After finishing as the runner-up of Survivor 49, Sophi Balerdi is finally getting the chance to explain the moves viewers didn’t see, and the ones she wishes she’d made. In the below interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the finalist reflects on her biggest strategic moves, the dramatic final immunity comeback and why she believes she would have won had Rizo taken the third seat at Final Tribal Council.

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Congratulations on making it to the top two. After having time to reflect, how are you feeling about your game and the experience as a whole?

I feel so grateful for my experience. I think the gratitude that I have outweighs the loss completely. Obviously, I have regrets. There are things I would’ve changed. But that’s going to be the case for everyone who loses. I think we have a super deserving winner. She’s one of my best friends in the world. So I truly can’t be mad. I did the best I possibly could. I’ve always led with my heart in my life and it’s gotten me this far. And unfortunately, I feel like it lost me the game of Survivor. But besides not taking Rizo’s idol, I think I have no regrets. I’m proud of myself.

A question I’m sure you might’ve been getting on social media is: why didn’t you use the Knowledge Is Power advantage to steal Rizo’s idol? And does the jury give you more votes if you’d managed to play it successfully and take Steven’s advantage?

That’s a good question. I’ll tell you why I didn’t take it, but I don’t know about the jury. When Kristina used her idol on Steven, I knew the only advantage or idol left was Rizo’s. I was mentally prepared to take it when there were still eight people left in the game, and I was happy to do it. There were times Rizo considered playing the idol, and part of my game was being like, “No, no, no, don’t play it,” when in reality I was like, “No, I’m keeping it for me because as long as there’s an idol in this game, I have an idol and you’re just holding it and taking the heat for me.” I was planning to take it the whole time.

I know what it looked like — we went on that reward, I had some margaritas, tacos and I just threw my game in the garbage. But even after that, I was still planning on taking Rizo’s idol and voting Savannah out. That was going to be my big move. Their biggest mistake was blindly trusting me, because I was always considering turning on them.

What changed was that Savannah won immunity like she always did. And Steven had won two immunities — who knows how many more he could have won. At that point, I knew if I took Rizo’s idol, he would’ve gone home, and that wasn’t as big of a move as getting Steven out. I thought if I took Steven’s advantage and he got out, I could take credit for that move. That was the last thing I felt I needed to feel comfortable sitting next to my allies at the end. I knew I had better relationships with every juror and a bigger underdog story. So sitting next to Sav and Rizo with that move, I would’ve felt comfortable. I didn’t think I needed to steal Rizo’s idol. An idol is more powerful, but what mattered to me more was who went home — and I wanted Steven out more than Rizo.

You had talked about getting Savannah out several times, in particular when it came to the second-to-last immunity challenge that she ended up winning. In your mind, was she definitely going home if she hadn’t won that?

Oh, yeah, 100 percent. And they didn’t even show this, but me and Kristina started working on the puzzle together at some point. Me and Kristina and Sage had talked many times. They were going to be my ticket to flipping on Sav and Rizo. And this was even at final seven, we had had conversations about it, at least me and Sage did. People have been giving Sage and Kristina a lot of crap for turning on Steven, but they didn’t really show the conversations that me, Kristina and Sage had where I told them, “Guys, I know what it looks like, but at final five, I’m still willing to vote with you to vote Rizo or Savannah out, mostly Savannah.” So they felt comfortable voting Steven out because they thought at Final Five I was going to flip. They weren’t going to go into final five with a strong trio.

That wasn’t really shown. I don’t think they were giving credit for that. But had Savannah not won final immunity, I would’ve flipped. And that is part of the reason why she is amazing because she didn’t even know that I was coming for her. That was completely one-sided. She had no idea until I put her in fire that I would’ve turned on her. She won really when she truly needed it, even when she didn’t know.

Sophi Balerdi with host Jeff Probst.

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Your comeback to the final Immunity Challenge is one of the episode’s most memorable moments. What was your mindset during the challenge, especially when you were behind?

Oh, my God. I was like, “Seriously, I’m going to lose something else?” But I don’t know what came over me. I still don’t remember. I remember telling myself, “She’s going to break the damn record and I’m going to have zero chance to win this stupid game.” And then I don’t know, I locked in. I think it was two minutes that I had won after I got those balls in the thing. And they really had no chance. None of them even had one ball in. Again, I don’t know what came over me, but I locked in when I needed to the most and it was a full circle moment. I couldn’t believe it, honestly.

Walking into Final Tribal, how confident were you in your chances? What votes did you think you had and whose reactions caught you off guard?

I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t think I had any chance. That’s one of the things I did have out there. I was very self-aware. I was very observant and I’m a super fan of Survivor. How do you sit next to someone who has tied the record for wins for women in Survivor and also won fire? I didn’t think I had a chance. I was rooting for Rizo to win fire because I knew I had a good chance to beat him. I know he’s played an incredible game, but perception is reality out there. I had better connections in the jury and I knew that with what they knew, they respected my game more. So, after Sav beat him in fire, I was like, “This is going to be tough. This is going to be a hard road to climb.” But surprisingly, I did really well and they didn’t even show how well I did at that Final Tribal.

But right before Jeff read the votes, Savannah turned to me and she goes, “You just won the game.” I was like, “Wait, what?” So, every vote that I got, I was shocked, but I actually turned people. And even Nate told me right after Sav was crowned the winner, “Yeah, me, Alex and Steven were 50/50. We didn’t know what we were going to do. You did really well.” So I’m proud of myself because even then, next to Sav, I stood a chance.

If Rizo had won the fire-making challenge and took the third seat, how do you think the final vote plays out?

I know how the final vote plays out because the jury told me that. They told me I would’ve won. I would’ve had Alex’s vote, Sophie S’ vote, Kristina, MC’s, and then I guess the other people would’ve been up in the air. But those four votes would’ve been locked for me because they’ve all told me that. So I think I probably would’ve won, which is crazy to say. I was definitely rooting against Savannah in the fire-making, but who knows? It could have been close. You’ll never actually know unless it happens. I’m sure Rizo thinks if he won fire, he would’ve won the game, too. It’s always the loser’s thing. You got to hope that any other outcome or shake up, you would’ve had a chance.

Were there moves you made or conversations you had that you wish viewers had seen, but didn’t make the edit?

Yeah, for sure. I think I had the most influence on why Alex went home and that was not shown. Me and Rizo tag-teamed completely on his boot. And the reason we were able to do that was because I had a fake alliance with Jawan, Sage and Alex, where they were just telling me all this information, but I had loyalty to Sav and Rizo. So, I came back, told them stuff, and then we just came up with a plan to throw Alex completely under the bus. So, me and Rizo were throwing him under the bus and they didn’t show anything that I did, which makes sense because I think they highlighted a lot of my gameplay pre-merge and post-merge. Maybe they wanted to highlight some other players and give them their flowers, too.

But I would say Alex’s vote and the Jawan vote, me finding Kristina’s idol in her bag… had we not done that, Savannah would’ve gone home because we were going to throw all our votes on Steven, and Kristina played her idol on Steven; they would’ve voted Sav out. Because I found the idol in the bag, we changed the vote to Jawan. That was the very reason we changed it to Jawan. And the fact that wasn’t shown stung because I’m like, “She would’ve gone home.” So those are two little examples of why I wish I would’ve shown that stuff because people were like, “You’re riding Savannah and Rizo’s coattails.” I’m like, “No, we were a strong trio. We had all of our strengths in our own right.” I don’t think we would’ve gone to the end without each other. We all pulled our weight. 

Balerdi.

CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

You mentioned a couple of different times throughout the season that you were playing for your grandma. What do you think she’d say about how well you did this season?

She would be so proud of me. That’s the reason I’m really content with my outcome no matter what. I mean, we have a deserving winner. She’s one of my best friends, but despite that, I went out there to win and I got as far as I could. I got the second-best title, second place. The gratitude for the experience and having gotten to play and live out a dream that me and my grandma had outweighs the loss. You have those shoulda, coulda, woulda moments where you cry yourself to sleep: “What if I did this? What if I did that?” But why am I going to do that? There could only be one winner and I’m proud of her. I’m glad she won. And I think my grandma is up in heaven being overwhelmed with joy and pride for me. So I’m happy. I’m proud of myself, too.