Plus, the rest of the cast members explain what they would have done if they had made it to the end.

Survivor 49 final 5 reveal how they want to handle the jury (exclusive)

Plus, the rest of the cast members explain what they would have done if they had made it to the end.

By Dalton Ross

Dalton Ross is a writer and editor with over 25 years experience covering TV and the entertainment industry. *Survivor* is kind of his thing.

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December 12, 2025 10:15 a.m. ET

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Rizo Velovic, Sage Ahrens-Nichols, Kristina Mills, Sophi Balerdi, and Savannah Louie on 'Survivor 49'. Credit:

Congratulations to the final five of *Survivor 49* for making it all the way to finale night of Dec. 17! But there’s no time to celebrate, because anyone who plans to emerge $1 million richer as the Sole Survivor will have to seal the deal with an impressive final Tribal Council performance.

That means facing the jury — a jury who may not be so pleased when it comes to being relegated to second-class *Survivor* citizenship. How a finalist handles the jury often makes or breaks their entire game. So how do Rizo Velovic, Sage Ahrens-Nichols, Savannah Louie, Kristina Mills, and Sophi Balerdi plan to address the peers they voted out of the game? We asked them the day before the season began to share their final Tribal Council jury strategy. Read on to see what they revealed, and also what the rest of the *Survivor 49 *cast would have done if they made it there.

'Survivor 49' recap: Chaos and confusion reign at Tribal Council

'Survivor 49' star Steven Ramm reacts to emotional whiplash of bonkers Tribal Council

Rizo Velovic

Rizo Velovic on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

It's going to be a little cliche, but I I'm going to take the JT approach. I think what JT did so [well] in *Tocantins* is everybody loved him, and they loved him so much that they were literally willing to sacrifice their games for him and they were clawing at wanting to give him a million dollars. I think for me, in my approach, if you look at the new-era winners, they're all social players. I think the idea of strategic in the new era has kind of washed away. The only real winner that way was Dee.

So I want to approach being their best friend. I want to know everything from where these people go to get their nails done, or what they like to eat for breakfast, all the way to what their third cousin's name is. I want to build those strong bonds to where those people know my story, they know why I'm here on *Survivor*, they know what my reasons are, and if they see me at the final three, they want to say, “RizGod you f---ing deserve this million dollars. You deserve the title of Soul Survivor, and you deserve the opportunity to win 49, go back-to-back and chase that dream of being the greatest *Survivor* player of all time.”

Sage Ahrens-Nichols

Sage Ahrens-Nichols on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

I'm going to just own everything. A lot of people, I've noticed, try to people please in that moment. And I think there's a line between being considerate of someone's emotions and then trying to just say something that sounds good for the sake of winning their vote in the moment. And there's a middle ground where you kind of incorporate the two. When I'm playing a game, I'm a huge compartmentalizer, so I am expecting that everybody else is playing a game, too.

And so the personal feelings, of course they're going to be in the room with us, but are they taking front and center? I don't think that they should. So if I've stabbed you in the back, I'll own that. I'm not going to try to sugarcoat it. “Of course, I stabbed you in the back and this is why.” So my strategy is own everything and just be open and authentic.

Savannah Louie

Savannah Louie on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

Honestly, this cast looks like they are smart as hell and they're charming as you know what. So I feel like when I address the jury in the final three, I will have to really emphasize the strategy that I used and why I particularly outwitted everybody. I don't think that my usual charm will work quite as well because I look at a lot of the people out here, and they just have a lot of charisma. I can sense it in the way that they carry themselves and in the way that they might say something to a handler. So my usual strengths are only going to get me to a certain level with these people. I'll have to bring a little bit more than that to the table. I feel like this jury is really going to respect someone who has smart gameplay.

Kristina Mills

Kristina Mills on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

I'm definitely going to go from an emotional standpoint, and sometimes I do hate when players do the “I need the money” type thing. I *do* need the money, but I'm not going to use that angle at all. But I do want them to really hear my story if they hadn't heard it before for whatever reason. And I want them to know that this was a journey of me finding myself outside of labels, reclaiming my joy from losing my mom to addiction, finding her spirit out here. And I really want them to know that I embraced all of that fully — that I gave all of that to do this self-discovery journey. I used my strengths. I used everything, all my engineer training, all my background, my education. I used what I do. I used my social abilities to get to the end. And I did it for a good reason. And I hope that at the end they're like, “You are what we want this season to be defined by.”

Sophi Balerdi

Sophi Balerdi on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

I want to play a very emotionally inclined game — like a combination of cutthroat and strategic Genevieve from 47, but socially surgical and emotional like Cirie, where she played the mom role, the listener, the shoulder to cry on. I want to be that person for these people. In my personal life, I'm that person. People just naturally open up. I'm a good talker, but I'm an even better listener. So I think I'm going to be able to pinpoint those moments that I have with people and use it to be like, “Yeah, I backstabbed you, but the relationship I had with you was real, and I used you to get to this point. But outside of here, that relationship's going to be real.”

So use those emotions because the way that I want to play, I expect maybe a bitter jury. I plan to play with people's emotions a little bit. Not because I am an evil person, but that's just how I live my life. And you can weaponize that in this game and show those people, “Yeah, we had a real relationship, but I outplayed you.”

Steven Ramm on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

I think the number one thing you have to do when you're sitting in those final three chairs is intent. You need to communicate what your intent was. If your intent was to lay low and to ride coattails for a while, then you need to communicate that and tell people that that's your strategy. I think about Mike in season 42. He gets to the end, he was playing a great game, but he could not articulate what he was doing and people were like, “Just own it!” He couldn't own it.

You have to have ownership and you have to have intent. I think people respect that. It's when you get there and you can't explain everything that you just did that people are like, “Oh, he just got here by luck,” or “He's a goat,” or “He got carried.” So I'm just thinking about all the things that I did intentionally and just owning up to it. I think people also respect where you're like, "Look, I got a little lucky. I got a lucky break here. I did not know this move was about to happen. And it totally took me by surprise, but it's what I did after. That's important. It's how I picked myself up and kept going." It's what you do afterwards that I think is going to define you as a player. It's not the things leading up to it, it's how you react.

Sophie Segreti

Sophie Segreti on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

Gameplay, gameplay, gameplay. Especially if I go up against somebody who has a sob story of why they need the money, they're a parent, they have their own business, all those things. I'm a single 31-year-old living alone in New York City, working in tech. I'm not going to win based on an "I need the money" sob story. And so I am bringing it all back to the game. I want it all back to be on moves that were done and things that brought me there. I don't want it to get beyond the game and talk about life outside it.

Jawan Pitts on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

My philosophy when I talk to the jury is to approach them like family. I'm like, “Yo, this was a crazy ass game. I appreciate you guys. But a reminder, it is a game. All the things we talked about at camp were real. My favorite color is still yellow. My favorite food is still tacos. All that s--- was real. But I had to do what I had to do to make sure that my butt was in this seat. I put you guys over there because I was afraid of you guys. So I respect you guys so much, but hopefully we could be friends outside of the game. It just was a game.”

Alex Moore on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

Some people are so aggressive and it's so unappealing. And so I'm going to play on my empathy, which I'm going to be showing throughout the entire game. First, I'm going to come clean about being a communications director on Capitol Hill. *Survivor* is my job on the day-to-day basis. And so that's why I was able to transcend and play this game so well because I was able to build the relationships, know what information to withhold and when to use information against people and that type of thing. And it's really going to put all the puzzle pieces together on top of my individual immunity wins. And on top of my just being a friend to everyone, they're going to be like, “How could we not give the money to Alex because he's so well-liked and so deserves this money?”

Michelle “MC” Chukwujekwu

Michelle 'MC' Chukwujekwu on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

It definitely depends on who ends up on the jury, but I think a general thing to go by is, I don't want to play a Russell game. But it doesn't mean I'm going to play an honorable game, or I'm not going to tell any lies or anything. I can still be a good person, but I played the game and I did what I needed to do, held alliances where I needed to hold alliances, and then break them where I need to break them. But not in a way that's going to hurt anybody or just bring down anyone's emotional state basically. So I think that's what I'll try to appeal to.

Nate Moore on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

My approach is it's the approach Todd Herzog did the best, which is, “Hey man, I had to vote you out because otherwise I couldn't be here.” I think sometimes you get that far and you're tired and you want to say, “This is what I did,” and what you want to say is “You should be here, but man, it didn't work out. So maybe give it to me.” And I think that's a good way to get around bitter juries. I would argue Charlie suffered from at least one bitter jury member.

You have to play the jury. And you have to know that most people kind of want the ego stroke at the end. And if you can do that, I think you have a chance to win almost any jury member over if you can actually find the reason that speaks to them. Because I can't paint everybody with the same brush, but I’ve got to be like, “Here's why you had to go then, because you would've done this. And I knew you were too smart to do that. You had to go because you were winning too many challenges.” You have to suit it for every player so that they feel like you're speaking to them and not just your best friend or your ally that you betrayed. That would be my approach.

Shannon Fairweather

Shannon Fairweather on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

I think including them in how I am where I am is really important because at the end of the day, people care about themselves the most. In the book *How to Win Friends and Influence People*, it says the most beautiful sound anyone can hear is their own name. So if I can incorporate a couple different players and how they made an impact in how I played and how we did this together and how I orchestrated this with you, I think that's really important.

But beyond that, my goal is to play really presently so that I'm able to actually be aware of how I'm playing. I watched a lot of seasons in the past couple of months, but I watched *Survivor 42 *and Mike played this certain kind of game where at the end he wasn't really able to articulate how he did what he did or why he played that way, where he kind of played this game of integrity.

I also I think it's really important to own how you played, and I think that's why someone [like] Gabler won, because Gabler played this certain kind of game, but they were like, “But did he know he played that certain kind of game? And then he came out and he is like, “This is the game I played.” And then he won.

Jason Treul on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

I need to tell the jury my story. I need to show them that I am also perceptive and how my story may not be exactly what the reality was. I think that 43 is an excellent example how you can win and lose at a final Tribal in that Cassidy was so preoccupied with trying to lay out a résumé. She was trying to paint herself in the best light, but it wasn't the reality and that lack of self-awareness is what lost her the game. I think that Xander from 41, the fact that he was not able to really have a sense of what was really happening — in order to have a good final Tribal, you don't need to play a great game. You need to tell the jury that you are aware of the game that you were playing and that you were playing it on purpose.

Matt Williams

Matt Williams on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

I want to praise each of them for the game they played and any contribution they made to my game and use it as a platform to apologize to anybody I hurt. I want to go into this just being everybody's buddy. You can win this game being a nice person, but you're going to be the villain in somebody's story. I'll use a twist of a quote I like: “You cannot have an easy game and become the Sole Survivor. The cost of one is the other." And I'm going to hurt some people along the way. And I think it is a perfect platform to apologize and explain your actions and clear the air with anybody who might have a beef with me at that point.

Jeremiah Ing

Jeremiah Ing on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

I think with the jury, no one is going to actually know what I did because I'm going to be behind the scenes, and I think I'm going to have to really describe every move that I made and how I got there. And I think that will blow people away because I'm like a ninja and they won't see me coming.

Jake Latimer

Jake Latimer on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

I've thought about this before actually. I want to play the game with honesty and loyalty. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings along the way. I want to be able to stand up and say, “Have I hurt your guys' feelings? Have I backstabbed any of you?” You might have to, there might be one or two, but I want to be that guy that's played the game smartly and truthfully and honestly, and just had fun along the way with a smile on my face the entire time. I didn't want to get there by backstab after backstab after backstab after backstab. I just want to get there, honestly. So if I didn't win a million dollars, if I got to the top three doing that, that's a prize in itself.

Annie Davis on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

When I'm there in the final three and I'm talking to the jury, if I have played my cards right along the way, I haven't pissed off anybody to such an egregious level that they're not going to understand that it was all gameplay. Because one of my skill sets being a CEO, is being able to separate business from emotion. And if I can communicate that to the jury that, “Listen, man, this is business. We're all here for the same reason, and you would've done the same thing to me and this is why I did it.”

If you can explain your rationale for doing something, people can kind of set the emotion aside. Everybody's hurt that's sitting over there on the jury, but they've probably been hurt by all of us sitting on these chairs. And if I can convince them that I hurt them the least, I probably get their vote.

Or if they respect my game. You talk about people kind of floating along on someone else's coattails or whatever and they never get any votes. You’ve got to build a résumé. You got to play the game and not sort of just float to the end, because you're never going to win them over. Even if you didn't piss them off, you also didn't do anything to earn their vote. I've seen people that have pissed off the jury get way more votes than somebody who just kind of floated along and didn't piss anybody off. So I'm not worried about pissing people off. I just have to explain why I did it in the end.

Nicole Mazullo

Nicole Mazullo on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

I have so many thoughts. And I want to first start by saying that the jury management is the most important aspect of the game to me. And some people like Russell Hantz cannot conceptualize that there's no such thing as a winner that should not have won. That's not real.

So I thought a lot about it. I'm going to first start by thanking everyone for participating, because *Survivor* is not *Survivor* without the people. And had one person been displaced, it would've been completely different and I probably wouldn't be sitting there. It's a completely different dynamic. So I'm going to start by thanking everyone, and then I'm going to break my game down into three buckets, just so it's systematic for them to digest. And then once I do that, I'm just going to be a menace. I'm going to tear down the games of the two I'm sitting beside, and I'm going to really be nasty. I'm going to fight for the million dollars.

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Original Article on Source

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