The post-season of Survivor 49 has been more interesting than the entire last season of the show itself. Last week, third-place finisher Sage Ahrens-Nichols made a 47-minute YouTube video accusing several of her fellow Survivor season 49 players of cheating during the pre-game sequester period when contestants are not allowed to have any contact with one another. Before Survivor 49 aired, Jeff Probst shared that two contestants had been removed from the game the night before filming started because they had violated these rules.
According to Sage, four more players that stayed in the game were also part of the cheating scandal. While she named (Blue) Sophi Balderi and Jake Latimer, she did not say who the other two players were. Now, another contestant has come out to accuse Jake and Sophi of illegally pregaming. Annie Davis, who was on the Kele (blue) tribe with them, confirmed Sage’s account. During an appearance on Island of the Idols, Lauren Ashley Beck’s podcast, Annie gave a lot more detail about what went down between all of the cheaters. As it turns out, she has first-hand experience. One of the cheaters tried to talk to her, too.
Davis, who was on the Kele tribe with Balerdi and Latimer, claimed that the majority of pregaming happened at night in “Tent City” — the sleeping area at Ponderosa where each castaway is given their own individual tent. While players are expected to remain in their tents, they are permitted to leave to use the bathroom. Davis alleges that several contestants secretly met up at night in the bathrooms, though she does not know what they discussed. Ahrens-Nichols previously claimed that Latimer would hang around the bathrooms at night to talk to people.
Davis also recalled an incident where one of her castmates tried to talk to her, but she respectfully declined. She also made mention of contestants going into each others’ tents to talk, which was not mentioned by Ahrens-Nichols in her statement.
Davis also provided some insight into what may have led to the two contestants being kicked off.
“The two people that got kicked off, I know one of the two of them in particular was just blatant about it,” she said. “He was almost kind of, making fun of the production people, like, I remember this one time. He was talking and production was like, ‘Shut it. You know, we’ve told you a thousand times. Please shut it.’ And he was like, ‘Ah, so-and-so is cool. He won’t tell on us.'”
She also claimed that one member of the production staff rounded the cast up and told them Survivor host Jeff Probst had called them and said, ‘What the hell is wrong with your cast? Why are they talking to other?'”
Davis was ultimately the second person voted off of Survivor 49. Though she says she’ll never know if things would’ve shaken out any differently without the pregaming, she maintains not everyone in her cast had an equal shot at the $1 million prize.
She also felt compelled to speak up as a fan of the show, and hopes the integrity of the game is preserved going forward.
“That’s what bothers me about what happened on our season, I just feel like it’s sticking a pin in something that CBS has worked for 25 years to build, and I think that’s not super fair,” Davis said.
She also acknowledged that, due to the social nature of the game, some people may have felt compelled to engage in conversation with the individuals initiating the pregaming. Davis also cited being isolated from the outside world and from friends and family as a factor.
“You are stripped of everything you know. You’re scared, you don’t know what’s going to happen. You feel like you’re the one person nobody wants to work with,” she said of her experience before the game started. “Probably every single person on this cast felt that way, and so you’re grasping for anything.”
My goodness, they really were quite bold. It takes a lot of chutzpah to tell production that it was okay to cheat because the person you were attempting to cheat with was “cool.” I feel badly for Annie and the other contestants who got screwed by all of this. What makes it even sh-ttier is that Kele went to tribal council three times before the first swap. If Sophi and Jake really did form a pre-game alliance, then the three people who got voted out (Annie included) had no opportunity to make new alliances with players from the other two tribes. Personally, I think it’s time to go back to two tribes of nine instead of three tribes of six. The three tribe format is getting stale.
As I said the other day, none of these alleged cheaters should ever be invited back to play again. There are so many people who spend years trying to get onto Survivor that are willing to play by the rules. I’m happy he’s okay, but I don’t care if Probst or CBS feels badly that Jake got bit by a snake or if they think Sophi should play in another Second Chances or Ghost Island-themed season. Don’t reward any the cheaters.
Bummer. I happen to know of 2 people who seriously tried to get on the show. They were too normal.
All the post-game reveals about cheating are way more interesting that the season itself. Also, that snake that bit Jake was the MVP of the season.