In an alternate universe, Joe Manganiello is a Survivor all-star

Picture this: a Survivor tribe with Boston Rob, Parvati, Ozzy, Sandra, and… Joe Manganiello? Survivor-heads will probably have more of a reaction to the fact that the actual contestants in this list have never worn the same color buff, but who knows? Maybe if the Magic Mike actor had been allowed to execute his winning strategy on the beach, everything would have been different.

It was a real possibility for a second there. In a new Men’s Journal cover story, the actor revealed that he almost used his strength to become one of the CBS show’s great challenge beasts instead of a real beast on True Blood. In its early days, Manganiello says he loved Survivor so much he used to throw weekly viewing parties with his roommates in West Hollywood. “I was at a house party a few years later and ran into someone who worked for CBS casting, and they said, ‘You would be great for Survivor,’ he said. (The dream!) “I said, ‘Oh my God, I can win!’ I went into my whole strategy, and they said, ‘Would you make a tape? But you can’t be an actor.’ I had no agent, no manager. I’m shoveling sand and gravel.”

As every Survivor fan knows, all the best players have to have an angle—not only to get on the show, but also for their final tribal speech, should they make it that far. As the actor was working for a masonry company at the time, he decided to sell himself as “Joe, the construction worker from Pittsburgh” in his tape. It’s not quite “Coach,” but not bad. He also emphasized his connection to survivors of the Armenian genocide in the tape. “I’m a survivor,” he said. “I have survivor genes in my blood.”

He also detailed his entire, very thought-out strategy from that time for the outlet. First, “I was going to get my eyes corrected by surgery,” he recalled. “Because I wear contacts, even though I found out they give you contact solution.” He also explained that he’d “met a yogi whose specialty was taking people off solid foods,” which already puts him squarely in the profile the show was recruiting in those days. “The philosophy is that you could eat a leaf that contains more nutrients in it than an entire large pepperoni pizza. I was going to wean myself off solid food so I wasn’t worried about energy,” he continued. “And then, as a big, athletic male, you’re going to help win all the challenges for your tribe. But at the merge, you’re going to have to win immunity, because I’m a target.” Oh, what could have been.

In the end, Manganiello got his metaphorical torch snuffed because he was picked up to star in Tori Spelling’s So Notorious, and the show had a rule at the time barring well-known figures. (That rule has since been nixed, and Pod Save America’s Jon Lovett is set to appear next season.) While the actor didn’t explicitly reveal which season he was in contention for, we, of course, did a little detective work. So Notorious aired in 2006, the same year as Survivor’s iconic Cook Islands season. Would Manganiello and his leaves have won out against greats like Yul, Ozzy, and Parvati? We’ll never know.