Australian Survivor fans have fallen for Paulie Michael thanks to his sassy quotes and warm personality, but the cast doesn’t seem to be on the same page.
Throughout the current season, Paulie’s faced blow after blow with his fellow castaways devising plans to get him eliminated, and has even been dubbed the “snake oil salesman”.
Perhaps the most heart-breaking development was during the Tribal Council that aired on March 17 when host Jonathan LaPaglia pointed out that everyone was paired off and Paulie was the only person without a “buddy”.
“Everyone’s got a little dynamic duo, and I’m the lone wolf over here,” Paulie said in a confessional.
On the flip side, fans can’t get enough of Paulie. His Instagram account is littered with supportive comments, and he even has an entire Reddit thread with people sympathysing with him about how he’s been treated.
To shed some light on why Paulie’s been excluded throughout this season of Australian Survivor, we went straight to the cast and asked them ourselves.
Logan and Laura reveal why castaways distanced themselves from Paulie
During an interview with Chattr, eliminated contestant Laura Darras explained that, for her, it was Paulie’s charismatic personality that made her wary about working with him.
“Paulie is charming, and he’s funny, and he’s witty, but as soon as you put personality like that on in a game where people are assuming that you’re sneaky, it can get a little bit misconstrued,” she said.
“I really love Paulie, and he wears his heart on his sleeve, but in a game like Survivor, you don’t know if someone’s lying to you, and that can be a little bit scary.”
Logan Johannisen added that Paulie’s habit of flipping between alliances had her questioning when he was telling the truth. She referenced the Tribal that saw Laura Noonan eliminated and reflected on why she decided to side with AJ Antonios instead of teaming up with Paulie and voting for her arch-nemesis.
“He kept saying, Oh, I’ve got all these friendships on the other side. And that was kind of a red flag for me,” she said.
“There was, there was a lot of inconsistencies in Paulie’s stories as well, and he was fighting for his life. So we just kind of had to go with what felt like was the best moment at the time.”
Paulie has found somewhat of an ally in Myles Kuah who played his Idol to protect him. However, Myles has called Paulie “expendable” in recent interviews. Will Myles step up when Paulie needs him?
Stream Australian Survivor 2025 Sundays – Tuesdays on Channel 10 and 10Play.
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