Survivor 50 B&B Finale Recap w/ Dave Jorgenson

[00:00:11] R-H-A-U-M-E-R You gotta play in some games You gotta pray to your mamas out there on Super Lay And if that all sounds cool, I can tell you the name It's the R-H-A-U- Hi everybody and welcome to the RHAP B&B for the finale of Survivor 50.

[00:00:40] My name is Mike Bloom, I'm officially back from La La Land, Back from Encountering Survivor's version of the La La Land Moonlight Controversy. I suppose I got the chance to go out to the West Coast, attend the finale, get to experience it all in the room where it happened. But I am intrigued to hear everyone's thoughts on this megalith three-hour conclusion for the biggest season ever and whether or not the landing was stuck.

[00:01:10] They gave away $2.1 million! They gave away a car! They gave away who finished the first race! They gave it away, get play now! Understandable for a band that also popularized the term telecommunication. I'm gonna stop talking now to my wonderful guest. I'm so happy to have her back after a week off. I think one of our previous guests would refer to her as my beautiful tall-ass wife. Yeah, that is accurate.

[00:01:38] Less Mario-coated because I don't wear the overalls, but you know, we're here. Look, I had an absolute fabulous time with the finale. I think I was gonna say flub aside, but flub very much included. That was actually so wonderful and especially to see how Jeff and the team responded to that. Really, I just had an absolute blast and it was so nice to have a live finale, even if this is now definitely the last one we're ever gonna see. Liana, do you think Jonathan's brother was just doing like an in-house reference to Shan

[00:02:08] really paying full circle like this is... We thought it was the end of an era. Apparently, it's the beginning of a new era, but trying to bring it back around to what started it all a few years ago. I don't understand why that was not the first question that was asked. We needed to know more about that outfit. Does that make Jonathan Luigi? Like there are so many follow up questions. This is why we needed a longer reunion. Yeah, Ielson, I think that would have been definitely the first place they would have gone to.

[00:02:31] But I think Jonathan was feeling perhaps as fiery as Bowser's Castle by the end of that entire experience. But I'm so excited to welcome this guy in because, of course, as we're talking about a situation where perhaps Jeff accidentally broke his own exclusive. This is a guy who knows his way or two around breaking news. He is, of course, the intrepid leader of Local News International, a recently minted and Webby winner. Yes. Yes.

[00:03:00] Very excited to welcome back to the podcast the one, the only Dave Jorgensen. Thanks for having me back, Mike. And last time I was with you, I was still the minted, the formerly minted Washington Post TikTok guy. So it's nice to be an independent Dave now on his own out in the world. Yes. But I still exist in the BNB universe and that matters most. Exactly. You've refreshed the mint in your mouth like. Yes. Yes. And I've been chewing on some some uncooked rice, but I'm ready to go. Oh, my God.

[00:03:28] Well, the jury got their licks in it, Jonathan, certainly like that big jar. But I want to go back to you here, Dave, because listen, Leon and I are both very much passionate subscribers to everything you've got going on at Local News International, of which people should check it out. It's a fantastic repository of, you know, what you need to know and incredibly creative, digestible forms.

[00:03:50] But I remember, Dave, back in the beginning of 2026, you had talked about your history with Survivor, both as a fan, both as perhaps a possible contestant at certain points. And you had said to a certain extent that Survivor 50 was going to be sort of the final season that you would certainly, I think, view and in perhaps a super fan perspective as you have been for some time.

[00:04:13] So now that this is all over and maybe this will then be sort of embroiled in your general thoughts about the season, I'm so curious to ask, does that opinion still hold? Are you, you know, excitedly heading into the open era or are you closed off, for lack of a better term? The short answer is I'm open minded to the open era. The longer answer is, yeah, so I've been doing this for years on the side.

[00:04:39] And I don't know if I've ever talked about this on B&B before, but we had this podcast I do with my brother in law and my friend from college called Survivor Top Ten. And we never, ever, this is probably the first time you'd even call promoting it. We just kind of did, we've done recaps since season 27. And it's, what I loved about it was that it was, I, unlike the rest of my professional career, like I liked that it was something that we were doing for us. And so people that found it, found it. And that was sort of it.

[00:05:06] And so it's probably the last season we do that because it's, it's actually a lot of work as you well know. And I would really take the time to produce it. My own problem is that like, well, I want it to be at the same level as what the things I put out there for my job. So it got to a point where I was like, is this, is this worth it? So that's very much open-ended. We're probably not going to continue that, at least in its current form. And that's the super fan part of it.

[00:05:29] And the other part, like you said, where I've, I've tried out a number of times and twice now gotten really, really close without being too specific. Um, but let's say contract specific about close and it's just hasn't panned out for me. And so, which is to say that I'm not bitter about that. Not necessarily Jonathan bitter, but more like if I keep clinging to it, I think it'll, it'll really like eat me up whenever I hear it.

[00:05:52] Like for instance, here in Aubrey, I have an Aubrey, a better example would be, I remember Tyson right before, like a year before blood versus water, before I imagine he got the call. He was on our app and talking about how he kind of been jerked around to coming back again. And I, and, and then, you know, obviously they invited him back after that, but he was basically like, you know, I just kind of, I need to like take some distance in terms of wanting to come back. So I've never come back, but getting on whatever. So all that is just kind of like bubbling over the surface of like, I love survivor.

[00:06:20] I'm going to, I'm going to, I will watch the open air. I'm very excited about it. And I will say to answer your question in the long roundabout way, this season did bring it back some of the magic for me. And I do think a lot of it was the old school players coming back. I think the new school player it's the irony of all this and like Steph's speech or question, whatever it was at the final jury was. It all depends on the punctuation marks. She had a statement. Is that she was talking about new or old era people playing with new era.

[00:06:50] I think really we had, as Aubrey said, we had kind of old era playing with a new era mindset. And that I think that's better where it's really, it's more, we need a mixture of the two, not necessarily let's lean full into the new era. I think we need to have like some of that bitterness we saw this season. Some of that, like really why did it because it matters to you? Like that 2 million mattered to people. And I, I think we need a little bit more of that back and we got some of that in 50, which was great.

[00:07:17] Mm hmm. Yeah, I certainly think that there was a lot more raw emotion in this season that we've seen previously. And that was really refreshing. And, you know, it's, it's so tough because like on one hand, yes, they're all playing a game and you want to kind of be like good game, shake hands, but also I love TV and I kind of want drama. So can you guys like actually be better, please? Thank you. Yeah. Well, and you guys know that. I mean, I think you do both loyally watch amazing race. Am I making that up? I mean, okay.

[00:07:46] I think amazing race. Part of the reason it stands the test of time is yeah, they had like twisty new stuff, but like, it's really kind of stay consistently in tone. It's not the same show as survivor, but like the stakes have always felt high on that show. And so I think that's bringing the stakes back a little bit kind of helped me a lot. Yeah, I think that they obviously wanted to cast season 50 with a group of people of which this experience means a lot to them. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:11] And I think what was so interesting, whether they meant to or not in bringing some of these people back is like realizing how emotionally loaded those experiences are like. Yes, I do think and I don't use the term lightly, but I feel like people were bringing past trauma into the season. They would say it sometimes explicitly. Yeah, exactly. Joe Charlie like they all basically explicitly mentioned that coach. Yeah, so it's interesting because then it's not necessarily an experience in a vacuum, right?

[00:08:38] Yeah, it's something that is indicative of perhaps for some people all of the survivor you played for decades up to that point. And so it makes sense that maybe you sometimes have those types of reactions because not only did this serve, whether it's a form of disappointment or not, as like the end point for this season. But for some, the end point being a question or an exclamation point of for some years and years and seasons of seasons of life changing experiences. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah.

[00:09:07] Well, I think that's one thing that I really like about the show, the challenge, right, where you kind of get this legacy across multiple seasons that we kind of got to see not overwhelmed so that someone new could come in and still appreciate the game. Of course, as we know, all those people who turned tuned in because of Billy Eilish and Jimmy Fallon and Mr. Beast, as Jeff said at the opening of the show.

[00:09:29] So I think that that struck a balance that was really nice and really refreshing and still incorporated some of the modern elements of Survivor. But still, like you said, tapping into that history, that legacy and sort of, you know, seeing players over so many seasons. Do you think do you think if they give Johnny Bananas a spirit of the challenge award, he'll retire? No, I mean, after it's what share cockroaches and Johnny Bananas. That's going to be left after the apocalypse.

[00:09:58] I'm going to say share Cochran and Johnny Bananas. Well, that too. Yes. Together. I was going to add, if I can make another analogy, add Kenan Thompson to that post-apog in terms of SNL, right? Like, I do think there's something about SNL brings in these new cast and everyone has like my favorite cast when I was 14, whatever that is. I think there is something grounding, too, about the people, the hosts that keep coming back and the people like Kenan Thompson that stay. And I do think that, like, to some degree, Ozzy and Sari are the Kenan Thompson of Survivor. I love that.

[00:10:28] They just kind of keep it, they remind you of what you liked about it before while also bringing something new. And they're so, and you have to give them credit because they, as Sari said herself, she had to make a new era game as well. Like, they're really good at adapting to whatever Survivor is at the time while also reminding you of what you liked about it before. To a certain extent, I feel like Ozzy would be like if Kenan suddenly walked into, like, season 15 and was like, I want to do Weekend Update now. I've been doing all these other sketches. No more What Up With That. It's all updated. It's like, OK, I also. All right.

[00:10:58] I'm going to bring this up because the B&B, I think, is the perfect spot to discuss this because I may have had a discussion with this off camera with one Rob Sesternino. But here's Sari with her award. Oh, I mean. Does it kind of look like a vagina to anybody else or am I just having like weird? I mean, there is like a bit of a what's that test called? That the Rorschach test. There's a little bit of that happening maybe for us with it. This is the inkblot. But I think nine out of ten times that inkblot, whatever, is a vagina. Yeah.

[00:11:27] I would have thought the Georgia O'Keeffe design survivor award. Yeah. It's not the best. This isn't the best. There were better angles, I think, to really kind of show off where it looked a little bit more. But yeah, certainly you're not the only one. And I mean, you get your labial folds and you're just like, it's got to be a vagina. It's also kind of like a little rude to have Sari's award, whether or not it resembles genitals, like B-Fire, considering that she has memorably across 20 years not been great at it. I totally I actually I kind of think you're right.

[00:11:56] Like, I think it should have been. And as I say it, maybe not. I'm not the survivor department, but like a brain would have made more like that. She she always pointed at her head, right? Like she's always using her head body parts. Maybe your brain would be better. I mean, I do think this is this is apparently the only version of this award that will ever be made. Like make a little statue of Sari. Like when you go to a store to get like a custom made trophy, you know, I don't think you need to give away vaginal flames. Yeah. Anybody don't give her a literal fire crotch.

[00:12:25] I also the contrast and this has been talked about, obviously, but the T-shirt in contrast, especially like is is so, I think, unintentionally funny. Like, I don't know if Jeff knew how funny that was, but that was that's why we need these live reunions is for things like this that make no sense. That we all thought we hated at the time. But literally it was like I got voted out with an idol in my pocket. And all I got a second time. And all I got was this lousy T-shirt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which they should sell at the Paramount store, by the way. Yeah, I would buy that shirt.

[00:12:54] I saw somebody on social media. I don't remember where it came from. It's like Ozzy's having a hell of a night. Found out one. He's not getting a cameo on White Loaded. Right. Two. Found out live. Found out live. Two. Didn't get a car. Didn't get money. Didn't win an award and just got a crappy T-shirt reminding him of his failure. Not even a like. Didn't get to see a money. Yeah. Didn't get to see a money. Had to stand with Stephanie La Grossa. Like so many things wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. Well, yeah.

[00:13:24] Like you said, I think one of the biggest pieces from this night. And of course, we have to give a massive congratulations to Aubrey Brocko for taking home the win in this massive season. But of course, I think big news item. Correct. We have been wrong here. Dave, you have more experience with news than I do. Is what went down with this Final Four fire making. And in particular, what went down on the live stage prior to the Final Four fire making.

[00:13:50] Now, I will certainly get into my own experience in the room on a future podcast. I believe I'm actually getting together with Sam Moore to talk to the patrons about, you know, all of our experience throughout the week at this wonderful, wonderful trip. But I got to hear from both of you about what was your takes in the moment as I'm imagining confusion slowly turns into watching a car crash happen over the better part of what felt like an eternity.

[00:14:18] So I have been in live situations with far lower stakes and far smaller audiences where it's a similar mistake. And I have to say, Jeff handled that like I think so much better than most people. Ninety nine percent of people would. And people I'm including people, professional hosts on TV, not just in the moment, but the follow up and the behind the scenes that I saw that clearly you would have seen, Mike, is like I saw someone post, you know, an iPhone video of his reaction after the camera cut.

[00:14:47] And he's still because there's a version of that where he's like, what happened? You know, and we didn't see at least I don't think that happened. And what I want to I really want to give him his flowers is that in the press since he hasn't blamed anyone. And that is one I would say almost definitely not his fault. That is probably the live show director. There's probably a few producers. Twenty people should have caught that and they did it. And a lot of hosts that I would still say would be totally like would very quickly be like this is I don't know.

[00:15:16] They'd push the blame away, but they would like really kind of go after the offensive on whoever messed it up. But he seemed like he handled it well. And I appreciate that. Yeah, I you know, it's so funny, especially given the open era where I guess any twist can happen at any time from anybody. But the fact that Jeff roped it into a twist really, really made me like it was so funny. Yeah, a dig to the heart, but also so funny, like all at the same time. And then when he referenced it later, like I just thought that that recovery was so, so, so well done.

[00:15:46] And to be like, yeah, we messed up and we're going to show it to you and then we're going to keep going. Like it really didn't feel obviously there was a mistake in the moment, but it didn't feel like after that it was that big a deal, to be fair. Yeah, I think also the there's a lot of an element of luck here. One that it like, I guess luck, quote unquote, is that it's such a fun moment that people like it's going to what people remember about the season or one major thing. Yeah. But also that it was Rizzo and I don't Rizzo is a great. I think he's a great dude, whatever.

[00:16:15] But I think a lot of there's some show. I can't talk. Shot in front of. Yes. Over like, oh, we're all going to watch him go out now. I will say it's actually a really sweet moment in the room where we broke for commercial. And when we came back, everyone was chanting Rizzo's name being like, we can smash the hourglass. We'll do it this time. I have belief. That's yeah, that's great.

[00:16:40] Yeah, I totally agree with that because even just like like Jonathan, who can start a fire in 10 seconds versus Rizzo, who we saw not even be able to make fire. You're just kind of like, you know what it is? It's like if you are taping a sports game, you're like, OK, I'm going to miss like the first hour. But like, let me catch up. And then you see on the bottom ticker like, oh, wait, 40 to 15 was the final score. You're like, OK, well, I thought there was a chance. Right. You know, it wasn't exactly going to be this this massive upset.

[00:17:09] But yeah, robbing us of any sort of suspense, but it's replaced with. I think, yeah, one of the most unpredictable moments in live finale history. I mean, it's weird to put it right up there with an actual marriage proposal. But a failed marriage proposal. And another one is really there's a there's a Mount Rushmore, like some moments become instantly iconic. But I could not agree with you both more that like I know that some people were like, Jeff shouldn't have made a big deal out of it. She'd have underlined it. Like, no, this is going to be a big deal no matter what.

[00:17:38] Yeah, this is I'm so glad he started into it. And I think you bring up a really good point, David. I think that speaks to honestly, again, I think a lot of people have things to say, understandably so, about like Jeff talking about his own perspective on the game and how, again, some people feel like that's not the way that they want Survivor to be seen. But Jeff is very much about like, you know, he feels like he's supportive from all sides to produce the show that that he wants.

[00:18:03] But also, like, he is one to sort of take it on the chin on behalf of everybody, like even, you know, in the interviews he does in On Fire, the official Survivor podcast. He's not like, oh, well, we didn't like so and so idea. And that was this person's fault. Like, he is always going to be the one to sort of be his own fall guy from that perspective. And so I think that is something that's really appreciative. Now, listen, not to say that for lack of a better term, someone may have gotten fired from this fiery error. But that's all behind the scenes.

[00:18:32] And it definitely seemed like Jeff was able to take it on the chin, though he was. Yeah, you saw that video. He was very confused. So confused. Because I also didn't notice from my perspective what the other jurors were doing. And that's really a fun. If you watch this clip over and over again, watch every other person's reaction from just it. Taking a little bit of time from them to catch up to D doing the Jonah Hill like na na na. Cut this off. It is a masterpiece of live television. I have two really quick straight thoughts.

[00:19:02] I want to throw one that this is basically my experience of being on social media at the night of any episode, because I almost always am not able to watch live and almost always spoil myself. So it's like, great. Now everyone gets to see what it feels like. Yeah. The other thing is the hashtag. Yes. The sort of 40 chess of Jeff coming back and leaning into it is that if he doesn't, then they can't talk about it the rest of the live reunion because it's going to go back on Paramount+.

[00:19:31] So like either we have to cut that segment out, which you could, you could have cut that segment in the following one. Or we keep it in. And that way, if it gets referenced later in the live part of the show, then it makes sense as opposed to someone coming back. Like, why are these what's missing from this that I'm not getting the context of Rizzo? So I think leaning into it actually made the experience of anyone watching Paramount Plus later better. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point. I didn't think about that. Like in the, if they were to go back and re-edit it for then. So the live broadcast was different from what was posted later.

[00:20:00] That's, that's where my whole brain editing was. How do they edit this out? What do they do? Like, could, and I watched it back. Is there a way to show the first part of that interview and then just cut away awkwardly? Like while Rizzo's standing there? What was so weird about the first part of that interview was it wasn't exactly like, they were like, so Rizzo, come on out. Yes. Fire making loser. It was like, the empty juror seat was there. Yeah. And Rizzo comes out and you're kind of just like, but Jeff is just like, what's it like? You know, talk.

[00:20:26] So it's enough, it's generic enough of an interview that it could definitely have played, you know, without knowing the fire making spoilers, which was so interesting about the whole thing until right at the very end. Right. It's like, so take a seat, loser. He's like, ah, no. Oh, no. He should just always do it. If they ever, if they go back to live at all, which I hope they do, they just, just constantly have extra chairs on the stage and just telling people to sit. No, I'm going to teach one better.

[00:20:52] I think every single live finale, if they were to do more, they should bring Rizzo out for the final floor and tell him to sit on the jury. That's so funny. Oh, so good. Agreed. Agreed. That's like in Drag Race where they bring out like the previous Miss Congeniality to like do something like, just, just have some bits involving Rizzo. Let's get more bits in there. This was a surprisingly bit free reunion. That's the other thing as well. I obviously did a podcast with Rob about this, about how we always knew this was going to be a little different, right?

[00:21:18] Jeff had advertised that they're more so going to make it one big three hour experience of which I think they were very much kicking themselves afterwards. Because I do think if you have a segment right after the final four fire making, maybe this entire couple won't have occurred. Right. But as a result, you know, we got some things that we'd expect, you know, Sari got her standing ovation. We talked to Tiffany. We talked to Rizzo, albeit in an unconventional way. Talked with Christian and Rick. Talked with Stephanie and Ozzy.

[00:21:44] But then I think a lot of other expectations about what a typical live reunion were included were kind of eschewed, including the fact that there were a prominent amount of former winners out there. And we got wild as shocked of Tina and Ethan. That was when I saw the Reddit post of that whole row. I was like, why? You could have shown this for two seconds and people would have been happy. That was that was insane.

[00:22:07] I mean, that's probably the first time Chris Underwood, for instance, if the Sepia have appeared on CBS since they won. Am I right? I mean, obviously, it's on the challenge. Well, Chris was on memorably on the Challenge USA. Yeah, I guess the challenge is. And the Sepia will be on, of course, the Challenge USA season five coming in 2030. Stay tuned. OK, but like from a survivor, the Sepia, all these people that are coming back that weren't in winners at war that are in that Cochran. Cochran's here, as Jeff once famously said. I can't believe that that wasn't. I don't know. Whatever.

[00:22:37] Well, and I was I was trying to keep an eye because I knew that there were alum there. I knew that the winners, some of the winners had been invited. So I was kind of keeping an eye. And I saw Boston Rob once in the background. But again, the fact that they didn't show him even as part of that larger group really did baffle me. Take advantage of the fact that you invited all those people back, man. Right. And also the people on stage. Like, I don't know. I will say I was one of the people that really did. I felt like Colby's latest comeback here was worth it. Ultimately, like a really good out face.

[00:23:06] And I was like, I want to see you hear from Colby. I want to hear from Jenna still. Like, this is probably the action the last time we'll hear from them. Yeah. I'm surprised we didn't get one more final Colby. Yeah. Yeah. Background when Aubrey won. Yeah. He did. He did hand the beers out. He did get a thanks, Colby, for him. So, you know, that's good. Yeah. It was for a live reunion. It was certainly very light on the reunion part. Heavy on the live. Light on the reunion. I still say a success, by the way. Like, as much as I've always, I'm sure you guys to some extent of I've always like made fun of the live reunions. I was so happy it was back.

[00:23:36] So I really hope that it comes back. You don't know what you've got till it's gone. I will say another really fun moment from the reunion was Aubrey finding her car like the weekend starting that Super Bowl performance. Yes. Just getting lost through these labyrinthian tunnels, apparently, from the CBS soundstage. Oh, that was so incredible because like, yeah, it's exciting. She has a car. And then she's like, I couldn't hear from the audience. She's like my daughter. She's like my toddler daughter.

[00:24:04] And all of a sudden she starts running off stage. And I'm like, where is she going? And then the camera follows her. And then it cuts away. And then it cuts back to her still going to find the car. Could you was there a camera and a producer beckoning her? Because it looked like she was just like, I'm going to pick this path. Like from our perspective of watching, it's like, is she just going to go down like the Harry Potter maze and find something? I mean, not from what I saw. I mean, certainly I imagine maybe there were some guideposts along the way or producers like waving her down.

[00:24:33] But I was worried about that. Again, it's live TV, especially at that point. They only had so much time. Aubrey might have gotten lost for the rest of the night. If they had it, if they went to the right. I have a bit of a tinfoil hat theory, if I may. Yeah, please. I felt like I think Aubrey's a great player. I felt like she knew. I don't know. There was something I want to say, like a little bit put on about her excitement. Maybe she was just like, I'm going to play it up for the camera. But I was like, how much does she know about what's coming? Did they tell her that there's going to be something for you? Like maybe not a car.

[00:25:03] You mean about the car? Yes. Like specifically. I don't know, Dave. Have you seen her react to Cold War? She's very excitable when it comes to these things. I don't want to be very clear. This is not a knock on our, but I just felt like she knows something like the way or like, how else does she know to go down this winding path? I don't know. There was just some degree of I wanted to know how much that was produced, but maybe it was all just Aubrey finding the car. She looked really surprised when she got to the car and she got in the Land Rover.

[00:25:33] Like I would say that's where she looked super surprised. But certainly the run was very confusing because I also was like, how do you know where you're supposed to? Did you know you were supposed to get up and go? Because also the other thing leading into the whole car segment was very confusing because it was like we got one question to Aubrey about winning. One question to Jonathan about losing. One question to Joe about God knows what. I don't even remember. I think it was about like whether he could have people were like, Joe, they felt like you couldn't play this game with the honor and integrity.

[00:26:03] Credos. How do you feel about that? You know, more of a general question about his game than his reaction to losing. Yeah. So it was like something generic. And then all of a sudden Jeff's just started talking about the car. And I was like, are they going to give a car to Joe? No, they're going to give a car to Jonathan Aubrey. I was like, she just got $2 million, dude. What are you doing? There was half a sec, truly a half second where he's talking about the car curse. I'm like, okay, he's, he's, he's late. They're going to, someone's getting a car. And I thought, is he going to give it to Jonathan as like, we're keeping the curse going. Yeah.

[00:26:33] Let's give it to the second place person. I thought, especially because Aubrey not only got 1 million, but 2 million. I was like, surely. And especially I could understand like Joe got zero votes. Jonathan at least got three votes. So like, I can see the justification for why Jonathan would get it, but not Joe. But I'm kind of like, give them both a car. No, I think, listen, if, if, what was it? Toyota was the sponsor. Like, give them different grades of cars, depending on how they did. Like Aubrey gets the big deal. Jenna gets a Prius. Yeah.

[00:27:02] Jonathan gets like maybe like a more midsize sedan. Like a used car. Yes. No, no, actually Jenna gets my 2000 Corolla that I drove around for years. Yeah. He's a 2022 Hyundai Sonata. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's so funny. Well, let's talk about the recipient of this car, the driver perhaps of not only a brand new vehicle, but a few votes towards the end game here.

[00:27:29] I'm going to get your thoughts, Dave, on Aubrey, on our winner. Obviously came on very strong towards the end after a bit of a rocky start to say the least. But how are you feeling about her as the victor of this season, especially a decade removed from many people feeling like she should have won then? Yes. I'm very, very satisfied with Aubrey as a winner. And it's for the same reasons that Rizzo voted for. I think it was in Rob's exit press and maybe some of yours too, Mike, where he talked about

[00:28:00] that his vote was also like a collective vote of all of her seasons. And I think that's how the jury wants to vote. That's how they want to vote. I'm sure there are other reasons to vote for her as well, for her game in 50 specifically. There are many reasons actually. But I'm happy with that from that perspective too. And I also like, as someone who listened to that interview that Aubrey referenced as well with Rob, maybe in the middle of COVID, I want to say like 2020, 2021, something like that, where her headspace was like, I don't know if I can come back, but I know

[00:28:29] that I went back too quickly, too many times in the 30 seasons. And so she did come back with a fresh. And I thought as far as the, like the, the, the journey of this season and the rewatch ability of seasons, this to me is going to be one of the more rewatchable seasons. And I actually have it in my mind, most akin to a season that I love way more than most people, which is edge of extinction. Her season prior to this, I love that season. And there's a lot of similarities, including Devin's being a favorite towards the end and

[00:28:57] not making it, but also in that the winner over time, people appreciated more, but also I think journey versus destination is what made that a good season. And so I really like, I think it's, it's just, I'm really happy with her as a winner. I also just, I'm really satisfied with the season and the weird journey she had on it, I think is very unique. And that's what you want in 50 seasons of survivor is to have a unique winner. Um, so I, yeah, it was, that was like 50 thoughts at once about Aubrey, but the clear answer is that I'm really happy with her as a winner.

[00:29:25] I'm really happy for Aubrey as a person too. I think from a storytelling perspective, I think that the season did a really great job of showing why Joe got zero votes. It did, I think a decent job of showing why Jonathan got the votes that he did and didn't get the votes that, uh, that Aubrey received. I think where it was a little bit lacking was in Aubrey's storytelling, because I do think that towards the end, it was almost like it felt so heavy handed towards the end. And in the beginning, not unlike Michelle's winner at it, perhaps 10 years ago. Yeah.

[00:29:54] Which is actually so funny given the comparisons that Aubrey herself makes during this season. So I just, I felt like there were things that were so questionable from the early part of the game. Like her rivalry with Genevieve were basically were shown that Aubrey was the one who was neglecting the relationship. And then when Genevieve gets voted out, there's like no credit to Aubrey do. There's just like questionable moments that I would have preferred to have seen earlier because I think Aubrey certainly of the three had the best story at the end that was told.

[00:30:23] Um, but I just had some questions, but you know, honestly, I'm not going to say it necessarily compares to a Gabler edit, but like when Gabler was throwing palm fronds on people, what the heck is going on? But that was part of his story. When Aubrey was not getting along with Genevieve, that was part of her story. So I think on a rewatch, it's going to be very interesting knowing the ultimate ending. And so to look at those moments, maybe from a different perspective of like, they're just saying what's going on people. And Aubrey didn't really get along with people early and that's okay. Yeah.

[00:30:53] I think that it definitely is speaking more towards that truth, even though Aubrey did tell me there's some more nuanced shades, I think to that relationship. And I think that's ultimately what I can't come away from with her story, which is, yeah, I mean, it is much like Aubrey herself. Very, very odd. Uh, I think Rob's fact checker said she has like the 10th least amount of confessionals for a winner. I mean, we can talk about this in general that like the storytelling was not necessarily about her, nor was it really about anybody in the final five.

[00:31:21] So it wasn't like necessarily, oh my God, they're propping up this person to slight Aubrey. It just seems like in general, these five did not necessarily have this kind of through line. And I guess she did in terms of talking about her legacy, less so about what was actually being done on the beach, which does make sense. If to your point, Dave, that is a criteria that people were utilizing is like, you have been waiting 10 years for this. You have as Aubrey, I think outlines incredibly beautifully in that final statement, like

[00:31:47] talking about everything that she has been through, you know, getting so close to the sun in Co-Rong so much so that she passed out like beast mode cowboy, uh, you know, getting far, but feeling very out of the loop and game changers, absolutely crashing and burning an edge of extinction where she pulled herself out of survivor land. Like thinking about that overall body of work, it is really cool to have her do this. And again, I will say, especially on an anniversary, Aubrey told me that on the day she won, it was 10 years.

[00:32:16] And I think two days since she had lost survivor Co-Rong. So like, it was absolutely beautiful poetry in that way. Not to say that like every quote unquote robbed finalist needs that ability to win. But I do think that, and Aubrey actually told me this. I think that this is going to be a season that is going to be really interesting to chew on when it comes to this end game, where I think we even saw this at the final tribal council. It's really tough.

[00:32:46] Unlike maybe other seasons where it's defined more ardently to figure out like who is taking credit for what, you know, the Aussie boot. Was that Aubrey or was that Jonathan? The Saree boot. Was that Aubrey? Was that Rizzo? Was that everybody? And I think maybe one of the reasons why, again, there was a little bit of a less defined storytelling sense in this group of final five is because it was a little messier in terms

[00:33:12] of like, all right, with Saree, with people like Rick even, okay, this person is directly responsible for so-and-so going. That was less the case with this group. But as you mentioned, Liana, perhaps this is more speaking to the actual truth of being out there where, yeah, you kind of have to claim things are your own, even if they're not necessarily so. That's and that's what Aubrey, she talked about. That's what she learned from everyone else's game is just it's not just what you're doing. It's how it's communicated to people.

[00:33:37] And I do think I in a weird roundabout way agree with Jonathan saying, well, Saree turned the jury, quote unquote, against me. Yeah, but Aubrey knew who was in the jury like she knew that Saree needed to be in the jury. I think that's part of the game. And certainly whatever their friendship is, I just, Aubrey understood where people were in the jury and how they were going. Whereas you saw whether this is what I really liked about the edit. We saw a lot of Jonathan not doing a good job as he voted people out in terms of that

[00:34:06] jury management without it really being said. And I think that's where that rewatchability is really going to come and play where you can kind of go, okay, Jonathan did play a pretty good game. But like, it is very clear that people aren't necessarily happy with him on the way out. Whereas Aubrey was much more subtle or stood back when she just stood back. I love that part of the finale where she said, maybe this is the time where I just need to like be quiet and kind of, I don't know if it was the final four, final five, it would just kind of let this happen versus let, you know, try to walk into the action, which Jonathan often did.

[00:34:36] And again, to Jonathan's credit, sometimes that does work, but it's just, that wasn't the case this season. Mm-hmm. Well, and I mean, that's the thing too, is Tiffany, I think makes a really great argument when it's between her and Aubrey at the final five, which is the, the old schoolness of it all. Like Jonathan had all that information in order to make those decisions. So, you know, I can't really like, bro, you knew that, like you knew she was the one old school player. So if you have a jury full of old school people who might want to value, who value that or want

[00:35:05] to vote for that or consider that multi-season arc and legacy, that's going to come into play. So you have to factor that in. But I think, you know, I think it was, it's a, it's a miscalculation too, on Jonathan's perspective of recognizing how people are reacting to me. Like him, as you mentioned, Dave, with licking the rice, when people are saying, bro, don't do that. And then he looks at you and goes, I'm hungry. Meh. And you're just like, ah, there is something subconscious about that where it sticks.

[00:35:34] Even if you're making a joke about it, that's in people's brain. Like it's not going away. Yeah. It's like, Hey, here's a guy who doesn't care what I think. Yeah. Right. And then you have that opinion. I, I, so I was going to say my, my, my previous ramble that he kind of Jonathan sort of played a Tony Vlachos type of game with the exception of that social, like that awareness of what you're talking about, where like Tony always talks about how he would make himself look smaller and do all of these really subtle things. Not for Jonathan to do it to be fair. Totally fair.

[00:36:04] I don't mean some small talk. Does he have one on his knees? Yeah. Yeah. Actually, that'd be better. If he could do another entire season in Fiji at 26 days on his knees, that'd be. But I think the, that there's just like little things that Tony was thinking about that maybe aren't necessarily in a confessional that he has talked about after a season airs that Jonathan wasn't doing. And I don't, I'm not even trying to rag on Jonathan, but there's just parts of it that were there that, that Aubrey had and he didn't.

[00:36:28] I mean, to be fair, I do wonder if Jonathan somehow had access to Aubrey's Etsy receipts. Yes. Maybe he ends up voting her out at five. I mean, that's what it comes down to is like, I would imagine from his perspective, he says, Hey, Tiffany has won three. Listen, all that matters is that one of Tiffany or Aubrey, whoever we keep does not win individual immunity at the final four. Yep. Are you keeping in the person who has won three of them, including one where it was literally

[00:36:54] everyone against her, or are you keeping the person who has not won one since her second season? Right. 10 years ago. I think the decision was made correctly. I think it's just a classic example though, of not underestimating anybody in your competition, especially something like some motion. Romeo came out of nowhere to win some motion. Right. Ben Katzman came out of nowhere to win like his sort of pseudo version of some motion. Like it kind of is low key, almost like hands on a hard idol of your, like a good equalizer.

[00:37:24] So in this case, I suppose, uh, Aubrey, I am very surprised that Etsy got a name drop here. Cause I feel like if this was like three years ago, they would not be mentioning that Aubrey practiced that challenge at home. I, but I was even more surprised, you know, there was some really good commercials in the finale, uh, with, with elf. Like, yeah. Yeah. And like all these different, I'm like, why don't we have an Etsy commercial? Come on. Someone's dropping the ball here. Get Aubrey, like show that commercial. The commercial break after that should be Aubrey on Etsy. Yay. You know what I mean? It's an easy layup, but whatever. Yeah.

[00:37:54] Yeah. I love that. No, they're, they're too busy doing the Corona sponsorships, which did give me the, the moment of, um, it's a Bo Burnham's country song that he has like a Bud Light with the logo facing out. It was like the Corona just tilted just right. That's textbook painter. Love it. Do you get those in the audience, Mike, where they hand them out? You know what? I think that everyone needed a Corona by the end of that evening. Uh, perhaps. Yeah. That was a little odd. Uh, poor non-jury also poured on Jury for the term non-jury. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:38:25] It's been a while since a live event. Maybe Jeff's a little rusty. He doesn't throw the term pre-jury around willy nilly. Now there are no longer any live events. Now we're going with the term non-jury, I suppose. The others, the others on the audience. Yeah. That's so rude. Whispers in the jungle. Yes. At least pre-jury implies that it's like you were on your way there. You just exited too early. Non-jury is like, you don't even stand a chance. Like, get out of here. Shut up, non-jurers. The single people. Whatever Kat said many years ago.

[00:38:53] Well, I want to get your thoughts overall, Dave. You sort of maybe give your hand away a little bit about season 50 because a lot has happened in it. We packed a good amount over the course of the past 13 weeks, including many times that multiple people went home. We had celebrity cameos, be it through pieces of paper or their own likenesses. We had a good variety of blind sides. We had coin flips.

[00:39:20] We had just really an entire bevy of things occur in this season. But how are you walking away from this? Do you feel like Survivor 50 lived up to either your own expectations or the expectations that Jeff and crew were setting prior to it airing? Okay, I'm going to use another analogy and talk about the original Spider-Man trilogy. Wow, you really were in the running spin driver a couple of times. You just have this natural in your reflexes.

[00:39:47] Yeah, Jeff, actually, yeah, I would, by the way, unironically, in the Tribal Council, I'd have like 10 analogies at any given time. So the very first, like I'm talking about Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man, there's like one villain, right? And it's good and it's really interesting. The second one, there's two villains and it's not too much. It adds a little bit extra to it, but it like it works and they capitalize on the first one. That's like heroes versus villains or second chances, right? And the third one is we have at least three villains.

[00:40:16] We're trying to, we're setting up some track for some other stuff that could happen down the line. Tobey Maguire is going to have this whole side quest where he's going to like be an emo for it. Like there's all these things that are happening. It's way overblown or way overstuffed and it doesn't work as well. And so then they kind of, they take a step back and they go, all right, what are we going to do? We got to fix this. They have the Andrew Garfield doesn't quite work. And then we end up with the now Tom Holland series and that's where it has worked really well and they figured it out.

[00:40:43] So I think the open era hopefully is the Tom Holland version of Spider-Man where they're not doing too much. I went into 50 feeling like you can't have one or the other. There can't be 24 players in 26 days. You can have 26 days and 16 players and like truly get like the big ask of the legends. That was my feeling. Or you could have, you know, 24 players and 40, 50 days, something like Australian Survivor does. And I just felt like it was two of her stuff going in and that's what it felt like watching it.

[00:41:12] I don't mind episodes with the blood moon and multiple. I think the pairing thing was a really, really cool twist. I hope they do that again. But it just felt like everything was coming in. It was like they put up the drawing board and just said yes to everything. It's literally Jim Carrey and yes, man. Like, yes, I'll do that. Yes, I'll do that. Yes, I'll do that. And I think there was a little bit too much. Yes, Manning. So I was I'm worried about Jeff saying every twist is going to happen in the open air. I don't know what that actually means. That can mean that could truly mean anything.

[00:41:41] But I I'm hoping that the players that came back and kind of reminded us what we liked about it in the same way that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield came back. in the last Spider-Man to bring it back were this. This analogy is not the best, but I hope that they were sandwich at Colby when he comes back for the fifth time. Yes. Yeah. There's just something about like they reminded you what you loved about Survivor and it like infected in a good way.

[00:42:05] The new era players where it like it kind of got them to play in that in series world. For example, there was a little bit more of like, let's make a move with intention, not just to make a move. Um, and I'm, I like that Survivor. So I'm, I'm open-minded in the open era to watching more. I just really, and I have all the love and respect for Jeff. I just really want the show to let the players play, which is not a hot take. Everyone on Survivor Reddit says that, for example, but I just, that's what I am hoping for.

[00:42:34] And I am very happy that, that whatever the case, Jeff is very passionate about the show. And that does mean something because you felt it in those, those teen seasons and early twenties when, whenever that was, when Jeff was kind of like checked out. So I'm glad he's not going to show up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, I, I mean, I basically share exactly the same sentiments. I almost was like, I love this because I love seeing the players get to play. I hate this because I'm so sick of them messing with them. Just let them play.

[00:42:59] And so I think my visceral reaction in the hearing, the open era of all the twists happening all the time, who knows when, or at least that was what my brain interpreted when I heard those words was certainly a bit of panic because to me, I'm like, Oh, okay. So we all watched 50. I liked part a, but you guys were like, nah, part B baby. Like, let's go with that. And so I, I am of course going to reserve judgment.

[00:43:27] I had a really fun time with 50 overall. So I'm let's let this play out and we'll see, but I would say for 50, you know, is it a, is it a top tier season for me? No, probably not. But I think at this point in my life to have that refreshing moment, as you said, Dave, with like bringing back some of the old schoolers, just like really was a palate cleanse for me with the new era of survivor. Yeah.

[00:43:52] So first off, let's to, you know, side, sidebar the open era stuff, because I did have a conversation with Matt Van Wagnon at the after party and he was able to clarify a little bit for me that, so the open era is this idea that it's not necessarily we're throwing everything at the players. It's more so like, you don't know what to expect from. So the new era, certainly right. It was like, we know every season. Is that not every new era season?

[00:44:22] No, no, no. You're watching the video version. Listen, it's the exact opposite because every new era season, you can expect three tribes. You can expect 18 players. You can expect mergatory. This is exactly the opposite. This is OK. We don't know. You don't know what the structure is going to be. You don't know how many players. Now you're probably thinking, hey, Mike, that sounds a lot like the first 40 seasons. Yes. Yes. And I don't think you're wrong in thinking that. So I think when people were talking about like, what does the next, you know, what do

[00:44:52] the 50s look like? Survivor brand new day. I think. Yeah, that's exactly it. I think. But I think going back to your Spider-Man analogy, David is sort of like perhaps banking on those things that we love from those old movies, right? Not necessarily throwing out the baby with the bathwater and being like, OK, maybe we do bring in a couple of things from the single Digi season to quote this, this nameless guy in the 51 teaser. So I think that's more so what they were defining. But in terms of 50 in general, because I do agree that when you hear open era and then

[00:45:20] you see what happened with 50 where, yeah, it did kind of feel like maybe they felt like they had this liberty with returning players that they could just throw a bunch of crap at them. Like Jeff talked about at an FYC event the previous day about how like he felt like the players walked in and would literally say to him in challenges like, what do you got for us today, Jeff? And so that was something that he kind of reveled in this ability to truly keep them on their toes. And so I do hope that's not necessarily a necessity they feel they have to bring in there, especially with a group of new players.

[00:45:49] It's very much like parenting to a certain extent where I think, as you mentioned, we had a little bit maybe a negligent parent era, right? Where it's like, you know, you're on your phone while they're swinging on the swings. It doesn't matter if they fall off. They'll figure it out. And now we're sort of in like kind of the helicopter parent era of like, I want to make sure that this game is going well and that you're you're OK. We have a good ending here. And so I think that like a lot is always good to aim for somewhere in between when it comes to my thoughts on 50 in general.

[00:46:20] I wait. Sorry, Mike. I just want to pause because we need the gentle parenting era of survival. It's like, go, go. You go do it. Try it on your own. See how it goes. Set some boundaries. But let them see, you know, where they can let them figure it out. Yeah. And then they come back to you and they say, yeah, I mean, I thought this the entire time, but you need to figure out yourself. I could not agree more. But yeah, I'm talking about back to 50. Talking about 50 in general. I do think that this is a season where I would say this sum of its parts is greater than the whole, if that makes sense. Yeah.

[00:46:49] I always talk about how when it comes to my own rankings for seasons, I am a character counts guy, first and foremost. It's almost always dependent on the cast for me. And I will still say, I really like this cast. Yeah. I think especially when I saw them all standing together, when I saw them all interacting with each other, I'm like, OK, this was so odd on paper, like the oddest sandwich flavor profile you could see looking up at the big board at a local deli. But somehow when you take a bite, it works. I think even when perhaps the gameplay was not as dramatic or the boots sometimes felt

[00:47:19] unsatisfying, like I still feel like the chemistry ended up working there. I think unfortunately, then it sort of comes at the cost of all the other stuff. If the sandwich was good, maybe the side dish, the chips were over. The Zac Brown side dish. Exactly. And so as a result, it felt, you know, as interesting as some of those ideas were. Yes, it did feel distracting to be like, OK, but look at what these famous people are doing for our show.

[00:47:46] It definitely felt like, especially in the post-merge, there was a lot, whether sponsored or not, where it felt like either every week or every other week, something was going to be a little different. It was very reminiscent to me of like a Survivor 41 or 42, where we felt like too much was being done. But for me, as someone who has been watching the show from the beginning, I think there were a lot of really good nuggets and storylines that played through to watch these old schoolers come back.

[00:48:12] And I think especially for that group, when you're like, oh God, Ozzy's just collecting an appearance fee. What's Colby going to do this time that he hasn't done before? Like they all were so incredibly hungry. And I think they created some of the best content of the season, even from a new era perspective. People were like, why is Tiffany here? Tiffany did nothing in her season. And she gets a standing ovation at the finale. And I can say she was receiving the most cheers in the first part of that finale.

[00:48:40] So I think those happy surprises definitely buoy the season for me and make me feel like, again, this is another reason why it is tough to sort of cast general opinions about seasons. And that I think even if you find some of the twists or the way the endgame went kind of unscrupulous, unsatisfying, I think there still were so many good moments encapsulated within this entire season that I can't help but feel good about it at the end of the day. Yeah.

[00:49:09] If you were to, again, rewatch or just binge for the first time 50, like let's say you're watching, I don't know, three episodes a day. If you watch the last three episodes together, the last two, whatever, like the shock of Devin's and Sari going back to back or maybe not a shock, but like the sort of devastation for some people was tough. But if you're watching that and you're watching the finale, you're like, wow, what a great story. Right. Whereas like I think a lot of people went to that last week, like, oh, man, these are not the five necessarily that I wanted there. But I totally agree, especially with Tiffany.

[00:49:38] I think the best part of casting for all-star seasons is they always end up bringing someone back that was, you know, Boston Rob and all-stars. Kelly Wentworth. All these people come back. They're like, wait a second. Maybe I should have given them a fair shot. And they become the favorites of that season. And then like an all-time survivor legend, even like Devin's in Edge of Extinction should have. I think about this way too much, but like he voted out fourth or fifth. If you would have, if I, if there was no twist that season, you guys wouldn't know who Devin's was probably. I mean, maybe you would. I don't know.

[00:50:08] But like you wouldn't remember in the same way. And he came back and solidified himself in a second season. So it's, I think that's really what a really cool thing about these, these casts that you think you're getting Skittles and lobsters, but actually you're getting all oops, all lobster. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, I, I, I completely agree with that. I think also part of it is just like reminding myself, I love this show and like, let's look for those moments, even though, you know, it's, it's when you see one negative piece of feedback online, right?

[00:50:37] You're like, that's the one that sticks with you, but then you miss the 10 positive things. So just trying to remember all those fun moments. And even though it was so frustrating to not have Ozzy play the idol, it was also so funny to have Ozzy not play the idol. Yeah. So just looking at those a little bit more fondly of it was the journey, you know, not necessarily the destination and the things that were created again, that double that pairing vote out thing is going to, it was created, I think as they needed it right to get people out. But I love that concept.

[00:51:06] Um, and I love the way they shot. Like, I don't know if they found that in the moment, but Ozzy's look back at the jury like Jeff said at that FYC event that they had had that angle set up the entire season and like, that's the one time to like, yeah, that's perfect. When he just gives, I love that they waited. He's not even glaring daggers. He's, he's like a glaring bazooka bullets. And just how furious he is at what they did, but more so what he did to himself. It's so, it's such a good shot.

[00:51:36] And so, and it's, um, I think the lens even is kind of that, um, it's like when you're in portrait mode and you're, your camera frames it like it's a shot. So like, it's just like, it's so focused on his face. And so, and the fact that he said, I mean, I don't know, I think it's probably three seconds. It feels like 30. Aubrey told me that the amount of time that we were shown, it was probably double that in real time. That's crazy. Wow. Anyway. Yes. So anyway, I love, I love a season that does find new things naturally, including spoiling things during the live finale. That's great. All right.

[00:52:06] Well, let's get into our final five preseason predictions. Leon, it all comes down to this. Just five people left. You and I wrote up predictions for, and we shall see how they pan out because as we found out, sadly last week, your winner pick, Sari, could not manifest it. She was eliminated, but I'm intrigued to see how on the money you were about the rest of the finale here.

[00:52:32] Uh, so let's start backwards much like I suppose the finale did and work our way up top here. Let's go back to Tiffany proper. So again, I would say the lowest profile of all 24 players coming in. How do you think that would bear out and how she'd do before this whole shebang kicked off? Yeah, I had Tiffany making the jury, so not the finale, but, but certainly not pre jury or sorry, non jury. We should really correct our records here. I know. Seriously. Uh, okay.

[00:53:02] So I said that Tiffany would enter the game, uh, in a strong position on call, uh, linking up with D and Camilla as the tribes, more strategic minded women. Although Tiffany keeps a lower profile than her allies. She's still, still, still plays an important role in the attempted power shift against the Jonathan coach Chrissy side of the tribe. However, Tiffany's game takes a major hit when she loses her vote on a journey at the exact worst time directly contributing to D's elimination before the merge.

[00:53:30] After D and Camilla are taken out back to back left without numbers and forced to play from the bottom at merge. Despite her best efforts to regroup socially, Tiffany never fully recovers from losing her closest allies becomes an easy early, early jury boot. Once bigger alliances solidify her allies were D and Camilla and her enemy was the revenge of Jonathan and coach. I might need you to go away again. Cause when Lauren O'Connell was giving me points by default, I felt a lot better about

[00:54:00] this entire process. It's pretty good. By the way, that happens pretty much if Tiffany doesn't start winning some immunities. I mean, that's pretty much. Yeah. It is weird to think that like Tiffany was technically one win away from tying the record for women. I know. Yeah. And she would have if she won second time. Yeah. Oh my. Oh my gosh. Yeah. All right. Well, I also had Tiffany making the jury, but I had her having both a better and worse outcome in a manner of speaking.

[00:54:29] So I wrote, unlike her last season, Tiffany will be granted a reprieve from tribal council the first half of the game. Both her original and swap tribes win every challenge, allowing her some much needed pre-merge safety. Unfortunately, it also means we won't see very much of her at all outside of a couple of snarky confectionals. See Yellow Sophie from 49. Wow. Tiffany will get picked to go on a journey, privately cursing out her tribe in the process. Those turn into a positive expletive when she succeeds at the challenge of counting

[00:54:59] crabs in a pen. Wow. It's really just low bar of journey challenges. Count crabs in a pen. Crabbing coconuts. Picking up coconuts on the beach. You're in the same realm. But she earns a vote steal in the process. Tiffany will finally get the individual immunity when she's been craving not once, but twice. Her exuberant get badass reaction to doing so becomes one of the most popular gifts on Survivor Twitter. Without a clear-cut number one ally, Tiffany feels like she can easily go anywhere and

[00:55:28] be friends with anyone. And it's something that doesn't go unnoticed, certainly not by Sari. Fearing Tiff's challenge prowess and flexibility, Sari takes a page out of Officer Sarah's playbook. She'll convince her to give her the vote steal, fearing there's a knowledge's power. Instead, Sari will use her own advantage against her, stealing her vote to send her out after Coach plays his idol. But to paraphrase Abby Maria, at least you didn't get voted out with an idol in your pocket.

[00:55:57] Her allies were Chrissy and Charlie, and her enemy was Sari. I'm imagining the journey where Sari has to chase crabs on the beach now. Well, then go back to the trophy for a second. Yes. It all comes together. No notes. Excellent. Great use of graphics. You are the arbiter of five fates here, so kick us off right now.

[00:56:25] Between the two, who was more on the nose? Who had the more accurate crab assessment of Tiffany's game? Liana. No surprise. She gets the rock award. Thank you. An extra vagina. Let's go. Is that transferable? Can you give your extra vagina away to somebody else to use, like what happened with Ozzy and Sari? I believe so. I've seen people selling their part of the crag from Guts on Etsy. Yes. As long as it's not a... The same thing. As long as it's not steal a vagina. That's right.

[00:56:55] All right. Let's go to Rizzo on that note. All right. The Riz God. Dave, before we even get into him, I would be remiss not to get your thoughts on him because this has essentially been the year of Rizzo. He has, over the course since April 2025, he has played in two Survivor seasons and we have watched him play in two Survivor seasons. What have your thoughts been about him? I'm really glad you asked, sort of selfishly, or maybe not, but from a...

[00:57:23] Because I have this maybe unique perspective in that are the videos that I make for Locus International. We know that our audience, like he is literally the, like, if you took our audience and put it, or like the average whatever, which is young male, that's 26. That's literally, like, it's literally Rizzo. I'm not sure that everyone calls themselves, you know, content God, whatever, whatever they would put, like, I don't know what an average viewer is, but like he, in terms of demographic

[00:57:51] and everything, is exactly who our average viewer is. And so I've been watching these last two seasons with that in mind of, like, recognizing the good and bad of that. Like, we have found that our viewers are really, like, he is, he kind of exemplifies that a lot of way where he's really open with his emotions, but also, like, not afraid to sort of just say how he's thinking. There's a little bit of that. But he's kind of the, the sort of, the counterpoint to the, the sort of toxic male, male loneliness

[00:58:20] epidemic where, or like, or the other edge of the other side of that coin, where it's this, like, somewhat overconfident for sure, but also like very, like, much more open emotionally than you'd expect. Like, and he has that too. So I really appreciate that about him. And I can recognize that he's, I don't want to, he's, he's like, this, this word doesn't do him justice, but like, he's a product of that environment for better or worse.

[00:58:48] And I, I really, I'm excited to see him play a third time. And I want it to be a little bit further from now. Even I think other people have said that they'd be really interesting, like in five or 10 years or something. Um, maybe not that long, but whatever, because I, I don't know. I, I really like Rizzo the person. I think it's, it's fascinating that he has this almost Mr. Beast mentality of like when the camera's on, I need to be on. And weirdly his most likable moments are just these one-on-one conversations that often are deleted scenes anyway. Yeah.

[00:59:16] Or even when he's, you know, breaking down into tears, knowing that his game is coming to an end the second time in the exact same way. Oh, I see D.O.D. We got the better. Yeah, exactly. He still has to get the entire monitor out there. Yes. It's just, it's such a funny contrast of things, but I really liked the person I, and I, he, it can annoy me when those moments, but also it's very weirdly endearing. And I, I all goes without saying his, his, his strategic prowess is like, is he's very impressive strategically. There's no question there.

[00:59:44] He definitely understands the game and he does deserve credit there. This is, this is not rational. I mean, I'm sure you could make a rational argument for why I feel this way, but Pui and I were talking about this, that Rizzo from the new era feels the most. Hall of fame, all-star player that we've seen from 41 on. And is it the fact that he played two back-to-back seasons at the fact that he made the final four, lost fire making twice in two back-to-back seasons. He was a prominent character who went through a couple of different, you know, arcs in his

[01:00:13] season, like held onto an, I like, I don't know what the logical reasons are for that, but just like in my gut, that's what I feel when I think about new era players and like, who would be at the top of my list for kind of making it into sort of all-star environment. Like Rizzo definitely is the first person I think of. Or actually, yeah, I think I saw something. I cannot remember who posted it that he kind of is low-key emblematic of the entire new era casting process, which it is incredibly diverse.

[01:00:39] So I feel a little odd saying it, but think about it like younger, super duper fan, like lives and breeds survivor, kind of creates large comedic character moments. Still is though incredibly cutthroat, plays major game. And so I think that that would make sense, Liana, because he does represent, I think, a lot of facets that they had tried to bring onto the beach over the course of the past four years, all wrapped up in this one wiry frame. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:01:09] I put them on my, I put them on my new era Mount Rushmore, I think. Yeah. Given, and I, sorry, game from 47. Yeah. No, I have them. It's for me, it's him. He's the only non-winner there. It's him, D, Marianne and Jam Jam, just in terms of who I think about that represent that era. I think he's right there. And as we've all alluded to right for returning many, many times, if he wants to, I think, I think he's really, well, he's going to come back out every finale, right? To sit in that final. Yes. That's the bit. That's the bit. All right.

[01:01:38] Well, I got quite a few bits on Rizzo here because I did have Rizzo making the finale in. Wow. That's really impressive given everyone else's. Yeah. Yeah. I should have making the final three. So if only he was one. What? One little spark away. So here's what I have to say. Many sparks. Many, many. Being one of the biggest unknown factors on the beach, and at least partially due to the

[01:02:03] fact that he was starving on said beaches a week and a half ago, Rizzo will keep a low profile in the first few episodes. He won't be able to help himself when geeking out in front of Colby and Stephanie, though, which will surprisingly endear himself to the legends. After Q gets voted out, Genevieve decides Rizzo will be the next chaotic man to add to her menagerie. Rizzo will gleefully take up the opportunity, and he'll actually bring the mother V term into on-screen canon.

[01:02:31] Genevieve will commit the ultimate form of generosity, playing her idol on Rizzo, and pay the price for it when she gets taken out instead. Despite old schoolers breathing down his narrow neck, Rizzo will hit the jungle the next morning and succeeds in finding his own idol. With the cavalier nature of a man who hasn't seen his own season, he basically lets himself be caught, giving him another public idol he'll take all the way to the final five again. Scraping by due to the danger of his idol, Rizzo somehow has enough cachet to make his big move at the final eight.

[01:03:01] When Ozzy has a rare moment of weakness in a challenge, he decides to pounce, rallying the numbers to beach Dolphin Boy's chances of winning. Ozzy's final words will be him stewing in silence before finally uttering, I can't believe I got screwed by the Riz God. Unmoored in these strategic seas, Rizzo will find a new number one quickly, as he opens up to Joe, revealing how much his moment with Eva means to him.

[01:03:25] For Klemt, beyond belief, Joe takes him in both physically and tactically as the two form the full package, not the total package. It's a deal that pays off handsomely for Rizzo at the final four when he's vulnerable for the first time without his idol. Luckily, sugar daddy Joe will treat his Riz wife right, steering the votes away from him to get him to the final three. Sitting in the final tribal council, Rizzo will eagerly tell the moves he was able to pull

[01:03:53] off despite both having one of the most cringy reputations as well as losing his closest ally halfway through the game. But to use a piece of his own parlance, he's not cooking on day 26. The jury chides his braggadocio saying he had to rely on other people to protect him in the game. It comes down to one fundamental truth about our known universe. Nobody wants to lose Survivor to a skinny 26-year-old man who refers to himself as the Riz guy. Despite the jury not being impressed by Rizzo's game, many of the fans will be.

[01:04:23] Whether you call him Rizzo Hance or Rizman Bledsoe, a pocket of the audience will decry that he was done in by a biased jury. A GoFundMe will start to give Rizzo the million dollars that he feels he deserves. It gets to about $420 before it closes up shop. His ally was Genevieve, then Joe, and his enemy was that damn Survivor 49 promo. Oh, wow. That promo.

[01:04:49] Okay, well, wrap that one up, but I'll go ahead and read mine anyway, just because we're here. Okay, I had Rizzo making the jury. I said, Rizzo enters season 50 with his threat level obscured by the fact that the literal winner of his season was there as well. So leaning into his goofy younger brother energy, Rizzo spends most of the game floating between groups, making people laugh and ensuring that no one takes him seriously as a player.

[01:05:16] While this strategy works surprisingly well, allowing Rizzo to sneak deep into the merge while the other personalities and strategic threats cannibalize themselves. Once the numbers start to dwindle, the remaining players are hit with the horrifying realization. Wait, are we really about to let somebody who calls themselves the band, the myth, the legend R-I-Z, G-O-D, Riz God baby win and represent Survivor 50?

[01:05:42] Not wanting their season, their milestone season to be crowned by Chaos Incarnate, the tribe finally comes together to put an end to the Rizzo experience. His ally was everyone and his enemy was also everyone. You both had the spirit down. Mike clearly wins, but the spirit is clear that you guys, he was obviously fresh in your mind. Did you, in the pregame interviews, Mike, did you know about Rizzo's connection to Joe via the Eva scene?

[01:06:12] Yeah, she told me that. Oh, okay. I was like, that's crazy that you pulled that out. That's what I'm saying. No, he told me that. Even though it did not make the edit. But again, this was a major part of it. If you checked out his exit press, he talked about it with me. I know with Dalton Ross as well. That him and Joe were incredibly tied out there to the point that Rizzo was going to vote for Joe in the final three. But he got a sense from Ponderosa that it was so Aubrey versus Jonathan that he's like, I don't want to vote third party right now and become the Jill Stein of this entire thing. So I'm going to throw my vote towards Aubrey.

[01:06:41] And an important lesson for all the young voters in America. Yeah, go ahead. Well, speaking of third party, let's go to the third party in this final three here. Let's talk about Joe Hunter. Liana, did you prime Joe to make another deep run here? I had Joe making the finale. And I said, Joe enters the game determined to not repeat his original season where he made it deep but had zero win equity.

[01:07:07] However, Joe being Joe is too deeply ingrained in Joe. And before long, he once again prioritizes loyalty, honor over strategic positioning and social maneuvering. This works for a while as Joe becomes a core alliance member of the Loyal to the Soil Alliance with Stephanie, Colby and Jonathan. Cut from the same clock. LTTS. Yeah, exactly. Basically the same thing. Quietly gaining power while bigger strategic threats target each other.

[01:07:37] At final four, Joe wins immunity and makes the baffling decision to take Sari to the final three, hoping it will help his case with the jury, insisting he wants to beat or lose to the best. The jury respects Joe's integrity, but is baffled by his strategic moves, including his willingness to hand Sari the game. Once again, Joe falls short at final tribal, getting zero votes from the jury, but several mentions that he is, quote, a good guy.

[01:08:08] His allies were, of course, loyal to the Soil Alliance and his enemy was himself. Wow. Okay. Yeah. It's going to be tough to beat. Yeah. Which makes it a problem for you, Dave, that I had him finishing in the exact same position as Liana. Really? That's so classic Joe. That's so Joe. Instead of that's so Raven, that's so Joe. Here we go. It's the future we can see. I mean, Joe does have that sort of wide-eyed reaction that Raven does when she had a premonition. It's him in real life, though.

[01:08:36] I mean, his reaction to the Soil Alliance was such a good meme. That'd be a great edit is adding that graphic to his eye when he... All right. So I wrote, Joe called his shot in the preseason of coming into season 50 with trustworthiness as currency. And indeed, the man is fiscally solvent with reliability, so much so that despite being such a powerhouse only days before season 50 kicks off, he's in one of the most locked-in positions throughout the entire game.

[01:09:04] Despite not being an old-school player, Joe will easily fit in with the mindset that people like Coach are espousing. And so while he tries to keep his options open, it's clear he's gravitating towards the classic era group. One prominent moment of this comes towards the end of the pre-merge when he's reunited with Camilla. When she gets word the two of them are under the gun, she tries to bring him in on a plan to save themselves. But all Joe can feel is his metaphoric trousers around his ankles, underwear hoisted through his butt crack.

[01:09:32] And so he treats her facts as not only fiction, but an easy excuse to get some deep-seated revenge for what he just saw happen and what actually happened a year ago. As the post-merge goes on, Joe's paranoia will cause him to fly into a general get-them-before-they-get-you mentality. We'll be treated to quotes both on and off the island from people about how Joe had promised them he'd never write their name down, only to see it staring them down in big, bold letters at tribal council. Joe will be the highlight of the loved one's visit this season.

[01:10:02] He'll be visited by his wife, not his tall-ass wife, as he opens up about the trials and tribulations they had been through and how Survivor brought them back together. Jeff Probst will allegedly call for an early lunch break so he can change his pants. Between having the most social cachet as well as slowly becoming a goat that everyone wants in the end, Joe becomes one of the most important people in the endgame. He'll form a late-game connection with Rizzo due to their connection through this Eva moment,

[01:10:28] and he purposely casts a throwaway vote at the final six to force a 3-2-1 to take out Aubrey. Spoiler alert, I guess I'm Jeff. Feeling indebted to coach for his camaraderie, he'll force a tie at the final four to also save him through fire-making. Unfortunately, all the friends Joe tried to declare preseason had become full-on foes by the time Day 26 arrived. While Joe is half-heartedly commended for getting to the final three for the second time, he's harshly chastised for what they deem cutthroat behavior from him, deeming it uncharacteristic.

[01:10:58] Joe starts to get loud, too, what the F, trying to explain himself, which makes things even more antagonistic. While he is visibly upset by the time final Tribal Council ends, by the time the live reunion happens, Joe is nothing but smiles, glibly saying he'll have to simply agree to disagree. His allies were Rizzo and Coach, and his enemy was his own damn self. Okay, wow. First of all, you both should host Survivor Joe-adals. Yay! Because you guys really got them figured out.

[01:11:28] This is close. Liana loses because of her Sari fanfiction of... But to be fair, Tiffany has been saying she would have actually taken herself as Ozzy. But anyway. Also, the little subtle nods to Joe did try to not vote for... Was it Coach at one point? Yes, he tried to literally not only write down Chrissy's name. Yes, yeah. Never put his name down. Yes. And then there was one other thing you said that came... I mean, a bunch of things you said that came true, Michael. Yeah, that's pretty impressive.

[01:11:57] You can't deny that went to Mike there. Speaking of Jeff coming in his pants for Joe, there was a moment... Well, first of all, that entire Final Five immunity, all about Jonathan. Jonathan's doing Jonathan's making fun. There was one moment. It was when they were pulling out the ladder rungs to go... Like, the pieces to build the ladder. And Jonathan gets most of the ladder rungs in one go. And Jeff calls him out and is like, Jonathan picks up most of the ladder rungs in one go.

[01:12:27] Joe gets there. Joe gets all of the ladder rungs in one go. And Jeff calls it out. And it was just like... It was watching, like, two men competing for the love of a woman. Yeah, it's that meme of the, like, who can get the most chairs at church to, like, put in the... Yes! Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So Jonathan's like, all right, I better puke over the side of this challenge to really get Jeff's attention. Yes. Yeah. We were eating dinner and we were like, mute, mute, mute, mute. Look away, look away.

[01:13:00] All right. Well, speaking of the man who perhaps suffered from verbal diarrhea at Tribal Council, let's get into Jonathan. Now, I fear this is where my streak ends a little bit. Because I had Jonathan going pre-jury. Non-jury. So sorry. Yeah, non-jury. Thank you. All right. So here's what I'd say. As expected, the talk around Jonathan early on will be primarily focused on him beasting challenges. But we'll be treated to a number of confessionals early on from him about how much he's changed his game

[01:13:27] and why he's holding all the cards in this proverbial game of Go Fish. Jonathan will far and away have the biggest reaction to Zach Brown as a reward, especially when he shows up with a big honking tuna. He'll quote his song lyrics to him, leaving Zach simultaneously impressed and a little skeeved out. Initially, Jonathan is brought into the Calo core with Coach Chrissy D and Camilla, but will be treated to quite a few comments about how he doesn't trust his fellow new era players.

[01:13:55] And his skepticism comes to light towards the end of the pre-merge when Jonathan finally faces a vote. While the Kalos enjoy a healthy majority at the swap, his growing fear of D is bursting at the seams. And so when Christian gives him the right pitch, he eagerly unites Brain and Braun, flipping on his former tribe to take D out. With the merge arriving the next day, Jonathan is hopeful he's surrounded himself with enough big fish in terms of threats and old school legends to hide for some time.

[01:14:23] But he blends in about as well as he would in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. With some of his former allies carrying resentment for the D vote, and others looking to take out a potential challenge beast, he becomes an easy consensus vote, just missing out on the jury. Angry that he missed out on a chance to meet a certain massive YouTuber, Jonathan will attempt to start his own channel called Mr. Challenge Beast, where he'll attempt to complete some of the biggest feats in Survivor Challenge history.

[01:14:51] He will make four videos before he abruptly stops making content, refusing to engage with any comments on Instagram asking what happened to the channel. His closest ally was Boston Robin Spirit and Christian Practicality, and his biggest enemy was D. You know what? I'm actually here for the Mr. What was it? Mr. Challenge Beast. Yeah, one like equals one challenge win. That's so funny.

[01:15:19] You know, honestly, Mike, though, there were a lot. So I'll read mine next. I did have Jonathan making the finale. So in terms of placement, I was much closer. But I do think that there was a lot there that made sense, especially with the D situation and all that. So let's see. I had, again, like I said, Jonathan making the finale. I said that he enters the game with his reputation from last time, strong in challenges, loyal to his allies and a social game as subtle as a freight train. Early on, Jonathan locks in with Coach and Chrissy,

[01:15:47] eventually expanding into the Loyal to the Soil Alliance with Stephanie, Colby and Joe, where his loyalty first mentality makes him a trusted member. Because the larger strategic threats continue to target each other, Jonathan is able to cruise deep into the game while remaining largely insulated by the alliance around him. However, once the numbers dwindle, Seri, Stephanie and Chrissy come together to break up the pair of biceps in Joe and Jonathan, taking Jonathan out at final five before he can immunity win his way to the end.

[01:16:17] Jonathan leaves the game proud of his loyal, his loyalty, his challenge dominance and consistently bragging about he was such a big threat to win and the obvious winner if he got to the final three. His ally was loyal to the Soil Alliance and his enemy was Seri. Now, to be fair, he did brag about his game. I was going to say, yeah. In the less idealized scenario where he actually did face a jury vote and figure out what would happen. Yeah. I think for that reason and just being closer to the five,

[01:16:46] Liana gets this one just by a hair. Though you do get the spirit of Jonathan award, Mike, for the challenge beast. Enjoy your penis. Yes. Oh my God. It's shaped like a bomb. Yes. Yeah. That's probably more ideal. Yeah. But honestly, you guys both clearly have a sense of them going in. How much is that helping your narrative here, Mike? Are you taking these pregame interviews and you really kind of- I mean, I've got kind of nothing else to go off of. Yeah. You did a great job. Thank you.

[01:17:15] Again, it kind of makes me feel like, listen, I've been sitting down talking to these people for like two entire whole days of my life. I might as well try to spin something out of this. So it largely is kind of based on this, of course. This season, I had also the friend or foe stuff to try to do some direct cross comparisons as to like, okay, who are they directly targeting? Who would not like them? Et cetera, et cetera. Sometimes it bears out. Sometimes it doesn't. But that's the entire nature of the beast. Not Mr. Beast or Mr. Challenge Beast. All right, Liana. Last, but certainly not least.

[01:17:46] Why the oof, dare I ask? What were your thoughts on Aubrey? Remember how this season Aubrey was the winner? Yeah. So I had Aubrey non-jury. Yeah. So let's get this over with. Aubrey has an uphill battle. Entering the game is a late addition to the cast and carrying the reputation of being a sneaky and strategic player. Unfortunately for Aubrey, Batu has zero interest in taking risks early,

[01:18:14] especially Genevieve and her allies who recognize how dangerous Aubrey could be if she's given any room to maneuver. In a cruel bit of survivor history repeating itself, Aubrey once again finds herself struggling socially in the early days of the game, never finding stable footing with the tribe dynamics. Therefore, when Batu loses immunity, Genevieve leads the charge against Aubrey, deciding it's much safer to cut the head of the snake off before it can start to slither. Ally was not enough time to gain her footing and enemy was Genevieve.

[01:18:44] Her ally was not enough time. What does that mean? That's pretty accurate. So what I do when I write these is I put them in the ranking of how I think they're going to finish and then I like craft the narrative, right? And by the end, I think Aubrey was like one. I was like, ah, she's not really whatever. I'll write hers at the end. This is what you get when you write it at the end. Okay? Leave me on. Her ally was the concept of ennui. That kind of was in the beginning. She kind of was.

[01:19:13] Yeah, she was, Dave. She kind of was ennui brocco this season. Yeah, really. Yeah, for a long time, for like the first half. Yeah. All right. Well, suffice it to say, I had a little bit of a longer, longer run for Aubrey here because I did have her making the finale. I wrote after her long awaited yachts, Aubrey enters Survivor 50 feeling a clear headspace, but her mind is immediately clouded as she can't help but have flashbacks to the edge of extinction

[01:19:42] upon arriving back in Fiji. Much like a decade ago, Aubrey will have a hashtag Survivor breakdown on day two or will be treated to flashbacks of such and be reminded of her ability to rally. She'll also be reminded of this as well. And as a result, Aubrey will pick herself up and try to right this co-wrong. At the swap, Aubrey gets to reconnect with her game-changing ally, Ceri. She will swear an instant loyalty to her, citing that many of Ceri's allies go on to win the game.

[01:20:12] Giving her voluminous background of memetic responses to foodstuffs, Aubrey will always get cut to whenever Jeff is well, is lasciviously describing a reward. Parentheses, yes, that also includes Zach Brown, which also be very odd. One cloudy morning will be treated to a scene of Aubrey, Charlie, and Chrissy having a heart-to-heart-to-heart connecting over their shared trauma through being the, quote, should-have-won finalist over the past 10 years.

[01:20:42] At the final six, Ceri and Aubrey believe they have the votes to turn the game on to Chrissy, fearing her power in the final three. And while they see a countermeasure coming from the men, they think they have Joe on their side, considering how Joe has promised Aubrey he will never write her name down. Unfortunately, Joe has made the exact same promise to Chrissy, putting him in quite a bind. War game style, at Tribal Council,

[01:21:11] he decides the best way to win is not to play. Joe purposely throws away his vote, manufacturing a 3-2-1 scenario that sends Aubrey to the jury. Her closest ally was Ceri, and her enemy was Joe. Mm-hmm. Classic Joe. Yeah. I mean, I give this one to Mike, but I really, I'm not, I think there's a world where one less twist or one more twist happens and Aubrey, basically that is her game. Right? Yeah. I mean,

[01:21:40] and I'm not, that's not, again, to discredit Aubrey, but like, that's what the first half of the season was, that was what was presented to us on screen even. Yeah. Yeah. Whether or not that's true, I don't know, but yeah, that's so, Mike gets this one, especially the Ceri part, because I'll be honest, maybe it was a known thing that they're closer in real life, but I didn't know that, that connection did not occur to me before watching the season, that Ceri and Aubrey would be, be close, connected in that way, which clearly helped Aubrey. Yeah. I mean, for me, it was more so like, yes, they haven't played in a while. And again,

[01:22:09] Aubrey kind of purposely pulled herself out of the survivor sphere. So I don't know even if she talked with Ceri that much, but like, I think back to Ceri and Parvati playing Australia versus the world where like, they picked up right from where they left off in Micronesia. And again, I guess Aubrey, somewhat contributed to Ceri going home in Game Changers that Ty played the idol on her, therefore spurning Ceri, but it's not like Aubrey turned on Ceri at all to necessitate any bad blood between the two. Right. Yeah. And clearly a lot of respect from each other. So that goes a long way.

[01:22:39] If you ask Jonathan, that certainly is the case. God. How much do you think if they just gave Jonathan the car, how much do you think that would have affected his exit press? Yeah, that's a great question here. Have your consolation. Stop complaining. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay. But I might keep on that one if I didn't say it, but agreed. Agreed. Okay. So we've got two more things I want to do today before we start to wrap up. The first, not a game,

[01:23:09] just wanted to tap into casuals corner. I'm sure everybody could predict how the casuals on Facebook were going to react to this. not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but certainly all the top comments were, let's see, should have been Jonathan. He played an amazing game. My second favorite was Joe. Yeah. Personally, Jonathan had a far better game. Give it to Jonathan. Dude clearly outwitted, outplayed, outlasted. And those comments all had 291 likes, 412 likes. So certainly

[01:23:38] the consensus was there. I would say that the overarching feeling was, you know, Aubrey winning is okay. She did have this sort of underling story. That's what the word they used. Underling? Yeah, I don't know. That's definitely different from underdog. Yes, it shares the same first five likes. So we got the underling award. Yeah. But Jonathan played a better all around game and all the elements. But there were people that were, hey, look, I'm so happy Aubrey won. Joe and Jonathan would have been great winners, but there was something

[01:24:08] in Aubrey that really kicked into high gear halfway through the season. So there were a lot of people that, you know, again, general consensus was Jonathan probably should have won, but at least they weren't throwing hate on Aubrey. Like that was what I very, I feel like they're maturing. That was very much appreciated. That's interesting. Yeah. Cause I, you know, I have posted, of course, clips from my own reviews, both of Jonathan sort of giving his, his own opinions as I mentioned before about how he feels like Sari, whether or not she directly did it,

[01:24:37] but that people around her were influenced by her. And so as a result voted Aubrey's way, but also Sari, I asked her when I was on the red carpet with her after the finale about why she voted Aubrey. And I think people, she had a quote about, I think like voting for someone who best represented the season that I think some people take to mean sort of in the vein of what Rizzo was speaking about before. Like, is this a legacy award? I didn't really take it that way. Maybe it's more of a generous read on my part. I more so read it as like who represents this season and what Aubrey was able to do.

[01:25:07] And the fight that she had was more of a better symbol than Jonathan in her opinion. But it has certainly provoked a lot of comments specifically from, from my perspective about how they did feel like, again, Jonathan outwitted, outplayed, outlasted. What did Aubrey do? Sarie is biased. It shouldn't be dependent on past seasons, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. It's interesting because I think that like, this is, this is very much the newsy side of me, like the misinformation, whatever,

[01:25:37] like there are two things can be true at once. I think there's a version where Jonathan, like, this is a winning game for a different season. That makes sense. And that's, and like, that's a fair thing to say, but he's playing, it's Survivor 50. And, and I think Aubrey recognized that too in her final jury comments and like harnessing that, like the idea that Jeff had been espousing all season long of like, this is a celebration of Survivor. And like, this is my story that spans several seasons. And I think she correctly

[01:26:06] like got latched onto that in a way that Jonathan maybe didn't. Whereas Jonathan would have maybe won like a season in the forties with that game, but it just wasn't, you know. Yeah. And that's the thing. And that's, that's a tough pill to swallow. I imagine for someone like Jonathan, right? Like if he believes that, Hey, a large reason why you lost is because you haven't played Survivor three more times over the past 10 years. That is really difficult. And it's another reason why, like, I do think it's, it's an all new era of final three, especially if it's this him, Joe Rizzo final three

[01:26:36] that these guys were trying to get towards. Yeah. Significantly better chance because there's less of that appeal of, hey, let's give this victory to somebody who was able to pay off on a decade long storyline. Yeah. But by the way, I checked Survivor Facebook the day before the finale because I, with the same curiosity and I was surprised to see how many people were Rizzo fans in the casual sort of, like, like an endearing way too. And then my friend, he was like,

[01:27:06] well, they all think that he reminds them all of their son. Like, yeah, I don't know. But I kind of liked, there was an interesting, there were some Tiffany fans too. So I don't know. I was, I was pleasantly surprised to see that. And normally it's very, yeah. I mean, I was surprised in particular when it came to Tiffany. Like, I am a massive Tiffany fan. I have been since we were Kiki out of the jungle back in the summer of 2023. But again, I think given like the perception of her, I was happily surprised that especially in the room at the reunion again, like she got by far

[01:27:36] the biggest pops from the crowd when it was her and Jonathan back and forth before he took breaks to puke. Like every time she got peace in, it was a massive cheer from the audience. Like that was really cool to just sort of be able to step outside of like my own assumption of how she was received. See that she actually was really positively received, especially amongst the final five. Yeah, that's good. There, there was just a few other comments I wanted to mention. One was all about the mess up, the vote reveal. Maybe they deleted

[01:28:06] the negative comments, but like most of them were kind of joking, right? Like, oh, how many of those Coronas did Jeff have? Like laugh emoji. Haha, Jeff, like that was so funny how you came clean after the commercial, you know, those types of things. So that was nice to see. And then the last comment I'll read. This is again, why they should have shown Cochran is because this person said if you're bringing back every twist, we better see Cochran showing up on that boat. So who knows? Imagine that's the one they bring back. It actually starts with

[01:28:35] Cochran on the boat. They all, how many people are surprised when it's not 21st player. Yeah, it's not Jeff who jumps over the boat, but it's Cochran in a blue shirt and khaki pants doing Jeff cosplay. I don't know. New area to unwrap the monster. Now you have to outrun Cochran. That's the easiest thing to do, I think by comparison. That's so fun. I'm just, I'm picturing the marooning. Like if you look closely enough, Cochran's in one of those boxes. People are yeeting off the side of the boat. Yes, like when they use the final legacy on the bottom, like Cochran is in

[01:29:05] one of these boxes. Don't throw Cochran in the water or see I won't give you the money. Can I give just a really sort of side hot take on this twist? I really love conceptually fire tokens and I think I'm in a small minority. I don't know, but I hope that, I think there's a version where they can make it work. I don't know if they're going to try it, but I do think it was something that if COVID hadn't happened, we would have seen, I mean, Jeff has basically said that, that they would have continued them. So I don't think,

[01:29:34] I think it went too far the idea of Devin's having his own shop on the island as Jeff once suggested, but I think there's something to be said about fire tokens and like literal currency in the game. So I would be happy with that. Yeah, I'm so here for the fire tokens. I famously didn't realize the number of fire tokens that we're going to be giving out. And I thought that they were going to have like thousands. inflation before it was cool. Yeah. Like Tyson has 5,000 fire tokens. It's like, yeah, like how would he keep tracking them all? Are you talking about like bill form that we just kind of compile them all

[01:30:04] into paper currency? Or it was going to be like Zimbabwe currency, right? Where it's like one bill is a million fire tokens. We're going to like up the ante. We have to have a thousand fire tokens. I don't know. 90 minute episodes. Right. I think especially they were bringing in so many conceits, especially on the edge of like do these tasks and you get fire tokens that they were looking to throw more miscellaneous content into these episodes.

[01:30:35] Nor do I think they should because again, I think they could focus on the people who are totally doing day to day strategic and social maneuvering, which is the game at its core. If you have an extra half hour of content, you could put random things in of like, hey, go on this Easter egg hunt for more fire tokens. Maybe you do an auction that's dependent on the number of fire tokens right at that point. There are things you could do with that wouldn't be too twisty where it's like if you establish, I think there's a way if it's established from day one, here's how they're working and you kind of leave it there. I think it could work, but yeah. Yeah.

[01:31:06] Okay. So for our last game of Survivor 50, I have been plotting this all season. What? Episode two of this season's coverage on the B&B, Mike put together a game so awful that I literally said on air, oh my God, Mike, I hate you so much. Okay. The game was called What's in the Bag?

[01:31:36] And Andy from Survivor 47, what a trooper. He had a much better reaction than I did. He was so good. Mike, your setup for the game was basically you went through the bags of Survivor 50 players and Andy and I had to guess whose bag it was based on the three items that you gave us as clues. Famously, the clues were so difficult for my little brain to comprehend, but also, how are you? Because one of the clues you gave for Aubrey was an eye patch. Anybody can remember how those things are related? Her son's named Odin

[01:32:05] who famously had one eye. Really? Because Odin, the god of war, wears an eye patch and Aubrey's son's name is Odin. Okay? So, understandably, I was a little peeved at this game. Therefore, I'm planning my revenge all season long and I have asked none other than Sam Moore to ask the actual Survivor players from Survivor 50 what they would have in their bag. Wow. No clues. You just have to guess, Mike,

[01:32:35] based on your two full days of interviewing them, all of your season, Dave, apologies, you have to be here for this wedding event. I'm very happy to be on the board. I'm so happy to be part of this. This is amazing. Yeah. Yeah, so you guys can work together. I think that makes the most sense. Andy and I desperately clang for life trying to work together. Okay, well, wait, no, no, no, no, hold on. You are, you are diabolical. I have spent three months

[01:33:05] enlisting and outside parties help to go to these people. Yep, at events, like being like, can you go ask? Now, do you know if like the entire prologue you put in here was part of the setup or was Sam more so asking more of Sam more so asking what was what was in your bag? You can ask him when you do your little recap pod with him. Okay, I don't, I don't, he was, he was the mastermind behind all of this. In fact, I do believe this was his original idea

[01:33:34] which I may forget but I will never forgive. So I was all on board. That much is clear. Yeah. I am obsessed with this. This is your version of Ghost Island. What, what is, what is not more fitting for a podcast about, you know, a final tribal council than for me to face my own reckoning for my own actions that happened at the very beginning of this season. It feels so apropos. Yep, yep. Okay, so here we are. I'm going to give you the three items and you're going to have to guess which Survivor 50

[01:34:03] Castaway the bag belongs to. Oh my God. Item number one, a tennis ball covered in dog drool. Number two, a Nintendo Switch with Zelda Breath of the Wild loaded or, or and, a Kermit Stuffy. Okay, okay, what do you think Dave? Someone mentioned, are we working together? Yes, someone, someone in the mid game was talking about Nintendo

[01:34:33] like maybe even on social media. I want to say it was like Camilla or someone like that. Yeah, so Camilla is a good one. I'm not sure. Now, I'm so intrigued about the specifics of a tennis ball having dog drool on it. Right. Trying to think about who has a dog. I feel like Rick Devins has a dog, but I don't know if Rick Devins would be playing Breath of the Wild. But someone does have a Switch and someone's in their exit press did say that they had a Nintendo Switch that they were going to let that people could borrow. It might have been Devins. What was the third item?

[01:35:02] The third item was Kermit Stuffy. Kermit Stuffy. Well, that's, that's out of, what do we do with that? I mean, who is the appreciation for the work of Jim Henson? I mean, another option could be Emily Flipping because Emily brought a Game Boy to the pregame of Survivor 45. Maybe she ups the hardware knowing that she could bring something. Does she have a dog? Does Emily have a dog? I could see, Emily feels like more of a cat person if I'm being completely honest. Yeah. I mean,

[01:35:32] it's always the people you least expect. All right. I'm really, okay, I've got a few minds here of Emily, Rick Devins, or Camilla, I think are my top. I think I'm wrong with Camilla because the dog, I don't, I don't, yeah, but I do think she knows cross country. I do not know if she moved with a pooch in tow. No. Yeah, I, I'm, I'd be happy. I'm, I'm really 50-50. I, I do, I think Rick Devins almost definitely has a dog, but.

[01:36:02] Yeah, I, I feel like it might be Rick because I also could see a world where like his kids got him into Breath of the Wild. Yes, exactly. And so he's like, okay, I have countless hours. They got him into Mr. Beast. That's, this is the, take off to the vast, the vast landscape of Hyrule. That's who I'm leaning at the moment. Okay. So your final answer is Rick Devins. Yeah. This is not going the way I wanted. Yes, it's Rick Devins. I hate you. Let's go, baby. Let's go. Yes, yes,

[01:36:31] it is Rick Devins. Fine. Whatever. Your next, your next player. Jonathan just start slamming. Yeah, I'm doing the worm right now. I love it. Okay. Your next items are my dog. Okay. A deck of cards. My mom's pierogies. Liana,

[01:37:01] I remember when I was interviewing a certain person two years ago at this point, three years ago, actually, 2023. And she talked about how, listen, I can handle survivor. I come from one big Ukrainian family. So I think, Dave, you can, you can throw some guesses here, but my first instinct is to go with the one, the only Genevieve Mushlock. Interesting. A dog. And then my dog doesn't make any sense, but that feels

[01:37:31] like a very Genevieve answer. Like, I brought my dog, my dog, a deck of cards. You think she's like someone that, that, you know, that's, that's her like play solitaire with herself. Maybe. Yeah. Or with, I mean, I don't know. Some people are like, there is like a certain type of person that's like, you know, could, I am one of those people, for example, like if you want to play any game with me, whether it's poker or figure or crazy eights, I'll do it. So I'm trying to feel like a little bit. Now, listen, the whole survivor 49 pretty mean thing about to throw things out the window, but it feels like you can't

[01:38:00] play cards with other people. You can't. Okay. That's what is that way. I guess I have to make sure I understand the concept. This is your bag. That's for you. Just you like, it's not like, yeah, just you pack your bag. You put the three things that are most important to you in that bag. Okay. Oh, okay. I mean, it's got it. I trust your instincts on this, Mike. I don't know if I would have pulled Genevieve out, but everything else is too. I'm trying to think about this is a God this feels so okay to say like who looks like they have a mother who makes pierogies.

[01:38:31] Yeah, no, that's fair. And I, I did think I did think D for a second, but I don't know. I don't know. Maybe these mom is a cultured chef who makes things from all over the world. I don't. Yeah, probably not. I don't know. I just, I'm still in my mind when I heard my dog, I thought, well, I feel like I'm every other thing I see on Instagram is like, that's true. But no, I mean, also, also, I do wonder if this person

[01:39:00] perhaps misunderstood Sam's question and would say, what three things would you want to bring like onto the island with you? Right. Yeah, you'll have to take up those details with him. Let's go with, let's go with Mike. Okay. Yeah. Damn your memory. Yes, it was Genevieve. Okay, but let's see how you do with this next one. A watch, a pillow, a tape recorder. Watch, a pillow, a tape recorder.

[01:39:30] Okay, so, yeah, I would say Christian I know had a tape recorder that he was dictating notes to himself both before and after the game. Pillow is interesting though. I mean, he's a very practical man, but would he want to utilize 33% of the items of his bag on a mere pillow? I'm trying to think about anything like if he's one of those people that's always in the hammock. He's always pushing people in the hammock. He's pushing people in the hammock. Yeah, so he cares about other people's hammock. Yes, yeah,

[01:40:04] the ghost, practical is the right word. It's someone who's very much like, well, I want to make sure that I'm comfortable above all. Yeah, the recorder, that's where I pulled that from too, by the way. Yeah, yeah. That's that's trying to think about like who else? What's the watch? Is it? I mean, that kind of another practical thing, right? It's like, I want to know what time it is. Right, right. So like, who cares about what time it is? But I'm looking at the cast list right now. I'm just it's funny to imagine he would care and he

[01:40:34] would not care. Like, Rizcott would not care. It's not time to work around camp. Now, here's an interesting 10 days ago. I brought a pillow because I'm going to be very uncomfortable again. I could see Savannah but not not Rizzo. I think Rizzo would have some much like more. I don't know. I think he would I would think he would choose to make this a little bit goofier maybe or a picture of himself or something. Now, could the practicality come from an old school perspective? Could this be like Colby? Yeah, that's

[01:41:04] that's yeah, that's a good one. Colby is a good now. Colby Donaldson showed up at the premiere, but I'm trying to think if Sam Moore ever approached Colby Donaldson and that happened in the premiere, which did not happen before week two when I changed your brain. Christian was at all of these, right? Yeah, Colby was not at these at all. Yeah, I think we got to go with Christian. I love the idea that Colby would

[01:41:35] obsess obsessed with the Q is the person who wanted those three items. I love the idea. Jeff, what time it was like during the No, that totally tracks with me. No, I think Q is someone who like as goofy, that guy is dedicated and those are the tools of someone who's like, I got 30 things to accomplish. It's almost a very like militaristic answer, you know,

[01:42:04] all I need is just a pillow, a watch and I'm fine. I really think he's that person. Yeah, and I mean that like with the highest of compliments. He's like a very accomplished guy. Also, Q, you don't need a tape recorder. Everyone will tell you what you said. Don't worry. Yeah, we all remember. He'll plant it. I was thinking he's going to plant it and then overhear people's conversations. Yeah, we wouldn't burn that shit. Yeah. All right. Well, in the interest of time, we can't go through any more questions, but I will read to you some of the other ones. You were on the money with

[01:42:34] Christian. Waterproof notepad was the first item he actually listed. So, of course, very much practical. Dee did mention her dog's collar as a reminder that she has an unconditional loyal love waiting for her back home. It was Tiffany with the Nintendo Switch, who Dave does mention as her top item that she would want. So, like, it's actually very scary. Camilla, her three items were a Kindle, crumpled receipts, and pins

[01:43:04] and shit, pins and shit. I don't know what that was about. Rizzo's was equally sentimental and also very goofy at the same time. A photo of his family, a portable fan to cool himself like one of the ones you get at Six Flags, and then his John Cena never give up wristband. Yeah, so that was a question I would have given it away, because very prominent Cena fan. Yep,

[01:43:35] long shenanigans, despite Mike still managing to get two of the three, but that's fine. That's amazing job, Leon. Like, what an incredible long game you played here. Yeah, yeah, wait, because I'm having a flashback right now to when I was at the after party for this this for consideration event, and I see Jenna Lewis Doherty for the first time on the island, and she gives me a big hug, and she says, who guessed that I had tarot cards in my bag.

[01:44:05] So her three items were a tarot deck, an embroidery loop, and a copy of the book Red Rising by Pierce Brown. And that would have given it away as well, because she has been doing an entire series about like who in my on Instagram of like who in my cast reminds me of Red Rising. So I just smiled and nodded. Yeah, like, sure. I'm also like, it's very loud in here. What was I hearing? Oh, my God. Now it all makes sense. It's all coalescing that you have been running this long cod. I've been plotting of

[01:44:35] getting things from these people. So now I can finally get back to Jenna and tell her what I was able to do. Yeah, their Joe's was actually pretty funny, too. Joe's was small device to play music. I love the fact that you didn't specify like an iPod. Yeah, the one that would have given it away was pictures of my beautiful wife and kiddos and then a small cooler with slices of my favorite pizza.

[01:45:05] I absolutely love pizza. Thank you, Joe. I'm not going to lie, guys. Joe just went up a notch for me. I'm the same way. I'd have a picture of Kim Spradlin and a cooler of a picture of Kim Spradlin and pizza. Yeah, exactly. Oh, my God. Well, Liana, this game was more delicious than a cooler full of pizza. I am so impressed by you and I cannot think I love you more every day, but somehow I do every time we get on the mic.

[01:45:35] I am so elated that you put this into motion that you pinged the first domino back in February or March of 2026 and it has been cascading and falling through various obstacles up and down until it has finally reached the final tipping point. I

[01:46:05] have passion. I'm in all of you. I truly am, Liana. God, that's incredible. Oh, my God. Thank you, Mike. And thank you for holding down the fort all season. It was totally worth it. And the way that we said 50 was journey, not destination. This one was the destination. This one really, yeah, you really kind of landed us there. This feels like a prestige TV show. Yeah, this is like the season two of Breaking Bad, where if you put certain episode titles together, it spoils them. It's like, right. I did not know that it was slowly

[01:46:35] a frog boiling in its own water until finally the lid's coming down on this entire season. Yeah, you're welcome. Right. Oh, my God. All right. Well, Dave, let's turn things over to you here because listen, you were of great assistance to me in trying to figure out Liana's final ploy here. But of course, we here at the B&B like to finish off every week by allowing our guests to give their own sort of plug to charity or cause that could be provided some

[01:47:04] assistance as well. So the ball is in your court. What would you like to highlight? I'm ready. I would if I can to learn to read. You love the double duos twist. I love this is my endorsement of the twist and of these two places to learn to read. KC. I talked on before. There's just a great way they get a lot of books to different schools and libraries all across Kansas City. It's a hyper local one. Now, if you're not if you're like, I'm not in Kansas City, I don't care about those kids there. You can

[01:47:34] more focus on your own local area and donate to PBS. There's a longer URL, but if you just typed into Google support CBS, the first link sends you to a page where you can gift to your local station. I'm saying this because they've lost the funding. That's an interesting slip of tongue given the contrast of the two organizations from a news standpoint. PBS, as you may or may not be aware of the news, I talk about my videos sometimes. They've lost some funding and

[01:48:04] there's a lot to support with any local or national PBS station. Mr. Rogers, for example, started as a local PBS show, became more national. There's all these great hyper local and less local parts of PBS that you can support. They need it now more than ever. That's a great place to support. Incredibly well said. People want to support you, Dave, and all your literal award-winning work on Local News International. Why don't you give the quick elevator pitch and how people

[01:48:33] can subscribe to your newsletter? Great, thank you. As we alluded to, I left the Washington Post almost 10 months ago now. I left with my two bosses there. We basically took what was working for us there. We're doing it on our own independently for many reasons. You can support us at LNI.media. That's where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. You can also become a paying member there or donate there. That's LNI.media. I'm Dave Jorgensen on all my channels. TikTok, YouTube, and Reels are the main one. We

[01:49:03] also have a vodcast starting up this summer that I'm really excited about. It's basically taking what works really well with us on short form, which is Digesting News. We're trying to be the new daily show of YouTube. We're very ambitious about this. We've got a lot of support. This is the big event for us. We're excited. It's coming up in a few months. Very early congratulations. Not as early as again. I

[01:49:34] wish you ever talked about it. You are such a talented and creatively endeavoring person that I know it is going to succeed with aplomb and then some as much as we succeed here on the B&B due to the voluminous amount of

[01:50:31] mind. I am obsessed with it and I cannot wait to see what the open air of the B&B is. Well, and Mike, of course, like the B&B wouldn't be the B&B if it wasn't for you, especially all the hard work you do. And I just want to shout out, especially for all the listeners, like Mike puts in so much hard work behind the scenes. And so that like needs not shown. It needs to be seen. It needs to be recognized. And like genuinely, I wouldn't be able to do this without you. So thank you, Mike. That really means a lot. And I also want to give a shout out to everyone that I got the chance to meet

[01:51:01] and talk with over the course of this past week in L.A., whether it be at the finale, whether it be at Rob's book signing event, which I believe is a podcast right now, his conversation with Christian, which was really great as well. I don't often go out to the West Coast, so it's always fun to meet RHAP fans that I haven't been able to communicate with in the past in the flesh. And what a great week to do it around as well. I cannot believe truly this is all coming to a close. You know, a year ago, I was out in Fiji interviewing these players a year before that. Jeff had announced that

[01:51:31] season 50 was returning players and I was doing the wish list. So from a personal perspective, this this feels really odd to be the close of a chapter. But regardless, I love getting to pour through every single word and I cannot wait to turn the page into the next one. But that will come in due time that will come in the fall. In the meantime, check out what Liana is doing over on the Pal, the Puja and Liana lounge. You can check out what I'm doing over on Parade. I'm sure I'll be doing some random stuff over the summer as well. I got ideas. I'm not afraid to use them.

[01:52:02] But most importantly, what's in the bag? And I actually did deliver it with that cadence. Well, thank you to the more than seven people who listen to this podcast as well. It truly means the world every time I talk to somebody and they talk about how much they love the B&B. We have such a great time doing this and it makes my enjoyment tenfold when I hear that people are actually listening and hopefully enjoying it, too. And we will endeavor to do so much more in the future. Special thanks to everyone

[01:52:30] behind the scenes at RHAP for packaging this podcast for your eyes and your ears and Will from America for his theme song that was more melodious than Jonathan hurling over the set as he went on to win a clutch immunity challenge. We'll be back in the fall covering Survivor 51 as we start the open era. Until then, we're bringing this podcast to a close, as I always

[01:52:59] do. We'll check you out at your next day.