Sophi Balerdi nearly won Survivor 49 thanks to her strong answers in the final tribal council. She was sitting next to Savannah Louie, who ended up winning, and Sage Ahrens-Nichols, who received one vote. Sophi and Savannah were two parts of the three-person Tres Leches alliance who, along with fourth-place player Rizo Velovic, dominated the game after the merge.
The second half of Survivor 49 was defined by every other alliance trying and failing to vote out Savannah or Rizo. While votes for Savannah were frequently blocked by her four individual immunity challenge wins, Rizo was right there for the taking. His immunity idol was public knowledge for most of the merge, and the rest of the players had a majority alliance that all wanted him out, but no one was bold enough to pull the trigger on their plans to eliminate him and his idol.
Rizo was a skilled enough talker to convince his enemies to target someone else in just about every tribal in the season’s final episodes. Sophi, on the other hand, had the golden ticket to kneecapping his game with her Knowledge is Power advantage. She knew that she needed to betray the Tres Leches alliance eventually if she wanted to win, but she didn’t use her advantage to take Rizo’s idol at the final six as she could have. Instead, she tried to take Steven Ramm’s Block a Vote instead, not knowing that he had to play it before tribal.
Here, Sophi explains why she didn’t attempt to vote Savannah out sooner in the rare moments when she had a chance, and why she didn’t take Rizo’s idol in the Steven vote or before. Plus, she reacts to Savannah and Rizo being cast in Survivor 50 without her.
Break down your decision to send Savannah and Rizo to the fire-making challenge.
Sophi Balerdi: So that whole day, I was contemplating two things. One was either putting Savannah on fire or putting myself in fire against Savannah, which would’ve been a boss move. But with everything I’d gone through in that game, I felt like I deserved to be in those final three seats. I earned the final immunity. I had survived a disaster tribe. I went to the most tribal councils out of anyone, voted the most people out of my season. I felt like I had a good underdog story and good enough connections with the jury, at least sitting next to Sage or Rizo. I knew it was going to be harder with Savannah, but sitting next to them that I could potentially win. And so I ultimately convinced myself to put them in the fire to just show the jury that I was playing for myself.
They knew how close I was to them, loyal to a fault sometimes. It was a big move, but also I was hoping Rizo would take Sav out. Me, Rizo, and Sage sitting there, I think I would’ve had a good chance to win it. And Rizo probably thinks the same thing. He played a phenomenal game, but I don’t know. I think that’s ultimately why I did it.
Going into the Final Tribal against Savannah, which votes did you think you had there, and who do you think you could’ve gotten had it been Rizo?
I mean, I’ll be honest, sitting next to Sav, I knew I was not going to win. So I went into final tribal ready to throw everything at the wall, give it my all. There’s a lot that they didn’t even show, but I feel like I had a really good performance to the point where Sav even told me right before Jeff [Probst] read the votes, “You just won this game.” I thought I had no votes sitting next to Sav, so the fact that I had some, I was so proud of myself because she’s such a dominant player. It’s hard to get votes sitting next to someone who won four immunities, tying the record, winning fire. She also won a reward. She was such a dominant player, and she deserves to win hands down. But yeah, I thought it was a losing game sitting next to her.
Now with Rizo, I had a couple of jury members tell me that had I sat next to them, I would’ve won. And I think it’s just a testament to my social game. I also had an immunity win over him that he didn’t have. And then a lot of the moves that we saw Rizo make on the screen, him and I did together. And so I feel like just as much as he could have claimed them, I could have also. And then on top of that, I feel like I just had a better story just coming from the disaster tribe, the underdog story, the relationships I have with a jury.
CBS
You touched on how you were part of Rizo’s strategic moves, but everyone was highlighting your social game. Do you feel you did enough at Final Tribal to show how strategic you were?
I think so, because I mean, again, a lot of the answers where I proved that weren’t shown. But I feel like I did do that. And again, I think it’s impossible to win next such a dominant player like Sav, but I think I put up a good fight. I got some votes, I swayed some people, and I feel confident that, sitting next to anyone else, I could have had a chance.
Do you think there were opportunities to try a little harder to get Savannah out earlier?
Yeah, I talked about it a lot, but this is a testament to her game. A lot of the time, when I was going to make a move, she would just save herself by winning immunity. So you see me talk a lot about it, but that’s before immunity challenges happen, and I’m just setting up my plan, talking to people. And then when she wins immunity, that throws my plans off. So it looks like I’m just talk, not trying to actually act on it. But for example, at six, even after the Mexican feast, I was still planning to use my Knowledge is Power on Rizo and then vote Savannah out, but she won immunity. At Final Five, I was right in the middle. I could have voted with Kristina [Mills] and Sage to vote Sav out. They didn’t show me and Kristina working on the puzzle together, but had Savannah not won that, we would’ve voted her out there too, but she always won when she needed to.
People talked a lot about how the Sophie Segreti vote could’ve been the time to get Savannah out, so how did that come about?
At that point, I felt like it wasn’t time yet. I didn’t feel comfortable going into a final six with three Hina members who had been together from the beginning, had voted with each other a lot. I didn’t really understand how tight they actually were. And then Sage, who was also with them. And then it was me and Rizo, where Rizo had an idol. Granted, I could have taken it from him, so I could have been fine, but I just didn’t feel like it was the time yet to strike on Sav. I didn’t expect her to basically win out to the end. But at the same time, Savannah and Rizo had my back in the game the entire time. All these other people didn’t care about me. They left me out of the vote. I didn’t have history with them. At that point, it didn’t make sense to me.
Sophie was just as much of a challenge beast as Savannah was. I felt like as long as we got one of them out at that moment, it was fine. At least let me get out the person I’m less close to.
Do you still stand by the choice not to take Rizo’s idol with your Knowledge is Power advantage?
Now that I know Steven’s advantage wasn’t takeable, and I kind of looked silly, obviously taking the idol was a better move. But at this point in the game, I had such a good underdog story. I had such great connections with people in the jury. I thought that yes, taking a Block a Vote is less flashy and sexy than taking an idol, but I knew taking Steven out with the perception of the jury was a bigger move than taking Rizo out, so I wanted credit for that. I wanted to take Steven’s advantage and get credit with my Knowledge is Power for Steven going because he was truly the biggest threat after Savannah in the game. He had friends in the jury; he had won two immunity challenges. And so the only thing that screwed me over was the fact that I couldn’t take it.
I knew that he had a Block a Vote, but I didn’t know he had to play it before tribal. That screwed me. Had I used it and it worked, and I got credit for Steven going, that would’ve made me feel comfortable sitting next to Savannah and Rizo in a final three, because again, I had those connections in the jury. I timed my move with the Knowledge is Power, and that would’ve been my flashy move on top of everything else I experienced in the game.
CBS
When it comes to the way Steven’s Block a Vote was played, do you think that was unfair, or is it just the way Survivor goes?
It’s part of the way Survivor goes. Honestly, I should have considered that there might be something there because when do they put in another advantage at Final Seven? I think it was a trap for me, and I fell for it. I should have taken the idol. That was my plan the whole time. My grandmother was telling me to do it. It is what it is. If you don’t win Survivor, there’s always going to be what-ifs. There’s always going to be should-have, could-have, what-ifs. But I still could have won if Rizo won fire, so who knows? There still is a path for me to win even after that blunder. So you could say you should have done this, you should have done that, but it could have still ultimately led to you losing. So it is what it is.
I got got by the twist, really. Do they want the Knowledge is Power to work? I don’t know. Come on. Whatever. It’s OK.
Where do you think the votes from MC and Kristina came from? Do you think you were able to swing them in the moment?
For sure. That’s what they told me. That made me feel really proud of myself, that I swayed them. And also, a couple of people in the jury told me that they were 50-50. The fact that I had people thinking I might vote this girl over someone who’s won four immunities and a fire means that it was a testament to my game that I did play a good one. And yeah, the Knowledge is Power is one thing, but I did feel like I played a pretty well-rounded game of Survivor. Though again, I’m a superfan of the show. Sitting next to someone with Savannah’s resume is very hard to even get votes with. I thought it was going to be a clean sweep, or at least Sage, maybe getting Jawan [Pitt’s] vote, and then I get third. But the fact that I got second, I’m so proud of myself sitting next to a freaking badass Sav, seriously, I can’t complain, but I was shocked. I’ll be honest. I was shocked.
Is there anything that got cut from Final Tribal that you wish viewers could’ve seen?
I think just really showing how good my social game was. When Kristina asked Savannah to name family members, I interrupted Savannah while she was struggling. I started to name every single family member, and I was able to do it because I did have those social relationships that maybe some other people didn’t. And that’s fine. I wasn’t able to do physically what Sav was. That was her strength, and then this was mine. I was trying to just prove my point that I got myself here with those social relationships. Also, I was able to, in detail, explain why I decided to do what I did with Knowledge is Power Advantage, and that’s actually what swayed MC, she told me. So yeah, so that’s maybe some of the things I wish were shown, but it’s OK. I think I had a good final tribal.
Did you consider that you might’ve been able to get Alex Moore’s vote since you were together from the beginning?
I don’t know. I don’t know what changed. He did spend a lot of time in the jury without me. We did start together, but there was a point where we spent more time with other people than we did with each other in the game. And we were on opposite sides at the merge. He left me out of the Nate [Moore] vote. I voted him out. I don’t feel entitled to his vote. Obviously, I was hoping I got it, but I understood and respected the fact that he didn’t vote for me. I think we have a deserving winner, so it’s fine.
Would you have said yes to coming back in Season 50 if Jeff had asked? Would you come back in the future?
Yeah, 100%. That’s part of the sadness of losing, not only just losing, but maybe if there was a spot on 50 for me had I won, that’s another thing that kind of hurts. But I don’t know. Something tells me that my story’s not finished. And I feel like runner-ups, they have so much more to prove than even winners, because they got so close. I’ve never been more motivated to be a millionaire in my life because it feels like it slipped through my fingers. Tres Leches really dominated Season 49, and both of them are getting to play. I feel like it’d be cool to see me come back, too. Let’s see how they do, but who knows? But I would 1 million percent come back.
Survivor, Season 50 Premiere, Wednesday, February 25, 8/7c, CBS