Survivor 50 Shockwave: Christian Hubicki Reveals Cut Jimmy Fallon Roast Scene From the Voting Booth

Robert Voets / CBS

Christian Hubicki is now part of a very small and very unusual club alongside fellow Survivor 50 player Cirie Fields: contestants voted out in a way no one had seen before. In Survivor: Game Changers, Cirie went home with no votes after “advantage-geddon” left everyone else safe. In Survivor 50 Episode 9, Christian was forced to vote for himself at tribal council — and then admit it to everyone. In a game built on secrecy and deception, that twist stripped away one of his biggest tools: the ability to lie.

The “One in the Urn” twist was created by Jimmy Fallon and introduced during a journey in the April 22 episode of the milestone season. After winning Rock, Paper, Scissors, Christian headed off to face a puzzle challenge on a barge before an anchor pulled it away and sent it into the ocean. Winning meant he could cast a vote early without anyone knowing. Losing meant he had to vote for himself and tell the entire tribe. Christian, who is known for his puzzle skills from Survivor: David vs. Goliath, came up short — and he made things worse when he floated the idea of voting out Cirie’s No. 1 ally, Ozzy Lusth.

On the episode, Christian took a playful swing at Fallon in the voting booth, but he tells TV Insider there was even more material left on the cutting-room floor. In fact, he says there were about five extra minutes of jokes he delivered about The Tonight Show host that viewers never got to hear. Below, Christian breaks down the deleted roast, the twist, and how he views Mike White and Angelina Keeley’s early exits now that the game has played out.

Have you gotten that apology from Jimmy Fallon yet that you talked about in the episode?

Christian Hubicki: It just happened. I think the day is still young, so maybe stay tuned on that.

How do you feel today after this episode? Because this is a really unique elimination, one that we’ve never seen before. How are you feeling about the fan reactions?

From what I’ve seen, I’m just grateful I got to be there. It’s easy to lose perspective and forget that I got to be on Survivor 50 at all, let alone do so much while I was there. There have been so many wild tribal councils over the years, so an equally wild ending almost feels fitting. Whether people loved the twist or hated it, I mostly just feel joy when I think about the journey.

Yeah. Do your feelings about the twist differ now than they did when you first found out about it while filming?

No, I still don’t love it. Having to vote for myself — and then say it out loud to everyone — really put me in a bind. But I can’t pretend I didn’t put myself in a bad spot. Day 18 was probably my worst day on the island because that was when I got the Jimmy Fallon disadvantage for missing the puzzle and when I also pitched Cirie on voting out Ozzy. Those two things together made it very hard for me to survive, and I have to own both.

Was there anything that you saw watching the episode last night that helped you understand your elimination more? Or were you pretty clear on what happened?

I feel validated that I had pieced together most of it. After I was eliminated, I tried to figure out where it had gone wrong, and my answer was Cirie. Then I thought, “Okay, Cirie flipped — and of course it was Ozzy.” I shouldn’t have pitched Ozzy to Cirie, so over time it all lined up exactly the way I suspected. There were funny scenes I didn’t get to see, but the core of it matched my experience.

When you were watching the earlier episodes, and you first saw the Cirie and Ozzy Alliance forming, were you like, “OK, this is coming together now. I understand a little more.”

Yes. We were very aware of it early on. At one point there was real momentum to vote out Ozzy at the first tribal council, and that was not fake — it was absolutely happening. Emily was almost personally marshaling the votes herself to get him out. I was saying, “No, this is too soon. This is going to be a dirty, chaotic first vote. Let’s not do that.” That was my position. And by the way, Emily is a delight. I love that she came out swinging for me in this episode. But we knew about that relationship, and I remember saying, “We can’t forget about it.” Ironically, I forgot about it 15 days later. Credit to Cirie and Ozzy for managing their relationship well enough that I did forget it. That deserves credit.

To speak of Emily a little bit, in tribal council, when she said there comes a point in Survivor where everyone has to betray their alliances, did you sense that that was about you at all? I think she was talking about Ozzy in that moment, but I think it could be read as talking about you as well.

Emily has a great way of blurring the truth at tribal council. She intentionally throws out lines to send the wrong signals, so I didn’t read anything into it — and she definitely didn’t flip on me. That wasn’t the intent. I think she was trying to create a different impression about what was going on. Honestly, tribal council chatter should almost never be taken at face value, so it’s hard to read too much into it.

Do you feel that there was actually enough time to finish the puzzle on your journey? It seemed fast in the episode.

It was fast, but I think it was doable. My memory is that I panicked in the middle and got overly focused on one part because I thought something had to go there, when I didn’t step back and realize it was split into two pieces. You don’t need every detail of that. But if I hadn’t gotten stuck there and had zoomed out a little, I think I would’ve finished. They only needed about four more pieces. These puzzles get much easier near the end because there are far fewer possible combinations. So yes, it was doable. I’m sure someone on the Dream Team could do it in that time. I just have to own the fact that it was a bad day.

Yeah, unfortunately. I want your analysis on the merits of the One in the Urn twist. In your mind, are the reward-punishment scales balanced with this new twist?

I think this one definitely leans toward the harsher side. The downside was really severe. I’m not saying it was the only reason I went home, but the upside is more complicated than it seems. An extra vote would be cleaner and more useful because you can play it at any time and you don’t have to write anything down on an island before you’ve even had a chance to talk to people. This one is interesting, but it isn’t very powerful. The only way to make it meaningful before tribal would be to somehow make the vote look extremely elaborate and take forever to write. But at tribal, you move in and out so quickly that it would be impossible to have written it in that window. So maybe there’s some narrow angle there, but it’s not a major advantage. The downside, though, was very bad.

I agree the punishment was too harsh. Having to vote for yourself is bonkers.

And having to tell everyone about it — that’s the real issue. But I also chose to go on that journey. Joe could have simply picked someone else. I volunteered for Rock, Paper, Scissors, so I own that. I went in thinking, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Usually the worst case on a journey is losing your vote, which is bad, but at least you can still lie about it. I didn’t expect the game to go so negative in that moment. I miscalculated.

Who could predict that they would take away your ability to lie in Survivor?

Fair enough. A lot of people would probably agree with you. I just have to focus on the things I can control and take ownership of those. That’s where I try to improve, because those are the decisions that matter in the future.

Not about that exact thing, but I have nothing but respect for Cirie’s ability to maneuver through the game. Hopefully she knows how much respect I have for that. Maybe one day we can have a drink and say, “Oh, what it’s like to be voted out.” I guess the upside is that I voted at every tribal council I attended — I voted for whoever went home, including me.

That’s bleak, but it’s true. You were never on the wrong side of the vote.

Cold comfort, but it’s fine.

That’s what I was thinking about last night, watching the episode. I was like, Cirie got sent home with no votes, which is crazy, in that previous season. And then you voted for yourself, which is crazy. People have asked to be voted for in the past, but never have been forced to vote for themselves.

It’s a brand-new thing. But I will say it’s easy, because it just happened to me, to focus on this one twist. My overall takeaway from the whole experience is that it was incredibly positive. Yes, there were highs and lows — all those tribal councils, all the people you get to vote out, all the chaos — but it was a joy. I even got to roast Jimmy Fallon on national TV in a much longer five-minute set in the voting confessional and booth. There was still fun in all of it. So I like to focus on the joy, and on the jokes I got to make.

What were some things you said in that confessional that didn’t make the final cut?

Oh, I said things like, “Jimmy, I’m not sure I love this idea. What other ideas have been yours? Were you looking at the Titanic and thinking, ‘Too many lifeboats’? Were you on the Hindenburg and saying, ‘You know what this needs? A smoking section’?” Basically: “Jimmy, maybe you don’t need any more ideas. Take a seat and let us play.” Something like that. Jimmy Fallon never claimed to be a game designer, so I don’t blame him too harshly.

I wish we could have seen some of those jokes. That would’ve been great TV. Is there anything else that happened in this episode or previous ones that didn’t make the cut that you really wish had?

Absolutely. When Rick and I were planning that fake idol, there was so much more to it, including a whole routine about who sits where and what each person does. Rick even wanted a really realistic-looking fake idol, and I had the wrapping, but I swear I lost the special twine that had the right diameter. He wanted it, and I was like, “Where did it go? I don’t know — it must be along this path.” We all searched up and down the path for it, and eventually we found what we thought was the twine. It felt miraculous. Then I somehow dropped it again. Rick was so patient with me, but he was probably frustrated because he’s the artist and he needed the right tools to make the idol look real. I dropped the twine twice, and somehow we still made it work.

The fake idol still worked. We saw a small cut to you when Devens was doing his big fake idol performance in tribal in the last episode, but what were you thinking and feeling? Did you think it was a hit?

I thought he executed it beautifully, and the whole idea was his. I was glad to play a supporting role in such an awesome plan. Strategically, we knew it put us in a risky position for the next vote, but performatively, he nailed every part of it. “Why is he playing it now? Why didn’t he do it earlier?” He had answers for everything, and the whole thing was smartly staged. He knows how to put on the right kind of show at exactly the right time. That’s one of his many skills. Thank you, Captain Kirk.

To quote Rizo, it was cinema. It was so electric.

Oh, yeah.

But did you know heading into that tribal that he was going to play it, or was it a surprise?

I didn’t know. It was a surprise. I thought we had the votes, but people were already standing and talking, and there was some live-tribal energy right before the vote, so I understood why he felt things were slipping. He pulled it out because his own game was on the line. I wasn’t confident enough to say, “No, Rick, don’t do it,” so I get why he did it, but I definitely didn’t expect it.

And then heading into your final tribal council for this episode, did you feel like your fate was sealed? I admit I was a little surprised by how the votes got split because it did seem that, with you having a vote for yourself, people would go that way.

No, it was a real blindside. People acted like the Ozzy vote was still happening because Emily was trying to pull that together, which I appreciated. She was in my corner. She could have easily thrown me under the bus, but she didn’t. She tried to get Ozzy out, so I thought that was the plan. I did notice some warning signs I should have taken more seriously, but the vote already felt strange because, in my mind, what did it matter what anyone said to me if I was voting for myself? There was almost nothing I could do at tribal council. I wasn’t important in that moment, and I should have treated those signs as more serious than I did.

What were those signs?

Sometimes you ask follow-up questions about the plan and people answer vaguely, or they just don’t know the answer. Also, when I handed Jonathan my Shot in the Dark and then got it back, he said, “Oh, thanks, Christian. I trust you again.” I didn’t believe that for a second. I made a face, just kind of like, “Oh gosh, we’ll see.” Tiffany noticed it and asked, “Christian, what was that face you just made?” I told her, honestly, I just make faces. But she kept pressing, and I started wondering if she thought Jonathan had given the plan away to me. Little things like that kept adding up. If I had recognized the pattern, I would’ve known this wasn’t good. At that point I would’ve needed a totally new fake plan — maybe something involving Jimmy Fallon giving me an idol too, as some kind of hilarious Faustian bargain.