The 25 Greatest Moments in Survivor History | 20-16

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_09] Hi everybody and welcome back to part two of our countdown of the top 25 greatest moments in Survivor history. My name is Mike Bloom and I am back for our second installment in this series as tonight we are going to find out what moments 20 to 16 are as voted on by you in the hands of the Survivor fans. And I am not alone here. We have lost Rob, but in his place we have gained three and a half.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_09] He is an incredible Survivor alum to look back on the past quarter century of Survivor history. Let me start by somebody who might be a quarter century old honestly at this point. Of course, he found a way to find a way onto this podcast. The runner up from Survivor 47 Sam Phelan. Sam, how are you?

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_05] Oh, I'm great. Great. And very excited to get the nod here. What a great panel you've got going Mike. So we're going to talk about some moments and I've got a lot of hot takes on my list personally that I'm sure we'll all be going around the list with hot takes today.

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_09] All right. Well, let's keep going around the panel here. We are in a full out and out nerd bands with this group and I think it makes sense to bring in the ultimate form of the nerd bands in the form of Frannie Marin. Frannie, how are you?

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_07] Oh, I'm the ultimate form of the nerd bands. Wow. I thought I'd get like a plaque for that. I had no idea. Yeah, I'm great. I'm psyched to be here. I'm really glad to be here for moments. What is it? 20 through 16. I feel like once we get into like one through 10, then they're done that. We've all talked about it. I want to know what's in this slot. So I'm psyched to be here with you guys to discuss.

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_09] And last but certainly not least, perhaps an alphabetical order. Someone who has already rankled the fan base in the past few days, maybe with that first bootstrap that you can check out on the page for a lot of things. And he's back for more folks. Zach Wartenberger.

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_08] Thank you, Mike. You know, when you reached out to my agent about doing this podcast, I said I would only do it if you put together the best of the best panel. And I'm glad that you managed to do that.

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_05] And no siree on the list. That was also. Oh, that was a requirement from Zach as well. I heard.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_09] Absolutely not. That writer was fulfilled. I did get you the green M&Ms, but the rest is currently unknown as again to set the stage. For people, we compiled a list of 100 moments across the first 48 seasons of Survivor, and it was voted on by you, the fans. We have taken the results. We have combed through it and we have packaged for you a list of the top 25.

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_09] As a quick reminder, stroll down memory lane, if you will, because it has been a week to say the least. So let's do a quick review at the top here as to what moments 25 through 21 were. So, of course, we're talking with three new era castaways today, and we started with the new era moment last week with moment number 25 from Survivor 43. Jesse betrays Cody. Moment number 24. Jesse stole Cody's idol, arguably.

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_09] But this guy is more so known for his larceny as Rupert stole the shoes in the opening of Survivor Pearl Islands. Moment number 23. Coach's trip to Exile Island. Hailed as, you know, by Sam, actually, in his list as one of the greatest character moments in Survivor history.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_05] This was my number one. I was disappointed to see it at number 23. This is my favorite moment.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_09] There we go. Moment number 22. We're going to another new era highlight. Caleb shot in the dark hits from Survivor 45. And then closing out the list here at lucky 21. Cerise 3-2-1 vote from Survivor Panama. It was a good moment. There we go. Some measured response.

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_05] Top 21 all time. I don't know.

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_09] Well, let's get into it, shall we? Because we have, well, only five moments to get into. Plenty to talk about within each one. And we decided to do this last time by trying to gamify things a little bit. Much like a journey proper. No dice involved, luckily, though. So for each moment, I am going to throw out a clue or maybe a couple as to what the moment is going to be. You can each get a chance to guess. You can collude your guesses if you want to.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_09] Then I am going to play an audio clip of the moment, reveal what it is, and then we will get to discussing. So without further ado, let us crack into moment number 20. I can reveal that this is a moment from quote-unquote old era, first 40 seasons of Survivor.

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_09] And I can say that moment number 20 is a highlight moment from a player someone would consider a Mount Rushmore contestant in Survivor history. So make of that what you will. Franny, talk me through what's going through your head right now as you're also gesticulating with your hands.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_07] Yeah. You saw my inner thoughts coming out in the gestures. Well, I'm going to be honest. I mean, people have different Mount Rushmores, right? First person that comes to mind for me is Tony Vlachos. So the first thought that I had was speaking Llama, which I think like comes up as a great moment, but probably wouldn't crack like top 10 for people. That's what immediately came to mind. But I'm sure that.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_08] Yeah. So Rushmore, I feel like is Rob, Sandra, Tony Parvati is like the. Yeah. I think that's the most.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_05] I didn't know you left Sari off. I debate. Unironic. No, no disrespect to Sari, but like, I do feel like you have to win to like probably be on the Mount Rushmore. And so I think, yeah, I think that's the most consensus Mount Rushmore, Zach. And that's why my head went to probably Parvati. We just have like, I think she probably has what, three, four moments that could all be top 20 moments. So I feel like, you know, there's just so many to choose from that.

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_05] One of them probably lands around this area.

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_06] Okay.

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_07] What Parvati moment is like not good enough to crack?

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_05] Well, that's where I struggle with because my favorite Parvati moment, I feel like, is a top 10 moment. Like there's just so many top 10 moments. The heroes villains. Yeah. The heroes villains. Yeah. Let me take a little bit of a Hail Mary here, Mike. Let me go for Boston Rob. All stars, his conversation with Lex and turning on his promise with Lex. I think that could come in this area.

[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_06] Okay.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_08] Yeah. I'm going to go. Yeah. I'm going to go the other direction then. I'm going to say Sandra, based on the fact that we got some good character moments in 25 through 21, and we're still in like the higher ones. I'm going to go Sandra. Either I can get loud to what the fuck or Sandra sugar gate and game changers. Okay. Oh, okay.

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_07] Um, I, I, my, the, my second thought was I can get loud too. Um, but I am going to stick with speaking llama. That's where I'm, that's where I'm going for this one.

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_09] Okay. Three very different guesses from three very different players. Without further ado, let's see what the number 20 moment in survivor history as voted on by the listeners is.

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_00] I'm feeling wonderful because regardless, Russell's keeping me around because I'll never get a single vote. But I don't know about that.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_03] The winner of survivor.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_09] Yeah. So fitting. That's a point, right? To be moment. Number 20. Sandra wins twice. Becoming the first ever player to win two times in survivor history. Sam, first reactions to this.

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_05] Uh, well, I guess my, my first reaction is like, what is this? The, is this a moment? Like, um, and if it is the moment, if the moment he were talking about is like Jeff reads the votes and Sandra wins. I'll say, I think it's a little bit of an underwhelming moment. I feel like most people were either surprised or disappointed when Sandra first won heroes versus villains in real time. I think this is probably a moment that, that plays better.

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_05] Uh, in hindsight, you look back and, you know, Sandra has just become this iconic reality television character that, uh, you know, so many fans have such affinity for. Um, but I feel like real time, you had some Russell lovers and some Russell haters. And if you were a Russell hater, you probably wanted Parvati to win this season. So I think this, this is a surprise to me.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_08] So wait, uh, everyone here watched heroes villains live, right? Was that, uh, I did not watch it live.

[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_07] I did. Yeah.

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_08] I watched it live. Yeah. Okay. Cause yeah, I was going to say like watching this live as a 10 year old boy, I was definitely rooting for Russell at the time. Like I won't even lie. I just feel like Russell really captured the hearts of the 10 year old boys. Certainly. And I, I will not maintain that take. That was a bad take. Uh, but yeah, at the time I was definitely rooting for Russell. I think that Sandra as the two time winner, I think that like the reason I'll defend this moment and say that it,

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_08] it is a moment and it is so great is cause this is basically the moment where like queen Sandra, the character was born. And I think that the reason why maybe in the moment I was more disappointed is cause I saw Sandra as like this underrated winner who didn't get much of an edit and heroes versus villains. But like, this was her crowding. This is where she became the woman that we now know and love as like Sandra, the all time great character in survivor history, the Mount Rushmore undisputed character.

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_08] And, uh, I think that the fact that she won this season right here, like, uh, ended up doing so much for survivor and what, you know, what we ended up getting out of this show.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_05] I will say like, in my eyes, I don't, I don't feel like we had this identity of, maybe I missed the boat, but like this identity of queen Sandra, the first, I remember that being like, you know, mainstream sort of lingo is when she comes back on game changers and is referring to herself as queen. And saying the queen stays queen.

[00:10:13] [SPEAKER_05] And the reason why I like, this would not be in my top 25 moments personally is because of what Zach kind of said at the beginning there. Sandra is so under edited in this season. And it really feels like Russell and Parvati's story throughout every single episode. I'm actually in the middle of rewatching heroes versus villains right now. I'm showing it to my wife for the first time. And it like, literally it is, it is Russell and Parvati show.

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_05] And I think, you know, Jeff Probst survivor, I think everybody probably had a pretty united feeling at the same time of, you know, if there was going to be a two time winner, two for two in survivor history, it being somebody who is more understated in the edit and more of a calm underrated winner, her first time playing and then quieter character, her second time playing. I'm not sure that's how survivor drew it up and how they like dreamed it up.

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_05] And so to me, I think this moment is more of like a surprise moment. One of the more shocking results of a final tribal council. Then it is like an all time something I remember where I was for.

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_09] Yeah, I mean, I think Franny for me, and I totally see the points that are being made. It's less so about the impact in the moment. As Jeff Probst once said, some moments are instantly iconic and some build that, you know, icon status later on. And I do think, you know, going back to survivor all stars, certainly Jenna Lewis was the main vocal component. But a lot of people thought that winners have already had their say. They had their million. It is time for someone else to be able to cash that big old check.

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_09] And so I think going into heroes versus villains, I think to Sam's point, you know, even what we think about Sandra now, it's wild to think. But going into heroes versus villains, like she was certainly a character in Pearl Islands, but people weren't like, oh, my God, she's this huge threat to win. And so I think when you have someone like that sitting in the final three and someone who had won before, it seemed near impossible on paper for someone to be able to win the game twice.

[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_09] How hard is it to win the game the first time to let alone do it again? And I think what makes this moment carry so much water is the fact that it is a quite literal game changing moment for the entire franchise.

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_07] Yeah, absolutely. It's it's more of my reaction was very similar to Sam's initially. Like this doesn't feel like a moment that stuck out to me as like funny, but as like a historical event in survivor history, certainly groundbreaking, groundbreaking, especially like thinking about season 50. Like we were just talking about Colby and all stars and like winners were were, you know, eradicated on all stars nearly immediately. So it's interesting that the narrative is then changing.

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_07] And I think Sandra winning just perpetuates this idea that I think now, which is that kind of underrated people, especially underrated women on returning player season sometimes often go on to win. And so it's continuing to like carve out that narrative as well. Yeah, it's interesting that the queen stays queen didn't really emerge until game change.

[00:13:20] [SPEAKER_05] Am I am I wrong about that?

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_09] Like she does wear the tiara to the to the reunion.

[00:13:26] [SPEAKER_08] So maybe I mean, it wasn't a it wasn't a part of like the survivor lexicon, like that specific phrase. Queen stays queen came in in game changers.

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_05] I just like game changers. Sandra was such a I think like a breath of fresh air and a surprise for me of like what I was expecting because she was such a good confessionalist. And she was she was just smack talking the whole time that she was out there and she didn't care. And whether she went home on, you know, day 14 or made it all the way and went three for three, she probably knew going in that she didn't have a chance to win a third time. But it was more about like spending 14 days on the island telling everybody that you're better than them.

[00:14:03] [SPEAKER_05] And that was so fun to watch. But I think that was really when Sandra became this iconic reality TV character of, yeah, we have to have her on traitors. We have to have her on anything and we bring her on Australian survivor. We don't care.

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_08] Here's what I'll say in retrospect now. I think that like obviously like when I was younger, like I said, I was rooting for Russell. I think that Sandra winning Heroes vs. Villains for the show was the best case scenario. One, for giving us the character of Sandra who has proven herself to be like one of the greatest characters of all time. Two, I think that Survivor as a whole like lives on these debates of like who should have won. Something like a Sandra vs. Parvati or even Sandra vs. Parvati vs. Russell.

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_08] Aubrey and Michelle or Gabler vs. Cassidy and Owen, right? Like I think that like. Truly the three greatest debates in Survivor the Three of all equal value. Yeah. These like these. This is what like the show is made of is like getting fans so passionate and fighting so hard. If everyone was always happy about the winners and to have it be like such an iconic season with such an at the time controversial winner that kept up so many discussions.

[00:15:14] [SPEAKER_08] You know, like I love the fact that after Heroes vs. Villains, the greatest player of all time was not clear and that those debates raged on and on and on.

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_05] Which is which is jarring given what we just said, right? Like somebody can go on Survivor win once and you're like, wow, that was great to go and do it. A second time is so inconceivable and improbable with a threat. The moment you hit the beach being a winner already and you can do that. And maybe this is like speaks to the disrespect that Sandra has gotten for so many years and not have like locked up goat status in the eyes of like fans.

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_05] And then, you know, Boston Rob goes on to win, you know, a few seasons later, he enters that conversation. Tony with his second win on winners at war obviously gets into that conversation as well. I still think pound for pound Parvati might be the best player ever. And it is wild that we can have that conversation when there was somebody who like signed, sealed, delivered, got the check twice.

[00:16:15] [SPEAKER_09] And not to mention the fact that we are looking ahead to Survivor 50, which features a couple of winners. And it really interestingly opens up the conversation where on the one hand, you can come in with the all stars mindset, which is, hey, these people already won. They've proven they've had the medal to become the sole survivor. I will be solely responsible to make sure they don't do it again.

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_09] But there's always that caveat. And we have someone like Colby who voted for someone to win for a second time who could say if you're there at the end under the right circumstances next to the right people, the impossible can be made possible.

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_05] Yeah. Have we ever seen this is bad survivor. Have we ever seen a winner get to the end and lose at final tribal? Michelle, I guess, is the old one. She's against another winner. So like I would be more like losing to a first time winner so that Michelle and Parvati both lost to another two time winner.

[00:17:13] [SPEAKER_09] Yeah, I don't think that's the case then there were like maybe if Tina Wesson had made it to the end of blood versus water, we would be having that conversation.

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_08] And then I mean, well, then Rob lost. And that's the only other winner that I think has been a future future winner. Yeah.

[00:17:27] [SPEAKER_05] Yeah. I mean, it's an interesting, interesting headspace or like debate to have going into 50, like you said, right. If there is a winner there, because we often see we see it in heroes versus villains. Tom goes up to JT on day two and says, I need you there with me, because if the two of us are there next to anybody else, we can't win the money. And they kind of make this handshake agreement. And, you know, at the time you sort of roll your eyes at it like Tom, nobody really cares about that. If you go and play the best game.

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_05] But 48 seasons in now, we have not seen a winner get to the end while not sitting next to another former winner. Very interesting.

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_08] I mean, to be fair, they were sitting next to Russell and they could have voted for Russell.

[00:18:14] [SPEAKER_09] All right. Well, let us move ahead with moment number 19 as we say deuces to Sandra's second win here. Here's a here's a couple of clues for moment number 19. See if we can get any of you on the board. I will say this is once again from the old era. I will narrow things down a little bit. We just talked about heroes versus villains. This is a moment from a season prior to heroes versus villains. So you have to choose between seasons one to 19.

[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_09] And if I could describe this moment in one word, especially in hindsight, it would be karma. I got it. I got it.

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_08] It's Mike falling in the fire.

[00:18:51] [SPEAKER_05] Oh, I don't think that's it at all. What do you think, Sam? I think this is dreams and his car deal with Yao man in Survivor of Fiji. Oh, karma. Karma.

[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_09] I love me some some wordplay, Sam Phelan. Franny, what do you think?

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_07] I don't know. I like I like I'm going to go with Zach. Mike falling in the fire. I feel like nothing else is popping out to me. And I like the the the broad strokes like cosmic karma of that. Yeah, yeah.

[00:19:22] [SPEAKER_09] I feel confident in this one.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_07] The meta karma.

[00:19:24] [SPEAKER_09] The age old debate of karma with a K versus karma with a C. Let's see which one will win out here with moment number 19.

[00:19:43] [SPEAKER_03] He's burnt. He's burnt pretty bad. He's like, what happened?

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_06] I'm fired.

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_01] The smoke is right in my face. And I inhaled.

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_03] I just keep trying to listen back to Zach and Franny on the board with Mike

[00:20:43] [SPEAKER_09] Scoopin falling into the fire from Survivor, the Australian outback. I mean, here's the thing. Yes. Obviously, in retrospect, good Lord, the Survivor gods work swiftly. But what I will say is that this is an incredibly significant moment from the first few seasons of the show. I remember when I was a 10 year old kid watching Survivor Borneo.

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_09] And despite the smash sensation, it was how many talks there were behind the scenes of, oh, this thing's staged. Right. They're staying at a hotel right off screen. There was a family guy cutaway joke where Peter Griffin falls into the set and it turns to the set of The Price is Right at the same time. Despite how this broke the mold in terms of what reality TV was, the term real was still very operative and up in the air.

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_09] It got promptly solidified when a man passed out and fell into a whole ass fire. And Zach, he essentially degloved himself in doing so. Oh, yeah.

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_08] It's a what an image. Yeah. So I remember this is a season that I watched on the box set because I believe I was one years old when it came out. So, yeah, I got the DVDs of this one and I remember watching it. It's the first medevac in Survivor history. So already it's kind of got that iconic image to it. Mike obviously becomes the first player ever removed from the game for reasons other than being voted out or making it to the end.

[00:22:18] [SPEAKER_08] Iconic there. And for it to be like such an iconic, brutal way to go. Right. Like the first medevac wasn't like an infection in his leg. Yeah. It was literally I mean, I show that fire represents your life. It was literally him like falling into the fire. And now he's showing 20 to life. Jesus. Yeah. I actually think he's out, by the way. Right. Like, I think that he is out of prison. Is that not true? I don't know. Anyway, I'm not going to come.

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_08] Let's get let's get T-Bird on the case. Maybe she can investigate. But yeah, it's an iconic moment. And yeah, I mean, it's solidified Survivor is real.

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_05] Absolutely. Yeah. I'm shocked now how often I still get people being like, so they really don't give you any food. They really like they really don't. They don't give you a toothbrush. How many people still come up to me 25 years after this show premiered 48 seasons later? They still want to know if this thing is real. And there have been a handful of incidents throughout Survivor history. This being the first.

[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_05] And yes, perhaps the most gruesome of them all that just genuinely sort of scare you as a viewer to realizing how real and serious this is. And, you know, it's it's interesting as well, because as technology has progressed and media has gotten better, Survivor has done such a good job of shooting the show in a really cinematic way, a way that feels as intense as it feels to play it at times.

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_05] And that didn't always exist back in the day. But there are moments like these that just like stop you where you are when you're watching it and you watch and realize, oh, yeah, I forgot that these are 16, 18, 20 people stranded on an island that have to try to like also not die is the goal of the game, especially early on.

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_07] Yeah, I think it really highlights everyone's vulnerability, too, because I mean, the reaction of the tribe mates is so jarring. It's like gut wrenching as a viewer, even now listening back to it and like knowing who this is. Yeah, I'm curious, Mike, like I mean, I also did not watch this live, so I'm curious what the fan reaction was to Scoop and like what you remember, was he like viewed as a hero? Were people calling for him to come back? Oh, yeah.

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_09] I mean, well, listen, he people who know the series, you know, series of Survivor spoilers know that he was probably his own biggest cheerleader to come back. There were many times that whenever there was a returning player season, whether it was all stars or Guatemala, he's like, you know, I was I hear them. I hear that Mike Scoopin was in rumors to come back because he certainly was a hero. And look, maybe in retrospect, not necessarily regarded a hero from like a CEO award perspective, given what he had done to that bore an episode prior. But at this time, he was the tribe's leader.

[00:25:11] [SPEAKER_09] He was the tribe's provider. And, you know, it's a tribe that even more in retrospect is looking to be a group of bad behaviors by the day. But the fact of the matter is, is that he was sort of the mascot of Kucha at this point. And they were up in numbers. They had the wind at their sails. And then that wind promptly provided a puff of smoke in their face and had all their momentum taken out after them. I mean, I did not include this, but there's a moment where like as he's taken away in

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_09] this chopper, all the Kucha members are standing traumatized, holding each other, being like, we got to win this for Mike. Spoiler, they do not win this. But it really was this moment that I think reached outside of the show. I mean, you listen to that initial part of it. It's very small. But you see Nick Brown like turn to the cameraman and say he's burned pretty bad, Terry. Like that fourth wall is absolutely burnt down in a manner of speaking.

[00:26:08] [SPEAKER_09] Any sort of sense of, OK, these people are all on their own is kind of shattered in that moment. It's almost a call forward to when we get the whole Caleb Medevac situation and co-roll. It's all hands on deck where like the crew essentially has to put everything down. Mike Scoopin gets taken to the camera camp and actually is placed down there in a makeshift stretcher like this was such an incredibly real visceral moment that I do think one of the biggest questions coming out of Survivor's first like five to ten seasons was especially

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_09] back in the day when the Internet was, you know, crusty and dusty was like, is Mike Scoopin OK to the point where when he showed up on Survivor Philippines, his first confessional, he shows his hands to the camera like he's slating for, you know, a walk on role in a Subaru commercial.

[00:26:52] [SPEAKER_08] Well, yeah, I was actually going to bring that up specifically where this was back in the day and you'll have to speak more to this specific moment. But I remember in the OG seasons, the one I remember the most was Russell Swan in Samoa when I was nine years old and being like watching that and being like, oh, my God, is he dead? Like, yeah, is like, is he OK? Like, can he even walk anymore? Because it wasn't like when Bruce got medevaced and then you could just like literally check his Instagram and be like, oh, no, he's fine. Like, he's still around.

[00:27:19] [SPEAKER_08] This was back in the day where like literally this would just happen and the episode would be over. And that was it. That was the last that you saw of this guy. I mean, unless you turn on Letterman or whatever, or when you turn on the reunion. Right. And saw it. And I think that just in terms of like the the mythos of Survivor took it up to this next level of like people really can get hurt here. Like, this is not a joke. Like, this is a dangerous thing that we are making people do.

[00:27:46] [SPEAKER_05] And it ultimately is what separates Survivor in like the realm that is reality television. And ultimately what I think made Survivor so intriguing when it was in its infancy. Right. Like, how do you separate yourself from every everything else on reality television? And we had competitive reality television that existed. We had social experiments that existed on TV. And Survivor was all of that.

[00:28:11] [SPEAKER_05] But it added this grandiose, violent nature that I think, you know, it's like a car crash. People look at the car crash. They want to look and see people suffer on this island. And this was one of those first moments that you realize they are, in fact, suffering if they're not very careful.

[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_09] And how? All right. Let's Sally forth, shall we? And get to Sally. Sally got onto the list.

[00:28:41] [SPEAKER_05] In the top 20.

[00:28:43] [SPEAKER_09] Sally is, yeah, Dalton Ross did number one through 10 were just solely Sally's knee socks. Unfortunately, this guy just counted as dummy ballots. But we are not dummies here. We got some people on the board here with some guesses. Let's see if we can keep the streak going. Number 18. I will say yet again, this is a moment from a season prior to the new era of seasons one through 40. I'll try to widen it a little bit here because that one was a little easy.

[00:29:10] [SPEAKER_09] I will say that you three were part of, you know, the various pool of players that we got the chance to pull in the beginning of this grand experiment to ask for some of your favorite survivor moments. We are very grateful for that. That helped incorporate into the ultimate ballot of 100 we came up with. And I am happy to say that moment number 18 was a moment that made one of the lists that you submitted to us.

[00:29:37] [SPEAKER_09] So one of your top five to 10 moments in survivor history is moment number 18. The question is whose list and what is it?

[00:29:49] [SPEAKER_08] All right. I'll read through mine real quick. And if anyone thinks it's I have fishback is lacking in morals, values, loyalty, dignity. I have Wu saying get a fat dip of that guac. I've got Penner saying I mean my ass. I've got Lil Pouting. I have Sari checking Shane's balls. And then I've got Jeff Kent's final words. So if you think it's any of those.

[00:30:13] [SPEAKER_05] I think it is not impossible that Jeff Kent's final words made this list.

[00:30:18] [SPEAKER_07] OK. I think strongly memorable. Yeah.

[00:30:21] [SPEAKER_05] I think I known as like maybe the best final words that somebody's or like the most memorable final words that somebody's ever had.

[00:30:30] [SPEAKER_07] I one of the ones from my list that I could see in this spot, I was I was very pleased with this as I was doing my list. I have both. I'm pissed, quote, Debbie, and I'm pissed, quote, Liz Cox. I really liked the symmetry there, but I could see I could see Liz's. I'm pissed. It's one through 40. He already said it was a new era. Oh, he said one. Oh, shoot. OK, OK, OK. Debbie, I'm pissed. That's why I put in both.

[00:30:58] [SPEAKER_05] I will go. You know, I've got a few of these. I think I'm trying to be like for any. I'm trying to see what can I see being number 18. I will say Dom and Wendell tie at the Ghost Island final tribal council. That's a good one. I love that.

[00:31:12] [SPEAKER_08] I'm also going to the one other I had in there that I didn't say I'm going to throw as my real guess is Tony speaking llama. I feel like this is the place for that.

[00:31:20] [SPEAKER_09] OK, we shall see. As here comes moment number 18.

[00:31:26] [SPEAKER_01] Most people, including myself, we go all the way to the water well because it's a bit further away from camp where people can't hear you. And that's where they talk strategy. So I started working on some blueprints to make a nice little shack around the water well. Close, close. We still are close.

[00:31:40] [SPEAKER_06] Yeah, yeah.

[00:31:41] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah. The water well is here. There's a tree there. And I put some bushes and some shrubs and some broken branches where I can hide right in there. And I'm within five feet away. That's where I'll be the most patient when I'm sitting in my spy shack.

[00:31:58] [SPEAKER_09] All right. Zach, you were so close. Hold on. Let me let me turn you off, Tony. Turn you off. Turn off TV. But we are talking about number 18. Tony's spy shack. Listen, this man is full of moments. Suffice it to say. But perhaps none other could be as all encompassing for the enigma that is Tony Blachos than the fact that the dude just piled up a bunch of shrubbery next to the well.

[00:32:24] [SPEAKER_09] And somehow, much like a lot of Tony's tactics, it ended up working out for him.

[00:32:29] [SPEAKER_05] Yeah. Yep. So this is on my list. This was my number nine. It was part of my submission. Oh, nice. The reason that you just said, Mike. I mean, Tony, we just brought it up earlier when we were talking about Sandra. It is absolutely on the Mount Rushmore, not only of survivor players, but probably a top four character that the show has ever seen to Justin. Like such an absurd human being. And it is wild that as kooky as he might come across and be on that island, it works for him so often.

[00:32:58] [SPEAKER_05] And he is actually brilliant and calculated while also seeming like a madman. And the spy shack is all of that in one fell swoop. It is harebrained and off the wall and a stroke of brilliance and somewhere right between that fine line between genius and insanity. But it is so Tony.

[00:33:19] [SPEAKER_05] So as a great character moment, but actually an unironic good strategy moment as well from eventually one of the best winners the show has ever seen. It's it's it's perfect. It's awesome.

[00:33:31] [SPEAKER_07] Yeah. It's like everything Tony does. It shouldn't work, but it works. I feel like this moment also like intrinsically ties in spy bunker and spy nest as well. And it's like my family really included.

[00:33:44] [SPEAKER_05] Big ladder that he climbs to get food. Yeah. All of it.

[00:33:47] [SPEAKER_07] It's a spy smorgasbord. But like every single time it works and it's so fabulous. This is actually the first season that I watched live. And I was like flipping through channels one day and saw Tony running across the screen and I was like, I got to watch this freaking show. And so, yeah, it's very special moment in my heart. I just like he he is just so goofy. And it's fabulous that all of his ridiculous antics actually materialize into wonderful strategy. That's very unique. Yeah.

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_08] One thing I love about this that I know is not on the show is in exit interviews, how he would talk about how he'd work with production specifically to make the spy shack work, which is that he would basically like make a deal with his producers on the island to say like, hey, you let me hide in here and don't have a camera on me because that'll blow it. Obviously, if there's a camera points at a random shrub and he would say, if you let me do this for a few hours, I will come back with you and get the footage you need.

[00:34:44] [SPEAKER_08] OK, I will. And that's something that I think for any future survivor players like work with production in that way. Their focus is getting a good show, you know. So like if you're if you want to do these wacky schemes, they will play along with it if they can. And when I heard that in one of his exit interviews before I played, I was just like, wow, that is like next level thinking. From a player to like work with production to make a good show and to get what you want to happen strategically to happen.

[00:35:12] [SPEAKER_09] Yeah, it's it's it's so much fun. Right. Because, again, it's this I don't really think it's like 40 chess, but it's this this level of thinking that I don't know if I'm out there. I probably have a million things on my mind. One of them is probably not. Hey, let me check this bush next to me because there's a construction worker who's lying about being a police officer hiding and waiting for me. I don't know any sort of nugget of information that could cause him to have to target me.

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_09] But Tony is able to to be to make this happen in a certain way, coming up with ideas that truly nobody would think of and able to take some advantage of it. You know, this is this moment I was pulling was particularly from the Jeremiah boot episode. You know, it's right after the LJ boot, but it does lay a little bit of the groundwork for he hears Jeff Rupp talk to Trish being like, I don't know if I trust Tony anymore after the whole LJ boot.

[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_09] And that maybe laid a bit of the plans for him flipping for the, you know, inimitable, interminable time and saying, OK, time to get rid of Jeff Rupp because I overheard her at the water well in my spy shack.

[00:36:13] [SPEAKER_05] We obviously know that production loves when people are going for it, full tilt, boogie, whatever you want to call it. But especially when people are innovative, right? Like they want you to do something that has never been done before. But that's a challenge like you get out there, especially now. And, you know, I'm out there season 47. And you just think, like, what could I possibly think to do that nobody has done over the last 46 seasons?

[00:36:41] [SPEAKER_09] And Sam, you know, I mean, you got duped by sort of like an open plan spy shack, right? With Rachel hiding around the corner. Let's talk about open concept.

[00:36:49] [SPEAKER_05] And what makes Pony so awesome and what makes this so special is because it there's nothing else like it. You know, up through 28 seasons, there's nobody. I mean, we've seen, as you just mentioned, Mike, people try to hide and sneak up on people. We saw Tony do the same iteration of this a few times. We saw like Sifu running off and being a little wacky early on for Reba. And they all immediately sniffed it out because they had seen Tony play.

[00:37:17] [SPEAKER_05] But nothing quite like this that had ever existed before. So to have the creativity to do it, but also like the charisma and I guess just ability to pull it off is like really cool.

[00:37:32] [SPEAKER_08] The one I could point to is didn't Sandra in Pearl Islands wasn't there like a scene of her? And it's funny that those are our two players, right? Like those are our two double winners, Sandra and Tony.

[00:37:41] [SPEAKER_09] Yeah, I believe that's the one where she like pulls Tawana and Dara aside, right? To like listen in on Fair Play and Burton talking shit about them to try to get them to turn on them.

[00:37:50] [SPEAKER_07] You got to hide if you want to make the Mount Rushmore. You got to have a hiding spot. Right.

[00:37:56] [SPEAKER_08] It's the only way to do it. Now, I will ask. We've seen obviously Spy Shack, Spy Bunker and Spy Nest since Tony is coming back for like Australian versus the world. Is there a fourth one? Are we going to see like the are we going to see like the 20 story four of this where it's like you didn't really need it? But we got Dungeons. Spy Dungeons. Yeah.

[00:38:17] [SPEAKER_05] I mean, that's similar to the bunker, but yeah.

[00:38:20] [SPEAKER_09] Yeah. What's interesting is that, you know, he will not be playing alongside. Maybe he will at a certain point. But Luke Toki infamously said that he was not a Survivor fan, that his exposure to Survivor before playing Australian Survivor his first time was watching a YouTube montage of Tony clips from Kaga. So it could be a very interesting like a Padawan Jedi Master situation where it's like you taught me how to be chaotic and now I'm going to try to be more chaotic than you. Two-person Spy Shack. That's innovative.

[00:38:48] [SPEAKER_05] Yeah. Sam Moran that says the spy scraper is what is coming.

[00:38:53] [SPEAKER_09] I feel like for liability purposes, they can't have him go any higher. They already put him in a tree. Where can he go?

[00:38:58] [SPEAKER_05] Where he went in Winners at War was like that was about as high as I feel like you could possibly get. That was what? A hundred foot with the ladder. He could have died as somebody else.

[00:39:09] [SPEAKER_08] I think he's done like he's done like the bushes. He's done the trees. He's done the dirt. I think he's got to go into the ocean. It's the only thing that makes sense to me.

[00:39:21] [SPEAKER_09] Spy Marine.

[00:39:22] [SPEAKER_08] The spy Marine.

[00:39:23] [SPEAKER_05] If he pulls that off, write him the check. I don't care.

[00:39:27] [SPEAKER_09] Have him do like a little like a read like he's one of those cartoon characters. You see Bubbles coming up.

[00:39:32] [SPEAKER_05] Yeah, yeah. Picture a world where Tony. Yeah, Tony doesn't have to do anything. He gets to the end and tells me, hey, by the way, I built like an airlocked seal underneath the water and listen to all of your ocean time conversations. You got my vote, sir. Thank you.

[00:39:49] [SPEAKER_09] And that's the best part is he doesn't need to do it. He could just bank on the reputation of like anyone who believes it. One last note about the spy shack is that you talk about very key pieces of information that came out in exit press. I think my favorite is when Trish revealed in a key interview with Rob Sesternino one time that she pissed in Tony's spy shack multiple times over the course of the time.

[00:40:13] [SPEAKER_08] I forgot about that one. Yeah, that was a class. There's your I'm pissed. Wow.

[00:40:18] [SPEAKER_07] I love the exit interview lore. This is great. Great addition. Yeah.

[00:40:21] [SPEAKER_08] The thing with Tony also is you could easily make a top 25 Tony moments. Like this wouldn't even probably be in my like top five. And that's not because I don't love this moment. It's just that there is so much that he does. Absolutely. Every episode he's gone.

[00:40:35] [SPEAKER_07] Well, that's what something interesting about this format is like a lot of the biggest character characters we've seen on Survivor. Like you just said, Zach, have several moments. We were even talking about this with Sandra. And I think as people are voting. Yeah. Seven moments for each of them. And I think as people are voting, they maybe don't want to have like, you know, a third of their moments be from one person. So we're getting an interesting like filtering down of people's biggest moments.

[00:40:59] [SPEAKER_09] All right. Well, on that note, I'm going to give a clue that that's sort of banked off of that, but in a different way as we get to number 17 as voted on by the fans. I'm not going to reveal what era this is from. I'm going to cast us across the timeline of Survivor, but that's because I'm going to narrow the criteria down considerably. Let's look ahead to the recently announced cast of Survivor 50.

[00:41:22] [SPEAKER_09] Moment number 17 was a moment that was seen by not one, not two, but three members of the cast of Survivor 50. Three Survivor 50 cast members were present for moment number 17.

[00:41:39] [SPEAKER_08] It's not Suri on the balance beam, is it? If it's Suri on the balance beam, you're setting your part.

[00:41:46] [SPEAKER_07] It wasn't at that moment. Yeah, it was Ozzy, Suri, and Aubrey. Yeah.

[00:41:53] [SPEAKER_05] I mean, so is it a David versus Goliath moment? It could be something. It could be something. It wouldn't be the jacket because Christian wasn't there.

[00:42:02] [SPEAKER_07] Could it just be, could it be like the Davids coming together, David idols coming together?

[00:42:06] [SPEAKER_08] I think it's more likely to be the Rice negotiation.

[00:42:09] [SPEAKER_05] What about like, what about like Advantage Gettin in Game Changers?

[00:42:14] [SPEAKER_08] Oh. I don't think the fans would vote for that, to be honest. What about. You're right. I think it's a big event, like a memorable moment. Okay. Okay. I think that David versus Goliath is good. I also think that this could be Liz's Applebee's meltdown because he didn't say the era.

[00:42:29] [SPEAKER_07] Oh, because that would have narrowed it down too much. I'm actually going to say Liz's Applebee's.

[00:42:32] [SPEAKER_08] Yeah.

[00:42:33] [SPEAKER_07] Okay. So Zach says Liz. I hope you're right.

[00:42:35] [SPEAKER_05] All right. I'm going to go away from Zach, but Zach's probably right. I'll say it's, I'll say it's Advantage Gettin. Although could it be, do we have three HVV people? I don't know. Four. So it could be a Heroes versus Villains, but no, I guess pre-mergers, it would have to be like the heroes early on for Steph and Ceri to both be there. Hmm. I don't know. Interesting. Yeah.

[00:42:59] [SPEAKER_09] What do you think, Franny?

[00:43:00] [SPEAKER_07] I'm going to go, I'm going to go with a David versus Goliath. I'm going to go, um, I'm going to go David's, uh, I don't know. Fire moment.

[00:43:10] [SPEAKER_09] Three very different guesses across three very different seasons. Let's see what moment number 17 is.

[00:43:16] [SPEAKER_03] Check.

[00:43:21] [SPEAKER_01] I have an idol. It's a blue idol. I like to play on it myself.

[00:43:26] [SPEAKER_03] Wow. Oh. Wow. I have another one. We will all, we're floating. No, this is, I got it. It's Advantage.

[00:43:38] [SPEAKER_04] Yeah.

[00:43:39] [SPEAKER_00] Oh, that's what you said. Oh.

[00:43:41] [SPEAKER_04] These are both hidden immunity idols. Any votes cast for Ty or Aubrey will not count.

[00:43:49] [SPEAKER_02] Hey, Jeff. I've got a secret advantage, which is a legacy advantage. This is only good for right now. The legacy advantage. I forgot about that one.

[00:44:02] [SPEAKER_08] All right. That was back when Survivor had too many advantages. I love that it's kept up by Troizen, by the way. Will not count.

[00:44:10] Yeah.

[00:44:11] [SPEAKER_08] Yeah. Get in there.

[00:44:13] [SPEAKER_06] From the top of the road. Oh my gosh.

[00:44:16] [SPEAKER_03] I'm going to get on the immunity train and give you that.

[00:44:18] [SPEAKER_08] Hashtag immunity train. Bottom left border.

[00:44:21] Yeah.

[00:44:22] [SPEAKER_04] This is also a hidden immunity idol. Any votes cast for Troizen will not count. So, any votes cast for Ty, Aubrey, Sarah, Troizen will not count. Well, you could not vote for Culpepper. He had a big means. Siree, it doesn't matter what votes are in the urn. Because the only person who can receive votes...

[00:44:51] [SPEAKER_06] Is you.

[00:44:53] [SPEAKER_04] Is you. And for what it's worth, not a single vote in here has your name on it. This is a historic tribal council. Most idols ever played at a tribal. Three. Most people ever safe at a tribal. Five. And the most significant and devastating part of tonight's history-making tribal for you, Siree,

[00:45:20] [SPEAKER_04] is you become the first person in 34 seasons to be voted out simply because there literally is no other choice. There's no need to revote.

[00:45:35] [SPEAKER_09] Check. Wow is right. As I am, admittedly to seeing that number 17 is indeed Advantage Get-In from Survivor Game Changers. This one absolutely threw me for a loop. But listen, it's the 25 greatest moments. Sometimes great is meaning large or immense. It's meant in a pejorative sense. And perhaps that was the case here. It's a moment that I don't particularly enjoy, I will admit.

[00:46:03] [SPEAKER_08] Well, I think it's... I think that this moment... I'm shocked. It's on the list because I think that the consensus is that people hate this moment. I think that this moment... I mean, it is obviously an iconic moment in Survivor history. I think for Siree specifically, I mean, talk about a moment that defines someone's legacy. For a player that already had the reputation of being, like, screwed, right? Like, season... Her first season, it was the fire-making thing. That's not really being screwed.

[00:46:31] [SPEAKER_08] Second season, absolutely screwed. Not even questioned. Third season, idled out, screwed. But then for this to happen, right? And this be the way that she goes out on her fourth time after making it to the finale for the third time, which was a record at that point. I mean, like, what a way to go out for one of the greatest players to ever play the show. Like, yeah, I think that this is absolutely iconic.

[00:46:59] [SPEAKER_08] Absolutely worthy of a spot on the list, even if it, like, pisses everyone off.

[00:47:06] [SPEAKER_05] So, I will say, I'm going to go back to, like, the headspace that I was in at the time. Similar to what we were just talking about.

[00:47:15] [SPEAKER_09] You were also 10 years old, yes.

[00:47:17] [SPEAKER_05] Sandra. I, in the moment, thought this was a great moment. Awesome moment. And I think most Survivor fans did, too. And I think we've looked back in hindsight and been like, that was kind of dumb that somebody just went home because there were five idols in the game or whatever. Like, that was kind of stupid. But I think in the moment, like, Survivor went through this era in the 30s where they were looking for what's fresh.

[00:47:46] [SPEAKER_05] They were looking to keep stuff exciting when they had just gone in this dark ages of the mid-20s. And I think there was sort of this high of things that we've never seen before in 34 seasons. And so, going off of Second Chances where we have this awesome final six Tribal Council, like, I think production loved it. And they loved the reception to it and how it made everything feel more intense.

[00:48:15] [SPEAKER_05] And the stakes were so great. And there was advantages that could throw you for a curveball left and right. And this was the culmination of it. And so, I do think it was celebrated a little bit at the time.

[00:48:26] [SPEAKER_08] I think I'll say my corner of the internet was definitely mad at it the second that it happened.

[00:48:33] [SPEAKER_05] I was a little super online at this moment.

[00:48:35] [SPEAKER_07] See, I think I'm with you, Sam. Like, in the moment, I enjoyed it. And then I went on Twitter. And then I was like, wait, I think I'm supposed to hate this. Yeah. The response was so negative. Yeah.

[00:48:47] [SPEAKER_05] If Sari wins immunity and Brad Culpepper goes home because of the immunity train, it's like people love it because it gets Sari to the final five. And it's like this awesome, crazy moment. So, like, the victim, obviously not ideal. But I do think it is one of the 25 greatest moments for just how big it was at the time and how big it still is to this day. Like, it is a one-word moment in Survivor history. Advantage get in. And that, I think.

[00:49:13] [SPEAKER_09] Apologies to a CBS for making immunity train try to work. But it promptly took over the terminology.

[00:49:19] [SPEAKER_05] You know, it's like I love what Jeff said when he announced Quintavious Burdette for season 50 and said he's not just a one-name player. He's a one-letter player. Like, to have such a big moment that means so much positive and negative to so many fans of the show be so synonymous with one word. I think that makes it so great. And it was also probably the tipping point that allowed production to cool it a little in the new era.

[00:49:46] [SPEAKER_05] You know, we do get some seasons with advantages and idols with Rick Devins, you know, coming up right after this and Ben Dreebergen. But those are also guys that played idols and found their own re-hidden idol. And so maybe it was a necessary evil. We lose our precious Sari to the advantage Geddon to then make Survivor adapt into a better product.

[00:50:09] [SPEAKER_09] Yeah, I mean, it is intriguing because I could see that point, Sam, about how maybe they feel like, okay, we went too much in one direction. But it really sounds like even with having Jeffsler reflect back on this. And, you know, when I recently polled him about his top 25 seasons, Game Changers was a part of this. I think for one of these particular reasons, which is the fact that it represented this shift in power and you never know what's going to happen.

[00:50:33] [SPEAKER_09] That Tribal Council, from his perspective, is supposed to be this box of chocolates that, like, you think it's one thing, you open it up, you take a bite of it. Oh, no, it's nougat. It's got a big old bite of something nasty with this that you have this improbable sequence. But I think really the big linchpin behind this is Ty and the fact that he found, as he colors them, two idols in the pre-merge and held off them for essentially the entirety of the game.

[00:51:00] [SPEAKER_09] Like, Troisan, yes, he also found a pre-merge idol and you have Sarah with the legacy advantage. But, like, for Ty to be able to do that, I think really through this hinky once-in-a-lifetime scenario in the game where truly five out of six people were rendered safe in some way, shape, or form. It is one of the most unfortunately unique circumstances that we've ever experienced. And I wonder if that's also maybe a reason why I got a lot of votes is that, like, we will never see this again.

[00:51:29] [SPEAKER_09] But, like, what we came to it is the winners at war final six when you had Tony, Ben, and I think it was Natalie all play idols. And Michelle was immune just down to Denise and, ironically, Sarah Lucina, who gets saved by the legacy advantage here. But otherwise, whether due to, you know, advantages going out of the game ahead of time or people playing them earlier, we will never again have this until Suri in season 50 when yet another improbable.

[00:52:00] [SPEAKER_07] Yeah, they're going to set one up just for her. Zach was kind of alluding to this, but one of the other things that I think is so compelling about this moment is, like you said, Zach, it really cements Suri's kind of, like, narrative or her, like, history of always being screwed over. And it is emblematic of this idea in Survivor that, like, you can be one of the best players to ever play the game. And sometimes you still cannot escape your fate.

[00:52:26] [SPEAKER_07] And I think that that is something that Jeff found very compelling about this is, like, everyone knows how good she is. And she still she, like, can't escape it. The universe finds a way to screw her over. And, like, it's upsetting. You want her to win. But it's compelling because it's like, man, that's her story. I don't know. Go ahead, Zach.

[00:52:44] [SPEAKER_08] I was going to say, to all of the Suri fans out there, I guess my question to you is this. Would you have rather had this moment happen or she makes it to Final Four and gets voted out like normal? Because that's what was going to happen. That was the alternative was a standard Final Four vote out. Three whales and illusions, says Zach Wurtenberger.

[00:53:03] [SPEAKER_09] There was going to be a die was already cast.

[00:53:06] [SPEAKER_08] So for such an iconic player to go out in, like, this never before once in a lifetime fashion, I think was, like, the best thing that could have ever happened to her in this season.

[00:53:16] [SPEAKER_05] I do kind of agree. And so we don't need to take too long on this. But I think it's interesting because this was sort of my the question I asked myself when this 50 cast was sort of like coming out. Right. Was is this better as Therese final moment on Survivor as the end to her chapter as sort of like you're a legend? You're awesome.

[00:53:39] [SPEAKER_05] It just was not meant to be for you to win this game all the way up to, like, historic never before seen circumstances. Or is this a moment that almost like is a gimme for her to return one more time and close it under her own volition? Like I just gut reaction there. What do we feel about that?

[00:54:00] [SPEAKER_09] I mean, it's tough because we also have, you know, sort of a parenthetical fifth time for Sari coming up even outside of 50. Right. So it's almost like, you know, when you know it's inevitable. But this does kind of represent to your point. While we've talked about the adage of Survivor Charlie Brown, Sari was really wearing the yellow and brown stripes at this moment with just like how on earth did all these things cosmically align in some sort of Survivor syzygy?

[00:54:26] [SPEAKER_09] The planets had to form a certain alignment for her to be sitting in that seat in that time. The only person left unsafe with no votes against them before all this Final Four fire making stuff where we, you know, get rid of Kara Kay and Liz and most recently Camilla with no votes ever cast against them. Sari was only the second person to do so after Pascal English to get eliminated from the game with no votes against her the entire time. It was an absolutely wild twist of fate.

[00:54:55] [SPEAKER_09] It was shocking. It was devastating. And it is, according to the listeners, the 17th greatest moment in Survivor history.

[00:55:03] [SPEAKER_08] Yeah, I think to your question, Sam, I think it entirely depends on how it plays out. Right. If she has some like gangbuster game that like, you know, truly is like the ultimate cap, then yeah, like it'll be worth it. If it's an Aussie fourth time or a Parvati fourth time where they come back, don't really provide anything on that fourth time out. And then they're just that's it. Now they have this weird like asterisk on their series was like, oh, yeah, they came back for that season. I don't remember it, which obviously is more likely than not.

[00:55:31] [SPEAKER_08] Not just purely based on like her placements are third place, fourth place, sixth place, 17th place. Right. So anything worse than six than she's like in that in that worst range. But we'll see. Yeah, I think it's good.

[00:55:48] [SPEAKER_07] I think it's going to be harder for her to have a more poetic ending moment than this.

[00:55:52] [SPEAKER_08] She also already won traitors like she's fine for us three fans. We already got that big.

[00:55:59] [SPEAKER_09] And she also got given her own advantage in Big Brother 25 with her son, though. Then that's going to turn into a disadvantage very quickly. Yeah, Jared. Jared is the one who needs the redemption. All right. Spoken like a true word, Berger. All right. Well, let's get to our number 16 moment here. The last one we're going to speak about. I'm going to keep things vague again in terms of the timeline.

[00:56:24] [SPEAKER_09] But I will say this has to be one of the most iconic food moments in Survivor history, a show that is memorably to an earlier point about people being deprived of food. This is one of the biggest moments involving some food across 25 years of the show. So panel, what do we have in terms of guesses?

[00:56:49] [SPEAKER_07] Zach, this is for you. It's fat dip of that guac.

[00:56:52] [SPEAKER_08] What are the odds? No, I know it's not this one. But I actually am just going to shout out one of my favorite moments that I know didn't make this list because it's such a niche one. The All-Stars Rupert food reward where he – it's one of my favorite – it's one of my favorite rewards of all time where he just gets like – it starts with like a steak and then goes all the way down to a bowl of white rice. He's got to every member of his tribe. I think that's one of the most genius rewards they've ever done. The fact they haven't brought that back, like that should be every piece of it.

[00:57:22] [SPEAKER_05] And it's like stuffed and very drunk to I had rice and water and I'm sitting here watching you get hammered. Oh, yeah.

[00:57:30] [SPEAKER_09] I mean, well, even Big Tom was pissed because he got the ham sandwich, right? Yeah. And that's like the perfect version of the coconut shop just without the coconut.

[00:57:37] [SPEAKER_08] Like imagine Maria having to give that out on Survivor 46.

[00:57:41] [SPEAKER_04] They didn't have enough time.

[00:57:42] [SPEAKER_09] It would have taken her hours. Play tiddlywinks.

[00:57:45] [SPEAKER_05] I think, right, like it could be I'm pissed. It could be stripping for peanut butter in the Amazon. It could be – does Jervis with the grub count? It was on the list.

[00:57:59] [SPEAKER_09] It was on the list. Eating rats also on the list.

[00:58:02] [SPEAKER_05] So I'll say it's stripping for peanut butter. That's my best guess.

[00:58:06] [SPEAKER_07] Yeah, I'm going I'm pissed. I was – I'm holding out hope that it's going to be in this bunch here.

[00:58:12] [SPEAKER_08] Someone also shouted out in the chat a banana etiquette, which I think had very much – Oh, that'd be a good one.

[00:58:19] [SPEAKER_07] Oh, I don't know if this was on the list, but I loved Sandra with the sugar as well. That's a great one.

[00:58:25] [SPEAKER_09] Yeah. All right. Well, let us get a fat dip. Moment number 16.

[00:58:31] [SPEAKER_07] I'll take my clothes off for chocolate and peanut butter.

[00:58:33] [SPEAKER_03] Get the girls some chocolate and peanut butter probes. If you have to. Oh, I did. There you go. Okay. Jenna. Heidi. Oh. Wow, these produces. Damn. Two ice cold colas. One heaping plate of rich peanut butter. Okay. You guys can share. Big tray chocolate cookies. Heidi, you want to do it? Yeah. All right. Oh, God. Why me? Why the night? I'm not looking. Nope. I got to stay focused. Where can I keep my clothes off?

[00:59:03] [SPEAKER_03] I'm looking. All right. You just pull your pants down to your ankle. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. I'm not looking. One, two, three. Oh, my God. Ta-da! All the kids at school, I'm not looking. Nobody's looking. You guys aren't even trying to tempt these guys off with this. I am looking.

[00:59:17] [SPEAKER_01] Are you kidding me? Heidi, you want to jump in? Yep. All right. Let's go. I got to get my shorts. Are they around your ankles?

[00:59:24] [SPEAKER_03] Go ahead and get in the drink. Come on over, girls. You lost your buff there, Heidi.

[00:59:32] [SPEAKER_09] 30 minutes. She lost a lot more. Lost a lot more. As indeed, the last one we'll be talking about today, as guessed correctly, by Sam Phelan. Heidi and Jenna's trip for chocolate and peanut butter from the Amazon featuring rather lurid cameo from our podcaster-in-chief, Rob Sister Nino, at a very tender age.

[00:59:50] [SPEAKER_07] What an odd moment to experience audio only. That's definitely not how that was meant to be.

[00:59:57] [SPEAKER_09] I mean, I will say, the visual itself, and look, I'm not one to judge. If there was anything that was proven in Survivor of the Amazon is that people have certain urges when they're deprived of creature comfort. This does not look entirely attractive to me, personally. I mean, I guess the blur is doing a lot right now that the imagination can't fill in. But, like, I don't know. I know the guys were all going to be like, I'm looking, I'm looking, with poor Butch being the most chased out of among them.

[01:00:25] [SPEAKER_09] But, like, I mean, in many ways, just a wild moment. Probably the most, like, 2003 moment I've experienced in quite some time.

[01:00:32] [SPEAKER_08] No, when I think of this moment, I think of, like, I don't even think of watching it on Survivor Amazon. I think of watching it on, like, VH1's top 100 craziest reality moments of the 2000s. And this would always make the list.

[01:00:49] [SPEAKER_05] Well, it made this list. And I'm disappointed this made the list. I don't, this is, this is not a top 25 moment. This is bad. This, I don't, this is fine. It's fine, sure. However, I guess it speaks to, like you said, the creature comforts that we are deprived of on the island and what people would do for even just peanut butter. But of all the strategy, like, this isn't even a very good character moment. This is just kind of like, I don't know.

[01:01:17] [SPEAKER_08] I think it's a pretty good character moment. I don't know about you guys.

[01:01:21] [SPEAKER_09] I mean, I think it's fairly representative of, again, it's very representative of the tone. It's of the times, yeah. Yeah, essentially, like, spring break survivor version, where it was like, again, with the exception of, like, Butch and Roger and Janet and Dina, like all these young, horny people just glaring at each other.

[01:01:40] [SPEAKER_05] Dina, no young, horny person.

[01:01:43] [SPEAKER_09] I mean, there's a wild thing about this, too, is that, like, again, maybe it's it. And maybe Rob can contextualize as to, like, if this did not come up unprompted, it absolutely does. Like, I started that clip with Jenna's declaration. It comes out of nowhere when you watch the entire scene where Jeff's like, there might be temptations that come along that have you step up. It seems like Jenna just not literally, but essentially throws her hand up and is like, yeah, by the way, I will take my clothes off for chocolate and peanut butter, which is a complete non sequitur.

[01:02:10] [SPEAKER_09] At no point did Jeff say, yes, and you also must lose clothing along the way. So that's what also makes it kind of, again, so wild. I mean, the episode is literally called Girls Gone Wilder because of this, that they're like, not only do I want this, but here's my demand somehow.

[01:02:26] [SPEAKER_07] Yeah. One of our earliest food negotiations. Strong starting offer. Yeah.

[01:02:31] [SPEAKER_05] I mean, if there's anything right, like it, that would make this a top 25 moment, it would be, you know, the fact that this has a little bit of a scooping effect. Like, this is a moment that people that were not Survivor fans talked about as being like, I probably shouldn't use the word scooping effect. Yeah. I wasn't sure where we were going. Do you want to make the news or?

[01:02:53] [SPEAKER_05] No, but this is a moment that people outside of Survivor, like, like, you know, you walk in water cooler talk on Monday or Thursday or Friday, whenever this aired. I don't know. You walk in the next day at work and say, hey, do you see Survivor last night? You see what those girls did for peanut butter? That was a little crazy, huh? So, you know, it was one of these moments that I think propelled the Survivor to that sort of national must watch TV. Even if, but like, I'd rather see more strategy here.

[01:03:21] [SPEAKER_05] I'd rather see some, some more character moments here.

[01:03:23] [SPEAKER_08] See, I'll, I gotta be the guy who defends the chocolate and peanut butter moment because for me, I think it's just a fun moment in a season of Survivor that needed to be fun because Thailand was so the opposite of fun. They needed to come back swinging with like a really fun or reverent season. That's what they got. Jenna and Heidi like had kind of, um, you know, like this cemented their characters and who they were for the show.

[01:03:50] [SPEAKER_08] Uh, I mean, obviously like they found great success after this moment with their, uh, yeah, with, they got a whole Playboy spread out of this. This was back in the day when like, you know, that's what you would get. And they came into the show knowing that that's what you could potentially get from the show. Uh, I just think it's like a fun, it's one of those moments that you just wouldn't have nowadays, obviously. And for good reason. Uh, but I still think it like holds up. I still think like as a product of the time, it's just funny.

[01:04:18] [SPEAKER_08] It's, uh, you know, so of its era and yeah, I love Rob's contribution to it as well. I don't think that we, I don't think we should forget that Rob is part of the reason why we have this, uh, demanding the producers that they, uh, they chop chop.

[01:04:33] [SPEAKER_09] Yeah. You think he made a deal? Like, okay, if you let them do this, I'll give you the content later on. Is that his own?

[01:04:39] [SPEAKER_07] Yeah. Yeah. I think this, this moment is perhaps inflated because Rob is present as well. My hot take here is that, um, I don't think it's worth it for, for a peanut butter. Like the, that's also a great call. Like it's like the, the mouth feel anytime anybody has, you know, takes on a peanut butter reward and they give them the big hunk of it. It, it looks unpleasant. Like you're, you're, you're going to be sticky for a long time.

[01:05:02] [SPEAKER_09] To be fair, Franny, uh, Heidi showing her own negotiation skills also threw in two sodas on top of that. So they at least had something to wash that out of their mouth, but that just feels like, I mean, they were having a lot of soda anyway. Remember that was the season where they won in probably an entire fridge full of Coke. So like these people were hopped up on sugar and hormones for the entire 39 days.

[01:05:22] [SPEAKER_08] Yeah. I love whoever, um, excuse me, whoever shouted out the rice negotiation. Like, how do you think that would play nowadays? It was like, all right, if you guys want rice, I need four of you to drop trow right now.

[01:05:38] [SPEAKER_09] I think I would do it for the tribe. I mean, it's not, not a lot of couches out on survivor. That's a good example of the casting couch.

[01:05:44] [SPEAKER_05] I mean, even, even a better call for any, like this is an immunity challenge at like what the final.

[01:05:50] [SPEAKER_09] That was the first final, it was the final 10. It was the first individual immunity.

[01:05:53] [SPEAKER_05] So like first individual immunity challenge, you give up immunity, get naked on national television and you get peanut butter. Like that's not a good deal.

[01:06:04] [SPEAKER_08] That was there. Yeah. Imagine like nowadays it's like Jeff, I'll strip naked for a steal of vote.

[01:06:12] [SPEAKER_09] I mean, listen, he's up for negotiation. Like, yeah, the standards and practices, obviously would be like, no, no, no, no, no. But, uh, definitely a sign of the times back then. I also, again, speaking towards the iconicness of this moment, survivor in its early seasons, unless it was from a returning player perspective, never did callbacks. They never went meta. They never referenced things. I remember clear as day survivor Palau, the first individual immunity challenge, exact same challenge. That's the perch. You just stand out there as long as you can.

[01:06:40] [SPEAKER_09] And Ian Rosenberger bless his heart immediately says, I'll get naked for chocolate and peanut butter. I think Sam brings up a great point where we talk about this and scooping more like these were moments that maybe didn't necessarily mean a lot in the grand scheme of things of survivor. But they kind of transcended what the show was for better or for worse. So I think it's also really interesting that we have both very different elements of that from these, you know, single digit seasons represented in this list today.

[01:07:08] [SPEAKER_05] This is sort of, and like, this is maybe a take that I just talked to myself and convinced myself of, uh, as you were talking there, but this is sort of Jeff's version of the, you never know what's going to happen on survivor before. Like that really happened before you couldn't really do stuff like this. And you know, this stuff was sort of not kosher for television anymore and family show they skewed more in that direction.

[01:07:35] [SPEAKER_05] And I think, you know, survivor was sort of chasing that idea of they want people talking at the water cooler the next day about how unbelievable that thing they saw on survivor was. And if it's not a guy falling in the fire and getting, you know, helicoptered out of Australia or two girls taking their clothes off for peanut butter, like they had to invent that somehow. And I think they used game mechanics to do it.

[01:08:01] [SPEAKER_09] Yeah. I mean, advantage getting, I guess, was sort of the eventual culmination point of like, we had people fall in the fire. We had girls strip for sugar. Is that a bad take? Yeah. I guess we can get someone by default.

[01:08:13] [SPEAKER_07] Yeah. Nobody's getting naked these days. Like we've got to figure it. And Soraya was kind of left naked though.

[01:08:18] [SPEAKER_09] She was the only one not clothed by advantages at the end of the day.

[01:08:21] [SPEAKER_08] Oh, yes. No, I really think that, uh, the show, I think that through this list, I think we're going to discover, they're like the two great types of moments in the show. It's like the moments that come through from strategy, gameplay. And then there are the moments that come through just from characters, from people being people out in the wild. And I think it's fun that you can have people who watch this show for completely different reasons. I feel like I love the strategy of the game.

[01:08:46] [SPEAKER_08] I love talking the game, but like when it comes to my favorite moments, it is these character, like these just funny, like out of this world things that these people who have these cameras on them end up doing.

[01:08:58] [SPEAKER_09] All right. Well, let us review said five moments here. Because to your point, Zach, it really does cross a wide swap. Should be noted, only represented from what? I believe two through 34 this time around. Our beloved new era is not represented. Who knows? They might be down the line. But just to review what we talked about today. Moment 20 from season 20. Sandra wins twice in Heroes vs. Villains. Becomes the queen, perhaps belatedly, as we talked about with Game Changers.

[01:09:24] [SPEAKER_09] Moment 19, Mike Scoopin falls in the fire before he falls into a bit of controversy many years down the line. Number 18, Tony's Spy Shack from Survivor Kageon, the original version, before we see if he goes underwater. Hopefully not with this game in Australia vs. the world. Number 17, the aforementioned Advantage Get-In, Ciri's most recent elimination from Survivor. And closing out the list, number 16.

[01:09:53] [SPEAKER_09] Heidi and Jenna strip for chocolate and peanut butter from the Amazon. Look, you might complain about some of these moments that came up. You might have your own thoughts. But this panel was even more sweet and satisfying than a heaping plate of chocolate and peanut butter. And from what I believe, no pieces of wardrobe were shed in the process.

[01:10:17] [SPEAKER_09] So thank you three so much for coming on, offering your insights, your guesses, your thoughts on Survivor history in general. As we look back on the past 25 seasons, it was an absolute pleasure to have you and cannot wait for the rest of this list to happen. Let's finish things out. We'll go around the horn if there's anything that any of you would like to plug for the listeners out there. Sam, let's start with you.

[01:10:38] [SPEAKER_05] I have nothing to plug. Nothing to plug. So, you know, thanks for having me. That's all I got. Go watch our Blood on the Clock Tower video on RHAP if you haven't already. And hopefully more coming out. And since he's not here, buy Escape. Buy Escape.com. StevenFishback.com. Buy Escape. Do that.

[01:10:57] [SPEAKER_07] Pre-order. Get your pre-orders in. Franny, anything you'd like to plug? Yeah, I was going to plug Clock Tower as well. It's so much fun. You know, we're all obsessed with it in the, you know, Survivor and Extended Universe. So if you have not had a chance to check it out, do that. And I would really encourage listeners to play it yourself as well. It's fun to watch, but it's even more fun to play.

[01:11:19] [SPEAKER_09] I also know that it has been announced that applicable to Survivor 49, we are going to see the home of the 49ers, the home city, San Francisco. So Franny, where you reside this fall. So make sure you buy your tickets out there, people. You will not want to miss it as we'll be heading to your neck of the woods soon enough.

[01:11:40] [SPEAKER_07] We are going to show you the time of your lives in San Francisco. So people better show up because, boy, do we have a crew who's going to be there to welcome you. I am so excited. Thank you for bringing that up, Mike. I can't believe I forgot. I mean, it's in November. So, you know, we got some time.

[01:11:55] [SPEAKER_09] And Zach, again, you had a very recent podcast appearance, but would you like to plug that in anything else for the listeners?

[01:12:01] [SPEAKER_08] Yes. I mean, well, first of all, follow on Instagram and Twitter. And then I'm doing, I mean, the Genius UK just wrapped up. We just posted our finale recap with Omar Zahir. So make sure to check that out. Turned into a really fun show and had a great time podcasting with my brother the whole season. Clock to Ourself is great. And yeah, Mike, thank you for having us. I mean, it was just really fun. I will strip naked right now for an invite to whatever you do next.

[01:12:28] [SPEAKER_09] All right. I will cautiously push that invite forward. Are you sure? All right. Maybe we'll see what's being offered, perhaps off the table, off the record later on. But for now, that's going to do it for this podcast. Thank you all so much. Let us know your thoughts in the comments about what you thought about moments 20 through 16. Whether, you know, your reaction to them showing up on the list. Some of the significance about what it meant for Survivor past, present, and perhaps future.

[01:12:58] [SPEAKER_09] And what moments you're expecting to see next week as I'll be back with another panel of Survivor alumni breaking down moments 15 to 11. We're getting into the top 10, baby. But just a handful are going to be left out. And we shall see what those moments are going to be next week. Thank you all, as always, so much. Thanks for everyone who is tuning in live as well. This was such a great time. We'll be back with more moments counting down the 25 greatest in Survivor history next week.

[01:13:27] [SPEAKER_09] Until next time, everybody. Take care. Bye-bye.

[01:13:31] Bye-bye.