It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload, the podcast.
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Welcome back TV Reload listeners, thank you for clicking and downloading. On today's episode of TV Reload with King George, we will be talking about Australian Survivor, of course, but we'll also be discussing his new role on Talking Tribal, which will be a digital show as a sideshow on ten Play each week. Australian Survivor Titans Versus Rebels will be a showdown that pits the winners against the underdogs and the big wigs against the battlers, with each player competing
for the grand prize of half a million dollars. I can't believe it's five hundred thousand dollars. That seems like a lot of money. From lawyers to teachers, sports agents to powerlifters, bounty hunters and firefighters. Sounds like a pitch for a reboot of the Village people if you ask me, Australia is set for a diverse season of new players,
which audience has really been crying out for. There is so much to unpack with George today, what he thinks of the twenty twenty four Castaways why this theme Titans Versus Rebels appeals to him. We will also hear about his favorite Survivor moves and his biggest regrets playing in two seasons that we've seen so far. I will ask about the casting of himself with Blood Versus Water, runner up, Chrissy on talking Tribal, and why Kara and Hayley were
looked over. Anyway, guys, let's bring George into the podcast to sit back and relax as we dive just that little bit deeper into the world of Australian television. How are you, matey?
You're good, been good, Ben, been good, been busy, But I've been good.
I mean you've been making money with what is the champion gambling? Is that what we call it?
If you're talking about the Australian poker circuit, that is like a fun hobby for me. Look, I think there's a lot of similarities between poker and Survivor. So it's about timing and pacing yourself and making the most of opportunities that present themselves and then getting credit when you need to playing the man rather than the kind of cards that you have. So poker's great and you meet a lot of people from all walks of life, forever
trad survivor cerently. Oh, definitely. I think like one of the biggest kind of like what if if that injury doesn't happen to myself and Jackie. I think she was going to have a huge season because she's one of Australia's best ever poker players and having sat on a poker table with her, I played a teams event with her when the tours stopped by Aubrey early December, and we won it. Because it was Aubrey, it wasn't as much money as in a bigger city, but she's a great player.
You know, we had spoken a little while back when we were talking Amazing Race and I was trying to dig it out of you about what theme are they going to do this year? And now we know it's Rebels versus Titans. What is your thoughts on that? What are you giving that as a theme?
I love the theme and I'm kind of very proud of the fact that a Strained Survivor has basically set the benchmark worldwide and this is the first time we've had this theme and I've heard a lot of people say it's Champions v. Contenders like, or David v. Goliath like,
But I don't think that's the case. And I think with a theme like Titans v. Rebels, it gives the new players that we have on each tribe a lot of scope and bandwidth to do what they want in terms of the way that their tribe mentality might be set by the theme. And you can be a Titan, but you can play with an intellect or like villainous character or hero trait. You're not limited to just I'm on the hero's tribe and I've got to do everything
that's right. You can be a Titan and interpret what that means in a different way from a game playing perspective, and I think it's the same with a rebel. Rebels do go against the grain, Rebels do have to sometimes fight for what they want. And I think the theme is going to set up a really exciting season and I can't wait for it to start on the twenty ninth of January. I love the plug.
I love that you're always so good with the plugs you've made for television. Well, what do you know about this series so far? Do you have any early favorites from even just watching some of the early promos.
I have been loving all the promos, and I think we've got a really good season ahead of us. Some of these promos have got me like, really kind of excite at the prospect of seeing these players play. Valaria's promo is just absolutely fantastic. I think Valaria has the potential to be one of the big most random Survivor characters we've ever seen. Having played with a Russian superstar in my last season of Survivor in Liz and being of a Slavic background myself, if you cross someone with
the Slavic heritage, there's hell to pay. And when you combine that with a very eccentric beauty queen, I am really excited at the prospect. And we've just had so many kind of like different kind of players get introduced to us in the preseason. Viola looks like an absolute beast. I've never seen so many abs on someone in my life. So you tell yourself that Viola is going to be a real kind of challenge beast of a player and
a really big character. And if we pivot over to the Rebels tribe, Arris in his promo compares himself to me and a lot of people might be thinking what do I think about that? And I'm happy to tell you I'm really excited to see another person from Western Sydney bring their life experience and their streetsmarts to the game. I don't know, George.
I had a rumored that they were looking, you know that a lot of people that were going through the application process, and I spoke to a few people that were applying and got quite far, you know that they were getting frowned upon for saying that they want to be like George. You know. Yeah, the thing is we've already had a George like you.
True, if you want George, you'll get George playing again. But I don't think I don't think it's helpful to kind of like compare apples and oranges. What I do think might be an ace up pharisis sleeve is being someone from a culturally linguistically diverse background from Western Sydney like I was. I think that's where the comparison probably ends, and will probably wait and see what happens in terms
of like gameplay and mentality and whatnot. But I also know the strength of character that that builds and how valuable of an asset that would be going to a game like Survivor. I would always back a Western Sydney
person over a Bondi influencer to do well in the game. Now, there's one person's promo who have played probably about fifty times, and that's every time I hear the words like a bloodhound, it's sence shivers up my spine and seeing him snooping around that shopping center in that promo, I just think someone like him has got so much potential in the game as well. Well.
It's a good sign off from you, the King George himself. What did you know from casting producers? Because I mean you're in the building now, do they talk to you about what they might have been looking for this year?
I'm not involved in those conversations, but there's a lot of material out there. You work in the podcast space. A lot of these kind of like TV execs go on podcasts themselves, and I think the more astute person that wants to learn what people are looking for just needs to listen to the material that's out there, because it is out there. I spoke about my own TV journey in my book, which also got released in December, How to Win Friends and manipulate people. What worked for
me wasn't deviating from being myself. And I think when you go on a TV show, many things need to happen for it to work. But if you try and put on a character that isn't true to the one hundred and ten percent version of yourself, it's not going to work, but more importantly, going to have any kind of connection with the audience. And what gets me really excited about this cast is we've got people from all parts of the country with different life experience, and they're
all hungry to play the game. And I think if we go from like a survivor game perspective, I feel like after Heroes v. Villains in particular, the game has elevated to a different level. Gone are the days of hiding under the radar, playing in the shadows, lowering your threat level and trying to do as little as possible and delivering probably a boring TV product. The game's picked
up its pace, it's transformed. And if a lot of these people were comparing themselves to me in the casting process, and whether they got on or not is immaterial, I think what that shows is there's been a kind of cultural shift in terms of what to bring to the table when you play Survivor, and that's what gets me excited about a cast of new players and these Titans and Rebels, I feel like they have evolved in terms of Survivor players and they're going to make a very
good seasonal. How to make friends and then make situations work for you and manipulate people's the drama way of saying that. But the key kind of story in the book, in all the stories that have a lesson in there, is you are fully able to make a situation work for you, and if it works for the other party at the same time, you've manipulated them. But if you both get a positive outcome, then it's a satisfactory and a win win situation for both parties. And that was
the secret to my Survivor game. My book's not an academic book. It's an entertainment book, and there are definitely a lot of Survivor stories in there, but it kind of like opens the layers into what worked for me in terms of a mindset, and that involves my upbringing, my former work history working as a political staffer and in government, and that Western Sydney mentality and what it means and how you can apply that in different life situations.
And if that's a good window for a future Survivor player, I highly encourage them to read the book or listen to it on Spotify if they got Spotify Premium, and put it into practice in a future season.
Retrospectively, looking back at your seasons, what would you say is your facevor moves that you managed to pull off?
I think obviously the episode seven Tribal Council, like when You've got the New York Times picking that out as one of the key TV moments worldwide. Ever, that does bring me a great deal of pride and joint But I did a lot of difficult things, and I think before that one, it was the merge episode in season six Brains v. Brawn when I played as a double agent and had two idols limited out of the game
and pulled that all off really last minute. And I think the beauty of Survivor is and this is what I hope to see from the new players in Titans v.
Rebels from both tribes. You can do whatever you want in the game, and the players that take advantage of the opportunities that are presented before them, and that includes having conversations with people, working out their intent, their priority, their motivations, and then putting it into action, noting that it might be a difficult thing to do or a risky thing to do, and then taking the ball by
the haunts. That's where I think we've seen the cultural shit in terms of Surviving Survivor players and mentality, and that's what I want to see from these new players in this new season.
What about your worst move? Can you just tell me what is the one thing that you've watched it back and thought, why did I do that?
Why did I do that? Why did I assume it was a final two in Samoa like we all did. To be fair, I would have one hundred and ten percent voted off Matt at the final five, and I probably would have won half a million dollars.
That might have put an end to the story. Like you know, maybe we wouldn't be still so thirsty for you to come back on Australian Survivor or a Global Survivor. Like I feel like the fact that you haven't won yet just makes us just that little bit more thirsty to see you play again.
Fortunately for me, I've resumed my commentator seat as a co host of Strain and Survive, a talking tribal. Playing survivor takes a toll on your body, and having come out injured from Somola, it took a severe toll of my body. And I'm very happy to be watching from
the commentator's lounge. I feel like I'll be like those football panelists calling the coverage on Paramount Plus of the A League or the Asian Cup that's on right now and then, and I can call a spade a spade from the sidelines and not have to worry about the physical side of the game that we love so much.
Congratulations by the way, on getting that job. And I think that that's the perfect way to still include you in a season because people like everyone I spoke to us like yeah, but it's this season't going to be any good because you know George is not there, And I'm like, well, George is still a part of the series in a big way because we're going to get commentary,
and I think it's perfect for you. What can you tell us about the panel though, who's joining you on the panel, What can we expect from you?
I think this is an absolutely fantastic panel, So joining me from the X Player panelist perspective is the runner up of Austrained Survivor, Blood Vee Water. Chrissy's a remba. I like to call Chrissy everybody's favorite Auntie and Chrissy has one of the greatest social games we've ever seen in a strained Survivor. And what someone like Chrissy showed and what she brings to the panel is that there's many different ways to succeed in the game of Survivor.
It's not all just strategy and politics, which worked really well for me, but she really brings that kind of like social expert and I can't wait to see what Auntie thinks of the episodes, and you'll be able to find that out on Talking Tribe on and of course Shannon Gus the worldwide Survivor Expert data legend who can reel off any stat from any season in the English
speaking world worldwide. And I think it's a great panel that will have lots of different kind of lived experience and thought track and process and then the stats and the data behind it to flesh out and break down every single move.
What has your relationship been like with Chrissy behind the scenes, because from what I understand it, you two have developed a bit of a bff relationship that people might not be aware of. How does the dynamic work between the two of you?
I think I just I touch base with Chrissy just before bloodby Water started daring, because what fullness of Fiber players have is a shared experience, and I just drew an instant connect with Chrissy. She's just such a fantastic, magical person. And let me tell you my delight when I got told she was the co host for Talking Tribal it brought me significant joy. And she's just a magnificent person. And it's gonna be It's gonna be a fun panel. Put it that way.
Is Kara though, or Haley, you know two of your BFFs on series. Are they disappointed not to be sitting there with you or is there a reason why they're not sitting there with you? What can you tell us about that?
Well, Hayley's just had a baby, so it's a change in terms of like life priorities from her perspective. But Caa is also still my best friend in life and a great person. But who knows, they could they could be back in the future.
We'll get them for a cameo. Is it hard to make genuine friendships though, because the nature of this show is that you set up to sort of manipulate and deceive each other, And so then how does the evolution happen once the show finishes if you struggle to maintain real, genuine friendships with these people.
I don't think it's really like that in reality. Ben. In reality, particularly the people that you work within the game, you have this kind of like shared experience where you're living together in very harsh conditions twenty four to seven, and that is probably years worth of friendship in the
outside world. And when I talk about Caro, who's literally my best friend in life, who I insisted would be my family member if I made it to the finale in Samoa, and then I kept being told no, it has to be a real family member, and I'm like, well, it's going to be a family and then I got
told it's going to be your mum. So when I have the shock of my life when it actually was Kara, it's like, that's the level of bond you form with your friends out there, or your allies or whatnot, and it's like nothing compares to the relationship that I have with Hailey where we're such close friends but such enemies and rivals in the game, and having a conversation about
Survivor with Haley is fantastic. And then if we pivot back to Chrissy the co host and talking tribal, it's like, I've never played with Chrissy, but I have this intrinsic bond with her where I've stayed at a house and you know, had dinner with her husband and her children, and travel you know, to the Sunny Coast to hang out with her for lunch or just for social gatherings. And it's not just a case of whether you played with them in your own season. Sometimes like you're just
drawn to similar people. And I think that's what it was with Chrissy, and then like with Haley or Kara or you know, lots of other people, way Simon included in that himself. You just have that bond and you have it for life.
I mean, it's funny that Chrissy and you are always on everyone's board, you know when they do those and I'm sure you've read them as well, because I read them all the time. But you know where people have got their favorite players or who should be on Global Survivor or your names both always come up on that.
But I was also going to say the dynamic of that show is there people that you played opposite against and then met in the real world that were completely different to who they were on the show.
I feel like when you're actually playing Survivor, you see the truest version of people. Okay, the stress and the pressure, the situation. So I feel like it is what it is with a show like Survivor because you can't you can't put a veneer on in those conditions, and you see how people deal with pressure, they react with stressful situations, or when they're physically exhausted and starving and they've had
no sleep. You work out who people are, and what you have to do is separate the actual game, which the goal of the game is to vote someone else out or for you not to get voted out, and they're two different things strategically, but they can be parked in the same camp with what that person would be like in the outside world. But usually the impression that you get with someone in the game is the same outside of the game. You're just not hungry and not
tired and not in a stressful situation. You're in a social situation or at their house. Do you know what?
The thing that I want to know from you with Talking Tribal is, how are you going to create? Because you always, no matter what show you do, no matter what you do, you create a really amazing television moment. Are we going to see a television moment on this show? Like, are you already planning that?
Well, it's it's not about planning a television moment. If people think me being me creates good television and call it moments, that's great. That's why I do the work that I do, and I've been doing it for the past two years. What I'll be doing and what my role on the Talking Tribal panel is to give the political perspective of what's happening in the game and to provide commentary and my perspective on what's happening in the game.
And that'll be very different to someone like Shannon's perspective and very different to Chris's perspective. Shannon brings the kind of like computer data based strategy on what would be optimal. I bring the human and the political and the emotional element which is what worked for me in the game.
And Chrissy brings a completely different perspective. She brings Auntie, she brings social she brings complete relationship, and I think the combination of the three of us will be a very exciting after show.
Was kNN upset that he's not coming back. I felt like Kahn was doing a really good job on that show. Are you actually going to go back on watching of Khan's work from last year?
And well, I'd watched every episode of Talking Tribal and ten play lasking. But keep in mind, Khan held the seat warm for me because I was the panelist on Bloodbooth Water.
Yes, I know, but now that you're more iconic than ever, I think there's going to be some leveling up. George. Before you go, I have to just ask you the most common question that is written about you on the internet, and that has anyone from American Survivor ever reached out to you, any of the official people. Have they had any communication at all with you?
Well, I spent three weeks doing the Survivor to a circuit and a different kind of fan events and whatnot in December, and that was a great deal of fun and you meet a lot of people there, but I'm talking ex American Survivor is a different beast. It's a different beast. But what I'm happy to be doing is doing the commentary for Austrained Survivor right now because our season starts on the twenty ninth of January, and I want Australian Survivor to succeed so we can get close
to season fifty like they are in the US. That sometimes the real politician answer comes out, doesn't it, Ben?
I was prepared for that, because you know what you gave me some really like a politician answer for a lot of the amazing race questions I have for you. So I was prepared.
I was really frank with my opinion on people.
Oh some of those people, yes, because there was someone in particular now I can't remember who it was, but they ended up on the podcast, and sometimes you don't think anyone would listen, but they'd heard our conversation. Kind of got me into trouble because you saying something about them that meant I said something about them, and then they were upset about it.
Oh, dear Ben. But that's why your podcast does really well, because I've had you.
On three times. George. You know last year you were my second most listened to podcast for the years, so that's how popular you are.
Thank you. I love coming on your podcast, Ben, And every time I see the podcast ratings in the TV category and you're always in the top five, I'm like, you deserve it because you put a lot of work into this and it's important that Austray and Tving in particular does well. That's what I want to say. I agree. I can't wait to watch nothing more well than a Strained Survivor or Network ten.
There we go, there's the tagline. Okay, so you've been on the podcast twice before, so I have to ask you this question which I sign off with, and what is something from behind the scenes? And I know you haven't really started shooting Talking Tribal yet, but like maybe you've already worked out something something that maybe the viewers don't know.
Doing the commentary show is probably a bit different to actually playing a Strained Survivor where there's tidbits behind the scene. And from my perspective, when we recall Talking Tribal, I am telling myself I need to call the action as I see it. I'm not worried about necessarily what the individual players are doing and then how they would feel about it. And I think the role of a commentator is to call a spade a spade, and nobody does
that better than myself. And I think what I learned, which is very interesting, when I did talking Tribal for season seven Blood Vee Water, a few people are highly offended and highly strung up when I was commentating the action and then they like they kind of held that against me as a grudge. And in my mind, I'm like, well, it's like, it's what happened out there, it's the story that's being told. Don't get your being U bonn it because I said what I said, and that's the attitude
that I'll be taking to it. And we record the episodes.
Nobody gets more offended than when someone else talks about the truth about them. That's the problem.
Well, it is what it is. The difficult thing with Survive is a lot of times people have regret or could as should have would as I was thinking of doing this, but I didn't. And if I've left it impact in the game, it's for future players to take that chance in real time. And that's what I want to see and if I see things like that, I'll be heaping praise on those people. But if people play badly, I'll be calling it out.
But can you tell me how early it's like you're getting to watch the episode and do you watch it with Chrissy and do you take notes? And how in advance is that happening? Like I would love to know some of that.
Oh, it happens closer to the date. I know you've seen some episodes sometimes a screen as a journalist. But yeah, it's obviously not a live show. But it's a week off show.
Okay, So have you recorded episode one? Yeah?
No, No, I can't wait to get into the action.
I'm watching the first episode tomorrow and I'm so excited. But I was sitting next to someone at a function on Monday who'd watched the first few episodes, and I felt so upset about it. I was like, I've got to get a voodoo doll out for this person. I hate this as munch.
You know I'm a fan, George, let me know who it is.
I will. I will put them on the list. George, I am obsessed with you. I can't wait to watch this side show. I think You're going to bring in a lot of viewers to it, and I love Chrissy as well. I think you guys are going to do a very good job. So congratulations and I'll be in your audience.
Great. Thanks so much, Ben, I've talked you soon.
Yeah, chat to you mate,