With the highly-anticipated premiere of Survivor 46 less than a week away, fans of the franchise have been looking to get to know the 18 castaways fighting for the title of “Sole Survivor” and the million-dollar cash prize on a much deeper level, all in an attempt to place their predictions and accurately guess who will emerge as victorious. One of these castaways that is so much more than meets the eye is Las Vegas native David Jelinsky, who works as a slot machine salesman and enjoys sports — especially basketball and bowling — magic, trivia, puzzles, card games, and jamming out to Taylor Swift songs in his free time. Is there seriously anything he can’t do?
When you take a look at Jelinsky, “you’re not thinking of someone who is super analytical, super intelligent. You think of someone who wants to smoke a doobie on the beach,” but this Jack Harlow doppelgänger might have a bit more Survivor knowledge than he lets on.
Coming in with a rather controversial opinion, keep scrolling to see what his ultimate Survivor hot take is…
What is Jelinsky’s Survivor hot take?
Survivor: Ghost Island has gone down in history as having the closest finale of all time — with both Wendell Holland and Domenick Abbate garnering five votes, forcing finalist (and therefore third place finisher) Laurel Johnson to break the tie — but Jelinsky believes that the wrong guy took home the title of “Sole Survivor” and the million-dollar cash prize.
Wendell’s social game allowed him to secure a vote from Laurel — causing him to be crowned the champion of Survivor: Ghost Island — but Jelinsky revealed to reporter Mike Bloom at Parade that in his opinion, Domenick should have earned him the victory instead.
“Off the top of my head, it might not be as hot, but Domenick should have won Ghost Island. You gotta love the flashy game. That kind of speaks to why Wendell won. He was a part of Domenick’s moves, more or less, but he was more of a people person, and people gravitate towards that the most. If the jury did not win themselves, they want to vote for someone that ‘If I couldn’t win, I’d want them to win,’ so I would say that.”
Admitting that he will play the game most like Tyson Apostol, Rick Devens, Russell Hantz, and beyond, will Jelinsky also take some of Wendell and Domenick’s gameplay into account? We will just have to wait and see…
To see if the 22-year-old manages to take home the title of “Sole Survivor” and the million-dollar cash prize, catch the premiere of Survivor 46 on Wednesday, February 28 at 8pm ET/PT on CBS, as well as brand new episodes every Wednesday afterwards.
With a cast that is truly a 10 out of 10, Survivor 46 is sure to knock your socks off, gearing up to be the best “New Era” season yet.