“I did not want to see that happen again for my own season.”

MC reveals she turned on her ally because she did not want the first two *Survivor 49 *jurors to be Black

"I did not want to see that happen again for my own season."

By Dalton Ross

Dalton Ross is a writer and editor with over 25 years experience covering TV and the entertainment industry. *Survivor* is kind of his thing.

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November 13, 2025 11:14 a.m. ET

Michelle "MC" Chukwujekwu on 'Survivor 49'. Credit:

Robert Voets/CBS

Michelle “MC” Chukwujekwu wasn’t even supposed to be there. She was a *Survivor* alternate meant to hang out in Fiji for a few days in case a contestant came down with a medical condition or some other random act of God occurred that necessitated a last second replacement.

But when two should-have-been *Survivor 49 players flouted the rules* in the days before the game began, MC and Jason Treul found themselves thrust into the cast just hours before filming began. That journey was wild enough, but nearly as wild as what happened on MC’s final day in the game.

After a twist separated the merged tribe into two teams — with the team that lost the challenge all vulnerable and the team who won all safe yet not even attending Tribal Council — MC appeared to not be in any danger, even though her team lost and would have to vote somebody out.

But then immunity winner Savannah Louie showed up, which helped keep original target Rizo Velovic safe. And then Rizo decided he wanted to keep Sophie Segreti around instead and maneuvered the vote onto MC. And this all came after MC informed Jawan Pitts that Sophie was planning to throw a random vote on him, which led to a chaotic series of back-and-forth events that kick-started the entire state of flux.

When it was all over, MC found herself out of the game and into the jury. How did it all go so wrong, so fast? We spoke to juror number 2 to get the full scoop.

Michelle "MC" Chukwujekwu on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**: Okay, MC. What happened? Why are you here talking to me right now?**

**MICHELLE “MC” CHUKWUJEKWU:** You know, there are a few places where it could have went wrong. Some people might say it's because I played my idol when I didn't need it. I have no regrets about that. Some people may say it's because I tried to turn on my ally and, you know, it makes the game interesting. And there's more to the story as well to why I was kind of gunning for Sophie in last night's episode.

**We’ll get to that in a second, but If Savannah does not show up on that boat, are you still in the game?**

I think so. Before Savannah showed up on the boat, everyone was like, Rizo, Rizo, Rizo — we're getting out Rizo. And then for some reason, she showed up and everyone got so spooked. I think you heard me say it in an episode. I'm like, “Why can't we stay with the same plan?” But I think people were spooked by Savannah's presence. Them together just made it seem more of, I don't know, like a duo. And people were not sure of what type of advantage that Savannah had.

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**In terms of when you decided to tell Jawan about Sophie planning to put a vote on him, you said there was reasoning behind that**

There was a huge reasoning behind that. So in the episode, I think you could see Sophie telling me that we're gonna plan on voting Rizo, but just in case she's gonna put a vote on Jawan. And me, I did not fully feel comfortable with that because of my experience watching *Survivor* in the past, season 42, when there was multiple black people on the jury in a row. And I did not want to see that happen again for my own season.

I know how it felt when I watched it and I didn't want that feeling to be for other people. So whenever I went to Jawan, I told him this, I said, “Hey, I'm gonna have an out of game conversation with you. This could break my game, but I just wanna let you know Sophie is saying the goal and the plan is still Rizo, but just in case, she's gonna put a vote on you, I don't want you to go home. So if there is a case of a tie, and it's between you and between Sophie, I'm gonna go with voting Sophie out.”

And so that is why that conversation happened. I didn't want Nate to have gone home and then Jawan to have gone home. That was just something that I didn't wanna do personally. And yeah, it ended up flipping on me, so it's kind of crazy.

Michelle "MC" Chukwujekwu on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**So this is interesting because you're thinking about *Survivor 42* , you go to Jawan, you share this information. Did you mention that as your reasoning for sharing the information? I ask that, because then he voted *you* out. So did you mention the thing of “I don't want to see two Black people voted out?”**

I 100 percent did mention that. He knew that that was fully my reason of telling him. He knew that that was my reason of being on his side and willing to vote my ally out instead of voting for him. So yeah, it's interesting how he kind of ended up voting for me.

And I think I told him, “Hey, don't run off and tell other people this.” And he, he ran off and told other people, and I think that kind of just made it super sloppy and super messy and I was trying to help him and then it ended up backfiring on me. Sometimes you just don't know what other people who are maybe not thinking so rationally, you just don't know what they're going to do.

Michelle "MC" Chukwujekwu and Nate Moore on 'Survivor 49'.

**Yeah, in that whole montage you mentioned, we see him telling other people and then other people telling Sophie, then Sophie going back to him, but we didn't see you in that whole mix. Did it get back to you that this information had spread?**

It did get back to me. Jawan tried to save face with me and be like, “Hey, look, I'm still on your side,” by telling me everything that was happening. So he told me that they were all gonna vote for me. That's why whenever I was sitting with Sophie and she was telling me this plan, and I looked at her and I was like, “You're giving me weird energy” — it's because I knew that she was going to vote for me.

There were so many more conversations that happened that day at camp. And it was so funny because before Savannah came, we were like, “Okay, it's Rizo.” We were all just sitting there like, “Wow, it's a long time until it's Tribal Council with nothing to do.”  And then all of a sudden Savannah shows up and then it's like, so many different conversations happening here and there and here and there.

I had a conversation with Rizo. I had a conversation with Savannah. I had a conversation with Sage, I had a conversation with Sophie, because I knew it was between Sophie or me, and I knew that they were afraid that Rizo was going to play an idol.

I had this 2-2-2 plan. Rizo and Savannah were gonna put two votes on me, Jawan and Sophie put two votes on Rizo, and then Sage and me put two votes on Sophie. So I had this plan so that if Rizo didn't play his idol, it would've been a 2-2-2 tie and then it would've been a revote. And then if we revoted, he would not have been able to play his idol at that point, so then we could have all ended up just voting for him. So this was the plan that I was kind of trying to get around camp, but I think everyone was really spooked by what advantage that Savannah had and they just wanted to kind of take the safe route.

Michelle 'MC' Chukwujekwu on 'Survivor 49'.

**So you're pitching this around camp. Do you know that if they don't go with this plan that you're going home? Or do you think it's Sophie?**

I know that if they don't go with this plan that I am going home. And when it came to the live Tribal and I was checking in with Jawan, that's what I whispered to him to see if like that plan was still happening. And I was also just trying to cause enough confusion that they might get spooked, that I had something or was going to do a Shot in the Dark or something like that, that they would put some votes on Sophie and then it would end up that their votes plus mine would get her home instead of me.

**You just brought it up. Why did you ultimately decide to not play your Shot in the Dark?**

Jawan even was like, “Hey, you should play your Shot in the Dark.” But I feel like there's a 16 percent chance of that Shot in the Dark. And I felt like me causing enough confusion and chaos might have been 17 or 18 percent chance, so I was going to go with that instead.

Michelle "MC" Chukwujekwu and Jeff Probst on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**Let’s get into your decision to play the idol at the Tribal Council before, which you could have used to save yourself here.**

Yeah, I could have had it, but I think a lot of people expect me to have more regrets about that. And I don't. I even said when I handed it to Jeff, I was like, “I don't think I'm gonna need this, but I would rather secure another day on the island.” I had no idea that the next Tribal would be a split Tribal with only five people.

My thought process was that I knew people were seeing me as a challenge threat, and I knew that my name had been out there. I had spoken with Nate and Sophi B earlier in that day and they were telling me some plans that they had. I knew what the plans were, but they told me something different. So I was like, they're lying to me.

Jawan and Sage were on our side, but the Uli team thought that they were on *their* side. So I'm like, I'm believing them, but also Uli is believing them, so they could very well be playing our side as well. So I wanted to play my idol, make sure that I was safe, and then also see where people's loyalties lied. That was my first Tribal Council. I hadn't voted with anybody, so I couldn't know for sure whether they were telling me the truth until that vote and I wanted to secure my spot, but also to find out where their loyalties lied.

Michelle 'MC' Chukwujekwu, Steven Ramm, Sophie Segreti, Kristina Mills, Matt Williams, and Jason Treul on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**Because original Hina absolutely dominated, you all never had to vote anybody out. Had you lost a challenge, what do you think would have happened and who would have been voted out?  **

That is so hard to say, because as much as people like tease us for like doing our little chants and our rallies, that was all authentic and it was all so legitimate. We truly did love each other and had such a cohesive group. But if the original six had gone to Tribal, especially if it was towards the merge, it could have been Sophie S. Because we knew that she would be a threat whenever it came to individual immunity.

It could also been like Matt, but he was like such a provider that we did not want to vote him out because he was fishing, he was doing all this stuff, he was helping us start the fires. We needed that.

Michelle “MC” Chukwujekwu of "Survivor 49'.

**We know you were told the night before the season started filming that you had been upgraded to a full cast member. How did that go down? How were you told?**

It was so insane. I mean, I'm sitting at this desk, we all have to face forward and be quiet and the whole week I'm thinking*, A girl's gonna get scared, a girl's gonna get sick, they're gonna drop out. I'm gonna get in*. And then they take the cast photo, I'm like, *Oh, I'm not in it. Okay, I guess I'm going home tomorrow.* And I'm just kind of digesting that I'm gonna be on a plane back to San Diego the next day.

Then the PAs call me, they're like, "Dr. Kat wants to see you," who's our psychologist. And I'm like, *I guess they want to make sure I'm okay that I'm going home*. They pull me to like this like corner. I'm like,* Dr. Kat's not over here.* [Laughs] And I start getting a little suspicious. And the whole week I'm imagining that this moment is going to happen, but for it to actually start happening, like I get goosebumps even thinking about it right now.

And then they pull out a camera and say “How does it feel to be on *Survivor 49?”* And my brain could not even digest it. I was like: Is Ashton Kutcher about to come out? Am I getting punked? What's going on? This can't be legit. We're about to go to sleep in 30 minutes. The game starts tomorrow at like 4:00 AM!

It was such a surreal feeling and it's crazy to think that to have to go from there to making it into the game, being undefeated on Hina and making it to the merge. Like, I wasn't even supposed to be in this game! I wasn't even supposed to be on this season! So it's insane to think about how far it's I've come.

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Original Article on Source

Source: “EW TV”