THE SURVIVOR WINNING EDIT WITH MARK WALES!

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week they light Welcome back to TV Reload. My name's Benjamin Norris and on this podcast I go behind the scenes with the biggest players in television. Each episode you will get a front row seat with content makers like executive producers, writers, editors and casting agents, plus the talent that we see on our screens.

That was probably one of my bigger regrets.

If good body, you loved one, you're going to be playing against them.

It's harder to cast villains than it is the heroes.

Survivor means everything to me because it changed the.

Course of my life.

It wasn't too bad. You know, there's always some crazies out there.

Marks game similar to mine, and Mark's had too idle. Yeah, it was tricky at times, but I think we got thicker skin as we went along.

When I was very survivor blood versus water.

Don't try and fight the edit too much. I think that's when people get it wrong.

Hi Mark, How are you, mate?

I am I'm good. I'm just letting this win sink in.

Only got told twenty four hours ago, so it's been.

A while on last last twenty four hours.

Well, congratulations on winning Australian Survivor twenty twenty two.

That is amazing, Oh mate, Such an honor to get a second shot of the game and to go all the way through with my wife Sammy was pretty cool.

Well, last night must have been quite surreal because, as we know, you were told beforehand and they had shot multiple versions of who was going to win. Was it surreal to watch it play out, you know, knowing that you'd film the sort of mock endings, or were you worried as to how it was going to go down? Tell me how you felt.

It was good watching it back because I got more of an appreciation for the other contestants pitches as well, and actually did really well.

Christy's pitch was great. Shade did a good pitch.

Too, So when I was watching, I was like, oh God, I think they're going to edge me out. So I was getting nervous last night when I was watching it for the first time.

Yeah, Channel ten, prank to you when they told you you've won half a million dollars and watched tonight's episode and then it plays on television. You'd never get over it. You'd have a breakdown.

You would have a mental breakdown. It is very likely.

My favorite tweet online was Bark has gotten a wife, a child, and half a million dollars out of Survivor. Here's the luckiest man alive.

I would have to agree with that.

I've done very well myself with the game, and it was cool because when Sam and I played first time, we always were like, ah, we could have done better, and getting a second shot at it was really cool because I think we made the most of the game, but first time through it, yeah, I met my wife and totally changed my life.

So it's been great forget to is what I say.

Get yourself onto the show. We've got a better strike rate than the Bachelor.

Off with you.

How hard was it to keep it a secret? I mean, there was a few things happening. Sports Bet had you at some pretty good holds, but I'm assuming there was a bit. There would have been a lot of attention from friends and families and strangers and people online wanting to know results. How did you manage to keep this a secret.

I would just say, you know, I'll just say I think you're don'll like the way it unfolds, and I would say I would talk about that I was in jury Villa, so I would try not to give away that I was at at the end of the game. And we still know who was going to win at that point, so it wasn't too bad.

People were People don't want to it's spoiled.

Generally, if they're fans of the game, they want to watch it enjoy it, so it wasn't too bad.

Did you put any money on yourself?

Oh, mate, Doug deep scrape some money to the end with Sammy, and I think the odds were that good anyway, so there's probably no point doing.

It inside of training. Going to jail for dollar fifty.

Not great, bad strategy.

I always wanted to know, though, what kind of conversation are they having with you about keeping your mouth shut when it comes to keeping a secret like this. Do they offer you a cash incentive?

They basically put it in the contract that you don't share any results of the game. And because everyone who's in it is a fan anyway, people are reluctant to share the results of the game, so people do a pretty good job of being quiet about it.

How hard is playing Australian Survivor with your partner to be married and have a son? And were you worried that this could change your relationship at all?

Yeah, I was worried.

And we were the only husband wife care out there, and the stresses and strains of that are pretty acute, and we were worried that like one would.

Get knocked out early and the other would go all the way through so it wouldn't be an evening experience.

But it was so hard, and sam knew she was in trouble, and when we were the last couple, she knew there was a good chance she was going home, and she kind of took that knowing that it was there was still a path forward, and I think it was one of the most selfless moves ever an Australian Survivor.

And one of the reasons I got as far as I did was because I stood on the shoulders of Sammy's game. She played so well, she.

Played better than me, and I think we played as a pair and as a unit to try and get that one job done, which was to win and we're lucky we did.

Have you given her an allowance.

No, she's like very clear as you know, that's that's our prize.

Like, yes, your wife is one of the most intelligent people on television in twenty twenty two. So I'm going to say you're in good hands. She's not going to go and put it all through the Pokey's.

She did so well in the game too, Like she totally outplayed me.

I will freely admit that.

And so you know it is definitely it was such a team effort, and I'm so proud of how far she came from the first time we played.

I don't even know her, and I felt proud of her. So I don't even know how you would feel.

She's brilliant.

You talked a pretty big game in your pieces to camera. Were there any cringe moments you watching it back?

There are too many to remember, because I was like, I'm going to be a bit more forward leading this time.

I'm going to do a bit of trash talking and.

Just just save my piece because I probably won't last in the game. And so as I was going through, I was like, at one point, I was like, this is actually a really unlikable evid I don't even like myself watching this, and I was just hoping there would be those moments where they would soften me a bit more as a character, because you didn't see much of my social game and all those things that made me a bit more human.

I think it worked out pretty well on the end.

Because I've spoken to everyone that's come off the show. There's maybe three or four at the start that I didn't speak to, but everyone talked about how likable you were, and it wouldn't have been a great show to watch had they not have maybe stupefied you a little bit for the audience.

Yeah, I think it makes a more relatable character that you've got these flaws and these things about and they are really I act like that sometimes, I'm a bit crazy, I'm a bit hard nosed, and I've got that mean streaking me and they showed that. Even though it kind of hurts when they show that not the other good stuff, it does make for a more relatable character. It makes

And bounce it out and they paid you off.

And they said, yeah, don't ever say anything again about this.

I gave you half a million dollars. Now, don't say anything to anyone.

Go away, and.

For the rest of your life, please answer all phone calls as the Dark Knight. Thank you very much. Exactly What is the biggest fight that you and Sam have had postgame? Did the way you played the game, you know, leading into Kahn's question at the jury last night, actually have any real consequences between the two of you.

Yeah, So Sam, like Sam is all she works, She does women's groups, she works in women's empowerment. So for her to end up surrendering part of a game for me was kind of rand, contrary to some of the normal values.

So we had to kind of try and reconcile that and say, you know, well, we knew all we were playing for, we knew.

We had a job to do, and that was hard for she made such a big sacrifice for the sake of her family, and then I ended up being the one that went forward and got the kind of flashy part at the end. So she was incredibly selfless and that that was the hardest thing I think for us to reconcile as a pair. But you know, she did such a good job, and luckily we had something to show for it at the end.

You can do strat talk for the rest of your life.

We can now strat talk over dinner and annoy everyone our families.

How are you your son's going to be? Like parrots are so daggy they're still talking about survivor ten years later. Oh wait, that's me talking about ten years later. Embarrassing. Kind of feel like you and Sam knew all along that a person on the jury early into the jury was going to be vital. Surely Sam was still playing the game once she got onto the jury.

Right, Yeah, it kind of evolved that way because as we were playing, we got f and further as a pair. At one point, we're starting to go like, there's actually more people on the bench now than there are in the game, so we're going to be split up. Like it's just with the last pair, we're going to be split up. Let's just let that person go to the bench, whoever it is me or they can continue playing over there with the majority explain our game, or the other one tries to go ahead to idols.

So it kind of evolves to.

The point we realize that we actually we need to get someone to the bench kind of soon, because that's you know, we've got a better chance if we split up, is kind of what we're thinking.

Yeah, Kahn's probably really bored of going to sleep at night and hearing stories. Did you hear about that time that Mark walked an old lady across the road?

Exactly? Nice?

Put the water on the whale, Sam, He's like bored of telling stories about how amazing you are never again. Do you think that your win was a win for the both of you? Like, do you really think that you know this is why it was such a unanimous vote. I mean, we already touched on the fact that, yes, you agree that this is a up winning this show, But do you think that that was the reason why we got a unanimous vote.

I think it was a big part because Sam was able to explain like, no, no, we were playing together, knowing that one would leave, we would continue playing as a unit. And I think people were impressed by that, like, oh no, that's the thing, blood versus water.

You cooperated as a pair.

And so I think once the jury realized that it was like oh no, no, we were willing to sacrifice our games so the other one could go forward. That really got us a lot of kudos with the jury, so I think it was to Sam's credit she was able to do it.

I think that they should do a bad Blood versus Bad Blood version of and have your exes on the show. Then your ex goes to the jury villa and it's like, well, he's.

That would be a blood bath. That would be yeah, but very good, very good TV.

We'll pitch it. We'll pitch it to shine. Well, you've got some money, we'll see you know, we could do our own show anyway. Moving on, what would be your biggest regret throughout the show? Like, what would be the biggest regret from your experience?

There were some moves I made that were just duds, and I think I was trying to make a move out of nothing when I played the second I didn't really need to antagonize the jury while I was doing it. It was just it was an all round bit of

And I really love watching when someone says that they can read someone really well and then they go and play an idol unnecessarily. I think it just makes good television and it's good for you. It's good to keep your ego in check a little, Hay.

There were so many moments in the game that kept my ego and check, and Sam was good at that too.

You're a great person to ask this question too, about the conditions of Survivor. Because you've been through two different seasons in two different locations. Do you think that the conditions were too harsh this time around?

Ah?

No, because it's going to be tough no matter where he goes, with a different kind of environment to deal with the tropics. When I played first time with Horrendous, it rained all night. We couldn't sleep. We were just a.

Shell of ourselves here.

It was hot, but once you're over that heat that the nighttime was great, like nine andyrees and pretty nice.

So I think it was more bearable being in Australia. It was hort but once you got used to it real fine.

Do you think they should keep making it in Australia because I love watching Australia on screen, you know, And I don't think it does to turn the viewers, you know. I don't think we need to have it in Fiji. I think it's quite amazing to have Australia being showcased, our beautiful country.

Oh. I think it's sensational. I really love it.

Interestingly, I heard from the producers they said it's actually harder for them to film it because in the jungle you can kind of step five minutes into the scrub and you're concealed straight away, so you can have a little conversation there, whereas there's not as much vegetation in the Australian one, so they have to cover more ground.

It's a little bit harder to produce.

Maybe you get a little bit less gameplay in that sense, but still I just love that it's in Australia.

I think it's spectacular.

Well, I think they're lying because they just want to go to Fiji.

That is probably what they're saying.

We need to go back, we need the beers, the good serf.

I guess it's a little bit enticing, but surely yeah, I think as well. It can be cheaper to shoot a lot of these shows overseas, so I think that there are there's the good side of the bad side.

Yeah.

I think they get a pretty solid subsidy from the Fijian government to film over there, so it makes commercial sense.

Absolutely. There are a lot of conversations about the editing this year. Yeah, was there anything ever Frank and grabbed that you know it didn't sit well with you?

There were so many. Yeah, there are quite a few little stitch ups in there. I'm just trying to remember some good ones.

Yeah.

Probably the big one was when I found the idol first time and they were making it look like I didn't know that Jordi had seen it, whereas I knew he was on to me, And so they do little cuts like that. They makes it more interesting viewing, right, and so some of those stitch ups are pretty pretty funny.

But it wasn't too bad. It wasn't like Math's level of frank and editing.

Yeah, it's interesting to see, you know, the passion that is behind the istraland survivor. You know, the audience out there have a sense of ownership and they really take people to task. Last night, there was a lot of people saying, did the Twins get asked any questions in the filming of the final Tribal Council? And if so, what did they say? Now, I don't want to get

So I think Michelle asked Shay to rate her game and rate it numerically, and Mel had a question too, So everyone got a question, but they only cut I feel like they only cut about five or six questions together, and there were twelve to fifteen kind of questions in the jury. So yeah, it was a mix.

But the editing.

The editing was a bit unusual. A few people got cut out. The Twins got cut out quite a bit. Josh played a stunning game and got not much of an editor as well, which I thought was I was really disappointing because I.

Knew how well he played. Yes, it was unusual like that.

But yeah, I think they were just trying to keep Josh off the screen for as long as they could. They're worried that they'd be, you know, mass heart attacks from the gay community of Australia. I felt really bad creeping on him talking to him before about his amazing hair, and you could see that he was like, I'm into jiu jitsu or whatever. I'm a massculine man. I don't necessarily need a weller hair commercial. You know, he was not having he was not having a bar of it.

I was so point that Josh stole best looking contestant out there by a long way.

But it was easy on the eye, it was great to work with, loved it.

Yeah, by the time the show was over, all of you were models. Like everyone looked like they'd been to a pub lunch and how to Karma And then by the time the show was over, everyone was like, Okay, line cuisine endorsement for you.

My friend I was super sized after the Melbourne lockdown and yeah, I've been doing exactly that Palmer and DearS and yeah, it looked like it when I started the show too, So it.

Was you know, it was good, well, next time you put on weight, just to call them up and say heroes versus villains, winners versus whoever. I don't care. I need a cheap way to lose weight.

Yeah, and my army mates were commenting on my wet suit that I had acquired at the start of filming, so yeah, they were very proud of me.

Well, a lot of players were talking about wanting to return, and that happens every year, and Australia has had some brilliant players I knew yourself have had the opportunity to come back. If we take Nina out of the equation, because she most likely will come back, I would say, I think it would be remissive them not to give her another shot. But who would you say is the most deserving to come back and play again.

Wow, there's some real crowd favorites in our season, like Jordy and Chrissy were heavily promoted like good a funny, big characters, so they're a lot of fun. I'd love to send them go back. I feel like Sam has a good chance of going back as like a as a crafty strategist slash villain, and I'd be excited to watch her go again, And I hope that Josh gets another chance as well, because he's such a good player. So I think between those those four you've got, you've

I just think it's funny that you'll send your wife back in to get another five hundred thousand dollars, go and get some more money, and then you're like, how old is it until my son can be enrolled in Survivor. I've got to send this kid to UNI somehow. If you go, you've.

Come from good stock, go do your bit to the family, don't disappoint us.

Then it gets voted up first. Yeah, he's grounded because he's only What was the most outrageous thing that you read online throughout the whole show? Because you know, social media these days is brutal, and I really commend ten and end a Mole Shrine for being able to help you guys out with looking after your mental health. But we do read online. We try not to. We're awake at nighttime reading our phones. Was there anything crazy that you read.

I was very upset that people were commenting on my kind of rough beard and long hair, but.

It wasn't too bad. You know.

There's always some crazies out there get a platform and totally abuse the platform that they're given online, and I think we got better at dealing with the people that came after us, you know, because you're not going to be able to please everyone.

People are going to be upset at you for some reason. You've just got to not take it too hard and not read it too much.

So yeah, it was tricky at times, but I think we got thicker skin as we went along.

Well, they've actually decided to change the name of Twitter to Jealousy, so it's now correctly been named, and everyone's appropriately on there being jealousy, hating people for no reason because they hate themselves.

It is just a reflection on them. I keep telling myself that, yeah, it works.

And the most inappropriate question that you've probably been asked a million times today, which in no other profession and no other circumstance is anyone entitled to ask this? But have you thought about how you're going to spend the money?

Yeah? Seem I we didn't, so we didn't think about it in detail because you didn't want to assume that we'd won. And I only got told yesterday. But we've been working hard for ages for years. So for us, it's just brought us a whole lot of kind of space and time and we can spend some time with Harry, maybe not be on the road so much and just just relax for a bit and figure.

Out kind of next steps.

Put the weight back, put.

The wake back on, maybe by an entry level Lamborghini, something something modest like that.

Yeah, you're not total wing, because yet.

It will come.

We're doing chap slaps in South Yarra. I'll keep my eye out for you. What advice, because you know this is the thing. Once we get to the end of Survivor, there's a lot of people wanting to apply and get into a show like this, and you know you've managed to get yourself onto it twice. But what advice do you have for people who haven't been on the show. What do you think they need to do in their application process to get the attention from the casting agents and the producers.

I think people have.

To realize that you're not you are going on as yourself, but you're pitching a character, and you've got to make that character something memorable, something slightly different. I pitched myself as like special Ops fashion designer because I was in New York, I was doing a bit of fashion. I thought that was an interesting contrast. So you want to try and think of something that's going to peak their interest. It's harder to cast villains than it is the hero.

Some people should be villains. I mean, the funny thing about being a villain these days is they're quite celebrated. I mean, if you look at the way in which people rank even movie character, I mean, you love talking movies. I know this because everyone's told me. But you know, some of the most popular movie characters of all timer villains. You but Darth Vader, Hannibal Lecter, you know, And I

On it exactly, as long as you own it and don't try and fight the edit too much. I think that's when people get it wrong. They're like, oh no, that's not really what happened. People don't care. They just want to. They want a cool story. They want to they want you to be a villain and just own it. And yeah, I think the best villains in Survivor have done that.

They've kind of really leaned into their characters and enjoyed it.

Yeah. Well, I think that that that I the whole idea of them coming back with the heroes versus villains. To me, I think that's the most enticing fans versus favorites is being done on Big Brother and Master Chef. So I feel like that's been covered, so I think, and there's so many amazing people over the years that you can harvest. You know, there's still some amazing people to go back and take on those rules. I think.

I think there's been like one hundred and twenty or one hundred.

And thirty Australian Survivor players now, so the alumni is pretty big and you've.

All been to a barbecue over the weekend.

We've all been social media. Yeah, we all pack into one room and talk trash about as strategies and we can't let it go.

But I think there's so many there's so many good The Heroes Villains theme to me is the most exciting one because it's just such a fun theme.

And I think the US one was a knockout success, so hopefully they'll do the same.

What about existing beefs, Like, I know that you guys have all become, you know, quite quite close throughout this whole experience, but are there any existing beefs between any plans?

Not really, everyone's pretty good about I think when they get out initially and they're in trouble, there's definitely some like some steering conversations, and you saw that with Sammy, like they were filthy about on Sammy and also caj to some extent. But I think over time people soften, they realize it's a game, and everyone in.

The cast is actually really good. Everyone was really good. I'm friends with Orden.

Probably couple out there they're still filthy at me, But for the most part, I think everyone gets along pretty well.

They're not being invited to Christmas, So that's fine, and they don't want to go anyway.

I've had enough.

Interestingly, enough, throughout other reality shows, I often talk about who plays up to the camera, and you know, who was the most true to themselves in the show, those sorts of questions where I don't necessarily feel like this year there was anyone that played up to the up to the cameras that was massively different from who they are in real life. But was there anyone that you met after the show and you were like, wow, you really aren't like the person you were in there? No?

No, everyone was pretty spot on, I think, And you can't hide when you're in there and you haven't eaten for two weeks.

That's it all all of facades for a way anyway, So.

Yeah, I think everyone was pretty true to themselves. And you know, if they were rat bags in the game. There's still rat bags now like Jordi and whatnot there.

But they're fine. They're the funnest people out there.

It's okay, you know, you won half a million dollars and he wants to frost and so you know, no one's going home a loser. Everyone goes home with the Price and him.

My wife organized the meeting where they where they met. So Samy's the matchmaker.

It's a spinoff show. It's a spinoff show. Her that's Sammy's side hustle is just hooking at celebrities.

She takes a little commission on the side.

What show were you on? I've got I'm trading, I've got someone from here. Well, it's just been so good chatting too. But the last question I asked is the same question ask everybody who joins the podcast, and that is what is something that happened behind the scenes that we didn't see as an audience that we might appreciate to hear from you from your time in making Survivor.

Oh, what's a good one?

The one good one is we found a dead snake on the like only just died overnight on the path, pretty big snake and Chrissy was just down the path. So me and Josh hung it over a tree branch right near the path and we got Chrissy to come down and we're chatting her and were like, Chrissy, what's that? When Chrissy saw this snake, she basically walked across water. She tried to run across the river to.

Get away from it, and it nearly took us with her. I'm surprised I didn't put in the show because it was while there is.

Yeah, there's so many that they'll have to come out with this. I've been saying this to everyone. It needs to be like a Godfather special director's part version of this season of Survivor, because it sounds to me like there was a lot more fun going on in there.

Oh yeah, oh there was tons, and yeah, they couldn't show it all, but it was good.

Well, Mark, congratulations on an amazing and amazing time and Survivor. You know, if you need to, if you needed a do over to prove that you had what it took, you certainly prove that to yourself. And there's a lot of people out there, a lot of die hard Survivor fans. They're very happy for your wins. So congratulations.

Thanks mate.

It was a bloody honor to go back and to play again with Sammy, and I'm glad we did a better second time round.

So yeah, thanks.

And then about that roof leg, it's just around the back here, and it's that much money.

There's a tradement coming around there. It'll be voicing