The Hunger Games and Reality TV

Spoiler Warning for all books and movies in The Hunger Games franchise including prequel material. Spoiler Warning for episodes 2 & 3 of Survivor 50. Spoilers for RHAP “Know-it-Alls” premiere recap. Brief discussion of prediction market “leaking” spoilers – details of spoilers excluded, but may confirm or deny rumored spoilers

Content Warning: Non-explicit discussion of adult entertainment. Non-explicit discussion of fictional trafficking. Non-explicit mentions of feces.

Heading into the second episode of Survivor 50 “Therapy Carousel”, we see the Vatu tribe reminiscing over Kyle’s exit and using it to motivate them forward in the game. Q Burdette and Colby Donaldson sat on the beach, trying to figure out how to gain a majority again now that one of the three votes in their five-person alliance has exited the game.¹ We see Rizo Velovic join them on the beach and Q decide to pull him, a “newcomer,” into their alliance. However, in breaking down similarities to the core alliance Katniss works with in Catching Fire, our emerging disaster tribe, Cila, has the most apt comparisons to work with in episode two. The remaining members on Cila after the first vote out, for the most part, have comparisons to the core group of characters the reader follows during Panem’s 75^th Hunger Games.

As mentioned in the episode one analysis, Dr. Christian Hubicki has emerged as our seasons Peeta Mellark. While it may be tempting to compare the Christian and Rick Devens “Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk” duo to Wiress and Beetee aka “Nuts and Volts,” Christian has continued to prove to the audience his artistic flourishes and storytelling abilities, just like Peeta, are what truly make him a standout castaway. If we are going to make a Wiress and Beetee comparison on the Cila tribe, I would argue that the Joe Hunter and Devens duo that boils over in “Therapy Carousel” are the most comparable. Ozzy Lusth, one of the most returning and popular players the franchise has seen, was compared to Finnick O’Dair, District Four’s returning victor, in the episode one write up. His close alliance with Cirie Fields puts her, for now, in the Mags Flanagan spot, Finnick’s district partner and one of Katniss’s first ally requests. As the season goes on, Cirie’s characterization could change, but for now, even with the upcoming swap in episode three, titled “Did You Vote for a Swap?”, she is firmly planted in the Mags role. The main difference between the two being that Cirie’s physical abilities far outweigh those of the 80-year-old² tribute in the 75^th Hunger Games. So… who is this tribe’s Katniss Everdeen?

Savannah Louie, Cila’s only returning winner, has quite a few surface level similarities to Catching Fire’s primary protagonist. Like Katniss, Savannah was the most recent winner to play, few of the other castaways able to become familiar with her skill set. While most of the tributes in the 75^th Games had seen Katniss play the year before, many were completely unaware of just how lethal she was. In the training circuit before the Games begin, Katniss practices her archery skills, causing most of the other tributes to pause and watch her.³ Immediately after this training session, Haymitch Abernathy, the winner of the 50^th Hunger Games and the mentor to the District 12 tributes, tells Katniss that Brutus, one of the most threatening Career tributes wants her as an ally.⁴ Savannah, however, was never really able to get her footing and prove the importance of her competition prowess in furthering her tribe and alliance’s goals. That leaves Ms. Emily Flippen as the Cila tribes Katniss Everdeen.

What specifically gives these Survivor castaways the characterizations listed above? Let’s start with the current star of the season, Christian Hubicki. Like Peeta Mellark, Christian has a way with words and a voice that resonates with everyday people. Additionally, back in episode one, Christian let us know just six weeks before stepping onto the island his son was born. In Catching Fire, Peeta also had his own “secret weapon” in the form of a baby announcement. Once again, during his televised pre-Game interview, Peeta drops the ultimate bomb on the Capitol audience. After fibbing to Caesar Flickerman, the legendary host of the Hunger Games, about already marrying Katniss, Peeta tells Caesar he would have maybe enjoyed their brief time as husband and wife “if it weren’t for the baby.”⁵ While Peeta’s ultimate goal with this lie was to foment rebellion, what he and Christian are both masters of is the art of weaving a tale to gain audience buy-in.

As we get into episode two another, more silly comparison has begun to emerge between Peeta and Christian. At the start of “Therapy Carousel” we see a moment where Christian has a bit of an oopsie in his pants. To be fair to Christian, being on the island for a few days, having very little food and hydration, and stressing over his infant son back home would cause BM issues for almost anyone not on a steady diet of prebiotic foods. Peeta also had his own oopsie during the first day of 75^th Games. While traipsing through the dense jungle with Katniss, Finnick, and Mags, Peeta barrels headfirst into the forcefield created by the Gamemakers to contain the arena. Running into this forcefield caused Peeta to get electrocuted and for his heart to stop beating.⁶ While Katniss was unable to help him, our District Four Career, Finnick, immediately gets to work delivering CPR to Peeta and reviving him.⁷ While Christian’s pants browning moment is certainly not as serious as Peeta’s actual heart stopping, early game over-excitement and focus can certainly cause castaways and tributes alike to have some pretty embarrassing and scary moments.

Now for Joe Hunter and Rick Devens as our Wiress and Beetee or “Nuts and Volts.” While Wiress often speaks in code due to being deeply traumatized, Joe often speaks of code, specifically the moral kind. Joe has also brought his own season 48 trauma into the mix, citing the move Kyle and Kamilla pulled on him in the end game for his skeptical behavior towards Devens. Before the argument between Devens and Joe really took off, we see a handful of strategic moves get lost in translation between the two men which ultimately led to their fallout. Wiress and Beetee, the district three tributes reaped for the 75^th Games keep a close relationship with one another. In the training circuit and later in the arena we see moments where Wiress begins to speak and is unable to finish her sentences. Beetee, however, typically steps in to finish her sentences and help her out.⁸ While Devens and Joe did get into a tiff, we see how Devens more socially aware approach to the game helps Joe realize any confusion he may have had about strategic moves Devens was keeping him out of. This relationship shows us how the elements castaways and tributes face while playing the game will inevitably factor into the decisions they make moving forward, whether as a return player or in the “real world.”

Looking at our Finnick O’Dair, Ozzy Lusth, we must address the articles that came out after the premiere episode. Alex Ocho for Complex magazine released an article titled “‘Survivor’ Contestant Says He’s Surprised CBS Asked Him Back After His ‘Hardcore’ OnlyFans Past” detailing how Ozzy had sent a letter to host Jeff Probst personally to apologize for his career in adult entertainment. While the content of the article dives into how Ozzy has always considered himself an “exhibitionist” and shows that he likely has less regrets about his time on OnlyFans than we might think⁹, the redemption style edit Ozzy received in “Therapy Carousel” immediately reeked of an attempt to impress moral purity onto the audience. However, Ozzy himself came along to subvert any negative expectations about the press he was receiving. At 43:57 Ozzy pulls the Billie Eilish Boomerang idol he had been gifted out of the front of his pants and tells us “It’s right here, where it needs to be, safe and sound. Sorry, Jeff. It’s going to stay there.”

How exactly does this all relate back to everyone’s favorite trident wielding District Four Career tribute Finnick O’Dair? As fans of the Hunger Games franchise know, Finnick, one of the youngest victors in Panem’s history, was trafficked through President Snow’s flesh trade in Panem. While Finnick was an unwilling participant, we find that he has made a successful career and reputation for himself by using the trade to gain Capitol citizens’ secrets. As we find out, Finnick’s use of his body to trade for secrets was part of feeding information to the rebellion located in Panem’s seemingly destroyed District 13.¹⁰ Ozzy’s little trick pulling his idol out of his pants and name-dropping Jeff can be seen as his own act of rebellion within the format of Survivor. Funnily enough as well, the term “safe and sound” can also be related back to the first movie in the Hunger Games franchise. One of the most popular songs off the first movie’s soundtrack by Taylor Swift was titled “Safe and Sound.” Taylor Swift herself, caught up in internet controversy, has also become a symbol for how many people in the spotlight have their image and body commodified by the media to make money for the corporate elements around them.

Icon and legend Cirie Fields, who is “synonymous with Survivor” as Jeff reminded us in the first episode, very quickly came to represent Finnick’s district partner, Mags Flanagan. There are a few different angles to breaking down this relationship, but the combination of Cirie’s incredible strategic prowess mixed with Ozzy’s physical capability is most comparative to the relationship between Mags and Finnick. Cirie and Mags are the brain whereas Ozzy and Finnick are the brawn. Additionally, the “old-school” nature of Ozzy’s “provider” tendencies really highlight the parallels between his and Finnick’s swimming and fishing skills, something Cirie and Mags both have at least baseline knowledge of from their proximity to these “provider” types. Furthermore, in “Therapy Carousel” we see a moment where Cirie and Emily Flippen are in the hammock together discussing who to vote out, a slight resemblance of the alliance Mags and Katniss develop in the arena.¹¹

Emily Flippen, the player with the best positioning on the Cila tribe quickly began to emerge as Katniss Everdeen in terms of relationships and strategic acumen. Katniss, in the training circuit, tells her mentor, Haymitch, that aside from Peeta she would like Mags, Wiress, and Beetee as allies for the 75^th Games.¹² In the first few episodes, we see Emily quickly lock down an alliance with Christian and Devens. While it isn’t fully confirmed until the beginning of episode three, Cirie Fields was also included in a larger four-person alliance with Emily, Christian, and Devens. As mentioned earlier, Katniss’s initial alliance in the 75^th Games was made up of her Peeta, Mags, and Finnick. While we have compared Devens to Beetee here in this group of four, the initial skeptical relationship between Katniss and Finnick is deeply manifested between Emily and Ozzy. In the first two episodes, Emily repeatedly throws Ozzy’s name out, remaining extremely wary of him. In Catching Fire, Katniss is also immediately wary of Finnick, worried he may be plotting against her and Peeta.¹³ While Katniss’s skepticism towards anyone who isn’t Peeta never fully diminishes, she does eventually relent and choose to trust Finnick as the Games continue.

That still leaves us with Savannah as an uncharacterized player in this game. Well, as mentioned, Cila very quickly fell into the “disaster tribe” trope and once again went to tribal council. Similarly, Katniss’s initial four-person alliance struggled to find any food or water until their sponsors sent them a spile.¹⁴ The lack of supplies led to one of their allies, Mags, sacrificing herself as the group raced to evade a Gamemaker twist.¹⁵ Ultimately, Savannah was voted out this round. If we are to give her a comparison to a character in Catching Fire aside from Mags, she can be most likened to the District 6 tribute that sacrificed herself for Peeta when Gamemaker elements once again put him in danger.¹⁶ While Christian, our Peeta wasn’t necessarily in danger during this vote out, Ozzy, our Finnick was. The Gamemaker clockwork that threatened Peeta’s life, also did a number on Finnick, who helped fight off and witnessed the muttation attack the District 6 tribute sacrificed herself in.¹⁷ Heading into episode three, “Did You Vote for a Swap?” is where we really see Emily emerge as the Katniss Everdeen amongst the group of Ozzy, Christian, and herself.

To fully understand this comparison, we have to get into some of the pre-game alliance dynamics that have begun to emerge. What many fans of Rob Has a Podcast (RHAP), THE unofficial companion podcast to Survivor, know is that Christian and Emily are actually pretty good friends. Outside of Survivor they have played a game called Blood on the Clocktower together online many a time. Coming into Survivor 50, when fans saw Emily and Christian were on the same starting tribe, many of us expected them to lock in a close duo. What we didn’t fully expect though, was Rick Devens, friend of RHAP “Know-it-Alls” cohost Stephen Fishbach, to cement himself as a part of this trio. “The Fischbach Friends” alliance, as Stephen himself nicknamed the trio, began to emerge as the power players on this tribe.¹⁸ Now, if you remember, Katniss very specifically asked her mentor, who had previously been a tribute but was not in the 75^th Games to help forge an alliance between herself, Peeta, Wiress and Beetee. While we’ve already discussed the Devens and Joe duo, Emily and Christian certainly also had in-game connections to Joe, the Wiress of the tribe. The “Therapy Carousel” title of episode two comes from a scene where Christian is attempting to understand Joe’s game and uses Devens advice to break through to him. Stephen, someone not even playing Survivor 50, has now himself become a “mentor” type character or the Haymitch Abernathy we see depicted in Catching Fire. There’s also certainly a deep irony present in the fact that Stephen Fischbach released his own narrative tale about reality television earlier this year, 2026, nearly a year after Haymitch’s book, Sunrise on the Reaping was released. Hats off to Stephen Fischbach for haunting the narrative of this season, you will always be famous.

Even further, while Emily Flippen and Christian certainly do not have a “star-crossed lovers” storyline playing out, perhaps more of a “star-crossed allies” storyline, there is another layer of irony present in the fact Christian’s wife, mentioned in episode two is also named Emily.¹⁹ This mention occurs in the sequence where Christian has to go clean up from his accident and passes Emily Flippen on the beach. Between Christian’s own baby secret and his pre-game friendship turned in-game alliance with Emily Flippen, the Katniss and Peeta comparison simply can’t be ignored.

If you’ve read the books or seen the movies, you might be thinking “well don’t Wiress and Mags die pretty quickly once Katniss’s alliances team up together?” While the answer to that question is yes, Survivor 50 represents the loss of those tributes from their allies in the swap that took place at the beginning of episode three, “Did You Vote for a Swap?” The core trio of Ozzy, Emily, and Christian, remained intact when swapped over to the Vatu tribe, just like Finnick, Katniss, and Christian did after Mags’ death. Joe, who we have likened to Wiress, instead of meeting the same fate as her, was swapped alone to the Kalo tribe and immediately teamed up with our Career castaways, Coach and Colby. Mags, as discussed, sacrificed herself to Gamemaker elements to protect the trio. Cire, rather than getting taken out of the game or unceremoniously booted by a twist, was kept on the same tribe, Cila, with Rick Devens aka Beetee.

The Emily, Christian, and Ozzy dynamics that come to the forefront on the newly formed Vatu tribe quickly harken to the Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick dynamics seen in Catching Fire. As mentioned, Emily, at first, wasn’t really vibing with Ozzy, but once on the Vatu tribe she begins to warm up to him. Q and Stephanie LaGrossa, two of the three remaining original Vatu members quickly tried to build an alliance with Ozzy and bring Emily in as the fourth, hoping to vote out Angelina Keeley. However, in doing this Emily betrayed Christian by letting an important piece of idol information slip out. Very quickly though, Emily came to regret this decision and ran to Christian to break it all down and figure out their next move.

In Catching Fire, after Wiress is lost to the “classic Career” alliance, Peeta and Katniss have their first in-game disagreement. Heading into the 3^rd Quarter Quell, Katniss struck a deal with Haymitch, their mentor, to keep Peeta alive since Haymitch had kept her alive in the 74^th Games.²⁰ Once in the arena, noticing Katniss’s reckless tendencies, Peeta tells Katniss that Haymitch made him promises as well and they should stop pretending they don’t know what they are doing – trying to keep the other alive over themselves.²¹ After this argument Katniss and Peeta return to their allies, but not before Katniss wonders “how long [they can] keep this alliance?”²² Back on Survivor 50, the show tells us that Christian convinced Emily to team up with his other pre-game allies, Mike White and Angelina Keeley,²³ ultimately bringing their duo back together. However, it’s safe to assume whatever “real-world” relationship Christian and Emily maintain also factored into the repair of their alliance. Comparatively, Peeta had forged more “pre-Games” alliances than Katniss did.²⁴ Haymitch, their mentor, strategically gave Finnick a bracelet that had been made to correspond with Katniss’s district token, a Mockingjay pin, to hint to Katniss to align with him.²⁵ Finnick, who had a closer relationship to Katniss in the Games, picked up on the tension after Peeta and Katniss’s quarrel and forced them both to stay with him and their alliance without resorting to the brutal mechanics of the Hunger Games. By being himself and emphasizing his pre-Games relationship with Johanna Mason, who joined their group not long after Mags’s death, Peeta and Katniss both forged a sense of loyalty toward Finnick despite the numerous times Katniss worries about their additional allies turning on them.²⁶ While Ozzy didn’t have a direct role in squashing the beef between Christian and Emily, similarly to Finnick, he used his own pre-game relationship with Mike White to keep his name off the chopping block and bring their trio back together towards a common goal.

The Vatu tribe that Emily, Christian, and Ozzy found themselves on seemingly brought over the “disaster tribe” issues from Cila. Three of Cila’s original members, which had no flint, made up nearly half of the Vatu tribe after the swap. Since the trio from the original Cila tribe had already experienced the demoralization that comes with “disaster tribe” status, it only makes sense that Vatu inevitably lost the immunity challenge and ended up at tribal council. Come the end of “Did You Vote for a Swap?” Q, our “legend on the rise” and one of the three castaways we saw participate in the “fight for supplies” became our fourth boot (third vote out to be technical). In the end, this move helped solidify the alliance between Emily, Ozzy, and Christian, but left them with an unclear path ahead, especially as it would pertain to their other pre-game alliances with Mike and Angelina.

Back on the Cila tribe, we begin to see a different and younger Haymitch Abernathy comparison emerge. Haymitch, 24 years before becoming Katniss and Peeta’s mentor competed in and won the second Quarter Quell, Panem’s 50^th Hunger Games. Detailed in Sunrise on the Reaping, Haymitch strategically positioned himself as a “rascal,” so he could make quips toward the Capitol without coming across as a rebel. He did this with the help of his official mentors, Mags and Wiress, as well as Beetee who was an unofficial mentor to Haymitch in the training circuit. While Haymitch’s mentors were setting him up to try and break the arena, an actual act of rebellion, Haymitch drove his own narrative and strategy. In the training circuit before the Games, he pulled a group of non-Career tributes to his side and named their alliance the “newcomers.”²⁷

Rizo Velovic, Survivor 50’s elder Gen Z star that made our very first reference to the Hunger Games in episode one, has begun to emerge as Survivor 50’s Haymitch Abernathy. Haymitch, who was chosen, not reaped, as a tribute in the 50^th Hunger Games later comes to note his “reaping” as unfair or maybe even illegal.²⁸ While Rizo nor any other members of Survivor 50 have called Rizo’s casting unfair, in episode one, it was acknowledged that Rizo had just turned around to play 50 only nine days after the end of 49. While it is common in Survivor to see a castaway play back-to-back when their original season is immediately followed by an all-stars season, there is a certain unfairness present in the inability for these “turnaround” castaways to return their bodies back to stasis. Colby, one of our Career style castaways told Rizo that he was worried about him after coming back out to the island so quickly. Having started off on the wrong foot with most of his tribe, Rizo himself comes across as a bit of rascal. Similarly to Haymitch, though, Rizo was quickly able to use that attitude as social capital to gain allies. At the start of this article we saw how Rizo was quickly adopted into the Vatu’s tribe majority alliance. While this was an early example of how Rizo’s brashness is something he’s able to use as a tool, we don’t see Rizo really start “playing the game” until a few episodes later. Once the swap from episode three hits, we see Rizo swapped to a tribe with Rick Devens and Cirie Fields. Rizo, our 50^th Hunger Games representation of Haymitch Abernathy, was put on a tribe with his official and unofficial mentors, Mags and Beetee.

Heading into episode four “A Knife to the Heart’, the prediction market caused spoilers for the season to hit the press faster than a sponsor gift can reach a tribute in the arena. While many fans placed their bets on a seemingly “confirmed” winner, the prediction market post-episode three tipped its odds to a different castaway. As we move forward in the season and the audience finds different ways to become part of the game that was played months ago, Collins’ question of “Real or Not Real?” first posed in Mockingjay and further explored in Sunrise on the Reaping has come to Survivor 50.

(Authors Note: Speaking of the betting and prediction markets, the dynamics and character types explored here should not be taken seriously in terms of making any “winner” or “boot” predictions. This is simply a creative project meant to show the parallels between the storytelling in Survivor 50 and the various Quarter Quells depicted in Suzanne’s novels. As stated in the episode one comparison, I genuinely have no idea if any of these parallels are intentional or not, but do believe a cross-promotional marketing framework has been applied to draw in viewers gearing up for the Sunrise on the Reaping movie that premieres in November of this year.)

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1. Both Q and Colby lost their votes in the first episode. As mentioned in the episode one analysis, Q lost his vote while on Exile with Ozzy. Colby later loses his vote in episode one when he goes on a journey against Savannah. ↩︎
2. Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. (Scholastic, Inc., 2009), 216. “A hysterical young woman with brown hair is also called from 4, but she’s quickly replaced by a volunteer, an eighty-year-old woman who needs a cane to walk to the stage.” ↩︎
3. Ibid., 262. ↩︎
4. Ibid., 263. ↩︎
5. Ibid., 288-289. ↩︎
6. Ibid., 312. ↩︎
7. Ibid., 312-314. ↩︎
8. Ibid., 256-258, 361. In the Games Katniss tells us “…with no Beetee to explain [Wiress’s] thoughts, I’m at a loss.” ↩︎
9. Ocho, Alex. “‘Survivor’ Contestant Says He’s Surprised CBS Asked Him Back After His ‘Hardcore’ OnlyFans Past.” Complex, February 26, 2026. https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/alex-ocho/survivor-contestant-onlyfans-past ↩︎
10. Collins, Suzanne. Mockingjay. (Scholastic, Inc., 2010), 170-172. ↩︎
11. Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. (Scholastic, Inc., 2009). 306-307. ↩︎
12. Ibid., 263. ↩︎
13. Ibid., 305, 309-311, 313. Each of these page numbers references an instance in which Katniss doubts Finnick’s loyalty or considers turning on him within the first day of the 75^th Games. ↩︎
14. Ibid., 322-328. ↩︎
15. Ibid., 337. Keep reading if you are confused by the Cirie and Mags comparison at this point. ↩︎
16. Ibid., 347. ↩︎
17. Ibid., 336-349. Full account of the muttation attack as well as Finnick’s response. ↩︎
18. Fischbach, Stephen, host. “Know-It-Alls: Survivor 50 Premiere Recap.” Rob Has a Podcast, “Know-it-Alls,” February 25, 2026. YouTube, 18:41. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fQ8mgCLZ6c&t=1316s ↩︎
19. Perlmutter, Rebecca. “Get to Know ‘Survivor 50’ Star Christian Hubicki’s Wife, Their Family & More.” Swooon. February 26, 2026. https://www.swooon.com/1265103/survivor-christian-hubicki-wife-emily-kids-family-relationship/ ↩︎
20. Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. (Scholastic, Inc., 2009), 200-202. ↩︎
21. Ibid., 393-394. ↩︎
22. Ibid., 399 ↩︎
23. Christian Hubicki, Angelina Keeley, and Mike White all competed on Survivor: David vs. Goliath together and remained acquainted since. ↩︎
24. Colllins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. (Scholastic, Inc., 2009), 258. During the pre-Games training Circuit, Katniss sees Peeta “hanging with a group of at least ten other victors.” ↩︎
25. Ibid., 302-303. ↩︎
26. Ibid., 401-402. ↩︎
27. Collins, Suzanne. Sunrise on the Reaping. (Scholastic, Inc., 2025). ↩︎
28. Ibid., 40. ↩︎