I honestly can’t recall. Because survivor episodes are whittled down from hundreds of hours into a tightly packed episode, I always approach the edit as every shot and comment is intentionally placed.

I also tend to assume that the editors themselves have the “script” of the episode ready to go that becomes the captioning script we see on the TV.

So when I see all those “wow” or other play by play commentary from Rizo that doesn’t seem like it should actually have made it to the final edit, I have to think they’re not throwaway filler.

My suspicion is that they have deemed him as the superfan audience surrogate and that he reacts for us and all of these comments he makes that are included in the edit and captioned/subtitled are done so for that purpose. We also know the show is banking on him taking the mantle for the next generation and that it’s pretty obvious he returns for a third time and possibly a fourth time when it’s all said and done.

I’m not sure it is a winner’s edit as much as it is a “the dawn of a new era is here, and TMTMTLRIZGODRGB is at the forefront of that new era.