Latest / Making The Merge - Survivor Podcast / MIKE BLOOM MAKES THE MERGE!!

Transcript

MIKE BLOOM MAKES THE MERGE!! · Making The Merge - Survivor Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Ay listening to Me.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: And the.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Good Baby.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: It's too good.
• 0:22
  Speaker 4: It's way too good, too good.
• 0:24
  Speaker 5: You're listening to Pink by Mary Jean's Survivor forty eight.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: God, I love that song the best.
• 0:33
  Speaker 5: It's the sanctuary where good pods happen. It's me and
• 0:36
  Speaker 5: Jonathan this week. But we do have a very special
• 0:40
  Speaker 5: guest we have maybe maybe you know him from Parade
• 0:43
  Speaker 5: dot com. Maybe you know him from Rob has a podcast.
• 0:46
  Speaker 5: Maybe you know him as the guy who named the
• 0:48
  Speaker 5: bloomin onion.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: It's Mike Bloom.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: Not unproven at this point. You know, if if a
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: modern day internet culture has told us anything is let's
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: let's make our own truth. Put it out. I mean,
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: perception is reality. As Survivor likes to teach.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Us exactly, it's all about the edit.
• 1:06
  Speaker 6: I I like to imagine with these rules that Chase
• 1:09
  Speaker 6: you invented the bridge, right, like just Chase bridges.
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: You My family invented bridges. Okay, you're good for your
• 1:17
  Speaker 5: family invented being right all the time everybody was wrong
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: and winning.
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: Because he had that w in front of it. I
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: do nobody won anything before the right family came along.
• 1:28
  Speaker 6: That's what I've been trying to tell everyone.
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: And that's the thing is that actually, theoretically, before the
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: concept of right, there was no winner in an argument.
• 1:37
  Speaker 6: Everyone everyone just these arguments kept going and they were like,
• 1:40
  Speaker 6: how do we stop these? And then my great great
• 1:43
  Speaker 6: great great great great grandfather said, I think one of
• 1:48
  Speaker 6: you has to be like me, right.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: So that's how it happened.
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: And fast forward and we have the greatest social experiment
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: on TV, Survivor.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're it'll come to you.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Guys, Michael Mike bloom Is.
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: He almost called you Mike White because we kept saying
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: right over and over.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's totally fine. There was actually a clip
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: that a star from season fourty eight who I Love Dearly,
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: accidentally called Mike White my name whoa. I mean, I
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: have the hamming in both directions here.
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: That's gotta feel great when it's like, yeah, you may
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: have written white lotus, but you're in my ballpark.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Flay, Now, this is a Survivor.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: World, exactly. Welcome to man. You have no experience on Survivor,
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: Mike White. This is my neck of the woods.
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: So since we've brought up a Survivor contestant, let's jump
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: right into it now. Obviously. I think you're probably the
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: most well known because you were the guy that does
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: the pre interviews for all of the contestants every season.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: How many years have you been doing that? Now?
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: Okay, so it started with season thirty nine, So I've
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: been doing in some way, shape or form pretty much
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: since then. So it's coming up past ten seasons at
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: this point. But you know, I guess if we're counting
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: the year that they took off because of COVID, it
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: technically is six years. Tho it's because it's it's fine
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: active years that I've been doing it for.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: Now that's fascinating in and of itself, right, like you,
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: you're the pre interview for all of the Survivor contestants
• 3:09
  Speaker 5: in the past four or five years. My biggest question
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: right off the bat, and this might be going way
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: too deep.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Way too fast.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: No, no, please, have you ever been interviewing.
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: One of these players and you just went, oh, yeah,
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: they're gonna win this season?
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: There are grants that I try to keep an open
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: mind because, as we've experienced, you know, the game of
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: Survivor has so many weird factors that can get incorporated
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: into it. I think especially we see with the new era,
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: starting tribe dictates so much like you can have a
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: winter candidate and then it's like, shit, you're on the
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: disaster tribe. Well, your chances of like making it past
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: episode three have essentially been cut in half. The one
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: that I really have a distinct memory of is talking
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: not even talking with Kenzie. After Kenzie and I spoke,
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: She's like, I'm a huger, give me a hug, and like,
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: I just felt that warmth there. I felt the mermaid
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: dragon and I'm like yeah. Granted again a few days later,
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: I'm like, let's see if she can make it out
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: of there in one piece. And granted it was a
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: little bit of bold, but she was definitely someone that
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: I think I would recall first and foremost, like oh yeah,
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: you've got I mean, it depends on you know, I'll
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: pull out a card in my pocket depending on who
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: wins season forty nine, because you know, I got good
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: senses from specific people. I have no idea what they're
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: going to win. To answer your question, I get good
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: vibes from a lot of different people. More often than not,
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: they're not the winner. So Kenzie is like the one
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: time or lightning struck well, and of course Bonu was electric.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: I loved it. I was. I mean, I got to
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: be there for that first tribal council, which was iconic
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: in so many ways, but I got to experience Bonu
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: prompting Jeff, it is time to vote, and we were
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: just sitting here like, what the fuck is going on
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: with this group of people? You know, it's It's one
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: of those things where you could already get a sense
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: as to how the season is going to kick off.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: And I've been an Ardent forty six defender since the
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: season first. Oh yeah, during those even during those days
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: where it felt like nobody was on its side, and
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: so I uh uh that being there in the moment
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: was near and dear to my heart because you could
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: just tell the group of whackadoodles that would be before us.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Oh man, we love Bonu. Here. We talked about Bonu
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: a lot.
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: We talked about Bonu so much. One of our patrons
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: shout out to wild and Will just got a Bonu tattoo.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: It's true.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: It says that says uh a million hearts.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: Oh my god, does Bonu have any knowledge of this?
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: Do you know?
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: I believe?
• 5:30
  Speaker 6: Yes, yeah, yeah, it's it's really crazy because p d.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: P d uh.
• 5:35
  Speaker 6: He just locked in on Bonu. I mean episode one,
• 5:39
  Speaker 6: he was like, this is the guy. We're gonna talk
• 5:41
  Speaker 6: about him a lot, and and Chase and I warmed
• 5:44
  Speaker 6: up what like maybe two episodes in we were.
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: Like when he was when he did the hand, he.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Wanted me over when he started cursing God.
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: But that's that's the thing. And listen, I understand. Listen
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: is one of the reasons why the show has been
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: going for twenty five years. That everyone has different things
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: they enjoy about the show, different shrokes for different folks.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: And I know that people felt, especially in the moment
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: that first stretch was excruciating, But I'm sorry, it is
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: objectively hysterical that a man who prayed so hard to
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: God that this man smoked Randon's nervous system to take
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: him out of the game. A day later, it's like,
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: fuck you, why did you do this to me?
• 6:21
  Speaker 6: He's like believes and bodies like, this is the greatest
• 6:25
  Speaker 6: thing that's ever happened in Survivor.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: You know, it's just that the whole thing.
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: Man not to move us off of that electric season,
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: because we could talk about that season all.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Night, But you brought up this season season forty nine.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of.
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: Negativity in the Survivor space right now, especially online. People
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: don't seem to be liking this season. I'm personally having
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: a lot of fun with this season. What are your thoughts.
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: You've been covering this for a while now.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Is this a bad season so far?
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: It's interesting you say negativit because I could see it
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: to a certain aspect. But I think the feeling I
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: see more so from the fan base is apathy, and
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: I think and I think that is sort of maybe
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: the sense that I'm getting from this season. It's always
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: you know, I come from a unique perspective in that
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: I know these people as people first and foremost before
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: they become quote unquote survivors. They are people to me
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: sitting in the sweaty ass jungle talking with the sweaty
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: ass boy over here. Uh So, like you know, I
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: I am sort of looking through things being like, Okay,
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: I know who this person is. So I enjoy the
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: moments where they get to flash. And not to say
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: there haven't been moments of flashiness, especially in the past
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: few episodes, but I feel like this season is more
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: so doing is like if if Survivor got this big,
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: like plastic surgery makeover in the new era, where they're like, Okay,
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: things are looking a little little saggy in some places,
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: a little wrinkled in other areas. We're gonna inject it,
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: you know, go under the knife try.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: We're gonna give it the Jeff, get everything.
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: Tucked and lifted and make it new, new and shiny
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: and fresh. It's starting to wear off a little bit,
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: you know, the wrinkles are starting to come back, because
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: I just think that you know, you look at the
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: first part of the season, and it was certainly in
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: a sense of like, okay, all of the votes basically
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: up until the Shannon votes, so half of the season.
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: At that point, we're all very run of the mill
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: from a strategic perspective. But that doesn't always need to
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: be a problem necessarily. I'm never someone who dictates and
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: in my enjoyment of a Survivor episode by like who's
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: the one who gets voted out if the voting chart
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: is a unanimous vote or not. But I think that unfortunately,
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: it sort of is coming at the cost of like, okay,
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: so if the game play isn't exactly you know, off
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: the wall, and the characters are not necessarily off the wall.
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: All you can sort of then look at is like
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: the skeleton of the new Era, and they're vary things up.
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: You know, there's no more mergatory, but it does seem
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: like again, some of these familiar things are are moments
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: where it allows us to kind of reconcile as fans
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: and be like, yeah, why do they still do that?
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: You know, there are nine seasons and there's still doing
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: this thing, and they're still confident that it's going to
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: work time in and time out. I also think something
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: that I've picked up on the past couple of episodes
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: when it comes to storytelling is that I'm getting a
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: lot of like tell, don't show from this edit in particular.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: And granted, we know that fifty is coming and we
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: know that two people from fifty are going to be on.
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: So I came in sort of with the knowledge that
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: the edit might be a little different because it's not
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: going to be as slanted as Russell and heroes versus villains,
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: But you imagine the show wants to highlight these two people,
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: whoever they are. I think sometimes it's kind of ye,
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: whoever they are whoever these people might do. It's all
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: they're wearing bags over their heads with question marks at
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: this point. But then it sort of offuscates some of
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: the other characters as well, to the point where things
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: are presented kind of abruptly, I mean, certainly this past episode,
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: and there's a lot of discourse around like, a, where
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: did this Alex's messy narrative come from? If not just
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: like Yeazzo spinning some thing out of his ass and
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: then b like obviously a lot of slamming the people
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: who decided to flip on the majority to join in
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: on the Alex vote. And I think there I would
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: imagine at least there was rationale as to why they
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: were doing so, we're just not getting shown it, and
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: so I also feel like there's a little bit of
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: a disconnect in the narrative. For me, I'm still enjoying
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: these people, and I think that the gameplay and the
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: season itself has certainly gotten interesting. You know, we are
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: still technically at like a five to three disadvantage for
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: this underdog group, but they have a butt ton of
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: advantages at this point. But it does leave me feeling,
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: you know, leaving each episode being like Okay, there are
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: fun things that I enjoy from this, But did I
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: enjoy the whole as much as the sum.
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: Of its parts?
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Interesting?
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think a lot of people have been mentioning
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: that maybe this season is suffering because of season fifty
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: and we know, I mean, you know, we don't know
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: quote unquote, but we know who the two returning players.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Are. You like that is.
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: Hurting the season or do you think that that's just
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: the cost of doing business.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: I mean what's interesting is that, you know, when you
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: think about seasons that come right before these highly anticipated
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: returning player seasons Samoa, there was really no social media
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: at the time, though there was a lot of obsession
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: around Russell obviously brought a lot of people back into Survivor.
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: You know, you look at like millennials versus gen x.
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: I think there was still a lot of strength there.
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: You know, there's still a lot of wild stuff happening.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: They didn't necessarily make it seem like, come on, Game Changers,
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: especially once people knew the Game Changers cast. I don't
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: think they were necessarily jonesy to be like, get me
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: to Game Changers. And then, obviously, I think for very
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: different reasons, people were eager to tune out of Island
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: of the Idols and look forward to Winners at War.
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: So this is a unique situation. I think also the
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: Survivor fan base has become a much different version of
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: itself than it was even five years ago when Winners
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: at War was on the way. I could certainly see
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: from some people's perspectives They're like, get these you know
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: people out of here. I want to see my faves.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: I think it doesn't exactly help if people feel disconnected
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: in other ways from you know, the episodes prior than
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: they do now.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you don't only cover Survivor, which is important to
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: note because Survivor's obviously a big part of our lives.
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: But you you cover so many different shows, especially reality
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: TV shows. I don't know if anyone's ever asked you this,
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: uh huh. Maybe everyone just assumes Survivor's the top. Is
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: Survivor your number one that you cover? Or where does
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: it rank on the shows that you cover?
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean in terms of, you know, Survivor is
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: incredibly special to me. It will be number one just
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: because of the the pleasure of the privilege that I
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: have to be able to be, you know, cover the
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: show in the way that I can in multiple ways,
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: be it podcast, be it written, be it again, flying
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: out to the aforementioned sweaty ass jungle and be that
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: sweaty ass boy, Like that's that's gonna make it one
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: to me no matter what. And it also helps that
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: I love the show even during seasons, even during moments
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: that I don't necessarily love, like I still still you know,
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: is pumping blood through these veins to get my TV
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: love and heart a beating every second of every day.
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: I Mean, there's other shows that I love covering as well.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: You know, I've always been a big fan of what
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: I call the Big Three of CBS, which is Big Brother, Amazing, Race, Survivor.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: So to just even cover those in the limited capacities
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: that I do is an incredible blessing. And it's a
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: blessing on top of a blessing to be able to
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: get to do all the things I've gotten to do
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: with Survivor so far, Like I still pinch myself about it, yeah,
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: just because like who am I?
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: How?
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: How did I get the ability to be able to
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: do this? That's what a lot of people have been
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: telling me for years as well. So it certainly helps
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: my own mentality.
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: Well, I kind of want to know, you know, when
• 13:57
  Speaker 6: they when they reached out to you to do this,
• 14:00
  Speaker 6: I mean, what was I mean, just what was that like?
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: Like, how did that go down? And what was.
• 14:07
  Speaker 6: That process involving. I mean, it's just such an interesting
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: request to suddenly get one day.
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I got very lucky that in many ways.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: And I have said this, talked about it up and
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: down these internet streets, and I will continue to do
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: so that I owe so much of my life to
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: a lovely man by the name of Josh Wiggler. I
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: have felt a guest gentleman that like, as the kids say,
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: we're losing the ancient text. You know, I'm reading comments
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: over the past few years or so when Josh would
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: occasionally show up on an RGP podcast, people would be like,
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: who's this guy. I'm like, you don't under You were
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: there in the thirties. You understand the importance that this
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: man had to survivor in general, and so you know,
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: the long story short is that Josh was leaving his
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: post at Parade to go cover Survivor and other stuff
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: at the Hollywood Reporter. I talked with him about like, hey,
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: I you know, I like talking with people. Maybe I'll
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: get into journalism. And he's like, oh, oh I got
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: this opportunity. Like again, people ask me like, how do
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: I get to do what you do? I have no
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: discernible answer. I was in the right place, in the
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: right time, and I knew the right person. It is
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: a sucky answer to give, but that is my story,
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: and go ahead.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: Well, I was gonna say.
• 15:21
  Speaker 6: I feel like though, that's that's always how these things
• 15:24
  Speaker 6: seem to happen, right. It's like people say, oh, like
• 15:27
  Speaker 6: someone got lucky or they like it fell in their lap,
• 15:30
  Speaker 6: and I feel like the truth is the rest of
• 15:32
  Speaker 6: the time, luck is just saying yes to the stuff
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: that seems like super weird until all of a sudden,
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: you like find yourself in these situations. But it's like
• 15:41
  Speaker 6: being willing to say yes to it because you could
• 15:43
  Speaker 6: have been like, oh, I'm not like I don't know,
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: and then the.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: Luck is gone. But then you chose to do it.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Do you have a back?
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: Did you already have a background in journalism?
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: I'm going to feel terrible for saying this.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: Other than college paper, right.
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: Never never a college paper? Oh never never went to
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: journalism school. Never interviewed anyone in my life before I
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: started at Parade.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: That's awesome.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: It was.
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: I mean, my first interview was such mixed emotions because
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: Josh was very kind and very strategic in giving me
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: my first interview, which was Zeke's boot from Game Changers,
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: and Seek at that point was a friend of mine.
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: We had become friendly during his at that point like
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: nearly two seasons of the show. However, obviously there is
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: a lot tied to Zeke and his journey on Game Changer,
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: so it's still a little aggravating. But Zeke was incredibly courteous,
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: incredibly giving with his answers, and honestly from there was
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: just kind of building the planes that flies, trying to
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: figure things out, you know. So then I got brought
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: on board to cover Survivor for Parade, starting with Heroes, Healers, Hustlers.
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: But then like even that summer, you know, I got
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: an email from CBS being like, do you cover Big Brother?
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, yeah, I love Big Brother and They're like, okay, great,
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: You're gonna do these interviews and I'm like, so I
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: think right, you are right, and that like for me,
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: I mean, my life philosophy is that I will always
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: try something at least once, not just applying to hard drugs,
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: but everything under the sun, just because I feel like,
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: for me, you can speculate all you want to about,
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: like how would I do if I did this, it
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: never compares to the actual reality. Yeah too, you so
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: one way or the other. So I'm like, let me
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: try this, let me see what happens. And what happened
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: is you know, eight years so far of like to
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: be completely candid, like getting to do a dream job,
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: and it's only due to the support of you know,
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: whether it be Parade, whether it be CBS or these
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: other networks, whether it be all the people who check
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: out what I do, sometimes begrudgingly, sometimes in you know,
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: wholehearted support. So like I mean, I I again, I
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: still think I'm just a schlub, just a random guy
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: who again happened to talk with the right person at
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: the right time and talk with the right person. But
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: like that's why it makes me incredibly you know, counting
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: my lucky stars each and every night that I get
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: to wake up the next day and I get to
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: cover some of my favorite shows and the ways that
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: I get to.
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: Do from regular Guy to Sweaty Ass Boy, the Mike
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: Bloom Story.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: I don't know how many copies that will sell. I
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: know a lot of people are putting out Survivor books
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: as of late, a chase that one might need to
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: be like in the very back of the bookstore.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: You know. No, that's the number one New York Times.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: It's front and center. Yeah.
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: Now you mentioned earlier that you know you you get
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: to do a lot with Rob has a podcast obviously
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: kind of the Survivor Godfather of the media side of
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: things podcast.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: Which is because he once up on Time had beef
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: with a man who quoted the Godfather on Survivor.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, yeah, we call we call we call
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: Rob the Amazonian horn Dog.
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: That's what we call him.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: I know he's coming out with a book, but I
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: think we're gonna have to come back and give him
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: a brand new title.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: And then now we have a nickname for you too,
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: which is Sweaty ass.
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: Boy, the sab Baby.
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but doing so much with Parade, doing so much
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: with Rob as a podcast. When you are the Sweaty
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: ass Boy and you're on the beaches of Fiji and
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: you're there and you're in the midst of it. Does
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: it change the game for you, because, like you mentioned earlier,
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: you see them as people before they've become characters on
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: the show.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say that like I ever
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: necessarily mischaracterized some of these people. I mean, granted, obviously,
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: as we all attempt to mature in this world, we
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: gain perspectives that we haven't before. But I mean, I'd
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: like to think that even before I got to do so.
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: And maybe it's also because of like with the proliferation
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: of social media, I feel like we do get to
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: see a side of these people now, sort of more
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: unfiltered than through the show, which I think gives us
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: a better sy as to who they are than just
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: a character. Not to say we're past the days of
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: like Jerry Manty getting hate mail and death threats. Again
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: considering talk to some modern survivors and they might give
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: you similar stories, But I mean, I do think that
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: it does allow me to get a little bit more sympathy,
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: a little bit more empathy with them, knowing where they
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: come from, what their perspective might be, and it's given
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: me also more recognition of like the roles that they
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: might play in the season two, you know, like, yeah,
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: while they are attempting to talk about their journey and
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: their story, at the end of the day, it may
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: not be their story to tell. It depends on what
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: service they serve to an overall edit. And you know,
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: it makes me feel even worse for the people who
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: do get purples, because it's like, I know how much
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: you want this, I know the story. I know I
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: know what took it took for you to get out
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: here in the first place. So if anything, you know
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: it from the contestant perspective, it definitely allows me to
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: see them a bit more as an individual, you know,
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: as someone again I got to know before or the
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: game begin. And it's also very fun to see what
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: they intend to do versus what they actually do and
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: how much that matches up, and most of the time
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: it really does not. The other side of things is that,
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: you know, what I professed so much is that like
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: getting to see production work, and I'm trying not to like,
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: you know, Brown knows too too much here, but it
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: really is like a marble in and of itself. I
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: always compared to an Iceberg where we only see Jeff
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: and maybe you think about the cameraman. Maybe you think
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: about the guy who built the tribal council stumps, but like,
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: there are hundreds of people every day and they are
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: truly putting every ounce of themselves into everything they do
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: to make the best product possible. And not to say
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: that production is blameless at all, they certainly have done things,
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: especially in the New era, that I do not agree
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: with whatsoever. They've been doing things for a while and
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: certain aspects that I used to be heavily, but I
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: do think that it does allow me to gain a
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: bigger insight, like what goes into every single thing that happens,
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: and also to know that like unlike other reality shows,
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: where again production might do things out of apathy, there
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: are there is intentionality. There are guided choices behind what
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: they do. You may not agree with those choices. Again,
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: I feel like some of those choices might be misguided,
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: but they are choices. It's not necessarily a like, oh
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: so and so is lazy, so.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: They're just doing this.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: Like if they're doing something, it means that they think
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: it's going to work, and whether it does is a
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: matter of opinion. But that has given me definitely a
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: different insight too, especially the new era, which again try
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: to do this whole facelift and completely I wouldn't say
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: build the game from the ground up, but throw in
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: a lot of stuff that the show hadn't seen in
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: its first twenty years.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think repetition.
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: It could be a thing that people don't relate, like
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: don't latch onto super Well, it's like, well, we saw
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: the same thing last season. We saw that this season before.
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: But like, you know, the big issue last season was
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: they had some fun characters. The pre merge was incredible,
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: and then at the end of the day, what can
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: production do if the players.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Aren't playing, you know what I mean.
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: So I feel like maybe the edit gets a hard time.
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: Sometimes the producers get a hard thing to It's like
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: they can't make them do things that they're not gonna do.
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean sometimes you just have those seasons where
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: it's like, here's this majority alliance, they are locked in,
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: they have all the advantages, and like that's just that's
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: just how the cookie crumbles and it sucks, like it's
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: not an enjoyable viewing experience necessarily, But like they're also
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: gonna have seasons like that, you know, And I very
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: much understand the gripes that people have with forty eight
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: that they have with this season, but like, I don't know,
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: Pepper's farm also remembers like back in the twenties, I know,
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: when it's like, oh man, what's going on here? Like
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: this is just a massacre with people that we don't
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: find incredibly interesting. So you know, maybe it's sort of
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: the new eraspin on those types of seasons because up
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: until that, you know, I do feel like and granted,
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: it's also interesting to to enabl gaze a bit and
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: see what seasons look like in retrospect, Like, yeah, watching
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: the reception of forty three has been so wild where
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: it's like, right after forty three, people were like, this
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: season's trash, and then like as more seasons, especially in
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: the wake of forty eight, people are like, well maybe
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: forty three looking so bad anymore. So it's again, you know,
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: this is a very different fan base than what it
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: was five years ago, and so being able to see
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: them track in real time their own opinions about things.
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: It also doesn't help that we came after what I
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: think is an incredibly strong batch of three seasons. I think, yes,
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: people might have their begrudgings about the new era, about
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: the structure, about the actual meat, potatoes, the muscles and
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: organs within the skeletal frame. We're pretty damn baller. Three
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: seasons in a row and we got we were eaten
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: so so good, and even through the first half of
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: forty eight, I agree it was it was fun, it
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: was chaotic, and then we just you know. The The
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: thing that I love about Survivor is that not to
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: say the players make up the rules, but like they're
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: the ones that kind of dictate what the philosophy of
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: the season will be and the philosophy of that sheath.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: And up to a.
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: And I think that it's it's a sucky thing to watch,
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: especially from like a modern day lens. It's not an
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: exciting thing to watch necessarily, but that's what they wanted
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: to determine the criteria on the island, what you know.
• 25:28
  Speaker 6: And there's also I feel like some of it, not
• 25:31
  Speaker 6: even some of it, So much of it is just
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: from viewers becoming fond and like just knowing players, and
• 25:37
  Speaker 6: then the season ends and then you're kind of giving
• 25:41
  Speaker 6: this time off. But when my wife and I like
• 25:45
  Speaker 6: first started watching Survivor, it was only a few years ago.
• 25:48
  Speaker 6: And not as long as Chase and Pda have been
• 25:50
  Speaker 6: watching The Survivor. But we just binged a whole lot
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: of seasons, and what we found is it was like
• 25:56
  Speaker 6: it was almost hard to like leave this season and
• 25:59
  Speaker 6: go into and be like, oh, now I've got to
• 26:01
  Speaker 6: like learn more people's names and I've got to like
• 26:03
  Speaker 6: get used to who.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: They are, Like, yeah, you know, why don't they just
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: use the same cast? Yes?
• 26:10
  Speaker 6: Well, you know, in a way, people though, you know,
• 26:14
  Speaker 6: we just naturally are inclined towards maybe like a regular
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: television show in some ways where it's not a rotating cast, right,
• 26:21
  Speaker 6: it's and it's obviously a scripted show. But I feel
• 26:26
  Speaker 6: like having caught up finally and like watching everything Live
• 26:30
  Speaker 6: with Survivor, you do get this nice time between where
• 26:34
  Speaker 6: you get to look back at the season you watched
• 26:37
  Speaker 6: and almost re evaluate it before the new one happens,
• 26:40
  Speaker 6: where you're like, oh, like, in the moment, I thought
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: I didn't like the what I was seeing, but now
• 26:47
  Speaker 6: I kind of like remember the fun stuff from it,
• 26:50
  Speaker 6: so it doesn't move as fast.
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: And I also, like, you know, there's always a bit
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: more of a colorful lens one way or the other.
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: Looking something because as I mentioned, like you are looking
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: at the broad strokes. I mean I experienced this all
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: the time being a Big Brother fan, where you know,
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: I'll just apologies. You feel free to like dissociate if
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: you'll want, like some Big Brother stuff, but like, no, no,
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: So like Big Brother twenty five, for example, I thought
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: still had like a very strong, very interesting first half,
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: and then things got very rote and predictable the second half,
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: and so you come back to next summer and everyone's like, yeah,
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: Big of the twenty five was one of the worst
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: seasons ever from beginning to end. It's like, but we
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: spend like two months of that season saying this was
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: a very good time.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: And again not to bemoan the people who feel like
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: the ending and especially the end stretch it was incredibly
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: dull and like that could determine your enjoyment of the season,
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: but I don't want it to necessarily completely erase like
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: the very the good amount of time we dedicated standing
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: up to all hours of the morning watching these people
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: crazily game. I feel like similarly Big Brother twenty six
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: people from pretty much beginning to end until things kind
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: dropped off towards the end, we're like, oh my god,
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: this is one of the best seasons ever. The cast
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: is so wild, the AI Arena is one of the
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: best twists they've ever done. And then I you know,
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: pay attention to the discourse this season. They're like, remember
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: when Big Tour the twenty six sucked and nobody was
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: a good player, and it's like, where was the worst summer?
• 28:17
  Speaker 6: Yah?
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: So I'll be again very intrigued to see, like what
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: happens with Big Brother twenty seven next year, because you've
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: been really with the one understandable, very large exception. I
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: think really enjoyed Big Brother twenty seven. But there's this
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: always little part of my head that's like, Okay, when
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: is someone going to come in with the like but
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: is it Big Brother twenty seven kind of overrated? Or
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: it's the exact opposite where it's like, so there's this
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: mother and it's like the woman who fired from five
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: million jobs because she listed off all the slurs in
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: the human language. It's like, Okay, well, I guess right.
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: Time mixed heroes of it's all I suppose, yeah, yeah.
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: I love the who people latch onto online, especially with Survivor,
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: where someone will be like my favorite surviving player is
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: this player and I'm like, I don't even remember that.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Who is that?
• 29:06
  Speaker 6: Look, it'll happen to me again. I'm the newest Survivor Watcher. Actually,
• 29:10
  Speaker 6: brand our other host is probably the newest Survivor Watcher.
• 29:13
  Speaker 6: But sometimes Chase EPD they'll like get really into the
• 29:17
  Speaker 6: weeds and they start being like, oh, Jonathan, you remember
• 29:19
  Speaker 6: this guy, and I'll just fake it. I'll be like, yeah, totally,
• 29:23
  Speaker 6: I really do, and then like a month later, I'll
• 29:25
  Speaker 6: admit to them after we've continue talking about it.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: I'll be like, guys, I don't know.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: I have to heying with his interviews.
• 29:33
  Speaker 6: They're like I want to be like this player and
• 29:34
  Speaker 6: he's like, cool, what was your favorite thing about the
• 29:38
  Speaker 6: game they played?
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: Now I'm I'm very much the opposite where I'm like
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: definitely along for them with the ride to the play
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: where like they might not be along for the ride.
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: They're like, yeah, my favorite player is this person? Like
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: oh yeah, when they cast that voter in episode seven,
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: they're like like like when they won that challenge and
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: I'm like, yeah, it's cool.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: I like the shirt they wore that SEASONA.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: You know again, everyone has loving people.
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: Speaking of fifty because I said, Ozzie is hot. Who
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: were you most excited to see coming back for season fifty?
• 30:14
  Speaker 7: Oh?
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: I mean I am such you know, a Day one
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: fan technically not a Day one fan, but very close
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: to it. That like I can't help but not be
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: excited about like Jenna Lewis, Oh yeah, because I think
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: people might not remember like how renegade she was, especially
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: in All Stars, like Mark Burnett's book that he writes
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: about the first season, Like they say how they intentially
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: cast Jenna to be the villain of Survivor Orneo because
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: like she was very outspoken. She was very much like
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: do whatever it takes to get this money for my family.
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: Just so happens that she was put in this underdog
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: role because of her tribe. That like everyone warmed up
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: to her in the process, you know, without saying too much.
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: When I interviewed her, she was shot out of a cannon.
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: So like it's to me because like I you know,
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: I've I was very excited to see a lot of
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: new era standouts, but it's a very different thing. I
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: know these people, I just watched these people, but like
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: getting to not only talk with certain old school people,
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: but getting to see them back. Of course, the Trinity
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: from David Versus Goliath. I was incredibly excited because this
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: is something we have been waiting more than half a
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: decade to happen in multiple ways. So those are really
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: sort of like I think the biggest alpha omegas. Chrissy
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: was also a great one, just because there really was
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: that window where like she was arguably one of, according
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: to Survivor fans, like the most robbed contestants in the
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: show's history. And then you think the window shut for
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: a while, it's like, Okay, there's no chance that she's
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: coming back. And when fifty came around, it's like, are
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: they gonna remember these people? Are they just gonna pay
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: attention to the new hotness, or like, are they going
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: to remember the people that they did they couldn't cast
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: since their first season. I didn't even say Rick to
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: a certain extent as well. I know that Rick Rick
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: certainly has his haters, but like he made entertaining TV
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: and he knew exactly what he was put there to do,
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: and I imagine that going to be exactly the case
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: here as well. And then of course, like I mean,
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: Suri is my favorite contestant of all time. I very
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: much understand the argument of like why do we need
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: to see her yet again? But like I'm always gonna
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: love seeing Sria, love talking to Suri, even when she
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: just freaking played Survivor and yeah was the final germor
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: maybe to the penultimate day, Like I don't care. I
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: love watching Suri Fields on reality TV because she makes
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: it so enjoyable, Like she it feels like she's having
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: so much fun, and we were having fun by proxy.
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: So like, I know you asked a question I had
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: listened off about a quarter of the cast.
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: I would much prefer you to be so excited then
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: to be super negative and be like I hate everyone
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: they picked.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: I'm very excited for Q to be back. I love Q.
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: Oh, I love Q.
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we were big Q fans.
• 32:51
  Speaker 6: Honestly, Suri is the first one that I think about
• 32:54
  Speaker 6: because I feel like I, like you said, every time
• 32:58
  Speaker 6: that I saw her on a season, and a lot
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: of what Kristin and I were binging when we were
• 33:02
  Speaker 6: catching up, it was.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: Just like, oh my goodness, like Serice, you know it's
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: for me.
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: When I saw her name, I was like, this is
• 33:09
  Speaker 6: going to be really interesting to see how this works
• 33:12
  Speaker 6: for somebody who's done it several times in comparison to
• 33:17
  Speaker 6: someone who's just returning for the second time. You know,
• 33:20
  Speaker 6: it's it's very interesting to think about. But uh, I'm
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: really excited to see her. I do love Q I
• 33:26
  Speaker 6: do love you, and you know the thing, yeah, I
• 33:30
  Speaker 6: mean they should have brought Bonu back is the only
• 33:33
  Speaker 6: thing I know.
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: That was the one that was the one exception, the
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: one miss I.
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: Wanted Bonu and Andy to team up and be the
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: greatest alliance of survivor of all times.
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, this is the greatest and most short lived alliance
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: all the time. They wouldn't last until the end of
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: the scene together and they'd be sworn enemies by the
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: end of that COMPI was like.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: I'm praying that Andy denies our alliance.
• 33:58
  Speaker 5: Now, Bonus, just like prank. Don't let anyone laugh when
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: Andy opens it.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: Don't let anybody cheer.
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: Hell me for Operation Operation India would be a masterclass.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Yes, dude, Jonathan, we have a question from PD. We
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: do we have that?
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: We have again?
• 34:17
  Speaker 6: The the guy who is uh, you know, it would
• 34:20
  Speaker 6: have been great if PD could have been here, but
• 34:23
  Speaker 6: you know, he's just gonna have to be with us.
• 34:25
  Speaker 6: Via voice note played over a microphone.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: So here we go. Let's see what he's saying to.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: Hello, this is PD. Hold, why is he a smooth jazz? Hello?
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: This is what's up? This is PD?
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: I mean, you know everyone talks about like having a
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: radio voice. Maybe he's trying because I feel like podcast voice.
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: I don't know, it's podcast voice a thing you guys
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: do you guys feel like you put.
• 34:56
  Speaker 6: On We confirmed this with me the other because I'm
• 35:01
  Speaker 6: normally not the one with the hosting controls, and the
• 35:04
  Speaker 6: other week I got thrown into it, and the moment
• 35:07
  Speaker 6: we hit record, I went into like a different mode
• 35:10
  Speaker 6: of being.
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: It was but Mike, it was ridiculous, but it was really.
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: It wasn't like he got more energetic. No, he literally
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: put on a DJ voice and went, I know you're
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: dying to talk about that?
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: Juwan I did? I said that statement, and we did not.
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: This episode did not air because we had a lot
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: of technical problems.
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: Did you have just like a dissociated episode?
• 35:31
  Speaker 7: Like I.
• 35:34
  Speaker 6: Straight up I don't know what happened to me, and
• 35:36
  Speaker 6: I could feel it happening, and I'm technical.
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: This just sounds like an excuse for you to never
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: host again.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: I can't do it.
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: I'm so sorry, but I do on a journey.
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: I'm technically you don't want him back.
• 35:51
  Speaker 6: I'm technically hosting the controls right now, and I feel
• 35:55
  Speaker 6: like I have.
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: Entertained it. I took all of the mess.
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: I mean, I met you so that you might be
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: your alter ego right now, and I haven't met.
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: There right now.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, let's let's.
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: Hear what the actual podcaster has to say.
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Hello, this is.
• 36:14
  Speaker 7: PD calling in making the merge because I couldn't be
• 36:19
  Speaker 7: there tonight. I'm in a back alley way right now.
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: Sketchy things happening here.
• 36:28
  Speaker 7: But I did just want to call because we're having
• 36:32
  Speaker 7: the man.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: The legend, Mike bloom One today, which is crazy.
• 36:37
  Speaker 7: Crazy the legitimate journalist would grace with their presence. A
• 36:43
  Speaker 7: hardcore journal Mike is the real deal. So thank you
• 36:46
  Speaker 7: so much, Mike for giving us a little bit of
• 36:48
  Speaker 7: credibility just by coming on. But what I wanted to
• 36:51
  Speaker 7: ask was, have you ever done an interview preseason and
• 36:58
  Speaker 7: you walked away with it thinking that is the winner?
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: Right now? Talk?
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: What the fuck?
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: Dude?
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: Oh that one you had to have scripted? That that movie,
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: that's an incredible bit. Wait, you guys are.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: What is he doing in an alley?
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: You know what I love to think about is I
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: love to think about p D listening back to this
• 37:29
  Speaker 5: episode and the first thing that comes out of your mouth,
• 37:31
  Speaker 5: Chase is the question he does that we're.
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: Gonna play like thirty minutes later.
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: Hi, Well, gentlemen, I think there's a non zero chance
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: this is the last thing you've ever heard from p D.
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: Was there any sort of Epilogueusy like, Hey, I'm out
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: of the alley. Because he's describing as surroundings, I'm a.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: Oh, there's a little bit left.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: So let's see.
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: Let's see if he asks an original question.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Let's see.
• 37:56
  Speaker 7: If I have to guess, I would say that's how
• 37:58
  Speaker 7: you felt after talking to D, because I mean, it
• 38:01
  Speaker 7: seemed obvious to be but yeah, I just wanted to
• 38:03
  Speaker 7: know if that's ever happened to you.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: You just read reemphasized.
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: It was another very good one.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: She was different because we were over zoom instead of
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: in person, but I still got a very good I mean, yeah,
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: I feel like she really was like the perfect package.
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: Uh, And yeah I did.
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: I did perhaps predict that she and Austin would make
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: the whoa I mean listen, Granted that I don't know
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: how long, if it's like one hundred meters dash at
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: the end of the day, But like I did clock that,
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: Like the two of them were similar in age, they
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: were both very much into fitness, very much into travel.
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: So I was like, there's there could be something. Maybe
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: I just had, you know, the Frankenship of Matt and
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: Franny on the brain. But I was like, man, yeah,
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: it could be if there were to be a connection,
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: it could be between these Now. Granted there is a
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: much longer lasting love connection odd season forty five at
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: the end of the day, but this is a he said,
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: the much more visible one at the time.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't.
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: He's really you can't spell PD without d oh.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: That's why why have we not said that, Chase, We've
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: never said that.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: That's incredible.
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: Well, when we were we were just at the Survivor Bar,
• 39:17
  Speaker 5: the Survivor Cafe, and and uh PD got a picture
• 39:21
  Speaker 5: beside her face on the wall of winners.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: He was so excited, and then he went to an
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: alley way while we were in Boston and.
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: Just started smoking cigarettes and being like I gotta talk
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: to Mike Bloom No, how.
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: Was the Survivor bar because I believe is it? Is
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: it not in its its last days? If not, it's
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: already it's done.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's done now.
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: So now that the embargoes left it, what's the official review,
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: what's the official word from making the merge on this?
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: I wasn't there. It's gonna have to be Chase me
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: and p D went.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: We had a blast. It was so much fun. We
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: were there the night Shannon went home.
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: The bar cheered and PD kept yelling at people and
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: was like, no, she owns the place.
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: They didn't care.
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: There was a there was a video that went kind
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: of viral in the Survivor space of like the bar
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: cheering for Shannon getting voted out.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: It was bizarre.
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: Oh my god. They have had a certain mind about things.
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: They're ready to just move on. They could have like
• 40:17
  Speaker 4: locked the doors and thurns you all down.
• 40:20
  Speaker 5: I did think it was funny that the last week
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: of the Survivor Cafe was the week after she was eliminated,
• 40:27
  Speaker 5: so it kind of came off like they only wanted
• 40:29
  Speaker 5: to do it while she was in the game.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: But it was a ton of fun.
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: It was super cool to play the challenges that they
• 40:35
  Speaker 5: had there. Yeah, the theming was all survived out. I'm
• 40:39
  Speaker 5: sad that you didn't get to go because you could
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: have told us how it compares to actually being on
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: the sweaty ass beach.
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: I mean what, I would imagine that you were probably
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: as sweaty, if not more sweaty if you're packing with
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: no I mean, I've gotten the chance that those challenges
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: are also. Yeah, they're so fun to do. I've been to,
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: you know, a couple of these beach drop events as well,
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: and that had them. But it looked like an awesome time.
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: I'll be intrigued to see if they do something similar
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: for fifty. Obviously, as you mentioned, there was a personal
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: connection to the forty nine version of this, but I
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: wonder if it was successful in its first phase to
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: warrant like a full scale version for Survivor fifty, that'd.
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: Be so sick.
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: I'm so excited for fifty. It's you know, twenty five
• 41:20
  Speaker 5: years of Survivor. Jeff Probe should write a book and
• 41:23
  Speaker 5: release a book about Survivor this year.
• 41:25
  Speaker 6: Now there's the there's the photo like book that's coming
• 41:29
  Speaker 6: out of the Survivor book.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: You know, but and you know, you know who else
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: has a book coming out?
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: I mean gona unless Stephen Fishback, Rob Cescernino, Eric Reichenbach's
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: Rooky on a memoir, Jonathan, that was your cue to
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: hit it.
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: I missed it. I missed it making the Merge podcast
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: should have Thank.
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: You Rob, Thank you Rob. Yeah?
• 41:49
  Speaker 5: That was from the what do they call it when
• 41:51
  Speaker 5: they do the music the fans submitted music episode?
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: Oh the Wandolf, Yeah, the wand Off. Jonathan submitted a song.
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: For that did and that's where we and it went.
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: It went far, We did good.
• 42:02
  Speaker 5: It was a parody of Pinky Pony Club called Big
• 42:06
  Speaker 5: Bro Club about Joe and Eva in that alignance.
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: It's true my five minutes of fame, you know, I
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: remember listening to that.
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: Actually, so I feel starstrucking singer a Big Bro Club.
• 42:20
  Speaker 6: That's It's a very original tune that I wrote myself.
• 42:25
  Speaker 6: Completely definitely not a car reality. We can say you're
• 42:28
  Speaker 6: Chapel Roone right now.
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: I feel like Chapel Roone right now.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: So, I'm gonna start yelling at.
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: The Survivor title, waiting to happen like survivor of everyone.
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: I guarantee you there's gonna be a title called I
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: feel like Chapel Roone right now?
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: Do you feel like Chapel roone right now?
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: And I will want credit for it when it does happen,
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: not chapelon me, so especially when Q.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: Is the one who says it.
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think you.
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: Know who Chapel roone is. Oh yeah, yeah, I think
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: Chapel Roone is the name of a horse you can
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: bet on.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: He's like a super successful real estate agent, right.
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: Dude, he's slinging houses out there.
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: You know he doesn't have time for that. Yeah, there's
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: a lot of time to listen to Chapel roone eighty,
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: you know, and.
• 43:11
  Speaker 6: One empty house and no one shows up to this
• 43:14
  Speaker 6: open house. Maybe he's throwing it on.
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: Well, that's the thing. I also wonder, like what music
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: this qu listen to? And then there's a part of
• 43:20
  Speaker 4: me that things like the music Q listens to is
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: like a tape of himself pumping up that just runs on.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: We can very well win this thing, yeh.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: I uh.
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: Take us through because you cover so much, you do
• 43:34
  Speaker 5: so much with Survivor. Take us through kind of like
• 43:36
  Speaker 5: a day in the life of Mike Bloom when he's
• 43:38
  Speaker 5: doing everything.
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: What kind of shows are you doing day to day?
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: What podcasts? What are you writing after the episodes take
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: us through the journey.
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so usually, you know, my busy days are Wednesday
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: and Thursday, especially with Amazing Race now running at the
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: same time as Big Brother for a while now, it
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: has been sort of like the companion piece, uh with
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: these ninety minute shows. So usually I'll have like many
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: recapritten up afterwards, and then the next day it's pretty
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: much a matter of just like going through, you know,
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: I take notes from all this, from all these episodes,
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: going through like Okay, what happened with this person? What
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: I want to ask about, writing out way too many
• 44:12
  Speaker 4: words as an intro to these people, and then hit
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: the zoom hit record talk to these wonderful individuals, and
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: then it's all about like transcribe as fast as possible,
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: throw it up there, throw it on the internet, throw
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: it on social media for people to digest to their
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: best ability. Then I have an Amazing Race interview in
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: the afternoon, and then usually I'll have an Amazing Race
• 44:33
  Speaker 4: podcast that night. So it's a matter of like and
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: I have conscripted myself to the oddest of fates, which
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: is I don't know if you guys are like amazing
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: race fans, but for whatever reason, I have a running
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: bit on that podcast where I have to wear a
• 44:45
  Speaker 4: costume every week and this is not this again, let
• 44:48
  Speaker 4: me look, this is this is not put on by
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: anybody else mandate you hear, Rob's not you, It's me.
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: It's the stupid thing that I decided I should do,
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: and so the and it's a matter of like literally
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: reaching into a closet and pulling out all these random
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: pieces and try to figure out what I want to do.
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: That sort of a child on top of all this,
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: who has now gone into helping me with this, which
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: has really helped, you know, trying to really keep it
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: in the family there into my costume team. But that's
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: getting ready for the podcast that night, and then usually
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: I'll do another podcast on the weekend called the RJP
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: B and B, which very much is the mood of
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: this podcast. It's focusing on the lighter side of things,
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: not deep diving heavy into strategy unless I guess really
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: wants to. And so it'll be a matter of like
• 45:31
  Speaker 4: if I'm prepping a game for that week, Okay, let's
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: let's look up what I want to do. For an example,
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: this week we had the Great teeny from Survivor forty
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: seven on. I was so inspired by Steven that I
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: just asked about space facts. So I looked up a
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: bunch of the wildest facts you've heard about outer space,
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: and I threw it together into a quiz. So it
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: is kind of like, you know, I in general, I
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: sort of exist with the Shark mentality, which is I
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: kind of am always moving, kind of always working something,
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: always focusing on something. And so I would say, you know,
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: the the Sunday, Monday, Tuesday is a little bit of
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: the calm before the storm. But then towards the middle
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: end of that week, especially again when both shows are on,
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: and even then because now in the winter we have traders.
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: In the summer we have big brothers, so like there's
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: an off period, but there's never really an off period
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: to soft off.
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: So when there is a little bit of that soft
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: off period, you like what I.
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: Did adding the tea at the end.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: But you know, we.
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: Too, Yep, you see, I'm not going with you.
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: On he don't embarrass me in front of an esteem journalist.
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he probably noticed it too. I'm assuming you know
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: you on my side, right.
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: Arm I was.
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: I both noticed it and was incredibly charmed by it.
• 46:51
  Speaker 6: Now now, Mike sake simon idiot, Chase, well good, everybody
• 47:00
  Speaker 6: else does.
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: But it's not you. It's your DJ persona.
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: You're right now me, it's not me.
• 47:06
  Speaker 5: Hey, Johonaithan, We're not going to bully you this episode
• 47:08
  Speaker 5: because PD called in with the alley Yeah, yeah.
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: It's he's just snapping walking towards this.
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: He's like, Mike Gloom, thanks for being baby.
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: Which is weird because like, I'm the exact opposite of
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: smooth jazz. Like listening to my voice, you know, the
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: energy I come across as like I'm not the like
• 47:27
  Speaker 4: K one oh seven whenever, like smooth trail a saxophone.
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: I'm like the big brass like but.
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: All time, Chase, we just we have to turn PD
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: into a clip with that, like the hello, this is.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: Just like, oh my god.
• 47:45
  Speaker 5: But anyway, as I was saying, with that soft off
• 47:48
  Speaker 5: period when there isn't anything going on, what are you doing?
• 47:51
  Speaker 5: Are you just taking a little bit of a vacation
• 47:53
  Speaker 5: or are you still grinding on other things?
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: A little bit on other thing. So I am also
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: the TV editor for PER so it is a lot
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: of like not necessarily covering shows because I'm in more
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: of an overseeing position there, but it's certainly keeping a
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: pulse on what's going on. Sometimes. That is, you know,
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: watching scripted shows, which I also love as well.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: I love.
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: I mean, I was raised by TV in general, and
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: so I subsisted. I'm not only unscripted but scripted television
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: in my youth. It's, you know, just watching all the
• 48:24
  Speaker 4: great stuff that is out there. You know, sometimes I
• 48:26
  Speaker 4: do like to decompress. I will say I have gotten
• 48:29
  Speaker 4: very much into sports over the prest like three or
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: four years or so, and I don't I love it.
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: It's one of those things where I'm like, why have
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: I not gone into this?
• 48:40
  Speaker 6: PD is always trying to sway us on this. PD
• 48:42
  Speaker 6: is the sports guy. He tries to bring stuff up.
• 48:46
  Speaker 6: In fact, I named my whole draft team the Flint
• 48:49
  Speaker 6: and Steelers and took the name Steelers just to make
• 48:52
  Speaker 6: him angry because they're his team. Really yeah, and then
• 48:56
  Speaker 6: we got jerseys and I took his favorite player's number
• 48:59
  Speaker 6: for my jersey.
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: So what.
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: Are you into?
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: So I would say if I could, like, you know,
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: what's this survival Climan, it would probably be football, probably
• 49:11
  Speaker 4: be the NFL, just because it has sort of become
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: America's sport. I think it's really successful. It's probably the
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: most exciting. I'm a big baseball fan as well. My
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: baseball is my son's favorite sports, so I think also
• 49:22
  Speaker 4: like getting him more so into it. I've tried to
• 49:26
  Speaker 4: like get into basketball and hockey. I have a tough
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: time with the constantly moving types of sports for whatever reason.
• 49:33
  Speaker 4: Maybe's because my ADHD like has trouble with me hyper
• 49:36
  Speaker 4: fixating on this or like my attention wanders, and I
• 49:39
  Speaker 4: can't really be like, oh, okay, I guess they you know,
• 49:42
  Speaker 4: they just made six baskets and I was down on
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: my phone. But those all, I say, would be the
• 49:47
  Speaker 4: big two, which makes sense. Like, you know, again, I
• 49:50
  Speaker 4: did not necessarily obviously not participate in sports a lot
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: when I was a kid. I know, I'm shocking the
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: world is saying that what I know, big news. This
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: is my my big secret that I'm finally getting to
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: to make news here on making the merge. But uh,
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: my dad was very much a big sports fan, especially
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: a football and baseball, so I think it just sort
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: of like pervaded me through osmosystem. When I actually got
• 50:11
  Speaker 4: around getting into it, I'm like, oh, yeah, this is
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: exciting fun, I think, and I think especially for me,
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: it's like it's almost like Jonathan when you were kind
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: of like binging past seasons of Survivor. I'm not like
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: binging past seasons of sport, but I don't exactly, but
• 50:27
  Speaker 4: I do love getting to find out about like the
• 50:30
  Speaker 4: history of iconic moments, right, like iconic players, like these
• 50:33
  Speaker 4: names you hear of, like okay, who Like okay, I've
• 50:36
  Speaker 4: heard of Jerry Rice, but like why what did he do?
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: And why was he such a big deal? And so
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: that's really cool for me, and like it also gives me,
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: you know, I have started checking out like some sports
• 50:46
  Speaker 4: YouTubers as well, or like sports commentators, and it gives
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: me like so much appreciation for what they do because
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: I'm like, you are so cool, you know so much
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: about this stuff you have you like, you have this
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: exciting personality. And then I'm a little bit like, is
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: that what is that what people think of me?
• 51:00
  Speaker 5: That's you?
• 51:02
  Speaker 4: Because I just I just don't consider that because again,
• 51:04
  Speaker 4: these people are so well versed. They're so well educated,
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: they're so well spoken, and they're like personable on top
• 51:10
  Speaker 4: of that, and it's like, I like am in awe
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: of what people are able to just rattle off in
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: terms of facts and figures and narratives when it comes
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: to sports. And so that's been like, honestly, I think
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: my new passion has just been getting into sports and
• 51:24
  Speaker 4: specifically the history of sports. Like that's that's my minightly
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: reading is like indulging in some sort of you know,
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: reflection or like book about highlights of past sports moments.
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: So cool.
• 51:38
  Speaker 6: Since you're since we're just branching off into sports, and
• 51:41
  Speaker 6: the fact that your TV editing, like our TV editor
• 51:44
  Speaker 6: like I'm gonna ask what right now? What scripted show
• 51:49
  Speaker 6: is just like hitting for you and you're like, this
• 51:52
  Speaker 6: is this is the best old or new like whatever, I.
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: Mean, it's gotta be. I mean right now, stuff that's
• 51:59
  Speaker 4: currently on the air. It's pluribis For those who don't know.
• 52:02
  Speaker 4: Cluribus is the Vince Gilligan Apple TV show starring Ray Seahorn.
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: I mean, if you are into these like wacka do
• 52:10
  Speaker 4: mystery box shows, I mean, Lost is an incredibly important
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: show to me got to do down the Hatch with
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: Josh Wedler covering Loss, doing like three hundred hours of
• 52:19
  Speaker 4: lost podcast for two or three years, and so I
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: always love when that itch gets scratched. And so it
• 52:26
  Speaker 4: is a wildly well done concept on a network that
• 52:31
  Speaker 4: is I think very underrated. I think people usually remember
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: it as like the ted Lasso and Severance Network, But
• 52:36
  Speaker 4: there's a lot of good stuff in there. I mean,
• 52:37
  Speaker 4: the thing that I've always been crowing to people about
• 52:40
  Speaker 4: for newer shows this year was the Pit. I just
• 52:44
  Speaker 4: coincidentally kind of like stumbled upon the pick because I
• 52:47
  Speaker 4: was like, oh, yeah, there's the show from you know,
• 52:50
  Speaker 4: one of the executive producers of VR with Noah Wiley, Like,
• 52:52
  Speaker 4: I'll check it out. I had screeners for the first half,
• 52:54
  Speaker 4: and I was like, oh my god. And I am
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: someone who abhorred medical shows. I'm really like, I'm pretty squeamish.
• 53:03
  Speaker 4: I like, if you have some sort of like body
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: horror component, even if it's done in a comical way
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: like that is the number one thing to probably make
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: me just steer clear away from your show. And so
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: I was really nervous, and not to say that it
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: it glorifies anything. In fact, it is incredibly gruesome. But
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: I was just so captivated by the performances and the
• 53:23
  Speaker 4: concept of it in particular that I just was immediately
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: incredibly on board. What's more, it's coming back very soon,
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: like it is one of these rare shows that is
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: actually doing two seasons in two years, which we would be.
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: I mean that's the thing too. People are like, oh,
• 53:40
  Speaker 4: you know, Survivor puts out two seasons a year. That
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: is such a rarity. Yeah, in twenty twenty five, we're
• 53:46
  Speaker 4: we're talking right now, two days before Stranger Things season five.
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: Four years, right, which is it's been three years in
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: season four, and it has been nearly a decade since.
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: The first Insane eleven is a mother, right, that is
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: a mother.
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: Guys. We could talk about TV all night long. We
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: all do it for a living, so you know it's true.
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for being here. Thank you.
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: I don't know, man, No, Well, now I want to
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: hear from you guys. Well, what's your association with TV?
• 54:18
  Speaker 4: Because now I'm curious.
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean Jonathan does this show.
• 54:23
  Speaker 5: My main job is I'm a YouTuber. So I talked
• 54:25
  Speaker 5: about TV show.
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: And I'm a video editor, So I did a video.
• 54:29
  Speaker 4: Guys watching what would you recommend?
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's a great question.
• 54:33
  Speaker 6: I've been watching The Chair Company like crazy love Tim Robinson.
• 54:38
  Speaker 6: I think it's phenomenal, and they signed for season two
• 54:41
  Speaker 6: and today I watched this past week's episode and just
• 54:46
  Speaker 6: cried laughing.
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 54:47
  Speaker 6: It is absurd and it is the strangest thing I've
• 54:50
  Speaker 6: watched in a hot minutes.
• 54:52
  Speaker 4: I love it. Yeah, it's it's great because it's like,
• 54:55
  Speaker 4: it's also very fun to watch Tim Robinson get some
• 54:57
  Speaker 4: love always because I am and I think you should
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: leave boy from the very first day. Uh, you know,
• 55:03
  Speaker 4: you had me at It goes both ways with the
• 55:05
  Speaker 4: door and like, I love finding people who love it
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: as well because it only feels niche, but you also
• 55:11
  Speaker 4: have to like very much get it, you know, like
• 55:14
  Speaker 4: this is not a thing that's like, oh, it's this
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: hidden gem that you're gonna love. You just have to see.
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: It's like, no, even if you show it to somebody,
• 55:20
  Speaker 4: you kind of gotta flip a coin.
• 55:23
  Speaker 6: And he was just like, this is the worst thing
• 55:24
  Speaker 6: you've ever introduced to me. I showed it to numerous
• 55:27
  Speaker 6: other people and they were like, this is the greatest
• 55:29
  Speaker 6: thing that you've ever showed me.
• 55:30
  Speaker 5: So I'm watching from SAE. I'm watching Desperate Housewives right now.
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: It's incredible. It's incredible.
• 55:38
  Speaker 4: Where are you at right now in terms of like
• 55:40
  Speaker 4: the chronology of it.
• 55:41
  Speaker 5: I just finished episode seven or eight of season one
• 55:47
  Speaker 5: of season one?
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 55:48
  Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, so you you are really in like the
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: the gold I wouldn't say like the Golden era, but
• 55:53
  Speaker 4: like when it starts off. I mean it was wild
• 55:55
  Speaker 4: to take back in like two thousand and four when
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: it was like Gray's Anatomy, Lost, and Desperate Housewives, like
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: they had a chokehold on that network, badcast.
• 56:04
  Speaker 6: They changed that whole network. I mean it was ine. Well, no,
• 56:11
  Speaker 6: I'm saying like the fact that like changed the whole
• 56:13
  Speaker 6: network they did. I mean when you look at the
• 56:15
  Speaker 6: fact that, like with Lost and Desperate Housewives both came on,
• 56:20
  Speaker 6: I think there was like a changing of the guard
• 56:22
  Speaker 6: with how like they were they were running the network
• 56:26
  Speaker 6: at that point.
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: So yeah, have you didn't think I knew that?
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: Have you?
• 56:31
  Speaker 4: Have you ever read Disney War before? I haven't, But okay,
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: I very much recommended whether you were like a Disney
• 56:40
  Speaker 4: fan or not, because there is a prominent section dedicated
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: to running ABC because obviously Disney acquires ABC at some
• 56:47
  Speaker 4: point down the line, Like it is, I'm a big
• 56:49
  Speaker 4: nonfiction guide is one of like and I don't know
• 56:52
  Speaker 4: how much of it is nonfiction. You know, it is
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: told in a narrative style rather than doing sort of
• 56:56
  Speaker 4: like history type of thing, but it is incredible, fascinating.
• 57:00
  Speaker 4: It's all about Michael Eisner's tenure during Disney and how
• 57:04
  Speaker 4: he was sort of like brought in as sort of
• 57:06
  Speaker 4: like this this X factor and then gained a lot
• 57:08
  Speaker 4: of favor and then lost a lot of favor along
• 57:11
  Speaker 4: the way. Yeah, there's a whole section about like they
• 57:14
  Speaker 4: took this chance on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,
• 57:16
  Speaker 4: they took this chance on lost on Desperate Housewives, and
• 57:19
  Speaker 4: so it's really fun to experience that again. Like you know,
• 57:21
  Speaker 4: we were just like naive teenagers being like, oh, yeah,
• 57:24
  Speaker 4: this stuff is fun. But then you don't realize like
• 57:25
  Speaker 4: all the corporate decisions that were happening to being like
• 57:28
  Speaker 4: our lives and jobs are on the line if this
• 57:30
  Speaker 4: show doesn't work.
• 57:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and also not just ABC, like and this we
• 57:35
  Speaker 5: can cut this out PD if this isn't interesting to everybody,
• 57:38
  Speaker 5: but you know, like.
• 57:38
  Speaker 4: That like if you made it out of that alleypd.
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 57:41
  Speaker 5: Yeah, like the idea that the WB and UPN were
• 57:45
  Speaker 5: created to try to compete with Fox in the nineties,
• 57:48
  Speaker 5: I love.
• 57:49
  Speaker 4: All that, yeah, Like, and it's that's wild to think
• 57:51
  Speaker 4: about too, right obviously, given like the way Fox has gone,
• 57:55
  Speaker 4: I think as a company and like the demo that
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: it courts to have it be the rent gage child
• 58:00
  Speaker 4: of the nineties, right of like here's married with children
• 58:03
  Speaker 4: where they're a family but they hate each other, like
• 58:07
  Speaker 4: or even like you know, the Simpsons is like my
• 58:10
  Speaker 4: bread and Butter. That is like my one a show
• 58:13
  Speaker 4: of all time, Golden era Simpsons, And so like to
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: think about how riskay that was in in the early nineties,
• 58:20
  Speaker 4: Bart Simpson merch was banned in schools nationwide. The sitting
• 58:24
  Speaker 4: US President back when it was uncouth to like decry
• 58:27
  Speaker 4: somebody on television talked down to the Simpsons. Like, it's
• 58:31
  Speaker 4: wild to think about how much Fox kind of changed
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: what flew in the realm of network TV. And so yeah,
• 58:38
  Speaker 4: that's I love writing about like TV history as well,
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: because again, obviously there's a lot you take for granted,
• 58:43
  Speaker 4: but like obviously reading something like TV the book, you know,
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: it is always a really fun one to get to explore,
• 58:49
  Speaker 4: like all these gems from the eighties and nineties that
• 58:51
  Speaker 4: you weren't necessarily familiar with. I think I'm I'm always
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: Maybe it's because like I am always forward looking when
• 58:58
  Speaker 4: it comes to my day to day, whether it's looking
• 58:59
  Speaker 4: at to what's happening nextual, what's happening in the moment
• 59:02
  Speaker 4: that I spend like all of my nightly wind down activities,
• 59:05
  Speaker 4: looking back, whether it's like checking out stuff that that
• 59:09
  Speaker 4: I did not necessarily know about from you know, when
• 59:12
  Speaker 4: I was young or even before I was born, whether
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: it's checking out these sports moments that are iconic that
• 59:17
  Speaker 4: I had no sort of base in. Uh, it's a
• 59:20
  Speaker 4: nice one. Do I think I just not focus on
• 59:22
  Speaker 4: what's going on early in my life? I mean, let's
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: go back to a time where I didn't have these
• 59:27
  Speaker 4: you know, bare necessities to worry about.
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one hard percent.
• 59:31
  Speaker 5: You heard it here, folks, we're going to start a
• 59:33
  Speaker 5: History of Television podcast.
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: It's MIKEL. Jonathan.
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: Oh my god, don't temp me with a good time.
• 59:39
  Speaker 4: Holy moly.
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: But sincerely, thank you so much for being here. This
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: was a ton of fun. Thanks for goofing off with us,
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: and god no.
• 59:47
  Speaker 4: Thank you guys for giving off with me. Like I
• 59:48
  Speaker 4: know that again obviously to somehow little bit background to
• 59:52
  Speaker 4: Survivor forty Night. I know that, as you mentioned the
• 59:54
  Speaker 4: very beginning, you know, some people are in, some people
• 59:57
  Speaker 4: are out on this season. I have been enjoying the
• 59:59
  Speaker 4: way he's been picking up especially. I think this cast
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 4: is fun. You know, I'm intrigued to see what's going
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 4: to happen next. I don't know, if you guys watched
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 4: the preview, it looks to be like a very emotional
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: like Christina goes a little like Liz adjacent in a
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 4: yes challenge, So like, I'm not sure what that's going
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 4: to involve. It seems like, you know, war's brewing with
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 4: these advantages, though at the rate the season is going,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 4: they may not even need to use any of these advantages. Yeah, yeah,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 4: at this point, like Sophie might be like, oh, hey,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 4: I'm gona vote with you guys, It's like, okay, great,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 4: then we just need one more at this point. But
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 4: and you know, Jeff did promise that things would quite
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 4: literally heat up down the stretch, and I think that
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 4: is the case. And even if you don't feel that's
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 4: the case, we've got a month left and then the
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 4: preseason for Survivor fifteen begins.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 5: I'm very excited for this week's episode. I think Riz
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 5: is crying in the preview.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: I can't wait to see what happened. Maybe a snake
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: got him.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 4: Just crying venom. That's the way you actually get the
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 4: venom out of yourself if the bites you.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: Awesome. Thank you guys so much for listening. This has
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: been making the merge.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, everyking listening to leave and that's well. Favy so good.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: We baby new favorite. Now you guys can listen to
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: ads for the next twenty minutes.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 5: I don't know