RHAP: We Know Survivor - Tiffany Nicole Ervin Post-Season Interview | Survivor 46

Episode Date: July 20, 2024

Today, Rob Cesternino (@RobCesternino) is joined by Tiffany Nicole Ervin (@TiffyCrazyCool) to discuss her time in Fiji! Learn more about her strategic choices, alliances, relationships and much much more!

There's a hostage situation in the Olympic Village. Your sports, you're in way over your head. People can't stop talking about September 5th. It's a madhouse down here. It's one of the best movies of the year. What's happening? Oh, God. September 5th in select theaters, December 13th.

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 is your basketball home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM, a sports home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM, a sportsbook worth a slam dunk, and authorized gaming partner of the NBA. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions.

Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. 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. This episode is brought to you by Companion.

Iris and Josh seem like the perfect match, but when a weekend getaway turns into a nightmare, Iris realizes that things aren't as perfect as they appear. From the creators of Barbarian and the studio that brought you The Notebook comes a twisted tale of modern romance and the sweet satisfaction of revenge. Companion, only in theaters January 31st.

Hey everybody, what's going on? Rob Sestranino back with a survivor medium deep dive here as we are going to bring in tiffany nicole irvin who was i thought a very interesting player here in survivor 46 she's a player that I had with my draft. I thought that she had it at different points over the course of the season. Certainly had a wild ride. We will talk about that all here with Tiffany. If you've missed any of our previous interviews, We got it all started with Charlie. We talked to Liz. We just talked with Q and with Ben. And here we have our interview with Tiffany. You can find those other interviews in the survivor section of our website at robhasawepsite.com. And make sure

you check out the video of this interview as well at robhasawepsite.com slash YouTube. So without further ado, let me bring in my interview with Tiffany. Hey, Tiffany, what's going on? Thanks for making some time to talk. Survivor 46, how are you? Hey, I'm good. I'm excited to talk to you. It's been a while. Yeah, it's going great for me. How about for you? It's going great for me how about for you uh it's going great for me you know the game is is starting to wash off me the fiji is completely washed off me uh people on the internet are being nice so i have nothing to complain about wait were people giving you a hard time on the internet you know what not for real the only time people gave me a really hard time was like after the

final tribal council and i mean i say hard time was like after the final tribal council and i mean i say hard time like very loosely yeah because some people are like oh my god like she's being so mean with this timer and she's cutting people off and she's steering the way the tribal is going and it's like first of all that's the edited version that you guys saw so relax second of all the 30 second timer was not even my idea. That was Soda's question. She literally just asked me to step in. To count.

And count. And Tiffany, you could say here, on God, your time, your 30 seconds was accurate for everybody? It was. I was counting Mississippis in my head. If it's not accurate blame the editors not me because i counted an accurate 30 mississippi even kenzie even kenzie got the same 30 mississippi even kenzie was given 30 mississippi seconds i promise you okay now i believe you i believe you i can't control what you do with your seconds. Also, again, I saw somebody else say like, oh, well, because she's counting, that's not,

you can tell she's not listening to their answers. I mean, I was listening to the answers, but also that's not the question that I needed to hear to cast my vote. It was Soda's question. So it was more important that she was listening than me. I was just a timer. Yeah. that she was listening to me.

I was just a timer. Yeah. Why couldn't Charlie talk about Taylor Swift and why couldn't Ben talk about Van Halen or any rock references? So at that particular point in time, first of all,

I had about nothing. I was tired of hearing about it on the island. That's all they talked about. At one point, they went on and had like an hour long battle and I'm just like, child, I'm tired of hearing about it on the island. That's all they talked about. At one point, they went on and had like an hour-long battle. And I'm just like, child, I'm tired of it.

Not the one that they had at Sega? They had a different one that you were there for? Yes. You know what? I don't even think they showed it. The one that they had, it wasn't Ben versus Charlie. It was Charlie versus Tevin. And it was Whitney Houston versus Taylor Swift.

Oh, okay. Battle of the Divas. It was crazy. It was Charlie verse Tevin. And it was Whitney Houston verse Taylor Swift. Oh, okay. Battle of the Divas. It was crazy. It was crazy. But more than anything, I wanted it to set the tone for them and I wanted to let them know this isn't a time for jokes because we're literally about

to change somebody's life. And more than anything, I wanted them to know how seriously we were taking this. Like, because, you know, you guys can get up there and joke. We can get up there and joke. But if we're about to hand one of y'all a million dollars, I want y'all to know that we're taking this as serious as y'all are. So let's all be adults. Jury's got to be serious. You got to sit there and like fold your arms like, all right, you two, you three.

You know, it might have been a couple of sniggles and giggles that came out eventually. But more than anything, we just wanted to let them know, like, we're taking this serious and we want you guys to take it serious, too. Yes. OK, well, Tiffany, I'm so excited that you were up for doing this because I would love to talk with you more because I really feel like that upon further review, you know, you were the person that I took with my first draft pick. I felt so good about you all season long. And I know it didn't work out, but really in hindsight, in reflection, in talking to some of the other players, I really do feel like that you were the person to beat through a lot of this season. And I think that the other players felt that well first of all thank you because that is like an amazing compliment and you know what I'm not going to disagree with you um because I do feel like especially after watching it back I was definitely making some some pretty good moves i had some really good strategy also made some mistakes but

i think that up until the point that q kind of blew everything up i felt like i was doing a really good job managing my threat level and keeping it low yeah and it wasn't until he kind of blew the lid off of everything that everybody was just like, Ooh, big threat, big threat, get her out. But, um, I felt like I did a good job of like not playing emotionally until I did. And of course I said in the very beginning, when I first started playing the game, I'm like, I'm a person that can get blinded by emotions when I'm passionate about something. And that was, that was like the thing that kind of sent me on the tailspin because once I got into that mode of like, okay, Q did me wrong. Q blew up both of our games for no reason. I, I stopped focusing on like just the strategy and I was focused on just getting out somebody

that was getting on my nerves. Yeah. And that was the thing that blinded me to what was right in front of me the day that I left. Going back to the preseason interviews that you did, you know, I love to listen to what everybody was talking about before the game. And I listened to what you were talking about with Mike. You talked a lot about how you that you are a lucky person. Things go your way. And that's just like, uh, you're God's favorite. And that that's just how things are.

And what's interesting is that in the beginning of the game, nothing went your way. How hard was that for you to deal with? Oh my God. It was devastating. I'm like, what? You know what? What? It was devastating, but i'll say this in hindsight things didn't go yanu's way but things did go my way in the beginning of the game and i say all this to say i was a power player in the beginning of the game. Yeah, Yannou was like on the struggle bus, but at no point in time

during like the first half of the game was I devastatingly scared to go home. Right. It sucked because we were in a bad position, but it put me in a better position because I'm like, okay, I'm one of the stronger members of the tribe. I have two strong allies

that both stand to fare better if they keep me here. And ultimately, if it comes down to us three, I'm the deciding vote. So I don't know if it did go my way. I feel like it did go my way until it didn't. Things started to tip after the merge when Q started trying to steer the ship. And he and I started bumping heads about who was going to call like the shots. And I think it was like, you know, when Q realized that like he couldn't control me as much as he thought he

could, or he wasn't steering the ship as much as he thought he was. That's when things kind of went downhill. But in the beginning of the game, it was bad, but it was good. So maybe it was good luck that Yanni was trash. Okay. Well, I want to talk a little bit of that through. And of course, you found the Hidden Immunity Idol very early on and then waited to lose the challenge. And then you were able to piece it together before you went to tribal council. Could you tell us a little bit more about what that was like?

Absolutely. It was exhilarating, first of all. It was definitely one of the things on my survivor bucket list. I'm like, you know what? I want to find an idol. Obviously, not everybody finds an idol. Now, it would have been better if I would have played it, but I found it. And it was just so crazy because the way as quickly as it went on tv was as quickly as it felt that it was moving in real time and sometimes it doesn't always go like that but literally bad luck good luck we lost the challenge but i didn't have to do any extra work to go get my idol when i found it i don't know if i've ever like told anybody this in an interview before, but that like alien language that I saw, it was a cryptogram. And I can remember before going on

Survivor, I had like this puzzle book, right? A new one. I was random, like New York times puzzle books or something like that. And I was just flipping through pages and I saw a cryptogram for the first time. I had never seen one of these puzzles, but I got so fixated on it. And I'm like, that was all I practiced for like weeks. Now, granted, it didn't look anything like that survivor one. But I think I kind of trained my mind to be able to crack those type of things quickly because what are the odds that the puzzle that I'm given is a cryptogram? And I just saw one for the first time weeks before I went on Survivor and I decided to just practice

it. Lucky. So again, bad luck, good luck, right? That's things work out my way. Like it was some random puzzle book and that's the type of puzzle I get on Survivor. Like nobody knew that except me. And I saw that thing in like under 10 minutes. And I was like racing across the Island. The cameramen were like falling all over themselves, trying to keep up with me, but I got it. I've got the idol. And then maybe like five minutes later, they're like, all right, time to go to tribal council. I'm like, woo, just in time. Yeah. It was certainly a close call on the TV show. But you told Mike that your hot take was that you were going to that you don't know why people can't shut the F up about when they have the idol. Yes. And you broke your own rule.

I sure did. And that's what bit me in the butt and sent me home. So you know how they say it's so easy in theory, but harder in practice? Sure. That's exactly what the case was for me because that was like my number one survivor rule. Don't tell anybody if something... Alexa, stop. Sorry, I have like a mental health tip

that happens every evening for my Alexa and like fitness tips. It's so random. But... it happens at a random time no it's always usually around between six and seven yeah um but for me i think that scenario was a little bit different because one when i found the idol kenzie was like two feet away from me so she she was always going to know that I found it. And then when it came time for me to crack the code and I had that 10 minute span of time to go and find the idol and come back, Banu and Q were walking around like the band. And I was huddled up like in the dirt trying to solve the puzzle. And Banu saw me and he started walking towards me and I'm like oh shoot like either I'm gonna have to tell Q about this and get him to go and distract everybody or

the whole tribe is about to know what I'm doing because you already know Banu was not keeping that secret so I like kind of stealthily asked Q I'm like yo like I need you to help me out, make a distraction. This is what I'm working on. He's like, bet, I got you. He takes everybody, Wanu, I think Jess, whoever was on the island, he took them to the well. Mind you, I don't know why people were listening to Q at this point. He took them all to the well. It was like, all right, everybody pitch your case for who you want to go home and why. And they're all distracted by this conversation at the well while I'm going to find the idol. So yeah, it would have been lovely to be able to keep it to myself. But in that moment, I realized that it would have served me better to work with people to get the job done and just, you know, hope that those people could see the

benefit of me having the idol for them too okay you had so much going on with banu in the first couple days of the game uh could you talk a little bit about what it was like living through that experience sweet sweet banu you know it's just like sometimes i wonder like if Bono really knew what he was getting himself into coming out there because I'm telling you, that is one of the sweetest men I have ever met in my life, but he just was not prepared for the hardships that was going on out there. And I could tell he was really struggling internally,

but also it's extremely difficult to teach somebody the game and play it at the same time so I think that's where a lot of the frustration and friction came in between Bano and everybody else and again this is me being a person who's like trying to balance keeping their emotions in check while also trying to teach somebody else how to do that and still be strategic, which is another reason why, like, in that episode where they're talking about, well, Q and Banu were trying to get me to send Kenzie home. I never was going to send Kenzie home because I knew for a fact that if it was ever a situation where it was just me, Q, and Banu, I was going to go home because Q's not gonna keep

another power player over somebody who he can literally tell how to play the game like so that's why like that episode I watched it back and I'm like yeah that ain't how it was going my girl was not going home that episode absolutely not yeah

okay good to know good to know because that's like the show really, especially when you look back and then Kenzie was the winner, like, oh my God, she almost went home. Like, can you believe it? She did not. I mean, granted, like there were conversations and, and that's the nature of survivor, right? When somebody brings you a conversation, you have to hear it out. You have to talk to them. You can't shut people down right away because then that makes you look like you're not flexible. You're not malleable. You're somebody that's difficult to work with. So then maybe the target shifts from

them to you. So obviously when Q bought me that, I'm going to hear you out. All right, what's your pros? What's your cons? But in my brain, in my mind, that was not the best move for me. So I was not writing Kenzie's name down at that point. Tiffany, going back and watching the episodes, something that I had forgotten about was that it's in the second Tribal Council or the second episode that you, after the challenge, have a low moment and you're very upset., and you, and you're very upset. And then, and then you talk to the camera about how you're, you're very upset about how you are worried about how you're going to be portrayed, uh, on the show. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah. Um, okay. So as somebody who's like my whole life, I've been like a competitor. I've been like a competitor I've been an athlete I've played like a lot of sports

growing up so I'm very passionate and I don't like to lose like and you guys didn't see it much um just because of the like the edit and the pacing of the episode but I was kind of wowing like during that challenge like I was getting so frustrated and like you know I was kind of like screaming and you're like no no but i don't know if you if you've ever played sports but sometimes like when you're in the heat of the moment like you just like you got to get it out you got to get that energy out that frustration sometimes comes out with it i watch a lot of sports tiffany and i can tell you that happens yeah so i was i was kind of wilding out a little bit but then on the boat

ride back to like you know our camp I'm just like oh man like you said that you were gonna come out here you were gonna control your emotions and like that was a moment where like my emotions kind of got the best of me obviously we're in the heat of a competition that we about to lose and we already been on a losing streak. So I was scared that like I was just going to automatically take on like that angry black girl frustrated narrative, because a lot of times like that term aggressive gets thrown around that term. Oh, angry gets thrown around, especially when it comes to like black women who are expressing themselves passionately. gets thrown around, especially when it comes to like black women who are expressing themselves passionately. And that's just not something that I wanted to, that's not a stereotype that I wanted to be attached to me because it's not fair because, you know, sometimes when people of like

other races and other experiences, they express their frustrations and it's not always seen the same way. And I mean, I made it a point to apologize to everybody when we got back to camp, but also it's just, sometimes it's a little difficult to play a game, but then also realize like, okay, I'm representing an entire community of people out here at the same time. So it's like, there's a weight on me that may not necessarily be on everybody else. So I'm thinking about things from a 360 perspective and it was kind of difficult in that moment yeah Tiffany when I got to Survivor I just got to be an idiot and I wasn't worried about I didn't have to worry about like oh people are gonna think other people are like this no just only and I I had the luxury of it only people think only I was an idiot yeah unfortunately

that's not something that I um I got to wear with me. And, you know, that moment was actually really well received with a lot of people. I got a lot of DMs from like other black women online are like, you know what? Like, I feel like you represented us so well. Like, I'm so grateful for you for being able to be vulnerable and still be yourself. And but then also I got a couple couple other people online that was really nasty. They're like, oh, you are an angry black girl and you're so mean.

Yeah, you showed your colors on TV. And I'm just like, exactly the thing that I was thinking about. But you know what? Some people are just going to be nasty regardless. And I'm proud of the way I represented myself and my community on TV. And that's all I got to say about that.

Yeah. All right, Tiffany. So other than, um, you know, you're not going to vote out Kenzie, uh, Banu finally goes home. I mean, uh, Banu is, I got down on his knees and he begged you. You said, listen, you got to get up. I'm not going to talk to you if you're like this right now. No. I was not about to play with Bono in that moment just because, game aside, I see you are in a very vulnerable state. I see that you're super emotional.

And also, it felt really weird talking to this man on his knees. talking to this man on his knees. Just because of not only the optics. First of all, just in the grand scheme of things, you shouldn't be begging me for anything. I'm not better than you. You're not better than me. As far as I'm concerned right now,

we are on an equal playing field. We are human beings. We are equal players. Stand up and talk to me like a man. Second of all, Banu, I'm not going to try to manipulate you in this moment where you're already down you already feel like you're going home and i didn't want to kind of throw salt in the wound by giving him a false hope knowing for sure i was writing his so i'm like and it was like it was nothing he could do in that moment like i knew i had the

idol he didn't have any advantages he didn't have a vote so it's like there's literally no reason to even try to manipulate this moment and it just felt weird yeah and when you found out that he had told people that you and q were a pair um that there there was no coming back for banu uh from that right no because he did exactly what I thought he was going to do. I promise you, he got on the boat. The boat wasn't even five feet from the island. And I turned to Q and Kenzie and I said, I bet you he's going to go there and give it up.

As soon as he got to the other island, all they did was pat him on the back and then the secrets came spilling out. And I said, and this is the type of player that I cannot work with. And for whatever reason, he decided that it was a better idea to tell us all that information that he just gave up and divulged. And for me, it's like, OK, you for me have sealed your fate. I'm not playing with you no more.

I'm not giving you no fake hope. You're out of here, buddy. Yeah. OK. We could talk more about that, but we got so much other things to talk about. All right. So finally, you all won a challenge. You ended up going to the Mergatory and you're part of the group. This really was looking pretty good for Yanu. The three of you end up being part of the group that ends up getting to make a decision. How were you feeling going into the merge? So there was a little nerves there, right? Because in my head, I'm like, this could play out many ways. We're kind of like the underdogs right now.

But then also somebody as a fan of Survivor, I know that nothing is ever that cut and dry. And usually when there's two bigger tribes, they always try to get that little tribe and pull them over to their side so that they can have extra numbers and then knock down the other side a little bit, which is exactly what was happening at first until Q blew it all up. But I was a little nervous at first. Yeah.

Not about the things I should have been nervous about. And when Q came back from the journey, did he tell you that about the six and how you were part of it? He did. And if I'm being totally honest with you, I did not take that six serious, like ever from the beginning. No, we got that. I think we got that. Yeah, I did take it serious because I'm like, dude, how can you just come back here and just tell me what we're doing?

Like, you don't know who I've been talking to, what relationships I've been building, what we're working on. Like, and to just be so rigid with like, this is it. This is the plan. But it almost immediately just made me want to be like, OK, now I'm definitely not doing that. And I'm pretty sure everybody else felt the same way, too. Yeah. Did you tell anybody else who wasn't in the six about the six? Yeah. I told Kenzie.

Yeah. And she knew. But she also knew that I was like, girl, you know that this is a joke, right? Yeah. And like,

so there was never a point in time where like Kenzie and I weren't in lockstep. And like, she was in the dark and like she was out. Kenzie knew. Now, I don't know who else knew from my mouth, but Kenzie's the only person who I told. Okay. So you all have to decide,

okay, is it going to be Mariah? Is it going to be Venus? That it seemed like that you were in the Mariah camp because they were trying so hard to protect her. Yeah. I think what I saw immediately, and I don't even think that this was really shown on any of the episodes,

but Venus came up to me right away when I was on the island. Venus came up to me right away. She started talking to me. She said she wanted to work with me. And I'm like, okay, cool. Like, this girl's cool. Not that I didn't have conversations with Mariah, but she also was kind of like spilling a little tea about Nami, letting me know who was cool with who, what relationships weren't as tight. And I'm like, okay, this is a girl who's flexible, who's trying to make moves, and who's not going to be rigid. Who's not going to be rigid.

As far as what I could see, Sika was trying to stay like a tight knit group. And I'm like, if this isn't a flexible group, if this isn't something that I could penetrate, what is the benefit of me keeping somebody like that here? So for me, it was, it was an easy decision,

especially after they started trying to like protect her and stuff. I'm like, Oh yeah, she got to go. Yeah. Okay. So Mariah goes and you all have to go to the split tribal council. Uh, and so this came up at the final tribal council again of how did the decision get

made of whether it was going to be Ben or, or Tim? Um, honestly that day was such a mess. Like we went back and forth so much, but ultimately what it came down to was me, um, kind of conceding a little bit. Cause I didn't want Tim to go. Like I wanted Tim to stay. And you guys saw it a little bit. There was friction.

Like me and Q were going at it. I also feel like that was kind of the tipping point in me and Q's relationship because we were butting heads. And I'm like, dude, like, you are not the captain of this ship right now. This is supposed to be like more than Ben. That I might have done a disservice to myself by fighting so hard for somebody against people who I was with on day one. So I'm like, at the end of the day, neither Ben or Tim is like in my solid core group of people that I trust at this particular moment. So. Like, am I am I fighting too hard to keep him here? Maybe I should just like give in and let my alliance members have their way

this time. And then we talk about it after camp. Obviously things started to unravel after that, but that was kind of the tipping point in me and Q's relationship that day. Do you think that the game would have been different if you would have kept Tim instead of Ben? Absolutely. Absolutely. It would have been different.

What would have changed? Well, for starters, and like later on in the game, the conversations that were had, I realized that Kenzie and Q wanted Tim out because they could tell how bad Tim wanted to work with me. And I think that, well, just personality wise, Tim and I got along really well. Like we were super cool on the island. We would talk like we talked a lot in that short amount of time that we were together. So I think that I would have had a little bit more support on my end when the relationship between Q and I started to break

down and Kenzie wouldn't have had that Ben to lean on. She wouldn't have had that Ben life raft when me and Q started to have our meltdown. So I would have had a little bit more buoyancy in the game had I chose to keep Tim over Ben. And trust me, that's something that I have lost sleep over many nights. I think about it so much. much yeah that's such an interesting decision that you have to make there of like do i do i give back to the people that i'm with or do i really fight uh for what i want and i'm sure there are survivor players that lose the game of pushing too hard for what they want to do it's such a fine line to walk. Yeah, because at the same time,

I also didn't want to show my cards like, oh, why does Tiffany want to keep Tim so bad? Is she choosing him over us? We're supposed to be her day one. So I was definitely stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm like, okay, this might be a losing battle. If anything, Tim had just done the same thing trying to save Mariah. Exactly.

And then people were like, oh, he's fighting so hard to do whatever. So I'm like, you know what? Let me just, this might be one of those situations where it's a double-edged sword and I got to choose the lesser of two evils. I mean, there's, survivors are algorithms. There's a million different ways things can play out. This is just me guessing how things would have went. So it's a new year. You know what that means, setting big goals. Maybe you promised yourself you're going to hit the gym every day, or maybe you said you're going to learn to make fire with a flint for once, or the classic save more money. But let's be honest, New Year's resolutions tend to fizzle out by February. Wouldn't it be great if at least one of those goals could be automatic?

That's where Acorns comes in. Today's episode is sponsored by Acorns. You've probably heard me talk about them before, and I'm excited to share how Acorns makes it easy to start automatically saving and investing your money so it has a chance to grow for you, your kids, and your retirement. You don't need to be an expert. Acorns will recommend a diversified portfolio that fits you and your money goals. You don't need to be rich. Acorns lets you invest with the spare money you've got right now. You can start with just $5 or even just your spare change. You don't need a ton of time either. You can create your Acorns account and start investing in just five minutes. Basically, Acorns does the hard part so you can give your money a chance to grow. Using Acorns is a game changer for somebody like me who spends a lot of

time thinking about strategy, whether it's on Survivor or behind the scenes. It's refreshing to have an app that makes investing simple and automatic. It's a small step that gives me confidence that I'm building a better financial future without stressing over the details. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by investing, this is a great place to start. Head to acorns.com slash robpod or download the Acorns app and start saving and investing for your future today. This has been a paid non-client endorsement. Compensation provides incentives to positively promote Acorns. Tier one compensation provided. Investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. View important disclosures at acorns.com slash Rob Pod. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express.

Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Visit superstore.ca to get started. You come back and you see that Soda got voted out from the other tribe. How surprised were you? I was shocked. I was shocked. I just knew Venus was going home.

Yeah. And this is only because I knew that there was friction between Venus and Tevin at the time. And that there was also like some weird Namiami stuff going on there and they had the majority. But then also like Maria and Charlie were there. So like in my mind, I thought it was Venus because there was already like shaky stuff going on there. And I'm like, that would be the easy vote. I didn't know that Tevin was interested in blindsided sort of because they seemed cool in the hours that we were all together talking. So that was a shock to me.

Okay. Well, this is where now things are really going to... Everything's been pretty calm up until this point. But then we know that Q had said to Tevin, okay, get out Venus. And then they didn't do that. And he wanted to still vote out Venus. And you didn't want to do that. And I feel

when we did our exit interview, I tried to talk about this and I ended up saying the wrong name between Venus and Maria. And I beat myself up over that. You wanted to vote out Maria. And you said to Tevin about that. And Tevin snitched on you. Uh, you wanted to vote out Maria and you said to Tevin about that and Tevin snitched on you. Uh, was it Maria? I think I wanted to vote Maria out.

Did that, okay. And you were there, you were there. Listen, no, listen, I have a very trash memory. So I'm trying to, I'm trying to think about it like in days. And that's in the episode. Yes. I don't think I, so I probably, because I've never said Maria's name to Tevin. Or you said maybe not Venus. The only thing I said to Tevin was maybe not Venus.

Maybe we can go with somebody else. Because at that point, Tevin and I hadn't really locked things in yet. And I was still being cautious. I didn't want to give him a name. The only person who I said Maria's name to, I think, was Q. And I was Q and maybe Kenzie. I was like loosely saying it, but I also was going down a list of possibilities with my two closest allies. Like what can we as a group do? I didn't think he was going to run and use that against me like my day one. But I

didn't say Maria's name to Tevin. I only said maybe not Venus. Maybe we can keep her around. But Tevin didn't like that because at that point, I didn't realize how bad Tevin wanted to get rid of Venus. And he also went back and had a conversation with Q that I found out watching the game and was like, oh, you know, Tiffany says she wanted to keep Venus, so she's not in the six and she protected people not in the six. And I'm like, wow, this got blown way out of proportion.

You are skewing this so bad. And then that's when Q just took off like, oh, she trying to go against the six? All right. Yeah. Yeah, well, this is really where, you know, all hell is breaking loose now because then Q tells Charlie Maria about your idol also.

Foolishness. It's foolish. Like, oh my God. It just like everything, everything broke down so bad at that particular point in the game. And I think it was a product of a lot of things, right? Tevin and I hadn't like really had like a really solid conversation to solidify our relationship. So he was trusting me about this much. I was trusting him about this much. And I guess because

I didn't go right along with the, oh yeah,, let's get right away. He started to be a little skeptical of me. But I'm like, at that point, I didn't know. And I'm also like not trying to be gung ho about Venus to somebody else who was on her tribe, because then I'm like, am I getting played? I got to be like, so. OK, so let's bring Liz into this. And here comes Liz. And Liz, she didn't like how Tevin, at least in the episodes, she didn't like how Tevin was like, oh, taking all the credit for the soda blind side. And so she says, okay, well, my big

move is going to be, I'm going to vote out Tevin and brings you in on this idea. Yeah. Yeah. So Liz actually came to me that day with the idea to take out Tevin too. And this was like shortly after our conversation too. And it's funny because Liz came to me and she said, let's take out Tevin or Q. And in my mind, the Tevin vote was like, okay, anybody but Q, let's steer it that way. So I didn't want to directly say, no, we definitely can't take out Q to Liz because I wanted her to still think I was flexible enough to work with her. But also I was like, let's go with this other person that you want to get out. And I don't even know if they showed that conversation between me and Liz where she brings up Q or Tevin's name. But she brought both their names up.

I went with Tevin and I was like, yeah, let's do it as a way to just get her focus off of Q. tevin and i was like yeah let's do it as a way to just get her focus off of q and it ended up being tevin but not before like everything else had a total meltdown and you what you told q what was going on right yeah yeah i told him i told him everything i'm like you know liz came to me she's doing this little did i know q had a whole plan working trying to get me out while I'm trying to keep him in the game. Mm-hmm. This is nuts. So then all hell is breaking loose when then so Q tells Hunter and then Hunter is

trying to change up the votes and ultimately there's a lot of drama on the beach but then you get to Tribal Council. And at the Tribal Council Q announces that the person that should go home tonight should be him. And this is news to you. You haven't heard this before, right? No, I was just like gagged and gooped.

Like, what are you talking about? We just had a conversation. I thought everything was fine. I thought we were going to vote. Why are you trying to, because this was Q trying to escape, like, I guess whatever bomb he just set off on the beach

by kind of diverting things to himself. I don't know. Q was just chaotic, but I was completely stunned, obviously, as you saw in the episode. And did you feel like that he really wanted to go home or you felt like that he was? Yeah. Yes. If we if we would have went along with that plan, Q would have happily went to the bench and been the hero. Like, because first of all, Q volunteered to go home mad times before that moment.

So I'm like, Q, can you please like at that point i'm like is this another one of you like you trying to get us to i don't know what what's going on at that man's head half the time but i'm like again me protecting him in that moment i'm like absolutely not you're not going home i still didn't know what he was talking about. I thought he was talking about Liz. I thought he was talking about blowing up Liz's plan or game or whatever the case may be. I didn't know that that had anything to do with me still in that moment. So I'm trying to protect him. Like, dude, you're my number one ally. Why would I send you home?

Right. So you find out also that night. Yeah. That Charlie mentions to you about how that Q said you had the idol. Yes. And I, again, gooped and gagged because I was like, what? Are you kidding me? And in that moment, I was like a duck.

I was furiously just like pedaling for my life underwater. But on the surface, I'm just like, OK, we're just going to keep it cool. Like so. I knew that still Liz wanted Tevin to go home. There were people that were on board with that plan. And it was just too unpredictable, too chaotic in that moment for me to try to switch things up, get cute out.

I'm like, I need to keep it cool, calm and collected because now I know that people know that I have an idol and I could potentially be a target for anybody in this moment. So let me just keep it cute until we get back to the beach and I can figure things out.

Obviously things got even more crazy at the beach, but it worked out for me in that moment. Okay. Yeah. So you get through that night, Tevin ends up going home and then, okay, now there's, there's fallout. So what was Q saying to you when you all got back to the beach? Oh my God. Me and Q had like such an atomic bomb blow up argument on the beach. Like you guys saw like the Disney Channel version of our argument.

But he was essentially trying. First of all, he still wasn't completely honest with me about him trying to get me out and like trying to turn like essentially Charlie and Maria on me and flip the votes and all that stuff. He was trying to frame it to me like, Oh, I'm out here trying to play both of our games. I'm trying to keep you safe because they were trying to come for you. Dude, you're trying to keep me safe because you're trying to come for me. Like you're trying to reverse something that you put in motion to get me out when you realize that it was stupid like it was a mess so like even at the end of me and q's argument i didn't know the full scope of what had happened that day i just knew it was enough that our tower was about to come crashing down yeah okay by the time you

all get to the tribal council um do do things get any better in between, um, between when you got back to the beach and when you go to the tribal council where Hunter is going to get voted out? No, I mean, no, no.

Cause Q and I didn't even speak. Um, we didn't speak. Like we were completely ignoring each other on the beach. Q kind of like ostracized himself. He was like on a boat, like on the little boat out in front of the camp, kind of pouting all day. Maria went out there to talk to him for a little bit,

but he was kind of being a little bit of a dark cloud. People were just like, let him have his moment, whatever. But, I mean, me and Hunter talked a little bit the day that he was going to go home, but it was kind of weird because me and Hunter had this moment where it was like we kind of realized that Q was like kind of trying to pit us against each other a little bit. And at that point, it was still a little bit too late for us to kind of come together and do anything because everybody had already decided that Hunter was going home. So I was like, you know know it is what it is i still took a gamble even at that tribal council not playing my idol because but it was just yeah it was still very much chaotic me and q didn't even speak until like the next challenge and we didn't even speak at the challenge it was just like a moment

but we were the applebee's reward challenge q It was just like a moment where we were, the Applebee's reward challenge, Q and I were like kind of going head to head the whole challenge. When it came down to it, it was like me and Q really like battling for that final spot. Q won, but then there was a point in time, like right before the challenge started, me and Q locked eyes and we kind of did like a little fist bump moment.

Like, all right, you good? You good? Cool. Then we did the challenge. Then he picked me and I'm like, okay, we can talk it out when we get to that police challenge and we did and we made up but obviously you know the relationship was ruptured there was no going back from there yeah all right well i want to go back to uh coming out of the tevin vote and i think this is always like one of the things that's interesting to look at especially in the new era because the tevin

tribal council and if the survivor wiki is era, because the Tevin tribal council, and if the survivor wiki is right, uh, then the Tevin tribal council happens on day 16 and the Hunter tribal council is on day 17. And there's so much for you all to be going through in the course of like just 24 hours. I mean, it's, it's amazing. Yeah. Um, and that should be three days, Tiffany. I would definitely be lying to you.

72 hours. I don't know what days anything happened because it's just all like one big long ass day for me. But yes, in the course of 24 hours, I felt like the game completely flipped on its head. It's like there are arguments, there's blowups, there's people not talking. New alliances is formed, old alliances is broke. The biggest threat in the game, everybody like shift their target from me to him

because Hunter finally lost. And it was just so much chaos, which is why I think a lot of things slipped through the cracks. And personally, I've done a lot of thinking and I feel like if so much of that chaos had not been condensed to that 24 hour span, there might've been more room for like me and Q to repair things. Yeah.

But because it happened so quick, it was like, there was really no room to kind of like sit, decompress, like, okay, like what is to kind of like sit decompress. Like, okay. Like what is our path forward? Lay it out. Like it was just so fast. You don't have time to breathe. Yeah. It's a, such a interesting point. And you know, I don't know if you're a big brother person, but a lot of times we have these alliances in big brother. Uh, like I remember like even like in BB 23, like, uh, you know, there were a lot of times like, Oh, the cookout, are they going to break up this week? And then like, by, by the time we got to Thursday, they figured it all out. They, they, they smoothed it all over and you'll

have like waffle Wednesday. Like if the vote was today, it's, it's this, but by the time they get, okay, everybody calm down. Uh, but 24 hours is crazy. Yes. So I'm a huge Big Brother fan. Love Big Brother. And I think that that's the key difference between new survivor and old survivor. You don't have time. You don't have time to sit and think about things. You don't have time to go over things. It's just one continuous loop of foolishness, like always happening.

Now, I promise you, we just had a couple more days. We might have had that moment like, okay, let's sit down. Like, this is stupid, right? Like we both understand that this is dumb. Okay, let's figure this out. But you know, 24 hours ain't enough time to repair the chaos that was done. Okay. So when you saw the episodes, you saw that Kenzie was thinking about wanting to blindside you and then, and then called it off. And then ultimately it was not in when you got, when you got voted through.

But did you and she ever talk about this and be like, Kenzie, what, what the fricking hell? Not until after the game. Yeah. After, after when you watched it.

Oh, yeah, after the game, we talked about it. So, funny enough, that was one of the first things she said to me when she got off the island. She was like, Tim, I just have to tell you, this is what happened. No, she came clean immediately, like, as soon as the game was over. And then that was just kind of like another reason why I was, like, happy with my vote for her. And I know people are like, oh, she tried to backstab you.

You shouldn't have been happy to vote for her. Like, first of all, I was with her since day one. That's the game of Survivor. But also I was really proud of her jury management skills because I didn't find out that she was trying to do that until after the game was over. So like kudos to her because that's, that's how it should be. Um, it was kind of like not so good on the other players because y'all sat up there and watch this girl come back to tribal council the day after I was voted out and talk about how she cried and she was sad that her, her girl left and she wasn't part of it. And basically, you know,

and she wasn't part of it. And basically, you know, managed me on a jury to let me know, like, it wasn't me, girl. I'm still whatever. Like, so I felt like anybody else who was sitting next to her, that would have been a perfect and opportune time for y'all to pull her card.

And y'all didn't. So points to her. Good jury management, good gameplay. Yeah. Yeah, and it was close like right at right after you know in talking uh in talking with a couple of you know with ben and q and charlie like uh it could have been it could have been kenzie instead of venus that night it could have i guess i mean i wasn't there but yeah like that's how close it is. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So when I talked to Hunter, he said that the biggest thing why he did not play the idol was because it was because of you, because you and Q got into it so, so much that he in his calculations, he could not believe that you would go up there and then not write Q's name down to vote. Was any part of that

with Q, the back and forth, was any of that theater? No. Okay. Let me tell you something. I think that me and Q's tumultuous relationship was a safety net for a lot of people out there. And I say this because a lot of the arguments, a lot of the tension that Q and I had, which is genuinely just us bumping heads and our personalities just kind of, you know, being explosive in the moment because of the, basically the pressure cooker that we were putting in. And a lot of people were able to hide behind that. Charlie was able to hide behind it. Maria was able to hide behind it. Hunter was able to hide behind it for a while. And in that moment at Tribal Council, that wasn't planned. That wasn't staged. That was just me and Q being me and Q. Like we had a natural and normal exchange based

on the events of the day. I didn't go into Tribal Council thinking me and Q were going to go back and forth. But also I was like, I'm the type of person that's going to speak my mind no matter what. And so is he. So you never know what you're going to get when you put us two in a room together. Well, we never know what you're going to get. Okay. Never. Now, like, I didn't know that that was going to affect the people around us so much, including Hunter.

But no, we didn't plan that. That was just us being us. But how are you in q now after the season is over me and q are good i and by the way congratulations to new dad q and baby ace is here baby ace is perfect one of the most beautiful babies i've ever seen but no me are you the godmother I'm not the godmother not that good yeah no no I'm just auntie tiff but um no me and Q are good uh the funny thing about me and Q our relationship is very much um sibling like and I say sibling like in the way like when you argue with your siblings it's like

you are not holding back it's like I'm about to give you all I got at full speed I'm gonna win or you're gonna lose that's the only outcome that I'm looking for and I told myself as soon as I left the island with Q included I'm like whatever mess happened out there I'm gonna leave it out there so as soon as q like came back to ponderosa for me it was like you know uh you know it is what it is that's what happened that's the game we signed up for now what we can't control is our personalities i'll be lying to you i say that me and q haven't got into it since then like post game like even us hanging out like at the final tribal council you almost

got into it again like when we were hanging out and we got into it like a blow-up argument in his living room over like some random game that we were playing his wife is like laughing she's like you know Q is just like you just like with you how he is with his like actual sisters yeah so I love Q we are cool i cannot tell you that that's the last time we're gonna ever argue if you put us back on the island together again we'll probably go back so tiffany that's the scenario that i think is so fascinating because of course we know the survivor 50 is coming up and i know q says he's getting ready he's uh you know i i think there's a good chance that he's going to be there but i think that the the really interesting

thing is and survivor has done this a lot on these returning player seasons you bring back two people that maybe didn't always get along and see what happens. And here's the thing. I would be lying to you if I sat up here and told you that if they put me and Q in another gang together that we were going to be cool just because we... Like, we would probably do the same shit.

Like, there's just something about him. It's something about me. It's like, I'm not backing down. And neither are you. I don't care if we're friends or not. It's something about me. It's like, I'm not backing down. And neither are you. I don't care if we're friends or not. You're not about to punk me. So what are we going to do about this?

You're always going to get the same format. It would be so interesting. Would it work? We are both very stubborn and firm people when it comes to the things that we are passionate about. So I don't know if it will work. I don't know if it could work. I mean, I guess if Survivor wants to put us back on the island together, we will find out. But he's crazy.

I'm a little bit crazy. He might be a little bit crazier than me. But we're cool. But we probably would still fight. I'm not even okay so then hunter ends up going home and you talked about applebee's you talked about that you know you were able to sort of like uh get things back to where okay things were okay with q even though that you didn't want to work with him uh that he he he, he did make an olive branch. Hey, let's get the band back together.

And you and Kenzie said, no, we don't want to do that. Yeah. Yes. Um, but, um, he found a new friend in Maria.

And ultimately Maria is gunning for you, Tiffany. Yep. Crazy, crazy times, I tell you. Because you were the person that everybody said, hey, that's my big move. Y'all, why? To this day, I still don't understand.

I'm like, why are y'all fighting over me? Little old me. Like, please. Everybody is scrapping over who gets to claim my demise. Like, I mean, I guess it's a compliment, but silly, silly, silly of Q to believe that he was better off with Maria than me because I feel like if Q never blew up both of our game,

we probably would have been like in lockstep for a majority of probably till the end yeah and if you go to the end i think you probably got this against anybody right i think so yeah i feel like i'm able to well i don't know what other people were going to say, but based on my experience out there and my experience pre-merge and what I did up until the point where I was out post-merge, I felt like I had a really good footing in how I was to articulate my gameplay and talk about why I could have won or should have won. I wasn't scared of anybody on that tribe beating me at the end of the game. So maybe that's why everybody was scared of letting me get there with them.

I know one of the reasons you didn't play your idol was because you were talking with Charlie about potentially you were going to use the idol to get Maria out of the game at the next vote. Did you come close at all to playing the idol that night? No. Yeah. It was a gamble. Like for me,

it was definitely a 50, 50 gamble. And that's also a night that I go over a lot in my head because a lot of people ask me, they're like, okay, if you go back and play again, what's one thing you would do differently. And that night specifically,

I can remember sitting like right before tribal council and going over my next like four moves to my head. I'm like, OK, when we get back to camp, I'm going to talk to this person. Then we're going to do this and we're going to do this. Like I had things lined up to knock them down. But I was missing what was right here because I was so busy looking at what's out there. is he looking at what's out there and I thought that again my threat level was here when because people knew about my idol was here and Charlie and I again we had a really good working relationship we would talk all the time and I thought he was serious about trying to get rid of Maria obviously he was it just wasn't the time for him but But no, I wasn't going to play the idol

that night. I thought about it for like this much. But then I'm like, the risk right now could be a really big reward later if it works out. So I took a gamble and I lost, but nah. How can you tell what your threat level is when you're in the game when you're you is there a way that you could tell just like how much of a threat people think you are uh obviously no because i clearly was more of a threat than how people was letting on so i guess i didn't have the best read of that but up until the point where like everybody started to get frantic and started fighting over who was going to get me out, I felt like it was easy to manage or just kind of perceive your threat level just based on like the flow of conversation around you,

the flow of conversation and really the ease in which people are willing to throw other names out to you. Like usually when people are afraid of somebody, like you're very cautious about breadcrumbing them with information, or at least from what I've observed. And people are very open, at least the people I was working with, they were very open when it came to information, plans, who they wanted to get out. So I'm like, okay, maybe I'm not that big of a threat, but apparently I was getting played. Yeah. Is there anything else about your game,

Tiffany, that you really want people to know? I don't know. I felt like CBS did a really good job of kind of telling the story of my game. Yeah. When it came to the edit and when it came to like watching things back, I don't think there was anything that was really like left out. Obviously, like I felt like maybe my relationship with Charlie, if they would have showed a little bit more of that, my decision to not play my idol would have made a little bit more sense. But I think that as far as me just being a passionate person, that came across loud and clear. And I'm proud of the game I'm playing.

I'm proud of how it was shown on TV. So I don't know if there's anything more to be said about i think you should be too i thought that you really brought a lot to the season and i thought that uh you know you were strategic you were good in the competitions you had a great social game and so like i think that you were that look the players that were gunning for you like that uh you were you were a big threat. Like they were reading the situation right. I'm honored. I'm honored.

And to be honest, like watching it back, I never imagined that I would get out there and be like as tough of a cookie as I was because in real life, girl, I'm a creature of comfort. Like I like AC, I like hand sanitizer, I like pillows and you know, all the frills and thrills. But out there I was like really able to roll with the punches, the bugs, the dirt, the sweat, the scratches. Oh my God. I got so many bruises and scratches on me in a way that I never thought I could. So I'm like, okay, you might be onto

something, girl. I'm real. Yeah. What's next for you, Tiffany? I mean, well, you know, hopefully if Survivor will have me back, I would definitely like a chance to redeem myself. But as of right now, until CBS is back on my line asking me to come out there and fight for my life again, I'm really just trying to lean back into my real life. I'm trying to lean back into my artwork. I've been doing a lot of traveling since I got home. Just trying to like go to different cities. I've been to some pretty fun places.

I've been to Pittsburgh. I got to visit the Andy Warhol Museum out there, which was really cool. I celebrated the 30th anniversary of the museum out there with the team and the staff. I went to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and I got to see their art scene, LA. I'm trying to do this art girl tour situation. So I've been touring different cities, seeing museums and just the artwork and art culture out there in an effort to kind of inspire my own work and what I've been doing. And I'm looking to like plan an art show really soon. I don't know if it'll be in New York or LA

or New Jersey or where, but right now I'm being an art girly and I'm loving it. Okay. Well, Tiffany, thank you for making some time to talk about your game. I really appreciated getting to hear your perspective and congratulations on everything you did on survivor. Of course.

Thank you so much. It was a pleasure talking to you. Yeah. And yeah, don't be a stranger. Okay. I won't listen. Anytime you'll have me back.

I would love to chat. Hey, big brothers is, you know, right here. Oh, I'm tucked in. I told you I'm a big,

big brother fan. I, I pictured myself being able to play big brother, you know, before I ended up being a survivor. You'd be good at that too. I feel like I might, you know, and it's like survivor, but with pillows and eggs. So I'm like, oh yeah, you get me fed and got some sleep in my system and my brain is actually operating at 100% capacity. It might be over for y'all. Okay.

All right. Well, maybe, maybe one day when they end up putting the survivors in the Big Brother house, we'll see it. I guess. It'll be an epic season. I'll tell you that. Okay. Tiffany, thank you so much. Okay? Of course. Thank you. Bye, Rob. Bye. All right, everybody. There you have it. Tiffany Nicole Irvin. I thought that Tiffany was super fun to talk to. And yeah, she would be a great candidate, I think, to come back for Survivor 50, especially if they go in that second chances idea that so many of us have been talking about.

I think that she would be somebody who I think that if she is like, I really think that she fits that profile of the person who ends up coming in and maybe she's like not an automatic lock to get onto the season. But then once she's there, watch out. And I really do feel that way about Tiffany, who I think has all the skills that you would need to go on and be a Survivor winner. Kind of like a Sarah Lucina coming into Survivor Game Changers where that maybe she sort of like sneaks in and then ends up being the winner of the season. So who knows with Tiffany Nicole Irvin.

All right. Thank you so much to Tiffany. And thank you for listening to this podcast. Of course, we appreciate hearing from you when you leave us a review in our Apple podcast page at robisawebsite.com slash subscribe. Thank you so much for listening. Take care of a good one. Bye.