What happens during an interview with someone who hates being interviewed?

Genevieve Mushaluk explains why watching Survivor 50 on TV will be more terrifying for her than playing it

What happens during an interview with someone who hates being interviewed?

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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February 10, 2026 9:15 a.m. ET

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Genevieve Mushaluk doesn’t like the attention. Which makes her something of an anomaly among reality television contestants, who never met a camera they didn’t want to make passionate love to. Also, people who don’t like attention generally don’t sign up for a TV show once, much less *twice*. So what gives?

That is simply how much Genevieve loves playing *Survivor*. She’s willing to endure the pregame interviews she describes as “painful.” She’s willing to put her face on television even though she finds watching it back absolutely “terrifying.” She’s even willing to — SHOCKER! — finally set up a public social media account after hiding in private during her previous season.

So why did a woman who doesn’t like talking about or watching herself come back for *Survivor 50*, the most heavily publicized season in franchise history? That’s what I aimed to find out from the 34-year-old fifth place finisher of *Survivor 47* when we sat down in Fiji for yet another torturous stop on her pregame press tour. And it turned out to maybe be my favorite interview of all.

*(This is one of 24 deep-dive, on-location interviews with the *Survivor 50 *cast. Links to the other interviews will be posted at the bottom of this article as they become available.)*

Genevieve Mushaluk of 'Survivor 50'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**: I know it hasn’t been long, but any updates since you last played *Survivor?***

**GENEVIEVE MUSHALUK:** I got a dog. That's it. It was because I was so anxious in the fall while [*Survivor 47*] was airing and I was like: We need an animal in this house. And then it worked out perfectly. Now my husband isn't coming back to a house all alone. He's got Booker. And that'll keep him busy.

**Tell me why you're going to win *Survivor 50,* Genevieve.**

I'm going to win *Survivor 50* because I have learned a lot from my time on season 47. I came from a very diverse cast with lots of great players with different strengths, and I had the luxury of actually getting to know them once the game was over and now they're good friends of mine. But if I can take all the strengths that existed on 47 and blend it together and apply it to *Survivor 50*, I think I can outdo anyone here.

On the beach for 'Survivor 50': An exclusive, all-access first look at the biggest season ever

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**Why come back and do this again?**

I was honestly torn, and I don't mean that to sound ungrateful. I think *Survivor* is amazing. It's a two-part experience, which you don't appreciate as a fan because you come out and play, and then a significant amount of time passes, then you watch it on TV and it's different than the experience of playing. I really like one side of the equation much more than the other.

But I had applied for the better part of a decade and kept hearing no, and I don't have it in me when *Survivor* calls me to say no to them. So I'm back here. I've got a lot of concerns. I'm not excited for a year from now when it's on TV, but I'm so excited for a day or two from now when we get to start.

Genevieve Mushaluk on 'Survivor 50'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**When I did a series of *Survivor* Quarantine Questionnaire interviews with players talking about what it was like after playing, I was struck by how difficult it can be for folks after the game, especially the anxiety as the episodes begin airing. Cochran told me it completely took over his life.**

Totally. You don't sleep on Tuesday nights because Wednesday is the worst day of the week, where as a fan, it's the best day of the week. It's really tough to be a fan of the show when you're on the show for some of us, and Cochran’s totally right in saying it takes over your life.

And then you kind of feel like maybe not the best partner or sibling or child or coworker because you're being so self-obsessed, and it's because your anxiety is in overdrive because you're going to be exposed and vulnerable in such a dramatic fashion in a way that you can't control from all of your best and worst moments out here. So it's terrifying. I'm scared just thinking about it. Is it too late to send me back to Winnipeg?

**It’s impressive that you can handle it, even if you do struggle with it. We all know your previous arc in terms of playing this sort of intentionally cold, connectionless game, and then finding yourself getting emotional. That's the way you entered the game last time. How are you entering the game this time?**

So you all didn't get to see too much of this because you sort of met me in episode 4, but that's actually not how I entered the game. I did not enter the game with that strategy. It was born out of the game sort of surprising me from an emotional perspective, so that's definitely not how I wanted to play.

When I entered the game, it became a coping mechanism for the challenges of the game. And so this time I want to be a lot more intentional in the other direction now that I know how it's going to play out and how I'm inclined to react to that emotionally. And then what that triggers in me in terms of shutting down, I'm going to be a little better prepared to recognize it and redirect that guilt or anxious energy into something more positive.

So it's going to be different. And if it's not, then I've failed because I have two goals: win, and learn from that specific mistake and do things differently. So I’ve got to at least do one of those.

**How do you think other players here see you?**

I think they'd be like, “Who?” They'd be like, “Seriously?”

**Why do you say that?**

Because there are so many more impressive people who are going to sit in your tent today and yesterday. And I partly say that as a joke, I partly say it because of imposter syndrome, but also because one of the things I love about *Survivor* is it takes ordinary people and puts them in these extraordinary circumstances, and you see what ordinary people can do.

But there have been people who've played survivor like Ozzy, who I would say is not an ordinary person. I don't know many Ozzys in my real life, these people who fit in the jungle, I don't know many Ciries, who are just infinitely charming and able to maneuver in any social circumstance. So I feel like I'm surrounded by not a lot of regular people, and then I'm just the regular girl from Winnipeg. So someone sitting in this here tent might overlook me, but I might be able to use that.

**I mean you had a big, branded move in Operation Italy. Great marketing on that, by the way.**

Oh, I'll give that one to the guys. That's Andy and Sam. I just had the red coat.

**You don't think that hovers over you as you hit the island?**

From my experience, it was so much Andy's incredible deception and acting and Sam's creativity and willingness to make a move happen and I just did the arts and crafts. I was just making the fake idol.

Sam Phalen and Genevieve Mushaluk on 'Survivor 47'.

**I know that you and Sam had discussed that move before Andy brought it to you and that you had already talked about something very similar, so I think you're selling yourself short — intentionally so. Self-evaluate for me. What's your biggest weakness in the game?**

My biggest blind spot is myself, because my self-image is plagued with my own insecurities and I think it prevents me from being able to accurately assess and then manage my threat level in the game or how people see me. All your questions about me, those should be the easiest ones and they're the ones that I struggle with the most. So I'm going to have to work on that in a way that doesn't feel like icky to me.

**I've been doing this a long time, and usually people come back for a returning season and you would think, “Okay, they're going to be a lot more confident. They've been told, ‘You're worthy, you're an all-star.’” But you're also going against other all-stars, as you've been talking about. So how are your insecurities as you enter the game opposed to when you entered season 47?**

Good question. I'd say they exist, but they're totally different. I'm not afraid of the things I was afraid of before. I'm afraid of new things this time. So when I came out for 47, so much of what I was afraid of was, *Can I do this? There are so many unknowns about just the game that I haven't seen it before. I haven't been out here, I haven't experienced it.* And that's what I was afraid of before.

This time, I'm calm. I know I've got the skills to do this. But ignorance is bliss the first time you come out, and when you come back, you're like, *Oh no, I remember exactly hard this is. I know I can do this, but I know it's totally going to kick my ass.* And I know there's an element of luck and things I can't control. And in a returning player season, there are relationships, some of which I can guess at, some of which I'm sure [are] under the surface that I have no idea exist.

And so there are new concerns that exist in a returning player season that don't exist when you come and play your first time. It’s like when you're in university, it seems so hard, and then you get your first career job and you're like, “God, send me back to university! Those were the good old days! I was sleeping in and everyone else was just as scared as I was.” You never know you're in the good old days until they're gone.

Genevieve Mushaluk on 'Survivor 50'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**Anything on a personal level that you regret from the last time you played?**

The thing that jumps to my mind when you say that is I spent a lot of time beating myself up over, specifically, voting out Kishan, because that was a significant personal relationship to me then. And now, we would get along, but it's not a significant personal relationship to me now. Whereas Sol, I couldn't stand him in the game. I had such a negative experience and impression of him out there, and now it's a very significant personal relationship to me.

So I regret thinking the game was real life, because it has a way of fooling you because it's your real life in that moment and it's real in the sense that you're touching it, experiencing it, living in it, but it's not the real you or the real people you're playing with. And so it's difficult to balance doing the right thing with the brain you have that's built for the real world when you're in the *Survivor* world.

Genevieve Mushaluk and Solomon 'Sol' Yi on 'Survivor 47'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**That's such a great perspective. I've done a million of these pregame interviews, but I don't think anyone's ever put it quite like that in terms of how on-island doesn't always match up with off-island. Speaking of off-island, how much pre-gaming did you do with other players before you came out here, Genevieve?  And don’t lie to my face.**

I can honestly tell you on my life I have not reached out to a single player that is here.

**I don’t believe you.**

I have not reached out to a single player that is here. Seriously!

Seriously. And I may be f---ed.

**So you reached out to the wrong players, is that what you're telling me?**

I didn't reach out to a single player.

**You're telling me that no one reached out to you?**

I am *not* saying that people have not spoken to me. I did not seek out or reach out to a single player, because — and this is what makes me actually not very good at *Survivor* — I think really good players have the ability to compartmentalize. I intellectually understand it's the game and we're all playing it, but it still subconsciously governs my actions.

It's very hard to look you in the eye and lie to you and not feel guilty or to have a conversation with you knowing, *Okay, this is purely pre-gaming and I don't intend to be bound by any of these promises I'm making you.* It's easier to delineate it when you are on the beach in Fiji. If I'm in my home in Winnipeg, having a conversation with someone that feels like strategy, it just makes my skin crawl. It’s not a part of who I am and how I want to play.

I think good players bested me in that department, and it might come back to bite me in the ass here, but I just couldn't do it. I'm either going to go home in the first four people voted out, or I'm going to go deep in this game, because friendships are going to matter really a ton at the beginning when you need an advocate to save you. But as we get closer to the end of this game, friendships will become less and less important, because you cannot split the title of Sole Survivor with your friend. And so I just need to hold on at the beginning, and then I can market myself in a way that's going to be meaningful to the other people who are here.

Colby Donaldson, Genevieve Mushaluk, Rizo Velovic, Angelina Keeley, Quintavius "Q" Burdette, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, Kyle Fraser, Aubry Bracco of the Vatu tribe on 'Survivor 50'.

Robert Voets/CBS

**There are a few seasons that have three people here. You are the only one from your season — a lone wolf! How do you feel about that?**

God, I spent so much trying to find my pack, and now I'm back here alone! It’s like, *Oh, it's like 47 all over again. I'm alone.* It is not lost on me that there are clusters of people. I think the only people who haven't played together on a season with anyone else here [are] myself, Jonathan, and Chrissy. And they've each had a lot more time in the *Survivor* community and they're both public on social media. You can find them, you can get to know them, I'm sure they're easy to contact. I'm not.

So in addition to watching me play and be standoffish, people may misinterpret my private life as also being a sign of someone who's standoffish, and they might interpret me not reaching out to them as someone who's not friendly. Once we're allowed to talk, once Jeff says go, I've got my work cut out for me, but I can do it.

**Because you're such a private person, how do you feel about this part of the process and doing press? How do you feel about talking to me right now?**

Painful. Well, it's not painful because I like you, but this is about as uncomfortable as I am at a Tribal Council. That's my uncomfortableness scale right now. My brain can't handle it and my fight or flight goes — whether it's Tribal Council in a game for a million dollars, or you staring across the table at me asking me questions about myself, or someone sending me an email at work saying, “Hey, where's this contract?” I don't have a good spectrum. It's on or off. Can you relate, or am I crazy?

7:23 The Cast of ‘Survivor 50’ Reveals Who They Want to Vote Out First

**You're not crazy. That's why I asked you.**

It should be studied.

**I'm guessing you've never been asked, “Do you hate talking to me?” before, but I find that stuff interesting.**

I like that you had to ask. That means I'm not overtly giving you a vibe that just confirms it.

**No, you totally are not. But I was wondering whether you were pushing through the pain to do this.**

And you know what? It's so funny because if this little recording device wasn't here, I would feel totally calm, even though we could say the same words and it be the same thing. But I just feel like it's a spotlight on me and I love to be in the audience.

**I totally get it. Alright, let's talk about other people then. Give me some names of people you want to work with on the island.**

I keep saying Coach and everyone gives me a shocked face.

**Tell me more immediately.**

I think the best way to describe it is as someone who spends a lot of mental energy trying to polish and manicure the way I show up and present and communicate how I'm feeling and what I'm thinking, it is enthralling to see someone who appears to just be so comfortable in their own skin doing, saying whatever the hell they want at any given moment, social norms be damned. I just think it's fascinating and I want to see what that's like. I hope it's totally genuine, and maybe bottle some of that up and take it back to Winnipeg with me. But I'm just curious. I'm intellectually fascinated.

Genevieve Mushaluk of 'Survivor 50'.

**Tell me your observations of Coach in the lockdown, pregame portion of the game.**

Okay, so before we come out to Fiji, we get sequestered at a hotel in Los Angeles. There's a producer meeting where no one can speak, but this is the first time you lay eyes on who is in the zoo. And Coach was one of the last people to come in. He comes in this fully lit conference room with his ponytail, sunglasses on, chest puffed out, walking up the aisle from the back of the room to take a seat at the front. Picture the most *Top Gun* diva-ish bride walking down the aisle. That was the vibe, and I was just like, “Wow, how is there not a TV screen between me and this man? This is cool as hell!”

I'm sure we're supposed to remain expressionless, and I'm sure my jaw was on the floor. As I'm fixing my hair and so conscious of every goosebump on my body taking up too much space in this conference room juxtaposed against this man? It's incredible.

**Who else are you thinking that you might want to work with out here?**

Jenna is giving me really good vibes, just a really warm, smiley person. I try not to put too much stock in this because then I'm going to get married to an idea of someone and then we're going to get in the game and it's going to be [totally different]. Or I'm going to have to listen to their interview where they're like, “Oh, bad vibes from that Genevieve girl!” And I'm like, “I totally misread it. Damnit.”

Genevieve Mushaluk of 'Survivor 50'.

Scott Duncan/CBS

**Give me the flip side. Who are you wary of?**

I'm shocked but I'm getting not good vibes from Charlie.

**In what way?**

****When I communicate with you, I am just myself, so you can tell that I'm sort of neurotic and hyper, but when I'm in the tent, I really try to present as calm, because don't want to throw anybody else off with my crazy energy. It's not fair to them. So I just keep it to myself.

Charlie is either nervous or is just mirroring my nervousness back to me, but it's unsettling. So I'm not sure if we're so similar that it's my bad vibes ricocheting off him that I don't like, or if it's something about him that is just doubling down my nervousness. But yeah, it's just unsettling. And maybe that's why I like Jenna so much. She just seems like cool as a cucumber and I'm like, *Okay, safe place.* It's sort of just like your internal compass being like, this seems like a level surface. You can stand here, it's safe. And this seems a little wobbly.

**How many connections in person have you had with people here?**

I've met Emily at an event. I've met Q at two events. I've met Kamilla. She introduced herself on a commercial break at an event during her season.

'Survivor 50' Cast.

**What about these season 49 players that no one has seen play? **

You say no one knows about them, but *you* know about them and you could tell me, but you're going to choose not to.

**Well, I was out here, I met them, and watched their first few days. But I actively avoid spoilers until things air, so I’m only *slightly* less clueless than you. And you’re right: I won’t tell you anyway. So how do you handle that unknown element?**

I'm of two minds, because if this undercurrent of old era vs. new era is going to be a thing, I'm season 47, which puts me squarely new era, and 49 falls into that camp as well. On the other hand, for my personal game, if I am most vulnerable at the beginning, the 49ers — who no one knows and [have] even less of a connection than they do to this random girl from Winnipeg — they look like sacrificial lambs for early boots.

I need to have conversations with the old-school players in the game to see if there's any opportunity to actually work with them. And you know how it is: Conversations in the game are actually not that determinative of what anyone's true intentions are. But I need to get more of a read on how much room I'll have to maneuver and whether or not I can afford to offer up the 49ers or if I need to go in a lot more aggressive, start throwing out names from [the] old-school side. That's a minefield. There's so many relationships and advocates there.

**What do you make of Mike White being here?**

I was frustrated at first. I was very frustrated because if the odds of me going home early are very high, the odds of him going home early are slim to none, I would say.

Because I think everyone wants a cameo on *The White Lotus*. I haven't seen it, but I've heard it's amazing. I specifically did not want to watch it before coming out here because I don't want to fall into the glow of Mike White. So yeah, I was very frustrated to see that he was out here.

But one night out here in Ponderosa when I couldn't sleep, I was thinking about my frustration and trying to go with a counter argument and talk myself off the ledge. And I think as much as Mike's celebrity is going to help him in the game as we're out here, during the airing — which is the part that my heart bleeds for people during — his celebrity opens him up to just so much more scrutiny, which I feel sensitive towards.

And so as much as I'm frustrated he's here, I think it's bold of him in a way to come and open himself up to that because he doesn't get to control the outcome. While it's unlikely he goes home early, it's still possible. And many more people are going to talk about that than they would talk about Genevieve going home early. And so I hate to give him credit. But I don't want to be on *The White Lotus, *and I would love to vote him out early if I could.

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity. *

***Want to be kept up with all things Survivor? Dig deep and sign up for 's free Survivor Weekly newsletter to have all the latest news, interviews, and commentary sent right to your inbox. ***

**Other *Survivor 50 *deep dive player interviews:*****• Survivor 50* star Ozzy Lusth opens up about hitting 'rock bottom of my life'**• *Survivor 50* star Aubry Bracco opens up about the 'freedom when you fall from grace' **• Colby Donaldson reacts to playing *Survivor* for the first time without Jerri**• Angelina Keeley refused to do *Survivor 50* unless they gave her a jacket**• *Survivor 50*'s Coach goes deep on evolving from an 'arrogant ass' into the… Tide Walker?** • *Survivor 50* star Jenna Leiws-Dougherty is 'here to f--- you over in every way, shape, or form'** • Cirie Fields says winning *The Traitors *does not take sting out of *Survivor* loses** • Mike White on how he is handling *Survivor 50 *castmastes angling for *White Lotus* cameos** • Chrissy Hofbeck opens up about controversial season 35 finish and being bashed by previous cast** • Rick Devens explains why he is a lunatic that wants to play with other lunatics** • Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick wants to prove that 'mom really is a badass'** • Christian Hubicki wanted to tell Survivor 50 pre-gamers to 'f--- off'**

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