Survivor 51 B&B Premiere Recap with Sam Phalen

[00:00:11] R-H-A-B-M-B Hi everybody and welcome to the RHAP B&B for the premiere of Survivor 51.

[00:00:40] My name is Mike Bloom. Are we having Survivor 50 fun yet? I believe so. I felt like this was a party down as we have a lot of things to get into over the course of the official opening of the open era. And I will not dally too much on the intros here. I'll go chop chop, much like Lewis on that mask. I'm joined by someone who I'm happy to chop it up here with every week, Liana Boris. Liana, how are you?

[00:01:06] Doing well. A whale of a premiere, if you will. The respected and revered whales. You know, honestly, I thought this was a really character focused premiere, which means that I personally had a lot of fun. And it's nice to actually see the open era and what that actually means and how that's being reflected. I think we have a lot to talk about today. As far as we know, again, who's to say what's coming down the line? We all the only thing we know is that there'll be Final Four fire making it a coin flip.

[00:01:35] So a lot is open right now. And I'm excited to open up our series of podcasts this season with a standout of the new era as we kick off another new era of Survivor. Though I guess Sam Phelan, are you technically an old school Survivor contestant now by these standards? Assuredly not. No, absolutely. I won't. I know you're an expert in the media because, you know, a loaded question when you hear what I will not even dare to classify myself as old air.

[00:02:05] But I will say I don't have a pun that you guys do about the episode. I just have four words for you. We are so back. We are so back. Physically, us sitting here chopping it up on the podcast, but also Survivor might be so back. This was an awesome, awesome premiere episode. I'm so excited to talk about it. Well, Sam, I'm going to stay on you here because I would love to get your thoughts as to listen.

[00:02:31] There was a lot we didn't know about what the open era was just as a general idea going to this. And look, as I say again, we still don't necessarily know entirely what it means. Just that's the point, Mike. It's permanent uncertainty. Exactly. But how certain were your opinions on the open era going into this season? And how much did they change after these first two hours?

[00:02:52] Look, I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt with it, because I think when you take it, if you're trying to view it pessimistically, you're like, oh, this means that they're going to be all over the place and foot like twist and thing and this and that every week. And it's not going to be Survivor anymore. I think it's a way to brand what they want to do anyway. Really, the idea of permanent uncertainty, everything's in play. That's kind of always been the case, right?

[00:03:17] Like it was just the fact that they like they could have dropped any twist and it wouldn't have been out of bounds, you know, at any other point in time in Survivor history. But I do think this gives them the freedom to just play with stuff, to not keep things uniform and to kind of have an easy brand for that lack of uniformity. And I think lack of uniformity is awesome for the show and awesome for things feeling fresh.

[00:03:43] First word for the open era is fresh because it feels so distinctly different from the new era. So I think they're going to swing and miss a whole lot. I think they're going to hit a few home runs, but I think that trying that thing, trying those things is going to allow us to have some really great TV moments and figure out what works as they progress through the open era a little bit more.

[00:04:07] Mm hmm. It is kind of funny because it's almost like they made the rules for the new era that they were going to be so rigid and then they're like changing their own rules. But look, I agree with you. I'm happy to have it. Yeah, that's what I made this comparison during our preview podcast, because, yeah, when I talk with Jeff about it, the repetitive structure of the new era was a feature, not a bug. It was by design to say, let's see how the players, you know, a person in Survivor 47 now sort of knows how things run differently than Survivor 42.

[00:04:36] And how do they base gameplay on that? And I think freedom is the most applicable word for not only the players, but production as well. Like this really felt like a breath of fresh air. And it's weird because we're coming off of a huge returning players season, the first we have seen in over half a decade where that felt like a breath of fresh air as well. But I think the commonality between them is that while I think the 50 premiere certainly had its fair share of journeys and other, you know, Billy Eilish, Boomerang, Idol, Mishigas.

[00:05:04] The commonality between them is that they both kind of just gave time to the cast. Yeah. Even just providing this opening moment of having them all chill on a beach and they have no idea how long they're going to be here, what tribes are going to be. So they're just going to get into it. They're going to make a five person alliance seconds before the tribes are divided. And I think that is essentially what kind of Survivor is at its core, right?

[00:05:32] Which is like, here's a situation based on who you are, what you know, which is very limited and how you operate. What are you going to do about it? Some people were just sitting back trying to maybe work on a shelter that they might be living in. And others were quickly hitting the beach trying to, you know, form an alliance with a quarter of the cast. And even though the latter doesn't necessarily pan out, I think it's an interesting experiment to see how do these people respond to these enigmatic situations?

[00:06:00] And more importantly, how do they work to sort of like take the bull by the horns? As we saw with Devin throughout this episode, even if it again doesn't work out and say like, I'm going to try to put this uncontrollable situation in my control. Well, and I for that reason, Mike, I also want to caution Survivor fans out there to be too overly critical of some of the thing, the new things that we see.

[00:06:26] Right. Because I think that it's very easy, especially if you're a fan who watches the show for the gaming of it all, the strategy of it all to sit there and and be frustrated when there are these twists that are out of the control of the players. Yes, that can be frustrating to watch. But I think the risk is of having predictability is. This sort of like monotonous feeling that we have over the new era where it's like, yeah, it was predictable.

[00:06:55] Players could game what was coming. Players knew what to expect, but it also created a very standard level of gameplay that just didn't change. And while it might not feel like old school Survivor, you hit it, Mike. Survivor at its core was this idea of we're going to throw weird situations at you and see how you adapt. Yes, we hate it when somebody loses their vote or there's a Billie Eilish boomerang idol and we want things to be equitable. Right. We want things to be as fair as they possibly can for the players.

[00:07:24] But I think we should give the show a little bit of grace as well to try stuff and try to throw these curveballs at them because it does create for those organic character moments that really drive a show and drive the characters to be TV stars that we love to watch. Mm hmm. I mean, and obviously we still have the whole rest of the season ahead of us, but I would say that this premiere was relatively twist free. I mean, apart from Lewis being sent to exile.

[00:07:51] But I feel like even with that, there was always a bit of like all of us holding our breath and then letting our neck tail where it's like, OK, he couldn't chop down the mask, but he didn't lose his vote. Oh, Rob found an idol and there's no beware advantage. Again, it's it's sort of us living through trauma is not the right word, but I think it's past past being prologue, like anticipating the bottom dropping out from under whenever this big game element happens only for the bottom to remain intact.

[00:08:17] Mm hmm. But I think that that gives me that gives me hope that whatever twist, if there are more twisty twists that end up coming out later, it will follow. I think they're going to they're going to do what they say right in the sense that it's they're not going to hopefully be lots of losing votes and things like that. So it won't be that repetitive structure. So as Sam is saying, it will allow the cast to really thrive. And what is for them, hopefully a new environment? Like it was actually very interesting because they went to immunity.

[00:08:46] There were a number of players who were like, where's Lewis? Like when are you going to just airdrop Lewis in? Like where's Lewis going to go? So they're clearly like questioning. They're wondering, like, where is Lewis going to show up? And and I like that they're having to approach the game by always sort of constantly questioning, OK, what is my reality? What is going to happen and how do I navigate that space? I will also say that I think the casting so far has been a slam dunk. Granted, it is not an equitable edit for all 21 contestants.

[00:09:15] Unfortunately, for people that are wanting, you know, equal airtime for everybody, I do not think that's going to be the case. They struggle with 24. We don't want that. Who wants that? I mean, listen, there are people out there, Sam, you know, there's a pop for every letter and a fruit for every bowl when it comes to these people. Isn't that the issue with the new era, though, was like the everybody's story needs to be told. We all need airtime and then you don't end up with any compelling characters at the end of the game. Yeah, I mean, it's true. And it's not to say that they're not going to come about as well. Like who knows, like Tanaan might have a huge episode.

[00:09:43] We had one whole tribe not go to tribal council of 10 people. And so we didn't get a lot of airtime dedicated to them. But what I will say is even looking into a couple of characters specifically, again, by design, the new era seemed to be focused primarily on like if you love Survivor, whether you watched it since you were out of the womb or whether you watched it over COVID. We want you on this show. Jeff admitted to me in an interview that he's like, or he doesn't know the game. We wouldn't have cast him in 43.

[00:10:12] He literally says on the show, like, I don't know what I'm doing. Can you help me? I Devin told me when I talked to him at the premiere that I attended, which was so much fun, that he started watching Survivor in December 2025. Yeah. Season 50 was the first season he ever saw and not even in full of the show. And I love that because look at what he's doing, right? Like it doesn't matter how much Survivor you watched. It's more so how much Survivor you want to play.

[00:10:37] And you look at somebody who's coming in with a very specific perspective, as ill-advised as it might be, he created some of the most electric content of the entire premiere. And I think it's actually so, so, so important. This is like a larger philosophy casting thing. But I think the new era did really suffer from what you were talking about, Mike, which was everybody has to be a super fan.

[00:11:01] And so you end up with whether you've been watching from day one or whether you started during COVID and binge watched all of it. You knew what you were doing and you were relatively savvy from a game perspective. But I think that also created a general like everybody was kind of trying to play the same strategy in a way that you saw. That's why we see this. Hey, don't get too high on the totem pole. Knock out the big threats. End up with the under the radar. Kind of like come on right at that final five.

[00:11:30] That was sort of the MO. And you didn't see people branching out from this to create differing outcomes. And, you know, I think hopefully, right, my read on this season 51 cast is that you're going to have people who are not playing survivor by the book. But I think that's really compelling for the people like a Kristen who has been applying since the beginning, who knows how to play survivor by the book, that she now has to play with people who are all over the map and tough to account for.

[00:11:59] And I think that that is is very fun. I think it could give us a variety of different outcomes from season 51 to 52 to 53. So very encouraged in the casting from that thing, because who knows if Ori is going to be this strategic mastermind that figures it out really quickly or if he's just like, I don't know, I'm going with the people I like to the end. It's hard to read him. Mm hmm.

[00:12:22] I mean, I I always go back to the fact that while I do enjoy watching good strategy, I would so much rather watch entertaining players. So when someone like Devin McDevitt, shut up, shut up, shut up. But I kind of don't want him to shut up. Right. Yeah, it's terrible. Well, I mean, what are you doing at tribal council? But you cannot look away from him just being like, I'm voting for you. You see, you look, look at me. I'm voting for you. Oh, it was because it really I mean, there was so many spanners thrown in the work to that tribal council.

[00:12:52] And it seems like from what's come out, it was legitimately a live tribal council. And part of that might have also been the numbers. Right. I think it's a lot easier for a first vote. Sam, you can speak to this firsthand to get your hands around a six person vote than a 10 person vote in the first three votes, three first three days of the game. So apparently when it splits, it swapped. So last minute to Aaliyah, then like they really had to do a lot of makeup at tribal council. So like, OK, we must make sure we have the votes in. So that makes it more exciting as well.

[00:13:18] I know sometimes we feel like these things are for show, but it seems like between the conflict that was set up by, you know, Devin's radical honesty or Pat outright saying like, yeah, you know what? There's two boots, much like my pantsless boots are on the ground right now trying to search for my bottoms. You're on the bottom. Aaliyah. It was it was fun to just watch. Again, these people attempt to figure things out as they go and deal with the myriad wild cards thrown their way. Mm hmm.

[00:13:45] Just a side note about Pat, every single confessional afterwards where she wasn't wearing pants, I just giggled to myself like I just just love that that's kind of her story. And then she kind of shows up like through the chaos. And also, I mean, she was the first one who also told Jenna that Jenna was going to be targeted. And so there is just like a lot of subtle Pat stuff going on that like makes me really excited.

[00:14:07] So while, yes, we do have a lot of these main characters, big main character energy, even the people who, you know, Pat was not necessarily the most involved is still out there making waves, losing her pants, doing fun things. And so I think that that to me also speaks to a very good cast. I will say they are they were like a little intense at first, but that's what I want. I mean, that's what that's what Alexis literally said. Right. She's like, I had to even take a step back and be like, there's a lot of extroverts happening right now. So exactly.

[00:14:36] The sorry, I'm all over the place trying to figure out where I want to start. A great cast, as Liana mentioned, is even the small characters, the people that we talk about that aren't like heavily, heavily featured or thrown in our face. They advance the plot to some degree or they contribute to the arc of another person to some degree. It's a little tough when you've got 21 people that you're tracking.

[00:15:00] But I get that general feeling of even somebody like Pat, who's maybe seventh or eighth on her tribe in terms of airtime and how much we got to know her. There's little subtle things in there that make you giggle, make you laugh, make you kind of like Pat. And then, by the way, if we're reading between the tea leaves here, Pat is a huge reason for this vote going down the way that it goes down. And so it brings something different from the other energies.

[00:15:27] And I think that's a really complimentary group that has a lot of upside. Let's talk about a vote that went down, Pat, because of what happened with Pat. I'm so curious, Liana, when the votes were coming in, how much did you think it was going to be Jenna versus Aaliyah, given what we had seen in the story so far? We got so much Jenna so early. I was like, there's no way she's going home.

[00:15:53] And listen, it'd be historic president, right? The cast could have done the funniest thing and make back-to-back Jenna first boots. Yes. So for me, I thought that it was probably unlikely just because Survivor editing team has a tendency to not go overboard. But without being so nerdy about it, I think Jenna obviously was very clearly the one who was ostracized the most. And I think what was interesting was to see how many people were saying, yeah, Jenna's going to be the first boot or we're going to vote out Jenna.

[00:16:19] We're going to vote out Jenna. So then that way, you know, it's not just a smaller collective because while Devin, Jelly, you know, obviously we're talking about it. There were it wasn't just them, right? It wasn't just the remnants of the helicopter alliance that was on this tribe. It was other people as well who were on board with voting Jenna out. So I can see why it was it was you potentially, you know, solidified going into tribal and then turned into a live tribal at at tribal council.

[00:16:45] What do you think, Sam, based on, again, your experience as someone who went to a premier tribal council? I mean, I was fully on the other end of Liano watching it, at least because I mean, hey, 47. I feel like we're pretty John Lovett forward in the 47 premiere. It granted the literally named the episode, right? Names the episode and it talks about how he might have one episode. And then sure enough, it is John at the end.

[00:17:10] I thought that Aaliyah was our little red herring to make us think there was a strategic doubt when they were telling us from minute two of the tribe being together that Jenna was the odd one out that was going to go home. So I was very surprised. I think that it was it does make sense for it to be live. I think Brady is really the the mover here, the guy who gets this thing going.

[00:17:35] We have to talk about this because, Mike, I ultimately I talked about this with my friend Genevieve about why we feel like this vote went down this way. And I think the thought process, right, of being at a premier tribal council, being voting out the first person in your season. It's super easy to want to go with the grain, that first name that kind of starts circulating. It's like, let me just not be the one. Let me not upset the apple cart.

[00:18:03] Let me just vote out Jenna here where I think Brady does well slash not well, not well, maybe for his future, but well for this immediate vote getting his way. He makes this very personal. This is I want Aaliyah out because she said my name and this means everything to me. So if you are one of these middle people who are like, I don't really care, man, Aaliyah, Jenna, I don't I don't have strong feelings either way.

[00:18:33] You know what? I'm just not going to upset the big dude who tells me that this is everything to him. And and also, I think there is a level of linear logic for Brady that is easier to get behind than somebody like Devin. Brady's logic is very simple. She said my name. I want her out as another player. I can track why you don't like Aaliyah and why you want Aaliyah out of the game where I can say, yeah, sure. Makes sense to me.

[00:19:03] That's a lot easier to, you know, hit your wagon to than Devin's. She's lying about her job and, you know, and I just don't trust her and all of this stuff, which might be like, why is he so passionate about getting Jenna out just because he thinks she lied about her job? So Brady kind of takes it that personal route. His logic is very easy to get behind.

[00:19:23] And I think ultimately that line of thinking wins out for people who are probably trying to obviously make it through the vote, but then also go back to the rest of their tribe with as few questions they have to answer as possible. And this gives them easy logic to talk their way out of their decision. Yeah, I mean, if your instinct is pure survival, which person would you rather keep happy? Devin's.

[00:19:48] Hey, no matter what happens, we'll come back tomorrow and still be friends or I am sticking with my vote. I will take every single vote that's not cast for Aaliyah personally. Plus, you have to look at the challenge as well. And granted, they only have one challenge to go off of. But if they feel like they're going to be struggling moving forward and granted, they're not going to be at a disadvantage. They do have Lewis now in their stead.

[00:20:12] But from what it looked like from our perspective, I wouldn't say that Aaliyah was the reason they sucked at the challenge. They took the lead on the balls because the frickin acro grip ends up being one of the most convenient immediate payoff plot devices we've experienced in recent survivor history. But Jenna and Kilby made up a ton of time on the puzzle as well. So if you're assessing skills, then that also has to be heavily incorporated as well. Yeah, the size of the tribe certainly has changed from recent seasons.

[00:20:40] But I feel like a lot of similar logic has to be ascribed to that first vote as well. Well, and I can understand there's like so many things actually ultimately, I think, kind of pointing you in that direction. I think Jenna's skill on the puzzle, not wanting to upset Brady. You know, so if you really sort of combine all of those things, it's understandable why ultimately they ended up going in that direction. And I think specifically to speak of Brady, that moment, Sam, when Kilby, I think it's Kilby, who's like, how much does this mean to you? And he was like, yeah, this means everything to me.

[00:21:10] It goes like, whoa, bro, let's chill for a hot second. But that's somebody who I'm really excited to see what they do next. But also as a player, you clock that and you're like, well, I'm never saying Brady's name. We got to be subtle with how we get him out or whatever. Like it influences your strategy. Yeah, it's very dangerous, obviously, for like long term equity, both of like how much do people want to start to play with you? And if they are playing with you, that obviously can rub people the wrong way over the long course of the game.

[00:21:40] But it is inarguably pretty effective in terms of like getting your way in these votes, because if it doesn't matter to a lot of these people, you can kind of mold the game at your will if everybody's willing to just be like, all right, sure, Brady, whatever you want. So I loved it. And like you mentioned, I just I can't wait to see how it plays out in that tribe moving forward, because my thought as a player would be you're like this. This is vote one.

[00:22:08] What are we what's this going to be like when it's vote six and vote ten? And we're getting down to the nitty gritty and you start to really develop bonds and have opinions beyond just she said my name. That's going to be interesting to watch it unfold. How much more Brady feels. Compelled by the if the first one was everything, what's the level beyond everything? Exactly. How do you? Yeah. Like, how's he going to care even more than that? Like, I'm just so curious.

[00:22:37] Yeah, I think as well. Again, we talked about this a lot. It's been stated a lot, but the dynamic of the 10 person tribe is also so incredibly intriguing, especially considering we have not had that as a starting tribe for a very a whole ass pandemic has happened since we've had that. And so as a result, what we get is this really interesting proxy war, essentially, where Devin and Brady, Jenna and Aaliyah are not given the pre tribal confessionals. It's these two guys basically being like, it's my person versus his person.

[00:23:07] And, you know, Brady's like, I would tackle my own mom on the football field. Like it was a Snickers commercial if it meant getting my way, Devin way. And so I really like that dynamic as well, because it was set up in the beginning, like, hey, we're not so different. You and I. Oh, actually, we are very different. And it'll be intriguing to see if, as Devin attests to, is it water under the bridge or is the fact that him and Jelly went so hard in the paint for Aaliyah to the point where they voted against Jenna.

[00:23:36] Does this cast them off on an island and possibly endanger this helicopter alliance even more? What do we think? I mean, like, is the Devin Brady relationship one that is going to be an alliance moving forward or are we going to see them continue to butt heads? Mm hmm. I think if anyone has to pivot between Devin and Brady, I think Devin has a higher likelihood of being able to recognize like, hey, we're on the outs.

[00:24:04] We have to pivot in some way, whether that means going along, apologizing to Brady or creating their own coalition. Because while a group of three works well in a six person tribe, it does not work as well in a 10 person tribe. And also now you only have two people. So I'm hoping that they have the ability to recognize that they need to pivot and then continue to exist within the game.

[00:24:28] I can imagine Devin making up with Brady and being like, hey, look, man, I know we're on different sides of this, but like, let's get back together, bros. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Two sides of the same coin, whatever. I'm hopeful with that ability to pivot. Maybe we shouldn't use that phrase given what's coming later on in the season as well. That's true. Yeah, I mean, I think that where the two of them, I do think the two of them are going to reconcile because they are also... Two of the most openly transparent players, not only on the tribe, but in this season, right? Like they even acknowledge at tribal council.

[00:24:56] Yep, it's pretty much you versus me at this point. We'll see who ends up, you know, having their say at the end of the day. So it's not like there's going to be any sort of huge ire of one against the other. Like you lied to me, you betrayed me. It was them pretty much saying, yeah, we'll see how many people I have. We'll see how many people you have and may the best man win. So I 100%, especially considering as well, again, they're not going to be down a person, but I think also they probably pop their chests out collectively as like two of the physically strongest people in the tribe, two of the best physical assets.

[00:25:26] And so it could be a thing of like, let's work together on this. You know, we'll be open and honest with one another. That was just a momentary aberration. Let's let bygones be bygones. Let's focus on some of the shiftier folks. What's going on with Kilby? Did he say my name? Well, what's interesting? Go ahead, Sam. Well, so I think just want to get my prediction out there. I agree with both of you that I think Devin will recognize what he has to do and try to reconcile. I also think that maybe lasts one episode.

[00:25:55] I just think that they're both such strong personalities that are so opinionated. I don't know if I can see a vote going down where either one of them are cool to just be like, whatever the group wants, like they're gonna have an opinion. And I think the more that we see their opinions being contradictory to one another, I think the more that we see them just start to beef to the point where it's like, we can't even play together anymore. We need to get each other out because you're going against me.

[00:26:23] My hope, I hope this is like Dama Bate versus Chris Noble. Like I want this to just be a full out, like I'm against you. You're against me. Let's get to the merge and see what happens. And both of them actively targeting each other. I think that'd be a very fun. I think that's like the last time we really had. Granted, it's been a long time since we had these big tribes, right? But it's the last time that we really had like these two.

[00:26:48] I don't want to say egos, but very big like personalities that are opinionated about control being against each other right out of the gate. That's actually, I actually really like that you brought up the tribe size because I do think that that plays a big role into it when you have the kind of like the concept of warring factions, because when you have such a small group, like two big personalities going after each other, that's just like a single conflict. This could potentially feel bigger than that, right? The Chris Noble, Dominic Abate felt a little bit bigger than that, where it was like,

[00:27:18] we got to gather our troops and go after each other. Like that classic example of, or the scene where Chris Noble is like leading all the children to the water well, and it's like he's trying to gather his troops. So I'm hopeful we can see something like that. I think what's also interesting is we saw parallels of sort of a similar dynamic happening on the other tribe as well with Rob and, oh my God, what's his name? Eric, thank you. Because it was like, oh, the two guys from Rhode Island. Maybe you thought of him as Mickey Mouse.

[00:27:47] Sorry, or Pee Wee Herman. Yeah. It was like, oh, they're going to be best friends. And oh, we're both from Rhode Island. That's awesome. Like that. And then that rivalry accelerated real quick. One way rivalry, too. I don't think Eric has any idea that Rob is. Which are some of my favorites as well, that Eric's like, I am a social king right now. I can talk to anyone about anything, mostly metal and Disney movies. And Rob's like, no man is an island, but there's only one man from Rhode Island that's going

[00:28:17] to last long enough in this game. Screw you, Eric. Eric's doing way too much. So, to briefly just back on the Yellow Tribe for a second. I did want to point something out because, again, I was so lucky to get the chance to attend this event last night, last week at the American Dream. You know, me and Rob got the chance to moderate a number of panels with both, you know, Survivor winners as well as the cast themselves, which are so much. I'm so happy we got to know them both on screen and off screen as well. And it was really fun.

[00:28:45] And you can attest to this as well, Sam, to like watch an episode with your cast because so many things are revealed both through confessionals and otherwise. When the thumb war went down during the negotiation, Brady lets out a huge exclamation in the back of the room like, come on, Kilby. So I don't necessarily think Kilby was incredibly upfront with how he was able to ascertain those supplies. That's very funny.

[00:29:13] I will also say I just want to throw a flag on the play. Yellow flag. I don't know if I've ever seen a more out of bounds thumb war win than what we got from Kristen and that like she was elbow was here immediately. Yeah, I'm like, we got to get a flat surface. What are we doing, folks? I saw that immediately. I was like, oh, no, you got to be like, oh, no, you got to keep a flat out. And then he was just like, well, you got me. I'm like, well, well, that's a general question.

[00:29:43] General, for lack of a better term, rule of thumb is like when it comes to these kind of quote games of skill, if anyone offers it, that means usually they're going to have the advantage. Yeah, I'm planning to win it. Yeah. Yeah. Like, oh, hey, I just so happen to be good at thumb war. But let me just suggest off the top of my head. I don't know. A thumb war like outside of rock, paper, scissors, which is an outright game of luck. If anyone is suggesting some sort of game of skill, no matter how menial to determine something, it means that they've been practicing this much like Kristen's fire making their

[00:30:13] entire lives for this very moment. I also do kind of love it from Kilby's perspective, even if look, maybe he didn't throw it. But I think that there's an opportunity to throw it here where it's just like, oh, little Kilby, you know, like it just changes the perception of you. And I think that that could work in somebody's favor, depending on who they are. But also, I don't think that either one group got significantly shafted compared to the other.

[00:30:40] And also, you know, it's definitely a calculated risk on Kilby's part. But it turns out that, hey, again, bottom doesn't drop out. We expect, OK, sorry for you. Look at the banner. You know, nothing for you, yellow tribe. But no, Jeff says at the end of Travel Council, Hot Machete and Flint are waiting for them back at camp. Supplies are alive here in the open era. Yeah, it aged very well for Kilby with them getting the pot machete and Flint. I think he did kind of get hosed off the end.

[00:31:10] Like, I think he didn't do very well on the initial thing. I was going to say, as someone who lived out there of the four things that were up for grabs, right, which was pop, Flint, machete. It was shelter, fishing, and it was like camp kit as well. Like, what's your what's your ranking in terms of priority? Number one would be pot machete, Flint. Number two would be. Probably like the the shelter stuff just for like a tarp, it makes the roof a lot easier to do.

[00:31:39] The other stuff can, you know, whatever. It depends when you're filming, too, because like I remember really wanting the fishing gear. Then we get fishing gear in a reward. But then it was choppy every single day and you weren't able to actually go out and fish. So it also depends on your beach as well. I know that like I think it was for you guys. Maybe it was the Tuku camp. The one that has like the big rock outcropping is apparently horrible for fishing. Yeah, that one's there's a ton of rocks.

[00:32:04] Well, there is a big like reef there, but you have to go like way out to go get it, which is where Eric was actually fishing in this episode. I'm pretty sure I think. But anyways, like I would have been very upset if somebody came back without the pot machete Flint. You can't make any food. One thing like underrated stuff, right? Like we made hermit crab that we found on the beach or you kill a crab. You want to be able to cook that and eat it.

[00:32:31] But the coconut flavor gets so old, so quick where you want to throw it up. The way to solve that is by roasting your coconut in the pot or boiling the coconut in the pot and doing that. I know people have found like what is it called? Cassava. I think they found that on the beach before even something as simple as simple as building the shelter. You kind of need the machete for in order to have any kind of shelter.

[00:32:59] So that would have been like the first like the fire obviously keeps the bugs away at night. That's the priority. But then I think once they get that after the tribal council, now all of a sudden they kind of have the better end of the end of the stick here because they have the tarp and all the other stuff that he basically sacrificed to get that stuff for. Just to briefly go back to the sorry for you banner. I was dying at that.

[00:33:27] That was so funny to me. So petty. It's so petty. And I kind of like the idea that each time the banner gets like meaner and meaner. I think I saw this suggested on Reddit, but basically it would be like you suck. This is why you suck. Is this going to be this? This is coming back. Yeah. Like every this is everything. It's the opening. Anything can come back. Even Jeff's weird catchphrases that he that he abandoned at some point in the new era.

[00:33:52] I thought it was so odd that when I was watching it for the first time, it was like they won, but it was such an anticlimactic way. He was like, and that means that they win immunity. Which means and he's like waiting for them to get over there and pull the lever. I'm like, did he not just call that the challenge was over? Why are they still running? It was odd. But also like the funny part about sorry for you is it's like they expose their banner for them. They expose the other tribes banner. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:34:22] Oh, OK. Yeah. I'll bring up the photo. It was the yellow banner. That's right. OK. I was initially confused when I watched that. I was like, wait, but they are sorry for that. But even that is a little confusing. That's like you raise the yellow banner and that means that purple wins. Which is if I was on Sabu, the purple tribe, if I saw that, I'd be like, oh, my God, did I pull the wrong banner? Does this mean we lose? Yeah, exactly. But anyway, it was just hilarious that it got fully canonized actually in a banner,

[00:34:51] which was was obviously wonderful. Yeah. Because it's also again, there was no announcement made up. I'm pretty sure when they do the B roll as well, like explaining the challenge. I don't think they saw they showed the banner going up. Raise the banner. Everybody. Yeah. Amazing. Well, let's move over to the Sabu tribe again. Much less content by comparison. And I think even pre-immunity challenge, it was sort of Eric proceeding to put all the feet in all of the mouths. But Liana, what stands out to you from this group?

[00:35:21] Oh, man. Um, I think again, I think just being able to watch overall the dynamics, especially not knowing a lot about these players going into the season, that it's just fun to actually see them out there on the beach, but also to see like Eric in particular, the turn, the kind of turn that he gets where it's like, oh, this initially like, oh, he's so going to be so charismatic and he's going to make friends. And everybody's super annoyed with him.

[00:35:48] Loving Kristen was very excited to see her do so well in the negotiation. Um, and so I think obviously I want to learn more about them, even though it was, you know, still a hefty premiere. There's only so much that you can cover in the two hours. Yeah. What about you, Sam? Any highlights from this tribe? Um, I just think the, uh, kind of the strategic factions are going to be really interesting here. We see this trio sort of form with Rob, Carter and, uh, Anna, which I was saying that Anna for a while.

[00:36:16] So Anna and Carter and Rob, not a three that I would have put together, um, off paper. Um, I, you see Kristen obviously make this very quick connection with Sharonda, I believe it was. And then Sharonda is in that real alliance. Which I love as well, Kristen being like, uh, you played something in college, right? Yeah. Taking a shot. And then if I'm right, I'm in. Nice. There we go. Um, and then Sharonda obviously has this relationship with Ori. Uh, so maybe that is a three that could work together.

[00:36:47] I don't know where necessarily the, the other folks kind of stand. You have Alexis, you have, uh, obviously Eric is probably the odd man out right now, but I think that we have a possibility of a lot of trios and a, and a really interesting kind of strategic, um, layout here on this group that I'm curious to see play out. Well, we talked about relationships with Ori. I'd be remiss not to talk about a cross tribal connection before it became a cross tribal connection.

[00:37:15] How does somebody 30 minutes into the game, give a confessional of, I might be wifed up by the end of this because this guy loves lasagna. Like, listen, if you, if that is your green flag, I have an orange cat to introduce you to. I was so high on jelly. Uh, jelly was probably my winner pick off of like cast introduction videos. That is not the case anymore.

[00:37:44] I, I, I, I fear miss jelly was a little lost in the, in the jelly, uh, this, this time around. So I, yeah, I don't, I don't know how that happens. Uh, I guess Ori really is that swab. I would have seen Ori another interesting note, by the way, I would have seen Ori and been like, we have the most Jack dude in the game. This guy's huge. He's going to carry us in challenges. No, no, no. Anna describes him as Prince charming, that he is the Prince charming of the group.

[00:38:11] So I'm like, something about this guy is clearly wooing everybody right away. Um, he knows about, he knows about as much of the game as woo too. I fear for jelly in this one. That was, um, but I'm here for it more. I agree with her more showmances. Let's do that. Uh, that's fun. I do. I love you. Yeah. So, uh, if you missed it, I got the chance to talk with the cast of the premiere and get some of their hot takes and jellies was indeed that she wants most showmances and

[00:38:38] Leon, it really is, you know, be the hot take you wish to see in the world, right? Like if you can't see it, be it willing it into existence. Um, I had the exact same impression as Sam. I was really high on jelly going in and that the first, I would say the first part of the premiere, I was just like, Oh God, girl, no, please. Like, can we get it together? All right, come on. We need something else to focus on. I will say there, um, well, it wasn't necessarily so over. There were still some subtle moments in the second half of the episode where I felt more confident.

[00:39:08] I was like, okay, we're kind of getting it together. We're having a little less googly eyes for a man who's on a beach. You're not even on. She was the one who brought up, um, or was talking about, you know, Oh, we see a lot of men. I don't want a woman to go. Um, so, so there are still some strategic chops, I think in there, although it was not a great first impression to, uh, to seeing her react to, to Ori and the cast. Best thing that could happen to her is Ori goes home. Um, I think honestly, yeah, there not.

[00:39:34] And obviously it would be great for her to have that number, but I, I too worry that like, she could be great on her tribe. Yeah. What happens if we get jelly to emerge? Does she be like, does she become a little bit more lost in trying to be like, or he's kind of looking good right now, rather than, um, playing the game. Exactly. Get you ahead in the game, girl. Let's go. I mean, this is the ultimate like Craigslist misconnection ad on survivor, right? Like spent an hour with you on the beach, talk about lasagna, only saw you with challenges.

[00:40:05] I will say it was really funny though. Those whole, and I think that this is why, um, Sam and I had the same perception of jelly because it was nothing from Ori. It was all from jelly. It was like, he loves my lasagna and he loves this about me. And I was like, he's just sitting there nodding. Um, I don't really see any reaction from him. So we'll see how that goes. It's so love Island coded, right? Sam. It's always like, what do you love? Oh, I love to walk. Oh my God. I found my soulmate also left. Yeah. And here's my other thing too.

[00:40:35] I, I would have loved to be a fly on the wall for like the production meeting where they broke down the fact that jelly was really feeling a showmance with Ori because let's be honest. They love a showmance. They're like casting is dying for showmances. And then they get maybe two people who are maybe we haven't heard from Ori. Don't want to speak for him. Maybe very down to showmance. And we put them on different tribes.

[00:41:03] Like the magnetic connection that we would have had. This would have been a full showmance episode where one of them gets voted out like third because couples are too powerful. And remember Boston, Robin, Amber, but like, it would have been a great three episodes if we would have gotten them on the same tribe. Who knows what we're going to be swapping though. Like it might be happening sooner rather than later. I'm sure it is. I have a couple of big things I want to get into in terms of discussion.

[00:41:28] But before we do, there is one small thing that happened in this episode that I want to highlight on this purple tribe. And a couple of people posted. That's exactly where you're going. Okay, give me a guess here, Sam. What do you think I'm going to highlight? Yeah, this and spoken from the man who was part of Operation Billy himself. Okay, so for those of you who did not notice this, this was during one of the many Eric scenes where he breaks down, you know, talking about his proposal to his fiance, Gina DeVito.

[00:41:56] And so it's a big shot of like a bunch of people sitting together and listening to the story. This might be a little tough to hear in the audio version, but just watch or listen to what Carter is saying as Eric's in his feels. The easiest yes she's ever said in her life. You guys sound like you're meant to be. Yeah. Italian love story. Italian love story. You like spaghetti. All right.

[00:42:22] So for those of you who didn't hear, basically, you know, I guess there was an Italian love story as they talked about it. And Carter just starts asking Eric, you like spaghetti? And then Eric starts getting incredibly verklempt, just thinking about, you know, his love back at home. Carter, not necessarily reading the room, or maybe he thought he touched a nerve in a very different way. Follows up by asking the same question. You like spaghetti? That's so funny. It's so good. It's all.

[00:42:51] I loved watching this and I didn't notice this the first time either, but it was it's the fact that Eric's cry is a silent cry immediately. It's like she says the words. It hits him. We as the audience see that he's already started his cry. The emotions are coming out regardless. But I don't think anybody sitting there has noticed it yet. And so it's it would be so funny. I would like I'm sure Carter was like, what did I say? What did I?

[00:43:18] Well, I want to watch this again to get when Carter is able to notice everything here. The easiest yes she's ever said in her life. Now, you guys sound like you're meant to be. Yeah. Tell your love story. Tell your love story. You like spaghetti. He goes, he says, do you like spaghetti? You a big spaghetti guy? And that is the direct quote from Carter.

[00:43:44] But it's so funny because, though, Sam, I understand your read of it, but it seems like Carter said ask the follow up after they go. Oh, Eric. And so it feels like it's a reaction to him being emotional. And Carter's like, oh, you're a big spaghetti guy. Right. Like, I know I'm already missing food. He's crying over his spaghetti. I will say this episode was actually really good for those sort of like the editors leaving in that sort of background ish kind of subtle comments, which I thought was really fun.

[00:44:14] I didn't write all of them down, but there was one when Jeff was talking about how you're birthing a new game or whatever. Oh, and Maggie. Maggie. Yeah. Was it Maggie? Who was like, so Boston Rob's around the corner. No, I thought you were talking about when Eric said that. I thought you were talking about when Jeff says we're birthing a new game. Maggie goes, I love birthing. Yes, exactly. That's what I mean. There were so many moments like that. And there was also one even when Jeff was walking away as Lewis is like chopping down the mast or something.

[00:44:41] And Jeff just stops, turns back, and there's something along the lines of like, good luck, buddy. He's like, there were just a lot of those. He goes, he goes, good luck, Lewis. Welcome to Survivor. Yeah, exactly. There were just a lot of those little moments. And those are the things that like always stand out in my mind as, you know, almost, I don't even want to say inside jokes, but like these very little, small, subtle things. They just give the show its richness that makes it not feel so surface level. We kind of talked about this with those secondary characters where even the secondary comments

[00:45:10] add something to making it feel like a full 3D played out story and not so surface level. I love those comments because those comments are what makes you feel like these are very like, just like real people. It like it makes them feel normal in a way that is super charming and super, but also like just a delight to watch.

[00:45:34] And it's subtle, but I'm sure if you're Maggie's family watching that at home, you're, you know, laughing like crazy watching, you know, be like, ah, that's so Maggie for her to say. She loves birth. She does love birth. And if you're watching, obviously very like surface level, whatever it's, it's not the stuff that pops, but I do think it adds to like a level of just joy, kind of like a jovial spirit watching the show, which is what they're going for.

[00:46:02] Um, so that, yeah, that was really fun to see. All right. Well, let's stay on exile Island here. I mean, listen, this was a big premiere dummy tick, if you will, to quote Lewis's accent. Let's talk about the exile task here. I mean, I, for one, knowing the limited amount we do about Lewis was not surprised in the least that he was the one to volunteer, even if he thought this was going to be an I'm Sportacus moment and everyone else was going to volunteer. No, no, no. This is Mr. Take the risk. Flip the coin.

[00:46:31] Maybe he'll do so later on. Sam, do you feel though Lewis was set up to fail with this task? Um, no. Okay. No, I, I don't know. This is a hard one because again, I've played. And so I'm, I try to be cognizant of the sitting at home on the couch being like, come on. But I'm sitting there on the couch being like, Lewis, we got to go harder. What do you mean?

[00:47:00] We're not knocking down the mask. What? I was screaming. I was upset about it. Um, I do actually like typically. And I would bet that, you know, Jeff would, um, say this if he was asked about it. Right. But this was probably play tested by multiple people. And I think they're trying to find something that's like, it's gettable, but it's not easy. It's not free. It's not like we're just giving you an idol. Um, and I like that.

[00:47:26] I do think it's good that, you know, when somebody goes to exile Island and has to like work for something that it is actually difficult for them to acquire it. It helps us not have too many advantages in the game. It makes the ones that are in the game feel very well earned. Um, so I was, uh, I was a fan of the task. I felt like, I don't know, uh, TW TW the will to win. Like you, I, I was screaming being like, you would have to carry me bloody and passed out

[00:47:55] off of exile Island before I'm going home without an idol in my pocket. Um, just my thoughts though. Mm-hmm. I think, um, I think there were a few sort of technique things that would have helped. Um, so covering his hand with a shirt to protect from the blisters. He's Irishly on it. He burns easily. His eye. That's true. He needs the shirt. Um, I do. I did see something about, he could only cut on that side. That's what he said.

[00:48:23] He said for safety reasons, production told him he could only cut on that particular side. He couldn't go full lumberjack and do it from both sides. Yeah. Uh, I do imagine though, like I'm thinking from a production perspective that they would probably want that idol to be in play. So I don't think that they would make it so unattainable that you could, you couldn't do it, but I do probably agree with Sam. They still want it to be somewhat of a struggle. Although I will say the timing of Lewis, not getting the idol and then Rob finding a full

[00:48:49] idol was, I was just like, Hmm, he put that out there managed to get his, but, um, but no, I mean, I think, uh, was it the most fun task to watch? No, not necessarily. Yeah. But still, you know, I, the shot to me of Lewis laying down drinking out of his little cup thing that he made, that's actually more quintessential when I think back or what represents his time on exile Island, maybe more so than the mass thing, but still. Yeah.

[00:49:17] I, I feel bad for him because I think about the situation that he's coming into as well. Like, I don't think as we were talking about before, this is an incredibly split tribe. He's coming in with, you know, three days of having missed out essentially on the game, uh, you know, on bonds that are being made. And certainly he could try to slip in there with a bit of that, that Irish charm, but certainly has a lot of ground to make up on. Also, it seems like they were living better than he was for the first three days as well. He had to pretty much survive out on his own.

[00:49:47] So he may be conservatively weaker, weaker than his trimates too. Like I would not be incredibly surprised if this guy is on the chopping block for lack of a better term next time, just because he's an easy person to just send back out to the revolving door. I think he's so charming though. I agree with Liana that I think he's, I don't think he's very strategic, but I think he's very charming where people would want him around. Yeah.

[00:50:13] My only worry is what Mike said, which is like, if he does, if he's exhausted, if he's a little down on his luck, is there a hit to some of his hands are, I don't know, covered in blisters? Yeah. Like, uh, I mean, I, I think that, uh, there is a risk. I don't necessarily think it's going to happen, but I do think there's a risk of like Lewis being not fully Lewis and that ends up hurting him from a social standpoint when he does get back.

[00:50:38] And I fully, um, want to just take a moment to echo what both of you said outside of the, the task and whether how badly I wanted Lewis to complete it mainly because I wanted Lewis to have an idol. I think that would have been a really fun character to be walking around with an idol in his pocket. I felt awful for him because this is, I wish I could tell people how long the first night

[00:51:03] that you're on the Island feels like it, it, it just, it feels like in the first day and night, it feels like a legitimate eternity. You wake up that, that moment where you maroon, where they're like jumping off this boat. I bet you it's like 6 45 in the morning and they've been up since three and they had to board boats to leave from the resort to go and get on the boat, to get ready. And then they waited from when it was still dark outside all the way until it was the perfect hour to film for Jeff to finally pull up on that boat.

[00:51:32] They're exhausted off the jump. Then they're jumping in the water. Then they're swimming all the way over there. You're doing all this stuff, which feels like it's taking forever and it's killing you. And then you realize it's like 8 AM and you're, and you're like, wow, we have, we have a long, long, long day in front of us. So then he goes and does this full thing and has nothing to do, has nobody to talk to is just sitting there for 30 hours before he even does this task.

[00:52:02] And then I presume the next couple of days afterwards to, to get through that first tribal council cycle. So Lewis is spending his first multiple days in the game without speaking to anybody, really just alone. And that first night is, I think Anna says something, somebody says something during this episode. Like I woke up eight, like 1000 times last night in the middle of the night. And that is a universal experience of you keep waking up.

[00:52:30] It's probably every five minutes and you keep being like, surely it's morning now. Surely it's morning now. And it's not, it's not even close. So I just felt bad for Lewis being like, what a, what a whirlwind that he goes off the bat of just being alone. And I hope he recovers well. Cause I think he is very fun and very charming and would be a fun variable for the rest of this cast. Yeah. That's a good, I didn't think about the fact of having to go through basically, I would

[00:52:58] assume is two nights alone. Then having a cut, like just feeling literally an entire other reality show. Yeah. And so, yeah, he's filming naked and afraid and then everybody else is filming survivor. And so to go back in, like, I'm, I guess my opt, what I'm hoping for, because I do really appreciate Lewis as a character is that it, that is hopefully the energizing moment, not that he's going to bring sort of that drained energy with him, but I'm man. I mean, it's tough.

[00:53:26] So I, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. So lauded praises very deservedly. So for this premiere, but let's get into, I think maybe the one moment that has gotten the most heat and ironically enough, it revolves around fire. Uh, let let's get into this. Cause Jeff officially about half of the episode reveals. This is what the open era is anything and everything is possible. And that's why we're going to vote right now to determine if fire making is going to

[00:53:56] happen at final four. And I've seen a lot of discourse about this and okay, this is very much apples and oranges, but at least I was reminded a little bit of survivor 41, not only with the, uh, drop the four, keep the one attitude, but this idea that Jeff is saying like, okay, listen, there's this thing that we might want to do, but we're going to put this in your hands.

[00:54:21] Hey, people who are financially incentivized and have cameras coming on them from all angles. Do you want fire making or do you not want fire making? And then listen, I will give kudos to the people who stood 10 toes down in either direction, considering that I imagine there's a lot of peer pressure, both in front of him behind the camera to be like, no, I like fire making. But then Jeff decides. And I'm low key kind of obsessed with this moment because it's Jeff just fully taking

[00:54:49] this time to be like, all right, I'm so glad you're having fun. Cause I have something I need to say to the fans out there. The people who've approached me at the gym, when I'm playing with my kids at the park, when I'm using a public restroom that you don't like fire making, the players want it. And again, I understand it. It's open air and it's not to say that fire making won't appear in other seasons, but I don't know. Sam, I just got a lot of shades of like, this felt like propping something up and making

[00:55:19] a statement by using for lack of a better term, a captive audience to do so. Yeah. My only issue with it is that it it's a disingenuous effort to do the vote because it's never going to be unit one, never going to be unanimous to especially publicly as well. Right. Yeah. To at least from what we saw, they didn't have the opportunity to do what they have at tribal council when they need to be unanimous, right? You tie a vote multiple times.

[00:55:46] It says, Hey, we're going to rocks unless you can come to a unanimous decision. Talk amongst yourselves. Right. I would have been way more interested to see Kristen and Kilby stand up and say, here's why we should remove fire making, get rid of it. Like, come on, put your hands up. Like, let's vote. Like try to whip those votes together to get it unanimous. Does it work? Probably not. But I think it's interesting. Right. Versus right now, blind hands up. I need all 20 of you to be on the exact same page that we're going to get rid of it. Otherwise, it's not going to happen.

[00:56:16] That's just not a genuine effort ever to do it. So not that it would have mattered if they were doing majority rules anyway. 15 of them wanted fire making to stay. So it probably would have won. I like fire making. I actually don't have an issue with it. I think it's given us more compelling end games than it typically would have. The final four fire making winner. 100% biased. But I mean, if you look at, you know, somebody like Savannah wins 49 after winning fire making,

[00:56:45] you get Kenzie wins 46 after winning fire making. I think there's multiple examples where some Kenzie wins fire making, right? She does against them. I think there's multiple examples, like even in 47, right? Where me winning fire making makes the final tribal council more compelling and more interesting. than you would otherwise get. So I like it as a game mechanic. I don't blame anybody that doesn't.

[00:57:10] My only issue is the Jeff doing this speech that is not genuine. If we're being very honest about what this is. And it took up way too much airtime for it to be not genuine. Yeah, that's my feelings. Exactly. I also want to put it in the context of the monologue that Jeff gave at the very beginning of the episode because Jeff walking around basically being like, we have no say in anything that happens during the game. It's all up to you guys.

[00:57:40] And I understand what he's saying. However, to then follow it up in the same episode with at times you will have agency over how you play, which is sort of a weird dichotomy to basically be saying like, oh, we don't do anything. And then it's like, oh, but actually we do as production still make active choices and set things up in a way that influences how you play. So I just I just call a spade a spade. Yeah, of course, production has some influence over how it goes. It's not intentional. And I think the way that people think that it's not like they're out there specifically

[00:58:10] trying to target Lewis to be like Lewis will never get an idol. We're going to make the hatchet dull. So the poor Lewis, if everyone voted for to get rid of fire making, he was the only person who wanted to do it. Oh, yeah. Wait, what did they actually do about Lewis? Oh, my God. Poor Lewis. He didn't even get a vote. He did say on social media that he would have voted for no fire making. OK, OK, interesting. Well, easy to say that when he's safe back at home. They could have sent an after T-ballot in. Yeah, mail it in from exile.

[00:58:37] I think, too, Liana, to your point, like it is also a direct contradiction to this idea of permanent uncertainty. I heard Rob make this point on the thing of like, you don't know what to expect, except I'm telling you right now, fire making is going to happen at the final four. Does it not make way more sense to be like, maybe we'll have it? Maybe we won't. It's permanent uncertainty. This is the open era. And then you can just do whatever you want. And ultimately what it is. I hate to do this. Jeff, I'm so sorry.

[00:59:08] Is it's, you know, in the hands of the fans was an excuse for production to do what they wanted to do and have somebody else to point to as being in control so that they don't take heat for the choices that are done. This is the players want it. We're listening to the players. The players want it when it is not, as I said, a genuine effort to actually make the vote. So I don't have an issue with it. I think that production should do what they just want to do. I think fire making is cool.

[00:59:38] I'm just like, we don't have to do the whole dance to, you know, especially because again, the vote is, hey, would you want this thing that if at the final four, you were in a tough place, you could feasibly work your way out of, or would you prefer to get voted out automatically at the final? Yeah, right. It's exactly. And it's like, as someone who also probably would not want final four fire, if I was a player, hell yeah. I'm voting for final four fire making like, yes, of course I want that in the game as a player. Like I wouldn't want to get rid of it.

[01:00:08] I think, I think again, just like to overall, it's fine. I think I just kind of roll my eyes at it and it's just like, whatever, move on. It's just Jeff going to Jeff. I think it's just like, yeah, it just, I think because it took up so much time, it was just like, this is a waste of time. If you want to just do it, just do it. Like just own your choices. If you want to remove, come on in guys, just remove, come on in guys. Like if you want to keep final four fire making, just keep final four fire making. It's almost like you're telegraphing your insecurity about the decision. Like just own it.

[01:00:35] Just be confident in the decision that you make and say, Hey, look, we like final four fire making because of X, Y, and Z. And I think that there has been a bit of a shift of fans over time that have, have come to be like, yeah. The majority voted for it in survivor 50. That's true. But, and also I don't disagree with any of the examples that Sam gave, right? Like I kind of have to be like, yeah, he's right. Those were great, exciting moments that it ultimately ended up giving us. So anyway, I just want, I just want production to just own their choices. Just own it. Yeah.

[01:01:04] I did love, by the way, going back to what you were saying before Sam, that like experiential theater monologue that Jeff gave. I mean, as a player, how would you have felt if during Jeff's opening speech, he was walking like three inches in front of your face as he processed around the boat? I mean, it's a crazy introduction. It's just like, it, it, it's wild because you know, it, it also feels super old school, right? Like this idea of Jeff with like speaking to the drone as he kind of like gives his own monologue and he's doing the 26 days, 21 people.

[01:01:33] I mean, he said that the very first few seconds of the episode were the exact same things that he said in the opening episodes of Borneo. Yeah. No, it's so epic. I mean, like, I just remember walking. Ours was like walking up on the beach and you see him standing there, which is like, you know, its own kind of experience. But, um, and you've obviously met Jeff multiple times leading up to actually filming. But I do think the idea of like, I'm on a barge in the middle of the South Pacific and Jeff Probst is doing one of his monologues right in front of me would be crazy cool.

[01:02:03] Um, and definitely get you excited. The adrenaline would be pumping, ready to jump off the boat and, uh, do whatever you got to do at that point. Mm-hmm. Before we get into our, because I know we're, we're over an hour here, but there's so much to get into any thoughts from either one of you about this big twist that the coin flip is again, a certain part of the permanent uncertainty. But now I think we're really one of the first times in survivor history.

[01:02:29] We have a twist that has a direct effect on the seasons that follow it. Yeah. Uh, I, I like this. I think I, I kind of do. I mean, here's what I like about it. I like that he announced it. Again, I love that he talked about it at the top. Goes against the idea of permanent uncertainty. I don't care, but, but I don't care because, um, I think, you know, when you add big things

[01:02:55] like this to the game, the most important thing to do is give the players equity to play around it. It's not, Hey, we're at the final six. Boom. Nuke on your head. Someone's got to flip a coin. And if you don't want to, we're going to make one of you flip the coin. The fact that you know, it's coming now gives you the agency as a player to account for it in your strategic gameplay. And if you don't, that's on you. And if it ends up coming back to get you out of the game, is it the coolest way to go out? No.

[01:03:20] But again, there were ways for you to possibly strategize your way around it and avoid it. And I think that, uh, it is going to be fun to watch. Do you influence somebody to try to flip the coin? How do you, I mean, we know that the coin comes with an idol. We know that it comes with safety for that round. So now even if you're in a kind of good spot, maybe you're a front runner in the game, but you're like, Hey, this gets me through this round and the next round and it ups the prize pot.

[01:03:47] Like it, now that you know what it is, what it entails and how it can play out to benefit you. Um, it just, it gives you your own say in your fate. And then here's what I think ultimately too, they're looking for the TV moment. They had this whole big season 50 where they brought back all these iconic players. They did all this stuff. The best moment of the season that people talked about was Rick Devins flipping the coin, whether you felt it was authentic to the spirit of survivor or not.

[01:04:15] That's, you know, I think people have different opinions about that, but that was the takeaway. That was the moment. That was what Jeff was talking about at the Emmys as like, we had this really cool moment where this guy flipped this coin. This builds in a TV moment one way or the other for every season from now on in a, in a cool way. Um, and I hope we get a bunch of people to get eliminated on it because I think it would be funny. Especially after the Rick Devins success.

[01:04:44] Like it is very interesting that it's like, it has a 100% success rate on a, what should be a 50% chance success rate. So it is very, very likely that a person absolutely whiffs on the coin toss and goes out automatically. You know, I think for me, what I didn't really comprehend until they were talking about, and if you miss, it goes to 2 million. And then if they miss again, it goes to 3 million. I was like, oh, so the prize money that they have allocated for survivor is basically 2 million per season. Yep. Um, which is kind of nuts.

[01:05:13] I mean, it's been a long time coming. It's been a million dollars. He's just like a consistent benefactor to the show. Let's go. Um, uh, so, you know, I'm going to be curious to see how that financial incentive changes things. If at all, the parties, like, I don't think it actually will all that much. Um, but who knows if you've got a season where they've missed the coin flip over and over again and $8 million is the prize. Like, I don't know. Brady may actually kill somebody. I mean, what would be super interesting is if it builds up to a certain point and that's

[01:05:43] when they do a returning player season. Yeah, exactly. They're like, oh, if you're not going to come back for $2 million, how about you come back for six or seven? Hey, Jerry, I think that's maybe part of the calculus. It's open era, man. Let's go. I think that is part of the calculus. And I think it would be like, I don't know. I think it's it can do more good than bad, right? Like the fear in 50 was always because it was new, because it was unheard of, because it was out of the blue.

[01:06:07] If you don't have a Rick Devins who's in a spot to flip the coin, um, you randomly draw Sari gets the thing. She flips the coin. She goes home. You end up with like one of your big fish going out in a way that is like, that's not survivor, right? Yeah. And here's what I'll go one level further. I'm talking myself into more points here. Yes. What does Jeff want? Jeff wants you to play all out, right?

[01:06:33] Even when it's not necessarily great gameplay right off the rip to play super hard. He says, play like it's your second time, your first time, all of this stuff. I think that we've seen multiple results over and over and over again of seasons that incentivize you to try to play quieter. As I mentioned with the new era, this idea that ideal gameplay is actually just kind of biding your time till final five and then kind of coming on right at the end.

[01:06:58] This allows another opportunity where if you're Rick Devins, if you're the big dog that everybody wants out of the game, maybe that coin flip drops in and then you're safe and then you've gotten idle and then you're safe again and it gives you it's going to give some of the power players a little a few more chances to really make it deep into the game, which I think is what the show ultimately wants. And I think it will be fun for the fans to watch the big characters that have win equity continue to stay alive.

[01:07:27] Yeah, I think that Jeff puts a lot of stock in that moment from 50 to the point where when I talked to him about, you know, what was the impact 50 had on 51? He said that this cast plays with this idea of I want to flip the coin. I want to be the Rick Devins. We've got a lot of people who are inspired by that, not cavalier or risky, but joyful. This idea of like, listen, it's more likely than not that I'm going to lose anyway. So let me just try anything and everything.

[01:07:56] When I talked to him about Jelly and Ori, he literally said, Jelly, that's someone who would flip the coin in the way that she's so cavalier about how open she is with her feelings towards Ori. So again, even if everyone is coming, especially this season from a lot of different backgrounds and knowledge of the show, I think what they're really trying to capture with the casting now in the 50s, maybe is this attitude of whether literally or metaphorically, are you going to flip the coin? Are you going to be someone to ironically enough, take the game in your own hands for a 50 50

[01:08:25] game of chance? Hmm. Do we have any idea of how the mechanics of this are going to work? Like, is this like a shot in the dark type situation where you can be like, I'm playing the coin or just to wait until a specific time? To the best of my knowledge, I believe it's going to like last season drop in at one point in time. I don't think this is at any point in time. Okay. The coin flip comes out. I think because Jeff, I think I had alluded to me that he's like, and they don't know what it's going to happen. So I think now it's interesting. I think it came up at what final 10, final nine.

[01:08:55] Last season. So, and listen, there's a big, this is a big ass cast. Maybe they'll do the same time. Cause I also think even without the, like you talk about the, does the calculus change with the increasing price pool? I feel like the timing of that also really matters. If my prize pot gets doubled and it's final nine. Okay. Maybe I want to start making some bigger moves now that I'm going to be making twice as much money. Or okay. Hear me out. If it stays at a million, you're like, okay, I need to lose, but make a big enough

[01:09:21] impact come back as a returning player on a downstream season, hoping that the price will be higher. I'm just saying. I don't think that's outrageous because I do think you do. They do cast people less so in the open air, I think, but they do cast people who are so cognizant of the entity that is the television show survivor and the edit and wanting to be a big character and wanting to be a returning player and all this and that. And, uh, I mean, it worked out pretty well for Rick Devins could work out even better

[01:09:49] for him on Thursday, but, um, I mean the idea of, Hey, if I am flipping this coin and making this big splashy move production's going to love it. I'm going to be a big, uh, big character of the season. And that's definitely going through people's heads too, in a way that, uh, that is fun. So more big characters is always a, I think that's a plus in general is, is get more of that, that energy. And I think it will, uh, a rising tide will lift all ships in this case.

[01:10:19] Well, speaking of the characters of this season, let's get into one of the dearly departed from this episode. We've got to crack open the time capsule as freshly dug as it might be to give our preseason predictions. Now, this is incredibly interesting. As we've said multiple times, there really was no preseason. There was very limited information to go off of, especially after previous years. So to say this was, uh, fittingly enough, a shot in the dark when it comes to writing these things would be an understatement. I don't know how you feel, Liana. Yeah, definitely. Um, I wrote some stuff.

[01:10:48] Let's see how it goes. All right. So we're talking about Aaliyah here first alphabetically last place in this season, but what did you think she was going to cook up in the preseason? I did have Aaliyah as pre-merge. So we're starting off somewhat strong. I'm curious just because our structures might be different as well, because we also don't know when the jury is going to start. How many people do you know? Like how many pre-merge versus post-merge you have for numbers? Uh, I don't know off the top of my head. I'll have to go back and look.

[01:11:17] Um, I think I just assumed we could have a huge jury. This like another. Yeah, I went with, um, like, um, jury starts at 13. So I think I went 10 jury final three and then eight pre-jury boots. Okay. Yeah. Um, I think I probably worked backwards from that similar structure. Um, okay. So anyway, I had, uh, okay. Uh, she is relatively non-existent for the first couple episodes outside of a few random loud comments, uh, from her in the background.

[01:11:46] We hear people talk about her more than we actually hear from her while she forms type bonds with jelly. Other players keep making comments about Alaya saying she's stirring the pot a bit too much. A few episodes into the pre-merge, all of a sudden she is everywhere. She gets a bunch of confessionals and starts cooking up her game plan to burn big meat boy Brady.

[01:12:11] Unfortunately for her, the concern for tribe strength is alive and well, and Brady is full of protein. She realizes this far too late and is unable to talk herself out of trouble leading to an early boot. Ally was jelly. Enemy was Brady. Look at you, Liana. You said, oh, I just threw a bunch of nonsense on the page. You put together a wonderful prediction. It's really good. I know. Uh, certainly compared to mine. Uh, I did have her making the pre-jury, but I think that's where our comparisons end.

[01:12:40] Uh, so I wrote, with the limited number of resources gathered after the marooning, marooning, uh, Aliyah immediately becomes the head chef of her tribe. Her knowledge and talent instantly lifts spirits, putting her in the majority. As survivor service moves along, however, Aliyah becomes more vocal about how both the kitchen and camp should be run. Even her closest allies begin musing in confessional that she's getting dangerously close to packing her knives and going.

[01:13:06] After the tribe swap, Aliyah gets brought over to the other beach, separated from most of her allies. She unfortunately makes a bad first impression when, during the return of the gross food eating challenge, she fails to get down her dish, chucking it up to a too refined palate. Unfortunately, with nobody serving as her strategic sue, Aliyah is served up on a silver platter as the perfect post-swap boot, leaving her chances of making the merge chopped.

[01:13:31] I said her closest ally was Maggie and Devin and her enemy was Balut. Strategic sue. I was going to say, a woman close to your heart. That got my, that got my ears perked up. It's like, I'm sorry. What? Trauma? Um, that's, I didn't think about, you know, I, it's actually, I didn't think about old school challenges returning. So that's what I try to, uh, I guess I'll let Aliyah pepper in, in every one of my predictions, like something that's going to come back in this season. That would rock that.

[01:14:00] I mean, that was like my like generous interpretation of open air is that we would get some stuff like that where you're like, yeah, that's more like that's, um, yeah, I think I have to award the point here. I'm, I'm going to go with Liana. It was kind of easy one. I mean, dead on by the way, not just with the, uh, the Brady and the jelly, uh, relationships there, but I like, you know, you had the cause of death, uh, pretty accurate here, which,

[01:14:25] uh, Aliyah, maybe just a little too messy, you know, like saying Brady's name and stirring the pot a little bit unnecessarily right before the first tribal council ends up being what gets the ball rolling on her removal. Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, I will absolutely take that. I believe it all is all going to go downhill from here. So we'll see. I'll hold on to this point. Exactly. Uh, on the board first. So, okay, well let's move on to our game of the episode.

[01:14:54] So look, there was a lot of talk about professions and particularly with Devin questioning whether or not Jenna was a wedding photographer. So what I have put together is a game where I will challenge you two on the professions of the cast of survivor 51. So the way this works is smoke me in this. Okay. You can look up, if you want to look up the cast list, you can look up at it. Um, that's, that would be totally fair.

[01:15:22] Um, so the way this game is going to work is I'm going to show you emojis that represent the profession of someone who is on this season of survivor. So for example, I might show a bride, a camera, and that would indicate, of course, Jenna as a wedding photographer. I, I love, by the way, when, and you want to honestly, uh, not to take two things too far down a different trail here. I feel like Devin is a very traders coded survivor player.

[01:15:51] Like him questioning, Oh, you don't know this. Therefore you're not a wedding photographer. And then especially him kind of treating tribal council, like a round table by being like, I'm just going to be open and upfront. I'm voting for this person. I didn't really think about it until really thought started coalescing before this podcast. Yeah. He's giving loud and wrong faithful, right? Like that's, um, that's kind of the energy we have here, but. Okay. So, um, the way that the structure of the game is going to work is I actually have three

[01:16:19] emojis per person and I will reveal them sequentially. So if you guess the person with just one emoji, you will get three points. Um, if you guess with two emojis, two points and one point for all three emojis, if you fail to answer the other person will have the opportunity to steal. So, okay. So it's not a buzz in it's like, it's not a buzz. I would say 21 people on the board, but I imagine Jenna's excluded. Yeah. Sorry. Jenna was the example.

[01:16:49] So, um, okie dokie let's get started. Mike, we're going to have you. Also, why is Mike white in the corner there? Sorry. Because the emoji movie and this is, it's the flag of whales to represent the whales. You guys get it? I was also curious about Mike, Mike White's involvement. It's the emoji movie. Look, there's a little head in the corner. It's so cute. You guys ever seen the emoji movie? Are you a fan? I've never actually seen it. I've watched it actually a fair number of times. My son and I have watched it.

[01:17:18] You ever seen the emoji movie? Okay, let's go to the first contestant. All right, Mike, your first emoji is corn. So the issue is, is that this represents exactly one several of the cast. I am not so lucky to flip the coin here or the three sided die. So give me the second clue. All right, let's give you the second clue. It is a knife. A knife. A knife. A knife. What's that?

[01:17:48] Okay. Well, this is interesting now because I would have thought armor, but Aaliyah is a chef and she presumably does work with corn. I'm going to play it safe here and go with the final one. Okay, so your final emoji. Liana Boris. I know a classic zig when I see one, so I'm going to zag. It's Aaliyah. That is correct. Yes. That was good.

[01:18:17] That was good for me to see because, wow, I'm prepared now for. You know, listen, it's permanent uncertainty. You know, just because someone works with corn doesn't mean they're a farmer. I'm I'm absolutely waiting for Phil to get out on the mat for this season of The Amazing Race and be like, oh, it's guaranteed chaos. Yeah, exactly. Let's just look up all the thesaurus words. Yeah, exactly. Okay, so Mike, you're on the board with one point.

[01:18:47] Sam, let's go to the next contestant. So the first emoji is an alarm clock. An alarm clock. An alarm clock. I'm just observing some of these. Yeah, take a look through the list. I mean, regardless, I don't think I'm ready to pull the trigger on alarm clock. So I will I will ask for a second emoji. Okay. Your second emoji.

[01:19:17] It is. Okay. I don't know what to make of that. Hmm. Hmm. Oh, okay. I'm ready. Okay. You have a guess. Let's hear it. Okay. We'll take a shot. Sure. I'm going to say that this is Rhode Island. Rob. The airline gate agent. Okay. Let's see if that third emoji clears anything up for you.

[01:19:45] It is indeed an airplane. What's the alarm clock? Well, because like you have to make your flight on time. He's at the gate. He's like, he's like alarm. Come on. I was second guessing my guess because of the alarm clock included. Look, this structure is supposed to be one would be exceptionally difficult. I can't imagine you would get it to like subtle enough to have a clue. And then third is like obvious. Okay. Listen, I feel like I'm still paying the invoice for that.

[01:20:16] What's in the bag game from last season. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's still so funny to me. Okay. Mike, we're going to you. This is a little growing sprout. Okay. A little sprout. It's a little sprout. A little sprout. Now again, could be a farmer or this could be, I don't know, someone who raises little sprouts in the form of children at home. Uh, let's go with the next one. Okay.

[01:20:43] Your next emoji is a Russian nesting. Hang on. Do these emojis exist or are you just, I don't, I've ever seen this. Okay. This actual, there is on my phone. I basically played this by scrolling through my phone and looking through all the emojis. I do have a Russian nesting doll emoji, but I couldn't find a good picture. So I do have one on my phone. Okay. Okay. So Russian nesting doll. Yeah. And a sprout.

[01:21:13] Hmm. Okay. I'm trying to think like, are these roles that like Anna was a part of, you know, like she was in like strawberry shortcake. Did she play like a role called sprout in that? And then the Russian nesting doll. Did she do voices for some sort of Russian cartoon? Well, they're, they're doll strawberry shortcake. I'm going to say Anna. I'll go with Anna.

[01:21:43] Okay. Anna, that is incorrect. So Sam, you have an opportunity to steal. I have a guess that I hope is not right. Okay. Can I see another one or do I have to go now? You, if you, okay. So you can guess now for two points or you can see one more for one point. You know what? I'm going to take the coin flip and do what Jeff would want me to do. Let's go.

[01:22:08] You're, you're telling me that there's a sprout, that there's a, a, a seed perhaps. Ah, I'm going to guess Sharonda. Okay. Let's see. I'm going to say, is this an OBGYN that we're going for here? Well, let's see. The final emoji for this contestant was a. Are you kidding me? Come on.

[01:22:38] Come on. Sam, you're crushing it. That's amazing. Yes. Because she pulls people out from inside other people. This is the most graphic description of an OBGYN I've ever heard. That's why I said I was hoping it would not be correct. From the woman on the panel, by the way, from the woman be like, it's like a Russian sign. You grab the seed. Just open them up. Pull them out. Liana did a great job keeping the poker face there. When I started going down the rabbit hole, I was. No, dude, this is incredible. That's so funny.

[01:23:06] But Mike, you were like, so like they like growing, like birthing, like growing things. I was like. Oh, no. Okay. So Sam, you are ahead by three points with a score of four to Mike's one. And we're going back to you for our next contestant. Okay. So this emoji is the division. Oh, it's the Sharonda again, because she divides the mother from the child. Yes. Thank you.

[01:23:34] I'm going to very firmly have to take a second emoji here. Okay. Let's see the second emoji. It is little business suit. Division with like a little, yeah, little, little fancy. The get up. You know what? I know I have my three point lead. I'm going to make it a two possession game and see that third emoji and go for one point. Okay. Your third emoji is a baseball.

[01:24:04] Well, I'm going to say that this is Mike Pinsky. That is correct. Yes. Baseball executive because he does math with. He does do math. Oh, I thought you were talking about like, oh, it's the American League division is what he's a part of. Oh, yeah. Maybe. I don't know. I was thinking math. I didn't get that far. And then he's little because he's an executive. So he's got all sit and he plays baseball. So, all right. Yes. Sam, as you said, this is a two possession game as we go back to Mike.

[01:24:34] This Mike. Not Mike Pinsky. Ooh, a web. Yes. Your first emoji is a web. A web. Okay. A web. Keep that in mind. Let's get the second one. Okay. Your second clue is two people. That's next to each other. Two people next to each other. Okay. So I'm trying to think about the web, like the world wide web.

[01:25:03] Someone who works a lot online. And two people next to each other. I can't really think of people who like predominantly have something going on from a pure internet perspective. Hmm. I don't want to keep making this a two possession game, but I got to actually get points here. So give me the last one. Okay.

[01:25:28] The last one is a whiteboard with a woman with a pointer chalk stick thing. I don't want to describe exactly what that is. That still is a little. This doesn't exactly clarify anything. What? A web. Someone next to somebody. Mm-hmm. And someone on a whiteboard. Hmm. Is it like a sociology professor like jelly? Perhaps it is.

[01:25:57] Yes. Yes. The web was like the network of humanity. Are you kidding me? Well, because, you know, sociology, study of different people is incredible. The network of humanity? Everybody knows that. Come on, Mike. Yeah. Everybody knows that, Mike. The network of humanity is how chat GPT describes us when we're going to be. It's slaves us all. Okay. So Sam has mathematically eliminated Mike already from this competition. Spoiler alert. This is your final question, Sam.

[01:26:28] We're going back to you. Your first emoji is a tornado. Okay. A tornado. Mm-hmm. A tornado. Hmm. I want to try to go right now to keep Mike in it a little bit. Oh, thank you. Thank you for taking pity on me. I'll see one more. I'll see one more. Okay. One more. A fire extinguisher. Okay.

[01:26:58] I think I'm going to guess that this is Kristen who works in crisis management. Okay. Let's see if your final emoji reveal that it is a siren, which does, in fact, represent Kristen as our crisis manager. Yes. The tornado of confusion that's caused. A disaster emerges. I'm sorry. Would you not consider a tornado a disaster, which would warrant a crisis? I'm sorry.

[01:27:26] I'm just going back to your AP English definition with these first emojis. Okay. I have. I do have a tie, but Sam has very obviously crushed this competition. Let's give Mike one more shot because I think he may have a particular affinity for this particular tiebreaker. Your first emoji. Yeah. Bone. Yes.

[01:27:51] The three emojis for Linnea were a bone, a briefcase, and of course, the eggplant emoji. What was the briefcase? Business. Yeah. A little business. A little store. Exactly. Thank you. Sam knows. Sam's picking up what I'm putting down. Um, I read those first two emojis as bone business. I know exactly where I'm going. Who's in the bone business. Yeah. The bone business. Exactly. All right. Well, congratulations, Sam. You are the winner here.

[01:28:20] That Sharonda guest was so clutch. That was so well done. It was absolutely clutch. And Mike, if I do give you those three points from the tiebreaker, it is you still lost, but at least it's close. Slightly close. I'm like Jenna and Kilby. I caught up on the puzzle, but it wasn't enough. I'm proud of you. Sorry for you. Okay. Put up the banner. There we go. Pull it up. All erected. It's not from a Linnea perspective. All right. Well, Sam, we're going to keep things on you because, of course, at the end of every week

[01:28:47] here on the B&B, we allow our guests the opportunity to highlight a charity or cause outside of all this nonsense we talk about, Survivor, that is very important to them that you want the listeners to know about. What do you have on the docket? I'm going to highlight. This is my specific one. You all have your specific one as well. But Nashville Humane Society is where I got my cat from, and they give animals new homes.

[01:29:15] They give the people taking in the animals coupons, money, free vet visits, all of the things that you would need to become a pet owner and re-home an animal that needs it. So I want to just highlight your local animal shelters and your local service, your workers who are working at these nonprofits to make these animals have good lives. So, yeah. Incredibly well said.

[01:29:40] Well, Sam, I cannot think of a better person to kick off these entire proceedings with us, both the season and the open era in general, offering, as always, valuable insights and incredible gamesmanship. So if there's anything anybody wants to check out, of course, you are about to hit, hopefully, your busy season, considering that you're about to get into some postseason coverage in the midst of Survivor season. But is there anything you'd like to plug for the listeners out there? Well, I mean, yeah. You check out the social media.

[01:30:09] The personal stuff kind of goes on Instagram. The work stuff goes on Twitter a little bit more with occasional Survivor commentary. But if you have a weird niche crossover interest in baseball, football and Survivor, go check out my Twitter. You'll probably enjoy it. But if you don't, you'll probably be annoyed. I'm not going to lie. There's a lot out there that is not your cup of tea. But maybe. Who knows?

[01:30:35] I also know that you are one of the many contributors on the app, formerly known as ChatBCC, currently known as Ramble. Yeah, Ramble just got just got back up there, actually, after a brief hiatus on Ramble. So more of my extended Survivor thoughts will be on Ramble every week. Strategic stuff, just kind of like all the fun observations that we talk about here as well of of thoughts on a season that I think is going to be really, really fun.

[01:31:02] So I'm very excited to talk about it on Ramble every week as well. Completely agree. I think that even if we have some more misgivings with a couple of small things, I think overall incredibly good vibes coming out of the premiere. The concept, the cast, the vote. It just makes me really eager to see the freshness and the newness that's going to be brought to getting giving some of these familiar concepts a sense of the unfamiliar. Of course, check out the stuff that Liana and I are doing on a weekly basis. Liana with the pal.

[01:31:31] I have my interview with Aaliyah up over on Parade. I mean, right now we're encroaching upon what I like to refer to as the reality TV equinox where we have Big Brother ending next week. We have the Survivor episode two, and then we also have the two night amazing race premiere, which I'll be doing here on RHAP. So a lot is happening at once. Sam, I'd be remiss not to ask you about your Big Brother thoughts if you have any as we lost one Survivor and one is in quite an interesting position right now.

[01:31:56] Well, I've been I've been pulling for my Survivors all season long, and I am just really hoping Rick Devins can get this thing across the finish line. And I love Rick. I think he's played incredible and he's always been Big Brother coded like this isn't a surprise to anybody that, you know, he's got and let's see. He's always had the clutch gene. He's been in the spot once before a challenge away from winning Survivor Edge of Extinction. So I'm hoping he can finish the job.

[01:32:25] I think he's very deserving and would get himself his win. But I think it's been an awesome Big Brother season, like really has been a compelling end game with characters that you're passionate about one way or the other. And it feels like the power has shifted so much where we have had these icons make it deep into the game in the end game. And now the question is, does does one of Taylor or Drew who have kind of been biding their time

[01:32:53] waiting for this opportunity to snipe both the icons out? Can one of them do it right at the end? And I don't know. I want Rick to win, but obviously Taylor versus Drew at the end is like the more compelling final vote, which would be really interesting. So it's a win win no matter who wins. And yeah, as Sam was mentioning, if you want to check out my interview with the other icon, the recently departed D, check that out. She gave a lot of really interesting insights as well as we look ahead to finale night.

[01:33:19] It's a very survivor laden week of CBS reality TV. And I'm so excited to be back into it, especially with such an exciting survivor premiere. Of course, if you have any game ideas, feel free to send anything, everything emojis if you want to. RHAPBNB at gmail.com or hashtag RHAPBNB on social media. Special thanks to everyone behind the scenes at RHAP for packaging this podcast for your eyes and ears. And we're from America bringing back that theme song. That thing will never change.

[01:33:48] Like when Kristen was singing the old school ancient voices. We're never going to get rid of that anytime soon. Music to my ears, quite literally. Leon and I will be back next week covering episode two of Survivor 51 and whatever it might break. Until then, everybody, we'll check you out. Make sure next day.