Survivor. This was sent before Wednesday’s episode one week after declaring him your favorite player pizza. Got the boot. My current favorite is Mary, as she saved herself two weeks in a row and she did really well at the Immunity challenge on Wednesday. Her and Kyle seemed like a two man, two team force here to be dealt with in Survivor.
That’s the one thing I have noticed about this season of Survivor. A lot of duos. You got Joe and Eva. You’ve got Kyle. And Mary, right? No, Kyle is with, oh, I’m forgetting her name. I mixed Mary up. Sorry. But a lot of duos, you had the girl Alliance, hot girl alliance, whatever, but then what’s his name? Got the boot.
So now it’s only Joe. So Joe’s got his alliance with the three guys that is now two, but he is also got a two person alliance with Eva. Just a lot of. Two teamers there, tracker still watching. To me, it is ironic that his tech whiz Bobby, has been missing for a few episodes and the articles I read have no idea where he is.
Unfortunately, another show that all of a sudden I saw six episodes of Tracker season two in my DVR and I’m like, crap. I, I’m not gonna go back and watch this either. I, I really like the first season. It’s just I get caught up on something and if I don’t get started right away, it’s very tough for me to go back and watch, especially on a show like that when I know, yeah, they might have a season long storyline going on about, you know, his brother and his sister and all that.
I’m sure something’s going on with that, but it’s a very kind of cookie cutter show where. Whoever got abducted or whoever he’s gotta go find, he’s gonna find them by the end of the episode. So, not that I don’t like it, I don’t wanna shit on the show. It’s one of the most popular shows on television right now.
It just, after a while, I felt like I was watching the same thing every week and there wasn’t any suspense. ’cause I knew he was gonna find the person. It’s just job. But when I was on the plane coming back on Tuesday, I did read that article, I think it was on US Weekly about the guy Bobby, who was his tech whiz last season, all of a sudden.
He’s been replaced by, on the show, they’re calling him Bobby’s cousin, but nobody has answered and nobody has given a reason as to why that guy was recast and if he’s ever coming back or whatever. So interesting as well. I. And then the last thing on this email said, fact check. You called Lauren, your first Love is blind guest.
I would say she’s the first who discussed her journey on the show. But the third, if you count the two guys who were trying to get rights help for reality contestants, do you think it’s possible a podcast with more followers like vile files got you blackballed from receiving others from Love Is Blind.
I can’t say that Nick had anything to do with the Love is Blind stuff. I just don’t know. I mean, all I can go is off their email, which was, sorry. This request has been denied. Thanks for the understanding, which is just such a passive aggressive way of saying, please don’t contact us anymore. And it’s like, thanks for the understanding.
How can I understand when you literally bent over backwards to do everything to get Lauren on for me? We do a great interview and then all of a sudden you won’t gimme another guest and you won’t return my emails. Thanks for the understanding. Please don’t patronize me. The Joe Schmo finale was super, I needed this show.
It made me laugh and was the great escape for what’s going on politically. I hope you enjoyed it as well. Do you think it is fake, like other reality shows? Well, it’s definitely not real. The whole point of the show was it’s a prank and it is a fake show. The goat wasn’t real. I’m sure you know that. So I don’t know.
I don’t know what you’re asking when you say. Do I think it’s fake, like other reality shows for a, something like the Joe Schmo show, not to be fake, you’re saying that you would, you would be insinuating that Ben knew e everything about it the whole time and he’s just acting and pretending like he didn’t know the show was about him.
And I definitely don’t think that’s the case, especially if you listen to the interview with him. He’s just a guy from Baltimore who was not a big TV watcher, didn’t ask any questions, and was pretty clueless about what was going on. So. That interview with Ben was, was interesting to say the least. And I think listening to the interview with Ben, you realize why they cast him to be the Joe Schmo for this particular season.
Hey Steve. I want to express one thought about this finale. I’ve watched every bachelor bachelorette season since one season one with Alex. Every season we see the final two, confront the lead on the after the final rose, and ask questions like, when did you know? When did you make your decision? And it wasn’t me.
I mean, wash, rinse, repeat, right? Then we go on to the happy couple. But this finale was different for me after seeing what Latia had to say to Jesse and then what she said to Grant about all the things Grant said to her starting week two and leading up to the night before the engagement when she said, we’re getting engaged tomorrow, and he says, I know I’m so excited, or something like that.
I mean, I know the leads get caught up in the moment, but it’s a little disturbing that he apparently consistently said these things kind of things to her from week two, even though she’s admonishing him not to. Anyway, it took the wind outta my sails for when Juliana and Grant came out, and this is the first finale I ever felt that way.
I mean, it wasn’t just a one-time utterance of emotion, I believe Laia, he was consistently telling her she was the one. I must point out I liked Juliana, liked her all season. I have nothing against her. I hope she and Grant make it to be honest, but if they don’t, wouldn’t surprise me at all. So for me, I don’t think anything that Grant said in week two has any bearing on Tia’s argument about.
Reassurance because in week two, I know she called him out on it at that time and said, look, don’t say that to me now when there’s so much of this show still to film. And you could develop relationships with other people. So she did call him out on it, but to me, she answered her own question. It’s almost like, yeah, he might have said that to you in week two, but you’re answering it for him yourself.
Like, okay, but don’t get so excited you could develop more relationships with somebody else. So I, I wouldn’t use that as my argument if I’m her to be like, you kept reassuring me because she already said, I know that you’ll develop more stronger feelings for other people down the road. My biggest thing was what he said the night before, like you said in your email.
We’re getting engaged tomorrow. And he said, I know I’m so excited. I love you. I love you. I love you. But the way Grant has responded in the Entertainment Tonight interview, seemingly he doesn’t think he came across that way. We’re never gonna know. And that’s the frustrating thing about all of this. I don’t think Latia is lying either, but Grant might not be lying as well, and it might be somewhere in the middle.
Maybe it’s not so black and white like Latia said. But I do think Latia wasn’t wrong in feeling that she was being reassured. The whole show I. And that was wrong of Grant. But in the grand scheme of things in 29, bachelors, is that the most egregious thing we’ve ever seen from a lead? To me it’s not, I honestly don’t think it was that big as Le.
I don’t wanna say it wasn’t a big deal because obviously Laia was bothered by it. I’m just comparing it to other bachelors and some of the things that they did, like a previous emailer said, at least he didn’t pick her and then change his mind. So. I, I think the lead especially, it’s very hard, and I understand this from the viewer perspective, but it’s still very hard for people to understand.
This isn’t real dating and this is a TV show. And as a lead, what if Grant were to possibly give Latia the cold shoulder on that episode two date? And what if he was just being very non solon about her? Then you would’ve said Grant was being a dick, and he was making it obvious he was into Juliana.
Now I understand the flip side is, well, you don’t have to go overboard. Like apparently he was, the thing is we don’t know. We just don’t know. And Grant is kind of putting up a stance of, hey, she’s allowed to have her version of what she thought happened and I’m allowed to have mine, but we’re all moving on.
So I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world. And I think whatever Grant did and whatever reassurances he gave Latia, I don’t think it was out of malice. And I think that’s the important thing. I don’t think grant’s a bad guy. I don’t think he was purposely leading Latia on for seven episodes so he could get to that moment and dump her in the end.
I really don’t. And I think that’s where it would’ve made more sense to be as bothered by anything that Grant did. I think he best at absolutely could have chosen his words better if what she said is exactly what happened. But if there was a version of it where she maybe read into things too much, and I guess we’ll never know, but even just saying that people are being like, well, so you don’t believe latia?
It’s not that I don’t believe her. It’s just like, I’m almost like, well, I don’t know. I wasn’t there. None of us were, and we didn’t see any of this stuff that she charged him with. It very well may be true. It very well may be. He said something similar and she was just looking for assurances because she wanted to know if she was gonna win.
It is just very hard at this point, and I think the lead on this show is in a very, very difficult position because he has to almost lead people on every season because if you literally just like and zone in on one woman and everyone else you’re very cold with, it’s gonna come across in body language and your language that you speak to them with, and the audience is gonna see it and they’re gonna be like, this guy isn’t even into any of these people except for one.
So it’s almost like you have to say things and you may basically. I don’t wanna say he was told to do things, but it’s almost like sometimes the lead just has to bite the bullet and has to take the brunt because we know, as I’ve said the last two podcasts, the Bachelor always has to dump somebody at the end.
He’s not allowed to go to their room early and say, don’t show up for the final. Rosa made my decision. So the Bachelor is always dumping somebody at the end. There’s always gonna be a Latia out there. We’ve seen it for 29 seasons outside of the Daisy one. ’cause she knew she wasn’t being picked. Every other woman went there, maybe in the back of their mind, not thinking they were gonna get picked, but they still had to give a speech to pretend like they were thinking it could be me.
And then they got the, you’re a great woman, but speech. And so it happens every season. So why is Grant more hated than anybody else? I. Every other Bachelor pretty much has done this. So, and I understand it’s more about not necessarily what he said to her on Final Row Ceremony Day, but all these things that he allegedly said to her along the way.
Carolina has been complaining about it as well. Complain, Alina, that is her TikTok name. I’m just not making that up for her. On TikTok, she is saying that Grant seemed to be very reassuring to women throughout the course of the show. Zoe said she was convinced Grant was a hundred percent picking Laia. So maybe there is something there.
But the problem is we just don’t know for sure, and I think everyone kind of wants to move on at this point. Steve, thank you so much for recommending the Joe Schmo Show. I loved it. Whoever did the casting for the show did an excellent job on each person, especially Ben. What a great ending and a very humble guy.
You didn’t, you don’t see much giving. You don’t see much giving these days. There’s a lot of greed out there, and Ben was all about helping others. It was heartwarming. I. The goat tattoo that you mentioned was shown at the end of the show when they flashed current photos of the cast. I love that he got a goat tattoo.
That’s right. Yeah, we talked about that in the podcast. I’m like, wait, didn’t you get a goat tattoo? He is like, yeah. And I was like, didn’t I see that on your Instagram? He’s like, I don’t think I posted it there. You know why? He didn’t know where I got it from? Because he had not seen the finale at the time of the recording.
He lived it. He was the on the show, but he wasn’t given a screener and I had seen the finale. So that’s why, and I never made the co connection until I just read your email. That’s right at the end of the show. ’cause I didn’t watch the finale again when it aired on Tuesday night. I just had watched the screener the night before I interviewed him.
So yeah, the goat tattoo was from the post show credits and stuff like that when they were showing what he’s been doing post-show. So yeah, that’s where it came from. Thank you for reminding me of that. But yeah, great show Ben. Super humble. I knew he was gonna give the money to Maya. Even though it wasn’t a real game show, you could just tell the guy was just super, super nice and very naive, but super nice.
Next email did I miss in your Rachel interview asking her how the traitors get to the turret? I know that’s something you had wanted to ask her, and I’m curious too. Oh, Rachel Riley Viegas. I don’t think I asked her that in the interview. No. Did I? Hell, I don’t even remember. You know what? I’ll ask poverty next week.
My guess is it’s just very secretly done. You know, everyone goes back to a hotel. They all have their own rooms and I, I just think the way they do it is probably kept very secret. Now, I don’t know if poverty’s allowed to give out filming secrets like that, but I could probably find out somewhere from somebody how they film.
How they get the people going to the turret and not get everybody else in the cast to know. But my guess is they’re just spread out amongst the hotel. And then once they all go back to the hotel, everybody’s on different floors and then the three people that are part of the turret get to leave their room and go film, and everyone else is literally locked in their room and you’re not allowed to step outside.
So where you could possibly run into them. So I’m guessing that’s how it’s done. Hey Steve, sorry to hear about your saga with the Love Is Blind PR team. My first reaction to their sudden change in Stance is maybe Kinetic realized you had Nick Thompson on your podcast who was speaking out against them.
That’s the only thing that makes sense to me, especially as to why they won’t address it. I, I mean, it could be, but wasn’t Nick on like three years ago and maybe the kinetic team isn’t speaking to the PR team? ’cause the PR person I’m dealing with is. Their email address was Netflix. It wasn’t kinetic. So it is possible that the right hand wasn’t talking to the left hand and the PR team booked it and they didn’t know that Kinetic didn’t want any of their people coming on my podcast.
I guess that’s a possibility, but that seems like a very easy thing to answer to me when I asked, wait, can I not just have Madison on or I can’t have anyone on? 10 seconds after you send me an email rejecting the Madison interview. And that’s all I asked, seems to be. That could be very easy to just say, I’m sorry, but Kinetic doesn’t want to put any of their contestants on your show.
It’d be as simple as that. Yeah, I’d wanna respond with why. I don’t understand. And then we could always have a back and forth and they probably ignore me from that point on as well. But man. I don’t know, just frustrating. Are you rooting for anyone yet? On this season of Survivor, who do you want to see on Survivor?
50. What about the next season of Traitors? Do you have any reality stars you wanna see? Okay. Rooting for anybody in this season of Survivor. I mean, how do you not root for Joe, Mitch, or Eva? If one of those three wins, I think everybody in America will be happy. Who do you wanna see on Survivor 50? Hell, even though I watch every episode of Survivor, especially all the new ERA players, I, I, I, only a few of them even stick outta my mind.
You know, I just can’t, I can’t remember a lot of the players after they play because I don’t cover it as I intense intensively, as I cover bachelor, bachelorette next season of the traders. There’s already rumors floating around out there of who could possibly be on it, like Tiffany Pollard and. There were other names that I saw, but I don’t know if that’s just rumors or if that’s a a real thing because these people are talking to other people who are talking to other people and it’s getting out to content creators.
I have no idea, but I’m sure it’ll be a good cast because knowing now that the appearance fee to go on that show for top end reality stars is two to $300,000. I, I, I, of course these people want to go on it. Why wouldn’t you? Hey Steve. I was really upset on your behalf in regards to the Netflix situation with their lack of professionalism and interviewing.
Love is blind cast members. This seems to be the theme of a lot of your emails today. You guys are all upset. Trust me, I’m upset too. I have not sent that stern email. Maybe I’ll get to it this weekend. I. Anyway. I loved your interview with Lauren. Was hoping to hear others go on your podcast. Is there anyone from Netflix that we, your fan base can contact to also express our frustration and disappointment with them, or ask them to reconsider their decision in allowing you to interview other contestants?
From this season of Love is Blind. Thanks so much. I appreciate the email, but I would never, ever, ever be so petty to tell you. My listeners and my readers to ever contact anybody in the Netflix PR department to tell them, why won’t you let contestants go on reality, Steve Podcasts? I would never do that.
I would never tell you to Google on the internet and go find out who works the PR for Netflix. I would be so stooping to their level. To go that route and tell you, my readers and my listeners, fans of my podcast, people who want to hear me interview love is blind Contestants. I would never, ever, ever tell you to go Google around and find out who covers the Netflix PR team.
For Love Is Blind, and who is the person who goes out and books these interviews? I wouldn’t do it. I just, I would, I can’t bring myself to do that and tell you guys to just Google around and find something like that. I think that would be very disrespectful of me moving on. Loyal fan of yours for over 10 years.
You are the first pod I listen to every day. Thank you. I know you don’t usually watch the Challenge All Stars because it’s on Paramount, but this season of Rivals is on MTV for the first time. Have you watched it at all? No, I haven’t. So I’ll just move past that part of your email. Also, as a fellow 9 0 2 1 oh fan, I started rewatching this series.
I’m up to season five with Professor Finley and Ray Couldn’t help but reminded of your takes almost to your favorite of season six. Keep doing amazing work. Fuck Netflix for not getting back to you and giving you a reason. Yeah. Season five, the fire Kelly gets stuck in the fire with the lesbian girl who ends up having feelings for her and then.
Professor Finley and the New Evolution and Oh yeah. So much goodies in season five, but once you get to six that that’s where I think they hit their peak. Although season seven right now, like I said, is on BH 9 0 2 1 oh restored. And I do like season seven a lot. I’m the one thing that’s really disappointing me about season seven, and I’ll let you Lynn.
A little bit of insight here is I reached out to the actress who played Tracy Gallian. Her name is Jill Novik. I requested her on Instagram and literally she followed me back within 24 hours. So that means that when I sent her a DM, she would see it. If she didn’t follow me and I just sent her a dm, it would get stuck in her request folder, and I have no idea.
She’s a teacher, she’s a drama teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was just on with Jenny and Tori spelling this week on their 9 0 2 1 oh MG podcast for 30 minutes. They did a terrible job interviewing her ’cause they don’t even remember what her storyline was in season seven. So I wanted to get Tracy Gallian on Jill Novik.
I, I followed her on Instagram. She followed me back. I immediately sent her a dm and that was like a month ago, and it’s, she still hasn’t seen it, so she clearly doesn’t check Instagram very much, although she checked it enough to add me as a friend when I requested her. But it’s, it’s disappointing. I really, I, I don’t know.
I can go about other ways to try and get her, but I really wanna have her on, because her season right now is airing on, like I said, BH 9 0 2 1 oh, restored, and it’s almost over. So I want to, I wanna get to it because basically Brandon just dumped her to go back to Kelly, and that was such a. Drama filled season and the little bit that we did get out of her on Jenny and Tori’s podcast, I, I think I could expand upon that so much better than they did because they, frankly are horrible podcasters.
They really are. And I, I don’t just say that because I wanna pump myself up. I just, when you love the show as much as I do, and the two actresses who were on it from seasons one to season 10, can’t remember one storyline ever. Just very, very frustrating. So in terms of this next email was about the coin flip said, look, I don’t think that’s how he made his decision, but I also don’t think the theory has been disproven.
We never did see, nor did they even address how Grant went from telling Jesse he couldn’t make a decision to how he made that very decision. And I know you can’t stand Zachary reality, but maybe chat with your friend Stephanie Parker about it. Last time I talked with her, she was still pretty convinced the coin flip was how we made the choice.
I’ve spoken to Stephanie. I don’t think she truly believes that any coin flip was made. I think that could have been done for content creation to tease it in a video. She did find it interesting that it was floated out there. But I am, I’m just telling you, I, yeah. Has it been disproven? No, but it also hasn’t been proven either.
And that was my whole point about even throwing it out there. It just, if they knew. Zachary or Ashley, I knew that there was gonna be something shown in the finale that alluded to a coin flip. Then yeah, you can run with it. But they didn’t know that and they knew the answer wasn’t going to be addressed in the episode itself.
So yeah, I don’t think Stephanie believes there was a coin flip. She talked to me about it after the fact and I’m just like, it, it’s not a thing. And. But I also wanna say on Grant’s behalf, and not like I’ve ever spoken to Grant, but I’m just saying on Grant’s behalf, again, we saw from the very first tease of this season, they built this whole season around, oh my God, the morning of, he couldn’t make a decision and then all season long, and then we get to the finale and he literally was just like, I struggled all morning, but I’ve made my decision.
So again. When I went on, she’s All Batch podcast, and they asked me, without giving away spoilers, what is this ending? I said, look, I don’t know the exact thing that they’re teasing here, but I have a feeling it’s gonna be a whole lot of nothing. I don’t, I think it’s more of an editing thing, and it ended up being that.
Because, no, we didn’t get an explanation as to why Grant was struggling that morning and then said, oh, I know what my decision is. My personal opinion is Grant was more torn about how he was going to come across dumping Latia because I think he knew he was picking Juliana. I don’t know when, I don’t know if it went back to hometowns or whatever.
I think he was very well aware before that morning he was taking Juliana and he was gonna pick her and get engaged to her, and I think he was struggling more with. He probably knowing that he felt he probably led Latia on in some way and he was going to hurt her, and that was probably weighing on his mind.
That was my impression of that whole, oh, I’m struggling with this decision. Second to last email here, Steve. Next time you interview Mark Wahlberg, will you ask him if earlier seasons of Temptation Island will ever be rereleased? I watched ’em on YouTube a few years ago. I know the first season aired in 2001, but it looks like they’ve all been removed.
I could ask them. Those were on Fox in the early two thousands. Those are probably gone forever. Unless you say they’re not on YouTube anymore. That would be the only place. ’cause I don’t think any network is probably gonna load them into their streaming service. It was just so long ago. They probably have no interest in doing it, but I don’t know why they would’ve been deleted off YouTube unless Netflix.
Oh, because I’m getting, you know, the other seasons. I’m sure seasons one through five that aired on USA when it came back. I’m sure those are still out there. Right. Final email. This is probably more of a comment than a question. I think Grant dodged a bullet. I’ve never seen anyone’s demeanor change as fast as Latia did in that final day.
I was a big Latia fan. She was my favorite, but as soon as she knew it was not her, I think maybe her true personality came out. I compare it to Linda Blair’s. Head spinning around in the Exorcist when she becomes possessed. Latia dropped her little baby voice and was a completely different person. I think I 100% understand Grant’s interview, comment about her reality.
I don’t think anybody disputes the fact that Tia’s demeanor changed the second she got dumped and the come on now, like that came outta nowhere. In terms of the voice itself, because I was like, that was a voice. We had not heard all season long. I don’t, I’m not saying he dodged a bullet because by saying he dodged a bullet and making it seem like, oh, Latia was a ho would’ve been a horrible choice.
No, maybe Latia just wasn’t the choice for him. And didn’t Latia say this was the best decision? I’m glad you made the decision that you did, or, I’m glad this was the decision that was made in the end. Like she seemed to be fine with it, and I mean, she was upset in the moment. But I think she realized, yeah, Grant’s not the one for me.
And I do think Grant was probably better off with Juliana and I, I know that people want answers. I just think, unfortunately we’re not gonna get the answers that we probably want to hear. I. In regards to Grant and Laia and this whole struggling on the last day thing. It’s just we’re never gonna get the true answers, I don’t believe.
Anyway, thank you all for listening. I really appreciate it. Following an Apple podcast. Also, rate and review, but you gotta hit play. It’s the only way it counts as a download. Sports Daily. Coming up in an hour from now, we talk about the Sweet 16 games from last night, and then what we got going on tonight.
Thank you all for listening. I really appreciate it. Have a great weekend everybody. I’ll talk to you on Monday.
See you.
