RHAP: We Know Survivor - The Weekend Program: Survivor 47 So Far

Episode Date: November 16, 2024

This week, Josh and Antonio discuss Survivor 47 through episode 9.

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and snacks and free fast-streaming Wi-Fi on planes with no middle seats. And your Tampa Bay vacation includes good times, relaxation, and great Gulf Coast weather. Visit flyporter.com and actually enjoy economy. Welcome back to the weekend program here on RHAP. We know scripted TV. We know Survivor 2 as we are talking about Survivor 47's mid-season here on the weekend program where every weekend myself, Josh Wigler, and the great Antonio Mazzaro are joining together in the attic of the R.A.J.P. podcast network to talk about TV, movies, anything we want in that space.

We talked about the Survivor 47 premiere when it happened. We're back with a midseason progress report on Survivor 47, plus some looks ahead at the future of the franchise. Of course, I'm Josh. That's Antonio. Antonio, hi! Josh, we are back, but we're not just back as a podcast, a weekend program here talking about Survivor. You live posted about Survivor this week, Josh. I did. You would know that I have been live posting about survivor this season on the cursed hell site known as X.com.

Oh, I know, but I am part, uh, Antonio of the recent X, a dis, uh, and I'm,

uh, full throatedly co-signing the blue sky where we had a really fun night live tweeting, uh, live skeeting. Are are you do we skeeter post seems like a personal question uh how about live skeeting that sounds good to me live skeeted we live skeeted from the sky antonio survivor 47 a bunch of people uh in the survivor space uh made blue sky their exclusive home for live commentary on Survivor 47 this past week. It was a blast.

I'm going to be hanging out there every Wednesday night for the rest of the season for sure. Shout out to you, Dalton Ross, Mike Bloom, leading the charge that morning saying, we're going to do this. This is happening. And everybody getting on board. It was really fun to be part of something like that again and to see it happening in real time and to engage with the show that we all love and that we all pull up to. Like Jeff Probst likes to think we do.

You know, we all go up to our living room TVs at eight o'clock on a Wednesday night waiting for Survivor to start with our snacks and our families and whatnot. For those of us who aren't doing that, pulling up and live skeeting it or watching the live skeets happen was just as sweet. So fantastic stuff. Yes. Round Howard on blue sky, wherever you can get them. Antonio, you're on,

you're like a blue sky pioneer. You were one of the earliest adopters. You struck oil early on. I live in the sky, baby. Yeah, that's always up in the clouds at wherever you can get them at AC Mazzaro on blue sky.

It's good times. It's good times so far. Like, yeah, obviously nothing gold can stay. So let's revisit this at the end of the season as we will. Yes. Survivor Josh,

let's come back and check in on how survivor blue sky is doing. And let's say, Oh, I don't know. Six weeks, right? We could also just do a, like is blue skies.

You still up a blue sky you up or did you get the overrun? We could do a blue sky checkin at the end of the season. Yes, as Antonio says, we will be back on the other side of Survivor 47 as well. So this is the second of three Survivor 47 podcasts from the weekend program, which you can subscribe to. Theweekendprogram.com

is the way to subscribe to the weekend program. Once again, every single weekend, Antonio and I get together. We talk about all manner of TV. Last week, we talked about some of our comfort viewing rituals when the times are tough. Next week, we're going to be returning to one of our favorite segments here on the weekend program, the Sopranos,

as Antonio and I are slowly making our way through a Sopranos watch. We are talking about, I think, episodes six through 10 of season one next week on the weekend program. And then we'll be back later on in the season, as we mentioned, to recap the end of Survivor 47. So if all that sounds fun to you, if you like listening to me and Antonio talking about things, then you're going to want to check it out at theweekendprogram.com. Antonio, mid-season here on Survivor 47. How are we feeling, and

should we provide any kind of recap for a previously on Survivor 47 for anybody who's going to need such a thing? I wish I had one prepared. I would say, previously on Survivor, this season. Wrong answers only.

Wrong answers only. Andy flamed out and Andy has been like the centerpiece of every bit of the edit since it seems like. Like the man is getting content nonstop. It has become the Andy show for me and in my household. So previously on recap for me is like when we last left Andy, he was falling apart and had fallen apart and still had managed to stay in the game. And Andy has found his footing. And now he's all that. Let him.

Rachel Lee Cook. He's out here, baby. Andy previously on Survivor. We lost our hometown hero. We did way too soon. We did. Way too soon. We lost Asia. That was, it's been a tough season

for, for podcasters, radio personalities, e-sports commentators. People with geographical place names. Yes. That's also been a difficult time for people this season.

Asia versus Rome is probably some Punic war or something that happened way back in the day. I thought you were talking about the Sierra Nevada, of course. Well, again, also a problem for people with place names. It's just not really worked out. So far, working out for the Andes. Yes, that's true. It's different.

That's a mint. That's not a place. I guess it's a place, but it's also an Andes mint. Oh, my God he's meant oh my god i've had two today already no lie no cap in the hotel they have them they're handing them out like uh you know candy yeah you can just say it when it's literally that uh previously on survivor 47 uh i have been uh very much enjoying myself i've really liked this season so far. So have I. And I think it's a really good cast. I think people really all actively want to play.

And I enjoy players that are actively playing, even if they're not necessarily always playing well, or if the moves they're making from a thousand feet away from our points of analysis or the various things that RHAP does every week to break down the game. Even if those moves don't always seemingly make sense in the moment, I appreciate that people are making them.

I appreciate that the game is sort of wild. We had an auction, Josh, previously on Survivor this season. We brought the auction back. We can talk about that. And I would like to talk about that with you today, how we feel about the current iterations of the auction, the rebirth of the auction and the way that it's played out. So we've done that. I've just really enjoyed watching this season of Survivor. And thinking back, I did not revisit our previous podcast, but I recall one

of my feelings after the first episode of Survivor was like, this is icky. I don't like it that they keep bringing people onto Survivor and like their breakdown becomes the paramount part of the episode or the thing that we're focusing on. It's hard to watch and I don't tune into Survivor to see the game break people. And in recent seasons, of course, there's been like quiet quits. There's been actual quits. There's been a lot of meltdowns and a lot of problems that happen early on in the game. And that does seem to be a function of like who the game is bringing on and how they're identifying who they want to bring into the game. And yet like with Andy this season, I think we're seeing why they are okay with bringing someone who they feel

could crack because after the crack, Andy emerged from the egg and he emerged from the egg and has blossomed and grown. And so maybe the crack is, this is a bird that you're describing. In my mind, emerged from the egg and has blossomed and grown. And so maybe the crack is clearly, this is a bird that you're describing. In my mind, it was a face hugger from aliens,

which was a lot creepier. Hey, lizards come out of eggs as well. You know, birds are just flying dinosaurs, right? So there's something, there's a there there.

But the point I think I would make is like with the distance from the first episode, I have actually enjoyed seeing the way a story like that can actually evolve in a positive way. I think sometimes you see somebody crack and then by the time they go home, they've accepted it or they're on decent footing. And we've got maybe like a one or two episode arc of somebody who has a really hard time and has a breakdown out there and then doesn't come through. Of course, sometimes we've seen that happen where somebody is on really bad footing in the first episode and they make it all the way through. And so Survivor, this deep into Survivor, has told most of the stories in most of the ways that they can. But I have really enjoyed that this season did not really continue to focus

on break or breaking and instead continue to focus on growth. Um, I don't know how you feel Josh about the way that, uh, when we have a three tribe season, uh, the way that they find a way to manage, uh, to make these tribals still very lively, uh, by mixing things up by making sure only certain people are going to be eligible to be voted out. Uh, it seems like they found a way to extend like the more dramatic, uh, closer votes a little bit longer past the merge

this season yeah i don't know i think um i i think that for me once again and maybe this is to some degree it's a little bit of a surprise to me antonio that like my my interest in i guess so this is the first season that i'm watching live weekly in forever you know I've caught up on everything from the 40s so I'm fully caught up on the show except for the handful of Island of Idols episodes that I do not want to revisit until I really have to if I ever have to so I

you know a lot of the 40s blend together but I've seen them all and so my takeaway from the 40s when I returned to Survivor after a lengthy Yadis was I guess I just don't care so much about the game anymore. I care so much more just about the vibes of the season. But I am finding myself being continuously surprised at how invested in like trying to track what's happening in the game I am. And I think a lot of that does come down to the fact that while R.H.A.P. hometown hero podcaster Asia Welsh was eliminated early this season, we were all ready to stand all season long. And even though she's gone, I know many of us remain standing Asia.

It was helpful for me that then the only really like rooting RHAP interest is RHAP patron Andy. And so every single week, Antonio, I've been walking in to my living room of choice, digital or otherwise, with baby Andy's survival on my mind at all costs. And I've been rewarded with a player who is both vibes and strategy. And so like this season, I do feel like I'm kind of having my cake and eating it, too, in a way that I didn't expect. I'm kind of having my cake and eating it too in a way that I didn't expect.

It's a, it's, it's very, uh, I don't know exactly what the word is, but it's rewarding to see that you have been able to evolve the way that you appreciate the show. And I think for those of us who are longtime survivor fans, like fans since the show either debuted or was in its very early days, it almost has to be that you have evolved the way that you enjoy the show because the show itself, the game itself, the strategy maybe, perhaps even Josh, has evolved and has evolved throughout.

And we certainly are in an era now where every season being in the same place means that I think the ways that they can find to impact the game become not necessarily iterative, but maybe repetitive or maybe just like, okay, we're in an era now where it probably makes more sense to have more no votes. And if we're going to have more people not voting, then we need to find more ways to have more people have extra votes or have a stolen vote or have a vote block so that you can't take my vote away from me it seems like that is sort of triggering to people or people are getting frustrated with the votes being played with and my sense although i have not participated actively in the discourse so i will just tell you it's my sense my sense is

that people who are still so very focused on the gameplay of Survivor being extremely important to their enjoyment of the show. You can understand why like taking votes away and having that be a part of what's happening could upset people like that. Because those people want to sit back and they want to do the math on their own. And they want to say, OK, if this person work with that person on that vote and then this and all that really rests on like the number of votes being the same and being sure and being comfortable. And it makes sense from a production point of view why they want to shake things up and make it not clear who has a vote when or how many people can be counted on. And they want that sort of strategy to be more live, because I think if you work backwards, what they really like from a television standpoint, more than anything at this point, is a live tribal council. It helps them from an editing standpoint. And I think they think it helps from a dramatic television standpoint.

In the third act, the audience is not going to know who is likely to go home. This is not going to be just like set in stone, easy deal deal because there are so many moving parts there's advantages there's idols etc and that makes more for more lively third act of any episode it makes her a more lively tribal council and at that point uh the vibes of the players and what we as the audience have bought in as far as that goes are probably what guides like our heartstrings right it's like well i i feel good like Like even the players who I might not normally like in any given season, as far as archetypes go, if they're scrambling, if they're trying hard,

like Sam is in an archetype where that player is not usually the player that's my favorite player this season, right? Like the young, strong, like mainstream kind of guy. And yet- Does he remind you of Corey Haim or is it just me? Not until today. He hadn't,

I'll tell you who he reminds me of this. I'm going to get, I'm going to get a hate mail for this one. For some reason, program RHAP at gmail.com or AC Mazzaro on blue sky. It's in the face. But if you told me that he was Kelly Clarkson's brother, I would believe I can see that.

I can for sure see that a hundred percent. So that's who he reminds. But I was saying like, Sam is in that archetype of a player I don't normally like. And yet on this last episode where he realizes that the vote is lost and he sort of, he sort of divines from that conversation with Rachel that it's going to be Saul.

And as soon as rachel says don't blow up my spot saul appears he's summoned he's like gandalf in the hobbit cartoon when bilbo comes out with his little pipe and then gandalf appears when he smells the snow yeah saul was summoned uh by rachel saying don't blow up my game and immediately pops up. And then watching Sam try to like in real time, decide, do I screw over Rachel? Do I protect myself? How do I do this? I was very intrigued by that.

And I guess I don't think I would have been without all the various twists and turns that are happening in any given episode of like Survivor Fiji season 14 or whatever we're on right now. Yeah. So I'm on board. I have been and managed to switch myself

to the vibes of viewing of Survivor. And I will say, and this is like no affront to any individual cast members. And I won't even say what season it was, but there was a season, I think, in the late 30s that just fully broke me in this regard. And I didn't even finish it. I just I did not finish watching the season because I truly didn't care. And at that point, like I had to get back on board with, okay, now if I'm going to care, what's that going to come from? And my love of the show and the vibes of survivor will apparently forever stay pretty clean. And so I've stayed on board and I'm really, really, really enjoying this season.

Okay. So as we're talking, we are talking about survivor 47 through the second member of the jury uh this is the episode that just recently aired episode nine titled nightmare fuel uh which uh uh i thought that was last week antonio why did you think that was last week i thought it was last week whatever reason there it was last week. For whatever reason, there were a lot of feet. There were a lot of feet in this episode.

There were, there were, there were, that could be a thing. As a, as a Goutman, I was triggered. Did you have a strong feeling about a feet forward challenge?

Is Antonio? I don't, I don't think I would perform well in them. My feet would let me down for sure. I, I'm all for any challenge where they don't think I would perform well in them. My feet would let me down for sure. I'm all for any challenge where they don't feel or they don't have to do anything to make it balanced so that anybody of all shapes and sizes can feel competitive. And in certain ways, I like it when, okay,

X competitor might be much stronger, but this challenge is going to really demand something out of their strength because we're going to give them the same size platform for their giant strong feet as we're going to give somebody who has much smaller feet uh and so let's see that strength versus like a natural advantage of size a smaller size i i appreciate when the challenges play out that way and i do think some of these like standing or balance related challenges don't necessarily favor just the biggest and the strongest people and i think more of that like standing or balance related challenges don't necessarily favor just the biggest and the strongest people and i think more of that is always better is there something

you could do to like groove your feet pre-season like before you get out there how do you train for a foot challenge like this can you like uh i don't know just like really callous them how do you make them hard as a rock Antonio probably walking across hot coals yeah uh just going around barefoot a lot will naturally callous your feet I think in foot related challenges like these in particular I think we've seen yogis do really well right because those muscles like that most people don't even know exist uh in a yogi are just like very strong toned uh ready to be used in a situation like this. So you might say, how can I press my ankle against the side of a board and manage to get some kind of

like balance or purchase out of that? Well, if you're a yogi, your whole core and everything else in your body is intertwined and connected. And so that sort of thing, I do think is probably good training for things like this. Just the more yoga people have done uh the more stronger their base is from their feet but as far as like callusing your feet up and roughing them up I don't want this to be the next evolution of survivor Josh like we already know people are covered extensively in toes the next evolution of survivor yeah oh yes yeah we're doing it. We're doing it. But yeah, I think we've already been in a game where we see people like Hunter

building every challenge in their backyard, right? Like making the puzzles and doing, basically doing the work of the entire Dream Team on his own just for fun. So what I don't want to see is giving those people license to carve up their feet. You can't like 3D print your feet. Yeah, we don't want to see is giving those people license to carve up their feet you can't like 3D print your feet yeah we don't want to let

these people have an idea that what I need to do before I go out to survivors just fuck my feet up just groove them just groove them out it ends up being Gabe who won this challenge here this like multi tiered challenge and he does like

the Haka victory dance at the end which man would have been really cool if his immunity necklace hadn't fallen off in the middle of it that guy yeah it was like ah that feels like a metaphor for gabe i think that is very much a baltimore-based uh ray lewis tribute and so it's like if you're going to tribute a guy who like was pretty credibly accused of murder maybe the necklace is going to fall off you know a little bit like karma there when you're out here on survivor you're going to attribute a guy who like was pretty credibly accused of murder, maybe the necklace is going to fall off. You know, a little bit like karma there. When you're out here on survivor,

you're expected to kill it. It's a good point. It's good. We have heard that. So it's a good point. And that's probably why we haven't seen Ray Lewis out on survivor. Not yet. We've seen other ex NFL players. Yeah.

Gabe one. I couldn't credibly accuse any survivor castaways of murder, but I could credibly suspect quite a few. Are we talking about murder of a human? Because I know others have been credibly accused of murder of other animals. Some of these folks have buried bodies. There's no question. No question. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not today. Look, it's a cross-section of humanity if you pull like if you pull that many people into that many things you're just going to get

some people who've done some pretty bad things uh but what i was thinking uh that's not a draft we're not going to draft like we're not drafting would be murderers no i don't think so i don't think that's what we're doing even though we have picks in mind we do definitely there's like flashing through my mind as we as we speak my thought was when this challenge was being described at the start of the episode that like this challenge specifically just like feels like

one of those like the Parvati type just like destroys the competition in a challenge like this so I was really just waiting for mother for Genevieve who I think is survivor mother this destroys the competition in a challenge like this. So I was really just waiting for, uh, for, for mother, uh, for Genevieve, who I think is survivor mother this season, uh, to, to take it now, uh, Genevieve, who I, who I know you, you cannot seem to get past calling her John Aviv, uh, offline. So I want to get ahead of that, that if Antonio says John Aviv, he means Genevieve.

Yeah. It just, yeah just consider me to be like Tony right you know or like it's a Kim Spradlin situation I just can't help but say Genevieve is she mother to you? I know Genevieve's who go by Genevieve that's the problem is she mother to you? she's a lawyer so

I have a lot of respect for a lawyer who can go on that game and like not immediately be ruled out because they're a lawyer and also not immediately become like an abrasive asshole personality type because they're a lawyer, which is almost guaranteed. So first and foremost, like I have a lot of respect for her as a colleague, as a learned colleague, somebody else in the legal game and looking at what she's doing and saying, OK, she's really downplayed that aspect of her personality. looking at what she's doing and saying, okay, she's really downplayed that aspect of her personality to the point. Kyle on this episode is saying, John of E or Genevieve.

He doesn't say Genevieve either. He says, Genevieve, Genevieve. I don't consider her really a strategic player in this game. And like, meanwhile, she's orchestrating the boots left and right,

like getting what she wants a week, like last week, this week, and really like zigzagging throughout the game uh as as like just above it all uh even though i i don't like so as a viewer and as a person who is wanting to like appreciate like a good game player she's a little messy this week where she says i'm going for saw just because i'm petty because he tried to get my ally roam out and it's like wait a minute genevieve i watched the season like i'm not on your team for doing like, let's avenge Rome work. Okay. Like that's not what I'm

here for. So, um, so that part is like, I can't buy in entirely, but I have a lot of respect for how she's playing the game. And I think she's very well suited to go much further than she already has. Uh, and I'm excited to see how that plays out because look, I mean, if we have a narrative where she does make it to the end of the season or she wins the season, which to me seems like very possible at this point, then we have a winner who we can look back and say, oh yeah, this winner really shaped the game. Like she really shaped the game. So if we are shaping up to have Genevieve win,

like we're going to have a great winner. shape the game. So if we are shaping up to have Genevieve win, like we're going to have a great winner. BetMGM, authorized gaming partner of the NBA, has your back all season long. From tip-off to the final buzzer, you're always taken care of with a sportsbook born in Vegas. That's a feeling you can only get with BetMGM. And no matter your team, your favorite player, or your style, there's something every NBA fan will love about BetMGM. Download the app today and discover why BetMGM

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Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario a thing that i wanted to touch on as we're sort of like freewheeling through all of the survivor we haven't talked about since we talked about the premiere um i the the way in which the the the storytelling risks of survivor have uh have whether you want to call them evolved certainly have changed uh since my time presiding over uh the show certainly um earlier in this season, so Genevieve is all but completely invisible

through the first three episodes, right? She basically doesn't exist. If she has a confessional, I don't really remember it. You remember better than I do that there was some talk about Asia wanting to go after Genevieve during the Asia boot episode. I don't really remember any of that just because it was a tough night for RHAP. It's the next episode,

the episode where Keyshawn goes, where Genevieve has this montage sequence of piecing all of his plans together and all of these various things that are falling into place that are erasing her narrative and her agency in this season and this is really where genevieve comes online um if genevieve goes on to win the season uh without having really spoken much at all if at all in those first three episodes

and only activating once it's a vote that she is resting control over do you like that how is that fitting in terms of like your enjoyment of like how survivors uh i don't even know if it's fair to say like starting to get like cute in the storytelling but it's definitely like a cute storytelling choice i feel good about it i will tell you i spent a lot of time enjoyable time i might add out in those survivor streets right, right? Talking to other Survivor fans about edits, about things like edgic, about things like, oh, well, this confessional being given to that person really matters. that like amateur prognosticators at home can read the tea leaves, then we're in much better shape, in my opinion. And I especially think we're in better shape,

in my opinion, if we've done that and we found a way to do that without just reacting entirely in the opposite. Like they have not in any respect buried Genevieve in this game. Maybe in the first three episodes, she doesn't get as much time, but of course the yellow tribe goes to tribal in the first episode the blue tribe goes to tribal in the second episode and then there

is the asia boot which it isn't necessarily genevieve's boot that that is true but we don't need to show her having agency over a boot that wasn't hers we don't need to telegraph that she could win the season by making that sort of thing the the focus of the asia boot uh and so if genevieve didn't play a major role in that and that wasn't her move we don't need to edit that into the story if later she's going to do big things that we can portray and we still can make a winner story out of so i'm all on board with all of that and you're right like it is episode three where asia goes home uh and then it's episode four where Q'shawn goes home. And that is the Genevieve move.

And then, of course, like, no, she was involved in the Rome boot. Like she played well. She got on board like she wasn't like completely snowed as to what was happening there. But as we see, that's still something that she's carried with her later being angry about. And then when we get to the merge, such that it is, of course, the idea of a merge on this season was just sort of a joke. It's like, we're not merged yet. You don't get your buffs.

Oh, wait, only one person is immune and everyone else is going to vote. So we're not, but we're not merged. Anyway, Sierra goes home last week. And when we begin this week's episode, that's credited to Genevieve. Like that's Genevieve's move, as according to the previously on.

So everything is like there's the material is there where if Genevieve wins this season, I'm not going to have felt cheated because Rob was making jokes at the beginning of the season saying, who's Genevieve? Because we know who Genevieve is now. And I think that's what's important. Yeah. Genevieve's target and eventually the target of everybody at this tribal, despite Sam Hames best efforts here. It's Saul. Saul. Better call Saul, Antonio.

Saul gone. Saul gone here. Did you have a big Saul take he was a really beloved figure out here I think in the the survivor Skeeterati uh people were really really sad to see Saul go home I'm on board with Skeet but I am not on board with Skeeterati I'm I'm gonna make it happen sounds like something someone would like a racist name. Someone would have called me as a child. Oh, man. I believe that is Doug Funny's best friend's last name is.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Saw a beloved figure, a real vibes player for me. He beats out, you know, he wins against Rome in the battle of Saul versus Rome, even if he never gets to have the satisfaction of casting his vote for Rome. He has a couple of moments in the previous episodes, like finding that advantage, sending it off to Rachel. It seemed like Saul and Andy were building something. It seemed like Saul was building something with Rachel.

All for naught. All for Saul to be the one who goes home. Saul in the wound, Antonio? Or Saul long farewell with fondness in our hearts? How are you feeling? I enjoyed Saul. I am frustrated that Saul went home. Certainly, if you asked me in order of my favoritism,

who would have been booted this week, it wouldn't have been Saul. He wouldn't have been the person who was my number one, like my number one boy, like the number one in our number one in our program and in our hearts guy. But I enjoyed Saul in this season. I felt particularly personally aggrieved by what Rome was doing that affected Saul and how upset Saul was with all of that. And this is why, ultimately, this is why Asia died early, because of Saul, right? Because she was unwilling to flip on Saul

and unwilling to just do whatever it took. Because I think Asia, I read some of her post-game stuff. I certainly read her with Mike Bloom talking about like, well, I recognize, like if Saul went home that week, I was the next target. You were taking away my partner. Everyone else was paired in two. So I was done at that point. I think I'm paraphrasing Asia there, but she basically

recognized that, OK, well, if we send Saul home, then I'm next. And where does that get me? And so maybe that same situation is why Saul game stalls out at this point. It's interesting to me that he was the target this week from Genevieve's perspective. As I said, the show made it seem like, yeah, there was a little bit of pettiness there. But I think it's considering what that she's early. She's Lavo. And considering the power of the two members that seem to be left in the game and the connectedness of the two coup alliance for Genevieve to say, got a one week Sierra's gone. And then Lavo next week,

Saul's gone. Then it just, I I'm, I'm really curious to see how the rest of this game plays out for Genevieve having made these moves because she's eliminated a yellow tribe member. Now she's eliminated one of her fellow red tribe members. And so where does that get them as opposed to taking on the two coup and the force that is there in the rest of that game?

She says in passing in this episode, basically like, well, Kyle and Sam are going to keep going at it. Like that's going to stay in the game. So we don't have to worry about that for a while. Like those two are still going to be the big things that are there for people to look at as potential targets. So we can get Saul out now and undo that. I like the idea that Sam had about going after Sue for the reasons that Sam had, because Sue was better situated as far as being quiet and being connected and being insulated

and being protected. Like if you don't get Sue out, surprisingly, in a moment like that, Sue is there for the long haul. And then what do you do about that? When are you going to get Sue out? If not now. So I kind of felt that Sam might have had the better feeling on that. And that wasn't just my heartstrings wanting to see Saul stick around a couple more episodes. I enjoyed having Saul on screen. Look, I mean, Saul is closer to my age than most Survivor contestants typically are. And seeing somebody close to my age who can get out there, have no issues, play a good game.

I'm definitely Team Saul. Sad to see him go, but interested to see him go in light of, as I was saying, what that could mean for weeks to come. Well, luckily, you also still have a fellow mid-40s contestant here on survivor in sue uh so oh yes of course yeah you and i basically police lined up you couldn't tell us apart i still have some representation there just looking at the numbers i'm just like i'm really trying to put my strategy hat back on. It doesn't fit as seamlessly as the Wombat hat, which was always vibes. But just looking at this right now,

so there's three Gata left, there's four Tuku left, two Lavo. Lavo's got maneuverability, but they really probably need to take a shot at one of these Tukus. Otherwise, they're really giving the game over to Tuku if Tuku just wants to stick together. That's sue kyle gabe and caroline who are still together from two coup uh but it seems like sue really wants to kill kyle she's got a real grudge against

kyle and that might blind her here a bit um and the other players do recognize that i mean we hear other players speaking about that that sue that sue would be glad to kill kyle and we hear sue say it of course but that's still then a big three with sue caroline and gabe uh and the other issue is genevieve's move here the way that this happened with saul teeny is balling she might have a teeny problem she could have a teeny big teeny problem potentially because teeny has just been like teeny is such an endearing player i really love teeny so likable so likable incredibly likable and like uh a great like uh a great character on this show like every single vote seems to have like just not really gone teeny's way and teeny's increasing cascade

of frustration and hardship in that regard is a very satisfying thing to watch as a viewer. If there is some sort of uppercut coming from Teenie on the other side of it, it could just be a straight tragedy. And it could be like Teenie continues to trust Genevieve only for uh like you don't trust the penguin right like you don't trust the penguin yeah the penguin's gonna take are you calling her that because she's from canada that's right you don't trust the penguin from canada might be a little uh little of you there you know you don't you don't trust oscob right like oscob's not taking you all the way at the top so i hope that teeny could figure that out at some point in time even if genevieve does authentically want to keep working with teeny and genevieve's like idea here to some extent maybe is like let's mat sing ourselves let's

reduce our threat level uh it's just the two of us we can swing through the rest of the game just teeny has been jilted enough times that what I could really see and would be worried about for Genevieve. And so far as like, I would be worried for Genevieve is Genevieve treating teeny the way that Sam and Sierra treated baby Andy. Like that could really come back to bite her potentially. Yeah. Like who else do you have in this game?

What are you going to do without me? You're just going to let the two coup roll this. So we have to work together. Even if you can make a case for it being in someone's best interest to do something, if you've burned them enough times, it doesn't matter what their best interest is. They're going to act against it. more lesson about that sort of thing. We could just look around us at the discourse, at everything that's going on and recognize that people don't always act in what we might deem as their best interest if things have gone really badly for them or if they feel particularly aggrieved. And certainly, Tini has every reason to feel that way, right? Every reason to feel that way with the way these votes have gone down, but specifically with regard to the Sol vote, because three Lavo, a strong three Lavo in a game where they just got out Sierra and where Andy has flipped away from

Gata means that Lavo could be in a power position if the three of them were willing to work together and take on Andy or maybe get sued to vote out Kyle or however you want to do this. They're in a power position. And what Genevieve has done with that is said, you know what? I acknowledge that that's a power position. We could go with that. But I feel pretty powerful anyway. And I feel I don't need that as my power position. And I feel I can do other things, which is all well and good. But Tini being aggrieved about that is one, correct and appropriate. And and two not something that you can account for or control it's not something that can be put in a number uh and quantify uh we have no idea how teeny might react to being burned in the way that she has been uh in the ways in the people that

have burned her uh and the the tears at tribal council tell me uh that's not an easy thing uh to be rectified uh and the genevieve is in a decent spot of trouble here, especially like standing there lying to teeny's face about it. So that's rough. That was really rough. And you're right. Like teeny is so rootable, so likable,

you know, just somebody in their early twenties who is earnest and is trying hard and is very likable and decent. And the game is chewing them up and spitting them out. And that's, that's tough to watch, but I really do hope the uppercut is coming. There is some moment for Tini

where the game just doesn't end entirely in frustration. Fortune's rising, at least I think as far as visibility and having some narrative weight, if not strategic weight, though she's certainly been at the center of a couple of very interesting moments across these past three votes. Rachel Saul gives Rachel the safety without power. She's able to bail when it seemed like all guns were trained on her.

Rachel finds an idol. She doesn't even use it. She plays a shot in the dark instead. Rachel is the one who has Genevieve's ear enough to find out about the Saul vote, though that was a really unnecessary move on Genevieve's part that actually really

mucked things up, right? She had the numbers locked for that Saul vote and really didn't need to tell Rachel, who then tells Sam, who then tells Saul, and all hell breaks loose. Rachel is starting to seem like a bit of a fulcrum player to me. Is she pinging for you? Yes.

Part of why I'm feeling so positively about this season is I think there are a half dozen or so people who I feel like have really had some, just some strategic input, some real evidence that they have a game that is viable. And I certainly think Rachel game that is viable. And I certainly think Rachel's game is viable. She is definitely popping for me. She's popped for a while.

She's popped from before when other players were telling me, like, I'm scared of Rachel. She's the real threat right around the time of the quote unquote merger. I still like to call it the merger because of Borneo. So right around the time of the merger, the idea that other players like Caroline, I think, are looking at Rachel and being like, yeah, we got to get her out. She's tough. And then, of course, like the moment of the season so far,

arguably, is the safety without power moment. Is that knowing that that bomb could go off, that fuse was lit, where Saul, just by virtue of being a sort of a layabout, just rolling over to the side and seeing that idol or advantage to the safety without power option right there at his side, not even having to look for it was so fantastic. And then, of course, it's just like, well, everyone on Tuukka was there and Rachel. He's got to give Rachel safety without power. This is going to be great. She's going to walk away in the middle of tribal. And that's exactly what happened.

And so even before that, like before she got swapped into that mode, she's certainly been on my mind as one to watch. And no reason to feel any differently after this episode as well, separate and apart from the Saul boot, the fact that at the beginning of the episode, the aftermath of Sierra going home is presented through like the lens of Andy saying like, I flipped. I'm a certified flipper now.

This is what I do. And yeah, I can go back and I can make nice with my God of folks. they had from the very beginning of the game when Andy is blowing up her game and melting down and causing issues and making her feel uncomfortable, which was so icky to see that the two of them at the beginning of this episode are like, we're we've been circling each other this whole game. We need to work together. And then they did work together on this vote. But like that wasn't the story of this vote. Genevieve was the story of this vote. And so for Rachel and Andy to have that long montage about how they have almost worked together if they've been circling one another and have that not really be the story of the Saul boot tells me that's content for later. And I'm excited to see what that content for later looks like, because those are both players,

Rachel and Andy, who have gotten a lot of content like that that makes me feel like they could be in it for the long haul as well. So I'm very interested to see if the two of them cook up something massive. Maybe they're responsible for the downfall of Genevieve. Maybe that's a thing that's coming. I'm really tracking that, not just for Andy, but especially for Rachel.

Yeah, yeah. I think that that's a good call. And I feel like, especially like the full recap within the episode of Andy and Rachel's arc through the season thus far feels like why is that there if like their relationship actually doesn't even matter that much for the rest of this episode uh so definitely feels like we are setting something up there and i wouldn't be surprised to see the two of them in some combination of the final few people left in the season

rapid fire on a couple of these other people here who we haven't mentioned we haven't talked a ton about Kyle who got all those chicken wings that he couldn't really eat do you think he was just taking shots of blue cheese

vegan Kyle do you think that was just taking shots of blue cheese vegan kyle should jeff have been like hey you can trade this like that's not what we should have done buffalo cauliflower this isn't i i had uh visions of big tom and ethan dancing in my yeah he can't eat the wings he can't he's a big and he can't he can't eat it i feel so bad for him but he can't eat it yeah uh yeah how very survivor though like jeff is uh you know a commitment to the bit right yeah this is survivor baby eat a wing yeah do it lean in break your promise and your morals uh yeah so kyle is a player who has sort of put himself you know bricked himself

into a corner I mean he didn't even get a single vote he didn't get a single vote which is of course interesting the suggestion seems to be well he'll lose again and we'll get him that time and when we get him that time it will be him and not me so why not do this why not

get somebody who later you might say oh I'd rather have Genevieve out than Saul. It's all out now. So you don't get to make that choice later because you're deciding between Genevieve and Kyle. And so like, I don't think he does still have to win out, but we've seen Mike Holloway do it. Like we've seen players kind of really

from about this position in the game, find idols and win and bottom their way to the top. So could Kyle do that? I think he could, but I just don't feel it. I don't sense it. It's not in my gut. It's not in the vibes of the season.

I think next time he loses, he will probably be the one who goes home. And I thought maybe that was going to happen this week after all. I thought, okay, well, the obvious boot is so obvious. They're disguising it behind all of this Mishigas. Well, that wasn't the case

that's what I thought too and we can do that with Kyle again if that's what happens again but I think the next time it happens it's Kyle's time I guess I'm realizing that the ones we haven't talked about are all tooku basically Sue you got a big Sue take no

her idol hunt from earlier the season was just an incredible comedy of errors just uh unbelievable uh more like idols covered in blood please uh yeah great great gag hilarious gag and doesn't like other players noticed it right like this has been once they got to the beach and saw the red paint and they're remembering like when someone found the evidence and then the players who had noticed the red on her remembered that they were, it was noticed, but like the fact that Sue has this idol doesn't seem to be a reason anyone is coming for her.

And it doesn't seem to be a major part of the narrative or discourse. She's done a very good, I love that Sue Caroline and Gabe Alliance. And so I'll take this opportunity to talk about Caroline and Gabe as well. Sure. I really liked that alliance from the rip. And when that alliance was formed in the first episode, basically, I think my thought was like,

okay, that's such a unique alliance and such a specific alliance. And we're seeing that at this point, like that really is an alliance that feels like it is built to last. Gabe, obviously early on the game early in that, and that same time period, there was a little is built to last. Gabe, obviously, early in that same time period, there was a little messiness to Gabe, making noises, being clear that he was looking for things.

But that obviously did not stick to him. It did not come back to bite him. I really like that alliance of three. I think Gabe did a fantastic job insulating himself with those two. Sue, in this episode, is seen saying, like, Gabe can't go home. Like then my game is completely shot. It cannot be Gabe. And so I have a feeling that that alliance is

important for Caroline as well. And so like that alliance is a big story of the season for me as sort of like underpinnings or as undercurrents that I really like the season. And one of the reasons I like it is that's just another one of the stories that is there in this season that I'm waiting to see what the ultimate payoff is, just like Andy and Rachel, or just like Andy overall, or just like the bubbling presence of Genevieve, or the other things that are going on with Teenie and the story we talked about there. There's a lot of these vibes things that we're talking about. I can't wait to see what that alliance ultimately can do.

And they'll have a massive target on their back. Even if Kyle goes, there's still three at that point. And if they stick together, it's going to be hard to get them out numbers wise. So good on them for playing the game as well as they have and as quietly as they have as a three,

because I think it has really inert to their benefit. Maybe a hot take but uh short of obviously asia and then andy should uh andy choose to uh want to spend future time behind a microphone my prediction for who among the survivor 47 cast gets featured on podcasts about survivor in the future the most moving forward like in the RHAP family who's going to be part of the regular rotation who are you going to

see in like these blood on the clock towers from this season moving forward give me Caroline I think Caroline's going to be sick I think it's going to be Caroline she's so supportive she would be great in any of these games because you'd just be supporting everybody that was playing.

I think she's got great like strategic acumen. And I really like how she breaks down the game and stuff like that. So I would, I would really love to hear her as a commentator. I think it would be very fun. Me too. And she reminds me of Emily Deschanel from Bones. That's who she looks like.

You do say that forensic anthropologist famously Caroline Didmar. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Yeah. So I thought you were going to gabe because he is already a content creator uh but i like caroline as an answer there uh i've really enjoyed i look sometimes in a three tribe season what you see and we we know this from a strategic perspective and from the way things have evolved throughout survivor if your tribe goes through a lot of adversity before the merger and you get rid of a lot of uh merger and you get rid of a lot of

chaff you get rid of a lot of people but you form a very tight bond through all of that work through all of that trust that you have to stick with in getting rid of people left and right that can sometimes mean that you do really well once the game comes together because you more than anybody in the game have this like established base of trust and also you're probably not coming in with a lot of numbers but you've got the numbers that you can really rely on and the three of you can stick together or the two of you can stick together and then you can really impact the game tuku did not really suffer that kind of adversity the tiana boot was so rough after that safety without power moment because they were all crying like they

weren't great with it like it was like it was not what they had wanted to do at that time and in that moment uh and so they had not really gone through a ton of adversity i think the red tribe would have been the tribe to say okay that's the tribe where now when they come together uh maybe saul and teeny and genevieve will be like a very tight three of Of course, we know that's not true, but props to two props to those three for keeping their alliance that they form basically at the beginning of the game as still something that they can continue to trust and value that deeply this late in the game. Good for that. Antonio, you mentioned

earlier that earlier in this season, in fact, just a week ago, we had the the second of the new era survivor auction. How are you feeling about the survivor auction these days? I I will say my one thing and I want to know how you feel about the survivor auction. My one thing is it felt like this season the auction was OK okay, who got the least amount of money? Okay, well, one of you is going to be screwed and the other one is going to be screwed too. And the money was basically just how much they found in the jungle. It didn't feel like there were enough opportunities in the auction for people to make actual decision points.

It was just like everybody's going to spend however much they found. And if you didn't find enough, then you're going to be last on the train of how much you can spend. And you're kind of screwed. So I, the strategy of the way the auction played out this year didn't hit as well for me, but Josh, like you as a long time survivor,

a commentator, a contributor, somebody who has like been deep in this game, you kind of disappeared when the auction started to dip a little bit. And now it's back and you're back. I, I, I got to imagine you're feeling great to have you.

I did this. I don't think you did it, but I got to mention you're doing great. Did you summon it? I don't know if I, I didn't put it in my summoning circle. I had other things in my summoning circle that have panned out, which has been nice.

Uh, but of course, you want to say more about those things? Nope. Nope. All of those are for offline off my I didn't think so I didn't think so that's a you know I mean a pizza maybe we'll talk I love

the auction vibes especially that the auction in what was it 45 was when it came back I think the first time if I'm getting that right and the fact that that one had no no no no no

no advantages nothing and him like Jeff being up front with that and then this time there is an advantage it's squirreled away in a french fry bowl and so like how can you plan for that I guess so did that break the auction for like a third

auction I hope not I haven't thought hard or listened to enough people talking about like the ways in which maybe this exploits the auction moving forward. But I feel like one French fry, one bad French fry doesn't spoil the whole bowl, Antonio. No, I don't mind. I don't mind that. I did. I did mind. Like, so I like the idea of the auction.

They've brought it back. Right. As you said, I think it's survivor 45. And I like the random number between six and 15, because I like that you can't, when you're there game out exactly how many items are going to be there. So when you're going to spend your money, do this, do that. I do think like having the person with the highest amount of money left at the end, losing their vote is an interesting tweak as well. Right. So that's a good thing. I don't mind the lost votes. I know other people have some feelings about the lost votes. And I think, Josh, my take ultimately is that if we're going to do lost votes, we just need to do more of those things.

As I was saying earlier, let's have more vote doublers. Let's have more block of a lose vote. Let's have more block of a lose vote. Let's let's reward those little things as advantages instead of maybe necessarily giving people just like immunity idols that are good through the end of the game. And I think they've adapted and adjusted the impact of idols in the game a lot. And I'm not really complaining about that, but I don't really have a problem with the vote counts not being static. And I like that being tied to the auction. I just like I said, I don't like the outcome just ultimately being how much money people found in the woods or the, you know, the tubes that they find with the money in them, basically determining how that all played out. I do wish there was a little more fluidity within the auction to maybe discourage people from just bidding all their money on each individual item. I don't know how you do that. And maybe we could spend some time later

or another time figuring that sort of thing out. But I'm happy to see it back. And I do think my main complaints about the way it was before have definitely been alleviated. And I don't mind that an idol or an advantage might be an A random treat. Everybody's trying to buy something.

So somebody randomly gets lucky and gets one so be it i don't have a problem with that all right antonio well what do you think if we do a little weekend program auction at this moment in the podcast are you up for a little uh little mini auction here on the weekend program are you staking me i'm staking you i'm staking you. I'm staking you. Good, good, good. All right. Here's how it's going to work. I will gladly spend all of your money. I'm going to give Antonio four. Count them. Four dollars.

You get four bucks, Antonio. And every item here in the weekend program auction is a dollar. It costs a dollar to buy. You have $4 to spend. We've got four items on the table. Plus, hold on. Let me just roll a die. Give me a sec.

Okay. Okay. I know how many additional items there are going to be, but the auction could end at any time after four, Antonio. So if you wanted, you could just buy the first four things on the board or you're going to hold on to some money in case some of these others on the other side of four are of interest to you. And if you don't buy an item, I will choose for myself

whether or not I would want to buy the item. So, for example, let's begin with just a sample version of this. So, here's a nice little plate. It's covered up, but we're not going to keep this one covered, of course. I'll talk about this one very, very quickly.

This is, on this plate, a Survivor Season without immunity idols you could buy this for a dollar uh this is a free buck do you want to do you want to buy this or not antonio so i've got four dollars to spend you now have a dollar you've got a fifth hour this is a fifth hour if you want to spend it or not okay so i have five. I know I'm getting at least five items. Yes. I don't know if there will be more than five items.

Right. And my point, what I'm doing here, just to reset this for everybody, including myself, is if I pass on this item, then I'm essentially saying to myself, I think there is going to be at least one more item and it's going to be

better than the idea of a survivor season with no idols. Right. May I ask a question about this? Of course. Absolutely. Does the cast know? Does the cast know that they have no idols? Yes.

They know that there are no idols in play during that season. Um, I don't know which is more interesting. Honestly. What do you think? I think it would be interesting. Um, I, uh, I want to know. That's why I want to What do you think? I think it would be interesting. I want to know. That's why I want to talk to you about it, because I'm not sure I know.

Let me just make a ruling on the field. They do not know that there are no idols this season. Yes, I will buy this for $1. Okay, you're going to buy this for $1. How does that make the difference? Well, for multiple reasons. The first reason is the effect on subsequent players, which is to say that like, oh, my God, they had a season with no idols and they didn't tell the players. Are we going to have idols on our season? Are there idols in play? Does one person find an idol and be like, oh, my God, now that I found an idol and I know there's idols on this season, I'm not going to tell a soul. In other seasons, I might've used this idol to build trust and to make a connection, but I don't want to be the one that confirms to the rest of the people that

there are idols in play. And so that part would be fascinating to me, the effect on future seasons, but the effect on the current season would also be interesting just because of the paranoia, because people wouldn't know if idols were in play, Jeff would ask, Jeff would repeatedly ask.

And I think the paranoia that would build from that would be like a steam whistle, right? Like it would be just like this thing where this, okay, no idols were played in the first couple of weeks. Big deal. Maybe there's no idols in the game. We're not going to ever think that. But if we get like three quarters of the way through the game,

like final seven or whatever, final six, whatever it is, and no idols have been played, I think people will be losing their minds and i think that would be really fun to watch play out all right so that's your first dollar you've got four more to spend it was a freebie uh there are going to be at least five items in this auction we're going to call that the first one okay first one down second item on the list here let me take you know what let's keep this one uncovered as well antonio this item is a return to two tribes for a dollar do you want survivor to return to the two tribe format may i ask a question yes of course How many people in each tribe? It's going to be 10 and 10. 10 and 10.

Okay. 20 cast season. Yep. I'm getting 20 people. And so I'm getting a little bit more. You know what? How about this? Let's do 18.

Let's keep the same number of survivors that they're bringing out here, except instead of dividing it into three tribes, we're going to do two tribes. We're going to do two tribes of nine uh i'm gonna i'm gonna pass on this item okay so you're not mad at the three tribes right now i'm not mad at the three tribes if anything i think they could do more uh to shake up the three tribe format than they even have um i would probably if you and maybe listen i'm saving this dollar because i'm hoping what's under another one of these uh you know what do you call it uh whatever it is a chafing dish are we preventing are you

presenting these to me on a chafing dish um i'm hoping what's under one of these lids is a one world season and that one tribe versus three i'm picking one give me a one world season uh i'll take that for a dollar i'll buy that for a dollar but a two tribe season just i'm sticking i want to save my dollar and see if that comes up all right uh next item also uncovered we get to the final four fire making twist antonio fire it or keep it hired are we getting rid of fire making for a dollar? So let's see. I have $4 to spend. I don't know how many items are left at this point now. And we have gone into the point where I could be rolling. I could be rolling the dice after you've rolled the dice.

Yes. I will buy that. I should say that if you have any money left over at the end of this auction, you'll be executed. Well, God damn. I was already going to buy getting rid of the fire making challenge. I'm over it.

I'm beyond over it. Just so you know, you had the option you could keep it going too you didn't have to fire the fire making challenge fair enough but i was already planning on buying uh even before you threatened me with penalty of death yeah i was i was already planning on buying to put the fire out uh i think it was interesting i think there have been some fun moments i think there have been some great dramatic moments. I am not a television producer, so I am not trying to not yet. Not yet. Not that year. I am not necessarily trying to as the strategy of putting yourself in or not putting yourself in or having respect for that or not having respect for that I'm done with it so get rid of the fire making challenge please okay this next item item number four we're gonna keep this one covered Antonio okay well I don't want to die

uh let's see let me let me reset here so i have three dollars left is that right or two dollars three dollars left you've got three dollars three dollars left and i know that there's at least two more items yes but if i don't spend all my money i die yes but i might not have the opportunity later to buy an uncovered item that I would have really liked. Yes. I want to know what is in the mystery of this auction, if I'm getting an advantage or something. So I will buy this covered item for $1. You're going to be very

happy with what you purchased here, Antonio. You've already mentioned it here. On the auction, One World Twist is returning to Survivor. Because you know i'm a big fan of the one world twist if not the season why would you want to see the one world twist back again antonio oh so many reasons i think chief among them is just that if we're going to continue to

feed gr way so or ourselves through survivor and i don't have a big issue with this i think it's something we need to revisit uh because we haven't revisited it because it hasn't really been a major part of our survivor story and honestly no cap like and no offense to anybody but the season it was part of is terrible it's like a bottom five survivor season for me so in light of that uh i would like to see it with this cast it would have been amazing. I can't believe what it would be like, especially in our modern diversity casting era,

to see one group and to see them all together at the beginning of the game and to see what effect that would have. The original premise of Survivor, at least half of it, was always like players work together to establish a new society. and we

have we talked about this a little bit on the last survivor podcast that we did here on the weekend program uh but that has not really been a huge part of the survivor game uh in the recent era uh is like what about the society building they're not getting like advantages or incentives or like they're not getting food because they made a set of rules right like they're not doing the sorts of things that like when you're building a society you would do and getting rewarded for them so i'd like to throw everyone all together and see what that mix could create especially early game um another reason to do that sometimes in a three tribe format or even in a two tribe format uh the grossness of who gets piled up on can be really gross. Now, it could be even grosser

in a one-world season, obviously, but I think if you give people more opportunities to find out, then sometimes maybe some of your early boots who shouldn't have been early boots or felt bad being early boots would have found it easier to stay in the game in a one-world twist.

So I'm just for it for any number of reasons, but chief among them being, it is not played and i would like to see what it looks like yeah the fact that the season wasn't good is the reason it doesn't happen again i think is like the big reason why it doesn't happen again they can't call it something new without acknowledging that one world happened and i think that they would love to not really acknowledge one world at all um which uh is a shame because i think that i think that there was a lot of juice on on uh left in that in that to squeeze out i

think that also they have tried certain versions like i kind of think like mergatory is a little bit one worldy right in there yep it's there. It certainly is trying to capture some of the tendrils of the same vibes, yeah. But I do think that doing it early, very early, is very fun. There's probably more that they need to iterate on with it, whether it's ever-shifting tribe permutations where you can't ever feel super comfortable with the group you're going to tribal with.

Some people would hate that, both from a player standpoint and a viewing standpoint. I'm not necessarily suggesting that that's what should be done. But I think that there's just a lot more left to play with, with everybody on the same beach, and especially as a starting point. So I would have bought this for sure as well. This next one, I would certainly buy, but you only have $2 left. So this would be something that I would buy. I'm not going to cover this. I'm just going to say it. It's another twist from the 20s that we haven't seen

since a season of Survivor that I am celebrating the 10-year anniversary of each and every week on the podcast called Stan Juan del Sur. Antonio, blood versus water, are you bringing that back for a dollar? I'd like to see it again. Yeah, I would pay a dollar to see it again in this scenario. I mean, what I'm running through in my mind at that point when I'm making this decision is, are there a half dozen better things that I would want to see that you're going to give me in an auction like this? And I've thought often about the blood versus water twist. I think it is a good way to bring back more returning players or specifically returning players who we might not have otherwise considered, but because they're in the mix, because they have a good family member. I think that that consideration needs to be paid.

I think we need to do less of the let's bring in our most beloved America's Tribal Council type winners, even if their partner is not necessarily going to be like Shining Star TV. That is not as interesting to me as finding a world where you can bring in a family member who can

actually have maybe an interesting impact on the game. And so that, that's something like, look, it would, it would be pretty cool to see the Wharton burgers out there is one of the things I'm thinking about. Right.

And that's not happening because of Zach necessarily because Zach's time, as we know, was pretty short, but it might happen because we know that Corey would also be good TV. And so there we go. That's a that's a layup. We might never have otherwise seen Zach again on a Survivor season. But knowing that he's got Corey there and they could both make good TV together, that could be something we could really do well with. I love the idea of the Wharton, the Wharton burger brothers being like the,

the third in the Holy Trinity of blood versus water brothers between the Bushkowskis brothers, the Christie brothers. Yes. Wharton burgers. Let's do it. I love this. I love this.

It's like, I don't even know what, but yes, I love the way the chart, we'd have to line them up and arrange them in a certain way. I think if we switched the order of the Whart burgers and the christies then we would really be multiplicity this thing and then michael keaton gets involved and it's just a whole other thing uh yeah i so anyway i'm all for the idea of another blood versus water i just would hope that the casting

would be very purposeful beyond the survivor that they want to bring back and the best family member of that survivor they can find. I don't want that. I want it to be the best two people they can find considering that one of them has been on the show before. Antonio, starting now, that was,

that was all that was promised. We've gone through five items in the auction. It could now end at any moment and i'm gonna die if i don't spend and if it ends now you you are indeed going to be executed um the way this goes is whatever you offer me has to be worse as a worse fate to me than death yeah for me to not spend my dollar on it right now so let's hear it let's hear it I'm not saying that that's not possible by the way

you're telling me I have to bid a dollar on John Rocker coming back to Survivor or I die I'm gonna roll the dice that there's another item alright well let me uncover this one then okay because you've got a real

Rafe's choice on your hands Antonio you can either allow yourself to be executed or take me away Calgon you cancel survivor oh dang oh what if this is gonna be a covered item but now that this could be do or die i feel like this should be uncovered i have always felt uh that the long arc of my life could end in martyrdom in some strange way uh depending on the way that our politics goes so if i you're asking me would i choose to martyr myself in this convoluted auction scenario so that Survivor could live on in the hearts and minds of all my beloved and people who would never meet me and would never know me, that I was standing up for the right for this show to continue to exist. And I was giving my life in a Christlike fashion, one might say.

Yeah, I wouldn't. But one might. Yeah. Would I do this? You've given me a real tough choice blood versus water versus wine and sometimes maybe one could be three who knows

and we don't need rice all we're going to have are loaves and fish I look I would do look I know there are people who feel like they could not live without Survivor I know that there are people like that out there. I've seen them.

I've met them. I've interacted with them. I've spent time with them. We've broken bread over our shared love of the show. And in light of that, and in light of all the people who tune in each week for escapism from Survivor, who need the show to fill in the dark times of their lives, when their family's going through something or when they're going through something,

I will stand up for those people and I'll, I'll take the hit. Wow. Okay. Antonio Mazzara willing to off himself for the, no, you said I would be executed. You didn't say that.

I'd have to do it. Sure. Sure. What will your choices allowing me to execute you? I was thinking of like a John Brown scenario. Yeah. That's not where we're going the nation will celebrate me like it will lead to great change survivor remains

uncancelled antonio you remain uncancelled there is another item in this auction okay thank god you have not been cancelled yet from earth thank god but i don't have a dollar left to spend on this right uh no you you chose not to buy the cancellation of survivor right oh okay fair enough i got a dollar i live i was willing to die for the for everyone else's sins you specifically yours you live you live antonio this item will remain covered i didn't want this podcast to get this dark it's covered okay all right so it's very dark cover now i'm buying uh unknown versus unknown the idea that i could be executed by you which yes by the way you've not described what the execution method would and i won't okay god bless so i don't even get to know yeah um yeah i'm buying what's under this

i don't want to die uh okay antonio i don't want to die john rocker's coming back to survivor i don't care whatever well indeed he is antonio because you just bought survivor robs versus john's it's happening finally god damn it it finally happened what's the show that's that's the show oh yeah we got it survivor robs versus oh that's a real monkeys paul you just did to me you made me uh i feel like i went through a masonic right of some sort like you had me stage my own execution and now i've bought a ending that i didn't want but that i deserve probably yeah uh. Uh, survivor Rob's versus John's. I don't know how great the list looks these days, uh,

for the Rob's of the John's here on survivor. Um, but, uh, I'm not going to put you on the spot to make you, uh, cast this thing, uh,

right this second, but, uh, I think that there's still, there's still life in Rob's versus John's. I think would be fun. Uh, John rocker out here again is uh

likelier now than ever before uh antonio what i did was just so just so we know like i chose the possibility of my own demise yes that i could keep survivor on the air and then what i gave all those people who i was trying to protect was a toxic all-male season of Survivor? Yeah, Rob's versus John's. Should you have canceled Survivor? God damn it. Did you choose wisely? I chose wisely in the moment. I will not do results-oriented thinking. I think that's right.

However, results-oriented thinking suggests that I might not have chosen well. Here's what I would like to know. Ultimately, as far as my choice architecture, if I am going on results oriented thinking. Was there another item? There were three more items in the son of a bitch. There were three additional items in the auction. Antonio, would you like me to uncover them or keep them covered?

Would you like to know what they were or would you like to keep them a mystery forever? Let's uncover them for the people okay for the people uh first item you could have uh picked for a dollar a returning player of your choice anybody okay okay all right any single person you could have brought back um the next item that we would have uncovered pick a new location survivor leaves fiji you get to choose where god bless that was a good one final one uh that you could have picked was for a dollar antonio bizarro gets to select once jeff retires the next host of survival okay okay all right all right you had you had some you had some choices there. You got Rob's versus John's.

I wish I had another dollar because after all you've put me through today, I would make you the next host of survivor Josh. Wow. Uh, definitely would reject the job, uh, but thrilled to be thought of as always. Uh,

Antonio, speaking of, uh, you know, we're, we're celebrating a lot here. We are celebrating the fact that you have survived the grueling weekend program auction. We are celebrating the fact that Survivor was not canceled by you.

We are celebrating the fact that, of course, Survivor is turning 50 very soon. Jeff Probst gave an interview with Dalton Ross recently to talk about what they are looking for for Survivor 50. recently to talk about what they are looking for for survivor 50 uh he says that um he wants to find something that's gonna uh celebrate survivor from different vantage points he says how do you do that in a way that's fun that includes the fans that has the players that all the fans want to see and will still give you the opportunity for another great season of Survivor. So celebration is the first word that comes to mind and that equals joy. I'm looking for those moments that are going to be really fun

and really funny. This is what's on Jeff's mind as construction on Survivor 50 is actually probably like decently along the way at this point since they're going to have to film it. I would guess like probably like uh if past is prologue with may june something like that um how are you feeling

about jeff's vibes on 50 based on that mixed mixed because what jeff thinks is joyful may not be what i think is joyful 100 of the time i know the show has celebrated moments that I have not enjoyed. I know the show has celebrated players that I have not enjoyed. And so I feel a little mixed on that. That said, I do think they want to get it right. I thought the cast for Winners at War was very good. And I think they understand the gravity

of what they're working with. And I think that they can do right by that. So I have some concern, like I said, based solely on my miscalibration with Jeff on what's joyful on Survivor. But I think that the pool of potential players is very deep. And maybe, Josh, when we revisit this season of Survivor

and talk about this at the end of the season and we look back on it, Maybe then we can, uh, we can give some thoughts to what we think should be in this cast. Interesting. Yeah. Now I have a lot of thoughts about what I would want from survivor 50. So I'd be, I would, I would welcome the opportunity to have that conversation when we get to the end of season 47,

when we will return here on the weekend program with one last weekend program about survivor 47 Antonio, this being the last time we speak before then on the weekend program with one last weekend program about survivor 47 antonio this being the last time we speak before then on the podcast about survivor 47 you want to plant a flag in the ground winner pick i uh i have to stay i have to say i don't necessarily feel this way now but i will say at the beginning of the season very early on the first name that jumped out to me because of that alliance was gate i thought the fact that they're basically giving this guy authorship over this interesting alliance and giving this alliance this screen time uh and it just feels like okay very early on the game gabe popped to me i think he's not really had if i had to read

the tea leaves and if i were really going to put my tinfoil hat on or start to look into the edit, he's not really had the content I would see has felt like a winner since then. But I have to admit that that was my first call. And so first call, best call, I would say Gabe. If I had to pick again, I mean, Andy, Genevieve and Rachel. Rob's versus Genevieve's. Rob's versus that's, see, now we're talking. Rob's versus Genevieve's. Rob's versus that's... See, now we're talking. Now we can maybe get in there.

Rob's versus John's versus Genevieve. Yeah, we can get a third try. John Robert. Figure this out. Whose last name is Belland. Yeah. Yeah, I would be looking at Andy. I would be looking at Genevieve.

I would be looking at Rachel. And I think any of the three of them uh would strike me as a very worthy winner uh and I think would be a fun season winner uh so I am not going to plant a flag I will say I already planted it early season I have to own that I have to say I thought Gabe was going to win it really early on so that's where I'm going to keep my flag uh but those three players I mentioned are who I've got my eye on as far as feeling like they have very interesting potential winter stories. Yeah, I didn't make a winter pick at the start of the season. I didn't do any preseason for this. I just wanted to hop right in. I think that's probably how I'm going to rock these new player

seasons, at least for the foreseeable future. So this is, I guess, my shot to make a winter pick. I'm just going to say baby Andy. I'm just going to try and manifest baby Andy to the top Wow, imagine if you were listening to this podcast and didn't understand why Josh was calling Andy baby Andrew Josh, if people wanted to know how could they find that out? That's not my story to tell I think you could consult Robin Akiva

if you would like to know more Specifically Robin Akiva and where they might podcast. Yes. A podcast that they need still to this day. Antonio, that's going to wrap us up. Next week, the weekend program returns. For those of you

who are not subscribed to the weekend program and are listening to us through the RHAP Survivor feed, we encourage you to join us if you enjoyed this podcast. Antonio and I talk from the attic of RHAP about TV each and every weekend. Pods drop on Saturday mornings. Theweekendprogram.com.

You can also search for RHAP The Weekend Program wherever you get your podcasts. Next week, we're talking Sopranos, the slow Pranos as we're slowly going through the Sopranos for the first time here on the podcast. Episodes six through 10 of season one are what we will be discussing on the weekend program next time. If you want to get any feedback in for that or anything about Survivor, we would love to hear from you.

We can program our HAP at Gmail dot com. That's weekend program. Ourap at gmail.com that's weekend program rhap at gmail.com or you can hit up antonio and myself on blue sky at round howard at ac mazaro i've been very interactive if you're reaching out to me on the blue sky i'm gonna reach out back to you antonio i don't want to put words in your mouth if you'll do the same thing but i I certainly will. It's a really fun, vibrant community. Yes, if you reach out to me on Blue Sky, I will put you in touch with Josh, yes. Yes, so consult my secretary, Uncle Tonio. So follow us there. A really fun community being built out over there.

Would love to see some weekend programmers out there. Would be very, very, very fun. If you listened to the weekend program, if you listen to it regularly, and you are on Blue Sky because of that, gosh, we would love to hear that that'd be very very fun um antonio anything else always a lot of fun to talk about survivor with you specifically josh i love your survivor brain i love your survivor thoughts you are just like a

i don't know an encyclopedia with a comic book cover when it comes to uh survivor and so starting to come back to me a little bit but it's still fairly locked away but some of this is just never going to leave is what i've come to peace with i love that uh and coming to peace with it is the important part yes uh and like i said earlier i said you know i've wondered if my life could end in martyrdom that's because you have to come to peace with like are you willing my survivor life kind of ended in martyrdom now i'm getting at this is what i'm getting at like you have to come to peace with like uh the way that you put yourself out there and what that ultimately might mean uh and you put yourself out there with all of your heart with survivor for a

long time uh and so it is like so um rewarding to me to see you in a good place with it and enjoying it. I love it. I don't want to, I never would. I have made you do this, but I am proud that you have. Yes. I'm having a great time with it.

I hope you all are having as much fun as I am, because that means you're having a really good time. We'll be back at the weekend program next week. Talking slow pranos. We hope you all have a great week. And we'll see you all again in the attic on Saturday. Until then, bye. Bye.