Survivor 44 Episode 8 Review ft Snuffed

0:00 Welcome back to the nullify Tech channel here on YouTube where we've got the TNT takes for you on Survivor 44 episode 8. I'm your host Chris and for those that have been listening to my podcast and following along for a very long time I got him everyone I brought him in from the edge of Extinction my former co-host Riley how you doing snuffed yeah how's it Chris it's great to see you I didn't seem to get the memo because you know after season 40 they got rid of the sting show but I was just stuck there so no good to be back and finally podcasting with you after it's been a long time probably Survivor 41 around that time was the last time we spoke on this podcast so great to be here and you know what a journey has been the last couple seasons and this one especially is really to learn on all levels yeah listen I'm excited to have you on I'm excited to get your takes and opinions I know there's going to be a lot of people who followed the two of us podcasting where we did season 41 all the way back and I believe brainsbury's has Brawn for Australian Survivor was the season we also covered together so I know people are going to be very excited but I know these people out there that is wondering what happened to snuffed you know you used to post such a large amount of content out on your YouTube channel snub is there something in the works are you ever gonna come back do it again or are you still taking a break I don't want to put pressure on you because I know

1:20 Yeah you took a bit of a break from it but let people know what's happening you know because I think a few people might wonder no I've certainly thought about re-re and invigorating the channel and you know maybe at some point but I don't want to make any promises not to get people's hopes up no maybe one day down the track you'll see a new video pop up no I've been doing lots of stuff on traveling you know all over the place Europe and the US and Asia you know really just living my own life a little bit still watching Survivor but just yeah not doing the podcast and the YouTube these days maybe one day I'll come back but it's good just you know to dip in every now and then and come and have a great chat about the show so yeah really looking forward to you know give all my thoughts on the season because I mean there has been plenty to talk about especially with all the spanners that Jeff Probst has thrown into the ring yeah 100 and you know you're always welcome on the podcast here you've always you know got a platform if you want to just come and have a chat if there's something on your mind Survivor related but you don't necessarily want to post it up on your channel but like you mentioned there has been a lot that's happened this season and quite a few YouTube content creators have come together I think recently we did a bit and I'll give a shout out to Once Upon an island we did a video on his channel to talk about how to fix Survivor and we had myself Russell muscle TV and Flynn Masters all contributing

2:41 To it Riley what's your general thoughts on where Survivor has gone are you enjoying Survivor 44 Jeff was higher on this than 43 do you think he's spot on he's nailing it with his assessment of this so far being a better season than 43 or 42. yeah I think you know Jeff is sort of having his three-quarter life crisis at this point you know he's just throwing everything at the wall trying to it seems like he's trying to kill Survivor but when you listen to him on his on fire podcast he really does believe that it is you know for the better and I will say that you know the unexpected nature of the new era is great in some aspects but when you know have to have a pen and paper and you're such a super fan of the show and you still can't follow what's going on it becomes a little bit difficult but the one thing I really like about this new era and what we've seen especially with this season is the amount of characters we've had and you know it seems like they're casting a lot more super fans who know the game a little bit everyone seems to be 3D printing and practicing puzzles these days Carson included obviously so it's really great to see everyone really coming into the game with a passion and wanting to play their own game whereas you know in previous Seasons you know prior to season 40 and I suppose Australian Survivor is also a victim of this you get people who just lounge around Camp you know wanting to either get famous or out there for

4:01 The adventure whereas everyone really seems to be playing which is which is great fun but ultimately a little bit hard to track but no I've been loving it so far I do think that you know there is an argument to be made for there to be a balance between super fans and those who don't know the game that are coming into it because sometimes some of our best characters not this season because Carolyn's a super fan and she's probably the biggest character this season but you know sometimes some of our best characters they weren't fans when they came onto the show like a Philip Shepard a coach Wade you know someone like Keith nail R.I.P you know we lost the legend this week you know not the biggest fan of the show but came in as a casual and then stole our hearts because they learned the game on the go and they became this Larger than Life character on the show so but there's a lot that you mentioned in regards to you know Jeff throwing a lot of things to the wall and just trying to see what sticks I get GIF right I feel like Jeff is going all in on the scenes that he's like people need to understand we need twists in the game and we need the game to evolve none of us argue that you don't argue that I don't argue with none of us that are enthusiasts about the show argued but do we need 10 different things happening in one season and also you know no round of voting is ever the same almost like we had our first normal Tribal Council this episode which I know people have been waiting for because we've had back to back twists to the vote

5:22 Yeah exactly and actually this is the first normal final term that we've had since the edge of Extinction island of the artist had the split twist winners at War Jeremy didn't attend the Tribal Council on that one and then 41-42 and 43 were all split tribals as well so it's nice to actually see for once a normal Tribal Council and again you know just saying Idol played and you know the plan that the minority usurping the majority in this case which is really great to see wow it has been all over the map wow so you trust the players for one round and they deliver absolute gold and strategy which is what we want to see as fans of the show now I know when I spoke to you and when I reached out you said that you were behind on Australian Survivor have you caught up and have you watched the full current season of Australian Survivor I think I'm still stuck on the Sarah boot so I think episode six or seven I was in the US when it started to wear so I you know I was so busy with traveling and then I was also working while I was over there so I fell a little bit behind the schedule but it's a lot to catch up on I have heard fantastic things about the season and obviously I do know the outcome ultimately so yeah I definitely still worth watching at some stage it's about you know carving the time out because it is a big time commitment but no it's

6:42 Great to see especially you know seeing George and Simon go at it I'm looking forward to you know getting the popcorn out and continuing the season oh it's a great season and you know it's interesting because I can definitely poke holes in the whole argument that Australian survivors got the best franchise out there but that is the common belief that people have now they're convinced Australian Survivor is now the bar that is being set extremely high for Survivor us and survivors South Africa to follow on I don't necessarily agree with it I think that there is things that makes it the best show but there's also things that I don't enjoy as much but I have to agree what people enjoy about Australian Survivor is what you kind of mentioned earlier it's easy for the Casual to follow they understand it there isn't all these crazy twists coming into the game it's Idols predominantly and then just great strategic play instead of mixing it up every single round but you know I know I'm venting a little bit this episode was one of my favorite episodes in a while but it was because it was easy to follow and understand we get yam coming back to Camp you know he's just glad that he's still there for another day and I will say one thing Riley I've not made a prediction on well we've made a power ranking predictions on who we think is in the best position to win the game but I've starting to feel like gambium is getting a Winner's edit and I know Jeff has said that a Windows edit doesn't exist yeah exactly now the win is that it doesn't exist and the

8:02 Latest episode of on fire I think they do talk a lot about the editing of the show but no I've been on the jam tram since day one yeah it'll be great if he pulls it off but yeah at this stage honestly I will say it's a it's a pretty level game at this stage you know certainly that taker three of Carolyn Carson and jam probably you know the best position at the moment I would say then you also have guys like Danny obviously he played his Idol in this last episode but he seems to have a lot of social currency in the game really I would say everyone's on a pretty Level Playing Field the only area where it falls out is really the edit because now after Brennan has gone home this week we're at 333 between the original tribes of ratu Soca and Antica so it could be anyone's game at this point but obviously we'll discuss that later in the podcast as we go into discussing where people stand but it really is level at this point it is exciting it's exciting to see that for the first time in the New Era that people are actually trying to keep their numbers strong they're actually trying to work in these original tribes where in previous Seasons sometimes I felt like these original tribes didn't really mean anything because you get to the merge and they're all over the place but you know like you said we've got the Three Stooges trying to work together and the specific vote you've got

9:22 So carb working together I mean Danny is willing to play an idol on Franny to keep a number safe in the game and we haven't seen that very often Riley in the new era where someone is actually willing to put their life at risk for someone else in the game yeah and I'll have to respect it honestly I would never do that and I was half expecting it to go belly up and for you know Danny to get pie in his face and he's torched snuffed at the end of the day but a very bold move but yeah as you say it has been going along the original tribal lines you know Jamie hasn't really ingratiated with her new tribe Carson seemingly is really in the middle of everyone which is a great position to be into him but yeah no very bold moved by Danny to keep his numbers strong and keeping your Franny and Heidi by his side I will say Heidi was a little bit backed into a corner in the last episode I know that wasn't included too much in this episode but that control of voter Vonage it's I thought she did a good job but you know trying to get herself out of the hotel in Jam at the start of the episode I was impressed you know she saw that Matt's back was against the wall and she figured okay yeah it's probably the best way to get Lauren spoke here and ultimately you know just try and create some chaos so I'm glad she was able to recover from it because I really thought you know she may have had her belly on the line but ultimately you know she came at Trump's yeah I agree with you and great that you're mentioning Heidi in this spot because when we did our

10:42 Power rankings Kahuna and I last week we had Heidi in our Edge category so we've got three categories the edge of Extinction we've got the Spy Shack which is in the middle and then in it to win it for the top people who are in the game and you know I bumped her down from the top of spice Shack into the edge because I thought she was in danger coming into this week she did extremely good damage control with gam yam it seems like both of them are in a good place and to the point where you know I felt like this was Heidi's coming out episode I re like she really arrived in this episode and even though yam got to give us a lot of his perspective and how he sees the game and how he's always on the out and all that all the strategy this episode really came from Heidi that realized that they had to take these two threes together to actually get one of those ratu members out of the game because it became a power game at the stage where they couldn't allow for right to continue to hold on to all four members going into the next round they needed to even it up yeah that's right and yeah I think Heidi and also Carson did a great job at really trying to mediate between yam and Carolyn and trying to get them onto their side obviously we saw Heidi ultimately Spill the Beans about Danny's Idol but what Carson was able to do as well was really just to call Danny's Jets and say listen it's fine we don't need to change the plan at this point and go panicking I can main Jam and you know we can go forward from here but no yeah it was really interesting to see that Hardy all

12:02 The strategies seemed to revolve around her and I do think that her currency is definitely improving her stock is definitely ticking up in the game at the moment and I must say I've been impressed because we haven't seen too much from her prior to this yes I mean last episode there was a few times where I saw her trying to strategize when she got a little bit of power in the game and I thought where was this Heidi the whole time and then I thought she got herself in a hole similar to you but she got herself out of that hole and she took control of the vote I don't know if she can remain in control because sadly I think Denny's a great character but I feel like denisporetic and at this stage Danny is out of my like he was in our top three when we got to the mergers potential winners he's definitely fallen out of that top three for me but I'm kind of looking at Heidi and I'm thinking of Heidi continues to Bald this way she could be a winner she could be someone with a great story if she gets to the end and she could definitely pitch her case to the jury but another person the person who's been at the top of our power rankings for two consecutive weeks now is Carson and you mentioned him now it's for obvious or obvious reasons he's got connections everywhere we said he looks like Tom Holland he's you know webbing his weed or getting all the spider webs out there with all these different connections the problem for Carson though is that if he gets to the end everybody loves Carson they all want to work with him even Danny has a conversation with Carson and we've never seen how that Bond was created because he was never in the tribe at

13:22 Any stage in the game but he's someone that everybody wants to work with he had a bit of a quieter episode but young Carson was struggling this episode we saw him get sick out there on the island I wouldn't want to go through that if I was out there because you just know you don't have medicine you don't have the comfort of your own home to try and bounce back yeah did he 3D print his vomit though well was that all a ruse to try and to try and make the tribe cozy up to him but no really unfortunate I don't know if it was a reaction to Carolyn's food she certainly didn't seem to feel too bad about it and actually it was great to see her really taken on that motherly role and Company Carson and saying you know I'll pair up with him in the immunity challenge but yeah obviously it's I'd imagine it's so tough out there especially when you get sick and you know being in the damp all the time as well would just exacerbate that but I mean he has been a trooper this season I have been very impressed with him I know in the preseason a lot of the Survivor fan Community weren't so impressed with him for selling pillows with his face on it who cares no what that's fine at the end of the day honestly I'm considering buying a Carson pillow at this point because it's been just been a bright spark on the scene you know ultimately I think he represents a super fandom although maybe to a to a greater extent I'm sure Russell Master will be proud of him you know with all his 3D puzzles going on at the moment and you know what

14:42 What Carson is doing there yeah he's really mentioned his game well and I think honestly I think that Twist on the island ship wheel Island really benefited his game to try and get him in early I know you mentioned there earlier Danny that Danny's stock is tanking a little bit and I do find that you know in this day and age with all the super fans that have been in cast these days it is harder for him to you know try and pull off a Tony blachos or a or Chris Underwood isn't a good example but a Tommy Sheehan someone who's a strong physical threat and you know ultimately playing a very loud game it's going to be difficult for him to manage and honestly I do see that even though Danny has some numbers at the moment I can't see him staying for too much longer to be honest yeah I mean one if we had to look at like one little silver lining here right now for him is the fact that everybody knew he had an idol that was something that Matt kind of outed him a couple of episodes ago or an episode ago so him playing that Idol at least takes some of their target away from him where people at least now won't try and flush the idol or put votes on him unnecessarily his biggest Ally in the game Heidi he's got to hope that Heidi can build those connections and that the Tikka and Soca connections stay strong but we also know that Carson's got a really good connection

16:03 With Kane you know nerds stick together that's a thing apparently so you know potentially there's still some things that Carson can do and they can still move Tico really does seem to be the tribe or the alliance with all the power how did this happen Riley how did they ask backwards stumble into such a great position in the game because normally we talk about the swing boat now it's the swing tribe yeah that's right honestly we've seen that a lot in the past obviously with Denise and Malcolm going all the way back to Matt seeing in Philippines Stephanie she held a lot of power in oolong back to Survivor 41 with Shannon Ricard as well you know I find especially now that we don't have a tribe swap everyone is really just stuck in that you know tribe strong mentality which is really the opposite of what you would think for modern day Survivor where you think it's supposed to be all fluid but he does seem like they're sticking with those three voting blocks and you're right tikarara in the right position I know Jam mentioned it has been to I think seven of nine tribal councils eight out of ten now at this point and it's been on the Block for every single one of them and I do think that people will see that you know they've gone through it and you know one they sympathize with them but they also see them as being more strategic and you know more able to get out of a sticky situation which is ultimately you know why chica are in such a good position at this point and I can honestly see you know as you said there Carson going back to ratu and it seems Carson is also the web

17:23 For Jam and Carolyn as a as a unit of three as well to you know to move throughout the game so I can really see the take a tribe you know flip-flopping from ratu to soccer and back and forth until ultimately they find themselves this is the final three in the end potentially yeah while we're talking about gameplay and talking about the Tikka tribe I take my handle for Carson and the tika tribe to actually still go ahead and place the votes where it should have gone with ratu yeah because now they've got the ability to go back and say hey we were with you but we just didn't know that Danny was going to play the idol and even if then he comes out saying that they knew who are you going to trust this guy that's at the bottom that is in danger and will throw anything at the wall to try and get into the next Vote or are you going to trust Carson who has been loyally voting with you the whole time and is now brought in Carolyn and yam to that Alliance as well I kind of feel like the likes of Lauren and it Kane and the Jamie they're going to continue to want to work with Tikka after this vote so tika's the biggest winners because they didn't have to show their hand yeah exactly well Carolyn voted against Brandon of course but you're right it is a very good move to you know try and master your vote I've been watching a lot of big brother lately and obviously that's a big strategy and big brother is voting with the house you know you go where the majority of the of the tribe is going ultimately even if you are in the other camp and you know they have the numbers to go across

18:43 So no yeah I definitely think it's a great move and it does minimize the noise coming back to them because ultimately you know there are two camper going to say oh you know Carson and James I'm ultimately voted with us there in our camp I know Jamie and James have formed a little bit of a relationship there and a little bit of a friendship so yeah they're definitely in good place although really I feel as though in this day and age no one really has sour grapes if you know an alliance votes the other way I mean they should have seen Brendan getting voted now you know from a mile away because it's such a big physical threat and he has been controlling a little bit of the strategy as well but no great move by Carson and jamsham as well yeah so two out of two for myself and Kahuna we did predict that Brandon was on the edge coming into this episode and he ended up going home similar to Matt who we predicted was on the edge of the previous episode so let's see if we can make it a third week in a row when we do our power rankings and try and see if we can get it right for a third time in a row but Brandon you know you kind of mentioned it earlier with Danny he's just such a physical guy big alpha male clearly was very charismatic as well which makes him even more dangerous he almost want someone to be socially unaware when they that Alpha playing the game because then at least maybe they'll piss some people off to the end and then you can still get the vote but if they're likable as well as being physical and

20:04 A good looking young guy like Brandon you know you're going to get in trouble out there Riley yeah that's right now I do think Brandon you know maized his game really well I mean obviously day two he had to play his Idol because everyone knew he had it so by the way I just want to shout out to Brendan for being the first person in the new era to play an idol correctly I didn't even notice that fantastic yeah I mean that's crazy that we're Four Seasons in I know Survivor 42 I don't think they had a single idle played or actually there may have been one played against Omar perhaps by Marianne it's all a blower honestly Chris this is the problem with the same challenges same twists yeah and that's what I was going to get into next while we move on and pretend like we know if Brandon was the first but I feel like Brandon was the first person to play an idol probably you're probably right because there's been so many advantages but no one seems to be able to actually know what to do with them which is not great because we've got more fans of the show playing the game but they're still misplaying it just because there's so much going on but I wanted to talk about the challenge I wanted to move into the immunity challenge there was a little bit of a Twist to the immunity challenge coming in they had to select peers coming into this I won't lie for a second I thought maybe we are finally gonna see Destiny's tide coming into this game where everything that they do they both win immunity they both go home if they get voted out you know

21:24 I was kind of hoping they mix it up in that way we saw it in Survivor South Africa I won't say anything about the outcome both of you and I know if we loved it or not but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who wants to go and watch Community Island at a later stage but you know I was kind of hoping that twist came in but it was kind of a bit of a letdown because it's what we saw last season it's the exact same challenge playing out over and over and over again and I feel like all the decisions that Survivor is making right now Riley is decisions made out of not only budget but laziness the creativity is starting to go for these people because we've got this is where Australian Survivor clearly dominates over Survivor us the challenges they keep it interesting they've got the same constraints being on an island with limited you know things that they can bring into the island but yet they innovate and no season has exactly the same challenge like there is some variations but it feels different and fresh in some ways this doesn't it feels like they took the same challenge yeah well I mean we did get Chimney Sweep at the end whereas I feel like last time it was last time with the with the Rope trying to hold on to weights I think maybe but no you're great to see chimney swift come back as I think the last time we saw that may have been in Heroes vs villains when they did the when they you know matched up against pairs from the opposition tribe I think we had Jerry vs Rupert and Amanda versus James and all that

22:44 A long time since we've seen that challenge you know one of my personal favorites I was surprised by how quickly you know Kane dropped out pretty quickly you know Danny really held him for a long time it'll be difficult to be having the mud or live view as well having the model over you know having ran for I don't know how long it would have taken but at least half an hour you know going through those net crawls just crazy to have the stamina and then you know to go on at the end and you know have to be you know all slippery and we saw that Danny's tactic to try and Dismount Lauren didn't ultimately work though no it did not work at all but yeah listen Brandon did extremely well I did not expect him to hang in there as long as he did for a big guy we know they struggle I didn't realize that we haven't seen that challenge since hero visits villain so maybe I'm a little bit critical on it but it's the last aspect of it where they made a small variation where I felt like around the same time last season we had the exact same previous two sections of this challenge so that's why the familiarity for me was there where I felt like I've seen it before it's not as interesting this time around the only thing that kind of changed was the last section and also the fact that they made them choose the pairs before they went out there I don't remember if it was the same order of how they did it last time but overall Lauren winning this was pretty cool to see because clearly it meant a lot to her I always find it funny when people freak

24:05 Out and they don't know what to say or what to do and seeing her wanting to walk away while Jeff tells her no stay here I still need to do my bid it was pretty wholesome to be honest yeah I mean that is everyone's dream ever since Survivor Borneo since Kelly Wiggles were worth won the first individual immunity challenge I think everyone has dreamed at that moment having Jeff Probst Pat them on the shoulder and put the necklace around their neck but no really great to see for Lauren obviously we haven't seen too much of her really strategically or socially basically since episode one to be honest since she had her back against the wall in episode one after going ship wheel Island but no yeah really great to see the emotion from her you know knowing that it means so much and I mean ultimately she wouldn't have been you know on The Chopping Block at all because she hasn't really been too much of a Target other than the last tribal council with an extra vote but yeah obviously means a lot and great to see her winner win the immunity there yeah I think that you're right on that and you know Lauren for me is someone that I have found extremely exciting to watch when she gets screen time so I'm wondering to myself you know she's got great Insight she clearly is one of those players that want to take the game on aggressively the fact that she's not getting a lot of screen time is one of the reasons why she's been lagging on the edge for us when we do our power rankings on a weekly basis because I feel like if she was the winner we would see more from her and at the moment

25:25 We're just not getting her story so out of the ratu members that are left in the game Lauren and Jamie are the two that I'm the most fearful of potentially going home next yeah honestly I would say Kane is I would say all three of them should be teetering on the edge when you and Kahuna do your power rankings because I don't think Kane has much Social currency outside of outside of Carson it seems and maybe Danny maybe they can form a boys but I don't think that's really going to fly because they don't seem to have that strong of a bond there but you're right I definitely think out of all the winner prospects we're looking at the moment it seems as though they're going to come from either Tikka or Soca tribe and I honestly I have to say that the taker tribe definitely have the three favorites at this stage Carol and Carson and James I can see them all carving out a way to win not sure that I can really see it with anyone else honestly unless Danny pulls off for Hail Mary and goes all the way what about Franny like Franny is one that could be a dark horse she just lost Matt in the last you know episode she's someone that kind of her whole journey has been tied to Matt at this point and I felt like their story has been the fact that they found each other and that it was this experience but for any now not having Matt there to anchor because I feel like he was an anchor I know it sounds bad anchor her down in the game she finally can now stretch her strategic mind in the game do you think it's too

26:45 Late and she was caught sleeping at the wheel absolutely not no I mean we saw that Danny was willing to play her Idol for her I mean I think in the initial days at the soccer tribe there was that Schism with the five players and obviously Franny and Matt being that pair and then I think Danny and Danny and Heidi were the other one and then Josh was in the middle there ultimately though I'm interested to see the next couple episodes if she survives that long as to whether you know she goes on that you know that bad girl Arc and just says you know I've got rid of my man now I'm ready to absolutely raise hell and do this in his honor I'm really interested to see where she goes from here because yeah she has had a big edit so far it has been very tied to match it will be interesting to see you know if she ultimately divorces herself from that showmance and increases her perception in the game I mean she has at least one guaranteed jury vote at this stage yeah and they make sure to let us know Matt is excited to see her she's excited to see Matt a lot of close-ups on both of them at Tribal Council let's talk a little bit about you know someone that we haven't mentioned and I'm actually a bit shocked we're 27 minutes into this podcast we haven't really spoken about her it's Carolyn what is your thoughts on Carolyn this season do you believe like I do

28:05 She's the breakout star of the new era of the show oh gosh breakout star the new era I'd say my favorite Cast Away from the first four seasons so far has probably been Noel just you know seems to be a hilarious character you know great at the challenges you know emotional backstory she's really delivered but yeah Carolyn has been a standout on this cast again that taker three I will love each and every one of them Carolyn Carson and jam have been just amazing but Carolyn is just such a larger than life character the first the first couple episodes I you know was I didn't know how to feel about her I thought you know she's just some crazy like Nora but she really is becoming a sort of a lovable crazy I suppose similar to an Angelina and how much we love her or coach Wade you know you don't know how to feel about them until ultimately you know you recognize there in 10 years say okay yeah I can I can start to like Carolyn here and she does seem to have a lot of strategic sense to her as well I mean we saw it with the red X and The Birdcage early on in the season and also her straddle in between Josh and jam had that final vote before the merge when Matthew was medically evacuated we've seen her really you know sort of you know straddle between different alliances

29:25 And I think she's in a great position at this stage you know to go deep in the game you know she has the social currency and the strong bond with Jam at this point she also has a great relationship with Carson it seems as though no one is really annoyed by her she's taking on that motherly role cooking the cooking the lobsters for everyone in this last episode but no she is an absolute firecracker a great character and you know I love this and I know next season we're obviously getting 90 minute episodes so you know characters like Carolyn characters like jam are going to stand out even more hopefully they don't get the lopsided at it where King George gets everything and the rest of the cast gets the other two percent of confessionals but she's been fantastic you had to say it rightly you had to say that and then for those that do watch Australia Australian Survivor I know we jump back in and out so if you don't know what we're talking about you won't know but that is one of the criticisms to be fair that I have of Australian survivors that they choose to show 75 of the confessionals go to two people or three people on the cast and then the rest of them just get purple I think that you can't say that is great we need balance even on the Australian side when it comes to that but you know talking about Carolyn and my own thoughts on her I've said it a few times here on the podcast people know I'm a Carolyn Stan first episode I wasn't feeling it second episode I was in I immediately got what production saw in her it wasn't just the fact like you said she was this

30:46 Crazy character it was she came across as being crazy but she was actually very intelligent and knew how to strategize and how to play the game still the only person that you know Riley I hated when people get an idol and they tell people about it you know that's one of my pet peeves that's something we spoke about and debated on for a very long time but I'm very excited that she has kept her mouth shut and she's the only one that knows about that Idol and the fact that she has it and also I think she was the only one who played The Birdcage correctly by not really replanting that key putting something back in it and making sure that no one else finds the key so no one could out her that she's got the idol it seems to be the right way to play the game Riley is not to engage in these silly shenanigans that the producers put out there because it blew Danny's cover at the end of the day yeah well I mean as far as everyone is aware Helen got voted out with the idol back in episode two or three so she's playing it great and I'll tell you what if Carolyn wins my favorite winner of Survivor is Fabio and I love a goofball and I love goofball winner it has been such a long time since we've had a goofball winner in the game hey what about Michael Jackson my Gambler was a little bit off of goofball I completely forgot about gay but I love the alligator Ellie gabler you know he was I would say he was more of an under the radar winner as opposed to an outright goofball I mean yeah you look at Fabio and Carolyn

32:06 Everyone knows they're completely eccentric and that's why they discount them but no I think Carolyn has you know all the wits you know she's very well positioned if she pulls it off it's going to be you know it's going to be a fantastic win yeah getting gabler and Carolyn to win back to back would be insane and I think I mentioned this to gabler like when we watched them last season myself and Jake prior to the merch we were like he's the goofball he's the he's the coach way type of character and then after the merge he kind of flipped it around a little bit and became a little bit more aware and started playing a bit more like you said and under the radar game all the way to the win I really enjoyed his win as well I was excited to talk to him last week it was an absolute blast to get to know gabler and his mind and you can clearly tell by his insights why he won the show because he is picking up on all these soft skills which you need to have that awareness which I think Carolyn has got she clearly picked up on a lot of the things it was funny to see Danny and Brandon grow up see her expression to that the fact that they kept overlooking her and then In This Very episode Danny and Brandon are going Head to Head why do you think Danny and Brandon couldn't make it work because that was the Bromance that never happened basically at the end of the day yeah I mean we saw her at the summit with Carolyn you know rolling her eyes at the back what Danny and Brandon just discussed that and tried to Loop Josh in the into their

33:26 Alliance when he wasn't even there just completely discounting her yeah it seems as though Brandon was just very tribe strong and he recognized that he had before and you know Carson was with them as well when they made the swap so that was five for them so that's probably what he saw he saw you know five against five with Jam ultimately being the Swing Vote so I don't blame him for not going with Danny but ultimately he would have provided some protection perhaps but I would say probably if they stuck together as an alliance they would have been out one and two but before Matt and Josh would have because everyone just would have looked at him and said yeah we've got to get these guys out of there they're clearly working together I obviously didn't work well for Brandon but Danny's still standing at least for now I agree with you now you mentioned earlier that you know Survivor is going to go to 90 day 19 minutes imagine it going to 90 days yeah Big Brother basically out on the island and that would be one way to you know get one over Australia you'd think you're tough doing 50 days we're gonna do 90 days out there way too much hard work for Jeff Probst to be out on that island for that long but you know at the end of the day survivor's going to go to 90 minutes and do you think that the 90 minutes could save Survivor do you think that this is

34:46 The thing that could bring back better character development for us to understand what the votes are a little bit more we're going to see better strategy now play out versus where they're currently so focused on the twists and the shenanigans that they're bringing into the game that we hardly get to see these tribe Dynamics and at the moment one of the things that I kind of feel like is a lot of the backstories where people are getting tired of backstories they're like why are we getting you know the backstory of all these players all the time so we have to feel bad and sorry for them when we want to feel a certain way because of what we saw on the island like we want to feel attached to them because of their character out on the island not necessarily what happened to them prior to coming onto the show maybe people feel disconnected because they don't really get to know them organically and they feel like it's manufactured out there yeah I mean I don't care if outside of the game you work in PR for a luxury car brand like maybe an Australian Survivor you know you just outside of the game it shouldn't matter I you do get touched in stories like with Daniel in 42 and Josh and well I do think it is good to sort of you know bring those stories from outside of the game into the game just a little bit but ultimately you know it shouldn't become the whole story it seems as though everyone that gets cast these days has to have a sob story though and that's I mean it's fine but it's it becomes

36:07 A bit repetitive when everyone seems to have been almost on death's door and come back and now they're you know experiencing this you know this adventure of a lifetime this second chance at life it becomes a little bit repetitive but ultimately I don't like how you phrase that question as saying will 90 minutes save Survivor because I don't think survivor's dead I don't think Survivor is ever going to die not until you know the TV goes belly up which I you know it will shift a stream in and they'll always find a way to make it work I find it's just one of those enduring formats but I do think 90 minutes not 90 days will be a I think it'll be great obviously I'm not sure whether it will extend into 46 as well because I imagine it is very contingent on what cbs's what cbs's time slots are I'm not sure how the Amazing Race and tough as Nails fit into that the odd numbered season are usually the ones where Amazing Race and tough as Nails afterwards so that's probably where they've got that 90 minute episodes from My worry is they're going to go or reward challenges or immunity challenges and The Castaways are essentially going to be doing something every single day so they don't get that down time to relax and strategize and you know create conflicts in Camp that's my biggest worry is that ultimately that 90 minutes is going

37:27 To get padded out by an extra challenge and you know they're not going to have enough time at Camp to actually strategize in the game obviously we'll see someone on television we'll see more of it on the TV screen but that's my biggest worry is they go back to reward challenges and try and you know ham up the challenge aspect of the of the of the game I hope that doesn't happen and I hope we'll get more Camp life ultimately though I think with 90 minutes it's a little bit of a double-edged sword because if your characters aren't delivering if we get another you know 41 where it's just the Shan show and it's all strategy and you don't have you know fun characters like Carolyn in the camp at Carolyn and Danny in the camp it just becomes a boar Fest of strategy and not a fun camp life you know having your little that's what Morning Show or on marcasus so that's my biggest worry is it going to become fully strategically driven if the cast isn't a fun cast is it going to just get padded out with challenges is going to get padded out with Jeff Probst walking on the beach explaining the next big twist for 10 minutes who knows well we've got Bruce out there so we're going to get some fun camp life moments because we know he's the biggest character from this season that's going to come back and play in 45 but you know I wanted to say that shout out to Bruce because Bruce does follow us on Twitter and Instagram such a great guy I've never really spoken to him but I mean clearly he's giving attention to even the smallest podcasts out there so you know he's got a fan in me going out

38:47 There for this next season I hope he does well and Redemption for Bruce out there this time on 45 but I agree with you it's interesting you know thinking about the 90 minutes you're right when you look at the format of the show now being 26 days it's the toughest show out there they've made it so much harder that it's harder than the 39 days because now they've starved them completely out there they don't give them food I think it makes for a lot of the times lethargic Castaways I've said this a few times because they're just starving out there they don't have energy to go and do stuff or be entertaining in the first place so now we've got this 26 day format with less food than normal plus longer episodes that need to be full so I am fearful what that means is that we just get to see more of the twists maybe they bring the edge back they give us 40 minutes on the edge you know because that's Jeff's idea of a great season is bringing all these different mechanics to the game and making that the feature off the show opposed to the social dynamics and that could be the way that he maybe saves it if the cast is sitting at Beach and they're staffed and don't have energy to entertain us yeah I mean winners at War would have been the perfect time to introduce the 90 minute episodes if it worked because I mean having the edge of Extinction on that and I mean getting to know these 20 of the most iconic players out of 640 odd to have played the game that would have been the ideal

40:07 Time but it is going to be interesting to see how they test the waters I mean ultimately at the end of the day we're always going to keep watching Survivor I don't think any of us going to fall apart because we love we love the show so much but as I said before I think it will very much be dependent on the characters one of the big reasons why I didn't watch this last season of Australian survive always because of blood vs water the previous season and because it was just complete ball fest with one or two characters who were just completely Bland not fun at all no I know Mark is a friend of the podcast so I'm not I'm not producing him by any means but it wasn't you know the most entertaining season because the characters ultimately you know weren't really doing too much in the way of strategy or Camp life it just became vet very Bland and challenge driven but by the way mark would admit that himself even if you talk to him about that you know the thing is it's interesting because when I spoke to Robin Tilly same thing it was a lot of people are like well it was a boring season he was in control of the whole time this time Mark was in control of it by Josh and the boys Alliance just taking control Sometimes some of the greatest players Kim Spradlin comes to mind it can be boring to watch like I mean I'm not going back to one world to watch it again unless I absolutely have to because I'm doing something on the channel right it's not the first season I pick up or that I tell people to go and watch you know so I get that can definitely kill it for you if the cast is bad

41:27 And if they cast Then correctly and this is one of the other things where I think Survivor us is better than Australian Survivor we need to talk about the positives I like the fact that you said Survivor years is not going anywhere I don't believe it's going anywhere either but I do think it is in trouble and I do think that people that are on the verge of quitting the show the few people might be turning away if they continue down the path that they're going on now so I mean I think it's good to throw constructive criticism out there because you never know when Jeff just decides to listen to a random podcast called the nullify take because it's named after the nullifier and he thinks the nullify is a great twist so maybe just listen to this episode You Know listen to this little bit cool little bit on some of the twists maybe we can make it interesting again but I digress I've completely gone on a tangent I wanted to talk about the fact that this 90 minutes I think is a good thing but you bring up a very valid point they need to cast well but I do have faith in the casting Department of Survivor us more so than Australian Survivor I think a big issue that we have on Australian Survivor is that the casting is horrible they put too much Instagram models influencers sports stars people who don't really have a personality outside of the fact that they're famous you know and that is why they're getting called out on Australian Survivor and they have to give all the edit to two or three people yep you're preaching to the choir here Chris you're preaching to the choir I mean there's no need for the Sophie's of the world

42:47 To be an Australian Survivor it just you know they don't they don't deliver anything other than drama outside of the game but no that's one of the great things about the New Era of Survivor I have found is it seems as though everyone is there to play everyone's a fan of the show and yeah Jesse Cannonball because he is doing a great job at cast and we've had so many great characters that's all I mean honestly I would say the last four seasons the pre-emerges on every single season I think I've had more candidates to return and I look at 41 with Brad and JD on Survival 41 Sydney if you count the her not making the merge with the stupid hourglass twist which we won't talk about because that's a completely different tangent which will take three hours to dissect yes and then you know for 42 you've got guys like Daniel strong and you've got Jenny Kim 43 who do we have in 43 I've got about 43 44 again you had you had some great characters on this season in the pre-merch as well with guys like guys like Josh Bruce you mentioned that earlier Maddie I loved Maddie in the first episode you know so many great characters that are emerging and I think it's because everyone is willing to play and the casting Department are doing a great job so I have full faith in them yeah but you never know where they're going to go wrong I mean ultimately hopefully one day we'll get a returnee season and you know 90 minutes for that would be fantastic because

44:07 They all know how to deliver and ultimately I mean the producers are going to pick the best characters at the end of the day 45 would be that season like I'm really I don't know if there's any like as you know me I casually follow the online stuff I sometimes try and stay out of it as much as I can but I don't know how much of the cast has been leaked if it's only Bruce with a bunch of newbies going out there or Bruce is going out there with other attorneys this is the opportunity to give us that pre-merge versus merger season like I think there's a lot of great pre-mergers that could come back and play the game that would be exciting to watch with swordplay out on Survivor South Africa Return of the outcasts which in my opinion was a really exciting season at times like there were certain times where there was a little bit gamebot heavy but in general it was a really good thing because you had people that left the game too early and the stakes were so high when you've got first time voted out players out there and there's like two or three of them fighting not to be the first person voted out it makes for exciting TV so I'd love to see more of that this would have been the opportunity to do it for season 45 of 90 minutes and I think that's the case you're making yeah absolutely I mean you can never go wrong with returners but I do think they have done a great job in casting the newbies these days I will say Bruce is going to be the only attorney for Survivor 45 it will be or newbies for the rest of it and there's a couple other things there that have been linked so far but this is this

45:27 Isn't the podcast to discuss it but no I have full faith that they'll ultimately deliver you know if it's anything like the Jam jams and the Carolines of the world it's going to be entertaining Riley your enthusiasm for the show is still there the fact that you're so positive about it the fact that you sit with conviction that this thing is not going to die it's going to continue to go on strong you know I need to get you on the podcast a little bit more often to make me feel and believe the same things that you do in regards to the show not going backwards but I overall do love the show as well I'm obviously enthusiastic about it I wouldn't be podcasting doing this weekly if I wasn't and I do think that we're about this far off from getting it right again and Jeff can very easily pivot in that direction again so we you know things look looking bright is what I think yeah I mean survivor's biggest fans are ultimately going to be their biggest critics as well and the biggest Champions when things are going great everyone's going to be cheering when things are going bad everyone's going to be you know knocking on death's door and bringing out the Grim Reaper but you know I think Jeff Probst is doing a great job honestly in trying to reinvent the wheel and throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks at the end of the day short in the dark I will I will confess I love that twist at first I was very skeptical for it but now that it's actually you know getting some room to breathe and we saw it being played correctly for the first time in this

46:48 Season after four seasons of it being in the game I think it's a great Hail Mary move but honestly we haven't seen too much of it but it's just sort of in the background there I mean there's some advantages like the adornal fire which I know that you're a big fan of that we haven't seen back I know it was hidden in the fish for Jonathan and Omar in Survivor 42 but it wasn't played at the end of the day but you know that's another twist that'll actually back there are some great twists but ultimately I mean it's just about inventing things and seeing what sticks seeing what works The Hourglass twist that didn't work fire tokens didn't work The Medallion power didn't work but you know if you look at the hidden Community Idol and the evolution of the hidden immunity idol from day one when initially it was able to be played after the votes and then they moved it to being played before the votes and then they fiddled around with the Tyler Perry Idol as well they found The Sweet Spot eventually and I'm probably being too positive about Jeff Probst here because he has made some massive people are going to come from massive mistakes with twists over these last few seasons yeah but I do think that you know they'll find a happy medium they've invented more advantages these last four seasons than they did in the first 40.

48:02 That is a major problem when you're introducing a new Advantage every single episode which has been basically the case this season with the inheritance advantage and the bird cage and to control a vote and these different twists at Tribal Council it does become too much when you introduce one or two at a time in a season that's fine I do like the beware Avengers with the idols these days I found you know the first two seasons with the phrases was really fun 43 with the beads was really fun 44 with the birdcage obviously alleged some great moments as well my worry though is if they continue to force the contestants into you know playing fight idols and trying to manufacture these big moments without letting the players manufacturing themselves that could be a problem yeah no listen you bring up so many great valid points all have been discussed on this podcast as well and you know one of the things for me personally what I wanted to say is that you know the counter argument and firstly Jeff comes to comes at this thing from with a pure heart he loves this franchise if you listen to his podcast the enthusiasm the excitement is still there he just so firmly believes what he is doing is right and I feel like he doesn't take advice from maybe even great former players such as Adam Klein and these Innovative players to say hey what do you think about us throwing these things into the game what

49:22 Would it do like he almost needs like a round table of great minds of the game to sit down there with him and talk through some of the potential scenarios before he throws you know five or six or eight different advantages into a season one thing I wanted to bring up and this is something that I know that the Venn diagram of challenge fans and Survivor fans probably there's a little bit of cross over there especially now that more and more survivors are starting to go and play The Challenge you know we've got three former Survivor is currently on the challenge World Championship I haven't watched the latest episode yet so I don't know if all three of them are still in it but Ben drieberg and Danny McRae who's now my favorite Survivor Challenger of all time because he's had such a great season and then Sarah obviously Lucina who for me is one of my favorites as well and I believe is one of the greats of Survivor which I know I've had some pushback from people but I still I stand by that she was one fire making challenge away from potentially being called the goat Riley and she's out there she's playing a great game you know the challenge is doing a few things right at the moment Riley because what they're doing is they've got the MTV show for people who love the classic show they've got the OG show for people who love the vets of the show on Paramount plus exclusively and they've now got the World Championships where they've got all these different franchises combining from the UK from Argentina from Australia from the US they're giving fans so much to watch and there's so much excitement being

50:42 Generated I have to feel like you know Survivor is lacking behind Jeff is starting to drop the ball a little bit here why don't we have a classic Survivor format on Paramount Plus for people who want to see the classic version because if it's not broke don't fix it and there's a lot of people who love Survivor classic he believes he needs to continue to innovate it I think there is still an audience that is left behind that loved the classic show a lot of them are you cannot deny that Survivor at one point had over 20 million people watching it and you can say yes some of these people may watch it on digital platforms now but I doubt that 15 million people are watching it on digital platforms when only 5 million are still watching it on live cable right now so there must have been a drop off yeah I mean we know that obviously they have all the infrastructure set up in Fiji I mean the international survivors in Turkey Bulgaria Greece and Romania they've just set up a new structure in Dominican Republic and they're all filming in the same period and recycling the same challenges just on different dates so there's ways to cut costs as we've seen with the 26 days I mean I'd love to see Australia South Africa and the US poor resources I know it you know ends up being you know recycling challenges and recycling locations ultimately to me I don't care if the game stays in Fiji as long as it stays on the television and we get great Castaways to actually you know deliver on the season my

52:02 Worry though is if they do something on Paramount plus obviously I mean one Jeff Probst isn't going to do that I can't say Jeff Perez wanted to do a third season he's comfortable with the way he wants to do this at the moment I'll tell you what it would be a good way to you know host the new host get the new host into it so Chris can come onto the beach and invite 16 Castaways and you know take them through the game over 39 days I'm sure you would take less money than Jeff Probst just to you know just to actually do it I do it for free yeah if I could but no that there is an opportunity there I do Wonder I have always sort of thought this I know RuPaul's Drag Race they do the All-Star season as well as the regular season as well I would love to see something like that you know in a shorter format you can have it be you know like Celebrity Big Brother and normal big brother just have it over you know a shorter period of time have 12 Castaways over 20 days however long they want to do it for and just have a little backyard hard sort of tournament that'd be great I you know you can go back to basics and it's just there for the hardcore fans and we get to see we get to see people like Matt from this season come back or you know some obscure pre-merger like James Lim from Ghost Island whoever we want to see because there's more opportunities it you never know what would happen but

53:22 I can't see Jeff Probst guying for a for a third season in a year though no probably not but I mean I think there's some great ideas out there in fact I think that we should talk about this topic in the off season in full detail like what other options is there for international Survivor to become a viable thing because I'm sure they could get nicopenagio to do it for a fraction of the money that Jeff does it for or even jlp who I both think are very capable host that could step into that role and if it did mean that we could see this finally see this crossover off Seasons coming together with some of the best from South Africa Australia and the US taking each other on I know there's going to be no shortage of players who would want to go out there and do it but Riley it's been great catching up with you it's been great talking about this episode I know we went on a little bit of a tangent there at the end but I know people love to hear these things when we talk about Survivor let people know where can they like are you still available on social I feel like you're not really on social but you'll let them know about your channel because there's still some great videos out there for people to go and enjoy is there anything they should check out on the YouTube channel and also how do you feel about Simon stealing your name you just removed like I yeah I did say that and I might have to have a web with him because I think he I spoke to him before he invented that brand so who knows but no he put an apostrophe and instead of the no I love Simon he's a great guy he's awesome

54:43 Yeah and it was a shame to see him get all the Flack he received this year but I mean he is a great he was love body honestly one of the nicest guys in the Survivor community that I've come across he's you know he's a really great guy but no my channel yeah snuffed on YouTube I don't post there these days but there are there are videos of how every survival winner won I think up to Sophie perhaps up to season 23. so Sophie's the one who broke up is what you're saying so Sophie's the straw that broke the camel's back no the next season were you a coach Wayne exactly right no brand enhance fan Brandon Hans was robbed on that season Cowboy Rick didn't get a big enough red big enough edit on that season no yeah so that was the straw that broke the camel's back South Pacific Jack and Jill I'm not a fan of that movie but no yeah so that you can definitely go check that out you know maybe one day I'll come back I don't know I do love having these chats and obviously there's plenty to talk about in the Survivor universe and the reality TV universe as a whole as well so yeah you never know when you'll see me again but no if you do want to watch a defunct Channel and check out all the archives there definitely go over to my channel and subscribe to the nullify Tech as well there you go so if you liked seeing

56:03 Riley AKA snuff back on the channel and you want me to keep pressure on him to come and talk to us every single season because you know I love talking to Riley on the show you know Riley this took me back to when we first started this whole thing you know it's so much fun to talk to you again you know again it's just it's easy because we've done this so many times in the past so let us know in the comments below you know what did you think of this recap what did you think of some of the crazy ideas we threw out there should Survivor do an extra show maybe on Paramount plus that focuses either on the classic version or the show that we all love or maybe do something with a world championship similar to what the challenge World Championship is doing where we can get Survivor South Africa and Australia involved as well or an All-Stars Vision but subscribe to this Channel please that does help with the YouTube algorithm it does help also to get great guests on the channel I am in the early stages of talking to more Survivor us players so you know any of that subscriptions that does help with our credibility and then please hit a like please put the notification Bell on so you can be informed next time then we go live but for now I'll see you guys later bye