Spoilers ahead for the most recent episode of Survivor 50.
Survivor first debuted back in 2000, and it remains one of the best reality shows on the air. We're five episodes into Season 50, which is airing on CBS (and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription). The most recent episode "Open Wounds" saw the conclusion of the conflict between Rizo and Charlie, with the latter going home. And two-time player and founder of the Rob Has A Podcast network Rob Cesternino recently spoke to CinemaBlend about the way the Season 49 player has been able to get through the first stage of the game more or less without being targeted.
The cast of Survivor 50 is stacked, and included two players from Season 49 who returned to Fiji just days after finishing their first game. While Savannah went home shortly after coming out as a winner, Rizo looks like he's in good shape... especially thanks to his alliance with Cirie Fields. During my weekly conversations with Cesternino about the current season, he mused about the way Rizo has been able to keep himself in a good position in the game. In his words:
Article continues belowI wanna speak to Rizo a little bit. I thought that he was kind of dead man walking, coming into this season. I really did not think that he was going to go far. I thought he was gonna have to pay an invoice for the people who played with Russell Hantz. And here he is talking about his game, talking about the things he did in Survivor 49, even bringing up the specter of Russell Hantz doing so well. And for whatever reason, it's really working for him that he has such a disarming nature around him.
Honestly, same. Since the rest of the cast wasn't able to watch Survivor 49 ahead of filming 50, the assumption is that both Savannah and Rizo would be early targets. After all, the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. And while that ended up being true for Season 49's winner, Rizo has found a way to charm his fellow tribe mates, and also form some legit relationships that could get him deep into the game.
While Savanah seemingly struggled to connect with the rest of the cast, that isn't the case with Rizo. While he originally annoyed Colby in the premiere episode, he eventually won the heartthrob over. And in Episode 5 his alliance with Cirie seemed to be cemented as she told him about her extra vote. Later in our conversation, Rob Cesternino shared more about Rizo's potential for the rest of Season 50, telling me:
And I think that he's passed this threshold in the game where if he was going to be somebody that was going to get targeted early, it would've happened already. He has his feet under him. And now it really is a question of how much helium is there in the tank where, you know? I think that you could see a world where actually Rizo, somehow the Riz God makes some noise in Survivor 50.
Points were made. While Rizo did get some votes in Episode 5, titled "Open Wounds", he was on the right side of the votes. He's got allies on his side, an immunity idol in his pocket, and the freedom of Savannah already being voted out. So he could be going deep in the game in back to back seasons. You can see my chat with Rob below:
Of course, everyone's standing in the game might change in Episode 6, which looks like it's going to be explosive. The sneak peek made it seem like a merge might be happening, despite there still being a whopping 17 players still in the game. Then there's the mysterious twist that Jeff teased, so it seems like just about anything could happen. We'll just have to see if Rizo manages to survive and get further into the game.
Survivor 50 airs new episodes Wednesdays on CBS as part of the 2026 TV schedule. Be sure to check back with CinemaBlend for our weekly discussions with Rob Cesternino about the thrilling returning player season.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
