Survivor 50 contestant Rizo Velovic had an unexpected elimination. After arriving at Ponderosa following his vote-off, no one from the jury showed up for him.
The showman lost the final four fire-making to fellow contestant Jonathan Young. Rizo noted his second competition looked a lot like his first in many ways.
“Nobody greeted me” – Rizo Velovic details awkward Survivor 50 exit
Entertainment Weekly spoke with Rizo about his two Survivor games, asking pivotal questions for fans.
When asked about the Ponderosa and its cliques, he revealed, “The jurors say they weren’t alerted about me coming. Nobody was there to welcome me with open arms. It was a very cold reception.”
Then, it shifted. He recalls, “And then everybody was like, ‘Wait, Rizo’s here? What the heck? Let’s go show him some love?’ So they did a good job bouncing back, but my reception at Ponderosa was very, very quiet. Nobody was there to welcome the RizGod, so it was kind of sad.”
After his fire elimination, which Rizo sought to avoid, he was asked if this was preferrable than being voted out. “For sure. I felt like if I won fire in 49, I would’ve won,” he said. “And I thought to myself, I’m gonna do everything I could to avoid fire. And I felt like I did that in this case. The worst case scenario was Aubry winning immunity, and that’s what happened.”
The two-time Survivor contestant was more emotional in his first Survivor appearance. He told EW this is because he had something to prove and gave it his all. “And not that I didn’t give everything to Survivor 50, but I came to Survivor 50 as a man on a mission to prove that … And I think I just was so much more confident.” As he rode the momentum, he figured “the RizGod was pretty well contained, until the end.”
He added that he felt like he had a good chance to win Survivor 49. However, his self-proclaimed RizGod moniker and referring to himself as a legend put off his fellow contestants.
“But I feel like that’s just the various perceptions of generations,” he told EW. “The new era people have to earn that title, and I wanted to earn that title.”
Survivor is available to stream on Paramount+.
TELL US – WAS RIZO’S FIRE ELIMINATION SURPRISING?
