A lot of wild claims coming out of Australian Survivor, most of which come from the lone American Russell Hantz. Another player has rebutted some of them.
The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The first two times Russell Hantz played Survivor, he crafted a strong second place strategy built to game his way to the end while scorching the earth beneath him. The next two times, once for CBS and the next for Australian Survivor, the rest of the castaways knew his game and made concerted efforts to take him out early.
Russell’s Day 1 idol play was great, as he was the only player experienced enough to use the camera crew to help him find an advantage. However, he squandered his chances to lay low and build an alliance early by bringing everyone together, announcing he has the idol, start pinning tribe problems on others and make plans in front of the entire tribe at night.
Though he was voted out in 23rd place (his worst finish by far), Russell Hantz has a lot of hot takes to share with his followers. Thankfully, the Russell Hantz Show is back, with co-host Cody Dunlap breaking down the controversial player’s time in Australian Survivor after episode one and two.
He makes a number of claims throughout the podcast, including an aggressive bias against him for his political leaning, his status as an American citizen, access to a toilet, extra clothing provided to the players, doing interviews only after the game for a few days, as well as going into some behind-the-scenes details about other players on the tribe and production in general.
To his credit, fellow Champions player Samuel Hinton has responded to some of Russell’s claims on Reddit, suggesting that Russell was doomed the minute he started making differing promised to himself and Monika, as well as when he didn’t play the idol. Apparently, the Champions knew he was trying to bide time with another round of having the idol, so most wanted him gone.
One thing that did pop up? Some Survivor talk outside of the Aussie version, including some … what is this, faint praise for Jeff Probst? A defense for JT’s play where he handed him the idol on Heroes vs. Villains? It’s a new-ish-look Russell Hantz after all!