RHAP: We Know Survivor - The 25 Greatest Moments in Survivor History | 20-16
Episode Date: June 12, 2025This week, Mike Bloom, Sam Phalen, Zach Wurtenberger, and Frannie Marin talk through moments 20-16....
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Hi everybody and welcome back to part two of our countdown of the top 25 greatest moments in Survivor history.
My name is Mike Bloom and I am back for our second installment in this series.
As tonight we are going to find out what moments 20 to 16 are as voted on by you in the hands of the Survivor fans.
And I am not alone here.
We have lost Rob, but in his place,
we have gained three incredible Survivor alum
to look back on the past quarter century
of Survivor history.
Let me start with somebody who might be a quarter century
old, honestly, at this point.
Of course, he found a way to find a way onto this podcast.
The runner up from Survivor 47 Sam Phelan. Sam, how are you?
Oh, I'm great, great and very excited to get the nod here.
What a great panel you've got going, Mike.
So we're going to talk about some moments.
And I've got a lot of hot takes on my list personally
that I'm sure will all be going around the list with hot takes today.
All right. Well, let's keep going around the panel here.
We are in a full out and out nerd bands with this group.
And I think it would make sense to bring in
the ultimate form of the nerd bands
in the form of Frannie Marin.
Frannie, how are you?
Oh, I'm the ultimate form of the nerd bands.
Wow, I thought I'd get like a plaque for that.
I had no idea.
Yeah, I'm great.
I'm psyched to be here.
I'm really glad to be here for moments.
What is it? 20 through 16.
I feel like once we get into like one through 10,
then they're done that.
We've all talked about it.
I wanna know what's in this slot.
So I'm psyched to be here with you guys to discuss.
And last but certainly not least,
perhaps an alphabetical order,
someone who has already rankled the fan base
in the past few days,
maybe with that first bootstrap
that you can check out on the page for inside of things.
And he's back for more folks. Zach Wharton Burger.
Thank you, Mike.
You know, when you reached out to my agent about doing this podcast,
I said I would only do it if you put together the best of the best panel.
And I'm glad that you managed to do that.
And no siree on the list.
That was also. Oh, that was a requirement from Zach as well.
I heard. Absolutely not.
That writer was fulfilled.
I did get you the green M&Ms, but the rest is currently unknown.
As again, to set the stage for people, we compiled a list of 100 moments
across the first 48 seasons of Survivor, and it was voted on by you, the fans.
We have taken the results, we have combed through and we have packaged for you
a list of the top 25.
As a quick reminder, stroll down memory lane, if you will, because it has
been a week to say the least.
Let's do a quick review at the top here as to what moments 25 through 21 were.
So of course, we're talking with three
new era castaways today.
And we started with the new era moment last week
with moment number 25 from Survivor 43,
Jesse Betrays Cody.
Moment number 24, Jesse stole Cody's aisle arguably,
but this guy is more so known for
his larceny as Rupert stole the shoes in the opening of Survivor Pearl Islands.
Moment number 23, Coach's trip to Exile Island.
Hailed as, you know, by Sam actually in his list as one of the greatest character moments
in Survivor history.
This was my number one.
I was disappointed to see it at number 23. This is my favorite moment.
There we go.
Moment number 22, another new era highlight.
Caleb shot in the dark hits from Survivor 45
and then closing out the list here at Lucky 21.
Cerise 3-2-1 vote from Survivor Panama.
It was a good moment.
There we go. Some nice measured response. vote from Survivor Panama. It was a good moment.
There we go.
So measured response.
Top 21 all time.
I don't know.
Well, let's get into it, shall we?
Because we have well, only five moments to get into plenty to talk about within each one.
And we decided to do this last time by trying to gamify things a little bit,
much like a journey proper, no dice involved, luckily though.
So for each moment, I am going to throw out a clue or
maybe a couple as to what the moment is going to be.
You can each get a chance to guess, you can collude your guesses if you want to.
Then I'm going to play an audio clip of the moment, reveal what it is, and then we will get to discussing.
So without further ado, let us crack into moment number 20.
I can reveal that this is a moment from quote unquote old era,
first 40 seasons of Survivor. And I can say that moment number 20 is a highlight moment
from a player someone would consider a Mount Rushmore contestant
in Survivor history.
So make of that what you will.
Franny, talk to me through what's going through your head right now
as you're also gesticulating with your hands.
Yeah, you saw my inner thoughts coming out in the gestures.
Well, I'm going to be honest.
I mean, people have different Mount Rushmore's, right?
First person that comes to mind for me is Tony Vlachos.
So the first thought that I had was speaking llama,
which I think like comes up as a great moment, but probably wouldn't crack
like top 10 for people.
That's what immediately came to mind.
But I'm sure. Yeah.
So Rushmore, I feel like is Rob Sandra.
Tony Parvati is like the I think that's the most.
I didn't know as you left three off.
I debate.
Unironic, no, no disrespect to three, but like I do feel like you have to win
to like probably be on the Mount Rushmore. And so I think, no, no disrespect to Saree, but like I do feel like you have to win to like probably be on the Mount Rushmore.
And so I think, yeah, I think that's the most consensus Mount Rushmore, Zach.
And that's why my head went to probably Parvati.
We just have like I think she probably has what?
Three, four moments that could all be top 20 moments.
So I feel like, you know, there's just so many to choose from that.
One of them probably lands around this area.
OK, what?
What part of the moment is like not good enough to crack?
Well, that that's that's where I struggle with, because my favorite
poverty moment, I feel like is a top 10 moment.
Like there's just so many times.
Here is villains. Yeah, the heroes.
Yeah. Yeah.
Let me take a little bit of a Hail Mary here, Mike.
Let me go for Boston Robb.
All stars, his conversation with Lex and turning on his promise with Lex.
I think that could come in this area. OK.
Yeah, I'm going to go.
Yeah, I'm going to go the other direction, then I'm going to say Sandra,
based on the fact that we got some good character moments in 25 through 21, and we're still in like the higher ones. I'm going to say Sandra based on the fact that we got some good character moments in 25 through 21 and we're still in like the higher ones.
I'm going to go Sandra either.
I can get loud to what the fuck or Sandra sugar gate and game changers.
Okay.
Oh, okay.
Um, I, I, my, the, my second thought was I can get loud too.
Um, but I am going to stick with speaking llama.
That's where I'm, that's where I'm going for this one. Okay, three very different guesses from three very different
players. Without further ado, let's see what the number 20 moment in survivor history as voted on
by the listeners is. I'm feeling wonderful because regardless, Russell's keeping me around because I'll never get a single vote.
But I don't know about that. Oh, the winner of Survivor.
Here is.
Yes. So fittings.
That's a point, right?
To be moment number 20, Sandra wins twice
because the first ever player to win two times in survivor history.
Sam, first reactions to this.
Well, I guess my my first reaction is like, what is this?
Is this a moment like that?
I want to. Yeah.
And if it is the moment, if the moment you were talking about is like
Jeff Reeds devotes and Sandra wins, I'll say I think it's a little bit
of an underwhelming moment.
I feel like most people were either surprised or disappointed
when Sandra first won Heroes versus Villains in real time.
I think this is probably a moment that that plays better.
In hindsight, you look back and, you know, Sandra has just become
this iconic reality television character that, you know, so many fans have such
affinity for. But I feel like real that, you know, so many fans have such affinity for.
But I feel like real time, you had some Russell lovers and some Russell haters. And if you are a Russell hater, you probably wanted Parvati to win this season.
So I think this this is a surprise to me.
So we everyone here watched heroes, villains live, right?
Was that I did not watch it live.
I did. Yeah, I watched it live. Yeah. OK.
Because I was going to say, like, watching this live as a 10 year old boy,
I was definitely rooting for Russell at the time.
Like, I won't even lie.
It doesn't really capture the hearts of the 10 year old boys, certainly.
Yeah. And I will not maintain that take.
That was a bad take.
But yeah, at the time, I was definitely rooting for Russell.
I think that Sandra as the two time winner, I think that like
the reason I'll defend this moment and say that it is a moment and it is so great
is because this is basically the moment where like Queen Sandra, the character was born.
And I think that the reason why maybe in the moment
I was more disappointed is because I saw Sandra as like this underrated winner
who didn't get much of an edit in Heroes vs. Villains.
But like, this was her crowding.
This is where she became the woman that we now know and love
as like Sandra, the all time great character
in Survivor history, the Mount Rushmore undisputed character.
And I think that the fact that she won this season
right here, like ended up doing so much for Survivor and what, you know,
what we ended up getting out of this show.
I will say, like in my eyes, I don't I don't feel like we had this identity of
and maybe I missed the boat, but like this identity of Queen Sandra,
the first I remember that being like,
you know, mainstream sort of lingo is when she comes back on Game Changers and is referring to herself as Queen and saying the Queen stays Queen.
And the reason why I like this would not be in my top 25 moments personally is because of what Zach kind of said at the beginning there. Sandra is so under edited in this season and it really feels like Russell and Parvati's story
throughout every single episode.
I'm actually in the middle of rewatching
Heroes versus Villains right now.
I'm showing it to my wife for the first time.
And it like literally it is Russell and Parvati show.
And I think, you know, Jeff Probst, Survivor,
I think everybody probably had a pretty united feeling at the same I think, you know, Jeff Probst, Survivor, I think everybody probably had a pretty united feeling at the
same time of, you know, if there was going to be a two time
winner, two for two in Survivor history, it being somebody who
is more understated in the edit and more of a calm, underrated
winner her first time playing and then quieter character her
second time playing. I'm not sure that's how Survivor drew
it up and how they like dreamed it up.
And so to me, I think this moment is more of like a
surprise moment, one of the more shocking results
of a final tribal council than it is like an all time
something I remember where I was for.
Yeah, I mean, I think Franny for me and I totally see
the points that are being made, it's it's less so about the impact in the moment.
As Jeff Kropes once said, some moments are instantly iconic and some build that icon
status later on.
And I do think going back to Survivor All-Stars, certainly Jenna Lewis was the main vocal component.
But a lot of people thought that winners have already had their say.
They have their million.
It is time for someone else to be able to cash that big old check.
And so I think going into Heroes versus Villains, I think to Sam's point,
you know, even what we think about Sandra now, it's wild to think.
But going to Heroes versus Villains, like she was certainly a character
in Pearl Islands, but people weren't like, oh, my God, she's this huge threat to win.
And so I think when you have someone like that sitting in the final three and someone
who had won before, it seemed near impossible on paper for someone to be able to win the
game twice. How hard is it to win the game the first time to let alone do it again? And
I think what makes this moment carry so much water is the fact that it is a quite literal
game changing moment for the entire franchise.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's more of, my reaction was very similar
to Sans initially.
Like this doesn't feel like a moment
that stuck out to me as like funny,
but as like a historical event in survivor history,
certainly groundbreaking, especially like thinking about season 50,
we were just talking about Colby and All-Stars
and winners were eradicated on All-Stars nearly immediately.
So it's interesting that the narrative is then changing.
And I think Sandra Winnig just perpetuates this idea
that I think about now, which is that kind of underrated
people, especially underrated women on returning player season, sometimes
often go on to win.
And so it's continuing to like carve out that narrative as well.
Yeah, it's interesting that the Queen's Day's queen didn't really emerge
until game changer. Am I am I wrong about that?
Like, I mean, she does wear that she does wear the tiara to the to the reunion.
So maybe I mean, it wasn't a it wasn't a part of like the survivor lexicon,
like that specific phrase, Queenstays Queen came in in Game Changers.
I just like Game Changers.
Sandra was such a I think like a breath of fresh air and a surprise for me
of like what I was expecting because she was such a good confessionalist.
And she was she was just smack
talking the whole time that she was out there and she didn't
care. And whether she went home on you know, day 14 or made it
all the way and went three for three, she probably knew going
in that she didn't have a chance to win a third time. But it was
more about like spending 14 days on the island telling everybody
that you're better than them. And that was so fun to watch.
But I think that was really when Sandra became this iconic reality TV character of,
yeah, we have to have her on Traders.
We have to have her on anything and we bring her on Australian Survivor.
We don't care.
Here's what I'll say in retrospect now.
I think that, like, obviously, like when I was younger, like I said,
I was rooting for Russell.
I think that Sandra winning Heroes vs. Villains for the show was the best case scenario.
One for giving us the character of Sandra who has proven herself to be like one of the
greatest characters of all time.
Two, I think that Survivor as a whole like lives on these debates of like who should
have won something like a Sandra vs. or even Sandra versus poverty versus Russell,
Aubrey and Michelle or Gabler versus Cassidy and Owen, right?
Like I think that like-
Truly the three greatest debates in survival of all
equal value.
How do you call it?
These like, this is what like the show is made of
is like getting fans so passionate and fighting so hard.
If everyone was always happy about the winners,
and to have it be such an iconic season
with such an at-the-time controversial winner
that kept up so many discussions.
I love the fact that after Heroes vs. Villains,
the greatest player of all time was not clear,
and that those debates raged on and on and on.
Which is jarring, given what we just said.
Right. Like, yeah, somebody can go on Survivor win once.
And you're like, wow, that was great to go and do it.
A second time is so inconceivable and improbable with a threat.
The moment you hit the beach, being a winner already.
And you can do that.
And maybe this is like speaks to the disrespect that Sandra has gotten for so many years
and not have like locked up goat status in the eyes of like fans.
And then, you know, Boston Robb goes on to win, you know, a few seasons later,
he enters that conversation.
Tony, with his second win on winners at war, obviously gets into that conversation as well.
I still think pound for pound poverty might be the best player ever.
And it is wild that we can have that conversation when there is somebody who, like,
signed, sealed, delivered, got the check twice.
And not to mention the fact that we are looking ahead to Survivor 50, which features a couple of winners.
And it really interestingly opens up the conversation where on the one hand,
you can come in with the All-Stars mindset, which is, hey,
these people already won.
They've proven they've had the medal to become the sole survivor.
I will be solely responsible to make sure they don't do it again.
But there's always that caveat.
And we have someone like Colby who voted for someone to win for a second time,
who could say if you're there at the end under the right circumstances next to
the right people, the impossible can be made possible.
Yeah.
Have we ever seen this is bad survivor?
Have we ever seen a winner get to the end and lose at final tribal Michelle?
I guess is the art.
She's against another winner.
So like I would be more like losing to a first time winner.
So that Michelle and poverty both lost to another two time winner.
Yeah, I don't think that's the case.
Then there were like maybe if Tina Weston had made it to the end of Blood vs.
Water, we would be having that conversation.
And then I mean, well, then Rob lost.
And that's the only other winner that I think has been a future future winner.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's an interesting,
interesting headspace or like debate to have going into 50.
Like you said, right, if there is a winner there because we often see
we see it in heroes versus villains.
Tom goes up to JT on day two and says, I need you there with me
because if the two of us are there next to anybody else, we can't win the money.
And they kind of make this handshake agreement.
And, you know, at the time, you sort of roll your eyes at it like Tom.
Nobody really cares about that if you go and play the best game.
But 48 seasons in now, we have not seen a winner
get to the end while not sitting next to another former winner.
Very interesting.
That I mean, to be fair, they were sitting next to another former winner. It's very interesting. That's interesting.
I mean, to be fair, they were sitting next to Russell
and they could have voted for Russell.
Sure.
If they wanted to.
All right, well, let us move ahead with moment number 19.
As we say deuces to Sandra's second win here.
Here's a couple of clues for moment number 19.
See if we can get any of you on the board.
I will say this is once again from the old era.
I will narrow things down a little bit.
We just talked about heroes versus villains.
This is a moment from a season prior to heroes versus villains.
You have to choose between seasons one to 19.
And if I could describe this moment in one word,
especially in hindsight,
it would be karma.
I got it. I got it.
It's Mike falling in the fire. Oh, oh, I don't think that's it at all.
What do you think, Sam?
I think this is dreams and his car deal with Yao Man in Survivor Fiji.
Oh, karma. Karma.
No, I love me some some wordplay, Sam Phelan. Franny, what do you think?
I don't know. I like.
I like I'm going to go with Zach, Mike falling in the fire.
I feel like nothing else is popping out to me.
And I like the other the broad strokes like cosmic karma of that.
Yeah, I feel confident in this one.
Yeah, the meta karma.
The age old debate of Karma with a K
versus Karma with a C.
Let's see which one will win out here with moment number 19.
Up, up, up, up, up.
Ah!
Get him out of the water.
You OK?
Get him out of the water.
Ah!
Oh my god.
He's burnt.
He's very pretty bad I'm the boss, the keeper.
Do you want me to come in with you, Frank? Is that with you? Did you pass out?
I was blowing on the fire and the smoke was right in my face.
And I inhaled.
And I passed out.
Look at these things. Oh, my God. I can't decide whether I try to send them or not.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Jack and Franny on the board with Mike scooping falling into the fire from
Survivor the Australian outback. I mean
Here's the thing. Yes, obviously in retrospect
Good Lord the survivor gods worked swiftly
but what I will say is that this is
an incredibly significant moment
from the first few seasons of the show.
I remember when I was a 10 year old kid watching Survivor Borneo.
And despite the smash sensation, it was how many talks there were behind
the scenes of, oh, this thing's staged, right?
They're staying at a hotel room right off screen.
There was a family guy cutaway joke where Peter Griffin falls into the set
and it turns to the set of The Price is Right
at the same time, despite how this broke the mold
in terms of what reality TV was,
the term real was still very operative and up in the air.
It got promptly solidified when a man passed out
and fell into a whole ass fire
and Zach, he essentially de-gloved himself in doing so.
Oh, yeah. I'd say, uh, what a, what an image. Uh, yeah. So I remember I, this is a season that I
watched on the box set because I believe I was one years old when it came out. Uh, so yeah,
I got the DVDs of this one and I remember watching it. It's the first medevac in Survivor history.
So already it's kind of got that iconic image to it.
Mike obviously becomes the first player
ever removed from the game for reasons
other than being voted out or making it to the end.
Iconic there.
And for it to be like such an iconic, brutal way to go.
Right?
Like the first medevac wasn't like an infection in his leg.
It was literally, I mean,
in a show that fire represents your life,
it was literally him like falling into the fire
and then you get shot up.
Now he's serving 20 to life.
Jeez, yeah.
I actually think he's out by the way, right?
Like I think that he is out of prison.
Is that not true?
I don't know.
Anyway, I'm not gonna comment'm not going to comment on that.
Let's get let's get T-Bird on the case.
Maybe she could investigate.
But yeah, it's an iconic moment.
And yeah, I mean, it's solidified survivor is real.
Absolutely. Yeah.
Oh, I'm shocked now how often I still get people being like,
so they really don't give you any food.
They really like they really don't.
They don't give you a toothbrush.
How many people still come up to me 25 years after this show premiered,
48 seasons later, they still want to know if this thing is real.
And there have been a handful of incidents throughout survivor history,
this being the first and yes,
perhaps the most gruesome of them all
that just genuinely sort of scare you as a viewer to realizing
how real and serious this is.
And, you know, it's it's interesting as well, because as technology has progressed
and media has gotten better, Survivor has done such a good job
of shooting the show
in a really cinematic way,
a way that feels as intense as it feels to play it at times.
And that didn't always exist back in the day,
but there are moments like these that just like
stop you where you are when you're watching it
and you watch and realize, oh yeah,
I forgot that these are realize, oh, yeah, I forgot
that these are 16, 18, 20 people stranded on an island that have to try to like also
not die is the goal of the game, especially early on.
Yeah, I think it really highlights everyone's vulnerability, too, because I mean, the reaction
of the tribe mates is so jarring.
It's like gut wrenching as a viewer, even now listening back to it and like knowing who this is.
Yeah, I'm curious, Mike, like, I mean,
I also did not watch this live.
So I'm curious what the fan reaction was to scoop in,
like what you remember, was he like viewed as a hero?
Were people calling for him to come back?
Oh yeah, I mean, well, listen,
people who know the series of survivor spoilers know that he was probably his own biggest cheerleader to come back. Oh, yeah. I mean, well, listen, he people who know the series,
you know, series of survivor spoilers know that he was probably his own biggest cheerleader to come back.
There were many times that whenever there was a returning player season,
whether it was All Stars or Guatemala, he's like, you know, I was I hear them.
I hear that Mike scooping was in rumors to to come back because he certainly was a hero.
And look, maybe in retrospect, not necessarily regarded a hero from like a SIA award
perspective, given what he had done to that boar
an episode prior.
But at this time, he was the tribe's leader.
He was the tribe's provider.
And it's a tribe that even more in retrospect
is looking to be a group of bad behaviors by the day.
But the fact of the matter is that he was sort of the mascot
of Kucha at this point.
And they were up in numbers.
They had the wind at their sails and then that wind promptly provided a puff of smoke in their
face and had all their momentum taken out after them. I mean, I did not include this, but there's
a moment where like as he's taken away in this chopper, all the Kucha members are standing
traumatized, holding each other, being like, we got to win this for Mike.
Spoiler alert, they do not win this.
But it really was this moment that I think reached outside of the show.
I mean, you listen to that initial part of it.
It's very small.
But you see Nick Brown like turn to the cameraman
and say he's burned pretty bad, Terry, like that fourth wall
is absolutely burnt down in a manner of speaking.
Any sort of sense of, okay, these people are all on their own
is kind of shattered in that moment.
It's almost a call forward to when we get the whole
Caleb Menovec situation in Co-Rong,
where it's all hands on deck,
where like the crew essentially has to put everything down.
Mike Scoobman gets taken to the camera camp
and actually is placed down there in a makeshift stretcher. Like this was such an incredibly
real, visceral moment that I do think one of the biggest questions coming out of Survivor's first
like five to 10 seasons was, especially back in the day when the internet was, you know, crusty
and dusty was like, is Mike Scooping okay? To the point where when he showed up on Survivor
Philippines, his first confessional, he shows his hands to the camera like he's slating
for, you know, a walk on roll in a Subaru commercial.
Well, yeah, I was actually going to bring that up specifically where this was back in
the day.
And you'll have to speak more to this specific moment.
But I remember in the OG season, so what I remember the most was Russell Swan in Samoa
when I was nine years old and being like watching that
and being like, oh my God, is he dead?
Like, is he okay?
Like, can he even walk anymore?
Because it wasn't like when Bruce got medevacked
and then you could just like literally check his Instagram
and be like, oh no, he's fine.
Like he's still around.
This was back in the day where like literally
this would just happen and the episode would be over
and that was it.
That was the last that you saw of this guy.
I mean, unless you turn on Letterman or whatever, or when you turn on
the reunion, right, and saw it.
And I think that just in terms of like the the mythos of survivor
took it up to this next level of like people really can get hurt here.
Like, this is not a joke.
Like, this is a dangerous thing that we are making people do.
And it ultimately is what separates survivor in like
the realm that is reality television.
And ultimately, what I think made survivors so intriguing
when it was in its infancy. Right.
Like, how do how do you separate yourself from every
everything else on reality television?
And we had competitive reality television that existed.
We had social experiments that existed on TV.
And Survivor was all of that.
But it added this grandiose, violent nature that I think,
you know, it's like a car crash.
People look at the car crash.
They want to look and see people suffer on this island.
And this was one of those first moments that you realize
they are in fact suffering if they're not very careful.
And how? All right.
Let's Sally forth, shall we?
And get to Sally Sally got onto the top 20.
Sally's adult and Ross did a number one through 10. We top 20. Sally's, yeah, Dalton Ross did number one through 10
were just solely Sally's knee socks.
Unfortunately, this catch is discounted as dummy ballots.
But we are not dummies here.
We got some people on the board here with some guesses.
Let's see if we can keep the streak going with number 18.
I will say, yet again,
this is a moment from a season prior to the new era seasons one through 40.
I'll try to widen it a little bit here because that one was a little easy.
I will say that you three were part of, you know, the the various pool of players that
we got the chance to pull in the beginning of this grand experiment to ask for some of
your favorite survivor moments.
We are very grateful for that that That helped incorporate into the ultimate ballot
of 100 we came up with. And I am happy to say that moment number 18 was a moment that
made one of the lists that you submitted to us. So one of your top five to 10 moments
in survivor history is moment number 18.
The question is whose list and what is it?
All right, I'll read through mine real quick.
And if anyone thinks it's, I have fishback is lacking
in morals, values, loyalty, dignity, courage.
I have woo saying get a fat dip of that guac.
I've got penner saying, I mean my ass.
I've got Lil pouting. I mean, my ass. I've got little pouting.
I have three checking Shane's balls.
And then I've got Jeff Kent's final words.
So if you think it's any of those.
I don't I think it is not impossible that Jeff Kent's final words made this list.
OK, I think it's strongly memorable. Yeah.
I think I known as like maybe the best final words
that somebody's or like the most memorable final words that somebody's ever had.
I one of the ones from my list that I could see in this spot,
I was I was very pleased with this as I was doing my list.
I have both.
I'm pissed, quote Debbie and I'm pissed, quote Liz Cox.
I really liked the symmetry there, but I could see.
I could see Liz's I'm pissed.
It's one through 40. He already said it.
Pretty new era. Oh, he said one.
Oh, shoot. OK, OK, OK.
Debbie, I'm pissed.
As I put in both.
I will go.
You know, I've got a few of these.
I think I'm trying to be like Franny.
I'm trying to see what can I see being number 18?
I will say, uh, Dom and Wendell
tie at the Ghost Island Final Tribal Council.
That's a good one.
I'm also going to the one other I had in there that I didn't say.
I'm going to throw us my real guess is Tony speaking llama.
I feel like this is the place for that.
OK, we shall see as here comes moment number 18.
Most people, including myself, we go all the way to the water well
because it's a bit further away from camp where people can't hear you.
And that's where they talk strategy.
So I started working on some blueprints to make a nice little shack
up on the water well.
We still are a little bit closer to each other.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Water well is here. There's a tree there and I put some bushes and some shrubs and some broken branches where
I can hide right in that.
And I'm within five feet away.
That's where I'll be the most patient when I'm sitting in my spy shack.
All right.
I was that myself.
We go.
You were so close.
Hold on.
Let me let me turn you off, Tony.
Turn you off. Turn off TV. But we're talking about number 18. You are so close. Hold on. Let me let me turn you off, Tony. Turn you off. Turn off TV.
But we're talking about number 18, Tony's spy shack.
Listen, this man is full of moments, suffice it to say.
But perhaps none other could be as all encompassing for the enigma
that is Tony Blachos than the fact that the dude just piled up a bunch of shrubbery
next to the well.
And somehow, much like a lot of Tony's tactics, it ended up working out for him.
Yeah. Yeah. So this is on my list.
This was my number nine.
It was part of my submission.
Oh, nice. And that you just said, Mike.
I mean, Tony, we just brought it up earlier when we were talking about Sandra.
It is absolutely on the Mount Rushmore, not only of survivor players,
but probably a top four character that the show has ever seen to Justin,
like such an absurd human being.
And it is wild that as kooky as he might come across and be on that island,
it works for him so often.
And he is actually brilliant and calculated while also seeming like a madman.
And the spy shack is all of that in one fell swoop.
It is the harebrained and off the wall and a stroke of brilliance
and somewhere right between that fine line between genius and insanity.
But it is so Tony.
So as a great character moment, but actually an unironic
good strategy moment as well from eventually one of the best winners
the show has ever seen.
It's it's it's perfect. It's awesome.
Yeah. It's like everything Tony does.
It shouldn't work, but it works.
And I feel like this moment also, like intrinsically ties in spy bunker
and spy nest as well.
And it's like my family really include included big ladder that climbs to get food.
Yeah. All of it.
It's a it's a spy smorgasbord, but like every single time it works.
And it's so fabulous.
This is actually the first season that I watched live.
And I was like flipping through channels one day and saw Tony
running across the screen and I was like, I got to watch this frickin show.
And so, yeah, it's very special moment in my heart.
I just like he he is just so goofy and it's fabulous
that all of his ridiculous antics actually materialize
into wonderful strategy.
That's very unique.
Yeah, one thing I love about this
that I know is not on the show is in exit interviews,
how he would talk about how he'd work with production
specifically to make the spy shack work,
which is that he would
basically like make a deal with his producers on the island to say like, hey, you let me hide in
here and don't have a camera on me because that'll blow it. Obviously, if there's a camera points
that are at a random shrub and he would say, if you let me do this for a few hours, I will come
back with you and get the footage you need. OK. Oh, I will.
And that's something that I think for any future survivor players, like
work with production in that way.
Their focus is getting a good show, you know.
So like if you're if you want to do these wacky schemes,
they will play along with it if they can.
And when I heard that one of his exit interviews before I played,
I was just like, wow, that is like next level thinking
from a player to like work with production,
to make a good show and to get what you want to happen strategically to happen.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, it's it's it's so much fun, right?
Because again, it's this I don't really think it's like 40 chest,
but this this level of thinking that I don't know if I'm out there.
I probably have a million things on my mind.
One of them is probably not, hey, let me check this bush next to me, because there's a construction
worker who's lying about being a police officer, hiding and waiting for me to bring out any sort of
nugget of information that could cause him to have to target me. But Tony is able to be to make this
happen in a certain way coming up with ideas that truly nobody would think of and able to take,
you know, some advantage of it.
You know, this is this moment I was pulling was particularly from
the Jeremiah boot episode.
You know, it's right after the LJ boot, but it does lay a little bit
of the groundwork for he hears Jeffra talk to Trish being like,
I don't know if I trust Tony anymore after the whole LJ boot.
And that maybe be late.
A bit of the plans for him flipping for the, you know, inimitable, interminable time and
saying, OK, time to get rid of Jeffra because I overheard her at the water well in my spy
shack. We obviously know that production loves when people are
going for it. Full tilt boogie, whatever you want to call it.
But especially when people are innovative, right?
Well, like they want you to do something that has never been done before.
But that's a challenge.
Like you get out there, especially now.
And, you know, I'm out there season 47 and you just think like,
what could I possibly think to do that nobody has done over the last six years?
I mean, you got duped by sort of like an open plan spy shack, right?
With Rachel hiding around the corner.
Let's get that up in concept.
What makes Tony so awesome and what makes this so special is because it there's nothing else like
it, you know, up through 28 seasons, there's nobody we've seen, as you just mentioned, like
people try to hide and sneak up on people.
We saw Tony do the same iteration of this a few times.
We saw like Sifu running off and being a little wacky early on for Reba.
And they all immediately sniffed it out because they had seen Tony play.
But nothing quite like this that had ever existed before.
So to have the creativity to do it, but also like the charisma
and I guess just ability to pull it off is like really, really cool.
The one I could point to is didn't Sandra in Pearl Islands wasn't there
like a scene of her.
And it's funny that those are our two players, right?
Like those are our two double winners, Sandra and Tony.
Yeah, I believe that's the one where she'll.
Yeah, where she like holes, Tawana and Dara aside, right?
To like listen in on Fair Play and Bert
and talking shit about them
to try to get them to turn on them.
You gotta hide if you wanna make the round about Rushmore,
you gotta have a hiding spot.
Right. It's the only way to do it.
Now, I will ask, we've seen obviously Spy Shack,
Spy Bunker and Spy Nest.
Since Tony is coming back for like Australian versus the world.
Is there a fourth one?
Are we going to see like the are we going to see like the 2044 of this
where it's like you didn't really need it, but we got dungeons.
Spy done.
Yeah. I mean, that's similar to the bunker, but yeah.
What's interesting is that, you know, he will not be playing alongside.
Maybe he will at a certain point.
But Luke Tokey infamously said that he was not a survivor fan,
that his exposure to survival before playing Australian
survivor his first time was watching a YouTube montage of Tony clips from Kaga.
So it could be a very amazing, like a Padawan Jedi master situation
where it's like you taught me how to be chaotic.
And now I'm going to try to be more chaotic than you.
Two persons by Shaq.
That's like, yes, Sam Morin that says the spice, the spice
scraper is what is coming.
So I feel like for liability purposes, they can't have him go any higher.
They already put him in a tree.
Where can he go?
He where he went in winners at war was like that was about as high as I feel.
I'm possibly get that was what what 100 foot with the ladder.
He could have died as I think.
You know, I think he's done like he's done
like the bushes, he's done the trees, he's done the dirt.
I think he's got to go into the ocean.
It's the only thing that makes sense to me.
By a spy Marine, the spy Marine.
Yeah, I feel like that off right in the truck.
I don't care.
I'm having to like a little like a read like he's one of those cartoon characters.
Like bubbles coming up.
Yeah, yeah.
I picture a world where Tony, yeah, Tony doesn't have to do anything.
He gets to the end and tells me, hey, by the way, I built like an air
locked seal underneath the water and listen to all of
your ocean time conversations.
You got my vote, sir.
Thank you.
And that's the best part is he doesn't need to do it.
He could just bank on the reputation of like, one last note about the spy shack is that
you talk about very key pieces of information that came out in exit press.
I think my favorite is when Trish revealed in a key interview
with Rob Sestrino one time that she pissed in Tony's spy shack
multiple times over the course of the day on.
I forgot about that one. Yeah, that was a classic.
There's your I'm pissed. Wow.
Wow. I love the exit interview lore.
This is great. Great addition.
Yeah. You know, the thing with Tony also is you could easily make a top 25 Tony moments.
Yeah. Like this wouldn't even probably be in my like top five.
And that's not because I don't love this moment.
It's just that there is so much that he does.
Absolutely. Yeah.
He's on. Well, that's what something interesting about this format is like a lot
of the biggest character characters we've seen on Survivor.
Like you just said, Zach, have several moments.
We were even talking about this with Sandra and I think as people are voting,
seven moments for each of them. And I think as people are voting, they maybe don't want to have
like, you know, a third of their moments be from one person. So we're getting an interesting,
like filtering down of people's biggest moments. All right. Well, on that note,
I'm going to give a clue that that's sort of banked off of that. But in a different way, as we get to number 17 as voted on by the fans,
I'm not going to reveal what era this is from.
I'm going to cast this across the timeline of Survivor,
but that's because I'm going to narrow the criteria down considerably.
Let's look ahead to the recently announced cast of Survivor 50.
Moment number 17 was a moment that was seen by not one,
not two, but three members of the cast of Survivor 50.
Three Survivor 50 cast members were present
for moment number 17.
Is it, it's not Suri on the balance beam, is it?
If it's Suri on the balance beam,
you're setting.
So we present at that moment.
Yeah, it was Ozzie, Surrey and Aubrey.
Yeah.
I mean, we so is it a David versus Goliath moment?
It could be something.
It could be something.
Be the jacket because Christian wasn't there.
Could it just be could it be like the David's coming together, David Idols coming together? I think it's more likely to be the jacket because Christian wasn't there. Could it just be could it be like the David's coming together?
David Idle's coming together?
I think it's more likely to be the right negotiation.
What about like, oh, like advantage getting in
in game changers?
Oh, I don't think the fans would vote for that, to be honest.
What about you're right?
I think it's a big event, like a memorable moment.
OK, I think that David vs.
Glath is good. I also think that this could be Liz's Applebee's Meltdown
because he didn't say the era.
Oh, because that would have narrowed it down too much.
I'm actually going to say that logic. Yeah.
OK, so Zach says Liz. I hope.
All right. I'm going to go away from Zach, but Zach's probably right.
I'll say it's I'll say it's advantage.
Get in. Although could it be?
Do we have three HVV people? I don't know.
Four. Um, so it could be a here's versus villains.
But no, I guess pre mergers.
It would have to be like the heroes early on for Stefan Sari to both be there.
Hmm. I don't know. Interesting.
Yeah. What do you think, Franny?
I'm going to go I'm going to go with David versus Goliath.
I'm going to go. I'm going to go with a David versus Goliath. I'm going to go.
I'm going to go David's I don't know if I are moment.
OK, three very different guesses across three very different seasons.
Let's see what moment number 17 is.
I went to the blue idol.
I like myself. a tie myself.
Wow.
Oh.
Wow.
I have another one.
We were all floating.
No, this is, I got it.
It's a big, yeah.
Oh, that's what you said?
Oh.
These are both hidden immunity idols.
Any votes cast for tie or Aubrey will not count.
Hey Jeff.
I've got a secret advantage which is a legacy advantage.
This is only good for right now.
The legacy advantage.
I forgot about that one.
All right.
I was back with survivor.
I had too many advantages.
I love that it's kept up by Trojan, by the way.
Just so you know.
Get in there.
In the top row.
I'm going to get on the immunity train and give you that.
Hashtag immunity train, bottom left corner.
All right.
This is also a hidden immunity idol.
Any votes cast for Troisanne will not count.
So any votes cast for Todd, Aubrey, Sarah, Troisanne will not count.
You could not vote for Culpepper.
He had the beans.
Saree, it doesn't matter what votes are in the urn,
because the only person who can receive votes...
What?
Who's me?
Is you.
And for what it's worth,
not a single vote in here has your name on it.
This is a historic tribal council.
Most idols ever played at a tribal, three.
Most people ever safe at a tribal, five.
And the most significant and devastating part of tonight's history-making tribal, for you, Saree,
is you become the first person in 34 seasons to be voted out simply because there literally
is no other choice.
There's no need to revoke.
Wow.
Wow is right as I am.
Admittedly to seeing that number 17 is indeed advantage get in from survivor game changers.
This one absolutely threw me for a loop.
But listen, it's the 25 greatest moments.
Sometimes great is meaning large or immense.
It's meant in a pejorative sense.
And perhaps that was the case here as it's a moment that I don't particularly enjoy.
I will admit. Well, I'll I think it's I think that this moment I was I'm shocked.
It's on the list because I think that the consensus is that people hate this moment.
I think that this moment, I mean, it is obviously an iconic moment
in survivor history, I think for Surrey specifically.
I mean, talk about a moment that defines someone's legacy
for a player that already had the reputation
of being like screwed, right?
Like season, her first season,
it was the fire making thing.
That's not really being screwed.
Second season, absolutely screwed.
Not even a question.
Third season, idled out, screwed.
But then for this to happen, right?
And this be the way that she goes out on her fourth time
after making it to the finale for the third time, which was a record at that point. I mean, like, what a way to go out for one of
the greatest players to ever play the show. Like, yeah, I think that this is absolutely
iconic, absolutely worthy of a spot on the list, even if it like pisses everyone off.
I so I I will say I'm going to go back to like
the headspace that I was in at the time, similar to what we were just talking.
You were also 10 years old. Yes, Sandra.
I in the moment thought this was a great moment, awesome moment.
And I think most survivor fans did, too.
And I think we've looked back in hindsight and been like,
that was kind of dumb that somebody just went home
because there were five idols in the game or whatever.
Like that was kind of stupid.
But I think in the moment, like survivor went through this era
in the 30s where they were looking for what's fresh, they were looking to keep stuff
exciting when they had just gone in this dark ages of the mid
20s. And I think there was sort of this high of things that
we've never seen before in 34 seasons. And so going off of
second chances where we have this awesome final six Tribal Council,
like I think production loved it and they loved the reception to it and how it made
everything feel more intense and the stakes were so great.
And there was advantages that could throw you for a curveball left and right.
And this was the culmination of it.
And so I do think it was celebrated a little bit at the time.
I think I'll say I'll say my my corner of the Internet was definitely mad at it.
The second that it happened, I wasn't super online at this moment.
See, I think I think I'm with you, Sam, like in the moment, I enjoyed it.
And then I went on Twitter and then I was like, wait,
I think I'm supposed to hate this.
Yeah. What?
But also like the response was so negative. Yeah. If Suri wins immunity and Brad Cul was like, wait, I think I'm supposed to hate this. Yeah. What? But also like the response was so negative.
Yeah. If Suri wins immunity and Brad Culpepper goes home
because of the immunity train, it's like people love it
because it gets Suri to the final five.
And it's like this awesome, crazy moment.
So like the victim, obviously not ideal.
But I do think it is one of the 25 greatest moments for just how big it was
at the time and how
big it still is to this day. Like it is a one word moment in survivor history. Advantage
get in and that I apologize to a CBS for making a mutiny train try to work, but it promptly
took over the terminology. You know, it's like I love what what Jeff said when he announced
a Quintavious Burette for season 50 and said
he's not just a one name players, a one letter player. Like to have such a big moment that means
so much positive and negative to so many fans of the show be so synonymous with one word.
I think that makes it so great. And it was also probably the tipping point that allowed production to cool it a little in the new era.
You know, we do get some seasons with advantages and idols with Rick Devins, you know, coming up right after this and Ben Drieber again.
But those are also guys that played idols and found their own re hidden idol.
And so maybe it was a necessary evil.
We lose our precious sari to the advantage.
Get in to then make Survivor adapt into a better product.
Yeah, I mean, it is intriguing because I
could see that point, Sam, about how maybe they feel like,
OK, we went too much in one direction.
But it really sounds like even with having
Jeff Sir reflect back on this.
And when I recently pulled him about his top 25 seasons,
Game Changers was a part of this, I think, for one of these particular reasons, which is
the fact that it represented the shift in power and you never know what's going to happen
that tribal council in from his perspective is supposed to be this box of chocolates that
like you think it's one thing you open it up, you take a bite of it. Oh, no, it's Nugent.
I got a big old bite of something nasty with this,
that you have this improbable sequence.
I think really the big lynchpin behind this is Ty and the fact that he found as he colors
them to idols in the pre merge and held on them for essentially the entirety of the game.
Like Troy's and yes, he also found a pre merge idol and you have Sarah with the legacy advantage.
But like for Ty to be able to to do that, I think really through this hinky
once in a lifetime scenario in the game were truly five out of six people
were rendered safe in some way, shape or form.
It is one of the most unfortunately unique circumstances that we've ever experienced.
And I wonder if that's also maybe a reason why I got a lot of votes.
Is that like we will never see this again.
Yeah.
And we came to it is the winners at war final six when you had Tony, Ben,
and I think it was Natalie all play idols and Michelle was immune.
Just down to Denise and ironically, Sarah Lucena, who gets saved by the legacy advantage here.
But otherwise, whether due to advantages
going out of the game ahead of time
or people playing them earlier,
we will never again have this until Suri in season 50
when yet another improbability.
Yeah, they're gonna set one up just for her.
Zach was kind of alluding to this,
but one of the other things that I think is so compelling
about this moment is, like you said, Zach, it really cements Saree's kind of like narrative
or her history of always being screwed over.
And it is emblematic of this idea in Survivor that you can be one of the best players to
ever play the game, and sometimes you still cannot escape your fate.
And I think that that is something that Jeff found very compelling about this,
is like everyone knows how good she is and she still she like can't escape it.
The universe finds a way to screw her over.
And like it's it's upsetting.
You want her to win, but it's compelling because it's like, man, that's her story.
I don't want to go.
I was going to say to all of the three fans out there,
I guess my question to you is this.
Would you have rather had this moment happen
or she makes it to final four and gets voted out like normal
because that's what was going to happen.
That was the alternative was a standard final four vote out.
Well, it's an illusion, says that Wharton Burger.
There was going to be a die was already cast.
So for such an iconic player to go out in like this never before,
once in a lifetime fashion, I think was like the best thing
that could have ever happened to her in this season.
I do kind of agree.
And so we don't need to take too long on this, but I think it's interesting
because this was sort of my
the question I asked myself when this 50 cast was sort of like coming out, right,
was is this better as three's final moment on Survivor
as the end to her chapter as sort of like you're a legend, you're awesome.
It just was not meant to be for you to win this game all the way up
to like historic, never before seen circumstances.
Or is this a moment that almost like
is a gimme for her to return one more time and close it under her own volition?
Like just gut reaction there.
What do we feel about that?
I mean, it's tough because we also have, you know, sort of a parenthetical
fifth time for Suri coming up even outside of 50. Right. So it's almost like, you know, when you know, it's tough because we also have, you know, sort of a parenthetical fifth time for Suri coming up even outside of 50.
Right.
So it's almost like, you know, when you know, it's inevitable.
But this does kind of represent to your point while we've talked about the adage of survivor
Charlie Brown, Suri was really wearing the yellow and brown stripes at this moment with
just like how on earth did all these things cosmically align in some sort of survivor syzygy?
The planets had to form a certain alignment for her
to be sitting in that seat in that time.
The only person left unsafe with no votes against them
before all this final four fire making stuff where we,
you know, get rid of Kara K and Liz and most recently
Camilla with no votes ever cast against them.
Seree was only the second person to do so after Pascal English
to get eliminated from the game with no votes against her the entire time.
It was an absolutely wild twist of fate.
It was shocking.
It was devastating.
And it is, according to the listeners, the 17th greatest moment in survivor history.
Yeah, I think to your question, Sam,
I think it entirely depends on how it plays out, right?
If she has some like gang buster game that like, you know,
truly it is like the ultimate cap,
then yeah, like it'll be worth it.
If it's an Aussie fourth time or a Parvati fourth time
where they come back,
don't really provide anything on that fourth time out.
And then they're just, that's it.
Now they have this weird like asterisk on their series.
It was like, oh yeah, they came back for that season
but I don't remember it.
Which obviously is more likely than not,
just purely based on like, her placements are third place,
fourth place, sixth place, 17th place, right?
So anything worse than sixth and she's like
in that worst range.
But we'll see.
Yeah, I think it's I think it's going to be harder for her
to have a more poetic ending moment than this.
She also already won Traders like she.
Yeah, she's fine for us three fans.
We already got that big.
Yeah, she got her.
And she also got given her own advantage in Big Brother 25 with her son,
though then that's turning into a disadvantage very quickly.
Yeah, Jared. Jared is the one who needs the redemption.
All right. Spoken like a true Wurttemberger.
All right. Well, let's get to our number 16 moment here.
The last one we're going to speak about.
I'm going to keep things vague again in terms of the timeline, but I will say this has to be one of the most iconic food moments in Survivor history,
a show that is memorably to an earlier point about people being deprived of food. This is
one of the biggest moments involving some food across 25 years of the show panel.
What do we have in terms of guesses?
Zach, this is for you. It's fat dip of that guac.
No, I know it's not this one, but I actually I'm just going to shout out
one of my favorite moments that I know didn't make this list
because it's such a niche one.
The All Stars Rupert Food Reward, where he it's one of my favorite.
It's one of my favorite rewards of all time, where he just gets like
it starts with like a steak and then goes all the way up down to a bowl of white rice.
Yeah. Yeah. To every member of his tribe.
I think that's one of the most genius rewards they've ever done.
The fact they haven't brought that back like that.
And it's like wild.
And it's like stuffed and very drunk too.
I had rice and water and I'm sitting here watching you get hammered.
Oh, yeah. I mean, well, even Big Tom was pissed because he got the ham sandwich.
Right. Like that's like the perfect version of the coconut
shop just without the coconut.
Like imagine Maria having to give that out on Survival 46.
They didn't have enough time.
It would have taken her hours like tiddlywinks.
I think I think right. Like it could be I'm surviving 46. They didn't have enough time. I would have taken our hours like tiddlywinks.
I think I think right. Like it could be I'm pissed.
It could be stripping for peanut butter in the Amazon.
It could be does Jervis with the grub
count as like the on the list.
It was on the list eating rats also on the list.
So I'll say it's stripping for peanut butter.
That's my best guess. Yeah, I'm going. I'm pissed. eating rats also on the list. So I'll say it's stripping for peanut butter.
That's my best guess.
Yeah, I'm going I'm pissed.
I was I'm holding out hope that it's going to be in this in this
bunch here.
Someone also shouted out in the chat a banana etiquette,
which I think it very much.
Oh, that would be a good one.
I don't know if this was on the list, but I loved Sandra
with the sugar as well.
That's a great one. Yeah.
All right. Well, let us get a fat dip.
The moment number 16.
I take my clothes off for chocolate and peanut butter.
Get the girls some chocolate and peanut butter.
Probes. If you have.
Oh, there you go. OK.
Jenna Heidi.
Oh, this is damn two ice cold Coca-Cola's.
One heaping plate of rich peanut butter.
Okay.
Guys can share.
Big tray chocolate cookies.
Heidi, you want to do it?
Yeah.
Alright.
Oh God, why me?
Why me?
I'm not looking.
Nope.
I gotta stay focused.
Where can I keep my clothes on?
I'm working.
Heidi, just pull your pants down to your ankle. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. I'm not looking. Nope. I gotta stay focused. Where can I keep my clothes on? I'm looking.
Just pull your pants down your ankles.
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
I'm not looking.
One, two, three.
Oh my God.
Ta-da!
All the kids at school, I'm not looking.
Nobody's looking.
You guys aren't even trying to tempt these guys off with this.
I am.
I'm looking.
Are you kidding me?
Maggie, you wanna jump in?
Yep.
All right, let's go.
I gotta get my shorts.
Are they around your ankles? That had to use them to drink.
Oh, God.
Come on over, girls.
Lost your buff there, Eddie.
30 minutes.
She lost a lot more, lost a lot more.
As indeed, the last one we'll be talking about today,
as guessed correctly by Sam Phelan, Heidi and Jenna Strip
for Chocolate and Peanut Butter from the Amazon,
featuring rather lurid cameo from our podcaster and she brought sister Nino
at a very tender age.
What an odd moment to experience audio only.
It's like definitely not how that was meant to be.
I mean, I will say the visual itself and look, I'm not one to judge.
If there was anything that was proven in Survivor, the Amazon is that people have certain urges when they're deprived of creature comfort.
This does not look entirely attractive to me personally.
I guess the blur is doing a lot right now that the imagination can't fill in.
But like, I don't know.
I know the guys were all of you like, I'm looking I'm looking with poor
butch being the most chased out of among them.
But like, I mean, in many ways, just a wild moment, probably
the most like 2003 moment I've experienced in quite some time.
No, when I think of this moment, I think of like, I don't even think of watching it on
Survivor on Amazon. I think of watching it on like the H1 top 100 craziest reality moments of the 2000s.
And this would always make the list.
Well, it made this list.
And I'm disappointed this made the list.
I don't this is this not a top 25 moment.
This is bad. This I don't this is fine.
It's fine. Sure.
I guess it speaks to, like you said, the creature comforts
that we are deprived of on the island and what people would do for even just
peanut butter.
But of all the strategy, like this isn't even a very good character moment.
This is just kind of like, I don't know.
I think it's a pretty good character moment.
I don't know about you guys, but I mean, I think I think it's
fairly representative of again, it it's representative of the tone.
It's of the times. Yeah.
Yeah. It is actually like like Spring Break survivor version, where it was like,
again, with the exception of like Butch and Roger and Janet and Dina,
like all these young, horny people just glaring at each other.
Meena, no, no, no person.
I mean, there's a wild thing about this too, is that like, again, maybe it's
it and maybe Rob can contextualize this to like, if this did not come up
unprompted, it absolutely does.
Like I started that clip with Jenna's declaration.
It comes out of nowhere when you watch the entire scene where Jeff's like,
there might be temptations that come along that have you step up.
It seems like Jenna just not literally, but essentially throws her hand up and is like, yeah, by the way,
I will take my clothes off for chocolate and peanut butter,
which is a complete non sequitur at no point to chef from say yes.
And you also must lose clothing along the way.
So that's what also makes it kind of, again, so wild.
I mean, the episode is literally called Girls Gone Wilder because of this,
that they're like, not only do I want this, but here's my demand somehow.
Yeah.
I mean, one of our earliest food negotiations, strong starting offer.
Yeah.
I mean, if there's anything right, like it that would make this a top 25 moment, it would
be, you know, the fact that this has a little bit of a scooping effect.
Like this is a moment that people that were not survivor fans talked about as being like,
I probably shouldn't use the word scooping effect.
Yeah.
I wasn't sure where we were going.
Do you want to make the news or?
No, but this was a moment that people outside of survivor,
like, you know, you walk in water cooler talk on Monday
or Thursday or Friday, whenever this air, I don't know.
You walk in the next day at work and say, Hey, juicy survivor last night.
You see what those girls did for peanut butter.
That was a little crazy, huh?
So, you know, it was one of these moments that I think propelled
the survivor to that sort of national must watch TV.
Even if but like I'd rather see more strategy here.
I'd rather see some some more character moments here.
See, I'll I got to be the guy who defends the chocolate
and peanut butter moment because for me,
I think it's just a fun moment in a season of Survivor
that needed to be fun because Thailand
was so the opposite of fun.
They needed to come back swinging
with like a really fun irreverent season.
That's what they got.
Jenna and Heidi like had kind of,
you know, like this cemented their characters and who they were for the show.
I mean, obviously, like they found great success after this moment with their
air. Yeah, they got a whole playboy spread out of this.
This was back in the day when like, you know, that's what you would get.
And they came into the show knowing that that's what you could potentially
get from the show.
I just think it's like a fun.
It's one of those moments that you just wouldn't have nowadays, obviously, and for good reason.
But I still think it like holds up.
I still think like as a product of the time, it's just funny.
It's, you know, so of its era.
And yeah, I love Rob's contribution to it as well.
I don't think that we I don't think we should forget that Rob is part of the reason why we have this
demanding the producers that they they chop chop.
Yeah. You think he made a deal like, OK, if you let them do this, I'll give you the content later on.
Is that his own? I know you betrayed.
Yeah, I think this moment is perhaps inflated because Rob is present as well.
My take here is that I don't think it's worth it for for a peanut butter like the
big house. That's also a great call. Like it's like the mouth feel anytime anybody has,
you know, takes on a peanut butter reward and they give them the big hunk of it, it looks
unpleasant. Like you're you're you're going to be sticky for a long time.
You'd be fair, Franny, Heidi showing her own negotiation skills also threw in two sodas on top of that.
So they at least had something to wash that out of their mouth.
But that just feels like I mean, they were having a lot of soda anyway.
Remember, that was the season where they won in probably an entire fridge full of coke.
So like these people were hopped up on sugar and hormones for the entire nine days.
Yeah, I love whoever.
Excuse me, whoever shouted out the rice negotiation.
Like, how do you think that would play nowadays?
It was like, all right, if you guys want rice, I need four of you
to drop trow right now.
So was it anything I would do it for the tribe?
I mean, it's not not a lot of couches out on Survivor.
That's a good example of the casting couch.
I mean, even even a better call for any like this is an immunity challenge at like what?
The final. That was the first.
But it was the final 10. It was the first individual.
I mean, so like first individual immunity challenge, you give up immunity,
get naked on national television and you get peanut butter like that.
That's not a deal. That was there. Yeah.
Imagine like nowadays it's like Jeff, all strip naked for a steal of vote.
I mean, listen, he's up for negotiation like, yeah, the standards of practice
is obviously with a no, but definitely a sign of the times back then.
I also again, speaking towards the iconicness of this moment
survivor in its early seasons, unless it was from a returning player perspective, never did callbacks.
They never went meta. They never referenced things. I remember clear as day Survivor Palau,
the first individual immunity challenge, exact same challenge. That's the perch. You just
stand out there as long as you can. And Ian Rosenberger, bless his heart, immediately
says I'll get naked for chocolate and peanut butter.
I think Sam breaks up a great point
where we talk about this and scoop it more like,
these were moments that maybe didn't necessarily mean a lot
in the grand scheme of things of Survivor,
but they kind of transcended what the show was
for better or for worse.
So I think it's also really interesting
that we have both very different elements of that from these, you know, single digit seasons
represented in this list today.
This is sort of and like this is maybe a take that I just talked myself
and convinced myself of as you were talking there.
But this is sort of Jeff's version of the you never know what's going to happen
on Survivor before like before that much can really happen really happen before you could really do stuff like this.
And, you know, this stuff was sort of not kosher for television anymore.
And family show, they skewed more in that direction.
And I think, you know, Survivor was sort of chasing that idea of
they want people talking at the water cooler the next day
about how unbelievable that thing they saw on Survivor was.
And if it's not a guy falling in the fire
and getting helicoptered out of Australia
or two girls taking their clothes off for peanut butter,
they had to invent that somehow.
And I think they used game mechanics to do it.
Yeah, I mean, advantage getting, I guess,
was sort of the eventual culmination point of like we had people fall in the fire.
We had girls strip for sugar.
Is that a bad thing?
I guess we can get someone to put that by default.
Yeah, nobody's getting naked these days.
Like we kind of figured it was going to left naked.
She was the only one not clothed by advantages at the end of the day.
Oh, yes.
No, I really think that the show,
I think that through this list,
I think we're gonna discover
there are like the two great types of moments in the show.
It's like the moments that come through
from strategy, gameplay,
and then there are the moments that come through
just from characters,
from people being people out in the wild.
And I think it's fun that you can have people
who watch this show for completely different reasons.
I feel like I love the strategy of the game.
I love talking to you.
But like when it comes to my favorite moments, it is these character like these just funny,
like out of this world things that these people who have these cameras on them end up doing.
All right. Well, let us review said five moments here, because to your point, Zach,
it really does cross a wide swath should be noted only represented from what I believe two through thirty four this time
around our beloved new era is not represented.
Who knows?
They might be down the line.
But just to review what we talked about today, moment 20 from season 20, Sandra wins twice
in Heroes versus Villains becomes the queen, perhaps belatedly, as we talk about with Game Changers. Moment 19, Mike Scoopin falls in the fire before he falls into a bit of controversy many years down
the line. Number 18, Tony's Spy Shack from Survivor Kageyan, the original version, before we see
if he goes underwater. Probably not with this game in Australia versus the world.
Number 17, the aforementioned advantage
get in series most recent elimination from Survivor and closing out the list.
Number 16, Heidi and Jenna strip for chocolate and peanut butter from the Amazon.
Look, you might you might complain about some of these moments that that came up. You might have your own thoughts, but this panel was even more sweet
and satisfying than a heaping plate of chocolate and peanut butter.
And from what I believe, no piece of wardrobe were shed in the process.
So thank you three so much for coming on, offering your insights, your guesses,
your thoughts on survivor history in general.
As we look back on the past 25 seasons, it was an absolute pleasure to have you
and cannot wait for the rest of this list to happen.
Let's finish things out.
We'll go around the horn if there's anything that any of you would like to plug
for the listeners out there. Sam, let's start with you.
I have nothing to plug, nothing to plug.
So, you know, thanks for having me.
That's all I got. Great. Go watch our blood on the clock tower video on our JP,
if you haven't already, and hopefully more coming out.
And since he's not here by escape, by escape dot com,
even fish dot com by escape, do that preorder, get your preorders in
Franny, anything you like to plug?
Yeah, I was going to plug clock tower as well.
It's so much fun.
Um, I, you know, we're all obsessed with it in the, you know,
Survivor and Extended Universe.
So if you have not had a chance to check it out, do that.
And I would really encourage listeners to play it yourself as well.
It's fun to watch, but it's even more fun to play.
I also know that it has been announced that applicable to Survivor 49, we are going to
see the home of the 49ers, the home city, San Francisco, Franny, where you reside this
fall.
So make sure you buy your tickets out there people.
You will not want to miss it as we'll be heading to your neck of the woods soon enough.
We are going to show you the time of your lives in San Francisco.
So, so people better show up because boy do we have a crew who's going to show you the time of your lives in San Francisco. So so people
better show up because boy do we have a crew who's going to be there to welcome you. I
am so excited. Thank you for bringing that up. Mike, I can't believe I forgot. It's in
November or so. You know, we got some time. And Zach, again, you had a very recent podcast
appearance, but you would like to plug that in anything else for the listeners? Yes. I
mean, well, first of all, follow on Instagram and Twitter. And then I'm doing I mean, the genius UK just wrapped up. We just posted our finale recap with Omar's here.
So make sure to check that out turned into a really fun show and a great time podcasting with
my brother the whole season. Clock to ourselves great. And yeah, Mike, thank you for having us.
I mean, it was just really fun. I will strip naked right now for an invite to whatever you do next.
All right. I will cautiously push that invite forward.
Are you sure?
All right. Well, maybe we'll we'll we'll see what's what's
what's being offered, perhaps off the table, off the record later on.
But for now, that's going to do it for this podcast.
Thank you all so much.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments
about what you thought about moments 20 through 16,
whether your reaction to them showing up on the list,
some of the significance about what it meant
for Survivor past, present, and perhaps future,
and what moments you're expecting to see next week
as I'll be back with another panel of Survivor alumni
breaking down moments
15 to 11. We're getting into the top 10, baby, but just a handful are going to be left out
and we shall see what those moments are going to be next week. Thank you all as always so
much. Thanks for everyone who is tuning in live as well. This was such a great time.
We'll be back with more moments counting down the 25 greatest in Survivor history next week.
Until next time, everybody, take care.
Bye-bye.