It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload.
The podcast last week. Thereby, Hey guys, welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you for clicking and downloading. On today's episode with Kirby, the now fifth place contestant from this year's Australian Survivor, which is obviously on Network ten, I will be talking to Kirby about her time in Samoa and of course what she thinks now that the smoke has well and truly been snuffed out on her torch.
Australian Survivor Titans Versus Rebels has been 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. Kirby is from the hometown of Melbourne, Victoria. A strategic aggressive player right from the start, Kirby used her social abilities to arrange numerous blindsides to further herself in the game, though her unpredictability caused her to be embroiled in a rivalry with Ferris.
After laying low during the early merge, her strategic position saw a resurgence and she initiated a true with Ferris, realizing the mutual benefit of his alliance, laying down their swords. Kirby and Ferris proceeded to dominate the end game until Kirby's target became too great to overlook, forcing her to win the remaining immunity challenge to save herself. But unfortunately, when she lost the immunity challenge in the final five, she was voted out unanimously for being the biggest threat
in the game. We will unpack Kirby and Ferris's relationship once and for all and find out where their relationship is at now. Kirby will break down the resume of the remaining players and gives us some exclusive details on the hot topics. Back at the Jury Villa, I will ask about Kirby's prior relationship with a Forma Survivor legend and how much of his season did she watch prior to signing up. Plus, we'll get some insights on how those pieces to camera are made and how that affects
the castaway's decisions moving forward. There's actually so much to unpack with Kirby, and she is so much fun to talk with, which I kind of already knew so sit back and relax as we dive just that little bit deeper into the world of Australian Survivor. How are you mate?
You Well, yeah, yeah, good, good, big air last night, but I'm alright. The family's not so good there in morning, but it's sommert It's all right.
How do you keep something like this a secret? Because it would be very difficult. I guess you'd want to be tempted into telling people what had happened in Samoa, but you know you've got these NDAs and you can't tell anyone. How did you go trying to keep all of this a secret?
Well?
I wanted them to just experience it for themselves. I wanted them to go on their own journey, and I was curious about the way that they sort of thought about the game and the way that they saw me play it.
And what they thought was going to happen. So yeah, I kept tight lit.
Well, you played a sensational game, my friend, Oh my god, like just so incredible. I think you will always be remembered as one of the most recognizable players that we've ever seen in Australian Survivor, which is a win in itself.
You know that's such a huge compliment. Yeah, and I'm so grateful to hear that too. Like, I've never watched a game before playing. I work with Luke Toki, and when he got on the show, I try to watch an episode, but I think it's just in my nature. I need to do something to actually learn about what it is that this is all about. So hence the rookie move of sitting on the fence with Peter. I was already sitting in a majority, so I'll learned my lessons.
But I saw it as a small scale of what society is, and that's how I Yeah, that's how I sort of approached the game.
It's really interesting though, because I've actually think that in a couple of years time, people will remember you being the winner. You know. That sort of happens to people, and throughout the history of covering reality television, it's so often when I talk to the fans of shows that the most prevalent or prominent player that stays in the mind ends up becoming remembered as being the winner. It's crazy.
Yeah, well, maybe I'll be there when as in their eyes, which is I think what my family believes in now. No, but it was an incredible experience. Like, I loved it. It was so cool.
How are you feeling now that you've had some time to let the dust settle a little bit, because I can imagine at the time of being eliminated it would feel different to how it feels now.
Yeah, I understood why Ferris saved himself because I've made one last reach, I guess to touch his ego and just say no one wants to stand next to me, and for him to say I'm not scared to I thought I had him. Thought he was going to like, I'll show you what I'm talking about and play it for me. But he looked over at the jury and he might have just sensed that maybe it's not the way that he was seeing it, which is obviously the result. But Yeah, when I walked away, I was just so
happy with the whole experience. I was so grateful to be out there and to be playing this game, and I played without any sort of regrets. I just loved it.
One of the best things that you did. And it was interesting because it did polarize viewers at times, But for me, I always got this sense that you were enjoying yourself because you were smiling, and it was really interesting. And I don't know how much you read about what people thought about you smiling online, because people either took it as arrogance or confidence or just that you were
enjoying yourself, which is how I saw it. Did you see that conversation online and what did you think watching it back saying that you were smiling so often through you know the ups and downs.
Yeah, I heard about it because people would send it and then they'd get on the defensive like, well that's their opinion, like it is what it is, But I loved it. Like, like I said, I didn't watch the game, so I didn't understand what the expectations were. I didn't understand what the norm was. To be able to play this game as well, and for me, the Peter vote and to be able to do a blindside with the first ever move without any having any sort of idea what that even meant.
That was massive.
So I got this excitement, and every time I went to tribal Council, it's like going to a Grand final and you didn't know what was going to happen, but I was so pumped for it, So that's why I was smiling so much, and yeah, I was just loving it.
I think some sort of having a background of sporting attitude as well can really help with a game like this. You know.
Yeah, it's interesting because like with sport, the common goal is a Premiership, so we're all they're focused on that and we're all trying to make it all work together, Whereas I found Survivors so much like working for a corporation or like a project where your drivers are all different, like family, they need to raise money to buy a house. Some people are in debt and they need to do that, so all of their drivers create a different way of approaching the outcome.
And that's similar to Survivor. So my game plan and what.
I want the people that I want to work with might not work for real Scottie, So I need to figure out what does that look like and how do we all get on the same page so we stay.
Tight in aligned.
Well, I feel like this job, the resume for you could probably get you some really good work after this, because while some people can play Australian Survivor and then afterwards maybe someone might not employ them because they come across as a bit dodgy, or they come across like they did the wrong thing for you. I feel like people want to snap you up now and be like, she's the CEO of my business.
Oh well, I.
Hope so, because I'm half a million dollars short in my bank accounts.
Know what they say Kirby, though, is that when something like that doesn't happen, it comes around it in another way. And so I think it's important to feel like that. And I genuinely feel like I'm going to have a conversation with you randomly in five years and you are going to have that half a million dollars in your bank account. I can feel it whole fingers crossed.
I hope it du But no, that's not why I actually applied to play the game.
So I wanted to challenge myself.
I wanted I was a little bit platted in where I was at in my life and football and netball, you know, challenge me and push my limits and an ability to do something. But yeah, I got to the stage where I was like, I want to do something different, and I saw this on LinkedIn, so I applied and I was like, oh, this would be fun, Like as long as I don't get voted out first, I'm like I'm cool, Like I'm good.
So as a.
Competitor in me like sort of came to play. It was back into the game where I was like, I'm actually in a pretty good position here, like I could take this out. So yeah, it wasn't about money. It was there was a bigger sort of driver behind it all.
You guys do a fair amount of chatting to those pieces to camera, and you know you're in some of for a long time, and you know, you do get taken away from the campsite to be able to have those conversations. Is there any way of being able to pick up or read into any clues that the producers might be saying to help you in the game.
Yeah, the producers were amazing.
They sort of brought out the characters in us, Like as an athlete, we're sort of trained to be humble and to speak, you know.
The teams played great sort of keep it low key, but yeah.
They brought out this person that I didn't even know that I had, like this cheek and well, actually I'm cheeky, but it looks like I come across arrogant and that's not who I am. But I also found it entertaining too I was like, oh Jesus, that was a bit forward, like hope my family doesn't get offended or whatever.
And then you see the producers in the background running their hands together. Every time you say something it's a little bit outrageous and you can't help but want to, you know, impress your captor, so to speak. People don't realize that in reality television with the way that you might be because you get rewarded by the reactions of the people around you, and you realize that, you know what, if I say something savage, it looks like it's a good thing.
Everyone's amazing at their jobs and they were very professional. So there was nothing from my game that I was so caught up on. You know, if people were talking, and if it was, it was sort of out of the norm, Like if I saw Caroline going to talk to you know, Valeria, I just thought that was so strange.
So I was very aware of what was going on around.
The camp, even when we weren't heightened or we weren't sort of pressed to go to tribal council. So Eden was a perfect example, Like Ree and I sat there and watched everyone just do their thing, and we noticed it first so it was.
It was wild.
Yeah, Dan a great player, and people loved him because he's a fan. He's a super fan. But you know, he's almost and I saw him just over the weekend walking down the street. He's almost like a mime. You don't need any sound you can read him because he's so animated, you know what I mean.
Yeah, No, he was good. He was. He was so great and obviously as.
A superfan, he he knows a game inside and out, which is amazing. I knew nothing about it, so I also didn't know what I was getting myself into when it came to chats with Eden, so we didn't really talk much either.
There seemed to be a really clear path in overthrowing Caroline. Why did Raymond and Ferris not write Caroline's name down? Because it was only ever so more clear in your final tribal Council that had Ferris and Raymond written down Caroline, she would have gone home.
Yeah, so I was trying to convince them, don't you worry. I don't think that.
And I said this as well at tribal Council.
I don't think that anyone was comfortable standing next to me. And I know that sounds really arrogant, but I was confident in my game, and if somebody got there in the end and they were able to share the things that weren't so obvious and they won, like I'd applaud them because like amazing.
I don't see all of that.
And I didn't do a lot of behind the scenes worker either, so Caroline would have been an easier beat than it was for me. And Raymond didn't want me there.
For a long time. Yeah, I guess so. And so, coming from my position of being a viewer from my couch at home, I wanted to offer you the thought that I think you played almost a perfect game. But in that tribal council you kind of talked a little
bit about your resume and the game. May that have highlighted the fact to everybody that they had to write your name down because no one would have beat you if they took you to the final jury, Like, might it have been better to sit on your hands a little bit and not reveal that part of your resume?
Yeah, yeah, I see, I see exactly what you're saying.
I think I actually I know I said it to hit Ferris's ego, So I wanted him to sort of go, no, I'm not scared to stand next to you, and then that's exactly what he said. But then he contradicts it by playing the artle for himself, so that just sort of it was probably double edged sword really, so yeah, Freddi's ego and then he got scared and then I got gotten, which is funny.
It was a smart move for him.
I think, yeah, it definitely was. I mean, if you and Faris had been in the final two, if there is a final two, we don't even know that at this point, but if you and Faris had been in the final two, do you think that you would have beaten him when it came to the decisions being made by the final jury.
I think with the jury that was there before me entering, I think I would have had them because I had relationships with nearly all of them, and even though Alex not once, well we voted together, but it was because we had to with the Eden vote. Yeah, I think even he would have written my name down, so I was okay with it. But when Farris slipped across, I don't think he was okay with it. So yeah, that's that turned the corner.
Well, the jury's kind of complete. Now is there some with more influence on how everyone will vote? You know, the question that I guess that I'm trying to ask here is do you think once you get to the jury that there's more powerful voices they're influencing everyone's overall decisions? Or do you think once it comes time to it, everyone will vote independently with their own thoughts.
Yeah, I feel like and I'm somebody that needs to know more information to sort of get the whole perspective and the whole view on things like I know Ferris's game from playing at him and with him sort of, but Eileen knows his game inside and out because she was there the whole time on site. Then there's Val who has worked with Mark and so she knows that. So it'd be interesting to see what it looks like from their perspective and how you know these players have
played the game. And on top of Caroline being on the Titans trial with Vollen Jayden, I don't know what that looks like either, So it's going to be really interesting. And obviously I know Ray, but Ray just sort of blocked me out. So Eileen's got the insight to that too.
What's the biggest talking points at the jury villa when you got back there, because I guess the conversations when you're in the beach of Samora and playing the game would obviously be different to the type of relaxed nature of what you could talk about once you get back there, and I guess it becomes a free for all when it comes to honesty. What were the big conversation points that everyone was discussing now that all the cameras were.
Off, Who made what move and how they made it and who they think made whatever move? So I, to be honest, I was so worried about food. That's that was my main focus.
The food is going in and none of the voices was going in at that point, you know.
And sound was being blocked out, and that's where I was at.
But yeah, I think it was just exciting to know each other on a personal level, not as a game player, because the way that I sort of approached the game, I was guarded in a sense, but I was also very aware of what I was saying, so it wasn't necessarily calculated, but it wasn't giving too much.
But I just felt relaxed that I can just.
Be me true you know, if you were to return to Survivor, and you know, if you read anything on any of any of the big fan sites right now, everyone's already talking about when you return. Apart from wanting to win and get the half a million dollars next time, do you have a score to settle? Is there who do you have the biggest score to settle with that you think they may return also so that you can re challenge.
If people are looking in that sense.
I'm assuming that it would be Faires obviously because he broke up with me, so I'd be gunning for him because obviously we've had an on and off relationship and nobody knows if it's love Island with us.
So if it's like brother confused.
Kirby, I asked people that. Throughout the season of interviewing people, I was asking people's their take on your relationship, and I kept saying to them, you know, it's not romantic, but is it brother and sister? Is it bff? Like I don't understand, but the chemistry between the two of you was electric television Yeah.
And it was genuine too, Like that's us, that's how we get along. And I will still banter with him and be like, how dare you break up with me like that? And just you know, and his wife is beautiful and I love her like she's so amazing. I'll get along well with her too. But yeah, we've got this. It is a unique relationship. But he really is like a younger brother, and I think what really cements our relationship and the way that we are is our backgrounds.
We've got a similar understanding for what it's like to walk in our shoes.
That connection.
You can't get much deeper than that, because yeah, it's a pretty close understanding.
So it was so fun.
But to settle a score, he would definitely be one that I would love to go up against again. In the same note, I would be watching the season's past and learning about the game and what people.
Think they can expect from the game.
I don't think i'd ever play or want to play like anyone else either, but only because I think and it's a bit like footy. If you play the way that everyone wants you to play, then it becomes boring and too predictable. And I like chaos. I operate well in chaos, and probably a big reason why I wasn't afraid of just jumping and moving and shifting.
Did you feel emotional? I felt like, this is going to show you how invested I am an Australian survivor and maybe I need some therapy. But how emotional do you feel when he made that speech with his immunity idol, Because there was a moment where I actually I had tears coming in my eyes while he was talking about you. I don't know, you didn't seem like you were going to cry sitting there. Maybe you did and we didn't
see that. But was it emotional in the moment to hear him offer you a declaration before technically breaking up with you.
No, No, I watching back, I can see how emotional he was like in his ivs and just the.
Way that, yeah, how hard he found it.
And I can understand it because we were really close. But when he was telling that, saying that speech, I was like, oh my god, like I have no idea where this is going to go, and I was just and it was the first time in the entire game that I was at a tribal council.
And I felt off like I felt like.
This might not be going my way, So I was sort of expecting it. And then he didn't propost to me. He proposed to JLP and gave that title to him.
So there was a lot of head shaking with the jury. They can't say anything that's sitting over there. We saw Kitty shaking her head. We saw Rihanna with some really hectic death stairs. What did you discuss with them? Did Kitty talk to you about why she was shaking her head? I mean, Rihanna's kind of academic. We know that those death stairs were warranted. She was your right or die in a lot of ways. But why was Kitty shaking her head like that?
I'm not too sure.
Well, when I walked When I walked in, they're like, if you made it through writing your name down to we like, and it was unanimous, and I was like, all right, amazing. When as the food, So yeah, I can't I actually can't remember what our conversations were once I got back, that was all I remember at this stage.
I guess we all have our favorites, our emotional ties to the individual castaways that are still left behind, you know, still vying for their chance to win. Do you think there will be a massive upset if one person in particular wins at this stage.
It depends on what perspective. If you're looking from an audience perspective, I think anyone but Ferris because people think that he should for whatever their reason is. But you think from people who don't like Ferris, it should be Caroline because Caroline's played an amazing game.
But I actually, I actually don't know.
Like from my perspective, Raymond was a bigger wedge than Arlene. So if he won, then kudos because he's actually done his job, like he's done what.
He needed to.
And from my perspective, when it comes to Mark, I don't know what he's done, so that's different again, but who.
Knows one thing I did work out with Raymond and Joe. It's really interesting now that there's no Kirby Ferris finale. For some reason, I've been you two have been my top two. But now that I don't get what I wanted, which was that a showdown from the gods of Survivor, feel like my brain has shifted to now me not wanting Ferris to win, to actually wanting Raymond to win.
I don't know, Like the dynamic is so weird. I'm like, I didn't get what I want, so I'm going to throw the toys out of the prem and I now want Raymond to win. What do you think about my decision or my personal opinion that Raymond should win.
Yeah, I think we should start the game again and let's just try it.
No, I that feeling.
I get it as well, because like obviously I played the game, so I've seen the relationships and how it's sort of unfolded.
Yeah, I don't know from an audience perspective, fair.
Enough, when Raymond said to you gorgeous by the way in that episode, I just this is something that I have in my bingo card from watching reality TV for a long time. When a contestant says gorgeous to you, it's always condescending. Like I actually think in the history of Australia, when anyone calls someone gorgeous, it's actually said
in a condescending way. When you watch that conversation with him and the hammock and he calls you gorgeous, do you now realize that was the clue that he was definitely going to put your name down.
When ray was telling me the truth, he will look me in the eyes and our conversations would be different. And the fact that he sort of washed it off without saying too much.
There wasn't much of a smile, and he just sort of did his shrug. Look I knew.
I was like, that doesn't sound very convincing, So I sort of knew it. And I love Raymond. I think he's such an amazing person, and I don't think that was condescending it all from his perspective, So I knew him, so I didn't see.
I've been asking people up until this point, who do they think is going to win? But instead I want to ask something a little bit more implicated from you, and that is what is your order of deserving players in terms of resume? So we have the return, we have the final people still left there. We know we're going to lose one before the finale or maybe two, I don't know, But what's your order at this stage of in terms of resume deserves it. Don't worry they'll
all listen to this and be very upset. I mean, just say what you feel.
They're already mad at me anyways, So holding ever run the block my number. If I look at Caroline's game, she planned it with her mafia people to get Viola out.
So that was a plan and well executed vote.
So I think if you can if you can plan a move and then execute it, and you can people manage like I think that's a big deal because you've got personality differences, you've got games or players that want certain players in and out, which can also shift everything. You've got emotion that's in that everyone's cold and hungry and wet too, So for her to do that, like, that's that's pretty solid. Fris saved himself, him and Arlene and we're shifting and we get the rebels together and
we vote Eden. So he saved himself once. And Is also saved himself with the beanbag challenge with Arlene. He couldn't have scripted that, like the three of us to win. That was insane and I was at that stage I was not this game is This game is just ruining my life right now because I've got this grand plan and they just want to go on throw bean bags at it. But he saved himself and they got Charles out.
So other than that, I don't really know what Mark's done it and Raymond's done that the drama that.
He did and I helped with that.
But that can't happen without the majority of those people knowing either.
Yeah, it's interesting about that with the fans. The fans were really curious about why people were as skeptical for you getting that immunity necklace and placing it on re. People were really like, oh, no, that's a sign that you know, the Kirby and Ferris were involved with Raymond's game, you know, and it kind of got put under the radar. Did you think that? Did you think you kind of got away with people not speculating that you were involved with Raymond's advantage twist.
With an advantage twist like that, And it's so hard to get everyone to land unless it was me. It's like, I don't feel like anyone else other than when I say me, because I was more of a target. Unless it was Raymond to be able to pull that off, you can't and everyone, you know, he put on the heartstrings. But I made sure that my relationships were still kept, so telling Caroline and Kitty and Ree that this is
what's happening. It's not your name, so don't worry, it's still you know, it's going to be vow.
That sort of settled everything.
But Ree was so worried about Raymond just writing her name down.
He scared me too because he was wanting her for a.
While in the Game of Australian Survivor. I've been asking people to finish this sentence like something that you yourself learned and maybe a clue for people who might listen to this podcast who then might apply to be on the show.
In a Game of Australian Survivor, I think you'll always you always need to back yourself, go into the game knowing what you know, and just read the game. No other I guess season would have been played the same as a last So trust that, back that and create have you.
I know, I know, although I could go back in time and just that conversation that Mark managed to finally have with Ferris, where he tried to secure his spot for the final, that to me was, Yeah, it was hard and I didn't even know how to unpack that question with you today. I've sort of bypassed it. But was that hard for you to watch that conversation go down with Mark, considering you probably don't believe his resume was really that strong.
It was smart on Ferris's part to go to both Caroline and Mark and just say am I in your top three?
What does that look like?
So he was cementing himself just in case it went pear sha, just in case he saved me. And then one of those one in net place and it wasn't me. So it was clever on his end.
Yeah, he was good. He was good with that. The last question I want to ask you is something to ask everyone who joins the podcast from all shows, and that is what is something from behind the scenes, something we didn't get a chance to see that you can share with us, kind of a behind the scenes of Australian survivor from your story.
Yeah, early on when it rained, we had no shelter. Everyone was soaking wet. I think it was the first three or four days. I stayed up and sometimes it might have been Eilene or Ree or Kelly, and we kept that fire lit because I hate being cold. But I put rocks on the fire and just gave it to everyone like a hot water bottle. So you're about to sleep with a hot rock, and it just it just made it easier to accept that we were out.
In this island not eating.
So yeah, being able to give people hot rocks even when I wasn't working with them or talking to them.
So that's amazing, very clever, but that's a good one for people who are going to go and do the show now and take it on. Kirby, I just want to say I thought you were so fantastic on the show. I think that you, in lots of ways were the season we have so much to be proud of. I think you've given the fan something really juicy, and thank you so much for taking the time to unpack your time and the strain and survivor.
Thank you so much for having me. I loved it, absolutely loved it.