{"id":360997,"date":"2025-12-20T19:07:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T19:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/360997\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T19:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T19:07:11","slug":"survivor-runner-up-sophi-balerdi-reveals-what-cameras-didnt-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/360997\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Survivor’ Runner-Up Sophi Balerdi Reveals What Cameras Didn’t Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfter finishing as the runner-up<\/a> of Survivor<\/a> 49, Sophi Balerdi is finally getting the chance to explain the moves viewers didn\u2019t see, and the ones she wishes she\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tCongratulations 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?<\/p>\n

\n\tI 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\u2019ve changed. But that\u2019s going to be the case for everyone who loses. I think we have a super deserving winner<\/a>. She\u2019s one of my best friends in the world. So I truly can\u2019t be mad. I did the best I possibly could. I\u2019ve always led with my heart in my life and it\u2019s gotten me this far. And unfortunately, I feel like it lost me the game of Survivor. But besides not taking Rizo\u2019s idol, I think I have no regrets. I\u2019m proud of myself.<\/p>\n

\n\tA question I\u2019m sure you might\u2019ve been getting on social media is: why didn\u2019t you use the Knowledge Is Power advantage to steal Rizo\u2019s idol? And does the jury give you more votes if you\u2019d managed to play it successfully and take Steven\u2019s advantage?<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s a good question. I\u2019ll tell you why I didn\u2019t take it, but I don\u2019t know about the jury. When Kristina used her idol on Steven, I knew the only advantage or idol left was Rizo\u2019s. 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, \u201cNo, no, no, don\u2019t play it,\u201d when in reality I was like, \u201cNo, I\u2019m keeping it for me because as long as there\u2019s an idol in this game, I have an idol and you\u2019re just holding it and taking the heat for me.\u201d I was planning to take it the whole time.<\/p>\n

\n\tI know what it looked like \u2014 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat changed was that Savannah won immunity like she always did. And Steven had won two immunities \u2014 who knows how many more he could have won. At that point, I knew if I took Rizo\u2019s idol, he would\u2019ve gone home, and that wasn\u2019t as big of a move as getting Steven out. I thought if I took Steven\u2019s 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\u2019ve felt comfortable. I didn\u2019t think I needed to steal Rizo\u2019s idol. An idol is more powerful, but what mattered to me more was who went home \u2014 and I wanted Steven out more than Rizo.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou 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\u2019t won that?<\/p>\n

\n\tOh, yeah, 100 percent. And they didn\u2019t 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\u2019t really show the conversations that me, Kristina and Sage had where I told them, \u201cGuys, I know what it looks like, but at final five, I\u2019m still willing to vote with you to vote Rizo or Savannah out, mostly Savannah.\u201d So they felt comfortable voting Steven out because they thought at Final Five I was going to flip. They weren\u2019t going to go into final five with a strong trio.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t really shown. I don\u2019t think they were giving credit for that. But had Savannah not won final immunity, I would\u2019ve flipped. And that is part of the reason why she is amazing because she didn\u2019t 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\u2019ve turned on her. She won really when she truly needed it, even when she didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSophi Balerdi with host Jeff Probst.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCBS \u00a92025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.<\/p>\n

\n\tYour comeback to the final Immunity Challenge is one of the episode\u2019s most memorable moments. What was your mindset during the challenge, especially when you were behind?<\/p>\n

\n\tOh, my God. I was like, \u201cSeriously, I\u2019m going to lose something else?\u201d But I don\u2019t know what came over me. I still don\u2019t remember. I remember telling myself, \u201cShe\u2019s going to break the damn record and I\u2019m going to have zero chance to win this stupid game.\u201d And then I don\u2019t 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\u2019t know what came over me, but I locked in when I needed to the most and it was a full circle moment. I couldn\u2019t believe it, honestly.<\/p>\n

\n\tWalking into Final Tribal, how confident were you in your chances? What votes did you think you had and whose reactions caught you off guard?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ll be honest with you, I didn\u2019t think I had any chance. That\u2019s one of the things I did have out there. I was very self-aware. I was very observant and I\u2019m 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\u2019t 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\u2019s 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, \u201cThis is going to be tough. This is going to be a hard road to climb.\u201d But surprisingly, I did really well and they didn\u2019t even show how well I did at that Final Tribal.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut right before Jeff read the votes, Savannah turned to me and she goes, \u201cYou just won the game.\u201d I was like, \u201cWait, what?\u201d 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, \u201cYeah, me, Alex and Steven were 50\/50. We didn\u2019t know what we were going to do. You did really well.\u201d So I\u2019m proud of myself because even then, next to Sav, I stood a chance. <\/p>\n

\n\tIf Rizo had won the fire-making challenge and took the third seat, how do you think the final vote plays out?<\/p>\n

\n\tI know how the final vote plays out because the jury told me that. They told me I would\u2019ve won. I would\u2019ve had Alex\u2019s vote, Sophie S\u2019 vote, Kristina, MC\u2019s, and then I guess the other people would\u2019ve been up in the air. But those four votes would\u2019ve been locked for me because they\u2019ve all told me that. So I think I probably would\u2019ve 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\u2019ll never actually know unless it happens. I\u2019m sure Rizo thinks if he won fire, he would\u2019ve won the game, too. It\u2019s always the loser\u2019s thing. You got to hope that any other outcome or shake up, you would\u2019ve had a chance.<\/p>\n

\n\tWere there moves you made or conversations you had that you wish viewers had seen, but didn\u2019t make the edit?<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut I would say Alex\u2019s vote and the Jawan vote, me finding Kristina\u2019s idol in her bag\u2026 had we not done that, Savannah would\u2019ve gone home because we were going to throw all our votes on Steven, and Kristina played her idol on Steven; they would\u2019ve 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\u2019t shown stung because I\u2019m like, \u201cShe would\u2019ve gone home.\u201d So those are two little examples of why I wish I would\u2019ve shown that stuff because people were like, \u201cYou\u2019re riding Savannah and Rizo\u2019s coattails.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, we were a strong trio. We had all of our strengths in our own right.\u201d I don\u2019t think we would\u2019ve gone to the end without each other. We all pulled our weight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBalerdi. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCBS \u00a92025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou mentioned a couple of different times throughout the season that you were playing for your grandma. What do you think she\u2019d say about how well you did this season?<\/p>\n

\n\tShe would be so proud of me. That\u2019s the reason I\u2019m really content with my outcome no matter what. I mean, we have a deserving winner. She\u2019s 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: \u201cWhat if I did this? What if I did that?\u201d But why am I going to do that? There could only be one winner and I\u2019m proud of her. I\u2019m glad she won. And I think my grandma is up in heaven being overwhelmed with joy and pride for me. So I\u2019m happy. I\u2019m proud of myself, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After finishing as the runner-up of Survivor 49, Sophi Balerdi is finally getting the chance to explain the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134,59284],"class_list":{"0":"post-360997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-survivor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}