Survivor 2014: Tony Vlachos on a Summer Survivor Know-It-Alls Sleepover

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Rob Cesternino and Stephen Fishbach get together for a special LIVE edition of the Survivor Know-It-Alls with the winner of Survivor Cagayan, Tony Vlachos.

Tony begins by discussing his edit and how people view his controversial moves as wrong. He says that the episodes did not show enough of his strategy talk in confessionals and as a result, it threw fans off. Tony says that the biggest thing people—including Rob and Stephen—have wrong about him is that his moves were impulsive and wrong at the time.

Stephen, Rob, and Tony then discuss another controversial move of Tony’s: lying about being a police officer. Stephen asks Tony if lying to people about being a cop was the wrong move. Tony says that he lied about being a cop because people were more likely to dislike a cop than a construction worker. He says telling Sarah he was not a cop was a necessary lie because he had told Cliff and Woo already that he was a construction worker. Tony says police officers are stereotyped as sharp, quick, and athletic, so it felt more comfortable to him to lie about his profession.

Rob and Stephen ask Tony if the spy shack he made to spy on people, which was portrayed as more comedic on the show, actually worked. Tony says that production sacrificed footage of his spying; he says he would spend upwards of 2 hours a day hiding in the spy shack and listening to conversations. The conversations he would hear helped him decide that Cliff had to go, as Cliff was the one gunning against Tony and Trish. He says that the spy shack was important in helping him decide that Cliff had replaced him with Lindsey in the alliance of Woo, Cliff, and Tony. This helped Tony decide to get Cliff and Lindsey out.

Rob asked how Tony became so close with others when they merged. Tony says that he would come clean to people about things he had said in the past, so it helped him become closer with the people his enemies were pitting him against. Tony says that coming clean before Tribal Councils helped him as he was never outed for saying information that would get people to turn on him. For example, he came clean to Woo about calling him “Weasel Woo,” expecting that it would come out during Tribal Council anyway. It would end with Woo replying at Tribal Council that he had already heard about that and as a result it would not damage Tony’s game. He believes coming clean to Sarah about being a cop also helped him as it created Cops R Us and got Sarah to trust Tony.

Rob asks Tony if he thinks he might have done twice the amount of work he needed to win during his time on Survivor. In hindsight, Tony agrees, but believes that it felt necessary to him at the time to work as hard as he did and to think five or six moves ahead.

Stephen asks Tony who were the true strategic players of the season. Tony names LJ, Spencer, Alexis, and Tasha as strategic players. Tony disagrees that Kass was making strategic moves.

Pre-merge, Tony’s relationship with Sarah was hurt by him cheering “Top 5!” after a competition. Tony says that the cheering was a purely emotional outburst that he had not planned, and that it hurt his group before Kass came over to the new Solana Tribe’s side.

Stephen asks Tony if the way he got LJ out was a smart move. Tony says that by acting paranoid to LJ about Woo, he got LJ to lay his cards down, and made Tony look like less of a target. It made LJ oblivious to the fact that all along Tony was setting his sights on getting LJ out. Furthermore, Tony says this was part of his jury management plan to make LJ like him. Tony says that by discussing his loyalty and saying that he put his game in jeopardy to save a member of his alliance (by using his idol on LJ) he could vote with the other side and still be able to return to his original group once he got members of his alliance out. Tony says that the reason he could flip on people and come back to his alliance was that he knew whom he was playing with. He knew what he could and could not get away with.

On the Tyler Perry Idol, Tony says that the idol was not as powerful as it has been made out to be.

Stephen and Rob agree that Tony’s ability to read people and his discipline during the game got him very far.

On the controversial move of voting Trish out, Tony says that he could have voted out Woo or Kass but he needed Woo to help win against Spencer in the next Immunity Challenge and he needed Kass to stay because no one would vote for Kass in the end.

Tony says Tasha didn’t vote for him because he didn’t manage Tasha’s jury vote as well as LJ’s or Trish’s. He told Tasha that the girls left would not be able to survive without him and that Tasha took it the wrong way, leading Tasha to vote for Woo. However, Tony says that he does not mind Tasha’s vote and blames himself for the 8-1 result.

A viewer asked why Woo was nicknamed “Weasel Woo”:

Tony says he called Woo a weasel because Woo would tell Tony he was with him, but he would completely stop talking when Tony walked by.

Another viewer asked whom Tony most enjoyed playing with or against and whom he would like to play again with:

Tony says he had a lot of genuine chemistry with Trish and later on with Spencer. Tony says he doesn’t specifically want to play with anyone (including Trish or Spencer) again since he still has to beat them.

Another viewer brought up that Russell Hantz said on Twitter that Tony would be the first boot if he ever played “with the big boys”:

Tony says he doesn’t mind playing with anyone and that he would enjoy playing with veterans. Tony says that the difference between him and Russell is the social part of the game.

Another viewer asked about Tony’s casting process:

Tony says he’s been watching since 2000 and has always wanted to play but never applied because he did not think he had a chance. Tony says he made a three-minute video and in three weeks he got a call from producers. Tony says that he deferred being on the show because of his wedding date and because of his daughter’s birth. Tony was called back months later for season 28.

Overall, Rob and Stephen agree that watching Tony play the game was entertaining both because of Tony’s game moves and because he was Team TV.

Survivor 2014: A Survivor Know-It-Alls Sleepover Special with Tony Vlachos

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