Survivor 51 Premiere: Was It A Masterpiece or Disaster?

0:00 Welcome back to the Nullify Take channel where we've got the TNT takes for you on Survivor 51 episode 1. I'm your host Chris and with me is Andre again for a second season. He enjoyed season 50 and we've got him back. I'm glad to have you back Andre. How you doing? I'm glad to be back. I'm glad I wasn't fired over last season, but yeah, it's really great to be back. I'm really excited for a new season. you know, the fans were in arms when you tried to put Colby at GOAT legendary status on the rankings that we did. [laughter] but I think, you know, all opinions are welcome on the nullified tech channel. That's one of the things that I personally love about doing this show, Andre, is that we get people coming to the live, they jump on, they give their comments, their feedback, and a lot of the times they don't agree with us. And I think that's what makes Survivors

0:50 Fandom one of the most beautiful fandoms. You could say that, you know, it can get tribal like, pun intended, at times, but you know, it's what makes the show great. We don't all think alike. We don't all like the same things, but at least we don't call the fans out like Jeff did this last episode. We're not trying to We're not trying to pick a fight with our audience, are we, Andre? Jump straight to the worst part of the episode, by the way. [laughter] We'll get it out of the way. We'll get it out of the way. Well, it's a perfect analogy for a survivor, right? Everybody disagrees every then you know eventually you come to some sort of consensus, but before then you can have as many fights as you possibly can. Yeah. Well, I don't know if we want to start there or not, but you know how it is on this podcast. We kind of just go from one topic to the other and we discuss everything and it kind of naturally just flew into the Jeff thing.

1:36 I didn't know that we were going to start the podcast that way because I don't script this thing, Andre. It's kind of like unscripted podcast. We just go straight into it. we see where the conversation takes us. And it was so such a strange moment. You know what it reminded me of in this episode? It reminded me of the Ricard come on in guys moment where he tried to put the come on in guys on the players. And again in this situation he tried to put it on the players to say we want fire making when a lot of fans don't like fire making. Me personally I couldn't care less if it's in the show not in the show. It's kind of been in the show for so long now that I'm used to it. There's far worse twists than fire making, but a lot of I know a lot of fans don't like fire making. Right. The one thing I just don't like about Jeff here is there's a clear power struggle here. He's the executive producer of the show. If you disagree

2:25 With him, I want to see those five or six people that put up their hand that said that they didn't want fire making. How many of them do you think will actually be invited to come back and play the show again? Because they've all painted a target on their back and we know Jeff can be petty at times. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think the one that stood out to me was Kristin where she was like, I've done fire. I've learned how to make fire making. I've done it for the last 25 years or whatever. And she was like the first one to put up her hand, right? I thought that was perfect capsulation of it, right? And I thought it was really unfair for Jeff to say, first of all, it has to be unanimous. Okay, what is this, a jury or something? 20 people have to agree. Like, when last have 20 people agreed on anything in America or in the world for that matter? like if it's going to be like a

3:11 Jury, make it like a jury. It has to be unanimous either way. So, it's just like it's 12 angry men. You put people into a room and you can't leave this room. You can't start the game until you decide on this. Then you can force people to do like I agree with the principle of it, but I don't agree with anything that he did like the way he put it on like it has to be unanimous. You have to put your votes out in public. You have to do it just seemed completely unfair. It was like it was like out of the blue as well. But also, of course, the players, if you're in the game, you're going to probably not want you probably want fire making, right? Because it's like gives you an extra chance. So, I don't know. I just feel like, look, either own it or don't. And it's just Jeff can't have it both ways. Yeah. Yeah. He can't he can't put the blame on the players. He's the one who likes it. He's the one who wants it in the show. So, just continue to have it in the show and

4:02 Not make a big deal out of it. but you know, instead of having a unanimous vote, I reckon that should have been like the old days where, you know, the fans got to choose the champion, Jeff gets to choose the champion, let them go head-to-head in a good old duel, a good old battle, and whoever wins, that idea wins, right? So, if we could have chosen someone to represent us, who would it have been? Anyone in Survivor history, a clutch player to come in there, represent the fans. because you know, Jeff would probably choose Jonathan because he loves Jonathan, right? So who would who would we choose to take on the giant? Who would be the David to the Goliath of Jonathan for us to fight for the fans for the little guy? Well, I'm think I'm thinking back to Cambodia when they had three champions, right? So, it was Adam Savage, Jeremy, or Terry. It has to be one of those

4:48 Three. I'm thinking Terry Prime. Terry Prime like if there's a Terry. Yeah. What about Holloway? Even Michael Holloway I mean Holloway got to the end. He dominated. might still have something in the tank. Who knows? How about Chris Underwood? [laughter] Chris Underwood. Talking about Chris Underwood for those I don't want to spoil anything on the challenge, actually. So, there might be people still watching this that haven't watched the challenge, but yeah. actually, you're warned. I want to talk about it. He lost for his first time in a in a duel. Wow. This week. So, puzzle. We finally found this a puzzle. Yeah, that's crazy. Was pretty clutch. He probably hasn't lost anything since his original like the one that he lost to Devin's in the very beginning, right? Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. That's a run.

5:36 Yeah. Well, he'll be back. He'll be back. Camila, welcome to the live saying, "So excited that you're back." We're excited to have you back. Geette as well. Excited to have us here. Jay is in the live as well saying, "Hey guys, glad to see you covering this season. Welcome back." you know, Andre, I'm like, how are you feeling about Open Era? Like I don't know if I'm like in this delusional optimistic world of just enjoying Survivor at the moment. I'm looking at it very casually. In any case, even though we're podcasting about it, like I'm not taking it too serious. Like I mean for me it's been fun. Like it was a good opening episode. Are you still optimistic? Are you pessimistic? Like I mean there's obviously some controversial things. You mentioned that the having a go at the fans was probably the most controversial thing. I can think of one other big controversial moment that we probably will talk about at some stage, but besides that, I was

6:26 Quite high on this episode. I actually quite like the cast. I thought it felt fresh. We're not doing the same old trope from the 40s. It's not exactly the same start to the game. We've got two tribes. Like, I feel like there's way more to be optimistic about than pessimistic about at this stage. Yeah. No, I agree. I think I really loved it. I It does feel fresh, but I at the same time felt old school to me. It felt very like Survivor Palao, Survivor Fiji, like early on when they just dumped them on an island. Just do your stuff. So, what I liked about what I think they're sort of going in the right direction with apart from all the twists and all that stuff is that they're giving all the players agency. They say, "Look, there's no challenge. There's no twist. There's no there's no like go on a journey. You will split out people. Let's just do go on an island. You do your thing. Give you two tribes. pretty old school. I liked it. I thought that

7:18 Was it's a step in the right direction. I think there is a power struggle between Jeff who, you know, Jeff would have wanted to have it like the 40s, like the new era. but I'm pretty sure there was some people like in the higher up saying, "No, let's make this a little bit more old school." And I think there's a bit of a power struggle there. I think Sky Dance or something. but I really I really like the way that they're going here. It's there's more agency, which I really like. Yeah, a year ago I may have said to you that Jeff is untouchable and that his way goes, but I think you're right. I think him calling out the fans is him feeling the pressure. Someone's in his ear. Someone's putting pressure on him. So, he felt the need to clap back on the fans, which I still don't think is a great thing. Like, even if it's 30% of your fan base, you can't afford at this

8:06 Stage in the journey, 51 seasons in, to lose 30% of your fan base who don't like fire making, right? So, it's Michael Jordan used to have this very famous quotes that said, "Democrats buy Jordans, Republicans buy Jordans." So, he doesn't have an opinion about politics. He doesn't want to get involved, right? And it's kind of the same when it comes to Survivor. Like, there's still a 304 30% 40% group there that probably don't like fire. Maybe even higher. We may be understating how many people don't like it, but it's very interesting that he would club back in this episode. And also it's interesting that you know in his interview with Parade I believe it was he said that they listen to the fans. He acknowledged that they listen to the fans. The fans want the two tribes. That's why they did two tribes. So he finally caved. He doesn't cave very often in Survivor. But I felt like if we didn't have the two tribe format

8:55 That we had here in this episode, Jenna probably would have been the first person to go home. There would have been absolutely no room for her to maneuver in a traditional six person tribe. It felt fresh. It felt good. It didn't feel like there was an obvious power alliance that formed on day one. In fact, the one that we thought could be the power alliance was the one who took the first hit in this episode. So, that in itself feels fresh. It feels less predictable this early on. Yeah. I mean, was it the best apart from I guess 50 because you saw everybody back. Was it was it the best premiere since New Era? Since the start of New Era, probably I would say like I would say so. And to be honest with you, for me, the whole 40s all feel like one big season because any of the other Yeah. They were so they were so similar.

9:41 Like you remember what it was like for us as fans when we used to watch shows prior to 40. Like we could tell you specific things about each season. They all had a unique identity, right? They all had a unique identity and a unique feel to them which Jeff kind of cpped out on that and he and he started creating this show that was all about budgeting, all about saving costs. Let's use the same challenges. Let's continue to use the same twists in every single season. By the way, by the way, budget and then decide, oh, let's just give a million dollars if you when you flip a coin. And it's like, well, are they are they really cutting budget or is it like what's going on here? It's lazy. Like I think me and you called him out about this last season on one of our recaps. I don't remember which recap it was, but we said that

10:27 There is a level of complacency and laziness from Jeff where he just doesn't want to innovate and create anymore or his team like they've gotten comfortable that no matter what product they put out there, people will watch it and they will get the money coming in. But I do think the tides are changing. So I don't want to just go down this negative spiral of what we've previously sort of seen on the show. I do think the tides are changing. I do think you're right. There's some pressure behind the scenes on Jeff to innovate and be creative. And the open era is looking good. It's looking good. I like the fact that there was agency for the players. I like the fact that they could have a little bit more of a say in, you know, the negotiation part of it. And I wanted to talk about the negotiation part of it because Kilby went up against was it Kristin or something like that in the negotiations and

11:13 I think that the show tried to paint him as the person who came away from that thing as the loser, the person who wasn't really negotiating as well. But after they go to tribal council, he gets the exact same things in any case that Kirby negotiated for. Who's actually the loser in this case? cuz I don't know if you go to tribal council if you're going to get the other building supplies automatically if you go back to camp. I don't think you do. I think you get the pot, the flint, and the machete because it's basic survival need. So, in a lot of ways, Kilby actually was the one who got out of this whole situation better in my mind. What was your thoughts about the way that they portrayed that whole thing? Yeah, I got I paused for a minute when he said, "By the way, you do get fire at the end of my Wait, what? What I think what I think might have happened is maybe Kilby was like talking to the producers saying, "Hey, by the way, if we lose this, are we gonna get the fire?" And then that's why he

12:02 Accepted it so quickly because in my mind I was like, "Why is he accepting it so quickly?" Like what? Like obviously you want the fire. So I think there was some shenanigans going on where maybe Kristin wasn't talking to the reducers as actively. That's that was my take. I think there was like a power imbal information imbalance there that Kilby knew but Kristin didn't. So, but it was easier to show the dynamics there and it was easy to make Kristin the By the way, early winner pick for me. Maybe I jumped the gun there, but I think that they wanted to portray her in a certain way. In my opinion, you've always got to ask yourself why are they portraying someone in a positive way when clearly the evidence is telling you the counter here. like I don't think that she necessarily got out of this thing the better. And Kilby was try they

12:50 Were trying to paint him out as this almost like I don't know like a like a crazy maverick kind of person like going in there doesn't really have the skills. He's kind of like a survivor MacGyver going in there trying to put a skill set together and actually win this negotiation. He learned how to swim from someone off Reddit. [laughter] Like I mean what is that story? I saw that first actually. Yeah, [laughter] that was funny. Let's see what people are saying here in the live. Season off to a great start. Cautiously optimistic about this open era so far. I agree. Jay Dreadful Ruby back in the live saying I still wish they would theme the season for that exact reason so that we can remember it so it's memorable. It's the whale season. It's the whale season. Oh, is it's the whale season or the skele there's skeletons everywhere of like dinosaurs and things like that in the tribal council. I think I think

13:41 That Jeff was trying to make it the uncertainty season or something like that, but I think it's going to be permanent uncertainty, right? Like even in the 40s, I still remember like the medieval season, you know? I think I was like 40 the one I don't even remember Bruce's first season, I think it was. Yes. Okay, let's have a look here. Yeah. New era looks so underwhelming in comparison to the open era. Totally agree. Dreadful Ruby saying, "I think he is bitter because so many fans rave about Australia." yeah, it's possible. Well, I don't know if enough people I know we as the super fandom and probably the most vocal fandom out there we talk about Australian Survivor a lot, but I don't know if the masses in the US really knows how good Australian Survivor is to be honest. Andre, no. Did you end up watching last season of Australian Survival?

14:28 I ended up watching four episodes. I just couldn't like I was I was contemplating about making a video and putting it up and I just couldn't get back into it. I'm really out of Australia. Yeah, I was I was I'm really out of Australian Survivor at the moment. I'm probably not the like I'm like I know there's a lot of people who enjoy it. Like I'm not even that excited about rivals, but that's probably a whole different conversation that we can have on the podcast about that and maybe you we could do one where you could try and convince me that I should be excited about rivals. I just don't get excited to watch celebrities play. No, me neither to be honest with you. [snorts] Jay saying, "I agree. is not the loser and he was shown to be right because the other tribe complained that they couldn't get sleep because of a lack of shelter. Yeah, I didn't I missed that. I didn't actually see that people were complaining. That's the other part. Kristin might not be the winner because she could also get this big edit in the beginning or a lot of like visibility because she could go early because we know it's one of two things. She's

15:19 Either going deep or she's potentially someone that goes early in the game. Yeah, that's true. Jay saying my winner pick is Sharonda. But yeah, Kristin looks good contender to Duby. On that note, so glad they are done with silly beat Idols. We'll talk about that soon. Dreadful say, "Speaking of which, did you watch Traders Australia?" I didn't, but I know who won Traders Australia and I'm not surprised at all. That person is a gamer, Andre, so I'm not surprised at all. Did you watch Traders? No, I didn't. I like now that you said that I'm kind of guessing who won what [laughter] actually because I know it was casted. Yeah. Well, yeah. Sorry if I spoiled it for you. I didn't I should have checked with you if you watched anything beforehand, but I wasn't going to watch it anyway, let's be honest.

16:04 I wanted to ask you on this marooning and obviously they do the supplies and stuff like that. There's choice here early on for someone to go to Excel Island and obviously they don't know it's Excel Island. Any fan of the show would have told you that this is probably going to be like Exile Island. Like I immediately thought it was going to be Exile Island, but did they miss an opportunity here for the Tribes to Old School yard pick their tribes? Like if it's truly the power is in the hands of the players this season, it's not in the hands of production that they miss a beat here because I was kind of hoping and I was getting excited that they were going to do a good old se fashion schoolyard pick at this. They were going to pull a palau and make a Yeah, I thought that was coming. I was so ready for it. Yeah, because I would they

16:49 They pulled the double bluff, right, where they casted 21 people and you're like, "It's going to be three tries." You're like, "No. One person's going to go away." Soon as one person, as soon as they said that, they're like, "Okay, it's going to be Exile Island, obviously." Yeah. I thought maybe that could have happened, but I also feel like Jeff probably should have been there if that was going to happen. So, I was kind of like, they're probably not going to do that. Plus, I think sort of they learned their lesson from Plow. Like they like it's fine to do it once. It was interesting TV, but they don't want to do it again where the entire sort of first half of the season was kind of boring because it's like, ah god, this is happening again. And we've had like every single season of the new era has been like that where it's just like one tribe got completely decimated. I'm not sure if they want they want them to do it again. They kind of I think they want to revitalize it the way same way that like you know Samoa did, right?

17:38 Where it's like big tribes of 10. I think that's kind of what they're going for there personally. but would you have would you have opted to would you have volunteered to go to exile? No ways. [laughter] You just watched Survivor 50 where someone had to flip a damn coin to stay in the game and you just know production does not value I feel like they don't care. They will put a year into casting individuals to come onto the show and you've seen Pal like my thing was I thought the person was going to go home. I was like this person's gone like 21 the opposite. I thought they were going to get be become Aussie where they would just be safe for an entire I would be I would be I would be so nervous to do that and also even if I

18:24 Did know Andre that I'm going to Exile Island and I'm going to have an opportunity to go and get an advantage in the game. Right. I think that for me it's the advantage this early in the game in a tribe of two tribes of 10 where there's so much room to play, so much room to hide socially if you're good at the social game. Why would you risk getting an advantage and lose potentially even 24 and he's lost more than 48 hours, probably like three days now by the time he goes into this tribe? I'll tell you why. I think I would have I was saying I would have gone what first of all because you want to be the you want to be the main character of your season, right? Like that's not like we know this they you know they'll help you the production will help you at that stage. But I was thinking my prediction of what was going to happen is you're going to be safe for the first tribal because they need to have balanced tribe. You're going to go to the loser tribe which is basically what happened. you're going to have a

19:16 Shot at immunity. And then I think that it would actually been better if you came into a tribe that was already fractured and just choose to go with the like don't risk the first vote. Just go straight to the people that have won the vote and be like I'm with you guys 100%. And just do that and then basically skate by another few days, be the main character, possibly get an idol. You can weaponize the idols. You do get it. if you know how to cut down a tree, I guess. but I would have done it. I think it would have been like you just want to make good TV at the at, you know, we want to get far, but I think that's an easy way to get far. Yeah. And the right person ended up putting their hand up, right? What was his name? Lewis, I believe his name is. Lewis. Yeah, the Irish guy. Yeah. Yeah. The Irish guy. Right guy. Because he seems to be a kindred spirit to yourself, someone who wants to create some entertaining TV. He's probably going to be the big character this season by

20:05 The looks of it because he's not afraid to put up his hand. So, the Rick Devin's, you know, of the show potentially. going there to try and see what happens. And he's on Exile Island. Jeff walks up to him with this big bag. And for a second there, I thought Jeff was going to be like, you know, I told you guys that this is the open era. Anything is in play. I brought with me Tony's bag of tricks. And in this bag of tricks, you can choose to have an advantage from any season you'd like. You know, choose between these five different coconuts. And inside of it is a season themed name like Palao or Exile Island or whatever you wanted to put in there. And you get a twist from that season as an advantage. Like I thought it was going to be a bit more creative to be honest with you. But it wasn't like there was no survivor menu for them to choose.

20:51 Remember we Yeah, we kind of called that where you were kind of like this is going to be like Ghost Island, right? In a way where it's like okay we're going to choose what whichever. That's pretty fascinating. I think it's quite I think that bias is towards people that know the history, right? where it's like, okay, well, you kind of know if it's gonna be like the I want Kayan because I want Yeah, [laughter] the ship or I guess or I guess Exile Island, right? Or Cook Islands like if it's I want 41. I want the be I want the knowledge is power or whatever you want like in the game. But Jay's saying that would be a good twist to be honest, Chris. And this is what I mean by like it feels like, you know, I'm still, don't get me wrong, I'm still extremely optimistic, Andre, about the season, but it feels like we're moving in the right direction, but we're still pulling our punches slightly. We're still a little bit afraid to just give more controls to the fans because

21:39 If it's truly the open era and maybe next episode literally there will be a survivor haven and a menu that they can choose from or something. I don't know. Give more choices to the players. Get let the players to play devil's advocate. Is there a better twist in the history of Survivor than just a straight idol? Just an idol? No. No. I'm very happy about the straight idol. Like we can agree on that. We can so agree on that. Like it's so refreshing to get someone find an idol. There's no beware advantage. There's no tricks that need to happen or shenanigans for them to get this idol. Plus, there's no Billy Eyish idol that can go to someone else. It's just a straight up idol. It's refreshing. It's and it's why Australian Survivor is so good because they've never messed with the format of a good old fashioned idol.

22:27 Well, that's debatable, I guess. [laughter] I didn't watch last season. I didn't watch last season. They kind of mess with the format a little bit. But no, I agree. I definitely agree. I think like even if Jeff came out and said, "Look, there's going to be like no twist except idols." I'll be fine with that because it's like, "Okay, you know, you know where this where the board lays. Let's just play." And that's what we saw this episode. We saw people are playing. They know what to they kind of know what to expect. They're like they have their agency. And I think that just having that constant of just look an it's an idol. That's the predictability. I guess a little bit of shot in the dark. I guess I'm on record saying I quite like the shot in the dark. But I think this is where it works best where it's like look, it's kind of a free shot. You know, they didn't know where it was going to go. Maybe I'm chopping a head, but have the have the idol, maybe the beware it is. I sorry beware. the show in the dark and just no other

23:18 Twist, please. I'm good. I'm good for twist right now. Yeah. J Jay's saying, "I like that the idol had no stipulation attached to it, but what if the Yellow Tribe has a Beware idol?" I hope that's not the case because it would be such a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Jeff said that it's not going to be the same like in different tribes. It's like, well, you know, just because it happened here doesn't mean it's going to happen there. So, I think he flagged that up for sure. permanent uncertainty in this game, right? for one second there, did you think that when they got to the challenge and Jeff was talking about permanent uncertainty and things will continue to be in flux this season, did you for a second think that maybe we'll have like scrambled tribes every single episode? Like for a second I was like what if like after this they break them up and they scramble into two different tribes and it's like that is

24:08 Permanent uncertainty if you can't really find a permanent home in the game right so now you're in a twoperson tribe now you're in a three person tribe now you're in a four person tribe now you're back in a twoerson tribe right it would be too much for the viewers to follow so I'm glad we didn't go down that direction but I was fearful that's kind of what he meant when he started going down that path I did I didn't think that I was actually thinking it's going to be one world I thought it was going to be the one world twist And then I guess that can come with that. If it was the one world twist where everybody was on the island and then every week you would have like a different tribe. That would make a lot more sense to me because that way there's more room to maneuver. And I think they even quoted that. I think they even quoted One World in the premiere. They're like, "Oh, this is one world." I'm like, "This is the one I think that was the one twist that it was like a terrible season, but everyone was like,

24:55 "Hey, this is like this is the twist that actually people really want. Let's have this." So I was expecting that rather than sort of it sort of sort of changing up. Maybe not around this whole uncertainty bit, but that would have come with it for sure. Yeah. Now I want to talk about one of the players here from this episode a little bit because I feel like they got such a big edit for the wrong reasons in the first episode. And I want to get your thoughts on this person Eric who played this season. he was the one in the purple tribe that had he had his wife. He got emotional when they talked about his wife. He went out fishing. People were trying to say that he was out looking for an idol. he's such an overexited person in the game. Do you think he has got this edit of someone that we've classically seen in the past that they start the game extremely in a bad place and like

25:46 They're not good, but then they kind of find their way and then go deep into the game. Do you think that's what's happening here or do you think that there's just too much heat? Because in my mind, when you look at that tribe, the other person who's also from, is it Philly that they're both from? Rob, funny enough, never trust a Rob when it comes to Survivor, the devious players like Robin Telly, Boston Rob, like you know, don't trust Robs in the game. he was doing a lot to paint a target on this guy and do you think that he's going to be able to survive this? I know he found an idol as well, or do you think people are going to catch on to Rob rather than Eric? Because to me, Rob's by far the more dangerous player. Like Eric is just over excitable. Yeah, I was going to say I see the comments is that these are the two Rhode Islander guys and it's like there's only room in this island for one Rhode Islander. I think that I think they were actually setting up Rob than Eric because Eric seemed to be like I he might be the I

26:37 Get kind of vibes. Maybe it's the fishing bit, but like kind of like the Johnny Fair played to the Robert where it's like this guy's like happy lucky. I'm going to go like swi like swimming and stuff and catch fish. And then kind of you got the devious guy in the corner going, you know, I have to get rid of this guy, you know, let's paint a tag on his back. So, I kind of got that rivalry and I think it's going to be a big rivalry. I think it's sort of going to be like the classic villain hero sort of rivalry like the hero versus the heel. so I got that vibe a little bit. which I'm so for there to be a rivalry, you're thinking that Eric is going to stay longer than being the first boot at the stage. I think so. He's not I don't think he's going to be the first boot because it's kind of he kind of recovered quite quickly when people realized, oh, he was actually just out fishing for us. Then everyone felt kind of bad about it.

27:27 So, I think that he kind of recovered fine because he didn't do anything wrong. He wasn't like, you know, searching for idols. It was Robin searching for idols. But it looked to me like a few people it looked to me like a few people were annoyed with him. Just like, you know, there's certain people, it's like all in water. You just don't get along. And I think when you're starving, you're out on an island. He like the way he reacted on this little fish that he caught. People were like, "That's the reaction for this little fish." Like, so some people seemed a little bit annoyed with him. fight again. We've got a 10 person tribe here. So, I feel like there is an opportunity for him to find his feet maneuver, but he needs to know that Rob's coming for him. That's the big story line that's emerging from the purple tribe at this stage. when we're talking about the purple tribe, other people that sort of stood out for me early on there is Aie. Really liked Aie. I think he got a big edit in the beginning of the show.

28:19 Did he end up with someone from his alliance on that side? I think. Yes, he had Sharonda. Sharonda. No, Jelly. Jelly isn't the yellow tribe. So, Sharonda, sorry if you're seeing me looking to the left. There's way too many new players. I've got I've got a reference sheet here. Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] I'm not going to pretend like I'll know all the names. Alliance. Yeah. So, they all five in that helicopter alliance, right? Yeah. Do you think that alliance has got some legs? Because the only alliance we saw very early on, it must be a strong alliance that's going to go deep in the game. So, Orian, Sharonda, they're still together in that tribe. and they're looking for people that they can latch on to form a bigger alliance there on that side. But Ori seems to be kind of almost like I don't know, he's like the captain on that side. Like he's the alpha guy really. Him and Rob. Yeah. Yeah. No, he came out as quite likable. Like super likable guy.

29:09 I've got my eyes on him, but I feel like I don't I don't know if they just set they just set up that alliance just for the first tribal council. If it was anyone else but who was it that was what was her name again that got eliminated? It was Aliyah. Aaliyah. Yeah. If it was anybody other than Aaliyah that got eliminated that got voted off. I would have been like yeah this is going to be but the fact that she that one of those five got eliminated was like maybe that's just setting them up for fa failure here or at least in the first episode. Plus they already split up in the very beginning. So it doesn't make any sense. They'll have to come back. I expect that sort of that story line's going to peter out unless all four of them get to the merge

29:54 Or onto the tribe swap. And then if you see them again, they're probably going to be a pretty powerful alliance because they have like I think there's three people there that definitely have a very strong connection. It's AI, Sharonda, and Kristin. Kristin and Sharonda. They had that moment on the boats as they were going into shore where Kristin tried to form that connection very quickly on the whole are you sports athlete or something like that and she's apparently been an athlete in her life as well. So I feel like there's definitely some sort of an alliance that's forming there but you know the biggest mistake that we see in survival all the time is when you make it too obvious that you're in an alliance of three or four. And I did think or feel a couple of times on the beach they were all clearly walking away together. They were having conversations and people that go into Survivor, they

30:41 Would clock on to something like that, especially in the beginning when you see a group of four or five people walking to the side, you know that they're most likely talking something about forming an alliance, right? Because the game moves so fast these days. Yeah. And wasn't it Jelly that had the hots for AI and she was like saying, "I want to be in a showance with him." And I'm like, why would they even show that if they're going to be split up anyway? Like they must come back together sometime otherwise they would have just cut that out. feel. Yeah, I like lasagna as well, by the way. I think it's you know, having an Italian in the house that can make some great lasagna. I can tell you it's [laughter] I don't I don't blame I don't blame Ory. Like the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. ladies, if you're listening to this, so I feel like Jell is already in there with she's talking a big game. She can make a really good lasagna, so I feel like she's halfway in there with already. I want to see Do you want to see a

31:31 Show, man? I feel like Yeah, throw it in there. Go back. I've been watching Big Brother the last three months. I'm not I'm not I'm over showmances. Sorry. Fair enough. Fair enough. I like I haven't. So I'm all pro if we're going to have an open era of seasons thrown some good oldfashioned showmances into the game. Want to date Robin Amber? Exactly. I'm here for it. I'm here for it. Okay. So, was there anybody else in the purple tribe that you that you liked that you felt like stood out for you as someone that we should keep an eye on? I think the only other person who got Were they the ones that didn't go to the tribal council? I think yeah, they were the ones that didn't go to tribal council. The only other guy I can think of is Carter. He's kind of like the JT looking guy on He was like the sidekick. He was the sidekick of Rob.

32:19 And at least he got a story. But again, he was portrayed as the sidekick of Rob. So I don't know if he's going to if he's got legs to be honest. So yeah, because they made they actually made a I mean it wasn't very memorable, but they had like a fourperson alliance where Card was bringing people together like Rob and I there was another two which I forgot who it was. I found him quite good in the confessionals. Like I thought that his sides during the confessionals were quite good. you know maybe something to look for but the fact that he didn't go to tribal council made it not very memorable for me. I just think that like I think he's playing I think you're right. I think he's playing second fiddle. Like Rob is clearly the Russell of the season. I feel like I feel like he's going to be the big villain or Tony.

33:05 I mean, I hope so. I mean, I think Tony was a little bit more likable than Russell was. [laughter] But yeah, I mean, is it just because he's bald? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. I got I got Who's the guy who played in Triple Who's a guy who played in Triple H? So, you've got two memorable bold guys. There's Russell Hans, Tony, and then there's the guy who played at Triple H. What was his name? I forgot his name. like he was he was allied to the doctor in that season. Yeah, I don't remember the name actually. I was thinking more than Warog. Yeah. Oh, Warog. Yeah, Warog is kind of even more memorable. So, yeah, it's funny that they've got a clear stereotype that they cast for and it's always the bold guy. They're exactly the same stereotype when they go onto the show as well. Joe Ma, that's what I was thinking about. Joe Ma fan [clears throat] actually. I can't believe I forgot him.

33:52 Yeah. Well, Joe, like hopefully like where will he rank in the tier of bold game players coming into this show? So, if you've got Tony as the best, Russell probably second, then you pro I don't know. Is it is it Joe Men or Ward? I'd say Wardock because he's more memorable. We could actually remember his name. I think I think I think Joe Mena was a better player, but the Warog was a better character. Yeah, I think so. So, where will like where will he fit into this rankings? I feel like Mike White doesn't really fit the No, he's not. I was thinking, sorry, Mike Turner. Mike Turner, sorry. Mike Turner doesn't really fit. He doesn't actually fit the stereotype because he was a nice guy, so I wouldn't put him into this ranking. Yeah. [snorts] we actually had Mike Turner on the podcast way back. He actually came on to take channel. He did a he did a recap. I

34:41 Can't remember if it was like season I think season 43. He's such a nice guy to talk to even off air. He's a real legend. could have won. He could have won. I talked to him afterwards. I said to him, it was so he wanted to play badly again as well, but it's like it's just owning your game a little bit more at the end would have been so good in 50. He would have been so instead of Joe. Oh, yeah. I would have loved to see Mike. Yeah. No, I agree. Is shout out to Mike Turner. okay. So, let's move on from the purple tribe unless there's anybody else that you wanted to talk about. I don't really think there was really there's a lot of people who weren't as memorable on that. Like the only other guy I can think of is Christian, the guy with the glasses. The skin is all the guys got the edit. So, I'm feeling like that X is going to come for Jeff with that

35:27 Edit on the purple tribe early on, but there's a few bigger female characters as well. and then let's talk a little bit about Lewis because we touched on him. what was your thoughts on Lewis in the first episode? any comments on the technique that he used to try and get that idol like was shame on production for giving him the smallest ax in the world to try and [laughter] knock that thing [clears throat] off. So I do have like I did read on Reddit I think it was that the production for bit forbade him from cutting it from the other side to let gravity do its course because it was too dangerous. So, he was kind of screwed there because it's like he kind of can't for safety reasons, you can't really do it in the right way. And also, I guess he should have probably put on like his shirt or something on the axe.

36:15 I like Lewis. I think he's a good like he's a good character. Is this the is this the second European that we've had on the on Survivor US? Because Ace was the first one. Ace was the first one. Yeah. Yeah. Ace was the first one. That's why Ace, you got to go back to Gabon to think of someone that [laughter] that's crazy. Unless somebody can call out anyone else that we've missed, but I feel like it would be Ace. yeah, I felt for him. One question that spring to mind with this whole that, you know, setup that they had with him having to knock down the idol to get it. Do you think production actually practices this stuff beforehand like or they just make it up as they go? cuz like I felt like he never had a chance to with that axe. Such a small axe. I've chopped a bit of wood in my life. I'll tell you that much. Growing up in South Africa, we love to do good barbecues. Like it's the same as here in Australia.

37:05 We love good barbecues with wood. and you'd go out into the forest to chop down trees, get wood, bring it back to camp, camping in Africa and stuff like that. And you always have a proper axe. Like this was a little handheld axe. Like I felt for him. I don't think that they tested it. And I also don't think Jeff even knew how much time was on that when he asked them like how it's like I'm not gonna tell you. I feel like Jeff didn't know how much time was in that hourglass. He didn't care. He just cut down the you're probably not going to do it anyway. Just cut it down. We'll give the else. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think was it was an inherently unfair challenge because it requires a lot of fit. Like someone like Aie I feel like probably could have done it, but if you put on someone smaller and I think Lewis was one of the smaller people in the cast, I mean he didn't really have a chance. So

37:52 Is in this case do we do we say look you can either cut down a tree or like do this puzzle or something like that like is that more fair or do you do you like that it's simple just cut down the tree and just do it and if you can't do it tough I actually think size doesn't have that much to do with it when an ax is that small it's all about technique it's all about so obviously if Gerard Gerald was there from Australian Survivor he would have chopped down that tree in no time because he understands the technique that's required, but it's the it's the size of the axe. I'm telling you now, there's like no leverage. I was I was thinking like how do you almost need to get like some tools like an extra stick get like you needed more leverage on the ads like yeah it's the angle like I just don't see it. But anyways, we're probably

38:38 Spending way too much time on this and we're probably losing a lot of people [laughter] but it's the kind of things that I look at it. I'm just like has production podcast fire chopping wood chopping fire. [laughter] Yeah. okay. So, obviously he loses out on the time as well with the yellow tribe. The yellow tribe was probably the more interesting one because they were the one that actually did go to tribal council. a really big character was born in this first episode and this person's either going to go all the way run the season or they're going to get found out very early on and they did lose massive steam in the first episode because the vote didn't go their way. Devin, what's your thoughts on Devin? At first, I wasn't really a massive fan of Devin. I think he was like talking about Lewis when he went or something like that. I'm I don't

39:23 Remember quite what he started off with that kind of like made him made me made him lose me for a minute. But I liked that he was an active player. I like once they got into like he was he wasn't a good player. He was a little bit too honest I feel at Tribal Council. but I mean I liked him as a character as a player. I don't think he's a very good player. Yeah. right now. He's he god he reminds me of someone from the from the new era. that was super but I forgot his name. So I don't even know I don't remember what the thinking of was the name Devin was it? Devin. Oh yes I remember. I don't know. Maybe it's a name but he reminds a lot of Devin. And then I think I think wasn't he on like was he on Carolyn season? Carolyn and I don't

40:09 Remember but I remember he was doing a lot of stuff and then he got found out really early and maybe I'm just maybe I'm just like seeing very similar names and I'm like oh yeah they have very similar personalities but I can see I can see it because I really liked I really personally really liked Kevin. I actually like he was I didn't like the bully stuff. There was a point in time in that season I felt like there was some bullying going on from Devin and some of the players in the game. I didn't like that stuff. Sorry. What I liked about him is, and similar to Devin, I like that Devin, he's got like it's like he's 90% there, but he's not quite there yet because he's got the social reads, he's got the emotional intelligence, he's really good at getting people together. I mean, he by far was the more dangerous player in this last episode, getting so many people to turn on Jenna to try and vote Jenna out. We almost had two seasons in a row where Jenna went first.

40:59 Let that sink in. I don't know if that's ever happened, but getting so many people together just to vote against her because she wasn't very open and making people think that she doesn't that she's not a wedding photographer. If I was there, immediately I would have been like, "This guy is manipulative. This guy is trying to turn people against this poor girl that hasn't done much in the game." I would have been really alerted by that, but it didn't seem like anyone caught on to it early on. It was only until the point where Aliyia mentioned Brady's name that suddenly things changed, right? So Ali in a big way she sunk her own game and we'll probably talk about that. I do think Devin has got potential in the game but he's now on the wrong side of the vote and a big thing is going to come down to can him and Brady meant fences. Can they can they come back together after this? Brady said that there's going to be no hard feelings. They're going to vote a different way. That's what it is.

41:48 But in the game of Survivor, you can only count on people who actually vote with you. if you're not voting with me, I can't rely on you in the future that you're going to be a solid vote when we get into a swap situation, right? So, I don't know. I'm very perplexed by Devin's game because I feel like he's got the makings of a good player, but he is overplaying his hand a little bit. He's doing the classic playing too hard, too fast on day one, day two, day three. Yeah, I don't I don't mind him voting against the majority this one because he's so open about it. He's like, "Look, I'm going to be voting for Gemma like Jenna." Like, it's not a mystery. It does remind me of a big brother player. I can't think of any survivor players that did this, but very early on he purposely voted against the majority because he was in the minority. He's like, "Look, I'm going to show loyalty." Not loyalty to a particular person, but loyalty to a way of doing things. You know, if I tell you

42:40 Something, I'm going to do what I what I say I'm going to do. If I pledge my allegiance to something, I'm going to do it. Right? He might have burnt bridges with Gemma. Jenna, but I don't think he burned bridges with other people because it was quite clear what he was doing. And then and then all hits a fan with Pat, I think it was spilling the beans and then everything goes wild. So it wasn't Devin's fault. Devin was very open. He's like this, hey, this is what I'm going to do. This is what everybody's talking. And then everybody else looked sketchy, not him. He was the one that looked kind of like pretty relatively grounded actually at the tribal council because he was like, "Look, I'm just doing this like and then everybody's freaking out around him." So, I think that is actually probably a better look than sort of you're making it out to be to be honest. Yeah. And the edit clearly wanted us to get behind Devin and what was his name? I forgot his name just now.

43:33 Brady. Devin and Brady. They wanted to portray Devin and Brady as these two big power players in the game that were getting the votes together to either go Jenna or Alia in this moment, but I feel like we missed a lot and we always do when it comes to the edit. It was the first episode was three days. I was shocked when it said day three. I'm like day three. Is that does that look like a one that looks like three? No, it's day three. There was three days and it and it wasn't a longer episode. I felt like it was maybe it was like but it went so quick. This episode for me felt so it was like an hour. Yeah, it was an hour and a half without ads. So, like a two-hour episode, I guess. Yeah. So, the person who actually made Jenna aware of this move was Pat. Do you remember like what got Pat to do that? Like, in anybody in the live, if you can remember because I only watched them once. I can't remember why Pat spilled the beans on Alia and the fact that Alia's actually going

44:22 I think it was a mistake. Oh, no. Wait, it I'm thinking of Pat. She spilled the beans that there were two people in the in the mix at tribal council. I think she's just a bad player. No, but Pat spoke to Jenna in the game. She mentioned she was the one. She was the one who told sitting around in the in the in the water and then she mentioned to and I think she mentioned that to Brady. Brady's like, "Wait, what?" Yeah. And I think someone in the live can remember why Pat spilled the beans. Let us know because in a lot of ways I feel like Pat's the one who instigated everything. She's the like if she didn't had that conversation with Jenna, nothing would have happened. She's a chaos. See, she's chaos right now because she's telling everybody everything and it's just like at a certain point and Jenna took that and she's like, "Okay, they're coming for they're coming for me. I've got to paint a target on someone else. So, I'm going to let Brady

45:10 Know that Alia has spoken about him being a potential person that we need to look at in the future because he's been too loud in the challenges and that got the whole thing instigated." Yeah. Yeah. I think she's definitely a player to look out for because I think that she's probably going to be like Sugar. Another good one reference. Okay. So, Lil Smurfy here says, "I think Patt did that because she wanted Jenna to stay and multiple people talked about wanting to keep Brady for now." Okay. Yeah. Okay. So Patt was on board potentially with going for Brady maybe. And then when she realized Jenna's the one that's a target because if you think about it, Pat's 33. Jenna is 33 I think as well. they're kind of in that same bracket. So, when you play a game like Survivor, you're looking for commonality, right? You're looking for someone that you can relate on in a personal note outside of the

45:58 Game and just someone that you can play the game with. Like, if I was out there, I'd be looking for my Andre, you know, be like, "How can I find another Andre that I can like work with in the game so I can move forward, right?" So Pat ended up instigating that. What was your thoughts on Brady, his challenge performance, getting a bit heated? classic Bro, what does he say? Broki or Brody or Brody? Yeah, Brody. My Brody's. my Brody's. Classic Brody out there. getting a little bit heated in the challenge. It's pretty old school again. I like, you know, this not related just to Brady, but I feel like that the cast is a lot more diverse just in terms of like different personality types. You got you got an Irish guy, you got Brady. You got people from all like all different sort

46:45 Of like how would you say backgrounds, job types, that type of thing. I got like, you know, it's kind of like James, you know how James got super heated? sort of hero versus villains. and look, I mean, I like Brady as a like I think he was good at camp. I think he was very good at camp, but he's a little bit too much in the in the challenges how he was like, I'm gonna do this all by myself. Just get two people on it. It'll be a lot faster and you don't have to weigh yourself out. So, yeah, I like him as a character, but I could I could do without the theatrics in the challenge to be honest. We are sleeping on one person in the yellow tribe that I remember. I'm just looking at the names right now. Theenne the little Asian girl that's in

47:33 That tribe. She I think she's tiny. She looked tiny. she was the one who kind of called out Devin early on. She said he's dangerous. I feel like there was a moment in the in the show where she mentioned he's aware. He's moving things. He's getting people together. I do I do remember she had a good confessional, but I didn't see her talk to anybody. I don't know. Maybe she did and I just didn't notice. But she I remember she did have a good professional. I like that, you know, interesting. But she's got a good read, but the problem is if she can't connect to people, that's not going to go anywhere. Like we've seen it too many times in the show where you've got that. going back to Brady, I think he's a young guy. He's 27. He's 20. He's not that young. Like he's 27. He's he should be a bit more mature. But when you go out and play the game of Survivor, you've got to understand that not everybody is going to be at your level when it comes

48:21 To like he's a pro wrestler, he's a sports guy. Not everybody has played in competitive sport. They're not all going to react the same way. What I did like about Brady though is that he did apologize afterwards and I think that can be endearing like afterwards he's like, "Okay, I know I got a bit intense there. I'm sorry." Right? So at least he had that awareness and it does seem like he's got a lot of people who like him because he was able to turn the votes around. People like Brady said, "This is my this is my go. This is what I'm going to do. I'm not moving on this." And he kept saying that to people even at tribal council. Devin did the same thing. People were more afraid of going against Brady than Devin in this moment. And we've seen many of times in the past that the athletic big strong guy try to get votes behind them, but people don't care and they just use them as like a meat shield or someone in the challenges, but they won't actually follow the direction of that person. So clearly there's got to be more here to

49:09 This guy socially than what we have seen so far. I think but also it makes sense on a on a on a social capital sort of point of view to back Brady than it is to back Devin. The reason for me would be that look, I mean, Aaliyah said Brady's name. She took the first hit. She took the first shot. Like, he's just playing defense. Whereas, I feel like Jenna didn't really do anything to Devin. Like, there's there was no reason for Devin to really target her like actively. So, be like, wait, what? Why? Like, what if I have a bad day and I just don't want to talk to anybody? I'm not I don't want to be targeted by Devin because I'm not socializing with him. So, I think that's a lot more defensible to be like, "Hey, look, we're just going to go for Leo because she targeted Brady first. She took the first stab. Let's just let's just go for Leah." That's that was

49:57 That's how I would be thinking in that tribe. Yeah. how did you feel about Shot in the Dark being played here by both the girls in the tribal council? like we spoke about Shot in the Dark before. It feels to me, I don't know, like I'm kind of a little bit over it. I want to see a season without a shot in the dark at this stage. like it ends up not turning into anything. Most of the time no one's safe. it becomes probably less it's less of a risk to play the shot in the dark in a 10 person because your votes not as important to any alliance. So you could you may as well just play it. So does shot in the dark still have a place in the open era in your mind especially if we are going to go to bigger tribes again? I think let's give I would to give it a chance for a larger tribe because we didn't re I mean we do have it in merged and actually it's been really good in merge in a way because it's like I think was it coached last season or someone like that

50:50 It's like you're relying on someone's version they're like no we're just going to play the short in the dark and it basically screws up the entire sort of like tribal council. I think it I think it has legs. I think it has one major problem and that's like it's not very TV friendly and it's like we saw it tonight. like they stand up and it's kind of like a cool moment and Jeff's like no you have to do it one at a time. It's like just go into like it would be better if they went into a into the booth and then they secretly, you know, do the and then they and they play it like an idol at the end, right? It's like they get the little idol, they have a little dice. It's really TV friendly and they're like Jeff, not so fast. Then it will be a little bit better. But I think the real value let the votes play out. You don't know

51:37 Who's safe. let the votes play out and then at the end of the votes they're like, "Okay, so Jenna, you've got five votes. Alia, you've got four votes, but Jenna is safe, you know, or something like that." And then that's the suspense cuz you thought as a viewer that she's going home. Like I do think there's ways that they could modify it. But yeah, I don't know. Like we'll give it a shot in the new era. I want to talk about there's one big thing we haven't spoke Sorry, open era. Open era. I want to talk about a big thing that we haven't spoken about yet. as we're heading towards the latter stages of this podcast, the coin toss is back. Your man Deans, we thought he did the coin toss. He put it to bed. He was safe. It's back now. We spoke about it very briefly that the that, you know, we've got a budget here that can increase, which I'm excited for someone

52:24 Potentially five, six seasons down the line. Imagine someone winning five or six million in a Survivor season. It would be pretty epic and it would be big news if that happened. But I don't really want to see someone go home on a coin flip in a game that is about social strategy. And that's the only thing that I've got an issue with personally. How do you feel about this? Just why do this? You know what? Like I would rather I would ra maybe this is a hot take. Make the shred in the dark a coin flip a 50-50 chance. Then you'll see a lot more people playing it. It'll be out of this dynamic fight. but don't have a point like to because I they did that in like what 42 was it or 41 and it's like do the co coin flip and then I don't forgot who it was that flipped it but it's a buy it was a good someone's going to get forced I bet you someone's going to get like cuz it's going to go down to it and it's going to

53:16 Be like okay someone needs to flip a coin tonight and everybody's going to be like I don't want to flip that coin and then they're going to have to go to rocks and then someone's going to get the wrong color rock the game's going to get blown out I just like playing the odds someone's going to get screwed I feel like in the game yeah Look, it was I didn't like it in 50, but it was good TV moment. I'm like, you know, everyone loves Devin's. It worked out amazing. Mr. Beast was there. Mr. Beast is the most popular YouTube. Great. It was great. It's a great TV moment. This is the perfect the perfect like encapsulation of Jeff seeing something that worked once being like, "Oh, that was because of the coin flip." And it's like, "No, it wasn't because of the toin flip. It was basically because Devin's is this particular player. Mr. beast was there and then he it just all turned out that episode had the massive potential of being an absolute disaster and probably being one of the worst

54:06 Worst episodes of last season or if not ever. It could have seen both Ubiki and also Deons go out in the same way kind of getting screwed and it would have been like seeing Yubicki go out the way he did and then seeing Devin sort of win his way or stay in the game based on a coin flip kind of redeemed the season in some ways to be honest with you. If we lost both of them to flaky twists in the game, I think that the reception to your point would have been a lot different that season. So I'm not I'm not overly excited about the coin flip coming back. I'm excited about the prize pot increasing and for someone to potentially take home a big fat check. I think that would be cool. and I think it would be extra cool if you get a season where there's like a returning cast coming in season

54:53 44 45 and the pot's like four or$5 million and returning players will play very hard. Jeff, just buy a Jeff. Get in an unknown and then just use Jeff's wage and just give it more frankly. Funny you mentioned firing Jeff. this is not going to be a fire Jeff Bass, but Jeff himself, for the first time ever, acknowledged that he probably won't be there forever. And he said in his [clears throat] article to Parade that someone in season 51's cast impressed him that much that he believes that this person will be the potential future host of Survivor. Oh, that's a bit of tea. That's a bit of tea that's coming out here on the Nullified Tech channel because what I've got no idea. I didn't see enough of this cast

55:38 In episode one to give anybody that's rubber stamp of approval. But, you know, my thinking is that we're going to have to be on a future host watch for the next of the season now, Andre. And we're going to have to start looking like who is this person? You know, we've had news anchor a hostwatch draft or something. Yeah, hostwatch draft. like who's the most and in fact at the end of each episode we should actually nominate like three people each that we think I don't know if we'll do it this episode cuz I didn't pay attention and we can we can have a fun one for episode one and then we'll keep track of who do we think Jeff's future host prediction is but it's someone that's impressed. So put into the comments who you think it is. I'm curious to see what other people. So, any anybody that's in the comments right now, I don't know if you guys have seen this, but Parade interview, which maybe I'll be able

56:26 To link it here. People can go and have a look at it. Jeff mentioned that there's someone in this cast that he believes can be a future host. That's the first time he's ever acknowledged that there might have to be another host after him, Andre, which I think is positive for us. But if Jeff is the one that's going to hand select this person and then continue to be the executive producer, we might still not see the change in direction that we are hoping for because it'll still be his voice behind the scenes controlling the dynamic of what's happening on the show. Does he just want to just go with his family and just resign? Just like just no executive drag. like you put your name on the credits, but just don't be involved with the game design because there's clearly some other voice in there in his ear saying look like you need to change the design to be honest.

57:16 So Dolores is saying Chris, hey Dolores, welcome back to the live is saying Kristin is a good choice as a host. I haven't seen enough of Kristin, but she did she was good in confessionals. I'll give her that. She's good in confessionals. So I was thinking Kristin, too, really. But if you had to put Kristin up against Devin's at this stage because I think Devin is a big fan favorite to be the next host, right? I was thinking more Eric over Devin. I think like that like for me it was Kristin. Devin Eric was kind of like I was thinking Rob possibly, but Rob's too much of a villain. I feel like I feel like he would I think you know what I still think like if I know we're talking about people not in the season, but did you see the interview between Rob C and Jeff Proes? No, I didn't. No, I saw it coming. It was coming out like 3 days ago, didn't it?

58:01 I didn't watch the whole thing. I watched a little bit of it and Jeff kind of he's coming around on Rob C. He's acknowledging the body of work of what Rob has done in Survivor with the fandom outside of the show. Like for the first time I was looking at it and I was like Rob C is aging really well. I think he still has a face for the camera. He could still be out. I think Rob C in my mind if I had to choose anyone right now for previous player I put my endorsement behind Rob C to go out and host Survivor if Jeff goes and I think he'd do a good job as well to be honest with you I think so still Rick Devin's okay Rick Devin's as well but I mean yeah anyways so from these people we've got we've got a couple of people here that they're crossing out. So Lily Smith said should we just put people out that we don't think will be it. So Brady and Jenna definitely not. Kristin

58:49 Potentially a good choice. Personally, I can't see Jeff walking away and stepping behind the camera. Jeff, like father time is coming for all of us. Jeff is getting older. Like he's not going to get younger. He's like 60 65 or something. Like I think he's not going to do this in his 70s, is he? Like he's probably got another five years. Barker just like 80 and just walking out. I can see Jeff I think this and if I had to predict I think 51 to 60 is Jeff's final season. So I reckon you get to 60 at that point there's going to have to be a new direction for the show. And what a like I mean when the time comes I know we're hard on Jeff and we criticize some of the directions creatively that he goes in, but you've got to take a bow and acknowledge the body of work. What other host in the in the history of TV, not just reality TV,

59:39 Would be able to say they've done 60 seasons of a show? That is pretty impressive stuff. I think it's pretty I think it's almost unprecedented. I don't know if Bob Barker or Alec Tbeck did more than that, but it's pretty impressive. I really hope that by the time that this thing finishes for Jeff, like I hope he gets his flowers. Like I hope he gets like some sort of lifetime award or something like he needs to be acknowledged for the amount of like I mean that's 30 years of his life by that time that would have gone into a show which is pretty crazy. Yeah. And you can imagine back then in the teens he was like thinking about quitting because he hated the show so much and then he sort of had a little bit more and maybe that's necessarily evil like him being like bit of creatively involved to be you know to be the host for a little bit longer or a lot longer you know that's it is a

1:00:24 Blessing. Yeah. I mean, the worst the worst thing you can do is be people being indifferent to you know, like it's better to be loved or to be hated, but you can't be if people are indifferent to you, they're not going to tune in and watch the show. Yeah. I think I can speak for myself and maybe you, but I think we both love and hate him at the same time. I do. I do. It's so weird. It's like I there's sometimes I'm just like, Jeff, like when you're having a go at the fans and you're alienating like 30 to 40% of them, what are you doing? like why are you so arrogant about you be like this direction is right the fans like just don't even if you think it don't say it's like your dad it's like you know your dad loves you but he's willing to be very critical of you [laughter] exactly Dolores says Rob loves the show he would be good Rick Dons has been killing it on Big Brother Rick would love it yeah I've heard good things

1:01:14 About Rick I've heard that he might be a big brother he's officially more successful as a big brother player than a Survivor player Andre, I feel like big like is he now a Survivor player or a Big Brother player because he's officially better at Big Brother? Oh, I mean I but in all fairness, I think that things he learned on Survivor helped him get to where he is in Big Brother. So, I would say that you always you know your that's your first you that's always your baby, your first show. Of course. Of course. Jay says Jeff deserve his flowers 100. Dolores says Jeff loves the show and it shows on his fave face. and for anyone that is watching Big Brother or not watching Big Brother, Devin has made it to the final three. Final three in Big Brother does not mean that he is up to potentially win the show. I think he needs to get

1:02:01 Into a final two unless the format has changed since I last watched it. it's been a long time, Andre, since I watched Big Brother. But I tell you what, if Devin wins it, I might have to go back and watch this season. I might have to go find the link somewhere and see how he got there and what happened on this season. It's yeah, it's it might be worth it because I'm a big Devin's fan and I like D as well and it's funny because you mentioned to me that you know we were very high on D. I can't even remember where we put her on our legendary rankings. I think she was either top tier or A tier. So she like she was about to push to get into S tier and we were I was very vocal that I think she's the best winner that we've seen in Survivor in a very long time. She's a great game player. it sounds like she kind of proved that right on Big Brother again and just continue to dominate.

1:02:51 So yeah, so one of the things that we never really saw her in Survival was playing well from the bottom. Like she was either in dominant position or he just got voted off, right? Season 50. So we never really saw her like play defense in Big Brother. We really saw her she did some incred she did some crazy incredible things. like very creative stuff. It was definitely worth I think it's definitely worth seeing just to see that see some of the things that she was able to do like both socially particularly strategically because you see two different games. You see Devin's obviously plays a very good social game. Strategically he's a little bit weaker. but you know he also plays flashy as well but then D she played very well strategically and you can see that in the season. It was kind of like you see some major domination of the newbies there. I definitely I definitely am keen to give it a crack at some

1:03:42 Point and watch some of that just to sort of see. I think it's important to understand the legacy of some of these players. There are certain players in my mind that when it comes to reality TV, they're in a league of their own. So, you know, when you look at the challenge, Johnny Banana, CT, they're goats of that show. Jordan another goat of that show, but they're legends in the challenge. Then you've got players that have crossed from different shows and have dominated on multiple shows that are kind of like because you've also got Tony and Sandra who are like legends and poverty who are legends of Survivor but then you've got these players that have shown that they can do both. Like Sarah Lina springs to mind. Chris Underwood springs to mind. Sarah Lina is a challenge champion. She's a survivor winner. you know you've got Chris Underwood who's the survivor winner, a challenge champion. now potentially you're gonna have a player like D who's gone and well Sheree who's won traitors as well as going deep into Survivor every time she's played.

1:04:35 Like at some stage at some stage it's worth it to just go and sit down and say who are the actual goats of reality TV and I want to know is D actually pushing to get into that conversation? Is she pushing to get because the problem that we face with someone like Dandre is that it's recency bias, right? Because I know Dolores is a big fan of D from her first season. Dolores. you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I know you love her. but she's pushing. I feel like she must be pushing as a new player to even come up in the conversation and you don't have the same years of loyal fans that have followed you or body of work. That's pretty impressive. I think the only thing that's holding D back is another deep run in Survivor. I feel like if she can do another deep run in Survivor, she would

1:05:20 Be in contention for goat. contention like not goat contention for goat. I think she still remains an A tier. considering like my goat is a Korean player so [laughter] anybody who's watched any of these Korean games knows who I'm talking about. But I think in American TV you have to be looking at like the ser you have to be looking at the poverties. I would consider poverty really high up there because she specifically won Australia well spoiler alert Australian survivor as well even though that's kind of like an exhibition match. I think it helps legacy. I think it sort of helps bring somebody up that necessarily isn't a goat in their own season. but I feel like specialization is key. So, you need you need someone like a Tony or a Sandra who's really good in their particular game. And okay, so Tony didn't do well. Sandra didn't do well in

1:06:07 The traders, but who cares about the traders really? Like it's either you and they went they went in with massive targets on their back as well. Like Tony especially. I feel like there's no world that Tony goes into any season or any game that he plays today and with the reputation that he has that he goes deep in that game. I've just made peace with that fact like he's he like when you reach that level you're he's like Boston Rob and that's probably we should probably take a hat off to Boston Rob give him his flows cuz the fact that he went but he was also a traitor and that kind of helped. so good in the traders though as a character maybe not as a player but just what he was able to do that look I mean Boston Rob and like I would actually very much credit his but can I can I can I say one thing Boston Rob gets an out a lot of the times where he gets to play with newer people and then he gets to do well in that situation like he won a season with

1:06:56 Newer players he went deep in deal or no deal island with newer players I don't feel like Tony gets that same run like he's always he's always there with returning players that know his legacy that will either sink him like in Traders he got sunk because people were talking a lot about his legacy and then he's gone back and had to play against other players that have played before. It's not like he's getting an easy run, you know. You know, I gota you know, I got to come out and defend my boy. You know, I've got to come out and defend my boy Tony. [laughter] No, I mean I mean that's a very valid thing, right? It's like once you have legacy and that's what makes D so impressive that it was it was in big brother that she I mean the thing is she was able to sort of cloud her legacy because a lot of the people like some girl from

1:07:41 Saba like they she knew they knew like I guess that she won but at the same time they thought how the how the hell did D win because she was very massly able to say oh like she kind of played a little bit loose in a way a little bit messy on purpose but Then people underestimated. It almost became a bit like of course she won to be like how did she win and then they miss they underestimated her. So I full credit to her on that. Yeah. Dreadful Ruby saying pretty sure Sandra went at final round table or made the top five so maybe even four. so she went quite deep and I remember I didn't watch the full season of hers, but people were saying that she was bringing a different kind of strategy into the game on how to kind of play with traders if you know who they are instead of immediately targeting them to keep you like she was trying to change.

1:08:29 She had an interview about that. She was like saying like basically in the traders is completely different game. And I think she was trying also doing trying to do like survivor tribe type of strategy. she was able to do it with the people who were willing to work with her. but it's just it's look, I mean, maybe this is all I take, but I like The Traders is not a good game. It's a terrible game. It's not it's not like Mafia or anything like that. It's you're going to get people upset. [laughter] You're going to get people upset. I feel like there's a lot of traders fans, but I agree with you. I feel like it's a good show, but it's not it's a good show, but it's lopsided into the trader favor massively. So, it's like very hard if you're not a trader to get deep in the game. You want to be a trader if you play that game. but yeah, the traders are like the stars of the show and the rest of the supporting cast basically going after the show. And that's why we very rarely see people win and I haven't watched enough seasons. People who have watched a lot of traders can tell me how often have Faithfuls won the game versus traders.

1:09:23 I'm sure it's really lopsided to traders winning the game by the end of the show. And then people look at them and they say, "These people were geniuses. They're the best reality TV people out there and I'm like, well, put them on a season where everybody's on an equal footing and you don't have an unfair advantage and then I will say you're great. So, I want to see this Rob guy who won the last I didn't watch this season. People are saying, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. People are saying he's phenomenal and maybe he is, but I want to see him on a show such as Big Brother. I want to show see him on a show such as Survivor where he's got an equal footing to everybody else and let's then let's then see how far he gets into the game before the bottom as well. Like right that was my criticism with D. We never saw her play from the bottom, but we saw her play from the bottom from Big Brother. We know that she has it in her. So, it's kind of like, yeah, sure, show Rob show that he's not overrated.

1:10:10 Yeah. Okay. Dreadful Ruby saying, "I don't know. Quite a few faithfuls have one, but I definitely think more traitors." I think that's my point. But it's Hey, if people enjoy it, enjoy it. And there's going to be another good cast coming. I think there's a new cast that's just been released. There's a few survivors playing again. I think Michelle's in there. Q's in there. I mean, I might have to I might have to watch as long as Q's just with Q. I'll watch as long as Q's in the game. I'll watch. But Q's is probably going to get he's going to get if he's not a trader, he's getting out early because people are going to be like, he's too crazy. He's acting like a trader. He's doing too much. Q was very good in season 50 in my opinion. I thought like he was cut way too soon. He was very He was playing very well, I feel. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. is there anything for Survivor season 51 episode one that we haven't spoken about?

1:10:57 Did you feel like you wanted to bring up? I'm just like looking at the sort of list of people. I think we I mean there are people we haven't even spoken once about. We never spoke about Lyanna Lineia. Sorry, Lineia. I don't know who Le is. she's an entrepreneur. Oh, she's the entrepreneur. Okay. There's Maggie who's a farmer. I think we need to like at least call out their names. They're on they are technically on the season. I think those are the two. Mike Pinsky. Mike Pinsky I noticed is friends who have met Dombate before like so I think there's a connection there. Dom was saying that he's shouting for his boy Mike this season. so he seemed interesting. He had like one confessional at one point seemed quite like he like he had a good read for things. but I can't remember the exact thing but

1:11:46 Yeah it's this it's hard when the cast is this big. The one thing I probably will call out with a cast being this big, Andre. I really hope that they do these mass eliminations earlier this season. I hope that they learn from season 50 having all these towards the end like I don't want another blood moon. I don't want it like it's just let's just get some people out of the game early. Like let's do a couple of double evictions or something early in the game. And I don't know how that's going to work with two tribes. Both tribes go to tribal council. No one's immune potentially, but let's do it in the in the earlier part of the game in my mind. I No, I would say do it in the later part of the game. Let's just let the big let's let the big cast breathe. See who comes out like from the edit because obviously they're going to edit out. If they don't get an edit, they're probably going to be eliminated very quickly in

1:12:34 The end game. I think narratively that would make a lot more sense rather than sort of like shoehorning it in personally. because I feel like some of the later episodes can sometimes be a little bit boring, especially if there's like a bonging, which I feel like there might be a ponging this season, right? Because it's a two season. It's two it's a two season two tribe season. So L Smurf here is saying I will say Kilby is from a community that play these games on Discord. so can Kilby be like my boy Dino from Survivor South Africa who won he like Dino won an online community survivor game before he won the real show. and I know there's probably other people like that. I think Rachel who you really like as a winner has played online community survivor. She and Dino were friends and stuff before she went to go play over in the US. She won that Survivor season.

1:13:25 So, can Kilby be one of the better examples of people who've played these online community games, or is he going to be someone that flames out because he's going to be overthinking the strategy side of it and he's going to be too game body? Like, that's what we need to find out. I did like him. There's something about him that is likable and kind of like an underdog you want to root for in the first episode. Yeah. What I liked about him, and I think it's more about the casting, is that I feel like in the new era, they cast a lot of sort of Kilby type of archetypes. There were like five of them on one season. I feel like he's like there's only a couple like him and I don't him really and everyone else like farmers or chefs or lawyers or you know they're from different walks of life which is I think I made that comment earlier and it's like that's that makes Kilby a lot more interesting as a character because he's a little bit more unique. He's not going to I've got a take on this. I've got a take

1:14:15 On this. Survivor Jeff loves to cast the Cochrans of this world. the online super fans of Survivor and that's what was in the new era for such a long time to your point lopsided. But then this is the same people that he calls out about the twists and the things that they don't like. It's like well if you're going to cast those kind of people which will attract more of them to the show, you're going to get more criticism. So if you want more casual people, you need to do what Survivor Australia is doing. Go get people who don't know the show. Put them on the show. get people that are more relatable to the everyday American so that when they watch the show, they're not going to care about the game dynamics as much because they can see this guy who's from like Tom, Big Tom, like ah I want to watch the show because I can relate to Big Tom. He's like me. He's also a farmer, right?

1:15:03 And I think that's the point like what that you're trying to make is that we do have more diversity in thought, diversity in background, not necessarily just the ethnicity diversity that we've been trying to hit. And I don't know what the exact number is in Survivor this season, but also just like in thought in who you are as a person. And I think that makes it better. Like diversity is the thing that makes us all enjoy like we don't want the same mundane people. We don't want to see six Kirby's on the show or Kilby, sorry, in the show. We want to see one Kilby on the show, right? Yeah. Yeah. And just have like people you haven't really, you want you want the Robs of the world that are going to be a little bit insane and, you know, throw people under the bus. You want a little bit of a gamer. want sort of like the Irish guy trying to cut down a tree. That's interesting. It's memorable.

1:15:50 It's so much better than just seeing people like you know a few like geeks go onto an island and sort of play a puzzle or something like that or Towers of Hanoi or something. It's not memorable. It's it happens every season. So I think that there was some sort of initiative at least to say, "Hey, look, let's just let's just get a few more people from different like different countries, for example." [laughter] Yeah, I like that. Well, overall, this has been a great start to the season. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed talking to you about the first episode, Andre. We will be back every week at the same time this season. And there might be one or once or twice in the season where some one of us has to do something and we'll have to pre-record it or work around it. But for most of the time, we'll try and get back every single week at the same time here to do the live of everyone. I hope that if you're watching this at a later stage that you enjoyed

1:16:39 The coverage. let us know who's your favorite, who's your comment below who is the three people right now that you think has got the best chance of hosting the show. Survivor 61 onwards. Jeff potentially says he saw a future host this season in the cast that is playing Survivor. I want to know your thoughts. Who is that person? Andre, it's been a lot of fun. We'll do this again next week. Thank you everybody in the live. We'll catch you next week. Grab your torches. Head back to camp. bite.