Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload, the podcast.
Speaker 2: Last week Their Life.
Speaker 3: Welcome to TV Reload.
Speaker 1: My name is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast
Speaker 1: to get all the inside goss on the popular TV
Speaker 1: shows you may be watching from around the world. Undeniably,
Speaker 1: our TV sets are a major part of our home
Speaker 1: entertainment and very little is known about how our favorite
Speaker 1: shows get made. Each episode, I find guests that want
Speaker 1: to dive just that little bit deeper into the shows
Speaker 1: they're currently making, so that you can hear all the
Speaker 1: exclusive stories and gain access to the biggest names in
Speaker 1: Australian television. I want to thank you for downloading or
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Speaker 1: make sure you leave a review or a comment on
Speaker 1: your chosen podcast platform and I'll make sure you feel
Speaker 1: as included in the production of this show as I
Speaker 1: possibly can. On today's podcast, I have this week's booted
Speaker 1: castaways from Australian Survivor Heroes Versus Villains and what a
Speaker 1: week it has been saying goodbye to Sam, Shannie and Sean.
Speaker 3: It's a huge week for.
Speaker 1: Exit interviews and these guys have some really fun stories
Speaker 1: to share. Sam was the first season returney with a
Speaker 1: mission to beat his personal best. Shawnee was the first
Speaker 1: person to return for her third time, and Sean also
Speaker 1: a Returney just wanted to be kept in frame as
Speaker 1: he is a literal giant at six foot seven. First up,
Speaker 1: I chat with Sam and find out who his real
Speaker 1: alliance was. We will also discuss how the game has
Speaker 1: changed since series one. He will share how he feels
Speaker 1: about Nina and Sean using their idols incorrectly to save themselves.
Speaker 1: Then Shawnie will join me to talk about the Spice
Speaker 1: Girl's alliance and what went wrong. Shawnee will talk about
Speaker 1: her three Survivor experiences and what she decided to change
Speaker 1: up for heroes versus villains. Finally, we will have Sean,
Speaker 1: who will unpack the recovery period from the extreme conditions
Speaker 1: of Australian Survivor. I'll ask if his wife Megan Gail
Speaker 1: had any Gogglebox commentary from the couch, and we will
Speaker 1: also discuss if a friendship with George is even possible.
Speaker 1: Once all this settles down, I will get some exclusives
Speaker 1: from behind the scenes. On the sixth week of Australian
Speaker 1: Survivor Heroes Versus Villains, which you can now catch up
Speaker 1: on on ten Play. Anyway, let's bring Sam into the podcast.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy the first part of this episode. Hi, Sam,
Speaker 1: how are you then?
Speaker 4: I'm very well considering they're a turn of advance at
Speaker 4: tribal council.
Speaker 3: How are you doing well? It's just week after week.
Speaker 1: You know, you kind of thought maybe you get like
Speaker 1: a really intense tribal council like one or two, you know,
Speaker 1: times out of a season. But every time they seem
Speaker 1: to go to tribal council, I take another layer of
Speaker 1: my fingernails off.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: It is like that, isn't it mate. I'll tell you
Speaker 4: right now, when you're in that tribal council and you're
Speaker 4: sitting down, I lost it at ten years of my life.
Speaker 4: So it's a stressful environment, it really is. It's a
Speaker 4: pressure cooker night and day. Different than when I played
Speaker 4: it in season one.
Speaker 3: Well, you had the longest break between seasons. I mean
Speaker 3: that's a really long break.
Speaker 1: We've seen people come back straight after, you know, back
Speaker 1: into the next season.
Speaker 3: You know, had you ever thought that you would return
Speaker 3: to this show.
Speaker 4: I wanted to return to this show. I think I'm
Speaker 4: very First of all, I'm going to say how grateful
Speaker 4: I am to play the game twice now, you know,
Speaker 4: and season one and season eight two different sides of
Speaker 4: the spectrum, so pardon me. Obviously wanted to play again
Speaker 4: and know i'd get the shot, but made I can
Speaker 4: now say I'm a veteran of the game, which is
Speaker 4: so funny because I'd never say that.
Speaker 1: I'd never say that, But in all honesty, I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you this question because I thought you'd be
Speaker 1: the best person to answer it. How long does it
Speaker 1: take to shake off an Australian survivor experience? Because you've
Speaker 1: had that time And I always say to people, I
Speaker 1: think I reckon, it's about four years before your brain
Speaker 1: starts to reset. But for you, how long did it
Speaker 1: take for you to get over the first experience?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I mean the first experience lingered for a while with
Speaker 4: the food and stuff, and like the experiences, bro, I
Speaker 4: took so much greatness out of it too, So I
Speaker 4: was like, yeah, I feel like it's always in you
Speaker 4: once you've done it, once you've learned from it in
Speaker 4: so many different ways, or it's changed you in some
Speaker 4: kind of way. I feel like for me, the six
Speaker 4: years in between in between seasons was great. I think
Speaker 4: I wouldn't have wanted it any other way, to be honest,
Speaker 4: I know. And it was great because I got to
Speaker 4: sit in the background and just hanging out, and here
Speaker 4: I pop up again out of six years. I mean,
Speaker 4: it was good.
Speaker 1: I just was really surprised as well that they didn't
Speaker 1: ask you to do another show. I just, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I'm saying this. Maybe it's because
Speaker 1: you know, you're a good looking rooster, You're very well spoken,
Speaker 1: you know, you have this amazing charity. There's just so
Speaker 1: many things that are going for you. Had you been
Speaker 1: asked to do anything else or are you just a
Speaker 1: survivor guy.
Speaker 4: Well, it was funny because after season to be honest,
Speaker 4: season one was in twenty sixteen, I was single. I'm
Speaker 4: getting married next month, man, So I'm I'm going to
Speaker 4: be a married man in April, which I'm excited about
Speaker 4: Mid Mexico. But after season one, I did get Arcs
Speaker 4: actually to do the Bachelot kind of yeah, but it
Speaker 4: was never it was never something that I wanted to
Speaker 4: do or entertain, and so it was kind of like
Speaker 4: a conversation came up, but I brushed it aside pretty quickly.
Speaker 4: But yeah, mate, I haven't been asked, And to be honest,
Speaker 4: I probably wouldn't do any other reality TV shows. Maybe
Speaker 4: the Amazing.
Speaker 3: Race with your name, with your soon to be wife,
Speaker 3: of course.
Speaker 4: Maybe with her. I don't know if I would do
Speaker 4: it with it.
Speaker 2: I want to.
Speaker 4: I'll do it with my brother or my my best
Speaker 4: mate or something. Maybe it could be better.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I wanted too many arguments with Nadia if we did
Speaker 4: Amazing Race together.
Speaker 1: How much has the Australian Survivor series changed since you
Speaker 1: were first on?
Speaker 3: The show has changed.
Speaker 4: I think, And I'll be straight in the line, you know.
Speaker 4: I'm very honest and open and up front. I feel
Speaker 4: like the epicness of the challenges in the Season one
Speaker 4: were probably second to none. They were the best, were
Speaker 4: the biggest. It's probably because it was season one. They
Speaker 4: wanted to make it even bigger and greater and they
Speaker 4: had to have a statement to put it.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: But the gameplay was very different. Gameplay Season one wasn't
Speaker 4: nowhere near as intense and chaotic and stressful and anxiety
Speaker 4: provoking as this was and it shows on TV. I
Speaker 4: feel like the audience is left feeling some of those
Speaker 4: emotions too. Yeah, it's changed a lot in that in
Speaker 4: that in that realm, for sure, it's night and day differently,
Speaker 4: and it's a lot harder.
Speaker 3: I can see that in the show.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that the player's attitude towards taking
Speaker 1: part in the show has changed.
Speaker 3: And it was only a few episodes back.
Speaker 1: On the podcast, I was chatting to one of the
Speaker 1: other you know castaways that was there with you, and
Speaker 1: I just think that, you know, people are going on
Speaker 1: this show now with more of a sort of cartoon villainry,
Speaker 1: do you know what I mean? Like they're they're willing
Speaker 1: to make all of these really dramatic moves just for
Speaker 1: the glory of it, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Where I felt like in the first series people were
Speaker 1: reluctant because they were worried if they made two bigger
Speaker 1: moves they'd be chucked out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, man. And I think I think over the years,
Speaker 4: it's kind of carbonated enough to weed out certain people
Speaker 4: and bring in certain people. And I feel like it
Speaker 4: had to take this many years for it to really
Speaker 4: get to a level where it's at and I feel
Speaker 4: like the feedback and the and the audience and people,
Speaker 4: you know, it's proof in the pudding. I mean, it's
Speaker 4: I'm getting people here in America and that never happened
Speaker 4: to me last time, but I'm here. I live in
Speaker 4: the States. Someone in my building goes, hang on a minute,
Speaker 4: this is weird. But you seeing them from Survivor likes
Speaker 4: the heroes. I said, yeah, because I'm binge watching it
Speaker 4: right now and love it. And I'm like, oh my god, like, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's made it ZEPI.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a I mean, I can't even tell you,
Speaker 1: Like honestly, I've been recommending this series to people who've
Speaker 1: never watched Survivor before, and I don't hear back from
Speaker 1: them because they can't pick up the phone because they're
Speaker 1: binge watching the first half of this series, like it
Speaker 1: is addictive television. And I've said it a number of
Speaker 1: times on this podcast. I think this series could be
Speaker 1: the best reality series I've seen made in Australia.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think so too. And I don't just say that, man,
Speaker 4: just because I'm part of it. I actually do think
Speaker 4: that too. I speak a few players that have played
Speaker 4: the American Survivor and they've been watching it too, and
Speaker 4: they reckon it's probably one of the best Survivors I've watched, So,
Speaker 4: I mean, it's good feedback for the EPs and that,
Speaker 4: so it's and yeah, I think it's It's got the
Speaker 4: right mix of people coming to the and applying for it,
Speaker 4: and they're casting it very well, so that makes it
Speaker 4: even better.
Speaker 1: You said that, you know, you're you know, the game
Speaker 1: has changed, and your morals and your strategy hadn't really changed.
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting to find out. You know,
Speaker 1: what do you think was different about your gameplay this
Speaker 1: time around?
Speaker 3: Looking back?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I think my gameplay this time around.
Speaker 4: I feel like my values and stuff were still intact,
Speaker 4: but I was able to forgive here for a bit,
Speaker 4: Like I don't think in season one I would have
Speaker 4: ever forgiven someone for turning on me like you know
Speaker 4: Nina did. For example, I had to write my name
Speaker 4: down Hailey like I was willing. Like if I've got
Speaker 4: more of a bit of time there at the back
Speaker 4: end of the game to play with Hailey, I I
Speaker 4: think I would have worked with her. And I said
Speaker 4: this watch in the episode today, I'm like, I wish
Speaker 4: I worked with her more, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: And my gameplay, while it was kind of similar, and
Speaker 4: I think that's just who I am as a person.
Speaker 4: I find it interesting some of the little nuanced choices
Speaker 4: that I made this time around, and my gut instincts
Speaker 4: I followed a lot more. You know, I picked out
Speaker 4: my spider sense, so to speak, kind of picked out
Speaker 4: a few things before things actually went down, and I
Speaker 4: was right, although there were things where I was off
Speaker 4: the mark. You know, I probably didn't say as much
Speaker 4: as I should have said. There were times where I
Speaker 4: did let lose and I said things that needed to
Speaker 4: be sad. And I don't think season one I would
Speaker 4: have called out someone to play an idol for me
Speaker 4: if if that's the instinct that I had in my gut,
Speaker 4: you know. And I knew that my instinct was right
Speaker 4: last night, like.
Speaker 1: Of course, I mean I could see that it was
Speaker 1: written all over your face, I think, yeah, But I
Speaker 1: mean I'm shocked. I'm absolutely shocked to my very foundation
Speaker 1: that you all managed to fumble that opportunity to eliminate
Speaker 1: George because it looked like a full proof plan. Maybe
Speaker 1: it didn't look like a full proof plan on the beach.
Speaker 1: But to us, it just you know, it seems shocking
Speaker 1: to me that you didn't take that opportunity to get
Speaker 1: to George Man.
Speaker 4: It was it was a full it was a full
Speaker 4: proof plan on the bench. That was the problem. And
Speaker 4: the problem unraveled when we had two idols. Nina found it,
Speaker 4: which I almost found it. I'm hideous to finding idols, obviously,
Speaker 4: and I'll take responsibility for that. But I think where
Speaker 4: the plan kind of come unstuck was Simon's very hard
Speaker 4: to play with because he's he's very flaky in the
Speaker 4: way that he's not solid, He's not permitted all the time.
Speaker 4: He could he could change his decision like last minute,
Speaker 4: and that that that's dangerous and that's something that I
Speaker 4: find hard to play with, you know, But.
Speaker 1: I guess, you know, leaking the plans, you know, that's
Speaker 1: really where it came undone, because I mean the fear
Speaker 1: of God was really put into Sean and Nina, meaning
Speaker 1: that you know, they had idols and they wasted them
Speaker 1: because the game, you know, the plan of attack had changed.
Speaker 4: Complete complete waste of time. And look, look, part of me,
Speaker 4: like I was meant to have the idol was meant
Speaker 4: to be in my bag before walking to tribal council,
Speaker 4: and after a few events didn't happen, said to Nina,
Speaker 4: don't worry, just give it to me at tribal counts.
Speaker 4: It will just play it for me. And then after
Speaker 4: tribal you're in a cooker. You've got Simon whisper and
Speaker 4: saying no, that's a four to three split. And then
Speaker 4: I'm listening and I hear one of them say there's
Speaker 4: only six of this in our alliance. And I'm not like,
Speaker 4: thinking in my stomach they're missing one person. It must
Speaker 4: be Simon, because they're not taken into account. They must
Speaker 4: have turned their vote. And then I looked and the
Speaker 4: way I knew it straight away because Nina didn't play
Speaker 4: her idols. She played it too fast. If you've got
Speaker 4: an idol, like I don't even I've never played one,
Speaker 4: As I said, I'm not. I wouldn't be the greatest
Speaker 4: person to find one, but I think I would play
Speaker 4: it as a tool. So like, sit there and dangle it, go,
Speaker 4: who am I going to play it for? I play
Speaker 4: it a bit better, you know what I mean. She
Speaker 4: rushed to play it, even though I told her just
Speaker 4: play it for yourself.
Speaker 1: Well, people online were coming for them, you know, and saying,
Speaker 1: you know, we've seen people in the Villains tribe using
Speaker 1: idols to save other people instead of themselves, which worked
Speaker 1: out to be good gameplay. People are now saying that
Speaker 1: Sean and Nina were a little bit selfish to be
Speaker 1: using their idol so quickly on themselves instead of being
Speaker 1: able to use it as a tool to strengthen a
Speaker 1: relationship with maybe somebody else by building trust.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that that would have been That would
Speaker 4: have been the player right, playing the idol for me
Speaker 4: to save the day. Would have been the best heroes man.
Speaker 3: Of course, I.
Speaker 4: Understand it, and I understand self preservation. My game became unstuck,
Speaker 4: probably again similar to just season one. I'm too nice, man,
Speaker 4: I'm too nice.
Speaker 1: And Sam, it's better to be too nice than it
Speaker 1: is to a person coming off a reality show that
Speaker 1: you know comes across dodgy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree, man, I agree, and I'm grateful how
Speaker 4: I played it. I wouldn't change the thing, but I
Speaker 4: am very nice, and you know me saying to Nina,
Speaker 4: just play it for yourself, Like then.
Speaker 2: I looked over.
Speaker 4: She played it too fast. I knew on George's he
Speaker 4: just doesn't have a poker face. I knew straight away
Speaker 4: he got like this sense of relief that she played
Speaker 4: for herself because they didn't vote for her. That's when
Speaker 4: I knew they're voting for me. Surely play the idem
Speaker 4: for me, please, bam please.
Speaker 1: And he really should have. But I want to workshop
Speaker 1: something with you. I have a theory.
Speaker 3: I love Sean, by the way, so if Sean's listening
Speaker 3: to please not come for me.
Speaker 1: But I think Sean is the real problem in that
Speaker 1: original Heroes tribe, and I wonder if he has done
Speaker 1: all of this on purpose to get rid of some
Speaker 1: of his biggest competition, because you had this, he had
Speaker 1: this really strong male alliance that looked undefeatable when the
Speaker 1: merge happened, and then all of a sudden there's just
Speaker 1: been some fumbling along the way. Is there a possibility
Speaker 1: that Seawn's just like letting some of you guys go.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure, definitely, no doubt about it. I mean
Speaker 4: I picked up that on on Heroes Beach after I
Speaker 4: couldn't find an idol with David and a sense not
Speaker 4: looking for it, and I'm thinking maybe he has got
Speaker 4: it and that's kind of sit my mind. And yeah,
Speaker 4: he was very very self preservation RD and I feel
Speaker 4: like I was at the other end of the spectrum.
Speaker 4: And that's you know, it is what it is one hundred.
Speaker 4: There's a thousand and one different decisions choices you can
Speaker 4: make every day in that game, and it only takes
Speaker 4: one choice to ruin everything and or change everything. So
Speaker 4: I played it what I thought was right, what was
Speaker 4: in my control. I just wish that I had that
Speaker 4: idol in my hand because I would have played it
Speaker 4: for myself I had, you know, but being in someone
Speaker 4: else's possession, I want to guilty if it was actually
Speaker 4: in fact then going home and I told them to
Speaker 4: play for me. That's Yeah, that's a tough one.
Speaker 5: That one is a.
Speaker 3: Tough one for your own mental health.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say, don't ever watch that episode back
Speaker 1: because that footage of you missing the idol, it's you're
Speaker 1: so close to it that rewatching that back I think
Speaker 1: would be like actual torture.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I put my hand on it because
Speaker 4: I remember when Nina found it. I'm like, I swear
Speaker 4: I just looked at it anyway, Yeah, well you did. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it was the game is wild, and we get out
Speaker 4: there for so long, in so many people it is
Speaker 4: it is a mind It is a mind wrecking game.
Speaker 4: That's what it plays with your mind over anything like
Speaker 4: I don't care yet whether you win challenges or not.
Speaker 4: It's it's a modern game and that's exactly how you
Speaker 4: play that game.
Speaker 3: How the hell is Haley and George still in this show?
Speaker 2: Though?
Speaker 1: I mean they are literally like the biggest characters and
Speaker 1: they really should have been eliminated, like everyone should be
Speaker 1: going for them week one, and yet here we are
Speaker 1: so far into the competition and they're still there, Like,
Speaker 1: how is this in your what's your theory behind? How
Speaker 1: those two could be still in the competition with this
Speaker 1: much power?
Speaker 4: Well again, the first my first boat back on Here
Speaker 4: Over Beach was Hailey. I said, we need to get
Speaker 4: rid of Haley.
Speaker 3: Of course, I convinced.
Speaker 4: David that I hadn't Nina, and then Shawan spoke up,
Speaker 4: and I kind of didn't want to be a leader
Speaker 4: because that was where I went wrong the first season.
Speaker 4: I think as well, I wanted to take a back seat,
Speaker 4: let someone else lead in I'm like, all right, man,
Speaker 4: you call the shots. Put in my mind I'm like,
Speaker 4: you don't get someone out that can really play a
Speaker 4: game first, they're going to last a long time. And
Speaker 4: it's proved like they're good. They're good game players. It's
Speaker 4: why they're still in it. They're very they're very strategic minded,
Speaker 4: and that is a big threat for someone like me
Speaker 4: because I'm I'm not very strategic. I'm more of a
Speaker 4: social player. I don't even look myself as like a
Speaker 4: challenge beast. I'm more of a group challenge beast. I
Speaker 4: played well with teams like I look after people, and
Speaker 4: that's what I wanted to play it like. But yeah,
Speaker 4: those guys are good players, and you need those players
Speaker 4: in the game too, because you know they can help
Speaker 4: us shields. They can help us focusing attention on them
Speaker 4: as opposed to year and hiding behind them. So there's
Speaker 4: a number of different things.
Speaker 1: And also they got to go to this I was
Speaker 1: calling it cave FC because they got to go and
Speaker 1: swim in that cave and got KFC. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, these guys have got to go to Cave
Speaker 1: FC and now they've got a new lease of life.
Speaker 1: But when you win those challenges and you get taken
Speaker 1: away and you can go and swim and eat some food.
Speaker 1: Is that like giving people a lifeline? Like, how much
Speaker 1: does that really affect someone's mental attitude coming back into
Speaker 1: the game, you.
Speaker 4: Know what, I think it does, but doesn't I don't
Speaker 4: think it. I'm not fully bored, to be honest. Yeah,
Speaker 4: And I mean you feel better, that's for sure. I
Speaker 4: mean I didn't feel the greatest after I had some
Speaker 4: of the for challenges. I actually felt worse. So I
Speaker 4: think your body asks pretty well. It's a smart machine.
Speaker 4: But like going away depends on who you go away
Speaker 4: on those challenges with how you picked strategically. I think
Speaker 4: you know and neither here nor there. I never looking
Speaker 4: back on it now, man, I mean I played in
Speaker 4: season one. I'm like a new player in a way
Speaker 4: because I never played with anyone and I've been so
Speaker 4: far removed from Survivor in general. In the conversation, like
Speaker 4: I was a new players. Probably why I gelled really
Speaker 4: well with with new players on there. To be honest,
Speaker 4: I found a lot of the returning these kind of
Speaker 4: threats and that's fine. But like when you've got players
Speaker 4: like George and Haylea who've played together, and this is
Speaker 4: very recently there has to be something said for that tour,
Speaker 4: Like I feel like there's pros to that haven't played
Speaker 4: with someone before very recently, Like I feel like if
Speaker 4: I'd played with someone, it probably would have helped my
Speaker 4: game rather than hurt. That makes sense, But that's my
Speaker 4: that's my take on that.
Speaker 1: You know, I saw your post, I followed you for
Speaker 1: a while, and I've saw your post on Instagram over
Speaker 1: the last couple of days, and I just think that
Speaker 1: you are the perfect person to share your story when
Speaker 1: it comes to, you know, people opening up and talking
Speaker 1: about mental health issues and people and anxiety. I live
Speaker 1: with someone who suffers from anxiety really badly. You know,
Speaker 1: do you think that coming back on to Survivor and
Speaker 1: sort of lifting your profile a little bit more is
Speaker 1: going to allow you to, you know, help other people
Speaker 1: a little bit more with this?
Speaker 4: I really hope so like I hope that whatever my
Speaker 4: profile ever does in life is able to help other people.
Speaker 4: Like I'm a person of service, and I feel like
Speaker 4: for me, when I deteriorate front or deter from being
Speaker 4: a personal service, I actually suffer myself with bad anxiety.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I hope that by being a voice and
Speaker 4: being outspoken in general about feelings and mental health. From
Speaker 4: a man and a masculine point of view, I feel
Speaker 4: like hopefully it does break down some barriers for others
Speaker 4: to seek help and support and know that they're not
Speaker 4: on this journey alone, because the journey alone can feel
Speaker 4: pretty lonely, you know sometimes, and if anyone's listened to
Speaker 4: this right now, that might say with anxiety, like, there
Speaker 4: is a lot of support out there and you can
Speaker 4: go better, but it takes work, you know, Like it's
Speaker 4: not easy either, Like even doing that self work and
Speaker 4: the discovery and yourself is bloody hard work and sometimes
Speaker 4: it's really scary. So just just keep at it and
Speaker 4: take baby steps and speak to someone who can help
Speaker 4: make a safe space for it. I always say that
Speaker 4: to people.
Speaker 1: Well before you go, I'm asking everyone the same questions,
Speaker 1: which is who did you think would win?
Speaker 3: Like not who do you think will win?
Speaker 1: Is a difficult question because you know, obviously this was
Speaker 1: filmed a while ago and we don't want to get
Speaker 1: into any of that, so not what you may know.
Speaker 1: But when you left the tribal council, who did you
Speaker 1: think was going to take this competition out?
Speaker 4: That's a good question. Because who do I think would know?
Speaker 4: Who do I want to win?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 1: Very good, they're different questions, but I think it's I
Speaker 1: think who you think is going to win is more interesting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I think who's going to win this
Speaker 4: is I think Nina or Simon in this game.
Speaker 3: Not on They're not on my list, but they're good players.
Speaker 4: They are good players. They're different players, but they're good players.
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, I mean if it got down to yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean, if George gets all the way to the
Speaker 4: end and he's there, I mean, yeah, he'll get my bug.
Speaker 1: But whether he can make it there, it's a completely
Speaker 1: different story.
Speaker 4: That's the thing. Yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 1: And the last question I have is would you ever return?
Speaker 1: It's an interesting question to ask all of you guys,
Speaker 1: because a lot of people want to return to this show,
Speaker 1: and you've had the opportunity of returning, and we've seen
Speaker 1: someone come back three times. Is this something that you
Speaker 1: would ever do again? Or if you close the book
Speaker 1: on this Australian Survivor chapter.
Speaker 4: It's funny, it's a great question because I'm more invested
Speaker 4: in Survivor this time around than I have ever been,
Speaker 4: and I'm watching the American one now and I've never
Speaker 4: watched the American season ever, so I would definitely play again.
Speaker 4: And I don't know, maybe it makes sense to me
Speaker 4: having a crack here in America. I live here in
Speaker 4: LA and so I don't know. Maybe the American Survivor
Speaker 4: could be something that I can do. But I'm definitely
Speaker 4: definitely down to play again. I have to play again.
Speaker 4: I think I need to play against some stage.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll be in your audience, mate, I'll be watching,
Speaker 1: so look after yourself. I appreciate your generosity with chatting
Speaker 1: with me this morning.
Speaker 4: I appreciate you, mate. Thank you so much for your
Speaker 4: time your interest as well. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Some great insights from Sam. It was great to chat
Speaker 1: with him all the way from Los Angeles. Anyway, let's
Speaker 1: bring Shane into the podcast now. I'm a huge Shawnee fan,
Speaker 1: so I'll try and keep my fandom down to a
Speaker 1: dull raw. Hope you enjoy the part two of my
Speaker 1: Survivor Chat exit interviews for week six. Hi, Shannie, how
Speaker 1: are you hi?
Speaker 2: I am good. Would be a little bit better if
Speaker 2: I had half a mil in the bank, but well,
Speaker 2: oh boo.
Speaker 1: Well, I have watched all three seasons that you've been in,
Speaker 1: and I actually think this was my favorite season for you.
Speaker 1: But how does the stack up in your mind? Was
Speaker 1: this your favorite season or what's the order?
Speaker 2: I think this is my most boldest season. You know,
Speaker 2: when I first played and See and three, I was
Speaker 2: interested in being an under the radar player and kind
Speaker 2: of just sneaking through round two. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: it can be a little bit more bold. Round three,
Speaker 2: I was like, I've got nothing to prove here. I'm
Speaker 2: the only person that's playing for a third time, and
Speaker 2: who knows how long I'm going to be there because
Speaker 2: I will be a threat. So I decided to just
Speaker 2: go guns blazing from the get go, and it was fun.
Speaker 1: Well, you winning idols is my favorite joygasm of the season.
Speaker 1: I just thought it was so great every time you
Speaker 1: just look so happy and appreciative and mischievous.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, and always like from a leisure activity, you know,
Speaker 2: what do you.
Speaker 1: Think would have to be the positives of being a
Speaker 1: retorney to survivor?
Speaker 2: I think it is you know, you're able to read
Speaker 2: the situations. You can kind of put yourself in like
Speaker 2: the mind frame of being like what would I do
Speaker 2: if I were that person, what's in their best interest?
Speaker 2: And even things like how can I sell this idea
Speaker 2: to them as from a point of view of why
Speaker 2: it's beneficial to them and not just me, So you
Speaker 2: kind of you know, you have a couple of tricks
Speaker 2: of the trade, even things like if you're trying to
Speaker 2: get some information from someone, you might just pause and
Speaker 2: just let them keep on continuing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because if you let people talk long enough, they'll
Speaker 1: hang themselves. Is the best piece of advice that I
Speaker 1: was ever given.
Speaker 2: And that's think I learned from the producers because they
Speaker 2: were never They would never stop you from talking, and
Speaker 2: they just keep on going and going and going until
Speaker 2: you're just like blah blah blah bla bla blah blah
Speaker 2: blah blah.
Speaker 3: They know what they need to get out of it.
Speaker 1: But then the back end of that question is what's
Speaker 1: the negatives of being a returney?
Speaker 2: The negatives is you have to really struggle more times
Speaker 2: than everyone else.
Speaker 1: People would get rid of you, and Haley and Simon
Speaker 1: and George. I thought everyone would just be all the
Speaker 1: newbies would be like stack the votes, get rid of
Speaker 1: these people, because you know you've already you've got an
Speaker 1: established audience, you know, get rid of the people that
Speaker 1: are popular.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was definitely worried going into this round that
Speaker 2: people would know that I do have. You know, the
Speaker 2: people are very nice to me in Australia and I
Speaker 2: love them all so much, and I was kind of
Speaker 2: concerned that they would be like, oh, we need to
Speaker 2: get Shonny off because she's already got this audience and
Speaker 2: she's probably going to get more airtimes enough, of course.
Speaker 1: And you deserved it because you honestly, I mean, I
Speaker 1: feel stressed about the rest of the show because losing
Speaker 1: people like you and even Jordan and a few others,
Speaker 1: you know, it's You've just given so much to the show.
Speaker 2: It's just I know, like I honestly feel so grateful
Speaker 2: and I feel like so loved. And I was so
Speaker 2: anxious about last night's episode airing, and I was really
Speaker 2: really nervous about like feeling as if I had let
Speaker 2: down everyone. But I have had so many like lovely
Speaker 2: messages of people literally saying like thank you for taking
Speaker 2: time out of your life to go and film this
Speaker 2: show for There's so many lovely things. It's really nice.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say that myself. You know, I watched
Speaker 1: it last week, so I've had some time to grieve.
Speaker 1: But I was really disappointed at first that you came
Speaker 1: out and then I went on a journey with it,
Speaker 1: and I was just like, I'm so glad that we
Speaker 1: got more Shonny. Anyway, I should just be really appreciative.
Speaker 1: But in my mind, I did think you were going
Speaker 1: to win. I thought when you were on the project
Speaker 1: to promote the series, I was like, maybe she's on
Speaker 1: the project because they know that she's going to win
Speaker 1: this show.
Speaker 2: You know, Yeah, the project was really.
Speaker 3: Fun, great on that you were really good.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I was going to say, I thought your gameplay
Speaker 1: was amazing and really cool to watch. It was really
Speaker 1: that's the best way to describe it, because you seem
Speaker 1: cool with it, and you seem like you were having
Speaker 1: fun with it. But what was the strategy? And was
Speaker 1: the strategy much different to the other times.
Speaker 2: So this time, I really I didn't know how long
Speaker 2: I was going to be there for, so I really
Speaker 2: wanted to make the most and make the show like
Speaker 2: as entertaining as possible and just make the most of
Speaker 2: what time I had on there. So I really just
Speaker 2: went in and I also felt like I have already
Speaker 2: experienced Duri Villa twice, so it wasn't as if I
Speaker 2: needed to, you know, play the really quiet game just
Speaker 2: to get there to experience it for the first time.
Speaker 2: I was like, I've been there, I've done that, so
Speaker 2: let's just go wild and see what happens.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the Spice Girls though. You know, I
Speaker 1: loved your alliance with the Spice Girls to begin with,
Speaker 1: but I expected, you know, Lizen yourself to go after
Speaker 1: George first.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and you've got to give it to George,
Speaker 2: because Lizen and I definitely had a conversation about.
Speaker 3: When getting rid of him George.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I would never I've never been able to
Speaker 2: turn on a close friend in this game because for me,
Speaker 2: it's like, if I'm not going to win half Moon dollars,
Speaker 2: I would absolutely love someone that I'm friends within the
Speaker 2: real world to win. So I would never be able
Speaker 2: to turn on Liz in a million years, Just the
Speaker 2: same with Nick Harry Fenn. But yeah, George got me first.
Speaker 1: Do you think that George went after you because it
Speaker 1: was a necessity or do you think that he was
Speaker 1: jealous of you and Liz having a better friendship than him.
Speaker 2: It definitely felt like the third Will, and which is
Speaker 2: rightly so, because he definitely was the third Will. Liz
Speaker 2: was always my number one, my priority, and even like
Speaker 2: we're in the border and I'm like, I will do
Speaker 2: anything to protect us, like it's always it's almost like
Speaker 2: we're playing as one person. So I can completely understand
Speaker 2: why he would want to split that up.
Speaker 1: You know, he got in there early. But just like
Speaker 1: Jerry halliwell, I felt like that this alliance ended too quickly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it could have. We could have played
Speaker 2: it out one more. But it's actually quite weird because
Speaker 2: that tribal council was like, I must have like some
Speaker 2: guardian angels around me, because I just felt really at peace.
Speaker 3: You did you look like it? You were like, hee,
Speaker 3: this is really.
Speaker 2: I really struggled in that last twenty four hours, and
Speaker 2: it was the only time I have ever felt calm
Speaker 2: out of tribal Cancil.
Speaker 1: And that's because you were going home. They always say that,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're feeling calm, it's because you've been
Speaker 1: out of the conversations and it's all happened behind your backs.
Speaker 2: I was just like ah, like, yeah, oh boom. I
Speaker 2: was definitely like a one half a million. Don't get
Speaker 2: me wrong, but I yeah, I felt calm.
Speaker 1: I know you've been You publicly said that you wish
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't have saved George at the second Tribal
Speaker 1: Council and that you wish that you hadn't played your
Speaker 1: idol for him. But is that really? Is that really
Speaker 1: how you feel? Yeah, I read this this morning. I
Speaker 1: was like, I've done a deep dive. I've literally I
Speaker 1: know what underpants you wore two weeks ago, like I've
Speaker 1: read everything online and it said that you were you
Speaker 1: were like I shouldn't have saved George on the second
Speaker 1: Tribal Council and that you wished you hadn't played your
Speaker 1: idol for him.
Speaker 6: Oh I might have maybe I said something like maybe
Speaker 6: I shouldn't have And yeah, look like, in all honesty,
Speaker 6: who knows what would have happened to me if I
Speaker 6: didn't save George and.
Speaker 2: If I didn't play my idol for him. But that's
Speaker 2: also like maybe I would have been voted out way earlier.
Speaker 1: I believe that I was like in the Survivor verse,
Speaker 1: like the Spider verse, I don't think if you, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you had gotten rid of George, I don't know
Speaker 1: whether or not you would have survived because it really,
Speaker 1: you know, you guys leaned on each other.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. And George, like he loves the game. He's
Speaker 2: so passionate about it. He really is a great person
Speaker 2: to have on your side, you know before he turns
Speaker 2: on you, and it's really fun and he yeah, he
Speaker 2: just loves it. So it's good to have someone that is.
Speaker 2: He never is like oh God and dying. He's like,
Speaker 2: I'm thriving.
Speaker 1: It's such a good way. I think it's a good
Speaker 1: way to look at life. Though, Like he just didn't
Speaker 1: seem to let anything get him down. I mean the weather, conditions,
Speaker 1: the food, everything. But he was like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: the last lemming, just wandering around like you know, pushing
Speaker 1: the envelope.
Speaker 2: It's living his passion for him. So I'm happy that
Speaker 2: he gets to do that.
Speaker 1: He needs to go and do a third season. If
Speaker 1: he doesn't win this, he's going to need to ask
Speaker 1: you how'd he get on a third season of this year?
Speaker 1: What do you need to do? What advice do you
Speaker 1: have for me? Is he dead to you?
Speaker 3: Though?
Speaker 2: No, not at all.
Speaker 1: What about in the jury, because I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: if that had happened to me and I'd been blindsided
Speaker 1: like that, or you know, i'd been sort of had
Speaker 1: my had been stabbed in the back, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Does that make you appreciate his gameplay more?
Speaker 2: I mean I am. It's not as if I'm like
Speaker 2: a close friend. I'm very much like once I'm out
Speaker 2: of Survivor. You know, I've got the same friends that
Speaker 2: I had since primary school. I've seen my family all
Speaker 2: the time. I'm not like heavily involved. I'm not flying
Speaker 2: around the country. Well I actually did fly to Perth
Speaker 2: to see Liz.
Speaker 1: Of course that goes without saying, but I mean what
Speaker 1: you're trying to say is, yes, we can see on
Speaker 1: social media that all the survival can tendons through many seasons.
Speaker 3: Get together and have hangs.
Speaker 1: I did notice that I hadn't seen you in any
Speaker 1: of these group hangs, and I wondered if there was
Speaker 1: any resentment or reasons behind not flying around the country
Speaker 1: to join them for these drinking I.
Speaker 2: Love playing Survivor. I'm so grateful to play it, but
Speaker 2: when I'm not playing it, I am personally not about
Speaker 2: to like do a tour of the country to do
Speaker 2: meet and greets, like obviously if I also live in Noosa,
Speaker 2: so it's not as if there's loads of players here.
Speaker 2: I do hang out with Jeordie and Sam in real
Speaker 2: life because we are friends. Ye, but I just I
Speaker 2: don't really I like to just let it be what
Speaker 2: it was and carry on.
Speaker 1: Live in the real world. You know, if is there
Speaker 1: anything in the contract this is what it's really interested with.
Speaker 1: And maybe you can't say this, but is there anything
Speaker 1: of the contract that says that you can't make a
Speaker 1: pack to split the money? I mean, maybe I haven't
Speaker 1: watched all of the survivors from all around the world,
Speaker 1: and maybe this is been done before. But I wondered
Speaker 1: whether or not you and Liz could have said made
Speaker 1: a pact that you would split the money.
Speaker 2: That is definitely against the rules.
Speaker 3: Oh fair enough, because we.
Speaker 2: Have you know, we have cameras on us twenty four
Speaker 2: to seven, and that would be highly illegal.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to know this because I mean, I've
Speaker 1: done a reality show and it was in my contract
Speaker 1: that I wasn't allowed to split the money. Yeah, but anyway,
Speaker 1: that's a really good one to know. Who do you
Speaker 1: think is a better player out of Haley and George.
Speaker 2: I think Hailey because Haley has the track record of
Speaker 2: being able.
Speaker 3: To win enough. Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1: The other thing is is it I find this sad
Speaker 1: because I think that you would be the best bachelorette
Speaker 1: we've ever seen in this country. But I just don't
Speaker 1: know if they do this show anymore, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: i'd watch you in any TV show. I'd literally watch
Speaker 1: you hanging your clothes on the line, and you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like in some scenes of Survivor I almost did.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think that's huge interest in you personally.
Speaker 1: I think people want to follow your story, Like, have
Speaker 1: you been approached to do any other reality TV or
Speaker 1: has it always just been Survivor.
Speaker 2: I definitely will do another show. I would. I don't
Speaker 2: want it to be Survivor because I've been there, done that,
Speaker 2: but I feel like there's definitely something brewing.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well that's that's fucking fantastic, because like, all I
Speaker 1: can say is that you've left the show too early.
Speaker 1: I need to see more of you. I don't feel
Speaker 1: like I'm getting enough on your social media. The weirdest
Speaker 1: talker than I am. So I just want to I
Speaker 1: want to see you on another show. I want to
Speaker 1: see more Shanny. So if there's something brewing, then bring
Speaker 1: it on.
Speaker 2: Yeah it's brewing a little cauldron.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, well I'll put that under my pillow and
Speaker 1: wish for it myself. I've been asking everyone because they're
Speaker 1: not really allowed to usk behind the scenes secret so
Speaker 1: I've been asking different questions for all of you astray
Speaker 1: and survived that castaway.
Speaker 3: So who did you think would win? Like when you left?
Speaker 1: Not what you know now, but like when you were booted,
Speaker 1: when your torch was snuffed, who did you think was
Speaker 1: going to come out?
Speaker 3: Who do you think is going to win?
Speaker 2: Oh? I actually it was so long ago, I've forgotten
Speaker 2: trying to think. I think I probably thought that a
Speaker 2: lot of people would be interested in taking Jerry along
Speaker 2: for the ride. So I did expect like, I did
Speaker 2: think that, and I thought that perhaps Nina and Sean
Speaker 2: I had good feelings about them because I thought, now
Speaker 2: that you know the Vigilante Alliance has broken up, I
Speaker 2: did start to see a bit of a clear path
Speaker 2: for them.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fair enough. So not one person you can't
Speaker 1: give me one name, one name.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 2: It was like I just started seeing more options for everyone.
Speaker 1: Okay, fair enough. The other question I've been asking everyone
Speaker 1: is would you ever return? Which is ridiculous because you
Speaker 1: know me asking you this, would you return for the
Speaker 1: full time? You kind of answered this before, but please
Speaker 1: please return and do like a global Australian survivor.
Speaker 2: When that happens, maybe I can take Jailp's job and
Speaker 2: then I get food and accommodation, but it's still a survivor.
Speaker 2: I'll it like with my big muscle, I was like survivors.
Speaker 3: Ready, No, I don't.
Speaker 1: I love all of you all basically obsessed with him
Speaker 1: by the way between the scenes because like if I
Speaker 1: was on that show, I don't I just be like
Speaker 1: staring at him like a god.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean there's he always like smells nice,
Speaker 2: he looks clean, he looks fresh. He's obviously got a
Speaker 2: great personality. So yeah, Like even it is funny like
Speaker 2: someone not a cast member will walk past you and
Speaker 2: you'll get like a waft of like jo that's freshly showered,
Speaker 2: and you're.
Speaker 5: Like, WHOA is that perfume?
Speaker 1: Like wow, did you ask him what it is? Does
Speaker 1: he does he have a has he made his own scent?
Speaker 1: Because I mean, we really should get this into Maya
Speaker 1: or my chemists warehouse.
Speaker 2: We aren't really allowed to talk to anyone, but I
Speaker 2: definitely asked a couple of producers. I'm like, what perfume?
Speaker 4: Is this? Like?
Speaker 2: No talking? I'm like, oh my the dog bone.
Speaker 3: Up on socials?
Speaker 1: Wasn't there a rumor that you guys were flirting on
Speaker 1: social media at one point?
Speaker 2: I am I have a very friendly I mean, you
Speaker 2: probably think I'm flirting with you right now. I've got
Speaker 2: a very friendly personality. I'll flirt with an eighty five
Speaker 2: year old woman.
Speaker 1: Ali, I just thought you knew that. You know you've
Speaker 1: got the wrong plumbing for me, So you know, you
Speaker 1: just thought it was you could flirt with me and
Speaker 1: it'd be fine because it's just you know. Anyway, I
Speaker 1: absolutely adore you as I'm fangirled all over you. I
Speaker 1: tried not to do that, but I have done it anyway.
Speaker 1: I wish you all the best of luck. Thank you
Speaker 1: for an amazing experience with Survivor this year.
Speaker 2: This has been my favorite interview of the.
Speaker 3: Day and you said that to everyone. Ye, I would
Speaker 3: never trust you that's so funny.
Speaker 1: I love Seannie and I can't wait to hear about
Speaker 1: her next project, which I hope we'll find out very soon. Finally,
Speaker 1: I have Sean here to talk about his return to
Speaker 1: the franchise, and I'm sure we'll get some juicy insights
Speaker 1: into the biggest players of twenty twenty three. Anyway, let's
Speaker 1: bring him in now, and I hope you enjoyed this
Speaker 1: part of the chat. Well, Sean tough like on last night,
Speaker 1: how are you feeling?
Speaker 5: Well, I'm feeling okay. It's odd because it happened so
Speaker 5: long ago. Now, I was like gutted and evastated, heartbroken,
Speaker 5: and you know, you slowly come to terms with it,
Speaker 5: and then the jury Villy talk to everybody, and you
Speaker 5: start that healing process and you get home with your
Speaker 5: family and stuff, and then that's when you really start
Speaker 5: to heal. And then you've got, you know, relive it
Speaker 5: all again months and months later, and it's it's really
Speaker 5: bizarre to sort of relive that trauma. But it look
Speaker 5: was it was okay. My family around me, I'd already
Speaker 5: knew the backstory of why and how it happened, so
Speaker 5: it was really good to sort of play Out Day too,
Speaker 5: but no, I'm all good.
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of the aftermath of being in Survivor, I mean,
Speaker 1: this is the second time you've returned to the Survivor universe.
Speaker 1: What was the recovery time like this time compared to
Speaker 1: the first time.
Speaker 5: Physically, yeah, but more so mentally. I've got nothing but
Speaker 5: respect for the guys who have done it back to
Speaker 5: back seasons. I had three years and it still seemed
Speaker 5: really short. Physically, I was so fine this time. I
Speaker 5: mean I went out there a lot heavier. Mark Wales
Speaker 5: told me, he was like, you have to just stack
Speaker 5: it on, so some months I was just eating so much.
Speaker 5: So physically I felt really great, Like when I got
Speaker 5: voted out, I was sort of sitting around my sort
Speaker 5: of peak weight, like sort of similar weight I used
Speaker 5: to play footy at. But mentally it still takes a
Speaker 5: toll on you. And the mental recovery from something like
Speaker 5: that is its long that the recovery is. It really
Speaker 5: is a long one.
Speaker 3: I guess.
Speaker 1: Then you get some time to breathe, and then it's
Speaker 1: time to watch the actual show when it comes on television.
Speaker 3: I want to know.
Speaker 1: I'm picturing you and Megan having to sit around and
Speaker 1: watch the show with quite a few bottles of red wine.
Speaker 1: What is the experience like for you at home rewatching
Speaker 1: the series.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's really funny. Like I love watching the season back.
Speaker 5: I don't love so much watching myself on TV. I
Speaker 5: just can't sort of, I think everybody's saying my custom
Speaker 5: my own voice, like cringe every time I'm on the TV.
Speaker 5: But I know the family loves it, and I think
Speaker 5: that's the best part about it. Like my son River,
Speaker 5: he just loved watching it this time. Megsie loves watching
Speaker 5: it as well, and I know my family and friends do.
Speaker 5: So that's the solace that I get from it. But
Speaker 5: it's definitely it definitely is hard to watch back. I
Speaker 5: mean I love watching the challenges and stuff like that
Speaker 5: because you know, I'm just doing it and I'm not talking,
Speaker 5: so it's really nice. But look, glasses of wine don't
Speaker 5: go straight.
Speaker 1: Do they offer you any critiques? I mean, is there
Speaker 1: anything that they say to you, well, you could have
Speaker 1: done that better.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 5: I think me understands what's out there, and she knows
Speaker 5: how confusing and convoluted the game can get and how
Speaker 5: nuanced it is, so I think she always knows that
Speaker 5: you're sort of doing the best with the information that
Speaker 5: you've got. I feel like I'm really self aware of
Speaker 5: my game, and you know where I went wrong, And
Speaker 5: I think she knows that I am, too, Like I'm
Speaker 5: very self critical and very open to admitting and realizing
Speaker 5: where I've made mistakes and where I perhaps think about
Speaker 5: things deeply enough. So she's good. She's definitely not like,
Speaker 5: you should have done this, you should have done that,
Speaker 5: because I think she knows that's not going to help,
Speaker 5: and she also knows that I think I'm aware of,
Speaker 5: you know, all those mistakes.
Speaker 1: You know, what I thought was really interesting was that
Speaker 1: you put up a post about your idle play because
Speaker 1: so many people were trying to take you to task
Speaker 1: over it. But interestingly enough, you know, people watching this show,
Speaker 1: I mean, we only get to see the looks that
Speaker 1: land with the storyline. You know, we got oh, she
Speaker 1: made that look, So that's the only look that's happened.
Speaker 1: We're an actual fact, you know, there'd be different things
Speaker 1: to read into every day, so it would be impossible
Speaker 1: to know how to play that idol correctly every single time.
Speaker 5: And I think that's why I did the post, Like
Speaker 5: I had a lot of support, like a lot of
Speaker 5: people saying like, you can only play it for yourself.
Speaker 5: Simon had told us the votes were on myself and Nina,
Speaker 5: and we had more reason to trust him. Now it
Speaker 5: turns out like he was feeding us the information that
Speaker 5: he was given that he thought was correct. It was
Speaker 5: just a good read for George to see that so
Speaker 5: and wasn't with them. So, you know, all credit to George.
Speaker 5: They're also credit to Haley because you know, she she
Speaker 5: did try to sort of discreetly make a move. Had
Speaker 5: she been more sort of open and outright with it,
Speaker 5: you know, maybe something would have happened. But she was
Speaker 5: also trying to protect her own button there. And I
Speaker 5: don't blame her for the way she did it at all,
Speaker 5: but you know, that was the thing. There were a
Speaker 5: lot of critics about me not playing it for Sam
Speaker 5: and it was like, well, hang on, you you've seen
Speaker 5: Hailey's mindset. I'm ready to make a big move the
Speaker 5: camera like it it's time for me to start getting
Speaker 5: some agency in this game. Like we're not aware of
Speaker 5: any of that. She had a thirty second conversation with
Speaker 5: Nina and that's all we had to go on. So
Speaker 5: I said it in my post. I'll say it again.
Speaker 5: Given the information we had and the spot in the
Speaker 5: I would play that for myself over and over again.
Speaker 1: Well, I was kind of wondering, you know, Sean. I
Speaker 1: genuinely thought that you were making a few mistakes along
Speaker 1: the way on purpose, you know, to get rid of
Speaker 1: some of your meat tray competition, because I mean at
Speaker 1: some point you were going to need to get rid
Speaker 1: of them. And then it just felt like, you know,
Speaker 1: just kind of ah, you know, those ones fell off
Speaker 1: and that's kind of okay by you. Is there any
Speaker 1: truth to my theory?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I was happy with Dave to go.
Speaker 5: I was happy with Sam to go. Obviously, I would
Speaker 5: have liked them to go further into the game simply
Speaker 5: because yeah, he would have. Mean we had the majority.
Speaker 5: But I mean Dave and Minna were openly like a
Speaker 5: power couple, Like they were really openly, very very close. So,
Speaker 5: I mean, I've had talks with Haley and Flick about them,
Speaker 5: and you know, they will have to go shortly because
Speaker 5: they're holding a lot of power. And that's I think
Speaker 5: one thing myself and Flick did well. I mean, it
Speaker 5: wasn't really shown in the season until I think it
Speaker 5: was Flick's exit episode. But like, we were each other's
Speaker 5: number one out there, and you know, the meat trade
Speaker 5: was always secondary for me. We came up with this
Speaker 5: pack that we'd speed each other's number one and we'd
Speaker 5: look out for each other. But we're not sleeping next
Speaker 5: to each other in the shelter. We're having our chats
Speaker 5: at night when nobody's looking, and we'll always sort of
Speaker 5: look out for each other. And I think we played
Speaker 5: that perfectly to a tea because nobody really had any
Speaker 5: idea how tight we were.
Speaker 1: You know, when I saw you two in that moment
Speaker 1: and you ran up to each other and we realized
Speaker 1: that you had that really strong alliance, I was like, No,
Speaker 1: I felt like you should have stayed stronger with your
Speaker 1: alliance with Haley. I mean, would it have been better
Speaker 1: to foster that relationship more than say, fostering a relationship
Speaker 1: with Flick.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a really that's a really interesting thing you
Speaker 5: say there, because I do feel like that's one of
Speaker 5: my biggest mistakes in the game, is how I let
Speaker 5: my relationship with Haley deteriorate. She was somebody that I
Speaker 5: absolutely wanted to play with and for a number of reasons,
Speaker 5: because not only is she a great shield, but fantastic player.
Speaker 5: But I don't think I pushed hard enough. I want
Speaker 5: to keep her around because of just how good she
Speaker 5: is at the game and how I enjoyed sort of
Speaker 5: playing with her and I enjoyed her ideas, and had
Speaker 5: I done that and I managed that relationship a bit
Speaker 5: better than you knows. E merged time when George confronted
Speaker 5: Haley and I about flipping over because it looked like Sam,
Speaker 5: Dave and Nina were going to blindside her. She might
Speaker 5: have told me that she was going and to come across,
Speaker 5: because you know, I was on a sinking ship. So
Speaker 5: that was one of the areas I think that was
Speaker 5: my biggest regret out of the game, and one of
Speaker 5: the areas where I know I really failed all.
Speaker 1: A bit of Sunday morning quarterbacking when you look back
Speaker 1: and you go, oh, I really should have done that differently,
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you a little bit about Simon,
Speaker 1: and you know, Simon's just come out and won all
Speaker 1: these challenges, which has kind of kept him going in
Speaker 1: the competition. You know, what has the perception been like
Speaker 1: for you? I mean, you two are very strong blokes
Speaker 1: and possibly have just an equal chance of being able
Speaker 1: to win these challenges. What do you think of Simon?
Speaker 1: Did you think of him as a real threat in
Speaker 1: the game.
Speaker 5: No, not as a threat to win. I think most
Speaker 5: people would have been happy to go to the end
Speaker 5: with Simon. And I'll preface this by saying that I
Speaker 5: love the guy, and I think he's so misunderstood. He
Speaker 5: is one of the sweetest, most he means so well.
Speaker 5: Much of a threat, he was always going to get
Speaker 5: a bit of a run on with challenges. I mean
Speaker 5: he's he's exceptionally talented with things you know where you
Speaker 5: need like fine motor skills as well. I think that's
Speaker 5: one thing that sort of surprised people, just how good
Speaker 5: at those sort of challenges he was with, you know,
Speaker 5: when it came to sort of balancing things or he's
Speaker 5: really really very good. But I never saw him as
Speaker 5: a threat, simply because I knew that he damaged so
Speaker 5: many relationships along the way. I just couldn't see him
Speaker 5: getting too many votes at the end.
Speaker 1: Did you see his tweet the other day where he
Speaker 1: was tweeting to JLP and he was saying, when is
Speaker 1: it possible for me to come out and tell the
Speaker 1: truth and that I was always playing to the bottom.
Speaker 1: I mean, can Simon come out and tell us a
Speaker 1: different narrative once the show is all over? I mean,
Speaker 1: was he really playing to the bottom?
Speaker 5: Diamond's complex guy? Hey, I mean he was trying to
Speaker 5: play from the bottom. It wouldn't surprise me. I can't
Speaker 5: imagine why anybody would want to play from the bottom.
Speaker 5: I just cannot see the upside in that. That said,
Speaker 5: everybody in Jury Villa, you know, when I got Johnny
Speaker 5: Fleck and Sam Like, they'd all developed a real soft
Speaker 5: pot for him. Surprised me coming out because I knew
Speaker 5: that out there they'd all really sort of them. But
Speaker 5: I think Simon's one of those guys when you have
Speaker 5: a bit of time away from him, I think you
Speaker 5: really start to appreciate him a lot more time.
Speaker 1: Do you think that your resume would have been strong
Speaker 1: enough had you made or if you made it to
Speaker 1: the Tribal Council and faced off against people like George
Speaker 1: Haley and maybe even Simon It's.
Speaker 5: Hard to say. I mean the first half of my game,
Speaker 5: I really feel like I was really completely in charge,
Speaker 5: So you know, nothing really got done or no. No
Speaker 5: votes were made without like mine and flicks. Okay, Sam
Speaker 5: and Dave really wanted Haley in that second vote, and
Speaker 5: me and Flick said no, we still need her around,
Speaker 5: and you know, she ended up staying, and then you know,
Speaker 5: it was sort of it was definitely a group decision
Speaker 5: to send Jerry off to the other tribe, and then
Speaker 5: it was absolutely a sort of group decision with with
Speaker 5: Sharny going home. And then you know, after swap, you know,
Speaker 5: I really feel like I was responsible for sending your
Speaker 5: at home. I feel like if we all went around
Speaker 5: along with you know, Jordi and Lizzard's plans, so Sam
Speaker 5: would have been going. And you know, it was my
Speaker 5: plan that I sort of came up with to send
Speaker 5: Jordie home with the idol in his pocket. And while
Speaker 5: it wasn't the perfect plan, and I absolutely could have
Speaker 5: done it better, and I see that now in hindsight
Speaker 5: and looking back at it, you know, it's still it's
Speaker 5: still worked out and it still kept us all safe.
Speaker 5: It did sort of end up fracturing some relationships, which
Speaker 5: is which is my fault. But you know, I felt
Speaker 5: like I had a really strong second half of the game,
Speaker 5: and then you know, if we emerge, managed to survive,
Speaker 5: made some mistakes, played the idle wrong, so it didn't
Speaker 5: have a great sort of first half of merge to
Speaker 5: hang my hat on. But knew that, you know, if
Speaker 5: I get to the end, that there would be at
Speaker 5: least two more really convincing things that I would have
Speaker 5: to do to have a good run at it.
Speaker 3: What about these shields?
Speaker 1: I mean, this season it feels like everybody is using
Speaker 1: everybody as a shield. I mean, is there too many
Speaker 1: shields happening in this season that probably can't come to fruition. Yeah.
Speaker 5: It was really the buzzword of this season was shield
Speaker 5: It was something that I think all the returnees were
Speaker 5: I guess all the returneys with high threat levels were
Speaker 5: really concerned about. You see it early on with Seohnnie
Speaker 5: deciding that, well, hang on, I know George is really
Speaker 5: dangerous here, but that could work to my advantage. And
Speaker 5: I was certainly the same going in. As soon as
Speaker 5: I saw as soon as I saw Haley on that beach,
Speaker 5: I was like, Okay, arguably nobody was a bigger threat
Speaker 5: out there than her, perhaps George, but she was one
Speaker 5: that I absolutely wanted to keep around. Simon as well.
Speaker 5: I knew going in that I necessarily wouldn't need big
Speaker 5: challenge guys as threats. I was more concerned about keeping
Speaker 5: threats around that were like strategic or gameplay threats because
Speaker 5: I just felt it was more advantageous for my game
Speaker 5: and it was safer to keep those people in front
Speaker 5: of me because just purely being six foot seven, that's
Speaker 5: something that I can't hide. So, you know, regardless, people
Speaker 5: are going to see me as a physical threat. So
Speaker 5: I knew that I couldn't have any nobody else out
Speaker 5: there could I couldn't hold in front of me as
Speaker 5: a physical shield. But I knew that sort of Haley's
Speaker 5: of the world, like they were the ones that I
Speaker 5: had to sort of try users as a shield.
Speaker 3: In my mind.
Speaker 1: And I know nothing about what's gonna happen, but I
Speaker 1: kind of feel like some of the noisy players should
Speaker 1: make it to the end, to that final tribal council.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, Haley, George and even Simon, you know,
Speaker 1: I keep bringing these people up. I kind of feel
Speaker 1: like they're the ones everyone's talking about. I hope they
Speaker 1: make it to the final tribal council because you've got Matt,
Speaker 1: and you have Jerry and you have Liz, and you know, ultimately,
Speaker 1: I just I don't know have they done enough to
Speaker 1: really deserve to be there in that final tribal counsel.
Speaker 1: I mean, who do you think deserves to still be there?
Speaker 5: Yeah, Look, Matt, Matt's a nice kid, but he was
Speaker 5: really really frustrating to play without there because you know,
Speaker 5: post merge when he when he flipped. Look, I don't
Speaker 5: blame him at all for that. He was doing what
Speaker 5: he thought was best for his game, and I actually
Speaker 5: give him credit for that for that move. But what
Speaker 5: he did after that was it just he went into
Speaker 5: his shell and he could see what he thought was
Speaker 5: the easiest way to finish, and that was just to
Speaker 5: just tuck under George's wing. And we would constantly be
Speaker 5: coming up to Matt going like, mate, we see what
Speaker 5: you're doing. But you know he's going to go on
Speaker 5: and win the thing, Like let's do this, Like you
Speaker 5: need some moves under your belt, Like let's go, let's
Speaker 5: make a move. This is the time we make a move.
Speaker 5: It doesn't have to be on George, it can be
Speaker 5: on somebody else, just like let's play. And he'd go yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, I'll I'll think about it, and then he'd
Speaker 5: literally like walk off from our conversation. He'd go right
Speaker 5: over to George, and then five minutes George would be
Speaker 5: talking to you, knowing your whole plan. So it was
Speaker 5: really frustrating to play with him. And the path of
Speaker 5: least resistance to the end isn't always the best way there,
Speaker 5: and I think some people can get caught up in
Speaker 5: sort of thinking that the easiest way is the best
Speaker 5: way there, and I think we've seen time and time
Speaker 5: again that's not the case.
Speaker 1: Is there any chance that there's, like in a llure
Speaker 1: to want to stay on the show for as long
Speaker 1: as possible, you know, not necessarily to do any thing
Speaker 1: with big moves or be too noisy, but you know,
Speaker 1: I just want to stay on the actual show for
Speaker 1: as long as I can.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Absolutely, And I know there's the argument of you know, well,
Speaker 5: you've got to get to the end, and if you
Speaker 5: do have a path in front of you that really
Speaker 5: doesn't have many twists or turns or roadblocks, like he's
Speaker 5: silly not taking it, perhaps you also to sort of think, well,
Speaker 5: you know, if I do take that road, is there
Speaker 5: somebody else who's had an even smoother road than me
Speaker 5: that I can get there with. You just want to
Speaker 5: make sure that you're getting there with somebody who's had
Speaker 5: an even easier ride than you.
Speaker 1: Well, I do think that there's three people, you know,
Speaker 1: and people can work that out for themselves that probably
Speaker 1: haven't done as much as say George, Haley and Simon.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe it has to do with screen time
Speaker 1: or whatever. But you know what, I really wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you because I thought you might be a good
Speaker 1: person to answer this. So this season is like King George,
Speaker 1: and it is a lot about George, and he's fantastic,
Speaker 1: But what about the relationship with him after the show?
Speaker 1: Will you foresee yourself being George's friend? Post Survivor?
Speaker 5: George is George again is a very complex, interesting guy.
Speaker 5: And I like George outside a Survivor where he struggles
Speaker 5: and it's because of the game that the big TV
Speaker 5: game he wants to play is the social side of things.
Speaker 5: You know, if he does want that big, brash TV game,
Speaker 5: he's got to realize that if he gets to the end,
Speaker 5: it could potentially cost him half a million dollars because
Speaker 5: he does have a way of really upsetting people along
Speaker 5: the way and burning some bridges and sort of doing
Speaker 5: some damage. It is strange talking to him because sometimes
Speaker 5: it can feel like you're talking to like a Hannibal
Speaker 5: lected type character, just because he's so calm and ruthless
Speaker 5: and calculated. It really does feel like you're talking to
Speaker 5: somebody like that.
Speaker 1: He kind of looks those eyes kind of remind me.
Speaker 1: I like that, you said Hannibal Lecter, but it kind
Speaker 1: of reminds me of the shark from Jaws. You know,
Speaker 1: you can't necessarily read, but you know it's goddamn intense.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you. Obviously, there is a lot
Speaker 1: going on when the show first starts, and there's so
Speaker 1: many castaways on the beach, but you know, as the
Speaker 1: numbers drop, are there any storylines that we're not seeing?
Speaker 5: No, I mean there's a ton. There's a ton of
Speaker 5: stuff you don't see, like particularly early on in our right,
Speaker 5: simply because we didn't go to tribal council too often.
Speaker 5: You lose out on a lot of the dynamics. I mean,
Speaker 5: you didn't find out until you know, Flick and I
Speaker 5: were each other's number one until her exit episode. They
Speaker 5: didn't really give you a good understanding of just how
Speaker 5: close Dave and Nina were and what a real powerful
Speaker 5: power couple they were as well. So I think there's
Speaker 5: a lot that you don't see. I mean, that's just
Speaker 5: the way it is. Yeah, I mean, the game's going
Speaker 5: twenty four to seven. Literally, they're recording twenty four to seven,
Speaker 5: and they got sixty minutes of actual run time. If
Speaker 5: you take sort of advertisements out of it to sort
Speaker 5: of sort of try fit in three days worth of
Speaker 5: stuff or sometimes two days worker stuff, like, there's naturally
Speaker 5: going to be so many things that you just miss.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that the thing that's really hard
Speaker 1: for most reality TV contestants is, you know, not realizing
Speaker 1: that the show's not all about you. I mean, you
Speaker 1: feel like you're on reality television. You see certain things happen,
Speaker 1: you think that's definitely going to be on the edit,
Speaker 1: But when it comes down to what you actually watch,
Speaker 1: it must be a huge jigsaw puzzle to try and
Speaker 1: put it together and work out how to tell everyone's
Speaker 1: story effectively enough to suit the story.
Speaker 5: I'm not part of Reduction, but I assume they just
Speaker 5: sort of try to work backwards. I mean that's how
Speaker 5: I feel I would. I would do it, and you
Speaker 5: just sort of go right, what is ultimately, even if
Speaker 5: it's entertaining, what is unimportant to the story that we
Speaker 5: need to go forward and tell And sometimes that's going
Speaker 5: to be part of your story. And I think it's
Speaker 5: odd because everybody's their own main character there. Yeah, like
Speaker 5: you sort of you're living your own game and it's
Speaker 5: you're the main character. So when you're like it's going
Speaker 5: to be great, they're going to show that, oh my god,
Speaker 5: that was hilarious and stuff like that. Like the ultimately,
Speaker 5: not much of it is going to ben It's just
Speaker 5: a shame that so much has to get left out.
Speaker 5: I mean, it'd be fantastic if the episodes were two
Speaker 5: hours long and they could leave everything in, because there
Speaker 5: are so many things that happened this season, so many
Speaker 5: funny things, so many great things that happened that simply
Speaker 5: just didn't make it in.
Speaker 1: You know, this is I mean, this is a lot
Speaker 1: of Survivor. You know, three nights a week is a
Speaker 1: huge commitment. And when it first starts, I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, Survivor's coming back.
Speaker 3: It's going to take over my whole life.
Speaker 1: But the reality about this season is that I'd watch
Speaker 1: a Titanic version every single episode. I watched three and
Speaker 1: a half hours if they was like a director's cut. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I need to quickly ask you before you go, because
Speaker 1: this has probably gone on a little bit too long.
Speaker 1: But I want to know not what you know now,
Speaker 1: but I want to know what you thought when your
Speaker 1: idol had been snuffed.
Speaker 3: Who did you think was going to be the winner?
Speaker 5: It's interesting because when I guess when I left, you're thinking, like,
Speaker 5: who's the biggest threats to win? Well, there's George. He's
Speaker 5: played like fantastic strategical game, but he has struggled socially.
Speaker 5: Hailey is obviously you know, she's obviously like ready to
Speaker 5: sort of make moves and stuff like that, and she'll
Speaker 5: get to the end and she'll be dangerous. But I
Speaker 5: think if you're like, if you look at it and
Speaker 5: you go, well, what's most likely to happen? Simon was
Speaker 5: obviously always a threat because I guess, without myself out
Speaker 5: there anymore, if there were any really sort of physical challenges,
Speaker 5: he probably would have won them, so he could really
Speaker 5: get a run on. He might struggle with some of
Speaker 5: the endurance challenges and if that happens, he might go,
Speaker 5: But you just never know what the challenges are. Obviously,
Speaker 5: Maddie and Jerry look like they're in a really sweet
Speaker 5: spot and don't have too much of a target on
Speaker 5: their head. Liz, you know, she's flying under the radar
Speaker 5: as well a little bit. It's so hard to say.
Speaker 5: Because we were talking about Injury Villa as well. You
Speaker 5: could see you could see a path for anybody at
Speaker 5: this point, and I think when it gets down to
Speaker 5: that final seven then it is really anybody's game.
Speaker 1: Another question that I've been asking people is would you
Speaker 1: ever return? I know you've already done it twice, but
Speaker 1: you know people do come back for a third time.
Speaker 1: Is there any way that you'd foresee yourself coming back
Speaker 1: to the show, and is there a theme that you
Speaker 1: think would suit you best.
Speaker 5: I definitely need some time off. I mean, it is
Speaker 5: a big arc and it's I mean, it's this extremely
Speaker 5: selfish pursuit to go do survivor, particularly when you have
Speaker 5: a family and children, to leave them for sort of
Speaker 5: eight weeks. It's the hardest thing about being out there.
Speaker 5: Bar By None, I mean, I love the physical side,
Speaker 5: love people that dirt, love not having my phone, love starving,
Speaker 5: love the challenges, and you know, love the game play,
Speaker 5: but being away from your family is it takes a
Speaker 5: toll on you, your partner, your kids. So that's something
Speaker 5: I'd be really really wary about. I think the only
Speaker 5: season that would be really hard to say no too
Speaker 5: it would be an international version. Look, and I'm not
Speaker 5: saying I'd even get a call up for that with
Speaker 5: the just the breadth fantastic players that we've had on
Speaker 5: showing Survivor. But if I did get a call up
Speaker 5: for like a US versus AU, or you know, like
Speaker 5: a world version, I think that would be really hard
Speaker 5: to do about.
Speaker 1: I think people would call you. I think people will
Speaker 1: call you because, you know, you might not have the
Speaker 1: biggest characterization or personality or resume on your two seasons
Speaker 1: of the show, but you are a very good looking
Speaker 1: rooster and you look great on the poster. That should
Speaker 1: be enough. Anyway, I will let you go. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being so generous with your time today.
Speaker 1: I thought you were fantastic this season, and good luck
Speaker 1: with it.
Speaker 5: Great chat. Yeah, take care. See Bet