We first met Rizo Velovic at the end of Survivor 48 when he appeared on our screens to tease Survivor 49, introducing himself as “the man, the myth, the legend: R-I-Z-G-O-D, RizGod, baby.” And to say fans had feelings about it is an understatement.
Almost immediately during the premiere of his season, Rizo very quickly won over the hearts of the viewers with his strategic deviance and social management. Now he’s back for Survivor 50, and fans are wondering if his immediate return to the island will be what gets him to the end this time or what gets him sent home first.
Rizo’s Quick Stats
Survivor Career: Survivor 49 (4th place)
Total Days Played: 25 days
Total Votes Against: 3 votes
Individual Immunity Challenges Won: 0
Individual Reward Challenges Won: 0
Immunity Idols Played: 1
Advantages Played: 0
Survivor 49
Rizo started out the game by putting himself in the precarious position of competing in the supply challenge after the Uli tribe came away empty-handed at the marooning challenge. And while his initial performance proved that he was likely never going to be one to win a puzzle challenge, he managed to instead outsmart the Kele representative, Alex Moore, by copying his finished puzzle and beating him to finish the task.
With the resources provided by the supplies, Uli steadily placed second through the first three immunity challenges. During this time, Rizo became part of a majority Uli alliance with Savannah Louie, Nate Moore, and Shannon Fairweather, leaving their other tribe mates Jawan Pitts and Sage Ahrens-Nichols somewhat on the outside of their social circle.
But after Kele’s Jake Latimer was medevaced out of the game, Rizo gathered the Uli troops to hunt for their beach’s hidden immunity idol. He ultimately found the beware advantage with the rest of his tribe knowing it was in his pocket after he declared, “This is for all of us!”
A Day 8 tribe swap saw the red Uli buffs removed from the game, and Rizo became a part of the new Hina tribe. Luckily, he was joined by his Uli allies Savannah and Nate as well as Jawan. While on Hina, they also brought in Kele’s Sophi Balerdi to their group, leaving two original Hina members on the outs—sending them home back-to-back after double immunity losses.
After the first loss, Savannah and Nate helped Rizo find the idol mapped out on the beware advantage before that night’s Tribal Council to ensure he kept his vote and their alliance had additional power behind it. But officially having Rizo the idol was used as fuel by Sage when the new Kele tribe lost immunity after yet another tribe shuffle and she and Jawan turned on their Uli tribe mates to vote out Shannon.
Day 13 brought the merge, which saw Sage and Jawan once again choosing to flip and taking out another Uli ally, Nate, to become the first person on the jury. The next immunity challenge split players into two teams, with the last person standing winning immunity and reward for their entire team and the others going to Tribal Council alone. Savannah won, isolating Rizo before Tribal Council as the odd-man-out with two former Hinas, Jawan, and Sage. In a twist, Savannah joined them to strategize and vote, which led to Rizo switching the target from his back to the two former Hina members, sending one to the jury without his having to play his idol.
Seeing an original Hina member go home instead of Rizo put Sophie Segreti on the outs with the other Hinas, which Rizo used to his advantage, bringing her in as a number. After Savannah won the following immunity challenge again, everyone was aiming their votes at his ally Sophi, but he instead shifted the target to Alex, sending him to the jury.
The tides finally turned at the next Tribal Council when Rizo and Savannah actively aided in the blindside of their original Uli tribe mate Jawan after Sophie informed them he and Sage were plotting to blindside Savannah after she’d finally lost immunity. Simply for the love of theatrics, Rizo played a fake idol on Savannah—keeping his real one pocketed yet again—and sent a shocked Jawan to the jury.
Sage was furious her closest ally was sent home, and rather than keeping her eyes focused on the biggest threats of the game, Savannah and Rizo, she allowed the two of them to convince her to take out Sophie instead—the mastermind behind Jawan’s blindside—after Sophie had shared interest in blindsiding Savannah with Sophie. This and the next vote saw back-to-back original Hina members sent home, still without Rizo having to play his idol.
Savannah won the Final Five immunity challenge, and with it being the last day he could play it, Rizo finally played his idol at Tribal Council, sending Kristina Mills to the jury. When Sophi won the Final Four immunity and chose to take Sage to the end, Rizo was put against his day 1 ally Savannah to make fire. He wasn’t able to get the flame going high enough and became the last member of the jury, where he voted with the majority for Savannah to be crowned the Sole Survivor.
Survivor 50 predictions: How far will Rizo go?
Rizo’s biggest strength is also his biggest weakness going into Survivor 50, and that’s the fact that no one other than Savannah knows how he plays. Either this will be worrisome for his fellow castaways and he’s going to be an easy early vote, or it’ll be to his advantage and he’ll be able to play up his incredible, under-the-radar social skills early on and sneak through to the merge without appearing as a threat.
Unfortunately for Rizo, I think everyone returning for 50 is too smart to think he’d be invited back for any reason other than he’s a really innovative player. So I could easily see him going before the merge—if he finds himself on a losing tribe—simply because of the circumstance of players already being nervous not knowing what fans voted into the game, they don’t need another castaway being an incredibly unpredictable element as well.
Rizo Velovic Survivor 50 Player Score
Rizo’s one of the best social players we’ve seen in the new era. He managed to get through 8 Tribal Councils with a known idol in his pocket, never having to play it—half of which he should have been in danger during, but he used his strategic manipulation tactics to sneakily move the target off of himself each time. It was truly impressive and earned him the nickname, “RizGod.”
Outwit (Social Game): 11/15
Outplay (Physical Game): 3/15
Outlast (Strategic Game): 8/15
Wildcard Factor: 4/5
Total Player Score: 26/50
While Rizo played an inspiring game during Survivor 49, I don’t know if the players he’s up against for Survivor 50 will be as easy to sway. Playing Survivor seemed almost second nature to Rizo, like he’s been doing it all his life, but will he have what it takes in the big leagues?
We’ll find out when Survivor 50 premieres Wednesday, February 25 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount +!