RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 50 Premiere Mailbag

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Survivor 50 Premiere Mailbag Rob Cesternino and Brandon Donlon open the mailbag to break down the Survivor 50 premiere, responding to listener questions and early reactions following the milestone return. With fan enthusiasm at a recent high, they discuss why the premiere landed so strongly and how tempered expectations may have contributed to its positive reception A major focus of the episode is the absence of the On Fire podcast for Season 50. Rob and Brandon explain Jeff Probst’s decision to place the official podcast on hiatus, analyze the reasoning behind “not pulling back the curtain,” and debate whether skipping supplemental content makes sense for a celebratory season built on nostalgia and long-term investment. They dig into early gameplay questions, including whether returning winners are in immediate danger, why certain players avoided early scrutiny, and how pregame reputations influenced first-episode dynamics. The discussion touches on Savannah’s quiet positioning, Jenna Lewis’ early struggles, and how social grouping formed quickly despite limited gameplay. Rob and Brandon also examine production choices, including lost votes, journeys, and advantages, questioning which twists add meaningful strategy versus unnecessary friction. The Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol receives special attention, with analysis of how it works, why Genevieve’s decision to send it to Ozzy matters, and how secrecy around its mechanics could impact future rounds. The episode closes with broader reflections on nostalgia, casting chemistry, and why Survivor 50 feels fundamentally different from recent seasons. With a mix of audience questions, strategic evaluation, and franchise-level discussion, the mailbag sets the tone for how RHAP will approach coverage throughout the season. 0:00 Survivor 50 Premiere Mailbag Begins 06:10 On Fire Podcast Officially on Hiatus 13:02 Cirie’s Safety First Vote Discussed 20:15 Ozzy vs. Coach: Rivalry Develops 27:15 Which Tribe Would Rob Join? 30:29 Colby and Rizzo’s Island Dynamic 38:12 Amanda Kimmel Almost Replaced Aubry 46:02 Multiple Billie Eilish Idols Theorized 54:13 Sending Idol to Ozzy Debated 58:07 Should Ozzy Know Idol Sender? 1:06:21 Ranking This Premiere Among All 1:09:20 Should Physical Challenges Be Retired? 1:21:18 Casting Old School vs New School 1:33:32 Influencers and Survivor’s Future Casting 1:35:52 Who’s In Trouble Next Vote? 1:42:15 Survivor 50 Housekeeping and Announcements To pre-order Rob’s book, The Tribe and I Have Spoken, visit www.robhasabook.com Never miss a minute of RHAP’s extensive Survivor coverage! LISTEN: Subscribe to the Survivor podcast feed WATCH:  Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube SUPPORT:  Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks!

Hey everybody, what's going on? Rob Sestradino back here. We are back so hard for Survivor 50, so effing hard. And we are ready to talk about the Survivor 50 premiere in an all-listener mailbag here. And I'm very excited to do this. And here with us, the man who curates the mailbag around here. Let's give it up for Brandon Donlin. Hey, hey, I thought Mitch was the mailman.

Mailman Mitch. My mailman brand? Is that something? Nope. Nope. Okay. So, yeah, we've been doing a monthly mailbag here on RHAP, and we have a lot of guests lined up, but I thought after the premiere, there's so much to get into, I said, why don't we just open up the mailbag?

And why don't we let listeners write in and do some questions? We did the patron Q&A on Friday. We still got Club Condo coming up on Monday. But we were inundated with questions about the Survivor 50 premiere. We were inundated and you can feel it if you're on your TikTok or your Twitter or wherever you get your social media. This is the most fun anybody's had

with Survivor, it seems, in quite some time. So everybody wants to talk about it. Whereas for the past, I don't know, calendar year that has not been the case. Everybody's pretty pumped up right now. I didn't, you know what? And I think everybody's expectations were tempered and I think that, you know,

it's so the reason that any of us have critiques in the first place is like we know how good it can be. And then when it feels like it falls short, then we're all frustrated. But they smashed it. They really did a good job. Yeah, especially in the first hour when I think people were really most nervous of like, okay, hopefully it's not going to suck. It's not going to suck, right? And then they really delivered early on in the episode. So people were really pumped up. The ratings numbers were really, really good. I personally was even a little skeptical. I know they had done so much marketing for Survivor 50.

and I was a little bit like, maybe it'll be like a little bit better than Survivor 49. But Sam, I don't know if you have any of the stats on what the ratings were, but it was like the best CBS Wednesday in years. I think they had like 6 million viewers for Survivor. So that it was best in four years on a Wednesday. I believe I saw that it had the most views for the Survivor Timeslot since the finale of Survivor 45. So in two years, I did catch that headline. in a couple of years, it's the most that people have watched.

I thought that maybe be a little bit more because we have all the older folks, but I wonder if it just, you know, even the first, you know, two seasons of the traders were this way where it started and then you gradually progressed up. So, you know, if we got water cooler conversation this week, then hopefully it'll, it'll continue to arc upward. I'm surprised they didn't rerun it on Saturday. Yeah, isn't that weird? That's a heck really a move that they do, but I don't know if there's something else that was going on.

also can I just say as we're talking about the ratings can I flag something because you are a bit of a survivor historian yourself they talked about the finale of Borneo now was watched by 71 million people watch the finale of Survivor Borneo and listen I wrote my senior thesis about this that for that this may be some sort of Mandela effect that that's a number was always 51 million people right yes how did we is it since like they started streaming it on co on the after the pandemic that 20 million new people watched it and now we're up to 71 million how did we go I've never heard 70 million people watched the finale of the first season of Survivor it's always been 51 maybe 52 million that was the number

So it's giving shades of fall 2024. Like where all these people come from? We have all these new people that are doing this thing. Since when? They have to be counting streaming numbers. You would assume. They changed it, but it was like a headline from like the newspaper from then.

It wasn't like a modern new headline. They may have doctored up the newspaper. Yes, from every number that I ever remember in my lifetime. It was always, I think 51 million is the number that I remember. And then the Australia. premiere also had a crazy number, but I forget what that number was. And the All-Stupper's premiere. That was right after the Super Bowl, the Giants played the Ravens in the Super Bowl in January

of 2001. And so that, of course, big numbers. And that was like they were doing like 40 million viewers a week on the Survivor, the Australian Outback during that season during Colby's first run here. But I don't know, maybe it's the Colby factor. Everybody came back for Survivor 50. Anyway, let's talk about it. And we've gotten so many questions.

Where should we start off the all season 50 mailbag? Well, there is a headline of the week. We've got double-digit questions. Maybe 20 separate people are all wondering, where is the On Fire podcast? Did the On Fire podcast quiet quit? Where is he? Where are they? Okay.

So I want to, Sam, bring up for us, let's get the official answer to this question because it had been, we did a draft earlier in the offseason of who's going to be the co-host for On Fire for this season. And then we were waiting to hear who won the draft, who was going to be the co-host for the On Fire Season 50 podcast. And then the Survivor 50 premiere came and went. And then there was no word, but we do have an official answer on this as to where is the On Fire podcast, which I believe premiered during Survivor 44. Here is from Variety. Jeff Proppst explains why the official Survivor 50 podcast is on hiatus for Survivor 50. And so the answer is, this is what Jeff Propp said. Survivor 50 was designed as a celebration. And it features one of the most exciting game

designs we've ever done, Probe said in a statement of variety. Because of that, we made a conscious decision not to immediately pull back the curtain while it was happening. We wanted fans to discover it on their own and experience it in real time. Then at the live finale, we'll all have the opportunity to reflect on all parts of this season together. Okay. It's an interesting answer. I understand the latter more than I understand the former. I understand, hey, we're having a finale. The things that we would talk about on the podcast, we're going to save for the finale.

But the middle part is interesting to me, that they don't want to pull back the curtain immediately during the season. When this feels like the season, and correct me if I'm wrong, this feels like the season that you'd want to do the additional content, as they've done all of this marketing push beforehand. They've got the book, Jeff's book that's coming out. They have all this new stuff that they're doing. Yes, it's on the, I have a couple in the other room.

I didn't get so many. Yeah, I wonder, I bought one organically a couple days before I came out. And then we were at the thing the other night and they gave them out. So I had one in a little bag. So if anybody wants one and you're listening and I live within a block of you, I'll bring it to you. Yeah, it seems like this is the season that you'd want to do it and they don't want to do it. Yeah, it's interesting for sure. And I miss it because I felt like that the On Fire podcast was additive.

I liked listening to it every week. it was part of my Thursday ritual of watch the show on Wednesday. And then on Thursday, I'd like to listen to the On Fire podcast and get any sort of like additional information about it. I just wonder, did Jeff lose interest in doing it? Where in season 49, I think that the probably, with all due respect to Jeremy's addition to the podcast, I think probably the most memorable things that came out of the podcast in season 49 was, the discourse about Parvety. Was she a half winner from Australian Survivor?

Did that count as a full win? So the things that really broke through about the On Fire podcast were the things that were sort of the controversial things and controversial skewing negative around the On Fire podcast. And so with everything that Jeff has going on in addition to finishing Survivor 50, also they're casting Survivor 51 and anything else that he's doing. was the juice worth the squeeze for Jeff? Yeah, I wonder how far they got into the process

before they decided to not do it. Because you would imagine right after 49, maybe it feels like this is the natural, as we all thought, it's the natural thing to do at this moment. If his heart's not in it and he doesn't really want to come back and do it, it's not like that, I mean, listen, they make plenty of money from making Survivor. It's not like that Jeff's in the podcast game for the money.

So he's got to be in it for the love of the game. And if for any reason, it becomes not so fun to do it. I just think that there's other places that he could spend his time. It's a big commitment to do it for every single episode. He puts a lot into everything that he does. And it's not like that one more person watches Survivor because of the official on fire podcast. And it's funny.

this, we get all these submissions. There's literally, I'm looking at 25 submissions of people asking what we think happened, where it went, whatever. I didn't, truthfully, I didn't know that this many people were as invested in the On Fire podcast as like you and I are who listened to it. I'm sure. I'm sure people are.

And here's the thing that I've learned about podcast listeners over these last 15 years. A lot of them are creatures of habit. You know, okay, I like this podcast. This comes out on this day. What do you mean this podcast isn't coming back? So the people who were listening, to it. I think we're trained to be looking for it on Thursdays. And so it was, I think, a big surprise to

in this huge season of Survivor to not have the On Fire podcast come back. Just to share personal experience of the New York City events this past week, I had had like a hunch. And I think this was, you know, the rumor online after Boston Rob just is the Traders podcasted. Maybe he is the next host. And they're going to announce it this week. And then he, like you, his flight gets canceled due to the weather. And then we're all together. And then Sophie Ballarity is here in New York. And I'm like, oh, that makes sense to me. Maybe they'll announce that. And they don't. And then Kyle gets medevaced. And I'm like, oh, is Kyle the way that Tyson is doing the House of Villains podcast? Is it Kyle perhaps? And it's not Kyle either. They're just not doing it. They're just not doing it. And I do see a world where

maybe they just take off season 50 and maybe it comes back for Survivor 51 where maybe there's more things in Survivor 51 that Jeff wants to give a peek behind the curtain. So I don't think that necessarily it's over, but I think that for whatever reason, they didn't want to do it for 50, and maybe that Jeff will miss it and want to come back and do it for 51. And not to totally pull behind the curtain. And I'm not, I can't remember if they've ever said this on the On Fire podcast, but it is not like, they film it, you know, ahead because of just the travel that you have to do with the spring or what have you. So it is not an easy operation. It's not just meeting at 4 o'clock every week to do it.

I'm sure there's a lot more that goes into it. And you'd have to give your potential guests. You know, they have to be like six, seven weeks ahead of time. So, yeah, I guess not worth it. But I was excited to hear, you know, there's so much new stuff that's happening on season 50 that wasn't happening on 48 or 49. Like so many swings they're taking

that we can see from the preview and what have you. So, like, there's never been a time where I've been more invested in peeling back the curtain. Well, if only there was any other way to satisfy the pie, the podcast thirsty audiences of Survivor. I hope that there is some way. I'm the Jay Wolf of this network, is what they say. That's what all the message boards say.

Yes. And you're the Jeff. I did just bring up Kyle, and I will ask you a question from Savannah Putt, which says, are the- Savannah from Survivor 49? You know what? You know, these people from Survivor 49,

I hear they be having burner accounts. Sure. Savannah. It's Savannah's brother. But are the remaining winners cooked? Do you think they were remaining winners of Survivor 49? They are, I'm sorry, not 40. So, Kyle got off, and I'm not going to say on the right foot, but he did really get off to a strong start in season 50, more so than I would have expected. I really thought Dee would come out and get off to a hot start. I really would have picked her as the winner who I thought was going to come in and really ingratiate herself and not have any issues with fitting in socially. I don't think that she's necessarily in major

trouble yet because I have a hard time finding four votes that are going to, or more than four votes that are going to come together to vote out D. So I don't know if the winners are cooked. Savannah seemed to be not mentioned at all and came away with an advantage after episode one. So I would say, no, I do not think that I would say the winners are cooked right now. That was another question that we got was it seems so interesting that Savannah's name seemingly doesn't come up in that first round of play. When all of the pregame interviews, everybody is talking about how they don't feel good with these non-entity people that they don't know being Rizzo and Savannah.

So it seems like that's a testament to how Savannah played that in a room of people that she kind of went in with a home field disadvantage. Yeah, that's really interesting to think through in terms of of why was Savannah not even mentioned, we saw Savannah working tightly with Joe and maybe that there was a thought of if we go after Savannah, Joe's not going to like that. And do we antagonize Joe potentially by doing that? I mean, this is an interesting tribe when we take a look at it, where we have the block of three, the Devons, Emily Christian block. And then it seems like that Joe and Savannah are a block. And then obviously Ozzy and Surrey.

and Jenna Lewis was all alone. So I think that by nature of Jenna Lewis not even having a buddy on that tribe, I wonder if that sort of made it easier that there was no collateral damage. And it seemed like that from what Christian said, if we go for Jenna, it's not a dirty vote. No one was going to be upset if the person was Jenna. And so I think that she really was just odd personnel. Yeah, it's an interesting, it's an interesting theory that, Jack Keating, one of our question askeders also said was,

how much should the players, especially on return-e season, value making it a good season by doing things like not voting off CERI in that first round? Where if you break them the numbers, it doesn't seem like CERI would have gone in any way in the first place. But is that something you think that people are conscious of playing season 50 is wanting to make the boot order good, so to speak? I don't think it's necessarily that I want to make it a good boot order, but I definitely could see a world where people who,

who are especially very much online in the Survivor fandom, in the same way with the traders where it was a question of, do we want to vote out Donna Kelsey? Are we sure we want to do this? Of, is there a backlash against us from the Survivor fans to take out a beloved figure on the first vote? Where everybody is going to Survivor 50, can't wait, want to watch Surrey. And then you monsters voted out Surrey first.

I hate you. And then you just get torn to shreds online. So I think that that is one of the things I feel like it works in Ceri's favor in terms of people wanting to work with her. And I do think that it's going to take a special group of people to come together who says, you know what, I'm not worried about what the fans say. I'm going to take out Cerey. Do you think in that first round of play, do you think there's any consideration to take out Cerey at that point? Or do you think it was Jenna probably the whole time that they were there leading up to that tribal council?

I think that there's interesting discourse about of who was the person that was saying Surrey's name. Jenna Lewis said in her interviews that it was really Christian, who was the person who said Surrey's name first. Now, we know from the preseason interviews, Jenna Lewis was talking about I want to take out Surrey. And Christian was saying, I want to work with Surrey. So I don't know if there was some sort of wires that got crossed in terms of who, wanted to get actually wanted to target serri first but i do think that christian would be one of the people that would say hey i don't want that kind of heat from people of being the surrey killer yeah and jenna i guess goes into this tribe you know i i i don't know behind the scenes how much

she's talking about seri who allegedly may be there during the interview process but it is interesting that she talks so much about seri in the preseason and it does end up on the tribe with her, which even at that point, she has every, you know, right to abort strategy, and she seems to not have done that either. Yeah. When you say it's interesting that she's on the tribe with Surrey, how do you mean? I mean, like, she talks so much about Surrey in the pregame, wanting to take her out, whatever.

And then, you know, by happenstance, she just happens to be on the same tribe as her to get that chance, presumably, or not action at it. And she immediately wanted to. Do you feel like that the producers wanted to make it interesting and they wanted to make it spicy, so they put Surrey on a tribe with somebody that wanted to take her out? I wonder, right? I mean, I don't know if you're putting a producer hat on. Yeah. Do you want to immediately, like, do you want to save Surrey or do you want to put her in a situation? I actually had not wondered that. In my mind, I feel like that they probably knew what

the tribes were beforehand. And I doubt that they really got too into like, hey, Jenna Lewis, who were you planning on targeting? Like, I think things like, okay, let's put Q and Aubrey on the same tribe because that'll be hilarious. But I don't think that they really got into the weeds with Jenna Lewis and knew who she wanted to target beforehand. And I doubt that they were changing the tribes on the fly that late in the game. But I really have no idea. I do hear that.

But I do think if there's anybody who is saying it in every interview leading up to being selected for season 50, it would be somebody like Jenna Lewis of wanting to like, if she's not the winner killer, she's like the legend killer. I can see it coming up in that way. Yeah. But do you think that the Survivor production, if anything, I would feel like, would probably not want Surrey to be in that spot? Well, that's, yeah, that's the interesting. You know, it seems so like, and even like Q and Aubrey is such an intentional decision.

But I just, I wonder where on the spread of the cast the other intentional decisions are. Mm-hmm. In terms of people that they wanted to see paired up together. It's an interesting thing, you know, one of our listeners, Colts as you says, is Aussie coach drama, a through line of the season, or just pre-merged fodder? And I think it's an interesting point to not have put them on the same tribe when they could have done that off the route. Yeah.

So we got it to play out in a big way in the Sweat versus Savvy, Earned the Supplies Challenge. And I think it could be a storyline for the whole season. I don't think it necessarily needs to be premurged because I think that chances are we're not going to see them on the same tribe. and I think that they're probably going to both be long-term characters, in my mind, in the season. So I think this is an ongoing storyline. And it came up not just when it happened, but also in the retelling from Mike White when he heard what Colby said.

I saw some very funny tweets about Mike White that in that moment, he had his producer hat on. And he was just, he knew telling coach would light the fire a little bit. So he was like, let's just see what happens. And then he gets the exact reaction that he won. Yeah, that was one of the highlights from the third hour for sure. It happens right before Kyle ends up getting medevaced when coach gets the retelling of that. And then coach really was so calm and collected in the preseason in terms of telling us about who Coach 4.0 was. But then in this moment in hearing about how people are talking about him and how his reputation is being called into question, he is a little bit thrown back into the old coach.

are you do you think throughout the season will you enjoy more people like an Aussie like a jonathan trying to kind of reinvent what they did or do you want to watch somebody like coach like play the hits and and do exactly a similar situation what they've done the the times that they played before i think both things are interesting especially in terms of when we see characters and movies and television where that you know their ticks and their fatal flaws and even when they change, but then you see the glimmer of the old version of them pop up,

it's like, ah, I knew it was still there. And so I think that that's what makes for compelling human drama. The most exciting and the most fun that I had throughout the episode is your Aussies complaining about their back and your Colby's who can't see and can't hear out of their one year.

It's just, you know, they make all of these like 90s movies, remakes of like the buddy cop and they're like one more job and they're all like a little frail and a lot of them are like money grabs you know but this isn't this isn't that this is like they genuinely want to be there it's just it's so fun to see that crew back coach had a bad back too he told us in the preseason that he was doing some kind of like martial arts to get ready to go and he threw out his back beforehand and then needed to get like a massage at ponderosa in the pregame he got the pregame massage. That's funny. Yeah. I don't think I heard that. It's, you know, everybody gets the post

game massage, but the pregame is, it's an interesting. I haven't heard of anybody getting the pregame massage. That's very, very funny. Yeah, it is. I mean, what a, what a fun thing this is. We're really, like, my first thought after watching the first episode was like, I don't need a new people season for another three years. I think we just, we abort and we do what the challenge does. And just let's bring back six seasons of a different 18 people that we've seen. before. I don't know if we need to go all in on All-Stars, but I would like to see them in the 50s where even though this was part of the dark ages of Survivor in the 20s, I would like to see them come in where even if they want to do, hey, Survivor 51 is a new player season,

why don't we have captains? Why don't we have two captains per tribe? So you have, if you go back and it's 18 players and three tribes, six returning players, and then you have 12. new players. So everybody's happy. You get 12 new players. Even if he didn't want to do that for Survivor 51, but you do it for Survivor 52. I just believe that you get people so much more invested when the returning players are there. And you have such an embarrassment of riches and a wealth of people. And Australian Survivor, they, look, I don't know we don't like to talk about Australian Survivor too much. They're bringing back people constantly, almost every season. And And they're bringing back people for no reason.

And I really like the idea of like this Australian Survivor Redemption. Yes. They bring back three men. They bring back one woman. There's no rhyme or reason to who gets brought back. It's just we don't care about the gender ratio. We don't care about how many times they played before. I love that.

I love more just random. It's like we're going to do what we want to do. Where it doesn't have to be so like, you know. And it's a movie where you have stars and then you also have like, okay, and then here's a bunch of new people that we want to see. Yeah, I really, really hope that they experiment. If we're going to stick with three tribes for the next couple seasons, I would love to, or we do two new tribes and then one old tribe, like you bring six people back.

I wonder if we will. Do you think we'll actually see that or do you think we're doing six more seasons of new people? I think it's going to be new players for Survivor 51. I think that and Survivor historically has struggled with the season after the big All-Star season. And I think that they're really going to want to try to stick the landing on this because I see, hey, the health of the franchise is strong. Six million people watched it. Biggest episode in Survivors of last four years.

But if Survivor 51 comes on and it's a dud and it's a who cares, like that audience is going to evaporate like this. It doesn't necessarily mean that people are back week in, week out for Survivor just because Survivor 50 got off to a great start. So I really do think that they need to make sure Survivor 50. Survivor 51 is sticky. I do wonder though, like after seeing the, like, they've gotten the hype excitement for the last 18 months of Survivor 50, but I wonder if these five, six weeks before they have to go film

51 and maybe are still making decisions for 52. I wonder if they have their old Reliables. They have, you know, these 100 people they cut for Survivor 50. I wonder if they abort quickly and throw some people onto 52 or we do a couple captains for 51, who knows? Yeah, I just think they need a big idea. It can't just be, hey, it's back to the new era now. Survivor 51, we're picking up where we left off. I don't think that that is going to be super exciting for the Survivor fans that are very energized and engaged right now. At Desjardin Insurance, we know that when you're a building contractor, your company's

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And I don't know if there's anybody else who's in this category of I've talked to all of the people that are on Survivor 50. All 24 of these people, I have had at least some interaction with every single one of them. So it's very exciting for me, especially when you have people who have been on the podcast many, many times, specifically like a Christian or people that I've known, you know, very well like a Jenna Lewis in real life to see them go and participate on the show. Like, it's very surreal. Do you have a tribe of the three of them that if you were, if you could teleport onto,

the tribe that you would want if you were there? So I think that the tribe that I probably would fit in, I think is probably that tribe with Christian and Rick. And maybe I'd be the Dr. to their Kirk and Spock along with Emily. Not 100% sure that Emily would receive me as well as she's received Rick and Christian, but I feel like that also that I had the connection with Jenna Lewis also on that tribe. So I think I would have fit in pretty well there.

No one there for you to be their dad. Is that a pain to being for you? I don't need to be anybody's dad. I mean, I'm Dominic and Anthony's dad. I mean, my kids are little. Your kids are little. I mean, Rizzo is not little, but Rizzo really was taken aback by a Colby, which we did get a question about also, which I'm going to scroll and try to find because it did make me laugh and then I scrolled away from it. Would Rob, this is from Brianna Weiss.

Would Rob have been flattered or disturbed if Rizzo approached him about being his island dad? So I don't think that Rizzo approached Colby about being, hey, well, you? you be my dad, like roller girl, you be my dad. I think that Colby tried to take Rizzo under his wing, and the way that Colby was talking to Rizzo was like a dad. So I think that that's where that ultimately came from. I don't think that I would treat a younger person on the tribe like I'm their father. I just don't think I would do that.

I think that I could see myself as maybe more of a mentor, but I probably would see it more in the context of being because I have worked with so many younger people in the podcast world, such as yourself, talented, young people in their 20s. And I would see my relationship with a Rizzo more of sort of like a many, mentor-mente professional relationship more so than I would come at it from the perspective of you are like my son. This is like a family relationship. Do you think that's your personality or is that the couple years of age difference that you and Colby have? Do you think if you go back in at Colby's age, you're more dad-like?

It's certainly possible. I just, I don't really see myself taking on that type of role as the patriarch of the tribe. I think that it would be a little bit more of that, hey, I have some wisdom. I have some experience, but it's not a hierarchical where I'm up here and you're down here. It's that, hey, I've been through these wars before. I have some things that I could share with you if you're willing to learn and listen. Yeah, that was, I mean, I'm seeing a lot of people say it online, but that was for a lot of people,

their favorite scene of the episode. Who would have thought that Colby and Rizzo of it all? You know, it opens the way that everybody, I think, expected it to open, where Colby is a little put off. And then you have this really beautiful scene. Yeah. It really, I was my favorite.

I mean, I, the idea that, and, you know, even in the pre, like, months leading up to this, I feel like from the new fans of Survivor, like, the folks that are since COVID or, like, didn't grow up with it. There's been this kind of resistance with Colby. They're like, they don't get it. They know him from Heroes vs. villains, which they watched recently because of Netflix, and he was not as into it when he was there. But he's the most fun I had watching anybody on this episode. It was nice to see him back, and it was nice to see him appreciating where he has. has been, I believe when we're watching people on television having fun, then we are also having fun. What do you think, though, the difference is between, is it from even this and a season 49 or

season 48? Like, we all are having so much fun, which is, is it, it's the nostalgia or is, like, Colby a better confessional giver than the folks who are on those seasons? I think it's nostalgia. I think it's that we know who these characters are as opposed to, wait, Who is MC? Like, who is, who is, who is, who is this person? And we're just trying to catch up and learn who these people are. But we're not invested in them as opposed to these people that these characters, that we have over 20 years of earned backstory about Colby.

And we know all of the baggage he comes into the game with. And I just think that the stakes are so much higher. Yeah, it really is interesting that they didn't. they wait. I mean, I understand the waiting till 50, but it seems so crazy after how great the reception was of this to wait 10 years to have done it. Or I'm sorry, you know, five years and 10 seasons to have done it again. I think that the show for better for worse, I mean, they're very good at what they do, but I think that they love the idea of that, hey, we're storytellers. We are going to find these 18 new people and we are going to tell their story.

story and we're finding them and we're telling the story and we're so good at what we do, where I think the fans have so many other stories that we're already invested in, and we'd like to see the continuation of that story. And for the people that are looking for players to put on the show, they don't have as much to do when you're just going to just bring back people from the past. And so maybe that challenge is not as exciting for the people who get to make the show, and tell the stories of 18 players. I've been saying now for a year, over a year,

that I don't know why we're not doing what the challenge All-Stars does and having 16 people from the olden day play and you throw it on Paramount Plus if you don't want to give it prime time. And then you can make, none of them are playing for the money. They don't want the prize pot.

They just want to play their favorite thing again. It just seems like we're leaving money on the table, not doing it. Has that been a successful model for the challenge? challenge. And I really don't know. I'm asking earnestly. And I'm answering earnestly, I also am, I know they've made six of them. So I guess they, they, and what the challenge, from my brief understanding of the challenge all stars, and I am not a watcher for anybody who, um, is loyally. It seems as though they've skewed the past couple where they're inviting

like Wes is on the challenge all stars when the challenge all stars is not for west, like the way that, that I don't think the challenge all stars is for Ozzy. I think it's for, you know, you have like your Brian Corridens or your, you know, your, you know, Amy Cusack, people you haven't seen in 20 years almost. I think that's who, Nate Gonzalez, if he wants to play Survivor again. Like, that's who you put on the challenge all sorts.

Or Survivor All-Stars. Wow. I really, really, I don't know why we haven't tried it. Even if we just try it once, I think that we see, you know, a lot of, you know, our people really, really into it. And then you pick up people who, if you want to do the basic survivor,

like Survivor Back to Basics, Like, that's where you test it, I think. I just don't know with the economics of that. How much does it cost to do a season of Survivor? Would that add subscribers for Paramount Plus? Is adding people to Paramount Plus the objective in terms of what's going on right now with the new ownership of Paramount and CBS? Is it more important to be getting eyeballs on CBS?

I just don't have any of those answers in terms of what's, what's the thing that they're most trying to do with the survivor property right now? So I don't know. And the challenge is hard also because MTV has sort of become a failed property on its own. And so is the only place to challenge lives now on Paramount? Yeah, and it's weird.

Like, even the last season, you couldn't watch it for a long. Like, you had to watch it live or it was on, like, a different app. Like, I don't think they necessarily know what they're doing. But, like, we're the gold standard of, of knowing what we're doing. I feel like I hope. And it's, you know, Big Brother does the over the top

a couple years ago, which, you know, I don't know if they consider that a failed experiment. I think it was certainly an experiment. The Amazing Race, even the last season, I believe,

was supposed to be on Paramount Plus. And then with the strike, they switched it, or maybe that was a couple ago. And they kept it on TV. It might have been a while ago. Strike was like three years ago. That was,

yeah, I think that for a while, they weren't ever going to put the Amazing Race on prime time again. And they switched it back. My very amateurish read on the situation, damn it, read is that I think that they're not pushing people to streaming as much as they were in the you know 20 21 2022 era when there was such a big push to in the streaming wars yeah that's

interesting um I mean I'm excited to see it's also you know my last point it's we that we haven't never seen a spin-off. We haven't seen any branch off of what this is in 20-something years. And maybe that's what the next 20-something years holds. But who knows? Drew Stevens wants to know. In her exit interview, Jenna Lewis said that she felt like she was late to the party. Based on what we've seen so far, who else do you think seems late to the party? And within the pace of the season, are those players going to have enough time to infiltrate the early alliances? Jenna Lewis really felt like that people knew each other and felt like that she was very disconnected to the group. And I certainly can understand why she ended up feeling that way, especially where you have Christian and Rick and Emily all getting along so well and Ozzie and Surrey, certainly knowing each other.

Joe and Savannah obviously did not know each other. And I think that's who she felt the most comfortable with in that tribe. that being said in terms of the other tribes Rizgod seems like he might have been a little late to the party but by way of seems like that Kyle and Genevieve have picked him up and also Q Q from what I heard from Kyle in his exit interview was concerned about an old school versus new school so I think that there was some sort of a push to integrate Risgod. So I think that that would be something that was good for him. Could Aubrey be in the late to the

party? I mean, she was technically late to the party in terms of that from all accounts, she was a later minute replacement for Amanda Kimmel. Yeah. How do you think Amanda does on this tribe in replacement of Aubrey. Amanda, I think does is good. I think that Amanda is probably scooped up by Colby and Stephanie. I think that they both feel like, hey, we're good with Amanda.

I think that Colby and Amanda were not perfect allies, but they got along good enough in Survivor Heroes versus Villains. And I think that Stephanie and Amanda, I don't think there's any sort of ill will. maybe there's a little concern over, hey, Amanda is going to get with Surrey if she gets over there. But Colby has said he wanted to work with Surrey in the preseason.

So I actually think that it is a positive for Amanda to be on this tribe in particular. And they probably wouldn't put her on this tribe, considering that there would be three heroes from the Heroes Tribe altogether. Yeah, it's such an interesting. It's so crazy that we did almost get a mandicamil back on Survivor. It was so close to happen. So close to happen. It didn't happen. The Challenge All-Stars, they're waiting.

Yeah, I mean, the Aubrey, the Aubrey Genevieve of it all was so strange. It was such a strange stuff. What was your re-on-known? And now, I don't know. Like, it wasn't even, in a new era of Survivor episode, it is presented with a confessional from Aubrey that says, I'm here because of X, X, Z. this happened to me last time, and now I want to X, Y, Z. But the person that's stopping me is Genevieve.

And then they jump into that Genevieve scene. And then you have a little bit more context. But there was no context from Aubrey of why she doesn't have a good read on Genevieve. It just felt so out of place and weird. Yeah. It was, are we going to be best friends? Are we going to be bitter rivals? And it's so funny the way now, and not funny, but we lose Kyle, who obviously has no vote because Kyle's gone.

Colby has no more vote, Q has no more vote. Now it's, you know, Angelina and Aubrey, and I guess Rizzo, who isn't totally looped in, are two votes away from now having the majority on this tribe if they can, if they can finaglic in a role there. Right. But we don't have any evidence that Rizgod is working with Angelina and Aubrey. In my exit interview with Kyle, he talked about how that they had already brought Rizgod in. So that five had really become a six. And so it seems like a big majority against the pair of Angelina and Aubrey right now. Even with Q has lost his vote, there's no Kyle and Colby lost his vote.

Still with Risgod could be the swing vote ultimately against Jennifer's two votes if it does come down to it. It's so strange that it like, you know, just because of happenstance in these lost votes, now it's a debate what's going to happen where whether if there weren't, that. I know Q said, I'm sorry, Kyle said that Aubrey would have been the first boot of that tribe if they would have voted. Did he say that to you? I think he said that in your, did he said that to you? I think he said that that doesn't ring a bell to me. I thought he had said that Angelina and Aubrey were on the bottom, but I don't know if he definitively told me that Aubrey would have gone out. But it's possible. Are you, how do you feel that we're still doing the

losing votes in season 50? Did you think for any, did you have any doubt that that would still be here? I didn't have any doubt that it's still going to be there. I mean, I have never been the biggest complainer about that. I think that it does create for interesting moments. And so I don't like it when a player has to, by no fault of their own, they're thrust into a situation where now they have to give up their vote and they're rolling dice. It's like a no, not even a game of skill. but in this instance where we're asking people

who wants to go to the journey, you ask for this. I don't feel bad for anybody who willingly goes on a journey and loses their vote. You didn't have to go. You chose this. You picked this life.

I really liked the Q and Ozzy of it all. I thought that was a lot of fun. It's like a new thing. And at least you benefit in some way. Either one is a benefit. But the Colby of it all, and granted, yes, Colby volunteers to go. But Colby goes, plays Jenga, and then loses his vote.

And it's like, okay, you know, it just, I don't love it. Honestly, the thing that bothered me the most out of that was Mike White just leaves. And it was like, okay, well, thanks for taking a boat ride today. Like, there was no stakes whatsoever for Mike, who's just the odd person out, who doesn't get the chance to even be there and watch the game. I hope when Mike does leave Survivor 50, whenever that is, I hope there's like a Yelp review that he, like, I feel like he should be keeping log of all those things. I'm like, hey, what was like storytelling wise? What is the point of doing that?

Yeah. Which I would have loved to have seen him interact with Colby and Savannah. Like, I don't, I don't understand why we don't do that game with three people. I suspect that whatever notes he has about the whole thing, I think, that Jeff is getting those notes. We don't, we're not going to get them here. You don't think in an off-season situation. I'm not positive about that. But it seems like that, you know, Jeff and Mike White have been spotted together a bunch of times after the season.

They just did a real nice interview back and forth with each other. So it seems like that Jeff and Mike White are on pretty good terms. And I think that Jeff has never been shy about asking Mike White what he thinks about the direction of Survivor. And Mike White is not shy about giving him his unfiltered thoughts about how Jeff could improve Survivor. Yeah, he really, I mean, he's like an undercover boss situation. It's like he's not undercover, but he does have a line to the boss where nobody else does, which is interesting. Sam and Repeat wants to know, can we talk about the amount of outfits that each contestant has? I don't usually notice, but I feel like every person's been in about four or five outfits in the first episode.

Yeah, to me, I think that this is a thing of who cares? Give them clothes. Like, what's the upside here? And I think that you see this a lot with the returning player seasons, where, where the returning players are asking, like, hey, can I get this? Can I get this? And just let them have it. Who cares?

And this is how I feel about the rice also. Let them eat rice. Let them have clothes. They're still sleeping outside. They're still sleeping on the beach. What's the big deal? Yeah, I saw a lot of outrage online about Mike White in that Tonight Show interview he did with Jimmy Fallon.

He says, like, and the thumbnail of the YouTube video was like, the fans suck. And then you click on it. And the fans suck for not giving him rice or supplies. I think it was a little clickbaity where I was like, oh, yeah, what's Mike White's problem with the fans? Did they, did they piss them off? But no, it was just a matter of, he's talking about, like, how they voted.

You believe how they voted? You think we're getting everything that America said? I believe so. I don't think that they would have gone through all this trouble of in the hands of the fans and then structuring the questions in the way that they did just to cook the books and then lie about, like, rig the vote. for how they wanted, like, they didn't have to ask the fans anything. They could have just done it if they wanted, if they really wanted to do it.

They didn't have to ask anybody for a vote. If there was one question you think that they could have cooked the books for it, what do you think the one question is? What's the one thing they wish they had the control over? They didn't give you the control over anything they didn't want to change. They didn't ask you, should it be a final three or a final two? Like, it was, you really, you ever go to, like, what is it, in Disney where you, like, drive the cars, and you can't really take the car that far off the track.

Sure. What's that called? Yeah, test track. And that's an epit. Shut up to Gavin. There's the one that's the one that's in the Magic Kingdom that I'm thinking of, you know, you really. Yeah. You know, it's really like, you let a little baby drive.

It's not going to go that far off course. Yeah. is the worst thing they could have screwed up. Like, oh, no. They voted for not dynamic advantages. Yeah, I wish. I wish we would have, like now, you know, retrospectively, I wish we would have mobilized. I would have loved the no idol season just because it's the no idol season.

I don't think we couldn't have gotten it. But that's a, you know, next time. But nobody actually wants a no idol season that Jeff brings it up like a straw man when that you ask Jeff a question about like, well, what if you got rid of this? Like, well, there's some people that say, hey, let's do no idols. Let's do it.

It's like, nobody's really saying that. Nobody actually, like, you would be saying all the time, like the game would be broken if there weren't idols. Like, it's part of the show. So. It is part of the show. Yeah.

I'm curious, though. I'm curious one time to try it. It does make it a little like Joe Schmo showy where it's like they're looking for idols the whole time and they're not there. I don't think that's as fun. But the eye. It serves a purpose in the game where that one side has all the numbers and then you could always find the idol and get your way.

And what if this person has an idol? We have to split the vote. It opens the door for there to be much more fluid gameplay. The idol is like a proven part of the show. No sane person would want the idol to be gone. Yeah. I mean, I guess when people talk about the back-to-basic season, is that season is not Borneo.

That season is what? Poconcheens? Yeah, the season is probably even further out. That season is, you know, that season is Philippines. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. You know? There's an idol on every tribe.

There's nothing that's super out of this world. old crazy. When did we start throwing the wonky stuff? That was season 30. That was the Dan extra vote or no vote. Well, there's the Tyler Perry Idol shows up in season 28. That's probably the one thing that you would say. I was going to say Kagyan is like, that's back to basics, but there's the Tyler

Perry Idol. But then the extra vote is the first time that an advantage really pops up. And then the 30s are really all about advantages and how we start to add more and more things. Game Changers is another big step. We have legacy advantage and vote steal, vote block. And we start to then play around with the votes a lot more in the 30s. What is the 30s is about advantages? What was the 40s about to you?

What's the through line of the 40s? I mean, the 40s is just the whole idea of the new era. nowhere to hide, dangerous fun, and small tribes that you're going to lose your vote. Yeah. Earn everything. Like they have a few different taglines for the 40s. Yeah. I mean, like 20s, 30s and 40s all have different stuff.

So 50, you would surmise can't just be the same stuff. You know what I mean? You would hope it's not. I don't think that 50 is, 51 is fully baked yet. I think that Jeff was asked about what is 51 going to be. Are you going to just pick up where you left off? I felt like that the answer he had given Dalton Ross sounded like, hey, we're, like, the new era isn't over yet.

Just because it's 51 doesn't mean it's the end of the new era. But I still hope that there is time to examine the things that it's so easy to get this kind of feedback of what people are looking for. Like I really do feel like that while the fan base, and it's hard because also I would have said that everybody wants them to get rice and then 53% of the fan base ended up voting for them to not get rice. So there are people, I don't want to say this, that they don't know what, they don't know what's actually good because I don't want to be elitist about it. But I think that it's pretty clear what is, you know, the fundamentals of what people want from Survivors.

Yeah, I was shocked at the no-ro- I don't care if they, I don't want, you know, I want to see people play Survivor. And if you're too empty. I do think there's a sentiment of that the fans that we want, we don't want them to get anything. We want it hard. But I think that's also a call to the,

an older school game. Yeah. What do you mean by that? We want it hard. We don't want it cushy for them. Don't give them food. don't give them because I think

there's this idea of like back in the old days they had the fish they had to do this and I think that there is like a call to that

where I think that production feels like hey that's a new era thing that's not an old era but I think that the people that are voting for it

are voting for that to them it's a throwback back in the day too people got a bunch of you know you got that

marooning that's just how people remember it yeah yeah that's how I remember I wanted to do that so bad. Get all the supplies.

I did do that. I really, if I could switch that, I would. I wanted to do all the, I would love to jump with a vote and not have to get back on it. I wanted to get the chicken off the boat and throw it. They don't do that anymore. I would have loved to have done all that stuff. I don't want to throw a chicken. If you're listening to this, I don't want to do that.

I would have loved to throw like an oar, something easy. Tyler and Renji wants to know. The trailer showed Devin's speaking about the Billy Irish boomerang idol. But Genevieve is the one who finds it. Is there multiple Billy Elish Boomerang Idols or he just finds out about it? Yeah. What do we think is the Billy Ilish Boomerang Idol, are there multiple Billy Ilish boomerang idols, the BB, hidden on all three of the tribes?

I think so. I think that makes the most sense. Yes. I think so that when we talk it through that the BB, the Billy Irish Boomerang Idol, that's the Beware Advantage. where there is no normal idol hidden. So we need somebody to find the BB on each tribe so that there are idols in the other camps

because Genevieve finds the idol, but there's still no idol in her camp. She needs somebody else to find an idol and send it to her and send it to that tribe. And so it is interesting that we could potentially have, what if everybody sends their idol to Ozzy? I mean, it has to be. somebody from the other tribe. So he could potentially end up with too. That it could be somebody from

the coach Mike White tribe that they find their idol. And then like, hey, like coach is like, you know what? I got to make a peace offering to Ozzy. I got to make this right. I'm going to send Ozzy an idol. And then he's like, wow, look at this. Can you believe it? He wants to have an idol. Yeah. That's magical. I got two idols and an extra vote. Do you like the move to give it to from Genevieve? I think it's interesting. I had talked this through on the patron call. I don't think there's a world where you could set a trap where, okay, who's dumb enough

that's going to get voted out with an idol? And so I'm going to send it to them and then I'm going to blindside them and then I'm going to get the idol back. It's just too galaxy brain. You end up getting yourself voted out probably for trying to do that. So I think you have to think about who's the person that I could make this piece offering to. It was an interesting call, and I wonder how much it was a group decision to send the idol to Ozzy from, I'm sorry, from Genevieve, Stephanie, and Colby. But maybe there's a thought of,

like, hey, let's make sure Ozzy is protected by the old school players. Genevieve's working with the old school players. And that's going to be something to, you know, keep out a good word for Ozzy. And he also, he got like a raw deal with coach. Do you like this better if the person doesn't need to be voted out with it, but they can also play it? Like the idol just has to be gone whether you leave or you play it. And then if Ozzy were to play it, this next travel council, Jenny didn't even get tonight. I think that is a unshop that I like. How about this? Okay, let me, can I split the difference with you? And they say you never supposed to split the difference. But what if Ozzy plays it incorrectly? What if it, like, if you could. Like, if you could.

can either get Ozzy voted out with it or if he uses it incorrectly, it comes back to you. Oh, that's how you get it back. You don't get it back is if he uses it correctly on himself. Oh, that's interesting. I like that. Because I think that it might be a little bit more of a likelihood of, hey, Ozzy, I heard you're getting voted out tonight. And then if you get Ozzy to waste the idol, it can come back to you.

Do you think Rick Devons finds it or is given it? Rick Devin's, I think it's more likely to find it. No one in their right mind would gift Rick Devin's an idol. I think the only person who would do that, I think probably would be Christian. I don't know if there was anybody else. I mean, maybe Savannah is, I'm trying to think of who would be, and she's on the same tribe as him. She's in the same tribe.

I can't imagine there's one person that's really, you know, hot to work with Rick Devons. Aubrey, maybe. It would have to be somebody on the Teal tribe because that one's already found. So it's one of those eight. Right. So I guess, yeah, I can't see that. Yeah, I don't think that there's a person there that's really clamoring to work with Rick Devons. D was totally dissing Rick Devons in the preseason.

So it's not going to be her. No. This is another, my final big. really Irish boomerang idol question. I think this is a great question from Calvin Long. It says, should Ozzy have been told who sent him the idol, given it's like the boomerang nature of it? I don't think so.

I think it makes for fun mystery for Ozzy to have to wait. Genevieve can get the chance to tell him personally, hey, guess what? I sent you the BB. I mean, I sent you this normal idol. I sent you this totally normal idol. that's not a boomerang. Giving it to odds is interesting,

but who is the, if you find this and you can give it to anybody, who's the most optimal person do you think you give it to? It's the person that you want to work with. I don't think that there is like an optimal person of who's going to be the person to misplay it.

But here's a question for you. Does anybody spill the beans about the nature of the Billy Elish boomerang idol at any point? when Ozzy, for instance, that does somebody then, let's say Rick Devons, like, ends up, you know, to see, or whoever, is there a person who then knows how the Billy Islandish boomerang idol works and then goes, it's like, hey, hey, Ozzie, guess what? You know that idol that Genevieve sent you? She sent it to you because she's, if you get voted out, she gets it back. That's why she sent it to you. Yeah, well, that scenario doesn't even have to happen, whereas even if Rick just tells Ozzy that he found it and explains the rules to Ozzie, that gets it to, you know,

if Rick is asking Ozzy, who do I give this to? We need somebody dumb to give this to, so they give it out it out with it, then Ozzy's galaxy brain. Yeah. That would be fun. I really like that. That would be very interesting to see the beans get spilled on the Billy Irish boomerang idol.

See, that's a great idea. This was a question that we got, and again, it's probably in the Billy, iris boomerang section um somebody it is i haven't seen this interview but it seemed allegedly okay um gear bear g34r underscore b three four r says do you think the billy isleish boomerang idol was really phineas's idea phineas for all those uninitiated is her brother we don't think that billy islish's family thought about what this is is billy ilish's brother famously a survivor fan well billy has mentioned it a bunch of times. I know nothing about whether Phineas is or not. But I haven't, and maybe I'm wrong. I haven't

seen Billy acknowledge this once. Yes. Okay. That's a good question. Are we able to find out, Sam, that has Billy Eilish anywhere on her social media acknowledge the existence of the Billy Eilish boomerang idol? Because the reason, like, you do this is so that the famous person tells people about it. Sure. Otherwise, you know, there's maybe a small subset of the Survivor fans are like, well, I guess, I guess that's cool. Billy Elish watches Survivor, but you kind of want Billy Elish to tell people she watches Survivor.

Not for Survivor to tell people Billy Elish watches Survivor. Do you think out of the Purple Tribe, do you think it's eight out of eight, they all know who Billy Elish is? So remind me who's on that tribe? So we'll do Angelina. I would say that's a safe bat. Angelina knows.

Stephanie LaGroza? Probably not a fan. Not a fan. Aubrey, probably. I would say yes. I'd say probably, but I think that Aubrey

is a little bit more of an old soul about May. Sure. Genevieve, yes. Yeah, sure. Q? I don't.

don't think so. No. Colby. No. No. And then Rizzo and Kyle, I would say, I would assume perhaps. I would think so. I would think so. I mean, Rizzo talked about who was it the country music singer of Zach Brown? Zach Brown. So I don't know if he knows who Zach Brown is. But yeah, I mean, yeah, according to Sam, nothing on Instagram or Twitter acknowledging the Billy Elish boomerang idol. Yeah, I mean, you, you pick these people, not only because they're survivor fans, but because of the outreach that they have. Like, you know, and I love Jesse.

Jimmy Falun talk about his advantage. Sure. It'll be a whole segment. That'll be, that'll be something. But I'm sure you could find many survivor fans who are musicians, but maybe they have like a, you know, like the guy who sings bad day. Daniel Powder could be a survivor.

They're not doing the Daniel Powder advantage. Well, it would be a disadvantage if you got the Daniel Powder, bad day disadvantage it's like like hey it's me Daniel Powder and if you thought you were having a good day think again you had a bad day because your vote's gone away yeah you don't get to vote for the rest of the game

with the bad Dingo Powder no well that would be a bad game it would be a big game yeah you had a bad day what's the worst thing that you could do for the day on Survivor you know take your vote down pass it around I like that

everybody else gets an extra vote and you lose your that's a really bad day yeah I really like that but what I'm saying is they had to be banking on Billy Isish sharing something I think that was the hope

that was the hope I'm curious as to wear maybe you get that in writing before you give away a celebrity advantage yeah and the other tell people about it right Billy the question was

do we think there's other multiple billi iris i think we would have seen it in the trailer if there was another i think we got the celebrities that are coming i think so i think that those are the four i think so l dn 1017 wants to know would you do a book signing in l a if you fly out for the finale yes okay well thank you for bringing up of course the tribe and i have spoken available for pre-order at rob hasa book dot com we got some pre-order surprises that we're getting close to announcing very soon. A book signing, and Stephen has really did so much of the groundwork on these things of how to run, and Taryn too before him, of how to run a great book launch. And so the idea

of a book signing in Los Angeles around the finale sounds like a fantastic idea. So we should probably do it. I think we should try to figure out a way to do it. And we'll have more announcements about the book, which comes out. on May 5th, and I have some other stops that we're going to make as we get closer to that if you want to check it out. The Tribe and I have spoken. Mine's behind me somewhere. Yes.

I really like it. LDN 1017, your idea that we're doing that. Never forget. Tay Funk wants to know, you feel the Survivor 50 premiere took away from the Traders finale. That's interesting. So I did feel like that there was a little less buzz on social. media around the traders finale, but I don't think it was necessarily because of the survivor, and if I may, some light traders, spoilers.

Sure. The traders finale, I think, had been a little bit of a foregone conclusion for a couple of weeks, and I think that there might have been a little less juice after the departures of a couple of the other traders down in the home stretch. And so I think that there was the trader seasons, a lot of times they start with a lot of hype. And then, you know, it can get a little bit of a less hype as the season goes on. Whereas I don't know if Survivor directly impacted it. I think it was more of a factor of that, I think that people had kind of known that that cake was baked.

Yeah. It's still a delicious cake in the end. One of the best. The Traders is an interesting, like Big Brother, I think, suffers in the middle. Like the beginning's great, the end's great, the middle is a little bit of a slog. I have found that the Trader seasons, they do drag at the end. I think it is the most fun show ever for the first seven episodes, and I do think once we get close to the end, it is a little bit slower. Yeah.

Which is, you know, Survivor, I don't think it has that. I think Survivor all the way through is either good or fine. The actual final episode I thought was very, very strong. and maybe the strongest final episode that I can remember. But I would say that getting there the last couple of weeks maybe not as exciting. Sure, sure, sure, sure. I got a couple rapid fires.

How would, from Kberg 712, how would you rank this premiere amongst other Survivor premieres? It's a little arbitrary and reductive to do that. But I think it's certainly the best premiere through, from all of the 40s. I don't think that there's one that was even close. I would have to just try to compare it to some of the other big all-star seasons. I think this was better than season 40s premiere, which I'm trying to think of anything memorable from the Survivor 40 premiere was, I think if anything, Jeff, like doing the weird voice and the toast, where he's like, a drink before war is always a good idea.

that's probably the most memorable moment from the Survivor 40 premiere. So I think that this was a stronger premiere than winners at war. And then going back, I mean, better premiere than Game Changers, for sure. And then going back to the second chances premiere was actually very good, very exciting.

You know, and it was a better vote. Yeah, Kelly Wentworth finding the idol. So I think that that's probably in, contention. And then if we went, I mean, better than Karam Owen. So I think it's probably up there. I think the Heroes versus Villains premiere is probably better than this. But I think I think this was a top five premiere for the show. I mean, it depends on what you're looking for. And there's probably a one-hour premiere that's tighter with no wasted effort. But in terms of them getting it right about the hype around Survivor 50, I think that this was a really, really good job.

Yeah, I mean, I tweeted it on my own account. Survivor Amazon's a great premiere. They have a whole season. No luck. This is the most fun I've had watching Survivor since Dave versus Goliath, maybe. It's just I felt like- That's not even a good premiere. that ends on a medevac of Pat Cusack.

No, I mean, just the season. Just any episode of, I think the Davis July finale, I think is very good. I do is my favorite player of all time. Which I said, I said long before he ever had that show. I'm not trying to get on the show. I just like it. But, yeah, this is, I felt like I haven't felt

watching Survivor in ever. Like, I felt like the 11-year-old who was on the basement floor watching Survivor, which I don't think that's, like, the new era is great, but I think this is just really, really, like special it was very magical day you can't compare it no i don't know it's like i think the new era is is great for being the new era this this felt like what i was watching survivor when i was

very young this is what made me want to go is is this whereas you know if i see the new era and i had never seen survivor i don't know if i have that same i don't know if it taps the imagination the same way is this that sure um i had another question is it time to this is from lady larsen 2-2. Is it time to abolish the wall that destroyed Kyle's Achilles tendon? Do we get rid of the wall? I don't know if you need to get rid of it because Kyle got injured. I know that there have been responses where we stopped doing certain things because certain people get injured. I don't know. I'm not a doctor to be able to tell enough of like, was it was it a freak injury or was there something fundamental about the wall. You have to like ask some sort of orthopedic surgeon of like, yeah,

that's actually incredibly dangerous to do that. I'm surprised we haven't lost more Achilles tendons in terms of how the wall challenge goes. Achilles is a wild injury. Vinnie Test Verde was handed off a ball to Curtis Martin. I was just walking and his Achilles ruptured. How recent was that? It happened in September of 1999. Is he okay now? He's okay now. How long was he? Did he ever return to the field?

He did return and, you know, maybe not quite as mobile as he once was, but he, you know, did come back and had a lot of football left. And hopefully that'll be the same with Kyle. My response to this is they do the wall every season. This is the first time that anybody's had like a wall injury. So I don't think they get rid of it. I think there's far more dangerous things that they do, like having a giant 300-pound boulder.

Yeah. That almost like killed Kim Powers. Didn't she always, did she get drilled by that boulder back in the day? Back in the gym, but they still do it. Yeah, I wonder if we don't do the mud anymore. I wonder if the mud on the wall is what they changed.

The mud factor. I mean, you know how my feeling's on the mud. I don't think I, the complaint with the mud on like Reddit and Twitter is like, when they do it for the new. people seasons. Like, I don't know who you are covered

at all. At least here I kind of have your silhouettes down. They love it so much. Jeff is really loves the analogy of you're being birthed into the mud. But it's like, yeah, okay. I get it. I still don't love it.

I don't know what it adds. I do like the first episode. I could tell you what, because I've heard Jeff talk about it and this is where we get things on like the On Fire podcast where you are coming, going through, you have left your life at home. You are now entering the dirty, disgusting world of survivor, the savage world of living in this, that you have left all of your creature comforts at home.

And now you're being birthed again into this world. Now, they, in the past couple of seasons, they got rid of it at the start of the season because they realize like, yeah, we don't know who any of these people are. And so now we're covering them in mud, but it's like, well, now we know who they are. So now we can put the mud back on them. But still, we don't need it. But my first episode of Survivor ever is the premiere of Gabon where the challenges like run up this hill. Like that's being burst.

That's like I don't know what's different between that and this, you know? Yeah. Go run up the hill. I just think that the metaphor is either, doesn't. not matter or like nobody really is it cares that much for you know 99.9 percent I get it's meaningful to Jeff and the producers but for everybody else it's like yeah we got it. Yeah it feels like Nickelodeini almost it's like what I don't like about it I feel like that there's oftentimes where it's like they're covered in the mud and they seem like they're not allowed to take the mud off

until a certain designated time. I feel like that they like to have them having conversations, and then it seems like that they finally get the green light, okay, now let's finally go get rid of this mud. And I think that they like the scene of them in the water of like strubbing to get the mud off. Yeah, I, you know, the mic,

there's always the time when they're like eating with the mud. Why would they eat in the mud? And they're like, oh, they didn't let us take it off. Yeah, you're at the sanctuary cover. And that must suck for the, sanctuary too. You got all those pillows and stuff that are all now, they can't reuse that. You know, you're caked in mud. Betsy, Betsy 1835 says, is there any question you wish you got the chance to ask at the red carpet premiere that you did not attend? Oh, well, Brandon did a great job

asking questions. I didn't have a ton of questions for the folks. I mean, I would have been excited to talk to Jeff. Would I love to talk to Jeff? I didn't get to talk. Jeff was with the crew that went to on the Tonight Show. So they came late. So they did not make it to the carpet. But I had so many questions for Jeff that I wanted to ask. Yeah. What would you have asked Jeff?

I wanted to ask him about it's always so fascinating that he brings up every like for the whole 25 year press junk. This is a much longer question. Okay. But he brings this. I thought we're in the lightning round. We can, we'll speed it up. You brought up the lightning round. I'm just saying that...

I was going quick and then we did... We were having fun. I'm fine. We're chilling. I wanted to ask him what the... The first season of Survivor, Rich is in the tree, Sue's on the ground,

they're talking, you know, we're in the bush, whatever. And he says that that's how he knew that he had a hit. I wonder if there was a moment in the season 50 premiere

that he knew that this was going to be the best ever. What was the exchange that he witnessed that was the best ever? And I don't know if I saw that in the premiere, but he knew,

he's saying everywhere that it's, the best season ever. And I believe him. I don't not believe it. But I wonder what that was. Yeah. There's a nice shot of Jenna Lewis and Stephanie hugging. I thought that was cool. You know, I was like, oh my God, everybody's back.

These people that I grew up with, they're back. What do you make of Christian getting the last name treatment from Big World, Big Sun? So he got Hubikki. It's interesting. I mean, there's not another Christian. So it's interesting, I guess, is an sign of

endearment from Jeff to get it. You think it made everybody mad that hurt it? You think people clock it and they're like, oh, he's getting the last name chicken? Didn't we get a Donaldson? No, but that's a good. You hope you get that. That's how you'll know Jeff and Colby are all the way back. Sure.

I didn't get to talk to Colby on the red carpet either. I wanted to ask him about that. Are they so back? Yeah. Because they bickered. Like, Jeff doesn't ever bicker with anybody and they air it. You know, they fully bickered. Did you hear from Mike or Dalton Ross about how that Colby told Jeff that he was ready to take some chocolate from him?

Yeah, that was on the Instagram Live. They did that exchange. And it looked like they were having fun. It looked funny, I think. Yeah, they reenacted it? Yeah, you could call it that. It was an interest. It didn't seem like Jeff 100% knew what was happening, but Colby liked it.

But the whole group seemed to be fine with it. Yeah. It's crazy that Colby's back on Survivor. I never thought he'd be back. Yeah. Was your guys back in the day? He wasn't. To be totally honest, he was not one of my guys.

You're a stupid guy. That whole tribe, I like that. Like him and Barnard and everybody. But it's so crazy that he's like... I was an OkaCore guy. An OkaCore man. Those men across the border gut, right? Any hits...

I forget who's on which. tribe. We got... Yeah. Ogacore, it's Colby, Keith, Keith, Mitchell, Cal, Mad Dog, Amber, Jerry, and Tina. Sure. Damn, Mark, and no Cal on 50. Cal, for the Survivor All-Stars,

for the Directed Paramount Plus, Cal might be back in. Why are you casting this season with the most random people? Like, you have, 731 players who were not on this many of which who got called for season 50 why are you going with like the most obscure people possible for this potential you're going to walk into like the head of Paramount's office and say like have you heard of

I got an I'm gonna cordan and Amy O'Hara and Kell Gleason Brian is I stand by Brian I think is it if this is interesting to anybody who's listening We can do a patron situation. Are you familiar with a website called Brandstiel? Well, we've come up with a random list of people. We think that this is going to save Paramount. And again, if you watch the challenge all stars, correct me, I think they had random people.

I don't think it was their legends that did the first challenge also. I think it was just like, we email everybody, we see who says yes. Yeah. This is, we could get the whole, we could get Brad back and J.P. They did email everyone this week. I got an email that said, hey, Survivor family, we have a link for you of that we have, we want you.

Here's a link to the original cast photos for every single person. We have this for you if you want to share it for Survivor 50. I was like, wow, okay, that's cool. Let me go in there. neither of my seasons were in the Dropbox folder of they sent down Why did you Why did you send this to me?

Why did you send this out when you didn't send all the seasons I'm sorry none of the seasons were in there Or none of no pictures of you from your seasons were in there? No, neither of my seasons were in there And I could have just Googled it if I wanted to But it was a little bit of like hey why do you send this to me if my season wasn't even in here You're not in it. For the peak behind the curtain, the Survivor 45 crew, there were only about six pictures of people attached.

Not everybody got a picture. Yeah. So if you need any high-res photos of some of the other seasons of Survivor, I got them, but not. We had the link. There was a, again, I don't want to be the guy that says it, but in the CBS alumni Facebook group. Yeah. Nobody wanted to send the link because they didn't know, they didn't trust any. Like, there were comments like, can we send it the link?

And they were like, I wouldn't. Like, let's wait. like that people were like older later days folks and they thought you're going to get hacked if you send the link? I think it was we don't know who else is in this group. Like I think it was let's all DM it instead of

posting it for everybody. What was the concern? I'm looking at the thread now. What's the danger? I don't know. It's just pictures. It's just pictures of us. But you got the same link, right? There's no Amazon. There's no All-Stars. Everybody got the same link. It's like one, two, three and then like,

then it like skips ahead to like season 12. Like I skipped right for I skipped right from me. They gave me, can I, I'm going to screen share the picture that I got. Hold on. Yeah. It's not a good one. I'm not thrilled about it. But it's somewhere. Yeah, in the, in the, it's so fun to Survivor Alumni. You hear so many stories about the Survivor Alumni Facebook group.

And then one day you're just, you're in it. I meant be kicked out. I haven't seen anything in there recently. This is what they attached to, now again, there's only a couple people from Survivor 45. It's not something that I want ever to be seen. But it's in here. So Brandon Donnell, if you're listening to the podcast, is making a heart with his hands.

And then who's that too, to the Survivor fans? To the Jeff? OgaCore. OgaCore. It's to everybody. It's to you, listener. I'm so thrilled to be here. Yes.

I don't know why my hair was that long either. I think I really hit my stride in my hair. Do you want to share that what Jeff said to you? Yeah, so I did for two seconds see Jeff, not on camera. And Jeff did ask me why I ever had my hair long. And I said, you guys made me do that. I don't want that. But they said, hey, grow your hair long?

Well, no, my casting person on the phone, the first time she called me, she was like, I love that your hair is long. And I said, I'm never going to cut it again. I was like, if you like it long, it's going to be long. You won't believe how long it's going to be. Yeah. But listen. And this was what my hair looked like for.

for my whole life. Like, you know, this is what it was. You try something new for Survivor and then it doesn't work out sometimes. Hey, look, I think, as we've seen with many of the Survivor Twist, to try new stuff, and we like it when they go back to the old stuff.

Yeah, big swings. I love a big swing, but I love when we play the hits also. Play the hits. You know what they like, yeah. Play the hits. This is a hit. Don't ever share this.

This stays between us. Okay. Listener. But, We're done. This is the end of the tour. That's it. No more questions.

I'm sorry. I have so many more questions. You want to hit it? Yeah, give me some more questions. What are we going to have another Survivor 50 premiere? I didn't know if you were, you had to go anywhere. But we'll keep this in. This is what, this is, you know, this is life for us.

Jenna Garrett wants to know. I don't want people to think I'm phoning it in during Survivor 50. I'm not phoning it in. Yeah. This is, look at me. You saw me in that picture. This is my dream life. Jenna Garrett wants to know.

Do you think the fan's reaction played a part in the decision to vote out Jenna instead of Surrey? I do think that it was partially that people didn't want to vote out Surrey first. I think that even if it was the second vote or the third vote, maybe Jenna Lewis would have gotten some more traction. I don't think that these players wanted to necessarily vote out Surrey first. Now, we can cut this if you don't want to answer. Do you think you going back have that same? reverence because my answer to that would be yes what you think you think the fan that they wouldn't vote me out first because like oh did it did it stop anybody from wanting to get rid of me on the

traders um but that's not they don't know this is your this is your home turf I really think that I do not they would say like oh he's he's too good we respect him and then write down Robsey like I don't think that at all I think that is the wrong I don't think for one second anybody would hesitate to vote me out. Not vote you out, but first. I think you get immunity for first time. Again, from your lips to God's ears, I do not think that that would have been a thing.

I don't know. I think if anything, they would have been like, oh, this, like, that people would be like, we have a chance to do the most hilarious thing ever, the Survivor, that, oh, I guess Rob, without a doubt has got the game all figured out. who is on this tribe that knows the song enough to say it the voting official?

Yeah. They know it. Logan Whalen, he wants to know what would your survivor outfit have been? What do you think they stick you in on the island? So for many of the players, it's like, hey, where are what you wore last time? But I don't think they're going to have

any sort of survivor Amazon attire that I am like particularly well known for. So I think that probably would have been some kind of like plaid shirt. I think that's probably more likely to have been. While I did not ever wear this on Survivor, I do think something akin to what I am wearing here on the cover of the tribe and I have spoken

is probably something similar to what I would have had to wear. You could have brought that shirt. That's a fun Survivor shirt that you're wearing. That I'm wearing right now. I think it's probably not the right material for Survivor. No, you wouldn't want it, but it would look nice. Matthew B. Prusky wants to know, based on the trial, I'm sorry, what was Mike White inspiration for making your body tea?

Did you hear, did you see that Mike White was ripped in the premiere? Did I see it? Yeah, did you see that? I saw it. I saw it. I went back and watched it again, I saw it. Yeah. This guy's so ripped.

He's so handsome. I mean, incredible. He was handsome before. He didn't need to get ripped, but he got ripped and now he's handsome and ripped too. Mm-hmm. And he's so funny. Even more of a total package now. Yeah, he's really funny and kind.

And I'm really excited to watch him. I really like, I mean, again, he really is my own. Did Mike White make himself into more of a threat where Mike White's game, your favorite player, was really a game that was really a game that was, hey, I am going to fly under the radar. I'm going to act like I don't know where I am. I'm going to lose my water bottle. I want people to forget about me as a threat. And by getting into incredible shape, has Mike White, who already comes into the game

with a very high profile, made himself into an even higher profile? What do you think, though, is the counter to this for a return appearance? Do you think he should have gotten really out of shape? More out of shape, yes. Should Mike White have come in at like 217 pounds? Sure.

it's like well listen Mike White's here but he's really out of shape he's really like he's he's not cut out for this he's not going anywhere but now I'm like okay not gonna worry Mike White is gonna go on an immunity run yeah um I think that would behoove him yeah I mean he's a producer so he wanted he wanted the moment that he got and the moments in the show so it worked out yeah I mean that was my is famously for Malcolm if he ever came back was like hey Malcolm You know, just, you know, you need like the, you know, midlife crisis comeback, you know, the full-on Jimmy T.

The full-on, you've fulfilled the prophecy of Jimmy T. Here, I'm really enjoying the Mike White confessional. I'm glad we get to have the Mike White confessional. Also, bring back Malcolm for one of the captains for Survivor, for when we bring, when back to basics and it's a Survivor Philippines redux with three. captains and just idols. Are we sticking Malcolm on the primetime show or we're throwing him on the show? I don't know. Listen, I only need them to make the normal show that's on CBS as good as possible.

They don't need to work on spreading thin and doing this other Paramount show. That's your idea. And they're getting you both smart. You're putting that evil out there. I'm just trying to make the actual CBS. show as good as possible. And then one of the captains that's going to come back is going to be Malcolm.

So you said six returnies. Malcolm becomes the Russell Swan. And then there's like some like upstart like punk kid that's like, this guy thinks he's our leader. We're going to dunk on him. He just sucks. We're going to intentionally go to our whole driver. Like sure, we'll let him think he's running things.

But isn't that great? Isn't that great? I think this idea is great. I think we should send this in. I think they could do it. It's not too late to do it for 52. Cast 12 people bring back six people that the 50 was so close but no cigar. I kind of like having a man and a woman captain for each of the three tribes.

I think that that could be fun and maybe one is old school and one's new school. Oh, I like that. No pre-existing relationship where, you know, you bring back, you know, Caleb, but he's on the tribe with Jerry, you know. Wow, okay. I just put Carolyn as the new era. woman representative. Okay. Is that, so we have, we have Caleb, Caleb, Jerry, Malcolm, Carolyn.

Honestly, pretty good. Yeah, that's, and then what's, well, what's the third drive? Um, hmm. You know what we bring in, we're getting Jesse also? And we got Carolyn, you're bringing Jesse? Jesse and Amanda Kimmel. Jesse and Amanda Kimmel final answer. Yeah.

This is a great season. Guys, you're, you're, you guys. You gotta call these people. It's really good. This is great. And call it. We can't have themes. Like you don't need a theme.

You got this. Call it 52. I call it 52 and just have them. I think that's an infinitely, that's a great, great group. And Malcolm's going to be so out of shape. It'll be fun for everybody, him and Carolyn. That'll be great.

Yeah. I like it. I like how this season of Australian Survivor just as a guy from the Australian version of The Voice on it too for no reason. You know what I mean? I like this. I like that they don't, they don't care. They're throwing anybody on.

And they have another guy who's like another player's brother. I think that's the same guy. Do you know that's the same guy? Yeah. But that's fine also. Like, I love that. Just like those little, an Australian survivor does a good job with those things, just like little casting wrinkles of that, you know,

and they did this with Russell with Brandon Hans. But that you could do it with. many other people where it's like, okay, this, this iconic person's kid. Yeah, you could do that. I've been pitching a survivor player's son. Yeah. I'm not telling anybody, but there's a survivor player's son that I met who's like, electric would be so good.

And I've told them, like, do you just call somebody that your dad worked with? And also, I would tell them that they do this like in the UK traders quite a bit. Like, what if there was just a married couple? and they were secretly like, isn't that interesting? You put them on different tribes? And then it's like they have to like would they ever tell anybody?

They couldn't, right? It would be a big, like they'd get voted out but it would be so interesting to have two people. And it's like, oh, is that fair? I don't know, but it's interesting. Yeah, I don't care if it's fair. I mean, like it probably won't work.

They probably won't make it to the end together. So who cares? I like it doesn't ever work in the the traders the UK traders yeah it tends to come up or after that person gets voted out and then and then they reveal or then they're crying like why why why do you care that that that uh Jim got voted out it's like I don't know like it seemed like a nice guy and it's like uh and then just like reveal like okay you know it's actually my husband it's like wait you were lying to us this whole time and then we vote her out too

Jim and his wife. Yeah, I guess we'll send her in the Ponderosa to be with Jim. I'm voting for you tonight, Pam. That was the tell. That was the tell for anybody who was an office fan that the secret couple was named Jim and Pam. Sure, that was really good.

Even Mike White the first time they cast it. He also had an Oscar. He's here. I think he's on this one. When they cast Mike White, he had done the Amazing Race twice and he just wanted to do it. you like at a walk on spot.

I think we should do more stuff like that. If you are interested in playing and you have like, I don't know. But Rachel Riley on. Well, I think that might actually happen. You think so? I think we might be, I think so. But I just think they would be crazy to not. Let's do things that are interesting when you have to give people a reason to watch Survivor 51.

And it can't just be like, well, we know you love Survivor. It's part of your tradition. And so you're going to watch it no matter. what we do. No, you have to keep giving people a reason to tune in and do things that are interesting. We got a question about influencers. Do you think because we're doing so many influencer events, do we end up getting a season? This is from Drew B-7-3. Do we get a season of influencers or a couple influencers on the cast? Tommy smokes? I think a season of influencers is a bad idea. but a you know an influencer or two is you want to bring in some like a stunt casting along with

keep finding the best of the best people like i think that that's fine but i don't think you should do like influencer season do you like the other day that he did the the thing that jesse did with sophy valerity and hana coach why don't we do that for a spot on the show win a spot on the show, I'm not sure necessarily if I want necessarily somebody who can just win an endurance challenge to now be on the show. I think if you're good enough to be on the show,

just put them on the show. And if they're not good enough to be on the show, you know, like I don't mind people winning a prize, but that to me is not that interesting. There was this, I think Survivor, New Zealand, I think you could, you got to vote somebody on the show from like the Sears competition that we had here. Yeah.

They tried that on Big Brother Canada once. I really didn't like that. No, we lost a friend. Where did we go wrong? We lost the friend. I just sent her, I wrote a very nice Reddit comment that night, and I sent it to her when it happened.

It's so sad. We don't need to vote in a fan. We don't need to have a fan win a contest, but find, you know, interesting, you know, celeb casting, but also find good people. This is like the think tank.

we've evolved to doing the think tank that you and Steve yeah I wish I had this screenshot on hand where I called into the think tank any other Survivor 50 premiere questions though that's a great question let's end on one more

let me find a good one because it was an interesting premiere it was super fun it was a little bit more vibes than actual gameplay for the three hours it was a lot of the questions that we did get

are just about like who do we think going to go next on the next tribe. Do we want to go with all three tribes who we think? Sure. Who's in danger now moving forward? I really do think that Surrey and Ozzie are in trouble on the Sela tribe. I think that one of them is the most likely to go if that tribe goes to a tribal council

again. I am interested to see on Wednesday night if we end up with, are we going to get, it's a 90-minute episode. will we have two players voted out? And it's speculated coming into the season that we could do the thing where one tribe wins immunity, the other two tribes go to tribal council. There has been no hint whatsoever

that that is what they will do. So I'm not sure necessarily if we could potentially get no reward challenges and do an immunity challenge and a tribal and then another immunity challenge and a tribal. I think I would prefer to have one immunity challenge and two tribes go to tribal council. I think every time they've done that, it's a great idea.

I think it goes, I mean, we lose Malcolm the one time they do that, but I think it goes great every time. But do you want them to go and vote together, or do we get to have two separate tribals? I want, I want two separate ones, but I don't know how often they've done it where one tribe wins into... So I think that they have done it exactly twice. I believe they did it with Malcolm, and then I think they did it in the tribal council where Big Wendy went home. And I don't think they ever did it in the new era. But have they done it, have there been three tribes that one wins and two go to two separate tribal councils? I don't think that that has ever happened.

Yeah, that I would be interested to see happen here. That I think is a good idea here. And I kind of thought that they were going to do what we're talking about in season 49 when they went down to three tribes of four. And I thought that the two tribes were going to vote together where they had gone to two tribes and then they went to three tribes. And then Shannon got voted out in a four-person tribal council. but they did not do it then. So I would prefer two distinct tribal councils from one tribe winning immunity out of the three.

Yes, I would much prefer that. I think that's a fun thing. And I think that's, do that, even if you don't do it now, do it another time if you're listening. Yeah. And so I think that Surrey or Ozzy are in trouble here. Ozzy does have his idol, which he can only play on himself.

Mm-hmm. so yeah and and and we saw emily talk about boy i really wish we would have gone for ozzy i think that was a deleted scene where she was like oh really we we like that was the one that got away we should have voted out ozie last night yeah it's weird to include that it's also and i forget if we've already mentioned it it is weird to include so many shots of him complaining about his back where i feel like we are it's like the what is it checkoff's gun if like you mention it it has to play out at some point so you think so you think the this could be a story.

Like, I do wonder if it could be a storyline, but not necessarily the reason why he has to go. Even if it's not the reason why he has to go, I feel like why they mentioned it so many times that his back was toasted. So I feel like it has to come up again. Yeah. I love toast.

Okay. Then on the Vatu tribe, I believe the pink red tribe, it seems like either Angelina or Aubrey are in trouble. Yeah, that seems to be. They seem on the bottom there. And based off of the moment with Genevieve and Aubrey, I think I would lean more towards Aubrey being the person to go home in that spot. Although we know that there was some pregame discussion of Colby and Stephanie

didn't like Angelina and vice versa. And so that also seems like, again, if they, if the producers were making the tribes up based off of what people are saying in the preseason, I don't think they would have put all three of those people on one tribe. Yeah, I guess that's a good argument for the Jenna and Saria of it all. I want so much more Angelina than what we got, and I hope that we get much more of that in episodes. That was my one thing about the premiere.

On the Sela tribe, I think this one is really interesting, where I have said, I think this is the tribe that does not go to tribal council because I just, I'm not seeing how this plays out, where we know people are talking about D, and we heard Chrissy and also Jonathan really pushing for this. They're trying to get coached. They're trying to get Mike White. But I think they need Charlie.

And I don't think Charlie is going to vote for D. I think that Charlie and D, I believe, are friends. And you could speak to that more than I could. But also we saw that D is with Tiffany and Camilla. And so I think that that seems like potentially a block of four where Charlie's the swing vote but I don't think Charlie would vote for D.

No, no, I don't see... I don't know if he's rock solid with the three of them, but I don't see him voting out D. And so that would be what? You think Chrissy? Would he vote out Chrissy? I kind of feel like

that Charlie and Chrissy seemed like that they would be people that would work together. I feel like knowing each of them, I feel like that they would get along great, but I don't know if Charlie is coming in like, hey, I'm not going to work with the mom this time. Yeah, I don't know who else in that scenario you get rid of.

I also think really like Mike. If I may, that coach likes Chrissy and Jonathan likes Chrissy. So I don't think that there is enough support to get rid of Chrissy. Yeah, I wonder if Mike is like, in my view of watching it, It seems like he might be the nucleus, like him and maybe Charlie are the nucleus of what's happening here. So I wonder if they make the call and who they vote out. Even if they enlist, like, it seems as though the Tiffany Camilla D isn't going anywhere.

Like I think it's them too. And then, but obviously you're not getting rid of Jonathan at that point. Yeah, they're not getting rid of Jonathan. They're not getting rid of coach. So maybe they do come around to it being Chrissy, but I just, I don't see it yet. So I kind of feel like that because I can't see it, I feel like that this is the tribe they have Jonathan.

They're not going to go to travel counsel. Sure. Okay. And they don't, they shouldn't because they should win every time. All right. So we'll see. Okay. Can I also share some housekeeping news from our friend Shannon Gus, who has just announced over on social media that we had baby girl Rory, didn't want to miss Survivor 50, not named after Rory, who wanted to want to.

to burn the damn camp down. Here she knows as, Rory. Congratulations to you. Shannon and Peter. Gus and around. So great. Congratulations. Rory's coming in for episode two.

Yeah. Unclear if Rory has seen one yet. Chances are probably, but what a week. What a week for Shannon. And congratulations to our great friend, Shannon. on the birth of her baby girl, okay? Anything else you want to say here as we head into week number two?

I'm so excited. I, again, I always have fun because this is Survivor, which I love deeply, but I have not had this most more, I have not had this much fun watching in forever. Everybody's so funny. That's the, like, the TikTok evolution of Survivor is you get these people who don't think

that anybody's watching, and they just make a front-facing video of them talking about the episode. The videos come up on my free page. They have 16 likes and they're funnier than any comedian I've seen recently. It's just people are so naturally funny talking about my favorite thing. So I can't wait to on Club Condo. You'll see some of those all seasons. Okay.

I'm so excited. Club Condo for the patrons coming up on Monday. Chappelle and I are going to get back together for that. And then also working on another podcast coming up on Tuesday as well. So make sure you're subscribed. get RHAP.com for the audio podcast and watch RHAP.com for the video. I've also been talking about House of Villains with Chappelle and Jenny. Plus, we talked about the Traders finale with Puyah just the other day. So a jam-packed week. Brandon, what's coming up for you?

Now that much, I'll be here. Follow us on Instagram at Rap Grams. You know everything that I'm doing. I'm here. I'm having fun. Don't ever tell anybody about this. This is, this stays here. here. We die with this. And come to the Los Angeles show. If you haven't bought your tickets, it's March 11. Rob is what's on the com slash events for all of our live show information. Of course,

Rob has a book.com. If you want to pre-order the tribe and I have spoken, I am telling you all about the 25 years of Survivor and my involvement across the show in many ways as a fan, as a player, as a podcaster, talking about all of the lore and the legacy and the players in the moments that helped take us from Borneo all the way to season 50.

Rob has a book.com. Thank you so much for joining us. Take care, everybody. Have a good one. Bye.