“Survivor 48” is in the history books.
Wednesday night’s wild tribal council saw Mary Zheng save herself with the Shot in the Dark, leading to two tie votes between Justin Pioppi and Sai Hughley. The drama culminated with Hughley convincing Cedrek McFadden to keep her over Pioppi, who became the third person eliminated from the season.
In his exclusive interview with The Post, the 30-year-old pizzeria manager revealed a shocking fact about his final tribal council.
“Apparently this was the longest tribal council in the history of ‘Survivor,’ which blows my mind,” Pioppi said. “We were there for probably like 4 or 5 hours. You know you’re in for a late night when there’s a commercial break in tribal council. So we definitely kept everyone up past their bedtime.”
Pioppi explained that most of his argument to McFadden to keep him “got cut” from the final edit because the episode was so action-packed.
“I don’t envy the job of the editors or the producers. It’s a very, very difficult task to get so much content in a small amount of time,” he said.
“But I think that my argument stuck with Cedrek,” Pioppi continued. “I was speaking very logically. I was very levelheaded. I didn’t want to get emotional or anything. I wanted to talk to him as my friend and as somebody who he can confide in. And I think that my arguments suck because 90 to 95 percent of the tribal council, he was still voting with me. He was voting against Sai.”
Pioppi went on, “And even when Jeff [Probst] revealed that I did lose my vote, something that I never thought in a million years would come out, it did come out. And Cedrek still wanted to keep me in the game. I think that goes to not only my social game, but also what I brought up at tribal council. I’m like, listen, you can vote me out, Cedrek, but think about what’s best for you and your game. It’s best if we navigate this together and figure out and work out the kinks. As long as we are still a cohesive unit working together as we have for the first week of this game, we can still go pretty far.”
But McFadden ultimately sided with Hughley — and Pioppi doesn’t blame the surgeon for his decision.
“There was a lot of factors going on and Cedrek was in a very, very, very difficult spot,” Pioppi said. “It’s not a spot that I envy at all. I just think he made the best choice for him going forward, considering all factors that were at stake.”
Pioppi also acknowledged that the journey that cost him his vote, which angered many viewers on social media, is par for the course in the new era of “Survivor.”
“This isn’t Survivor 41 or 42. This is not our first time seeing it,” he said. “It’s well ingrained in this new era of gameplay. We as players, we know the rules of the game. We kind of signed up for it, knowing that we may lose our vote. We may have to go on a journey. We may be forced to participate in the challenge at said journey.”
“Survivor 48” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
