Survivor 41

Shan Smith pledged her jury vote to the man who blindsided her

Ricard Foye assembled the vote that eliminated Shantel "Shan" Smith at the Survivor 41 final eight, in the episode that aired 24 November 2021. Smith's parting words pledged her jury vote to him. Foye later called her his absolute best friend in a Parade interview published 16 December 2021.

Disputed The blindside and both players' on-record comments are documented. The lasting-rift version of this story is not: the write-ups carrying it are dead links that could not be opened.

Shantel Smith Shantel Smith Ricard Foye Ricard Foye Deshawn Radden Deshawn Radden

What the record shows

  • Confirmed Foye organised the vote that eliminated Smith, his closest ally, at the final eight. The episode aired 24 November 2021 and she finished eighth, on day 19.
  • Confirmed As she left that tribal council Smith said Foye had her vote for a million dollars, and called Deshawn Radden a snake. Gold Derby reported both lines the same night.
  • Confirmed In his post-finale Parade interview, published 16 December 2021, Foye called Smith his absolute best friend.
  • Confirmed In that same interview Foye said Smith had compared their dynamic, in her own Parade interview, to a married couple who bicker and keep the love and loyalty anyway.
  • Unverified Accounts of a lasting personal rift between the two after filming trace to secondary write-ups of a podcast. Those articles are now dead links, no archived copy was opened, and nothing first-party supports them.

What happened at the final eight

Shan Smith and Ricard Foye were the most visible pair in Survivor 41, and Foye was the one who put together the vote that ended her game. It happened at the final eight, in the episode that aired 24 November 2021. Smith finished eighth, voted out on day 19, and went to the jury.

That is the fact people are usually looking for when they search this, and it is the whole of it. Foye organised the vote against his closest ally. Nothing in the record supports describing what either of them did to the other as a personal betrayal, and this page does not.

Her last words went to the person who did it

This is the detail that makes the story worth a page. On her way out Smith told Foye he had her vote for a million dollars, and told Deshawn Radden he was a snake. Gold Derby reported both lines on 24 November 2021, the night the episode aired.

She was, in that moment, pledging her jury vote to the architect of her own elimination and aiming the accusation somewhere else. Read that back against the way the season is usually summarised and the summary starts to look wrong. She named Foye as the person she wanted to see win.

The pledge was never actually cast

Foye did not reach the end. He was voted out three rounds later, fourteenth out and fifth overall on day 24, and joined Smith on the jury. Erika Casupanan, Deshawn Radden and Xander Hastings were the three finalists, so the million-dollar vote Smith promised was never on the table.

This site does not report how any individual juror voted at the final tribal council beyond what the show broadcast. The point here is narrower: the pledge was a statement of intent that the game never gave her the chance to act on.

What both of them said afterwards

Mike Bloom interviewed Foye for Parade after the finale, in a piece published 16 December 2021. Foye described Smith as his absolute best friend. He also relayed something from her own Parade interview: that she had compared the two of them to a married couple who bicker and keep the love and the loyalty regardless.

That is a second-hand relay of her words, so take it as what he said she said. It is still the closest thing the record has to both parties describing the alliance at the same time, and both descriptions are warm ones.

Where the fallout story comes from, and why it is not here

Search results for these two carry a version in which the friendship took years to repair. That version is not sourced. It traces to secondary write-ups summarising a podcast, and the articles making the claim are now dead links. No archived copy could be opened, and no first-party statement from either player supports it.

Unverified does not mean false. It means nobody has produced the thing that would settle it. What is missing is specific: the original recording or its transcript, with a date, and a retrievable copy of any article that quoted it. Until one of those turns up, the on-record material points the other way.

People in this story

Questions people ask

Are Shan Smith and Ricard Foye still friends?
The on-record material says the alliance stayed warm. In Parade on 16 December 2021 Foye called Smith his absolute best friend and relayed her comparison of the two of them to a bickering but loyal married couple.
Why did Ricard vote out Shan?
Foye assembled the vote against his closest ally at the final eight, in the episode aired 24 November 2021. This page does not assign him a motive beyond what he has said on the record, which is that Smith was his best friend.
Did Shan really say Ricard had her vote for a million dollars?
Yes. She said it as she left the tribal council that eliminated her, and in the same breath called Deshawn Radden a snake. Gold Derby reported both lines on 24 November 2021.
Did Shan ever cast that jury vote for Ricard?
No. Foye was voted out three rounds later in fifth place and never reached the final tribal council, so he was not one of the three finalists the jury voted on.
Did the two of them fall out after the show?
Not on any record that can be retrieved. The write-ups describing a lasting rift summarise a podcast at second hand and are now dead links, with no archived copy and no first-party statement behind them.

Sources

Checked on 2026-07-26. If something here is wrong or out of date, we want to know: get in touch.