Survivor 51 B&B Premiere Recap with Sam Phalen

RHAP: We Know Survivor

Hosts Mike Bloom and Liana Boraas are joined by Survivor 47 contestant Sam Phalen to recap the premiere of Survivor 51. The discussion cente

Key takeaways

• The 'open era' is viewed as a way to provide production with the freedom to implement fresh branding and unpredictable twists.
• Sam Phalen argues that while gameplay-altering twists can be frustrating, they are essential for creating organic character moments.

Main topics

• Survivor 51 Premiere Recap
• The Open Era of Survivor

Notable quotes

We are so back.

Conclusion

The episode highlights an optimistic outlook for the new season, empha

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Mike and the Anna gather playing some games. You better pray to your mama that they're not super lame. And if that all sounds cool, I can tell you the name. It's the R-H-A-P-B-M-E. Mike and can tell you the name. Speaker 4 (0:33) Hi everybody and welcome to the RHAP B &B for the premiere of Survivor 51. My name is Mike Bloom. Are we having Survivor 50 fun yet? I believe so. I felt like this was a party down as we have a lot of things to get into over the course of the official opening of the open era. And I will not dally too much on the intros here. I'll go chop chop much like Lewis. on that mast. I'm joined by someone who I'm happy to chop it up here with every week, Liana Boris. Liana, how are you? Doing Speaker 3 (1:06) well. A whale of a premiere, if you will. The respected and revered whales. You know, honestly, I thought this was a really character-focused premiere, which means that I personally had a lot of fun. And it's nice to actually see the open era and what that actually means and how that's being reflected. I think we have a lot to talk about today. Speaker 4 (1:28) As far as we know, again, who's to say what's coming down the line? The only thing we know is that there'll be Final Four Fire making it a coin flip. So a lot is open right now, and I'm excited to open up our series of podcasts this season with a standout of the new era as we kick off another new era of Survivor, though I guess Sam Phelan. Are you technically an old school survivor contestant now by these standards? Speaker 1 (1:53) Assuredly not. No, I won't. I know you're an expert in the media because, you know, a loaded question Speaker 4 (1:59) when you Speaker 1 (2:00) hear Speaker 4 (2:00) one. I Speaker 1 (2:01) will not even dare to classify myself as old era. But I will say I don't have a pun that you guys do about the episode. I just have four words for you. We are so back. We are so back. physically us sitting here chopping it up on the podcast, but also Survivor might be so back. This was an awesome, awesome premiere episode. I'm so excited to talk about it. Speaker 4 (2:26) Well, Sam, I'm going to stay on you here because I would love to get your thoughts as to, listen, there was a lot we didn't know about what the open era was just as a general idea going to this. And look, as I say again, we still don't necessarily know. Entirely what it means? That's the point, Mike. Speaker 1 (2:42) It's permanent uncertainty. Speaker 4 (2:44) Exactly. But how certain were your opinions on the open era going into this season and how much did they change after these first two hours? Speaker 1 (2:51) Look, I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt with it because I think when you take it, if you're trying to view it pessimistically, you're like, oh, this means that they're going to be all over the place and like twist and thing and this and that every week and it's not going to be Survivor anymore. I think it's a way to brand what they want to do anyway. Really, the idea of permanent uncertainty, everything's in play. That's kind of always been the case, right? Like it was just the fact that they like they could have dropped any twist and it wouldn't have been out of bounds, you know, at any other point in time in Survivor history. But I do think this gives them the freedom to just play with stuff, to not keep things uniform and to kind of have an easy brand for that lack of uniformity. And I think lack of uniformity is awesome for the show and awesome for things feeling fresh. First word for the open era is fresh because it feels so distinctly different from the new era. So I think they're going to swing and miss a whole lot. I think they're going to hit a few home runs. But I think that trying that thing, trying those things is going to allow us to have some really great TV moments and figure out. what works as they progress through the open era a little bit more. Speaker 3 (4:07) It is kind of funny because it's almost like they made the rules for the new era that they were going to be so rigid. And then they're like changing their own rules. But look, I agree with you. I'm happy to have it. Yeah, Speaker 4 (4:20) that's what I made this comparison during our preview podcast, because, yeah, when I talk with Jeff about it, the repetitive structure of the new era was a feature, not a bug. It was by design to say, let's see how the players. you know, a person in Survivor 47 now sort of knows how things run differently than Survivor 42 and how do they base gameplay on that? And I think freedom is the most applicable word for not only the players, but production as well. Like, this really felt like a breath of fresh air. And it's weird because we're coming off of a huge returning players season, the first we've seen in over half a decade, where that felt like a breath of fresh air as well. But I think the commonality between them is that... While I think the 50 premiere certainly had its fair share of journeys and other, you know, Billie Eilish boomerang idol Mishigas, the commonality between them is that they both kind of just gave time to the cast. Yeah. Even just providing this opening moment of having them all chill on a beach and they have no idea how long they're going to be here, what tribes they're going to be. So they're just going to get into it. They're going to make a five person alliance seconds before. the tribes are divided. And I think that is essentially what kind of survivor is at its core, right? Which is like, here's a situation based on who you are, what you know, which is very limited and how you operate. What are you going to do about it? Some people were just sitting back trying to maybe work on a shelter that they might be living in. Others were quickly hitting the beach, trying to, you know, form an alliance with a quarter of the cast. even though the latter doesn't necessarily pan out, I think it's an interesting experiment to see how do these people respond to these enigmatic situations? And more importantly, how do they work to sort of like take the bull by the horns, as we saw with Devin throughout this episode, even if it, again, doesn't work out, and say like, I'm going to try to put this uncontrollable situation in my control. Speaker 1 (6:15) Well, and for that reason, Mike, I also want to caution. survivor fans out there to be too overly critical of some of the new things that we see, right? Because I think that it's very easy, especially if you're a fan who watches the show for the gaming of it all, the strategy of it all, to sit there and be frustrated when there are these twists that are out of the control of the players. Yes, that can be frustrating to watch. But I think the risk of having predictability is... this sort of like monotonous feeling that we have over the new era where it's like, yeah, it was predictable. Players could game what was coming. Players knew what to expect, but it also created a very standard level of gameplay that just didn't change. And while it might not feel like old school survivor, you hit it like survivor at its core was this idea of we're going to throw weird situations at you and see how you adapt. Yes, we hate it when somebody loses their vote or there's a. Billie Eilish boomerang idol. And we want things to be equitable, right? We want things to be as fair as they possibly can for the players. But I think we should give the show a little bit of grace as well to try stuff and try to throw these curveballs at them because it does create for those organic character moments that really drive a show and drive the characters to be TV stars that we love to watch. Speaker 3 (7:39) I mean, and obviously we still have the whole rest of the season ahead of us, but I would say that this premiere was relatively twist free. I mean, apart from Lewis being sent to exile. But Speaker 4 (7:52) I feel like even with that, there was always a bit of like all of us holding our breath and then letting out an exhale where it's like, OK, he couldn't chop down the mask, but he didn't lose his vote. Oh, Rob found an idol and there's no beware advantage. Again, it's. It's sort of us living through trauma is not the right word, but I think it's past past being prologue, like anticipating the bottom dropping out from under whenever this big game element happens only for the bottom to remain intact. Speaker 3 (8:17) But I think that that gives me that gives me hope that whatever twist, if there are more twisty twists that end up coming out later, it will follow. I think they're going to. they're going to do what they say, right? In the sense that they're not going to hopefully be lots of losing votes and things like that. So it won't be that repetitive structure. So as Sam is saying, it will allow the cast to really thrive in what is for them, hopefully, a new environment. Like, it was actually very interesting because when they went to Immunity, there were a number of players who were like, where's Lewis? Like, are you going to just airdrop Lewis in? Like, where's Lewis going to Speaker 2 (8:51) go? Speaker 3 (8:52) So they're clearly, like, questioning. They're wondering, like, where is Lewis going to show up? And I like that they're having to... approach the game by always sort of constantly questioning, okay, what is my reality? What is going to happen? And how do I navigate that space? I Speaker 4 (9:05) will also say that I think the casting so far has been a slam dunk. Granted, it is not an equitable edit for all 21 contestants. Unfortunately for people that are wanting, you know, equal airtime for everybody. I do not think that's going to be the case. They struggle with 24. We don't want that. Speaker 1 (9:21) Who wants that? Speaker 4 (9:22) I mean, listen, there are people out there, Sam, you know, there's a pot for every lid and a fruit for every bowl when it comes to these people. Isn't that the Speaker 1 (9:28) issue with the new era, though, is like the everybody's story needs to be told. We all need airtime. And then you don't end up with any compelling characters at the end of the game. Speaker 4 (9:37) Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's not to say that they're not going to come about as well. Like, who knows? Like, Tanan might have a huge episode. We had one whole tribe not go to tribal council of 10 people. And so we didn't get a lot of airtime dedicated to them. But what I will say is even looking into a couple of characters specifically, again, by design, the new era seemed to be focused primarily on like, if you love Survivor, whether you watched it since you were out of the womb or whether you watched it over COVID, we want you on this show. Jeff admitted to me in an interview that he's like, Ori doesn't know the game. We wouldn't have cast him in 43. He literally says on the show, like, I don't know what I'm doing. Can you help me? Devin told me when I talked to him at the premiere that I attended, which was so much fun, that he started watching Survivor in December 2025. Yeah. Season 50 was the first season he ever saw, and not even in full, of the show. And I love that because look at what he's doing, right? Like, it doesn't matter how much Survivor you've watched. It's more so how much Survivor you want to play. And you look at somebody who's coming in with a very specific perspective. As ill-advised as it might be, he created some of the most electric content of the entire premiere. Speaker 1 (10:47) I think it's actually so, so, so important. This is like a larger philosophy casting thing. But I think the new era did really suffer from what you were talking about, Mike, which was everybody has to be a super fan. And so you end up with. Whether you've been watching from day one or whether you started during COVID and binge watched all of it, you knew what you were doing and you were relatively savvy from a game perspective. But I think that also created a general like everybody was kind of trying to play the same strategy in a way that you saw. That's why we see this. Hey, don't get too high on the totem pole. Knock out the big threats. End up with the under the radar kind of like come on right at that final five. That was sort of the M.O. And you didn't see people branching out from this to create differing outcomes. And, you know, I think hopefully, right, my read on this season 51 cast is that you're going to have people who are not playing Survivor by the book. But I think that's really compelling for the people like a Kristen who has been applying since the beginning, who knows how to play Survivor by the book, that she now has to play with people who are. all over the map and tough to account for. And I think that that is is very fun. I think it could give us a variety of different outcomes from season 51 to 52 to 53. So very encouraged in the casting from that thing, because who knows if Ori is going to be this strategic mastermind that figures it out really quickly or if he's just like, I don't know, I'm going with the people I like to the end. It's hard to read him. Speaker 3 (12:22) Mm Speaker 4 (12:22) hmm. Speaker 3 (12:22) I mean, I I always go back to the fact that while I do enjoy watching good strategy, I would so much rather watch entertaining players. And so when someone like Devin McDevitt, shut up, shut up, shut up. But I kind of don't want him to shut up. Right. Yeah, it's Speaker 1 (12:37) terrible. Well, I mean, what are you doing at tribal council? But you cannot look away from him just being I'm voting for you. You see, you look look at me. I'm voting for you. Oh, Speaker 4 (12:47) it was because it really I mean, there was so many spanners thrown in the work to that tribal council. And it seems like from what's come out, it was legitimately a live tribal council. And part of that might have also been the numbers. Right. I think it's Speaker 3 (12:59) a Speaker 4 (12:59) lot easier for a first vote. Sam, you can speak to this firsthand to get your hands around a six person vote than a 10 person vote in the first three votes, three first three days of the game. So apparently when it's switched, it's swapped. So last minute to Aaliyah, then like they really had to do a lot of makeup at tribal council. Like, OK, we must make sure we have. the votes in. So that makes it more exciting as well. I know sometimes we feel like these things are for show, but it seems like between the conflict that was set up by, you know, Devin's radical honesty or Pat outright saying like, yeah, you know what? There's two boots, much like my pantsless boots are on the ground right now trying to search for my bottoms. You're on the bottom, Aaliyah. It was fun to just watch. Again, these people attempt to figure things out as they go and deal with the myriad wildcards thrown their way. Speaker 3 (13:44) Mm Speaker 4 (13:44) hmm. Speaker 3 (13:45) Just a side note about Pat, every single confessional afterwards where she wasn't wearing pants, I just giggled Speaker 4 (13:50) to myself like I just just Speaker 3 (13:52) love that. That's kind of her story. And then she kind of shows up like through the chaos. And also, I mean, she was the first one who also told Jenna that Jenna was going to be targeted. And so there is just like a lot of subtle Pat stuff going on that like makes me really excited. So while, yes, we do have a lot of these main characters, big main character energy. Even the people who, you know, Pat was not necessarily the most involved is still out there making waves, losing her pants, doing fun things. And so I think that that to me also speaks to a very good cast. I will say they are they were like a little intense at first, but that's what I want. I mean, that's what Speaker 4 (14:28) that's what Alexis literally said, right? She's like, I had to even take a step back and be like, there's a lot of extroverts happening right now. Exactly. Speaker 1 (14:35) Yeah. The sorry, I'm all over the place trying to figure out where I want to start. A great cast, as Liana mentioned, is even the small characters, the people that we talk about that aren't like heavily, heavily featured or thrown in our face. They advance the plot to some degree or they contribute to the arc of another person to some degree. It's a little tough when you've got 21 people that you're tracking. But I get that general feeling of even somebody like Pat, who's maybe seventh or eighth on her tribe in terms of. airtime and how much we got to know her. There's little subtle things in there that make you giggle, make you laugh, make you kind of like Pat. And then, by the way, if we're reading between the tea leaves here, Pat is a huge reason for this vote going down the way that it goes down. And so you it just it brings something different from the other energies. And I think that's a really complimentary group that has a lot of upside. Speaker 4 (15:34) Well, let's talk about a vote that went down, Pat, because of what happened with Pat. I'm so curious, Liana, when the votes were coming in, how much did you think it was going to be Jenna versus Aaliyah, given what we had seen of the story so far? Speaker 3 (15:49) We got so much Jenna so early, I was like, there's no way she's going home. Speaker 4 (15:53) And listen, Speaker 3 (15:54) it'd Speaker 4 (15:54) be historic, right? The cast could have done the funniest thing and make back-to-back Jenna first boots. Speaker 3 (15:59) Yes. So so for me, I I thought that it was probably unlikely just because Survivor editing team has a tendency to not go overboard. But without being so nerdy about it, I think Jenna obviously was like very clearly the one who was ostracized the most. And I think what was interesting was to see how many people were saying, yeah, Jenna's going to be the first boot or we're going to vote out Jenna. We're going to vote out Jenna. So then that way, you know, it's not just a smaller collective, because while Devin Jelly. You know, obviously we're talking about it. There were it wasn't just that. Right. It wasn't just the remnants of the helicopter alliance that was on this tribe. It was other people as well who were on board with voting Jenna out. So I can see why it was it was potentially, you know, solidified going into tribal and then turned into a live tribal at at tribal council. What do you think, Sam, based on, again, Speaker 4 (16:47) your experience as someone who went to a premier tribal council? Speaker 1 (16:50) I mean, I was fully on the other end of Liano watching it, at least because I mean, hey, 47. I feel like we're pretty John Lovett forward in the 47 premiere. It granted the literally named the episode, right? Names the episode. And it talks about how he might have one episode. And then sure enough, it is John at the end. I thought that Aaliyah was our little red herring to make us think there was a strategic doubt when they were telling us from minute two of the tribe being together that Jenna was the odd one out that was going to go home. So I was very surprised. I think that it was it does make sense for it to be live. I think Brady is really the. the mover here, the guy who gets this thing going. We have to talk about this because Mike, I ultimately, I talked about this with my friend Genevieve about why we feel like this vote went down this way. Speaker 2 (17:44) And Speaker 1 (17:44) I think the thought process, right, of being at a premier tribal council, being voting out the first person in your season, it's super easy to want to go with the grain. That first name that kind of starts circulating. It's like, let me just not be the one. Let me not upset the apple cart. Let me just vote out Jenna here where I think Brady does well slash not well, not well, maybe for his future, but well for this immediate vote getting his way. He makes this very personal. This is I want Aaliyah out because she said my name and this means everything to me. So if you are one of these middle people who are like. I don't really care, man. Aaliyah, Jenna, I don't have strong feelings either way. You know what? I'm just not going to upset the big dude who tells me that this is everything to him. And also, I think there is a level of linear logic for Brady that is easier to get behind than somebody like Devin. Brady's logic is very simple. She said my name. I want her out. As another player, I can track why you don't like Aaliyah and why you want Aaliyah out of the game where I can say, yeah, sure, makes sense to me. That's a lot easier to, you know, hit your wagon to than Devin's. She's lying about her job. And, you know, and I just don't trust her and all of this stuff, which might be like, why is he so passionate about getting Jenna out just because he thinks she lied about her job? So Brady kind of takes it that personal route. His logic is very easy to get behind. And I think ultimately that line of thinking wins out for people who are probably trying to obviously make it through the vote, but then also go back to the rest of their tribe with as few questions they have to answer as possible. And this gives them easy logic to talk their way out of their decision. Speaker 4 (19:41) Yeah, I mean, if your instinct is pure survival, which person would you rather keep happy? Devin's. hey, no matter what happens, we'll come back tomorrow and still be friends. Or Brady's, I am sticking with my vote. I will take every single vote that's not cast for Aaliyah personally. Plus, you have to look at the challenge as well. And granted, they only have one challenge to go off of, but if they feel like they're going to be struggling moving forward, and granted, they're not going to be at a disadvantage. They do have Lewis now in their stead. But from what it looked like from our perspective. I wouldn't say that Aaliyah was the reason they sucked at the challenge. They took the lead on the balls because the frickin' acro grip ends up being one of the most convenient immediate payoff plot devices we've experienced in recent Survivor history. But Jenna and Kilby made up a ton of time on the puzzle as well. So if you're assessing skills, then that also has to be heavily incorporated as well. Yeah, the size of the tribe. Certainly has changed from recent seasons, but I feel like a lot of similar logic has to be ascribed to that first vote as well. Speaker 3 (20:44) Well, and I can understand there's like so many things actually, ultimately, I think kind of pointing you in that direction. I think Jenna's skill on the puzzle, not wanting to upset Brady. You know, so if you really sort of combine all of those things, it's understandable why ultimately they ended up going in that direction. And I think specifically to speak of Brady, that moment, Sam, when. Kilby, I think it's Kilby, who was like, how much does this mean to you? And he was like, yeah, this means everything to me. Speaker 4 (21:10) It Speaker 3 (21:10) goes like, whoa, bro, let's chill for a hot second. But that's somebody who I'm really excited to see what they do next. But also as a player, you clock that and you're like, well, I'm never saying Brady's name. We got to be subtle with how we get him out or whatever. Like it influences your strategy. Speaker 1 (21:25) Yeah, it's very dangerous, obviously, for like long term equity, both of like. how much do people want to start to play with you? And if they are playing with you, that obviously can rub people the wrong way over the long course of the game. But it is inarguably pretty effective in terms of like getting your way in these votes, because if it doesn't matter to a lot of these people, you can kind of mold the game at your will if everybody's willing to just be like, all right, sure, Brady, whatever you want. So I loved it. And like you mentioned, I just I can't wait to see. how it plays out in that tribe moving forward. Because my thought as a player would be, you're like this. This is vote one. What are we, what's this going to be like when it's vote six and vote 10 and we're getting down to the nitty gritty and you start to really develop bonds and have opinions beyond just, she said my name. That's going to be interesting to watch it unfold how much more Brady feels. Speaker 1 (22:26) compelled by the if the first one was everything what's the level beyond everything Speaker 3 (22:30) exactly how do you yeah like how's he gonna care even more than that like i'm just so curious yeah Speaker 4 (22:37) i think as well again we talked about this a lot it's been stated a lot but the dynamic of the 10 person tribe is also so incredibly intriguing especially considering we have not had that as a starting tribe for a very a whole ass pandemic has happened since we've had that and so As a result, what we get is this really interesting proxy war, essentially, where Devin and Brady, Jenna and Aaliyah are not given the pre-tribal confessionals. It's these two guys basically being like, it's my person versus his person. You know, Brady's like, I would tackle my own mom on the football field. Like, it was a Snickers commercial if it meant getting my way, Devin way. And so I really like that dynamic as well because it was set up in the beginning like, hey, we're not so different, you and I. Oh, actually, we are very different. It'll be intriguing to see if, as Devin attests to, is it water under the bridge or is