'Survivor 49's Rizo Velovic breaks down the Final 3 "slug fest" that almost was

Survivor 49's Rizo Velovic has revealed how he thinks the game would've ended had he gone to the end with Savannah Louie or beaten her in the fire-making challenge.


Savannah defeated Sophi "Soph" Balerdi and Sage Ahren-Nichols in a 5-2-1 vote, respectively, at Tribal Council on Night 26 of the game.

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But Rizo's dream of being in the Final 3 was dashed when Sophi won the final Immunity Challenge and forced Rizo and Savannah to make fire. The exciting battle ended with Savannah defeating her closest ally.

The fourth-place finisher therefore shared if he thinks he could've beaten Savannah in the Final 3.


"I think if it was Savannah and I, it would've been a slug fest," Rizo, a 25-year-old from New York, told Entertainment Weekly after Survivor's finale on December 17.

"I have confidence in myself that I could have pitched my game because I'm very proud of the game I played. And Savannah and I played really two different games."

Rizo agreed with Sophi that Savannah was "the muscle" and he was "the strategy behind" their Tres Leches alliance.

"And I'm very happy with the social game that I played. I know we didn't really see how close I had relationships with people on the season, but I didn't win so obviously they're not going to highlight that," Rizo shared.

"But a lot of the reasoning for why Tres Leches was able to come back from that 7-3 deficit was because of my relationship with [Jawan Pitts]. Jawan was like a brother out there for me. I had a great relationship with Sage, and Sage was kind of the key factor because Sage was willing to work with us and kind of flip back and forth with certain votes."


Rizo therefore said he thinks it's would've been "a good, good fight" against Savannah in the Final 3, although Savannah had won a whopping four Individual Immunity Challenges this season when she needed safety the most.

"I don't know what would've happened. I'd like to think I have a good shot at winning, but I think there's a permutation where if it was us three, Soph probably wins," Rizo admitted.

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Rizo said he's been teasing Sophi because had their alliance made it to the Final 3, she could've walked away with $1 million.

"I kind of bust Soph's chops a little bit to this day because I actually think there's a world where if it was us three at the end -- Savannah, Soph, and I, like how Savannah and I initially intended -- there's many ways where Soph actually wins," Rizo shared.


"Because the votes that Sav and I have probably split. It could have been like a 4-3-1 or a 3-3-2."

However, because Rizo got sent to the jury before Day 26, he got to do some jury management and work his powers of persuasion for his allies.

"I was trying to get the jury to really see the bigger picture, because to put it into perspective, the jury was actually a lot more up in the air before [the Final Tribal]," Rizo revealed.

"So when I came to Ponderosa, the whole perception of the jury was not what it ended up being."

Rizo acknowledged there were "a lot of questions" about Sophi and Savannah's game as well as his own.


"Because nobody really knew what we were doing, and a lot of people thought that Sage was doing a lot more," Rizo explained.

"And not to discredit Sage because Sage did great, but what I'm trying to say is the disadvantage about a trio making it so far in the game is nobody really knew what was happening in our alliance."

He added, "So me getting [to the jury] was so good for Savannah and Soph's game because I got to put in the missing puzzle pieces for a lot of the things in the game."

While the jury wasn't privy to Rizo's strategy, they did watch him make bold and flashy moves with his hidden Immunity Idol week after week.

Rizo kept threatening his tribemates that he was going to play his idol without following through until the last possible time he could use it at the Final 5.


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According to EW, Rizo's self-described "idol theatrics" didn't always land with the jury.

However, Rizo didn't seem to think his "cocky" attitude was going to come back to bite him.

"Luckily for me, I played with a group of players that I don't want to say were passive, but didn't want to take the risk," Rizo said, referring to his idol threats.

"Whereas I time and time out took the risks. and it obviously paid off. Was I lucky that Savannah won crucial immunities? Of course. But Survivor is all about luck. I think had I got there and pitched my case, I would've been pretty well respected."

Rizo acknowledged the jury probably "didn't like the antics" of him rubbing his idol "in people's faces."


"But that's how I had to differentiate my game," he clarified.

"I wanted people to know, I was really running the game. I think the fake idol play, my initial intention was felt. I was so confident and cocky out there."

Rizo insisted that he never really came close to playing his idol until the Final 5.

"I want to be humble in this... but genuinely there was not a moment ever in the game where I felt I was in danger where I needed to play the idol, just based on the information I had, the good relationships I had with everybody," Rizo claimed.

Rizo shared how he wanted to "reinvent the idol" and "be a showman" in Survivor.

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"I wanted to show people that not only am I having fun, but I'm really running this game strategically and socially," he concluded.

Rizo will have a chance to perform again on Survivor 50 in Spring 2026 when he competes, once again, against Savannah and a couple of dozen other memorable returnees.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski