The second season of Beast Games has upped the ante by offering greater transparency into its expansive operations while retaining the allure of its colossal grand prize: a staggering $5 million or potentially even more for the ultimate winner. This clarity has elevated the show into a higher league of reality competitions. At the core of Beast Games Season 2 are two themed teams, the Strongs and the Smarts, featuring contestants who are no strangers to reality TV aficionados, having appeared on popular shows like American Ninja Warrior, Big Brother, and the legendary Survivor.

Not only are the contestants noteworthy, but Season 2 Episode 4 of Beast Games also offers a groundbreaking crossover event in the reality TV landscape. Jeff Probst, the iconic host of Survivor, welcomes MrBeast, the famous YouTube challenge creator, along with 20 contestants to the picturesque Fiji, the home of Survivor. The episode is packed with intense challenges, unexpected twists, and jungle adventures, all culminating in a unique Beast-style tribal council.

In an interview with Decider, Sue Smey, who secured third place on Survivor 47 and is a respected member of Team Smart in Season 2 of Beast Games, shared her insights into the experience of living in Beast City. She compared the dynamics and strategies of Beast Games to her time on Survivor, and reflected on her decision-making process during the Episode 4 council vote, where a private island valued at $1.8 million was at stake.

DECIDER: In contrast to your time on Survivor 47, Beast Games doesn’t feature cutaways or confessionals during the broadcast. From your experience in both, what was it like being part of “the Beast”?

SUE SMEY: Being inside “the Beast” was incredibly enjoyable because there was significantly more downtime, which was a welcome change. Unlike Survivor, where you’re constantly strategizing to survive, Beast Games offers moments where you’re encouraged to relax and interact. The environment promoted socializing, and there were plenty of activities to engage in within Beast City. I formed strong connections, particularly with the brilliant women on my team, the Smart ladies. They are not only intelligent but also remarkably strong. Through my interactions with them, I gained insights into their lives and my own, making it a truly enriching experience.

You’re talking about the personal, the social side of it, and from a Beast viewer’s perspective, we don’t really see much of that side at all. You know, it’s so huge, the production’s so giant, that they’re focused on trying to get those numbers cut down. So it’s a little disorienting and chaotic, right? But you probably didn’t sense much of that from inside of the game.

You know, I felt like this inside the game. A lot of the Smart women, we were just like enjoying life, bonding. You saw on the Strong side there were, you know, strategies going, competitions planning. Try to figure it out. They’re trying to analyze, ‘Oh, you know, we might have a competition where we have, you know, a group of 10, and we need one Smart person who we’re going to pick.’ And they were just like, constantly, in my opinion, overthinking everything, because you can’t predict anything on these shows. You have no idea. Especially with Beast Games, we had no idea what was coming to us. So it ultimately caused a lot of risk between, you know, the [Team Strong] gentlemen, because they were like all in an alliance, and then we had to split up, and it was a group of five instead of 10, and the place blew up. It blew up. It was really insane.

The culture of Beast City was chaos itself.

There was chaos. There’s a lot of chaos, you know, and fun, too. Good chaos. And it was interesting. You know,  I’m 60, so watching the younger kids do what they do, I’m just like ‘I don’t want to be a part of it.’ I heard the stories and I heard people are, you know – things that went on, and I’m just like, ‘Whatever. Enjoy yourself.’

I read that you were inspired to be part of Beast because your grandkids watch it, right?

Yes! My daughter called me one day, and she’s like “Mom, Aiden only watches Beast, MrBeast is it? Can you please apply? There’s a show he has called Beast Games.” And I’m like, “Hell yeah!” Like, I’ll do anything. I don’t care. And so I sent my audition tape. And, you know, they took me. And it’s funny, because when I was on Survivor, Aiden didn’t watch one show. But he’s watching Beast Games.

That’s a great connection, because you’re already sort of a star in the reality world, having gone so far as a finalist on Survivor, so now you can expand your reach right to the next generation.

Yeah, it’s exciting. And who would think, like, I never thought my life could be like this. I feel blessed and I feel lucky that I have this opportunity, and I have a cool life. I can never complain. It’s great.

Do you know if there’s anything to eat inside of Beast City besides Feastables?

Starbucks. And I gained weight! There’s a Starbucks that’s open 24/7. So we had tons of food. I learned a lot about different coffees. I learned about, about the cold foam stuff. I never had that before.

During the Captain Bribe challenge in Season 2 Episode 3, you were on [Beast Games Season 1 champion Jeff Allen]’s team as captain. So what’s your relationship with Jeff like? Because later in Episode 4, he deferred to you in a Survivor challenge to be captain. Did you guys have a relationship before these games began, or anything like that?

Jeff is the nicest guy in the world. I don’t think there’s a mean bone in his body. For the Captain Bribe, look, Jeff was there because he has a mission to help find a cure for his son. So he’s not going to take a million dollars. So 100% I’m just like, let it be Jeff, because if it were me, I probably would have taken the money. 

That was one of my questions. 

I’m being honest, right? And I didn’t want to do that to these guys in this team. But Jeff, 100% I believed, would never take that money, and he’s just a good guy. He’s just a really good guy. Him deferring to me, I think it was just out of respect, and I brought him on my team anyways.

It’s funny at the beginning of Episode 4, when the Beast competitors finally reach Survivor island, you’re first off the long boat to give Jeff Probst a big hug. 

Yeah, if I could have jumped in the water and swam, I would have jumped in the water and swam. They wouldn’t let me. I couldn’t get off the freaking boat fast enough. I was expecting to be hiding on an island from the Navy SEALs. My whole mindset was, “I can’t wait.” And on my audition, I wrote, “The one thing I want to do is be on an island and hide from the Navy SEALs.” I couldn’t wait to do that. So when it flipped and it was Jeff Probst, obviously incredible.

So nobody knew? None of the competitors knew that Probst would be there, that this Beast Games–Survivor crossover would be happening?

No, we just drove up to the island, or, you know, took the boat up to the island, and I saw all these people on the beach, and I’m thinking, “OK, is the helicopter there yet, like, what’s going on?” And then all of a sudden, you pan over and there was Jeff. You couldn’t miss it. It was Jeff. And I’m just like, what? And you know, between the shock, between the confusion, like, what is this, Survivor? Is he there just to let us borrow his island? Which he was, but like, what? What’s going on? And in the same breath, you know, I’ve been away from home for like over three weeks, he’s familiar, you know? It was a way to hug somebody that was just like, familiar to me.

Yeah, inside this Beast Games world, I’m always struck by how it’s like a closed loop environment, right? Like you’re in the City, and obviously you don’t have your phone or anything like that, it’s like the walls are up. 

You don’t know what time it is, you don’t know anything. You just know they serve breakfast, and what happens is, they acclimate you to being up all night and sleeping all day. So now when you’re going to bed, basically they’re serving breakfast. So you have an idea that breakfast is like the morning type thing, but you’re totally confused. You’re flipped upside down, and you’re stressed because you’re waiting for the next challenge to come, and you don’t know what it’s going to be. 

Can you compare and contrast that feeling from being on Survivor?

I always say Beast Games was such a pleasure. It was so enjoyable. Survivor was hard. Like, I went down to 90 pounds. I could barely walk by the end of Survivor. You’re 24/7 fighting for your life in a way, you know. You hear people get up and whisper, and they walk away, and you’re like, ‘OK, I wasn’t invited.’ It was a dog-eat-dog world. Like it was really, really tough, very intense, something that you’re always on your guard, 24/7, and even when you’re delirious, you’re still out looking to try to figure out, like what’s going to happen and who’s talking to who, and who’s going to betray who.

Without giving us too many spoilers, as you got further into Beast Games, did you feel like your fellow players kind of increased that level of competition, and secrecy, and you know, gamesmanship?

I feel like the people that played the game played the game, but the majority of the people that I was with were just good, kind people, and everyone was rooting for everyone. It was a total flip-flop of Survivor, like everybody that I was associated with, everyone that I competed with, everyone in my little circle, we were not cutthroat. Like, certain people didn’t like people, but it just was so different. It was just people that liked each other.

The tribal council situation as it relates to the Beast–Survivor crossover was really cool, because it was visually evocative of Survivor itself. And yet a lot of this positivity that you’re describing kind of came through. It felt different, I think from a viewer’s perspective, from that underlying nature of like, ‘This is serious, this is Survivor.’ It felt a little bit lighter than all that, even though there was a lot of the line. You know, we’re talking about winning an island.

Well first of all, I have to say we were on the Survivor set of 49, so right there in itself, that was insane, right? 

Back to tribal council. I knew I loved JC, and I was very close with JC, but I knew in my heart I couldn’t give money to someone who had already walked away with $650,000 right? And it wasn’t to be a jerk or anything. It was just like, he got his shot, and he walked away with a lot of money.

I mean, Ian ended up sweeping the vote. And I think that felt right. Not only because of what he had said, but you’re right – JC had sort of already had his moment, and he’d seized it.

Yeah, Ian. And look, everyone, every single one of us, deserves a million dollars. Like, I can plead a good case, too. So I felt like them pleading their cases, that just goes right out my head, because I look at them as the person who they are. I like them both. You know, how they play the game. Ian’s a strong-ass mofo, like he’s just amazing. And during all the downtime at Beast Games, I really didn’t speak to him that often, but when we did, he was always saying, like, ‘My family’s going to be so surprised when they know that I know Sue Smey.’ He would go out of his way to give compliments to me and to be nice, but like, we didn’t know each other that well. And JC and I, I felt like he was there for redemption of what he did in Season 1. So I loved him, too. I liked both the guys the same. Everything about them was even except for the fact that JC walked away with $650,000 the year before. I couldn’t justify, in my brain, giving him that much more money when Ian deserves it, too.

You asked a great question I thought, during Tribal Council, when you asked both of them, ‘Would you self-eliminate tonight?’ Like putting them right on the spot. I thought that was really powerful from a viewer’s perspective.

I was going to call them out if they did, but when Ian said ‘I’m willing to stay in the game and help you guys move further,’ I’m like, ‘That’s that’s the perfect thing to say.’

And that leads into my next question. Because at that moment, and Probst mentioned this, everyone on the council still has stakes in the game, right? Because you’re going to go back to Beast City. Were you considering that as you were conducting the council, and trying to make this vote? Because you’re all still very much invested in the outcome at that point.

So I knew, I was probably 99.9% sure, that nobody was going to vote for JC, moreso because of him getting money last year, and maybe that they liked Ian better. But, you know. Like, I knew Ian. I didn’t expect Ian to help me. Moving further, I knew he had closer friends with other people, and he was tight with quite a handful of people, so I knew he wouldn’t help me. I just felt, in my heart, felt he deserved it.

That’s a great way to put it. I think that’s cool, because it speaks again to how much chemistry you felt like the entire cast had, right? Which to me, in terms of gameplay differences between Survivor and Beast Games, that must have continued to be a big factor as the rounds kept going. Because you can’t help but know these people, more than just being a number sign on a jersey.

I have to say that going to Fiji, I didn’t know a lot of the Strong guys, and I actually was a little bit not thrilled with a few of them, because they targeted my girl, Emily, in dodgeball. So I had heard, from other people telling me stories. I’m just like, ‘These guys, man, I don’t know.’ But being in Fiji, and the traveling, and then the downtime, and, you know, getting to know them, I became so much closer with Nick, and like so shockingly, I became really good friends with a lot of our whole [Survivor] group. That’s something that you can’t take away, and it’s a bond that we’ll always have together, that we experienced that.

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.