Justin Pioppi on if he was screwed over by the ‘Survivor 48’ journey

In the pantheon of weird ways to get voted out of Survivor, this one was certainly up there. Justin Pioppi had his torch snuffed on Wednesday’s episode of Survivor 48, but only after he A) Was picked by Lagi to go on a journey, B) Was forced to play a dice game on that journey and then lost his vote, C) Watched Mary Zheng use her Shot in The Dark and the scroll come up as SAFE, D) Went through two tie votes with Sai Hughley, and, finally, E) Chose not to press Cedrek McFadden hard to keep him and then watched Cedrek flip his vote and decide to keep Sai instead.

What if Justin had never gone on that journey? Or decided to tell Cedrek about losing his vote? Or fought harder to stay instead of handing his ally a guilt-free way to cut someone? We caught up with the Luigi’s pizzeria manager to get the full story on his unique exit and what he could or could not have done to prevent it.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did it feel to go out of Survivor in this super weird way that required a lot of variables to all lock into place?

JUSTIN PIOPPI: I’m not the best numbers guy, but I was just running numbers out there, and the odds of this happening was like a two and a half percent. And it’s a crazy way to go out, honestly. But I think it shows the social bonds that I was able to make, especially with Cedrek. I didn’t have a vote, yet I still was able to control the first three rounds of voting. I think that’s a testament to me and my game and the bonds I was able to make in a week. I mean literally, I went to seven votes in seven days, which is insane, and I just had wish I survived the last one

Sai was really fighting to stay, and you took a much a different tact and told him it was all good whatever he decided. And I’m sure a lot of viewers are asking, so I’ll ask it: Why didn’t you fight harder to stay?

Well, as you know, Tribals are very long and not everything is shown. And apparently that was one of the longest, if not the longest Tribal Council in Survivor history. And when you get a commercial break halfway through, you’re in for a long one. So we definitely kept Jeff up pretty late last night, but I just think that there was so much going on and there was so much at stake.

I think also that the fact that Cedrek was willing to keep me up to that point shows the arguments that I was making were making sense to him, and I felt like I was in a position where I didn’t have to necessarily go the extra yard or the extra mile because Cedrek was so intent on keeping me. And like I said, ultimately it’s his decision. There were some things that were shown that were pretty powerful, and in that sense I just kind of felt like I’ll leave it up to him.

Was that a specific strategy to differentiate how you would work with him moving forward in a calm, quiet manner as opposed to Sai, who is more animated than you and Cedrek are?

Cedrek is somebody who is very calculated and hates variables, and that’s something I appreciate as someone who’s in the restaurant industry and everything is measured, everything is portioned. You want to make sure that everything comes out the same. If someone else comes down to Luigi’s and gets the same order, I want to make sure everything is the same.

Cedrek is also somebody who doesn’t like to see a plan change. And when I got back from the journey, I had time for one conversation with one person and I’m like, let me get my number one guy. And knowing that this is probably a two or three percent risk that this may blow up in my face and backfire, I’m like, it’s a calculated risk that I’m willing to take, and hopefully the two of us are waking up the next day on the beach and we’re with either Mary or Sai. It didn’t matter to me. I don’t think it really mattered at first to Cedrek, which one of us was with him.

Do you think if you had told Cedrek about your lost vote before Tribal Council that it would have changed things and he would have stuck with you all the way through? I’m sure you’ve thought about this.

I have, definitely, and I kind of ran the risk in my head when I was coming back on the boat from the journey and I said to myself: The track record isn’t great about telling people you have lost your vote, especially in the new era. I know that journeys are a part of the new era. I know that sometimes you don’t have a choice whether to risk or lose your vote. Definitely last night I would not have chosen to play that game. Had it been the second Tribal Council or even on day three, I probably would’ve taken that chance.

I was very aware of my positioning within the tribe, and when we figured out that Kevin was hurt early on and we were going to be at a disadvantage in terms of tribe strength, I quickly changed my perception to: This ship is going to sink. It’s not a matter of if, it’s just kind of when. But I want to make sure I can grab as much as I can and get on a lifeboat and just get off this island. That was my goal, and it was always to have at least one or two people ideally ahead of me who would go before me. And that kind of stuck with the plan last night. The initial vote was Mary, and I’m like, “If something crazy happens, Sai would still go home.” And that was the plan up until the very last moment.

You didn’t have a choice about going on the journey. You didn’t have a choice on whether to play the game or not. Sounds like you just said if you had a choice you would not have played. Were you screwed over by the journey?

You know what? This is something that I kind of grappled with for sure, and the only thing that I can say is this isn’t Survivor 41. This isn’t a new concept in the new era. We all know as players this is a part of the new era. It’s definitely involved. You’re probably going to go on a journey, and there’s a good chance you’re going to lose your vote. I think if you’re a good enough player you can kind of adapt around that. And I think you saw still, even though I didn’t have a vote, the vote still went where I was hoping for them to go. Not once, not twice, but three times, which I think credits the social game and my ability to understand my positioning within the tribe.

I never wanted to be at the bottom, but I also never wanted to be at the top, and that was the game that I wanted to play after realizing that we’re probably going to be seeing Jeff a lot. But, I mean, I don’t think it was like I got screwed. I think it was a bad hand. But I think I still could have played it and I think that was the best play that I could have made.

Like I said, it was a two or three percent chance when you do the math. And it’s a calculated risk. Jeff likes risk takers. I’m not risk averse, but I think the risk has to make sense and not telling Cedrek about that and just hoping we’ll get through this either way, the two of us will wake up either next to Mary or Sai. it didn’t matter to me. And I think ideally it didn’t really matter to him either. We could have moved forward as a collective unit of three either way.

I’m sure there was so much that happened during this Tribal that did not make it to air. What did we not see from the epic multi-round experience?

It was mostly me fighting for myself and trying to convince Cedrek like, “Listen, we have plans to move forward in this game together. If I’m gone, it’s likely you next.” We had plans to go through this as a pair. He was the first person I talked to and I think he was genuine when he told me, “I will never vote against you in this game. I want to work with you in this game. However you want to vote, I will vote with you.”

And I’m like: This is a great day one alliance. And I don’t think that anyone would see it coming. I mean you have the long-haired pizza guy from the north and the colorectal surgeon from the south. He’s older, I’m younger. I just think it’s such an unlikely duo that nobody would pick up on it, but it worked. I think we had similar mindsets of how to proceed through the game. We knew we weren’t the strongest players, but I think there was a way for us in terms of lacking physical strength to navigate this as long as we made it through the initial phase together.

Well, let’s see if he’s a man of his word. He promised he’d be at Luigi’s in a month. Has he been to Luigi’s yet?

He’s a little busy. He’s out on the island.

Jeff called you all “one of the most dysfunctional groups we’ve had on Survivor” and it did not necessarily feel that way to me when I was out there and what I’ve seen on TV. There were some differences and divisions, as there are on every tribe that has ever played Survivor, but you all did not seem super dysfunctional to me outside of just being unable to win challenges. What’s your take?

I think that’s a good way to see it. Jeff doesn’t get to see the camp life. He doesn’t get to see the bonding elements. And granted a lot of that does get cut from the final edit because it is such a large show and everyone’s story needs to be told and our story just happens to be that we can’t really figure this out. And like I said earlier: We kind of knew it was going to go down. I initially took the role of like, “Hey, let’s come together as a cohesive unit. Let’s figure out how to navigate this together.”

But when you have everybody else telling you that you suck, you kind of figure out that you suck when you’re not winning anything. And then when you go to Tribal and I’m like, “Jeff, listen, none of us wanted to do this. None of us wanted us to have our first five days be this bad.” And he’s like, “Well, they are.” So I think it kind of goes into the mindset of “We are losers, we can’t get this going. There’s no way back from the eight ball at this point.”

So it’s like we’re just going to get decimated until we have a swap or one or two of us go to the merge or something along those lines. It was just kind of like: How many of us can get through this initial phase because there’s going to be a bloodbath, there’s going to be sacrifices. It’s just who’s the last person standing?

Anything else that happened out there on the island that did not make it into an episode that you wish we had a chance to see?

I believe it was our first or second night out there and it was after losing the initial challenge and we’re kind of bummed, we had that kind of rush of adrenaline from Kevin coming back and winning our camp supplies, which was awesome. But we all laid out under the stars and we all just talked about: What is one thing we want to get out of this? What is one thing we hope that our family sees? What is one thing that we hope to accomplish in life?

And mine was: I just hope after all this is over, I have the opportunity to go to school, which is crazy because I have an awesome degree. I’m very proud of my education. I’m grateful to my parents, my family, for the sacrifices that they all made so I can make that happen. But Cedrek was so nice, he was like, “When we get off this island together, I’m going to write a letter of recommendation on my letterhead from my office and just advocate for you. Here’s a young man who knows business, he knows the finance side of it, he knows how to deal with people. I’m going to get you into wherever college that you want.”

It’s just crazy because half the tribe had an Ivy League degree. 66 percent of the tribe had a professional or a master’s degree. Sai and I, all we had was a bachelor’s degree and we were just at the bottom of that educational ladder, which is just crazy. So I think you have a lot of smart people, a lot of talented people. I wish were able to figure it out and we tried to make the best that we could with the situation. Kevin getting hurt initially didn’t help, but you just try and navigate the best you can.

I know you’re a fan of the Redemption island twist. Was there like five percent of you hoping there was a message after you walked out telling you your game was not over?

That’s a long walk all and I didn’t realize it. I keep saying, “All right, where is this? Because I’m definitely going to go.” I had my torch in hand all ready to go. And then when you kind of find out at the end of that road there’s no boat taking you to Redemption Island, it kind of sucks. But I think I did the best I could with the hand that I was dealt and I don’t have any regrets. It was an opportunity that I always wanted. I just wished it was longer.

I was laying the groundwork and the foundation for a longer game, and I knew I had so much more to play. I wasn’t tired, I wasn’t hungry, I was levelheaded, and I kept my emotions in check. I was never aggravated. I was never angry. I think that’s really tough to do when you’re living with people who are under duress, who are nervous, who are scared. And we didn’t eat at all. I would always crack coconuts for us. Everyone else in the tribe were like, “I don’t want to eat this.” We’ve eaten this for seven days.” And I’m like, “It’s not a menu. We’re not at Luigi’s. You can’t pick a Parmesan dinner, you can’t pick a calzone, you can’t pick a pizza. It’s like this or you don’t get food. There’s no choice in the matter.”

Final question: thoughts on pineapple pizza?

I think it’s good and I think it’s a sweet option and it kind of goes with the savory aspect of the sauce and the spices and just to cut into that cheese. You have that acidity. I think people rag on it who are purists, but I’m willing to try anything once. I’m willing to go out in the middle of the South Pacific and run around for a million dollars. So I think pineapple pizza looks like pretty good in that situation. But don’t knock it until you try it.

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