RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor AU: Australia V World Ep 3 Exit Interview

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

We Know Global Survivor host Shannon Guss chats to the third boot of Australian Survivor: Australia V World.

Whether you own a bustling hair salon or a hot new bakery, you need business insurance that can keep up with your evolving needs. With flexible coverage options from TV insurance, you only pay for what you need. TD, ready for you. Hello everyone, Shannon Garcia, getting you ready for our episode three exit interview for Australian Survivor v. World. If you haven't seen it yet, if you have not seen the Tuesday night episode of this week, the third episode of the week, please click away. I will give you time to do that as I fill a bus.

for the reasons we are aware of. I did not get an episode two ex-interview. We do have the episode one, X-in-Diview up. And then we have all three recaps up with Chappelle Pua and Mike in that order. All very fun in their own way for three incredible episodes. And then we'll have a weekly show with Rob coming up as well. This ex-interview, now that all of you have clicked away, who are meant to click away, is with George.

I'm upsetting to speak to George so early, but he was on the back foot pretty early in the season. and I had a lot of questions. We pretty much could have done a deep dive. I think just on the two tribal councils that he went to. There was a lot there. Tried to get to as much of it as we could in a short amount of time. Thank you to Channel 10 for facilitating these interviews.

But I hope that you get something out of it. Also a reminder about the chizzy raffle. We are almost at $1,000 already if you want to take my chizzy points or the recap bitches chizzy points to donate to forever after all of that information has been shared on social media. It's also in the recap show notes if you want to. to donate to that as well. Thank you all so much for following along this week.

It's been such a great first week. Everyone's so hyped and excited about such an incredible season of Survivor. I hope you're enjoying all the content, and I will see you next time. Bye. Australia. Sixth of millions. One million pounds. Million of a life.

George, my friend. How are you? How are you? Tribe spoken. Try a spurt. For the adventure of a lifetime, the adventure of a life. The adventure of a life. George, my friend, how are you?

How are you today? Shannon, how are you? I'm good. I'm good. I'm upset that I'm talking to you. this, but always great to chat to the king. I have many questions, most of them around the episode two tribal council, to be honest. That's a very exciting one. I've saved all of this for you, Shannon. I love that. And my head is still spinning about it. It's that kind of tribal council where you know how I get that I'm still spinning about it days later, about the different permutations. Where to even start? What do you go into that tribal council? We need to start. You tell me.

So I know for sure who's on my tribe at the truck. And I see Daven, and with Luke and Janine there, I'm just like, this is an absolute disaster. Before we play Survivor, we have a few days of preparing to get ready for the game. I told myself, I have multiple problems I need to solve before I even step on the mat on day one. The first problem I needed to solve was how do I get to four? and that was literally mission impossible. Option A was completely funneled through Kirby. If you look at it as a pyramid, I go, I'm here.

If option A doesn't happen, then I'm in deep, deep trouble, which is Kirby needs to be open-minded to play with me because she's the only player that hasn't played with anyone, aside from the fact she's worked with Luke in a mine a very long time ago. So it funnels through to there. The next step was Shawnee has to have the slightest interest in making peace with me

because we get along in camp, which we did very thankfully for me. And because if she thinks David votes me off first, she is guaranteed to go second. So I had a small percentage to get to three with Shawnee. and then there was the difficult situation for me, which is, can you peel any of the four people that have known each other for 10 years through David away?

And the most realistic prospect of success there would be Sarah, because Sarah was only tied to David and Luke, but not Janine. So there was a little hope there. Plan B is work with David, but I told myself for that plan to happen

I need to get to know David to work out the David that kind of is just like night chat David and then the David that is kind of like game playing David so I said I need to sleep next to David at night

which is what I think every single night and I need to kind of like a lot like make a little group in to see if I could be tapped on as a fourth or a fifth if you include Sarah in that grouping. So when we go through kind of like day one and day two and you're kind of like getting ready to see what will happen, you skip forward to the day that it was that episode two's

council was, I was telling myself there is basically. zero chance that David is not voting for me. That tribal council scramble was a very, very long and lots of conversations were happening. Lots and lots of conversations were happening. So I had no doubt in my mind that Kirby wanted David to go home. That was the most obvious thing after multiple days of talking with Kirby. I knew Sean her priority was taking my scalp. That was important to her, and then given how dead on arrival I was on this tribe, that was equally important to me. And David driving home a George vote isn't Shawnee getting her revenge. So I thought Shawnee was quite comfortable to get rid of David because that also sets her up

better on the tribe moving forward, either with me or against me. So I knew that was okay, but I also knew Sarah's priority was for David to not go home. The problem we had is we couldn't find a compromise in that very long scramble. And then as the scramble went on and on and on, and I'm seeing Sarah talking to like the David grouping. I'm seeing Kirby talking to Daven. And then I'm just there with Sean. I'm starting to think, well, this is not good for my prospects of success.

one of the last conversations that happened was me pulling aside Kirby to just clarify where everything was at and that's the time that David follows us into camp that is when it was very very clear to me that Kirby had not taken sufficient control of the situation the only thing that was holding the four people together was Kirby

and Kirby has a very particular management style, which is effective. But it's not effective in a situation where someone like Sarah had a choice of voting off me and I was the acceptable compromise to everyone or voting off a friend that she's known for over 15 years. So when Sarah told me, oh, David's plan was the three to split, I'm like, it's over. It's me. I'm the one going home. And fortunately for me, David was there. And at that point in time, I was like, I need David in his mind to come up with the alternate option. And he needs to feel the full force of pressure of him going home for the first time in his survivor career or I'm in big, big trouble. And I think that was

part of the beauty of that scene. Because you can see the look of kind of like shock on David's face if I didn't do that I go home that also put a fire up Kirby because she I think she kind of felt

like she lost control of the situation and fortunately for me she kind of did what she did because I needed that to happen at the tribal council on our very long walk to tribal council

Shannon I then told myself I have two other mission impossible problems I need to fix. The first one is I don't want to get three votes on me because if I get three votes on me and I don't have an idol, that means Luke or David probably have an idol, but there was no way to know for sure. So I had to factor in a way to have a plan where I don't get three votes on me. This means like this is the last gym in thing when we're on the water right before we're leaving and I told myself, I gave it a go, but when I get to the tribal council, I need to see if I can keep massaging the Janine plan. So that is kind of like

try and get the votes shaken off me just in case the idol gets played on David because I thought that was probably going to happen. So that's the first problem I needed to solve, aside from the fact of, you know, the second of the three major problems I needed to solve. The other one was this. I told myself, if David did not have an idol, the safest thing to do was to just stick on Janine

and let the vote happen because that would hopefully build some kind of relationship, repair with shunning. So when I was racking my brain on what was going to happen as we were walking to tribal council, I told myself, I need to be ultra defensive because I need David to tell his people not to vote for me. I didn't think they were ever going to let Janine go, Luke and David, but I had to try and give it a crack. But I needed them just to not vote for me. So when we ended up going to the tribal council um david was very very well aware that he was copying the votes um very very well aware and that's when it turned live when he came up to me with a with a kind of shone

plan and then it was at that moment when i was like he's actually come up with the option to save himself which is what i needed him to do in our long walks to tribal council which is to put the votes on someone that's not me. And that was Shawnee. What would I have done in the situation in the revote? I still vote off David. I was not going to vote off Shawnee because on a six-person tribe with David and his two friends, like I'm dead on arrival in the next episode anyway. It also gave myself to have a very kind of exciting closing story where if I got voted off in a re-vote because Shawnee flipped on me, it would have been a very poetic way to go that would have been satisfied with.

And it was a very kind of like difficult, difficult defensive mission that had so many things that needed to kind of happen. Kirby needed a fire-upper to regain control the situation, and it did. The confrontation happened, and it fired up Kirby. So that happened, which was good. And then David also, in our long, long walk to tribal council, had the realization that he needed to do something. Did I know in real time that Janine stopped him from doing it

at the last minute? No. I didn't hear Janine whisper that, which is a shame for David's time of the game. But yeah, that's what happened. Well, David still would have gone home if you're still going to vote him out on a re-vote, if they vote

if they vote Shawnee. I think, I do think what I would have done on that revert, I honestly would have lent with David, unless they started betting or something exciting happened. I would have told David to beg. I honestly would have told him to beg. I was like, I'd be so fantastic.

I'd love to have seen it. I literally would have said, bend your knee to your king. But what did you think the Kirby group were doing? Like, if you think Kirby's being fired up to get them on David... Voting for me! You thought Kirby was voting for you? No, I thought Sarah and Shottie were going to be voting for me. At that point in time, the only two votes going on David were me and Kirby.

Right. So you didn't have faith in the Kirby power that we analyzed for all. No, I thought Sarah was trying. I thought Sarah, I could just tell from, I could tell from, like, how Sarah was talking to people. I don't, I don't hear her say to Janine or go say this to David. But it's just like, I, my feeling was like, I'm gone. Okay.

I'm finished here, you know? So you think that Shawnee and Sarah are on you. You hope that the David three are on Shawnee. I, I did, shonny didn't want to go. go home first, but I knew Sarah was gone. So the issue back to my pre-survivor problem was with three people absolutely locked in, it always only needed one person to make sure I was gone first because David, Luke and Janine came in together and it was never going to be anything but that. So that would have been Shawnee, which is why Shawnee's name could never come out of my

lips. And it was so critical that I worked with Shawnee, you know, in the way that I did. So it could have been Shawnee at any moment, but then Shawnee doesn't take the glory, which she's well aware of. It could have been Sarah because she's known David and Luke for such a long time, but she had no connection to Janine. And Janine was a bit of a blocker for her like she was for me. Or it could have been Kirby. It wasn't Kirby. I told myself, I think Sarah's gone. And if Sarah's gone, Sean's gone. It's five votes on me at the bare minimum, or the split vote plan, which it probably could have been. So why vote Janine? If you think there was a possible couple of votes on David, why not just add to the David vote at that point when

Janine's like not really been an option or a name people are doing? It sets up the revote. It sets up the revoke. So if David actually votes for Seanie with Janine and Luke, then I'm live in the re-vote and I can have the kind of like casting vote, assuming other people like, you know, Sarah don't change their vote. It also gave the opportunity for Shawnee to have her moment. So basically, during that tribal council, I came to the acceptance that if David has the idol or if Luke has an idol or Janine has an idol and they played on David, I'm gone either way. So if I, if I, go, I'm going to go in the most spectacular fashion, which is Shawnee changing her vote at the box

and her getting her revenge. Yeah, George, it's hard to be playing the game and producing at the same time. Shannon, if Janine doesn't stop David from doing it, then I get the exciting moment to either betray Shawnee a second time or just get rid of David. But if Janine stops, doesn't stop David from doing it, wouldn't Luke have just told you Shawnee so as not to put you in that reverb? No, no, no. I think if they're going, Johnny, they tell you. He's the thing with Luke. If he said Shawnee to me, I still vote for Janine.

But when he says Janine to me, I'm like, well, this guy's obviously just lied to me. Right. Like, Janine was never going home at that travel council. Luke and David were never voting for Janine. If Kirby Scramble goes differently, and then me, Kirby, Sarah and Shawnee all vote for Janine, completely different story. But that also was not a life thing at their tribal council.

Okay, there's a lot going on. The relationship with David, so for you that was more defensive, that was a plan B, that was to try and get names off you, but that was in your priority compared to like the curbies of the world when you saw the tribe dynamics. I gave myself a lot less realistic prospect of success.

I don't think David had any intent other than using his lifelong friends to vote me off as an easy first boot. I gave it a go. We got along great in camp. I slept next to David. We have lots of conversations. But it was very clear to me that that wasn't going to happen. I needed David to feel pressure. I was hoping if he felt pressure and that his life was at risk in the game, he would do the most kind of like basic thing of self-preservation and then either sacrifice

Janine, which I was trying to happen, but it was never going to happen. He really wanted Kirby to go. That's the name that he kept pitching to me for three days. We've got to get rid of Kirby. We've got to get rid of Kirby. He kept saying, I don't trust Kirby, which he was obviously very right about. But again, if Kirby goes, I'm just dead on arrival in every sequence show. That was the problem I had on that Australia tribe.

If David survived the first boat with any combination of Sarah, Janine, and Luke, it's finished for me. it's finished for shone it's that simple yeah but so when david's name is being brought up early by kirby like we know how kirby plays she gets like a name in mind and she's stubborn about it why were you the one pushing back on david at that point like i know maybe you're preempting sarah pushing back on it and trying to get an easier communal vote for that group because why not right but why not let kirby do her thing we know kirby right and she did it like Kobe did that yeah but then it's like i understood the nuance with Sarah. I understood that Sarah was happy for David to go, but like not first because they were such strong friends. And it's being unable to understand

like people's priorities at certain points in time and what they're willing to accept, what they're willing to compromise with and what they're not. And the grand irony of David's statements is one of my biggest superpowers in Survivor has always been able to have a certain prediction on how the numbers are going to go and why are they going to go that way. And if it's looking bad for me, I have to do anything that I can to stop it from happening in that direction and shake votes off me. And I didn't like the way that Kirby was just so forthright in constantly pushing for David because like get the big player out, get the big player out. I don't need to get the big player out because once David's gone,

then I'm the acceptable compromise that just gets thrown to the wolves. The problem was we could never get an agreement. Like I can't let Kirby go because of the tribe's completely in David's hands. David, Luke and Janine were never going to break. Sarah didn't want David to go, but then we couldn't get Janine to happen. And then I can't throw Shawnee's name out because then she's the default fall with the other three in the Dave camp. So I was hoping Sarah would kind of, you know, steer Kirby in a different direction

because then, you know, we might have had three on Janine, but it wasn't going to happen. And then I also have to get a bit pragmatic as well, Shannon. When we had that for like personal conversation and then I was like, there's two options and don't for the big one happens. I was like, oh, you know, fuck it. Let's get rid of David, you know. if we can pull it off, great. Yeah.

And then I can reassist the situation at the next round. Yeah, I think that that was, I mean, I think that it does rely on trusting in Kirby to do the impossible, but we just came off watching Kirby often do the impossible. And I feel like you have to kind of, in a very tricky spot, put your hands in the Macedonian Jesus. That is Kirby convincing Sarah to turn on a friend of many decades. And that's what she did.

And I kind of feel like in a tricky spot, maybe there was something there. coming back from that tribal council you do try to make a group with this four shonnie's going to come for you it's kind of complicated by the fact that you'd at least spoken about shonny as a possible option in this defensive way with the other side in loop like how do you see that round as having gone the day shannon i don't vote for shoney yeah so i don't vote for shonny like dable vote for shonny vote for shon i don't vote for shonny so i that was like your votes also go in a certain way and and and

my vote went how it did. It went on Janine. When we're kind of coming back for the scramble from the immunity challenge, I tell myself I have three votes coming on me. I've got Luke, Janine and Shonnie. So my most important critical mission and priority was to shake votes off me and try to campaign that I'm going to be the unifier. I cop the heat like I always do. but I can also unify and all we needed to do was just break up Luke and Jeanine. I shook votes off me, Shannon. I did. I shook both Janine and Luke's votes off me by pressing Janine's buttons.

And it was a lot of fun in doing so and a reflection of her game as well. But unfortunately for me, I couldn't shame. one more vote off. And I think if I look upon a big reflection, I was one conversation away from Sarah that I didn't have of sneaking through by the skin of my teeth. Yeah, 100%. I think Sarah was kind of that linchpin that was more in your corner and maybe, maybe there was something there, but then she was again, so led by Kirby. But I think we are out of time, George, we could talk about this for days. It is certainly complex strategy for the first few days of Survivor, but always sad to see you go especially well it's not usually here it's usually well i guess two

weeks down the track at this point but um always great to chat to you george i hope you look back at the experience as a positive one and i'm sure i'll be talking to you in many ex-interviews over the course of our lifetime so always great to chat to you thanks shen and thanks for having me on bye 21 South Africans 12 ordinary Australians 1 million pounds 1 million pounds

million euros 1 million Rumbly Tribe Spote Trives Spurian The Adventure of a lifetime The Adventure of a lifetime Looking to get the most out of your money time

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