The eliminated player has spoken.
After Survivor contestant Christian Hubicki was ousted from season 50, he sat down with Jimmy Fallon to discuss the comedian’s namesake twist that played a part in him getting his torch snuffed.
Indeed, after the robotics professor failed to complete a timed puzzle during a journey on the April 22 episode, he was forced to vote for himself—a first in Survivor history—thanks to the twist that host Jeff Probst attributed to Jimmy.
“Now that we’re both in the same place,” Jimmy told Christian on the April 23 episode of The Tonight Show, “all I have to say is, Christian, I am so sorry. I am so sorry about this! It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
In fact, he added, “It wasn’t supposed to be you and I felt so bad because I love you.”
And while Christian called the history-making aspect of voting for himself a “surreal experience,” he explained how he used his time in the voting booth to cathartically roast Jimmy.
“I decided finally all my frustrations in this game I can take out in the best way possible: on a celebrity 8,000 miles away,” he said. “I did a whole five-minute set with jokes about my distaste for the advantage.”
“They did cut some things,” he admitted, quipping, “I didn’t blame you for famous incidents in history such as the Titanic and/or Hindenburg.”
Ahead of the pair’s sitdown, Christian had noted he was “always open to reconciliation” with Jimmy.
“I don’t know who has to get the mediator,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published earlier in the day, “but I think we can repair this budding friendship.”
After all, the 40-year-old admitted that the Saturday Night Live alum isn’t the only person to blame for his elimination from Survivor.
“It was a helpful determining factor in me going home,” he continued. “But that said, I have to take ownership that that particular day, I made a couple of bad decisions—and you’re only as good as your worst decision on Survivor.”
Despite his untimely demotion from castaway to jury member, though, Christian—who previously competed on season 37 of Survivor in 2018—emphasized he’s still willing to return to Fiji to compete for the $1 million prize.
“If I was asked, I’d always take the call,” he explained. “I know realistically there are so many people who have not gotten a second chance on the show who are due to be called back, and I sure hope that they are. But if someday down the line they’re saying, ‘We need more metaphors at Tribal Council again. The people stopped giving them,’ I’ll send them my rate. It’s very reasonable.”
