As Survivor 47’s premiere edges closer, we’re learning more and more about the crop of 18 castaways competing for the illustrious title of “Sole Survivor.” And that includes some of their hot takes about a former legendary contestant and an infamous personality.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, each player gave a spicy opinion about the franchise, whether it was about the actual game, host and showrunner Jeff Probst, or a competitor that came before them. And some of the rookie cast — all fresh faces in the reality competition universe — didn’t pull punches.
Tiyana Hallums, a 27-year-old flight attendant from Hawaii, lambasted Survivor 46’s Liz Wilcox for her over-the-top outburst for not being chosen to partake in an Applebee’s reward.
In the episode prior, Liz targeted Q Burdette by writing his name down twice, first in the initial round of voting and during a tiebreaker between Q and Hunter McKnight with the latter being sent to Ponderosa. As history has it, Q won the next reward challenge which netted him a feast sponsored by the restaurant chain. As usual, he was allowed to share the reward with a few fellow castaways. And to Liz’s extreme dismay, he brought along three other players.
“This is incredibly recent, but my Survivor hot take is that Liz’s outburst was super annoying and screamed entitlement,” Tiyana told the outlet. “It reminded me of a little kid throwing a tantrum.”
She said that just because Liz had exclaimed ahead of the challenge that she and her daughter were frequent Applebee’s diners, her entitled reaction to Q’s decision-making wasn’t warranted, especially because he had been on her hit list for several rounds of play.
“Q didn’t owe her anything, and she also knew she was allergic to most of the food on the island before coming on,” Tiyana continued. “She shouldn’t have made it another person’s problem to feed her.”
Regardless, Liz got her revenge on Q a few episodes later when he was voted out. Liz ultimately placed fourth after losing the fire-making showdown.
Rome Cooney, a 30-year-old esports commentator from Phoenix, Arizona, and another Survivor 47 alum, took aim at former winner Yul Kwon. Yul was the champion of season 13’s Cook Islands and he’s been touted as having one of the best winning seasons. But, it’s also true that he had a Hidden Immunity Idol in his possession that could be played after a vote, meaning even if his name was on the majority of parchments, he’d nullify his elimination.
“Yul’s win is the one I least respect. He had a free ride to the end with the super idol. He got outclassed by Ozzy at the final Tribal, but won because he only had to focus on the social game because his super idol did everything else for him, There is a reason we won’t see the super idol again.”
Yul never had to use the Idol, but the added protection allowed him to take bigger swings and risks with less fear of the potential repercussions. Yul returned for season 40’s Winners at War but was the ninth ex-champ ousted, further strengthening the anti-Yul sentiment.
Well, notorious castaway Russell Hantz received some love from Gabe Ortis, a 26-year-old radio host from Baltimore, Maryland. Russell’s three-time stint on the American series is one of the most famous and controversial runs ever. Although his jury management was abysmal, Russell’s knack for finding idols and strategically navigating to the endgame was as elite as it gets. And an aspect of Russell’s game hasn’t received enough attention from the Survivor community, according to Gabe.
“Russell Hantz was an extremely loyal player. In both his first two seasons, he takes his pre-merge alliance all the way to the final five. I can’t speak for his attitude towards other players, but if you were with him, he fought for you.”
Unlike Yul, Russell never stood on top of the podium. He placed second in season 19’s Samoa and third in season 20’s Heroes vs. Villains before suffering an early exit during season 22’s Redemption Island.
Survivor 46 premieres on CBS on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Published: Sep 8, 2024 02:04 pm