The sixth juror also explains why he would have won the game at the end.

Steven Ramm reacts to emotional whiplash of bonkers Survivor 49 Tribal Council: ‘It doesn’t make sense.’

The sixth juror also explains why he would have won the game at the end.

By Dalton Ross

Dalton Ross is a writer and editor with over 25 years experience covering TV and the entertainment industry. *Survivor* is kind of his thing.

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December 11, 2025 11:28 a.m. ET

Steven Ramm on 'Survivor 49'. Credit:

Steven Ramm had a killer moment at Tribal Council on this week’s episode of *Survivor 49*. And then his game got killed.

Sophi Balerdi tried to steal Steven’s Block-a-Vote advantage at Tribal Council, but because Steven had already activated it back at camp, Sophie was left embarrassed and empty handed while Steven appeared to hold all the cards, especially when Rizo Velocic decided to not play his immunity idol.

Yet a few minutes later, the tables turned yet again when it was revealed that the entire tribe has unanimously banded together to vote Steven out, with Sage Ahrens-Nichols and Kristina Mills flipping to take out their former ally.

What was the emotional whiplash like for Steven going from the highest of highs to lowest of lows? How shocked was he that Kristina and Sage flipped on him? And how would he have done with the jury had he made it to the end? We asked juror number six all that and more when we spoke the morning after his televised ouster and you can now watch or read the entire interview below.

**: Tell me your reaction and what’s going through your mind when Sophi first starts to do her speech and announces that she has a Knowledge is Power advantage that she is about to use on you.**

**STEVEN RAMM: **I was just beaming. You can see me smiling in the episode because I just knew I had her dead to rights, that no one's used the Knowledge is Power correctly ever in history, as far as I know. And I was like, that streak is gonna continue and it's gonna be alive today.

So I was honestly feeling incredibly confident in that moment because I knew they were coming real hard for me to begin with. And so the fact that they were willing to burn this advantage on me rather than Rizo who's been dangling this idol in front of us for several Tribals, I was like: Oh, this is gonna be good.

**How inconceivable is it that you save your advantage from being stolen, you successfully block Savannah’s vote, no idols are played against you, and then you *still* end up getting voted out?**

Dude, I couldn't believe it. I mean, I was hoping watching the episode back would maybe provide a little bit more clarity as to the rhyme or reason behind the decision-making process. And to me, it doesn't make sense. I felt like that was not a great move for me or my allies. I mean, obviously for me. [Laughs]

But that's what makes *Survivor* such an interesting game, though. It's like you go to a museum and you look at a painting, and two people can look at the same painting and come away with a totally different interpretation. And that's kind of the situation that we were in. My blind spot was assuming that my allies wanted to sit next to me at the end the way I wanted to sit next to them, and also saw the painting in the same way that I did in terms of what's our path forward? It was wild though. Dude, I don't know.

'Survivor 49' recap: Chaos and confusion reign at Tribal Council

'Survivor 49' host Jeff Probst reacts to epic Knowledge is Power mishap

**You mentioned you were a little hurt after being voted out. Who were you most hurt by?**

Both Sage and Kristina, but I mean, probably Sage, I would say if I had to choose, because…. I don't know, man, Sage and I, we were so tight ever since that first tribe swap way back when I met her. And then later when Jawan joined us and we formed the Bottoms Up Alliance — they didn't show a lot of it, but her and I were talking game pretty much ever since then.

MC was my secret number one back on Hina, and so when she didn't come back after that split Tribal, we had plans and those plans never got to come to fruition. And so I put a lot of my faith and trust into Sage, and I just thought that her and I were on the same page. I thought if anyone was gonna betray me, it might be someone that didn't feel confident beating me in the end, and I guess I saw Sage's game as being better than maybe she thought it was compared to mine.

I thought we played very similar games up to that point, given that we were both in lockstep on so many votes. I mean, she clued me in on the fact that the votes were going on Alex on that one blindside. And I was like: Okay, I'm gonna vote the wrong way intentionally to not expose the fact that we're working so closely together. So we had plans and we were working together.

And so when it didn't come through and *I *became the plan, I was like: Oh my gosh! But that's *Survivor,* and dude, no hard feelings, man. At the time I was shocked and hurt, but in hindsight, you can't blame someone for playing the game the way that they saw it.

Steven Ramm on 'Survivor 49'.

2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

**Well let's talk about this. Because here’s the big question. You have a lot of friends on that jury, you were seen as a leader on that side of things on the tribe, you won a few immunity challenges, although I never think that really matters with the jury. They've proven that they don't really care that much about immunity wins. But the point is, you've got a really good résumé. Knowing what you knew then and what you know now, is there anyone in the final six that beats you if you're sitting in one of those final three chairs?**

Dude, this is gonna sound so cocky, but no. I genuinely felt like I played one of the best well-rounded games there. I felt that if I made it to those final three seats, I could have talked my way to that million dollars. I think people knew that. I mean, I had a lot of friends on the jury, but I was also laying low intentionally. My strategy was to come in and play like the super messy black hole. I know, another space analogy, but I knew that I'm a likable dude. I dialed up my golden retriever energy and I just tried to play aloof.

But with the exception of the Jawan blindside, I knew everything that was going on in the game. And I mean, of course my blindside, that was the other time. But for the most part, I felt like I had a pretty good read on things. I had a pretty good read on people. I won when I needed to. And I felt like in that moment, especially once I got that Block-a-Vote, I was like: This is mine. This is totally mine. But I didn't want to come across as overly confident and boisterous because I already knew I had a target on my back, so I was trying to lay a little bit low. As low as I could. There's nowhere to hide in final six, so I don’t know.

Jeff Probst and Steven Ramm on 'Survivor 49'.

2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

**People have been blindsided and shocked before and it's so tough to handle, but I can't think of anyone off the top of my head that must have had the emotional whiplash from that epic high of blocking the Knowledge is Power to then the epic low of getting voted out. So what were the next few hours for you like as you decompressed, tried to process, and then joined your fellow jurors at Ponderosa?**

Yeah, it was emotional whiplash, just the best way to describe it. It was like a complete 180. Feeling on top of the world. I just stumped Sophi after she gave this very boisterous speech. Everyone's laughing at me and everyone's dancing and clowning on me, and then I'm like, “Nope! You didn't steal it.”

And so I was feeling up here and then down. Those next couple hours we're tough, man. I mean, you kind of play the woulda-shoulda-coulda game. You break things down and you start to play it back. Like, what were the signs? And going into that Tribal Council, there were signs. There were moments where Kristina came up to me and she mentioned like, “Oh, your name came up with Sage, but I convinced her not to go that direction.”

I was like, “Why was my name even out there? “And then I ended up going and talking to Rizo and I was like, “Kristina just said the weirdest thing to me.” And he started defending, like, “Oh, you know Kristina, she's just sometimes spacey.” And I'm like, “Why are you defending my ally to me?” So there were alarm bells going off left and right, but at the end of the day, I did everything I could. I talked to the people that I needed to talk to and if they were gonna betray me, there's just nothing I could do.

At that point, I was trying to pitch my case left and right. And what really threw me off was Kristina and Sage had a long talk on the beach. Kristina came, told me accidentally, let it slip that I was part of the conversation, and then immediately went back and talked to Sage again. And I'm like: We're supposed to be three working together. So those were some of the signs.

Steven Ramm on 'Survivor 49'.

2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

**Was she eating spaghetti when she did that?**

I mean, I feel bad for saying that a little bit, but in the moment, I was really frustrated. I could just see that there were some cracks in that maybe this wasn't going to go my way, but you just hope that things fall your way. And so yeah, I was just so frustrated, and I love Kristina so dearly outside the game, and in the game she was amazing and such an incredible ally. But in that moment I was like: What is happening? I thought we were on the same page.

**And just to be clear, your plan had you made at the end was you wanted to sit next to Sage and Kristina, I'm assuming.**

I genuinely felt confident sitting next to any one of those folks. I would've loved to have taken Kristina and Sage with me. I think that I had a better résumé than both of them, but I also felt that with Rizo and Savannah. Granted, Rizo flexed his idol masterfully in Tribal Council. And granted, I didn't know some of the stuff that he was doing behind the scenes. I guess I wasn't as tuned in as I thought I was, but from my perspective, it wasn't landing with the jury the way that he thought it was.

And you could sense that looking at the jury's reactions when he's making his fake plays. I knew that wasn't landing, so I felt like I could win over him. And then Savannah, I mean, aside from winning immunities, I really didn't know what else there was to her game that could stack up next to mine. You know, hindsight's 20-20, there's a lot of things you don't see. I think they both played incredible. So I don't know, I felt like I could sit next to anyone.

Steven Ramm of 'Survivor 49'.

**It's funny how you mentioned the Rizo thing, because we as viewers have been assuming like, “Oh my God, he's doing this big show in front of the jury.” But we started to get our first hint with some of the eye rolls this week that maybe the jury hasn't really been picking up what he's been putting down with that. And it sounds like when you were a player sitting next to him, that you could kind of sense that.**

Yeah, we all just knew after a certain point he was kind of the boy that cried wolf,  the boy cried idol. And at a certain point I was like: *I don't even care if we flush this idol anymore. It's not a threat to me or my game at this point. He's clearly holding onto it.* It seemed like it was a lot of theatrics and I'm sure there was maybe a method to the madness that maybe I'm not clocked in on, but that was my perception at the time. Sitting next to it, I just wasn't as threatened by it after a while. And I think there were members just from reactions I saw on the jury that felt the same way.

**I know you don’t have a Garmin watch out there to measure your timing and progress and heart rate, but roughly how long do you think it took you to go around that island on the Journey?**

It took me like four days. [Laughs] No, man, I genuinely have no concept of time, no concept of distance. All I know is that I saw where the buoy was, and I saw where the tide was when I left. And when I got back, I was blown away that it had barely risen. And I ran. I never stopped running the entire time. I was running for my life. I was running for my vote, but I also was running for that million dollars.

And to prove something to myself, at a very fundamental level. I'm trying to shake this imposter syndrome and prove to myself that I can do this crazy hard thing. And so when I got back and didn't see that tide rise, that's my only indication of how long it took me. And I was honestly a little frustrated. I was like: *Dang, you mean I could have walked some of that? Why was I killing myself?* I had so much extra time. Literally it didn't look like it had budged.

Steven Ramm on 'Survivor 49'.

2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

**What’s something that happened out there that didn’t make it to TV that you wish we had seen?**

I would go all the way back to original Hina. We just kept winning, so there wasn't much to show in the early pre-merge game. But I mean MC, Jason, and I were working together in this alliance that we called Sandy Cheeks. We formed it like day two. We woke up in the morning and we both bonded over our nerdy video games and SpongeBob love and references. We were sitting, our buns were in the sand, and we're like: Sandy Cheeks!

I felt like in general, I positioned myself so well with MC in the middle. She was my secret number one in Hina. I had an alliance with literally everybody in there and I felt so well insulated, and those swaps just kind of threw things up and I had to constantly keep rebuilding these shields around me. And so I was a little bummed that they didn't show that Jason was a big part of that. And MC did show Jason her idol as well in addition to myself.

And so I think out of the alliances I had in the pre-emerge, that was the one that I felt closest to and the most loyal to. And if we had all had a chance to reconvene at the merge, I think Sandy Cheeks could have done some magical things. But of course, unfortunately, that didn't come to fruition.

**And we'll end with that. Sandy Cheeks could have done some magical things. * Annnnnnd… scene*.**

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