{"id":66946,"date":"2025-08-14T06:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T06:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/66946\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T06:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T06:13:08","slug":"idols-become-rivals-for-survivors-luke-toki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/66946\/","title":{"rendered":"Idols become rivals for Survivor’s Luke Toki"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tHe’s known as ‘King of the Jungle’ but Australian Survivor’s Luke Toki wanted to meet another reality hero.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Such is the dedication, or even obsession, in the Australian Survivor community that many past contestants stay in touch with one another through group chats.<\/p>\n

News about casting, filming, dates, villain edits, media articles, or a host being sacked, is fervently discussed at length. There\u2019s fandom around international Survivor seasons and comparisons with our own top production by Endemol Shine Australia.<\/p>\n

So when Luke Toki the self-declared \u2018King of the Jungle\u2019 was invited to compete -for a third time- who was at the top of his wish list as a fan of the show?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s any name that I would love to meet and hang with it\u2019s Tony Vlachos (pictured below),\u201d he tells TV Tonight.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the original, the OG. I give him congratulations for when he won his second season, Winners at War (2020). The guy was the first one to hide in the bush in America and I took a little bit of inspiration from the King himself, so I was definitely looking forward to seeing him and how I match up against him at the same time. They sort of say, \u2018Eventually you become good enough that idols become rivals.’\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s idols as in people, not Survivor idols hidden in trees, although Toki has his share of those too.<\/p>\n

\"Contestants<\/a><\/p>\n

Filming for the series took place in Samoa in mid 2024, back to back with Brains v Brawn II. Toki insists he didn\u2019t set about investigating casting prior to arriving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t become Sherlock Holmes until I land on the beach. I like it to be authentic. You don\u2019t want to know, because there could be someone completely different than you plan for, and it\u2019s not ended up working out as in your head.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did get to meet Tony Vlachos who is on the \u201cWorld\u201d team this season along with profile US contestants Parvati Shallow and Cirie Fields. Joining him on the Australian tribe are David Genat, George Mladenov, Shonee Bowtell, Janine Allis, Kirby Bentley and Sarah Tilleke.<\/p>\n

\u201cSarah and I have a tumultuous Survivor relationship,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut Dave and I never turned on each other. So we\u2019ve had each other\u2019s back. There\u2019s a bit to unpack if you\u2019ve watched the seasons before. We call it the Evil Brother and Evil Sister. Have you ever seen Addam\u2019s Family? There\u2019s a brother and sister who keep trying to prank each other or so kill each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got all your faves there. So, you might like George more than me, or you might like Shonee more than George. Each person there has had such a big impact in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Group<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEach person has a crazy ability to work the numbers, and no one\u2019s shy to stab each other in the back, because it\u2019s such a small, short, fast season. I say it\u2019s Survivor on steroids, because a lot of us Aussies haven\u2019t played these shorter seasons. We\u2019ve played 50 days and with such large numbers. So what you think will happen won\u2019t happen, and the craziest shit will happen. Will the Aussies work together? Will they turn on each other? It is going to be a very unpredictable season, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

The season lasts just 16 with the Sole Survivor to win $250,000 (half the usual prize money). By the look of the network promos, some of them will need all the strength they can muster.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually in good nick,\u201d Toki inisists. \u201cSome people, like George, are saying they\u2019re coming in heavy. But, it\u2019s actually a good strategy sometimes, because we do lose so much weight. Even if you sit there and you build all the muscle you lose it within 10 days, and then you\u2019re justchewing through your fat. Like, naturally, you\u2019re trying to put on as much weight sometimes as possible, whether it\u2019s muscle, fat or whatever.\u00a0 ut you still want to stay healthy, because the challenges are extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

No interview with a dedicated Survivor face would be complete without addressing the elephant in the room\u2026 this marks the final season for host Jonathan LaPaglia, brutally sacked by the network without explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I love JLP, we\u2019ve done a couple ads together, but as we all know, the show moves on,\u201d he says tactfully.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show\u2019s also about the people playing. You\u2019ve got sometimes 24 different people coming from different walks of life, all playing a game. The host steers it, but at the same time it\u2019s about the King of the Jungle, it\u2019s about the King of Bankstown, the Golden God, Shonee and the Cookie Monster \u2026 all the players that make the game. So, that\u2019s all I\u2019m about. I love to know that I\u2019m looking forward to the new players that are going to walk to that Tribal Council and play hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any truth to the rumour David Genat is his hosting successor?<\/p>\n

\u201cDude, I\u2019m as much of in the dark as you are. I hear the word on the street, buddy, but I don\u2019t know!\u201d<\/p>\n

Spoken like a true player skilled in the fine art of smoke and mirrors\u2026.<\/p>\n

Australian Survivor: Australia vs the World screens Sunday \u2013 Tuesday on 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He’s known as ‘King of the Jungle’ but Australian Survivor’s Luke Toki wanted to meet another reality hero.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-66946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66946","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=66946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}