transcript

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2:
[01:06] They say everything happens for a reason, but I suspect everything happens for a reasons. Like this commercial break, did you need 15 seconds away from music or 15 seconds to eat a Reese's? Perhaps it's true. Everything happens for a Reese's.

Speaker 3:
[01:22] K-pop demon hunters, Saja Boys' breakfast meal and Huntrix meal have just dropped at McDonald's. They're calling this a battle for the fans. What do you say to that, Rumi? It's not a battle.

Speaker 4:
[01:32] So glad the Saja Boys could take breakfast and give our meal the rest of the day.

Speaker 2:
[01:36] It is an honor to share.

Speaker 3:
[01:37] No, it's our honor.

Speaker 5:
[01:39] It is our larger honor.

Speaker 6:
[01:41] No, really, stop.

Speaker 3:
[01:43] You can really feel the respect in this battle. Pick a meal to pick a side.

Speaker 2:
[01:50] I participate in McDonald's while supplies last.

Speaker 7:
[01:52] Predator Badlands now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus.

Speaker 3:
[01:57] Here, you're not the Predator. You're the prey.

Speaker 2:
[02:00] Prey, prey, prey, prey, prey, prey.

Speaker 7:
[02:05] Critics are saying it's epic, stunning and breathtaking.

Speaker 6:
[02:11] Many have come here.

Speaker 3:
[02:14] None have survived.

Speaker 7:
[02:16] Predator Badlands now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus, rated PG-13.

Speaker 5:
[02:23] Kraft Mac and Cheese is better than 90s hip hop. We'll remind you of your childhood without making you feel incredibly old. Kraft Mac and Cheese, best thing ever.

Speaker 1:
[02:45] Hey, everybody, what's going on? Rob Cesternino back for its Mid-Season Mailbag. I love the mailbag. I love anything where we get to talk to the listeners, hear what they're thinking about and weigh in about it. So these are some of my favorite podcasts to do, and I am so excited to get to catch up with the man who's gone through all of your emails or mailbag submissions. It's Brandon Donnelly. Brandon, how are you? What are you, who are you looking for?

Speaker 8:
[03:14] I was looking for who you were talking about.

Speaker 1:
[03:16] Who am I excited to talk to?

Speaker 8:
[03:18] Should this have had a celebrity guest? Should we have had a celebrity guest come and do this?

Speaker 1:
[03:22] I think that maybe we could have a celebrity guest pop in, maybe like a Zach Brown type, a Mick Brown type.

Speaker 8:
[03:31] I would love that. That's a big get. I don't know who we get at this hour. We're recording pretty early, but maybe we can blur out.

Speaker 1:
[03:36] Yeah, it's 8:41 a.m. as we are recording here on a Monday morning. Did you have the Sunday scaries last night before you were prepping for this podcast?

Speaker 8:
[03:48] A little bit. I mean, not to peek behind the curtain, but if you work at this establishment, which you and I both do, I mean, it's your establishment. We don't like nothing going on in the morning. We don't have to do things this early in the morning. So, seldom, I'm very spoiled at seldom do I have to like get up and be ready for something.

Speaker 1:
[04:02] The morning is typically when I have the most free time in the podcast day. And so I end up like I really do enjoy the morning, but we're traveling, we're taking the show on the road to Toronto. So it's a busy Monday here today. So we're up early and Adam for our big mailbag. We're going to do club condo Monday night for the patrons, so a special 420 club condo should be a memorable one at that. So here we are. It's a mid-season mailbag, a little past the mid-season, but big turning point in the season happened this week with the double tribal council. Did you weigh in? Have you said anywhere whether you liked the twist or not?

Speaker 8:
[04:46] No, I loved it. I had heard about it a week or two prior and I was a little bit nervous. I thought it was people would hate it. And I do think the same thing that everybody is saying is it's 100% results dependent that we all liked it. I mean, I think about the last Big Brother season, which I don't have the details super right, but Rachel goes in that big twist as the first dream member. I'm sure if it knocked out somebody that everybody universally didn't like, we wouldn't think about it in the same way. Yeah, or was a net neutral. But this, I really enjoyed and I do think it could work in future seasons. I think people are now prepared for it, so maybe you save it for a little bit. But I liked it. I thought it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1:
[05:26] So all right, fun stuff. We got a lot of mailbag questions. Why don't we jump into it? By the way, was there one theme that you took away from reading the hundreds of questions that we got?

Speaker 8:
[05:42] No, a lot of people are very in on this double duo's twist, which I think it was called, which I was surprised by. I think the Zach Brown reaction a few weeks ago was, I think the fans that this show is in the hands of have been so frustrated the past couple of seasons with not liking XYZ, and I think they were waiting to not like something, which I think the Zach Brown is, everybody was like, it's like when you go on vacation with your partner, you were like annoyed at beforehand. You're like, you're waiting for them to mess something up, and then they do a little bit, they're like, oh, see, I gotcha.

Speaker 1:
[06:14] The first two weeks were so good, I think, also. Was that Zach Brown the third week?

Speaker 8:
[06:18] I think fourth?

Speaker 1:
[06:20] Okay, yeah. Was that the episode that Q went home, or the episode that, yeah, I think it was the fourth episode. Yeah, I think it was the episode. So Q went home episode three, and then it was the Mike White episode.

Speaker 8:
[06:32] They lulled us into a sense of security. We thought we were flying this whole time. We're eating. We're eating, and then they did. They ate fish, caught by Zach Brown, famously. But I do think that this was something that I think they took a risk, and we've said these on previous mailboxes. We're all in on risk. The new era has been branded. It's about risk, but there's not a ton of risk in the format. And they tried something new, and I loved it. A couple of questions, which I want to start with this because I'm curious from your take. Chrissy gets voted out, over coached. They let Chrissy go. They get coached the moment. Do you have any interest in the other five pairs deciding who would have gone first, who would have gotten the first vote out?

Speaker 1:
[07:14] Is it like a straw poll of like, raise your hand if you want coach to get voted out first, raise your hand if you want Chrissy to get voted out first?

Speaker 8:
[07:20] I mean like Tiffany and Joe have immunity, but if they would have gotten voted out, who gets snuffs before whom in that Tiffany and Joe or Christian and Jonathan?

Speaker 1:
[07:28] Okay, so if we do Christian and Jonathan?

Speaker 8:
[07:31] Christian and Jonathan.

Speaker 1:
[07:33] I think that Jonathan goes first. We're saying they just do it based off of like, who has the Survivor resume?

Speaker 8:
[07:41] Sure.

Speaker 1:
[07:42] Who's the more iconic Survivor? Is that what they base it on?

Speaker 8:
[07:46] I think Rick and Aubrey. I think that's an easy ending.

Speaker 1:
[07:48] Can I say one thing about the Chrissy versus Coach of who got the torch snuff first? From what I understand, and this was reported, I think it was in maybe it was Dalton Ross, it might have been Tyson that Coach said that Joe would not write Coach's name down, that he only wrote down Chrissy. So maybe did Chrissy get one more vote than Coach did, and they made Joe go back allegedly and write down Coach's name? Was it just that Chrissy really did get more votes than Coach did?

Speaker 8:
[08:21] They were like, you know what, fine, Joe, you win.

Speaker 1:
[08:24] Yeah, Joe's choice.

Speaker 8:
[08:28] That is funny if they asked everybody, does everybody have a strong feeling of who should go first?

Speaker 1:
[08:32] Then for the other pairs, I'll go through it. I think Stephanie and Ozzy is a tough one. I think they'd probably make Stephanie go out first and Ozzy second. Emily and Rizgad, I hate to say it, Emily. I feel like I see a theme here.

Speaker 8:
[08:47] Ladies first.

Speaker 1:
[08:48] Ladies first. That's what they should have said. Ladies first. Chrissy, you go. Because they say, oh, we're being polite. It's not a sexism thing. It's called chivalry, okay? We're being ladies first. Women and children first. You get voted. It's like the Titanic. And so I think that they probably have Emily go before Rizzo. You know what? Rick and Aubrey, I feel like maybe they have Rick go first.

Speaker 8:
[09:18] I think that's the only one where Rick goes first.

Speaker 1:
[09:20] Rick goes first. And then Tiffany and Joe, I think that they have Tiffany go first and then they do Joe second.

Speaker 8:
[09:29] So it seems like a trend, unfortunate trend, but it's polite, you're right. It's polite, it's what you prefer. All right, we've got plenty of questions. We asked for questions on TikTok and YouTube as well as Instagram, and we got over 100, so we're flying. But we'll start with friend of the podcast, Betsy Borst. Betsy says, seeing how the season has gone and the strategies that players have come in with, how do you think you would have done if you were on season 5? Which is a question I believe to you and not me. I have thought about this a little bit.

Speaker 1:
[10:04] When I looked at the cast, I had more reservations where that in the Doctor Strange of it all, that maybe in the multiverse, there's a world where instead of going on the Traders, I go to Survivor 50. There was a non-zero chance it could have happened. I think that when I saw the cast and I thought about it, I was like, wow, I am the song of ice and fire. I am the person, I am from the old school, but I know the new school. I am the only person, I have a connection to every single person that's played this game. And I'm gonna be basically really set up well based off of how I see the perception of the Christians and the Recs and Emilys and where they're sort of like thought of like, ooh, the schemers, these people, the middle. I kind of feel like that I might have just been painted with that brush where I think that it would have been, stop me if you heard this one before, a little bit of my reputation preceding me. And I think it's not necessarily a fair reputation because I think that I'm nothing but a loyal person. I mean, that there are so many different places in my life that I could point to where I just out of loyalty, an obligation, I'm doing things. So that I'm not somebody who's just like cutting people willy nilly.

Speaker 8:
[11:38] Do you think you would have been more embraced by a particular side of the new era versus old era? Do you think one side would have tried to be more...

Speaker 1:
[11:44] I think that the old era would have... I think that they would have received me well. I think that there might have been people from the new era that were open to working with me. But I kind of feel like that I would be a little bit like people like be giving me the side eye, like Q, who's my favorite? But I think we'd be like, hey, keep an eye on him. We can't trust him. He knows too many people.

Speaker 8:
[12:14] It's interesting that the old era side, they really brought back a very... Maybe Sans Seri, and I would even include Ozzy in this, they brought back a very similar type of survivor player, which you are not that. I think the old era... There wasn't a you representation in that. And then once you get to your 30s, you get your Rick and Christian. That first half is, there's no you there.

Speaker 1:
[12:36] Yeah. So, yeah, I think it would have been fun. I really thought that in the casting process, when I was talking to them, I was like, okay, maybe they're looking for somebody from the old school who's really going to be able to keep up with the new pace of the game. But I think that that's probably overstated. I really say it's not that complicated. Even Colby was like, all right, we're doing this, we're doing this. Yeah, nobody's laid in over their head.

Speaker 8:
[13:08] No, people, you know, acclimated quickly. And you would be teaching people also. I think they would.

Speaker 1:
[13:14] I would try not to be teaching people. I think that would be a mistake. Maybe ask them. You know, it was one thing of like, you know, on the Traders, like, hey, Tara Lipinski, like, hey, you know what, sometimes when you go for the shield, they're gonna, like, I think that there was a role there, but I don't think that that would have been such a smart idea on Survivor 50.

Speaker 8:
[13:36] I'm excited to see how the rest of the older folks, how they keep going. It's crazy we have older, you know, it does feel like, you know, we've, now this is the second legend probably we've seen voted off. Is that fair? After Colby and now Coach, you know, we have a couple of them. And it does feel like such a bigger thing, but I do wish there was more of that tier that came out. But I don't know if we can forget it.

Speaker 1:
[13:58] You know, I said to Colby when we did the exit interview that I was like, hey, Colby, congratulations. Before we turned the call on, he's like, I don't know. I didn't do that great. I'm like, hey, you went out there, you didn't look like an idiot, and you got a great send off. Like, this was in like the highest percentage of outcomes. Yeah. Maybe you could have won the show or been the you should have won guy. But after that, you know what, I really don't do this, that I really felt like that my dream for Survivor 50 was I go out there and I make a couple of moves and then I get medevacked. And then I'm just like, go off into the sunset. I would have been like, oh, he could have won. He could have won.

Speaker 8:
[14:39] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[14:39] Universal approval.

Speaker 8:
[14:41] He could have won. People are clamoring for your return. There's not a bad, there's not, you know, the 24 person cast, Penner in Fans vs.

Speaker 1:
[14:50] Favorites, like, all right, good luck.

Speaker 7:
[14:52] Good luck, everybody.

Speaker 8:
[14:55] And then he comes back.

Speaker 1:
[14:56] Could have been me.

Speaker 8:
[14:58] I think the 24 person group really lends itself well to, like, the jury phase of the game, not mattering as much. I think like the Australian Survivor seasons do this well, where they bring people back for the All-Star season, season five, that went deep into the pre-jury, but not quite the jury. Just because it feels like a different, the Traitors feels like that also, where there's no, like, I got to make it by this point, you know, which I get, you know, in a normal Survivor season, nobody wants to not make the merch. You want a moment? Get on screen.

Speaker 1:
[15:26] You get on screen. So I think I would have taken the Kyle edit, maybe like get like a couple, maybe make it to the swap and be Kyle.

Speaker 8:
[15:33] Yeah. And, you know, everybody wants Kyle back.

Speaker 1:
[15:36] Yeah.

Speaker 8:
[15:37] And we have a question about Kyle that I will read here. Her Majesty Velvet wants to know, do you think there should have been winners on Survivor 50? Who would you prefer in the spots of Dee, Kyle and Savannah?

Speaker 1:
[15:54] So I think that's easy. Jesse and Carolyn bring them back. I think that the more interesting thing is that they started with no winners and they weren't going to bring back anybody from season 40. But then it seems like at some point they made the pivot of like, oh, what if we did have winners? And then they ended up with Dee and Kyle and ultimately Savannah and Marianne was in the mix. But in talking to Jeremy Collins, he also said that he was in the mix and he would have been maybe the one person from season 40 who ultimately was here. I wonder if maybe instead of like there's three winners and they're all people from the new era. I think that maybe what if they ended up opening it up and then go back to what if we had a couple of winners from the old era that we didn't end up bringing back for season 40 and I think that this would have, they would have eaten with Earl. I think everybody would have been so excited to bring Earl back. I know that they went pretty far down the road with Sean but I know Vasepia had wanted to come back. But what if you maybe had four winners, two from the old era, two people who have never played, like winners in their second chance from the old era. I think that maybe instead of no winners, you could have found a couple of winners who you didn't bring back.

Speaker 8:
[17:23] Yeah, the original King of Fiji would have been a great place to have him come back.

Speaker 1:
[17:27] Based off of the reaction to the challenge, people would have been psyched if Chris Underwood came back in the season. I know you have a couple of people from the edge, but I think people would have been pretty pumped up for Chris Underwood.

Speaker 8:
[17:39] Yeah, I think that I would have been pumped up for Chris Underwood on Winners of War. I was, listen, I'm ready to see him. And he's really good at these games. He's really, really good. So why not have him back?

Speaker 1:
[17:50] And based off of a couple days, listen, the theme was not on trial. He came back and really was pretty fired up.

Speaker 8:
[18:01] Yeah, it's an interesting point there. Abby Barnett wants to know, what specifically do you see Jonathan implementing that comes from Boston Rob's mentorship? Do you think Rob would have made a similar alliance in this spot?

Speaker 1:
[18:16] So this is interesting to just think about Boston Rob as a mentor for Jonathan, because they're not really similar type players in terms of how they're acting.

Speaker 9:
[18:32] Hey, Jonathan, you know, let me give you a mid-season report card on how you're doing.

Speaker 1:
[18:41] Because Rob doesn't ever play from the middle. And I feel like that Jonathan, he's so big and so large in stature, but I feel like his game is a little bit trying to not be seen as the leader.

Speaker 9:
[18:58] And for Rob, I'd rather die than not be the leader, okay? I'm in charge of this thing.

Speaker 1:
[19:06] Whereas I think that Jonathan's game has been much more of like, hey, I like having coach out as the leader, and I'm going to sort of just be like a good soldier who's sort of trying to manipulate things a little bit more from the sidelines and people don't realize what I'm doing. And so that to me is interesting. Based off of some of the advice that Rob gave to Jonathan, he seemed to have really given him advice of like, hey, don't look unhappy, don't look like you're pouting. And it's hard to say because I don't think we really see that in the downtime. I think that that's probably in where that stuff manifests itself. I think it's going to be interesting for Jonathan here. If you will see how this shakes out after we saw the last moments of the episode, Jonathan pointing back at Rick Devin saying, hey, you're showing your true colors too. And so there is a world where Jonathan now has to play from the bottom. I think he did a good job playing from the bottom the last time that he was in this position in this season after the Charlie Blind side, where he kind of went back to D. And I think that maybe that's a good spot for him if he continues to sort of, it like forces him into the humble Jonathan of like trying to be you know hey whatever you say. I think that people like him when he's doing that. I think that when he is in a position of power, which is you know sort of like the opposite of where Rob wants to be, I think when he's looked at as the person who is in charge and running things, I think that combined with his stature, I think makes him a little bit more of a person that people really rally against. Not that we've seen that really in his Survivor tenure. I mean he went to the Final Four in his first season, but I think he's easier to look at as he's big, he's in charge, he's running things, and I think that in a way, he really needs to be playing from the bottom, but people not thinking that, or even to actually not be on the bottom, but people feel like he's at the bottom. Does that make sense?

Speaker 8:
[21:30] Absolutely. What do you think of that true colors comment from him? Because Rick Devins, that is prompted by Rick Devins saying like, you can see where the alliances are in this group, and then Jonathan says, you're showing your true colors. I couldn't get how he had that leap from just where the alliances are.

Speaker 1:
[21:46] By the way, nobody gets people more annoyed at tribal council than Rick Devins when we go back and look through his career. Like, Rick Devins is like, see, this is what I'm talking about. I'd be like, shut up, Rick.

Speaker 8:
[22:00] And why do you think that is? Is it the showmanship about him?

Speaker 1:
[22:07] I think that he really uses tribal council to be able to force the narrative of what he's trying to like, see, I told you all these people are there, they're doing it. And he was doing that during this tribal council. He wants to use tribal council to expose alliances, which is interesting. And we just had John and Nellie on the podcast, and they used to have challenges that would expose the alliances. But I think Rick, in these live tribal councils, he likes to set them off. He thrives in chaos, Rick Devins. And then he likes to point to the live tribal council as, see, this is, look at these people. It's clear they have an alliance over there. See everybody? And so, it's interesting, right? There's not a lot of people who do that. But he did get that rise out of Jonathan, and I think Rick is trying to use that to sort of like damn this alliance, and sort of say like, hey, it's clear these people have revealed themselves. They have an alliance. But I think Jonathan's like, yeah, and we know who your alliance is, too. I think that that's what Jonathan is trying to say there.

Speaker 8:
[23:20] You got advice from Boston Rob pre-traders that you didn't follow necessarily, but you interpreted it as for your own situation. You kind of filtered it through what would work for you. Do you see Jonathan following advice that you think he also got similar advice?

Speaker 1:
[23:40] So, you know, in the same way, that's a good question. In the same way that Rob gave me advice, that was not what he would do. I think it's maybe I'm being a little, you know, oversimplifying things to say that Rob's advice for Jonathan was to play like Rob, because the advice that Rob gave to me before the traders was, hey, Cesternino, don't talk to anybody.

Speaker 9:
[24:06] Shut up. Just be funny in the confessional. That's it.

Speaker 1:
[24:11] And look, that was good advice, but it wasn't what I wanted to do. You know, I wanted to go and I wanted to play. I didn't want to just be doing nothing. And for Jonathan, I think that his advice was a little bit more of think about the game in the big picture. And I think that Jonathan is following that. And I think that we'll see if Jonathan can make the adjustment. This is the second time this season that Jonathan is on the wrong side of the vote. And so we'll see if Jonathan can again make a pivot and figure out a new plan instead of just like barking and being hot with Rick Devens back at camp. If he can figure out a way to maybe turn this back around on Rick. And by proxy Christian and Emily.

Speaker 8:
[25:02] I saw a meme on Twitter of every vote that Joe has done all season and he's holding up each vote and the caption is something to the degree of like, Joe did not want to vote for any of these people. That any of the five times he went to tribal council and yet he votes for them every single time. Where do you go for, how do you course correct from that? Do you think at this moment?

Speaker 1:
[25:22] I think that in itself is a course correction because I think that in Survivor 48, I don't know if Joe would make any votes that he didn't feel like making. So I think that Joe is in an interesting position. I've been excited for Joe all through this season. I like Joe as being the person who is having to do things against his will as opposed for Joe dictating the will of the season like he did in Survivor 48.

Speaker 8:
[25:55] I want him to fight more with Rick Davids. Remember when he fought with Rick Davids?

Speaker 1:
[25:59] He was annoyed with Rick Davids at the Live Travel Council.

Speaker 8:
[26:03] I was annoyed with Rick Davids. I'm not. I love Rick Davids.

Speaker 1:
[26:06] You either...

Speaker 8:
[26:07] Will wants it.

Speaker 1:
[26:08] Rick Davids is a Rorschach test. There's only two types of people in this world. People that love Rick Davids and people that are just so irritated with Rick Davids. That's it.

Speaker 8:
[26:22] That's what Jeff says about Coach.

Speaker 1:
[26:24] Yeah, that's the litmus test for a Survivor fan.

Speaker 8:
[26:28] But what side is the Survivor fans on? Do the Survivor fans love Rick Davids or not like Rick Davids?

Speaker 1:
[26:32] I think they love Rick Davids.

Speaker 8:
[26:36] If you're following the same Coach test.

Speaker 1:
[26:38] Yeah. I feel like that for the most parts, and I don't want to say that this is all people. I feel like that the Survivors themselves tend to get more annoyed with Rick Davids. Whereas out in the world, I don't know if there's a lot of anti-Rick Davids people who are just annoyed with him for existing.

Speaker 8:
[27:01] You know what Rick Davids got? We know them. You're out there. Rick Davids got a moment. He's leaving Season 50 with a moment. Pretty good.

Speaker 1:
[27:09] Good moment.

Speaker 8:
[27:09] If that's the litmus test for a successful Season 50 run, he got a moment.

Speaker 1:
[27:14] They had to do this at this point in time. Even though it was maybe not the most optimal moment to do it, that they got something out of this idol that had been hidden at Tribal Council the whole Season. I do believe that they were not going home at this Tribal Council no matter what. It seems like that there is enough corroborating reports that Coach and Kristi both said, it was 50-50, but for everybody else, I think that there seems to be some implication that Coach and Kristi were going home at this Tribal Council no matter what, and that the Rick and Aubrey idol play certainly maybe changed a vote or two at the live Tribal, but did not change the course of what was going to happen.

Speaker 8:
[28:04] And maybe not optimal in the moment, but we haven't seen the fallout from it. They can maybe course correct from there, so who knows?

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 10:
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Speaker 8:
[32:22] Will wants to know, is Rizzo playing the best game of any back-to-back player we've ever seen?

Speaker 1:
[32:29] So it's a great question. It's a great question. We have to see ultimately how it ends. Who would we say has played the best back-to-back game? Would we say it's Russell?

Speaker 8:
[32:41] Russell or Amanda, right?

Speaker 1:
[32:43] Oh, Amanda is interesting.

Speaker 8:
[32:43] They're the only two that you can make the case for.

Speaker 1:
[32:45] Yeah, Rupert is there.

Speaker 8:
[32:49] Might not be him. Don't tell him.

Speaker 9:
[32:51] It might not be him.

Speaker 1:
[32:53] Did Amanda play better back-to-back in 15 and 16, where the one flaw with Amanda, the flaw, was just that she didn't end up getting the jury votes. The Todd Final Tropic Council is legendary. I don't remember, other than the Natalie Bolton question, I don't remember any particular points about Parvati's Final Tropic Council in Micronesia. I remember some of the jury questions more so than I remember how they were answered. I remember Ozzie also coming in and really professing his love for Amanda, right?

Speaker 8:
[33:42] I saw a fan cam the day of that moment.

Speaker 1:
[33:44] Yeah.

Speaker 8:
[33:44] You think that it's going to be, they show Ozzie making a speech and it's all dark and you think it's going to be Amanda, but then it's Shambo. It's an Ozzie and Shambo love thing. I liked it. I have to watch it on Glipcom.

Speaker 1:
[33:57] Yeah. I think Amanda is interesting. I'm not sure that Rizzo would have won his Final Tropic Council in his first season. And Amanda did play. There are different facets to Amanda's game that Rizzo doesn't necessarily have, like the ability to win challenges. Amanda was not a strategic slouch. So I'm going to say that Amanda does have the high bar. I think that's pretty good.

Speaker 8:
[34:23] What do you make of Coach in the exit press saying that they were disadvantaged by Rizzo again, when he was disadvantaged by Russell also? It's just an interesting, and I think he kind of, and forgive me if I'm misconstruing this, but I think he puts the onus of that on, I think he said, what Genevieve and Colby, he love Rizzo, like don't worry about Rizzo. Which is interesting that he was, he says that-

Speaker 1:
[34:47] I love that guy, yep.

Speaker 8:
[34:50] I'm sorry, Saree has duped Stephanie so many times, but it seems as if Coach got duped again by the non-entity.

Speaker 1:
[35:00] Did Coach or did Genevieve and Colby, and they told Coach to trust him?

Speaker 8:
[35:05] It's true.

Speaker 1:
[35:05] No. Yeah, I guess so. I think that Rizzo was not the problem for Coach. You know, maybe that was not what went wrong here. He wasn't one Riz got away from all of this in the way that Russell was the undoing of the villain's tribe in Heroes vs. Villains. You know, that Coach brought in Riz God into the Four Horsemen. But that was not the ultimate downfall of Coach.

Speaker 8:
[35:38] Have you ever secretly given somebody a note? Coach gave the note to Colby. Have you ever given a note to somebody inconspicuously?

Speaker 1:
[35:44] Secretly given a note to anybody? I don't believe so. Can't think of a moment where I...

Speaker 8:
[35:51] Would it be fun to give a note?

Speaker 1:
[35:54] The note is so permanent. I think maybe I'm so scarred from JT in Heroes vs. Villains where when the note ends up then being found, have you given anybody a secret note?

Speaker 8:
[36:08] I mean, you used to pass notes in class, right? You were passing notes back then. I think that's the only time that I've ever had to inconspicuously give a note. Just a little slide across the table, you know? And what did it say? Who knows? Nothing important.

Speaker 1:
[36:22] I try to give notes to people, but passing notes? No.

Speaker 8:
[36:26] How do they go?

Speaker 1:
[36:27] Not well. Not usually. Usually people are like, you know what? Don't appreciate the note. Like, okay.

Speaker 8:
[36:37] That's not what Colby said. I think Colby probably appreciated the note, but then he got to Rizzo and he's like, oh, I love Rizzo. You know what?

Speaker 1:
[36:44] You said this with Amy. And good for Rizzo that he's, you know, one that people were he's backing was against the wall. People wanted him out and look at him now.

Speaker 8:
[36:53] That's exactly what I was going to say.

Speaker 1:
[36:54] I mean, you talk about this with Amy. Closing in on Amanda Kimmel for the best back to back returning.

Speaker 8:
[36:59] He really, he really has something about him that everybody like, I think it's really a testament to him that not only has he captured everybody on the island, but also off of it, we all, the people who weren't in for 49, those, that small number, everybody's in on the Riz-Gov.

Speaker 1:
[37:15] I said this the other day, but you don't listen to every podcast. I don't know that. Not you, but I'm talking to the listener at home. But if you would have then maybe a year ago just wrote this down on paper, like there's gonna be a guy, he's gonna give himself, he's gonna talk in the third person, he's gonna give himself a nickname, which is Riz God. He's gonna refer to himself as the man, the myth, the legend. He's going to have like a, he's gonna say this in confessional a lot. And then his vibe is like try hard super fan. And he's going to just talk about himself as one of the all time greats, really from jump. And you would have said that people are gonna hate this guy. This is going to be the most hated survivor contestant of all time. And he seems to have almost universal popularity. It's incredible.

Speaker 8:
[38:14] It's really, it's something. It's something to behold. And I'm so thrilled for him. I mean, he is so like...

Speaker 1:
[38:19] Yeah, it's just that he has like, just a sheer likeability. People really enjoy him. And so I'm thrilled for him.

Speaker 8:
[38:29] I'm so, yeah, that's exactly, you know, I'm so, so thrilled to see, you know, it's somebody on Reddit, I think I read a comment that was like, it's like he wrote himself like into the fan fiction of what Survivor 50 is. It's like, he dreams about it for every, you know, however long, and then he's just, he's there, he showed up and he has agency. I mean, he's not just there, you know, for fun. He's a creative character. Yeah, he is. That's very funny. That's very, very funny. Yeah, he's living the dream. I'm so, I'm so thrilled for him. And I do think like if he gets to the end with, I think that the hardest thing for him is going to be the same thing with like, was it Nick and Michelle, as long as it were, the older folks don't want to vote for the young person.

Speaker 1:
[39:09] You know, I've talked about this. And that was my take originally, but I think that might have been a little bit more the case in Second Chances and in Season 40, where in Season 50, I'm not sure necessarily how many parents and older folk there are on this jury. When we take a look at the cast, there's not a million parents that are on this jury. You have, just from the people who are gonna be on this 11-person jury and in the final three, obviously, Saree's a parent, Coach is a parent, Christy's a parent, and I'm trying to think of Christian is a new parent, Rick Devens is a parent. But it's not like that 11 of the 13 are people that were, it was only, you know, Michelle and Nick and Wendell and Sophie were like the only people that were like in that Winners at War pool, and maybe I'm forgetting like one other person, who were the only people who were not there doing it for a family.

Speaker 8:
[40:15] I do wonder though, I think maybe I am assigning parent to just the older folks that I think may not want to vote for the young, young person. And I do wonder if his path to winning is bringing the older, like eliminating as many older folks as you can on the jury from that side. Your Stephanie's, your Joe's, your Jonathan's, and then bring, I guess Jonathan's not an older person, but he's affiliated with them.

Speaker 1:
[40:38] I think Chrissy and Coach are not gonna be Rizzo voters under, just going back to where, when Chrissy pulled Jonathan aside and said about Camilla and Tiffany and Dee, and she said to Jonathan, they're not voting for you. You know, I kind of feel like, I want to pull Rizzo aside. They're like, yeah, Coach and Chrissy, they're not voting for you. It's not happening.

Speaker 8:
[41:01] Who do you miss the most that has already been voted out? Who do you wish that we could have seen do this, where we are right now?

Speaker 1:
[41:08] Well, you know, I love Q. So I almost feel like it's not fair to say Q. And I think Jenna Lewis would have been pretty dug in in terms of what she's doing. I think you could imagine Savannah in this situation of like, hey, I gotta win the challenge. Like I kind of feel like I could see her sort of like being with Tiffany. Maybe she's sort of like not connected to as many things. I think that Charlie would have been fun as a mischief maker. Certainly, we miss Mike White and what he could have brought to the season. Who else, who am I missing? I think, well, you know what? I'll say Camilla. I'll say it was Camilla because I really felt like that Camilla was that, it was a tease. I thought that Camilla had a chance to play in season 50, the game that she could have been playing in Survivor 48 where she's a swing vote, who sort of, and I don't know if she would have been like bouncing between the sides, but I think that maybe, you know, Rizzo ends up taking on that spot here along with Saree and Ozzy, but I think that Camilla just could have been that under the radar operator where it would have been fun to see what havoc she could have wrought in this season.

Speaker 8:
[42:30] And I would have loved to have seen her and Joe back together. I would have loved to have seen what happens with her and Joe. Having to work together again. Them as a duo in that challenge would have been very fun. Mike Duvall wants to know, given the mostly positive response season 50 has had so far, should all returning player seasons have 24 castaways from now on?

Speaker 1:
[42:52] 24 is a lot, right? We have to have a blood moon, we're chasing it the whole way through. I don't know, 24 is a lot. It's just that we're sort of like beholden to having the tribes be divisible by certain round numbers. So I don't think that 24 is a good number for 26 days. Could we do it? Could we do... What about if we did 21? I mean, it'd be sort of like gender imbalance, but if there was sort of like some shrimpy guys, but more jacked gals, I don't know if that's... I don't know if that's the politically correct term. The shrimpy guys and jacked gals. But who says no?

Speaker 8:
[43:40] That's the theme of 51.

Speaker 1:
[43:42] You know, that you end up with 21 players. How about that?

Speaker 8:
[43:51] I like it. I think this presents a unique thing in Survivor that we haven't seen in a long time where they've now tried something new, that they are, like a format change, that they are going to now do something. Like we haven't seen since 40 to 41, you have 20 people to 18 people. And there's been 18 people, and now we're going to do 24 to say a different number. It's an interesting time for them to make a change that they could potentially be sticking with. I mean, we have no proof that Season 51 isn't 24 people. I guess we, like, that hasn't crossed my desk.

Speaker 1:
[44:21] I'd be really surprised if it's 24 people and new players. Which, very quietly, Survivor 51 is underway filming. We know almost nothing of what they're doing in Survivor 51. It's not been reported anywhere that I've seen. So, who knows what the Survivor 50s have very quietly kicked off. I guess the 50s, they kicked off with Season 50. But the, you know... I don't know what you would call this. The Ghost 50 era has kicked off quietly.

Speaker 8:
[44:52] The newer era. Do you think, at this hour, we have three tribes or do we have two starting tribes for Season 51?

Speaker 1:
[45:01] Man, I hope it's two. That would just be such good vibes if they were like, hey, word on the street, Redmond has reported that it's two tribes for Season 50.

Speaker 8:
[45:16] It would be a dream. I don't think it's a dream that we're gonna, I think it's like Susan Boyle's dream.

Speaker 1:
[45:19] Manifest the inside Survivor, come on.

Speaker 8:
[45:23] I mean, it's gonna be days. I'm surprised we don't already know because it has started, presumably. So it should be any day now. Really, I hope it's two so bad. I don't think it's two, but I hope it's two. And if it's three, then I hope it's not red, yellow and blue. I hope there's something different.

Speaker 1:
[45:39] I don't care about the colors. I don't care about the colors.

Speaker 8:
[45:42] I care about the colors, it's been the same colors this whole time. You know what I mean? From 41 was randomly different colors, but 43 to 49 is just, business as usual. There's something fun in there.

Speaker 1:
[45:54] Give me the best season with the worst merge buffs and tribe colors, I don't care.

Speaker 8:
[46:02] Jack, this is a funny comment that somebody left. Jack wanted to know, what color do you think the Vaatu buff was? To you, what color was that buff? Hmm.

Speaker 1:
[46:12] I think I'd need like a color chart to identify it. I think that, so I saw that, was it magenta or fuchsia?

Speaker 8:
[46:23] I think it was magenta or, let me search in our document here. It was magenta or purple or...

Speaker 1:
[46:27] I wouldn't say it's purple.

Speaker 8:
[46:31] Oh, I would lean that it's purple. No?

Speaker 1:
[46:35] No, it's more like a reddish purple. Not quite cranberry.

Speaker 8:
[46:43] I love the cranberries.

Speaker 1:
[46:44] Fuchs is more pink, right? So...

Speaker 8:
[46:47] Yeah, so they said, what's Vaatu's color? Pink, purple or magenta? I guess magenta.

Speaker 1:
[46:53] I'd lean magenta. Yeah.

Speaker 9:
[46:55] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[46:56] I need a box of Crayola in front of me.

Speaker 8:
[46:59] With the sharpener. Let's find a different question. My name is not Maria.

Speaker 9:
[47:06] Okay.

Speaker 8:
[47:07] What's your name?

Speaker 1:
[47:07] Same.

Speaker 8:
[47:08] If Surrey wins this season, do we have to officially change the Survivor Mount Rushmore? Who comes down? Who are you yanking up the Mount Rushmore?

Speaker 1:
[47:16] We stop the Mount Rushmore. I think Mount Rushmore is over if Surrey wins the season. I think it's like a fab five. And I think it's, I don't know, who could you take out of the Mount Rushmore? I know people say, well, Boston Rob took him four times to win. He's the Babe Ruth of Survivor. And it doesn't matter, you know, that, oh, Babe Ruth played against the, you know, people that weren't full-time baseball players and that they, you know, it was just a bunch of whatever, like white guys who were around in 1920. Doesn't matter. You know, Babe Ruth is still the bambino and you can't take Boston Rob out of the Mount Rushmore. You're not gonna take Parvati out. You're not gonna take Sandra out. Tony won twice. And you just have a fab five. That's it.

Speaker 8:
[48:08] You have a fab five. I like them. I think a fab five is fine.

Speaker 1:
[48:12] Yeah. And they all bring different things to it. I think that in Surrey you have certainly like, you know, it's certainly like a different type of social game than Parvati has had. So it brings a lot to it. I don't think you kick somebody out of Mount Rushmore.

Speaker 8:
[48:32] I saw a clip that I believe Troisanne shared on Instagram where he's quoting Sarah LaSina. This is the other day. But Sarah LaSina said, I think, I guess I'm a boss of Rob, is like, if you, you know, you play four times, you win. If you get married four times, are you good at marriage? Was Sarah LaSina's quote. Likening that to playing Survivor four, like, if you get to play four times, but I don't know if that's inequitable.

Speaker 1:
[48:54] I don't think that that's really the same comparison.

Speaker 8:
[48:58] I don't think that. I didn't say it.

Speaker 1:
[49:00] I mean, he played Survivor twice and got married. I mean, what does that say? It sounds like he's really good at some of those things.

Speaker 8:
[49:10] He's so good at Survivor that he got married. Not a lot of us can say that.

Speaker 1:
[49:14] Yeah. So I don't think that your, like, Survivor-winning percentage is, you know, similar to, you know, the number of times you got married. I think it may be...

Speaker 8:
[49:26] That doesn't... In professional sports...

Speaker 1:
[49:29] So if you went on, like, one date and got married, like, again, I don't know, maybe you're the best at picking dates.

Speaker 8:
[49:39] But nobody in football is penalized. If you play three seasons and you get to the Super Bowl once...

Speaker 1:
[49:44] With all due respect to LaSina, I don't think that that is really an apt, friend of the show, an apt comparison to compare.

Speaker 8:
[49:56] If you're interested in the clip, listeners, go on Troy Zan's Instagram. I think that's where I saw it.

Speaker 1:
[50:00] I think it's a real like apples and donuts situation.

Speaker 8:
[50:05] And I love both. Could use either right now.

Speaker 1:
[50:08] Apple donut. That'll hit.

Speaker 8:
[50:09] Oh, my favorite. SweetRyeGuy wants to know, who has been the luckiest player this season? Who's benefited the most from all the twists and randomness?

Speaker 1:
[50:20] I talked a lot about Genevieve as being the most unlucky of the players, but I guess who's benefited the most from from the luck? Who's who's been having lucky breaks? Let me just go back to the blood moon and the just the configuration. Is it possible that it's the opposite side of the coin as Genevieve? Like, could it be Aubrey? Could I just talk that through here for a moment? Does it take anything away from Aubrey's skill? Has she benefited the most from luck? She was the recipient of a Billie Eilish boomerang idol. When she looked to be somebody who was likely going to get voted out, she played on a tribe where in Vatu, either her or Angelina would have likely have been the person who got voted out, that by way of twists, they didn't do any other double tribal councils. The one time that she would have been vulnerable in the pre-merge, her tribe was the only tribe to not go to tribal council. It was, what, Kahlo and the, I think, Nuvatu, which was the Christian, Ozzie, Emily group that went to tribal council. Again, she gets a very favorable draw in the blood moon where it ends up being maybe the one draw that would have taken out Genevieve. And then in the post-blood moon, she ends up being tied to Rick Devens on the night that he's going to do his fake idol play, Shenanigans. And so, I would not say that Aubrey has been incredibly lucky, but if we're looking for one person who's benefited the most from luck, I think Aubrey is a pretty good person to guess.

Speaker 8:
[52:22] On tracks. And it balances out Genevieve's such bad luck that a lot of that was tied to Aubrey also.

Speaker 1:
[52:29] Yeah. With luck, I really think about who did not go to tribal councils when they could have been voted off and was the recipient of things. So, I'll say it was Aubrey, but I don't want to take anything away from the game Aubrey's played so far. But if we're looking for one person, I don't think you're going to find somebody who's better than Aubrey.

Speaker 8:
[52:52] Yeah, I agree. William E. Dox wants to know, can Rizzo achieve his desired legend status if he helps Sury win the game? And what is his legacy if he betrays Sury?

Speaker 1:
[53:06] To me, the legacy if he betrays Sury is the much more interesting question of what does he become if his story arc this season is that he comes back, he works with Sury, Sury is on the precipice of potentially the Survivor win that we as fans have watched for 20 years. And we are on the stepping stones of that culmination and coronation. And here comes the R-I-Z G-O-D Rizgad baby with the rug pull at the final four to say, hey, it's gotta be me, I told you. I'm here to win, I'm here to be the legend. And I think that that would be really interesting to watch how he is, that moment would be received. And then if he does not go on to win after that, where it's a hey, you did this, I think it's one thing if he does that and wins. And I think it's another thing if he makes that move and doesn't win. And so that, I think that that would be a hard pill to swallow. I think, I don't think that that is what will happen. I think that he is a useful ally for Surrey. I think that he ultimately works towards getting her closer to that goal. I think that his edit has been very positive. He's not getting this big villain edit in the season. So I don't think that that's where we're headed with this. But that would be, I think, the most interesting scenario. If he ends up being a loyal ally of Surrey and then ultimately she wins the game, I think he's set up pretty well to come back and play for a third time in the next couple of years. I think that he continues to be very positively received.

Speaker 8:
[55:09] I don't think that there's any, I think even now he's coming back for a third. I don't know if he can botch that at the rest of this. I think about in Winners of War, Denise takes out Sandra at that one tribal council, just for the moment of like taking out Sandra.

Speaker 1:
[55:25] Yeah, it was a moment.

Speaker 8:
[55:29] The Queen Slayer. We don't reference the Queen Slayer. Why was there? It was COVID. It was a sad night. It was like the day the world shut down. But nobody, we don't, that's not, it didn't leave the light of the season.

Speaker 1:
[55:41] And Paul Arbery got voted out in that episode too.

Speaker 8:
[55:43] She did. That was, yeah. That was I think the March 12th or 13th, if I'm remembering right. Maybe I can be wrong.

Speaker 1:
[55:49] I think you're a little off. I think it might have been the next week after that.

Speaker 8:
[55:52] Was it the next week? I remember, I was flipping between that and the Masked Singer, but I won't bring that up.

Speaker 1:
[55:58] Yeah, because we did the live show was scheduled March 11th of 2020. And Boston Rob got voted out that night. And it was a weird night, I'll tell you. And then we were starting lockdown. And then I think that might have been the first Wednesday in lockdown.

Speaker 8:
[56:18] Oh, oh, so I'm sorry. And I'm forgetting that March 11th show that happened. That still happened. It happened, wow.

Speaker 1:
[56:25] Lots of elbow bumps that night.

Speaker 8:
[56:29] We gotta bring that back. People love that. People love the elbow bumps.

Speaker 1:
[56:32] Stephen Fishbach was the first to know. Like a week before, he's like, I'm not going out. I'm not coming.

Speaker 9:
[56:37] Yeah. He's like, oh, okay.

Speaker 8:
[56:41] He's still not. He's still not going out.

Speaker 1:
[56:43] He still isn't all the way back. I was like, we kinda need you. And he's like, oh well, you figure it out. And we did.

Speaker 8:
[56:50] We're so back.

Speaker 1:
[56:51] Yeah.

Speaker 8:
[56:53] Sarah Desmond wants to know, this really made me laugh, this question. Is Jeff saying survivors ready with an apostrophe in survivors or survivors ready go? Is the show ready or is he getting the players in place? Like get set.

Speaker 1:
[57:09] I don't even think I understand the question. So, is survivors ready? Like, is he asking like the production if they're ready? Because I think they would do that off camera.

Speaker 8:
[57:24] Yeah. I mean, I've never once had the thought about, but I want to extrapolate on it. So is survivors ready the way that it means that? Like there's no debate that it means survivors ready, but Sarah Desmond is asking, is Jeff teeing up, is survivor, like, is the show, like, if Phil Keoghan were to say, the amazing race, like, is the amazing race ready? If that makes sense. Like, is the whole production ready? I think that's what Sarah Desmond, I don't, that's how I'm interpreting it. Is survivors ready the way that we all understand it to mean?

Speaker 1:
[57:56] Is there some other interpretation of survivors ready?

Speaker 8:
[58:00] Is Jeff saying survivors with an apostrophe, survivors ready? That means, like, is survivor ready? Like, is dinner ready? Like, is survivor ready? I think is what Sarah Desmond means here. But it doesn't mean that, Sarah Desmond. Like, it's never meant that, and it doesn't mean that. But I'm so curious of how you, like, I've never had the thought that you, how you got there. And I really like that.

Speaker 11:
[58:26] Yeah.

Speaker 8:
[58:26] So now when he says it, we should all think, hey, survivor is ready.

Speaker 11:
[58:30] Are we ready?

Speaker 8:
[58:30] Let's do survivor.

Speaker 1:
[58:31] We're not ready.

Speaker 8:
[58:33] I wasn't ready for that. Sorry, Desmond. Stephanie, S3-062, what in the hands of the fans' twist has been the best and worst so far?

Speaker 1:
[58:47] So are we saying, like, just overall as the, the season as a whole, what twists have worked or what things did people vote on have worked?

Speaker 8:
[58:57] I interpret this as what twists they put in have worked the most.

Speaker 1:
[59:01] Just give you, I'll tell you what I think has worked in this season and we could decide whether or not the fans voted for any of these things that are working or not working. Obviously, the double duo's twist, we felt like that that worked. People like that, seems like almost universal feedback. Something else that I think has worked that I have liked has been the return of Exile Island, sort of like a little bit snuck in there. It has not really been a ballyhooed thing that fans voted on. Do you want Exile Island or not? But I feel like that almost all of the Exile Island segments so far this season, I feel like have worked. I am much more pro Exile Island than pro Journey in terms of being a fun part of the show when people get sent to Exile Island. We like that. You are kind of like, you like it going to Exile Island now. It used to be when they started Exile Island, it's like you would cry, I don't want to go to Exile Island. Sometimes you cry on Exile Island. But now you go to Exile Island, it's like, woohoo. Vacation.

Speaker 8:
[60:13] Yeah, I can't get voted out.

Speaker 1:
[60:14] Yeah, I can't get voted out. It's the only place where I'm safe is Exile Island.

Speaker 8:
[60:19] I also, I'm in Survivor and always have been in Survivor for the character development. I'm not strategy-minded or focused. And I think that it gives a lot more personal when you're there. And even in the early days of Exile Island, it was giving personal where. So and John and Aliyah said this also is like the challenges, they used to kind of move the plot forward. Like the interpersonal challenges would cause conflict when you got to camp, which I thought like that to me feels like such like a miss to not be doing that all the time. And I think Exile Island, you know, whether you learn something about you or you learn something about, you know, you're only by yourself for 24 hours and you rethink the plan, you come back, like Dan comes back and does Dan's funeral and Big Brother, you work it. I want more of that.

Speaker 1:
[61:06] Yeah. So that's been good. I'm trying to think what was bad, people, nobody liked the blood moon.

Speaker 8:
[61:15] But the blood moon could be tweaked. I like the essence of the blood moon, but I don't like the people who left in the blood moon.

Speaker 1:
[61:22] Yeah. I think that where the blood moon could have been better is maybe this is where the double duos twist ended up working. I think, let them pick what their groups of five are going into the blood moon. And I talked about having like a draft or something like that, or you pick the order in which you want to join those teams. But I think if the teams were a little more self-selected as opposed to randomly draw rocks out of the bag, I think that people would have hated the double duos twist if it would have been, all right, everybody reach into the bag, and then here is your randomly assigned person, and then your randomly assigned person, you are going to be voted out of the game because you're attached to them. I think that people would have not liked that.

Speaker 8:
[62:05] No, and I think that lends itself to experiencing the Rachel Riley on Big Brother situation where you lose people you really want. And not that there are people, like people love Coach and people love Chrissy. I think that this just worked out in a great, I think the onus is also put on them for you guys picked this. You wanted to run it together.

Speaker 1:
[62:22] Right. Right. So what other twists have there been in the season? Like Zach Brown wasn't a twist and it wasn't something that was voted on.

Speaker 8:
[62:32] No, no. And if it was, we wouldn't have picked it. Billie Eilish, I guess the idols, that was something.

Speaker 1:
[62:38] Yeah, I guess the Billie Eilish boomerang idol, I think, I like the idea of it, but I've said I think that Billie Eilish boomerang idol was a flop where it never got boomeranged back. You had where Genevieve found idols, had none. So I think overall that Billie Eilish boomerang idol did not work.

Speaker 8:
[62:59] Yeah, I think that's a dud. And I'd be curious to see that in a new player season if we want to run it back and try again with people who don't know each other.

Speaker 1:
[63:06] I think that's interesting.

Speaker 8:
[63:08] You're done.

Speaker 1:
[63:08] We're done, we're done. Billie Eilish can't, and again, friend of the podcast, Billie Eilish, but her idol didn't do anything. Why would we bring it back?

Speaker 8:
[63:19] I think we try, I think we try one more time. We see if it, and I do think doing it with new people I think is a little bit interesting of you're going off first and presh and not anything outside of the game.

Speaker 1:
[63:31] I think that's maybe one of the something maybe it's sort of like somebody goes on a journey and they don't get a immunity idol. They get the Billie Eilish boomerang idol. They could send the idol to somebody.

Speaker 8:
[63:43] Yeah, I think they really, they really I don't want to use the phrase that I want to. They really like wasted ghost island. You know what I mean? I was going to say, if you guys want to skip ahead.

Speaker 1:
[63:56] But I was going to say like blew their load.

Speaker 8:
[63:58] Like I feel like, you know, yes. And I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to do what we're doing here. But ghost island, I think, was such a great thing that I wish we could do more. You know what I mean? Like 51, 52. We just have the bill. There's only one. And it's always forgot to pick it up. Like it's just, it's here now. I think that's really, I think that's great. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to that guy from Rusted Development. Tobias? I have more questions. You want to do more questions? The blue himself? He blew himself. Yeah, that's right. I had a plan for where we were going, as this is all planned out meticulously.

Speaker 12:
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Speaker 6:
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Speaker 10:
[65:42] Anywhere.

Speaker 6:
[65:43] What about fancy places like the Canopy in Paris?

Speaker 10:
[65:45] Yeah, Hilton honors, baby.

Speaker 6:
[65:47] Or relaxing sanctuaries like the Conrad and Tulum?

Speaker 10:
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Speaker 6:
[65:53] What about the five-star Waldorf Astoria in the Maldives?

Speaker 10:
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Speaker 14:
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Speaker 11:
[66:39] I just got up there and I was just like, oh my god, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 8:
[66:44] And then I heard someone, anyone please help.

Speaker 6:
[66:48] He's like Superman being able to carry me off the mount. The award-winning Tell Me What Happened Podcast from OnStar is back. New emergencies, new heroes.

Speaker 7:
[67:00] Find out what happens in season six of Tell Me What Happened, out now.

Speaker 8:
[67:08] Somebody asked Rach Peacock.

Speaker 9:
[67:15] I don't know what that is.

Speaker 8:
[67:17] It's spelled R-A-C-H-P-C-O-C-K. That's how I'm breaking it up like Stephen did in that challenge with the phone number. Can you please explain the ponderosa set up this season? Are there two groups pre-jury ponderosa and post-jury ponderosa? I can answer that. There are. And then I think the pre-jury was at where the jury goes and then they moved them. So they all stayed in Fiji the whole time.

Speaker 1:
[67:38] Yeah. Other than that, I can't explain it much more. I think that they were concerned that people were going to go back and be on social media. This has happened before in all-star seasons. I think that famously in Survivor Second Chance, I think Vitas came back and left early from ponderosa and then was on Facebook or something like that. And people knew that he was back early. And so they broke up the ponderosa with the hope that if we keep them segregated and keep them in Fiji the whole time, then they'll all come back and then no one will know who got out early. That was the plan.

Speaker 8:
[68:23] That was the hope. That was. You gotta keep hope alive.

Speaker 1:
[68:27] Gotta keep hope alive.

Speaker 8:
[68:30] Even when it's not making sense. Michael Horn wants to know, season 51 filming now, are there any lessons from season 50 that you think Jeff and the production will take with them to 51, which is about to start filming?

Speaker 1:
[68:43] Hard to say what lessons that they have taken away or not taken away. I think that a lot of them probably have to do with the returning player seasons. Can you think of anything that is a lesson you would say that they took away from Survivor 50?

Speaker 8:
[69:01] I do think that, and I think that I've talked before about like the tradersification of Survivor, where the traders, it's on for eight weeks a year, and it really feels like an event. Where I think Survivor, somehow along the way, it's twice a year. A lot of the shows that were twice a year, Dancing with the Stars, The Amazing Race, a lot of them have now diminished to one a year. The Masked Singer is now one a year also. And I think that Survivor has a little bit lost, where it's a constant, and we all love that it's a constant, has lost the eventness of it. Where season 50 feels like an event. We have the marketing collateral, and then everybody's on Jimmy Fallon, and Gail King is talking to whoever the day after they get put out. I think that's really special. And I don't know how you do that twice a year without making them feel unique from one another. And I hope that this is the case where 51 and 52 do feel like different things, where you can get excited about something that isn't bringing your people back. Where it's always going to be exciting to bring everybody back. But if you can make when you're doing business as usual feel great, then I think that's a win.

Speaker 1:
[70:06] That's interesting. In the business of usual, I think that there is a real business to the Survivor machine. It is something that's a staple on the CBS schedule as it has been for 25 years. They really program around it, it really anchors the Wednesday night. But what do you think about, what if instead of a... We do two 26-day seasons of Survivor, one in the spring and one in the fall. If Survivor announced that... To my knowledge, this is not what they did. But if Survivor 51 was going to be 24 players, 39 days, one Survivor a year, what do you think? Are you in on that?

Speaker 8:
[70:54] I got goosebumps. I'm in. I think we should do that. I think we're at the point now, let's do it. Let's do it. Why not do it?

Speaker 1:
[71:02] Let's do it.

Speaker 8:
[71:04] I think you're seeing such an engagement, and this is just my own TikTok, like my algorithm is very much this, because we're all here, but there are people organically talking about Survivor that otherwise are not, it really, really feels special in a way that this is my favorite thing in the world, but it hasn't felt like this in quite a long time. So let's preserve it and let's do one. Let's just do one and make it really good.

Speaker 1:
[71:27] One really big Survivor season a year, how many episodes would it be? Still only 13 episodes?

Speaker 8:
[71:35] Maybe a couple more weeks. It's weird. Now, where is it fitting in the schedule? Are we still bound by Spring or Fall?

Speaker 1:
[71:40] Where do you think it should be? Spring or Fall? The big super Survivor season, do you think that Survivor is more, there's more juice in Survivor in the Fall or the Spring?

Speaker 8:
[71:54] And again, it doesn't matter. Anybody can switch at any given time, but I do the Trader's Day's Spring, maybe you do it in the Fall, and then you have Big Brother in the Summer, like, maybe that, you know.

Speaker 1:
[72:05] I think that if you were going to do it once, okay? And I wonder, and you have Big Brother in the Summer, so you probably wouldn't do it there, even though the original Survivor DNA was a Summer show. I think that it's maybe the February slot, and do it February to May, and I think that sort of like it culminates with the end of the Summer or the end of the Spring, and May sweeps, because if you're CBS, who knows where the network rights change. You have football in the Fall. You have a lot of stuff, even though they don't have any primetime football on CBS. Like I think you kind of have, you have that to kind of really hang your hat on, but I think that in the Spring, you don't really have as much, I think they do have March Madness, but other than that, Survivor could be like a really, if you had one Super Survivor season, I think you properly would want it in the Spring and have it there.

Speaker 8:
[73:06] Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I, I arbitrarily-

Speaker 1:
[73:10] And do a two hour block, you know, forget the 90 minutes, you know, that we're gonna do now these two hour episodes. So you kind of get a little bit more of programming out of it with the third, you know, your longer season and the one big season of Survivor.

Speaker 8:
[73:28] Yeah, I mean, is this the Australian Survivor? I don't know how long Australian Survivor is, but they do something similar.

Speaker 1:
[73:33] Australian Survivor, I think, is 40 some odd days, maybe 40, maybe 48, don't quote me on that. But I just think that there's two, like, it fills so much in the lineup and in the ad slots that I think that nobody, like, I think the ratings would have to really go down for them to consider this.

Speaker 8:
[74:01] And I don't, I mean, this isn't a Big Brother Podcast, but if Big Brother were to do two smaller a year, would anybody like, like, are people clamoring for that? Do people want that? I think Big Brother feels so, like, fun because it's the one time.

Speaker 1:
[74:12] Yeah, they even have shortened Big Brother in these last couple of seasons. It used to be like 100 days. I think when, like, the season that Suri played on was 100 days. And maybe that's what really has, like, hardened Suri for this was 100 days of Big Brother. Whereas now, I think those last couple of Big Brother seasons have been, like, 80 some odd days. They shortened it by about two weeks.

Speaker 8:
[74:36] Yeah, I wonder if, I mean, that's a different podcast. I wonder how much that makes a difference in the people who play, you know, the last two weeks of that. Like, it's like the last 13 days of.

Speaker 1:
[74:46] It's brutal for everybody involved. But poor Taran has to, like, those two weeks when, like, days after day 85, it's a lot.

Speaker 8:
[74:56] Yeah, is it the last couple of days of school where you're not really learning, but you still have, like, the formality of the, you have to go to the last, you know, 2013, 2013, whatever. We're still here.

Speaker 1:
[75:04] It's not over yet. Nothing happened. They played, they stacked blocks today.

Speaker 8:
[75:13] And why were they doing that? Is that a challenge?

Speaker 1:
[75:14] No, just for fun. For fun and nothing to do. They give them, like, a deck of cards at, like, that point in time. It's like, just, it's like inhumane for everybody involved.

Speaker 8:
[75:24] Yeah. Really, really bad.

Speaker 1:
[75:26] Yeah.

Speaker 8:
[75:27] You want to do one more question?

Speaker 1:
[75:28] Sure.

Speaker 8:
[75:31] Given the exuberance, this is from, and Teng is, it's a lot of letters. And I don't think it's any, I don't think it's anything.

Speaker 1:
[75:41] Give them a new name, give them a new nickname, be coach. Give them a nickname.

Speaker 8:
[75:45] Oh, I don't know, I'm trying to do like a coach nickname generator. The Wind Hammer?

Speaker 11:
[75:55] The Wind Hammer, right?

Speaker 8:
[75:56] Yeah, I think that's a restaurant in Summers Point, New Jersey. Sounds delicious. The Wind Hammer said, that's the wind jammer. Given the exuberance the survivor community has had for the season, should we expect a higher frequency of returning seasons in the Survivor 50s?

Speaker 1:
[76:11] I have to think so.

Speaker 8:
[76:12] And in the 50s and beyond?

Speaker 1:
[76:14] It's just the easiest thing that they could do to get everybody excited. There's more media coverage, that the fans are excited. There's more energy going into the season. Other than the fact that I think that when Jeff took over the casting in Survivor 38, and this is something that I do talk about in my brand new book, The Tribe and I Have Spoken, available everywhere on May 5th, pre-order at www.rhapisabook.com. We have a great incentive for people who pre-order, that we have the ultimate rights of passage for everybody. We talked about every single one of Survivor's 751 players in the pre-order bonus, www.rhapisabook.com. Thank you for that. So, Jeff takes over the casting in season 38 after Lynne is let go by Survivor. And I think that they got so excited by, hey, we're gonna put our stamp on the people that are coming into Survivor. And they didn't really get the chance to do that with 39 and ultimately 40. And it was like, hey, we've got the new era casting machine going. And they were like, oh, we're finding all these great people and we're telling all these diverse stories and this is great, great, great, great, great, great. And I think that they didn't want to stop of that. They were like, oh, we've got so many people. We gotta get them all in. And we're finding all these people. They love Survivor. We gotta get them on the show. And I think that they were so in love with that, that I think that that prevented them from doing the returning player season. And then there was even like, well, I don't know, maybe the old era is over. Maybe we're never gonna bring back anybody from the old era. And then they got close enough to 50, we were like, okay, 50 will just be the returning season. So I think they just totally got away from that. But I have to think after the response to 50 and seeing everybody come back, like I really do think we're gonna have more returning seasons. Let me ask you this question, okay? Between Survivor 50 and Survivor 60, so nine seasons, 51 through 59, how many of those seasons will have returning players? Clip this for five years from now.

Speaker 8:
[78:28] I think...

Speaker 1:
[78:29] Wow, how cool will it be five years from now? Shout out to everybody in the year 2031.

Speaker 8:
[78:37] Oh, God forbid, I hope we're still doing this. I think that you'd have to hope... Australians who ever had the right idea, the first four seasons of the revival.

Speaker 1:
[78:51] Four seasons of the revival.

Speaker 8:
[78:54] It's too long. I couldn't get in to get my hair cut before Toronto. So everybody who goes, you're watching this Monday night. You'll see this on Tuesday morning, whenever I see you. Australians who ever had the right idea.

Speaker 1:
[79:07] You do four... Prayers out to Brandon's hairline for 2031 also.

Speaker 8:
[79:11] This isn't going anywhere. This is like just staying until... You're locked in.

Speaker 1:
[79:13] You're calling your shot.

Speaker 8:
[79:14] I'm locked in. This isn't going anywhere. I would be so sad. You do four and then you do a returning season. Let's get us to 55 and then let's do 60. Is you have 51, 52, 53, 54, new people, 55.

Speaker 1:
[79:26] So you think just one returning player season between 51 and 59?

Speaker 8:
[79:33] Yes, but I also think let's throw some people in the other ones. We had talked about this in the mailbag before the season.

Speaker 1:
[79:42] The question is number of seasons between 51 and 59 that will have returning players.

Speaker 8:
[79:49] Give me three final answers.

Speaker 1:
[79:50] Okay, I'll take the over. I think that we have, I'm tempted to say five, I'll say four. Four times between 51.

Speaker 8:
[80:01] Five feels high.

Speaker 1:
[80:03] I wonder if it is.

Speaker 8:
[80:04] Even four feels high.

Speaker 1:
[80:06] Yeah. I think that maybe we do at least one all returnees between 51 and 59. And I wonder if we do a couple captains.

Speaker 8:
[80:17] Captains? I again, I love the idea.

Speaker 1:
[80:20] Four people come back or a tribe of returnees.

Speaker 8:
[80:24] We had said this in the last mailbag is, I hope we get less rigid with who can cut, like just bring, you know, you see two people you want to bring back, just bring them back. They don't even have to be captains. Like it doesn't have to be anything. The way that I think we cited this is Australian Survivor does this super well, where it's just whoever, you know, it's like Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket. It's like you're here too for whatever reason.

Speaker 1:
[80:45] Like let's like just come up with like two, you know, random, like we're going to bring back Say and Jalinski in a season. Like are they going to have like this huge unfair advantage over the 16 other new players?

Speaker 8:
[81:02] No, and they like the captain's seasons of YOR is they come in on a separate boat. Don't even put them on the separate boat. They're in the same, but they do the same pregame. They're in the same with everybody else.

Speaker 1:
[81:12] Hey, Jalinski's here, okay.

Speaker 9:
[81:14] Yeah.

Speaker 8:
[81:14] Why not? It's like what Bruce did for 45 is he didn't, you know, he didn't come in on a helicopter.

Speaker 5:
[81:20] Although we would have loved it.

Speaker 8:
[81:22] He, I think that that's the way to do it, is just throw a couple of people in when you see fit.

Speaker 9:
[81:26] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[81:27] I think it makes it fun.

Speaker 8:
[81:28] What?

Speaker 1:
[81:29] Whatever. Just bring them, just like, well, let's have fun.

Speaker 8:
[81:33] Let's have fun. And Jolinski on season 51 or 52, he could be there. I haven't heard from him. Have you talked to him?

Speaker 1:
[81:39] You know, I typically I don't talk to Jolinski as regularly as I would like.

Speaker 8:
[81:47] Sure. You know, he's a couple of time zones away and it is 9.55 in the morning. I would call him. He has not texted me. But he could be there. We don't know.

Speaker 1:
[81:59] I did go to the Super Mario Galaxy movie yesterday.

Speaker 8:
[82:05] Is this a connective thought to Jolinski?

Speaker 1:
[82:07] No, I'm just talking about my schedule being a bear.

Speaker 8:
[82:11] How was it?

Speaker 1:
[82:12] You know, my kids enjoyed it.

Speaker 8:
[82:15] But you have said previously.

Speaker 1:
[82:16] 3.5 stars out of 5. I resisted the urge to listen to a podcast during the film.

Speaker 8:
[82:24] That's what I was gonna say. Is you will, you've said pop an air pod in.

Speaker 1:
[82:29] Yeah, I will. I have done that in the past. Did not do that for this one. I did go to a 9:40 AM showing.

Speaker 8:
[82:37] Oh my God.

Speaker 1:
[82:38] Really?

Speaker 8:
[82:38] I love that. They have that?

Speaker 1:
[82:40] Yeah, they have that. There's a movie theater and they have very early. It's the best. I took my kids, we let Nicole, let mom sleep in, guy's night or guy's day. Hey, we're up. Guy's morning. We're going to the movie theater as we're going to a 9.40 showing out by 11.30 and we basically, there was maybe three other parents with children, almost everybody had their own row, couple of whole empty rows. Like we rent out the theater for ourselves.

Speaker 8:
[83:14] Can you get snacks at that hour?

Speaker 1:
[83:16] Sure. You think my kids are turning down, paid $30 for two small popcorns and two icees. You gotta do it. Anytime, anytime you could really, for what is probably about nine cents of raw material, pay $30 at the movie theater, you can't pass that up.

Speaker 8:
[83:42] Yeah. The movie theater has gone into a subscription model with your AMC and your Regal, what have you. They really should make just like the Panera has the sip club where you just pay $10 and you get a, you get unlimited drinks. The movie should do that too. Not that lemonade that kills people, right?

Speaker 1:
[83:58] Do they still have that?

Speaker 8:
[83:59] No, no, not that one. You don't want that. You don't want the Zapp lemonade. I could use one.

Speaker 1:
[84:05] I'm very tired of using it right now.

Speaker 8:
[84:08] Jonathan Mike Chisel. Got a picture with him. He was really nice when I met him.

Speaker 1:
[84:13] Anything else on your mind as we head into the home stretch of Survivor 50?

Speaker 8:
[84:19] I know. I mean, I'm so excited to see what happens. I'm so excited to see Jimmy Fallon and your buddy Mr. Beast. I'm excited to see what they're going to do. The Jimmies. I really, really, with the Jimmies. I'm excited for Season 51. I can't wait to learn about what Season 51 is. And I think that that is, we had a clip that you said on this podcast that did very well last fall of like, that's the most important season of this X amount of time. And I really do believe that. And I think that if it's 51 and if it's as business as usual, I feel like a lot of people will be bummed. So I hope they do something.

Speaker 1:
[84:59] And I think that 51 is truly in the Schrödinger's cat situation. It's like, you know, what's in Mr. Beast's box? Is it something awesome or is it gonna totally suck? And at this point in time, it's really like, you could just keep refreshing social media. At some point, I think we'll know the gist of what Survivor 51 is gonna be about. It's gonna be so telling when that happens. It'll either be like, yes, or it'll be, oh, this is a very bad sign for the future of Survivor. And it's very tense.

Speaker 8:
[85:38] What do you think that, what's the feeling if you see that it's the same thing? Like, I feel, and I have no ownership over this, like, you know, but I would feel so like, maybe not listen to is the wrong phrase, but I would feel so let down if that was the case.

Speaker 1:
[85:55] I think that the direction of Survivor would be a little bit more of like, hey, this is comfort food. This is just, you know what you're getting. Just tune back in. It's going to be the same Survivor that we've been doing. You know what this is. I kind of like the idea of them taking a bit of an ambitious swing here and going for the upside play that is going to keep Survivor really exciting going into the 50. But that could be a monkey's paw also. You know, they could do something that's so off the wall. You wish that they would have left it alone.

Speaker 8:
[86:40] No, I don't, I really, and clip this, I don't think there's anything that could be that for me. Like, I'm giving myself a note. Yeah, I think there's no, there's no thing that they could do that's new that I would be upset over. I'm game for a new thing. I don't know what they would.

Speaker 1:
[87:02] Careful there. The blood moon was a new thing. You know, it could be, you just don't, don't break the game. Like, do whatever you want with the casting and the theme. That's fine. That's fair game. Don't play with the votes. Don't play with the structure of how the game works. Keep that the same and play with the things that are on the periphery. Play with the people that are going to be in the show. Keep the game.

Speaker 8:
[87:43] Yeah, yeah, I agree with that.

Speaker 1:
[87:45] The game is fine.

Speaker 8:
[87:47] Yeah. It's hard to unring the bell of the lost vote. Like, it's crazy to imagine a world where we're not journeys and losing votes and what have you. But I would love to imagine a world where we ease up on that. And I think that, yeah, I mean, the best moments of the show come from interpersonal. The, really, and I've said this before, but the only moment from the new era that anybody constantly references that is broken through is Liz with this Applebee's that has nothing to do with anybody's vote or the game or what have you. That's the moment. And I think that's a testament to, it's hard to make that happen again. But we can put people in positions where it could.

Speaker 1:
[88:28] Here's the thing about bigger tribes. You have more people in the tribe, more opportunities for interpersonal conflict. And I think that at the end of the day, that's what drives the show. So let's try to find ways to keep that happening.

Speaker 8:
[88:44] Absolutely. Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 1:
[88:46] All right.

Speaker 8:
[88:47] And I'll be here to see it.

Speaker 1:
[88:48] Brandon Donlin, what's next for you?

Speaker 8:
[88:52] Nothing.

Speaker 1:
[88:53] Nothing?

Speaker 8:
[88:53] We have a meeting.

Speaker 1:
[88:54] You're going to Toronto.

Speaker 8:
[88:54] We're gonna go to the meeting. We're going to Toronto. I went for the riff, but we are going to be in Toronto for the next couple of days, and we'll see you there, listener, if you're there. Should we tell them to tell us something? What should the code word be?

Speaker 1:
[89:07] Hmm. What was that?

Speaker 8:
[89:08] People are going to be telling you a lot of stuff.

Speaker 1:
[89:10] Yeah. What was that user's name?

Speaker 8:
[89:15] Oh, the Wind Hammer?

Speaker 1:
[89:18] No. Not that one.

Speaker 8:
[89:21] No way user's name. That was the user's name that I made them a nickname.

Speaker 1:
[89:24] Yeah, that's true. But there were earlier ones.

Speaker 8:
[89:27] What were you going to?

Speaker 1:
[89:28] Yeah. So, I'll just say hi. We'd love to hear from the listeners and let us know what we could be. Much like Survivor, we are always looking to improvise on the form, or maybe not like Survivor. We'll find out that that's not like Survivor, but we are always looking to try to make the format of the podcast more enjoyable to you. So let us know if you have any thoughts on that. We'd love to hear your comments. Of course, the book is on the way. We are just a couple of weeks away from the launch of The Tribe, and I have spoken. I hope you're not tired of me talking about it yet, because this is just the one chance that I ever have to launch a book. And so if you haven't pre-ordered yet, robhasabook.com, I think you're going to. Brandon, you've checked out the Ultimate Rites of Passage. Do you think that that is a worthy pre-order bonus?

Speaker 8:
[90:21] Oh yeah, in a big way. I want to be surprised at my own situation. So I haven't scrolled that far in the document. But I've seen a couple of the early ones and they're good. I mean, it's magical. For somebody like ya boy who loves this so much, it really is so, so fun.

Speaker 1:
[90:43] And I know a lot of people have asked, wait, how do I get the pre-order per? I've pre-ordered the book. How do I get the bonus chapter, the digital bonus chapter? Go to robiswebsite.com/pre-orderperks and all of your questions will be answered there. And you will be able to sign up for the pre-order digital bonus chapter of The Tribe And I Have Spoken. Thank you so much for joining us for The Mailbag. Great job of putting it all together, Brandon. Take care, have a good one. Bye. I'm always looking for those tips and tricks to help optimize my life. Ways to save money, travel better, and make life a little easier. That's why I love all the hacks. The podcast hosted by Chris Hutchins, that's all about practical tips you can actually use. Every episode breaks down strategies around personal finance, productivity, travel rewards, career growth, all the stuff I wish I learned earlier. What I like is that it's not hype or gimmicks, it's real advice you could apply right away. And honestly, if you like optimizing anything in your life, this show is for you. So when you support podcasts like All the Hacks, you're supporting creators who are putting in the work to bring you useful, actionable content week after week. So if you want smarter systems for everyday life, check out All the Hacks wherever you listen to podcasts or head to chrishutchins.com/promo to learn more.