RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 50 Wish List | Season 45 with Pooya

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

Today, Mike and Pooya (@pooyaism) discuss Season 45.

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and the studio that brought you The Notebook, comes a twisted tale of modern romance and the sweet satisfaction of revenge. Companion, only in theaters January 31st. Hi, everybody, and welcome back to the Survivor 50 Wishlist podcast, an off-season series where we're trying to figure out who could and should come back for the upcoming season of Survivor 50. My name is Mike Bloom, and even though we're seeing seeing 90 minute episodes on Survivor with this season Survivor 45 will hopefully keep this to less than 90

minutes as we have quite a crop of contestants to pick from a season that is for the birds in a manner of speaking and we'll see which five people are going to take flight and who's going to be added in the penultimate edition of the wish list now of course

i am not alone here uh he is not batman he is the canadian and i'm so excited to be playing with the boys with this guy today it is the great please and vikili hey i'm so happy to be here mike this is going to be a good time this is is arguably, I think, my favorite season of the new era. So happy to be able to talk on it and see who we end up shoving onto that wish list there. Yeah, I mean, 45 and 46. I've said this considerably and spoiler alert, I'll say it tomorrow as well. Really does feel like from being inside the fandom, almost like an injection of energy that I think 41 through 44, there are certainly characters

and moments that a lot of people liked, but I think certainly by 44, fatigue was settling in. From a popular opinion perspective, people were feeling like the new era was starting to get played out, whether it was the same structure to things, whether it was too many twists and advantages

getting thrown in, whether it was too many twists and advantages getting thrown in whether it was from their perspective which again i continue to disagree with that all the casts felt the same but it does feel like this sort of magical combination of increasing the length of episode without necessarily then throwing in a bunch of additional stuff as well combined with getting that extra time to get to know what ends up being a really interesting past. And you have a very good season. And look tomorrow,

we are going to talk about the absolutely, uh, incredibly entertaining shit show. That is 46, but I've said it before, like 45 has a good amount of unhinged aspects to it as well, as much as we might sort of broad brush the season as, Oh, that's the one where the reba four and d dominated from beginning to end there is so much stuff with personalities here that does come from the additional 30 minute runtime to each

episode that it allowed us to see so many of these players that makes us want to warn a second time for some of them yeah no honestly i feel like know, despite the Reba 4 really taking the whole game over by pretty much when we get to the merge, I feel like the parts that for me were fun, we had a couple healthy blind sides, which was delightful. We had some really great characters that whether or not they had a full season arc

doesn't matter. They had a couple of really good moments, is worth highlighting we had boys night we had the return of the auction which i think was one of the biggest surprises and one of my favorite things that has happened in the new era was to find out that the auction isn't dead and gone it's still somewhere out there and we will we can now ask for it to come back more because it came back relatively recently it's not a it's not a pipe dream anymore which I'm happy about as well so all of that and

a returnee in the new era our first returnee which was nice to see no this is the season really brought all of it I think packaging with the 90 minutes was great and ultimately for me the other side of it too is at the very least during when the show was airing, because I can't speak on things now, assuming it's still the same. But this was a cast that clearly were all like they loved each other and were very much like a united front, which is refreshing to see.

And I do like I know that people like the drama and they like the ooh what's the beef what's the gossip I was very okay with not having that and just seeing a cast of people who love the game have love for the game and champion each other whether or not they were blindsided by somebody whether or not they had

problems on the island it was nice to see and that's the thing as well is that I wouldn't necessarily call this a season that people lump in of like nobody feels any sort of animosity towards each other it's all good game once they're voted out i mean we'll talk about what the hell guys of it all that there was a lot of emotions flowing on that island hell one of the conversations they have in these first few tribal councils right is like the difficulty in divorcing your emotions from gameplay and we see that play out in multiple ways including you know we had the fanny and matt stuff going on last season but this was one of the like you know longest lasting and most impactful showmances on the show since robin amber

something that gets invoked where our final two once again are d and austin and that was a really interesting dynamic to see clearly they were dealing with a lot of growing emotions for each other but at the same time they both had very clearly different approaches as to how to use that relationship to inform their gameplay i think where the season benefits from as well as i know that shannon gus has said this that the season essentially functions in three parts based on like visibility and who's at the center the first part is of course the destruction of lulu one of the you know uh most shit show tribes in survivor history the middle part is kind of the destruction of bellow where this tribe never goes to tribal council pretty much in the pre-merge and once they finally get the chance to turn on each other they do and then the final part is kind of the destruction of bellow where this tribe never goes to tribal council pretty much in the pre-merge and once they finally get the chance to turn on each other they do and then

the final part is kind of the destruction of reba that once they get to the final seven theoretically they could steamroll their way to the final four but then they start eyeballing taking each other out and then you have someone like d being able to take advantage and laying waste to all the opponents that lie in her wake and so that does allow for a lot of visibility as well from a lot of these players it doesn't really feel like that people might get more understated edits compared to others but this is one of those casts where it doesn't really feel like anyone was purpled and maybe again instead of the extended runtime but i definitely feel like we got to know at least a little bit about all 18 players

yeah which i think is a very difficult task to achieve on survivor with with the fact that no matter what happens on the island where we are left with 42 minutes of airtime obviously 60 if you count commercials 90 if you count that season i feel like we had a good spread a decent spread of about everybody here like i think everybody we talk about i can name one or two moments that really stuck out to me um and that includes people who may have uh taken themselves off the game yeah which then makes our job even tougher because this is not necessarily an argument we can lean on of like well they weren't really on the show so they probably won't be brought on this is going to be one of the harder casts in my opinion just because there are a lot of standouts and i also am wondering who yeah i think back to when they were casting for survivor second chance and like the popularity

of blood versus water and worlds of and uh kagayan i should say were so at the forefront of the producer's mind so they brought in a good amount of people for the ballot. And I certainly feel like 45 and 46, whichever dog you pick in that race, regardless, I think a lot of people say those are the top two seasons of the new era so far. And again, I think it had a lot of enthusiasm around it and even after the fact.

And so, yes, we do have three more seasons technically ahead of us before 50 comes around. But I really do wonder that our survivor producers looking at one of the more recent popular seasons to pull maybe a good amount of people from in 45 which that is why and and you know this conversation about 50 has been pretty much since we heard the little rumor has been running rampant and that's kind of why in my head i've basically decided for myself that i think it's going to be an all new era returnee season a big chunk of that has to do with the fact that i truly do think through the first six seasons now

you can make a nice cast of 18 or even 20 people and it'll be an all-star caliber cast. I really think there's enough people in the new era alone and we don't even have 47, 48, 49 to look at yet. And I definitely think there's validity to that. So that's why I think it's entirely possible. I think 45 and 46 have been very character heavy, have been very fun. There's been chaos. There's been personality. There's been strategy fun there's been chaos there's been personality there's been strategy there's been social acumen so i i don't think you could go wrong by doing

this um but also if the door is true like jeff brooks has said is truly open to all the seasons your job just got even more hard uh because i mean even on on 45 i know we're gonna talk about our list i think for me there was like three people that were kind of locks but even then you could talk me out of it and that just made four and five even harder to look at and and think of because there's so many people you could put in their spot yeah completely agree i really really love this cast it's a really strong group and so it's a tough job ahead of us, but much like a wanton rights back, let's take a stab at it,

much like Jeff Probst and get into this cast. Starting, of course, as we always do, with our final three. We have our zero vote finalists and some would argue the biggest Charlie Brown in Survivor history. Oh, and a lot of James and Mike Grenagius says, I just lost my title for the biggest Charlie Brown ever in Jake O'Kane. And then we have our final two here in the form

of a kindling showmance in Austin and our eventual winner, Dee. I want to start with Dee here because I mean, Dee has been talked about at the time, and I think, again, still a little bit under a year later as one of the most dominant players in New Era, if not one of the most dominant winners we have seen from the show in quite some time, maybe since Tony in Winners at War. It's rare sometimes that you find this person that is able to kind of be at least pretty good

at, from our perspective, every portion of the game, whether it comes to the social aspect. Again, she was someone that got in good with so many different people that there was really only one opportunity where she wasn't safe. And even there, she was able to skirt by due to the chaos that was happening at the final five.

Obviously, the strategy is on lock. How she was able to weaponize those relationships, take in that intel, and then singularly make the moves that she wants to make to guarantee the person that she wants gone is gone we got so many confessionals right of like oh caleb was uh pointing out my alliance he's got to go oh kendra said she's gunning for me she's got to go and he was able to check them off her list and then there's the physical aspect.

Dee was a CrossFit beast. She wins three individual immunity challenges this season and clearly maintains a fantastic shape that I think would make her definitely someone to look out for in terms of the physical aspects of the game as well. And so she really is the total package. The question would be, okay, since she's won the game, would she have any sort of, you know, unfinished business to come back to? This is not like a Michelle or a Sophie situation in Winners at War where it's like, I need to go back and prove something.

Yes, she did win by a surprisingly narrow margin, but like she's still won. She's been heralded, understandably, by a lot of the Survivor fans. still won she's been heralded understandably by a lot of the survivor fans i think all that though would be largely obfuscated from the fact that the show clearly loves d you just got to listen to your podcast feed to indicate that yeah i don't think that is a debate at all i think d is loved and i think for good reason everything you just mentioned about her capabilities in the in the game and the way she portrayed them on the season my one of the most underrated things about d is that she was able to basically from where i'm standing rule with an iron fist without coming off like she's ruling with an iron fist i feel like often enough we see players who who have a lot of control really really control it in a way

where people start getting turned off by it and kind of not liking that maneuvering. I never got that vibe from Dee. Even when people were wisening up to it, it was too late for them already. Dee was on a cast, we've talked about a cast of very capable players. And even if the players were doing the right things and gathering numbers that could work for them later on, she was knocking them down before they could see it coming.

And it was absolutely incredible to see to the point of, does she have unfinished business? I don't think so. I think Dee was very clear that her why was, come here, win that money, provide for the family. So, more money for the family is good. We like

that. And also, I think she's just a fan of the game. And if you're a fan of the game and you get the second ask why not not many people can say they've gotten the second s some can say they've gotten five asks okay some some can say they've gotten hella asks but i think for d you love the game might as well try it again why not the other thing that i love about the new era is that obviously we're in an era now where there are watch parties everywhere. There are opportunities to mingle with fans and alumni everywhere. And I feel like a lot

of these, uh, new era players have met each other, have become friends. 43. You love this person from 44, this person along from 45. So I'm very intrigued at the prospect of 50 because, and this isn't a site to D completely completely but y'all are very tight what happens when you're on that island how does that play out i mean you see yeah we did see this 20 years ago in a manner of speaking with the first all-stars right we're like that was a tight-knit group of people that yes there were what like probably close to 80 individuals that played survivor up to that right but like they ran in the same circles. Some of them had become friendly with each other and it all kind of broke apart on the island.

I mean, that's another question that I want to ask is if Dee were to come back, do you think she can recreate that magic? Or has her game been revealed so recently that you think if people go out to play next year, she immediately gets clocked of like, yeah, she's buttering me up right now, but does that make me the piece of toast that's going to get gobbled down by her? It's incredibly difficult to say because it depends on the player in front of her

and how they see her and her win. Because, you know, some people could see it and be like, well, she had a whole group surrounding her. That was convenient for her. Some might think 5-3 wasn't that dominant and that would be perfect for d honestly because i think d played a unanimous level game to get 5-3 is good for offsetting the target moving forward and i also think getting to 50 we don't know what these other results are going to be these other games are going to be

and the further away you go the better it is for you I think especially if you're not at a level where your game is going to be touted and talked about that high like we've said and I and I fully think D is the best winner we've had in the new era followed closely by Jam Jam

in my opinion and I feel like even then I could see people underestimating d which would be a huge mistake because i think d is the most complete player we've seen in quite some time so let's talk about i would say probably in order of their likeliness to get ass back i'm going to move over to jake here uh because jake obviously huge big comic character, has an underdog story pretty much for the entire merge after he kind of blows up his game because he keeps trying to make rocks happen

and as a result gets caught a little flat-footed, but is still brought along despite the fact that he's the perennial target. That doesn't stop him from trying things, at least even if they don't work, kind of culminating in that Final Five maneuver where he plays the idol on Katora. But then it turns out that the votes just completely go sideways for so many reasons

because she is unnerved by the way that he was approaching her. And so Jake was coming in, probably not necessarily a factor, but you wouldn't be able to see it from just the tenacity and unique personality that he brought to things i brought this up on the 43 podcast but i'm intrigued to hear from your perspective do you think jake and owen are competing for the same spot i don't know if i

would necessarily say they're competing for the same spot i think they've had similar journeys right you know not just placement but also storyline of being the charlie brown but both being the charlie brown that that will never stop trying i think the passion is very visible in both of them the try was very visible in both of them at no point did either say you know what i'm clearly not gonna win just take me to three like i it felt like at any every given point they gave it their all so in that regard they're similar but i don't think they share the same spot i think that if anything both of them having the similar storyline or similar you know we talked about how is the story done is there anything else left to prove both of them have a lot to prove and i think i see a world where both of them are on and you give both of

them a shot to see how they work um hell who can be the bigger charlie brown between the two right and also survivor consists of nowadays three tribes sometimes two tribes they don't have to be on the same tribe but i can certainly see them on the same season you know yeah i i think that as well again jake and owen are just like two very different personalities as well where i think listen uh owen was able to be uh be angry getting his feelings when he wants to but like not on the level of jake breaking a challenge like he does at the final four again this is an absolute uh extroverted personality he's a theater kid to that point and who knows maybe if he is able to come back for a second try this former tree can can grow into like a forest of a game i would be intrigued to see how jake would do if he was given a little momentum that again the majority of his game since he didn't vote in the first half

was pretty much like the first vote he gets he tries to make this big move and it lands on his face and then he's pretty much just like trying to outrun the monster for the rest of the season i would be intrigued to see if that changes his approach to the game or even just putting him in a different situation how that could inform how he played for a second time yeah because i mean that's the one of the fascinating things about games like this is that someone can come in with the knowledge, they can come in with the audacity, the energy, the power to want to do something. And if they miss, that can just change up everything they were doing coming in.

So I would be intrigued to see a Jake with a little bit more agency or a Jake that successfully masterminds a move and how that goes. Does Jake become very cocky? Does he become very confident? Does that cause his downfall? Because where his downfall here was caused by you touch the burning stove, you back down, then you went to touch it again. And last second, someone removed the pot and you put your hand on the stove again. So it's just it's fascinating to watch.

And it's storylines like that that do definitely intrigue me. I'm intrigued about Austin. I really go back and forth here because I would say from like an edit and a story perspective, I think Austin had probably the smallest edit out of the final five which is again a bit of a high bar considering that it was a very even edited strongly edited season but austin's sort of story for 45 was the entire thing with the sandwich which was hilarious and petty in only the ways that could be expressed in big brother 26 and then of course his relationship with d and how it ends up screwing his closest ally over in Drew

when he ends up sharing so much information in her and trusting in her. I could see the appeal to bringing Austin back. Obviously, there is this unfinished business of like, he got so close to winning and, you know, should he have cut D at a certain point? Is that a lesson that he's going to take with him into the next game?

On the other hand, this is when we have to start looking into the archetypes of it all. And I talked about this on 41, Pouya. Do we feel like Austin and Xander are sort of two sides of the same coin here? Well, Xander was... Let's see.

So Xander, from the outside outside for a lot of people, the casuals certainly were like, that's our winner. He was robbed. But a lot of the players kind of had discounted him. Like, oh, you know what? We don't care that he's got these powers. It don't matter. If we say they don't matter, they don't.

And they certainly did not. Do they share the same spot? I don't think I would agree. But also I would say that if we were to put them on a power ranking of who's more likely to end up getting the call between the two, I think Austin gets the call over Xander. But I also don't think Austin has is high on the on the list for getting the call from where I'm standing. I feel like from this season, I think D is your winner. D is the one you want. If D says

I'm good, do you go Austin next? I don't even know if that's Austin D at home. We have D at home, right? I don't know because that's the thing. I feel like Austin story you like you said smaller edit but very small letter considering that he's one

vote away from a tie two votes away from winning the whole thing that being said I don't know I don't know and personally Austin is very nice oh he's great the sandwich arc was hilarious it was one of the funniest things

that season for me that stood out but I don't know if I if we see Austin being reached out to for this 50 season. I'm not saying that he's off the list forever by any means, but I don't know if it's for this milestone 50. I don't think his I don't see his name coming up here. I mean, we have talked about this with previous New Era seasons. We will talk about it tomorrow. Sometimes returning seasons do like to bring in pairs,

whether it be like rivals or close allies to see how things shake out a second time around. And it's not necessarily on the level of Ricard and Shan or Jesse and Cody, but could there be something in a universe where they bring d and austin back together to see how things shake out i think there's a different pair i could see being

brought back from this season that's the other thing there's quite a few pairings in this season that you could bring back for a will they work together will they fall apart was this one going to exact revenge on that one i think there's a lot of those on this cast that you could be pointing at and looking at so i don't necessarily think so um but i mean again it's very tough because outside of and and let's quickly puzzle this together outside of um franny and and monsieur blankenship um are austin and d the only other showmans that has been on the new era yeah i mean at least something that was as underlined as on tv yeah like you never know like you might get a ghost island situation where like sebastian and jenna were dating for a brief portion of time but it wasn't shown on the show whatsoever but yes from what we've been told and what's been

expressed on social media those two pairs have been by far the most visible showmances yeah so that's a that's a curious thing because if they do want to bring up a pair that was in some way romantic then that's a high on the list because there's not a lot on the list but then also if it's high is not on the list yet no high is not on the okay gotcha no but then on the other side of the coin, when you look at the... If it is open to all 49 seasons, there are more pairings like that that could get asked,

which then could push Austin lower. So it's possible. I'm not saying it's impossible, and I'm not saying that I would be upset at the sight of a Austin 2.0, but on likelihood, I don't have it ranked high at the moment. Calling all sellers. Salesforce is hiring account executives to join us on the cutting edge of technology. Here, innovation isn't a buzzword. It's a way of life. You'll be solving customer challenges faster with agents, winning with purpose, and showing the world what AI was meant to be. Let's create the agent-first future together.

Head to salesforce.com slash careers to learn more. All right, well, let's move into our jury here working our way up we have the aforementioned batman slash canadian who had nine lives in the game as shown by that little die in his pocket in the form of caleb what the hell guys the biggest stunning blind side of the season in kelly we have our uh free spirited bartender in the form of kendra, our first returnee of the new era who caused quite a stir and surprise in many ways in Bruce. Talk about another person who surprised the fan favorite of the season and financial analyst,

Emily Flippen. We have the self-proclaimed smartest person to play the game, putting his money where his mouth is and laying waste on Jeopardy in Drew Basile, or if you want to use him, Drew Basile, or if you want to use him, Drew Basile. We have the resident mama of the season who is able to get by despite being labeled

as the biggest threat before going out in that absolute calamity of a final five vote in Julie. And we have, of course, our fallen angel, one that was not afraid to start some conflicts on the island with a couple of people in the form of Katora. Puya, it brings me no satisfaction to start with this person, but I

need to say it at the top because basically ever since she first stepped foot on that barge and pushed back on what Bruce was saying to everybody during the match chat, a lot of people wanted to see Emily back. She's undergone one of the most explicit transformational

processes over the course of Survivor, as she essentially learned how to play more from a social perspective, to not be so brazen about, oh, these two people are going off, let's target them. She learned how to play the game more tactfully, honestly.

And it got to a point where she ends up getting taken out, going from someone that probably would have been the odds-on person to go first had hannah not quit to the person that was considered one of the bigger threats to win because she was the one that convinced bruce not to play his idol and she is idled out with only one vote to her name it is an awesome story the sad news is that story has come to an end. In her interview with Dalton Ross, after her boot, when asked if she would play again,

she said, probably not. I apologize. This whole experience, I'm happy I did it. And if I could go back in time, I would do it again. But I cannot recommend reality TV as a generally positive,

positive experience for people. I think I've been very fortunate, but this whole experience has just been so crazy. I'm not clamoring to go back right now. Now, is there a money I would compete for? Probably there could be a check begging up, but right now my answer is probably no. I have confirmed

with a number of sources as well that as recent as last week, yesterday, Emily still does not want to go back so i think unfortunately emily is going to be in this rarefied category of new era players that would not want to return yeah which is unfortunate um as a emily flippin fan i come from an emily flippin household here with liana also being a massive fan of Emily. The reality is.

Emily got to experience. Every side of. Perception and fandom. Because by episode one's end. There were pitchforks out there. For Emily. People were big mad about Emily. And then by the end. As soon as end of episode two.

It was a whole different world for emily and she is and she ends the season following that energy of being loved being appreciated but that's someone who's seen both sides and has gone through mentally what both sides have to offer and you know she speaks to one of the main reasons why i have uh pretty much extinguished any thoughts and and dreams or fantasies i've had of going on reality tv it's that it's that getting that negativity injected in your life from people who don't know you outside of the 42 minute edited show or in her case the 60 minute edited show um is not a place you want to be uh it's it's a very tough thing to a burden to to hold and a very tough thing to deal with especially if you suffer from something you and i may suffer mike which is i need to explain my pov itis where not say not saying that everyone needs to see it from my

point of view but i have a one of my biggest struggles as a human is when people don't understand me I want them so badly too so I will try and explain it and you don't need that energy and then having to talk to people who may already have their minds made up about you so I cannot say I say I sat for us but also I get it like reality

TV is a very very it's like a bull at you know one of those bulls at the mechanical bull at the bar. I said bull for a second. No, a bull would be great of something. Cereal maybe. That's what I meant. Yeah, I don't know. I I'm sad,

but I fully get it. You know what I mean? It pains me, but I'm not going to run a campaign of let's convince you why you should go back because I fully understand it's not going to be for everybody and it's going to be very taxing on the mind even if it goes very well it might be taxing on the mind so you don't want you don't want to you know you don't want to open that pandora's box and get more of the negative than the positive or you know whichever way you look at it yeah basically what it came down to or at least what she expressed to me when i got the

chance to interview her after her boot was that like when she applied for the show she did not realize nearly the depth of the fan base uh she she was like oh watching survivor hey i watched survivor i want to be on this show and didn't necessarily realize the almost like second life that exists after you play and as the season is airing like you said it, it was a bit of an up and down rollercoaster, though, again, it is so interesting that to see like where she goes from episode one to even episode three, where she is able to help engineer Sabaya's boot and basically saves Caleb is even such an interesting arc

in and of itself, let alone like the big arc that she has finishing in seventh place. But I've talked about this basically from the very beginning i am not going to drag people onto this list if they don't want to be i guess the uh the the silver lining here is that that does allow one more spot for somebody else but i would also imagine like you know without any of this i there's like a mount rushmore to me of people from the new era who would have been locks to ask and i think emily would have been

on that list so it's unfortunate but if she is happy being one and done then i'm happy to have her protector piece same and if she wakes up tomorrow and says you know what i want in she's in i definitely think she's in i think it's in her hands and that's

kind of like the biggest compliment in the world where you are wanted, but you don't want it. But if you want it, you can have it. She's playing hard to get. Well, I want to talk about someone who I think is probably the next biggest lock now that Emily is sort of out of the picture. And we're not going very far because we're talking about the same yellow buff here caleb because on paper you would probably say caleb was the first juror he went out in a split tribal council how would caleb be considered but the show absolutely loved caleb the fans loved him even more i mean this was a guy who obviously was one to look out in the preseason everyone had something to say about this

guy who was smiling and palling around and trying to make connections with everybody and that's what something that gets him targeted from the very beginning where his own closest ally in sabaya is like oh this guy is dangerous did he just go hop on a boat to talk with reba for the entire afternoon yeah i'm gonna cut him right now and like that basically determines caleb's story for the rest of his time on the season which is this underdog clawing his way through it he luckily doesn't go to tribal council after that but even then he's very much regarded on the bottom of his swap tribe and then when the merge hits if you thought sabai was clocking caleb's uh charm bruce was doing it tenfold to the point that he does sort of like

what gabler did to ellie he tries to rally everybody to be like all right let's all unify on this one vote we can put down our our weapons right now and all focus on caleb let's send the the northman's game south luckily that one out of six shot ended up working caleb creates this incredibly exciting moment I would say like one of the defining moments of the new era which was again bringing all these new elements in and Caleb was able to showcase like no this is

why this exists because when you're down and out you're able to play this and beat Kelly Wentworth's record for votes nullified and then it kind of comes to an odd unceremonious end the very next episode when again it looks like caleb is on the outs he's on a tribe with d with julie and and we think okay he's basically dead in the water and you have jake working with him to try to flip things to

cause a tie vote and try to get one of d or jul out and it just doesn't work Caleb's time is finally up but I do think the popularity of him from both a fan perspective and a production perspective and how they look back on the season has really endured I agree I think this is the number one lock on the cast

for me I mean obviously for me personally but I think just generally the fact of the matter is, the new era has brought some new mechanics into the game that they are keeping and they want to be a part of the ecosystem of Survivor now. Shot in the Dark being one of

them. Caleb is the poster for Shot in the Dark now. It doesn't matter who else comes in and does it. He was the first one to nullify first of all breaking the record and all the way that many votes i think that reaction moment that clip will be on many seasons to come every person is like assisting every person on that on that cast on that on the at the tribal had a reaction worthy of looking at i I did take a snapshot of that and it was on my Twitter.

It was incredible. That moment will live in infamy. So I think off of that, the back of that alone, I could see him being brought in for that marquee moment being highlighted once again. But then you look at the player and I feel like Caleb was a very dynamic and fun player, very charismatic, good personality, physically physically capable he does one of the things that that i really appreciated this season which is he took emily someone who could have just been easily the second boot yeah on the outs he takes her under his wing and tries to help her

back up into a social standing that ends up paying big dividends when him and Emily blindside Sabaya, who was going to go for him that night. So without that moment, you don't get that moment. That blindside was huge. Um, and someone who I've had the pleasure of meeting. Very nice.

Very, very, very easy to talk to. I picked him first in the draft for 45 for good reason. Now I may have have I wisened up and maybe feel a little bit skeptical on his winning odds yes I think it's very clear as you talked

him for five minutes you know what's going on but also am I willing to have him on only to get Malcolm a la game changers for my sake where I was rooting for Malcolm only to see him go yes because I would get more Caleb on the screen I just

I don't see a world where you don't see Caleb on the cast unless a he says no be it's open all 50 seasons and they really are going to go for like big name legend status which then maybe new era would have a lot less slots and then maybe he

loses out because of that but i just i don't know i feel like we're gonna see him yeah and i think as well i want to see him honestly play on a tribe that holds water and challenges that can win some i mean lulu does win one reward challenge but yeah when it when it really counted they unfortunately got blown out multiple times and so i do think we saw also a different form of caleb when his tribe starts winning as well and i do wonder you know hopefully if he's in a situation where he's in a bigger tribe as well is he able to hide himself a bit more where he almost immediately had to step up as like the most physical person on lulu as a result and so

obviously that drew even more eyes to him plus it's interesting in that like if you're looking at okay what did they do in the game and does that brand them a threat again Caleb finishes in 11 plays it kind of goes out with a whimper after this big shot in the dark play and even then you could say like oh his most memorable thing he

did was he got that shot to pay off which doesn't I mean I guess it speaks to his skill and that like he was able to clock thanks to emily that all the votes were coming his way but i do think that caleb could be someone that honestly would be underestimated just due to i think the things that people remember about him and then who knows maybe that charm offensive is able to work for a second time well i think the other thing to factor in is that on a cast of full returnees a lot of them are going to be charming a lot of the charmers are going to be on that cast so

your threat level by default could go down or it's just a hierarchy of charm of who do who do people rank as the most charming and do you end up landing there um certainly has the capability but if you're there with like four other people that are as charismatic as you, then you don't look as, you know, threatening as a result. Also being on a winning tribe to be able to just make solidify alliances and not have to play from the bottom could help. You know, we talked, we talked about how if things go different for a Jake to lead off the season, where does his game plan acumen go? Same thing can be said about somebody like Caleb who literally had to watch three people from his tribe leave back to back to back

and then see someone else from his tribe leave once he was on the other side as well right after I want to talk about the guy who Caleb once infamously nicknamed lanky blanky we got to talk about Drew because I think coming out of this season,

I'd be of a couple of minds if you asked me, would Drew return? Because on the one hand, you could tell the show really loved Drew. Hell, Jeff threw it to Drew to say, Drew, use a literary analogy to describe why people should apply to be on Survivor. Jeff absolutely loved any time Drew opened his mouth

and spoke so eloquently about the game or his life. But, on the other hand, again, people kind of typify a lot of new era castaways as sometimes being in that similar archetype. And I've talked about it for 44, and I'll talk about it for 46

as well, that some people had speculated like, okay, Carson, Drew, Charlie, how many of them would get asked back because again they do kind of fill that that similar font that you might be using when writing a casting story about these contestants but if we talk about a second life after survivor drew has made one of the most impressive and headline-making plays that we've seen from a contestant in quite some time. Drew becomes the first Survivor contestant to parlay his success into a spot on Jeopardy.

And he killed it. He went several days as the champion. I believe won over $100,000. So over the prize he would have won for second place and i have to imagine that is such an extra boost to make production feel like this is a guy they need to see back on their screens yeah i think um it's one of those things where if you were the off the radar of being brought back this was kind of the perfect way to put yourself right back in the conversation. Yeah, you hear that, New Era players? If you feel like there might not be a great chance of you getting on,

go on to Jeopardy. Yeah, well, I mean, listen, not just go on, because if he was a one-and-done episode on Jeopardy, it would have been forgotten. He made a splash. He put Survivor back on the radar for some Jeopardy viewers, potentially, and we're talking about Jeopardy viewers who only watch watch jeopardy and do not know or watch survivor that's not a bad place to you know put some people onto the show i feel like that's a good way to get your name out

there um i also think that given how much narratively they gave him confessional time on the air i feel like this is someone they do trust to to thread the needle on the show and I feel like I could very well see Drew being put on the cast for 50 you mentioned two other names in that conversation in Carson and in

Charlie I haven't thought about them really because I've been focusing on my this season but off rip I think Drew beats Carson in the slotting I would agree with that yeah and I think again not to spoil too many things tomorrow but I

do think there is a world where both Drew and Charlie could be on because Charlie also has obviously this huge story of just missing out and losing controversially that obviously I think would make him a shoe in to come back and drew is a very different path the other thing is i think that true is a very different personality from those other guys too i mean this is a guy who gives the first confessional

of the season saying i'm one of the smartest people you've ever had on survivor no i don't say that to brag i say that factually and there was even argument during the season as to like is drew a villain because this was someone that was very cocky that talked highly of himself and his position but also sometimes had the tendency to get a little emotional and throw fits much like he threw that that lid to the rice container at a certain point yeah again having the capability of showing us a range of emotions I think is always great and I do enjoy.

And we've really seen it all with Drew. He gets very close to the end. He gets blindsided at the end. That is always great to see. We do love a good blindside. And then how do they pivot back from that moving forward? I'd be intrigued to see it

alright I want to go back to the top of the jury here because I want to talk about Kelly now again I think you would look at the cast and be like well Kelly finished in 10th place I don't know if she'd worn a spot over some of these other people but it cannot be

stated how big her blindside was hell on Entertainment Weekly just did an oral history of that episode. Puyo, you and I got to attend a viewing party for that episode, and maybe it's because it was the return of the auction, or maybe it was because they knew that there was going to be, like,

the stamp of the Reba 4. This was their move. This was going to signify their dominance, basically, for the rest of the game it is definitely one of the most memorable exits we have had in recent memory with what the hell guys and it certainly was surprising i mean kelly very popular winner pick myself included she also like d kind of seemed to be someone that had it all together had this career that was all about interpersonal skills and obviously was able to to please

people on the island found her so her and brando were in the center of this like growing gender gap on bello she was someone who was able to to make some plans and that's the reason why she's targeted she was physically capable she ends up winning get a grip alongside d and all that leads into her getting cut off at the knees here at the final 10 so again it'd be interesting to see like is d arguably taking her spot as an archetype for that reason but i do think what makes her unique from d is the fact that again if we're talking about unfinished business such a memorable way of going out I think really buoys her chances of getting ass back. Yeah, I think Kelly was right up there

as far as a lot of people's winner picks, and it was very easy to see why. I felt like she, like by mid-season, you know, I typically will whittle off people off my short list. Up until literally her torch gets snuffed, she was on my list and someone I was looking at to win. It was a blindside that night. We definitely did not see that coming at all,

which made it even more incredible to see. I think Kelly is someone who is very firmly on that list, if not at the very least, not on that bubble for the season. I think this is someone who looked like a winning contender, was playing like a winning contender, and then gets clipped out of nowhere. I think this is someone whose story is very much unfinished or could be seen

as unfinished. So I could definitely see Kelly being brought back and I would like to see it. I would like to see how Kelly does on a season. Someone who's, I, for me personally, in these games, these social strategy games, on a season, someone who's, I, for me personally in, in these games, these social strategy games,

so to speak, I love the social more than I do the strategy. I'm always curious and keen on the social, which is why jam jam is one of my favorite winners. That being said, I think Kelly is someone who has both, but I also think it's very strong in the social. So I'd like to see how she plays on a season with returnees

with people that she's friends with or people that she's met once or twice i think she's someone who can who can set up some really good groundwork on a season like that let's talk about katara because katara has such an interesting edit on the show where to be frank for the majority of the season a good amount of her content was about these kind of fractured relationships with interesting edit on the show where to be frank for the majority of the season, a good amount of her content was about these kinds of fractured relationships with some of the bellow men. I mean,

a lot of her content, especially in the pre merge was about her derision towards Bruce, which while hilarious and gives fantastic like reactions, like her confessional, where it's just her silently sitting there almost in reaction to the malarkey that bruce is pulling for the umpteenth time it does obfuscate i think a lot of stuff that she was doing so that when it gets to the point where jake is trying to do this rock draw and she flips over to the rebuzz it comes a little out of nowhere because it doesn't necessarily

show that like she feels like she was being ostracized by the bellows and that she didn't feel necessarily on the top there. So that is going to then sort of inform the rest of her post-merge where she's going to work alongside the Rebus. And then Jake and her are going to be able to sort of mend fences a bit, try to work together towards the end. But it doesn't work. You know, that fence can be rebuilt, but it's still always going to be at least a little weak to pressure. And that pressure comes in the form of Jake approaching Keturah

with this like last minute plan. I've got an idol. I'm going to play it on you. Keturah is really confused about all this and as a result does not vote with Jake. And that sends Julie home in the process and kind of spells doom for the two of them. And the fan reception behind her has largely been

reflected in that and that i think a lot of people were feeling like we don't need to see katora back she you know made one of the worst moves in survivor history in the finale but i do think there's some appeal to me maybe it's also because katora obviously comes from an incredibly complicated background something she ended up getting into on the show, but I do think, and maybe it's colored by the fact that she did explain a lot of her game in postseason press that didn't make the island edit. There was a lot of thinking going into

the moves that she was making, and again if you're looking for someone who could use an opportunity for redemption to prove the medal that they feel they deserve for their gameplay, I think Katora could find that opportunity yeah I don't subscribe to you have

to make good moves to be required to be on a returnee season I don't think you have to be a good player to be asked to be brought back if you can provide entertainment you can provide complex relationships I'm kind of here for it and I think Katora really embodies that and that's not and I think Katora really embodies that

and that's not to say that Katora made like awful moves awful player I don't really subscribe to that either I think that narratively speaking it was a very fun journey watching her and Jake not get on the same page Jake making her feel very suspect

to the point where she doesn't vote to keep in sorry't vote to keep in sorry not vote to keep in Caleb causing Caleb to go out but then also seeing what the false feeling we got of like oh they patch things up only for that to go sideways again was

phenomenal I think you know earlier we talked about the prospect of wanting to bring back an Austin and a D as a duo as a returning duo with a connection and how that would play out. I think Katora is in a position where I could see Katora being a very good in a very good spot to be brought back because I think she has a couple of those herself that could definitely work. Or you bring no one else back in those connections. But her, I still think it's a very fun pick. you bring no one else back in those connections, but her,

I still think it's a very fun pick. And I would be very curious to see where that goes. Cause I think Katora is also someone who, when the season started, a lot of people were very high on the odds of. Yeah. Yeah. And who's to say that like,

if she's given a new group of people, maybe she might find a new rival there as well. But I do think especially her and Jake playing together would be very interesting considering like how their game ended, you know, we're about to get into Bruce. And as much as the Bruce Katora dynamic was such a big part of her story, Bruce's game didn't necessarily end because of Katora. You know, it was more so an Emily thing and like everyone kind of piling on that Bruce is finally gone.

Katora and Jake, that was one of the spiciest ways to end their dynamic, right? that was one of the spiciest ways to end their dynamic, right? That at the end of the day, despite Keturah really trying to push forward this D plan, she couldn't trust Jake to go through with it. And so she ends up kind of swapping her vote and incidentally ends up, you know, voting out Julie alongside Austin here. And so that is a dynamic that I think is kind of underratedly one that I would like to see back for a second time.

I would, I would not be mad at it. So how about Bruce here? Because we're talking about a lot of possible second chance candidates, and Bruce has already got one. He has this really unfortunate ouster in 44 where he lasts a grand total of 11 hours in the game. And so now we finally

get to see, okay, what would Bruce Peralult do if he got the chance to truly play survivor and the results speak for themselves i mean again there's a lot of debate as to whether or not villains existed on this season i would say bruce was maybe an antagonist more than a villain in that his behaviors just really rubbed people the wrong way whether he was crazy uncle bruce, or any member of the family, he was doing stuff that just got on people's last nerves

to the point that one of his closest allies, Kelly, before Survivor 46 made it popular, was ready to cut him almost immediately. What's also interesting, though, is that Bruce was able to survive twice over by winning these clutch immunity challenges as well. So, you know, i think there could be some ground paved to bring bruce back for a third time i think the question is puya has that question

been answered enough of what bruce looks like or do you feel like there's more to the story i think there certainly could be more to the story serve the survivors past i feel like we is littered with people who have gotten more than two chances to play. And some of them, I would argue, have their story done by the first time. And I also think it's unfair to look at Bruce's first time as a first time. It was 40 minutes. Yeah, it's more like a 1.1 season's play than two. Yeah, I...

Bruce was fun to watch. It was fun to watch people root against him off the island on the island it was fun to watch people root for him off the island on the island very fun character i'm glad they gave him the chance so we could see what we would have missed out on on 44 um that being said 44 played out perfectly because jam jam won so i think i'm fine with that result however i was happy to see him here uh bruce also whether he realized it or not um one of the few people who really have orchestrated and begun the let's go home with idols in our pocket uh team we had a few of those here um and we continue to have a lot more in 46 so I think that there's a lot of different ways

you can look at a story and see the what if and see the story continuing what if he played that idol he went home with an idol on his pocket we know this they love playing a highlight reel of this person went home with an idol in their pocket this person gave up immunity he already has that he had a

feud but could be overshadowed by to your point the five other people in the season that followed who did the same thing i mean if if you know we talked about these two were the charlie browns do they take the same spot do the people that went home with idols in their pockets take the same side like yeah i know we only got two of those available i mean it's a good question though like could it be like bruce or q you know because i feel like both of them they were kind of similarly regarded on the season, especially towards the tail end of 46.

That. And, and right now I think you ask anybody Q is the front runner in that, in that debate. So I feel like personally I would like to see it, but I feel like if I'm being objective and honest, I don't think it's as likely as what my list may look like. Just briefly talking about the other two members of the jury here in Julie and Kendra.

I mean, Julie, I think kind of starts what we'll see with Maria in the next season, which is for as much discourse as there has been in Survivor history of like moms are unfairly maligned when they make it to the finals. Nobody wants to be voted out by their mom. And so they're not going to vote for them to win a million dollars it does seem like julie was built up as should she have gone to the end she would have won the million dollars which is why everybody turns on her at the final seven which is why she somehow just hangs on to austin's idol and is able to play it for herself to protect herself and it's why she again ends up going in this very scattered boat at the final five kendra i love the fact that yes she does have again this very uh natural easy free spirit nature but like was also feisty af i always loved the auction episode when she just has a confessional of like well bruce won horrible

that it cuts to bruce laughing with the immunity necklace in his hand so she has some personality as well i think my concern with these two would be again i'm gonna keep saying with this new era it comes back to archetype i think someone like maria would get cast over julie i think someone like Carolyn would get cast over Kendra. I co-sign both of those. I definitely do. Again, I think both Julie and Kendra were very fun parts of this season for me.

They both provided a lot of entertainment, which I enjoyed, but if you're looking at archetypes and you're boiling it down to some of these things that we have seen them do in seasons past, I definitely think the two names you mentioned are more likely to some of these things that we have seen them do in seasons past, I definitely think the two names you mentioned are more likely to get put on there. Then if they say no, does that open the door for specifically Julie and Kendra to get the ask? Even then, I'm not 100% sure, which I think works against them.

If it was a clear like, if no, then go to this person, then it's a better situation. But I don't necessarily know that would be the case all right well let's get into our pre-jury group here what a group we have someone that absolutely changes the course of the premiere episode with her sudden quit at tribal council in the form of hannah rose we have dear friend of the podcast and previous wish list appearer brandon donlon we have one of the first stunning blind sides of a season full of them in sabaya who goes out with like a freshly charred idol in her pocket we have of course our other quitter of the season in sean uh we have our pun champion turned middleman turned uh voted out unfortunately uh you know left out in the cold

wearing a buff bando at the swap in brando we have someone who ends up yes well it's such an exciting moment for caleb to play a shot in the dark and nullify all the votes against him it comes at the cost of poor j maya and at the end of this group who who voted for Sifu? A good amount of people did throughout, but that's the guy that closes out this group. I will keep saying it, that I do think it will be a bit tougher for pre-mergers in the new era to get consideration with a select few exceptions, just because, by and large, the groups that make it to the jury stage have both memorability,

personality, and strategy to boot. But I would imagine for me, Pouya, if there was one person to pick out of this group that would be most likely, it would probably be Sabaya. I co-sign. I 100% feel the same way because we have seen it on Returning Seasons where there's one, sometimes two of like, how did you get

on here? I didn't expect that or we didn't see a lot of you. But I think of this cast i would also co-sign and say sabaya sabaya obviously had the candle idol that ended up uh not happening goes out by a vote of two to one had she not sacrificed her vote yeah it would have been a two to two and something else could have happened there i mean there were there were so many so many sliding doors that she should have used but before she proceeded to walk into one of them yes yes because if i and refresh my memory this was a she could use her idol right then and there however if she sacrificed her vote she could

use it later she could use it sacrifice your vote once it works for the rest of the premier sacrifice it twice it becomes a fully powered idol right so the fact that there were a lot of outs there and it came down to a very close two to one vote when there are when there's just four people i think that that's a story that you could see playing out uh longer i think that's sabaya someone who the first couple episodes in i was like oh my god sabaya is gonna do really well in this game only to then go out in the fashion that she did I would say of the seven on the board Sabaya is the most

likely for me as well of the preachers yeah for the others just to briefly dote on them I would say as much as I've been talking about an even edit Sifu is maybe the most purple out of all of them I would say so he's a little enigmatic Leon and I talked all the time on the B&B

about like the random scene where he's just in the background sitting on the beach, just the waves lapping at his feet and nobody really knows why he's there. Jay Maia, I think, has a lot of second chance appeal because, again,

were it not for something that has only a one-sixth chance of working, she would have still made it through the game and then who knows what happens from there but again i would also say someone that like kind of popped in fits and starts brando was someone who especially if you've heard about what happened with him at the swap or he like had this advantage in his buff and he chose not to use it right there right then and i guess he was supposed to like that jane that game could have changed brandon i absolutely love and I think

really walked out with his head held high he also told me in our exit press that day after he was voted out that like he is more than happy to just go back to being a fan uh and he does it with a palm if you see his social media I don't think he would say no to coming back I don't think this is an Emily situation but I think he is more than happy to to observe season 50 from afar and i think to be frank the way that jeff left season 45 i think there is next to no chance that he would bring back any quitters let alone sean and hannah no i do not think either sean or hannah are getting a second opportunity here um i agree about uh brandon someone who got to live out his dream of being on the show got to watch it watch his boot episode with fans which is a very very

fun way to do that um and i think he's kind of you know ending the game where it ended for him i think he's kind of just like yep that's it they're not going to ask me and that's fine I'm just grateful for what I got but if they ask him he'll be at Home Depot climbing every ladder there practicing to get another chance in I think he would fully do it

I don't think he expects it and I don't even think he would go to be like I'm going to win necessarily I think he would still do it for the experience 10 out of 10 and I don't even think he would go to be like I'm going to win necessarily I think he would still do it for the experience 10 out of 10 and I applaud that 10 out of 10 yeah any thoughts about the other three in the top row listen

J Maya the story of the voting history of the season doesn't reflect on J Maya she did end up going out with the most votes received in this season with 10. But that obviously happened because of the shot in the dark. I'm so curious what her game would have looked like if that shot in the dark didn't land and where she would find herself.

That would have been very interesting to me. Like you said already, I think you've already spoken on Sifu. Purple, but a Sifu, big energy, living his best life, making his music. New father. Congratulations. Yeah. Congratulations. And then there's this child brando um who is uh also here i mean brando's storyline was intriguing to me because obviously the whole thing with him was him and kelly are in the middle and where are they gonna go uh only for him to unceremoniously get uh taken out in a swap um i don't know i've had i've had multiple interactions with brando but i don't know if he would want to do it i'm not a hundred percent there um i don't know i don't know i don't want to leave you i don't know well i don't know it's

a great statement puya because that applies to this cast in general and who we're going to put on the list. But the time has come. We've got some decisions to make here. Now, I would say it seems like there are a couple of locks. I think you and I are both in agreement that I would imagine Dee and Caleb are probably both making the list, correct? We can lock them in. Yeah, I think those two are good.

So 40% down, 60% to go. Yes. All right. So then where do 60% to go yes all right so then where do you want to go next is there anyone else that you feel like very good about to lock in I think we can it's debatable the rest of them I think it's kind of debatable I think you

ask a different person they'll give you a different reason why blank is locked um why blank locked why oh yeah what a time uh here's the thing i think for me um i think kelly is a lock as well i would agree with that and i would say i think drew is a lock i think now yes if you asked me four months ago i would have said no yeah i agree with you there yeah so that's the thing is we have d

we have drew we have kelly we have caleb i mean then the names really are up for grabs here because i think you have jake you have bruce you have katora i think you have austin as well to a certain extent are you are you leaning any in which way for any of those names um i'm interesting i think for me bruce katura jake is kind of the order i'm looking at them right now and the order i'm thinking austin is four out of four um again no disrespect to anybody here that I'm speaking on just kind of how I'm feeling and thinking at the moment yeah I would probably go interesting because I probably go like Jake Katora Bruce I don't know maybe just for me it's just this thing of like the idea in my head of oh this is this might be a second chance this season and like

Bruce already got his second chance you know it could production think of it as well we already got that story from him all these other new era people haven't had that opportunity to come back and prove themselves i mean what a second chance to season have a winner on it though that's a good point as well so yeah yeah yeah so i feel like so some combination of bruce couture and jake has to fill up this one slot that's left damn it drew why'd you have to go and be clutch on jeopardy huh it's all drew's fault at the end of the day it's all the seal um so okay so then so for you you said jake couture um bruce i said bruce couture jake i mean that's awful because that averages them all out to two like they all average the same number

anyway yeah it's like I mean we could make the argument of well we both ranked Keturah second so should it be Keturah I don't know because I think I mean I would be very okay with seeing Jake despite having him three on the list here and listen

me and my lovely wife Liana we discussed Bruce because we both knew we were doing the back to back Bruce season and we're like we're going to stump for Bruce now if I know correctly Bruce did not make the ballot for 44 I mean it wouldn't really make sense

for 44 it would not 45 there's validity to it I still think Bruce is my number one here um I think I'd be very intrigued with the Katora second chances and I would actually be intrigued with the Jake

second chances so how do you want to break this how do you want to I mean I you know what I will leave it up to you you are the guest so so I I will say, because I don't know. Do we flip a coin? Do we fight for it? Because that's the other thing. Like, it's not just two options. It seems to be all three would be up for grabs here.

And that's the other thing. With this entire wild card thing that we threw in here, I think there is a good chance that the one that we pick, at least one of the other two, wouldn't make it any way by popular demand. But you're the guest here. I will give you the right to pick the make it anyway by popular demand. But you're the guest here. I will give you the right to pick the fifth person here.

All right. Fire up the I'm on a new level meme. I'm putting Bruce in. Give me Bruce. There we go. So Bruce has made it on the ballot. So those are our five. Last thing we usually do on these podcasts, Pouya, if you could pick someone from this season

to appear on a show outside of Survivor or I guess Jeopardy, who would it be? That's a hard one. This is a hard cast to do this with because I can see so many of them doing so many things. Okay. Okay. In the interest of spreading the love,

I won't pick anyone from the five we've put on the wish list. Okay, that sounds good. Even though I would love to see all five on many of these shows. Okay. Give me Jake and Keturah on the traitors.

I was literally about to chime in with that exact same thing. Whereas Simpatico is Jake and Keturah, we're not. Not only the fact that they are both frequent to call things out when they see them and have big reactions to things that happen like imagine jake at a round table when someone reveals they're faithful but also the fact that almost like what happened with ct and trichelle where like they do come in with a

little baggage and trepidation towards each other could also be a great way to inform how they would play alongside each other exactly i would love to see uh i want to see emily on something i guess the tough thing is that seems like she's swearing off all reality tv yeah but i mean i guess if it's no yeah reality is reality tv i guess put emily flippin on cnbc give her her own show there give her like a jim cramer mad money thing she's on my screen am i gonna complain no absolutely not i'd be very okay with this arrangement as well yeah i'm going into the pics we made i also think d viadora should have been on the challenge yesterday like i think oh one survivor is gone and like whether she's on the cast or not i think if she wanted to she would be like a shoo-in as a lock to proceed forward considering how much she brings the

physicality the high level gameplay and a little bit of messiness as well um i think also somebody who could be good and fun on the challenge i think austin could be a fun pick for the challenge um have you seen those arms? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. And especially his story as well, right? Of like from geek to chic. Exactly. And and final one, a serious one for Brandon Donlan.

Put him on the circle. I think he would be wonders there. Brandon would kill it on the circle. I mean, if you've seen any of his social media stuff, you know, and listen, you and I are you and I are big fans of the circle. We know how much like sometimes having that knowledge of social media curation actually does help in terms of knowing the way that you come across and promoting your brand to other people so i think that's a really great call yeah i think that would be a very fun fun see um and i think that could really uh show show that, you know, yes, yes.

Chops in some departments. All right. So looking at the five we are putting on today, it is D. Viadaris, age 27. It is Drew Basile, age 23. It is Kelly and now Bandian 30. It is Bruce Peralt, who is 47. And then it is Caleb Gaberwalt, who is

29. And that's going to do it for 45. It was a tough one. My heart goes out to both Jake and Keturah, but something tells me that we're going to be seeing them on the ballot no matter what. Oh, 100%. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised and i would

love that actually well our jobs don't get any easier tomorrow as we mentioned it several times if you will we are going to survivor 46 a season i adore a cast i adore which makes these problems even worse and that we have to pick only five from that cast for now and especially with a cast that was absolutely chock full of personalities it is going to be a very tough job but from your perspective do you have a short list of people from 46 that you want to see back on 50 um okay venus first and foremost um my pers on the cast, I will always back. Also very fun. So I would say Venus for me.

I would say, I think Tiffany is another one I would personally like to see. Q, obviously another one. I'm looking at the list right now. I'm like, oh, wow, this could get tough real quick. That's three, right? That's three. You don't need to go up to five if you don't want to. No, no, I will.

You said I can. I think Maria is another one that could be intriguing to see with her story and how her story came to a close, which leaves a fifth spot open. You want to anger people, but I would love it

you put Bono, Bono would be hilarious to bring back after all that 2 million hearts but I could see Tevin could be another one I could see but also in true honest meme pick, you put Jelinski that would be the memiest of

meme picks for that fifth spot for a meme of a season, we'll see how many of those meme-y picks end up on the list, and I will be closing out the seasonal coverage part of the wishlist with a big one. Of course, we are going to be talking with the one, the only

Taron Armstrong tomorrow. He has taken a brief sojourn from his time in the Big Brother trenches to step on the island with me. It'll also be really fun because Terran did not do any coverage of Survivor that season, and I'm sure he has a lot of thoughts about 46, as do we all. So it should be a really fun time.

Make sure you don't miss it. Puya, this was awesome. I know it was an unenviable job for us to talk about, you know, the Achilles heel, the double-edged sword of covering such a well-regarded season with such a well-regarded cast, is that cuts have to be made with that sword. But you did so dutifully. What would you like to plug right now for the listeners?

If they're looking for me, they can find me on Twitter at Puyoism. They can find me on Twitch, twitch.tv slash Puyo, which is where I am when I'm not podcasting. And if you're looking for me on my other podcast work i cover 90 day fiance on the network i cover the traders um any franchise of the traders can get it on the traders for hop up and also i'm talking big brother friday mornings when the season is going on you can catch me there talking live feeds and you'll still find me doing a recap here and there as well all right so we'll be back for one last

time from the seasonal perspective and then the polls open and truly the game begins there. This is the game within the game, in a manner of speaking. But tomorrow, I'll be back to cover Survivor 46 with Taron Armstrong and add another group to the shortlist. Let us know your thoughts on

who from 45 should get added as well in the wildcard spot, because we'll be doing those pretty soon after the 46 cast shortlist picks are determined and then the polls will be open. Thank you all so much for listening. Until tomorrow everybody, take care.

Bye-bye.