‘Survivor 49’s Alex Moore Calls out ‘B.S.’ Reasons for Not Flushing Rizo’s Idol: ‘People Were Just Scared’

Rizo Velovic convinced players not to vote for him and flush his immunity idol out of the game for three episodes in a row in Survivor 49. In Episode 8, he convinced three players to flip their votes away from him and onto MC Chukwujekwu. In Survivor 49 Episode 9, he convinced a seven-vote majority alliance to turn on one of its own, Alex Moore.

Sophie Segreti and other players argued that keeping Rizo and his idol in the game was a “devil you know” scenario; they argued that keeping the idol in the game meant they knew where it was and therefore had some control. Moore tells TV Insider that that’s “B.S.,” saying that the players are really just “scared” of Rizo and Savannah Louie.

Here, Moore breaks down his elimination and what he envisioned for his final three.

Alex, it was a disappointing end for you, I know, but how was it to watch this episode? Did it help you understand your elimination any better?

Alex Moore: Yeah, I mean, I think you really go through it at Ponderosa. I had, like, 10 days there, and so I kind of came to terms with it there, but I’m so confident in the game I played. I think that I was playing strategically, and kind of knew what was going on at all points until that MC vote. We had a seven-person alliance. We had the numbers. Rizo ultimately was intimidated by the position that I was in, and I think he was the only one who saw that, and so he just had to work to try and change things against me. Who knew being friends with basically everyone out there could be a crime?

In your mind, how was he able to flip the votes from this seven-person alliance onto you?

People said I had a messy gameplay, and messy gameplay was just because I had personal relationships with everyone, and they didn’t know if they could trust me. So it’s like, if I went from talking to Rizo personally in the morning, and then went to Kristina, people are like, “Oh, he’s strategising.” That wasn’t messy; it’s just because people liked me and wanted to talk to me. And so, Rizo saw that as a way to kind of just build a case against me. I would tell Rizzo, like, “Oh, yeah, Sophie Segreti, she’s a challenge beast, and oh, we might be frustrated with something she said or did,” and so that was kind of the ammo he needed to turn things against me.

It’s like you were punished for being too good at talking to everybody. I guess that’s part of Survivor, but it’s literally your career in politics to be able to do that. Savannah came in hot in Tribal Council. Was she really the target, like she said she was? How much trouble was she in?

I think Savannah was always the target. Why would she not be the target? She was winning; she won the last immunity challenge. She was kind of this player. I recognized the players in the game. I knew Rizo and I knew Savannah were strategic, and I knew that they would be people who wouldn’t just be swayed easily. And I thought everyone else saw that. I’d like to think they did, but there’s no way of knowing. They ultimately chose to get me out instead of Rizo at this point. And so, I’d like to think Savannah was the target. I would have loved to split the votes between Savannah and Rizzo, but that’s not what the others did in that moment because of Savannah’s win. But also, we still could have split the votes on Rizo.

Robert Voets/CBS

What would your plan be if you had made it past this elimination? What was your ideal final three, and how would you have gotten there?

If it weren’t for Rizo, I would still have been able to play the same game, where everyone is kind of pointing fingers at each other. I think people would have wanted to get Rizo, Savannah, Sophie out, but then I think people are also looking to someone like Steven, Jawan, and Sage. People didn’t really have the best feelings about the other side, and so I was kind of going to be that person to flip back and forth, and yes, I didn’t have the close, personal group, but I think people liked me enough where they would have wanted to still incorporate them, even if I burned them earlier. I think with me it was different than Jawan and Sage, who were seen as this duo, because I was a lone wolf. And so, yes, I had these relationships, but people would have still wanted to work with me and include me, because they needed another vote.

And so, an ideal Final Three, I had a close personal relationship with Kristina. Strategically, I think it would have been best for me to bring her. I mean, she would have used the idol on me if I had asked. I think someone like Jawan and Sage, just because they had such a different gameplay, and didn’t really have to play the game, and I could have made the case of playing since day one, literally, in the game, that would have carried me further.

Are there any strategy talks you had in this episode that we didn’t see in the final cut?

In this episode, I was just making the case to Jawan, Sage, and Sophie Segreti, “Why are we not getting Rizo out? Rizo is not gonna play his idol. We all know this. He didn’t do it the last two times, so he’s trying to get greedy. Why would we not go for him?” For some reason, people just wanted to be liked by Rizo and Savannah. I saw them as competitors, but other people saw them as wanting to cater to them. That’s why Rizo wanted me out, because he knew that I was this person that was gonna impede on him going further in the game, because I wasn’t just gonna let him get away with stuff.

Robert Voets/CBS

What is your read on why didn’t flush Rizo’s idol? Were they ignorant of the control he was wielding, or did they want to keep the idol in the game so it wouldn’t get re-hidden?

There was that argument of, you know, “the devil you know versus the devil you don’t know.” To me, honestly, that was kind of B.S. I think that it was just people not wanting to upset him, or potentially get blowback from Savannah and Soph. I think people were just scared of that, their power. Like I said, they were players, and other people might not have been as strategic. The other thing Rizo, he’d say it himself, was awful at challenges, and so I think people were kind of like, “Oh, well, we could always get him next week.” But the thing is, he’s just gonna keep moving along with that idol, and so why would we not get him if, clearly, there was a chance for him to go and get that idol out of play?

What did you see that made you believe people were afraid to upset Rizo and Savannah? Why do you think they felt that way?

I think they wanted to be liked by them. I think that, basically, Rizo and Savannah were tough. They were people who, when you had a conversation with them, weren’t very easygoing. They would try and dictate things, and I think people wanted to fall in line. Nobody really wanted to put their neck on the line, and it’s like, if any of us want to make it further, we have to get them out. We have this. We have the numbers. We have a seven-person alliance, and as soon as MC didn’t come back, I knew, OK, well, Jawan, Sage, and Sophie are clearly scared, and so that’s kind of where the trouble was. Basically, with Rizo in their ears, I knew that was a problem because he was somehow working this magic on them, and that I wasn’t falling for.

Robert Voets/CBS

Do you think that, other than Rizo and Savannah, there’s one player who really turned the tide against you?

Let’s see. I mean, we see Soph vote against me, and we had the whole relationship, and I think she was doing a good job. I know she mentioned last night that she was, in a way, playing the middle game. She was still having conversations with Jawan in his ear, so I think that trio is doing exactly what they needed to do, and did exactly what they needed to do to get me out, because I saw what they were doing.

Well, I was bummed to see you get eliminated, Alex. I thought you played a good game, and a harder one, because you were in Tribal those first several days.

That means a lot, because I wanted to play. I wanted to go in there and play.

I feel like there was no relationship you didn’t test out.

I completely agree, and that was the “messiness” of my game, having relationships with everyone. But it’s my work, it’s who I am in real life. I just try to build connections with anyone I can.

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