Savannah Louie isn’t apologizing for being a strong woman on “Survivor.”
After winning “Survivor 49” Wednesday night, the 31-year-old former news reporter exclusively spoke to The Post about being labeled a “mean girl” by some of her fellow castaways and the fans for how she played the game.
“When you hear a criticism or maybe shade from someone, if it’s just one person, you take it with a grain of salt,” Louie said. “But if multiple people are saying it, I do think that you should kind of evaluate. Is there a truth to it? Why are so many people saying the same thing? Right? So when everything was airing, obviously it was hard to hear and I got kind of in my head about it.”
“I have a really great community of friends and family who love me and are not afraid to tell me when I am wrong or out of line,” she continued. “And I had conversations with so many people who know me in real life about my behavior. No on th show, but just in real life. And honestly, all of them said I was not a mean girl, so I took a lot of solace in that.”
Louie clarified that while she doesn’t “want to discredit” what her castmates said about her on the show, she cares much more about her friends and family’s opinions of her.
“I people think I’m mean, that’s unfortunate,” Louie said. “I would love to hear examples of that. I think a lot of the behavior I displayed may have been abrasive at times or bold sometimes or aggressive in terms of the game at times, but it wasn’t necessarily mean. There was no ill intent. I’m not trying to make anyone feel small or like they’re not worthy or not important. I just played like a honestly insane person, and I don’t think that’s mean. So that’s just my perspective.”
The Atlanta native even admitted that she’s enjoying the fandom’s mixed reaction to her.
“I didn’t play a pretty game by any means, right? But that being said, the fact that editing and production could show me as a multidimensional winner, I really appreciated that,” she shared. “And I love that people loved me in the season. I also kind of liked that people didn’t love me. I think it shows that I’m a human being. Most people aren’t loved by everybody, and that’s okay.”
And in just two short months, Louie will be back on television for “Survivor 50.” Both Louie and her “Survivor 49” ally Rizo Velovic will competing alongside icons like Cirie Fields, Colby Donaldson, Ozzy Lusth and Mike White on the milestone season.
“It was the day after the finale,” she told The Post about getting asked to be on Season 50. “So hours before we were about to leave back to the US, production calls me into a room and I thought initially they were going to have my parents on the phone for some reason. So I walk in and I see Jeff’s face on a Zoom call on a computer, and when he told me about 50. It seemed too big to be true.”
“I grew up watching the show, and even though the names hadn’t been released for 50 yet, there had been rumblings about who might be on,” Louie added. “And to be told I was even in consideration with some of these people, it was just mind blowing.”
“Survivor 50” premieres Feb. 25.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
