‘Survivor’ Winner Savannah Louie Reflects on Final Tribal Council, Her Challenge Run and Season 50

Fresh off her Survivor 49 win and just a day after being revealed as one of the returning players for Survivor 50, newly crowned Sole Survivor Savannah Louie is finally able to talk about the two secrets she’s been carrying for months. She spoke exclusively with The Hollywood Reporter about navigating a tense Final Tribal Council moment, why her dominant challenge run surprised even her, and why stepping back onto the beach for the franchise’s landmark 50th season was an immediate yes.

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Congratulations on becoming the Sole Survivor and on being officially revealed as part of the Season 50 cast. How does it feel to finally talk openly about both milestones?

Oh my gosh, it feels so good. This past year, Survivor 49 and Survivor 50 were the biggest things to happen to me in my life by miles, and not being able to talk about it has been so tough. My parents, my family didn’t even know my placement for 49. Having to filter that constantly and watch what I say, and try to prevent any spoilers from coming out has been tough. I am so glad we can finally acknowledge it and celebrate. Last night I was with my family, everybody was crying. It was so emotional. I feel so grateful.

We’ve got to talk about the finale tribal council. In particular, Kristina, who asked you to name a family member or a partner from each juror. What was going through your mind when she asked you that question?

I’m like: Oh, my God. I knew Kristina didn’t love me, but I didn’t know she hated me this bad! Seriously though, I love Kristina out of the game. She’s one of the best people ever. At that moment though, I was like, “I don’t know how I’m going to pull this off,” because I am so bad with names, first of all. At that point, I was so exhausted I could barely remember my own mom’s name. But it’s one of those things with Survivor — you got to figure out a way to do it, you got to figure out a way to adapt.

At the same time, Kristina’s jury question is totally valid. As a viewer, I love watching players sweat. I hate when people let a player walk to the end and give them the easy path. So I applaud Kristina to have the guts to throw that kind of question my way. I answered it the best I could, and I hope it was good enough for some people.

Did your background as a reporter help you stay composed during that exchange? Many players have frozen or refused to ask questions in Tribal Councils before. Did you ever consider not answering since you suspected you probably didn’t have Kristina’s vote?

No, because, at the end of the day, I feel like that Final Tribal Council really is for the jury, and I wanted to give it my all. I spent the entire game giving my all in everything I did, whether it was an immunity challenge or having conversations with people on the beach that may have been a little too direct or aggressive at times. I’m always going to give it my all and my best shot. When Kristina asked me that question, I don’t want to shut her off or shut her down. I want to see, “Okay, what’s the best way that I can go about making this work, and how can I hopefully make it work for me?”

Heading into the Final Tribal, how confident were you feeling? I know everybody has to be doing some mental math like, “All right, I think I got this vote. I think I got that one.” What votes did you believe you had and whose support felt a little uncertain?

I felt very confident I would have Nate’s vote, Rizo’s vote, Alex’s vote, Sophie S’ vote. That’s like four right there, so I felt pretty solid. Honestly, I thought I was going to get MC’s vote, so that was a little surprising. I figured Jawan would probably go for Sage, and I knew that Kristina was never going to write my name down to win. I wasn’t really sure what Steven had in mind, because he was so close with Sage, but I felt like I could maybe pull it out of him, too.

So to answer your question, I felt pretty confident going into Final Tribal, as confident as I probably could be. I knew it wasn’t going to be a washout. I knew that both of the women I was sitting next to played incredible games and that they would also probably be receiving votes. But at the same time, you’ve seen me play, you’ve seen my confessionals. You know I’m always going to be my biggest No. 1 fan. So that’s the mindset I tried to have going into tribal.

You put on one of the most dominant challenge runs in recent Survivor history. When did you realize you might be emerging as the season’s biggest physical threat?

This is probably jumping the gun, but when I won my second immunity in a row, I was like, “Oh shoot, this is pretty dope, but I don’t know how this is going to look to other people.” Granted, they were both endurance challenges and I feel very confident in my ability to win any endurance challenge, because I just have really good core strength. You’ve heard my castmates talk, I’m very intense and that translates really well to endurance challenges.

Was that something you were expecting to be so good at? You can’t necessarily prepare for Survivor challenges, but was that part of like, “Okay, here’s my strengths, my weaknesses, I know I’m going to crush challenges.” Was that something that you expected?

No, not at all. To give you some context, when we left to go do season 49, season 48 was filming. So I’m watching people like freaking Joe and Eva and Shauhin and David — muscles to the maximum. I’m five foot tall — I cannot compete with these people. So when I went out to go do season 49, I thought I’d be lucky if I would win one challenge for immunity. Then as the numbers began to dwindle, it was honestly after Sophie and Steven both went out that I was like, “All right, this is looking pretty good.” 

Your core alliance was tight, but Sophi did mention a couple of times you saw through the season where she’s like, “I got to eventually turn on Savannah.” Did you ever really feel that threatened at some point?

This speaks so highly of Soph’s social game and her ability to lie so well. I did not think she was ever going to flip on me. I genuinely wanted to go to the end with Rizo and Soph. I didn’t want to sit next to anyone else, even though I wouldn’t necessarily have had the easiest path to victory at Final Tribal Council with them. And I really thought both of them were feeling the same way.

That’s why for the final four when Soph doesn’t even have that conversation with us about who she’s sending to fire, I was feeling so betrayed. Obviously I didn’t want to do fire, but it was in that moment where I realized, “Oh my gosh, my close ally, my girl out here doesn’t actually want to go to the end with me. I feel stupid. I feel like a fool. I feel like she’s been playing this game with her head and I’ve been playing it with my heart.” I’m getting emotional now talking about it, but I felt like I had opened up my heart to this person and they were just playing in such a fierce way. I respect that, she’s an amazing player. But at the time it was really, really hard to digest.

Facing Rizo in the fire-making challenge was a dramatic moment, especially considering how tight your alliance was. What was running through your head during that showdown?

I thought I was dead in the water. I thought Rizo was going to win. I had seen him lighting fires at camp before we left and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, dude, this is his.” I am a very confident person, but in that moment, I’m just like, “I really don’t think I have this.”

That being said, when the two of us went in fire together, I went into it with, and he went into it with the mindset too, I think, that whoever won this fire making challenge was ultimately going to be the person who wins the game. It was really emotional. I didn’t want to send him out of the game and I was so sad to see him leave. He is like a brother to me. I truly wanted to sit with him at the end and go from day one to 26. He’s just such an incredible person.

When he was out of the game, when I beat him, I feel almost guilty saying this, but I did feel like I had to celebrate a little bit because Rizo did play such a fantastic game, and was such an incredible strategist. Him being out of the game was ultimately really good for my game. So it’s this weird mixed emotions feeling. I thought the fire would make whoever won look really good. I thought that I was looked at as a big threat, so if Rizo was taking out a big threat, that’s great for his résumé. And then for me, it’s just another thing where I was able to say, “Even my own closest ally wanted me out of the game and I still won and came back from that.” So I thought it would be a good a storytelling element for either of our Survivor stories.

Would he have gotten your vote if he had beaten you at fire?

I think so. I respect someone who can take me out of the game. I don’t like it, but I would respect it.

Is there a move you considered but ultimately didn’t make, like something viewers didn’t get to see that you wished had made the final edit?

As far as game play is concerned, it’s a little tricky because most of the decisions I made about who to vote out ultimately paid off for me. Vote-wise and jury-wise, everything ended up the way I would’ve liked. But as far as things I wish viewers would’ve seen, maybe more of my softer side. I’ll take a minute to also share some love to the CBS editors and production. I am clearly not someone who played a perfect game. I’m not someone who is loved 100 percent of the time, and that’s exactly what we need to see from the players who are out there. 

I’m a multidimensional villain character. I know they showed my intense sides and my maybe more abrasive sides, but I do have a really soft and a very sweet side. I think that comes out, especially when I’m with Rizo and Soph. We had so many silly moments. I had so many emotional moments, especially with Rizo, that didn’t make the edit. I think people wonder, “Was it just a strategic kind of alliance?” No, for me, it was all heart. I found my people and I just wanted to figure out any way I could play this game with them.

Now you’re headed straight into Season 50. What convinced you to return, and how was your approach different?

I feel like it wasn’t even a question. How can you say no to that? I grew up watching Survivor and I grew up cheering for or rooting against some of the people who are being rumored to play this game. When we were asked to come on, the cast wasn’t released officially, but you heard all these rumblings. And so as a Survivor fan, before I was a player, how could you ever turn that down? My question wasn’t yes or no, it’s more like, “How can I make this work again?” I instantly tried to figure it out with my partner and my family and take care of all that logistical stuff.

Regarding my approach to season 50, a big wake-up call for me in season 49 was my social game. The Kristina question about people’s names, it scared me a little bit. So, I’m going into 50 trying remember this person’s name, their daughter’s name. Use the daughter’s name in a sentence and really try to get it ingrained in you and create those genuine relationships. My relationships in 49 were also genuine, but I really felt a lot of pressure to remember all the little details in 50.