Jonathan Young was well prepared for Survivor 50. The Castaway recently revealed that he sought help from a Survivor legend before returning to the game. Fans first met Jonathan on Survivor 42, which aired in the spring of 2022. The Alabama native earned a reputation as a competition beast after winning an impressive number of challenges. However, he failed to develop a social game, relying on his physical strength to carry him through the competition.
Jonathan returned to the island with a new strategy, thanks to a Survivor alum who’s been coaching him for the last few years.
Boston Rob trained Jonathan Young ahead of Survivor 50
In a March interview, Jonathan told People that he turned to “Boston” Rob Mariano for advice on how to develop his social and psychological game.
“I did a lot of psychological training with Boston Rob. For four years, I went to his house, trained, sat at his feet, and learned everything I could because my strategic game needed some work,” he revealed. “Boston Rob helped me with that a lot. I completely changed my game. It was years of going to his house and talking to him about what I could do differently.”
He told the outlet that Rob outlined three rules to follow on Survivor.
“One rule was to smile. Everybody wants to play with somebody who smiles,” he shared. “Number two, you want to win; nobody else wants you to win. Number three: control what you can control, and don’t worry about anything else. You can have a tribe swap and completely mess you up. Don’t worry about that. You can’t control it. Just worry about what you can control.”
Jonathan faced scrutiny after Season 42 for how he spoke to women on the show. Jonathan addressed the criticism in a 2022 interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“Man, I hate that they felt that way,” he said, referring to the women who spoke up about his behavior. “Whenever I got a chance to talk about them, I would give them praise … And that’s what I would do is I’d try to build them up and I hate that they … Now they get to see that I was always lifting them up.”
Survivor Season 50 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on CBS. It streams the next day on Paramount+.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK JONATHAN IS PLAYING A BETTER GAME THE SECOND TIME AROUND?
