RHAP: We Know Survivor - Why ___ Lost 10 Year Anniversary

Episode Date: September 21, 2025

Why ___ Lost 10 Year Anniversary The Why ___ Lost podcast celebrates its tenth anniversary as David Bloomberg and Jessica Lewis are joined by Rob Cesternino! They discuss the history of the podcast and the concept itself, including when David and Rob first met way back in the days of Survivor: The Amazon, how the […]

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Start winning. Winners, find Fabulous for less. If you lost Survivor and you're feeling down, David and Jessica will turn it around. They'll break down the rules and they'll show you how. You played yourself and got voted out. this is why blank lost and this is why blank lost

Oh baby this is why blank lost Welcome to the Y Blank Lost I'm David Bloomberg And it is truly unbelievable to me that I've been doing this podcast for 10 years now joining me are two incredible people who I literally could not have done this without. Rob says,

Aw. Jessica Lewis. Yay. Yes. Oh, that was good, Rob. I liked that. That was good. Yes.

The X. Ten years. Ten years. Now, for everybody out there who may not know, Jessica has, of course, been my co-hosts for the past eight years, starting with Euro-Stelers and hustlers. Yes. But some of you. who have not been listening as long

may not even realize this podcast started with you and me, Rob, as we covered Survivor Cambodia through Game Changers and then you change the game. I did change the game. So, yeah, I mean, there's so much to unpack from just the

work that you've done here on this podcast, but I mean, your history with Survivor is like intertwined so much with the history of the show itself, which is 25 years old. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It really is weird to think about. But before we talk about the change, I wanted to talk a bit about how we started because I think there are, you know, some some fun

parts in there. And then later on in the podcast, we'll talk about how Survivor has changed in the past 10 years, how my rules have changed with it, some behind the scene stuff and hopefully some fun stories. I also want to mention the great new logo that people see on the video version. Now, ever since the beginning of this podcast, I have called it Y blank lost, as our theme song does. But the new logo, you'll see, it says Y X lost, with the X representing the Roman numeral 10.

Now, I wish I could take credit for that creative idea, but it was Rob's. And the logo was designed by Doug, so thanks to him for that. now I know many people have called it YX lost for years and that's my own fault for creating the confusion because I started using that as a hashtag back in the old Twitter days when we had so few characters to use and you save four characters by using X instead of blank now David Bloomberg would never use X right but then it comes in handy for the 10th anniversary so it's you know we we sell for x anyway so yes and it looks great i love it's very very flashy it's quite nice so nice job everyone for the design on that they're pretty now of course this all

began way back in the amazon rob's season when i was running a website uh i'd been running it for a few years at that point called reality news online and i had my rules posted there while doing why blank lost columns every week. In fact, next season will be the 25th anniversary of those columns. YXV lost. Yes. I'm sure

everyone agrees that's more important than it being Survivor 50. But Rob, you of course had been doing research before going out to play. Listen, I love to do as much research as possible before I go into a big undertaking

and I really felt like that when I had gone into Survivor and I really was coming into I had been thinking I was going to go on Big Brother there wasn't that much to prepare for but when I got kind of thrust into getting cast on Survivor the Amazon I did try to

I'm a preparer I'm gonna like if I'm gonna go out and go do a show I'm gonna try to learn as much as I can to get ready for for the thing. And this was not like you can go back and rewatch all of the old Survivor seasons because streaming was not invented. And so I started really just reading everything I could. And that was when I first came across David's work of as like many players, maybe even like yourself, Jessica, before you went to go play, you know, you start reading up on things. And David

had so much material that was available on his website, specifically, what the survivor players should know and why all the survivor players lost. Yeah. It is really quite incredible to see the amount of work that he's put into it, but also continued to change

throughout the years, add things, remove things as the game changes, his rules change. So it is really fascinating that he has delved into it so much. And it clearly had an impact on your game because you truly did change

the game of Survivor when you went out there. And so it's, I love to think that, yes, there was something to do with David's rules and you're applying them to how you played the game of Survivor. And then you just took over and it was incredible to watch. It was absolutely amazing. And you really did then change the game of Survivors. Yeah. I appreciate that.

And I did have with me, I had, I believe, like at the Ponderosa, you know, a printout of like what the Thailand survivor players should know going into the. game and this was like nobody else was writing anything that was specifically to the survivor players yeah yeah i should i've mentioned this before but the reason i started writing about survivor including those which eventually led to those articles was i was writing about other things uh i was doing book reviews and and things like that and i was on this books were you're nonfiction books usually just general nonfiction science usually uh and I was writing them for the for the newspaper and some magazines and I realized well he's going in the newspaper then they disappear so I should reuse them somewhere so I started posting

them on this website that paid you per click and they paid way too much it was the web bubble they went out of business quickly but they when I was seeing what was happening on that website there was also a little group of writers that chatted. And I was like, what are these people writing about that they're getting so many clicks? And I looked and it was Survivor. And this was right at the beginning. And I was like, I can write so much better than these people. I know I could do a better job.

That's the thing about David that he's a and he stayed so humble over the years. And he's, he's right. He is so right. And so, so that's really why I started writing about, you know, I hadn't written about TV before, but I jumped in and then that, that led to, you know, the first edition of, you know, what players should know, was in our newspaper. They, you know, I pitched them on it and it was just a newspaper article, obviously much shorter than the, the version that exists now. You wrote that after Borneo, David? Yes. Yes.

And I do feel like back when Survivor first started, because it was so new and so raw, it had a different type of energy. Like, you were all on the cover of like the TV guide and things. And like, and you had an opportunity. Were you on one of the, like, did you end up on David Letterman? I know like some players did. And so it was like a different era in relationship to just how people saw the game and how they, they did read about it because it was such a new and incredible. incredible thing. Yeah, they did do the Letterman segment at the time that I played. But at the time that David, when you're writing this stuff and when you're launching reality news online, that,

I mean, the show is like such a phenomenon. It's like really just everywhere. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I know, Rob, you, you did a podcast a couple years ago, I think it was with Stephen. And I don't even remember what the podcast was about. But you were talking about your big notebook that you had to study and you were flipping through and you're like oh there's david's rules uh so it's nice you still have those i had a binder um of things that i was preparing to do my prep for survivor all stars and and if you go back and you watch survivor all stars you can see just how incredible and valuable all of that was towards how the season went and my success so i appreciate everything you did for me, David.

Your best Jeff Probes impression ever, though, I will say. Your words were invaluable. I didn't foresee Rob and Amber. What could I tell you? Me neither. Yes, another Rob came along. But I really am impressed with how everything has developed and how David has continued to create this world that is

why X lost, but at the same time, I had no idea that this truly existed. I feel like there was like this underground, like that I didn't know about Survivor until I actually was like I applied and all the sudden someone I work with was like, uh, Jessica, have you really like delved into this and like looked into the social media component and all of these things that exist? I'm like, what are you talking about? I had no idea that all of these things really existed. I just loved the show and then found out people like David Bloomberg existed. So, It was really quite incredible. Yeah, you know, going back to, Rob, when you were on Amazon, you know, we chatted a little bit under the radar there.

It wasn't nearly as easy to do then as it is now. And then I went to the Amazon. You didn't have DMs then yet. No, we just invented yet, Jess. We just had emails. I went to the Amazon finale. I snuck into the party. and of course that's where we met in person

for the first time. Rob, do you remember what your first words were to me? I feel like that you've told this, I said, why did I lose? Yes. Yes. And here is a photo from that when we were both significantly younger. Oh, my God,

look at you too. Yeah, David is such a baby. It was all the baby fat. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. It's incredible. I was the same age as Dina who was considered the old woman on your season. So

later days. Yeah, they say. Yeah, well, I told her that at the party. She did not find it amusing. I love that you snuck in. Yeah. No, we just, someone was walking. I was there with one of my

assistant editors from the website. And we had gone to Rocco de Spirot's restaurant before going and because he had a show on at the time. The restaurant. I don't remember which one. It was the one that they had the show about at the time. The name of the show was the restaurant. Oh, oh, oh, I thought you went. Okay.

I believe. Okay. He studied up for this. Yeah. It was another Mark Burnett show that was not as successful as to Harvard. And, but we showed up there and some people were leaving and we were like, can we have your badges? And they're like, sure. Okay. And so we just. Oh, that's incredible.

Tight security. Yeah. Yeah, very. Well, that's obviously going way back. After a while to fast forward a little bit, I closed down my websites, started listening to podcasts with no at all's and a few other RHAP podcasts at the time being pretty much all I listened to when it came to Survivor. And as time went on, I started to have the urge to talk about the show again. And so I posted on my Facebook, something about what you and Stephen had said, Rob, in one episode. I believe it was San Juan del Sur.

And I tagged you. And you commented and said it was a great thought. And I should come on to the podcast as a guest sometime. And so I did it as a recap guest, I believe. And then actually, I had forgotten about this until I started looking back, but I, you and I did a separate podcast on what worlds apart survivors should have learned back in February of 2015. And then at some point after that, I pitched to you the idea of a weekly why blank lost, like my columns used to be. Now, do you remember what my original suggestion was? I don't.

Okay. So I thought we could do something like you were doing. doing with Jordan Kalish on this week in Survivor History, making it about 15 minutes and appending it to another podcast. And you said no. You said no. Oh my God. You said it should be

its own separate podcast. And boy am I glad that you did because the idea of condensing down what's typically an hour to an hour and a half or sometimes more to 15 minutes. I can't even imagine that. Yeah. No. That wouldn't go well for you, David.

No. So then, of course, we did the podcast for two years. It was a bit of a different format. It was almost like you were interviewing me with adding in your own thoughts. And then after two years, we were at RAPCon, Salt Lake City. For those who don't know what RAPCon was, I believe there were only two of them, Chicago and Salt Lake City. And they were just a way to get the RHAP fans and podcasts. Two so far, David.

Yes, so far. You're on a brief, brief, brief, brief, yaddis. And, you know, just without having an actual show to watch, you did it during the off season. And we were at a bar and you approached me with an idea. Because at that point, you know, you were basically doing every survivor podcast. And, you know, what you told me you can add to this, of course, was by the time it got to why blank lost at the end of the week, you were mostly out of new takes.

Well, it's a, as Jessica can attest to, you know, that to do this podcast, you come in and, you know, and David is like coming in and he's got a lot of material.

And, you know, I didn't really feel like that I had anything new to add. And then so I felt like it was sort of like, okay, well, here comes, here's David with all of his stuff.

And I felt like I was sort of like in a position where now I'm just like, now, you know, grading David's takes for the week. And we had just interviewed Jessica and we had talked about her and did a great interview. And Jessica had, you know, been a fan of the Y Blank Lost podcast. And I said, you know, I think I know just the perfect person to pair with David. And well, I truly appreciated that when I received the, uh, the notification. I think you texted me and I was, I was completely blown away when I received the ask. So thank you for that. But I will say, big shoes to fill because all the sudden

Rob Sesternino's like, I'm backing up. Would you like to come in? And I was, I was like, I can't, I can't do, I can't do this. He's incredible. Who am I? Like no one's going to want to listen to anything I say. So very, very, felt a lot of pressure. Felt a lot of pressure in that moment. So but I hope I I hope I did well I'm still here so I guess you're still here

you're doing great yeah I do not I'm sorry I do not do as much prep work like I did at the beginning at the beginning

my goodness it was just hours upon hours of like note taking and this and I finally realize I'm like this guy over here

does all that I'm gonna let David do that it's fine it's fine I don't need to take as many notes and now it's mostly just in my head. So it's good.

Yeah. And, you know, I was nervous too. When Rob brought it up to me, I was like, wait, instead of you being the host and me talking to you, I'm going to be the host and we're going to be on this other, you know, sister network and everything else. I was a little nervous myself. So, but, yeah, you know, when Rob suggested Jessica, that's, you know, the same person I was going to say.

and, you know, that came about because, like you said, Rob, Jessica had been a fan of the podcast and enjoyed my take on why Jessica lost as much as she could enjoy it. And, you know, then when Rob called you to do the postseason deep dive interviews, when those were still happening, the, you know, you said, yes, but I want David on there. Oh, I needed you. I needed my defense attorney present with me to explain all of the things that I did and why it was actually okay. So I appreciate the fact that you were with me on that one, David, because I needed some backup. Yes. So, yeah. And if I could just say that what I think

is the strength of the show besides the relationship and the interplay that you two have, is that this is a podcast that really knows what it is and has a format where, okay, this is a podcast that is looking specifically at, you know, as the shows that why blank lost, whereas it's not a recap and there's, you know, obviously like some of that that goes into it, but it really has a point of view and it's a show that it's about like these are these specific rules of the what we've identified how survivors need to play. How did the survivor do versus these rules? And I think that like the strength is really the format that you really come at it from the specific point of view where it's never like, well, what are we going to talk about this week?

Yeah, we're going to talk about why what even if we like this person or didn't like this person, what did this person do wrong if these are the rules of how you play Survivor? And I do love that it brings in so many other components that people who watch a show might not actually know like I didn't know existed until I finally found myself as part of this world that you can have all of these interviews that you're unaware of and takes that like players will say something and they'll be like yeah they never showed that on TV but this is what happened. And the fact that we can kind of take that information and put it together for the viewers, they don't have to read all the interviews. to watch everything, but if they hear us talk about it, then they could go and read it if they'd like, or now they have new information they didn't have before. So it can affect your watching of the show because you end up realizing, wait, they don't show you everything when it's on TV. They do keep some things from you during the actual airing of the material. So I think that that's great as well, that it allows people to know more about the players in addition to

their thoughts on the game and how they really think they played the game versus what we saw on TV. Okay. Yeah. Well, and much like I did with the podcast, I got you to started and now I'm going to exit and take my son to his baseball practice. All right. Well, I hope that goes well.

Yes, we are looking forward to you joining us for the second episode of the season. Yeah, I'll come on during the season and we'll. celebrate a proper 10-year anniversary episode of whoever's going to go out in that first week of October, just like we did with, I believe it was double it was, did we do for Vetus and for Shereen? Yes, because caught up on both of them. Yes, because we, when I proposed it, it was, you know,

by the time we figured out what we were doing, the first week had already passed. So you were like, let's just start with the second week and cover them both. Yeah. Okay. Well, congratulations. to you, David, on 10 years. Is it nine years for you? Eight. Eight years. Still a good run.

We're getting there. It is a good run. It's not 10, but I'm glad that I've been here for eight of it. So this has been lovely. Thank you so much, Rob, for joining us. This has been so nice to have you. Have fun, and I'll talk to you soon. All right.

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Hi. So as we moved on here, you know, Jessica and I met in person for the first time at Noidall's Live in New York City in November of 2017, just a couple months after we started podcasting together. And I even have a couple of photos from that. We have this one. Oh, look at us. Oh, my gosh. And then we took one with that previous host guy who just left us. Love that.

That's so great. And we found this other random woman walking around there. That was like, it's like my heart just melted into my chest when I saw her. I was so excited. I will say that no matter how many times. I, like, go to functions. There's always, like, some survivor that I see that I'm just like, oh, my gosh. And I don't want to be weird about it, but I'm always weird about it.

So I apologize to anyone that I'm weird about it with, but it's very exciting. Yes. And then, as you will recall, you gave me a gift at... I did. I gave you a few gifts. Yes, you did. I mean, you gave me champagne and kettle chips. They might have been your favorites there with the kettle chips.

The kettle chips definitely, look, they did change the bag. Isn't that fascinating? I'm a huge kettle chip fan, salt vinegar, of course. That's my brand. And I love champagne. That was my go-to snack. And I will say that kettle actually for quite some time in kettle, if you're listening, I miss you, they were sending me stuff.

Like, oh my gosh, it was amazing. I got sweatshirts and t-shirts and chips. They sent me so many chips. It was amazing. They sent me like blankets. Anyway, I would love to have some more gifts. I'm just saying. But I did share a nice bag with David Bloomberg.

And I might have come home with the champagne. Yes, because I was flying with just a carry on. And you can't carry on liquid. So I was unable and had to give the gift back to Jessica. But yes, I tried. And then when I said a few gifts, I eventually gave you the shirt that you're wearing. Yes.

So Jessica had this shirt made. Obviously, this was pre-beard as most of the photos had been. And I'm wearing mine backwards so you can see the day, you're right. Yes. So for people who may not know your season, of course, had a blindfold challenge. Yes. And Michelle was the caller. for David Wright's team.

And she was trying to get him to turn. And she kept yelling, David, you're right. David, you're right. Which, of course, is my favorite pod or my favorite survivor clip ever. And so as we discussed earlier, yes, I like being right. So, I mean, just ask my family. I'm right all the time. I'm never wrong.

So. Except that one time you did post. post it. The one time when she framed it. I did frame it. So you can see, I guess I was wrong. Yeah. One time. And I used to have an image of Jessica's sweatshirt on the wall behind me before I switch to this type of screen here. I need to find some way to incorporate that still. It needs to come back. Yeah. No, it's quite fun. I had a great time putting this all together because I I just thought it would be fun. Like, oh, we could have a little t-shirt.

And this was before, and I know we're maybe jumping around a bit. But when I first started this podcast, there was no video. It was just David and I were talking to each other. So I didn't see David. He didn't see me. I didn't have to do my hair. It was lovely. But now we are in a situation where we do the video podcasting.

And at the beginning, David was not a big fan of the idea of doing a video podcast. And I was like, well, I think that might be really kind of nice. And it took some, took some, some menushing to get David to a place where he would be like, okay, we'll do video. And now, my gosh, not only do you do like this video podcast, you do multiple video podcasts, and you do your own little shorts and videos that you post both on YouTube and you post on every social media platform. You've like taken over.

I just think it's incredible. who watched the change that we have seen of David Bloomberg. Because initially you were just like, I'm just going to be the voice. I'm just going to be the voice. Now you were the voice and the face and the shirts and the hats and then everything. And I just think it's incredible that this is where you're at. Well, thank you for pushing me into it.

COVID also had a effect on it because so many people were at home. And more people were turning to video at that time because they didn't interact with other people as much. And so that between you and COVID, you know, that you got me into it. We just needed a pandemic to get David to be like, yes, I'll do video. I think you would have convinced me eventually anyway, but that was the, you know, that was what, you know, the timing was there. Now, the thing about doing it on audio, some behind the scenes stuff here, if we screwed up, I made an editing note and it was taken out for us. And so, you know, I probably was pickier about our screw-ups at that point. Like, oh, I said one word wrong.

I'll write that down and restart it. But then there was one time we started off a podcast, and I got tongue-tied right out of the gate and dropped a huge F-bomb. But something got lost in the editing notes. And the podcast went out that way. And I didn't know that until I started getting mess. from listeners saying, um, David? That's amazing. I just want you to know.

It was incredible because I laughed so much when you did it. And then that because it was then left in. Oh, that was amazing. Yes. It was taken out. So if some of you were even listening back then, uh, you might not have heard it depending on how quickly you downloaded. But yes, I, I did feel bad for people who were in their cars playing it.

And all of a sudden that happened. happened, you know, if they had kids with them. Oh, good times. Yes. But of course, with video, we record it as if live. So if we stumble over words, we just keep on going. This is real life. You know, it happens.

And so we just, I think we've had like one or two edits that had to be done the entire run of the podcast because like somebody's computer crash. or we froze or it was an emergency phone call, something like that. Yeah. But otherwise, yeah, we record as if live. And as you said, I'm now doing these on TikTok and YouTube. And I really. You did like four podcasts last week or something, right?

I did. And I'll be doing, let's see, one, two, three, at least four, possibly five next week. Oh, my gosh. So the. with TikTok I really had to increase myself appearing in them because

I got into the creator program and very quickly found out if you do not appear in the video, they give you a strike and if you get a few strikes they kick you out of the program. Really? Yeah, because my videos used to be and some still are if they're

shorter clips of the show with my commentary in words. Well apparently they don't believe the commentary in words is enough. even though I have some videos that have literally millions of views that are just commentary in words. But okay. And so, yes, now I have to give my commentary on camera, which has definitely increased my face being out there for better or for worse. It's amazing.

Now, getting back to some of the big steps we had along the way, we discussed earlier how Rob had used my rules to study. now he wasn't the only one at the time she ann actually quoted my second rule in her final words you can go back and find my tic-tok that i did uh you know looking back at that so i mean she said it and i about fell off of my couch at the time i was like i don't believe she just said that once we started the podcast some new players to be found and used them as well and if you mentioned it in the very first season you joined Jessica, Desi Williams talked in pregame about studying my rules. And then in her RHAP exit interview, she still recommended them.

Fast forward a bit to Survivor 41. And I got the biggest endorsement ever when David Voce spoke extensively in his pregame interviews about how he studied my rules. Now, things didn't go great for him, unfortunately. Thanks a lot, Tiffany. But a couple years, for a couple years, he and Tiffany. became a staple on the podcast. Yes.

Other players have told me after the fact that they studied the rules and or listened to the podcasts along the way, they just didn't mention it in their pregame press. And, you know, some even bought posters and we didn't realize it at the time. Like, we're sitting there talking about, oh, I wonder if Carolyn has listened to the podcast. She seems like she might have. And she posts a video of her with a poster. Yeah. I need to pay attention to the names of people that I send posters to because I've now determined that there are quite a few people that I've sent posters to that might actually be survivor players, which is crazy.

So that was that was quite a shock to see for sure. And of course, she was on a tribe with Carson who had also been studying them. And this has happened at other times as well with players on the same tribe who had used these podcasts to prepare but didn't talk to. each other about it because you don't want to out yourself as a survivor podcast listener. And they never knew. So we're still pushing for a code word. So listeners will recognize each other and form the first official Why Blank Lost Alliance. And then once that season airs, then you need to do a new code word because then it's over.

Yes, that's true. That's true. Although the odds that they'll air that code word, you know. That's fair. That is fair. You never know what they are going to actually show. Right. Right.

Yes. now of course survivor has changed over the last 10 years even before the new era came and you mentioned earlier jessica i'm constantly updating the rules for example in the first versions of the rules not the very first one the little newspaper article one but the ones that grew out of that i had one rule saying providing food wins allies now after a few years it became clear, that wasn't really the case anymore. So that rule had to move along and other

rules moved around a bit. Now, some players occasionally still show up who don't realize that it's not true and you can catch all the fish in the world and they're still not going to keep you if they don't want to. But, you know, things change and sometimes

players realize it. In the first version that I discussed here on RHAP for Worlds Apart, rule seven was vote out the weak than the strong then the weak than the strong now Rob absolutely loved that rule

when he and I were doing it and he just used to make fun of it quite a bit at the time I also had an appendix A that was about immunity idols and even back then I said the producers are giving them away like candy and they seem to be

ridiculously easy to find so for everyone who's complaining about it now 10 years ago this was what we were saying but over time I realized that if we're looking at rules for the player who is actually voted out

the one about vote out the week then the strong etc shouldn't be a rule because it really applies to what the rest of the players on the tribe did and idols and eventually

advantages became more and more significant so I swapped those two for your first year of podcasting actually I made rule seven into know how to deal with idols and advantages and appendix a into make your votes count keep in mind your end goal now the rules in general have stayed static since then though jessica you caused me to modify the name of rule seven later when you created the poster which we'll talk

about when we get to that yeah i might have had something to do with that too you did and it was a good change it really was uh it's just funny how it happened uh yeah kind of like funny. Kind of like pushing, well, okay, not that part, but how the change happened. Yes. But almost every season, I added in new examples within the rules. For example, after Ghost Island, I modified my section in Rule 1 that had been about Brian Heidek, noting the way Dominic and Wendell worked together to essentially pull off a similar strategy. And then after 44, I added in some stuff about Carson because he was doing some of the same things. More importantly, I added a special corollary. to rule two in David versus Goliath because it had been a small side note but I wanted to highlight the important

point that while you're trying not to scheme and plot too much, you also can't scheme, keep it so secret that nobody knows about it at the end and they don't give you the win that you would otherwise deserve. This has impacted so many players

and it really goes back very far. I mean, we saw it happen to Stephen. We saw it happen to Aubrey. And it continues to this day. I was even talking about essentially this same topic on the Big Brother Why Blank Lost podcast just last night. It's a difficult balance to strike. And later on, I moved it from Rule 2 to Rule 1 because I felt it was more appropriate

there in terms of, you know, scheming and plotting and make sure that people see some of your scheming and plotting. its importance has, if anything, only grown. And I think what you've just done is stressed to the listeners how much you have put into these rules. While there is a poster, that is a very, very, very short bullet point version of the rules, this is a very in-depth, well-studied, well-thought-out and put together a 44-page document at least at this point. I'm not even sure if you end up printing it, how long it is. is. But yes, it is, I would say, the most well-versed bit of information that's condensed

so much material that exists out there in a format that players who or people who want to play the game should really read and learn and bring to Ponderosa, if you can secretly do so on the backs of whatever types of documents you have to appear to be something different. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who is at least interested in applying because then you can you can see what the game really exists

of. It's not what you see on TV. There are so many components to it that you have no idea exist and this is a great tool to learn those components that you don't know. Well, thank you. So, yeah, as we kept moving forward here,

we got to Edge of Extinction. And for that version, before the season started, and we realized what was going to happen there. I realized I didn't have anything discussing big moves, which we frequently, we had frequently criticized it on the podcast as Jeff pushed for more of them. So I added a bit to rule to, to note that what production wants is not the same as what a player wants.

Yes, they are making a TV show. Players are trying to win the game. And big moves are not. how it's done. Yeah. And as someone who's been out there and played the game, I can tell you,

production will tell you when they are frustrated with you because you're not doing what they want you to do. And they became very frustrated with me when I was out there because I wasn't playing into the things that they were hoping

I was going to do. I wasn't saying a lot of things at tribal council that were going to blow things up. And they were really, really hoping I would. And I was really, really not going to

because I was like, well, I want to win a million dollars, so I'm sorry, but this is what I'm doing. So, yeah, they are very interested in a TV show, rightfully so. Yeah, this is what they're doing. And they want it to be entertaining. They want people to have a good time. But they are also hoping for particular things to happen. And they might try to stir the pot a little bit while you're out there. So something to think about if you are also interested in playing the game.

Yes. Now, I made smaller changes along the way. added new examples as they came up then ahead of Survivor 41 I made the change that I mentioned to add in dealing with game mechanics to Rule 7 which includes everything from stepping down from a challenge for food to Final 4 firemaking to Rock Trust Oh that thing yes yes several things we hated then and still hate now and of course like I said, this was done because of the poster. Well, again, I think it's better if we get to that in a moment here.

But heading into Survivor 43, we were getting a better handle on what the new era would involve, so there were more changes there. Among them was me pleading with players. Keep your idols and advantages secret. And this still often goes unheeded. But the discussion even goes so far in the rule as to suggest picking out clothing to wear that gives you room to hide and idle if you should find it. Don't just go out there with a bunch of tight clothing because if you find an idle,

where are you going to put that? I know. The only problem, although with that particular component could be production because sometimes they pick clothes that you don't want to wear or, yeah. And that's in there because we know that they production picks, but if you only send them stuff that isn't super tight,

they could only pick from what you send them. And yes, and so this is something you have to think about, too. There's a lot of, there's a lot of things that go into everything that you do when you're playing Survivor. And so, yes, you have to think about everything. Yes. Now, like I said before, the changes since then have been adding in new examples, highlighting things that happen so players can be aware of them. Most recently, for last season, I discussed those changes in the RHAP newsletter at the time. And while not part of the rules, along the way, we added in segments.

for the podcast like Jeff Probst is wrong about blank because we mostly I kept disagreeing with things that Jeff would say publicly and I know that this has helped Jessica greatly in keeping her on the list to be a returning player because oh of course so much sorry that's okay it happens it's all right it's probably for the best anyway because I do think that it has changed it is absolutely changed, even from when I was on the season back in 2016 to now, because the social media component really has taken over a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot. All right. With the more serious stuff out of the way, I wanted to get back to some behind the scenes and, you know,

more fun stuff in history. Of course, everyone knows that we talk about the rules poster. But the question is, do you, does everyone know the story behind it? And I think the answer is probably no. I've hinted that this was coming a couple times already. But Jessica, that is your tale to tell. Well, I really wanted to give you a gift that would encapsulate the work that you had done. And I thought it would be lovely if it could be put in a poster. format. And so I actually did a little digging and Eric Reichenback, who is someone who does

all of the incredible caricatures of players from various seasons in those really key moments of parts of the show. And he posts them, he sells them, daboo doodles. I don't know if it's still with them. But I saw that and I thought, you know what, this would be great. If he would be willing to do this and create this poster, put all of the rules in a poster form with these characters, it would be amazing. And so I reached out, managed to get in touch with him. He was absolutely incredible to work with and very willing to do so. David had no idea that this was happening. And I worked with Eric to try to determine what people should be included in what rules and what scenes or what moments from the show would be best.

The one that appears on the top with the person like holding up the the roof that's about to fall down actually was included in the be flexible. And I'm like, that's not really what that means. But thank you. So, but we wanted to keep it because it was really great. He sent me like a black and white version before color was added so I could see what he was thinking. And we put it all together.

I thought it looked fantastic. I was completely floored. I was absolutely floored with what Eric put it together. I was not expecting it to be like this fantastic. I knew it was going to be great, but this really just blew me away. And I was so happy when we got through it. And I ordered a very large one for David.

I say very large. It's like a regular poster size. It's not 11 by 17. Yeah, I mean, it's big. You can't see it now. But for many years, it hung behind me. and you could only see a small portion of it really because of how big it is. Yeah.

So, but I knew that that was going to be too much for if people wanted to purchase it because I thought, well, that would be nice. I'll give one to David. And if we want to actually sell these and I talked to Eric about our ability to do so. And I had to basically purchase the rights, if you will, to his artwork, which is absolutely incredible that he's willing to do that. And so now we are able to share this beautiful version of the. rules that was created by Eric

with the aid of myself, just my head, not my art ability at all. I mean, you do have a lot of art ability. I do. Nothing like this. No, I'm more of a, I might paint a bit, but this is just, and

Rob Sessor, you know, does appear on the poster as well. So he is, he is there in Rule 2. A lot of incredible moments. And I do love it when just the other day they were, I was watching something. And I, oh, it was for the, upcoming season and people were talking about some of their favorite moments and they were talking

about the note steal and I was like oh my gosh that's like on our that's that's on our poster so it was that was really great but so needless to say I I sent it to David surprised him with it and the rest is history because now everybody can purchase it for themselves if they would like and yeah I mean it's just been it's been really it's been really quite awesome and I'm glad that he's enjoyed it so yes and like I said because you wanted to be on the poster I did. You put yourself in Rule 7 and changed the name of it from how to deal with idols and advantages to how to deal with idols rules and advantages.

Right. And I want to emphasize, I didn't just want my, I did want myself on the poster, obviously, because it was like I was making this for you. But there is something that I don't think you necessarily think about until you are actually going through the process to be on on the show. And I very distinctly remember. feel like this is like God's way of like looking down to me and going, I told you, I warned you, I was sitting at my dining room table and I was reading this like 33 page

contract, if I remember 30, it was a lot of stuff about the show and I was going through everything and I distinctly remember reading this section about the rock draw and saying to my husband who is in the other room, there's a whole section in here about the rock draw. Like, they actually explain to you how it works and what happens and what it means. And I'm like, this is incredible. Like, they flesh it all out for you. And that stuck in my head. I don't know why.

And then lo and behold, I go on the show. And yeah, that's why. It was like, yeah, this is what's going to happen to you. You better understand it. And so this is why I thought it was also important that people understand that there are rules to this game that you might not. really think about. And then all of a sudden it's happening. It exists somewhere. It exists in a contract. You agreed to these components of the game that, well, we might say sometimes are unfair. At the same time, it is a component of the rules that you need to understand.

And so, yes, I wanted myself on the poster, but I also thought emphasizing there are additional rules that need be known about prior to playing the game. Yes, you with the frowning fire in front of you there. Yes, a very sad fire. Yes. I guess now is as good a time as any to mention. Of course, we talk about this every podcast. Anyone who wants the poster can get it at rob has a website.com slash yX lost feed. Scroll down, click on it.

You can get that. You can get the poster itself. As we mentioned, a number of players have. You can also get the poster on a t-shirt. That was something newer that we moved to. And then you can, something independent of that.

that, one of the RHAP artists, tricky, worked with me on a Y blank lost checklist t-shirt. So that was a little bit different. So again, you can get all those at rob has a website.com slash YX lost feed. We've had other things, other fun things come along the way. We talked about the David, you're right. But what we didn't mention was, well, we went a little further because you made it into a you're right, David, you're right, David, you're right, David, you're right, David, you're right, David, you're right, David, you're right, David, you're right, David, you're right. Okay, you can sound now. That's fine. Where's your rapping? Please tell me you found your rapping. I didn't. I told you you had to tell me where it was. So, um, so, um, so yes, that was, that was fun. And, you know, I, I can occasionally bring that out, uh, you know, for special occasions. Uh, Oh my goodness. That's so funny. It is crazy to think about how many moments are captured on

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Scotia Bank, you're richer than you think. Now, moving on to August 2020, Big Brother All-Stars began. Again, this was during the heat of the pandemic. And we expanded into covering that. Back when I had my website, I had done Why Blank lost columns for Big Brother as well. I had rules going back to 2004. I had even done the columns for other shows like The Apprentice and American Idol.

The Apprentice I had to stop because the host kept making random decisions that didn't make any sense. Make of that what you will. But American Idol, when Jennifer Hudson lost, my column, by whatever means, hit the top of Google News and there was so much traffic it crashed not just the server that hosted me but all of their associated servers like the one that was hosting Pepsi

as you can imagine I got a phone call like we're under a DDOS attack and I'm like no you're not it's not a denial of service there's just a lot of people who want to see this sorry that's amazing yeah they made me upgrade after that And then anyway, we covered Big Brother, 22. And Jessica loved it, especially the comp where they had to ride a giant banana.

She enjoyed that so much. I tried. I tried for you, David. I really did. I was like, okay, I'm going to do this for David. Now, I will say I was a Big Brother fan at the beginning when it first. came out. I thought this is incredible. I watched season one. I started watching season two. But then things just shifted and I didn't, I just didn't find it enjoyable. Like I still love Survivor. I watch Survivor all the time. But I just, I'd lost interest in Big Brother. And I had been away from it for so long. And then David was like, hey, would you do this? Okay, I'll do it. And then yes, I was like sitting there on my couch watching them ride big bananas. And I was like, what? Am I, like, what am I doing?

What is this? Like, this is a show for like a lot of money. They're literally riding big bananas. After that, I was like, I'm sorry, David. I'll do this, but I don't think I can stick with it. Yeah, well, we didn't even finish that season because right after the finale and, you know, when we would have done a Y Cody One podcast, I was in the hospital for 10 days. So this is what Big Brother All-Stars did to me.

I still blame Big Brother All-Stars. See, their fault. Good thing I walked away. We had been talking about why he was going to win for like every episode leading up to it. So it wasn't a big loss. But as you mentioned, that was enough Big Brother for you. And I ended up skipping Big Brother 23 because my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer just before the season began. Her treatment was successful.

She's fine now. And, you know, but for Big Brother 24, I invited Ovi Kabir from Big. brother 21 and he jumped on board as my new big brother co-host he's been doing it this is now what our fourth season uh and as we're about to finish it up so you know that's been more interesting in terms of his his experience in the game uh and obviously not minding watching people ride giant bananas well right and he i think that ovi has been a great addition for that podcast because he does have actual experience in the game, which I think helps this format because you are putting together these rules,

but then you're able to actually speak to someone who has played the game and knows whether or not that matters or this matters more and the way that you can incorporate the rules in the game. So I think it's been fantastic. I'm so glad that OV was willing to do it, and then it's gone so exceptionally well. So thank you, OV. Yes.

Taking that on that on. Now, before we finish up, I thought that listeners might want to know, know the process we go through each week to do the podcast. You discussed this a bit already, but I watch the episode twice, which, you know, obviously has gotten longer since the episodes have gotten longer. And then I read or watch the exit interviews. From all of this, I take notes, like you mentioned, in a growing word document all season

long because something that might not seem as significant in episode one might come back around by the time that player wins or loses. And that's why I'm able to pull out quotes or context going back too early in the season. You know, now, Jessica, I know you take notes, but as you mentioned, you mostly pull things out of your head because you have a much better memory for me on these specific things. And you could just pop them right out of your brain very easily. I think that's just come with the work that I do. I've been, I've been forced to have to cram a lot of things into my head.

So now I have like a survivor section up there that, that I utilize. But I do think that it's, it's been nice that we're able to work in this way because I was initially. I was taking lots of notes. I was writing a lot of things down. And I have some very incredible individuals in my life who listen and they support. And they were like, you know, he's let him do his thing. Like he's, that's what, that's what David does. like you're more like the color person like that's okay let him be more studious and and include

all of that you don't need to do so much of that and so i i did back up and i backed off of that a bit and i do think that it's it's worked out nicely because one it's it's less note taking for me and less prep work which is selfishly lovely but i think it's i think it's continued to work well so if it starts to go downhill please listeners let us know but it seems like we're doing okay because the comments that I see are lovely and kind. And thank you to everyone who was welcoming me back. I saw that the other day. So that was quite sweet.

So I appreciate it. It's funny because there are occasions when like Jessica will have a trial or something else. And she'll be like, I didn't have time to prep as much as usual. And then we get on the podcast and me sitting here. She's pulling these things out left and right. And it's like there's no way anyone would know that.

that you did not, you know, spend hours like I did. So. Well, that's good. Secrets out. Sometimes that happens everyone. But yes, yes, for sure. I'm glad that I'm glad I've been able to to get through it because there are days where I'm like, boy, I didn't, I didn't get through as much as I want to do.

And I will say that there have been occasions where I've just been unavailable because I'm having a trial or something of, of the sort. And we had lovely individuals. step in and cover for me. So that has been incredible to know that there's, there's a great, like, bench of people who are willing to come on and, and do this portion. So thank you. Yes. And many of them will be back as guests. When we started out, we never had guests. It was the two of us. And then we gradually started adding because there were people who wanted to come on. They had studied the rules ahead of time.

They knew everything. They knew the podcast. And then. you know, it just kept going and going to the point where, yeah, especially for this anniversary season, I wanted to have as many guests as we could. So we're going to try to do that. And, and I know there are people out there who are like, can't you and Jessica just do it? We like your interplay.

But we, we like it both ways. So it's hard to, you know, to get all of that together. Certainly for the finale, it'll just be the two of us, because the finale is always plenty long as it is, adding another person in there would, you know, making hours and hours.

Yes. And you're talking about prep, not counting watching the episode, but including going over the interviews and my notes and putting together the new notes, putting them in the rules where I think they belong. Takes me generally, I'd say about four hours,

sometimes more, sometimes a little less. And then, as I mentioned, we recorded as if live. and it gets sent off to the awesome production crew we have at RHAP to get posted. Yes. Yes. And they do a great job

and thank goodness they don't have to edit very much anymore because we just do it. Right. We just go. Yes. So I don't know if people might have any other questions. If you want to send them in, maybe we can throw in some answers or answer on social media or on a later podcast. But I hope everyone has enjoyed this 10th anniversary special and, of course, the podcast in general. Our Survivor 49 preview is already posted.

We will be back in less than a week to discuss why the first player lost. And meanwhile, as I mentioned, we're in that short period of overlap with Big Brother. So Ovi and I recorded the double eviction why Blank and Blank lost on Friday night, and it's already posted. Then we'll either be recording a podcast to discuss the 4th, fourth and fifth place players next Saturday or we'll combine them in with the winner runner up in third place after the finale, depending on just what our schedules look like. So much. Yes.

And then, of course, we are both on social media where you can chat with us about this special podcast or any other podcast that we do. Yeah. Please do. I am at Jessica Lewis 89 on Twitter and also on blue sky. I understand that more people are shifting to blue sky. My social media presence, though, is not as much as David Bloomberg's. I am at Jessica Lewis, 6,7, 8,9 on Instagram.

I just steal a lot of content from David Bloomberg because he posts things all the time. And then I just put it in my stories. So thank you for that, David. And David, as I did indicate, because he has so much social media content, he has a link tree that allows you to view all of the areas in which you can find David Bloomberg. So David Bloomberg, where can they find you? So as you mentioned, I am at Linktree slash David Bloomberg,

or you can find me directly on Blue Sky as at David Bloomberg. We need to get more of those survivor people over, like the Big Brother accounts came over. And then like you said, I'm on the various video sites, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram where I am at David Bloomberg TV. It does take a little longer to make those videos where I'm actually talking than it did to make the clip ones. So I used to post sometimes four or more videos.

I'm around three most days now, sometimes more of something big or many big things are happening. There are, of course, mostly Big Brother 27 right now. That will obviously change soon. And I recently passed 50,000 subscribers on YouTube and 13,000 on TikTok. So thank you again to everybody who is already there and watching. yes that sounds amazing so this was incredible david uh congratulations 10 years that's a big deal thank you and congratulations on eight you know so i mean 80 percent of the time that's huge

i do what i can you know i'll keep i'll keep pushing we get to get to get to survivor 50 right so that's right that's right now as we wrap up i do want to encourage people check out the archa p patron program at Rob has a website.com slash patron. You can get access to all the special podcasts that are put out just for patrons, plus Facebook groups, Discord, et cetera. And, of course, you support shows like ours, you know, 10 years running here and everything on the network by becoming a patron at Rob has a website.com slash patron. Also, you can make sure you're subscribed to all of the podcasts.

There are a few different ways you can go. Obviously, at the bottom of the screen, you can subscribe at getrhap.com. There's also you can go to we know survivor.com, we know realityTV.com. We're on all of those. And so you go there, you select your podcast service of choice, and there, it comes to you, you can subscribe on YouTube as well. And so you won't just get why blank lost, but you'll get all of the other great content that is on this amazing network.

Yes, and we want to thank Scott and Jess for all of the incredible work that they do with RJP in addition to the RJP team. There are just so many facets to RJP and so much content. It's just amazing and absolutely incredible and growing. It continues to get larger. So thank you to everyone for all of the great work that you do. Thank you to Will from America for the theme song that is included with the audio version of this podcast. And David, thank you for the 10 years.

It's been lovely. excuse me choking me up here see we edited that out in the old days but yeah thank you Jessica not just for joining me with this episode we also want to thank Rob of course for for coming by the first part of it and of course for starting the podcast

like we yes like I said earlier I just was thinking of something small and he it was his idea to make it something big And I'm forever grateful to him for that. I am forever grateful to you, Jessica, for joining me here. And, you know, of course, to all of the listeners and viewers for allowing us to continue this. And, you know, chatting with me on social media, it's a lot of fun. And so, you know, people often say, you know, what do you do?

do you're retired from your regular job i retired over three years ago it's like oh trust me i am plenty busy i'm so busy i can't even get done everything i want to get done and so you know and this podcast is a huge huge part of that yeah so thank you again to everyone and we will see you all in a little while for the first yes thank you why blank lost bye if you're a survivor and you're feeling David and Jessica will turn it around They'll break down the rules and they'll show you how You're playing yourself and got voted out This is why Blank Lost

And this is why Blank Lost Oh baby this is why Blank Lost