Jawan Pitts reveals he hid French fries in his sock during Survivor 49

Jawan Pitts has confirmed one of Survivor 49’s strangest off-camera moments: he really did hide French fries in his sock during the game.

In a post-elimination interview with Entertainment Weekly, the fourth juror described smuggling fries back to camp after a fried chicken reward, then sharing them with ally Sage Ahrens-Nichols as a secret late-night snack.

The story surfaced alongside his account of being blindsided at Tribal Council, his clashes and reconciliations with fellow contestants, and his reflections on “heated” conversations about race on the Survivor 49 beach.

Inside Survivor 49: Sock fries, a blindside, and a horror-movie game

Pitts reached the Survivor 49 jury after being voted out in Episode 10, becoming the season’s fourth juror.

He was eliminated by a coalition that included Sophie Segreti, Rizo Velovic, Savannah Louie, and Sophi Balerdi, after his Uli allies turned against him.

In his exit interview, he repeated a comparison he had made on the show itself: that Survivor 49 felt like a horror movie, with shifting threats and unseen dangers building toward his own “act three” removal.

The blindside followed a Tribal Council built around fake and real idols, with Savannah and Rizo controlling the swing vote and Yellow Sophie acting as a key go-between.

The fried chicken reward and the “sock fries”

The French fries moment came during a fried chicken reward challenge that was not shown in full on CBS.

After his group won and sat down to eat, Pitts started hunting for a possible hidden advantage in the serving dishes, following a pattern often used in recent Survivor seasons.

He later recalled that he searched the fries for an advantage, found nothing, and then decided to keep the food anyway. In his own words, he told Sage back at camp, 

“Sage, guess what? I have fries in my sock.”

According to Pitts, he and Sage then shared what he has described as “crusty” fries that had traveled inside his sock, framing it as an example of the odd bonding moments that don’t always make air.

From Uli outsider to a jury member on Survivor 49

Pitts entered Survivor 49 as a member of the Uli tribe in Fiji’s Mamanuca Islands. The season features 18 contestants competing over 26 days and began airing on CBS on September 24, 2025.

Some of his former tribemates have since said he likely would have been the early target had Uli attended Tribal Council before the swap.

Pitts has confirmed that he learned this on the island from Sage during the vote that eliminated Shannon, and that conversation changed how he approached the rest of the game.

He described that moment as a kind of second chance and credited Sage with keeping him in the game longer than he expected.

Their partnership later became a focal point of the post-merge dynamics, especially as they tried — and ultimately failed — to flip the power structure controlled by Rizo and Savannah.

The blindside and Rizo’s fake idol

At the Tribal Council that ended his run on Survivor 49, Pitts believed the vote would land on another player.

He has said he read “weird vibes” before leaving camp, but assumed any fireworks would hit someone else, possibly Steven, Kristina, or Sage.

Instead, Savannah pretended to be in the dark about the plan while secretly participating in the move to remove him, reacting at Tribal as if she were hurt by his attempt to flip against her.

At the same time, Rizo stood up and theatrically played a fake idol, which Pitts later likened to a “John Cena moment,” calling Rizo “a showman.”

Once the first vote with his name was read, Pitts realized the plan had failed and accepted that he was “done.” He then joined the Survivor 49 jury, where he has continued to watch the ongoing power struggle play out.

Bag searches, wrong torch, and “classic Jawan”

Beyond sock fries, Pitts has addressed several other moments that gave him a slightly chaotic reputation on Survivor 49.

In an unaired scene released later, other players secretly searched Kristina Mills’ bag, suspecting her of hiding an idol; that sequence ended with a vote switch that helped send Pitts out instead of Steven.

He also brought the wrong torch to Jeff Probst to be snuffed on his way out, only realizing the mistake when he watched the episode back.

He has described this as “classic Jawan” and pointed to other incidents — like accidentally painting Sage’s water bottle during the merge — as evidence of his clumsy tendencies in camp life as well as at Tribal.

“Heated” conversations about race and life after the game

In addition to the light-hearted stories, Pitts has spoken about more serious moments from Survivor 49.

He has confirmed that there were “heated” conversations on the island regarding the pattern of Black players going out after the merge and the optics of early jury composition.

He has said he wanted to “hold space” for castmate MC Chukwujekwu’s feelings and for viewers who were uncomfortable with the boot order, while also stressing that his own decisions were rooted in financial pressure and a desire to support his family. In an interview with New York Post, he explained, 

“I’m a broke dude from South Jersey. I live in L.A. My bills do not stop. But I just thought this was my one opportunity that have a safety net for my siblings.”

In a separate conversation, he disclosed that he is in therapy processing the emotional impact of seeing four Black contestants, including himself, leave in succession, even as he maintains that the votes were driven by shifting alliances and game factors rather than explicit intent.

Jawan and Sage: the key relationship from Uli

Pitts has repeatedly highlighted his bond with Sage as central to his Survivor 49 story. He has described her as “like my sister” and compared their friendship to a high school connection that forms without either person quite remembering the starting point.

He has said that Sage “saved” him at the Shannon vote by warning that others on Uli were targeting him, and that this changed his mindset from assuming safety to playing in “anybody but me” mode.

That relationship also framed his post-merge strategy; many of his choices, including his willingness to take risks, were tied to keeping both himself and Sage in the game as long as possible.

Even the sock-fries story circles back to that partnership: the hidden snack, the shared joke, and the willingness to laugh together in the middle of a stressful game.

As Pitts continues to sit on the Survivor 49 jury, that friendship — and the decisions they made together — remains one of the key threads shaping how he now views his time in Fiji.

Stay tuned for more updates.