Today, Mike and Ali Lasher (@lashtweets) discuss Season 33: Millennials vs. Gen X.[00:00:14] Hi everybody and welcome back to the Survivor 50 Wish List Podcast. An off-season series where we're trying to figure out who could and should come back for Survivor 50, a returning season that is on the horizon. Today, we start a new week by settling down in a familiar location, Fiji.
[00:00:34] It's where we're going to be in the foreseeable future as we talk about the first season to bring us back there in a battle of the ages, Millennials vs Gen X. A season that garnered a lot of popularity for its time and a lot of returnees,
[00:00:51] but who will make our shortlist? Of course, to my guest, I am so excited to have you on this podcast, whether you spell it Y-O-U or just you, though you are a fellow Millennial, Ali Lasher, so I guess it's just the you by Jeff's logic.
[00:01:06] I'm gonna cry because I was ready to be like, do you text? Do you text? Same exact scene in Tribal. Do you text, Mike? Well, the thing is that now I feel like doesn't Gen Z or Gen Alpha, like they snap now,
[00:01:18] they don't even text. So maybe Jeff was ahead of the time. Is he going to have to ask really young teenagers that he brings on to Survivor now if they snap? I think by the time... Well, what is Gen Alpha even?
[00:01:32] Like are they 13 now? Like what? How old are they? That's a great question. I feel like, listen, generations as we figure out from the cast of Survivor Millennials versus Gen X covers a wide swath of things. Apparently Gen Alpha is between 2010 and 2025.
[00:01:46] So we have not had anybody at the age of 14 yet on Survivor. Lord, I mean, Jeff, help us. So luckily we have not had Gen Alpha on at this moment, but there might be some Gen Zers that be able to educate Jeff.
[00:01:59] Do we think this is a theme that should get brought back? Should we do Millennials versus Gen Z and maybe throw Gen X there on another tribe? I was going to say, depends what season Gen Alpha will make it over the Willwall and be able to play.
[00:02:13] Oh, the milk supplies are going to be out the wazoo. I forgot until I rewatched the season, like how millennial, like your generation just likes trophies, blah, blah, blah. This was like when I think about Millennial versus Gen X,
[00:02:33] I think about it as a great season, especially because of where I was in my life. It was my first year in law school and I was inviting people in to watch Survivor with me. So it was like a great gateway. Like people really bought in.
[00:02:46] I was saying, come on in period. And no, my famous arrangement was I will supply booze and snacks. You have to supply an open mind. And then it was great Survivor. So it was like really easy to get people bought in on the season.
[00:03:00] I did not recall how millennial versus like Gen X-y it was in at least Jeff's commentary about the season. That's the thing is that, you know, we are going to start to get settled because we are
[00:03:13] going to be in the same location from 33 onwards with this period into the themes becoming a little more head scratchy. You know, we did have two versions of blood versus water, two versions of brains versus
[00:03:27] brown versus beauty in and of themselves, kind of odd themes at the time. And then you throw in like blue collar versus white collar versus no collar. But here, millennials versus Gen X, obviously a bit of a sequel to Survivor Nicaragua, where
[00:03:42] instead of what they did there, which was just only people in their 20s versus only people in their 40s. Instead, they more so took the cast and largely divided them pretty much by like the 10 oldest people versus the 10 youngest people.
[00:03:55] And yeah, this is something we'll get a bit throughout 33, 35, definitely 37 is this idea of, especially before the tribes mix up kind of grinding in these age lines. But like you said, no matter what alley, it was a season for the ages, if you will.
[00:04:13] It was a very well regarded season at the time. I remember what I said to Rob when I podcasted about it was that I felt like earlier in that year we had co wrong, which was all about big outlandish characters.
[00:04:25] And millennials versus Gen X was more about real people on the island with no offense to the co wrong cast. It did feel like we didn't necessarily have any huge wacky characters like we did in co
[00:04:37] wrong, nor do we necessarily have these big villains that we had there as well. Instead, I feel like we were getting more nuanced approaches to people doing both good and bad things out there on the island. Who knows, Ali?
[00:04:50] It may have actually been a precursor to kind of this editing we get nowadays in new era survivor. That's interesting. I too remember what I said to Rob during millennials and Gen X when I podcasted with him.
[00:05:01] And I think it was Ken's not my kind of guy, but no, it is a really good point. I think that made this preparing for this conversation with you, Mike, a little bit
[00:05:11] difficult because I was like a lot of these people, like I think Brandon Donlan said a lot of people just be left to like the first 10 seasons of survivor. And I think that kind of rings true here where a lot of these people, I'm like shocked didn't
[00:05:27] come back for a second chance season or not just second chance, like their second chance. Some did. I think a lot of these people going back pretty early to the boot list are pretty memorable and could have had a strong case to return a second time.
[00:05:41] I don't know that 50 is that time and thus they might be lost to sort of the middle ages of survivor, but a really, really strong cast of a lot of people that I think could have made a strong return. Yeah.
[00:05:54] Not to mention this season really caught fire, you know, especially once the swap happens and we're getting Adam splitting up fig tails. We have, of course, the huge Michaela boot and then everything culminating in this tumultuous
[00:06:08] period in the post merge where Z goes after Chris and then it's him versus David and we get yet another rock draw. And I think in retrospect, you kind of look at the boot list after that and you realize,
[00:06:18] oh yeah, the five that end up winning, losing actually out on the rock draw, losing out on Jessica basically just run the house the rest of the way and take everybody out. But there's still a lot of excitement built in there, right?
[00:06:31] The emergence of David Wright as the latest example of someone who struggled with the elements and then went to become a power player, whether it was watching all of these characters like Jay could sort of become a little proto Charlie Brown type of losing a lot of his
[00:06:47] friends and consistently finding these ways to survive, be it idols, real or fake or challenge wins only to come up short in the end. And then obviously culminating in the tale of Adam Klein, who I would say next to the
[00:07:00] aforementioned Brandon Donland is probably the biggest fan to ever play Survivor, who had really brought the fandom to a new level. As he had said on the show, he wasn't just a super fan.
[00:07:10] He was a super duper fan and showed how much the show not only meant to him, but his story, obviously in the case of his mother and leading to just an incredibly emotional finale where he was able to somehow make it there to the end.
[00:07:28] He reveals everything that happened. He rakes in a million dollars and he loses one of the most important people in his life along the way. It is such an incredible roller coaster for somebody and just such a memorable way to conclude a memorable season.
[00:07:43] Yeah, it's really a testament to Adam because when I think about the season, I think about him as the winner. It's like the third thing I think about, you know, the story with his mom.
[00:07:52] And and that's, you know, a testament to his like amazing gameplay this season, his like frenemy situation with Jay, which is just so fun to even on the rewatch. But I and I've said this on podcasts before, like I have such a special place in my heart
[00:08:06] for Adam in the season. He's the only survivor I've ever written fan mail to. I revisited it. I mean, it was a DM, but I'd lost my dad. Does that count as fan mail now? Like sending DMs to millennials?
[00:08:18] Yeah, it's millennial fan mail, but I had lost my dad the year before. And just seeing Adam navigate the season while not being at home, the moment with his brother, obviously, they're just like and keeping that to himself, not only not being able to
[00:08:33] be with his family, but not even being able to talk about it was like so emotional to me, you know, whatever. And so I reach out to him about it because I was just like really, really touched and blown away.
[00:08:44] And I still mostly think of his survivor game when I think of the season. So that's kind of like wild. Great winner, great season. Interesting journey for him to talk about whether he's sort of. Yeah, let's just get into it then.
[00:08:57] Let's start with our final three here, and we can also be reminded of the this poor cast that I believe it was just due to terrible elements. Of course, this will be the first cast that gets evacuated, but certainly not the last
[00:09:09] in the first few days due to a freaking cyclone. But the weather was terrible, so the initial publicity photos they took just did not work. And so they opted for cast photos of just them howling around camp.
[00:09:20] So we'll talk about our final three and Adam, Hannah and Ken. But yeah, we need to start with Adam because Ali, Adam has become associated with the show. It feels like in a very different way, even following his second run on winners at war.
[00:09:35] Yeah, can I can I actually ask you in this? This actually will lead back to Adam. Can I just ask you a few establishing questions? Always Mike. And I've really enjoyed I haven't I'm still a little behind.
[00:09:45] I haven't listened to all of them, but I have enjoyed all of these that I have listened to so far. A lot of fun. But I just want to for anyone who listens to me begrudgingly on 32 fans podcast, I need a criteria here.
[00:09:58] I need to know how I'm evaluating this. So my first question to you, Mike, and you may have talked about this with respect to the quarantine questionnaire. Yes. Do you know how EW cast that net such that I'll ask you why I'm asking like.
[00:10:14] Were the majority of people survivor contestants? Did they were they reached out to her tap for that such that we can infer not responding as sort of a little bit of a disconnect from the show or EW, I think wrote like or Dalton wrote.
[00:10:28] We sent this to like a lot of people like I couldn't find how many people. Right. It's a good question, right? Because we certainly have had and I've talked about this throughout the series.
[00:10:37] People who have written on this survey who said, no, I don't want to do this again. So it's also to assume, OK, if you didn't respond, does that also mean I know?
[00:10:46] Does that mean you were John Mister in Cambodia and like just had it accidentally go to spam? I'm not sure because it also then does sort of open this dead wide as to, OK, who did he reach out to versus who did he not reach out to?
[00:10:59] Because I feel like only if you knew who he did reach out to, then you could infer, OK, they didn't respond. Ergo, they probably wouldn't come back. OK, so maybe we'll speculate. Maybe we won't as that goes on. I'd like to offer my criteria how I'm here. Evaluate.
[00:11:12] Please. Absolutely. Yeah. So I am looking for people who want to play. I think there is a great value to people who have to get convinced or incentivized, a little big appearance fee, whatever, like big names.
[00:11:27] I will stand those people when they hopefully walk through the door on 50. But like I want somebody who did not have to get convinced to show up here, who's like hungry to play again. That's something that's in my mind as I'm looking at these contestants.
[00:11:42] But to make sure I'm not too biased, I did go to our friend, chat GPT. Oh, OK. We'll talk about this as we go. But I asked chat GPT to assess the likelihood that these people would be invited
[00:11:56] to the 50th anniversary season one to 10 and then give me a little bit of a reason why. OK, a lot of the reasons are repetitive, but they did give me a number. And I don't think it's that crazy. Wow.
[00:12:08] I mean, listen, if they're coming up with repetitive reasons, they might actually have a case to become a podcaster as well. All I've been doing is just saying the same things for like six weeks at this point.
[00:12:17] So we have that, you know, the people on the street, if you will, the AI on the street. And then I did make a note of who appeared at Adam's wedding because did you see this reunion? Like it was almost the entire cast. Yes.
[00:12:30] So Adam, of course, recently got married. It's one of the things that has changed in his life since he was on Winners at War. Of course, Mazel Tov to him and Kaylee, I believe, actually, at the time we're still talking, they're still on their honeymoon.
[00:12:42] So, yeah, it was a little bit of a millennials versus Gen X reunion for Adam. So all that is to say what I was alluding to earlier is for those of you that don't know, since his time on Survivor, Adam has started his own little business
[00:12:57] where he is doing a little bit of casting coaching, where he says, you know, for a nominal fee, I can look over your video. I can talk you through how to interview, give you some tips, etc. to help your chances of getting on the show.
[00:13:12] Suffice to say, the show has not been explicit as so far as naming Adam, but they have done things like casting services led by ex alumni of the show that pretty much name him without naming him. And it is something that Jeff has certainly been adamantly against
[00:13:33] since Survivor 45 when it was really brought up, I think, on both parties sides. So I think the big question is, Ali, you know, Adam has so much love for the game, even after his second time where things didn't go incredibly well
[00:13:44] and he nearly played Jeff's podium as an idol. But I think he would still absolutely love to do it. He'd play Survivor any day of the week. I'm not sure, though, if he may have made himself ineligible with some of the stuff he's been doing.
[00:14:00] As a highly risk adverse person myself, I would never have thought that kind of parlaying the sort of like answering fan requests or even the escalation of cameo requests of like, if you want tips on how to get cast, you can do a cameo.
[00:14:18] I feel like that's all remained kind of above board. I would not have anticipated Jeff reacting to Adam's business as strongly as he appeared to react and as publicly as he appeared to react to it.
[00:14:30] In retrospect, it makes complete sense why it irritates him and irritates the show, because they don't you know, they don't do a podcast saying like these are the archetypes of the Survivor contestants. They're like we're pulling fun and interesting, unique people from all over the world.
[00:14:45] Like anybody could be cast on the show. So boiling it down to like I could coach you to get on, of course, in retrospect is a little bit offensive to like the ethos of the show. So I think I would put his check like I
[00:14:59] chap GPT says he's got a 10 out of 10 chance, the most likely person to return. I would love Adam to return because I will never not stand Adam. I think the public criticism he has received from Jeff slash his performance on Edge of Extinction,
[00:15:18] I would put him at like a zero out of zero chance to be on 50 to be on the cast. Yeah, I don't disagree. And look, maybe this is a choice where if we get corroborating evidence or if there's
[00:15:28] an overwhelming support to be like, no, Adam could definitely be on the season. I'd be happy to put him on. But this is unfortunately also a case where to your earlier point,
[00:15:37] there are so many other people that we could look at here that could make the ballot that unfortunately, and I'm sure it really does distress Adam to learn this as well. I don't necessarily know if the show is looking at him for 50
[00:15:53] just because of this venture that he's invested himself into. And look, Adam's life is fine. Adam's life is great. You know, we stump for Adam. We like if he's on the ballot, I'm filling in the bubble. Like I'm voting for Adam. I love Adam.
[00:16:09] Tell Akiva this is how you really are cutthroat on a show like this. You know, like I think he you know, if whoever's reviewing Edge of Extinction with you wants to put him on the ballot over me
[00:16:19] or, you know, Robin, his recap wants to just add everyone to the ballot. I support that. But I just don't I don't see it for Adam this go around. All right, well, let's take one step to his right then and see if his fellow
[00:16:34] millennial might do a better job here. Let's talk about Hannah Shapiro. Hannah, certainly even though I said that, you know, Millennials versus Gen X is not one of the quirkier seasons compared to certainly
[00:16:45] Hannah may be one of the biggest exceptions, of course, in her first vote ever cast. She took a metric 24 hour period standing there in the voting booth, waiting to see what she might do. But she is somebody that if you take a look through her game is somebody
[00:17:01] that did relatively have her finger on the polls with someone that probably voted correctly more times than the person that won the season in Adam. And from my perspective, at least, carried through with a pretty admirable final tribal council performance.
[00:17:16] I think that's something that Survivor fans have often remarked is like, I think just due to Hannah's perception, she was going to be a zero vote finalist. But I think she definitely is one of the better zero vote finalists, tribal council performers that we have seen.
[00:17:29] Of course, we as RHAP fans have gotten a bit of a bigger perspective in her as well, where she's become a pretty much seasonal guest alongside Rob, where she has showcased her personality, her thoughts on the game. And going back to those quarantine questionnaires,
[00:17:43] Hannah is one of the many people from this season who would be eager to come back. Is that how you interpreted her response to that? You mean where she wrote, I want to play again when I'm 80 and really ruffle feathers as the grandma archetype?
[00:17:56] I think that's a tongue in cheek. We have a lot of fun writers on this season, so that's what I'm reading it as. Yeah, I'm glad you're reading it as that. Me too. Hannah's my Northwestern sister. Yeah, fellow Max Nelson class alum.
[00:18:11] Yeah, I would be very excited to see Hannah back. And I think there was a case for her to come back in the later 30s sooner than we'd be talking about for 50. I think she's up against some stiff competition, like a Sophie comes to mind or something, whatever.
[00:18:30] I don't know how they're framing the season in the room. But I would be jazzed to see Hannah come back. I think she would be filed for me under someone who would be hungry to come back and be excited to come back. I agree with you.
[00:18:45] I read her quarantine questionnaire is so classic, like comedy writer of like, let me write something funny here, even though the answer is absolutely yes. So I loved it. Chatubt puts her to six, which is maybe right in terms of just out of everybody.
[00:19:02] She's definitely in the top 50% of people that I think could come back. I wouldn't put it as like a giant snub if the season shaped up without her, but I would definitely be excited for Hannah round two.
[00:19:14] Yeah, I think specifically for me, it's comparing her to the other finalist in this final three, which is our lone Gen X representative in Ken, who also had a very interesting story. This is the guy who was sometimes as purple as the buffiest sporting in this photo,
[00:19:31] but of course had many memetic moments over the course of the season with his use of the word apparently with him testing will by, you know, basically trying to see if he'll vote with them or not,
[00:19:42] which nearly flipped him from this very important move they had to make to him ultimately going through and cutting David in the end. Ken did make some big moves happen, but unfortunately it kind of all blew up in his face at the end,
[00:19:55] like the ink sack of Sir Squittington. I also believe that Ken before and after the game has lived largely off the grid. I don't have as much of a social media footprint on him. Ali, you are. I know you have a chief social media correspondent,
[00:20:11] but you are also an expert when it comes to tracking down what these people are doing. So maybe I am mistaken, but personally, if we have to compare these two finalists, I would definitely rather see Hannah over Ken. I think they have the same redemption appeal, right?
[00:20:26] I made it all the way 39 days and got shut out in the vote. I'm going to try to make good on my second chance, but for many reasons, I would rather have Hannah on 50 than 10. Yeah, immediately no on Ken, for sure.
[00:20:40] I can't really speak to the social media presence like largely, but he was not at Adam's wedding, which corroborates your story of him being sort of more off the grid. He did not get a quarantine questionnaire from him, whatever that means.
[00:20:56] Yeah, the one thing and I did not ask Anna this, I thought about doing it, but then it's sort of like ask for permission. Ask for forgiveness on permission. But like I could see Hannah being like,
[00:21:07] I didn't ask you to vote for me if I should be on this, you know, like very me of like we're very different, but I could see pulling a Hailey forward in the next season. We're talking about I did not consent. Yeah, how dare you?
[00:21:18] Like, do you think I want to be considered, which especially when Rob is electing not to be considered, which I think is kind of Bush league and somebody should do something about that. But hopefully she's OK with it and takes it as a compliment that it is
[00:21:31] definitely hand over Ken. No question. Do you want me to hand over both these boys? Should I text her, ask her if she would want to be on the ballot? No, because then you got to ask everybody, you know, like I thought it would start a whole role.
[00:21:42] Like why Hannah and not anybody else? That's true. I do have a little bit of correspondence with survivor alone, and I've tried to stay away from it. The one time I did it was for Kelly Wentworth, and I don't want the dam to necessarily burn.
[00:21:53] But Hannah will certainly let us know if she objects. We can certainly remove her later on. But let's move on to our jury here because the hits keep on coming. In order of elimination, we have the Dragon Queen herself way before HBO made it cool in Michelle Schubert.
[00:22:09] We have, of course, one half of big tales. He's been to North Dakota and Taylor Lee Stocker. We have the hidden lawyer, former Oklahoma football guy who gets blindsided at the beginning of the merge in Chris. We have, of course, the victim of a rock draw and fellow
[00:22:23] RGP podcaster in Jessica Lewis. We have someone that is going to come back in the next season in Zeke. The aforementioned Will Wall, the youngest player to play the game, I believe, of age. We have, of course, the late great Sunday Burquist.
[00:22:37] We have someone who is very familiar to your neck of the woods, Ali, nowadays in Jay Starrett. We have someone who will race with Chris around the world and certainly had his time in the sun on our podcast in Brett.
[00:22:48] And finally, we have the guy that I want to start with because he is one of these millennials versus Gen X fraternities that we can certainly talk about if we want for time. Number three, David Wright. Again, this is a guy who had the fallen angel arc
[00:23:02] as somebody who covered his ears when nails were being pounded into the wood in the first episode to helping plot some of the biggest moves of the season to them, becoming the odds on threat and getting taken out because of it at four.
[00:23:16] It was only a matter of time before he comes back. And he does for Edge of Extinction, where it doesn't go terribly well. I mean, it's tough with David because he's so self-deprecating that even if it was the best day of his life,
[00:23:29] he's still going to act like it's the worst thing that could have happened to him. Lovingly so. But, you know, he gets put on a tribe that keeps failing, even at the merge of Tim and Devin's pretty much against the world.
[00:23:39] And David does eventually get taken out in mid merge. But that is certainly not deterred his love for the show. Perhaps speaking to that tug and cheek aspect of the quarantine questionnaire, Ali went as if he'd play again. David said, I would like to take this opportunity
[00:23:55] to announce my retirement from Survivor. I feel so incredibly fortunate that I got to play twice, but the time has come for me to move on with my life. And wait, why are you asking? Do they want me to play again? What have you heard, Dalton?
[00:24:08] Dalton, what have you heard? So suffice it to say, I think he's hungry for time number three. Yeah, so Chad GPT is putting him at a nine, which I also think is pretty accurate. Like to me, I'd put the one at like, maybe he can't do it
[00:24:23] or he's writing for a TV or whatever. I don't know how integrated he is in terms of like TV and where the line crosses from like, it's okay to you have a conflict. You know, I mean, he doesn't work on Survivor.
[00:24:36] I did forget in returning to Millennials Gen X, like while of course he has this like underdog narrative, I forgot how truly egregious his gameplay was in those first few episodes. To the point where it needs to be said
[00:24:49] that if he were a woman or a person of color or a woman of color, that he would be like in Survivor jail like for those first like three days. It's a miracle for David that he is not the first boot on this season.
[00:25:02] And then that's what adds to his story because he like gets his footing. He comes back. He finds and plays two idols, right? If I'm remembering correctly and then makes a fake idol as well. That's believable enough for Jay to play it thinking it's a real one.
[00:25:17] Ooh, not us completely forgetting Ken's legacy advantage. I'm just sorry for the Ken erasure here. Everyone cancel me, it's fine. Yeah, and then I had never actually read the quarantine questionnaires. I listened to like podcasts at that time, but it was fascinating. David's like return to Fiji story.
[00:25:35] I'm sure everybody has heard this, but like I'm here with new eyes and getting new information. And it just shows for anyone who didn't listen, check it out. But basically David and Adam in their free trip to Fiji went to the island where Survivor is filmed.
[00:25:50] And David hid a fake immunity idol for his eventual return and then was living on that beach. Story kind of falls apart when he didn't uncover it and decided not to do anything. Okay, but this guy's got Survivor in his bones. It's like in his blood.
[00:26:05] So I'd like to see him again. I think so as well. And he's also somebody whose life has changed a little bit. He wrote in his quarantine questionnaire that he has found love for the first time. He is 50 years old, but he still is in great shape.
[00:26:19] The dude's running Spartan races on the regular and obviously to your point, has a mind for the game. I do think for as high the Q rating is on this cast, I do think he is one of the more well-remembered names even from this cast.
[00:26:33] So I could easily see him come back for a third time, especially if they decide to go with 50 as an idea of like bringing back the best to never win. I think David would fall in that category. That's interesting because obviously I've heard you
[00:26:46] and your esteemed panel of guests talk a lot about like if it was a second chance, if it was a legend, best to never win is an interesting one. I mean, I think I can see why casting at least says that they like get the names together
[00:27:00] and then they decide on the theme once they have the cast because I do think it's like who we'd even put on the ballot changes so much if you like focus on what the theme could be.
[00:27:11] But to that point, I do think David could kind of sneak in. I mean, legends would be tough, but I think he could kind of, he's well-known enough that he could kind of sneak in under a bunch of different themes and formats,
[00:27:23] which I think would help him like actually get cast. Well, I'll move below him just to address the other Millennials versus Gen X returning out of this group, which is Zeke who again plays back-to-back seasons in Game Changers and unfortunately becomes the face of an incident
[00:27:39] that made national headlines. But Jeff Varner outed Zeke as being trans in front of the tribe, in front of Jeff, in front of production and by proxy in front of the world. Now Zeke has gone on to, you know, parlay trauma into triumph in a manner of speaking
[00:27:57] where he has used this opportunity to vocalize a lot of qualities that have been affecting the trans community. As of late, he was able to attend the GLAAD Awards where he met his now husband, Nico from Superstore, which is awesome. They also recently got married
[00:28:13] and it looked like an incredible occasion and Zeke seems like he's doing really well. I occasionally talk to him actually and it seems like he's in a really good place. Name drop! I occasionally talk to him. Well, it makes me incredibly happy because obviously someone that undergoes something
[00:28:27] to that extent on national television is, I cannot even imagine. Absolutely insurmountable. So all that is to say, the reason why I say Zeke's life is fine is because that's what he would attribute to his odds of returning. In his quarantine questionnaire, he said,
[00:28:44] No, I won't play again. I've done it twice. I'm a person who craves new experiences and I don't believe there's anything more I could get out of playing a third time. And he goes on to talk about how, for obvious reasons, after the Varner incident happened,
[00:28:58] he was just kind of shell-shocked for the rest of the game, kind of played as a shell of himself, in a manner of speaking. And he feels like the itch has been scratched at this point. He got his opportunity to play out his dream twice
[00:29:11] and he is ready to move on. Now, he does say he'd be on The Amazing Race. So like, where are Nico and Zeke on The Amazing Race? Make that happen. Yeah, we can call him Zeko. Very plastic tiara snapping with nails for everything that you said.
[00:29:27] Yeah, I really like revere Zeke. Is that the right word? Because for all of the reasons you said, and obviously he was such a great member of this cast, totally separate and apart from the Varner of it all. But like, Zeke could hate Survivor and not participate
[00:29:44] and completely distance himself from it and be above reproach and like totally justified. And we should all distance ourselves, but you know, like whatever. But I feel like Zeke participating in the quarantine questionnaire. It's still in his bio on Instagram. Like he went to Adam's wedding.
[00:29:58] It did not ruin or taint his full experience. And like, I love that he did not let that happen when I don't know how I would react to it. It's unimaginable, which is like what you said about it. So kudos to Zeke. Live your best life.
[00:30:14] I 1000% would have put him on this ballot if he was interested in playing. But I totally respect saying, I've done what I needed to do and now I'm doing bigger and better things. All right, Ali. Well, now we look to this jury full of one time players
[00:30:31] and the speculation begins. And I gotta start with a guy that you have been watching on reality TV as recently as earlier this year. Because I think back in 2016, Jay was someone that everyone immediately wanted to see come back. Again, this was a guy
[00:30:49] who sort of became the underdog of the post merge, even though I don't think he was necessarily personified as like the hero. He had one of the most complicated dynamics in recent memory with him and Adam, the yin yang as they like to call themselves.
[00:31:02] And then he kind of flames out in spectacular fashion when he loses immunity, gets tricked into playing this idol thinking he's completely safe only to find out that it's not the case. And he goes out at the beginning of the finale.
[00:31:16] And Jay has parlayed this into a challenge career where he's been on what? I think four seasons at this point. And what is really interesting, Allie, is we talked about this a little bit with Michelle as well with Kirsten in the previous podcast, thinking about, okay,
[00:31:33] would he want to return to his first love? And especially for Jay in the wake of, to be honest, a season where he was not perceived well by either people in the house or the public. So here's what's interesting.
[00:31:50] I think Jay's stock couldn't be lower on the challenge after battle for new champion, right? Coming out of that season, especially on the reunion when he gets outed as having hooked up with Olivia and he awkwardly denies it for no... It's just bad.
[00:32:09] Shout out to someone taken off guard. He's got a girlfriend. Obviously that's a complex situation, but he handles it about as poorly as you could possibly handle it for actions you participated in. And while he had a commanding game,
[00:32:25] he blew up one of his best friendships with Maurice and just really strained his relationship with Michelle. I think the audience is sort of not on his side anymore or right now at least. So he's a great heel, shout out to the wrestling wrap ups,
[00:32:40] but he definitely had a heel turn. Shout out to the wrestling wrap ups. That said, I couldn't be more interested in seeing him make a move back to Survivor, right? He was, fact check these ages, he was 27, now he's 35. That's a kind of a big difference,
[00:33:01] although I will clock that Jay at the Merge says, I'm the kingpin and no one knows it, which is probably a verbatim quote that he says on the challenge every season. So I don't know how much strategic growth there is, but I kind of think he's poised
[00:33:15] to make a really exciting return back to Survivor. I don't know how logistically that works as between the shows, because we've seen people- It's all under the same umbrella, right? Well, we've seen people go from Big Brother and Survivor to the challenge.
[00:33:31] We've seen Josh come back to Big Brother for Reindeer Games, but we haven't seen anyone come back to Survivor. We've seen Big Brother to Survivor, but we haven't seen the challenge really infiltrate back to Survivor Returners. It's tough because Survivors have really only been on the challenge
[00:33:45] in the past like four or five seasons. Four or five years, and we haven't had a returnee season in four or five years. So to your point, is it a matter of it's too taboo to go back to the well, the water well, quite literally?
[00:33:58] Or is it we just haven't had the opportunity to figure out if that's the case or not? And we didn't have anyone come in like fresh, like Hayden from Big Brother coming here. Like I guess some random challenger could have precipitated the Survivor going to the challenge,
[00:34:12] but that seems unlikely. So yeah, I mean, I think it might be just circumstantial about when returnees kind of stopped in Survivor. I think that's a really good point. I don't know how it works in terms of like filming schedules because the challenge is always filming,
[00:34:24] but I do think people might choose the challenge over Survivor because there's more money and returning consistently on the challenge. I think Jay is probably one of those people who feels there's like more to gain in being on the challenge if it became an either or.
[00:34:44] But that aside, I would be so stoked to see a Jay return. What format does Jay fit into? Don't know. I mean, could he be on Greatest Players to Never Win? Like, absolutely. I could see second chances. I could see a spot for Jay.
[00:34:59] I mean, what's unfortunate is like if we're actually casting this season, there are a few types that are now sort of in Jay's silo that could be cast either ahead of him or right behind him. And especially now that he's a little bit older,
[00:35:13] it sort of is like the new hotness of, you know, long hair challenge beast. But I do think, and we talked about this with Michelle as well, there also is some intrigue to like, OK, Jay was able to go to the challenge. And if despite you talking about
[00:35:27] maybe sort of the repetition in him consistently thinking he's the kingpin, he did have his best season from a gameplay perspective this last go around. I think one of the reason why a lot of people liked Jay in his first few seasons
[00:35:39] was because he was the scrappy underdog. He took down a future seven time champion CT in his first season. He was kind of like brought down by the actions of his partner in his other two seasons. And so I think there is something there too.
[00:35:54] OK, Jay is just coming off of his most successful strategy yet. Could he try to apply that to Survivor or what Applesby Orange is? I mean, maybe it's also wishful thinking on my part that maybe Jay's thinking like, all right, maybe the challenge
[00:36:09] needs to cool on me a little bit. If I come back immediately, am I just going to become the number one target for everything I did in battle for a new champion? Maybe coming back home rather than spending all my nights out at the bar
[00:36:19] is a good way to handle things. See, I think Jay is coming to Survivor or coming to the challenge whenever called for like there is no modulation. I think this is like his primary job. But that said, besides making music with a soft.
[00:36:33] Yeah, it's a good point that it was it bears repeating. It was a great strategic commanding season for Jay. I do think that that was based on the back of five years, three years of making friendships before he then executed on those friendships.
[00:36:55] And then also being one of the more experienced players in a house filled with people that have played one to three seasons. Right. So seeing him kind of go back to Survivor off of, again, a very relational season of Millennials Gen X with Adam and all that.
[00:37:10] So like seeing him kind of apply the lessons learned from his first season of Survivor, his sort of levels of failure and one season of success on the challenge. He's one of the people on this cast that just like to spoil it.
[00:37:27] I'm the most excited to potentially see back. If not this season, if not 50, another season. You're going to say, I'll definitely look forward to seeing you more in the future. Yeah. What he said, what TJ said. Well, let's talk about Jessica Lewis here. Let's go a little in-house
[00:37:44] because Jessica goes out in such a tragic fashion. Again, she was given a second life in the game when David saves her with an idol back during the Lucy vote in episode four. She gets the legacy advantage in the first episode. She thinks that she is in good.
[00:38:00] Then the votes get tied and somehow nobody budges at the final 10. They force a rock draw, which is still objectively ridiculous. There's a reason why this was the last rock draw to happen in Survivor history up to this point.
[00:38:17] And poor Jessica is unfortunately the victim of all of this. And she has gone on to become a member of the RHAP community, become a podcaster in her own right. So Ali, how much do you think the appeal of wanting to see what good Jessica
[00:38:35] could make an opportunity where luck goes her way again, hopefully. How much does that buoy her onto the ballot? Yeah, I mean, I think Jessica falls in the category of would be hungry to play again. I don't know how to interpret her quarantine questionnaire response,
[00:38:49] but being inside the RHAP walls, it's like hard to imagine that somebody who has dedicated a significant portion of their life to analyzing the strategy of Survivor contestants wouldn't be chomping at the bit to play again. And as I said, in my criteria,
[00:39:05] like that's kind of top of the list for me of somebody who's hungry to get back out there and have fun with it, make it count. It's also like beyond frustrating to go out of the game in that way, which I feel like is sort of appealing
[00:39:20] of like she's not gonna make that mistake again. Especially I'm kind of interested in talking about like what was the real difference between Zeke and Hannah on that? But anyway, it's just like it's clearly top of mind for her. It was her answer to the quarantine questionnaire.
[00:39:34] Did I pull a black rock? But yeah, I would be excited to see somebody from the RHAP community who's really, really hungry to play again, who's stayed committed to Survivor get a second chance. That's the thing is that, look, we're now getting into the era
[00:39:49] where it's become less and less for me trying to research. Are they still watching the show? Would they want to do it? But Jessica is one of the people we know is the most actively watching the show, considering that she podcasts about it on a weekly basis.
[00:40:02] Not to mention, as you see from the guests on YXLAW, she has cultivated relationships within the new era players as well. And so I actually do think maybe out of this past, she may have one of the best chances of actually making a far run between again,
[00:40:15] her perception just being the person that was taken out by a rock draw and not necessarily what her game had been built up to by that point, as well as even if it's old era versus new era, having enough connections on that other side.
[00:40:27] Yeah, definitely someone who I think if she got on would have a great opening to make it far, like you're saying. Do I think she's in sort of like the category a lot of these people might be in, like a Jay or a Hannah that's like,
[00:40:43] when you're making the season, do you get placed out by somebody else? You know, and that might be an issue for her. Yes. Chad GPT puts her likelihood at a four, which I think is also probably right,
[00:40:56] like in the same way that Hannah's a little bit above average, maybe a little bit below average in terms of likelihood to get cast. But on my cast, I'm interested in seeing her play again. I wanna talk about her two Gen X brethren here
[00:41:11] and I'll talk about them together because we saw them race around the world together in Chris and Brett. And I would say definitely in Brett's case, very, very low key. The only things that we really saw him pop on the screen
[00:41:26] were of course, him lying about being a cop, saying he was a funeral director. And then of course, that really great moment where on the reward, he comes out to Zeke revealing that he's gay. Like as much as we may cringe at the theme
[00:41:38] and all the, oh, you millennials do this. That was a really special moment to just have these two guys from different generations connect over being in the same community. And of course, Brett has proven in his many podcast appearances since that he has a hell of a personality,
[00:41:54] a hell of a comic persona. And he was able to show that a little bit when him and Chris went on to the Amazing Race. And I think while maybe in retrospect, there were a little bit of eyebrows raised. It's like, really?
[00:42:05] These two guys are gonna represent Survivor on the Amazing Race. Should be noted, they were the last Survivor team on the Amazing Race. They made it all the way to sixth place. And we got to see their personalities a little more between a guy who got booted
[00:42:20] at the first part of a double episode on Thanksgiving and a guy who did make it to the finale, but was definitely understated compared to the people around them. So with that full resume, Ali, would you wanna see one or both of Chris or Brett back?
[00:42:36] You talk about how you occasionally keep in touch with Zeke. I once did a tequila shot with Brett LaBelle. How about that? I really like them apples. Do you like apples? A tequila shot that Rob refused to take. And then I saw Brett LaBelle
[00:42:50] and I was like, I know who's gonna take it. Yeah, I'm not really in touch with the Amazing Race like ear to the ground, especially not like you are. But when I heard that Brett and Chris were on Amazing Race,
[00:43:04] as I guess Gen Z would say, I was sad because they're a hilarious duo. It was Bussin and Planin. What'd you call me? No, I really... I really, for the exact moment you're talking about with Brett, like obviously I love that moment between him and Zeke.
[00:43:24] I love somebody who's just a little bit surprising like Boston cop, comes out as gay, bonds with Zeke. Especially like middle America survivor, no offense. You know, whatever. That's such an unexpected, beautiful moment. That's one of the reasons, I was gonna say that's why I watch Survivor.
[00:43:40] It's probably not why me and Mike watch Survivor. That's why you're watching Survivor. People watch Survivor, this is how you do it on Survivor. And I think Chris and Brett's bromance was really fun to watch in the Amazing Race. I guess fun to watch on the season.
[00:43:55] Do I think I would actually be really happy to see either of them play again? I agree. Again, probably people who like could have come back in a 30s season or if early 40s had returning players. Do I see them on 50? Like probably not.
[00:44:14] But would I like to see them return? Absolutely. I think both of them said yes in their quarantine questionnaire in different ways. I don't know if, do you think Brett's increased social media capital helps or hurts his chances to return? That's a valid point because he is
[00:44:29] in a very public relationship with an influencer now. Maybe they do that and then bring back the loved ones visit in the hope that they can get him out there. Or blood versus water. I think you and Akiva made a good case for new blood versus water.
[00:44:41] I think there's some people I'd like to see. Yeah, I do agree with you that I think both of these guys have compelling cases, whether it was the fact that Chris was seemingly a big strategic force and was kind of at the head
[00:44:54] of a lot of votes that he was conducting before he ends up getting his legs put out from under him. Or Brett, again, just being this really fun character. And I think these guys would be good TV if they came back no matter who did.
[00:45:07] I just wonder if it's a matter to your point of even from this season, are there people we would want to see back over these two guys? And Chris is in the Jessica boat for me of someone who seems very, very hungry to play again.
[00:45:19] And his quarantine questionnaire, he said, I'll come back for no money. Yeah, which we love. Right? Like that's how I'll pay you. Yeah, that's that's the top of my list for me too. It's just like if Chris gets another chance,
[00:45:32] like he's for the Broadway hits, not throwing away his shot. I regret saying that, but he's really coming in hungry. He has traumatized me just even thinking about what he did in his casting video. I think about that probably once every six months. I wish I didn't.
[00:45:46] Just to be explicit, he ate dog poop in his casting. So he's literally hungry. So yeah, Chachi BT put put Brett. Is this boring that I'm saying which had canceled us? Okay, put Brett at a four and Chris at a five,
[00:46:04] which again, I'm like kind of like Chachi BT is kind of like nailing it. All right. Well, we are we're responsible for a I slowly take it over. I'm starting with this podcast and the Big Brother House as well.
[00:46:16] But let's finish things off with the final three loose ends here. Let's talk about this corner of of the millennials, three members of the or I guess no, what was it in the Triforce, right? He was more so like Triforce affiliated.
[00:46:28] But we have Will who played it only 18 Taylor and Michelle. I don't want to necessarily broad brush them if you have opinions about each one, but what are your thoughts about seeing any one of them back?
[00:46:42] You know, I think Taylor's probably the least likely to be interested in coming back and probably the least likely to have me be interested in them coming back. So I think mutual. But shout out to Taylor just as an update has three kids was at Adam's wedding.
[00:46:58] Living life. Amazing. Sly. I think Michelle surprised me in her quarantine questionnaire because I would have guessed based on nothing that Michelle would not be interested in a return. And she was an emphatic yes.
[00:47:12] And I do think I have forgotten her from the season and in revisiting it was like, oh. Michelle, you know, like I wouldn't hate if she were back, but she's not like high on the list for me.
[00:47:24] There were some moments, you know, there was her being stuck on the tribe of all guys as they're burping and passing gas from the hot dog rewards. There's actually a really nice secret scene that I'm sad didn't make the air where like her and Hannah bond over faith,
[00:47:37] where obviously Michelle is a very devout Christian. Hannah is Jewish, but they were able to come together and forge a really close relationship. But I think most iconically is her going like full cosplay at the reunion where she wears a dragon around her neck.
[00:47:50] Yeah, I Hannah talks about that moment on podcasts a lot. I think of like as a strategic and also non-strategic like moment. It reminds me of like Sophie and coach, honestly. So, yeah, I think if you're one of your most
[00:48:05] your best moments is really more of like a. Well, I guess I shouldn't say that. Yeah, I was happy to revisit with Michelle, not high up on my list in terms of actually coming back. Will is an interesting one because he was just such a little baby
[00:48:20] when he was on the show and to come back like, what will it be when it's 50? Right. He's 26 now. Twenty six. So you'd be 20, 27 next year when it films at 28 when it actually airs. So like that's a huge change from 18 to 20.
[00:48:36] Yeah. Well, has now actually gone to and graduated college. I think he's still in grad school or maybe he just graduated grad school. I think that sounds right. I don't have anything on that was not at Adam's wedding. Well, maybe he was still in school.
[00:48:52] An extremely emphatic yes on the quarantine questionnaire. And that doesn't surprise me. I don't know if just being 18 when he first played is enough to get him even his name brought up in the room. But I would be interested from. Oh, go ahead.
[00:49:08] No, well, it's tough, especially because, listen, three seasons later, we are going to get another teenager around his age, who I think unfortunately leaves a much larger footprint in the minds of fans and of the season. But I think as an isolated experiment, Will would be really interesting.
[00:49:24] So confirmed by his Instagram, he did graduate from law school last year. So that's also interesting as well as like, how will that big booming voice now command presence if he has a law degree attached to it?
[00:49:36] And that's the thing is that Will was someone that was incredibly hungry to play, said like age is just a number. I'm here to claim my spot no matter what he would do things like
[00:49:46] write extra letters in the voting booth to make it look like he was writing a longer name. And really, he wasn't. He was the one that coined the term Folkroom Alliance, even though it wasn't necessarily successful. So I think I'll keep repeating what you say,
[00:49:59] that maybe if there was another returning season for a lot of these people in the late 30s, Will could have been interesting. I just feel like yet again, he falls into this boat where he is kind of enveloped by not only his cast members,
[00:50:11] but of other people that fall into his archetype. You saying that he just graduated from law school made me almost 0% interested now in him going back. Lawyers are over-disposed on this show. To when you went to law school and watched Will Wall on your screen.
[00:50:26] And then he's going to lie about being a lawyer because like people can't trust lawyers. Boring. No, everything, everything you said. I do want to say something about Sunday. I know obviously we're not talking about Sunday returning very, very sadly.
[00:50:41] One thing that I think is so special about this cast is exemplified by the fact that I think everyone but three people, spoiler alert, were at Adam's wedding, eight years later, however long it's been. This cast is so close.
[00:50:53] So many of them mentioned Sunday in their quarantine questionnaire and how she was someone they were in touch with and what a huge loss it was for the season, for the Survivor community. So just sad to not be talking about Sunday's chance of return.
[00:51:07] Just like a bright light in Survivor. Yeah, I mean, especially considering like everything she went through before coming to the island with her battle with cancer and then having it come back and just, you know, the fact that she was so adamant to play things
[00:51:21] that she went to like Adam's birthday party, which I think they did like a Survivor Maryland-esque one day game of Survivor. And yes, she was under edited during the show. But I think if you talked with a lot of people that were out there,
[00:51:33] they would say how much of a force she was. It's the reason why Hannah wanted to get rid of her at the final seven. So of course, may she rest in peace. All right. So as much discussion as we had about the jury,
[00:51:45] let's move into our pre-jury briefly. So we have... We have datables. Unfortunately. So we have in order Rachel Aiko, Mari Takahashi, the guy, I guess this is like Paul's Angels in a way that it's Paul, the only man who's booted pre-jury.
[00:52:03] We have the aforementioned Lucy who gets idled out. CC Figgy, a competitor on Squid Game, the challenge. And speaking of the challenge, let's talk about someone who blazed a path for her specifically on her second challenge season. Mikey B is going to talk Mickey B in Michaela Bradshaw.
[00:52:22] Michaela, obviously a force in the pre-merge of Survivor Millennials versus Gen X, the source of many different sound bites, a physical beast in the game during that one challenge for the tug of war on the ring. She showed us not only her strength, but those ta-tas today
[00:52:40] and gets taken out in one of the biggest, most entertaining reactions to a boot I've ever seen in Survivor history with, of course, what? To Jay's cold-blooded, I did that, to Michaela's absolute fury about it, to the fact that she even forgot her shoes the first time,
[00:52:57] earned her a spot on the next season as a game changer where she makes it to the merge and then some gets voted out right before the finale, though I would say had a bit more of an understated edit by comparison.
[00:53:11] And then she sees a second life on the challenge. Not initially, she does get booted first because she gets caught basically in the version of her sorting out the rocks, which led to her Survivor boot. She got caught making a list. Very who wrote the note?
[00:53:25] Yeah, by the veterans, but man, Michaela on the Challenge USA season two was seismic. She was winning dailies. She was commanding the game as a force of strategy. She was getting into fights with people. She was not afraid to get down and dirty
[00:53:44] if she didn't like what somebody was saying. So all that is to say, Allie, do we feel like Michaela, as we talked about with Jay and Michelle, is somebody that would want to stick with the challenge or would she rather go back to the beach?
[00:53:58] Yeah, if Jay is 1A, Michaela is 1B for me. And yeah, I'm biased. Don't at me. I don't care. I think Michaela, different than Jay, but kind of similar. She just had her stock couldn't be higher from Challenge USA two in terms of her performance,
[00:54:19] both from a television perspective and a strategy perspective and a competition perspective. I think she finishes third overall. She has a great alliance. Because much like Johnny Bananas, she fails the weight puzzle and that just and then she fails the weight puzzle and then decides, you know what?
[00:54:35] I'm Michaela Bradshaw. I can outrun a car and then decides to just start huffing it. Yeah, I think she is someone who could come back with some distance. She plays her next season immediately after this season. She plays this and Game Changers filmed
[00:54:54] before Millennials Gen X had even aired. So I think with some distance, her threat level is pretty low, even though I think her social and strategic game is hitting its stride based on having... I don't know how closely any of these people are watching
[00:55:10] Challenge and Challenge USA and whatever. And I was so thrilled for her to get another chance after she failed so miserably on her first challenge, Spies, Lies and Allies. And again, I don't know how casting decisions are made between all of these stupid challenge franchise divisions.
[00:55:25] But to me, it speaks very highly of how casting and production views her and they actually should view her so highly because she's awesome TV and a really formidable player. And I think a return to Survivor on the heels of her challenge experience eight years,
[00:55:41] seven years later would be awesome. So I'm really, really excited at the prospect of a Michaela return. I co-sign everything with one caveat, and I don't want to wish ill upon her, but I think if she does go on to Survivor 50,
[00:55:58] I think she has to go to every tribal council because Michaela is one of the most entertaining people in tribal council I have ever seen. Even outside of the whole what scenario, she brought rock to tribal council. She sipped tea and ate popcorn
[00:56:15] when JT was blindsided with an idol in his pocket in response to a fight that they got into when she got blamed for eating all of the sugar. So again, that speaks to how out in front Michaela plays
[00:56:28] and how out in front she just is as a TV character. And I would say, honestly, after Game Changers, I could see a world where it's like, this show is sort of done with her. They have this sort of what if answer of,
[00:56:39] okay, what happens when Michaela makes the merge? And it went pretty well, but again, it was a little bit quieter than we typically expect from Michaela. But again, I kind of fell back in love with her watching her on USA too,
[00:56:50] being reminded of just how much of a force she can be on a competition reality show. And she'll go toe to toe with her alliance. You know, like she played with like a loyal game to a strong alliance of women on USA, but she disagrees, like she'll disagree.
[00:57:05] And that's awesome. Like, you know, it's not just like a big block moving forward. It's she's gonna get her point across, stay sus of everyone. And yeah, I love Michaela, big fan. Well, let's talk about... Cold take, big fan. Yeah, exactly. A freezing cold take.
[00:57:22] Let's talk about somebody who was not freezing cold in Fiji because she was cuddled in the warm arms of Taylor Lee Stockard. Let's talk about Figgy, because Figgy, you know, obviously a big point of a showmance that we had not experienced on Survivor in quite some time
[00:57:38] and gets voted out because of it when Adam flips at the swap. And I think for a while, Figgy showed her just absolute desire to come back. She feels like she had her chances cut out from under her due to a guy where spoiler alert,
[00:57:52] it did not necessarily work out for them following the show. And so she gets at least another opportunity to appear on the show in the form of Squid Game, The Challenge. And look, there was a lot of people to parse through there,
[00:58:03] but I do feel like Figgy stood out despite the fact that spoiler alert, she does actually go surprisingly early, given the fact that we see so much of her early on. She is somebody that knows how to craft a soundbite. Yeah, agreed.
[00:58:18] I also think she knows how to craft a relationship. I don't think it's just in, you know, I think she's engaged now, but I don't think it's just in a romantic way. Although I was blown away revisiting the season, how quickly that showmance pops off,
[00:58:31] like episode two, they're smooching. It's called love goggles, right? For that reason. Yeah. I definitely think she falls in the category, like you were saying of hungry to return. I mean, her answer in the survey, the questionnaire is like in a heartbeat,
[00:58:45] like I'll pack my bags, you know? And I think her going on Squid Game, The Challenge shows that she's still hungry to play these kinds of strategic social games. I think for how early she goes out here, she's sort of shockingly memorable and recognizable in the survivor community.
[00:59:02] And I think that weighs in her favor, but much like some of the other people we've talked about before, I think she's ultimately probably squeezed out by some similar or, you know, maybe not even archetypes, right? Just like other people that they might choose
[00:59:15] who have been on sooner. Again, she kind of falls into the, like I could have seen the case for the return in the 30s. In 50, I don't know if I see it, but I would be, you know, I'd be happy to see it.
[00:59:25] I wouldn't be like, this is outrageous because of the passion she has for the show. There is one other person I really want to focus on with no offense to the other four that I would not necessarily give the most consideration to. And that is Mari.
[00:59:42] So maybe on paper you're saying, okay, second boot, first person voted out of the millennials. Why do we care about seeing them on Survivor 50? So I keep saying this, but the legend is Survivor 40 before it was themed Winners at War
[00:59:56] was going by another theme and was bringing people on and giving them consideration calls. Mari Takahashi got a consideration call for Survivor 40. And I don't know, like the theme some people consider was rivals. I'm not sure who her rival would be. Maybe Hannah or Figgy?
[01:00:16] Could be Figgy as well. It'd feel like such a low key rivalry compared to bringing back Lex in Boston Rob or Spencer in Cass and everything. But Mari, I think came in with the most cache of course being on, I think she was on Smosh at the time
[01:00:31] or at least was like a big YouTuber in the space and obviously a big gamer in her own right. And I think that's for that reason. That's why she ended up being voted out second. I mean, if Survivor really wants to drift off
[01:00:44] of what the Gen Z-ers are watching and checking out maybe that's how we get Mari on for Survivor 50. Yeah, it's tough. Again, a lot of these people here, it's just such a good cast. I think Mari, I was going to talk about Mari
[01:01:00] if you didn't talk about Mari, I think we're sort of robbed of Mari of what she could have been if she didn't go out in the second week or when did she go out second, right? So yeah, I co-sign that. She's not like high on my 50 list
[01:01:13] in terms of what I think the likely theme might be. But yeah, I think she would objectively be an awesome gamer. And to just talk quickly about everyone on this page, I think everyone besides Paul was at Adam's wedding.
[01:01:25] Like again, a testament to how close this cast has stayed, how invested they've stayed in Survivor Which is wild on the back of Survivor 46. Insane, insane. And so I'd co-sign Mari. I also just want to shout out CeCe who gave just like such an emphatic yes
[01:01:42] in her quarantine questionnaire. Clearly like a lot of love for this game. Goes out the opposite of like swap screwed. Like she flips a good swap and gets voted out by her own tribe anyway, besides being in the majority.
[01:01:56] But I just feel like she still is really connected to the game in that kind of camp of like who's still watching, who's still excited by the show. I think her chance is, you know, almost zero. But just like I loved seeing that
[01:02:09] when I was doing my research for this. Like shout out to CeCe. Yeah, I agree. And you know, Rachel, I do feel bad that she ends up becoming the first boot. And Method, I still don't really know. Like if I remember correctly,
[01:02:21] the vote is pretty scattered, that first vote. And I feel like so much happens in that premiere between the twist, between the scavenge for supplies, between the cyclone, that there's not really a huge solidified reason as to why Rachel goes.
[01:02:32] And Lucy, besides having one of the most unfortunate cast photos in Survivor history, has one of the more unfortunate ways of going out of the game where, again, she gets idled out by Jessica getting an idle played on her. So I do feel bad.
[01:02:45] And look, it was also a pretty disquieting trend that you look at the breakdown of these pre-jury boots. But, you know, I imagine that one or maybe even a couple of them will get a second chance on our ballot at some point. Who asked you, Mike?
[01:03:01] Like what if she loves that photo? Feel free to disagree with me if you love this photo, if it's framed on your wall. I would not like it if this was how people looked me up on Survivor with me. I was going to say forget. It's a look.
[01:03:19] Don't forget that. Need to still have that. But I also would like Mike Bloom's rating of the photos just in terms of fortunate or unfortunate. All right. Well, we're about to give some good fortune to some people, Ali. Oh, this is going to be tough because, again,
[01:03:33] I still want to... We're a society. We have some rules here. I still want to put three or probably four people on the ballot with the expectation that honestly, these comments are going to be flooded with people saying, why didn't you put this person on,
[01:03:46] put this person on, et cetera. So I would not be surprised if we get a hefty amount of the cast of Millennials versus Gen X on the ballot at the end of the day. But right now it's the job of you and I to determine the initial round,
[01:03:58] the first shortlist of people we want back from this season. Why don't you start by offering up a name? See, I'm tempted to push some of the returners and put it to the people doing that season like Edge of Extinction or something
[01:04:11] to have to deal with David Wright. You know, I did already punt Wenworth to Edge of Extinction. It would be... Imagine if it's just Edge of Extinction is a five minute podcast where I come on with the person that's saying, sorry, your hands are tied.
[01:04:23] You have to bring back most of the returnees of one other person. Bye. But like then let them take the guff. And by them, I mean you and whoever is doing it. So you are screwed either way, but at least I'm safe.
[01:04:35] Which is how I would act in a rock, rock, rock, draw situation. Like I would flip so that you're screwed, but at least I'm safe. Oh, so I did make a little shortlist. Yeah, please. Sort of tiers. But when we just discussed everyone
[01:04:50] and you're putting my feet to the fire on like who I want to see the most on the ballot and I'm torn between two people, but I'm going to put... I'm going to push the button on Jay. Okay. I'm going to put Jay. Yeah, I don't disagree.
[01:05:05] I think there is a lot of interesting what if there with Jay. And so we'll throw Jay on there at the ballot. 35. I will perhaps on that. No, maybe it's just the present company I'm in. I put Mikaela on as well. I think maybe it's just, again,
[01:05:23] the fact that it's what have you done for me lately? And what she did for me lately was give me a really fun summer 2023 with the Challenge USA season two. But she is someone I'm really intrigued to see what a third chance would look like for her.
[01:05:37] And then I'm looking at a bunch of my like who... Whose arm wouldn't have to be twisted? Who would be hungry? Now it's tough as I think everybody on my list is in that category now. I think unfortunately, starting with basically post-Cambodia,
[01:05:51] we are now in an era before the actual new era where there are very few people that will say no. It's going to be much more subjective on all of our parts to say who do we want slash who would production see back over? Oh, I'm so sorry.
[01:06:04] This person wouldn't want to do it again. Yeah, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go cats and I'm gonna put Hannah. Okay, you want to put Hannah on there? Yeah, so I'm basically between Hannah, David and Jessica right now. That was my that's my remaining.
[01:06:20] Yes, I feel like two out of the three of them should be on there. My heart right now is leaning and maybe it's the YX lost in me, but I'm thinking David and Jessica and then... Oh, you're you're you're punting my pick. I don't know. I don't know.
[01:06:35] I picked Hannah. No, no, no. You think you could do that to me, Mike Bloom? I picked Hannah and you get the fourth pick. So if you want a special exemption yourself, OK, fine. You know what? I will.
[01:06:49] Mike Bloom thought I was going to put Mike thought he was going to veto my pick. You've you've you nearly fell for my mind games, but I'm going to go with I'll put Jessica on. Just because a.
[01:07:04] Going back against what I said before, maybe we'll go to an edge of extinction and maybe there's not a lot there where we could add David on there as well. Or maybe we'll have, of course, a groundswell of support to put him on after the fact.
[01:07:17] But this would be the only time that we would put Jessica on. And I feel like what we're looking at right now in this group between Hannah, Jay, Jessica and Michaela is less so the stars of the season and more so, hey, this was a really stacked cast.
[01:07:32] Here are some people that we would like to see back in some way, shape or form because of the way they went out the first time or because of things they've done since playing. Put me on because not me getting what I wanted to do,
[01:07:43] which is punt David Wright to your problem later. I know you talked to me to your outcome at the end of the day. No, I'm sorry. I you know, before you suggested it, I was like, should I just give up Hannah
[01:07:53] and let you put the two people that you want to put through? But it's my Northwestern sister. So I've gotten two challenge picks in a Northwestern pick. Sorry, everyone. Yeah, this is truly your ballot right now. So we add on to the list with ages Hannah Shapiro, 32,
[01:08:08] Jay Starrett, 35, Jessica Lewis, 45 and Michaela Bradshaw, 33. Last but not least. Now, we usually ask, is there a player from this show that you would want to see on another reality show? Millennials versus Gen X is an interesting cast.
[01:08:24] Did that a good amount of them have already been on other reality shows? Yeah, I do have an answer, though. Please keep Figgy off the ballot. Bring Figgy to the challenge. I mean, Figgy on the challenge. Yeah, I think she is super game.
[01:08:39] I think she's somebody that clearly has an appetite for these reality competition shows and shows that like just doesn't need to be a fan of the challenge. She can take to it like a duck to water.
[01:08:48] And hell, I mean, if you want to have an appeal, their challenge producers. Yes, she's engaged, but you could say like, oh, she was in a show man's before and she showed how romance can affect the game. Like, plus, she's a great confessionalist. I totally agree.
[01:09:01] I think Figgy would be a shoe in to put on the challenge. Maybe Jay has a referral that he can use. You also, I think, suggested Laura Moret for the challenge USA. Should that ever come up again? Which was an incredible suggestion.
[01:09:15] I also think like Brett or Chris could be in that kind of spot. Like, I guess what they were maybe doing with Dom, you know, like just like that would be it would be kind of hilarious to see Brett on a show where he could drink.
[01:09:24] Like, that would be kind of amazing. Yeah, I also think Zeke. I don't know if Zeke would do it, but Zeke is a massive Big Brother fan. Back when he lived in New York, he used to host like all day Big Brother games in his apartment.
[01:09:37] And I know that he went to a taping of a season as recently as a couple of years ago. So maybe if it was like a shortened season, could he get away with like being on Celebrity Big Brother?
[01:09:47] I mean, look at the caliber of some of those celebrities, maybe so. Sly would love that or Amazing Race. Definitely down for that. All right. So tomorrow we're sticking with Zeke and we're sticking with Michaela as we come to Survivor Game Changers.
[01:10:02] Now, usually on these returning seasons, we try to look behind the curtain and figure out why were certain people cast on this season? And can it forecast how season 50 will be cast?
[01:10:13] We have our work cut out for us in Game Changers, which is very much to the point, as you mentioned before, of let's just cast people on a season and we'll arbitrarily assign a theme later as we see Jeff furiously try to pedal
[01:10:27] as he explains why certain people are Game Changers. So I will be joined by somebody tomorrow to break down the cast of Survivor Game Changers, go over who's on the ballot and talk through Ali, maybe one of the most WTF returning seasons of Survivor.
[01:10:43] Very excited to hear that. I was like you could put Michaela in, but she's too late. She was your pick. Yeah, and we also don't want to put people on during returning seasons as well. So unless it will bend the rules whenever.
[01:10:55] But this is the four we have at the moment, and I'm sure much more to come with Millennials versus Gen X, a fantastic cast and a fantastic podcast as well. Ali Lasher.
[01:11:04] Now I know you are just getting started to go back into the raging waters of the challenge as you are gearing up for Battle of the Eras coming next month. What would you like to plug for everybody right now? Yeah, so a lot coming up.
[01:11:18] Stay tuned for preview coverage. We'll be dropping the first week of August, I think, to a week. This is an exclusive unless you're in the Facebook group or following us on Twitter, but podcast exclusive.
[01:11:35] Brian and I are going to be going era by era by era by era, breaking down the four eras for the challenge Battle of the Eras. Very exciting, unprecedented level of attention to the season for me and Brian. Like, very excited.
[01:11:51] And then hopefully I can confirm this on the podcast, Mike. We will be having the great Mike Bloom on to talk about episode zero, the face of the challenge press parade magazine zone. Mike Bloom. When people look at the challenge and they see my face,
[01:12:09] they say that doesn't equate to the challenge. The exact opposite of the challenge I've ever watched before. But I love watching the show. I love checking out all the coverage that you all do, and I'm excited to cover it in my own way as well.
[01:12:20] And I'm excited as someone who's a died in the world challenge fan since those OG days. I'm really excited for it. And also what I'm really excited for is on that note, Allie, you and Brian are going to be appearing this week on a summer of Survivor
[01:12:33] to cast a season of Survivor if it was themed Battle of the Eras. So who knows? Maybe we might inspire production in more ways than one, not only with the short list, but with a possible theming for Survivor 50. Yeah, I'm very excited for that.
[01:12:46] It's taking back to the old days, Mike, when we used to have a regular podcast together about drag race, oft forgotten, which I'm fine with. But I did love talking to you. And so it's very exciting to have three podcasts on the docket with you coming up.
[01:13:00] So very, very excited. And excited for many, many more podcasts with you and Brian diving into the new challenges as well as one big one today. I hope everyone enjoyed this one. This is a really tough cast to put on the list and to make choices for.
[01:13:13] And again, I have a feeling that we're going to be coming back to this in a couple of weeks time and adding more names on. But certainly let your thoughts be known as to who you want to see on the ballot for Survivor 50 for Millennials versus Gen X.
[01:13:24] Thank you all so much for listening. We'll be back tomorrow covering the cast of Survivor Game Changers. Until then, everybody take care. Bye bye.
[01:14:13] Bye.