Justin Pioppi Survivor 48 Interview

I mean, I'd be remiss not to start with where things finish, right

The cannoli that came out at the end of this course, primarily speaking

Because look, from our perspective, there's this historic, unprecedented vote. It comes down to Cedric single-handedly picking between you and Say

And we get this very impassioned plea from Say. From you, we get like

make the decision for what's best for your game. You're welcome at Luigi's anytime. I think a lot of fans perceive that as

I wouldn't say giving up, but certainly compare it to, say, you kind of backing down

Talk to me about your perspective behind that. Was that your perception as well

I think the edit showed it that way, Mike. But, I mean, as you know, these travels go on for hours

And I guess, like, we broke the record in terms of how long we were there. And you know you're in for a long one when you get a commercial break halfway through

so um there was a lot said especially on my part that was not shown unfortunately and you know i

know the editors have a very difficult job you know you're cramming a lot of information and

trying to tell the story in a short amount of time um i think it was shown that whatever i

told cedric in the moment stuck initially because he was willing to keep me around even after finding

out that I had lied to him. I did lose my vote. But I do think there were some powerful

conversations that ultimately didn't make the edit. And it was his decision in the end

Yeah, elaborate. What were some of those powerful conversations or like some of the big

points you were making in your favor that nearly kept you in the game? I think I told him that, listen, he and I were day one. And I really wish that our relationship

was shown more throughout the show because he was the first person I talked to. He came up to me

I actually helped him off the boat. And I think that's what kind of spawned this friendship

this, you know, I say the bromance and we were broing out together, but it was just such an

unlikely duo. You have the long haired pizza guy from the North and you have, you know, the

colorectal surgeon from the South. And it's like, you know, these two people would probably never

work together. They probably never even interact unless they were in this situation. But he and I

think a lot alike. I think we both don't like variables. I think we both don't like to see

change. I wouldn't say we're risk averse, but I would say we take calculated risks

And part of that was doing the math in my head. This was like a two or three percent chance that

all of these things could have gone wrong. And in my head, I'm like, I have such a good rapport

with Cedric. He has told me countless times he will vote with me regardless of what happens

He will always be by my side. He will never write my name down and he'll always stick with me

And I'm like, this is everything I want an alliance member. I know that I can beat him in the challenges when it comes to that point

I know that if we ever get to a jury situation or final tribal, I should say, no one's going to give a doctor a million dollars over, you know, the frigging pizzeria manager

So granted, I'm thinking very long term, but I'm also thinking of somebody who I can talk strategy with, who's very rational, who doesn't freak out

The only thing with Cedric is he does not like when plans change. He's kind of steadfast and headstrong in that sense

And that wasn't something that I wanted to risk, just that layer of trust

And I'm like, listen, if Mary goes home, she goes home. It's three of us

Hopefully we can stick together. I think we had a very, very strong bond. And I'm glad that came out in his confessionals last night

But if things go wrong here, I still think that we can get Say out. And even though I didn't have

a vote, I still controlled the first three rounds of voting. I knew where every vote went the entire

time I was there Mike except for Say rogue vote on Kevin in the second tribal council But other than that I knew where everybody vote was going I knew who had a vote I knew who didn have a vote And I was comfortable in that situation I wanted to set myself up with I knew that this was going to sink this ship the Vula ship It wasn like a matter of if it was just kind of when

And I'm like, I can either go down with the ship or I can grab as much as I can and grab Cedric, my partner in crime here, go on to a lifeboat and get the hell off this island

And that was my idea. If the two of us stick together, it doesn't matter if we have Mary or Se

We can kind of still navigate this as a three. It didn't matter either way, as long as the two of us stuck together

And I think he saw that and I think he committed to that. yeah so i mean maybe illuminating a bit on that what would you say is the biggest thing

that you wished we got to see from this tribal cons because like you said longest tribal council

it sounds like you know in survivor history round after round after round talk to me through your

perspective were there some moments that didn't make the edit that you wish we got to see that

was even more of a perspective into the madness definitely and i just think it was those bonds

that cedric and i had and and i don't think anyone else really saw it i think kevin mentioned it when

he had his conversation with you about how close the two of us were. And I really think that's what

kind of saved me, even though I withheld information from my number one. Granted, it was, like I said

a calculated risk. I know that in the new era, the odds aren't great if you tell somebody you lose

your vote. You know, you have no agency. You're kind of a sitting duck. You're an easy vote. I

think Say kind of caught on to that. But I was like, let me keep this good rapport with Cedric

Who is my number one? Let's let's figure this out together. And I really think those social bonds kept me through those initial rounds of voting

Yeah, well, you mentioned Kevin, I'd be inclined to talk about to your point, perhaps, you know, substantiating the your your powerful status, the fact that from our perspective, it seemed like you were able to turn the vote on to Kevin, you know, you were trying to get make this 211 happen that ended up turning into a 3-1 due to say, talk to me about that choice, because this seems like open and shut case, Mary doesn't have a vote, we'll just all pile on her, but you were becoming wary of what Kevin was trying to do

that was what I told Cedric. And that was to kind of strengthen our social bond

But Kevin and I would get water every morning after we woke up and we would get water every

night before we went to bed. And that was our time to just kind of reconfirm what we already said

but also catch up and fill each other in on anything else that happened. And when we got back from the second challenge, the water challenge last week

I was like, dude, like, let's go fill our water bottles. You know, that's like survivor talk. Like

let's let's figure out what we're going to do before we go to vote and he was just in so much

physical pain i i give him so much credit for staying in the game not only competing but just

being there present it's it's remarkable and i knew that he would never quit under any circumstance

but there may come a point where there's medical intervention and he's pulled from the game

so in my head i'm like all right so if we vote mary tonight and kevin goes home after the vote

or tomorrow morning. We're down to three people, Mike, in the first five or six days

It leaves me with Cedric and Say in the middle. Granted, we were trying to flush her idol

but had she didn't play it, she's going to play it at the next tribal council. Cedric and I would vote against each other

She picks which one she wants to go with and our destiny is out of our control. If we do this

we leave Mary without an ally. We take that risk of Kevin

being pulled from us away and we also keep that conflict between Say and Mary

who will never work with each other. And it puts Cedric and I in the ultimate swing position

We can choose, hey, tell me what's best for you. I don't care which one we work with. I like both

Mary and I like Say. But let's figure out what works best for both of us and keep that bond

between the two of us that strategic relationship and kind of pivot Which way do you want to go going forward I finding you the way like both both Mary and say you tell me which way you want to go and I good with it really

really interesting so let's talk about say because again it seemed like you Cedric and say we're

locked in you know through this this you know chaotic vote and we saw a lot of Cedric and say

connecting this last episode what about the two of you because to your point we got a lot of content

in this first couple episodes of people approaching you being like, I don't know about save with this idol

and you're even acknowledging about the power that she had there. She's definitely a dangerous player, and I respect her game

I respect her hustle. I mean, she's out there playing incredibly hard, which is great

I just don't know, Mike, especially in the new era with every twist and turn

and as we see, you know, there's a swap coming up soon. I don't know how that will translate long term. And that's what I was kind of clocking. And I'm saying I can pin myself to say I know she'll get a vote at every tribal council, which she has so far

and then hopefully if we get to a swap or a mergatory or a merge and i'm not in well with

either laggy or siva we know that like that war is going to come both of them had like first round

buys through the first week of survivor which is crazy to think of but they're going to need they're

going to need an army they're going to need to recruit people and who better than like you know the vulal losers but i'm saying if there comes to be a point where like you know they're wary of me

I'm like, listen, Say is kind of running things on our tribe. She's a big target. Do we want her as a presence on a jury? Let's work together and use her as the vote tonight and try and draw myself into another group that way. That was my plan. And I think we kind of saw it in a way with 47. It just didn't work out the way that I was hoping to. And, you know, it was a matter of the craziness that happened last night that we all saw

well I need to talk about you coming back from this journey and the cover story you know making

the neutral box look like 40 chests of the red question marks and the white question marks and

obviously to your point what we were just talking about would say she is someone who is very wary of

even if you're telling her the truth so talk to me about what led to this cover story and what was

sort of your perception of how other people were reading the story that you were giving them

It was such a dumb thing, Mike. But I was saying in my head, like, I have limited time here on this boat before I get back to camp. I have to think of something quickly. And I'm like, what relates to dice? I'm like gambling skill, a game of chance. You know, what don't we have in this game? Luck. You know, we had no luck at all, literally. So I'm like, here's a chance to change your luck. Like, let's kind of flip it. Here's a chance to kind of give you some good fortune

That's what I was kind of thinking. And that's, you know, I'm not a huge gambler, but, you know, we do like to play dice sometimes as a friend group, you know

So I'm thinking along those lines. I'm like, what keywords can I get from dice

What keywords can I get from gambling? What keywords can I get from playing that game of chance

So that's what I was thinking. The journeys, I'm seeing a lot of talk online about, you know, it's not fair that we had to forcibly play this game

because granted, Mike, if I had a chance, there was no way at all I was playing

There was no need. If I had a vote, I'm still in the game. And I knew that I needed my vote that night

That was the only tribal where I was in trouble. And I knew that for a fact just because if something happened with Mary

I was going to be in kind of like that perception and that line white

and there was a chance that I could go home. But the other thing is I knew it's a part of the game

and it's not – this isn't Survivor 41, it's Survivor 48. This is definitely a part of the new era It been deeply ingrained in this new type of survivor game It just if you a good enough player you can kind of counteract that And I thought I made the right moves The first three votes like I said went my way It was just that verbal vote that kind of sealed my fate But I don have any

problems with production or in terms of like forcing you to do this. Like I said, I knew the

rules of the game. I still chose to go out there and sign up and play said game

So then on that note, I mean, again, as you are sort of walking out, you know, you have this

gratitude towards Jeff. And I would imagine, you know, if other people were in that situation

they might be, you know, belligerent to say the least. And so talk to me about where that sort of

attitude came from on your way out. Was it still shell shocked about everything that happened? Or

to your point, was it more so acceptance of like, listen, Survivor comes down to a lot of luck. And

I have been facing very recently over the past day in that game, how much luck can factor into

your fate? I just think it was it was a combination of factors. And it was the powerful conversations

that we had, which didn't make the final cut. But also just kind of, you know, Jeff has been in our family for a long time

He's been with us for every previously Thursday night and now Wednesday night

And now that this is out there, I was supposed to be out here last year playing this

And something came up during casting with my help that I was able to figure out only

because I went through the process. And Jeff spoke on this, so I feel like I can come out and say it

but he stuck by me. He stuck by me. Casting stuck by me. Production stuck by me. The network stuck

by me. They gave me a chance when they really didn't have to. There's no shortage of applicants

There's no shortage of people who want to go out there and do this. I'm very lucky to have been

in the realm of this for a couple of years. And I finally got that chance. And granted

I only applied once, Mike, but I waited until I was ready. I wanted to make sure everything was

good with the restaurant, with my family, even like I called my neighbor before a week before

I went out to do this. And I'm like, Oh, Mrs. Johnson, like, is everything okay? And she's like

yeah, like, why? Why wouldn't it be? I'm like, just checking in. But I wanted that peace of

mind knowing that like, I had no regrets. I had no wanted to think about or have to take care of or

feel selfish that I took this chance for myself to better my friends, my family, my business

that was what I wanted to do and and Jeff is a big part of that and I can't think him I cannot

thank him enough oh that's so beautifully expressed so wait just just to clarify so is that

you were in casting before and in getting a health check it was then discovered that there was

something going on process and it was a my heart has an enlarged leaflet so like if you look at

like a knuckle mic or like a fist one knuckle is right so there was a chance that like something

out there could happen that would be really really bad like a cardiac episode um all of that got

cleared but i had i i would have never known this had i not applied to be on survivor so in a way

it's it's good you know it may have saved my life i i have no idea but it's just like a crazy thing

that you would never know until you go through the casting process wild wow i mean we came in

with surprises around your exit then we you bring another surprise to us justin you are a man that

is full of them thank you so much for for everything i mean you know how much i relish

the time that we get to chat both on and off island and again look a lot of different players

can have a lot of different reactions to everything that went down but the fact that you have come out

with your head held high and again so much gratitude about what this experience has brought

to you in so many different ways as we're now discovering uh it's really admirable so always

great talking with you man and please give my best to you and your family as well i'm a huge fan of

everything to do with Luigi's. And I'm looking forward to it. Always a kitchen at our table

I hope you know that for you and your family. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I will be there. Green looks good on you

Oh, thank you. Likewise. Likewise. Well, all the best to you and Luigi's

and the family in and out of the store as well. And thanks so much again, Justin. You have a good one

I appreciate it