‘Survivor 50’ Exit Interview: Cirie Fields Reveals What You Didn’t See With Aubry and Rizo (Exclusive)

Survivor fans let out a collective, “NO!” at last night’s episode. Cirie Fields, long dubbed the greatest player to never win, was voted out again in Survivor 50 Episode 12, just shy of next week’s finale. With no Shot in the Dark or idol to play, her survival was down to strategy, but no one except Tiffany Ervin was willing to let the strategic powerhouse anywhere near the final three. Every Survivor 50 player knew, and just about every one of them said at some point this season, that if Cirie was in the final three, she was winning it all.

Here, Cirie breaks down what she says is her final season of Survivor after five tries at the American iteration and one in Australia. She opens up about everything from Ozzy Lusth “blowing up” their game by telling Aubry Bracco their plans to when she knew Rizo Velovic was straying from her alliance. Plus, she reveals the explanation for her decision to frame Aubry, what her talks with Rizo were like after the Ozzy blindside, and more.

The circumstances of your elimination this time were relatively normal, all things considered. If this is your last time playing Survivor, how do you feel about this episode being your ending?

I feel awesome about it. I feel like I pulled out all the stops. I did everything I could to try to throw a Hail Mary once I knew that it was probably going to be me. And I just love the game that I played this season. I am thrilled with all of it. I don’t have any regrets, and I usually have one or two. I don’t have any this time.

It was so fun watching you. You mist everybody. You have such a way to convince people that your idea is the most common-sense one. And a lot of the time, it is.

Exactly. That’s why it works. It’s not really me, per se. It’s just open in their eyes like, wait a minute, you know what? Because sometimes you’ve got to hear it. Sometimes you’ve got to hear it out loud or see it written down, and then you’re like, wait a minute, what’s your thinking?

How did it feel to have Jeff let you say, “The tribe has spoken”?

Jeff let me say it before. So it was like, I love Jeff. And I don’t know. I just feel, like I told Jeff, the gratitude and honor I feel being there, even at the time being voted out of season 50 and standing before Jeff and seeing him smile and feeling the energy, love from him. I don’t know, it was great as usual.

The game loves you as much as you love it.

Right. They’re my family now. I’m forever. So I might get a tattoo. I don’t know.

Oh my gosh, what would the tattoo be?

I don’t know. Something with Survivor in hearts and butterflies.

Robert Voets / CBS

Did you and Rizo talk about what happened with Ozzy at camp? Because we didn’t see much of you two immediately after tribal council in this episode.

We did. He immediately, the second he got back, he came to me and was like, Ozzy told him everything. He told him about us. He told him he gave Aubry everything. And so I had to go with the vote, and I couldn’t tell him because Rizo essentially would’ve been blowing up his game because they would’ve known because Ozzy was so relaxed and sure that Aubry was going in, and they knew he was in that state. So if Ozzy just arbitrarily played his idol, they would have to look around, and Jonathan would know it wasn’t Joe. Joe would know it wasn’t Jonathan. They both would know it wasn’t Aubry who was leading the charge against him. So who would be left? Rizo would essentially blow his game for Ozzy, and he wants to win like the rest of us, so I understood his rationale.

I wonder if there’s any scenario in your mind where protecting Ozzy in that vote would’ve helped both of your games or all three of your games?

Definitely. I think Ozzy and I would’ve wanted to take Rizo to the end. When we said we were locked, we were locked. We weren’t taking Rizo because we think we can beat him. We were taking Rizo because we were in this threesome alliance, and we felt like we could trust each other to the end. I don’t think the other people there looked at Rizo in the same way and wanted to take him for the same reason. So we’ll have to see.

Is there any scenario where you think that Rizo had this idol? Did you ever want him to play it for you? And is there any scenario where that helps his resume doing that for you?

Unfortunately, Billie Eilish, the rules of that idol is you can’t play it for anybody else.

Robert Voets / CBS

Oh, right! Billie Eilish, why did you do that? Not even the option. So it’s not even worth exploring the hypothetical of that. Dang. Why didn’t Ozzy play that idol?

I know. And he had a dream the night before. So this is a lesson for all the younger people and even older people. When your gut tells you something, when the universe comes to you in a dream to tell you is trying to reach out to you in many ways, and this has occurred to me. I don’t think it’s a universe for me as God. I have gotten signals from God that, thank God, I listened to. Things would’ve been catastrophic for me had I not. So you will always get a warning. You will always get an ick feeling. You will always get goosebumps. Something is trying to tell you. When that happens, listen to it. Please listen to it.

When you found out what Ozzy did, telling Aubry about your alliance, what did you fear for your game in response to that?

I felt that these people, who already suspected that Ozzy and I were closely aligned, would be affected. And the worst part of it was a lot of them knew that we had a connection or an agreement. Joe knew we had a connection or agreement, but the problem in Survivor, information is currency, and if you’re not sharing your information with me, then you don’t trust me. And if you don’t trust me, should I trust you? And once they found out that I had this extra vote that was given to me by Ozzy so far back, I felt like they would be like, “Oh, why didn’t she tell us that? Or why didn’t she tell me that?” Even individually, I thought we were cool. I thought we were locked in, and I knew that would count against me in their eyes.

Speaking of information as currency, can you explain your thought process behind framing Aubry in this episode instead of telling the truth about Rizo? Why is a lie more valuable than the truth in this scenario?

Because they had already spoken to me several times, and I think they’ve shown it so many times where they’re like, “We don’t trust Aubry. We don’t trust Aubry.” And I knew they had a little bromance going with Rizo, so I felt like my best chance was to enhance that distrust of Aubry than try to build distrust of Rizo that they may not have believed.

You’re so smart. When you were heading into tribal council, obviously, you knew that you were a possible name being written down that night, but how concerned were you that it was going to be you?

Very, very concerned because, as you see when I said to Rizo, “What happens if Tiffany wins immunity?” And Rizo’s answer was, “I don’t know.” And I said, “What do you mean you don’t know? I already know.” Huh? You don’t know? OK. If you don’t know, I know. So yeah, I knew. Yeah, that’s why I threw the Hail Mary. That’s the only reason I would ever try to get Aubry because it was either she or I. Other than that, I never really targeted Aubry.

Robert Voets / CBS

When Rizo said, “I don’t know,” do you think you really didn’t know, or was he lying?

I knew he knew. That’s why I said it. What do you mean? It was like a mother scolding. What do you mean you don’t know? I know you know.

Yeah, that was so funny. Was the Ozzy vote when you knew Rizo was turning on you? When did you clock that Rizo was straying?

When Rizo told me that Tiffany wanted him out, and I was closely aligned with Tiffany, there was no way to bridge that gap. And when he told me that the plan was Tiffany and they didn’t want me to know, but they wanted him to know, I knew that Rizo had an alternative alliance, the romance with the guys, that from Rizo’s point of view, if I go with Joe or Jonathan, maybe I could beat one of them. If I go continue down this path with Cirie, there’s no way I’m going to beat her. And to Rizo’s credit, he was right.

He is a smart player.

Yeah.

I asked Ozzy last week, “If you and Cirie had made it into the final three together, how would you have differentiated your game from hers?” And he said that he was ready and willing to lose the season to you. How does that make you feel?

I knew that, and that’s why I rode so hard for Ozzy. It’s like authenticity is easy to feel and identify, and I knew every word that Ozzy said he meant. And I knew it when Tiffany said it to me as well. Tiffany said the exact same thing to me. She was like, “I’m willing to go all away with you and lose to you.” And I know you could feel when somebody’s lying to you. You can feel when somebody’s BSing you. You can’t BS a BS-er, and Ozzy didn’t try it. So that’s why I did everything and would have continued to do everything I could to keep Ozzy in the game.

Is there anyone in this season who you would’ve been happy to lose to, if you were in the final three with them?

Ozzy, he had a 20-year journey just like I did. Tiffany. Your loyalty to me is reciprocated. If you are willing to go down with the ship for me, then I’m willing to drown with the ship for you. So I would’ve gone down with Ozzy. I would’ve gone down with Tiffany. I would’ve even gone down with Rizo. I would’ve. If there was an opportunity, he got there, and he could out-talk me and do his thing, I would’ve taken that chance because up until that point, you had been loyal to me. I don’t turn on loyalty. If you’re loyal to me, I’ll be loyal to you.

How did it feel to watch Aubry in the episode last night call you the greatest Survivor player of all time?

I love Aubry. Me and Aubry have this history, and coming from Aubry, who I think is a beast at this game, who’s super smart, it means more. Listen, I appreciate it, and I’m so flattered and honored when it comes from fans that have never played this game, but it’s on a different level when you have someone who’s played this game four times, made it deep, and knows what it takes to play this game. For her to say that, it just warms my heart, and it just made me smile. I immediately texted her when I saw it, “I love you, Aubs.” And she texted the same thing back. So, flattered and honored to have that come from someone like her.

Watching this season, was there anything that you discovered you didn’t know? You really had your hands in everything this season.

Let me think. Not really [laughs]. Is there anything that I didn’t know? No, not really. The only thing I didn’t know was that Ozzy had told Aubry.

Robert Voets / CBS

Watching that scene, how did you react?

Oh, no, no, no, no. But I understood his rationale. I had to immediately think, why? Why? And once I went through, I had to put myself in his shoes and think like he was thinking and understand why he was doing it. Yeah, I don’t know. I still love Ozzy, though.

Of course, you guys have played the game together for so long. Have you talked about that since? Have you made sense of it together?

He just told me what he did and how sorry he was for blowing up the game. I told him I love him. I ain’t one of them. You didn’t intentionally try to do anything to mess my game up, so I love you. Hate the game, not the player. I could never hate Ozzy.

What do you think is your best Survivor game ever?

Honestly, I think this one. I was able to survive, no pun intended, not one, not two, but three attempts in the very beginning to get me voted out. The second Jenna hit the beach, she said the second we hit the sand, she wanted me gone. OK, I survived that one. Next, here comes Savanna. Oh! Survived that one. Then we do another tribe switch, and the first thing Jonathan says is, “Cirie has to go.” And guess who was still here? And then to be in a position where people were coming with the information, I was rich. I was island rich. And I don’t have any regrets. I feel like I did everything I should have done, even down to my last Hail Mary. So I think this may have been one of my best showings, if not the best.

And it wouldn’t have made sense for you to try your Shot in the Dark in this episode, because you don’t want to lose your vote, right?

We were already past using the Show in the Dark. It was the episode before. You couldn’t use it anymore once it got to me.

Oh, Devens used it in this episode, but I guess that was the last time?

That was the last time you could use it.

OK, well, no Shot in the Dark.

That, I hate. Why can’t you use it up until maybe four or something? I didn’t even know that. Once I found that out, I was like, damn, because I’m lucky! I’ll be the one to pull safe.

A Shot in the Dark to save Cirie would’ve been electric television. Of course, your sixth time playing, do you think you have another one in the tank?

No, I’m a Lola [grandmother]. I want Avani or Yvonne. Those are my grandchildren. Maybe they can represent the Fields family, or Jared, John, or Jamil [her children]. I want to pass the torch off. We get our torches. Whoever wants it, they have it. I want to do easier stuff. Survivor‘s hard. It is worth it. It’s worth every second of it. But after 20 years, that’s like 20 years on any job. At some point, you want to retire.

Survivor 50, Three-Hour Season Finale, Wednesday, May 20, 8/7c, CBS

For more inside scoop on Survivor 50 from the set, pick up a copy of TV Guide Magazine’s Survivor at 50 Special Collector’s Issue, available at Survivor.TVGM2026.com and on newsstands now.