RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 50 Flashbacks: Colby Donaldson at the Austin Live Show

Episode Date: June 15, 2025

This week, we're flashing back to the Survivor Know-It-Alls Live Show in Austin, Texas for Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers Episode 12. 

Hey everybody, what's going on? Rob Cisternino back with you for another episode of the Survivor 50 Flashback series where we are opening up the vault to bring you some old school interviews that I've done over the history of Rob as a podcast. Colby Donaldson is coming back for his fourth time on Survivor in Survivor 50. And I had the chance to catch up with Colby Donaldson in person. We got together for the Survivor Know-it-alls in Austin, Texas, on the night of December 6th, 2017. We watched the video also from that night. We had a great turnout.

Kim Spradlin was there, Burton was there, Reynolds was there, Brett and Chris were there. Really fun night in Austin, Texas. And of course, the star attraction was Colby Donaldson who came back and regaled us with some stories of what it was like back in the day. So this was a really fun night, a really fun podcast. Excited for you to listen to this one. Last week I caught up with Jenna Lewis

or reposted my interview with Jenna Lewis if you missed that one. So I hope you're enjoying the series and hope you enjoy this interview with Colby Donaldson from December 2017. Smartest guys around are about to break it down like they won the game a million times. Shooting techs, they never won the game at all. Yeah. Survival no, it owes. Survival no, it owes. Sing it if you know it. Steven Robb without a doubt got all figured out, they know it all Let's see if I have a microphone Right here

Surviving, no we don't Give it up for Steven Ruhm everyone! He nailed it! He nailed it! Oh my god, how are you guys doing tonight? Terribly. No, no. People are not happy.

Don't cheer. Yeah. People are not happy tonight. Boo. Boo. Donna! Um. Steven, how are you?

I'm awful. What a tragedy. Steven is bummed out. Okay, A? A? First of all, why did she do that? Why did she do that? Why did she do that? Why did she do that? Stephen, how are you? I'm awful. What a tragedy. Stephen is bummed out. Okay, A, first of all, why did she just not pick it up out of the fire, right?

Just reach in there, cinch your fingers a little bit and be like, I still am in this game. Is the fire at tribal council some interdimensional portal where if you throw something in there, it cannot be retrieved from the fire. Jeff throws a fake idol in there, this is a fake idol. Pfft. Nobody can go and get it out of the fire after Jeff throws it in there, the next tribal council,

they're like, hey, I want that. More importantly, Rob, I told you the Ben and Lauren thing wasn't gonna pan out. Do you really? Do you really? I, more importantly Rob, I told you the Ben and Lauren thing wasn't going to pan out. Do you really? It took a long time. How's everybody out there doing tonight? We are here in Austin, Texas to have a great crowd, beautiful crowd.

Give it up for this crowd. And it is an angry crowd. It's an beautiful crowd. Give it up for this crowd. Yeah. And it is an angry crowd. It's an angry crowd. But it's like, you know, I feel like everyone is either rooting for Ben or for Lauren. So like, what do you do when they're against each other? You know, it's like, what do you, who do you root for? I don't know, this crowd seemed a hundred percent pro Lauren tonight. 100% pro Lauren tonight. All right, well, we've got a really great show here tonight. We got a lot of survivors here that we're going to talk to. Very excited about that. We're going to take a lot of your questions here tonight. I've checked with the room. We can go a little bit longer than we normally do at the live show.

How about that Brett LaBelle singing the opening number? Oh my God. He's got the voice of an angel. Voice of an angel. Like a very hoarse angel. So we have a lot to get to here tonight, of course. Exit interview with Lauren Rimmer coming up tomorrow morning. Yeah, what, you don't want to hear tonight, of course, exit interview with Lauren Rimmer coming up tomorrow morning. Yeah. What, you don't want to hear from her? So we're going to talk to her tomorrow morning

on the podcast as well. How long do we have to wait till we get Lauren back on our TV screens? Is she going to be the ghost in Survivor Ghost Island? How great, come on. I don't know what you're talking about. Steven, come on. Come on, keep it together. So I guess where do we start on this? This was like unprecedented tribal counseling. Well it was unprecedented because when Devin got up and walked across the room, I think we all thought, you know, he's imitating JT, right? That's why that was my impression as well. Well it took a long time for that to come back into this season. We talked about this, the effect of one of the, actually the know-it-alls that we did earlier this season.

We've really come full circle with the know-it-alls this season because we were in New York City in March when there was that Malcolm Tribal Council and we talked about what is the long-term effect of this going to be. Where will we see people getting up at tribal councils all the time? And this is the first time we see this here in Survivor 35. And one of the episodes that they had watched right before they left, right, was that tribal council.

So they saw, they didn't see the full season 35, but they did see a good chunk of it. And they certainly saw up to the JT tribal council, or the Malcolm tribal council. So the thing for Lauren, as I'm watching this tonight, is really there was almost nothing that she could have done to prevent this. Except the one thing that could have saved her

in this situation. I mean, everybody voted for Ben. He played an idol against her. The only, like, there's nothing she could do except having an immunity idol of her own, and that was exactly what she did to herself in giving it away. Right, I mean there's something to the idea of,

like let me use this immunity idol to get numbers, because numbers are gonna be more important in the long term than one idol. On the other hand, like you have to get to the long term for the numbers to matter. What it reminded me of was from Game Changers, where Sarah says to Seree, hey, here is my game advantage.

You can hold onto it for the night just as a measure of trust. And this is two seasons in a row where we see somebody who gets that thing of trust and says, okay, well, I'm gonna do my own thing with this. And I'm gonna use this to my advantage. Dr. Mike, a little bit more maliciously than Suri tried to do.

I mean, pretty interesting. The lesson we take away is, like, definitely don't promise your advantage to somebody else or your idol. But, you know, yeah, I don't know. Why did Lauren do this in the first place? Why did she need Dr. Mike on her side? Was it because she felt like that Ben had the numbers,

the tide was turned against her? Right, I think that was part of it, right? I think maybe she had so much trust with Ben leading up to this moment that she never in the world thought he would keep a hidden idol from her. I mean we saw all this episode how completely open everyone was being about everything. You know Ben is totally open about his fake idol. Lauren is super open about the idol she finds and I think she maybe just got complacent and assumed that you know oh we're all sharing everything. There's

no way Ben has an idol and you know so kudos to Ben for that incredible job of keeping that one crucial piece of information from everybody. I mean, my guess is that Lauren's head is spinning within the course of an afternoon, basically, right? From that conversation at the water well, this alliance that she's pulled together is falling apart around her. Suddenly she finds she's the target. This guy Ben, who she had this longstanding relationship with with is betraying her, revealing all of her information.

So she probably, it's like, just on a whim, was like, I gotta get someone on my side here, let me give this to Mike, and we'll spend the rest of her life regretting that. Here, I've got my moments, believe me. It almost seems like she could have given him any shell. Yeah, yeah. Like, hey Mike, I got something for you.

It's a shell. It's half the immunity I had, trust me. What about, now what Mike did, an amazing TV moment, you guys went nuts when that happened. Everybody in the room screamed. Was there wisdom there? Was that a good move on his part? That was great. You're asking that rhetorically.

Of course, when he has the one alliance who's coming to him and is turning on itself, and then he basically plays those two alliances off against each other. Mike is the last healer left. He would have been a very simple consensus boot and He's still in it now. Nobody's targeting Mike. I think you're being a little results oriented there Steven Because if Mike had had his way tonight, right Ben would have gone home. He voted for Ben He wanted everybody to vote for Ben at the tribal council, and he just threw half

of an immunity idol into the fire for somebody that then was gonna go back to camp and rip him a new one when they got back to camp. It was actually, I think, a favor for him that Lauren got blindsided at that tribal council after he did that to her. So was that a smart, I mean, he could've had that thing in his pocket and said to us

in confessional, you know, getting Lauren's, Lauren made the worst move ever to trust Dr. Mike. But I'm never going to play it on her. Even if she gets voted out, I'll never play, I keep it in my pocket. He threw it in the fire and then actively tried to keep her in the game. Right, yeah. But it seemed like that was all evolving so quickly. He threw it in the fire when he was planning to take it out. So you think that the live tribal changed.

Yeah, I think so. I agree with you. Why make that big TV moment? He looks so happy though. He's like, Jeff, I've been waiting 15 years for this. Throw something in the fire. What is it, like a wishing well that people just want to go on the show? 15 years for this. Throw something in the fire. What is it, like a wishing well that people just wanna go on the show? Like, I've been waiting to burn this thing, too. It's hard to say.

Now, I mean, he's in an amazing position now, right? Because they all hate each other and nobody's after him. Last week, you and I talked about how there was the opportunity to vote Ben out of the game. And this was Lauren's idea. Lauren talked to Ashley about it. They seemed on board. Devin said no. Even this episode, they were talking about, we have to get rid of Ben. And Devin again said no. Chrissy is the biggest threat because everybody's going to vote for her if she gets to the end. They... seems like a real missed opportunity at this point.

It seems like that is a game changing move to not have gone to go after Ben at that last tribal council where he would not have used his idol and they could have blindsided him at eight. Yeah, in retrospect, of course, like after this. We first guessed that. I don't know, I still. Well, I first guessed that and you said, no, no.

No, but from Lauren and Devin's perspective, right, isn't their ideal scenario going down to the final four with them and Ben, and then Ben is the obvious target, he's not that great at immunity challenges, like if I'm Devin in that spot, like I want Ben around as long as I can keep him around because he's the big target. So, you know, but what I don't want is Ben sneaking up on me

at the water well and everything, like, everyone freaking out, you know? So, yeah, like, apart from that moment, which, you know, I was sitting next to Chris over there and he was saying, you know, it's a game of inches, right? If Ben is 30 seconds slower walking up that path, you know, we got a totally different game. Yeah, it's been fun to watch Ben this season

because we've seen different people, you know, be the actual eavesdropping spy. I don't think we've ever seen somebody so big have that in his playbook. Like, Tony is broad, but he's not like, but Ben has done this a couple times, where he's just able, like, he's like lurking in the bushes. Yeah, yeah.

And he comes up at the exact moment when they're talking about, hey, maybe we should get rid of Ben. Well, let's talk about that, right? Because like, technically speaking, I mean, obviously Ben like aced it, right? He figured out that they were talking about him, he played his idol at the perfect time.

Like you can't take anything away from Ben this episode, but I'm going to. Um. It's, he was wrong, right? Like Devin was talking them out of voting for him when he came up on them. And I think that's one of, like I think every person who's played Survivor

has been in that position where you walk up on a group of people and they're all like, hey, how are you? What do you think we should do tonight? You know, and like that's when you know. And how much do you read into that? Like, is this just the background noise of being on Survivor where everyone is constantly plotting against everyone or is this the moment to make your move?

Like, did you think this was the right spot for him? It's hard to say. I think that one of the underrated things in the episode was that thing that Jeff called out at tribal council about Devin and Ashley, where it seemed like that those two seemed like that they're closer. And Ben, I think, was really feeling like that he was feeling uneasy about the vibes

that he was getting. And then when he walks up on that conversation, I think he, you know, where he definitely heard his name, I think he would rather have been wrong in being aggressive than been wrong in doing nothing about that. And I thought coming into this episode that there would be a decent chance that Ben would go and flip back to Ryan and Chrissy and Mike

after being able to play the spy. That's not, it ultimately at one point, it looked like that was gonna happen, but not, it wasn't a straight line to get to that path, where it was actually Chrissy and Ryan were really upset with him following that tribal council from last week where Joe got voted out.

Well, let's talk about that because Chrissy comes off looking pretty bad, right? Where she's holding this grudge against Ben Ben comes to her with this opportunity like what do you think of Chrissy's point of view there you know Chrissy was really hard to read in this episode because it feels like that her hesitation in telling dr. Mike is like okay here's the plan we're going after Ben where she was like well I don't know if I can do this she was non-committal to Mike which then caused Mike to spin out and then go back to Lauren

and reveal Ben's plan to Lauren when he did his plan B. I wonder if Chrissy would have been, you know what, bygones are bygones. I'm good with Ben. Let's vote against Lauren tonight if they would have just been able to have a straight shot at that and then have the four of them vote out somebody from the Lauren, Devin, Ashley side. I mean, I totally agree with you, but I totally also understand why Chrissy, after six days of being completely deceived by Ben, had trouble trusting him again.

And also, like, there's the issue of, like, you're on television, you know? Do you want to be embarrassed on national TV again? You know, like, I feel like that's always a little bit in people's minds. It's like, am I going to look like a bozo on national TV? Yeah, again. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I thought that Chrissy really in this episode,

she was very vindictive towards Ben and did not let him, I thought for sure she was gonna let him see his wife when she came out and she had the choice. I like, Jeff kept giving more people and I thought eventually she was gonna relent and she said, no, he's punished. Listen, she won that. He's punished.

She won that big marble draw by herself, you know? Like, she deserved to make her own decisions. You love that challenge. Wow, wow. Seriously though, I actually think that's the worst challenge in the history of this show. And I'm including the dance-off in Fiji. The kite flying challenge in our cases. Bocce ball. Bocce ball bowling. Fishing. Fishing. So what was it?

Can you articulate what your problem was? This was the first time ever, I think, and please someone correct me if I'm wrong, that the players had zero agency. They had no effort. There was nothing required of them. And I was texting with Dalton about it, and he said this must have been a challenge, there must have been another challenge they had planned, and they were like, something went wrong with it,

and they were like, what do we do? We got these bags of marbles, let's go with these. Yeah, I do think that there could have been something more to it if it was almost like a genius type game of you and your loved one have to both guess. A guess at the same time, yes. Yes, yes, you're both guessing,

like pull out a white rock or a black rock, what's your partner going to pick? Like they think that might have been something like a rock, paper, scissors, but yeah, I mean, but I'll tell you, when Ben is standing there holding the rock and his hand is shaking, I mean, there's some drama in that moment. Well, so I was also texting with Wiggler about it

because I was so outraged at this moment. Wow. My phone, I was losing, I was going very quick. That must have been a real crazy WhatsApp group. Yeah. And he said that he did not hate it because this is the first time, or this was a time when the survivors

completely had their fate in just the, you know, in randomness' hands. You know, because they had no agency. You know, I'm with you. I mean, Wiggler's totally wrong. I completely agree. But, you know, there's something to it, right? That there's like some drama in, yeah, I don't know.

Okay, all right. We have so much stuff to get to. I wanna bring up somebody to kick off the conversation with us. And she is here. She is a winner. And she's fantastic on the podcast. Let's bring up Kim Spradlin.

Here she comes. Wherever you want to be. Is this mic on? Here she comes, wherever you want to be. Is this mic on? Please stand for Kim Spradlin. Knock you over. Yeah. Kim, how are you feeling after all this tonight? I feel good. I kind of feel a little out of it. Are you okay? Can I can I give you a Lauren Rimmer sticker to wear while you're up here? How you came prepared with stickers? Yes this is a sticker. Remember Lauren. It says Rimmer time. There you go in honor. Do you have

stickers for every one of them? Like I was given a bunch of stickers by one of our listeners Ian Rice. Ian where's Ian? Where's Ian? He's over there in the back. He printed out stickers. Here Stephen you can wear. No no out stickers. Here, Steven, you can wear. No, no, I want Lauren's stamp. No, you can wear the, wear the hashtag, DevonBro. Okay, okay. That's the closest I have to a JTBro. Okay.

Probably. Kim, how are you? I'm good, how are you guys? Yes, that's good. This is fun. Yes, well, so happy that you're here with us, and I figured that it would, somebody who actually knows how to win the game,

it'd be good to get your take on the events of tonight. Gosh. Yes. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know what to say. Well, what- I'm a Ben fan. Ben fan, that's good. Is that okay? I didn't know, I was starting to really like Lauren,

but that was a new thing for me. I've liked Ben for a long time, so I'm still excited that Ben's still there. Were you surprised by the way that the tribal council shifted? Because I thought there was going to be a split vote. Yeah, I did too. Yes, I was surprised. What happened there where suddenly all six of them were voting for Ben?

I don't know. And who was saying be brave? Chrissy was saying that to Dr. Mike. So that meant vote Ben? Or did he talk her into voting Ben? It seemed like he talked her into voting Ben. Yeah, because the crazy thing about this episode tonight, and I guess of Survivor, was Chrissy this whole episode

was, I hate Ben. He's punished. He's punished. I don't like him. I don't like him. And then, I can't vote for Ben. Guys, I can't do it. What?

But that doesn't surprise me about Chrissy. Does it, you? Yeah. That's how she strikes me. I think that they, maybe they had like this great alliance where it was like, you know, they were in a fight, but then as she ultimately did- She wanted to punish him,

but she wanted him to love her, ultimately. Yeah. Right? Right. This is like what goes on at my house where it's like I'm in trouble, but I don't have to leave. You're not supposed to leave. Where are you going? Well, so what about Dr. Mike? Did Dr. Mike play it correctly?

What do you think of the whole the Mike scenario? With him throwing the shell in the fire? Just all of it. Like A, the flipping out the one. Or did he throw the real shell in the fire? I mean, oh that would have been a real... Maybe he still has the real shell, but then Lauren has the leather strap, so he's screwed anyway. No, I think he should have. I think he should have kept it.

I don't know if that got him anywhere, but he didn't know Ben had an idol. Yeah. So I just feel like he's a showman. I'm so confused this season. He's a showman. I think he just like fell in love with the idea. Of making that big. It was a great TV moment.

It was a grand gesture. It was amazing, but I don't know if you had to do that. But this is what I love about Lauren is that like, she had a comment, I tweeted it when she said it, was that like, yeah, Ben's got this fake idol, but so what, who cares, like what does that do? And this is what I love about Lauren is that like, she wasn't about the TV moments, you know,

she was just about like, you know, playing the game. Yeah, it was great at that tribal council when Ben was talking about how he was upset about what was going on, and you know, he started talking about like playing the game, and she would say something along the lines of like, oh, we've got a game for you tonight. That was a great moment.

She's funny. Yeah, she had really good- And she and her sister were funny. She had really great life. Yeah, how great was her sister? Amazing. What was her sister's name? Sunny!

Sunny Sunny! Sunny Sunny! Sunny Sunny! She came out, she gave Jeff Probst a hug. Which has never been done before. Clear priorities. In the show. And then, yeah, she came out and it turns out that Lauren's sister really wanted to be on

the show. And they went to casting and they picked Lauren. They picked Lauren. It happens. And then they put up on the screen like go to CBS cast the survivor casting dot com in that moment and I really think that you know we've heard a lot of people from the listeners of the podcast will they cast more people like Lauren in the future? We want more Laurens. One Lauren wasn't enough.

We want Laurens on every season. And it seems like that they are trying, they hear you and they are looking for more Laurens. Hashtag Rimmer Time. I was the Lauren of my season. Yes, you were. I was. In what way?

Tell us about how you were Lauren. I don't know, I was the every woman. The Fisher,, you were. I was. In what way? Tell us about how you were Lauren. I don't know. I was the every woman. I could have been a Fisherwoman, truly. You could have been a Fisherwoman. Yeah. I grew up eating powdered sugar donuts on a bass boat.

Sure. It's true. So was Ben the Trojan? Is that the parallel? Say it again. Is Ben the Trojan? No. Clearly no.

God. Yes, Tro in, yes. So where does this go from here, Kim? How do you see this playing out? Because this was so exciting, but now I don't know necessarily what the alliances look like coming out of this tribal council when we get down to six. We also have not mentioned Lauren voted out of the game.

She misplayed the idol and then also had the extra vote advantage, Stephen, and I dare say that she blew it worse than you did. Wow, yes! Nailed it. Yeah. No, because the extra vote advantage would not have helped her, but you know.

It wouldn't have helped her, but she got voted out with it in her pocket, and that's never happened before. It's a curse, it's a disadvantage. Yeah. Well, I think that this was something that was very interesting that was brought up tonight, because Jeff talked about in the closing of that tribal council was, you know, all of the secrets that were shared in this game came back to bite people tonight. And the one thing that was kept a secret,

which was Ben's idol, was the one thing that saved the game. Now Kim, when you had your idol, who knew about it? Was it just Chelsea? Just Chelsea? I was gonna say no one, but yes, Chelsea did know. I forgot, see? Yes.

Yes, Chelsea. But she only talked about it with you. Yeah, as far as I know. And Stephen, that you have long said that you should tell people about. No, but I've changed know. And Stephen, that you have long said that you should tell people about... No, but I've changed, I think the game has changed to the point where that's no longer the case. I think that you're better served to... Who was the game changer that didn't tell people about the idols? Probably Tony, right? Tony? Yeah. Did he tell people

about those? I don't know. Probably Kim. Kim was before Tony. Hard to remember. Yeah. I don't know what's going to happen from here. I feel like it's hard to imagine Ben doing well. Yeah. Just because I feel like everyone is out for Ben at this point, right? I mean, he's the clear, you know, let's get rid of him guy. He's like, you're Mike Holloway. Yeah, well, it's the other way.

He's the Mike Holloway. We have another winner here. Exactly. Exactly. Let's talk to Mike Holloway. Give it up for Mike Holloway, everybody. No, stay, stay, stay. Is there a fourth mic? I think there used to be. Mike, Mike, Mike.

It's on the chair. How you doing, buddy? Very good. Here's Mike Holloway. Got two winners here, two near winners as well. One nearer than the other. I'll be very quiet from here on out. Alright, Mike Holloway, how are you?

Very good, thank you, thank you. Mike Holloway, how long did you drive to get here today? Eight hours. Eight hours. For you guys. You guys at home. I just wanted to say, first of all, thank you guys so much for coming to Texas. All of us Texans. Love having you here.

Love having you here. Thank you very much. So I was thinking about this as we got to the end of the episode where do you feel like that Ben is in a similar position to where you were where he looked to be a frontrunner and now everybody has either realized this, and everybody's casting votes at him. How does he ultimately get to the end? Does he need to win out immunity-wise?

Yeah, he has to win out, but I think Ben is in a better position than personally I was, because I think the game has changed a little bit in the sense of that because everyone wants him out so badly at this point that if he makes it to the end they will all give him their vote because he's had the Adam story with the PTSD, he's got the wife story, the Jeremy Collins with his wife coming out. He's everything, he's everything. I mean, if he makes it to the end,

he's our winner, right, Jimmy? He's a badass. He is a badass. But you know that's also what happened on your season. Like, that's not how the game has changed, like that happened to you. Yeah, I guess, I don't know. You're the game changer.

I don't know about game changer, I just got very, very fortunate. Yeah. So you feel like that there's room for Mike to rebuild an alliance or do you think that everybody is going to be still gunning for him this next round? Ben. Because Mike, I love,

I love Dr. Mike for the simple fact of the matter that Dr. Mike equals sign CAS. CAS. for the simple fact of the matter that Dr. Mike equal sign, cast. Caste, that's it. Chaos cast because like he doesn't care. Yeah. And that's what I love about it.

That he's playing full tilt boogie right now. Yeah. There's not a lot of people I don't like on this cast. I don't know if there's anyone I don't like, which is unusual for me. I feel like usually there's at least a couple of people I really can't wait this cast. I don't know if there's anyone I don't like, which is unusual for me. I feel like usually there's at least a couple of people I really can't wait to see get it. You're usually a big hater.

Am I? Yeah, no. Am I? Well, this final seven, it's like all of them, I guess Ashley too, are all playing really hard, right? They're all like, I mean, we're seeing less of Ashley. Is Ashley playing hard? I don't know, she was the one who was suggesting

they vote out Ben, right? She like came up with that, so. Well, I know, but like I one who was suggesting they vote out Ben, right? She came up with that, so I feel like- Well, I know, but I think Ashley, to me, personally, I wanted Ashley's character to be much stronger, a much stronger woman character than she is, but I feel like she's more of a follower than a leader. Well, it's two weeks in a row that we saw Ashley talking about big moves in the context of like, yeah, I need to be making big moves,

or I'm not going to win the game. It seems like that she sort of had like this big moves, like come to Jesus moment. I feel like if you're at the point where you're saying I need to make a big move, you're probably too late. It's probably too late. Very good point. So Kim, let me ask you about the reward challenge

where then Chrissy had to pick out people to go with her. And she instantly, she go with her and she instantly she went with Ryan she went with Dr. Mike and then Ashley was the fourth person she felt like Ashley was somebody that she could potentially get to flip over was that a lost cause I think it was and I but I don't think it was a bad choice I think maybe Lauren would have been a better choice I think Ben might have been a lost cause he He was punished. At that moment. But then when he was at the well,

he was no longer a lost cause, but that was pre-well. Yeah. So no, I mean, I think Ashley is more of like a Chelsea. I think Ashley is very black and white. I think she's chosen her alliance and she's gonna stick with it to the end. That's how Chrissy won the challenge. She was very black and white.

Yeah. Chelsea's black and white. I think Lauren is someone that continues to look to play the game game and maybe she would have been a better choice for Chrissy. Is it Chrissy or Christy? I'm always worried if I'm saying it the wrong way. I feel like I have a 50-50 shot every time I say it.

Did you guys, either of you have moments when you like, those well moments where you like walked up and were like, oh, oh, I'm in trouble? She was in control of the game the whole time, y-mm. You never, you never. She was in control of the game the whole time y'all. Plus four, plus four communities. I did not mean that to sound cocky. Come on, Kim's prattlin' ladies and gentlemen. No I just.

Seriously. I'm just being honest, I never had that moment. Not that specific moment. No, I never had a moment like that, except for when Jay came to me and said, Choi-Zan's voting you out. Yeah. And that was like halfway through. That's how you know when they tell you yeah, and I knew he's trying to vote you out But it was just him and leave so sorry I think for me I

Pleased I played asleep a lot You would pretend you were sleeping like please don't anybody that plays this game again use that against me if I'm with you But yeah, I played asleep a lot around camp so that people would think you know Like I wasn't really paying attention and I got a lot of information from that You know like I found out that they were coming for me whenever I had no They would talk about you when they thought you were asleep I played with I played with the most amazing players, but not with the smartest players.

Well, actually, Mike, but didn't you literally have a moment where Rodney and the group of seven were talking, that was right before you guys went, you went to the challenge where then you tried to not buy the letter, right? That was, wasn't that the reason why you exactly overheard them talking? A lot of people don't understand the reasoning

behind the auction and whatever happened, but I knew 100% that I was the next to go at the auction. That's why I... Because you heard them, you had even eavesdropped. Totally, totally eavesdropped. And were you trying to hear what they were saying or they were just too loud? No, 100%, because they all went up

to the front left of the beach. I snuck around the backside and was standing there. There's an edit that shows me standing there listening, and that was from like 10 days before. You're not supposed to tell that. Yeah, because I was actually like in behind these cactus, which was ridiculous, because in Nicaragua, if none of y'all have ever been there,

anything that can't kill you or stick you or hurt you is not Nicaragua. Uh, Missy knows. Anyways, but yeah, it's one of those things though, when you, and I feel for Ben, very much so, because when you do actually confirm that information, that you were 100% the next to go, you're in full scramble,

like your kids are in a fire, your dog has been out to sea for an hour and a half, and you don't know what's going on, you know what I mean? You're in full scramble mode, and you're grabbing and reaching and stretching for anything that makes sense. And a lot of times, the game of Survivor makes no sense. Right, because so much of the game, it's a marathon.

It's just sit back, sit back, sit back, sit back. And then you're at this point where it's DEFCON. DEFCON 5, is that the best? I don't think Kim Spradlin sat back, sat back, sat back one time in the game. Is that a question? Yeah. No, that was a statement. I would say, I feel like you also would sit back, sat back one time in the game. Is that a question? Yeah. No, that was the statement.

I would say, I feel like you often would sit back, right? Yeah, I sat back. If everything is going the way you wanted to. There's a lot of time. Yeah. There was some sitting back. You want to sit back a little bit. Steven, did you ever sneak up on anybody

when you were on Survivor? I'm very clumsy and awkward. So they can hear me coming. I'm crashing into things like they know. Yeah. Did you ever try to sneak up on anyone? I don't think so. I can't remember sneaking up on anyone.

I don't think I ever snuck up on anybody. Do you think Ben did that on purpose or do you think that just happened? Oh, I think he did it on purpose. It looked like he was just walking up. He was just walking to like hang out with his alliance. Because he was so big and in the middle of the thing. It didn't look like he was sneaking.

But we've seen him a couple of times this season. I think it just happened. Where? And also, in answer to what Steven said earlier, I feel like he didn't really, and he thing. It didn't look like he was sneaky. I think it just happened. And also, in answer to what Steven said earlier, I feel like he didn't really, and he said, he didn't really hear what they said. He heard his name and then he just judged their reactions

when he came around the corner. So he didn't hear specifically what they were saying about him. So I think he just made, he said, okay, this is awkward, something's up. They got quiet, something's wrong. Well, they also totally handled that terribly when they showed up.

So you're sitting at camp, let me just run a situation through you. You're sitting at camp, there's seven people left in the game. And you see three people go get water for everyone when it normally takes one person or two. You're not gonna go and check out what's happening. You're that confident in...

Cause your game and my game are completely different games. Yeah. You're that confident? I probably was at that point. Yeah. Wow. That's him, all right? I'm just saying, but my alliance was different.

You were in a very different situation. So now we have a really interesting final six at this point because we have Devin and Ashley who are clearly together. Yes. And then we have Ryan and Chrissy who are clearly together. And then we have Dr. Mike who sort of, you know,

his own thing, and then also Ben is there. So does the four then move in on Devon and Ashley, or are Devon and Ashley a position where they can go back and pick up Ben and sort of blame it all on Lauren? I'm concerned that it's Ben, just because even with the preview, when they show this, like, oh, and then Chrissy said,

maybe it could be Ashley, and then it's like, oh, well, clearly it's Ben, then. Does that make sense? Yeah. Makes sense to me. Does it? Because if he doesn't have an idol now, if he doesn't have immunity, it's like now.

They're trying to say, oh, maybe it's not Ben. I mean, I think it's really important for Ben to sort of like lock up a four, Steven. Yeah. But can he? Well, can he with five votes against him? Why would you? At this point, you'd be crazy, right?

Crazy to not vote him out. Like, he's got this, as Michael's saying, he's got this crazy, this great backstory, and then he just had this huge move where he saved himself right in front of the entire jury. Like, everyone was like gunning for him, saved himself very visibly. At this point, if you don't vote him out, you're nuts.

Well, would it make sense to get rid of a Devin or Ashley first, and then worry about him at five? No. Why? For the things I was just saying. Because he's such a threat? Yeah, right? Yeah, you gotta go all Ben, all out at this point, if you're anybody else.

How many immunities has been won? No, so you think... How close has Ben been in any immunity so far? That's a fair point. But doesn't it feel like he's just been with me? You keep him till four, and you cut him at four. But then if you miss your one shot, what about five? Five?

Come on. Stephen, you have a complex about this. Yeah. Yeah. But you guys are always out for the physical threat. How many physical threats have won this game well yeah, I can think of it My son Westman yeah, Kim's bradlin JT Thomas and JT Thomas Fabio my call away Fabio

Alright the crowd is right. We digress Fabio Fabio was the lesser of two weasels. He won out, he won like three in a row. Bob Crowley? You said Bob already. Heroes versus hustlers versus healers. Alright, well I want to get some more people involved. We got so much going on here. Yeah, we got a lot of seats. We only have four microphones. We have a lot of seats, we only have four microphones, we have a lot of seats, but let's bring in the man who brought us up here tonight, Brett LeVell. And then also, Brett, can you introduce your secret special guest?

Yes, of course. First off, Brett LeVell, everybody. Thank you, thank you, I love it here in Austin. I have to come back and spend some more time. And of course I could not come to Austin without my best friend Chris Hammonds. Give it up for him. Nothing like shopping for cowboy boots with Chris Hammond, let me tell you. I'll tell you, it's quite an honor to share the stage with one of Howard Stern's Wackpacks, Jeff the Drunk. Chris, can you describe for the people listening to the podcast at home, Brett's new hat? Well, yes, Brett has a hat. We bought it at the 7-Eleven down the street.

It's a black cowboy hat. I think I look dope. He does look like a dope. You're right. I walked into that one. OK. Chris, what did you make of tonight's episode? Well, I like to address the point where you said,

is the fire pit like this magical place you can't go? It is if Jeff Probst throws it in the fire. That's correct. We've been through this. We've been through this. We saw this firsthand. Of course, you didn't see this, but Jeff threw a fake idol in the fire in our season,

and our boy Ken went and grabbed it out of the fire and let me tell you something Jeff's head spun around like four times he was not happy yeah I will not use the words that he used but it was not happy so there is something too that so if Jeff throws it in there we've established it's gone but if Dr. Mike throws it in there go grab the damn thing out of there and use it. Yeah. Oh wait a minute, time out. And what if Russell throws Jason's socks into the fire?

Can Jason get those out or are they gone forever? He can get them out, it's okay. Okay. All right. So we have Ryan, we haven't talked anything about here tonight, and he's just sort of been like a, he's like a forgotten guy now. Yeah, he started out super strong, but he is a good player.

I think his social game is really good. He's kind of clinging in there, he's kind of hanging on. He's really smart, guys, he's still in it. He's still in it. If you're still there, you got a chance. He's got a great social game, I think. I mean, he's still in it. If you're still there, you got a chance. He's got a great social game, I think. I mean, he's still trying to talk to everyone. I mean, he was definitely going for Lauren tonight.

It was kind of an interesting scene tonight. But yeah, I mean, I still like Ryan. I mean, again, we're not seeing everything. You know what I mean? We're only seeing what they showed tonight. And there was a lot tonight. Is there a front runner right now? Well, Ben's the front runner by far.

Ben's by far. Even though he's got a huge shot of that. Don't you think it's Devin? Yeah, I think. Is Devin the front runner right now? Well Ben's the front runner by far. Ben by far. Even though he's got a huge chart of that. Is Devin the front runner? Devin's... I disagree. I give Kim a Devin Bro sticker for that as well. And Devin's animal is a horse, if anyone was wondering. A horse? Is that the best animal?

Yeah. Devin has the best eyes of anybody. Just make sure you're on the microphone. Can I just say, can we talk about, you know, because there was another scene tonight that reminded me of Millennials vs Gen X. There was a scene when Devin turns to Ashley and I think Ashley offered up a back rub and it reminded me of, do you guys remember that when we were doing that challenge where the buckets fell on us with the water?

Yeah. Me and Chris were next to each other, or it might have been a couple down, and I actually whispered, I said, Chris, just go, I'll give you a back rub later. And the little bucket drops out, he goes. Hey, there was no different than that in any other night on the beach. He was always giving me a back rub.

I was like, what's going on with this guy? So do you guys feel like that Amore was made out of that, the back rub offer for whoever is going to drop out? I know that there's not a lot of Big Brother fans here, but that comes up a lot of like, oh. I'm a Big Brother fan. Yes, yeah, well Mike is, Mike is. But the last two people are, okay, you drop off, you drop off, oh, it doesn't matter,

we're in an alliance, who cares? I think that that's going to, that is going to be Ben's saving grace in the next episode. That point is going to be, they're now a power couple. Ben is going to use that. He can get back in with Chrissy and Ryan and he can roll back in and get Ashley or Devin out because Jeff made such a big deal of that

It's Devin or Ashley are in a classic position where Ben can they go well we get Ben out at four We can get it been out at five get somebody else Well, it's interesting you say like because Jeff made such a big yeah about it so it's like you don't think it's a question of do you think it's okay that Devin said that because you know when you're on the beach people do know who's alive with who and you know to say like I'm not with with her like that's absurd But do you think do you think it's worse that I mean, obviously it's worse that Jeff made a big deal But do you think it was bad that he said it?

I think you know, I think Devin was, that was a, that was a bad, bad, bad, bad mistake. I didn't know, never say something like that, that overtly be like, Hey, let's make a deal drop out or whatever, but don't be like, we're the strongest team here. I mean that, I think it puts a huge target that gives Ben the crack he needs to go forward. But does it become a big deal because Jeff said it or was it a big deal even without Jeff saying it? I think it's a big deal. Definitely they didn't show it, but I guarantee you, everyone on the beach was talking about it.

They're going to talk about it the next episode, I guarantee you. But Jeff definitely highlighted it, which makes it good for us. Well, Kim, with Chelsea, like you, like same thing, right? You guys were, everyone knew you were a power couple. Did you guys hide it or were you open about it? I don't feel like anyone thought that we were any more together than I was with them.

Right. It didn't matter in her season. She's the most dominant player that's ever played the game. No, no, no, no, no. She dominated from start to finish like no one else, and then we have the biggest underdog, which is one of the best champions of all time also. We have the best front runner ever.

She was starting and finished gonna win the game, and the best underdog winner. Two of the greatest champions ever are here. Good bookends. Very, very good. The best confessional by Casey Kasem ever in the game. Woo! Steven.

And then. It wasn't a confessional, it was in the voting booth. Steven, I would like to say. I kind of disagree about Devin and Ashley. I don't think it's a big deal. I don't feel like anybody thinks it's a big deal. I think Jeff's trying to make something out of it. I feel like it's all a diversion because Ben is this clear, outstanding front runner. And it's all our perception when we watch it, that these things are elevated versus

how it feels when you're out there. And I don't think Devin and Ashley either feel very powerful at the moment, although I do think Devin could win and I think he's very smart and I think he's come across as not a threat, but I think he is. I mean, I think getting into the final six,

so I think you're definitely thinking about it, right? I mean, if those two are somewhat giving each other massages like me and Chris used to do, I mean, I think you're definitely thinking about it. You know, you definitely... Everybody's looking for any reason for anything to be... I know, I know, I know, I know. That's a good point, but... I mean, but the biggest shocker than that is giving away the idol to Dr. Mike of all people. I don't get it. I don't get it. Well, for all the people that have said too many idols, too many advantages, too much going on,

we have cleared the board tonight of idols, advantages, extra vote. They're all gone. We lost three of the advantages slash idols that were in the game. So they'll re-hide one next week, but that's it. That's it. Yeah. That's it, yeah. That's it, we clean the slate. Boom.

It's exciting. Yeah, okay, well that's the- Colby, Colby, Colby, Colby, Colby, Colby, Colby. All right, we have a true survivor legend here with us tonight. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Riddell Tofer. Riddell. He's standing. He's standing.

He's standing. Kobe Donaldson is here. Kobe, will you come on up and join us? Yeah. Yeah. Woo. Woo. Woo.

Yeah. We don't have a Harley Davidson for you to ride on. Let's bring him up. And here with Reynolds and Burton Roberts. Kim Spradlin is leaving. Here they are. Three amigos for a new age. Here is Reynolds. here is Burton Roberts,

and the great Colby Donaldson. How you doing, buddy? How are you? It's great to see you. Good to see you. Okay, here we are. Woo, woo, woo, woo. Reynolds, how are you, buddy?

How about that loved one visit? Woo! Hey, let's Reynolds, how are you, buddy? How about that loved one visit? Woo! Here, let's see, how do we do this? Okay, you're gonna get up to it. So many tears. Here, go in the center, man. All right. Yeah, I'll share with him.

I don't care. Here, call me, come sit down. No, I want my boys here. They're here, they're here. How you doing in that? Everybody doing? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right, what's that, Reynolds? We got the three amigos up here. The new three amigos.

Version 2.0. Version 2.0. Bring us back. We'll run the table. What do you think, Colby? I gotta say, I'm nervous. I'm nervous, everybody. I haven't done this in a long,

congratulations, gentlemen. Two knuckleheads, I don't know how you did it, but I'm proud of you. I'm very proud of you that you've made this happen. Look, Bert and I are sitting back there, Reynolds was in row in front of us with his beautiful wife, by the way, so you guys, the whole crew has to know,

Topher came up to me in the gym a while back, and he said, you're not gonna know me. He said, I was on Survivor after you and everything. He's just, guy's full of energy, and this guy's annoying me all the time. I barely met him. And he goes, but what you're gonna know is, I'm married one of your friends.

And I said, what are you talking about? And he told me, goes, but but what you're gonna know is I'm married one of your friends and I said what you're talking about And he told me Believe it or not stand up Olivia. So Olivia there is They have two gorgeous kids and and rental married one of my great friends from California when I now Everybody needs to know we're all Tex, and we were born and raised here. Yeah, that's right. I had a 15 year hiatus out on the West Coast, which forgive me for that, but I'm back now.

And while I was out there, I met Olivia, and she was one of our greatest running buddies. She was a total sweetheart, and this guy roped her into marrying him, and I can't believe it. But anyway, that's how we reconnected. And just for the record, that was the best day of my life. Except for when I want personal immunity. Yes.

The day you met Colby? Yeah. That was the best day? The day that I married my wife. First of all, why are you working the microphone like that? I don't even understand what's going on right now. Is this thing working right now? It's on. It's on.

And Burton Roberts is here. Burton, how are you doing? Doing great. What have we determined, like five, six, seven years since we've seen each other at Saddle Ranch? I think that the last time I saw you, I think I was talking like, Burton, I have no job, I'm unemployed, I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. The fishbowl. Yeah, the fishbowl is gone, what do I do now? But great to see you. And how often do you guys see each other? Well, so let me step in on these guys.

So to continue that, his wife is back over here. She and my wife are best friends. And so Burton and I met actually out in California, the whole thing. It was after Survivor. And I remember we were all out in the rat race doing the whole thing in California and and they kept talking about this guy from Texas that was on

Survivor and every meeting I'd go into there was this other guy from Texas on Survivor and lo and behold it ended up being Burton. I hated him before I ever met him and he was stealing quite a few jobs from me back in the day. Ultimately, we became friends, but he met Rachel out there in California. They moved back to Texas prior to me moving back here, and then I did, and a good friend introduced me

to my wife, and now we're all friends. So the point is, that's why I dragged these guys up here, is it's kind of the three amigos here in Austin. And, yeah, it is. That's awesome. Wow. Look, I can't weigh in. I record every season.

I have this entire season recorded. My wife and I and our daughter will go back and watch it at the end. I can't weigh in to you guys in terms of what's transpiring and what happened tonight and all that sort of thing. But it really is fun to come back and see you guys up here and Kim and all the champions that It really is fun to come back and see you guys up here and Kim and all the champions that have done much better than the three of us competing.

But it is an experience that you cannot replace. It's as authentic as anything you will ever experience. And I know you guys you guys have this encounter as often as I do people always say well do they do they stop down do they do they cut the cameras off do they feed you guys sandwiches do you know is it is it real is it and I'm telling you right now and I know I speak for these all of these gentlemen up here if it wasn't as authentic as I had hoped it would be, I would have walked off. And it is as brutal and as real, but also it is the best adventure anyone could ever, ever hope

to experience. And how lucky we were to get chosen, right? And so when the call comes in and they said, you're going, you made it, that's it. That's what's real. And I sit out here and I'm sitting out here with the crowd with you guys going, these are survivor fans, these are fans, these are people that love the show. We did too.

Every single one of us loved it. We made a video, we sent it in, and I tell you, I mean there's a, there's a, where's Taylor? Taylor, Taylor, this is my buddy Taylor over here, who's a lifelong Survivor fan. Taylor's too young to even remember what a VHS tape is. That is how I submitted my first audition tape to Survivor in 1999 and it was 2000 when I got accepted. So think about it, all you out in the crowd, think about 1999 and I had two VCRs side by side and I was editing tapes trying to cut and burton those. You had applied for the first show and they didn't pick you? No, no, no. No, for all you super fans, if you remember Mark Burnett, he had an Eco Challenge. Eco Challenge, yes. So Eco Challenge was in Australia, wait, Borneo.

So he did Borneo Eco Challenge, right, and then Borneo first season of Survivor. And so I was a fan of Eco Challenge Challenge and then I watched, for those of you really old folks out there, the first season of Survivor aired in the summer of 2000. So back in the day nothing but reruns ran during the summer. So nobody was watching TV other than those of us rednecks from West Texas, and that's what we did, was watch TV. And it said, if you'd like to apply to be a part, and now, all you Bachelor fans,

you'll know Chris Harrison, all those, yeah, oh yeah, all those knuckleheads on ABC. They still have to try to recruit people to go on there. But Survivor didn't do that. But back in the day, Survivor actually put it up there, just like Bachelor does. And it said, if you want to apply and be a part of the second season, it's going to be in Australia.

And go to the website. And that's kind of how it all started. Yeah. And how crazy is it for you, who's been with this from basically the beginning, that 17 years later, this is still going on? It's mind boggling. I mean, it's mind boggling that you get a group

of incredible fans in here like this, and it's a testament to the fact that it is truly a stalwart in terms of television you know right I mean it's still to this day yeah yeah the whole reason one of the One of the whole reasons that I played this game is because of this man sitting right here. Oh my God. Yeah. Like legitimately, my- I agree with him on that.

My, my personal item, my personal item that I took out to Nicaragua with me that I never got was what? That one right there. The Texas flag, sir. The big Texas flag. I hate it. Season two. Man. Kobe, sir. The big Texas flag. I hate it. Season two.

I hate it. Kobe. Love you, Kobe Dahlson. Yeah. Yeah. Now, Kobe, one of the things that we've learned about the players this season is that Dr. Mike, he and his wife were big fans of Ethan Zahn,

and they even named their baby Ethan in honor of him. But there are many babies that are named Colby, who are now about 16 years old. Have you met any of the kids that have grown up now that are in high school kids that are named Colby all over the country? Sherry's son, my season, her son named Colby. Randall played with a woman, who named her son Colby?

You just said Randall played with a woman. Anyway. No, I met a lot of people that named their dog Colby, but you know, that's the funniest thing. Like I named my dog after you. And I kind of think that's a compliment. I don't know whether that's a compliment or not. But anyway, it is what it is.

It just, it literally altered the course of my life. And I never expected it. And these guys, I can speak for these gentlemen. It just, and you guys too, I don't know you as well, but the whole point is, you go, no. We were on a season together, Colby. No. I was there, I was there.

No, I know, but we weren't on the same track. No, no, we weren't, no. No. The people that I was there with, they don't remember that I was there. Anyway, it just, it, I'd have kicked your ass if we were on the same show. Yeah, I had enough of that. You actually turned it into a career, huh?

Yeah, I had't know, you guys take the mic, but it truly was one of the most amazing experiences and to this day truly remains one of those things that you do when, I'm sitting out in the audience going, shit, if Rob asked me if I'd do it again, yeah, you'd do it again, yeah, you'd do it again. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. If my wife and daughter approve it and they're okay with me going, because that's the thing, I think you guys will all agree. The biggest part of it is, you're gonna be absent.

You're gonna, you have to take a big chunk of your life and commit it to this. And so people have always said, well, you didn't win. Who won? And I always talk about Tina and she's... We got a Christmas card from her today and she's still one of my closest friends. She deserved to win that season that I competed on. And she did. She played a hell of a game.

And the whole thing is, people say, well, how good was she? And all that sort of thing. Well, there's a whole segment of people that go out and compete and submit and get accepted and do that. But there's a whole other chunk that just can't do it. They can't take that time away. chunk that just can't do it. They can't take that time away, not because they don't want to, not because they wouldn't qualify or not because they wouldn't play well or compete well in the competition, but

because they can't take that time away from their family. And so we understand that. We get it. And it's a different thing having competed three times. What is the definition of idiocy? I still can't figure out how to win that thing, but you know, you have to be able to take that time away from your family and I would go do it again, but only if my wife and daughter said it was okay to do.

Can we get a thumbs up? Two thumbs up! Okay. The fourth time, that could be the charm. You know, Burton, let me ask you with this episode tonight, so we had the Loved Ones visit and of course that you were there for perhaps the most famous Loved Ones visit in the history of the show and that was right after Rupert got voted out the night before and it was another one of these contentious situations that you guys were dealing with. It is a game where you vote people out. And then the loved one's visit happens. Is this mic on? Yeah, we're on.

So were you thinking at all about how the loved one's visit can sort of like either fix or make those problems worse for the players? Yeah, I think, I mean, depending on how... That one's working. Depending on how emotionally spent someone is, it can definitely give them an extra boost. You know, in our season, my mom came out there, Jeff's warning her about the sharks in the water, she's jumping over. I didn't want to win.

Like, there's no way my mom was going to sleep on that beach with the bugs and mosquitoes and sand fleas and everything. So, in that case, I didn't really care who won, but I didn't want the weakest people emotionally to win to get that boost. Yeah, that's interesting. So when Fairplay is saying about his grandmother, great, like Fairplay was in my alliance. Other people were more beaten down. He wasn't going to be lifted up that much more.

I've never heard that articulated that way before. So the people that you want to do bad in the game, you feel like that they'll get that like they'll get like some pep in there. Something. Yeah, something to fight for. Yeah. But let them stay beaten down. I mean, if if if 31 days has done that to him, did you know Burton was so mean, Colby?

Say again. You know, Burton was so mean. Well, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I know what about it. But no, that challenge was absurd. That was awful. Yeah, that was zero skill, 100% luck, no team building, no effort, no anything. That was just a lame part of the episode. And I think Stephen, you said there had to been reason for it, right? I mean they was just a lame part of the episode and I think Stephen you said it there had to been reason for it

Right. I mean they couldn't have planned that there's no way the challenge department is like guys. I have a great challenge All luck two bags each and that's it I mean awful we were we were all sitting back here during and I know you guys were too as fans But we're we're sitting back here as fans when they're drawing marbles out going, this is the worst challenge ever. Because it's, I mean, there's absolutely no skill, and to have your family members come all the way over there, to travel all that way and they just want to compete. They want to have a fighting chance.

And then you have them draw marbles out, so. Yeah, three seconds in, I'm out. Yeah then you have them draw marbles out. Three seconds in, I'm out. Yeah. Sweet, that was fun. I thought it was like, they were going to be pumped. Like when the first three were out and they were all mismatches.

It was all mismatch, like, psych, got you guys. We've got a special treat for you. Nope, no treat. It sucked. So, Reynolds, that was a crazy tribal council that we saw tonight, and I do feel like that the crazy tribal council era really got kicked into high gear with you guys and the three amigos.

Were you, shout out for that, right? Yeah. No. Were you having any flashbacks from watching the Tribal Council unfold like that? Yes, first of all, thank you all for coming out here. You guys are amazing. This is my first one of these events, and I loved meeting those of you that I got to meet, and hope to meet you more after this. But crazy tribals are what it's all about. And we made a big three amigos Alamo final stand. And we were actually really more the coconuts

because we're like, we're Dr. Mike. We're like, we're toast. But we've got two idols. So we're going to go out the bang. And you run around for 30 days and no one votes your way. And nothing goes your way. And then you're like, but tonight, tonight's our night. Do you feel like Dr. Mike throwing the idol in the fire

was still part of that coconuts of like? Absolutely. And I've been there and I know what it feels like where you are on the outside of the vote for so long that you still have personality and you still care but no one listens to you, no one consults you and then even when they do, you ended up being on the outside again.

So you're just like, whatever, throw it in the fire. What do you got? Nothing on me. I'm wild card. And that's fun, and that's fun to do. But the interesting takeaway for me in that tribal council is there's all these fireworks, all this crazy stuff happening,

but what was the only thing that really mattered? The only thing that had any power was the idol that nobody knew about. And secrecy is everything in this game, and the people who keep their mouth shut about the stuff that matters are people that win. And I was terrible at that, and I took eighth. So you mentioned that, that you know, you were on the outs and you kept on having to like go into every travel council, and you were on the outs and you kept on having to go into every travel council and you were like, maybe this week. Did you have sympathy for Chrissy?

Because we as fans, every time someone like Chrissy does not immediately jump on the game plan and is like, maybe this is my shot. Why is she being so recalcitrant? Did you have sympathy for her in terms of like, this is, I get it, I've been burned so many times, I understand why she wouldn't trust Ben now, or did you think, no, of course you go with Ben.

It's hard for me to find sympathy for Chrissy because she was so aloof and contemptuous when she was on the top end of the alliance, and then the second it didn't go her way, she's in the shelter and she can't handle it, and you know, that bugs me. And also, and two of my best buddies from work, and my wife is obviously here,

we talk about the show a lot, and we were saying the same thing about Chrissy this episode while we were watching, is all of her reactions are based out of emotion, and that's another thing that kills you that's your biggest enemy out there so everything's vindictive or fearful or all of this and she's not thinking straight so no not so much sympathy more critical of kind of her whole game I was just gonna come and you guys brought up an interesting point before and it's

definitely changed since my season but jump ropes ask lots of leading question it's like he's fed everyone truth serum where they answer it. Like our season I feel like if he asks you a question you want to answer you're like I don't know Jeff. Yeah and they move on but here it's like people they come clean on everything like jeez like why do you keep answering the question? And Burton you are using single digits. Seven. Seven, okay. Single digits. And I'll give you guys, everyone loves like the little bit of the Survivor Inside scoop. One of the things Probst tells us, and we're not allowed to talk to each other before the game starts,

but he gives you a little pregame talk, and he basically says, here's the scoop at Tribal, you better give me something. You better give me a story, and I don't care if you lie, but yes, no, stoic doesn't work, and I've been doing this for 30 more seasons than you, and I'm gonna get something out of you. So people are like, shit, if he calls on me.

So you're already like geeked that you're there, and then all of a sudden you're at council, and you don't know if the vote is you, and then Jeff is like, Reynolds, when you were hiding behind the water fountain, drawing Colby's name in the sand, what was that all about? You're like, oh no, I'm toast.

Jeff, I wanted to vote Colby out, and really I was telling him I liked him, but I wanted to vote him out, and that was the whole plan. You're killing Colby over here, he's dying. He's right. Colby's my man. Yeah, that's exactly right. And it's so funny having him talk up here where it's like typical format of the show

where as I would be telling a story like, and then I met Colby at the gym and we were totally vibing and hitting it off. Yeah, so this annoying guy came up to me. Hey look, look, this has been a total complete self-absorption up here with us. I'd rather throw it out there to y'all give us some questions What do y'all what do y'all want? Are y'all the fans out here? Throw some questions at? I want to get missy up here And then and then if you want to ask questions make a line over on that side and we'll get I will get the questions

Please don't If you want to ask questions, make a line over on that side and we'll get the questions. You think I'm good? Okay. Please don't... What are we doing? No, people are going to line up and they're going to come bring some questions. Here's Missy. Missy, how are you? Hello, I'm great. Oh, does this work?

Give it up for Missy, who just showed up. Yes! Okay, the just show up thing was kind of cool though, right? Yeah, we like it! We like it! More people walk in and go, glad you just showed up. I mean, for those of you who don't know, it really was a great thing. So Baylor and I decided that we would have people write us a letter through the US postal

and tell us how they thought they related to us. And if they won, we would just show up to their birthday party and we did and it was great for a few and then it became very costly and I said do you want to spend the rest of your prize money because I'm not paying for you anymore so we brought them all to Dallas and we brought the rest of the winners to Dallas okay that's good they just showed up yes so missy do you have any favorites this season on the show?

Well, I mean, I think, I really do think Ben's playing an amazing game. I have to say though, as the mom, and my season was completely different. When you have what we had, I mean, you're playing for two. As much as Baylor would have stabbed me in the back, she says, and voted me off, I mean, I feel like that our season was so different than this because the emotions are just flying and your emotions are flying anyway, and when you get to the very end and you're starving and everybody's I

Mean you're so paranoid. It is the strangest I think all you guys would say that I mean when, when or not when? I mean, you're, you get down to like seven, six, five, four. I mean, it was horrible. Like you think people are talking about you when there's no one there. How about Chrissy? Do you feel like people are being too hard on Chrissy this season? I don't. I will say. I'm sorry. I'm a mom too, but man, she's playing really hard. Sorry, I don't want people to talk about him either, but she's gotta just simmer down.

Take it down. When you say simmer down, what do you mean specifically? Man, I mean, you go on a reward challenge, and like literally you have to stop for one second. Like we're in Nicaragua, we're on this incredible horseback. She doesn't let the game go. Thank you. Like stop, just for one second. Like we're in Nicaragua, we're on this incredible horseback. She doesn't let the game go. Thank you. Like stop, just for a moment.

See, and personally, maybe I am projecting here, but I felt like that Jeff seemed frustrated with her where they're doing the Loved Ones visit, and I think that Jeff really looks forward to, okay, here we go, we're gonna get the drama out of the Loved Ones visit. And Chrissy's like, oh, well yesterday was my best day because I won immunity, and Jeff said,

oh, back to the game. You know, I think that Jeff. Well, he fed her, he gave her this beautiful moment and to like have this connection with her husband, which clearly he also gave a nugget that the world found out about that maybe there was trouble before she went out there. Did you read that?

No, I didn't put that up. Oh, I read into that for sure. Whoa, Missy. Oh, heck yeah. I read into that. Oh, Mike Holloway, I knew it too. He gave her a nugget, and she had an opportunity to have this amazing moment on national television

with her husband, and then she was like, I want an immunity. Yeah, thank you. He's going, I don't care. But she also said, I'm going to devote the rest of my life to my family. I'm going to abandon my career. I'm no longer. I mean, granted, we've all made those promises

and immediately forgotten them as soon as we got home. Yeah. But yeah. Oh yeah, I agree. All right, well we have so many people that have questions. Or, Reynolds, when people come up, can you just work the microphone with them? So let's bring out Michael here.

Okay, Michael has the question number one. Yeah. Hello. And if you have a question for Kim too, we'll get her back, or Brad or question number one. Yeah. And if you have a question for Kim too, we'll get her back, or Brad or Mike or Chris, yeah. We just ask to keep the questions tight. Yes, okay, so Steve, you're pretty good on this idea that there's so few opportunities

to really build trust out there, and sharing information can be one of those ways to really bind you together. With the way things have been up tonight, everyone's sharing all this information in this season. Does that make you real, we evaluate that idea or is it so situational like, you know, sometimes yeah, it's not a good idea even to bring

your idol to tribal, you know, cause. Yeah, I mean, personally, I mean, I'm very curious to hear what this panel thinks, but you know, I've definitely changed my opinion as time has gone on, as we've sort of progressed into this sort of like post-season 30, post-season 28 world. But there were also times this season,

like when Lauren first established that Core Four, which is probably the worst name for an alliance ever, part of what they did was let's all share information, and that brought them together. Now granted, today it blows up, but then it worked really well. I mean, what do y'all, what did this group think about all those things?

I don't think there's a final four. and it worked really well. I mean, what do y'all, what did this group think about all those things? I don't think there's a final four. Like, I was always confused by what do they think they're gonna do. How does that work? Yeah, there's no final four. Right, if you're hearing about the final four, it means you're not in the final three. That's what it comes down to.

Alright, Zvi. Hey. How's it going? Hey, what's up? First of all, I just wanted to say, this is kind of a game changer's level cast. Is this not? That is. Us?

Yes, this panel. You guys, this panel. This panel right here, yes. Also quickly, I have a bit of a bone to pick between the two of you know-it-alls because you guys said that if Lauren brought her advantage to tribal Well, you agreed with him. Okay, I think that's what happens

That's not what I saw that. Okay. I know I got to be quick. We got a lot of people So if he brought if she brought her thing her advantage, I think oh, she brought her thing. She had it She said that she had it she said that she did it oh I guess we have to believe everything she says at tribal council well I think you think she didn't bring the vote I actually do I think she's very much she lies when she has to but she's a straight shooter in the way to Mike and just gave her seashell just like that yeah you so you think that what she would have given the advantage to Mike?

No, I think if she was up there and they knew, even Ben in the episode said it's between Ben and Lauren, right, I think she knew she was getting votes and she would have put the vote on someone else, which would have split the votes one to one because Ben's vote. And so actually she would have been good to go and she would not have been voted off. Ben would have been voted off on the re-vote.

You're asking her for it to like know like what we know it like they had no idea that Ben had an idol. So you're asking her to like waste your extra vote to protect against Ben potentially playing an idol. Because she but she saw during the episode if she's getting votes you don't think that she would have played that advantage just to be safe. When else is that advantage useful? I believe that it's only until the final six. If she's getting votes, you don't think that she would have played that advantage? Just to be safe? When else is that advantage useful? I believe that it's only good till the final six. Yeah, I think she's thinking that she can, instead of getting into a 3-3 tie at the next vote with her and Devin and Ashley versus Mike and Ryan,

she's like, okay, I'll add the extra votes and we'll win 4-3 at the next vote. I have a Flora and Remember sticker for you, those videos. You can ask her tomorrow in the exit interview. We'll ask her tomorrow. Which is not canon by the way. It's not canon. That's right. All right. Thanks so much guys. Whenever they don't split the votes, everyone says you should have split the votes. Whenever they split the votes you say you shouldn't, you guys shouldn't have split the votes. So my question is about Lauren as well. What's your name? Kathleen. Kathleen. So I was just saying that I was thinking about it and do you think she would have even played her idol like she was so confident that Ben

was going home do you think her giving that like a seashell to him meant anything because I don't think she would have even played it and she would have been you know five versus one and then voted out on the one yeah is there anybody is it thinks that she would have, had she had the intact idol, was there anything that would, should have tipped her off to play the idol? When everybody knows about it. When Mike threw half in the fire, I think she was, Yeah.

I need to play my idol. That would have been a good tip off. I say play it. If everyone knows about it, play it. That's usually when you get stuck. Right. Because, Reynolds, you go find another one, right? Absolutely, with no clue. Yeah, okay, what's your name?

Hello, I'm Kyle. Hi Kyle. And I was just wondering if Survivor kind of opened the Pandora's box here with the pieces of the idols, because now I feel like people can dismantle idols, they can make just a fake idol, which is a shell or just a piece of string and then give it to someone as a fake idol so I'm just curious. What do you think Steven is this a slippery slope? I mean if it works like that's what they want right they

want people to give someone like a rock and then be like hey guess what I got. What was the fan's favorite season one the stick stick? Yeah, it worked out great with the drama of Mike, but ultimately, I'm not sure what they were hoping would happen because Lauren found the rope, and then it was like, okay, at the challenge, you're gonna have to do a death-defying stunt. And it was like, no, she had to pick up a thing off the ground.

This was not like Jeremy or Kelly, the intrigue. It was just a she had to pick up a thing off the ground. This was not like Jeremy or Kelly, like the intrigue. It was just like a little thing that was right in front of her platform. She did it in front of everybody. Nobody knew what was going on. So I don't know if that played out exactly the way they were hoping for, but it was exciting to see Mike thrown in the fire.

Okay. Hi, I'm Lauren, not Lauren Rimmer. Not Lauren Rimmer. Okay. My question is, it's been a while since we've seen a challenge that involved family members participating in the challenge. And I think back to challenges like Colby, you with your brother with the buckets of water. Damn it, Reed. Right? How do you, do you, it's like a science fiction. Yeah.

I mean, I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction.

I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. I think it's a science fiction. with your brother with the buckets of water? Damn it, Reed! Right? How do you, do you? It's like a safe, this memory of yours is unbelievable. Yes, yeah, you're exactly right. Damn it, Reed!

Goddamn it! Yeah, yeah, thanks for reminding me. I tried to bury that memory, but thanks. So I wonder if it's wonder if you can strategically pick out your family members to be good in the challenge beforehand? Oh, not my family. Yeah, that's a fantastic question. What was your name?

Tell me again. Lauren. Lauren. Lauren. Thank you. Lauren, hey. You're going to get a sticker. Rob's going to give you a sticker. Yeah, well, again, I can only speak from my own experience, but going back to the very first time I applied,

I distinctly remember having to fill out the application. And you guys have to understand, when I first applied, I was back in West Texas, didn't have a computer, had to drive 30 miles to my dad's house to get on a computer to actually download the application and send it in. And on that application, true story, that's how redneck I am.

It said put in ranking order, if you were to get a visit from your family, what were the top three, you know, in ranking order who you would like to visit you? And I'll never forget, my father's looking over my shoulder as I'm doing this. And he wasn't gonna be the first one on the list, you know? And he said, son, I get it. Put your mom on there first.

My parents are divorced and everything, but they're good friends. And he said, put your mom first, that's fine. And so I literally put my mother's name first. To answer your question, if you're gonna, if someone, if you get to that point where someone's gonna visit you, who's gonna be the first one? I put my mother first, I put my father second, my brother third.

Well I competed three times. So you know, my mom got to come over the first time, the second time I didn't do so well, so my dad was on the top of the list, but he didn't get to come over that time. And so as luck would have it, the third time I competed, my brother was on the top of the list. So he got to come over and it was truly in all you guys know when you're over there. There is just nothing like seeing a family member and having that experience. And gosh, we, you know, he's my big brother. He's my older brother. We've grown up just beating each other up our entire lives.

And so competing together was a dream come true for him and it was my worst nightmare. You know, anyway, but we had fun and that's how it goes. So yes, to answer the question, for me at least, on the application, you had to put the family members in ranking order back in the day how you wanted to do that and so that's how it worked for me. Yeah I don't know who's picking a person based on like I'd really like my wife to come but my cousin is an MMA fighter so okay. Okay.

Hi, my name is Lindsay. I just wanna say this is so surreal because Colby, you are such a- Lindsay from Survivor, Washington? Yeah. Yeah. But this is so surreal because you are such a big chunk of my childhood. So, I'm such a nerd.

But I came all the way from Orange County. That's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Colby's a good guy. Oh. Nice to meet you too. But my, and I want to shout out Ryan and Katie because I'm here from Orange County and I wouldn't have been able to come if they didn't give me somewhere to stay. But Colby, my question is for you because I'm actually very surprised that you said you wanted to come back because you, I, correct me if I'm wrong, you seemed a little not so into it after the third time. But if you were to play a fourth time, what would you do differently?

Because I think the game is so different from when you last played. No, you're exactly right. The game has evolved in a tremendous way since the first time I played. And Rob, you and Fishback know this more than anybody, but because you truly study the competition. And Burton was a victim, I think, initially. He was one of the first victims. And our other buddy here, Austin. Hunter. Hunter.

Hunter. Ellis. Ellis. No, my point is, Hunter, when I played the first time you could be a contributor, you could be an asset to your tribe, and that kept you around a little bit. And nowadays, my mother is the biggest Survivor fan in the world, still studies it, studies, studies the competition. She'd be here tonight if she could but the point is it's evolved It's changed and and so it's a much different game than the initial time I played so to answer the question

How would I do things differently and and I I? Had a lot of luck that first time and anybody that tells you success those of you that have won Anybody that tells you luck isn't a part of it is lying through their teeth. You have to catch breaks. You have to be lucky. And I was very fortunate the first time to make it all the way to the end.

I didn't win, but I made it all the way to the end. It wasn't because I was that great. It was because I caught some breaks. And the third time I played, I didn't catch any. I didn't catch any breaks. But I also can tell you this, I wasn't mentally prepared to play the game that Survivor had become the third time. You know, because I went in the first time

and I thought, oh well, I can do it the same way. Well, it had advanced and evolved way beyond my skill set at the time. Now that I've watched it and become a fan again from the outside looking in, I can look at it and see, okay, it takes a different mindset. It takes a different player than when I played it earlier. So, and physically, this is another deal too.

I played it the first time nine years before I played it the first time nine years before I played it my final time, almost a decade between the first and the last. And anybody that tells you it doesn't take a physical toll on you going back and doing it again, it is brutal and it's humbling. And Bert and I we talk about it at Reynolds all the time. It's a task. It's a physical task, it's an emotional task, it's a mental task, and that will tax you exponentially when you go back and do it again all those years later. The difference now, if I were to, you know, if old Lynn Spielman, right, if Lynn's still there, she's a casting director, if old Lynn called me up, I'd go in with a whole different

mindset now than I did before because it's all about winning. And it's not about the million dollars, but it's about competing to win. And I didn't have that killer winner mindset when I went and played the last time. Okay, let's get to some more questions. Let's go a little bit lightning round with the questions if we can. Hey everybody, I'm the aforementioned Taylor. Yeah, Colby's buddy.

Hey, my boy, my boy Taylor. Wow. So I had a bit of a long-term question. There's this alleged Final Four twist coming up. Yeah, that's too long-term. Yeah, absolutely. So I would like to ask for a Lauren Rimmer sticker. Okay, then you can definitely have a Lauren Rimmer sticker.

Here you go. Thank you. Okay. Hi. I got a cider and there's a cinnamon stick left, so I'm sad Cole isn't here. But I wanted to ask, so y'all have talked a lot about... What's your name? Danielle, sorry. Danielle. here. But I wanted to ask, so y'all have talked a lot about how Lauren has this kind of like vendetta against Ben, not Lauren, sorry, Chrissy has this vendetta against Ben. It's very personal, but I feel like it's different because a lot of times when you have a personal vote against

someone, it's also the wrong choice. And here it seems like it's both personal and the right choice. So I was wondering if you think how that's going to complicate her like calculus moving forward and like how to proceed, if it's gonna make her more likely, Chris said something about her, Ben being able to wrap her back in, if you think that's gonna make it less likely or more likely.

Well it seemed like that she had come back around where she didn't want to vote against him and she really had to have her arm twisted to vote against him in the end. So I feel like that if Ben has an inroads with anybody that's left in the game, it might actually be Chrissy Well, I read that differently. I mean, I didn't think that there was some great loyalty that had been built up

I just thought that the type of player she is she doesn't want to do like a game time decision like let's stick to the plan Yeah, I Don't know I think it's interesting where you work with somebody for a really long period of time And then you sort of like have a falling out and then are you able to fall back on that shorthand of that hey we work together the first 24 days do any of you guys have thoughts on that? Whatever gets you through the next vote yeah I mean if you're not making decisions like that you're gonna get voted out eventually I mean you can hate

someone but if they work for you and you work for them, I mean, Fair Play and I did that nonstop. People hated him especially. But hey, we'll keep you around for one more vote and it works. Missy, you want to say something? I was just going to talk about the Jacqueline Natalie like switcheroo like that. I mean, all of a sudden it went from, I just could. She was mad that John got voted out. Oh my God, it was a war.

And then she was playing an idol with him for her by five. Yeah. Yeah. You guys did not see how long that fight really went on because they can't show you all of it. But it was about a 45 minute screaming match in the shelter between those two. And then the next day they were like buddy, buddy. And she voted my kid off. And I mean, it really comes down to if somebody's gonna help you advance, you're willing to forgive them. I think you can let bygones be bygones. You have to.

Yeah, okay. Let's do a couple more questions. Okay. I'm Brandon from Waco, Texas. Hey Brandon. I gotta say Colby, we survived. Curb your enthusiasm. What's that?

Curb your enthusiasm. Yeah. We survived. So my question is, if Ben goes home next week, don't you think Mike has like best chance of getting final three? I mean he's like, swing vote. Yeah, Mike could be in a very interesting spot.

If Ben goes out at six, that would really be best case scenario for him, because you would think that both of the pairs would want to sit there at the end with Mike. You agree? Yeah. Yeah. I like what Kim Spratlin said.

I like Devin. I think he's comfortably working with everybody. He's got enough resume. He's not. Get rental to Devin Bro's sticker. And it's making, he's got enough resume. He's not. Get Reynolds a Devon Bros sticker. And it's not cause he's a bro. I'm not so bro-ed out up here. Okay.

All right, let's do two more questions. Hi, I'm Sam. So when Lauren found out that Ben was coming for her, if she would have used her idol and her advantage, they would have been a four-four tie with all of her side being immune. What are your thoughts on using rocks as a threat to get people to switch to your side?

Steven? I mean, I think it's a great threat, right? I've always said that the people who are willing to go to the rocks are the ones who are going to make it to the end. Because the other side will always cave, right? I mean, did any of you guys know? Did you guys?

Any of you had rocks? No rocks. No rocks. Is the fire building, when did that end? That's that, that's at, uh, at a final four, if it's a two, two tie, we'll have a, uh, go to a fire. Yes. I did it. Okay.

Hi, my name is Jordan. My question is actually for Colby. You went from mortal enemies with Jerry to when you were voted out in Heroes vs. Villains, she was crying. What happened because we actually did not see it in the edit? Oh, with Jerry? Yeah, well, yeah. So, uh, no, it's all good. Yeah, it's all good. I didn't even say this with my wife sitting over here. It's all good. Jerry and I, yeah, we did three seasons together. We didn't, we weren't on the same tribe in All Stars, but we obviously competed against each other at Heroes vs. Villains. And so, you know, time matures, time heals. And so, Jerry was a very different person going into Heroes vs. Villains than she was when we competed in Australia.

And so, unfortunately, you know, again, we're all fall victim to just what makes TV, what makes good TV. What did not make good TV during that final season that I did with Jerry was all the fishing and the copacetic coexistence that we had. We got along great. We fished together every day. It was kind of a bummer for producers because we weren't fighting. We weren't at each other's throat. We weren't doing anything. We just got along and so we were fishing. We were actually catching fish and providing for the tribe and everything else once the two

tribes merged. But it you know it's one of those things. It is what it is. It didn't make great TV. But Jerry and I never really had a problem with each other. We competed. She understood it as the game that it was. And we became friends, actually, on the last time we did it. Well, OK. one more question. Let's see how quick it is.

Hey, my question was... All right, all right, all right, all right. All right, if you ask them quick, ask them quick. My name's Alan, I'm from Temple, Texas. Hey, Alan. In recent Survivor, we've seen a huge evolution in gameplay since season one through season 35. Where do you think the show will head next?

And, Reynolds, please play Survivor again. Oh, OK. Yes. I mean, it's a I love this guy. Yeah, so Great question by Alan. I wonder if we might see a little bit of like, did we sort of like hit a peak in terms of like,

twist, twist, twist, twist, and do you think it will ever come back the other way, Steven? I don't think so. I mean, TV's just getting crazier and they got to compete. I think it's, we're staying at like crazy level, right? Yeah. More crazy.

I think the recipe works and you throw 18 or 20 people out there with a single winner and a million dollar prize and you deprive them of all the comforts they're used to. Organically it happens and they throw a lot of twists in and they can keep doing that. But organically I think the show works perpetually. Okay all right Cam. I'm gonna be real quick with this for fish bag I'm gonna ask you this do you think that Dr. Mike got the fishy tonight? Yeah I actually was thinking two fishies right I think dr. Mike totally right because Dr. Mike because yeah, he perfectly played those two traps against each other and one other I mean the other one is I mean who do you think yeah?

It's bad Because just you know having that sense of oh my god you know I've been in a situation where I've gone up to the well and they've been talking about me and it's been awkward and I was like, that's fine, I'm sure it's fine. And for him to like suss it out and no

and like play the idol at the perfect time, I thought he played it perfectly. And now you go on Reddit and they're talking about you, it's like this is awkward and It's like, this is awkward. And he's like, yeah, that's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, all right, all right. Real quick, real quick, guys.

OK. OK, quick, very quick. Hi, my name is Basel. Of the people, of the loved ones on this episode, who do you think would make for a best blood versus water pear? Oh. Lauren. Sonny Bunny?

Okay, that's our new breakout star. All right, here's Steve. Hey guys, this is for Colby. I just want to know, what's it like for you viewing it now as opposed to experiencing it then in terms of with the food where you only had rice in season two and then you ran out and had to basically give up your flag? Is correct to get more rice that's right so what's it like view

you know what's what's it like easy what's that they have it too easy now all right yeah look it's it is brutal no matter what season you're on everybody knows that I you started the question by saying what's it like to watch it now? Yeah, no, that's what I'm saying is being a true fan of it. You have to understand, and I think I can speak for the majority of the people out here, just because I was archaic and back in the beginning, I was a fan of that first season. That first season aired and no one else was watching. They had no numbers, no ratings, no nothing.

But I watched and I was a huge fan of that, which is what compelled me to send in my application and try to become a part of it. As far as the food and everything else goes, I do say this, of all you survivors that are are here Australia is the only one that's gone 42 days I'll tell you I got fan in the back right there that's right so for those for those for those of you keep a track every single season including season one has been 39 days is that correct we know No, we had day zero. How many did you have? We had an extra night. We had day zero. What is that? What is that? Day zero? What does that mean? Nothing. It's an extra night. So my point is, and for you fans out here, there's 42 days, and I remember Mark Burnett

coming out there, Tina and I were the only two left. I mean, it was, we were done. I mean, it was just the two of us, and it was three extra days, which doesn't sound like much, but when you're as spent as we are, Burnett's sitting there going, we're not getting any good TV out of this guy. I mean, they're just completely lethargic.

There's nothing happening here. Bring them some sandwiches kind of deal, which they did not do. But that was Burnett's sort of thing at Tribal Council. And the point is they throttled it back after that and it's been 39 days ever since. So Australia was the only one that was 42 days. And the last question for real.

Bring it home. Nice to meet you. All right. My name is James. I'm from Houston. Anybody know who's James? What's your name? James.

James, OK. I just want to know, would any of y'all consider playing Big Brother, especially since some CBS Celebrity Big Brother is coming up. Big Brother's coming up. No way. Yeah. Anybody? Burton would hate Big Brother, right? No way in the world. I mean, you're living in the back of a studio lot, you're under complete control, you can't even walk around, you can't go

swimming. I mean, that would be a nightmare to me. Colby, would you ever consider a celebrity Big Brother? First of all, I'm not a celebrity so that wouldn't work but uh no no I don't know. What about just regular big brother? What's that? What about just regular? Oh regular big brother? You can't even get these guys on celebrity big brother. A survivor versus big brother? No. Mike? They won't go. Mike would do it. Brett LeBel would do it like red label with me we met where's the spread? Sprattling you is it now she said no, okay? All right? That's here and Steven Steven would never Steven say no What else do I have going on fine? I'll go no the only thing I want to say Rob and and fish back

Thank you for putting this together. I am blown away. I am blown away at the turnout here. Good Lord, who knew you guys had it in you to pull this together? But I know I speak for all of us up here and those that have competed out there. It is a fraternity and we are so proud and it's so neat that all of you still watch it after all these years, 35 seasons,

that you're still there and it is. It means a lot to us. Thank you for, for me, I'm speaking, thank you for showing up tonight. This is, I had no idea what to expect. Rob invited us up here. You know, we, Rennell called me and said, hey, you wanna do this thing on Wednesday night?

And I called Burton, I said, Burton, you gotta go. And he goes, I'll go. So we all kinda did it, not knowing what we were getting into, but I'm really proud I did it. Thank y'all for showing up. This has been a lot of fun. Yeah, so oh wow, now what an ovation. Well, we had to go full tilt here in Austin, Colby.

All right, well Stephen, what else is there to say? I'm just so amazed by how good looking the Texas survivors are. Look at these people. They're so unbelievably handsome and beautiful. It's unreal. Okay, rein it in a little bit, okay. All right.

Come on. It gets late. Okay, thank you guys so much for coming out and being here with us in person. You know, Colby said it, but we appreciate it so much, you guys. People traveled from all over the place to be here with us tonight, so we appreciate that.

Of course, for the podcast, Lauren Rimmer, I interview tomorrow morning, and then over the weekend, I'm gonna be catching up with one of your old friends called T-Bird is going to be on the podcast. Talk to her this weekend. And the first lady of podcasting, Nicole Sestrino will be on the voicemail. So we'll get into all that plus the wiggle room. We've got a great after party plan for you guys here tonight as well. We need a hashtag.

Yes! Oh my God. Why did you do this to us? Yeah, well, yell it out, what's the hashtag? Oh! Oh my God! Be brave! What is it?

Be brave! Be brave? Be brave? That's it! Ah, can we beat that. Can we beat that? Can we beat that? VHS tape. VHS tape, okay, good.

VHS tape, good? VHS tape. VHS tape, okay, good. VHS tape, good? VHS tape. All right, thanks so much to everybody here. All right, thanks so much to everybody here. Everybody here that was on the panel.

Everybody here that was on the panel. I mean, for the people that are up here. Rattled Missy, Burton, of course, how great was Colby tonight? Mike Kim Brett and Chris Thank you guys so much looking forward to hanging out with all you guys say of course to Stephen fishback. How great was Stephen? Rob Sesternino who makes this happen who's brought us all together who's created this crazy thing Let's all give it up for Rob Sesternino, who makes this happen, who's brought us all together, who's created this crazy thing, let's all give it up for Rob Sesternino. My God! Rob Sesternino! Standing ovation for Rob Sesternino! All right. Thank you so much. Angie Konzett did all the planning, all the volunteers.

Thank you guys so much. Have a great night, everybody. We'll talk to you again soon, bye. And I'll give you stickers. Anybody who wants stickers, I have JP stickers. I don't want them. I'm sorry. Me, Devin, pass Devin down. How do you do it? I'm good.

Oh, Devin, give him to me! They got the game all figured out, they know it all They probably know it all