RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 50 Wish List | Ep 38: Edge of Extinction with Matt Liguori

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

Today, Mike and Matt Liguori (@mattliguori) discuss Season 38: Edge of Extinction.

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returnee season of survivor 50 and did somebody say returnees let's talk about one of the more recent returnee seasons in survivor history albeit one that is done in a very odd fashion across multiple circumstances from the casting to the core twist at its structure that for the first time since season 27 truly turns what it means to be voted out on its head. And really for the first time in survivor history produces its most unconventional winner in edge of extinction. And I am so excited to be joined by this guy because, look, he is no

stranger to people leaving the game and coming back again, considering that he covers the challenge voluminously over on the Free Agents podcast. So, Matt Liguori, could we just consider the Edge of Extinction a version of the Redemption House with even worse resources than they usually do on the challenge? Yeah, absolutely. I mean mean i've seen a lot of people lose their minds in a redemption house i've seen a lot of people look like they want to leave a redemption house so the parallels are there i've never seen a ream in a redemption house so that would be something there you go um ding the bell but uh but yeah absolutely there could be some parallels there this season um obviously was on my list of five to talk about just as far as

modern seasons go. I feel like it kind of got glossed over so fast as we, you know, it was like the setup for season 40 of, you know, if this edge of extinction situation was going to work, some will say it did, some will say it didn't. We'll talk about that today. But I did feel like in real time, it just got completely run over on the road to 30, no, 40. I'm mixing up my challenges and survivors now, but on the road to 40, now we're working towards 50. But there's a lot to get into here. Yeah, absolutely. Again, this season, even in the moment, was a little tough to pick apart. Of course, there was, again, the advent of the Edge of Extinction, which is is sort of like redemption island's cousin and that again once these contestants are voted out they still have a

chance to get back in the game but unlike redemption island there wasn't necessarily a structured system where people would get progressively eliminated it was just more so this slowly accumulating exhaust feed of all these eliminated contestants where yes you did have the option to raise the right the white flag but pretty much you were just sitting there with meager supplies occasionally you get a nice little game to play to earn an advantage for yourself to get back in the game but otherwise it was just pontificating on the choices you've made in the game and in your life and waiting for that brass ring to grab which we saw it get grabbed twice so we had that unconventional aspect complete with some of them unconventional filming aspects with the super close-ups on the people in the edge of

extinction just to remind you how intense it was then the post-merge especially from a storytelling perspective and maybe this plays better on a binge. I'm not sure, Matt, you can speak to this more than I can. It's a little bit of an odd pacing and storytelling where we suddenly get this streak where, okay, it looks like Kama is imploding on itself, and Joe goes, and Eric goes, and Julia goes, and the pilots and passengers.

But wait, now Wentworth's gone. Now David's gone. Now War Dog's gone. And it seems like we're getting the narrative building into this finale of, OK, it's Rick Devins to lose. He is a one man wrecking ball, though he has been sort of, I would say, surrounded by as many buildings as possible and has had to survive by finding idols, winning immunities and putting on shows at tribal council.

survive by finding idols, winning immunities, and putting on shows at Tribal Council. And then out of freaking nowhere comes Chris Underwood, the third boot of this season, who we barely saw on The Edge in the times that we saw The Edge, returns to the game and produces maybe one of the best finale performances in Survivor history from a singular contestant, considering the idols he comes in with the idol he finds and of course the move that has spawned a number of choices to this day when it

comes to final four fire making putting himself in against the odds on favorite rick devins and defeating him and it culminates in one of the wildest reactions to a win I have ever seen as, again, a guy that has played what cumulatively 12, 13, 15 days of Survivor ends up the winner here. So, yeah, definitely one of the weirdest seasons in Survivor history. Yeah, the pacing that you're talking about is exactly what I experienced going back to revisit it a little bit. experienced going back to revisit it a little bit, just the whiplash of, you know, especially now on a binge, knowing what is to come, knowing that you are spending this entire season watching tribal councils and strategy between this group of players that none of them are going to be your winner and none of their stories ultimately, you know, seize the day at the end of the game. So we're watching them and we're getting little bits of Victoria and Gavin and, you know, Lauren

and, you know, Lauren and, you know, the returnees. This is a season built around four returning players. Two of them go out in, you know, Aubrey in the pre-merge, Joe, a very quiet like exit as the merge begins. Yeah, they both go out in their first tribal councils of the season. Yes. And then you have David and Kelly back to back in a 45 minute episode. That's just completely sped up. And it's like, whoa, like what happened to the ret just completely sped up and it's like whoa like what happened to the returnees and then it's like okay so let's focus on this group of newbies you have this like core group of like the younger ones of of uh victoria gavin aurora and lauren that come

together and you're like okay which of these four are going to run to the end and take it oh neither none of them here's their opposition rick and rick is going to take them all down. Oh, no, wait, there's Chris Underwood coming from the edge of extinction to completely make everything else that happened this season completely null and void. None of it matters besides, you know, what Chris did in the final hours of the game. So to talk about, you know, who of these people will, you know, should get a chance to come back if, you know, any of them get the calls. There's a lot of cases for a lot of people out here. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff left on the table for them because, again, I think the endgame

and the conceit of the season in general was just so odd. But I do think, to your point, looking further into this cast as we're about to get into, there are some diamonds in the rough. I think there were some really interesting casting choices. And I do think, to your point earlier earlier the season kind of gets unfairly thrown out with the bath water of like oh it was a terrible season because chris underwood won

there was some interesting stuff going on and especially some interesting cast members we're going to get into it starting with our all newbie final three correct me if i'm wrong i think this is the first season where returning players play against newbie players and no returnees make the final. So that is really... Though Chris Underwood is a returnee in a manner of speaking, considering that, again,

he does come back into the game at the last possible opportunity and goes on to win. And then, of course, we have the person who finishes second to him in the form of the pineapple shirt wearing himself gavin and the jump ship lady herself in toy maker julie rosenberg let's start with chris here matt uh because chris again is somebody that i think from a survivor perspective is regarded as to be candid one of the show's worst winners again if you look at

the court conceit of the show as do not get voted out, this was a guy who did get voted out and happened to come back into the game. And he was voted out before the Edge of Extinction was known as a thing, before it was revealed as an instantly iconic moment. And so he was able to benefit from that. But I suppose to court war dog, the theme is not on trial here. And Chris benefited from the season that he was put in and ordinarily i would be like i don't know if i necessarily need to see it he can have this fun little uh mark on a fun weird season and we kind of move on from it but i gotta say mad

we saw chris underwood last summer on the Challenge USA season two, and I really liked him on the season. I mean, first off, he obviously was a huge competitor. He was one of the only competitors on the Challenge to be in that rarefied air of winning four individual eliminations, and he beat everybody from CBS newbies to a dyed in the wool veteran and legend in the form of Wes to defeat all veterans in the final and go on and win the season handily. And so I'm wondering from your perspective, is there something there, there to having Chris go back to Survivor and prove himself now that he has a 100%

success rate on reality TV shows? There's definitely something to more Chris Underwood on some show. That's the question. And obviously, like you said, we had the opportunity to see him on the challenge. And at a certain point, you kind of wonder, there's people like, I'm sure has been talked about with Michelle. I haven't quite heard that podcast as it hasn't come out yet um about you know there she's getting calls from a variety of networks so does she answer a call over here a call over there can she make both work i don't know where the calls are going to come for come for chris in the future but wherever they do come i am very open to seeing more um obviously such a unique story as to how he ends up the winner of this season and you know

he does his best to narrate you know what did happen to him he failed to play the perfect game and he comes back and he's going to do everything in his power take himself to fire get to the end you know use the relationships that he built on the edge of extinction to go on and win the game and it's one of the weirdest if not the number one weirdest story of a survivor winner of all time. And, you know, we end up at season 40. He's obviously not on the cast for Winners at War. And, you know, it's like, OK, well, I understand that there was already 10 compelling men that ended up on the cast there. And not to mention, I believe the story is that Chris had just gotten married.

I mean, that he did basically the night of his wedding. He got the availability call for Winners at War. And he's like ah i think life is getting in the way here a bit yeah so it's like are we you know getting to season 50 uh you know when we're looking back at a season like this is that part of what the story that they're going to want to tell in season 50 like oh yeah we didn't get all the winners back last time maybe Maybe we get back two or three winners for this upcoming one. Well, obviously there's a whole new era to go through, but anyone pre-40 winners, there's still a couple of options. People that

either didn't get the call or didn't make it on the cast. Could Chris be one of them? I could see it, but I do think that in general his more likely path to succeeding as a reality TV star could and should be the challenge. I think he obviously succeeded over there all the way as far as getting a win and showing just, I mean, continuing survivor dominance over there as well. But I do think that he gained more more fans than he had even over here.

And that could be his path. Yeah, I think that definitely he has gleaned a lot brighter in the eyes of reality TV fans by showing what he could do. I will also say I think maybe one of the reasons why Chris's win might have been a bit unpalatable at the time as well is because, you know, he kind of came across as a more milquetoast personality on Edge of Extinction. He was pretty damn messy on the Challenge USA. am messy on the challenge usa i mean one of the reasons why he gets thrown into basically every elimination where he doesn't win the daily in the challenge usa after a certain point is because there's a certain time when basically he tries to make alliances with a bunch of different people and everyone starts comparing notes and it all bounces back upon him and he just responds in one of the worst ways possible that it just becomes inevitable that this guy is now public enemy number one for all the other guys,

especially because it gets winnowed down to all the veterans plus Chris who have pre-existing relationships. So if he's able to bring a little bit of that drama as well, maybe not his business ventures, considering those NSFW socks that hit the market after he won the million, but there's something interesting to seeing him at least on reality TV again.

Yeah, there was, I feel like, a lot of discourse around the time that he was on the challenge of like, oh, it's very clear to see even further why he was voted out on day three. And that's not to say that he's like, you know, the worst social player of all time by any means. But there was still a lot of room for improvement. That's a show where, you know, just like like the edge you can win your way back in he wins his way back in from four different eliminations being on the brink of going home uh and ends up winning the entire thing like

you said against like some of the show's biggest veterans so let's move on to the runner-up and in some circles the person people felt should have been the rifle winner of edge of extension considering that he was not voted out let's talk about gavin here because it's safe to say gavin had a very understated edit uh maybe not compared to the person who defeated him in the final three but as somebody who lasted all 39 days he was certainly someone who was behind a lot of decisions being made but was never necessarily given the focus behind it whether it was his personality him being a bit more laid back whether it was again them trying to focus on the returnees and the bigger characters

around them instead of the guy who ends up making it to second place but i always felt there was a super solid game behind gavin gavin was my winner pick for edge of extinction for that reason i always just felt like he had a good head on the shoulders that happened to be covered with flower tattoos matt do you think given his run on edge of extinction there is runway to bring him back for 50 i mean to just get right into it i want it um i think absolutely there is you know when you talk about um so that's the thing i mean it's the fact that to this day i don't think people are talking about him and his story as much you know and as the time has gone on you look at like a aubrey and michelle and you know that discourse went on for years and probably is still going on in some corner of the internet you're not seeing that same kind of discourse about you know gavin who was

very clearly robbed in this season had he get you to the end with Julie and whoever else? I mean, look, if there's a world that Rick is still there, who knows what the deal is with Edge of Extinction, depending on who came back, who didn't. Suppose you're looking at a game that just doesn't have Edge of Extinction. You have this group of four, again, that gets to the end, these younger people, including Gavin, Victoria. A lot of them end up going out in such weird ways as the edge plays a factor with the rick and chris of it all at that end game but if they get to the end i mean people were talking about victoria as being one of the biggest threats maybe gavin cuts or who knows i mean between the two of them you're talking about two very robbed individuals in the game of survivor uh just based on what survivor

usually is versus what it was here. So to give him that redemption arc and have him who, you know, he already gets, I think, four votes in the finale, you know, without Chris in the way could have been the winner of the season. I think that there's definitely a story there. Yeah, I think the only thing I would have against it is his edit was, again, I wouldn't say like so minimal. I don't think he was certainly as purpled as some of his alliance members i do think from a runner-up perspective there are certainly people that

are in that robbed category that got more of a story you mentioned aubrey his fellow cast member that speaks that even somebody like chrissy to a certain extent that might feel like there's more of a memorability to replace gavin i feel like if we're obscuring all that though i think gavin has one of the greatest appeals from a second chance perspective of like he basically had this opportunity take it out from under him with chris taking this unprecedented run in the finale this is an opportunity for him to hopefully play a game that is much less twist-laden and see if he can replicate that success yeah and i mean you know it's certainly not a one-to-one comparison

by any means but um just like this nice southern guy like you get a little bit of like jt in you know when jt is first debuting on the survivor scene um but there's definitely no chance for that to really grow uh as his story and as the season's story because there's definitely no chance for that to really grow as his story. And as the season story, because there's so much else going on, but there's a lot of, you know, a lot of love for Gavin from the people that he's playing with when he has

his family visit and Carly comes out and they're like, everyone is like, Oh my God, like you guys are so cute. He put his wedding on pause to come out and play survivor and get so close at the very end here. And ultimately, you know, again, the E eoe just runs over everything there but i think that um there is is a lot more to

explore what about julie julie is i would definitely say more of an up and down cast away than certainly gavin who again was much more of a stable force she is someone who felt on the outs of Kama in the beginning, as I believe the oldest person on the season. She is as old as Reem, but certainly the oldest person on her tribe. You know, she luckily is able to link up with Ron and benefits from the fact that I don't believe she goes to a tribal council in the pre-merge. And then it gets to a point, obviously, during that huge pilot and passengers tribal council, a tribal council that huge Pilot and Passengers Tribal Council, a Tribal Council that was so live, it basically took up the entirety of a single episode of the show,

as she decides she's going to jump ship. She causes so much calamity at that one evening that causes Julia to eventually go out. But she does then get brought aboard on all of these votes with the exception of the ron vote so julie is somebody who is a zero vote finalist i've certainly seen people clamor for her to come back especially with how unique of a player she was and her desire and ability to make moves how much do you see it i love julie uh at the time loved her on a rewatch here absolutely loved her um my concern is that there's just you know even less discourse than the gavin discourse

of you know people that are out here looking for julie to return i can't tell you again how much i would love it like if she was on the ballot and she gets one vote, it is coming for me. But, but I don't know. It's just, you know, the story throughout the season, she was such a, a scrappy underdog within her own alliance,

within her own comma tribe that like they come in to, to it. And Ron and Julie somehow get ostracized from everybody else. Again, it seems like the younger people kind of stick together and push Ron and Julie out. And then Rick ends up being Julie's like closer ally. There's a point where he, I think he played idol on her uh towards the end game uh and then you

know everybody else is kind of duking it or no actually he didn't play the idol he uh teased that he was going to and that's when they end up voting uh aurora out right but she is so much fun that tribal with i'm ready to jump ship and she goes and sits on david wright's lap who's like yeah hell is going on here so much fun just such a she emerges at the merge uh after having been a lot quieter in the early part of the game but once she showed up she's isn't she the one she was like i peed in central park like oh yeah um she's she's just a such a fun lady like i would love to see her again in some capacity uh if nothing else i mean I think Survivor mothers versus moms definitely cast her. I think, right? I can't remember if we did, but yeah, it could be her versus Monica Culpepper as Survivor fun ladies versus neat ladies.

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together. Head to salesforce.com slash careers to learn more. All right, well, let's move on here to, I would say our jury, but again, we have a gigantic jury, basically everyone in the cast stands too. So these are the eight people that were eliminated after our final three, I should say. So we have two of our returnees in David Wright and Kelly Wentworth. We have the war dog, a man who comes in and is as enigmatic with his nickname, someone that could throw around a bunch of numbers but could not throw a sandbag. We have a legendary teacher, Ron Clark, one of the big pieces of celebrity casting in the latter 30s. We have the aforementioned Aurora, who, again, suffers from being a little bit purple, even though she does have this really fantastic story about her own childhood, and that's inspired her career in law. We have then, of course, the three people eliminated

in the finale of Victoria, the person that was running a lot of comma and post-merge, to your point, until we hit this point where Chris comes back and then everyone turns on her we have Lauren O'Connell someone that was consistently an underdog whether it was going

from Manu to Lesu to just withering away to the point of passing out during a challenge before she is finally taken out at the final five where she's idled out over Chris but the person we need to start with Matt

is despite the fact that Edge of Extinction has sort of become with no offense Victoria kind of the redheaded stepchild of modern day survivor one character has emerged I think as the person everyone

remembers and I would argue far and away, the main character of Edge of Extinction, Rick Devins. Rick gets voted out fourth when basically the Lesu tribe, which is only Manu people, is forced to go once again, and

it's actually a terrifically tragic series of scenes where everyone's just so sad about having to cut one of their own and they decide to do it with Rick. Rick does come back into the game. And again, the entire narrative, basically, for the latter half of the season is Rick trying to claw his way out of a grave

that everyone is piling dirt upon, where he's finding, believe a record tying number of idols he's winning immunity he's having halves of idols given to him and trying to find people to glom onto whether it's david whether it's julie whether it's chris when he comes back and he is making a show at tribal council as well uh you know despite the fact that he doesn't really have a lot of voting power in the game, he certainly is making it entertaining for people that are just mere

voyeurs at this moment and would have a vote on the jury. And so the viewers came into this finale, myself included thinking, okay, this is set up for Rick to win on top of the fact that he was getting far and away the most amount of airtime in this season that all stops short when chris enters the game helps him then hurts him and sends him out i think rick is you know when we talk about the people especially post heroes healers hustlers who have not come back just due to the

lack of returning player seasons rick is somebody that tops a lot of people's lists, not only for the entertainment value he provides, not only for the fact that this is a guy that will hustle, that will find idols, win immunities, etc. But really, Matt, the smoking gun is. For the second season of On Fire with Jeff Probst, they decided to enlist, having an alumni come on as a third chair. And the very first person they went to out of

hundreds of survivor alumni over 20 years was rick devins yeah and then all of a sudden people were like he's taking over as the host after jeff probst has gone like where is this coming from he's hosting a podcast uh and then was promptly you know booted from the seat there not because of him uh just because that way they were going to rotate that seat. He comes in the next season. So, you know, OK, very obviously, Rick is beloved by not only production, by Jeff, by so many fans, but it's so interesting with Rick, is it not? Because he's also so polarizing that as many fans love the guy,

many fans don't care for the character. I will say it's, it's whether you want to look at it as like Facebook versus Twitter or whatever, you know, however you want to split it. Oh, that's a survivor season coming up.

Or I guess it would be meta versus X. Don't want to think about that either. But the, the, Meta versus X. Don't want to think about that either. But the fan base at large on Rick Devins is one of the most polarizing players as far as that is concerned. You would have to imagine, I have to imagine that the exact same amount of people that enjoy Rick as a character on Survivor, the same amount of people seemingly do not. So it's almost at a point where as I'm making my list here and talking through to myself, who's going to be on this list? It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what world I'm coming in here, whether I am pro, anti having Rick come back. It's not going to make a damn difference what I have to say about it, what you have to say about

it, because Rick is going to be on that short list of who they're going to call. The only world that he is not on that list for them is if they, you know, have decided at some point that it's only new era players. That's the only way that Ricky's either not getting a call or not out there. Obviously, whether he accepts that call,

you would imagine he will, is up to him and what's going on with him in his life. But I mean, this is a man who comes in, you know, has been in front of a camera for a long time as his career as a newscaster. So he comes in knowing how to have that smile ready to go for the camera, how to do as much as you can to

entertain in front of a news camera, let alone a survivor island of production cameras and all that kind of stuff. So he comes in just so prepared for creating stories and creating entertainment and whatnot. And again, it worked for a lot of people. It didn't work for a lot of people, which made him so polarizing. I do wonder as well how Rick would be received, assumingly on another season with a much lesser edit, which even a much lesser edit for Rick would probably still be fairly middle ground of Survivor contestants where, and listen, I don't want to necessarily broad brush

this is why people don't like rick but i do think a lot of it probably came from the fact that he felt a little overexposed as well that we got a lot of rick and there's a definitely a crowd even back during the days of russell where people loved russell i think there was certainly a corner of survivor fan base that was like we don't just want to see one person play Survivor there are x amount of contestants out there I want to see as many of their stories as possible and so I would also be intrigued to see how Rick would do on a second time in terms of you know I think there was to a certain extent in his post-merge game as well him playing with house money where I think he was much more out in front obviously he was showy at tribal council but i think he was much more out in front obviously he

was showy at tribal council but i think he was also sometimes pretty brusque with other contestants as well there's that scene where he's walking with war dog and war dogs like all right so here's what the plan is what do you think of rick's like oh i love that plan wait a minute psych i hate that plan i'm not working with you anymore where i I think maybe Rick's social game was not incredibly top tier just because of the way that he regarded other people that were both in the game and joining the jury. But I still think that this is one of the stars of the latter day 30s. And I think even if it's a best to never win season, there's going to be a lot of people to pull from that as well both old era and new era and i think especially from a popularity perspective rick would stack up to be a part of that cast yeah and look the good news is for anybody who is uh

not looking to see rick back you know you have to have people to root against uh when these new seasons come you know you can't just like everybody it's going to be a painful uh you know look at like a winners at war you got to to have one, two, three people I can think of that you're rooting against throughout the season, maybe more. So, you know, if that's you, if you're in that camp, then, you know, there's your story. Otherwise, if you are a Rick fan, then you can be pretty happy to know that he will absolutely be in the mix for this upcoming season. All right. Well, let's take one step to his right here. Go from the Kool-Aid man to a tall drink of water in the form of Lauren O'Connell.

Now, Lauren was super young when she played. She was only 21. She was, I believe, a student at the time. She is someone who has certainly remained active in the alumni community. She habitually hosts parties alongside Kelly Wentworth. That's been one of the sweetest things coming out of this season

is to like watch these two actually emerge from the game with an incredibly close friendship. And some have felt that she was a little robbed, given the fact that Chris comes in with an idol and then finds another one. What are your thoughts

on bringing back Lauren for time number two, Matt? I really, really enjoyed Lauren the first time around I'm already worried because I am pretty sure that there's a small limit of spots available that we're gonna have to put people through here so when I you know really look into it I have a hard time seeing Lauren make that top top tier of who uh you know from this cast will you know should get that call will get that call um but that is absolutely not to say that I didn't, you know, enjoy her so much on her first time around watching.

I mean, look, I am a Kelly Wentworth boy through and through. So watching Kelly have a built in ally of this person who comes in being like, I love Kelly Wentworth and Joe. But, you know, she loves Kelly. I did like that first confessional when she's reenacting Joe coming over the book of is that Joe? It will unfortunately, I think, due to pure stamina being the most energized, Lauren will be all season. But I really enjoyed her as a character. Yeah, she was a lot of fun. But as far as like, you know, top picks, it's not necessarily there.

I definitely enjoyed going back and seeing her again, though. there. I definitely enjoyed going back and seeing her again, though. What I will say is, of course, throughout this process, we're also clocking the returnee seasons and trying to figure out how much common DNA is there to crack into what might make a season 50 cast.

I would say Lauren could also fill an archetype that seemingly takes up every single returnee season, which is young, attractive, athletic woman. And so I think that Lauren could be someone that just shows up on Survivor 50. She made it all the way to fifth place,

which is definitely a deep run. And so could have at least more talking points to her than maybe some of the people that were casting Game Changers as an example that I would honestly not be surprised if she shows up in Survivor 50 just because of kind of the boxes that her archetype checks. See, my thing is just that I think if we're getting one person in a somewhat similar archetype from this cast, I think it's the person to her right.

So let's talk about her. Let's talk about Victoria. Love you, Baymond. So Victoria, yeah, for a while, we just thought of her as, you know, someone that was there. I think the most noticeable thing about her for a while was why is she wearing a wool beanie

on a tropical island? In the ocean. But she really puts a hat on a hat when she goes to her first tribal council. And from our perspective, she helps lead this blind side of a three-time player in Aubrey with an idol in her pocket.

And I think immediately puts herself on the map as someone that is more than willing to play the game. And we see that again, throughout the post-merge that Victoria, I'm pretty sure, you know, with the exception of Rick idling himself out is and obviously her own vote is in the right on every single vote she cast. There was that weird split tribal council where she does flip in the re-vote to get out Wendy when it turns out to be a tie vote. But Victoria was somebody that was clearly in the know on everything that was going on in the post-merge and was definitely a mover and a shaker.

And I know, especially after the fact, a lot of the fan base was upset at the fact that it felt like her game was one of the ones that got cut shorter than it should. With the fact that Chris not only comes in, but has sort of a built in idol that he can utilize as well to get himself to five. And Victoria is one that even throughout the beginning phase of the game, before you even get into the part of the game, the post-merge and seeing who the real contenders are to win, she's somebody who you see in the comma stages that has her hands all over the place. She knows what she's doing. She's got people in her corner um specifically with the aubrey of it all she is like the one that you know she she's very aware of what aubrey is trying to do in the game and from even i think it was like episode two you have aubrey coming to her

being like we're good right girl and aubrey's kind of doing that with everybody but so she clocks that she puts it in her pocket and says when i need to make a move on aubrey i will we get to the swap um end up in a situation where like you mentioned uh wendy is is now a part of their tribe and she's got eric and gavin alongside her who both guys that she really has trust in from the early comma days um and they're like all right this is the time to take out the returnees this is a cast i mean uh we're kind of touching on it earlier but this is a cast who does what we scream at other casts to do and get the returnees out of the game.

I mean, I'm not necessarily screaming that here. I would have loved this to be a Kelly Wentworth win, but, uh, you know, that's what you need. That's what you want to see returnees do. I'm sorry, newbies doing for themselves, getting the returnees out of here. And Victoria had Aubrey clocked from day one. She wasn't looking to go far with Joe. And, you know, by the time that it comes around to take out kelly and david easy easy get out of here yeah so i think victoria is somebody who again maybe the more casual fan base wouldn't necessarily remember but i know for the past five

years i think a lot of the community has said she is somebody alongside someone like lauren and maybe even gavin who they thought had their chances cut out from under them due to all the stuff that happened in the finale and the Edge of Extinction endgame run. And I think given the gamesmanship she showed over the course of the season, she's somebody who could be a lot of fun to see in another environment.

And I also think one of these returnees where I would not say she is top of mind in terms of her reputation preceding her, that she might be able to replicate her success should you get a second chance. I think so. I think she had a very good head on her shoulders. I think she's very smart.

She recently did the podcast with Kellen, where she was- Yeah, Growth to Reality. Yeah, talking through, you know, kind of where she's at in life since being on Survivor. And you can just hear like the growth and maturity in, you know, even just anybody in their 20s that goes on Survivor just a couple years later, a couple more years of experience. She talks about some therapy and whatnot that, you know, has helped along the

way and has put her in an even probably better place today to go out and, you know, go all the way again and potentially get a win this time. I can absolutely see it. All right. Well, let's move to the other end of this slide. And we've talked about the returnees end up it's finally time to mention them because we have some like odd loose ends to tie up here matt ligore and you know i apologize that it sort of has been thrown on your doorstep but this is what happens when you live in the neighborhood at number 38 on wishlist drive here because we have our two manu captains in the form of Kelly and David that's the other weird thing about this as well is that all the previous like

captain seasons had one returnee per tribe this had two and maybe it was to like give each other a better chance of getting far even though the two of them pretty much go after each other right away from the get-go but we have wentworth we have right uh and so kelly sasha joseph did punt to this podcast she felt that it would feel kind of weird to put her on specifically for san juan del sor given the fact that you know she really comes into her own during cambodia i said that okay listen we can write her in for Edge of Extinction. I'm sure the person covering it would be fine. I assumed I was not speaking out of turn there. Of course not. I mean, look where I'm at with this is, of course, like there's no world where I'm coming

at here saying, you know, no, we're done. We're good with Kelly. Not only has, you know, first of all, check the receipts. Been a Wentworth boy since day one. You know, San Juan del Sur day one. Wow. That's like 10 years of membership. It is. And you know, the, the gold card came in the mail and I'm going to hold onto it. But, um, you know, to this day, there was a time where, uh, I don't

know if it was right after, uh, her appearances or whatever that she didn't seem like she was hopping on podcasts or anything super frequently. Um, and I was like, Oh, is she like, you know, done? I mean, good. Everybody take a break if, you know, if you need it. That's good. Fantastic. But then has immediately jumped back into the world of like the TikToks, the Instagrams, the talk about the show in a variety of ways,

which all that to say tells me that Wentworth would be down and would accept the call, I hope. I mean, she told me as much when I asked her directly. She basically said like, it's not 100 percent. No, it's not like a guaranteed. Yes, I'd have to think about it. Yeah. I mean, the the call needs to be there and it needs to be accepted, Kelly, if you're

listening. The the thing for me is just as far as Sasha, thanks for for throwing extra numbers in the boat over here. Of course, again, I'd love to have Kelly on the list and she will be on the list. But there's so many other people here as well that I want to get on. So if Kelly had already been on, it would have made my life a lot easier at the end of this podcast. Uh, but it's okay. I can't be mad at Sasha literally ever. So, well, let's talk about the other person though. Cause I would not say that David Wright was necessarily guaranteed a spot either. What I said was that

we would re-approach the conversation because to your point about this season, there were other people who had not made appearances since Millennials vs. Gen X that Ali Lasher and I felt, okay, we want to put on the ballot here. And so David Wright, we decided to re-examine the conversation. And obviously the run is not as deep, much like Kelly, as that Fallen Angel spot, one of the main character spots in Millennials vs. Gen X. But due to the fact that Manu just kind of sucks as a tribe, you know, he basically goes to every tribal council in the pre-merge except for one. He certainly pops out and is

mainly at the forefront, which again makes it even more shocking as to why he randomly gets taken out in a 45 minute double boot episode. What would your thoughts be on a David Wright 3.0? Because I would say compared to Wenworth, he's definitely the hungrier to come back. Is that like from what he said or? Yeah, quarantine questionnaire. He was very much like, Dalton, what were they saying about me?

Are they saying there's another returning season? You know, very much tongue in cheek. But yeah, because you would imagine, especially just given how much the edge wore down on everybody that you think, oh yeah these people are done but no it really does seem like and david will always have survivor in his heart he's still in good shape i think he is you know 50 years old at this point but he's more than willing to do it yeah back in the uh the the good old days of having survivor reunions even when they're 15 minutes at the end of an edge of

extinction season. Probst mentioned, well, David's now in the writer's room writing some show alongside Cochran or something like that. So I'm thinking, well, okay, same path as Cochran. Like, I guess he's just done. He's probably good. He's got his career set up and, you know, he got what he needed out of survivor. I got to say, you know, there's four returnees on this list. I got to say, there's four returnees on this list.

And if we're narrowing ourselves down to somewhere in the realm of five, if I have to pick one returnee from here, it's going to be Kelly just for me. And as far as David and his story goes, I mean, not to say that there's no more story to tell, but it felt like we got a good conclusion as a survivor character is concerned. He comes on to Millennials versus Gen X, this guy that's afraid of his own shadow. We get the machete chop and he jumps 10 feet in the air and comes out here and shows a lot more confidence within himself and his game. And he's playing alongside Rick and he's very carefully trying to figure out how to get Kelly out of the game, regardless of if you think that that's a good move for a returning player and another returning player. He felt like Kelly was a big threat or maybe the trust just wasn't as there as he would like it to be. And he does a very good job at,

you know, managing when he should get her out. There's that tribal council where I'm ready to jump ship from Julie gets them back on the same page for one vote because otherwise the war was happening right then and there. Yeah, I think that was one of my favorite when david just taps kelly on the shoulder and she turns around he goes hi remember me and she goes yes david of course um just a very cute moment between the two of them but again as far as like where we are today i don't think he's at the top of my list if he showed up there i'm absolutely not against it but But I think that, you know, we talk about people getting their second chance and he's like the one returnee here who's on a second chance, not his third. So, you know, sure, he could get that third chance.

But I think a lot of people I'd like to see get a second chance first. Yeah, it's tough. I mean, we talked about this during Millennials versus Gen X. If there was, again, a theming of best to never win, I could see him and Kelly both show up. Because, again, David maybe had a little bit of a lower showing in Edge of Extinction. But, I mean, he was the odds on threat to win, not unlike Rick in Millennials vs. Gen X, to the point where it was like a big Herculean effort on Adam and Hannah's part to convince Ken to betray his number one ally. So that's the realm where i could really

see it happening and you know it's tough for me to be like david's already had enough chances he doesn't need to come back for a third versus like kelly she could come back for a fourth so we'll approach this at the end maybe i could get finagled into doing some houdini magic and you know uh put david on in a different circumstance, but I wanted to approach that subject with you. Let's touch upon the rest of this group because Wardog and Ron, I feel like if Survivor 40 was some sort of 30s returnee season, there would have been a good shot for both of these guys.

Of course, Ron Clark's reputation precedes him. He's known as a guy that kind of changed the game when it came to teaching to the point where the late matthew perry stars in a biopic about him and his unconventional ways of teaching and getting students involved and the war dog again gets a lot of attention early on from just being part of this losing tribe ends up leading the charge to take out kelly only for him to get immediately blindsided afterwards. But was certainly somebody that, you know, as we would say, right, was oil and water with certain contestants. It was not afraid to be outspoken. But I'm intrigued, Matt, as we're looking back across the spectrum of Survivor.

Are these guys that you would want to see back for 50? Or do you think this might be the case where these are guys who are kind of already being covered on their archetype by other players i think that that's the case for war dog um i don't think that's the case for ron i feel like ron is such a unique person and i know i'm saying that about a person that's not named the war dog as a unique person but ron is ron was so much fun on this season he comes out you know out right away with the comma dance of it all, keeping the vibes nice and high. Everybody loves him. And as the game goes on,

you see how he fades away from the rest of the group alongside Julian becomes this outcast of people being like, well, we can't go that deep into the game with Ron. He is so likable. And if he gets deep into the game, he's going to end up winning. So while he struggles with that to see how he can find footing back in the game, because he went out there, not just

like in the same kind of realm as like a Mike White, like he wanted to do well. He wanted to play the game, succeed and go on and get a win. Or maybe Mike, you know, gave that dream up at a certain point. But as far as Ron is concerned, I would love to see him back. I do worry that, you know, time has kind of put him towards the back of the line. Like you said, if this was strictly about players in the 30s, I think he's absolutely there. It might be a different story now, but he is the one that I would

like to see. Yeah, not to mention he is someone that has kind of served, to your point, in an era, a new era of no live reunions as like sort of the halfway house for the cast cast where now they'll commonly have viewing parties at the Ron Clark Academy at a certain point. And that's where the vast majority of these casts get together. And so you could also argue in a new era season,

he might be someone that has the most cachet as a pretty new era player, considering that he probably has relationships with a good amount of them. I just wonder, he is hungry to come back, and I would love to see him back, but I would say out of everyone on this season, he may be like 6th or 7th on my list. This was a guy who had a lot

of fun energy. The Kama dance gif is one of the top ones that always shows up on my feed every time I type Survivor into it for whatever reason, but i do feel like this was a guy that kind of like had moments of fits and starts when it came to his edit he finds the advantage menu in the marooning and then nothing really comes of that and he fades to the background then he pops up with julie jumping ship and then kind of fades to the background again he pops up with winning the loved ones visit and then immediately gets voted out.

And so I do wonder, again, from a memorability perspective, does his name carry more from outside of Survivor versus in Survivor? Yeah, I think that's possible. I would have loved to see, you know, the world where Ron goes deep, because I feel like I don't I don't know if this is a good comparison, but just like maybe there's a little bit of like survivor australia george deep down somewhere in there that like there could have been you know a world if he like you know does have the numbers by his side or maybe a little bit more of that killer edge or maybe a lot more to get on george's level uh to you know just eviscerate the competition on the way towards the end game um it just unfortunately you know the tide completely turned away from him but i think that there is a world where he comes back and just goes so hard playing this game again.

Last and unfortunately, at least I would say just in terms of consideration, I mean, no offense to Aurora. She's someone that is still clearly involved with the community is very active online and again, has this this really incredible story that I'm glad she was able to tell at some point to the point where she does actually end up getting Sia money from this season. I just feel like due to her edit and maybe the characters around her, she would be someone, especially from this group of eight, that I would not imagine would get asked back. Yeah, there's unfortunately like players that I think come off the show. You know, everybody's going to have the hope that that call will come

someday. But there are players that probably like go through a very tough time of watching the show back, seeing how insignificant their edit is and realizing like live in that moment that there's a very low chance that they end up on a list of people getting a call back someday. And that's obviously unfortunate for a lot of people like Aurora in that spot. But it's just that's that's the reality of the situation. That's just, you know, the edit was quiet. It was pretty much like nothing all the way through.

And then at a certain point when we really hammer home that we need to get Rick Devins out, Aurora's like the main cheerleader of all that. Like she goes out saying, you know, you guys got me, but get him out next. And Rick's like, still? Like, you're gone. Like, you're still trying to push for me to go?

Yeah, the meme of the cat sitting at the dinner table. Yeah table yeah she is just she's on top of uh you know trying to get that that ball rolling eventually you know it takes chris underwood coming back to do that but um her edit in the game her story in the game uh was just very uh quiet and you know the the fact that not any i don't think any uh casuals are remembering that this is a person who played survivor, unfortunately. All right. Well, let's segue into our first seven boots of the game. If we sort of rejigger things where we take Rick and Chris out,

working our way down, we have the victim of pilots versus passengers in Julia. We have Eric, the person that's unfortunately more so on the Aurora side of memorability. We have, of course, one of our returnees in Joey Amazing. We have Big Wendy, who I would say was probably the star of the pre-merge, considering how chaotic before she was. We have, of course, our first returnee boot of the season in our three-timer, Aubrey. We have Keith. Come on, God.

But we got to start with somebody here because look, when I gave my first boot Mount Rushmore during the Philippines podcast, I'll admit there were plenty of people in my mentions being like, where's Reem, dude? And I'll admit it's because

I kind of don't consider Reem a first boot considering that she is the only first boot to make it all the way to the finale and sit on a jury. We get a full season of Reem, despite the fact that she is voted out first. But still, regardless, a top tier character and definitely one of the sources of entertainment in this season. Absolutely. I mean, RHAP alone, you know, got enough content out of Reem to last a lifetime. We're still getting, you know, come on, dude, like drops, you know, just content out of ream to last a lifetime uh we're still getting you know

come on dude like drops uh you know just whenever it comes up yeah on the soundboard for rob um just so much gold there as a television character as a person playing this game when she gets voted out she's devastated because like she you can like you could tell like any of us would be so lucky to spend a day with ream and these people that spend a couple of days with reem are like oh she's so bossy she's moving our clothes around this and that and reem's like what is wrong with you all like what did i do and she she gets to the edge she's trying to understand what she possibly did wrong and then like it just snowballs into all of these people coming and complaining about what happened to them and being her being like you think what happened to you is bad i've been here since day three

over nothing i folded some clothes wrong and people are upset with me i thought it's someone had a swim just you know the well one of like one of the one of the if not the number one biggest pre-merge characters truly of all time let alone you know the more recent era i mean yes it's there it's gotta be because she lasted an entire season you know jeff is going to reference one of her catchphrases in that final challenge to get back from the edge and so just due to again these very special circumstances ream is a very special first boot and i would argue one of the most memorable first boots in Survivor history that has still stood the test of time over the past five years

when asked if she would come back of course everyone here was basically an emphatic yes but Reem was someone who was a little bit on the side of like I don't think it'll ever happen but if they call me sure I don't know I mean again I don't know what the theming of Survivor 50 could be to the

point of the net we've passed wide in this wish list but if it is sort of like if they bring in some random standout characters of the latter day 30s where no returnees have really come back there's a sizable chance reem could show up there she's at least like a second tier returnee maybe third tier returnee in my. I think even over the returning players that are on this season, I think she's the number one most likely pick of who would end up on the season. I know that, you know, again,

she and her sound drops and everything have made such a bigger impact, probably within our podcast community than maybe was the case on the show. But Jeff was having fun with Reem. And, you know, just this is not a person that you just let, you know, happen on one season and you completely forget about forever.

Like there has to be an availability call. And I don't know, you know, I haven't done the math to like work out, you know, who else in her archetype is going to be in the running, especially from the seasons in the 40s. There will be a good amount of There will be a 53 right now. Yeah. So there will be a bunch of other moms that are in consideration for the same kind of spot that Reem is looking for to be filling. But I do think she has to be at the very top of that list, truly. Yeah. I mean, I think she is somebody who makes the edge of extinction. Obviously, and chris are going to prove the theme by laying you know gangway in their various runs on the season but the fact of the matter is

i do think if ream is not one of the first people to go there there is a good amount of entertainment that is lost on the edge then it really just becomes alone the series where these people are suffering on a remote island and we take a brief break away from our social strategy game to check in on these poor starving people reem at least brought the conflict and the drama and to your point the comedy as well that she really was they talk about the mayor of ponderosa reem was the queen of edge of extinction where she just had this long rule over this stretch of Stan. It's the episode where Kelly goes out and then Kelly

shows up at the edge and Kelly's down. Everybody shows up at the edge and they're all down and defeated and Reem takes this opportunity to be like, Kelly, you know, I'm freaking pissed at you, dude. Like you, like you made my life hell in those first couple of days and you're the reason I'm here. Kelly's like, I'm sorry, Reem, like you know, kind of going through something myself right now.

And Reem's like, I don't care, man. Like you voted me out you got me eliminated just tv gold to dote upon our two other returnees that get booted here uh we talked about this during the world apart podcast i would imagine due to joe's extremist social media activity and statements that production would not necessarily want to break him back even due to his popularity even at the edge of extinction reunion where like the crowd is cheering him on to come back aubrey is someone who you talk about that debate of michelle versus aubrey uh kirsten chose to choose michelle over aubrey to put on the ballot and aubrey is somebody who yes has come around to be like listen I would never say no completely to coming back to Survivor again but it's definitely I think uh cooler on coming back

than Wentworth or David Wright how would you feel about an Aubrey 4.0 I think we're good I think she's good I think we're good I think the story has happened you know three times through and especially on this third season that she competed on obviously going out in a much less um a less than ideal way for her uh as as a player so i'm sure she would love to get like redemption on that um but like you know we we have seen i think so much of aubrey over the course of three seasons that i truly in the same kind of realm as david i'm like, I don't know what story there really is left to tell before a lot of other people get their second chances. So that's just kind of where I'm at. Donating upon some of these other people in this slide, you know, Julia obviously had

an incredibly rough go, and I am so happy that she spoke out when she did about what happened with her story about why perhaps her quiet edit was due to factors that were not seen including you know some incredibly unfortunate circumstances involving Joe I do think unfortunately due to that

and her kind of pulling the curtain back I do not think she would be someone that would get invited back but Julia has also gone on to do awesome stuff with her life where she has gone to and maybe graduated med school if I'm remembering correctly so check Julia out on social media she's doing some great things

Eric is somebody who I think unfortunately much like Aurora seems like a really great guy but is way too quiet of an edit to get a nod here in my opinion and when we talk about keith and wendy there is always the discourse especially nowadays of okay with the way jeff feels about quote-unquote quitters would they ever get brought back and it's tough because like yes they quit the game but they basically had the option to with the Edge of Extinction.

Like they were given an outright out to say, if you want to leave at any time, you can. And for them, I sort of like, I don't know, respect their decisions to a certain amount for them being like, yeah, there's not a chance. We already lost the first competition. We're not here to last another 10, 12, 15 days just to lose again with all these other meatheads

that are going to get voted out in the post-merge. I think we're good. I think if there was one of the two to come back, it would be Wendy. Wendy is someone that expressed that she would like to come back. And again, this woman was just mayhem incarnate down to hiding the flint and basically threatening it should she get voted out. Yeah. Wendy is the type of person that makes me wish survivor did what big brother does as far as having past players come back to like host a competition because while i don't think there's a world that we uh get a wendy 2.0 especially after like you mentioned being one of the two people to raise the flag and say you know i'm good with the experience here. Just such a big, fun character releasing the chickens in that episode.

Like, whoa, like what? What an episode that was. What a moment. And just, you know, everything she opened up about her experience with Tourette's and everything, just like a very compelling human being on this show. Would love to have had her back on like a season, I don't know, somewhere in the new era, just like coming in literally to host a competition and leaving if Survivor did something like that. But as far as a return appearance,

I don't know. You know, she's probably, she's in the top half of my list of, you know, people from this cast, but like towards the bottom of that top half. Yeah, maybe they should have done a competition because they did this in Vanuatu of like, instead of herding sheep, you have to herd chickens.

And maybe Wendy would be the host of like, I let so many chickens in this pen. You have to be the one to crowd them all. And the winner gets the chickens unless i let them go again the the tie and wendy uh dual hosting of that of that challenge would be uh something yeah exactly i was like no no don't hurt them too much like you need to grab them please exercise calmness yes yes yes all right so, it comes down to this. We have reviewed every member of the cast of edge of extinction. And now it's time to figure out who we want to put on here. So I think safe to say,

you want to put Kelly Wentworth on you. You want to make sure you count as part of the five here. She should be on the list. Yes. Yes. Of course. So we'll throw kelly on there and then we'll circle back to david in a bit put a pin in him let's talk about some of

these newbies i think again regardless of how the community feels on there rick is one of the more locked in modern era picks that we have seen from this group of seasons and so i i do think he's going to be on the list here from both a realistic perspective as well as a fan vote perspective. I came into this podcast knowing it doesn't matter what I have to say about that. So go ahead. Well, talk to me about somebody else you'd like to put on or put in consideration, at least. There's a couple of names still. I mean, we'll just kind of keep on where we just were and get Reem in there.

It's not a question. Reem has to be involved. I would agree to get ream in there and i would put victoria in there as well i think those are three names that we could basically agree upon um well so is there room beyond that so that's the question okay because we agree because i think i think those three are the ones that i feel like are some of the three most talked about people from this cast in terms of those that the audience would like to see back. I think especially with Rick and Reem, they are two of the biggest characters. Definitely have some of the biggest story to them for a possible return. And Victoria, again, is one of these fun. Oh, let's give her a second chance.

Let's see what she can do without a big twist in the way, hopefully. chance let's see what she can do without a big twist in the way hopefully for me i think if we look at the the remaining spot if we're going with the five here it would basically be between for me david and gavin with like a skosh of ron clark on the side okay so for me it comes down to we do have overlap with gavin there um it comes down to gavin ron and Chris, but the way I narrow it down very easily for me is that I think that Chris will have opportunities on the challenge. I hope I don't, we, we haven't actually seen for non-challenge people. We haven't actually seen a lot of people that were on the challenge USA show back up on the main challenge. It's really only Kylan. Yeah. It's Kylan from big brother. But I think that, you know, we're about to get out.

Well, I mean, we haven't even gotten into it yet. The Challenge 40, this Battle of the Era season coming up. But after that, we're going to get back into, you know, a time where we can kind of mix things up with rookies or people that have kind of been on once or twice or whatever the deal is. So I could see a world for sure. Chris is still, you know, just as young and spry as the best of them. I could absolutely see a world where he gets a call for like a 41 42 or 43 so i can i can kind of put him aside there because i think that there could be other opportunities for ron i think that while i

would love to see it ron is ron clark like he will find his way into you know in front of a camera in one way or another so that puts me at gavin where I don't think, you know, he's the person that I think needs the most redemption on a future Survivor season. Was the most robbed by far, you know, getting four votes here to Chris's, you know, 17 from the rest of the. Jim even throws a vote onto Chris. Yeah. So for me, if there's one spot left for me, it's Gavin. on to Chris. Yeah. So for me, if there's one spot left for me, it's Gavin. You also, I think, have a world where this man, Rick Devins, has a lot to influence on what's going on here. And if anyone hasn't picked up on, you know, whether it's some podcasting or Twitch streaming and whatnot, Rick Devins and Gavin have gotten so close over the past, you know, a couple of

years since their season. They're like the best of buds. And if like Rick has any influence to say, Hey, thanks for calling me, which, you know, I knew you were going to do the second I left the Island. How about my friend here? You know, my built in ally who needs a lot of redemption. He's going to pull a little Kirby and big brother all-stars. I think, I think it's not off the table. I don't know, but. Oh God. You're telling me you can't just put both on.

F it. I'll put both. You're Mike Bloom. You make the rules. Yeah, I'll do it. Why the hell not? But it's only because my hand was forced here. I'm going to be more stringent when it comes to the season's proceeding and following.

And look, I have to be pushy because Sasha threw, you know, an extra person onto this list that you know wasn't there i didn't even think that returnees were in the mix as far as uh being considered i don't know i don't know what i was thinking but um so i'm sitting here with like my top tier of reem gavin ron and victoria and i've already put ron to the side knowing that there wasn't going to be a room for both him and gavin um and rick wasn't in my top five but i knew he was going to be there regardless. So this was tough.

Yeah. And I'm sure we'll get the people being like the, the, what are we doing here? Crowd of like, Oh my God, you're adding six people, but consider it maybe some leftovers from millennials versus Gen X and

Sam Mondale sword that we put Kelly and David on. And then again, if you remove them, then we're just back to where we were prior. Yeah. We're just back to four here. So it's going to be Kelly. It's going to be David. And it's going to be kelly it's going

to be david and it's going to be gavin rick victoria and ream and i'm sure maybe some more will be added by the time we come back around and do some wild cards last thing i want to finish with matt is we've talked about this a lot and again some players have even shown this to the point of chris but who from this season would you want to see on another reality show? So it would be this is outside of the people that we've already talked about or I mean, no, it could be the same people that we're talking about. Okay, so we want to double dip.

Yeah. So I mean, going back to the ream of it all somewhere some way somehow put this woman back on a television screen like I don't care what show it is. I don't know. Ra traders the goat no well that's the thing is that i think that unfortunately just due to despite the fact that she was a first boot that lasted the entire of a season i don't know how much her social

cachet is there for those types of shows but put her on squid game the challenge oh could you imagine her oh my gosh like someone picking up a phone and trying to convince her to also pick up the phone or like someone trying to chicken out on the marbles game that they did it would just be absolutely incredible television yeah absolutely and i you know i guess i'll just use the spot to further highlight ron that i really think would be super entertaining on whatever show he ends up on um you know i think we're the two people I've picked are probably past me being able to try to recruit them for the challenge at that point, you know, for themselves. But whether it's a squid game, whether it's a traders, whether it's any of these shows that are popping up, pulling from, you know, one from each show that exists out there.

Would love to see Ron pop back up on something. I mean, traders would be a lot of fun. Maybe Ron could host a reboot of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? Okay. I feel like he has that, like, boisterous game show energy, you know? Yeah. Actually, you know what?

He kind of acts like a warm-up comic, so he could be his own warm-up comic and game show host all in one. I'm down. I'm watching. All right. So, Matt, great way to start off the week here on the Survivor 50 wish list.

Plenty of discussion. Pouring over a cast that honestly doesn't get poured over much, I feel like, in the memories of Survivor history. But hopefully we gave some people their due today as we are putting on. I'll put some ages alongside here as well. We have Kelly Wentworth, who is 38. We have David Wright, who is 50. We have, let's see, we have Gavin, who I believe is 29. We have Rick, who is 39. And we have Victoria, who is also 29 and Rima 53.

Speaking of 39, the age of one Rick Devins. Tomorrow, we're jumping into another season that is glossed over in survivor history though i think for perhaps more understandable reasons than edge of extinction it is survivor island of the idols but again look to speak about not throwing the baby out with the bath water i do think within a lot of the ugliness that is remarked upon for that season there are some people that i think should be in discussion to bring back for a possible survivor 50 matt in your opinion is there anyone from island of the idols that you would

want to put on your shortlist karishma which i do think actually defeated one of our shortlist candidates here kelly winworth in terms of uh the number of votes either cast against her or it wasn't nullified by an idol because that was being by by caleb but yeah yeah for sure um you know there's certainly a case for some lauren ashley beck coming back who's been also another one of these uh tiktok or instagram creators uh doing a lot of survivor content as time has gone on um i'll make the case for detective dean uh some point or another, but I'll go with those. Detective Dean was another person that I felt might have had his like window to be on the challenge in the early 2020s. And it just hasn't happened for one reason or another.

Yeah. I don't know. He might be okay moving on from reality TV, but yeah, like you said, there's people within that cast to pluck out and potentially, you know, leave everything else behind. So I'll be interested to see how that conversation goes tomorrow. Well, I'll be having said conversation with Beth Dixon, which I'm very excited about. So be sure to check that out as we barrel towards the new era where the picking,

listen, if we had a tough time parsing through for a limited number of picks, survivor edge of extinction, it's going gonna get even tougher. Wendy, free the chickens to just create even more mayhem going on with those picks but for right now Matt, this was such a great time

of course you talked about this at the beginning you are always in the trenches when it comes to the challenge over on Free Agents especially since we are looking down the barrel of Battle of the Eras another milestone season of a reality TV show coming down the pike next month. What would you like to plug right now?

Yeah. Challenge is going to be starting very soon, especially by the time that this, this comes out here. So Scali and I are always covering all things, the challenge on the free agents podcast. Mike is very often coming on and guesting with us whenever he's got the time to squeeze in for,

for anything challenge related or anything. I love the challenge and i love the free agents even more yes and and uh again it actually might line up pretty perfectly that mike is also planning on coming on with us for a bonus podcast if mike hasn't talked enough survivor lately um he has chosen we give him an option to talk either big brother or survivor with this topic we're looking into a world of so again the challenge 41, 42, 43 may have some rookies again after they haven't had new faces for two seasons now.

We're going to look into some survivor names that they should pull. And Mike said, that's me, sign me up. So we're going to be doing that very soon. Riding the hot hand, right? My mind is so on the island right now that I might as well keep going with the momentum instead of pulling myself out and back in again.

Yeah, I get it. I get it. So I can't wait to talk to you with, with Scali and do that over on the free agents podcast. Also very recently launched the diary room podcast, which if you're a big brother person and you have not checked it out yet, Aman and I have created this project where we are going through the entire roster of North American big brother players, three or sorry, six at a time,

three matchups in each episode to determine who ultimately is the best Big Brother player of all time. It's going to take us years to get through, but we are having so much fun so far. We've had Corey and America and Chappelle. And by the time this comes out, AJ, we just recorded. So, so many fun guests so far. Mike will be on there as well because I book Mike any opportunity that I can get. And I'll take it. And that's that. I'm be on there as well because I book Mike any opportunity that I can get.

And I'll take it. And that's that. I'm on Twitter at Matt Liguori. And Mike, thank you so much for having me on for this one. Of course, the pleasure was all mine. Thank you for bringing all your takes about this season. Of course, we'll be back tomorrow

with Beth Dixon talking about Survivor Island of the Idols and seeing who will be added to the ever growing shortlist. Until next time, everybody. Take care. Bye bye.