‘Survivor 49’ Winner Savannah Louie Defends Season 50 Return: ‘Don’t Be Such a Downer’
Survivor 49‘s winner was crowned in the December 17 finale on CBS. After being sent into the fire-making challenge against her top ally by her other top ally, Savannah Louie beat Rizo Velovic and moved on to the jury pitches. After getting the toughest question of the night from Kristina Mills (5th place), Savannah reigned supreme against Sophi Balerdi and Sage Ahrens-Nichols.
Savannah and Rizo will be back in Survivor 50 this February. Here, the Atlanta news anchor breaks down her win, including Kristina’s “diabolical” request to name a loved one of every jury member, why players don’t need a “why” to play Survivor, and more. Plus, she defends her and Rizo’s Survivor 50 return, asking fans to “just wait” and let them prove themselves.
Let’s start with the fire-making challenge. Rizo told Soph he wanted to go against you because he felt beating you would be his best chance at winning the game. I know you didn’t want to go in, but did you feel the same about going against him, and what did you think your chances were against him at the final tribal?
Savannah Louie: Yes and no. Part of it was like, I feel like I’ve already done enough. I’ve won how many immunity challenges and escaped how many bullets and how many tribal councils? I don’t need to prove myself in fire. I don’t want to prove myself in fire. I just want to be taken to the end. Let me have a night off. But ultimately, I do feel like it was best for my game to go against Rizo in fire. First of all, Rizo and I talked about possibly going up in fire before we even got to tribal council that night. We pretty much said, whoever wins this has $1 million. It’s a $1 million fire. For Rizo, he gets to take out one of the biggest threats in the game. For me, it’s an opportunity to say, “Hey, my closest ally tried to get me out.” Soph tried to get me out, and she couldn’t do it. I won my way to the final three. I earned it. So it was a little bit tricky with that, a little bit of mixed emotions. You never want to go against your closest ally in fire. It’s emotional. And as much as I would’ve loved to be sitting up there at the final three, I really did want to go to the end with Rizo; it was ultimately a good thing, I think, that I didn’t. I don’t know how that final tribal would’ve played out if it was me, Rizo, and Soph. I really don’t.
CBS
Maybe it would’ve split the votes a little more.
Actually, I don’t know. Rizo would’ve taken some of the votes that I got, for sure. But I think one of the things to keep in mind is that the jury didn’t really like me, but I don’t know if they really liked Rizo that much either, if I’m being honest. I think Soph actually might have had a better chance of winning the game if she would’ve sat next to me and Rizo. I’m not sure. We can only speculate.
Were you being fully honest about your lack of confidence in making fire? Or was that a bit strategy-based?
No, I was like, this is where I die, day 25. As a fan, because I’ve watched the show forever, I’m like, “How do people get to day 25 and they can’t make fire? Do they not prepare? What an idiot.” And I’m literally out there, and I’m that idiot. I don’t know, I figured it out pretty easily at camp. I just practiced. I don’t want to say I got lucky, but I don’t even know how that happened, to be honest.
It’s not luck — that was your game the whole season when your back was against the wall. That was pretty obviously what you were going to go to the jury with. They knew that you had the immunity run, and you were able to do that. What else do you think you really needed to point out to them to secure your win?
My biggest thing … think about the name of the show, Survivor. I literally survived so many tribal councils where my name had been the first name out of people’s mouths in the morning, before we even had these immunity challenges. When I was talking to the jury, I really wanted to highlight that. I also wanted to take ownership of my game. I think we’ve all seen tribal councils before where the final three, or the final two in some cases, haven’t necessarily had a good understanding of how they come across in the game. When I was up there, I was like, I know some of you guys don’t like me, I know I’ve come across as very intense at times, I can be a little harsh, I can be a little abrasive, but this is the game that I played. If they wanted to vote for the person they liked the best, that would be one thing, but I think I tried to make a really good argument that I felt that my game was a little more comprehensive. That’s no knock to Soph’s game. You saw her social game; she played an incredible game. I think she had more of a strategic game that we didn’t necessarily get to see. I just felt so confident in what I had done and accomplished.
Which votes were you confident you were going to get, and who do you think you convinced in the moment?
I felt very confident I was going to get Nate, Rizo, Sophie S., and Alex. Well, I did feel pretty confident in Alex. I could also see him voting for Soph, so maybe some of the things I said persuaded him. I’ll be honest, I thought I was going to get MC before final tribal council. I do think Soph killed that final council. She obviously got MC’s vote. I knew Kristina was never going to vote for me. With Steven, I wasn’t really sure which way he was leaning. You saw how close his relationship was with Sage, so he might have been one of the ones I was able to sway in that moment. It was crazy.
We have to talk about Kristina’s question. That was brutal. How did you feel about that in the moment, and were you worried it was going to affect where the votes went?
I was like, I can’t believe she threw this question at me. That is diabolical. I can’t blame her, though. You saw my gameplay out there. I’m someone who’s going to be very direct with someone and make them sweat a little bit, so for Kristina to put me in that position, honestly … respect. You go, girl. It’s probably easier for me to say that now, being so far removed from the actual day in Fiji. That was months ago. In the moment, I wanted to melt into that little tree stump we were sitting on. I’m like, oh my gosh, I’m going to fail this. I had to try to handle it the best I could. But at the end of the day, this is the jury’s moment. They have the freedom and the responsibility to ask whatever they want. At the end of the day, they don’t necessarily have to vote for the person who played the best physical game or the best strategic game, or the best social game. They get to choose. If Kristina wanted to vote for the person who had the best hair on the island, that’s totally her prerogative, and that is one of the most beautiful things about Survivor. It really is up to the jury in that moment. I applaud her for giving me a little bit of a hard time. I love her outside of the show. She’s just an incredible woman. No hard feelings there.
CBS
I was kind of surprised that Rizo didn’t do more campaigning for you in front of the jury. Is that something we didn’t see?
I forget what his question was; you’ll have to ask him. He did ask a question to all of us, and it actually … I feel bad I can’t remember the question, but I feel like it actually was a question where I had a pretty good answer. I think the thing about Rizo is, he respects the game so much. I think that he wanted to have a tribal council where each of us argue and voice our opinions on why we should win. I don’t think he necessarily wanted to sway things or taint anything in the moment. I think he wanted to have a little bit of honorability in final tribal. But that’s probably a better question for him.
I loved your answer to Jawan when he asked why you were playing. You gave a legitimate answer, and then you said the why shouldn’t matter. Why did you think that was important to point out?
As a viewer, I love seeing the stories that people who go on the show, who are so inspirational, who are fighting for their families … my two closest allies, Rizo and Soph, had these amazing stories that are family-related about their why. I’m sitting there, and I’m like, I don’t have that. I really just want to do this for myself because it’s been a dream of mine since forever. I think oftentimes, especially as adults, we look for excuses not to fulfill a dream, especially a childhood dream. There’s always things that are going on. We have responsibilities, we have bills to pay, children to take care of, and we can so often forget about our dreams we had as kids.
I know I’ve seen people discuss before, “I want to play Survivor, but I don’t have a sob story.” You don’t need one. Go out there, be selfish. It is OK to be selfish, especially in the game of Survivor. I hope in that moment, I could help encourage people to own their truth and say, “It’s OK. You don’t need a why.” The game, ultimately, for me at least, isn’t about who has the best story off the island. I know that can be a great motivator for some people, but for me, personally, what I would look for as a juror is the performance of that 26 days. If your why does come into play in those 26 days, absolutely, I can hear you out, but I don’t think it necessarily has to be that way.
Touching on that a little bit, something we’ve seen in the new era, which we saw with Sage last night, is people revealing hidden details about their personal life to make a statement at final tribal. Would that be impressive to you as a jury member, and how did you feel about her doing that last night?
It’s so interesting because I am answering this question as I left out something very personal about my life, my career as a news anchor and reporter. Honestly, I’ll say, whatever you want to do at final tribal council, you do you. If you have to hide a major secret in order to secure those votes, you go for it. You’re playing for $1 million. You have to do whatever you can think of doing to secure that. So I think, great strategy move on her part. Honestly, I was sitting right next to her like … what in the world? I had no idea. It was such a crazy surprise in that moment, and I don’t know necessarily how the jury responded to it, but for me personally, I’m like, “Damn, this girl is a badass. That’s crazy.”
CBS
I want to touch on Season 50. What would you say to someone who may be apprehensive about two 49 players on 50, especially when it’s a similar situation to Kyle and Kamilla from 48?
Absolutely, I get it. You’re seeing so many people from the new era, especially the past two seasons, who are coming back. It’s so short after we just played. But the thing I think about Season 50 is it’s really this overarching game that encompasses things and people from Season 1; why wouldn’t it include people from the most recent season? Especially when — I’ll brag on myself — they played a pretty dang good game. I think Rizo played a great game, too, and to the haters out there, I’ll just say, you know, just wait. See how things turn out. After you watch 50, if you really feel that strongly that the two 49ers shouldn’t be included, that is totally your prerogative, but don’t knock anything before you see what happens, OK? Have a little fun with it. Don’t be such a downer and a negative Nancy.
Jeff Probst said he told you the day after the finale that they wanted you on 50. Was there any hesitation on your end, and were you surprised you were being asked?
Honestly, when he first asked me, I was like, “Is this a prank?” I did not think he was being legit. I think my answer when he first asked was like, “I gotta talk to my people, I gotta talk to my partner, I gotta talk to my family,” because you want to go out there. This is a dream for anyone who’s ever played Survivor. But at the same time, to leave and go back to back, we only had 10 days in between. Survivor is such an incredible game, but you can’t forget about your responsibility back home. People have bills to pay, real lives going on, family members who they’re leaving behind. I needed to figure out a way to make all of it work, and clearly I did, but in that moment, it wasn’t a full yes. It was, “OK, let me see how I can make this work, and I want it to be yes, but I’ve gotta figure out how in the world I’m gonna make this situation happen.”
Survivor, Season 50 Premiere, Wednesday, February 25, 8/7c, CBS
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