‘Survivor 50’: Emily Reveals Twist She Wishes the Show Would Cut

Emily Flippen says spilling secrets was pure personality, not strategy, on Survivor 50. The Season 45 alum tells TV Insider that her so-called inability to stay quiet is one of her regrets from her second time playing, and that she’s not sure that she would play Survivor again. Not because of anything negative from her experience this season, but rather because being a first-time returning player made her realize that, for her, the best Survivor experience is the first one.

Emily was one of two players eliminated in Survivor 50 Episode 11 on May 6. The second was Ozzy Lusth. While Emily could see her elimination coming, she says it was “heart-wrenching” to watch Ozzy’s blindside.

Emily made a Hail Mary attempt with Rick Devens to try to save herself, and Devens helped his season-long ally try to pull it off. It very well may have worked if only Cirie Fields hadn’t had an extra vote to deploy as a shield. That extra vote resulted in a tie, and Emily was sent home on the revote.

Here, she breaks down her elimination and her time on what may be her final season of Survivor. Plus, she reveals what new twist she loved this season, and the twist she wishes the show would stop doing.

I know you made it the same number of days as you did in your original season, but how do you feel about how far you made it?

Emily Flippen: I made it so much further than I think I was expecting to make it. I was on 45, where I was kind of like a cockroach, just kept going much further than I probably should. Gameplay-wise, I always say that Survivor is a game that punishes good players, so I think a lot of times smart, strategic players who are playing good games tend to get voted off earlier. That benefits chaotic, messy people like myself who tend to stick around. But I’m proud of myself for trying. I’m shocked that I made it as far as I did. In 21 days, even if I tap out at three weeks, I’m honored to have had the opportunity.

You said in your exit interview in this episode that you were really proud of how you were more true to yourself this season, how you felt like you lost agency in season 45. Could you expand on that?

On 45, it was in part a benefit of the edit, but I had such a jarring experience. I got so much feedback initially that I think I was playing afraid. And the second time around, I remember just thinking to myself, I want to be myself. I want to have fun. I want to do the best that I can, but ultimately just come out of it saying what you saw was probably true, authentic Emily. And for better or worse, maybe I lean towards worse given how many secrets I spilled. I think what you saw on season 50 was really true, authentic Emily. And the way I ultimately got voted off, I am happy that I tried. I went out swinging. I didn’t go out passively. It was one of my biggest regrets from 45.

I got to say, you telling everybody’s secrets was one of my favorite parts of this whole season. It was so entertaining and funny. Was that just pure personality for you, or was that strategic?

I really wish that I could sit here and tell you that this was strategic. I had some big mastermind plan, where it was going to help me get to the end and get all the votes. No, but it was just complete word vomit, word salad. I think I’m a verbal processor, and so I speak before I have the opportunity to think. I actually think that’s the reason why I got cast on Survivor in the first place. Somebody saw that and was like, “She can’t help herself, can she?”

And so what you saw was probably, unfortunately, just an authentic approach that I have to communication. I can learn a lot, I think, from this. I’m trying to do better about thinking before I speak. And my poor friends, they’re never going to tell me anything in their lives ever again at the fear that I will share it with the entire world, of course. But it’s honestly good perspective. I did not know that I had such a serious verbal affliction until I was watching the season back.

I don’t think you should criticize it too much, though, because one, it’s really entertaining, funny TV, and also it didn’t kill your game. In fact, it kind of kept you in control of some things, perhaps inadvertently, but I think there was some power to it.

Inadvertently is probably the right word. On one hand, it’s like I want to give myself credit because I was spilling so many secrets, I think I came across as very genuine and authentic, and people not realizing I was probably also spilling their secrets, but people thought they could work with that because I was just being so open, transparent, and honest. And so you could argue that it helped me get further in the game. But it came at the expense of my allies, and that is pretty devastating, especially when you see it from my endgame here. What was my path to the final three, where I ended up with votes? Probably nonexistent in part because I didn’t have my allies and people who really trusted me.

It’s one thing when your mistakes hurt your own game, and I really wish that my mistakes hurt my own game. But unfortunately for 50, my mistakes hurt the people around me. It hurt Christian [Hubicki], it hurt Dee [Valladares], it hurt Devens, it hurt Cirie, and people that I was playing closely with that I wanted to continue to work with because I could not keep stuff to myself ended up hurting their games. And that’s devastating for them and me.

That’s a fair enough perspective, but I hope you weren’t too hard on yourself about it because again, it was very entertaining.

I kind of laugh at it, but I cycle between yelling at the TV, screaming, crying, and being like, “Emily, please, for once in your life, shut up.” And then trying to remind myself it’s a TV show, it’s a game. You went out there to have fun, you had fun, and other people are laughing at it. So, it’s one of those situations where I’m forcing myself to laugh because if I don’t, then I will cry.

I get it. And to talk about tribal council, how aware of Cirie’s extra vote were you, and did you anticipate her using it in this episode?

I was completely unaware of Cirie’s extra vote. I think if I had known that she had an extra vote, the calculus around this silly Hail Mary plan I put together would’ve dramatically changed, of course. But it’s kind of fun in hindsight, not knowing about the extra vote because there’s this moment at tribal council where the votes were coming in, and I thought to myself, oh my gosh, this stupid plan worked, it actually worked. Because you could see I looked over at Devens, I smiled. I was like, “Oh my gosh, they actually put the votes on you. This actually worked.”

Of course, the extra vote meant it did not actually work, but it was kind of fun for a moment there, actually thinking that maybe I’d saved myself when I fully expected to go home coming into that tribal council.

When did you figure out what happened? You obviously must have realized in the moment someone had an extra vote. When did you figure out who it was?

Not until the game ended. And then, as people were coming out, I had the opportunity to discuss and hear what they knew. I did not know at that time where the extra vote came from. You’re going back, and you’re like, “Who went on journeys?” And I’m thinking to myself, I didn’t even factor in the idea that Tiffany, Jonathan, or Cirie could have some sort of advantage because none of them had gone on these journeys. And you don’t just find extra votes in the woods, right? But obviously, in hindsight, watching it back, you realize, oh, OK. Ozzy had given Cirie the extra vote from the journey that he went on. So, one of the benefits of, I guess, of being voted out in a dual tribal council here is you have the opportunity to discuss all that with the person you’re gone with.

What was the experience like immediately going into the jury and watching the second tribal council?

It was weirdly jarring. I forgot that that was happening. I started to walk maybe towards the way [out], and then Jeff [Probst] was like, “No, no, no, that way. You have to go sit on the bench.” And then you feel bad also because you smell, you really smell. You’re sitting next to all these people that just got all glammed up to come here and sit on the jury. And then it’s jarring because it’s probably only a few minutes in between when I go, I sit down on the bench, and the next group of people comes in, and it’s like, I was just there. I was just playing the game, and now I’m over here on the other line, and everybody’s looking at you being like, “Ooh, Emily, got voted off.” Not that they were surprised necessarily, but it was a weird experience for sure, but kind of fun.

Not many people have that experience in Survivor. What were you thinking when you saw the plot against Ozzy playing out?

I was really shocked. And maybe if I had spent more time thinking about it, I could have predicted that something like this happens because you never really want to go for the easy vote, especially this late in the game. And I thought the easy vote at that point was Aubry. I thought Aubry was just a dead woman walking, so to speak. So, when Ozzy was voted off, I was shocked. The split tribal council, there was other people who were focused on what was happening on both sides. Tiffany and Cirie had a bit more of, and Jonathan obviously had a bit more leeway because they didn’t feel like targets to think, “OK, I’m probably going to be here tomorrow. What’s going to happen on that camp that would help or hurt my game?”

For me, I just knew this was do or die. I was very likely going home. I could deal with whatever happens at the next camp. If I’m still here tomorrow, great, I’ll deal with that then. So, I didn’t even spend time thinking about the fact that Ozzy could have been voted off. And so I was maybe the second most-shocked person next to Ozzy.

What was the feeling like among the group on set as Ozzy said his goodbye?

Oh, it was heart-wrenching. You saw it. It reminded me a little bit of how Kellie [Nalbandian] went out in Season 45, where I don’t think people realized how jarring it would be. And it was a slow, slow exit. When you know you’re going off, I gave my hugs, grabbed my torch, sit down. OK, bye, Jeff. But you could tell Ozzy in that moment is just trying to process what just happened. People always move slowly. They’re looking, they’re trying to understand who voted for what, what happened, what did I miss? You’re reaching for the torch.

I had never had an appreciation for just how hard that experience is in Survivor until Christian’s vote off, because that was the only time that I went to tribal council, and I was really gagged, for lack of a better word, about the outcome. I moved that way when Christian was voted off, and I was like, “Crap, I have to go back to camp, get up, get my torch, get my bag, walk. What is happening? What did I miss?” It’s a weird, crazy experience.

Your exit was a little quicker. As you said, you kind of got up and went. What were you feeling, though? What were you thinking as you walked to get your torch snuffed and then over to the jury?

I knew that this was likely going to happen, so I wasn’t that surprised personally. You always want to be gracious. If you have the opportunity to reflect, you want to exit graciously. I remember thinking to myself, “It’s a game. Everybody is playing their own game.” So, I had time to think about it. We had to revote. Of course, I knew I was going home on the revote. I didn’t think anybody was going to be flipping. So, twice now on Season 45 and Season 50, I was granted what I think is a great luxury in the game, which is having an awareness that you’re going home before you’re going home, and at least having a second to deal with that emotionally before you’re standing and staring at Jeff.

I wonder what, if anything, was explained about the rules around extra votes in this season? Was that explained by production to you all? I know it’s been part of the game for several seasons now that an extra vote can be used twice in a revote scenario, but was that clear to you all?

Not to me. I could have asked about it, of course, but I didn’t know an extra vote was even in play, so I
didn’t think to ask about it. If I had, I would’ve gotten all the details. I don’t think ultimately whether or not you can use the extra vote on a revote, I don’t think that actually changes the outcome at all. Obviously, if I’d known Cirie had an extra vote, I would’ve done a different plan. The plan would’ve never worked with an extra vote, but I was completely unaware it existed, so I didn’t know about any of the extra rules around it.

Was there anything that happened in this episode or previous ones that you really wish fans could have seen?

Oh, man. I think fans saw way more of me than they maybe expected to, than they wanted to, than I wanted to, that’s for sure. Unfortunately, for better or worse, there’s so much of my game that was shown on TV, so it’s hard for me to say, “Oh, you really didn’t see this.”

I’d say the big thing was maybe just how close I felt personally in the Cila Four alliance between myself, Rick, Christian, and Cirie. I really thought we were all working together, which is why I felt comfortable with the Ozzy vote, because I thought it was Cirie’s idea, because I thought that we were a tight alliance, and maybe that wasn’t shown as much, but you understand why it wasn’t now in hindsight, because Cirie was kind of aligned with everybody. If they try to show that, then suddenly, you’re showing every relationship that Cirie has on the island.

She definitely has a very strong social game, to say the least. I know that other players were aware that Cirie and Ozzy were aligned. How aware of it were you?

Not as aware as I think I probably should have been. I knew they had worked together in the past. I knew they were in previous seasons [together]. I did not know the depths of their alliance. I don’t know if that happened pregame or during the game; it doesn’t matter. But I did not realize exactly how close they were when it was happening. I knew they were working together initially, but a lot of people come into the show planning to work together, and then stuff happens. You have to still play the game for yourself. You have to win the game for yourself.

There’s been a lot of new twists introduced in this season. What’s one that you would love to see in the show again, and what’s one that you would do away with?

Oh man, that’s such a good question. I think my favorite twist, and it’s probably just impacted by the outcome, was obviously what happened with MrBeast. And it’s not necessarily the coin flip or the immunity or anything like that. It was the fact that production came out and said, “Hey, something is going to happen at tribal council. You don’t know what, but something different is going to happen at tribal council.” And then you have to go back and all afternoon try to figure out who to vote off while still having this thing hung over your head saying, “Something’s going to happen at tribal council.” That’s what made that tribal council so dynamic was nobody was able to plan, nobody was able to prepare. And that, from a player perspective, especially as somebody who was on the bottom, that was so much fun. So I kind of liked that twist. I think it’s silly, of course, but I like that twist.

The thing that I’d never really been a big fan of, and I told Christian this before he went on it, was I never really liked journeys. That’s my least favorite. I don’t know if you can call that a twist. It’s just like you’re damned if you [do], damned if you don’t with a journey. If you go on it, even if you don’t get anything, you get accused of getting something. If you do get something, you have to be honest about it, or someone’s going to assume you got something. And then, there’s a more likely scenario, you’ll probably end up losing your vote or have to vote for yourself in Christian’s case. There’s very few positive outcomes from journeys, in my opinion.

I’ve got to agree with you there. I know in all of our interviews that we’ve done before, you’ve been like, “It’s very stressful to play this game and to watch yourself on TV.” But I think you’re really fun to watch and good at the game. So, would you come back?

Watching yourself on TV, I feel like I can’t understate this: It’s so cringe. I hate it. I know I said this after 45, and then I came back for 50, but I really don’t think I would come back again. A) There’s so many people who deserve to play again who haven’t had the opportunity, but B) I want to spare everybody. I’m happy you had fun. For me, it was miserable watching myself just completely word vomit everything to everyone.

I don’t think I necessarily want to subject Survivor players to watch fans and players to experiencing that again. But I do think there’s a magic in the first time you play that’s a new, novel experience, that is a true, authentic Survivor experience. And I learned something coming back from Season 50, which is that you cannot replicate that. That is not the pure, unique experience that is playing Survivor for the first time. It doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. I had so much fun playing 50, but it’s not 45 again. It’s not new, it’s not novel. And anyway, no.

Survivor 50, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS

For more inside scoop on Survivor 50 from the set, pick up a copy of TV Guide Magazine’s Survivor at 50 Special Collector’s Issue, available at Survivor.TVGM2026.com and on newsstands now.