then I don't have a problem with maybe you know the fifth face on survivor Mount Rushmore You know the greatest player to never win, Saree, bringing her back one more time. If this is a chance to say goodbye to some of the people

who may not ever play Survivor again, and listen, in Saree's case, we say never say never, but. You never know, Saree has always said, no matter how many times she's gone out there, maybe it's because she has not necessarily been able to grab that brass ring, at least on Survivor. And when she has always said like, yeah, put me out on that island every day of the week. If anything, Rob, I think spending 90 days in a house more so made her raring to go to

the point where she's done not one, but two Survivor seasons in a row. Get me back to God's country. Okay. Lord, I mean, Jeff's country. But yeah, I mean, if you talk about, again, these old school players, can they keep up with it? I mean, I think a lot of modern day strategy was really, you know, brought to the forefront by someone like Surrey.

Certainly a lot of new era players are still referencing Surrey when they talk about people that they want to, you know, play like. And again, Surrey has been able able to keep those incisors sharpened concerning the fact that she not only was on traders, Rob, she won traders. She is so far the only trader to win American traders. What's this trader that you're talking about? She's like doing pawn shop stuff?

I would not be surprised if Colby mistook the capital T for a lowercase. He's like, well she's a traitor. We got to get rid of her. Okay, Mike, I think that there will be an incredible reverence for Suri from the new era players. I do wonder though if Suri is with most of the old school players, will there be that same reverence towards Suri from the old school players. Will there be that same reverence towards Suri from the old school players? Where I think to the new era players, I think that she is looked at as a real survivor titan

that should be, yeah, that really we need to give her, I can't vote her out, that's Suri. I think that the older school players may not feel that way, that's mother her I can't vote her out. That's Surrey. I think that the older school players may not feel that way. That's mother. I can't. But to the old school players, maybe they don't feel that same way. Yeah, I mean, I think even looking at the old school side, I mean, it's been a long time since she's played with some of these people. But with Colby, for example, obviously, he was one of the votes

that got rid of her, one of the rare times that she was actually voted out of Survivor. There was that whole thing going into Game Changers with the Aussie of it all, considering that she was one of the key people to flip things and vote him out in Survivor Micronesia. We didn't really see it play out in Game Changers, namely because they never really went to Tribal Council together except for two times in the post-merge. But we will see if grudges can be truly buried or if you know the reigns of Fiji will unearth them. Okay, alright after Saree I think then we're gonna go ahead six seasons.

From season 13, the original Jungle Boy also returning for a fifth time, Ozzy. The original Jungle Boy time Ozzy the original jungle boy Ozzy There we go feels like we've seen Ozzy for a combined 420 seasons But really it's only been four and now we have another one to tack on you know Mike I really I kind of like memory hold that Ozzy came back for game changers like I kind of thought like when I first Heard Ozzy's name. I said okay. Well. yeah, I mean we haven't seen Ozzy in a minute. Okay, great. But I feel like that we most recently came back for Game Changers.

Ozzy didn't have a lot going on in Game Changers. Well, he never went to Tribal Council. Oh, he went to Tribal Council a couple of times in the pre-emerge. But yeah, it was largely quiet. Or maybe it's because game changers in particular was so focused on the strategy and constantly shifting power and advantages. And Ozzy was not really involved in that. And yet it was kind of an odd point to end his survivor career on,

because this is a guy who I think, especially if you ask the certain sector of the fan base, is one of the most well known and beloved players in the show's history. Has a tied Colby for the most immunity challenge wins in a single season. He is the only person to be voted out three times in one season. And yes, I think there's a lot of understandable clouding on Ozzy sometimes for like, well, he has no strategy. He has social game. All he knows how to do His job is beach and challenges. Is that his job?

Well, yeah, I think OnlyFans might know exactly what he's doing outside of that. But the fact of the matter is, Ozzy came close to winning not one, but two seasons of Survivor. Sure, I'm just saying that the last time we got Ozzy, and it wasn't like that he was out early, it's just we didn't get a lot from Ozzy the the last time we got Ozzy and it wasn't like that he was out early It's just we didn't get a lot from Ozzy in the last time out

But look Ozzy if you're going to build out a cast of like Hall of Fame players That maybe it's gonna be the last time we're gonna get to see Ozzy I can come around on Ozzy being back But the thing about Ozzy was that he was this unique challenge competitor, and maybe he's a survivalist where maybe that he can, in a new era game where he can go out and fish and do some things and really provide some value there, so maybe that's the biggest appeal. I do think that he is a household name, and so if that's what you were going to do for survivor 50, no problem with

bringing back Ozzy 5.0. Yes. As Ozzy would say in the game changers reunits, a real microcosm of where society was and where survivor is that we're bringing back this guy for the fifth time. As we mentioned before, you know, we will see whether or not him and Saree can continue to operate, you know, we will see whether or not him and Saree can continue to operate, you know, rather hand in hand, or if he decides, all right, now I'm really going to, you know, hit the ground running. Cause we've also seen Ozzy, yes, there have been times where he's sort of been more laid

back, including his most recent season, but we've also seen a couple of times him go incredibly aggro and, you know, less so in the hands of the fans, but get his hands around the game and truly try to run it. I'm really intrigued to see which Aussie we're going to get in time. Number five. Also, maybe they might have to cut his mic at the live reunion show after game changers also. Yeah, that's very true as well. You know, when they voted, perhaps this is an indicator. So whether or not we voted for a live reunion show, they're like, all right, if we could have unfiltered Aussie or edited Aussie, that's's gonna be a big flag as

To whether or not he'll be on season 15. Okay. All right here. We go after Ozzy. We've got Season 18 the one the only the dragon slayer coach Okay, all right That's a throwback trademark eagle screech. Here is Coach back again. And again, that when we're talking about people that, okay, this is going to be probably our last chance to ever see Coach play Survivor. I mean, how could you say no if you're a Survivor fan?

I mean, it's interesting because when I was doing the wish list, it seems like until Steven Fishback, you know, contested this coach was taking the monastic approach to survivor in a manner of speaking. Of course, he had had those first took a lot of exception to the ultimate R.H.A.P. He's like, oh, I'm sure all these people are going to be there. I'm sure. I'm sure. Yeah.

I mean, you know what? If he was studying along, I guess maybe if there's another way to bone up on the new era, I suppose you're welcome, coach, for maybe providing that outlet there. But coach, of course, one of the most enigmatic characters of the first at least 20 seasons of Survivor. But season 23, I feel like coach finally got to play the game that he always wanted to when he stepped foot in the Brazilian Highlands back in season 18, where he was well respected. He was the leader of this majority Alliance. He was playing at least or so he thought he was with this

honor and integrity and iron sharpens iron mentality that he always wanted to do. He was not maybe the sharpest iron by the end of it all, considering that, uh, Coach, there's a bunch of people from survivor 48 who you can't't you're going to love. You're going to love these guys. Exactly. That's the thing. I'd be coach a joke could really do like the Spider-Man meme of pointing at one another, being like, OK, this makes a lot of sense. But I mean, coach is somebody who has also gone through a lot since playing, you know, 13 years. He's gotten married. He's had a kid.

I mean, you I talk about, you know, him finding out about the new era. He does have an end with the fact that he's been touring with Ben Katzman from Survivor 46. So maybe him and Charlie have run in the same circles. Maybe. OK. So Coach comes back. What is this?

This is the fourth time since Coach. I mean, it is interesting in Coach's Survivor career that he plays 18, 20, 23. So he plays a lot in a very short period of time. And then it's been 27 seasons since Coach has played. So the question is, Rob, is that, do you think Coach is going to coach it up from what we saw, you know, at this point, 15 plus years ago? Do I think we're getting more of a heroes versus villains

coach or a survivor South Pacific coach? Or even like a none of the above of like a more mellow down family man coach. Or do you think he's like, all right, the people I know what the people want. So here comes, you know, myriad Dragon Slayer samurai references over however long I last in this game. If I had to guess and based off of I listened to him on Tyson's podcast Recently, I think that he's gonna really play up the this character of like, you know, I don't know anything I don't know anybody here. I don't know. I don't know how to play the game. You guys are

Here I don't know why the dragon slayer needed to come back. I decided to do like I think he's going to really play up He doesn't know anything. He's not a threat that he has no threat level I don't think he's going to try to take the reins of whatever tribe he's on Do you think Tyson once again pulled him aside and told him about all the things he shouldn't do on survivor 50 don't wear Feathers in your hair don't tell stories Perhaps I don't know if, you know, Coach is looking for advice in terms of like, or if he is at a point where he feels like, okay, he's done it all. He's been to final tribal council. I don't know if he's necessarily is somebody who takes, you know, the constructive

criticism, but I'm excited to see Coach. And what's interesting is that Coach and Ozzy played together on Survivor South Pacific and were incredibly intrinsic to each other's stories. That's a fun storyline. Yeah, where Coach had promised Ozzy that he would take him to the end, and then he didn't. And I will say, as somebody who's interviewed Coach many times over the years, I feel like that whenever Ozzy comes up, I don't think that Coach is fond of Ozzy. I think that Coach blames Ozzy partially for, or more than partially, about Ozzy's people

not voting for him. I mean, if you go back and listen to any of my old interviews with Coach, if Ozzy ever comes up that he is a little, you know, he does not sound like a person who thinks that Ozzy is comes up that he is a little, you know, he does not sound like a person who thinks that Ozzy is a cool guy. Well, it will be incredibly. He has a lot of thoughts on Ozzy's character. And I'll just let what he says,

has said in the past speak for itself. I don't wanna paraphrase it too much, but yeah, I don't think that coach and Ozzy will be buds. All right, who would have thought that a survivor South Pacific feud might be reignited here so many years later? But yeah, I'm incredibly interested to see what coach is going to bring in multiple ways. And especially if coach goes on a journey, he is going to milk

this so hard that David Kinney will be suckling at the television set. I'm so excited for it. Wait, if he just goes on the journey, not even the exile Island just goes on the journey. He's going to go on the journey and he's going to be like all these dice. Yeah, he'll come back from it collapse. All right. So we have a huge gap here, okay, so this is interesting we go from season 18 and We have we go jump all the way From season 32 a master strategist returning for a fourth time Okay

master strategist Aubrey is back. Yeah, so this is an absolutely strategist Aubrey is back. Yeah, so this is an absolutely wild gap to your earlier plan, whether or not they wanted to make it half old era, half new era, leaving out 14 seasons out of the first 40 is absolutely remarkable. I think a lot of people had some, you know, some understandable pain points with some of the big seasons that were skipped over in the process, you know You're Philippines your Cagayan's your San Juan del Sours, right? We're going all the way to Corong, baby If we said, okay. All right

So Mike if I asked you last year, how many people do you think from the 20s will go be back for survival 50? Is it how about zero? Yeah I I would say there's a more likely to be more people from the 20s than more people in their 20s and on Survivor 50. And it turns out that it's very much the reverse. In fairness, Coach plays again in the 20s and Ozzy plays again in the 20s.

Saree and like all the heroes are in season 20. So there is a little bit of that, but we have a big gap. We'll talk a lot more. We have a snubs podcast coming up. Chappelle will go through all of the snubs coming up in the next few days as we do wall to wall survivor 50 coverage. But all right, master strategist Aubrey. I feel like that Aubrey herself would not agree with that statement to describe her. Well, listen, people certainly made their opinion known almost a decade ago when Aubrey first showed up on our screens in Survivor Co-Rong.

Whether you call her a master strategist or not, she was one of the biggest players of the season and was on the receiving end of still what I would say is probably the most controversial finish to a season in quite some time, but she was a big enough presence to be asked back then for basically two more seasons within three years. She appeared the very next season near on game changers where she was a main ally of Saree also played alongside Ozzy. Yeah. And then the last time we saw her was survivor edge of extinction where it did not go terribly well. She was the first returnee voted out blindsided with an idol in her pocket and spent the majority of her game watching everything from the sidelines on the jury. Yeah, I really was surprised to see Aubrey end up getting mentioned in survivor rumors that she had not been somebody who had been talked about a lot. I only had done a talking with T-Bird with her last summer,

July 7th, 2024, it looks like. And it looks like that we have a YouTube short of, is Aubrey Bracco prepping for a Survivor 50 return? I'll have to watch that and see what she said. I guess the answer is yes. Yeah, I believe, because I'm remembering back to being in the trenches of the wish list that I initially had not added her because I thought she was so burnt out on doing three seasons

that she was done. And then watching that clip, it's like, okay, I'll add her onto the ballot if she's into it. And clearly, Rob, she's into it. Nature is healing, Mike. I remember I did a interview with her and you can go back and listen to it with I've interviewed Aubrey after the edge of extinction And I felt like that very much though. She was done with Survivor. She had had like this

This experience that she felt like it was not captured on the show I kind of thought that she was out on playing Survivor again, but I do believe she did Tease a little bit that is like hey hey look, if it's if it's survivor 50, I would come back Maybe only under that circumstance. I would come back for something like that. So Aubrey I guess that they called she answered now It did seem like if we can get into like the rumor mill along the way that Because oh man that thing has been churning out some very interesting Grain over the past few months for the longest time a name that was being circulated was

Amanda Amanda is gonna be back for survivor 50 and at some point in the process That I don't know when or I don't know why that Amanda was out and then it seemed like that Aubrey came in. Yeah, which is intriguing. I guess both were runners up. Both had played three times prior. It also might have been Rob that Aubrey's name was invoked by another member of this cast, actually a couple, and was used as a basis to get rid of somebody in a very recent season. So maybe people thought, oh, people are still talking about Aubrey. And was used as a basis to get rid of somebody in a very recent season

So maybe people thought oh people are still talking about Aubrey. Okay, let's give her a certain amount of consideration for a future season Yeah, okay, so there's Aubrey back Surprisingly for time number four for Aubrey. Okay. All right after Aubrey we got We got. From season 35, she made it to the final three the first time she played. Been waiting nearly a decade for the second shot. Chrissy. Okay. Now this is fun because I, if I recall correctly, there was a podcast done on RHAP after the

Survivor 35 finale with none other than Aubrey Bracco talking about a very similar controversial final Tribal Council outcome. So I'll be intrigued to see if Aubrey and Chrissy kind of connect over. Remember in the late 2010s when everyone felt we were the most Rob's runners up in Survivor history? And don't forget, Dama Bhatai also in that mix. Also, I remember doing podcasts with Dama Bhatai and Chrissy Hofbeck. I'm very happy for Chrissy Hoffbeck that she gets to go back. I will say I'm a little surprised

I know that her name had been rumored out there But I do feel like that that was a little bit of a surprising Pick to have Chrissy Hoffbeck come back as one of the people if we're only bringing back 12 people from The first 40 seasons of the show, I do think that Chrissy was robbed. I think that Chrissy did a great job in HHH. But I'm a little surprised that she makes the cut of 12 people from the first 40 seasons that the show wanted to bring back. Well, I think this speaks to a point that you made earlier, Rob, which is the fact that we did not have a returning season opportunity for any non-winners from season 35 through season 39 up to this point, considering that winners at war ended up being the season that it was.

So I think that if you had asked us in 2020, you know, who would you want to see back? Chrissy would have been at the very top of the list. This is somebody who was one of the biggest pieces of the game, someone who spent time doming, someone who, you know, got blindsided, but then proceeded to wrangle the numbers to try to take out her former number one, turn number one enemy in Ben, who tied the number of individual immunity challenges won by a woman and who again, some would argue, lost due to the fact that they brought in this final four fire making twist in this particular season. So I think there's a lot of redemptive qualities from Chrissy's perspective.

And I think it is going to speak to as we're going to get into with some of these late thirties players, maybe some of these, these checks that production felt like they had yet to cash of like, these are people that we've wanted to see back for a long time. And this is the first opportunity we can get. Okay. All right. After Chrissy. From season 37, he's stepping out of the robotics lab and back into the jungle. Christian, who did you?

OK, some people got the last name, some people didn't. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Of course, there's the infamous like if you're a last name player, how iconic are you? If you're a two name player, Rob, is that more or less iconic? A full name? A full namer? I think that's pretty iconic. I think that's pretty iconic. The other is, who Bickey or Hugh Bickey?

I would never question Jeff's pronunciation. And I think that on the island, I think Jeff mostly calls him Christian. So, okay, here he is thrilled for my great friend, Dr. Christian Hugh Bicy, who gets to come back ever since Survivor David vs. Goliath. I know that he has been clamoring for the return. I know that maybe it looked a little dicey once they started up the new era, but I am very excited for Christian. I am worried about Christian and his threat level. But listen, Christian played basically the entirety

of David versus Goliath with a massive threat level. Ever since that guy came out and was picked as the weakest link on his tribe and absolutely slaughtered the competition with a slide puzzle algorithm, he was the number one target until he ends up going out in seventh place. It's a position he's used to.

I don't think, was or is worried about his threat level because he continued to do podcasts and all sorts of things all through. He's like, hey, look, it's not like the people are gonna suddenly not think I'm a threat. And listen, this could be something where Christian is obviously an incredibly strategic mind considering how much the whiteboard

has pretty much been tethered to him with every podcast that you do, lovingly so. That So that I think people are if old schoolers are looking to anchor like I need a numbers guy, Christian could be a good person to turn to. And similarly with the new era, it's a lot of I would say Christian types that get cast in the new era, right? These big super fans, the people that are maybe more about brain than brawn. And so they also might find a devicom patriot. They might want to play in the sand with Christian, Rob. Yeah. OK. So thrilled for Christian to come back. That was an easy pick.

I mean, I've ever seen Survivor 50 had come up that he was one of the Locky Locks that ultimately does make the cast. I guess. Yes. Now, the question is, Rob, I know that Jeff has said that, you know, endurance challenges don't necessarily go on for an extended period amount of time. Could Christian try to break his own record, though, considering the filibustering he did in David vs. Brian? It's like, hey, we got nine tribal councils today. Let's keep it moving. I mean, that could be a good distraction tactic, though, of like, OK, I know this tribe is still trying to figure out how to vote. So Christian, please talk us through the history of the circuit board and just try to prolong the period before we have to vote.

Yeah. Okay. All right. In addition to Christian, his castmate. And from 37, she loves negotiating with me and is still waiting on that jacket from Natalie Angelina Okay, well the rice negotiation make it back for survivor 50 I mean there was a vote right as to like will people start with rice or not and if the vote was no She's gonna get to work When we look at the list of 24, there's few Universally like yes ever everybody is in agreement here. We got this one right.

Everybody is super excited to see Angelina play again. Oh, I mean, she was such a fantastic character in David versus Goliath, you know, the source of many incredibly iconic moments, maybe some of which I might be talking about in a podcast series very soon. I mean, what I'm incredibly excited about, Rob, that the main appeal to me of all star seasons is for the pure fan fiction

to come alive of watching certain people from different seasons interact to have Angelina coach and cue on the same season. Some would argue like the royalty of DeLulu on Survivor. And we even have someone from Lulu on Survivor as well. I cannot wait for the interaction that they're all going to have together. Yep, this was great. I don't know even if there's that much more to say about it.

Great job with Angelina, but I'm sure she will be a part of what we're talking about as we bring in the third member of David versus Goliath. Here we go. We're bringing the third member of David versus Goliath. Here we go. And from 37 in between writing and directing seasons of White Lotus, Mike White is back. Okay.

Kind of, I feel like not a huge introduction for Mike White from Jeff. I mean, listen, he's got to keep things fairly on the level. The Emmy award winning. Well, also, I mean, genius. Well, if you look at Mike White's history with Survivor, I mean, move over Colby. If you thought his stock was following as Jeff's golden boy in season 20. Mike White is really at the right hand of Jeff for a lot of this.

Even before he was a contestant on Survivor, he famously was the one that was sort of giving him advice and stuff. He was the one that said, Samon Del Sour should not have redemption. I don't know. He was the one who infamously Jeff went to about the new era and he came back with the always oft mentioned, is it fun?

I mean, I am stunned by this. This was far and away the biggest surprise of the cast for me. Yeah, so the Mike White news is huge. Very exciting for for all of us. I do think that that is going to be the focus of the media attention of like, hey, the Survivor 50 cast list is here and Mike White is here. And so I don't know if the rest of the cast will feel a little bit like

that he is like the other to them a little bit where will they uh hey if i if i want to reinvigorate my on-screen persona mike white if we block in together could cast me on white lotus season four that's going to be very fascinating to see you know how much of the sucking of the kneecaps is going on versus like how much do people feel like okay? I Potentially could resent Mike white for being like okay everybody else is always like trying to get in his good graces I need to take him out I don't I really don't know the psychology of the other 20 some odd players who are gonna be playing with him

He does have two of his close friends in Christian and Angelina Also made cameos and they have a friendship outside of survivor there So that's also a little bit of a dangerous block it came up. I had transcribed the interview from the CBS mornings where it was one of the like that the show they talked to Jeff Gale King said how did you decide on this cast and also Mike White like that was the first question that was there I mean it makes sense because with no offense obviously some of the large names they brought back within the survivor community this is far and away the biggest name from an

objective perspective that got brought up here. He is the creator, director, and writer of. Bigger than Elizabeth Hasselbeck? Who recently said? I'm not doing that. I mean, has Elizabeth Hasselbeck running one-ending Emmys recently? Has Elizabeth Hasselbeck produced viral moments across social media every week for three seasons straight?

Mike White has really came to an incredibly resurgent prominence and not to say that, you know, he hasn't done Fantastic Break before. We all love the Emoji movie here. We all love School of Rock. Mike, we're not doing that this time. Okay, Mike. Rob, everything old is doing it. I'm not doing that. Well, I'm not doing that. I'm going to get it right this time. That seems to be. Mike White. This is a redemption opportunity. Winner pick. He's going to go to Final Tribal Cousel again and say, don't vote

for me. No, he's slaying. He's Mike. No, I'm not doing that. Yeah. But I think that the story of getting Mike back is incredibly interesting because I

think a lot of people would think on paper, Mike, you know, was able to use a lot of his survivor experience in many ways to make the White Lotus. Surely he's moved on. But from what Jeff said on CBS Mornings, Mike told Jeff pretty much right after David versus Goliath, anytime you have a returning season, I am back there.

And it's clear that this man's absolute passion and love for playing Survivor and doing so incredibly well in his first season, gave him the invigoration to be like, production schedule be damned. Or maybe he's like, I need more material. I'm running out of stuff at this point. Give me, give me some more stuff to write about. And so it was asked to Jeff also, Gail King says, you know, how did Mike White make the cut? Does he give that answer that you're talking about? And then the other guy who's not Nate, I'm sorry, all due respect to the other guy who's not Nate I'm sorry all due respect to the other guy he said but Jeff Mike White he's one of the most powerful guys

in Hollywood do you think that the other players will be trying to look for a job from him and Jeff's answer was I thought that Jeff would have said like listen these players are so hungry that they're not thinking about that literally we wanted no rice yeah Jeff's answer was don't think that Mike White has not thought about that Oh, yeah, I mean listen We've all seen the studio how much wheeling and dealing is done of like making faulty promises for parts for people only to not come Through and but Mike's game I think has been overshadowed and this was I think the the second the second sin of my where I went wrong with Mike White

Was that Mike did an incredible job in David versus Goliath of managing his threat level of he came across as ditzy He'd lose his water bottle. He made people think that he wasn't and maybe he literally wore a t-shirt that said Why can't we be friends? Yeah, maybe Mike is has a whole bunch of things planned for these people of like, yeah, I don't really care about this, I'm not even really trying that hard, I just like to be out here. And so maybe that he could sneak up on some folks.

Yeah, I think that that was pretty much what he was able to execute to a T in David versus Goliath where he sort of lay, almost like a new era game, right? Where like he laid low enough in the first half of the game. And then once he got the individual power, made a bunch of these big blind sides where he took out Christian as a good example and was able to get to the end and get a few votes, including from Christian himself. So there are so many eyes that are going to be on Mike white for a variety of reasons. And also now the balance is restored Rob, because Mike white was on two seasons of the Amazing Race with his dad and now he's on two

seasons of Survivor as well. And he may go full Gabler at the Final Trial Council of like hey if I am a very wealthy man I'm blessed I will donate all of this money to charity and you know jury you pick the charity you pick out. But then you're gonna have Joe and Camilla and Kyle and jury be like Do you know charity from our season why she getting all the money? Yeah, okay? All right, so there's Mike white big story here today, and then also From season 38 survivors favorite newscaster Okay, how many?

So I got a breaking news. This just in Rick Devins is back. Yeah. So, oh, yeah. Well, what's intriguing is, again, not to peek too much inside Schmergenbrall. But I feel like of all the names that were bandied about for the longest time, Rick was not one of them, which is incredibly surprising in retrospect, considering that for the longest time, Rick was not one of them, which is incredibly surprising in retrospect, considering that for the longest time, Rick was the best thing since sliced bread for a lot of production.

Yeah, it was quiet. I don't know at what point, you know, Rick came into it. I mean, I assume that he just didn't really talk to anybody. He has a couple of friends in the Survivor community, but I don't think he's like super connected. He's not going to watch parties every week or anything like that. I think he sort of just minds his own business. We know that he is a long time Jeff favorite. Maybe Rick Devins can get in Mike White's ear of like,

hey, Mike White, why'd you ruin me being the saloon owner on Survivor 41 in the original concept. Yes, that's the thing is that Rick was someone that was incredibly popular from a behind the scenes perspective coming out of 38 where he arguably was the headline maker. He returns from the edge of extinction at the merge. He then strings together this massive run of winning four immunity challenges, finding and playing three idols, making this big show at tribal council. And then it's on the receiving end of another headline making moment when Chris Underwood sends himself into fire making, taking out the number one

threat in Rick. Rick was also the first of three co-hosts of On Fire, the official Survivor podcast that are on this cast. So it's clear that Jeff and the show have always loved Rick. And again, this is one of those things that felt like there was only a matter of time before he would come back. Maybe some felt the bloom was off the rose, several years later since he played, but now he's making good on a second chance. And I think also this might help Rick.

Cause I think if he came back for like a survivor 40, there would have been so many eyes on him as, this guy guy that was capable of doing so much I think there's gonna be a lot of new that will pop up in people's eyes as bigger threats than someone like Rick Devins who when his back is against the wall to say he's feisty would be an understatement yes and I would say that the number of idols in the game this might be an underreported story that the number of idols in the game has decreased substantially from around 10 seasons ago when Rick was playing where you know idols just kept Going back into the game over and over and over again. I mean in this game

There was the three pre merge idols and then really only one in the post merge game Yeah, and even that like it'll be interesting to have him interact with both 46, who had a bunch of idols, arguably more and never used them, and then 48, who had so few idols. And we know that the final thing we voted on, Rob, is should idols be in the game? And if for whatever reason it was no, I'll be intrigued to see how Rick and a lot of these castways react. Yeah, I think Rick intrigued to see how Rick and a lot of these castways react. There are very few things that you can be certain of in life.

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["The New Era"] From season 42, one of the most physically intimidating challenge performers we've ever seen, Jonathan. Okay. His job is beach, let's clarify here. His job is beach, okay. Here's Jonathan. And I had felt like that. This was pretty lucky though, not the guy that maybe he resembled very comparable to the Australian survivor player from the jump of that Jonathan. I think that really did

resonate with the casual audience in a way that not many other players were in as far as standouts in the new era. It is shocking he ends up being the only returning from Survivor 41 through 44. Oh, absolutely. I mean, even from 42, which really had such an incredible standout cast. I mean, I do think that Jonathan, especially with, you know, eight going on nine seasons of new Era casting, certainly stands out from an aesthetic perspective.

You know, was certainly one of, as Jeff said, one of the most like physically, you know, appealing castaways. There is of course the incredible moment where during one challenge, he literally drags his entire tribe through the challenge and wins it single-handedly. What I am interested about with Jonathan, and again, especially depending on how we

voted for in terms of supplies, is that this is a guy who gassed on style ate like 16 eggs a day. I don't know nutritionally how he might do in this season. I'll be intrigued to see if he re-trains his body. Originally, that it was too much of a toll on him to go out there and he wouldn't do it again But here he comes back the thing that I'm really watching with Jonathan is that he has This connection to one of the survivor greats and I know he is very close with one Boston Rob Mariano has he been

Learning the BR rules has he been learning the B.R. rules? Has he been training at the direction of one Boston Rob Mariano? I've worked out so well for Philip his second time around right now. Run it back. Philip played with Rob. Like, I wonder if Rob, like in Island of the Idol style, like they've spent a lot of time together that they live close to each other. We like we've talked about like, is Jonathan, you know, Boston Robb's adopted son. Could could Robb have, you know, shown him the ropes a little bit?

I cannot wait for that trip to the sanctuary where good things happen, where Jonathan gets a letter from Boston Robb. Just be like, just a reminder. Make sure you got everything lined up for the end. You better not be crying. Yeah, so Jonathan, do you think he'll say Mr. Jeff on the very first day? Sure, I mean, that's my biggest regret of not being out there is that I don't get to be Mr. Rob.

Yeah, exactly. Only when my son's friends come over. I don't know though, that could be an interesting demarcator is like, if Jonathan calls you Mr. or Mrs. Blank Clearly he has a modicum of respect for you if he doesn't you better watch out because clearly you're not high in his ranking Yeah, that'll be interesting to see like I'm sure we're gonna have mr. Joe, but will we have mr. Kyle mr. Charlie? Yeah, I'm not entirely sure

Again, it might just be a general status mr.. Q, I think, is the real dividing line. Let's see if it was, you know, please. Mr. Q is my father. Yeah, exactly. I don't know. Mr. Q also sounds like the name of like some sort of James Bond as spinoff. So maybe Jonathan's also promoting for his own scripted project. OK. All right. So now we go from 42 to 45.

Mr. Coach is also a very funny one. From season 45, one of the overall most dominating players of the new era, the winner of 45, Dee. Okay, Dee is here, winner of Survivor 45. Okay, Mike, this is where I wanna stop down and ask some questions. Okay, because Survivor is where I want to stop down and ask some questions, okay? Yes, because Survivor had Jeff talked about we had two we had 700 people to pick from and we now got it down to 200

And then we got it down to 80 and then we got it down to 50 Okay, but it seems like that very early on they made a decision of That the players that just did winners at war of that the players that just did winners at war weren't going to come back and it seemed like there was a little bit of a call that was made hey survivor 50 is going to be no winners I think everybody was largely fine with that idea okay no winners and the show kind of like was able to then say when people like but what about the sepia? Where's Earl we want to see them come back that they did have

The ability to say like oh It was no winners. We had no winners. Yeah, sorry our hands are sorry We'd love to we would have tied hands of the fan the sepia back. We would have loved to have had Earl back, but no winners. But it seems like at some point in time, and it seems like it was a recent point in time, that the show said, you know what? I know people are gonna say, where's Walson Robb? Where's Parvati?

Where's Tyson? Where's Sandra? Where's Tony? No winners. But also here's Tony? No winners. But also here's two very recent winners. Yeah. And listen, if you had to bring back new era winners, I think there's been a lot of understandable questions of like, why not Jam Jam? But I think Dee is somebody who, as Jeff mentioned and as has sort of been bandied about what the other one are going

to be talking about of the great player great player I I agree that like it's a little odd to have these two be the only two winners in the cast not to mention like again we'll talk about the target level on so many people's backs D has arguably one of the biggest ones considering she's not only only one of two winners but arguably one of the best winners in recent memory yeah you. Do you might know, Mike, do you think that the players will target these former winners? I mean, Jenna Lewis, Jenna Lewis is on this tribe. Watch out. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think listen, certainly in those early days, of course,

the late, great Rudy Bosch always said when voting early, voting often, you're just looking for a reason. If D does not necessarily have the connections to keep her safe early on, that could absolutely be the case. Another major reason why I am surprised is like, look, this hasn't been officially said, but Dee did appear on another very recent CBS Viacom show.

Why, I thought they'd like it if you go on another show. I mean, maybe because it's under the umbrella, you know? You're not getting dripped on by the rain of the other networks. Maybe it's fine. But I'm surprised Dee herself would want to go out there considering that she just came from the challenge. I mean, really, I guess the two shows are like apples and Johnny bananas. All right. Also from 45. Also from 45. She went from being abrasive to being embraced by Tribemates and fans, Emily. Okay, what do you think?

She went from being abrasive to being embraced. I like it. I like the loose amounts of wordplay. You know, there's some assonance there. Yeah. Okay. All right. Financial analyst, Emily Flippen, told anybody who would listen, I would never go back.

That is so sad, reality stars who go back to beyond shows. What the hell guys, Emily? What are you doing back here? She's like, no, I'm serious. I'm serious. I would never go back. It's embarrassing. Yeah, I mean, she had said that, you know,

when she had signed up to play Survivor, she had no sense as to the depth of the online fandom and I think it certainly gave her some pause certainly when we talked with her and I checked you know when I was doing the wish list last year I checked with several sources from her own season and they said she's not coming back but much like we talked about with a few of these players maybe the call for Survivor 50 was just too much of an allure to bring her back. That said, I'm so excited to see Emily back. Yeah, look, it's always gonna be fun. I don't know if she's going to win, but if anybody is going to not have reverence for your faves, it's going to be Emily Flippen. That's the thing is that even though Emily does undergo this massive metamorphosis in

the game, going from someone who might have been voted off first, were it not for, you know, other events to getting taken out with one vote as one of the biggest threats in the game. I feel like while her personality may be softened, there was still a lot of core tenants there of Emily, who is lovingly blunt, dry, hilarious. That's just who she is in general, situation B Damned, and I imagine that's who we're going to get on this season as well Plus plenty more meme opportunities Rob and Lord knows we need that right now

Yeah I'm also intrigued because uh listen her and Christian have done a lot of playing together On blood on the clock tower as has been showcased on this very you you know, series over on Rob has a podcast. And so there could be a thing where like, obviously working so closely together for so long, they could seek each other out as number ones, or it could very much be like, no, I know how that person operates. I know when they're lying, let's get rid of them right now. Yeah. Emily Flippin is not afraid to be loud and wrong, often in the Blood in the Clock Tower.

She sort of like sets her sights on one person and that's who she's going for. And she is going to like direct a lot of attention to that person. She cannot play under the radar. She's going to trust her gut and her reads. They may not always be right, but they will always be fun to watch.

I am manifesting right now. Make it happen, Probst. We need a reward with Emily and Mike White drinking wine and shit talking to cast. Yeah, or at least margaritas. So I think that probably as far as I know that there is a lot of hand wringing around how much new era makes the cast from Survivor 50. I think that this is one Universally applauded everybody feels like that. They got this right

Yeah, I think that Emily is this incredibly invigorating character who you know undergoes again this incredible arc I am so interested to see what form of Emily is going to come into Survivor 50 because again This is somebody who really got her feet going, you know, but then before the track ends up running out towards the end. So is it going to be kind of starting from square one where she defaults back to this day one Emily mode when she hits the beach or has she taken away a lot of lessons of how she got taken out and it's going to try to apply it from the beginning this time.

And don't forget Mike that her archetype Mentor that not her actual mentor but Cass remember Cass back for a second just like I'm kumbaya Cass Yeah, how to win friends and influence people I made a friendship bracelet it starts off Oh, I'm going I'm not going to be this type of person that I was in my first season And then it kind of resurfaces. So I think early on I think that Emily is going to try to play nice but I think eventually some of the old tendencies will come back. I mean listen, what over under three episodes until we get can I push back on that a little

from Emily? It might happen on the first match. I think she might do it on the match. Well there's a lot of returning players for her to call out. It's not just Bruce this time. Yeah, okay All right, so after Emily we are moving to survivor 46 for a few now From 46 one of the most electric and chaotic players the game has ever seen he's not a one-name player He's a one-letter player Q Okay, so so this was alongside Emily, I think a slam dunk for the new era.

If they did not cast him, Rob, suffice it to say, it would be a big mistake. Yes, if they did not cast Q. Take it, Council Christmas. Council Christmas, okay. They did not make a mistake. Made a mistake. No, no mistake. Another one, and again, I'll give flowers for Q. They nailed it. Excited for him

to be there. You couldn't do this Survivor 50 without Q. I am so astounded to see what Q is going to bring. Because let's go back to the coach example where coach did a lot of antics and survivor token sheens. And then when he came back for Heroes versus Villains, kind of knew what pinged most on the eyes of the viewers. And he's like, okay, let me steer more into the Dragon Slayer thing. Let me spell it out on Parchment. Q obviously made a lot of waves with the cancel Christmas,

with the Q skirt, with the big mistake. You think he's gonna steer even more into the curve this time around, Rob? So I had the chance to speak with Q. He was at the Survivor 48 premiere that I went to, the beach drop that we were together. Oh yeah, I was there with his very cute son. And I talked to Q a little bit,

and some of the things that was a little surprising in talking to Q was that he was telling me about, you know, he really hates people that do things for television. He does not like that at all. Now, I would think of Q as like, You know what he really hates? People that do things for television. He does not like that at all. Now I would think of Q as like, oh, he's doing these things for television. And what he told me is like, no, he just does these things.

That's what it's like to hang out with Q. He's not trying to make television. So I feel like Q could be in a lot of danger. You think so? Well, because you have to think about what are the preconceived notions about these players. And as I've mentioned, Q is largely known for shenanigans and causing havoc. This is the guy who cratered his own game by not warning anybody, sitting at travel council and saying, yeah, can you vote me out? Please.

I think there's a chance that maybe if there's bigger fish to fry, then Q could stay. And the more he gets, you know, his hands in the game, the more he'll be able to hold on. But I think if you're looking for an easy person to get rid of first, there's the idea, especially considering who's returning alongside him of like, we cannot trust Q. That is true. I feel like that of the new era players, like I feel like that they are might be a little bit more conflict averse. And I feel like that if he was with more new era players, like I feel like that they might be a little bit more

conflict-averse and I feel like that if he's with more new era players I think that they're gonna feel like okay we need his strength in the challenges and we don't want to antagonize him. I think they might just let him be for a little bit, feel like he's gonna take himself out at the merge. So let's worry about Q later. We don't have to worry so much about Q in the early game I mean from your lips to the players ears, hopefully Rob because again this man is Absolute television gold. I know there will be a lot of air time to go around with some of these big personalities but again, whether it's a artificial or not, I know that Q is

Absolutely going to bring a lot of gold to the screen, however long he lasts. Okay, all right, let's go to also from spot 46. And from 46, at times she played with Q, and at times she wanted to pull her hair out because of Q, Tiffany. Okay, all right, so I feel not really a you know a great job of hyping up Tiffany for now That her entire like here's why she's on the season. Sometimes she played with Q Sometimes she wanted to pull her hair out because of Q

I mean there has been precedent in the past of casting two people who have had you know bad blood Not to quote a song beloved by the other 40s contestants. Yeah. So Tiffany, and I feel like it is doing Tiffany a bit of a disservice. And look, I think there's been a lot of commentary specifically around Tiffany as to like, you know, should she have made the list? Why is she here? And I think there's an understandable, depending on what you sort of base on, of what makes a good Survivor 50 cast.

I think Tiffany was a standout character of a Survivor 50 cast. No doubt, look. No, no doubt, no doubt. Tiffany should, that in some kind of second chances, Tiffany would be an incredible pick. Would probably be my winner pick in some kind of second chances.

And she could be a sneaky winner pick here, because I think she's probably Underrated as a player. I don't think the people look at her as super scheme II. She's off the charts charisma super Likeable I had a great recap with her during this season I just don't know if we're going to look at the entire Recorded history of Survivor And we get to pick out 24 folks from- Or even 12 from the new era in particular. 25 years of the show, I'm not sure Tiffany makes that list. And it's no disrespect to Tiffany the person.

I just don't know in terms of like, unless they are really banking on, oh, if her and Q are on the same tribe, watch out. just don't know in terms of like unless they are really banking on oh if Her and Q are on the same tribe watch out But I think it's a little bit like I think you might get that from Q and anybody That's very true Q will find a new enemy pretty much within the first few moments of the game I do not disagree whatsoever I think even if you look at like the 12 standout players of the new era again your mileage may vary I think if you if you ask the majority of fans,

maybe Tiffany would not necessarily make that dirty dozen. That said, she is on the cast. And I think that she will make for some entertaining, you know, some entertaining. This is the woman who like found I Alicia within like a two day spam than the first three days of the game. She went out with said I I'd Alicia in her pocket. She is somebody that is going to play the game hard.

And look, Rob, the road of survivor has been paved with sort of WTF casting choices, making a really deep run in the game. She and was on all stars that Amber was on all stars. Yeah. Candice and Danielle were on Heroes vs. Villains like Beast Mode Cowboy was on Game Changers and favorite Game Changers, Sierra Don Thomas. Mm-hmm So it it happens all the time. I do think that Tiffany might be maybe the best player out of any of these

WTF picks that we're talking about so I do think- Kelly Wentworth my challenger there. Kelly Wentworth is another person And at least that was that was truly in the hands of the fans. So the Tiffany stock might be low. She, I think, could be maybe have a Wentworth type run where she could sneak into the final four. You're talking about her as one of the all-time greats. But as of this point, it does seem a little bit like, uh, okay. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. The ellipsis is very much there.

But I'm intrigued to see if it turns into an exclamation point by the time this is over. I think that she might be the person, like, from showing this cast list to maybe a more casual Survivor audience. Might be the person. Wait, who is that again? Which one was she on? That would be a fun video for survivor to do sort of like Remember that uh that Titans video that they did where they they tried to show like people on the street the the NFL logos Yeah, people should do that with let's do that Let's let's show the like do that our cast reveal to like let me see if I could like Maybe I'll get my mom on the phone or something like that show house

Casts the Roseanne says Cesarino sparkle quiz. Yeah, okay. Alright. Next up, another Survivor 46 person. And from 46, it was a cruel summer when he lost in the final three. The question is, can he shake it off before Survivor 50? Charlie. Okay. I never would have thought in my life

that I'd see Jeff Probst authentically including Taylor Swift. Okay, here's Charlie. Fresh off of a RHAP recap, a few of these guests were on with me during Survivor 48, so I commend them for that. Charlie talked about the Pent Ultimate episode, and now that's probably a must listen to go back and see what he had to say about

some of his castmates now at this point. So here's Charlie. I'm thrilled for Charlie. I'm glad he gets the chance to play again I understand that people say like okay. Well like did we need Charlie for Survivor 50? I don't know if we needed him, but we got him and I'm happy for Charlie. Yeah, I think that if people are looking for the specific archetype, which is like the very brainy strategist, I think there were certainly a couple of snubs that you'll get into with Chappelle that may have occupied that and maybe were bigger, more colorful characters than Charlie, who I think set himself up as sort of like the stability amongst all the torrid chaos around him in Survivor 46 with everyone blindsided in their number ones, getting buttered out with idols

in their pocket. Like Charlie was this sort of rock in the middle of the ocean. I think where the returning appeal comes from from Charlie is his loss, is the fact that some would consider it in a jury vote that was as wild as many of the votes in Survivor 46. I think a lot of people felt that Charlie was robbed specifically due to Maria not voting for him to win, which would have won him the game considering that Ben would have voted for him in a tie. And so I think there's a lot of appeal there in terms of like much like an Aubrey back

in Game Changers. Charlie has a second chance now to get that win. I think that for Charlie, I think that what the early game is going to look like is Charlie needs to get that win. I think that for Charlie I think that what the early game is gonna look like is Charlie needs to get Q out That's really if Charlie can get Q out of the game early if he can turn the tribe if they're on the same tribe if he Can turn the tribe against Q get Tiffany enrolled of like hey, let's just get Q. He's too chaotic Q is gonna be the one that's never gonna let people forget about Charlie He's gonna be the one who's always beating the drum of Charlie. He's sneaky We got to get rid of Charlie if that and I don't know if if Q is gonna be feeling like that

Get rid of Charlie is mission number one for him But for Charlie I do think that the first thing he needs to do on his to-do list is get rid of Q I also feel like again while Charlie is considered perhaps one of the, you know, most robbed runners up in the new era, though there are quite a couple, I think that the way that he sort of comes across, and specifically the way he lost, was not like as magnanimous as an Aubrey or a Chrissy that I don't know how many people are like, Charlie is one of the best players of the new era, We've got to get rid of him. He's a very nice, newly minted lawyer that I think as long as he has grip strength, though, what about the grip challenges?

No, but here's but here's the problem. I think that unfortunately, without information going public, everyone's going to tell Charlie like, oh, thanks for the advice, by the way. I bought all these little grippy. Yeah, God knows I did. Yeah, I was going to say. And now and now, unfortunately, he's what I do with this now.

Now, unfortunately, so we'll see if he can get a grip and be able to make his way towards the end again. Spring is here and you can now get almost anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? You can't get a well groomed lawn delivered, but you can get chicken Parmesan delivered. Sunshine? No. Some wine? Yes. Get almost almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in delivered sunshine. No some wine. Yes get almost almost anything delivered with uber eats order now alcohol in select markets See after details

All right, mike, let's go to survivor 47 From season 47 she started the game playing with no emotion then realized emotion was the key to her game Genevieve I'm, not sure I necessarily agree with the Genevieve log line, but we'll go with it. Okay. I mean, that was sort of the big arc that they sort of settled upon, right?

Was like Genevieve had an absolute up and down time to say that she started up and then ended the game down. And I talked about this a lot during our coverage of 47. She essentially had like the typical survivor player emotional arc in reverse where she started being like, all right, cutthroats, Ke'Shawn, out of here, Saul, see you later. And then after a while, she's like, oh crap, I'm really hurting people's feelings right now. And so she actually ended the game in a period of struggle, not only strategically where she was on

the bottom for, you know, the last few days of her game, but also feeling like, like God it kind of sucks to end people's dreams shortly before her own dream was ended. All right, Mike. Here's my Genevieve prediction I think that Genevieve somebody who has been compared to this person in the past I think that Genevieve's run on Survivor 50 mirrors Kim Spradlin in Survivor 40 Where I think that I thought you were gonna say Parvati considering that they are voice twins. No mirrors Kim Spradlin in Survivor 40. Where I think that people- I thought you were gonna say Parvati, considering that they are voice twins. Kim Spradlin, and here's what I think that looks like. Where I think that the players around her

are a little apprehensive. I don't know if I wanna trust her. I don't know if I wanna work with her. She's such a good player, she's such a big threat, but the sheer force of her personality and her charisma Kind of like they want to come in they want they want to get to know her better She doesn't have super tight relationships as far as I know with a lot of these other players So there's a little bit like treating her with kid gloves

And then she ultimately like rides through maybe a rocky pre-merge and then is like ready to go at the merge But like still like like not enough people want to work with her. She's ended up finishing like eighth or ninth place. I mean, it's a good note that Genevieve is someone who, you know, it's not really on social media. She certainly has had engagement and connections with some of these new era cast, but she certainly is not as online, which is great for her own help, but might be detrimental in terms of like, again, if people are looking for an easy reason to vote somebody off it might be like well

We don't know a lot about Genevieve. She doesn't have a relationship with us We might be able to get rid of her or it could be we have no bad blood with Genevieve And so let's keep her around and it would be to their folly I'm really intrigued to get the chance to hopefully talk with Genevieve before the season and find out again She balanced a lot between Genevieve the player versus Genevieve the person How much of that emotional strategic balance is she now going to bring into her second time around when you could argue like in? The second season people tend to play a lot more cutthroat because now they sort of know The emotional ramifications of the game for Genevieve it might be the opposite. Okay. We'll see how Genevieve does

Okay, now let's go to, all right. We did not have this on my bingo card as recently as about five days ago. We got a heavy dose of survivor 48. Yes. Yes. Yes. From 48, she came into the game with a lot of self-doubt

and emerged an assassin. Camilla. Okay! Camilla! This was not on our radar at all throughout the course of the season. And here comes Camilla. And you know, the thing that I thought was a little odd was so I only recently, Thursday, okay, six days ago, we did all of the survivor top five baby Finalist interviews and I got a chance to speak to Camilla who I have been really looking forward to talking to the person who I thought Was probably the most interesting player in the season and I asked Camilla. I said Camilla. All right. I gotta know

Oh, I wish that we could have seen the Camilla cut We saw so much of what Kyle and Camilla were doing Right. What were you doing in the times that we didn't see you with Kyle? And her answer to me was Yeah, really nothing. I was really tired. I did nothing I said, I feel like Camilla like you always the wheels were turning She's like, I don't know why everybody like Camilla like you always the wheels were turning you she's like She said I don't know why everybody always thinks that about me that my wheels are turning and I think she gave us Go ahead girl. Give us nothing to try to keep her threat level low

No, that's a fiber 50 on paper. You think oh, that's the old Camilla negative self-talks piece, you know squeak it in there But Rob, I think it might have been trying to play possum. I was like, this was a dud. I was like, Camilla, where like there was nothing else we didn't see ever. Well, that's interesting because in my interview, she brought so many elements that make me so excited to see her on Survivor 50. Now, look, I do think three people in particular from Survivor 48 is a lot. Especially compared to Survivor 47, which I think had a lot of memorable cast members as well. And again, 41 through 44. But I think a lot of people, at least from

what I had gleaned post-finale, really wanted to see Camilla back arguably out of more than anybody in the cast. Because I think, and this is something I talk with her about as well, Camilla is a very strategy-forward person. While she is no physical slouch, she won two immunity challenges. She is someone that is much more of a brain than a brawn. And she got put on stage and that was largely brawn-dominated by a group that was also very much about playing with loyalty and integrity to your alliance. I would imagine that's not going

to be the case with Survivor 50. And so what I'm really excited about from Camilla's perspective is the ability to put her in a different setting with a different cast and see much like people were sort of proposing throughout the post-merge. How would she do with that group? I am very happy for her. I think that she is also maybe a sneaky winner pick to look out for. I just feel like that she would be more at home in some kind of like new era second chance as opposed to this season. Which fairly or unfairly, I think that people are billing as a season where the legends of Survivor are coming back for this season. The show never said that. The show never said that. But I think that the fan base had the expectations of, okay, this celebration of 25 years will be, you know, our chance for to see the great, the greatest of the greats,

the icons, the titans come back. And with all due respect to Camilla who just got done playing last week we haven't even had a chance to miss her yet I also think what is really not going to help her is the next person we're talking about I think having her and her and as we'll just talk about on the same season it's going to be a massive detriment let's bring this in okay because this is I think we have to talk about this hand in hand From 48 he's cunning athletic and charming the winner of 48 Kyle Okay, cunning athletic and charming here. He is it's Kyle now. I would say now

people I know this is gonna this is gonna sound like I'm anti-Kyle, okay? You are Mr. Disclaimer. I love all the stuff you're doing, Rob. I really, I'm trying, I know that these people are, they're not listening, but maybe they will one day that we know so many people in the survivor community, so I really, I'm trying to be as measured as possible about things. Yeah, I think that Kyle might be my biggest single disagreement

with this survivor 48 cast for a couple of reasons, specifically that we have Kyle and Kyle is an incredible is a great guy. I love I love Kyle as a person. Did you see the video where he revealed his now wife? Did he won a million dollars? I did not see that. Okay, but we have just watched Kyle win Survivor that happened one week ago tonight. Not even not even a full week ago since that so he's already He's already won Plus we are bringing back also

He's already won. Plus, we are bringing back also his top two allies from the season. We'll talk about Joe in a minute. And I understand the case for Joe a little bit more that we'll talk about. But to bring back Kyle and Camilla together, to me, is not such a great idea. Because I think that you look at them and I think that people will naturally say okay well now we have to split them up and they'll say no no no we're not working together this time that was only last time together I heard this song before so I do wonder and I think that I am very worried for Kyle to be targeted for he just won

Oh, he's a winner his secret duo is here his other Alliance partner is also here. He's also one of two winners a Player who is a triple threat, so he's a great player I heard his charismatic athletic and cunning Yeah So he's a great player. His charisma, I heard he's charismatic, athletic, and cunning. Yeah, how, so I just feel like that maybe this is not the best use of this spot, because I don't feel like that Kyle is going to go, now play this when he wins, okay? I don't think that Kyle is going to go especially far in this game, unless that Camilla ends up being the sacrificial lamb earlier, which I would hate for Camilla.

I would like to see Kyle sacrifice in this relationship by at least once for Camilla where And I think that maybe you could see a player like D saying like hey I got to keep the other winner in the game and so if we have to break them up Why not take out Camilla who's not as good in the challenges and maybe I think if Camilla ends up being an early boot Or even a first boot I'm wondering if it might be because that hey we got to break up Kyle and Camilla and D might be protecting Kyle Another winner and that Kyle is going to help more in the challenges, and I would hate to see that happen for Camilla

So it just feels like an untenable situation where I don't think the other players are going to let the 348 people get too far together. So one of them is going to probably be an early boot. It's hard to imagine the scenario where all three of them go far. So that's why I think that they could have done something different here with Kyle. Especially, yeah, forget the old era. the from the new era you had people that didn't make the the cuts like Jesse or Who could have been there and taken up that spot? Omer you know you had a different chance to do something so that is my very Hopefully nuanced reason why I I really was surprised to see

Camilla, Kyle and Joe. I completely agree. Sixty percent of the people we just watched in the finale are coming back. Now look, Jeff has expressed his love of season 48 over and over again. So that might have played a role into it. And I do not begrudge Kyle. He is someone who has said that he wanted to come back. Like as we just experienced,

you never know when the night comes. Kyle would say yes. Nobody should be like Kyle, why did you come back? But that being said, I do agree that it's a little odd to see him on this cast. Now what I am interested by is the relationship between him and Dee, because there's been some discourse in the last week about who's the best new era winner between Kyle and Dee.

Kyle played an incredibly impressive game in terms of playing the middle, in terms of, much like Kim Spradlin, having all these options to make all these underhanded moves throughout the game. But there is so much working against him going in here But because of the fact that he can't necessarily hide he had he just got declared again one of the best players of the new era Very recently he is on the beach with his number one ally and with someone else that would absolutely ride or die for him as well There's a lot that might bite him in his bubble butt. Okay, all right And then one other person from 48

Also from 48 he played one of the most emotional and loyal games of any player ever while physically dominating and challenges Joe is back. Okay. All right. Look and I I do understand the case for Joe I know again I thought all season long that I thought that Joe was gonna win and Kyle was gonna come back for Survivor 50 I feel that and then I was like oh no no no I'm so stupid Kyle's gonna win and Joe's gonna be backwards like no they're all gonna be back for his Bible. Where's Mitch? Where's Mitch everybody? So you got Joe you got, you got Camilla and This is the one you know Joe is a player who Him and Eva that storyline transcended the show I've talked about it many times my mom's favorite

in recent memory Totally understand why Joe comes back. What can Joe do differently in a second timeout? I think is a legitimate question to ask Yeah, I'm so I am so interested in this because when I was talking with Joe about the fact that again he came in I talked to them out there before the season wanting to play a game of Loyalty and taking one big group to the end and succeeded in that, but he ultimately did not succeed in the win. And I asked him, you know, is that something that could win you a season of Survivor in this day and age?

And he basically said, like, look, if there was another season, I might play differently. If there is a different group, I might not stick to that. But as you're sort of alluding to right now, this is such a core tenet of who Joe is. You know, this is a guy that wears his heart on his tattooed sleeve. And I think considering how much success it brought him in this most recent season, even if it wasn't the win, it might be really tough.

Much like you were speaking out with Emily, Joe might come in a la JT being like, all right, I'm ready to start letting the blood loose. But I think eventually once he gets to know these people, he's like, no, I got to lock in with my group again. Let's take him to the end. I actually think if Joe tried to do something different, I think it would actually be bad and might be fun to watch. So I would be interesting to see him try something new.

And I think that like if Kyle ends up being the person who goes out early, I think that maybe, OK, what does Joe look like without Eva? Like, what does Joe look like when he's not like insulated by- Which is sort of, I think, the appeal of what some of us were hoping for with like a Camilla versus Kyle. And that's why I hope that people don't feel like I'm picking on Kyle here. But of the three, if one must go, I would have preferred to have seen if you need the big Survivor 48 contingent, and I don't know if there's another Survivor 48 person. If you want to replace, you know,

I just throws it off say on Survivor 48 I would have been fine with that also but to bring back three people that were just that Kyle is the common denominator with the three the Zendaya in the three tickets to challengers of it all. Oh, so I just think that No offense to Kyle, but that's why I look at him as the person maybe we didn't need. And also I didn't love the idea that we brought in two winners randomly very close to the end. Well, something that I think is also probably going to be on the mind of Joe is the fact

that as you mentioned before, a lot of people and maybe himself included thought he would be the odds on a favor to win going into a final tribal council. And it not only did it not happen, he gets a jury vote. He winds up in third place. When I was talking to him, and I don't know if you experienced this as well, Robin, talking about sort of like what went wrong. Joe was kind of being a little vague with some of his statements, whether it was directly about everything going on with David,

or he just sort of basically told me like, yep, it's all on me. I didn't have whatever the jury wanted, and that's what lost me the game. I'm wondering how much from that loss and the lessons therein are going to be paying in his head should he make it to the end game again. Yeah, I also wonder if that tribal council might have been a little bit more contested and heated in terms of like the jury's dispersions towards Joe that we didn't get to see. So I would have said it was a pretty salty jury is the way she put it in my which we did not really see on the show.

Yeah. So that'll be intriguing as well. I mean, that's something that Joe and maybe a coach could connect with. Right. It's like figuring out the way that jury's. Am I right? Yeah, exactly. Right is like figuring out the way that you're is am I right? Yeah, exactly The way you send people to the jury how does that impact and new players are different from returning players? But we saw from your second season Rob how even a jury of returning players might arguably have even more ill will towards the finalist Oh, yeah that The returning player juries are incredibly salty. Yeah

So that's the thing is that maybe Joe and kosher are already kind of forged in fire in that regard. Yeah, okay. All right, then the curveball. We weren't sure we were going to hear anything about this. Here we go. And from Season 49... two players from a season you haven't seen that won't premiere until the fall, those players will

remain a mystery for now. Okay. All right. So this was the one that and we know, you know, stupid us. Okay. We never thought that this was going to be the case and survivor. They always do this. And I don't know if the thinking is like maybe they had these two people that they fell

In love with or maybe they're thinking like hey well we got to give people a reason to watch survivor 49 We don't want people to just tune out and then come back. We're hyping up 50 so much We got to make sure that like they're there was stringing them along to find out who these people are there They're gonna be on survivor 50. You know you got to watch the prequel to Survivor 50. So we get two people from Survivor 49 to come back to play. And of course, you know, Rupert was on All Stars, Russell was on Samoa, you know, Malcolm was on, was on Caramo and Mikaela and Zed were on Game Changers. No Tommy Sheehan on Winners at War.

But for the most part, we almost always do this. And so here we go. Two folks that are coming in unknown quantities. One man and one woman, presumably. Yeah, and you say unknown quantities. What's so intriguing about this concept always is the fact that they are in a game of known quantities. Nobody had seen anything of Russell hands except for the fact that they knew somehow he did something to become one of the five most infamous male villains in Survivor history. And I think that's partially some of the reasons why Russell ends up being as successful on Heroes versus Villains as he is. Again, Michaela and Zeke in these all star season where you're largely

targeting people who have the reputations early on, these two are going to be a blank slate. The only thing that these people have seen is a one-minute promo that might not have even featured the two people that are going to be on 49. What I am really interested in seeing, Rob, is is there a story that these two end up cooking up together to make up like, Oh, I didn't do terribly well. I'm like a ninth place. I got blindsided. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Or even that. Yeah. I hate that person. Like we don't get along. They're best

friends, you know, or they don't like each other. And they're like, yeah, like we're actually like, uh, we're good. You know, we have no no beef here so that might be interesting to see and of course a subplot that we will keep an eye on and I You know, it's on paper It seems like it's never gonna go great for these people who are coming in who don't know anybody But then it always seems to work out for them Yeah And again, they are coming in and able to make a first impression with these people without having any other preconceived impressions coming in It's not like oh this one's really buttering up to me, but I know how they are

They don't know how they are so for all they know that what they see on the carton might actually be what's inside And so and we have no idea how they did and so how far they've got and really what is the layoff in between? the end of Survivor-49 and then when they come back and so I mean if they made it to the end of Survivor 49 and then when they come back and so I mean if they made it to the end game it's a very short layoff I want to say like a couple weeks max mm-hmm yeah but on the other hand like they could have been like a like a Caleb type where they made a big impact in say 12 13 days and so it's basically they played Survivor for two weeks and then are playing it again in

six weeks so maybe not the like biggest thing to turn around and do it's not like when Russell went 39 days in Samoa And has like 20 days off and then played again for 39 days Yeah, so we shall see exactly what they are going to provide I mean even within like if there is a new era tribe made up of all of the latter 12 like if there is a new era tribe made up of all of the latter 12 personalities, would be 12 and 12. Yeah. And they, but they have not made the connections that a lot of these other new era contestants have, or, you know, when someone's on survivor, you sort of get like welcomed into the alumni community, especially from the new era, which is a little more insular. I don't know if these two necessarily were trying to like be like, Hey, just so you know,

I'm on the upcoming season and maybe more. Can we chat for a second? I don't know. All right Mike what else are we watching out for here in these next couple of days? Well I think that obviously the cast was the major announcement we know that you know they are going to be most likely on their way to Fiji if they are not already what I'm incredibly interested to see from an announcement perspective is if we're going to find out any more information about the season itself. We talked about this at the very beginning, but 24 is unheard of in American Survivor.

It's a typical Australian Survivor cast, but they play almost twice as long as a new era season. So we'll see if it's only 26 days, besides the fact that I hope nobody has an aneurysm out there on either side of the camera. I would imagine that we're going to get a lot of like double tribal councils. And so from that, I'd say we have a question from Tarvald's quest about that. Yeah. How are we going to fit 24 players into 26 days without things feeling rushed or unfair? So yeah, we don't know if it's going to be two tribes. We don't know if it's going to

be three tribes. If it's three tribes, know, they they could do the thing where it could be four tribes They love six person tribe Rob. That's true They could do the thing where only one tribe wins immunity and both tribes are going to tribal council that don't win immunity all throughout the pre-merge and so basically You might be able to you know have eight or nine people out at the pre-merge or like do it like one would get, I mean, you could get down to 13 people by doing the immunity challenges that way. Yeah. I mean, you could also, I mean, essentially you would have to go to tribal council every

single day, you know, say goodbye to reward challenges or separately reward challenges. It would basically have to be to fit into 26 days and to get down to three people at the end, if we are getting down to three people at the end, it would have to be pretty much rinse and repeats, spending more time with Jeff than you probably are back at camp, which if there was a group to do it, it wouldn't make sense with returning players. On the other hand, we have also seen some, some statements from, you know, players who do play some of those like one day rinse and

repeat cycles that it's actually really tough to like change things up in the moment when you only have really a handful of hours to strategize every day. So my hope is that they extend it past 26 days. At this moment, I do not know to your point, we don't know if it's going to be 12 versus 12, maybe old era versus new era. We don't know if it's going to be three tribes of eight just divided up with a mishmash of old era and new era. There's a lot up in the air at this point. Mike, I feel like there was some talk about a photo that was going to transpire today. Are we expecting to see some sort of like cast photo at the airport today? So I know they're probably taking footage today. I don't know if it's something that

they'll roll out immediately, because here's the thing. Survivor 50 doesn't air until spring 2026. So they're going to have to kind of apportion out their own marketing if they want to, especially with the fact that there will be another whole last season of Survivor airing in the fall. So it might have been stuff that they capture now and might use in 2026 when it gets closer to the air date proper. It could be something that they released now being like, the cast has been announced and they're on their way to Fiji, let's take a look.

But otherwise I would imagine, and I might be wrong here, the majority of 50 content from CBS, I think will by and large exist either at the end of this year or beginning of next. I wanna thank this live audience. This is the biggest live audience I think we've ever had that I've seen on RHAP. Really? Over 11,000 people.

Yeah, incredible. So thank you all so much. Really appreciate you being here with us. It is an exciting day to get the chance to talk about all this. Make sure you're subscribed. Hit that subscribe button and look, it wouldn't kill you

to give us a thumbs up also, okay? Listen, depending on whether you give thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs medium to this cast, give us the thumbs up. This was such a pleasure. I mean, obviously, you know, from my own personal perspective, this is something that I have been prognosticating about

for the better part of a year. Yeah. And look- I think it was almost a year to the date that we started the wishlist, Mike. Yeah, and so here's the thing. We've been in these survivor streets long enough to know that when it comes to every returning player cast, there are ones that we are absolutely obsessing over.

There are ones that we're like, okay, we could take or leave. There are some that were saying, why the hell are you back here? It comes part and parcel with Survivor. And I think there were a lot of opinions, understandably so, being bandied about with this cast who's on, who's not on.

Maybe it's just the person that I am. I choose to look on the sunny side, with the many sunrises these people will watch over the course of Survivor 50. And color me incredibly intrigued to see what is going to happen on these beaches that we get the great pleasure of getting to see next spring. I suspect what we get is going to be great. I, you know, we can go through it.

We're going to have our grievances with ultimately whatever they would have come up with. And you know, I just, we've documented them. We've said them, we vent, okay, but we're here to enjoy whatever comes after this. And Mike, I am so excited to get the chance to talk about it all. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast feeds as well. We know survivor.com, getrhap.com for that. And next week, we're gonna have the top 25 greatest moments

in Survivor history. And fans have voted and Mike Bloom every Wednesday in June will be announcing the 25th greatest moments in Survivor history. Yeah. So for those that missed it last week, we got together an illustrious panel of podcasters, former players, members of the Survivor media to assemble a list of 100 iconic moments from the first 48 seasons of Survivor. And then we put it in the hands of the fans where you all voted on what were the 25 greatest moments in Survivor history. Those results

have been tabulated and I will read out the results every Wednesday starting next week. We are going five at a time. I think it is very fun that we had this cast reveal before then because I imagine it's pretty much assumed, but I will outright say that there are at least a good chunk of the 25 greatest moments in Survivor history that will feature members of the Survivor 50 cast. And so it'll be sort of a good reminder as to the legacy that these people were able to create for themselves before assumingly continuing that legacy on a Survivor 50. So again,

every Wednesday and I will be joined on the first podcast by the one and only Rob Cesarino for moments 25 to 21. Boom, boom. Okay. Let's talk about it next Wednesday. In the meantime, Survivor Know-It-Alls will be breaking down the Survivor 50 cast, taking your questions. Hearing what Steven has to say, we'll be live once again tomorrow for any Survivor news that breaks in the next 24 hours or so. We'll be back on Thursday for a special Survivor Know-It-Alls talking Survivor 50. Also, the 50 draft. Oh is coming on Sunday night. Oh, it looks unhappy. Maybe he's estimating his low draft spot on Sunday night

We're gonna be live with the drafters no way that we could get spoiled for this one Okay, the drafters and I will get together this Sunday night This is gonna be patron only for the live stream The drafters and I will get together this Sunday night. This is gonna be patron only for the live stream. Robin's website.com slash patron if you want to check that out. We will drop it in the main feed in the Survivor 50 pre-season just like we did

with our Survivor 50 predictions draft which we dropped in the main feed just the other day on Friday I will be back taking questions with the patrons live a little bit of a later start time maybe five or six o'clock on Friday I will be taking all the questions from the patrons I maybe answered some of those questions last night when I got together with the first lady of podcasting where I talked a little bit about Everything involving me and survivor 50 over in the patron podcast feed as well we've got live shows coming up this fall for

New York and San Francisco East Coast and West Coast where we will be scouting out the players going to survivor 50 if you want to be there with us the patrons are going to get early access to those tickets this summer and a little bit of a heads up for patrons if you want to get in This is a good time to do it because we are retiring the five dollar tier of Patreon at the end of this month, but we are grandfathering in everybody who is a current patron at that time at their pre-June 1st pricing. So if you want to jump in, it's a great time to become a patron. We got a lot of fun stuff coming to the patron feed in the next month.

Of course, we know Survivor.com. We could hear all of our updates about Survivor 50. All right, Mike, anything else for you? Yeah, so first thing I will say, and you sort of alluded to it with your myriad disclaimers, Rob, but anything that we said today with regards to, you know, maybe some of the nitpicks we have

towards the Survivor 50 cast is meant for no offense towards the people that are on the cast. Again, everyone has opinions about who they want to see back for this particular milestone season. And while we may disagree about, you know, certain people that were brought on from our perspectives We are excited to see this group of 24 people hit those beaches in a year's time But in the meantime, I mentioned the 25 greatest moments in survivor history That will be coming up every wednesday from june 4th through july 2nd

So do not miss it getting to take a big walk down a quarter century of Survivor. And speaking of that quarter century celebration, Survivor reaches its 25th anniversary again on Saturday. I've been putting out- Happy birthday to Survivor. Exactly. You don't look a day over 21. But I will have been putting out some pieces on Parade.com. I've got a couple down the pike that I'm really excited about. I got to talk with Matt Benwagnan, who is one of the executive producers, one of the big brains behind the scenes at Survivor.

And I asked him, who were his top favorite non-winners in the show's history? And Matt came to me with a really fun out-of-the-box idea, which was this idea of, if Survivor produced a line of action figures, a la Rudy Bosch and Andrew Savage, the first line would obviously be all the winners, but who would be part of that second line? And so he gave me a list of 25 non-winners,

some of which were mentioned in this very podcast, from the perspective of who is the most toyetic. So I will do the unboxing later this week. And then on May 31st, I've alluded to it before, I'll say it again, on the 25th anniversary of Survivor, Jeff Props reveals to me his top 25 seasons of Survivor. So it's a list that you will not want to miss out on. Other than that, plenty of other stuff going on in terms of the reality flash. We'll have Big Brother coming down the pike before we know it, Australia vs. the World, which

will feature Saree on it for a fifth time soon to be six. Plenty of stuff out there that you can check out on social media at a Mike Bloom type. And thank you so much, Rob, for having me on to break down what will go down as a day in Survivor history. I didn't think we had a two hour show in us today. I just like, what are we gonna do?

The names are kind of out there, but no, this was great. This flew by. I loved all the energy from the chat as well, so thank you all so much for being here. Look, we're having a great time talking about all this, and it's gonna keep going for the foreseeable future here on REJP. Thank you so much. Take care. Have a good one. Bye.