‘Survivor 50’ Finale Interview: Jonathan Young Reveals Whose Votes He’s Shocked He Didn’t Get (Exclusive)

Jonathan Young repeated his Survivor 42 history in the Survivor 50 finale when Aubry Bracco sent him into the fire-making challenge against Rizo Velovic. The Alabama native won the contest, sending him into the final three, giving him a redemption arc from his fire-making challenge loss in Season 42. But he tells TV Insider that it was when he and Joe Hunter lost the final immunity challenge, Simmotion, to Aubry, he had a feeling he had lost the game. (Read our finale recap here.)

Jonathan still earned three votes in the live finale, from Benjamin “Coach” Wade, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, and Chrissy Hofbeck, but he says it was still a very tough loss to Aubry. He thought he might have won Rick Devens‘ vote, as well as Dee Valladares‘.

Below, Jonathan breaks down his Survivor 50 finale experience, reflecting on his tension with Tiffany Ervin in the final five tribal council, his thoughts on what Ozzy Lusth said about him in final tribal, and more.

Jonathan, congratulations. I know it’s not the ending that you wanted, but you still got votes. It’s very exciting.

Jonathan Young: Well, thank you.

How do you feel today?

Well, I’ve felt better. Yeah, that was a rough loss, but $2 million, maybe there’ll be a reason that I don’t know yet to why this all happened.

Going into the finale yesterday, how did you feel about your chances of winning?

Well, I pretty much knew when I was on the island when Joe and I dropped the ball and she won Simmotion that people favored Aubry more than me and Joe.

Robert Voets / CBS

Could you expand on that? Why do you think that?

Well, she’s played [four] times and I think that the jury was not as bitter towards her, that she was more … She said it a million times, she played in the middle. If she plays in the middle, she’s not going to offend people quite as bad as I did who kind of had my hand on a lot of the votes.

You think you angered too many people on the jury? Is that what you’re saying?

I just angered them. But I think when you play with returning players, a lot of them want to leave their mark and if they leave early, regardless of who it’s by, well, I think the person that has a hand on it can make it … It makes you look … How do I say this? If somebody votes you out and you’re angry about it, you typically don’t want to give them $2 million.

It’s an understandable mindset. But was there a moment in the final tribal council pitches where you felt like things were going in Aubry’s favor?

Well, like I said, I genuinely think that I knew that it was an uphill battle, but when Ozzy started wanting to give credit to Aubry for voting him out and leaning more that way, I was starting to think, oh, maybe I’m in more trouble than I thought because that was one that was up in the air and that’s how you figure out where they’re going. And when I saw Cirie was tagging him with the Ozzy thing and talking so good about Aubry, as you know, Cirie rallies the troops. She did in the season. There would be four people at a time coming up to Cirie saying, “How do we vote?” Do you think that was just on the island, or do you think it was on the other island of Ponderosa, too? I think that it could have been both.

And when Ozzy said that, how did you feel in the moment when Ozzy was like, “Here you are on either side of the middle” about you and Joe?

He was saying that she was riding the middle and we were trying to get the middle out the whole time. He’s not wrong. I wanted to get Aubry out, but there was a different meaning that I meant besides what he was talking about. I meant that there were four people in the middle and it was Aubry, Devens, Emily, and Christian that were in the middle alliance, not necessarily Aubry just floating in the middle, but that they were in the middle and that we had two different sides. And that was a different meaning, I guess, than what he was talking about. You know what I mean? I didn’t think that it was just somebody that was floating in between, floating the whole time, but somebody that was in the middle alliance.

Were you maybe happy that you got the chance to do the fire-making challenge again after how 42 ended for you?

I wasn’t happy that I got to do it, but I was very happy that I won. Once I won, I was like, phew, I’m glad I did it. But at first, I was not happy at all to do the fire-making challenge because to go down twice as a fire-making challenge loser — and really with fire-making, it takes one good spark and you can win the whole thing. One lucky spark. It’s like the game of Survivor. There’s a lot of luck involved and skill. So, fire-making is very nerve-wracking.

Robert Voets / CBS

You watched Rizo practicing making fire before the challenge itself. The way it was edited, it was like you were watching when he started to make a spark and the look in your eyes was like, “Oh no, could he do this?” Is that what it was?

That was real. That was actually real because at first he wasn’t starting anything and all of a sudden, Rizo started just getting one good strike and it was on fire, and that was impressive. He started getting really good and I was watching him getting nervous because he was getting really good at it.

Did you feel scared?

I was very nervous. Yeah. I was like, this is going to be not as easy as I thought. And Rizo would be more of a worthy opponent. But here’s the difference is that the material is actually made of different things. So the fire-making stuff is a little different than the stuff that we just have on the island. But I learned that from my first time, my first go around, I realized that it was a little different because on Season 42, it’d take me about five seconds, I could have a fire, but I realized that Mike actually helped me with a fire-making. The woods are different, the twine is different. So that really helped.

Do you think, based on conversations you’ve had with jury members in the time since filming, that had Tiff been in the final three with you, you might’ve won?

I think that I needed to get Tiff and Aubry out to win the game. Because if you look back, Tiff and Aubry, they didn’t have a whole lot of votes that they were gunning, that they were in charge of, they were leading. And this season, that didn’t help to have your hands on a lot of the vote-outs because I had my hand on a lot of vote-outs and I thought this is where I was wrong. I thought that in the returning season, things would be more respected than they were. For example, Dee, I would’ve thought that how she plays is so sharp and she is real good at backstabbing people — I thought she would respect the fact that I got her to get all riled up and say something that she regrets and then vote her out. I thought she would respect that, but it turns out she didn’t.

She actually went the other way with it. Aubry didn’t even play with Dee, not even for a day, but she went with Aubry even though she played with me for about 12 days at that point.

So, you think if it had been you, Joe, and Rizo, you would’ve won?

I do. I believe that I would’ve definitely have won that one. That was the only way at that point with Tiffany, Aubry, Joe, and Rizo. The only way that I could have won, I believe, is with Rizo and Joe.

Robert Voets / CBS

Now that you’ve watched the whole season, was there anything that you saw in the episodes that you realized you didn’t know?

I would’ve never guessed that Cirie had four people at a time coming up to her saying, “How do we vote?” That blew my mind that she was that powerful, that she could just say, “Well, we need to vote this way and this is why.” And they all would go, “Wow, we were thinking this other person beats. I’m shocked.” That shocked me. I did not think that would happen on a season like 50.

Why did it shock you, when Cirie has that aura about her? She’s always been a quite powerful player.

It shocked me because I look at Ozzy as a powerful player, and Christian and a lot of people [as] powerful players on Season 50. And what shocks me is that you wouldn’t see that as a red flag, that somebody has that much power. That means that if they get to the end, you don’t think they’re going to get every single vote.

Somebody that has enough power to bring four people in and tell them how to vote definitely has the power to win. That’s why.

You and Dee clocked pretty early, “We need to get Cirie out. She’s a big threat.” Why didn’t you and Dee choose to vote Cirie out in that episode?

Well, Dee kind of changed her mind. Dee thought that it wasn’t a great idea because she became close to Cirie. She saw a path with Cirie and that is when they decided to go Charlie. And by the grace of God, I’m so thankful it wasn’t me because that’s the one time I got blindsided the whole season.

What would you do differently next time if you come back?

I’ll do jury management a little different. And I just got to study the season a lot to tell you the truth. I don’t know, because I did change my game a whole lot. I don’t know where all I went wrong just yet, but I’ll have to study it and get back with you.

Robert Voets / CBS

You got three votes, which is a big success. It’s hard to get any votes in a finale for this show. Did any of the votes that you didn’t get surprise you? Was there anyone you really thought you had in the bag?

I thought Devens was going to vote for me. I thought he really respected my game and I thought he didn’t respect Aubry’s game as much as he did my game, so that threw me off. Even though he worked with Aubry, I thought that he realized that a lot of those moves were his moves and not necessarily Aubry’s moves because every time I saw them working together, I always saw Devens being the one to pull the trigger and be that guy that did that move.

In hindsight, do you understand more why Tiff was upset in her final tribal council? Of course, no one wants to get eliminated, so everyone would be upset, but in hindsight, do you understand her perspective a little more?

Oh, I understand getting upset for sure, but that’s where it’s really hard because we have to have self-control in these situations and Tiffany held it together all these times getting blindsided For example, a Kamilla vote out and then Dee got voted out. She didn’t want that to happen a lot of these vote-outs. And then Cirie got voted out and she got blindsided by that. And I think that time it just was too much, and I think you should never curse at people like that. I don’t think there’s ever a good time to curse at people. So, I can see why she was upset. Do I think it was handled the best way? No.

You can understand her feelings though, I think, because it’s hard when people are like, “Yeah, it’s you and you have no choice. There’s no way to get around it.” I get it.

Well, that was out of respect though. We could have lied to her and said, “It’s not you.” So, I mean, there’s that side as well. Would you rather just us to be honest with you or lie to you again? So, there’s several different ways you can look at it, but yeah, you can feel that way. But do I think it’s the best way? No.

Tough pill to swallow regardless, no matter how it’s delivered. So just to wrap up, what are you proudest of with your performance this season and your evolution since 42?

I had a lot more strategy this game, a lot of strategy. That was good that they showed that. They actually took away from some of my he-man moments and put it on the strategy, which was OK. I was thankful for the whole thing, for whatever they put in there, because all of this is a gift. Survivor‘s just a gift. I didn’t earn the $2 million. We just got gifted the fact to be on Survivor. Everybody that’s on Survivor didn’t necessarily … We don’t deserve it. We are gifted it. It’s a gift.

Survivor 50, Available Now, Paramount+, Season 51 Premiere, Fall 2026, 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.