It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload, the podcast Last Deep That Life. Hey guys, welcome back to TV Reload, Thanks for clicking and downloading. On today's episode with Charles, the ninth eliminated contestant from this year's A Strand Survivor on Network ten, I will be talking about his time in Samoa and of course what he thinks now that the smoke has well and
truly been snuffed out of his torch. Astrainian Survivor Titans Versus Rebels is 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. Charles is a lawyer from Victoria. He started his game noticeably quiet, a character on the original Titans tribe. However, was that tribe switch that presented an opportunity for Charles
to take control of his game. As he worked alongside Valeria and Winner to exploit the cracks between the Rebels faction and overcome the numerical disadvantage, we started to see some more entertaining elements surfacing from Charles, but a twist at his tribal council caused the voting powers within his majority alliance to be severed. The tables were then turned, with Ferris and Eileen holding the cards, who split their
votes to secure Charles's blindside. Charles will talk about his exit from the show, unpacking his raw feelings about the way in which he found himself out of the game. We will talk about what we haven't been seeing from Charles and why there needs to be a Lord of the Ring sized version of each episode to catch some of his wittier comments. I will ask Charles about his insights into Ferris and Kirby's rivalry and who he thinks
can't be trusted on that tribe. Plus, we will find out how we lied to his tribe and sabotaged everybody every day while he was on the beach of Samoa. There is so much to unpack with Charles, and he's actually really generous with his time. So sit back and relax as we dive just that little bit deeper into the world of Australian survivor. Hi, Charles, how are you mane roll with the punches? Hey?
Totally and that survivor right, there are twists and turns and sometimes you're on the right side, sometimes you're on the wrong side, and that's what it is.
I don't think anyone knew what the sides were because, like today, I actually had to do a diagram. You know, this is where you need like a George or a Shannon or someone like that to sort.
Of friend sheet.
But yeah, so there was probably like six sides to the dice.
Totally anyway, what are the chances? But as I say, it is what it is.
How did you go with trying to keep this a secret? Because I mean, this is probably the biggest twist of the series so far. Did you try and keep that under your hat or did you choose certain people? Like how did that play out?
There is a document that requires me to say and oh, yeah, NDA is fairly seriously. So yeah, generally speaking, I had to I had to wait for them to see the twists unfold. But there was a period where I was home a little bit earlier than anticipated, and they'd kind of say, you know, did you get blindsided? And they were like, okay, well what happened? And I'd say, well, I can't tell you, so no, I didn't. I didn't you know, spill the beans, but I think a few
people expected it's something funky happened. Well.
I really enjoyed the Paul Keating quote. I also loved the clarification of the quote as well, and it made me think about Charles. I wanted more from you and I could have done with more of those quotes.
I mean, there were quite a few that were peppered throughout my confessionals, but I think in the first like eight episodes or something, I think I had one confessional. Confessional came up with the first ten minutes of episode one, so I had a strong start, and then then for whatever reason, you know, related to the twist, I went quiet. There were quite a few quotes and maybe Channel ten or ESA we'll dig them up one day.
The Lord of the Rings extended version of Survivor Titans Versus Rebels.
Between me and Eden, I think there'd be quite a few quotes and different quotes as well.
I can imagine Youtubo catching up after the show and swapping the notes on what did and didn't get put through. Anyway, there's pod there's a podcast for the two of you talking Survivor.
I think Aiden will definitely be up for that.
Yeah, i'd want to be I'd be subscribing, you know, in the world of politics. Though I thought about Valeria, was she right to take Ferris to task over his leadership ability?
They are probably different leadership styles, and Ferris's leadership style didn't sit that well with me, Valeria or Winner. And that's not necessarily a criticism of Ferris's leadership ability, just didn't sit quite well with us. And the reason is because Ferris leads or in the game anyway, and the game's very different to real life. I must say, so Ferris leads by intimidation and kind of being the top dog.
And I think I said in the Garrick vote out tribal that I couldn't have a conversation with someone about dinner without someone else in the tribe. And when I was referring to someone else, I meant Ferris or Garrick coming to me and saying, you know, hey, were you talking to what are you talking to Scott about? And then they'd go to Scott and say, what are you talking to Charles about? And it kind of put everyone
on edge. And so if I mean, if that's Ferris's leadership style, then I don't think it was a very good one. That being said, he's still in the game, and I'm not so he got through.
Anyone point out that his sort of smile was a bit like Shawnee's when it came to being in the tribal council.
No, no one's pointed that out at all. Yeah, because Shane always kind of looked quite cheerful in like a scheming way. Ferris loves it as well. I think he loved Tribal. He thrived at tribal and he was very fine and everyone knew that. You know, he didn't mean anything by his comments. Most of the time. He was very much like that, and I think he and Shannie had that in common.
I was just really curious about when it dawned on you, what was the moment that you thought, Okay, I am going home.
At the point in time, I don't think they actually showed. So Winner basically turned to me and said, get votes on me. I think he was a lot clearer with Valve, but he said kind of get votes on me, and so I thought, okay, Well, when he's got a plan, it's probably got an idol. And then at that point as well, Winner just straight up asked Ferris are you going to vote for me tonight Ferris? And Ferris said I am, and then Winner said say waala, which in
Arabic is you know, swear to God. It's quite important thing for Ferris to say. Paris looked at him straightly, Iron said walla, and I thought, ge if he has said that, then they are definitely splitting the votes. Eileen is cast in the other vote. Eileen and I had a difficult relationship because she constantly tried to tell me to keep an open mind and tried to get on a good side to my face, and then time and time again over the past even I mean, I'm gonna
say the past couple of days. It was really since we all kind of landed on the New Titans beach together, people would come to me and say, Eileen's throwing your name out. She wants you gone, she wants rebel strong, rah rah. And I was very direct with everyone and aired my grievances with Eileen and the rest of the tribe about Eileen being deceptive to people and playing double
agent constantly. And she said to me, you're adding me and I don't appreciate it, essentially, probably not in those words, but she said to me that she found me scary. It was one thing she said and she didn't like it. I was so direct and open in relation to her gameplay. So when the final vote, all the deciding vote was going to be with Eileen and Val and Iileen didn't have that background that Eileen and I had where Len's
game was being added. I thought it was pretty clear that the split was going to be across me, that Kirby was going to vote for Ray and that I'm winner would play his idol or the idol that I only found out he had at that point, and that I'd be going home. So that's kind of it was a few moments that kind of clicked in my mind and I thought, Gee, this does not look good.
Honestly, I'm in Faris and Eileen were handed a lifeline with JLP's tribal council. Whiz Are you cross with that?
Now?
I think when I was scouring the internet about you leaving the show last night, from last night to this morning, I feel like that's the most appropriate question to ask you you cross that something sort of changed in the game just in that particular tribal council.
I have been thinking about this question for the past six months, and you know, part of me thinks, to myself or that survivor, there are going to be twists. There are going to be conveniently time twists, you know, in certain respects as well, and that's just how the chips fell, and I need to make peace with that. But then you know the other side of me thinks, well, I've played twenty one days out there of this game, and I was very calculated and careful in how I
played the game. I thought I was in a really good position where a lot of people from the og Titans tribe and the og Rebels tribe really trusted me, and I thought I was in a really good position. And for a twist to ruin.
My game, you've been crying at night.
I've been in a fetal position, night and day. No. But that being said, I mean, really, if I landed that last Dan bag, then I would have gotten through. So it's not just production that led to me going home. With a twist that led to me going home. I had a chance to get through and I didn't get through, though, you know, well done to Ferris and Eileen, but.
They also got to flush the idol and boot an original Titan Like. It was exactly exactly good television exactly.
People say, you know, it must have been a bittersweet being in such a memorable trible and it was I think more bitter for me, But it's sweet looking back on the fact that I got to experience the game overall, so that was really special.
I think it was sort of clear that Kirby's alliance was going to annihilate Ferris, and the survivor gods were probably just too tempted, you know, without a Ferris versus Kirby storyline to continue to merge, the story might not have been so compelling, you know what I mean.
Yeah, although I mean there were a lot of other players out there as well. They had a lot of crafty gameplay, so I mean it might not have been compelling. But I also think a lot of the time that I mean, the Kirby Ferris narrative is amazing, and they're two incredible players, but there are a bunch of other players out there that you don't see that much, that maybe just have a slightly different and more tactful style
than a Ferris or a Kirby. So anyway, I like to think that if they did not change things up that things could have been still interesting organically. But when I say organically, I mean the twist is part of Survivor as well, so it's all part and past a lot.
Of it in some way. So you still still can feel like collateral damage to a bigger move, do you know what I mean? Like, yeah, yeah, and that's fair too.
Yeah. And I think you asked me some of these questions a couple of days ago. I would have given a more zen answer than having a refresh in my mind. Last night, I was kind of like, damn you.
I think that's fine, you know what I mean, Like, it's hard when you put I think, to get to apply for a show like this, and to get on a show like this and then to play it, it's really hard for the audience at home to understand the investment. I think you're totally allowed to And I say this to all reality TV people, You're totally allowed to feel however you want about this whole situation. Some people might just brush it off and that's fine, and others it might take longer.
Yeah, exactly, And I think that's something that I mean. I was looking forward to seeing last night episode to get some closure in relation to it, and I think it'll just take a little bit of time to you know, not blame other people, not blame myself, but just kind of be at peace with it generally.
So is it closure or is it opening a wound? I don't know whether that's exactly.
I think it's probably opening a wind a little bit just to fix it. That's probably how I like to see it. So fix the wound up and it'll be better in the long run. So but it was a really cool experience and I'm really grateful to be a part of it. Notwithstanding the way I left, Like, I wouldn't change anything about my game leading up to that trible you know, it might have been a little bit more diplomatic in the first part of the trouble given the outcome, But you know, I think I played a
decent game. It's a shame that a lot of people didn't get to see different sides of my game, but that's part of it as well. And there are some players, like you know, for example, Scott that hasn't had that much screen time, and he's like an incredible player and just like so warm and charming, and people felt so comfortable with him and didn't want to know, didn't want
to cross him. It wasn't even you know, a thought that crossed people's mind because he was so lovely and smart and good at challenges and all that type of stuff. But hopefully in the coming episodes you'll see a lot more of Scotty as well.
Yeah, he looks like someone another person that I'm looking forward to talking to the best.
You love him.
What are you thinking about Winner though? Because I mean, do you think it was the right thing to do? And if you were in his position, would you have played the idol for yourself or would you have played it for you We obviously know that the outcome probably wouldn't have been any different, but I just wondered what your thoughts on him looking after himself in that situation over offering it to you after Kirby said to do so.
I think, you know, hindsight it's a wonderful thing, and you can kind of look at the episode and reflect on what you would have done in that situation. That being said, you know, being in that tribal and it being so intense, I know I'm fairly certain that if I was in the Winner's position, I would have played the idol for myself. So it would have taken a lot for him to or for me to give it up to him. Yeah, but you know there was a chance that there was going to be two votes on me.
He didn't know that. I didn't know that. And so in those circumstances, well, you play the most precious scene that you have in your bag for someone else when there's some uncertainty. If it was very very clear cut, then perhaps play an idle for someone else. But I mean, you've got to hold onto those things with your life and play them for yourself. It's really the only lifeline that you've got out.
There when there's no rewards challenge, And that's kind of what happened last night. Did the players start to think that something else is coming? Like I wanted to ask you about who had the best conspiracy theories on that beach when it came to oh, there's something significant missing from our routine. What does that mean?
I think when Scott first saw the Immunity Idol Chalis thing, he turned to me and said, this, this is immunity challenge. They're shaking things up, the orders mixed up. This isn't great, and so he picked it straight away. But I mean, Scott super perceptive dudes and just picked up on things like that. So I definitely had it to him for picking it within a split second of rocking up to that challenge.
And it's hard not to do those things, you know, and you get told don't talk about production, don't talk about these things. But when you're in a routine of a show like this, as soon as you see something slightly different, intinly what does that mean exactly?
And so it didn't make a lot of sense at the time, and so the kind of natural thought was going to shake things up a little bit being there. You don't know, I mean, realistically, you don't know whether it's going to be they're going to slice and dice an episode here or there, or have some reward challenge after a tribal or something you know, might happen on someone's beach that's really interesting and they want to cram that into the end of an episode. So who knows.
But in terms of something different happening, Scotty definitely definitely picked it.
First, I want to talk to you about Kirby and your alliance. You know, do you think that with aligning with Kirby in reflection that she did enough to look after you and Winner, because I mean, you kind of signed up to her side. But then I read online fans for calling you both you and Winner seagulls to her alliance.
I haven't heard that before.
I mean, I thought that the seagull reference was probably a little bit poor, but it did sort of beg the question about your alliance with Kirby and where you sat in her order of people. It's kind of like, did you think she looked after you enough.
I'm not sure where the seagull line came from, but I don't feel as though who Herby owed us anything
at that particular point. The reason why we went with Kirby's alliance was basically we didn't want to be on the bottom of an alliance of four, especially in circumstances where Ferris and Garret were running the show and having conversations alone between themselves and didn't include anyone including Ray and Eileen, and Eileen had constantly tried to get me on side to my face, was gunning for me behind my back, and a whole range of people on both
sides of the alliance told me that. So there were kind of two main factors. One of them was the social side of being, you know, not really wanting to be aligned with Ferris, Garrick and Eileen. I think I could have definitely worked with Ray Moore, but also the kind of alliance of equals matching up with an alliance of three good Kirby have done more in the Final Trouble Council to help me out or help us OG
Titans out, I don't really think so. Like she could have just blown things up a little bit more and made them a little bit more interesting by going at Ferris and Eileen more, but that wasn't really in the interest of her long game because she'd have to go back to camp and either way have a pretty intense couple of discussions with the both of them. So anyway, I'll look into the meeting of Seagull and reflect on
that morph. I didn't feel like a seagull out there, and my gameplay was calculated and covert from the start, and going into that final tribal I found I thought that I was in a very very good position. I wasn't sticking my neck out all the time, but I was still in a position of having oversight across all of the votes, and until that vote came up against me, until that vote, those two votes were cast in the end, oh sorry, until Arleen's vote, my name hadn't been written
down on a parchment at all. So yeah, anyway, I felt like I could I could hold my own. And that's a very long winded way of saying. No, I don't think of a seagull. I don't think anythink if.
We take the seagull part out of it, and we kind of looked at at Kirby's deck of cards, that's what I'd love to know from you, you know, like, if we're looking at Kirby's align, so we're looking at the aces and the jacks, where do you think that that hierarchy sits at the moment? Could you probably explain that a little bit.
In terms of the hierarchy. And this is going to be tricky because I haven't thought about this much at all. Kirby and I had a lot in common and had a lot of those conversations leading up to the Garrick vote out, and we comforted each other a lot in relation to us being on each other's side. I think it was Scott that would have been underneath Kirby if you want to have Kirby at the top, and she's a strong player, so I think she probably deserves to
be at least somewhere near the top. But Kirby and Scott were very tight, and then me, Kirby and Scott were tight as well. I was, I became very close to Winner and Val. I mean they were each having their conversations with Barris and Co. And also Kirby and Co. But we're all kind of together trying to do our thing, making sure that people were going to throw us under the bus in the short term or the long term.
And I think probably Kelly was the one that was viewed by Kirby and Scott as someone that was hard to manage. And I think Kelly was very hard to manage and therefore someone that they could see themselves voting for in the short term or the kind of a medium term. So I think it was it was actually Kelly who was on the bottom of the pecking order in that respect.
But I think that's what happens. You know, the fallout from last night's tribal council as well is obviously going to play itself out in a different way. What about your prediction of how this will affect the Raymond or other people's game once the sun rises tomorrow. Do you think there is going to be a big fallout from your exit from the show.
It's really hard to say. I mean, ray is such a likable dude and such a lovely dude. I think that's starting to come across through the TV, which is really nice to see because he really deserves that. And he was just so nice and kind and funny. And I think who's probably and sorry just gone on to Ferris. Ferris is someone who will make the best of a bad situation all the time, which she's a really good trait,
and I think Eileen to an extent as well. Although Eileen has flipped on pretty much everyone I think at this point, and people just don't trust her. So it's going to be really hard for Eileen to find an alliance that she can come into where people believe what she says and know that she's going to be, you know,
direct and that kind of ride or die person. So things might get pretty tough for Eileen, I suspect, but who knows, she could kind of pull a rabbit out of a hat and you know, become best friends with someone an unlikely line.
I think she's quite valuable. I think she could change, like you know, don't I don't even think that Ferris should be really trusting her, Like I think she's one of those players that's just doing her own thing.
Yeah, I think she is doing her own thing. But that being said, like it's a social game, and social based on social tires, and social tires built on trust, and Alene just doesn't have the trust of anyone really at that point, because you kind of.
Called her a snake at the end of the game, which I thought was really think we did call her a snake. And the funny thing about that is that your all snakes, like everyone in.
There, ah exactly, and like we all had our snaky moments. But the thing about Eileene is that she just kind of kept on coming for me, and she had she just kind of constantly had these snaky moments from the time that I landed we landed on the beach together up until the end of that trouble Council was just like constantly coming for me. There wasn't snake isn't the best mine on reflection, but she was definitely very devious and what she did didn't make a lot of sense to me. But anyway, I've.
Been asking everyone to finish this sentence in the game of Survivor.
In the game of Survivor, nothing can prepare you for how crappy and uncomfortable and dirty and sleep deprived you will feel. I think it was like night one where we were all just in our shelter with the leaks through the roof that had been torrential rain. It was hot and wet and cold and damp, and our clothes were wet, and people when it got hold her into the night, people started shivering. Someone turned, i think even turned to me and was like, this is real. Production
aren't going to save us. So everything you see out there is like so real, and nothing can prepare you for like the actual experience there. So you can try all you like, but yeah, nothing can prepare you for that part of things, which is just so uncomfortable. On the hunger as well, my god, yeah, the hunger is is yeah.
Is it what people say when they get eliminated. They're like, I have been eliminated. I'm so disappointed, but also thank god.
Yeah, exactly like there was. I sent a photo to my wife after that final elimination, and she was like, wow, you look terrible, like terrible, like, you look dirty, you look gaunt, like what have they done to you? So anyway, but it's all part of it, and that's kind of what makes it such a cool experience as well.
The last question I ask is what if something from behind the scenes, something we didn't get a chance to see.
I don't want to break any secrets or any secrets, but considering that Violer, I think has done this previously and it's now largely public knowledge. So when we won the fishing equipment, I was a little bit uneasy because I'm a vegan and I didn't want the tribe killing fish, eating fish without me, excluding me from the ritual of eating. So what I did and oh my god, if they mixed that fish with my beans and rice, I would have died. So as a vegan, I wasn't thrilled about that.
So what I did is I told them that I was an expert fisherman. I have done a lot of fishing before I was vegan, so I knew quite a bit about it. But I said to them, you know, I'll give you fishing tips. I won't partake into fishing but I'll rig up your lines and I'll tell you where to fish and what times of day to fish and all of that, and I directed them to the worst spots at the worst times of day. I rigged up their lines just terribly. I think Winner and Jayden
apparently were on to me. And there was one point where I found a lure that I thought was going to be productive at cash catching fish, so I bit it to a pole with a rock, so they didn't show that. But that's extreme, yeah, yeah, yeah, so but I mean out there as well, like being excluded. I mean, obviously being a vegan, you know, I care about animals, and the utility of catching a tiny fish and sharing it amongst twelve people is just like it's not really
a thing in terms of nutrition. The thing as well was I didn't want to be excluded from people partaking something because it is so it's such a bonding experience speaking there and talking about how nice the food is or how you're so hungry and now you're full, and how crazy that is. And so yeah, that was kind of something that I was super keen to avoid because I didn't want to ostracize myself as a result of being a vegan, because being vegan just like does that.
Anyway, certainly does and in all reality shows, let me tell you, that's a conversation that happens. Like, yeah, Charles, thank you so much for having this chat with me. It was so good to be able to get some insights from you. I thoroughly enjoyed watching you in this series and thought you did a fantastic job. And yeah, no wonder so many people want to come back, but you know, this season a season of fresh newbies. There's so many players that I think, you know, could do
with the second shot. So maybe we'll see each other again.
We'll see things crossed.
Cheers you cast yourself enjoy chatting to the media.