Now that he has the benefit of being able to look back on the pre-“Survivor” portion of his life, Jon Lovett shared what it’s like to be able to note on your that “there’s going to be a night when people make fun of you.”
After Wednesday’s Season 47 premiere episode, he told his “Lovett or Leave It” audience, “Do you know what it’s like to put on your calendar, like in May or June, that in September, there’s going to be a night where people make fun of you?” Lovett asked. “Like, you’ve never done that. I want you all to open up your calendars right now and put in February, ‘Everyone I know will text you, ‘awww, buddy.””
Lovett was joined by comedian Guy Branum and actress Uzo Aduba for a recent live taping. The trio spoke about reality TV, and Lovett admitted that one day he wondered what it might be like to be on “Survivor” and “then the next thing you know, you’re pushing a rowboat up the sand of a beach filled with incredibly heavy objects, you’re winded, you’re exhausted, you’ve lost, and then the person you’re playing with has an implosion in front of everyone, and you literally, like, you’ve watched basically all of ‘Survivor.’ You’ve never seen this happen before. You’ve watched it. I can’t think of a moment like this.”
Branum asked if the reality series is essentially a “well constructed game,” which was something that Lovett agreed with. “I think that I paid the price for what makes the modern seasons more interesting, which is shot in the dark, beware advantages, small tribes. You never feel comfortable and you never feel safe.”
He also detailed the thought process of potentially playing your “shot in the dark” — a last ditch option that gives players a one-time, 1 in 6 chance of safety in place of their vote. “What that means is, in the old era, people would just be like, ‘Guy, we’re sorry, but we’re voting you the f–k out of here.’ And you’d be like, ‘Damn.’”
“Now, they look at you and they’re like, we’re voting for Uzo, but they’re not. And so everybody is telling me they’re voting for Andy. Oh, and this was a circumstance … I truly hadn’t considered this. I really didn’t,” Lovett added.
You can watch the conversation in the video, above. “Survivor” Season 47 airs Wednesdays on CBS.
