Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week. Their line Welcome TV
Speaker 1: Reload listeners. My name is Benjamin Norris, and this is
Speaker 1: your podcast to get all the inside goss on the
Speaker 1: popular TV shows that you may be watching from around
Speaker 1: the world. Undeniably, our TV sets are a major part
Speaker 1: of our home entertainment and very little is known about
Speaker 1: how our favorite shows get made. Each episode, I find
Speaker 1: guests that want to dive just that little bit deeper
Speaker 1: into the shows they're currently making, so that you at
Speaker 1: home can hear their exclusive stories and gain access to
Speaker 1: the biggest names in Australian television. I want to thank
Speaker 1: you for downloading or subscribing to this podcast. I love
Speaker 1: hearing your feedback, so make sure you leave a comment
Speaker 1: on your chosen podcast platform and I will make sure
Speaker 1: you feel as included in the production of this show
Speaker 1: as I possibly can. This week has been an explosive
Speaker 1: week in Australian television, and today I'm lucky enough to
Speaker 1: feature all three of the eliminated castaways from Australian Survivor
Speaker 1: Heroes Versus Villains. First up, we have Angelie rou who
Speaker 1: is known as an international journalist, TV personality and form
Speaker 1: a housewife from the Real Housewives of Melbourne. We will
Speaker 1: find out what makes Angelie a villain and why producers
Speaker 1: mysteriously buried her former role on The Housewives during the
Speaker 1: promotion of the twenty twenty three series. I will also
Speaker 1: ask if she has permanently swaped journalism for reality TV. Plus,
Speaker 1: Angelie will break down the first episode, which will give
Speaker 1: you some exclusives on what actually went down on her
Speaker 1: bonker's time on the show. We will then have Michael Warren,
Speaker 1: who was another journalist who also joined Angelie on the
Speaker 1: villains Tribe. We will find out how superfan Michael feels
Speaker 1: about his time on the show and if he felt
Speaker 1: audiences connected with his character correctly. Stick around for his
Speaker 1: breakdown on the Tribal Council as we discuss if Georgia's
Speaker 1: dramatic takedown actually did throw him off. I honestly think
Speaker 1: this will still divide Australian Survivor fans and I'm going
Speaker 1: to leave this up to you to interpret his retelling
Speaker 1: of the situation. And then finally Mimi will join me
Speaker 1: to unpack her episode, which will see us discuss if
Speaker 1: Simon really does have an idol what her biggest mistakes
Speaker 1: were if, in fact, midnight cookie crunching was responsible for
Speaker 1: her being booted. I genuinely hope you guys have a
Speaker 1: great time listening to these chats. I feel like I've
Speaker 1: been talking forever. Sorry about that, but feel free to
Speaker 1: follow me this season of Australian Survivor on Network ten.
Speaker 1: Send me a questions. I'd love to ask them for you. However,
Speaker 1: let's bring it our first guest for this podcast. Let's
Speaker 1: welcome Angelie raw. Hi, Angelie, thank you for popping into
Speaker 1: chat about Australian Survivor.
Speaker 2: Benjamin. It has a pleasure.
Speaker 1: When I heard that you were doing Australian Survivor, I thought, well,
Speaker 1: Angelaine knows a good pun, so I was expecting good
Speaker 1: humor at the very least.
Speaker 2: Well, I hope I delivered. I wouldn't want to let
Speaker 2: you down.
Speaker 1: When they asked you to do this show, at what
Speaker 1: point did they tell you that you were going to
Speaker 1: be a villain.
Speaker 2: I was told pretty much straight away. But the conversation
Speaker 2: was would you like to know well the season is?
Speaker 2: And I said yes, I would like to know, and
Speaker 2: they said it's heroes versus villains, And I said, don't
Speaker 2: you damn make me a hero? How boring? And they said, yeah,
Speaker 2: we're definitely not making you a hero. That's like fabulous,
Speaker 2: because this is what my whole accent is leading towards
Speaker 2: is being a villain. You can't be a hero with
Speaker 2: an accent like this.
Speaker 1: Do you think that you need to have villainous qualities
Speaker 1: to be a good journalist? Because after watching Survivor and
Speaker 1: seeing journalists being portrayed this way, is this a big
Speaker 1: statement about all journalists?
Speaker 2: I think it definitely is, because you know we run
Speaker 2: with the foxes and hunt with the hounds. Well I
Speaker 2: do anyway, So I think it was a perfect role
Speaker 2: for me, but it wasn't even a role that's literally
Speaker 2: how I actually am in real life.
Speaker 1: I feel like you lean into this villainous role because,
Speaker 1: like I've worked with you before, and from my experience
Speaker 1: working with you, villainry is not something that I would
Speaker 1: have put with you at all. So, I mean, I
Speaker 1: watched The Real Housewives of Melbourne and I felt like
Speaker 1: we got some villainry in that, But then though shows
Speaker 1: kind of heightened that reality. Do you genuinely think of
Speaker 1: yourself as a villain?
Speaker 2: I suppose if. Yeah, I kind of do, because you know,
Speaker 2: I do take risks and I don't play life safe,
Speaker 2: which is sort of, you know, a villainy kind of
Speaker 2: thing to do. But I was the villain on the
Speaker 2: season that I did of Real Housewives, basically because I
Speaker 2: just paid out on everyone but behind their backs, obviously,
Speaker 2: because I didn't really like confrontation unless I'm being paid
Speaker 2: very well to have it. And then of course I
Speaker 2: quit the season in the middle of it, the only
Speaker 2: Real housewive ever to do that, and of course that
Speaker 2: made me she did what so And if I hadn't
Speaker 2: done that, I don't think that I would have got Survivor.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, I was told that although Survivor
Speaker 2: wanted me for what I bring journalistically, that basically the
Speaker 2: crap I pulled on Housewives put me on everyone's radar
Speaker 2: and that's why I was cast. So I'm absolutely thrilled.
Speaker 2: I still can't believe that I did either of the shows,
Speaker 2: but amazing experiences. I'm very very thankful.
Speaker 1: Well, there was a lot of promotion for you being
Speaker 1: a news anchor, and we got to see that in
Speaker 1: the promotion for Survivor Heroes versus films, but you know,
Speaker 1: we didn't see a lot in the promotion of you
Speaker 1: being a housewife. Was that a conscious decision in the
Speaker 1: promotion of you being on the show?
Speaker 2: Yes, very much.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 2: They wanted to play down my role in Housewives, of course,
Speaker 2: and play up my journalistic career, which I'm very happy
Speaker 2: about because you know, I was a housewife for this
Speaker 2: slog and a journalist for that long. But they didn't
Speaker 2: want to. And of course Housewives comes with its own connotations,
Speaker 2: as you know, of being sort of shallow and bitchy
Speaker 2: and nasty, and that's not what they wanted to promote.
Speaker 2: They wanted to promote, you know, being smart and strategic
Speaker 2: and being good with the English language. That's what they wanted,
Speaker 2: and I'm told that's what they got.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. What was your favorite part from watching the launch episode?
Speaker 2: Well, it definitely wasn't me leaving. That was hard. I
Speaker 2: had some tears. I think my favorite part was in
Speaker 2: its entirety, the edit that I got. I was really
Speaker 2: really pleased with it, and it did kind of like
Speaker 2: Housewives become the Angeli Show.
Speaker 1: It was great.
Speaker 2: It was like I had all of that episode. I
Speaker 2: was really really pleased. And also since the show wrapped,
Speaker 2: We've actually all become really good friends, even though that
Speaker 2: I never properly got to meet. They've all just been
Speaker 2: so lovely to me, really supportive and warm, and we
Speaker 2: all hang out and they check in on me all
Speaker 2: the time and just really you know, great people. But
Speaker 2: also you know, as soon as I exit, Rip said
Speaker 2: to me, you were the greatest first boot in Survivor history,
Speaker 2: which is like, that tells me. That meant everything to me.
Speaker 2: That tells me that I did exactly what I was
Speaker 2: supposed to do, except in a much shorter timeframe, so
Speaker 2: I'm very efficient. So that was it that they got
Speaker 2: what they needed in one episode, So that was that
Speaker 2: really really meant a huge amount to me.
Speaker 1: I noticed on a couple of the fan forums people
Speaker 1: were talking about people to go on these shows to
Speaker 1: earn their paycheck, and people said, Angelie row on Housewives
Speaker 1: on Survivor, she knows that she's there to do a job.
Speaker 1: And then there was a debate that came off the
Speaker 1: back of that as to whether or not we want
Speaker 1: people to ham up their time on these shows or
Speaker 1: whether we lack them seeing more of who they truly are.
Speaker 1: Where do you find yourself in that balance of that conversation.
Speaker 2: Obviously, these people do not know me because this is
Speaker 2: really who I am. It's not that I was playing
Speaker 2: a role or hamming it up. I don't have to
Speaker 2: do that. I'm just like this as a person in
Speaker 2: my normal daily life. So I never read any fan forums.
Speaker 2: I just want to put that out there. Learned that
Speaker 2: the hard way, you know, And I know there was
Speaker 2: a lot of There were some comments that came through
Speaker 2: to me before I remember to switch off my DMS
Speaker 2: about oh my girl, well if you couldn't hack it
Speaker 2: on Housewives, how are you going to be in the jungle?
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah blah blah. It's like, for God's sake,
Speaker 2: you're just jealous that I get the opportunities and you don't.
Speaker 2: It's like, well, if you hate me that much, what
Speaker 2: do you care if I last five minutes on Survivor.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, it really is. But you know what,
Speaker 2: I'm Yes, I am there to do a job, but
Speaker 2: I'm there to have experiences for myself. Like life is
Speaker 2: all about experiences and stories and being able to share
Speaker 2: those things. I just have more of them than most.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't really think that we really saw enough
Speaker 1: of the reason why they stacked those votes against you.
Speaker 1: Did you think that you were going home? Or was
Speaker 1: there a real you know, I call it getting the
Speaker 1: Survivor show bag when you get all the experience, and
Speaker 1: maybe it's a part of the Survivor showbag that you
Speaker 1: get blindsided. But did you what went down to get
Speaker 1: all those votes? Though? I don't feel like we saw
Speaker 1: enough of that?
Speaker 2: Really simple they voted me off because well, they said
Speaker 2: it was because I was too close to George and Jackie,
Speaker 2: But what it really was was that they knew that
Speaker 2: if I stayed I would get all the airtime, exactly
Speaker 2: as I did on Housewives. They were just like, none
Speaker 2: of us are going to get a look and if
Speaker 2: she stays around. So I think that was a huge
Speaker 2: part of it. You know, George might be the Messiah
Speaker 2: of Macedonia, but I am the Empress of the edit
Speaker 2: and it's TV baby. So but with George and Jackie gone,
Speaker 2: it was my two protectors, my double safety blanket, bam
Speaker 2: both gone, one fell sweep. That's it. How dare they
Speaker 2: have the audacity to end up in hospital and leave
Speaker 2: me exposed like that standing on the beach in front
Speaker 2: of all those people with no nickers on. I mean seriously, So,
Speaker 2: I I kind of thought, if I get through Tribal tonight,
Speaker 2: then I'm very lucky. But I have to prepare myself
Speaker 2: to be going home just because those two very powerful
Speaker 2: players protecting me were gone. And it's just the obvious
Speaker 2: choice that So if that happens, what do I do?
Speaker 2: Just make sure I get the best to edit, be memorable,
Speaker 2: be funny, be likable, get a great edit. And that's
Speaker 2: what happened. So, because you know, I looked around and
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, these people are athletes
Speaker 2: and olympians and oh my god, this is so righting
Speaker 2: and intimidating. But you turn it to don't know anything
Speaker 2: about TV, and I do. So I'm just going to
Speaker 2: be as hilarious as I can and just get through
Speaker 2: it that way. And I'm glad that I played it
Speaker 2: the way that I did.
Speaker 1: It seemed like that alliance, though with George, you know,
Speaker 1: was kind of cut short. But would you have really
Speaker 1: trusted that relationship? Did you think that relationship with George
Speaker 1: had you stayed, do you think it would have been sustainable?
Speaker 2: I think it would have been sustainable for a long time,
Speaker 2: but eventually, of course, you know, we would just turn
Speaker 2: around and eat each other. But you know it, we
Speaker 2: did have that close bond. But I think a lot
Speaker 2: of it came from the fact that on the first night,
Speaker 2: well my only night, we had the worst shelter in
Speaker 2: the world, and none of us could sleep except George.
Speaker 2: He was right next to me and he put his
Speaker 2: head on my boob and fell fast asleep, snoring. So
Speaker 2: everybody thought he was super close after that, but I
Speaker 2: don't know, like we did form a natural sort of bond.
Speaker 2: So he had. He used to really like watching me
Speaker 2: on Dateline. He was back at in his UNI days
Speaker 2: so and I obviously loved watching him on his season,
Speaker 2: So we had that sort of natural affinity, like I
Speaker 2: like what you do, and I like what you do.
Speaker 2: And then when he and Jackie decided between themselves that
Speaker 2: they would protect me, but before telling me about it,
Speaker 2: it was it was a really lovely moment. And you know,
Speaker 2: Jackie and I were the fellow you know, older ladies,
Speaker 2: and you know when when they said, oh, just so,
Speaker 2: and it's always the older lady who gets first boot,
Speaker 2: and I was like, how fascinating, Why are you telling
Speaker 2: me that? Oh right. And then Jackie, being slightly older
Speaker 2: than me, she's gone, who's the older lady? Now me?
Speaker 1: Are you annoyed that you moved forward with that elimination
Speaker 1: knowing that you could have all gone back to camp?
Speaker 1: Because I was watching your face and I know you
Speaker 1: relatively well, and I could see you were very confident
Speaker 1: with moving forward to that elimination. You know, I guess
Speaker 1: they probably wouldn't have been a different option anyway, because
Speaker 1: there were so many people voting for it. But are
Speaker 1: you annoyed that you then chose so confidently to go
Speaker 1: forward with that elimination?
Speaker 2: I'm not, because you know, although my ballsiness was at
Speaker 2: my own expense, you know, what wasn't shown was how
Speaker 2: hard I persuaded all of them to have the votes
Speaker 2: read because none of them wanted to. And I was like,
Speaker 2: for God's sake, we leave the boring, safe decisions to
Speaker 2: the heroes. That's what they do. We're villains, We take risks,
Speaker 2: we live dangerously, we live on knife edge. Come on,
Speaker 2: let's just do this. And Jonathan said to me, but Angelie,
Speaker 2: one off, it's you, And I was like, we are
Speaker 2: here to make TV. We're here to make some damn
Speaker 2: good drama. If it's me, the bigger the drama. So
Speaker 2: let's just do this. And I stand by that absolutely.
Speaker 2: I mean, it does hurt when, you know, I saw
Speaker 2: my name repeatedly come up, even though I'm really not
Speaker 2: sure that I was voted off because none of them
Speaker 2: actually spelt my name right. It was difficult to seeing
Speaker 2: my name that many times, not least because on the
Speaker 2: beach they'd all say, actually, it's so straight don't worry
Speaker 2: that George and Jaggie aren't here. You're completely see. If
Speaker 2: we love you, we won't you around. Just so funny
Speaker 2: a few bastards.
Speaker 1: You never trust anyone that straightway protests too much, is
Speaker 1: what I think. In reality television, the ones that say
Speaker 1: that I love you, I never the ones that love you.
Speaker 2: No. Indeed, I never cast a fellow villain.
Speaker 1: And you know, Seanie, it looked like she thought she
Speaker 1: was going to go home. Do you think there was
Speaker 1: ever a real chance of her going home?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: Na, her name never came up in any conversations that
Speaker 2: I had. It was Stevie, Stevie, Stevie like Stevie all
Speaker 2: the way. And I really regret that now because I've
Speaker 2: gotten to know Stevie, and he's just an absolute darling.
Speaker 2: I wish that I'd chosen differently. I know exactly who
Speaker 2: I would have chosen, and a whole bunch of the
Speaker 2: other villains now just.
Speaker 1: Like, oh God, who would you have chosen? You can't
Speaker 1: leave us with that.
Speaker 2: A whole bunch of us would have chosen Michael.
Speaker 1: Of course, of course it's.
Speaker 2: Like, wait, how did I not write Michael's with me.
Speaker 1: Not being sped properly, You're not sleeping properly, all of
Speaker 1: these things staying against you. You'd never seem to think
Speaker 1: of what's right in front of you. You know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of rooms circulating this morning about another reality
Speaker 1: show that might be coming up for you that you'd
Speaker 1: already been asked to do something. Is that sounding like
Speaker 1: where your home is with reality? Because I've worked with
Speaker 1: you as a journalist. We covered the election, the American election,
Speaker 1: and you as a journalist, to me, is who you
Speaker 1: really are? Do you think you're going to go with
Speaker 1: the I'm not going to ask you about that reality show,
Speaker 1: whether it's true or not, because I know it's true
Speaker 1: and you're not allowed to talk about it. But where
Speaker 1: do you think you want to go with that. Do
Speaker 1: you want to stay in reality or do you want
Speaker 1: to return to being a journalist.
Speaker 2: I do think I've really left being a journalist, so
Speaker 2: I still really love doing it. It's just that the
Speaker 2: industry in this country has been not good to me.
Speaker 2: It's incredibly racist and I've talked about it many times
Speaker 2: in the media. I'm afraid that's just the nature of
Speaker 2: the game in Australia. And you know, they didn't see
Speaker 2: me as Australian, even though the second I popped out
Speaker 2: of my mother I was an Australian. So but I'm
Speaker 2: a different Australian and that's not palatable amongst the journalistic community.
Speaker 2: I've always said, you know, diversity in Australian TV journalism
Speaker 2: means that you're a brunette and all you have to
Speaker 2: do is switch on the TV and see that. I'm
Speaker 2: exactly right. It's really so, and it's been very hard
Speaker 2: to take that. I've been really really lucky in building
Speaker 2: up my global MC in career and now with reality
Speaker 2: TV coming for me. It's not something I ever thought
Speaker 2: I do. I thought the most reality I would get
Speaker 2: was the news. I mean, that's pretty damn real, but
Speaker 2: reality TV unscripted formats, that's where that's where it's at.
Speaker 2: You know, it's the future of TV. Nobody's paying for
Speaker 2: scripted anymore. Yeah, So I have been approached to do
Speaker 2: something else later this year. Again, it's not something that
Speaker 2: I ever thought of, but it's like, yeah, why not?
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, absolutely make good TV. You make fabulous TV.
Speaker 1: So look, I think that that is you know, it's
Speaker 1: great and you've got an audience for it. Normally, at
Speaker 1: this point I ask people what it is, something from
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, something people wouldn't expect, but we kind
Speaker 1: of don't want to give away too much from Survivor.
Speaker 1: This season, I'm going to be asking people who do
Speaker 1: they think. Two questions first being who's your pick to win?
Speaker 1: Not what you know now maybe, but like when you
Speaker 1: left that beach, who did you think was going to win?
Speaker 2: It was difficult because I wasn't there really long enough,
Speaker 2: but I did sort of think, if it's a hero
Speaker 2: Sean because he's just like nine feet tall and none
Speaker 2: of those challenges, any sort of challenge for him at all,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm five foot and was just like.
Speaker 1: Did you see the part where there were so many
Speaker 1: moments where the cameraman didn't even bother getting him in
Speaker 1: like that. He's actually there was a group shot of
Speaker 1: everyone and he just said cut off from the shoulders
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh God, anyway.
Speaker 2: And then if it was if George were to come back,
Speaker 2: I would have him for he'd be a really good
Speaker 2: pick I think to win. I also thought maybe Seanne
Speaker 2: because she's she's just so cunning and she knows the
Speaker 2: game better than anyone because she's just done it more times.
Speaker 1: The last thing I'm ask people is, you know, if
Speaker 1: you came back, what theme would you come back with?
Speaker 1: Because we do see a lot of survivor players come
Speaker 1: back to the show, and we do see lots of themes.
Speaker 1: What's a theme that Angelie Rau could come back?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Give me some options.
Speaker 1: Well, I think a good one could be journalists versus.
Speaker 2: Then say journalists versus Reality because we're foighting myself.
Speaker 1: I don't have enough personalities for this.
Speaker 2: Maybe it can be all reality stars against each other.
Speaker 1: Who would be the worst housewife for you to go
Speaker 1: back onto a show if they revealed you in a
Speaker 1: reality show with one of your past castmates or past housewives,
Speaker 1: who'd be the one that you'd be like, no, I'm
Speaker 1: not doing this.
Speaker 2: You know, it would actually probably be Simone because she
Speaker 2: would just bore me to death.
Speaker 1: Angelie Rao, you are hilarious as always and I love
Speaker 1: that we left on that note as it was very
Speaker 1: villainous and also very entertaining. Thank you so much for.
Speaker 2: Your time and his own Van love you.
Speaker 1: A great chat with Angelie Rau and a good warm
Speaker 1: up for things to come. With the next guest, let's
Speaker 1: bring Michael into the pod. Buckle up as he's going
Speaker 1: to drop some of his home truths and I still
Speaker 1: think it's going to polarize audiences. Hi Michael, thanks for
Speaker 1: popping in and chatting about Australian Survivor morning.
Speaker 3: But it's an absolute pleasure to join you.
Speaker 1: Ben. So far we have lost two journalists. Do you
Speaker 1: think that maybe, you know, maybe the journalistic integrity doesn't
Speaker 1: work so well on a show like Australian Survivor.
Speaker 3: I think, but I think my background, my profession has
Speaker 3: got anything to do with it. I just think it's
Speaker 3: more identified my threats and George being number one and
Speaker 3: he didn't like it, and Seanie didn't like it because
Speaker 3: that meant that two returne players were going to go home, Ben,
Speaker 3: And hence why I'm sitting here on the couch today.
Speaker 1: Not to move too far away from this and not
Speaker 1: to hammer it down, but how would you compare your
Speaker 1: time on the show with Angelie Rau? You know, two
Speaker 1: very different journalists. What was the co parison in your mind?
Speaker 3: Nothing, I'm I'm not a desperate housewife number one, and
Speaker 3: Angelie was probably I think it was well known that
Speaker 3: Angeli was quite dead weight, dead weight on the in
Speaker 3: the tribe. You know, she's all about glitz and glamour
Speaker 3: and I'm just a humble community journalist who covers grandma's
Speaker 3: who has dogs have three legs. And Angelie was struggling
Speaker 3: out there, and it was no surprise that she went
Speaker 3: home first.
Speaker 1: We didn't really see the reasons as to why people
Speaker 1: had decided to get rid of her, you know, was
Speaker 1: there something that we didn't see or was it just
Speaker 1: simply that people thought she was dead weight? Or was
Speaker 1: she going around saying things that hadn't boded well with people?
Speaker 3: Good question, too easy answers. Number one, She was dead weight,
Speaker 3: like as a in terms of challenges, we knew that
Speaker 3: she had to go. That was a no brainer. She
Speaker 3: just wasn't cutting the mustard. But number two, it was
Speaker 3: very clear that she was struggling out there. Like sometimes Ben,
Speaker 3: as you know in TV, what you see on TV,
Speaker 3: there's a lot happening behind the scenes, and she was
Speaker 3: someone who was, you know, talking to a lot of
Speaker 3: people about how much she wasn't handling the handling the conditions,
Speaker 3: the environment, the lack of food, the sleep deprivation, and
Speaker 3: so it was very clear. It was just like she's
Speaker 3: going home and that's what's happening. So that they're the
Speaker 3: two reasons she was struggling with the conditions and the show.
Speaker 3: And number two, she was deadweight to challenges. And that's
Speaker 3: that's just the facts.
Speaker 1: That's a good question to ask you at this point
Speaker 1: is are you rethinking your gameplay, especially after watching it
Speaker 1: play out on television last night?
Speaker 3: No bet. I made my mind always stay true to
Speaker 3: yourself at all times and don't seek validation or approval
Speaker 3: made and I look back and I wouldn't change a thing.
Speaker 3: I did what I wanted to do, and that was
Speaker 3: to play a bold, adventures and daring game and just
Speaker 3: take out my threats one by one, and the number
Speaker 3: one threat that I wanted to take out was George.
Speaker 3: And as the executives, the producers and everybody behind the
Speaker 3: scenes said, Michael, you had him on a plan back
Speaker 3: to Australia. Yeah, he was gone. I had him. I'd engineered,
Speaker 3: I had the power, I had the control. George was gone.
Speaker 3: He was a done dinner and he knew it. And
Speaker 3: that's why he was, you know, searching for an idol.
Speaker 3: He knew it. He was cooked. If it wasn't for
Speaker 3: his injury, he was going home. So that's extremely disappointing.
Speaker 3: And hence when he comes back, Shawnnie jumps behind George,
Speaker 3: uses him as a shield, groundbreaking strategy not and then
Speaker 3: you know, Shannie brought in the girls, and then my
Speaker 3: time was done. But Ben, Mate, I look back and
Speaker 3: I wouldn't have done a thing differently. I own my game, Ben,
Speaker 3: and I don't stand. I don't shy away from that.
Speaker 3: I'm not a I'm unpologetic about my game. Ben. It
Speaker 3: is what it is, Mate, I have no regrets.
Speaker 1: George's return was probably one of the most dramatic things
Speaker 1: that I've seen on reality television. There was no beating
Speaker 1: around the bush. He was severely injured, but then too,
Speaker 1: I guess make audiences feel a little bit better about
Speaker 1: what must have happened to him. We got a very
Speaker 1: entertaining slash dramatic baptism that seemed so surreal as an audience,
Speaker 1: like almost hilarious, like you're watching a Monty Python episode.
Speaker 1: How did it play out for you? How is it
Speaker 1: in real time?
Speaker 3: Well, Ben, you've got to You've got to You've got
Speaker 3: to put yourself in my shoes here. I was I engineered,
Speaker 3: I had the at that stage, I had the numbers,
Speaker 3: I had control, and I had things going my way.
Speaker 3: So as far as I was concerned, like he was done,
Speaker 3: he was cooked. And in the back of my mind,
Speaker 3: I know he's like a snake. He's a copper oach,
Speaker 3: and you know they're very hard to kill. So I
Speaker 3: knew that somehow, whether it's production or whatever, you know,
Speaker 3: he mysteriously come out of the bushes and wandering back
Speaker 3: to camp, and that's exactly what happened. So from that
Speaker 3: moment on, I knew that I had to double down
Speaker 3: and make things happen. But I knew if you came
Speaker 3: back Seannie knew that I wanted to take George out,
Speaker 3: So I knew that I was in trouble immediately, so
Speaker 3: I had to play even harder to try and stay
Speaker 3: in the game. And yeah, you saw it played out well.
Speaker 1: You worked hard at your alliances, and I kind of
Speaker 1: felt like there were some some bad ideas with some
Speaker 1: of your alliances. I mean, who do you think was
Speaker 1: your worst alliance someone you might have accidentally mistrusted.
Speaker 3: I didn't mistrust anyone, mate. If we talk about Mimi
Speaker 3: and Sarah and Liz, like when you go to sleep
Speaker 3: at night and you hear girls talking about they're any
Speaker 3: on the show to get Instagram followers and stuff, so
Speaker 3: I don't I just don't roll with people. I don't
Speaker 3: roll with people like that. Ben. I didn't want to
Speaker 3: go around the Piranhas and the high Ennis in the camp,
Speaker 3: so I didn't seek approval of validation. I just wanted
Speaker 3: to play the game and see who I organically went
Speaker 3: to and who organically come to me. And so in
Speaker 3: terms of mistrusting, maybe Steve. You know, Stevie was a
Speaker 3: fit flopper, and when it came to the crunch, Stevie
Speaker 3: dislacked the intestinal fortitude to stay strong. But to camera, Jordie,
Speaker 3: I never trusted you know, one person in front of
Speaker 3: the camera, another person off it, and you know, for me,
Speaker 3: it was just the one person I trusted was Simon,
Speaker 3: and it is what it is like. I'm not going
Speaker 3: to go out and beg for people, to beg for
Speaker 3: people's votes. I'd rather play the game on my terms,
Speaker 3: to be quite frank.
Speaker 1: Oh, look, I would mistrust Simon any day of the week.
Speaker 1: But that's a completely different story. The villains are copying
Speaker 1: it really hard. You know, do you think that the
Speaker 1: teams have been unfairly stacked?
Speaker 3: That's a good Ben, it's a good question, mate. And
Speaker 3: I arrived at our first challenge, I look at the
Speaker 3: heroes women and I thought, Mate, there women was so fast,
Speaker 3: suppearing stronger than ours. It was ridiculous. Like Jackie, Angelie Sarah.
Speaker 3: I just thought the women here are mentally fragile and
Speaker 3: just physically not of the ilk of Haley and Nina. Mate.
Speaker 3: The short answers, Yes, I felt there was a distinct
Speaker 3: indifference between the two tribe strengths and you can see
Speaker 3: that right now. And I think what you'll find going forward, Ben,
Speaker 3: is the villains will continue to be in a world of.
Speaker 1: Trouble, regardless of how the cookie crumbles. Are you happy
Speaker 1: with the fact that you did the show?
Speaker 3: Ben? Another good question, like such a simple question, but
Speaker 3: such a such a stacked and loaded question. You know,
Speaker 3: playing in the nutshell. Playing Survivor is a twenty year
Speaker 3: dream bend for me personally. I wasn't in it for
Speaker 3: Instagram followers. I'm not like, I have my Instagram accounts closed,
Speaker 3: like I'm a private guy. I'm on television, but I'm
Speaker 3: a private guy. It's a dream come true. But I
Speaker 3: did it because I'm a purist of Survivor and I
Speaker 3: wanted to be known as a Survivor player. So it
Speaker 3: is what it is. Like I've lived the experience now,
Speaker 3: I know how it happens behind the scenes. I know
Speaker 3: how it's put together. I know production had high hopes
Speaker 3: for me. Ben. I know that they wanted me to
Speaker 3: go much deeper as did I. But survive is such
Speaker 3: a fluid game, Ben, that things can change, and that's
Speaker 3: what happened. But of course I'm happy, Ben, But I
Speaker 3: just wish I had gone further. But that's the way
Speaker 3: life goes.
Speaker 1: They bring people back, so you just never worry. Well
Speaker 1: watch his space, Ben, what do you think was the
Speaker 1: hardest thing about the experience. Obviously, being a survivor purist,
Speaker 1: you know you would have a fairly good understanding of
Speaker 1: what was going to happen. But then in the reality
Speaker 1: of it, you know what was the hardest thing.
Speaker 3: The gameplay was easy. I know you haven't askedt gameplay
Speaker 3: was easy. What was hard was getting fifty minutes sleep
Speaker 3: a night. I challenge anyone to operate and function very
Speaker 3: clearly and easily with that limited amount of sleep. So
Speaker 3: you add sleep deprivation, which was like so minimal, and
Speaker 3: then you add starvation on top of that. Those two
Speaker 3: factors been it doesn't matter who you are, they affect
Speaker 3: They just affect you. But also the way Survivors shot,
Speaker 3: it's so intense that you know, the camera's never off you,
Speaker 3: and that's I know that you've done that, but people
Speaker 3: behind the scenes, the actual shooting aspect is so intense
Speaker 3: at the same time, and I signed up for that
Speaker 3: and so that's totally fine, but those things are stick
Speaker 3: in my mind. Those the shooting, their sleep deprivation, and
Speaker 3: like starvation.
Speaker 1: People said, why was I such a bitch on big Brother,
Speaker 1: And the answer was, I was starving.
Speaker 3: Ben I get it, mate, and you know when the
Speaker 3: spotlight's on and the heats on in the kitchen, like
Speaker 3: it makes it makes people ordinary everyday people do funny things.
Speaker 1: Ben, Well, we need to talk about these challenges because
Speaker 1: I don't think that they'd planned challenges as extreme as
Speaker 1: this season. And you know how hard are the challenges
Speaker 1: in real life? And were you kind of expecting it
Speaker 1: to be that time?
Speaker 3: I prepared for the worst, Ben, when I signed up
Speaker 3: to this show. I was willing to This may sound extreme,
Speaker 3: and you can take it forward it is, but I
Speaker 3: was willing to lose my life out there, Ben. If
Speaker 3: I was to lose my life, so what like whatever?
Speaker 3: In reference to the challenges, for example, the one where
Speaker 3: George and Jackie hurt themselves, we had to run through
Speaker 3: with the challenge producers about how to do the challenge right,
Speaker 3: and that was the goal go over the top and
Speaker 3: turn your shoulder, not go over face first. So with
Speaker 3: that I wanted to go first. It just didn't bother me,
Speaker 3: like I know that I'm going to get injured on Survivor,
Speaker 3: so I don't I don't blame producers. The challenges are fine, Like,
Speaker 3: it's just the people who did them didn't do them correctly.
Speaker 3: So it is what it is.
Speaker 1: Do you think you were holding back on any future
Speaker 1: strategies that we may have missed. I just think you
Speaker 1: are the sort of person who wouldn't go in there
Speaker 1: with one strategy. I can imagine you stacking the sandwich
Speaker 1: and letting that evolve.
Speaker 3: Look, Bet, I think I was a pretty straightforward cat.
Speaker 3: Essentially Ben in a nutshell. So it's clear my focus
Speaker 3: was just to play a bold and daring game. I
Speaker 3: hate players Ben who say on day one I'm going
Speaker 3: to do this. In day three, I'm going to do that,
Speaker 3: in day six, I'm going to do that. Survivor is
Speaker 3: such a fluid game, as you see things changing a dime,
Speaker 3: So my game was just my mindset was just to
Speaker 3: adapt and see and play the player. Who's the biggest
Speaker 3: threat in front of me? George, I'm taking him out immediately, Shannie,
Speaker 3: I'm taking her out immediately. Who's after that? That's all
Speaker 3: my mindset was. I wasn't looking looking to the merge
Speaker 3: and you know, trying to win Instagram followers. It was
Speaker 3: playing the game and playing the player, so you know,
Speaker 3: having planned cdn. No, it was just who's the biggest threat?
Speaker 3: Ben and how do I get that? How can I
Speaker 3: send them home?
Speaker 2: That's it?
Speaker 1: Well, I think that Shawnie is making some really good television.
Speaker 1: I actually would go as far as saying, at the moment,
Speaker 1: she's kind of the best person I've seen on reality
Speaker 1: TV in maybe ten years. I don't necessarily know how
Speaker 1: that felt, you know, living in that close proximity, But
Speaker 1: I guess the question I really want to ask you
Speaker 1: is who is controlling that the villain council? Like who
Speaker 1: is It could be Simon, it could be Shonnie, and
Speaker 1: it could be George.
Speaker 3: Like regarding Shannie, I personally don't think that she's a mastermind.
Speaker 3: What's if you look at previous Survivor series as she
Speaker 3: didn't go far So I think there's a miss narrative
Speaker 3: about Shawnie's game. I don't think she's all out of
Speaker 3: a player quite frank that's just my take. Having played
Speaker 3: with her, I think it's overstated her influence in the game,
Speaker 3: like production and TV commercials can make someone look at
Speaker 3: much more than what they actually are. And when I
Speaker 3: was out, yes, I know she played a role in
Speaker 3: my demise fair play, that's great, but I don't think
Speaker 3: she's all to have a play. I'll just make that
Speaker 3: very clear in terms of who's controlling the camp. In
Speaker 3: my opinion, if like in a nutshell, I still feel
Speaker 3: it's George, believe it or not. He still has an
Speaker 3: influence where he'll suck up to someone and he'll play
Speaker 3: a sympathy game, or he'll lie and people buy his lies.
Speaker 3: Not this guy, but other people. So underlyingly, it's still George,
Speaker 3: and no one can tell me different.
Speaker 1: Well, George is kind of the one to be. I mean,
Speaker 1: come on, like this this guy is Ben.
Speaker 3: Why do you think? Why do you think I he
Speaker 3: was my target? Immediately?
Speaker 1: I just thought you were so right. I was like,
Speaker 1: come on, Michael is so right. George let this team down.
Speaker 1: This challenge was lost because of it.
Speaker 3: Was a fair call Ben. Was that a fair call
Speaker 3: to pull him out.
Speaker 1: Of course. But the problem was that these players, when
Speaker 1: they've come back and they've played it before, they know
Speaker 1: that they can cook your goose when it comes to
Speaker 1: being in that tribal council. And that's all that really
Speaker 1: happened to you was that they managed to get under
Speaker 1: your skin, and rightfully so.
Speaker 3: But did they? But did they?
Speaker 1: I don't know? I mean, you were sitting close to
Speaker 1: the fire, so I did think that maybe it was
Speaker 1: a little bit hot under the.
Speaker 3: Collar, Benny. But Benny, Benny, let me make something clear, mate,
Speaker 3: My face was not read whatsoever, and I was cool
Speaker 3: as a cucumber. You saw there was at that time.
Speaker 3: There was some emotional calmness needed, and that's what that's
Speaker 3: what I provide. George doesn't like being called out, Ben,
Speaker 3: that's the fact. And when I called him out, his
Speaker 3: face went red, not mine.
Speaker 1: You know what it's like though, It's like one point
Speaker 1: one finger pointing at you, three fingers pointing back. You know,
Speaker 1: when someone accuses you of something in a show like this,
Speaker 1: they usually are feeling it themselves.
Speaker 3: So Benny, that's a mate. Think that's a massive point
Speaker 3: you just made. George was under distinct pressure. I don't
Speaker 3: think it ever had a player come out in that
Speaker 3: hard like he was smothered out there, like I put
Speaker 3: him under so much pressure that he knew why do
Speaker 3: you think he was searching for an idol so much,
Speaker 3: so so badly? Like the execs said, Michael, you had
Speaker 3: him on a plane back to Australia. He was done
Speaker 3: and so he looked at me as in his eyes
Speaker 3: the Hugess threat, whether he admits it or not. Why
Speaker 3: do you think that I got sent home because Seannie
Speaker 3: and he knew that I was coming at either him
Speaker 3: so hard. So I don't care the rest of the tribe.
Speaker 3: Bend lacked the strength and mental fortitude to get it done.
Speaker 3: But I wasn't going to sit back and let Seannie
Speaker 3: and George get a free ride in that game.
Speaker 1: Ben, come back to the same question I have to
Speaker 1: ask you, and that is that you know, watching the show,
Speaker 1: we got a very very distinct picture of you. Talking
Speaker 1: to you today, you know, I'm getting that again, and
Speaker 1: I just I just want to ask you, you know,
Speaker 1: do you think there was a sign of you that
Speaker 1: we didn't see on the show. Do you think that's
Speaker 1: exactly Who's.
Speaker 3: Very good question that Ben. We all have different size
Speaker 3: to us. But what I've like, I've said the Channel ten,
Speaker 3: like I've said to every like you're judging me on
Speaker 3: a five minute interaction on a podcast, Ben, what I
Speaker 3: will say, you know, there's a hard nose, but there's
Speaker 3: also such a delicate, softer, caring side with humor, and
Speaker 3: it just wasn't shown. Ben.
Speaker 1: Well, I can tell you this that It's been ten
Speaker 1: years since I was on Big Brother and people still
Speaker 1: think that I'm a bitch.
Speaker 3: Well, I thought you were quite nasty back in the day, Ben,
Speaker 3: But mate, listening to you over the far on your podcast,
Speaker 3: you're a nice man like. But it's all about people
Speaker 3: see that no sleep, no food. They make a judgment,
Speaker 3: you know, crazy, what's he doing? No, I'm an everyday
Speaker 3: guy in the suburb with a brain, intelligence and humor.
Speaker 3: Only one side is shown of your personality, you know.
Speaker 1: You know, all that I learned over ten years time
Speaker 1: was it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks of you,
Speaker 1: if someone's watched you on to show or that it's
Speaker 1: sen you walk down the street. It's the people in
Speaker 1: your life. It's your friends, it's your family, and it's
Speaker 1: how you see yourself that matters.
Speaker 3: What and you have to that's and that's my point,
Speaker 3: Like you've got to have like I don't seek validation
Speaker 3: or approval from anyone. Like I'm a self assured, confident,
Speaker 3: measured guy. So what other people's other people's opinions of me,
Speaker 3: Ben mean, Jack Shisen, They don't mean a thing. Whether
Speaker 3: it's media, what's that saying?
Speaker 1: Again? Sorry to interrupt, But.
Speaker 3: What's Jack Jack Jack Jack shisen?
Speaker 1: What other people think of you as none of your business.
Speaker 3: Again, there's so many sides of me, Ben, but you know,
Speaker 3: and I had friends calling you last night saying they
Speaker 3: wish that those sides have been shown, but I have been.
Speaker 3: I don't blame the edit. I don't I'm not here
Speaker 3: to whack any of the like, Mate, I own my game,
Speaker 3: the edits, the edit. You know. I have no hard feelings, Ben,
Speaker 3: with anything, my friend, and you know it's TV. I
Speaker 3: played my dream and I have no hard feelings.
Speaker 1: At the end of my podcast, I always ask people
Speaker 1: this question, you know, what's the behind the scenes secret,
Speaker 1: which we're not doing for Survivor because we can't.
Speaker 3: Peel the onion to I love to tell you, Ben.
Speaker 1: So I'm sort of finished the podcast a little bit differently,
Speaker 1: and I'm asking you who do you think your pick
Speaker 1: to win is? And not what you know now, but
Speaker 1: what you thought when you walked out of that tribal council.
Speaker 3: Someone like a Matt Sharp from the hero's tribe. I
Speaker 3: know that I didn't play for the heroes, but he
Speaker 3: just strikes me, as you know, affable, friendly, gets along
Speaker 3: with everybody fly, it will just fly on the radar,
Speaker 3: be your mate's mate. So for mine it be it'll
Speaker 3: be Mattie Sharp or someone like a David zachar Rice,
Speaker 3: someone like that.
Speaker 1: I asked Angeley Row yesterday. I said, you know, if
Speaker 1: they make you come back to this show, because they
Speaker 1: make people come back to Survivor, you know what theme
Speaker 1: would you like to come back for? And we kind
Speaker 1: of struggled. We were like, you know, maybe journalists versus
Speaker 1: reality TV contestants or.
Speaker 3: I've got a great I've got a great one for you, Ben,
Speaker 3: I'd love to come back with one's Survivor rivals. So
Speaker 3: over the years, people who have gone like head to
Speaker 3: head or butted heads on the show, so like George
Speaker 3: and myself, like all matchups where there's been flip or
Speaker 3: clashes or whatever it may be, but just Survivor rivals.
Speaker 3: I think that would be awesome.
Speaker 1: Mate, Can I just say this has been such a
Speaker 1: fun chat?
Speaker 3: You know then you say it to everybody, but thank you.
Speaker 1: Let me know how you feel about that chat with Michael.
Speaker 1: I feel like he really didn't hold back, so some
Speaker 1: juicy content there. However, let's bring in the final guest
Speaker 1: of this podcast. Let's bring in Mimi. I'm dying to
Speaker 1: ask her about the cookies, if Simon's idol is real,
Speaker 1: and who she thinks will win. Anyway, I hope you
Speaker 1: enjoy this chat. Let's bring Mimi into the pod and
Speaker 1: we're going. Hi, Mimi, thanks for popping into chat about
Speaker 1: Australian survivor.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1: Well, I was watching you going through those cookies, which
Speaker 1: ended up kind of being your undoing. They kind of
Speaker 1: hung you out on that. Do you regret going through
Speaker 1: the cookie jar?
Speaker 4: I actually don't think it was that.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: It was a weird moment in that tribal council somehow.
Speaker 4: I think, yeah, the vote has changed. I think that
Speaker 4: vote changed three times in that tribal council. So I
Speaker 4: just got the short end of the stick.
Speaker 1: Me and me, I have no fingernails. That's from watching
Speaker 1: the episode because that tribal Council was just electric television
Speaker 1: and you could really see that no one really knew
Speaker 1: where it was going to go when it started. And
Speaker 1: I kept doing the mass and also I did veggie
Speaker 1: mouths at school. I was never good at it. I
Speaker 1: couldn't work it out. I didn't know how it was
Speaker 1: going to land.
Speaker 4: I was just crossing my fingers and toes and hoping
Speaker 4: that I wouldn't go home.
Speaker 1: But wait the other way, Well, I kept singing throughout
Speaker 1: the entire episode, who stole the cookies in the cookie Jar?
Speaker 4: I just can't believe there was actually something in there
Speaker 4: that killed me, that absolutely killed me.
Speaker 1: It's really just luck, chance and circumstance that you were
Speaker 1: not able to find that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well it was pitch black, so I couldn't see,
Speaker 4: but I was hoping that I would feel something solid,
Speaker 4: and I actually put my hand in twice to go
Speaker 4: through twice, just to double check. But yeah, didn't get it, unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Is that an idol that Simon has found in the
Speaker 1: cookie jar? I feel like he thinks it is, and
Speaker 1: it's probably not. What do you think, because I mean
Speaker 1: they usually come with the chain and they come with
Speaker 1: the note. What has he got for sure?
Speaker 4: I mean you saw the idol that George picked up.
Speaker 4: It looks completely different to that, so I definitely don't
Speaker 4: think it's an idol. And I'm actually quite shocked that
Speaker 4: Simon thinks it's an idol because he's an experienced player.
Speaker 4: So but then again, I mean every season the idol
Speaker 4: looks a little bit different, so maybe he.
Speaker 2: Thought that's that was that.
Speaker 1: But what do you think these discs mean? Like, what
Speaker 1: do you think that means in the game.
Speaker 4: I think it's definitely a clue to a next step,
Speaker 4: so it'll have a message in it somewhere. But you
Speaker 4: just got to look and we haven't seen him do
Speaker 4: that so far, so it'll be interesting to see.
Speaker 1: Well, the game requires having really strong relationships and alliances.
Speaker 1: Do you think that you didn't have that foundation to
Speaker 1: back you?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I felt like I had zero relationships and alliances,
Speaker 4: And yeah, it definitely felt like a lone wolf. As
Speaker 4: I've been saying, I had very i think surface level
Speaker 4: alliances where you know, it was kind of like the
Speaker 4: people that was left out of the core bunch, the
Speaker 4: core for I called them.
Speaker 1: Well, you said that you had a strong relationship with Brazier, Well,
Speaker 1: clearly not, because he.
Speaker 4: Wrote my name down, so I maybe trusted him at
Speaker 4: that point seventy percent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because it kind of looked like, you know, the
Speaker 1: wrong alliances, you know, like I think if it was
Speaker 1: for me, I'd be setting up foundations with the biggest
Speaker 1: scene stealing villains. I mean I would have gone straight
Speaker 1: for trying to set something up stronger with George, even
Speaker 1: though we did see George had your back, and maybe
Speaker 1: Shannie and maybe even Simon. I don't know. Do you
Speaker 1: feel like you targeted the wrong people to set up
Speaker 1: that foundation.
Speaker 4: I definitely feel like I didn't make decisions quick enough. Actually,
Speaker 4: I kind of saw much of working with each of
Speaker 4: the villains in different respects, But I definitely could have
Speaker 4: appealed to Shannie for sure more. I think that's something
Speaker 4: that I could have tried. George and I actually had
Speaker 4: a little bit of an instant connection from day one,
Speaker 4: but I just didn't act quick enough to confirm that
Speaker 4: we were in alliance. And then, you know, with the
Speaker 4: secrets of events with Jackie, the poor Dole, the way
Speaker 4: that she went out with Angelie wanted to keep her in.
Speaker 4: I personally wanted to keep her in against the rest
Speaker 4: of the tribe. So it was kind of just survival. Yeah,
Speaker 4: to put it for better words.
Speaker 1: I think you did have all the right tools to be,
Speaker 1: you know, a champion survivor player. You know, I felt
Speaker 1: that from the start. But you know, do you think
Speaker 1: that other players, I mean, for you, you kind of
Speaker 1: were saying, I'm going to take this day by day.
Speaker 1: You know, I saw that summer in the media this
Speaker 1: morning when I was, you know, before chatting to you,
Speaker 1: but like, I'm going to take it day by day.
Speaker 1: And George also said, you know, things change on a dime.
Speaker 1: But don't you think that some of the other players
Speaker 1: had plans on plans on plans.
Speaker 4: I think I think Seannie Simon Jordi, I think their
Speaker 4: plan was to stick with getting rid of the newbies,
Speaker 4: sorry from day one, so then it was just the
Speaker 4: returnings lefton and they would make it to merge that way.
Speaker 4: And then Liz just so happened to obviously being alliance
Speaker 4: with Shanny really well, and so they took her on board.
Speaker 4: I think that was their plan. I mean it was
Speaker 4: quite clear. But yeah, we were just losing numbers, and
Speaker 4: I would have loved to take a returning out before
Speaker 4: any of the newbies kept going home, but yeah, didn't
Speaker 4: have the ammunition.
Speaker 1: What about you thinking about the disadvantage of these returning players.
Speaker 1: I mean, someone going in there as a returning player,
Speaker 1: they've walked the walk, they've talked the talk, and they've
Speaker 1: spent months or even years, some of them rethinking their gameplay.
Speaker 1: Is it an unfair advantage for them to be in
Speaker 1: there with newbies?
Speaker 4: Absolutely? I feel, you know, it's like going in with
Speaker 4: two opponents into a game. One knows all the rules
Speaker 4: and the other nose half. However, in saying that, I
Speaker 4: don't think the newbies are completely without an advantage. I
Speaker 4: think they have with fresh new perspectives of not doing
Speaker 4: things always the way that they was done. So I
Speaker 4: think they yeah have fresh pair of eyes and they're
Speaker 4: not so jaded with the SURVI again, if you know
Speaker 4: what I mean.
Speaker 1: You know there was some tension I felt between you
Speaker 1: and Stevie that we saw, you know, over the first
Speaker 1: three episodes. Why do you think that tension was there?
Speaker 4: I personally, from my side, I think because I kept
Speaker 4: seeing that Stevie was Simon's pyekick that really rubbed me
Speaker 4: the wrong way. And there was a couple of moments
Speaker 4: where I had conversations with people and Stevie would just
Speaker 4: go up to Simon and tell him exactly what I said,
Speaker 4: So that was just another cherry on top. And then
Speaker 4: it was just his attitude towards me. I don't know
Speaker 4: about you, but I very much disliked people telling me
Speaker 4: how to feel, and I would never do that to somebody,
Speaker 4: so that also rubbed me the wrong way.
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't know. Was it jealousy that he was
Speaker 1: talking to Simon or do you think that you were
Speaker 1: just disappointed with the way in which he was treating
Speaker 1: your friendship?
Speaker 4: Not at all. I actually think it's due to the
Speaker 4: fact that I wouldn't have been able to trust him
Speaker 4: one percent. So I think from day one I just
Speaker 4: didn't have that energy. I knew never to trust him,
Speaker 4: and he very much went into Simon's lap very quickly,
Speaker 4: So yeah, it definitely wasn't jealous.
Speaker 1: I'm I can be a jealous person, and I have
Speaker 1: to delete that about my personality. Like I've gotten to
Speaker 1: that stage of my life where I have to reality
Speaker 1: check my jealousy because it's actually a really bad trait
Speaker 1: of mine. So I can recognize that sometimes and other people.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm glad that it's not jealousy. And
Speaker 1: then I've read that wrong.
Speaker 4: Well down on the self awareness.
Speaker 1: You went in wanting to make some big moves, and
Speaker 1: that was something that I read before the show even started.
Speaker 1: You know you've come out of the game a little
Speaker 1: bit early, but I want to know what have we
Speaker 1: missed out on? What sort of moves did you have
Speaker 1: up your sleeve that you might have rolled out so much?
Speaker 4: You're just going to have to get the survivor gods
Speaker 4: to get me back on the game so you can
Speaker 4: see what I can do.
Speaker 1: You don't want to tell me in case they bring
Speaker 1: you back.
Speaker 4: You know what, There's also so many variables, so I
Speaker 4: can tell you what I could do, but in that
Speaker 4: particular moment, I probably do something completely opposite depending on
Speaker 4: what is happening so and who's around, where are my
Speaker 4: alliance is out, what's my goals and things like that,
Speaker 4: So there's so many different outcomes.
Speaker 1: Do you think that you do things differently going into
Speaker 1: the show? Like, I don't know what sort of training
Speaker 1: you did or whether you could have done more or whatever,
Speaker 1: But if they were to ask you to go back,
Speaker 1: what sort of preparation would you do the next time around?
Speaker 4: I definitely okay.
Speaker 1: For me.
Speaker 4: There is one thing that I realized about myself talking
Speaker 4: about self awareness, is that in there I did let
Speaker 4: my pride and maybe my ego get in the way
Speaker 4: a little bit so being a sacrificial lamb from the beginning,
Speaker 4: being a Ubie, as the Brittanny's called it. I didn't
Speaker 4: let that get to me sometimes, so for instance, in challenges,
Speaker 4: you know, when Simon was giving out roles and I
Speaker 4: would just be one in the back, another little pawn.
Speaker 4: That got to me a little bit every time. So
Speaker 4: I think, I really, yeah, I need to pull back
Speaker 4: my ego in the game. I need to make quick,
Speaker 4: good decisions, and I think I just need to relax
Speaker 4: a little bit. I felt really tense. I felt like
Speaker 4: I lost my personality in there a little bit, which
Speaker 4: I thought going there would have been my main asset.
Speaker 4: We all know that hindsight's bloody twenty twenty, but I
Speaker 4: feel like hindsight's a little bit useless most of the
Speaker 4: time because you know it's already happened.
Speaker 1: So George and Seannie, you know, making some really great television.
Speaker 1: Do you think that are they who they are? Like
Speaker 1: I said, there's such big characters for us to watch
Speaker 1: on television.
Speaker 4: This is a very interesting question. I mean, I definitely
Speaker 4: think how they've been depicted are their survivor players. You know,
Speaker 4: Seannie's very sweet, but she's also a huge lethal player,
Speaker 4: and you don't know what she's saying behind your back,
Speaker 4: but towards your face she is the sweetest girl. She's
Speaker 4: the sweetest girl in real life, but as a player,
Speaker 4: she can definitely switch between facades. George, Yeah, George is
Speaker 4: a very emotional and dramatic player. I don't know if
Speaker 4: that's the right word that I would use, but you know,
Speaker 4: he's very theatrical. He loves a moment, he loves a drama.
Speaker 4: But he is also very strategic and he knows how
Speaker 4: to play the survivor game. Look at him, find that idol.
Speaker 4: He knew exactly where to look so which I was
Speaker 4: struggling with in that forest.
Speaker 1: What's interesting to me about George is the ability to
Speaker 1: stand in situations that are clearly very awkward. How awkward
Speaker 1: were those moments in real life?
Speaker 4: I was okay about it purely because you know what,
Speaker 4: I think that's actually an advantage of George, because he
Speaker 4: gets into the end of the conversation, so he hears
Speaker 4: a little bit and yeah, it is awkward, but he
Speaker 4: also gets a little bit of intel and he starts
Speaker 4: to learn who were with whom and what they're kind
Speaker 4: of saying. Even though it's not the whole context, so
Speaker 4: I think actually works out for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Stevee. Stevie also said what are we doing wrong?
Speaker 1: You know, it was a really good point that he
Speaker 1: brought up. And you know, going into you know the
Speaker 1: next episode that we'll see next week, you know, four
Speaker 1: people have gone from the villain tribe. I mean, if
Speaker 1: we can look back and see what you guys have
Speaker 1: done wrong, what do you think that that is from
Speaker 1: your perspective?
Speaker 4: I mean, I definitely witness throughout the challenges, we just
Speaker 4: weren't a team. If you look at the hero's team,
Speaker 4: they actually work together to get through the challenges. But
Speaker 4: for us, I think it's just getting through them to
Speaker 4: get to the end and thinking individually rather than as
Speaker 4: one as a team. There's a huge difference. We know
Speaker 4: that in any organization or any team sport, if you're
Speaker 4: not collaborative, you won't win because it's a team sport.
Speaker 4: At the end of the day, it's a team sport
Speaker 4: and it's individual. But you've got to make sure that
Speaker 4: you give the right balance to both of them when
Speaker 4: the time's right, and in challenges, we really needed the
Speaker 4: team work.
Speaker 1: It'll be interesting to see how these teams are going
Speaker 1: to disintegrate. I mean, Simon's playing quite similar to the
Speaker 1: first season he was in, and it seems like he
Speaker 1: may not have learned as many lessons as what he
Speaker 1: could have, while Jordi really has been learning from his
Speaker 1: mistakes last time. And it's interesting to sort of see
Speaker 1: their relationship evolving, but I kind of feel like that's
Speaker 1: going to implode, and watching the Tribal Council last night,
Speaker 1: I think that was the first sign that Jordie looked
Speaker 1: at Simon and was like, this guy's will lose cannon.
Speaker 1: What do you think is going to evolve from the
Speaker 1: relationship between those two.
Speaker 4: I mean, I agree with you, they've got a romance now,
Speaker 4: but you know them two being very two different players
Speaker 4: in this season, I think that'll clash, and I don't
Speaker 4: think Jordie will want to go down with Simon. I
Speaker 4: think Jordie will go the complete opposite way and they'll
Speaker 4: probably turn.
Speaker 1: On each other sooner rather than later.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't know, depending on how the girls go, depending
Speaker 4: on how good that George and Shoonni relationship is well.
Speaker 1: Normally at this point, I ask people, what is it
Speaker 1: behind the scenes question? But we don't want to peel
Speaker 1: the onion on Australian Survivor. We don't want to reveal
Speaker 1: anything because it's just such a magic show. So instead
Speaker 1: I've just been asking people, you know, who their pick
Speaker 1: is to win. So who do you think, Not what
Speaker 1: you might know now, but when you, you know, walked
Speaker 1: out and you put out your fire, put out your torch,
Speaker 1: who did you think was possibly going to win this
Speaker 1: at the end.
Speaker 4: Definitely a villain. I don't see a hero winning unfortunately.
Speaker 4: I think that's a little bit too boring, too traditional.
Speaker 4: I mean, I do think Seannie has a huge chance.
Speaker 4: She's played three times, she's the most experienced out of
Speaker 4: all of them. She's been on the island or whichever
Speaker 4: location for the longest. She's a fighter, so she has
Speaker 4: a huge chance.
Speaker 1: And the other question I was going to ask you,
Speaker 1: because you mentioned this before, is if you came back
Speaker 1: and they did another season of Survivor, what's the theme
Speaker 1: that you think you would be brought back with.
Speaker 4: That is a tough one and a good question. Maybe
Speaker 4: something to do with vengeance, or maybe to do something
Speaker 4: with people who didn't get or who went home too early.
Speaker 4: I'm very open to things, though, the more creative the better.
Speaker 1: Just don't you love that this show is you know,
Speaker 1: everyone that doesn't wants to go back, Like it's not
Speaker 1: one of those shows where people go, oh god, I
Speaker 1: wish I didn't do it, or regardless as to how
Speaker 1: the cookie crumbles and then we have it, everyone would
Speaker 1: love to come back. And I think that that's a
Speaker 1: testament to the type of show that this is.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I mean, it was so weird. I've been saying,
Speaker 4: you know, I was like a little kid playing an
Speaker 4: arcade game. Every time I lost. Well, when I lost,
Speaker 4: I just wanted to put more coins in and play again.
Speaker 4: But you can't do that with Survivor. You do that
Speaker 4: with arcade games. But yeah, I definitely had that addiction
Speaker 4: feel where I just wanted to play again.
Speaker 1: Well, I love it and I'd look forward to watching you.
Speaker 1: I think that you know, you were fantastic on the
Speaker 1: show and you should be very proud of what you did.
Speaker 1: So I thank you so much for joining me today
Speaker 1: to chat about it.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me. Really enjoyed it.