"She didn't really misplay it": Survivor host Jeff Probst breaks silence on Sophi's Knowledge Is Power flop

Survivor season 49’s December 10, 2025, episode saw Sophi Balerdi cover her face in embarrassment after her attempt to expose Steven Ramm’s Block-a-Vote advantage at Tribal Council, using her Knowledge Is Power advantage, failed miserably. 

While Sophi thought she played her advantage at the wrong time, host Jeff Probst believed otherwise.

In the latest episode of the On Fire With Jeff Probst podcast, Jeff expressed:

“So did she misplay it? That’s how it’ll go down in the history books. Not really fair. She didn’t really misplay it as much as she got got by a new twist she couldn’t have anticipated.”

The Survivor host added that Sophi’s plan to out Steven’s advantage was perfectly timed, as he believed she would have gotten the result she wanted on any other day. However, the rule that Steven’s advantage came with sabotaged her efforts. 

Steven earned the Block-a-Vote advantage during a journey that allowed him to bar someone from voting at the Tribal Council. However, the catch was that he had to declare that name before heading to the Tribal Council and exhaust his advantage.

In the latest episode, he did exactly that, which was why when he sat at the Council and was asked by Sophi to reveal his power, he denied having any because he was no longer in possession of it. 

Survivor host Jeff Probst says Sophi played her Knowledge Is Power advantage correctly

Sophi’s Knowledge Is Power advantage allowed her to steal another player’s power, hidden or not, only if she correctly guessed who had one. However, unlike Steven, she had to use the advantage at Tribal Council. 

Consequently, she entered the Tribal Council confident she had the upper hand, unaware that Steven had already exhausted his power by blocking Savannah from casting her vote. 

“There has been a lot of talk of ammunition and what side has more of it, and Survivor 101 is when you have something in your pocket, you really shouldn’t be so vocal about it, because there could be a silent assassin in the midst,” she declared at the Tribal Council. 

With that, she revealed her Knowledge Is Power advantage and turned to Steven to ask him if he had any power.

To her surprise, he answered in the negative. She then thought that he must have handed it over to someone else, but Steven confirmed that he had done nothing of that sort either. 

That left Sophi not only shocked but also embarrassed, as she covered her face with her hands, and with that, Sophi lost her advantage, too. 

On the podcast, Jeff discussed the intricacies of the Block-a-Vote advantage, noting that forcing Steven to play his advantage before Tribal Council was “very unusual” and a “big twist.”

According to Jeff, it put Steven in a vulnerable spot because he had to decide without knowing how the vote would play out. 

“So if you get to Tribal and you realize, ‘Oh man, the vote is shifting,’ or Tribal becomes alive, or you realize you’ve been lied to this entire time, it’s too late, you’ve already committed,” he stated.

On the other hand, Jeff admitted that the creative team knew that the intricacies of the Block-a-Vote advantage would impact the Knowledge is Power advantage. 

“Once you play that advantage back at camp, that secret Block-a-Vote has now been played. That advantage is gone. It doesn’t exist. It hasn’t been revealed, but it’s no longer an advantage that can be stolen,” he added.

Since it was a difficult twist, Jeff defended Sophi, saying she played her cards correctly and timed everything perfectly. She would’ve stolen Steven’s advantage if not for the twist.

That said, he was excited to see if the twist and its consequences would impact the gameplay of the remaining players. Jeff believed it would make them skeptical of one another, uncertain whether the advantages had been played.

Stay tuned for more updates.