The ousted player also explains the aftermath of calling Charlie the “dumbest player here” on TV.

Dee Valladares reveals there is major Survivor 50 post-game cast drama

The ousted player also explains the aftermath of calling Charlie the "dumbest player here" on TV.

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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April 9, 2026 11:37 a.m. ET

Dee Valladares on 'Survivor 50'. Credit:

Robert Voets/CBS

Dee Valladares told * *she wanted the competition to come for her on *Survivor 50*. That’s exactly what they did on this week’s episode, and the season 45 champ was overwhelmingly voted out of the game, becoming the first member of the jury.

How did forces mobilize so quickly against her? Was her blindside of Charlie her ultimate undoing in the game? Would anything have been different had they gotten rid of Coach instead of Colby… and then Colby had been medically evacuated? Or is Emily Flippen to blame for all of this for squealing to Rizo that Dee told her about his idol?

We spoke to Dee to get the inside scoop on everything that went down out there, and it turns out there is just as much drama off the island as there is on it. You can now watch or read the entire interview below.

**: Was there ever any point heading into Tribal or during it when you thought you may have turned the tide and had a shot to stay?**

**DEE VALLADARES: **I wish I could say yes, but the real answer is no. My name had been floating around for a while, and I knew it. People either come up to you and tell you, or people just ignore having conversations with you, and so I felt it. But I am delusional enough to think: *All right, well, let me just try, right?* Because you never know on *Survivor*. So I did try, but obviously, I knew I was going home.

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**Let's get into why you went home. You took out Charlie. Did you realize that by doing that you were essentially declaring war on the entire honor and integrity alliance?**

Well, here's the thing. I'm gonna go back to OG Kalo, because there are a lot of things that weren't seen. I was never aligned with that group to begin with, right? We were never aligned. I know in the edit, you see us having some strategy talk. Obviously, it was just me agreeing to it. Me taking out Charlie was not the reason why I left, because Jonathan, Chrissy, and Coach were coming for me from the beginning, and I knew that. And I'm very open with my gameplay. Everybody knew where I was. So it was just a matter of who got who first, right?

With the Charlie vote, the war had already begun. It's just that I got Jonathan first in that moment. But the war had already begun since OG Kalo. I mean, we see it in episode 1 — Jonathan's like, "We gotta get rid of Dee." And Chrissy also was gunning for me, and Coach did everything Chrissy said, so they were coming for me anyway.

There was no way that I would allow myself to look back at my experience on season 50 and look back and think*: Oh, yeah, I just played their game and not my own*. Because that's really what happened at the tribe split, where it was either Rizo or Charlie. It was just the way that it was approached to me. It's like, "Hey, we're gonna do Rizo." There was never a conversation of, like, "Hey, what's good for all our games? Dee, what's good for your game?  Who else, if not Rizo?" It was just like, "We're gonna do Rizo.” And I'm not okay with that. And especially, like, "Oh, now you want to solidify OG Kalo," but we were never solidified to begin with.

Dee Valladares on 'Survivor 50'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**You were in trouble before the game even started with your reputation going into the game, so had Kalo gone to Tribal, would you have been in trouble?**

No. if OG Kalo would've gone to Tribal, it would've been Chrissy. Anything can happen, don't get me wrong.  I was obviously trying to avoid Tribal because it could be me too, right? When it's an easy vote, everything can switch in a heartbeat. However, it was Chrissy, Coach and Jonathan on one hand, and then me, Tiff, and Kamilla on the other hand, and then that left the people with the most power, which is Charlie and Mike. And at the time, and even post-game, they even said they were gonna come with the girls rather than the other side. You even see Coach saying in the episode that it would've been Chrissy going home. I’m, like, 80% sure it would've been Chrissy.** **

**Have you heard from Charlie since you called him the dumbest player out there?**

You know what's funny? When I watched the show, I've actually never talked to one person about my vote out or anything. I don't fish for “Why did you do this?” because it's the game and it ends. With Charlie, I reached out to him, but I reached out to him in December. We finished in July, but when I landed after July, I had just finished filming *The Challenge.* So *The Challenge* was about to air. I'm getting bombarded with promo. Now I'm dealing with 30 other people, even worse drama than what this is.

But I reached out to him a few times. He never responded back. And at one point, I'm like: *Let me just crack jokes.* And I'm like, "All right, if you hate me, just say that." Like, I was just cracking jokes. And it finally got to the point where I'm like, “All right, what the heck is happening? What's going on? Like, just let's talk about it. " And, you know, he told me he was hurt and blah, blah, blah, and we talked about it and we've had a few text exchanges, but it doesn't seem like anything's gonna come from it.

Dee Valladares on 'Survivor 50'.

Robert Voets/CBS

Which is okay with me. I'm sure it's okay with him too.

**Why is it okay with you? Just because you can let that go?**

I love to play the game with people who, when you get out of the game, you can laugh. Not just at what people are saying, but at yourself, too. And this is a season where a lot of people are not.... It doesn't seem like they're enjoying the experience. But I think, for me, I mean, I'm enjoying it. I'm okay with it with any person because I come from a place of privilege. I won my season. I did it. I got everything. So I kind of went into 50 without having to prove anything, without having to worry about tainting my reputation. I knew no matter what I did on 50, nothing can take away what I did on 45. But I don't think that's the case for a lot of people, so ...

**Well, I've written about this before**,** and I've seen a lot of returning player seasons, and they do seem just a lot more raw and emotional. And I don't know if that's because of friendships when you get on the island, or just expectations you come back with, but it seems like feelings get a lot more bruised on returning player seasons as opposed to newbie ones.**

I mean, I think they should. We all care deeply about this game. So I think it comes from a place of passion, at least for me. I can only speak about myself, but yeah, I don't know. People talk about all these pregame alliances. Oh, baby, wait until you hear about post-game. [Laughs] Post-game is even worse! [Laughs] It's truly worse. So I stay away from it as much as I can. I got my people, and I'm happy with them. But I think the live reunion's gonna be great. I'm really looking forward to it.

**Is it like alliances forming off-island, kind of like on-island in terms of people being out there and you’ve got to pick your side?**

Oh, 100%. There's text messages flying out to each other. I mean, it's a lot. It'll happen in the live reunion. We'll all talk about it then.

Dee Valladares on 'Survivor 50'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**We talked about pregaming before the season. Now I’ll ask you about it again. How big of a factor was it out there?**

For me, it wasn't too big of a factor. I had a couple of conversations with a couple of people. I didn't wanna do it too much. People reached out to me as well. Dalton, everybody talks. We all know this. It's not a secret. But I only gave my word to two people, and one of them being Emily. [Laughs] But I feel like I owed her something.

**What *is* the deal with Emily Flippen? Why is she telling everyone everything, including informing Rizo that you told her about his idol?**

I don't know, man. That's my girl. I love her. She's great TV. I love watching her be messy because it makes for good TV. And was I pissed at her in the moment? Yes. I cried because it hurt. She's a friend. It was just done in a moment where everyone was already on me, and as soon as Emily told Rizo, my alliances were just, like, dismantled.

Dee Valladares on 'Survivor 50'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**We didn't really see you two after that moment. So did she apologize to you for that? Did you go up to her, like, “Emily, what the hell?”**

No, I didn't because I knew I was going home, and I didn't want to blow anything else up out of proportion. L didn't want it to be a problem for Rizo. I already screwed him over. I didn't want to put target on Emily's back. I was already okay with the fact that I was going home, even pre-Tribal. So I didn't do that. Obviously, post-game, I was like, "Bitch, why'd you do that?” [Laughs]

But you talk about it and you get over it and it's funny. But in that moment, I knew I was going home. There was no point ... Like, if I'm gonna try to fight, I'm gonna try to fight against someone who's not in my alliance, right? And not try to blow up somebody's game like that.** **

Dee Valladares on 'Survivor 50'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**Let’s get into another previous vote. You talked last week about taking out Coach because Colby might be medically evacuated and then you would get a two-for-one. Colby told me last week when we spoke that he probably would have been evacuated had he made it through that vote. How much do you think that might have changed things had you gotten both of them out there?**

I mean, it would've changed everything. Anytime you can get a two-for-one deal is incredible. At the time, we didn't really know how bad Colby’s foot was. We knew it was inflamed, so we're like, "Maybe he’ll get medevaced,” because he was limping a lot. So it was an option, but it's still up in the air. You never really know. Obviously, we didn't know how bad it was. I think he had an infection. But in that moment, there was no way where I was gonna go against an ally in Cirie that I was trying to build something up.

And you know what the crazy part is, Dalton? Nobody knows this, but I asked Ryan, one of the producers, I'm like, “Hey, when do I have to give up my immunity necklace? Before or after the votes?” Because I thought about maybe saving Colby. I really wanted Colby in there.

And it wasn't necessarily because of him coming back and trying to get me in with the other people, because we had already been merged before that split. And the honor and integrity group, they were on one side of the island, kind of doing their own thing like they owned camp, and everybody hated that. And so I didn't even want to be aligned with them. I'd rather go to war with my people than go to war and fight with an enemy.

And then the conversation you saw Colby and I had was the *second* conversation we had, because the first time, I'm like, "Colby, I wanna play with you. Cirie wants you out, but I wanna play with you. Who are you cool with? What can we do together? How can you help me?" And he didn't give me anything. So at that point, I'm like, *All right, like, this is it.* And so that conversation you saw was he went to go do a confessional, comes back, and then he's like, "All right, Dee, I'm cool with Stephenie, all these people. I'll go back and give your word." But at that point, it was too late. I did want him in the game, for sure.

Dee Valladares on 'Survivor 50'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**Things got a little heated there with you and Jonathan. Was there more friction and fighting going on that we didn’t see, because we’ve heard there was more to the fights between Rick and Joe or Aubry and Genevieve that didn’t make it to air?**

I'll take you back to something that wasn't shown on OG Kalo. Episode 2, we won a tarp, and I decided to do a little fashion show, and I made everyone wear the opposite sex clothing. And since then, all of the men thought I had an advantage. Same thing that happened on season 42, I believe, with Maryanne.

So they all were scared. Then I heard about it, and obviously, it wasn't from Charlie, so I'm here thinking Charlie's an ally, and that's when immediately I was like: *You're not an ally, because how are you not telling me about the fact that everyone's thinking that I have an advantage? And I understand maybe you're playing defense, but you're not playing offense with me. You're just keeping your cards to your chest until it's time to make a big move when it's beneficial to your game.*

And at the time, Jonathan was freaking out, “Dee has an advantage!” And so basically, you see Jonathan in that moment come out and say, "Dee, all the lies that you're doing.” I didn't! What did I lie about? Just the Charlie vote. That's all I lied about. But it was built up tension for sure because I really wanted to work with Jonathan coming in, and I think we needed each other as a shield. But it was very obvious in our OG tribe that he had Coach and Chrissy, and that was who he was gonna ride with, and we never kept solidifying our alliance.

And I knew that he was coming for me because you just feel that at camp, you know what I mean? You feel it. And there were times where, for example, even Coach sat me down and told me, "Dee, I'm afraid of you, Kamilla, and Tiff." And I'm like, "Well, Coach, what about you, Jonathan, and Charlie? So you could play *Survivor*, but I can't?" I had been talking back since OG Kalo. It obviously wasn't shown and didn't make the storyline, but there was a lot of built-up tension because I always would also see Charlie, Jonathan, and Coach, and I'd go up to them at the beach and they changed conversations.

I mean, if you change a conversation, something's going on, and it's about me or one of my allies, right? So there was definitely built-up tension from the beginning. So when we made the split, I think it was just to their benefit to align together because they wanted Rizo out, but it wasn't to my benefit in my game.

Kamilla Karthigesu, Dee Valladares, and Jonathan Young on 'Survivor 50'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**I felt that from you, Dee, out there before the game. I was like: *This is a woman that's just playing with house money.* Literally in this case, because you already had their million dollars. And it seemed like you were able to do that and enjoy yourself and have some fun and be aggressive.**

It was so fun. Like I said earlier, I never wanted to look back at 50 and tell myself, *Damn, I played somebody else's game.* And, you know, someone's like, "Do you regret voting, Charlie? Do you regret voting this? "No, I don't. I don't because in hindsight, you could do better things, obviously. We all make mistakes. But no, I don't because the biggest regret that I would have on 50 is playing somebody's game — or especially, like, a man telling me what to do. No, I will not.

**Anything else from out there we didn't see that you wish had made it to TV?**

I wish they showed more OG Kalo. I think there was a lot of paranoia. That's why I did the fashion show, because we were all so paranoid and annoying, and I'm like, "Dude, we need to have some fun." I wish that made it because that was the most I laughed on 50, seeing everyone wear each other's clothing and really go all at it and kind of put the game aside for a second, even though they thought I had an advantage. That was really funny.

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