‘Survivor 50’: Savannah Louie Reveals Why Her Advantage Was Useless

Returning winners always have the biggest targets on their backs at the start of Survivor returning-player seasons. Of the three winners on Survivor 50 — Dee Valladares (Season 45), Kyle Fraser (Season 48), and Savannah Louie (Season 49) — Savannah’s target was the biggest because she was a complete unknown. She and Rizo Velovic finished filming Survivor 49 just nine days before they returned to Fiji for Survivor 50, meaning their season hadn’t even aired by the time filming began.

Savannah came clean about her win in Survivor 50 Episode 1, but she kept her record of four individual immunity wins a secret. Her other big secret was the fact that she won a Block-a-Vote advantage in a two-person competition with Colby Donaldson. Everyone in her Cila tribe assumed she won something on that journey and that she was hiding what she won. They were right. One thing Savannah didn’t do to protect herself, however, was play her Shot in the Dark in Episode 2’s Tribal Council, despite knowing she was on the outs.

Here, Savannah explains why she forgot to play her Shot in the Dark — and why there was no point in playing her Block-a-Vote — in Survivor 50 Episode 2 (read the recap here), and why she was moved to tears during her statement in her second and final Tribal Council of the season.

It was clear that you were on the outs heading into Tribal Council, but it wasn’t clear that you knew that you were on the outs. Your teary speech in Tribal Council made it clear that you knew. What happened at camp that made you feel so emotional?

Savannah Louie: To be honest, I did feel like I was on the outs from right after the Jenna [Lewis-Dougherty] vote, after Jenna went home. It was hard because you see so many people on the island who are really connecting. It was very obvious that Christian [Hubicki], [Rick] Devens, and Emily [Flippen] were a tight three. You have Cirie [Fields] and Ozzy [Lusth], who are a very tight duo. And I just felt like I was this big unknown. Even though I was connecting with people on a personal level, maybe they didn’t want to, I don’t know, bring me a little further in the game. And so, going into Tribal Council, I was worried. But as Tribal Council was going on, that’s where I felt like, “Oh no, the nail is being put in the coffin. I can feel people talking in narratives that don’t necessarily match the narrative that I think is going on.”

And so when I give my teary moment, it is just this, I don’t want to say a final plea because that’s not what it was, but it was this deep breath moment where you reflect on everything that’s happened. It felt like the closing to a really, really special story, my Survivor journey. I thought going into the voting booth, “OK, there’s a 1% chance that I’m not going home, but I’ll hold onto whatever hope I can have.” Unfortunately, that 1% was not enough, but yeah, I did feel like I was on the outs.

So in that teary speech, you knew you were going?

I had a pretty good feeling, but again, anything can happen in Survivor. I was holding out hope, for sure, that maybe these people were not lying to me.

The episode really made it seem like Joe was in danger a little more than you. Of course, Cirie was offering both of these options, you and Joe, because of the advantage they figured you had and didn’t tell them about. Did you hear that it was going to be Joe? What was your perspective going into Tribal?

At first, they tried to tell me it was Joe. And to be honest, I really liked Joe out there. I felt like he was someone who wasn’t closely aligned with Christian, Devens, and Emily. He wasn’t in the Ozzy-Cirie duo, so I’m like, “OK, maybe me and Joe can make something happen.” He’s a very loyal player. I respected his gameplay in Season 48. I felt like it was, in some ways, a little similar to the way that I wanted to play Season 50. I was really hopeful that we could make something work, but unfortunately, that just wasn’t the case. I thought maybe it could be Joe going home. But yeah, I don’t know. It just kept on switching so fast. I think Devens talks about how he does want Joe to go home. And I believe that he really did, but I just believe that he wanted me to go home a little bit more.

It seemed like everybody liked you, but they wanted your advantage flushed out more, so it didn’t seem personal at all.

Yeah, it didn’t feel personal. And I would also say, too, it was maybe less about getting my advantage flushed out and more about getting this unknown flushed out because they knew I had won 49. They didn’t know how. They hadn’t seen my season. That’s very scary in a game of Survivor, where you don’t want any uncertainty. You want as much knowledge as you can have. I don’t blame them for wanting to get rid of me because that’s just automatically a scary player.

Returning winners always have a big target on their back, and you had the biggest one because, as you said, nobody knew you. So, explain your vote for Ozzy.

Honestly, I would’ve preferred for Cirie to go home just because I thought she was the biggest threat out there. I mean, you saw her last night. She’s clearly the best social and strategic person on that beach, maybe even in the entirety of the game at that point, right? But I knew that no one wanted to go for Cirie. There was no way Cirie was going to go home. Everybody thought they were in with Cirie, which again is such a testament to her game. And so while people had thrown out Ozzy’s name the vote prior, I don’t know how serious that really was, but I thought, “OK, if people are at least throwing out the name, it could possibly be an option. Emily’s certainly open to it. Maybe we can rally the troops and at least get a little bit of momentum there.” But unfortunately, that was not the case.

You and Rizo never got to play together this season, such a bummer. Did you two have a master plan had you had the chance to reunite?

No, not necessarily. If I would’ve met Rizo on the beach, I would’ve 100% wanted to work with him and see how far we could have gone together. Going into Season 50, we initially planned to lie about my placement together. We were going to tell everybody that I got fifth place, but we found out as we were heading to L.A. to go to Fiji that our boot order had been leaked for our season, and that everybody had known I had won. And so we had to just switch up our strategy real fast and say, “All right, I guess Savannah’s going to own that she won.” The only thing that I asked Rizo not to do was not tell people that I had won four individual immunities in the previous season. And he honored that. He was great about not telling the people the truth about that, which I really appreciated.

Why didn’t you use your Block-a-Vote advantage in this Tribal Council?

I knew it wouldn’t have helped. A Block-a-Vote wouldn’t have done anything. I felt like, yeah, I was at the bottom, but even if there is a potential for me to escape this, my Block-a-Vote’s not going to make a difference because it’s either all going to be on me or it’s going to be everybody on someone else. It’s not going to be a close vote at all.

It hasn’t been explicitly said this season, but the Shot in the Darks are in play. Did you consider playing yours?

I know! I wish I would have, but to be honest, we had just played 49. No one played their Shot in the Dark for 49. And then when you get your Shot in the Dark for any Survivor season, they don’t make a big deal out of it. They just put it in your bag. And so I literally forgot that it existed. In hindsight, I wish I would’ve been operating at 100%, but dude, I was still trying to recover from 49, let alone keep up with everything that was going on in 50. And that Tribal Council, my brain was all over the place.

As I said, it seemed like everybody liked you on your tribe. They just saw you as a threat because of your history on the show that they did and didn’t know. It seemed to me like you were playing with anyone who was willing to play with you, but are those the same players you wanted to play with on that tribe? Who was your ideal ally on Cila?

Dude, I literally would’ve played with anyone. I say that as someone who, before I was a player, I was a big fan of the show. And when I saw my tribe at first, I’m like, “Oh my God, did I get the best tribe?” I have genuinely rooted for every single player on this tribe at some point in my life as a fan. That’s crazy. And so yeah, it was literally just anyone who will work with me. I’m the kind of person, too, where if someone throws me a bone or someone takes a chance on me, whether it’s in Survivor or in regular life, I will be undying loyal to you. I will feel like I have to prove myself to you. So to be honest, maybe it was a bad thing that they didn’t bring me on board with them because I would’ve been very loyal, but it is what it is.

Do you have any regrets about saying that you were the 49 winner or not telling them about your challenge wins? What would you change if you could?

No, dude, I think I handled it honestly as perfectly as I could have because everybody out there already knew I was a winner. When I asked people on the beach, I was like, “Do you guys want to guess how I did?” They already knew how I did. I wanted to see if anyone would actually own up to, “Oh yeah, I heard you won.” Or if people might even make eyes at each other to show, like, “Oh, she’s going to say she won.” You know what I mean? I’m glad that I owned it. I don’t know that telling people that I was a challenge beast would’ve done me any good. I feel like it may have made me even more scary. I handled it OK.

The Coach Wade and Ozzy feud in these first episodes has been so entertaining. After that reward challenge where Coach called out Ozzy, was there any talk about that at the Cila camp that we didn’t see?

Nothing too juicy. I think at that point, for me personally, whenever I’m on a tribe with someone or a tribe in general, well, maybe not the merge tribe, but whenever I’m on a tribe that’s competing against other tribes, I’m so, I love this tribe! Screw everybody else. I can’t believe Coach said that. We’re Team Ozzy over here. So it’s been funny to watch everything play out. They’re just such an entertaining duo. I mean, Ozzy certainly wasn’t thrilled about Coach and his response in that moment. I feel like Survivor‘s also filled with people who gossip and talk. That’s the name of the game. You have information, you’re sharing information, you’re hiding information, secretly telling information. And so there was a little bit of smack-talking at camp.

That leads me to my next question about Joe’s honor-and-integrity schtick. It was really respected in 48. It got him really far. It’s not really working on 50. What’s your take on that strategy of his?

I’ll apply it to anyone. You could have one strategy that works so well in your first season, and that strategy might fail the next season. And it goes to show Survivor is a game all about adaptability, right? You have to adapt your strategy to some degree based on the people you’re playing with. Joe’s a very loyal player. I’m a loyal player, so I respect that. I love that. I’m not going to hate on that at all, but…

But you’re also willing to lie. We saw that in 49, and Joe’s not willing to lie at all, it seems, which I think might be a mistake.

Here’s what I’ll say. It’s day six. You never know. Maybe he’ll change his perspective over the next 12 hours here, but anything can happen in Survivor. That’s one of the beautiful things about the game. People might learn, “Hey, I’m doing something that’s rubbing people the wrong way.” And if they can adapt it and turn it and change people’s perspectives, maybe that makes them a winner at the end.

Maybe. What’s something that you wish viewers could have seen that didn’t make the cut in the episodes you were in?

I got a rap in my first season for being someone who couldn’t socialize and someone with a bad social game. And so what I wish was shown more in Season 50 was everybody getting along with me. I was ingratiated into the tribe. I had friends, I was rocking with it just because I didn’t have as deep of connections as some of these people who may have known each other before the game even started. I think I still had a good social game. And so I wish my social game would’ve been showed a little bit more, just so I could point at people and be like, “Actually, I did OK.”

I think it’s pretty clear from the episodes that everybody liked you. It’s just that they saw you as a good player, and we were like, “We have to get you out because we don’t know about you.”

I will say I’m so grateful for my exit. I don’t think I could have given myself a better edit for 50 if I tried. I’m so grateful that they let me say what felt like my final words a couple different times. And if I had to go out at the hands of Cirie Fields, all right, fine. That’s not the worst way to go.

It’s good for the plot. To wrap up, what’s a piece of advice about the clothes you bring to Survivor that you would give to future players?

This is going to sound so superficial, I don’t really care, but bring clothing that you actually like and that you want to wear and that you feel confident in. I loved having my colorful sweater out there. I feel like people recognize it, people have fallen in love with it. And it’s my favorite piece that I wore out there. When I was looking for something to wear, I got that at a thrift shop, but I wanted something that would reflect my personality, that was bold, that was fun, that could be a little bit loud. You can tell a lot about someone by the way that they present themselves. I encourage any future Survivor players who are shopping through wardrobe stuff right now to get something that you’re excited to wear because you could be out there wearing it for 26 days, and then you could be back out there wearing the same thing for another returning season.

Survivor 50, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS