March 12, 2026 • 18 mins
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Mark as Played
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's in the news today, but it was actually on
TV Reload, the podcast Last Pig That Line Yoday, guys,
welcome back to TV Reload, the podcast that takes you
behind the scenes of your favorite television. I'm Benjamin Norris,
and today we are diving back into the chaos of
Australian Survivor with a Redemption player who fans I don't
think I'm going to forget anytime soon. From the moment
he appeared on screen, Tes quickly striked me as someone
(00:23):
quite different to the usual Survivor players. He is a
self confessed superfan who had been applying for the show
since he was eighteen. He finally made it onto the
island after years of rejection, and when he did, he
promised to play a big game his own way, chaotic, messy, unpredictable,
and sometimes a little unhinged. In this episode, Tes will
open up about what it was really like stepping onto
(00:43):
the beach and suddenly realizing that he was playing alongside
returning players he had literally studied in notebooks before the show.
I won't let him off the hook, and I will
unpack the messier and sometimes GOB's making moves, including his
lack of agency and claims that he was playing I'm
on purpose. Was Tez playing an undercover game or did
the chaos get the better of him. Plus he also
(01:06):
reveals the alliances you didn't see on television, what happened
during the tense tribal swap, and a surprising behind the
scenes reality of surviving seven days on the island without
eating a single meal. And of course we talk about
is now somewhat iconic philosophy for life and Survivor. If
you fail the first time, fail better until you win. Anyway,
we're going to unpack up one, so let's get into this.
(01:27):
Here is my chat with Tees from Australian Survivor Redemption.
Hey Tez, how are you?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Hi Ben, I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I'm good. I'm good. I always love it when people
who get onto Survivor are like superfans. So when I
heard that there was a superfan on the show, I
was following your story right from the start.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
I'm glad to hear that, and yes, I mean being
a super fan. It did feel surrial being out there
everything that I imagine, but also nothing that I imagined.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's so different, it's so different.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I want to know what helped you get through. I mean,
let's backtrack, let's go to your survivor history. Had you
applied many times before, and what made you stand out
this time? Do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
So? I applied every year since I was eighteen, so
I got on when I was twenty four, so five
six applications always got rejected. This year, I was just like,
let me just be unhinged. I don't need to do
anything special. I don't need to put on a persona.
I just need to like be myself, which is unhinged, messy, chaotic,
And you know when you can just feel that, like
(02:30):
you're going to get on the passing process. Like I
got a call back, I'm like, okay, good, I got
another callback. I'm like, this is the time.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I want to know what's chaotic? Like what did you do?
Did you like eat a chicken like an emu egg?
I don't know what do you do to be chaotic?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
No? I think just the way I speak. Sometimes I ramble.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I give some life stories and they're like, okay, this guy.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Likes the talk. And yeah, ended up on the show.
Ended up on an island of twenty four randoms.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
That's so amazing and did you have a moment where
it all started to feel real.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, So I mean obviously, when we're on the mat
on day one and I see, you know, the returning players,
here's a little behind the scenes stuff. Being a super fan,
I heard on the Survivor roomormeal that some returning players
would come back, and so, you know, I started doing
like little notebooks and deep dives on harry On Simon
on a couple of them, And so when I saw them,
and then when I saw like Cat from The Traders
(03:21):
and Johnson, I'm like, oh no, this is.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Like, this is happening.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I knew them all and I kind of deep dive
on a couple of them because you know, room Mill.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So I'm like, no, this is really really happening.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Did you watch Johnson's season of Big Brother? By any chance?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, I've watched Cat season of The Traders, i watched
johnson seasons of Big Brother.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I'm across. I'm across it all.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
So like they could they definitely couldn't lie. Not that
I was going to like use it against them or
maybe I want to, but.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Well, as it turned out, it didn't really help them.
It don't matter whether they did well on The Traders
a big brother. They were gone before you, I know.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
And funny because Cat and me you don't see it
on the show really, but we had alliance called the Traders.
We were very very close, and you see me, I
end up voting her out. But when I sit back
down from that circle that mark did, I turned her
and I'm like, Pat, they like want to vote you out?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
What I do? And she goes tez if it puts
you in their majority, just do it, okay, yeah, so
just do it.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
So that was tough, but that's a little you know,
so because me and Kat got along like crazy just
from day one, from like from mentioning the Traders, and
we just had a blast.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
That's amazing. So I think if this episode was called
in a thing, it would be like a friend's episode.
It would be like the one with TZ because did
you get the most amount of screen time in that episode?
It seemed like it was all about.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
You, I know, even even this episode and even last
Linda's Paul Lindall her elimination episode, like all of a sudden,
like I'm just like playing low key and these last
two episodes are full of test time. It's test time,
which is good and bad because you know, watching it,
I was like, oh no, did I really do that?
But then watching it, I'm like, oh no, I really
did that.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Are you weren't happy with any of the speeches because
there are some chaotic speeches. I'm using your words, there's
some chaotic speeches the end this episode. How did you
feel watching it back last night?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I mean there was a couple of moments where it
really showed like my true gameplay and like how onto
it I was? You see me, I'm like hanging onto
the challenge and with Blanche, who again another thing you
don't see that's me. Blanche and Cat very very close.
Me and Blanche had an alliance we called the rack Pack.
So when Johnson, when Johnson and Blanche were being categorized
as Johnson and Friends, I wasn't put in that group.
(05:25):
But my actual game you realize I never vote with Mark,
did Johnson?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
John vote?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I don't vote Johnson. It's because I was part of
Johnson and Friends. So when I get put on the
challenge with Blanche, Blanche is telling me tes tes, I've
told Ashra Lotti about you. If we get back together,
You're like, you're gonna come with them, And so when
I'm on the challenge, I'm like Asha Lotti, Mark, theyve key,
They're running it, They're running it.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
They're like Tez vote with us tonight, like if that happens.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
And so going in like seeing like a little bit
of the catch speeches and like, you know, a little
bit of the rambling. It was played up a lot
because I didn't want people to like clock onto how
like how much I actually was Can I.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Jump in there you do say this and say that
you know, you're sort of in real life you play
at the bottom because that's the place that people put
you in. And maybe there's something of a backstory there
because I want to talk to you about not doing
that in your life. But I also think in terms
of saying that that was your strategy without actually pulling
(06:22):
off any moves, it doesn't really offer you any agency.
So I mean, being a Survivor fan, how does that
all land for you today?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
So this is actually one of my regrets because when
I went into the game, I was like, Okay, I'm
going to be really ditzy. I'm going to give people
this persona I'm not going to tell people have a
master's a green law.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I'm not going to tell like I lie about it.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
I think going back, I would have just been truthful
because I think the image that I gave off was like,
oh no, like it's just haz he can't be taken seriously.
I was the youngest. I was the youngest in the cart.
So not being like oh no, I've done this, I've
done this to have this I can actually speak, it
would have made some people probably I would take more
towards me, and yes, take me more seriously. But what
(07:04):
you don't see is like in that pre Barren tribe,
I was in a great position. I was in a
great position, like you don't see my name going out
until Johnson gets voted out. I was in the middle.
I had Blanche on Johnson on one side. I had
Sally and Caleb with me in the middle, and then
I had Brooke, who another close person with me with
that power trio. So I was kind of like I
was just not a threat, and that was like, Okay, no,
this is working because they're just taking me. They think
(07:26):
I'm dizzy, they think I'm dumb. And then when tribal
swap happened, that's when it all spiraled. And then you
can see like my will start turning. I get with
people that quite frankly, I didn't want to be with,
Like I didn't get along with Faith too well on
the island on a game level. And so that's when
you can see me just start trying to throw stuff
at the wall and see whatever sticks.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
But the stuff that you were grabbing, it didn't seem
like anything. It seemed like a scramble. If anything, it
didn't really feel like because in some ways you alluded
to having some big moves. And this is really the
opportunity now when you're talking to you know, Sunday quarterbacking
the whole thing, to really talk about that, like did
you have big moves that were ready to hatch and
(08:07):
that you could have tried to pull off.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
One hundred percent one hundred percent. So you do see
me again multiple times. It's not shown on the show
with Lanston Johnson again when I don't Bro Johnson and
I rote don't. I was not afraid to go against
the grain when I get tribe swapped again.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I was on the bottom, but I had no social agency.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
But when you see me in the fire with Rich
and Lindall, I'm like we got to take out Faith
because she is in the middle of Mark and Keeley.
But what you don't see is Mark. As soon as
we tribe swap, he grabbed Lindall and Rich straight away,
like he grabbed them straight away. He had Caleb in
his pocket. He was close with that trio. So I
like what I was waiting for was I was like, Okay,
(08:48):
let me try to get Rich and Lindall like, let's
let's try to do something. But they were just so
close to Mark, and Mark was close to Faith that
I felt I just had no social agency with them.
And even when I tried to talk to them, so
I say, big move again. When I'm holding the pole
with astroal Lotti, I'm feeding them information, They're like, tez
if it's a double tonight vote with us. I was
so ready to go and be like, guys, we got
(09:10):
to take killing Mark Faith out because that was potentially
their plan if it was a like a double joint tribal.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
But yeah, unfortunately the tribesop. It just put me at
the bottom.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And like I said, I try to throw stuff at
the wall and it just wouldn't stick. And it got
to a point where they started just like kind of
isolating me. And so even if I try to say
something not Sally, Caleb or Rich they did give me
the time of day. But if I did throw something,
it just was not like felt like rich wasn't going
to do it, Like there was discussion about it, but
(09:40):
it just never was happening.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Linda wasn't going to do it like Sally. You know,
it just wasn't happening.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
But if I could pinpoint something, it could come down
to the fact that you said in the previous tribal
council you were like, you know, I'm not a sheep.
I'm not like a sheep like everybody else. Could that
be the moment that you really showed your cards and
then maybe that's where they responded badly to that and
just were like, well, let's just get rid of Tez,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
So through the.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Tribal council Mark before that, Mark did tell me Lindall.
And then when Kearley goes five minutes, I'll tell you
our tribal in my head, I'm like, I'm not going
with your plan. So enriched minds to me vote Richard.
I know what he's saying. But me and me and
rich were going to vote Caleb, and I was hoping
that Lindall would vote Calyb so it'd end up in
a free free split, because if it ended up in
(10:26):
a free free split, you never know, Lindle might possibly
still could have gone home. But there was a chance,
there was a chance something could have happened. And so
then I go back, I go back to tribal council. Sorry,
I go back to the shelter. And I should have
just been like, look, I should have taken Rich and
Caleb aside and be like Rich, Caleb, you saw what
just happened.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
We're all in the bottom.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
But instead I was just trying to like play it off.
I was trying to be like I didn't know what
was happening, like you guys told me at tribal I
didn't know what was happening. I was very clear on it,
but I just played too like I was too chaotic
about it, where I should have just grabbed with Rich
and Lindall and been like you saw what just happened
on the bottom.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Well, there was even a moment in this trible cancil
where you said, you know, why isn't anyone spook. I
can't remember, I'm paraphrasing, but you were like, is what's
the plan? Like, you know, you were sort of in
the background and in the history of Australian survivor, if
you don't know what the plan is at the time
that you're a tribal cancil, you're usually the plan.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And then I felt embarrassed in a way because when
you pulled Mark and Keeley aside and just basically said,
I can't have this be the way that I go
home tonight. Did you trust that they were going to
save you at that point and go for Caleb or
did you know that those two people blanked you?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
So you saw That's the reason I stand up so
once Rich Guestymnia necklace, because I was planning to be
like drew a little large dish ethit and be like
Rich is close to all this other tribe when if
you merge together, he's going to go straight back to them.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I'm with you, guys.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
But then he gets given the necklace, and so I
go into panic mode because I know I'm like, yep,
it's definitely me, and so the power structure is Keeley, Mark,
and so I get them up and in the moment
I was just so like Chao like it was, it's like,
oh my god, this just happened, and this just happened.
And I said, I should have made more compelling reason.
I should have been like kyleb. But I did say
(12:07):
this throughout the game, Caleb's playing both sides. Is a
double agent.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I was clocking. I went to Caleb. I'm like, we're
playing the same game.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
But you had all this information right there then, and
I knew that yet be as a viewer, I was like,
you know, and you were clever enough to watch things
happening on the beach to know to throw Caleb right
under the bus with the fact that he was completely untrustworthy.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah, pinsight's twenty twenty. But I think that I should
have just gone for it. That's that's what I should
have done. I know in the moment, because when you're
in the mind of a super fan, you're like just
another day, just another day, just another day. And being
on that tribe swap, I tried, like you see that
the tribal I go home. I go up to Faith
(12:48):
before the like during the scramble, and I'm like, can
we have a chat, like what's your plans? Like what
do you want to do and she goes, you know,
I haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm not
going to have this conversation.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I'm going to go look for an idol. And so
that's when you see me go back to the circle
with Caleb because I'm like, wow, I literally just got shunned.
I got shunned. That's what it was. That is literally
what it was.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
That's when you go look for the idol. That's when
I did give you.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Trust me, I did. I did.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I definitely looked for an idol before we went to
tribal and obviously no life, but trust me, I was.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
That's the one thing about reality television. Anyone that's ever
done it before will tell you a day feels like
a week, a week feels like a month, and a
month feels like a year. Are you shocked at how
slow the time was going?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
I mean not really, just because it was so active
all the time, Like your mind is always your mind
is always running, like you're always talking to someone, or
you always want like thinking, you're always trying to plan
something or you're doing a challenge.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So time actually went quite fast.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
There was there was some days that you're like, oh, yeah,
this is taken forever, but no, just because we have
something on. There's a reward and challenge war challenge. Strategizing
it went, it went practically well.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I had to get a piece of paper and a
pen out to work out that tribal council and I
was really struggling to keep up with how that was
all going. And I'm assuming that tribal council happened for
four hours because it compressed into television time. I literally
had to pause and rewind it and go back. And
I still can't work out did Simon was he going
to throw out the challenge and then decided not to?
(14:14):
What can you tell me as a participant of this show.
Was Simon going to throw it out to save Rich?
To not save Rich? Did he want to make the fire?
Give please give me some clarity?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
So Asher and Lotty where really you see at Aarscher
and Lotty were really wanting Simon to throw the fire
because He's like, They're like, we got to save Tz
and we got to save Rich. So when they go
back to their their tribe, because after we had that
holding challenge, aarsheron Lotti like, yeah, tes' on mock so
Tz and Rich those are out true, let's get them
for merge.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
So they like to Simon, you gotta throw it, You
got to for it, you got to throw it.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
And so Ascher and Lotti were considering like putting their
hands up for the fire, but they were under the
assumption that Simon was going to throw it, which he
wasn't going to.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
No, was he always playing for the fire because some
points I was, Oh, he's definitely throwing it. That's fine.
My face looked like lotties the whole way through watching
that episode, I was like, is he? Is he not?
What's going on here?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I was.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
We were the same, Our tribe was the same. Are
we like is he throwing it? Because he kept striking
the flint but apparently not.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Okay, Look, you've definitely got some iconic moments there. Have
you got like a behind the scenes something that you know,
being a super fan getting to do the show that
was mind blowing to you, which might be mind blowing
to super fans that would love to do the show
that may follow in your footsteps.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah, Like I think when you watch you're just like
like this is so generic, but you're like, oh, are
the really not getting fed? So for example, you see
on the original Baron tribe, we didn't win a reward
for seven days, we didn't whin the community, so we
had no flint. We were actually did not eat for
seven days and at all. So I'm like, yeah, at
all at all. And so you see in Ben's face
(15:54):
a lot of the time he's like, gaunt, we did
not eat at all.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
That is wild to me.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
No, this is this is real, real, this is really real.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I'm like, oh, it's someone like doing just like are
they going to make fire for us? Or like, are
they going to speak some rice?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
No, for no rice whatsoever. I would be catching some fish.
Did anyone go and try and catch any fish?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Well, Caleb was trying to catch we caught crabs.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Okay, well we didn't have any gear, like until the
we won that reward challenge, we had no gear. Caleb
was trying to catch crabs, but we didn't have a
fire for the crabs to cook in. So yeah, that
was that was not a great start. But that's like
when you realize you're like, oh, no, this this is
a real show.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
It's not it's not scripted.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
No, it's definitely not scripted. I mean, I still hear
from a lot of people that Survivor is the hardest
reality show to do in Australia. So my hat's off
to you.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, it definitely is.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
It definitely is hard, but it's a great experience and
like it's I said, I've said this, only twe hundred
and fifty people have done it. Out of how many
people have applied, only one hundred and fifty people can say,
oh my god, I've done Survivor and it's like, hats
off to that.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Well, all I can say is, while I quote yourself
is if you fail at something, come back and fail again.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, fail better better.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
I want a T shirt that says fail better because
I feel like that's me. I feel like that's definitely me.
Enjoy chatting to the media. I think that people will
remember you. You'll be in the zeitgeist, Sophistra and Survivor,
which is amazing. And revel in this moment, you know,
enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I've said this before today, but I might go down
as one of the worst players, but thankfully Simon's on
the season.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Oh my god, I'm so obsessed with Simon, Like there's
something about his failing or fumbling that makes you just
love him even more. Was that, like, do you love
Simon as much as I do?
Speaker 3 (17:41):
I mean not after what he did with that necklace? No, no, no, no,
it's actually funny because obviously.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
It's not dude right now, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Test as a.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Fan, obviously, I've been on Twitter and stuff and like
from years ago, I made tweets. I'm like, Simon is
so dumb. I wouldn't have done that. And then it's
so funny because he did. We can do a season together.
Then he gets off the show and he's like he
heard through the room and mill that Test has a
Twitter and I one s Simon keyword search your name
and I'm like, I didn't say that. Delete delete delete?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Did you?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
So?
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Did he end up reading the tweet? Did he end
up reading there? Okay? Great? Well, you know what, Simon
is a lovely man, and I've spoken to him many seasons,
and I think he'll forgive you for it. Anyway, I'm
running out of time. I feel like I can hear
a buzzer going off in my head butt lovely, did
you have to hear? Tes and all the best? I
can't wait to see you in the next one.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Hotally
It's in the news today, but it was actually on
TV Reload, the podcast Last Pig That Line Yoday, guys,
welcome back to TV Reload, the podcast that takes you
behind the scenes of your favorite television. I'm Benjamin Norris,
and today we are diving back into the chaos of
Australian Survivor with a Redemption player who fans I don't
think I'm going to forget anytime soon. From the moment
he appeared on screen, Tes quickly striked me as someone
(00:23):
quite different to the usual Survivor players. He is a
self confessed superfan who had been applying for the show
since he was eighteen. He finally made it onto the
island after years of rejection, and when he did, he
promised to play a big game his own way, chaotic, messy, unpredictable,
and sometimes a little unhinged. In this episode, Tes will
open up about what it was really like stepping onto
(00:43):
the beach and suddenly realizing that he was playing alongside
returning players he had literally studied in notebooks before the show.
I won't let him off the hook, and I will
unpack the messier and sometimes GOB's making moves, including his
lack of agency and claims that he was playing I'm
on purpose. Was Tez playing an undercover game or did
the chaos get the better of him. Plus he also
(01:06):
reveals the alliances you didn't see on television, what happened
during the tense tribal swap, and a surprising behind the
scenes reality of surviving seven days on the island without
eating a single meal. And of course we talk about
is now somewhat iconic philosophy for life and Survivor. If
you fail the first time, fail better until you win. Anyway,
we're going to unpack up one, so let's get into this.
(01:27):
Here is my chat with Tees from Australian Survivor Redemption.
Hey Tez, how are you?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Hi Ben, I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I'm good. I'm good. I always love it when people
who get onto Survivor are like superfans. So when I
heard that there was a superfan on the show, I
was following your story right from the start.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
I'm glad to hear that, and yes, I mean being
a super fan. It did feel surrial being out there
everything that I imagine, but also nothing that I imagined.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's so different, it's so different.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I want to know what helped you get through. I mean,
let's backtrack, let's go to your survivor history. Had you
applied many times before, and what made you stand out
this time? Do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
So? I applied every year since I was eighteen, so
I got on when I was twenty four, so five
six applications always got rejected. This year, I was just like,
let me just be unhinged. I don't need to do
anything special. I don't need to put on a persona.
I just need to like be myself, which is unhinged, messy, chaotic,
And you know when you can just feel that, like
(02:30):
you're going to get on the passing process. Like I
got a call back, I'm like, okay, good, I got
another callback. I'm like, this is the time.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I want to know what's chaotic? Like what did you do?
Did you like eat a chicken like an emu egg?
I don't know what do you do to be chaotic?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
No? I think just the way I speak. Sometimes I ramble.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I give some life stories and they're like, okay, this guy.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Likes the talk. And yeah, ended up on the show.
Ended up on an island of twenty four randoms.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
That's so amazing and did you have a moment where
it all started to feel real.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, So I mean obviously, when we're on the mat
on day one and I see, you know, the returning players,
here's a little behind the scenes stuff. Being a super fan,
I heard on the Survivor roomormeal that some returning players
would come back, and so, you know, I started doing
like little notebooks and deep dives on harry On Simon
on a couple of them, And so when I saw them,
and then when I saw like Cat from The Traders
(03:21):
and Johnson, I'm like, oh no, this is.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Like, this is happening.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I knew them all and I kind of deep dive
on a couple of them because you know, room Mill.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So I'm like, no, this is really really happening.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Did you watch Johnson's season of Big Brother? By any chance?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, I've watched Cat season of The Traders, i watched
johnson seasons of Big Brother.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I'm across. I'm across it all.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
So like they could they definitely couldn't lie. Not that
I was going to like use it against them or
maybe I want to, but.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Well, as it turned out, it didn't really help them.
It don't matter whether they did well on The Traders
a big brother. They were gone before you, I know.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
And funny because Cat and me you don't see it
on the show really, but we had alliance called the Traders.
We were very very close, and you see me, I
end up voting her out. But when I sit back
down from that circle that mark did, I turned her
and I'm like, Pat, they like want to vote you out?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
What I do? And she goes tez if it puts
you in their majority, just do it, okay, yeah, so
just do it.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
So that was tough, but that's a little you know,
so because me and Kat got along like crazy just
from day one, from like from mentioning the Traders, and
we just had a blast.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
That's amazing. So I think if this episode was called
in a thing, it would be like a friend's episode.
It would be like the one with TZ because did
you get the most amount of screen time in that episode?
It seemed like it was all about.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
You, I know, even even this episode and even last
Linda's Paul Lindall her elimination episode, like all of a sudden,
like I'm just like playing low key and these last
two episodes are full of test time. It's test time,
which is good and bad because you know, watching it,
I was like, oh no, did I really do that?
But then watching it, I'm like, oh no, I really
did that.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Are you weren't happy with any of the speeches because
there are some chaotic speeches. I'm using your words, there's
some chaotic speeches the end this episode. How did you
feel watching it back last night?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I mean there was a couple of moments where it
really showed like my true gameplay and like how onto
it I was? You see me, I'm like hanging onto
the challenge and with Blanche, who again another thing you
don't see that's me. Blanche and Cat very very close.
Me and Blanche had an alliance we called the rack Pack.
So when Johnson, when Johnson and Blanche were being categorized
as Johnson and Friends, I wasn't put in that group.
(05:25):
But my actual game you realize I never vote with Mark,
did Johnson?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
John vote?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I don't vote Johnson. It's because I was part of
Johnson and Friends. So when I get put on the
challenge with Blanche, Blanche is telling me tes tes, I've
told Ashra Lotti about you. If we get back together,
You're like, you're gonna come with them, And so when
I'm on the challenge, I'm like Asha Lotti, Mark, theyve key,
They're running it, They're running it.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
They're like Tez vote with us tonight, like if that happens.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
And so going in like seeing like a little bit
of the catch speeches and like, you know, a little
bit of the rambling. It was played up a lot
because I didn't want people to like clock onto how
like how much I actually was Can I.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Jump in there you do say this and say that
you know, you're sort of in real life you play
at the bottom because that's the place that people put
you in. And maybe there's something of a backstory there
because I want to talk to you about not doing
that in your life. But I also think in terms
of saying that that was your strategy without actually pulling
(06:22):
off any moves, it doesn't really offer you any agency.
So I mean, being a Survivor fan, how does that
all land for you today?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
So this is actually one of my regrets because when
I went into the game, I was like, Okay, I'm
going to be really ditzy. I'm going to give people
this persona I'm not going to tell people have a
master's a green law.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I'm not going to tell like I lie about it.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
I think going back, I would have just been truthful
because I think the image that I gave off was like,
oh no, like it's just haz he can't be taken seriously.
I was the youngest. I was the youngest in the cart.
So not being like oh no, I've done this, I've
done this to have this I can actually speak, it
would have made some people probably I would take more
towards me, and yes, take me more seriously. But what
(07:04):
you don't see is like in that pre Barren tribe,
I was in a great position. I was in a
great position, like you don't see my name going out
until Johnson gets voted out. I was in the middle.
I had Blanche on Johnson on one side. I had
Sally and Caleb with me in the middle, and then
I had Brooke, who another close person with me with
that power trio. So I was kind of like I
was just not a threat, and that was like, Okay, no,
this is working because they're just taking me. They think
(07:26):
I'm dizzy, they think I'm dumb. And then when tribal
swap happened, that's when it all spiraled. And then you
can see like my will start turning. I get with
people that quite frankly, I didn't want to be with,
Like I didn't get along with Faith too well on
the island on a game level. And so that's when
you can see me just start trying to throw stuff
at the wall and see whatever sticks.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
But the stuff that you were grabbing, it didn't seem
like anything. It seemed like a scramble. If anything, it
didn't really feel like because in some ways you alluded
to having some big moves. And this is really the
opportunity now when you're talking to you know, Sunday quarterbacking
the whole thing, to really talk about that, like did
you have big moves that were ready to hatch and
(08:07):
that you could have tried to pull off.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
One hundred percent one hundred percent. So you do see
me again multiple times. It's not shown on the show
with Lanston Johnson again when I don't Bro Johnson and
I rote don't. I was not afraid to go against
the grain when I get tribe swapped again.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I was on the bottom, but I had no social agency.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
But when you see me in the fire with Rich
and Lindall, I'm like we got to take out Faith
because she is in the middle of Mark and Keeley.
But what you don't see is Mark. As soon as
we tribe swap, he grabbed Lindall and Rich straight away,
like he grabbed them straight away. He had Caleb in
his pocket. He was close with that trio. So I
like what I was waiting for was I was like, Okay,
(08:48):
let me try to get Rich and Lindall like, let's
let's try to do something. But they were just so
close to Mark, and Mark was close to Faith that
I felt I just had no social agency with them.
And even when I tried to talk to them, so
I say, big move again. When I'm holding the pole
with astroal Lotti, I'm feeding them information, They're like, tez
if it's a double tonight vote with us. I was
so ready to go and be like, guys, we got
(09:10):
to take killing Mark Faith out because that was potentially
their plan if it was a like a double joint tribal.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
But yeah, unfortunately the tribesop. It just put me at
the bottom.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And like I said, I try to throw stuff at
the wall and it just wouldn't stick. And it got
to a point where they started just like kind of
isolating me. And so even if I try to say
something not Sally, Caleb or Rich they did give me
the time of day. But if I did throw something,
it just was not like felt like rich wasn't going
to do it, Like there was discussion about it, but
(09:40):
it just never was happening.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Linda wasn't going to do it like Sally. You know,
it just wasn't happening.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
But if I could pinpoint something, it could come down
to the fact that you said in the previous tribal
council you were like, you know, I'm not a sheep.
I'm not like a sheep like everybody else. Could that
be the moment that you really showed your cards and
then maybe that's where they responded badly to that and
just were like, well, let's just get rid of Tez,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
So through the.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Tribal council Mark before that, Mark did tell me Lindall.
And then when Kearley goes five minutes, I'll tell you
our tribal in my head, I'm like, I'm not going
with your plan. So enriched minds to me vote Richard.
I know what he's saying. But me and me and
rich were going to vote Caleb, and I was hoping
that Lindall would vote Calyb so it'd end up in
a free free split, because if it ended up in
(10:26):
a free free split, you never know, Lindle might possibly
still could have gone home. But there was a chance,
there was a chance something could have happened. And so
then I go back, I go back to tribal council. Sorry,
I go back to the shelter. And I should have
just been like, look, I should have taken Rich and
Caleb aside and be like Rich, Caleb, you saw what
just happened.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
We're all in the bottom.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
But instead I was just trying to like play it off.
I was trying to be like I didn't know what
was happening, like you guys told me at tribal I
didn't know what was happening. I was very clear on it,
but I just played too like I was too chaotic
about it, where I should have just grabbed with Rich
and Lindall and been like you saw what just happened
on the bottom.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Well, there was even a moment in this trible cancil
where you said, you know, why isn't anyone spook. I
can't remember, I'm paraphrasing, but you were like, is what's
the plan? Like, you know, you were sort of in
the background and in the history of Australian survivor, if
you don't know what the plan is at the time
that you're a tribal cancil, you're usually the plan.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And then I felt embarrassed in a way because when
you pulled Mark and Keeley aside and just basically said,
I can't have this be the way that I go
home tonight. Did you trust that they were going to
save you at that point and go for Caleb or
did you know that those two people blanked you?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
So you saw That's the reason I stand up so
once Rich Guestymnia necklace, because I was planning to be
like drew a little large dish ethit and be like
Rich is close to all this other tribe when if
you merge together, he's going to go straight back to them.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I'm with you, guys.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
But then he gets given the necklace, and so I
go into panic mode because I know I'm like, yep,
it's definitely me, and so the power structure is Keeley, Mark,
and so I get them up and in the moment
I was just so like Chao like it was, it's like,
oh my god, this just happened, and this just happened.
And I said, I should have made more compelling reason.
I should have been like kyleb. But I did say
(12:07):
this throughout the game, Caleb's playing both sides. Is a
double agent.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I was clocking. I went to Caleb. I'm like, we're
playing the same game.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
But you had all this information right there then, and
I knew that yet be as a viewer, I was like,
you know, and you were clever enough to watch things
happening on the beach to know to throw Caleb right
under the bus with the fact that he was completely untrustworthy.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah, pinsight's twenty twenty. But I think that I should
have just gone for it. That's that's what I should
have done. I know in the moment, because when you're
in the mind of a super fan, you're like just
another day, just another day, just another day. And being
on that tribe swap, I tried, like you see that
the tribal I go home. I go up to Faith
(12:48):
before the like during the scramble, and I'm like, can
we have a chat, like what's your plans? Like what
do you want to do and she goes, you know,
I haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm not
going to have this conversation.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I'm going to go look for an idol. And so
that's when you see me go back to the circle
with Caleb because I'm like, wow, I literally just got shunned.
I got shunned. That's what it was. That is literally
what it was.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
That's when you go look for the idol. That's when
I did give you.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Trust me, I did. I did.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I definitely looked for an idol before we went to
tribal and obviously no life, but trust me, I was.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
That's the one thing about reality television. Anyone that's ever
done it before will tell you a day feels like
a week, a week feels like a month, and a
month feels like a year. Are you shocked at how
slow the time was going?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
I mean not really, just because it was so active
all the time, Like your mind is always your mind
is always running, like you're always talking to someone, or
you always want like thinking, you're always trying to plan
something or you're doing a challenge.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So time actually went quite fast.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
There was there was some days that you're like, oh, yeah,
this is taken forever, but no, just because we have
something on. There's a reward and challenge war challenge. Strategizing
it went, it went practically well.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I had to get a piece of paper and a
pen out to work out that tribal council and I
was really struggling to keep up with how that was
all going. And I'm assuming that tribal council happened for
four hours because it compressed into television time. I literally
had to pause and rewind it and go back. And
I still can't work out did Simon was he going
to throw out the challenge and then decided not to?
(14:14):
What can you tell me as a participant of this show.
Was Simon going to throw it out to save Rich?
To not save Rich? Did he want to make the fire?
Give please give me some clarity?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
So Asher and Lotty where really you see at Aarscher
and Lotty were really wanting Simon to throw the fire
because He's like, They're like, we got to save Tz
and we got to save Rich. So when they go
back to their their tribe, because after we had that
holding challenge, aarsheron Lotti like, yeah, tes' on mock so
Tz and Rich those are out true, let's get them
for merge.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
So they like to Simon, you gotta throw it, You
got to for it, you got to throw it.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
And so Ascher and Lotti were considering like putting their
hands up for the fire, but they were under the
assumption that Simon was going to throw it, which he
wasn't going to.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
No, was he always playing for the fire because some
points I was, Oh, he's definitely throwing it. That's fine.
My face looked like lotties the whole way through watching
that episode, I was like, is he? Is he not?
What's going on here?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I was.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
We were the same, Our tribe was the same. Are
we like is he throwing it? Because he kept striking
the flint but apparently not.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Okay, Look, you've definitely got some iconic moments there. Have
you got like a behind the scenes something that you know,
being a super fan getting to do the show that
was mind blowing to you, which might be mind blowing
to super fans that would love to do the show
that may follow in your footsteps.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah, Like I think when you watch you're just like
like this is so generic, but you're like, oh, are
the really not getting fed? So for example, you see
on the original Baron tribe, we didn't win a reward
for seven days, we didn't whin the community, so we
had no flint. We were actually did not eat for
seven days and at all. So I'm like, yeah, at
all at all. And so you see in Ben's face
(15:54):
a lot of the time he's like, gaunt, we did
not eat at all.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
That is wild to me.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
No, this is this is real, real, this is really real.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I'm like, oh, it's someone like doing just like are
they going to make fire for us? Or like, are
they going to speak some rice?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
No, for no rice whatsoever. I would be catching some fish.
Did anyone go and try and catch any fish?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Well, Caleb was trying to catch we caught crabs.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Okay, well we didn't have any gear, like until the
we won that reward challenge, we had no gear. Caleb
was trying to catch crabs, but we didn't have a
fire for the crabs to cook in. So yeah, that
was that was not a great start. But that's like
when you realize you're like, oh, no, this this is
a real show.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
It's not it's not scripted.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
No, it's definitely not scripted. I mean, I still hear
from a lot of people that Survivor is the hardest
reality show to do in Australia. So my hat's off
to you.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, it definitely is.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
It definitely is hard, but it's a great experience and
like it's I said, I've said this, only twe hundred
and fifty people have done it. Out of how many
people have applied, only one hundred and fifty people can say,
oh my god, I've done Survivor and it's like, hats
off to that.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Well, all I can say is, while I quote yourself
is if you fail at something, come back and fail again.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, fail better better.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
I want a T shirt that says fail better because
I feel like that's me. I feel like that's definitely me.
Enjoy chatting to the media. I think that people will
remember you. You'll be in the zeitgeist, Sophistra and Survivor,
which is amazing. And revel in this moment, you know,
enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I've said this before today, but I might go down
as one of the worst players, but thankfully Simon's on
the season.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Oh my god, I'm so obsessed with Simon, Like there's
something about his failing or fumbling that makes you just
love him even more. Was that, like, do you love
Simon as much as I do?
Speaker 3 (17:41):
I mean not after what he did with that necklace? No, no, no, no,
it's actually funny because obviously.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
It's not dude right now, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Test as a.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Fan, obviously, I've been on Twitter and stuff and like
from years ago, I made tweets. I'm like, Simon is
so dumb. I wouldn't have done that. And then it's
so funny because he did. We can do a season together.
Then he gets off the show and he's like he
heard through the room and mill that Test has a
Twitter and I one s Simon keyword search your name
and I'm like, I didn't say that. Delete delete delete?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Did you?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
So?
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Did he end up reading the tweet? Did he end
up reading there? Okay? Great? Well, you know what, Simon
is a lovely man, and I've spoken to him many seasons,
and I think he'll forgive you for it. Anyway, I'm
running out of time. I feel like I can hear
a buzzer going off in my head butt lovely, did
you have to hear? Tes and all the best? I
can't wait to see you in the next one.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
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