Former Big Brother winner and reality television icon Rachel Reilly has been open about her desire to be a castaway on Survivor in the past, and let the record show, she’s just as determined as ever. In fact, her husband Brendan has been teaching her how to make fire in their backyard. Given her popularity within the competition community, you’d think we’d get to see those skills eventually, but the Survivor casting department has been notably reluctant to cast veterans of other franchises in the past. So, what are Rachel’s actual chances? Let’s talk this out.

In Survivor’s 50 season history, there have only been five total castaways who previously appeared on other majority reality competitions before they hit the beach. Twins Natalie and Nadiya Anderson were on The Amazing Race, as was White Lotus showrunner Mike White. Hayden Moss and Caleb Reynolds were both on Big Brother. That’s it. Other players may have been on lesser shows before, but longtime host and showrunner Jeff Probst and company haven’t consistently looked to their primary competitors and sister shows to find people.

That being said, now may be a unique moment. Survivor 50, with an all-star cast of returning players, just gave the show its biggest ratings numbers in years, and likewise, Big Brother is currently in the middle of a resurgence thanks to its decision to cast Survivor favorites Dee Valladares and Rick Devens. CBS is definitely looking at those figures and figuring out how to keep them rolling.

Probst has already committed to do another returnee player season on Survivor. The producers haven’t announced exactly when it’ll happen, but the fanbase is widely of the belief that it’ll be 53 or 54, which would mean it’ll air in late 2027 or early 2028. Outside of that, however, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some additional decisions made with ratings in mind, which could mean a cast that includes some celebrities or stars crossing over from other franchises. If the show did that, you’d have to think Reilly would be near the top of the list.

It’s hard to make a case that many reality television stars have been more successful than her over the past few decades. She, of course, won Big Brother, but her resume goes a lot deeper than that. She also won Snake In The Grass and Celebrity Fear Factor. She made three appearances on The Amazing Race, including two where she got to the finals, and she made additional appearances on The Traitors, Worst Cooks in America and more. She doesn’t have quite the name recognition or crossover appeal of a player like Boston Rob, but within the reality competition community, there aren’t many bigger names, which is why we've seen her make appearances on the last two Big Brother seasons.

Here’s what she told US Weekly about competing on Survivor…

Personally, I’m all for Rachel appearing on Survivor. She has a fantastic social game, and she always creates can’t look away television. It would be a lot of fun to see her bounce off some personality types she might not be getting on other reality shows as well. Fingers crossed it happens at some point, whether she's figured out how to make fire yet or not!

Survivor is one of the best reality shows of all time, and is still going strong despite its decades on CBS (and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription). Its most recent installment, Survivor 50, was one for the record books, and clearly the Television Academy agrees because it got a whopping five Emmy Nominations this year. And the cast of Survivor 50 had a lot to say when their season was honored in this way.

The 50th Season featured returning Survivor players for the first time in years, which really helped to raise the stakes. And while Jeff Probst accidentally spoiled a segment during the live reunion, he was still nominated for Outstanding Host, alongside the show's four other noms, including Outstanding Reality Competition Program. The show's official Instagram posted about the noms, which you can see below:

The cast of the season sounded off in the comments section, and they seem thrilled that Survivor 50 was recognized. Because while the contestants are in it for the Survivor prize money, there's also a sense of pride about being in such a successful chapter of the show. Some choice comments read:

• Rizgod: we bringing it home Jeffrey! THIS IS OUR YEAR
• Ozzy: Had a dream about IT!! and WE WIN!!
• Kamilla: EMMY VOTERS PLEASE VOTE CORRECTLY THIS YEAR AND MAKE SURVIVOR WIN EVERY CATEGORY THANK YOU 🙏🏾
• Q: Would be a big mistake if Survivor didn’t win!!
• Cirie: 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾Welll deserved ‼️
• Stephenie: I called it and told you at the wrap party!! It’s your and our time 👏👏👏👏👏🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
• Tiff: 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

Clearly, the castaways of Survivor 50 are proud that their season is getting so much love from the Television Academy. And I understand why; they endured countless insane twists, and a number of beloved players ended up being eliminated early. But if their season got Emmy nominations, it has the potential to make some of their frustrations worth it.

Of course, some fans might be worried that Survivor 50's Emmy noms might result in future seasons during the Open Era being inspired by what happened during this last season. Because while 50 was fun, there were also some moments that went viral for the wrong reasons. Namely Zac Brown's extended cameo, which resulted in the lowest-rated Survivor episode ever. Twists like the Blood Moon didn't go over well either, while fans enjoyed others like the pair elimination and MrBeast's coin toss that doubled the prize pot.

The tease of the Open Era's start had some fans scratching their heads, but it's clear that Survivor isn't going anywhere anytime soon... especially if it keeps racking up Emmy nominations.

Survivor's catalogue is streaming over on Paramount+, and a new season is set to premiere sometime in the fall as part of the 2026 TV schedule.

Survivor has seen some changes over the course of its run, even now after completing its milestone 50^th season on the 2026 TV schedule. The reality competition series is still seeing some firsts, but there are some things that will never change. Longtime host and executive producer Jeff Probst weighed in on a perplexing mistake that Survivor hopefuls can’t seem to stop making, and he seems pretty frustrated.

It’s always fun to see who will be on the next season of Survivor and who fans will root for and against. It also means that some very lucky fans will have a chance to be on the show and try their hand at being the Sole Survivor. 51 seasons in, you never know what to expect with the next group of Castaways, and I can only imagine how long the casting process is. It’s probably pretty tedious, especially since some people can’t seem to stop making the same mistake. Probst shared some tips on how to film an audition tape at PaleyLive (Via Instagram) as well as one thing he finds pretty annoying:

Survivor is all about deception and making alliances before breaking relationships, so it’s not so surprising that some people would rather enter the show as someone completely different. It is mind-blowing to know that so many people are afraid to be themselves, especially for a show like Survivor, where it’s better to be yourself than someone trying mischievous... even if it means not making it all the way.

That being said, no one knows what it takes to be on Survivor more than Probst, whose own audition tape proved that being yourself does actually work. He’s previously shared his Survivor audition tape, a.k.a. the tape he used to convince CBS he should host the competition series. It involves him being incredibly goofy, a look-a-like doll, and really just showing that he wasn’t exactly suited to be in charge of what would be a staple on reality television. That ended up working, of course, and it makes me wonder just what would have happened had he gone the route of a chunk of Survivor hopefuls.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Probst is trying to give advice to Survivor hopefuls. Earlier this year, he admitted that he wasn’t comfortable with what producers wanted in the early seasons, which was to hold the contestants accountable in a “slightly more aggressive” way. He confessed that there have been seasons where he wasn’t necessarily himself, so this is just another example of why being yourself is always the best route.

This does make me wonder just how many hopefuls truly go out of their way to make their Survivor audition tape stand out, whether it’s climbing a mountain or who knows what else. And how many of those actually make it on the show. But it sounds like those kinds of auditions don’t really stick out to Probst in the way hopefuls want them to.

It’s not exactly a secret that Love Island and Survivor both film in Fiji near one another. However, this week the news blew up as fans found out the shows film so nearby that members of some of Survivor’s tribes can allegedly hear the Love Island cast partying across the water. Given Survivor keeps its own cast cold and hungry, there’s obviously been a lot of responses. Let’s talk it out.

What We Know About Survivor Filming By Love Island

It was actually members of the Survivor cast who confirmed this is a thing. Season 49 winner and Season 50 early ousted contestant Savannah Louie said she couldn’t hear the other show on 49, but said during 50 that she could “at one point.”

Reports about both shows noted the two series frequently overlap.

While it sounds like filming was in tandem during Season 50, as well, I do think it’s worth pointing out Rizo did not hear the other show while he was on the island, so it’s unclear if this is a frequent phenomenon. Plus, other Season 50 star Tiffany said they might film at the same time, but called hearing the other island “a lie” in a separate social post. This had fans speculating about whether it’s actually the ousted Survivor contestants who are able to hear Love Island from Ponderosa, as Savannah was not ousted in 49 but was ousted way before Rizo and Tiffany (who both made it close to the end) in 50.

In general, CBS is known as a network for some of the best reality television, and originally ran both shows, though Love Island has been available with a Peacock+ subscription since Season 4.

Despite filming both in Fiji, there are not a ton of ways they overlap, save two. First, they sometimes share crew members. While the producers, hosts and more are different on both shows, The Sun reports that some of the technical workers, camera operators and more crew members are locals from Fiji who may do jobs across both shows.

Apparently, the Ponderosa location is the same location Love Island contestants and crew stay at while filming. However, an insider says there’s “no interactions allowed whatsoever” between the two casts. “Separation rules” are enforced if both shows film at the same time and house contestants at the Mana Island Resort.

Either Way, The Internet Seems Delighted About This Development

It’s unclear if Survivor contestants really hear anything while they are alone with their thoughts and their empty stomachs pre or post-merge. I do think it’s is fascinating there is overlap between the Survivor and Love Island casts. I particularly didn’t realize the infamous Ponderosa setup was the same as the other show’s base camp, and I wonder how they keep everybody separate in order to make sure the ousted Survivor contestants don’t leak.

I’m not the only fan curious about the arrangement. In fact, when Internet users also found out, many of them had amusing responses about what crossovers could look like.

• When they vote someone off of Love Island they should have to go join the Survivor cast -Phoenix
• We need a proper Love Island and Survivor crossover season where all the starving Survivor contestants start hooking up and the hot people in swimwear from Love Island start going feral -Mason
• Survivor should let love island use exile island -KFJDGH
• Hear me out: Love Island and Survivor are filmed on the same island. Next season they need to do a contestant swap of whoever gets voted off, see who can last until the end. -maybe-clare

I cannot imagine most of the cast members on Love Island agreeing to what the Survivor tribemates go through, except for maybe spicy narrator Rob Rausch. I’m sure Rausch would just catch a bunch of snakes and hang out. Meanwhile, I kind of could see at least some Survivor cast members on Love Island. I said some!

Meanwhile, Survivor used to travel to a different location every single season, but has been setup on Fiji every season since 2016. Love Island premiered in 2018, so the two shows have been side-by-side for some time. It doesn't seem to be an every time season thing, necessarily. Survivor 51 already filmed while Love Island 8 is in production now. However, Season 52 of Survivor is already ready to get rolling. So we'll have to wait and see. I'm very interested in more details about this whole setup, however. Jeff-- where you at?

Does Survivor give the winning player a specific edit each season? Longtime host and showrunner Jeff Probst has always said no. In fact, a clip of him saying a winner’s edit does not exist has been re-circulating since the Survivor 50 finale aired. What’s the truth though? Is there such a thing as a winner’s edit? I think it’s pretty obvious after what we saw this past season.

Before we get into my thoughts, let’s talk about what a winner’s edit is and what Probst has said on the subject in the past. Obviously, every season of Survivor has a winner, and whatever edit that winner gets is technically the winner’s edit. More broadly, however, when Survivor fans use the term winner’s edit, what they’re saying is that a certain character on the show was edited in such a way that it was obvious they were going to win.

Probst has been asked about the winner’s edit over the years, and he was the most vociferous in denying it during an appearance on The Friendship Onion a few years ago.

Pretty clear, right? Well, not so fast. In the same interview, Probst elaborated on his comments to clarify what the show actually does. He said the editors try and treat the show like a mystery. They either keep in certain clues or remove certain clues in order to keep fans at home guessing who might win the show. In a perfect world, he wants some people to be right and some people to be wrong. Here’s more of his quote…

That brings us to Survivor 50, which I think is a pretty clear example of what the show does and does not do. Aubry Bracco, of course, won the whole thing, and for the last several episodes, most fans were very confident she was going to win. In fact, I completely avoided spoilers and betting markets the entire season but still went into the finale thinking her win was basically a foregone conclusion. It seemed so obvious.

At the same time, however, it’s not exactly like she got an edit that made her look like a conquering hero the entire time. In fact, the show basically dunked on her during the early episodes. We got one scene with Genevieve that made her look like she had zero people skills, and while we got bits of relationships between her and Tiffany and her and Coach, we didn’t get to see her interact with a lot of castaways early in the game. For the first several episodes, many people who do power rankings had her near the bottom of their lists.

But she also always got consistent content throughout the show. She had at least one confessional every single episode. We got to hear her motivation and point of view on key votes and decisions she made throughout the game, and during the last few episodes especially, we started to hear her talk regularly about her goals and how she was going to win the game, all of which are parts of what fans think of as a traditional winner’s edit.

What made Survivor 50 so obvious, however, was that, with the exception of Jonathan, none of the other players who made it to the end got anything close to a winner’s edit. We know from exit press that Tiffany was a real threat to win the game, but she had the least number of confessionals for like half the season. The show clearly wouldn’t edit its winner like that. We heard from Joe a little bit more, but a lot of that content was other people roasting him in confessionals, to the point where it was really obvious he couldn’t win a jury vote.

Rizo got some positive content, but we also heard from player after player talking about him being lazy at camp or being someone they thought they could beat at the end. Jonathan got the best edit of the non-Aubry players, but we also got so many cut-to shots of jury members rolling their eyes when he would talk that it seemed unlikely he could win a vote either.

So, yeah, we all knew Aubry was going to win, but it wasn’t because she got the world’s most obvious winner’s edit. It’s because everyone else was so far away from getting a winner’s edit that she was the only one left. She was the last viable player because the show told us she was the last viable player. It went out of its way to tell us other people couldn’t win with the editing choices it made.

I don’t think it’s fair to say there’s a specific winner’s edit on Survivor. The show clearly changes up how it edits its winners. That being said, I do think it’s fair to say that there are certain boxes the edits of most winners check, and sometimes the show can lose sight of the fact that only one person is checking those boxes. Too many seasons end with one player who is a possible winner and a bunch of players that don’t seem like possible winners.

So, from my vantage point, they don’t need to change how they’re editing the winner, but in certain seasons, they do need to change how they’re editing the loser. That doesn’t mean they should make obvious goats who get dragged to the end look like something other than what they are, but it does mean second placers who get a few votes and people who finish fifth and sixth should often be more represented on the show, even if it means fans will be disappointed when they lose or go home. To use Probst’s analogy, a good mystery needs other suspects, and sometimes Survivor forgets to make its other suspects viable killers.

Jeff Probst is always a hot topic of conversation amongst Survivor fans, but all the chatter around the longtime host has gotten particularly loud lately. That was to be expected while Survivor 50 was airing, but the volume on that noise has somehow increased since the finale aired. First, it was because of comments about how the game has moved past traditional villains. Now, it’s about who he’s thinking of while making the show: 6 year olds.

I know that probably sounds like a joke or an exaggeration, but when I saw the quote going viral, at least amongst Survivor fans on social media, I listened to the interview to get the context myself. It happened on The Town podcast earlier this year. The host asked Probst what he intentionally changed about the reality competition show after he took over as showrunner in Season 21. He said he wanted to make the picture look better and more cinematic, and he said he wanted to turn it into a family show that inspired little kids.

I can’t imagine you’ll find a Survivor fan that would complain about the cinematic part. The show looks way better than it did in the early seasons, and not just because technology has improved. Job well done. The family friendly part though? Not so much. A very loud contingent of fans has been screaming about how overly positive the show has become, especially during the so-called New Era, and this interview only pours gasoline on that fire.

Under original showrunner Mark Burnett’s leadership, Survivor was, at its core, a social experiment. A group of players with very different and sometimes divisive personalities were marooned in an exotic location, and while they technically played the same game they do now, interpersonal dynamics were much more central to the show’s focus, as were shenanigans.

Cast members screamed at each other regularly. They stole and sometimes burned or buried each other’s clothes. They lied about their grandmothers dying and being victims of Hurricane Katrina. They got naked, injured rival players during competitive physical challenges and said vicious things about each other during confessionals.

To be clear, there was always a lot of heroism and gameplay too. Castaways built shelters and learned how to fish. They made friends and one time, literally got engaged during a finale. They also figured how to play the game strategically, inventing alliances and blindsides, learning how to flush idols and split the votes. The good and the bad were all in balance, which is perhaps why the greatest season in the show’s history, the last before Probst officially took over, was called Heroes vs Villains.

Probst’s vision for Survivor, however, seems to involve removing most of those allegedly negative elements, and it goes far beyond his continual refrain that he’s done casting villains. Tribes can no longer take supplies from the other camp. They no longer compete in any challenges that involve touching, hitting or physically competing against each other. They can’t cuddle or take off their clothes. Players are told they’re less likely to be shown in the edit if they swear on a regular basis, and if an argument does happen on the island, according to players in recent seasons, it’s often either not shown at all or heavily minimized in the edit.

Jeff’s version of Survivor, especially in recent years, has become really inspirational and filled with positivity, but the thing is, it’s not clear if that’s actually what fans want. It’s certainly not what I want, and if you can go by most people on social media, as well as most people I’ve talked to in real life, it’s not what they want either. I’m not saying they want Real Housewives Fiji, but most fans want a mix of heroes and villains and a show that doesn’t shy away from conflict and negative feelings.

I watched the first season of Survivor with my parents when I was in middle school. I loved it, but even then, I understood I was not the target demographic. It was a show about adults, featuring adults doing adult things. Is it crazy to say that even in 2026, that’s the way it should be?

I don’t want anyone involved with Survivor thinking about little kids when they’re making casting or editing choices for the show, and I certainly do not want the host and showrunner thinking about them all the time. It’s how we’ve gone from Heroes vs Villains to a ten year New Era stretch that is considered by every single Survivor fan I know to be the worst group of seasons in the show’s history.

There is no universally recognized favorite player in Survivor history, but there is most definitely a core group of fan favorites that appear on lists over and over again. At or near the top are the show’s only two-time winners Sandra Diaz-Twine and Tony Vlachos. They’re both royalty in the Survivor community, but apparently, if they applied to go to Fiji today, host Jeff Probst wouldn’t cast them.

At least that’s the implication many are taking from comments the longtime face of Survivor made. He recently sat for an interview at a live event, and a portion of the conversation was recorded by The Ankler. In the clip, Probst mentions Tony and Sandra as good examples of villains. He says they were awesome once upon a time, but now that the game has evolved, he’s trying to bring in different sorts of people that bring more “joy.” You can check out the portion of his quote quickly spreading around the fanbase below…

Now, some fans feel like he’s implying Tony and Sandra are assholes in the above quote. I get where those fans are coming from, but I wouldn’t take it that far. I don’t think he meant to imply two of the game’s greatest players, who he has consistently praised over the years, are assholes. I do, however, think he’s saying people like them wouldn’t fit in the modern game, and that’s an obvious problem with the modern game. You can watch the full clip below, which begins abruptly and without context and judge for yourself…

In what should be a surprise to absolutely no one, many fans are not pleased with Probst’s comments. Obviously the ones who think he was calling them assholes are not happy campers, but there are also many who are just confused about why he wouldn't be desperate to find more players like them. Others are expressing more general frustration about the fact that they want more villains or that the show has become "nicest person left standing." Even some former players have come out and said they don’t really understand where Jeff is coming from with these comments.

It’s not exactly a hot take to say the Survivor fanbase hasn’t been particularly happy with the last ten seasons of the show. Those on social media have been pretty loud in saying they’re not happy with the direction, and that frustration has extended to many journalists covering the reality competition, as well as more casual fans I speak to in real life. There is a collective sense that Survivor has lost its edge and gotten way too nice.

You could point to the shortened game, the editing style that highlights players growing or learning something or the tendency to cast superfans who are happy to be there. More often than not, however, fans simplify the problem by saying there’s a lack of villains. Almost all of the narrative structure of the show is around the challenges, the strategy around the votes and the personal emotional journeys of the contestants. Once upon a time, it was a lot more about interpersonal conflict that often resulted in clashes at camp and mean-spirited confessionals.

Probst has, over the last few years, waffled a bit in his stance about villains. Sometimes he’s come out and said he flat out does not want villains on the show. Sometimes he’s come out and said he doesn’t want mean-spirited villains but does want cutthroat players like Parvati, Tony and Sandra. Now, he seems to be implying even Sandra and Tony take things too far. In the same interview, he pointed to Savannah and Genevieve as more modern players he thinks play a villainous style that he approves of.

Personally I’d much rather see villains of all sorts back on Survivor. I want the Tony and Sandra types, but I also want the Russell Hantz, Richard Hatch, Chaos Kass, Randy Bailey, Courtney Yates and Abi-Maria Gomes types too. I want people that stir the pot, but even if we don’t get that, it sounds like change is coming to Survivor sooner rather than later.

Probst announced the next season of the show will start the so-called Open Era, which will make the game more unpredictable. We’ll also be getting another returnee season, probably during 53 or 54. Fingers crossed he surprises everyone and bring back Sandra or Tony or another one of the OG villains.

Ordinarily, the conversation coming out of a Survivor finale is mostly about how the jury voted and whether they picked the right winner. We’ve gotten some of that after 50 aired its final episode this past Wednesday, but most of the conversation has actually been about the spoiler longtime host Jeff Probst accidentally blurted out. It seems every fan and former player has dropped a snarky take on what happened. I’ve read every single one I could find, and after consuming all of them, I have to talk about the one from multi-time castaway Chaos Kass McQuillen.

The always opinionated castaway, who made the jury on two fantastic seasons (Cagayan and Second Chances), has been a vocal critic of modern Survivor and the way Jeff Probst runs the show in the past. To my surprise, she dropped a tweet defending the show’s figurehead for this particular mistake, but then, because she’s Kass, she also ripped his soul out in a follow-up comment.

Her first message came in the middle of everyone dunking on Probst for his big mistake. During the finale, the show aired the pre-recorded lead-up to the fire-making challenge, then cut to Probst, who blurted out who the winner was prior to the actual fire-making competition being shown. It was confusing and awkward, and while he recovered nicely and made a few funny jokes about it later in the night, it was still not ideal.

For like a forty-eight hour period, it felt like every single person even vaguely related to the show was taking turns twisting the knife. The clowning just wouldn’t stop, and then, out of nowhere, Chaos Kass, one of Probst’s harshest critics, dropped a tweet in his defense. You can check out her quote below…

I’m not saying that’s the nicest tweet I’ve ever seen, but from Chaos Kass, you’re gonna take that if you’re Jeff Probst every single time. She’s one of the least likely contestants in the history of the show that I’d guess would defend Probst, but personally, I’m glad she did. From my perspective, Probst should take his share of the blame as the show’s producer, but he’s not the one directing the show. There are about a dozen other people who should have caught this mistake, either during the rundown or while they were live on the air.

You would have thought this would have been at least a small step to Kass mending fences with the popular reality competition, but someone responded to the tweet asking why she didn’t like Jeff. Let the record show she did not hold back. Look at this savage explanation…

Yikes. There are too many allegations to dive into all of them, but I think it’s worth talking about that last one because it’s become a common theme among some fans. Probst is, in my opinion, one of the greatest reality show hosts of all-time. He really sets the emotional stage during challenges, asks really thoughtful follow-up questions at tribal council and always appears in control. Most fans really approve of him as the actual host of the show.

During the early years of Survivor, he was simply the host, but as time went by, he accrued more and more power behind the scenes. Eventually, he became the loudest and most powerful voice as the lead producer, and the game has really evolved to fit his taste. That taste has led to the show no longer casting villains. It has led to way more confessionals about what players have learned and the emotions they’re feeling. It’s led to mostly casting superfans obsessed with the show and a dramatic increase in twists and advantages.

We’ll see if that changes though. After the recent finale, Probst and company announced the show would be moving away from the so-called New Era and into the next phrase called The Open Era. We’re allegedly going to see a lot of things we haven’t seen in a long time, with much greater variance in structure, theme and direction between the seasons. Who knows? Maybe even Chaos Kass will approve. We’ll see.

After more than a half decade of waiting, Survivor finally gave fans another live finale, and as you may have seen by now, it did not go as planned. Jeff Probst accidentally revealed the results of the fire-making challenge before it aired, and the resulting cringeness will be referenced, memed and laughed about for as long as the show is on the air.

Last night, we got a chance to hear from the host himself, who recovered and poked fun at the incident several times throughout the rest of the episode, but now Rizo Velovic, the castaway who awkwardly shared the stage with him when it happened, has entered the chat with his perspective.

The fourth place finisher, who was the spoiler in question who lost to Jonathan, told People that, like everyone else, he was very confused when it happened but is happy that they were able to play it off and make a joke about it later in the night. Here’s a portion of his quote…

The roots of what happened last night can be traced all the way back to a decision Jeff Probst and the producers made about the live finale. Fans voted before the season to bring the reunion back for 50 (which hasn’t happened since Season 39 Island Of The Idols), but those involved in the show decided to do things a little differently. Instead of airing the episode and then speaking to the contestants during the finale about what happened, they decided to break up the finale with interspersed live segments.

In practicality, that meant they would show a sequence of prerecorded events and then cut back to the live finale to talk about what happened. So, when Tiffany was voted out, as an example, we came back to a segment that included Tiffany talking about her experience. Then we went back to the final four.

That format worked out fine enough for the early portion of the evening, but it all went south ahead of the firemaking challenge. The show gave us the entire lead-up to Jonathan and Rizo being put into fire, but before they actually aired the competition, they cut back to the live finale where Jeff introduced Rizo and offered his condolences about losing fire. Rizo and some of the nearby contestants awkwardly told him that the footage hadn’t aired yet, and a confused Probst sent the feed to commercial to figure out what happened.

As Rizo said, the host recovered nicely and owned up to what happened. He made a few funny jokes at his own expense and then aired the actual firemaking challenge, which he hilariously introduced by telling people they could tune in and watch Rizo lose. It was a nice moment of comic relief, but it didn’t stop the mess from going mega-viral.

According to Velovic, the original plan was to show the lead-up to the fire segment, then show the actual fire segment and then bring him on stage. Unfortunately, they only showed the first part and jumped the gun by bringing him on stage.

Fans are going to roast what happened, but ultimately, I think the mix-up will be joked about and remembered in a fond way for as long as Survivor is on the air. Weird things happen on live television, and as SNL shows every year, sometimes the best moments are unplanned bits of chaos. That being said, I probably wouldn’t hold my breath on getting another live reunion next year. They’re expensive, and as we saw, very difficult to control.

Regardless, Survivor 51 recently finished filming, and Probst announced last night that the show is going to transition into the Open Era. Expect everything to be less formulaic than it was during the New Era and to incorporate twists and random ideas that have been on seasons in the past. Also, expect to see another returnee season sooner rather than later. Ratings were up this season, and while fans were mixed on some of the twists, they were clearly happy to see so many legends back.

Spoilers ahead for Survivor 50's finale.

CBS' Survivor changed the world of TV forever, and it remains wildly popular to this day. Arguably one of the best reality shows of all time, fans were recently treated with its whopping 50th Season on CBS (and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription). Last night's finale had plenty of memorable moments, but arguably the biggest was when host/showrunner Jeff Probst accidentally revealed that Rizo lost the Fire Making challenge to Jonathan... before that segment had actually aired. Twitter exploded, and both fans and players offered some A+ responses.

Even the cast of Survivor 50 was gagged when Jeff spilled the beans about Rizo's elimination, with Cirie being the one to break the news to Probst. While usually fans at the finale are concerned about who is taking home the Survivor prize money, this time the biggest question was WTF happened with that giant spoiler. Fans sounded off on twitter, including Survivor 49 finalist Sophi Balerdi, who posted:

She's not wrong. These type of TV blunders have a way of going viral, and Survivor has once again made history as a result of Probst's mistake. And the fact that he did it it in front of a live audience of fans who called him out made things even more awkward. We'll just have to see if this ends up making In The Hands of the Fans one of the best Survivor seasons.

The Big Brother community also clocked this blunder, with Jimmy Heagerty tweeting out:

That GIF of Cynthia Erivo has been made into countless memes since arriving online, and this is another one of the greats. It pretty accurately describes what it was like watching the Survivor 50 finale and seeing Jeff reveal Rizo's elimination before we even got to see it on our screens.

Gordon Holmes, who is known for doing Survivor press including exit interviews, also tweeted out an A+ response, referencing one of the most iconic blunders of the show's tenure on the air. It reads:

Of course, fans know this is a reference to Erik giving away his Immunity Necklace during Micronesia, and then promptly being voted off by the Black Widow Brigade. It's one of Cirie's most famous manipulations, so it's good timing to invoke Erik during the finale of Survivor 50.

Jeff's mistake is being compared to lots of live TV moments, and another one that's being invoked on Twitter is Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. As a fan tweet put it:

Another funny meme invoked the infamous note from Jersey Shore, with a conspiracy theory someone tried to sabotage Jeff during the live reunion. Check it out below:

While the above tweet might mostly be a joke, there are conspiracy theories circulating around online about Jeff's snafu at the finale. One claims Probst did this on purpose so he could point to it as a reason why Survivor should never do live reunions again. After all, they've been missing since before the pandemic. Check it out:

The live reunion was something fans vote on for Season 50. We wanted to see the cast reflect on their experience after watching the show, rather than the reunion happening in Fiji directly after the winner was revealed. Although in the end we didn't really get sparks and drama, and instead live segments were peppered in throughout the episode and a very short ending discussion with the three finalists (and Coach).

Survivor 50 is now streaming in its entirety over on Paramount+ as part of the 2026 TV schedule. The 51st season will premiere in the fall, featuring a cast of new players. We'll just have to wait and see what the "Open Era" has in store for us.

Richard Hatch has a strange Survivor legacy. The show’s first ever winner has been at times, celebrated and at other times, blacklisted by the show and its producers who never seem quite sure what to do with him or how to talk about him. Now we can add yet another weird chapter to the weird relationship.

Earlier today, Hatch took to social media to claim he was not invited to Survivor 50's live finale coming up later this week. Reports had been running around that every former winner had been asked to appear, but he tweeted directly at Gayle King who mentioned the invites on CBS Mornings and said no one had reached out to him. Here’s one of several tweets he sent out commenting on it…

Not surprisingly, that tweet and a few similar ones ran around the Survivor community very quickly, as fans debated why host Jeff Probst and the producers decided to exclude him. Within a few hours, his allegation also got picked up by a bunch of mainstream sources, which caught the attention of CBS. It turns out the network has a completely different story.

CBS refuted Hatch’s claim to Page Six and said he was invited, along with every other former winner. Here’s the super blunt rebuttal…

To be honest, I have no idea what’s going on here. It’s hard to imagine CBS would invite every former winner but him and then lie about it later, but then again, it’s also hard to imagine Hatch would get invited, say no and then claim the exact opposite on social media. The simplest explanation is the network reached out and didn’t get a hold of him, but nothing about Hatch’s relationship with Survivor has ever been simpler.

More than fifty million people watched Hatch, the scheming, openly gay, frequently naked leader of the show’s first alliance, win a million dollars. The producers had been hoping Rudy Bosch, a 72-year-old former Navy Seal would win. Probst and company worried Hatch’s manipulative behavior and cutthroat gameplay would stop fans from watching another season, but the opposite ended up being true.

Hatch’s alliance building and gamification of the outdoor challenge became a lightning rod for fans watching the show to argue about. Future players emulated his style, and he became a well-regarded legend of the game until it all got really complicated.

He returned for All-Stars in Season 8 but was involved in an uncomfortable moment where, while naked, he brushed against another contestant during a challenge. She felt he acted inappropriately and quit the show. He was quickly voted out and has not been back since, not even for Winners at War, though he has appeared on other shows. He also went to jail for allegedly not paying the taxes on his winnings and has not always had the kindest things to say about the show or where it has gone in the past.

But you can’t talk about Survivor without talking about Richard Hatch. The popularity of the show and the strategic gameplay behind it both trace their roots back to him. He’s a central part of where the show started and how it evolved. Sometimes those involved with the show are very content to talk about him, and sometimes it feels like they’re trying to avoid the topic entirely and let his legacy become a little more out of focus.

I can’t speak for all fans, but personally, I’d like to see Hatch at the Survivor 50 finale. To me, if we’re going to be honoring all the former winners, he should be a part of that. Whether he was invited or not, I hope he gets on the same page with CBS and mends the fence enough to attend. I won’t hold my breath on that Last Gasp challenge though.

If you’ve been watching the landmark Survivor 50 on the 2026 TV schedule, you’ve heard Billie Eilish’s name on the show more than you probably expected thanks to The Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol being part of the show. And for the first time, the pop star has finally commented on the whole thing. Let’s talk about it.

Billie Eilish Comments On Her Idol On Survivor 50

Billie Eilish has been promoting her 3D movie with James Cameron in recent weeks, but The Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol only just came up when she guested on The Good Hang With Amy Poehler. Check out what she said about her infamous idol during the chat:

BREAKING: BILLIE EILISH MENTIONS HER IDOL ON SURVIVOR from r/survivor

During a “lightning round” moment toward the end of the interview, Amy Poehler asked the Grammy magnet what she thinks about Survivor, which earned a slight “yes” before she called out her immunity idol with a little chuckle. She then went into giving the SNL alum an explanation, using air quotes when saying she wrote a letter to the contestants, complete with a little eye roll and shrug when discussing it all.

Reddit has a lot of thoughts about how she talked about it:

• “'It’s like I ‘wrote a letter’ to the contestants” she’s borderline mocking it and barely knows what it is lmfao” @goldteamdowntown
• "Oh she does not give a shit at all. The eye roll killed me 😭" @reasonable_fun3170
• "she seems like she totally does not give a rat’s ass about it 😭 she does not mention the word 'Boomerang' or '50' once" - @bahscohs
• "She has such contempt for it hahah. I wrote a 'letter' to the 'contestants'" - @kakahuhu
• "She dgaf im dead 😭" @21tcook

Now, of course these are perceptions of Billie Eilish based on a one-minute video, so we can definitely take their comments with a grain of salt. But, it’s definitely worth talking about the way in which the celebrity cameo element of Survivor 50 has gone this season, and how much the celebrities with their names on different aspects of the game really tie back to them that much or at all.

Why Her Eye-roll Reaction Totally Makes Sense To Me

Back in March, Jeff Probst revealed how The Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol was created to People. Here’s what he said:

So when Billie Eilish uses quotes to say she “wrote a letter” she means that she didn’t actually write it from the heart. She was likely asked to be involved in Survivor 50 because she previously wrote a song that references the series and Probst took notice.

While she had some say in which affect her idol would have on the game, ultimately it doesn’t seem like Eilish had very much to do with it. Therefore it seems like it's as much this funny thing to her as it is to fans.

Other than the Barbie singer, Zac Brown was on the lowest rated episode of Survivor when his appearance overshadowed the whole episode. Then, Jimmy Fallon was also named in Survivor for his twist called “One In The Urn” a couple of episodes ago and there was a MrBeast Super Secret Beware Advantage during last week’s tribal that ended up changing the stakes for the contestants in a very big way.

With three episodes left, we’re certainly curious how other random celebrities will shake things up on Survivor 50 including The Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol.

Uh oh. After the craziness of the Mr. Beast beware advantage, I was thinking Survivor might give us a more relaxed 90 minutes this time around, but the upcoming episode description is worrying, to put it nicely. In fact, it’s causing some Survivor fans and journalists like this one to brace themselves for a possible worst case scenario.

Before I get into the specifics, you should decide whether you want to go down this road. There’s a possible spoiler in the episode description, and earlier this season when we had a possible spoiler, it wound up being very accurate. This one is a little more vague, but there’s still an obvious takeaway that may or may not be true. Read on at your own risk.

Anyway, the next episode is entitled “Everyone Will Be Shooketh.” To hype up what’s ahead, the show put out the official three sentence description to tease everyone, and the last sentence is a potential bombshell. You can read the whole thing below…

Clearly, the big concern here is a medical evacuation. We unexpectedly lost Kyle, who had put himself in a great position, early in the game, and it would be emotionally devastating to lose another person. That would be the clearest example of a “shocking incident,” and it would also help explain why we still have nine people left in a spot where it feels like we should have eight.

Given the producers historically have had no issue teasing big moments in less than subtle ways in these descriptions, there’s a real chance this could be nudge nudging us that we're about to see a medical evacuation too. Whoever writes these has not earned the right to be trusted.

In fact, earlier this season, one of these descriptions told us in advance that Rick Devens was going to go for the fake idol at Tribal Council. It obviously didn’t say that directly, but the description said a player makes a “theatrical risk” at Tribal to cast doubt on a vote. Anyone who watches the show knows exactly what that’s referring to.

Thankfully, this “shocking incident” that’s being teased for next week is a little more vague. It sounds like a medical evacuation, but it could mean a big argument or a taunt that goes wrong or a twist the players don’t see coming. Some snarky fans on social are even joking the shocking moment could mean Cirie winning the immunity challenge, Sick burn.

With only three episodes left in the season, it seems like most fans are relatively positive on Survivor 50. There’s been a lot of backlash around a few of the twists, as well as the over-the-top celebrity involvement, but most of the cast members have really delivered with personality content. There have also been some fun twists that did work, as well as a few wild moments at tribal that will be remembered for a long time.

Collectively, it hasn’t been enough to displace Heroes vs Villains as the consensus all-time great returning season, but it’s been good enough that I think most fans would put it in the top half. Hopefully that means we’ll get a few more seasons with returning favorites over the next few years, as host Jeff Probst has teased.

You can catch new episodes of Survivor on Wednesday nights on CBS or you can stream on Paramount Plus.

If you care about Survivor, I’m sure you have a lot of thoughts about Jimmy Fallon’s so-called One In The Urn twist. The whole community is currently screaming at each other about it on social media, as the reaction has been very mixed, but it turns out we didn’t actually get a full explanation of what the twist even was. There was a lot more to that note Christian got on the barge that we didn’t get any narrational content addressing. Let’s talk about it.

Obviously we’re going to get into very direct spoilers. So, if you haven’t watched episode 9 of Survivor 50 (“I Deserve All Of This”), then continue reading at your own risk.

Let’s walk through the basic sequence of what happened. After the immunity challenge, Christian and several other players volunteered to go on a journey. Christian won a series of rock, paper, scissors matches to beat the other castaways and took a boat to a barge. Once there, he was told if he completed a puzzle before the time ran out, he’d get a big advantage, and if he didn’t complete it in time, he’d get a big disadvantage.

Watching the episode for the first time, my understanding of the advantage was that if Christian won, he would get to put a vote in the urn for any player, essentially casting a secret extra vote against someone. If he lost, he would have to read a note at camp, which turned out to be a scarlet letter saying he had to vote for himself at the next tribal council. All of that is accurate, but it’s actually not the whole story.

Survivor gave us a brief camera shot during the episode that revealed most of the note, and there was more to the advantage if Christian won. After dropping a vote into the urn for whoever he wanted on the barge, he would then be given a secret choice of whether to vote at that night’s tribal council. If he elected not to vote, he would bank the extra vote to use at a future tribal council of his choosing. Check out a picture of the note below…

Now, obviously, none of this had any effect on what happened. Christian didn’t complete the puzzle in time and lost his voice. He had to read his note of shame back at camp, and since his name was already out there, everyone decided it was the perfect time to get rid of him. It’s likely that even if he didn’t have to vote for himself, he would have gone home because the players would have just rearranged their votes to give him an extra one since they split between him and Rick Devens.

From an analyzing whether it was a good twist or not standpoint, however, this extra wrinkle is very important. One of the biggest complaints from fans on social media was that the positive and negative outcomes seemed very imbalanced. One vote in the urn that you can’t even consult with your allies on isn’t that powerful, but having to tell everyone you are voting for yourself is a massive disadvantage. The choice to bank an extra vote that no one knows about to use at a later tribal council makes the positives a little more positive and at least shrinks the difference somewhat. It doesn’t balance the sides, but it comes a little closer.

Even Knowing The Nuances Now, I Still Have One Big Issue

My biggest issue with the twist is the whole having to tell everyone about it part. I want to see Survivor players have some room to maneuver. Would he have told people he was hit with a disadvantage to lower his threat level or would he have pretended that he won an advantage to try and keep people from voting for him out of fear? Would he have told his closest allies? Would Emily have spilled his secrets at camp? I would have loved to see Christian’s mind work. Instead, he just had to walk to his fate.

Fans have been mostly enjoying Survivor 50, but almost everyone would agree there has been an overreliance on twists. The show gave fans the ability to vote for whether they wanted advantages and twists prior to the season, but the vague wording essentially allowed the show to do whatever it wanted. Host Jeff Probst and the producers have jumped into the deep end and dropped something wild on a near weekly basis. Some have worked. Some have not.

You can catch new episodes of Survivor 50. The show is already teasing a huge beware advantage next week that involves Mr. Beast; so, expect for the entire fanbase to once again be arguing about whether a big surprise worked or not. Maybe it will. Maybe it won't. Either way, I'd rather be talking about all the returning players and watching them actually play Survivor. We know these people can and will create great television, whether they're being filmed or not. The show should trust them to do that.

Survivor fans have mostly been loving the cast of old favorites the show brought back for its milestone fiftieth anniversary, but that doesn’t mean they’ve loved every production decision. The community has been up and arms over how the show has handled celebrity involvement, and many are still mad over the so-called Blood Moon Twist earlier in the season, which eliminated three players during a surprise triple tribal council. It turns out the actual players themselves weren't too happy about that big twist either.

Four time player Coach Wade, who is among the remaining thirteen players in Survivor 50, participated in a combination watch party and concert last week. He took some questions from fans during the Q&A portion and someone asked about the Blood Moon Twist. In what shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has watched him play Survivor, the Dragonslayer did not hold back and breathed fire. He called the twist “horseshit” and said the players all knew it. Here’s a portion of his answer, which was recorded by the aptly named social account Coach Wade Updates…

The wanted it so badly to work is a reference to the number of players producers decided to include in Survivor 50. Rather than the traditional 18, the show brought back 24 fan favorites from prior seasons. Most have proven to be really fun choices, but unfortunately, the sheer number of them created a production problem. How do you eliminate 24 players in a 26 day window? Most fans thought it would mean starting with three tribes and sending two of them to tribal council during all the early episodes, but it didn’t play out that way.

Instead, producers mostly just eliminated one contestant during the early episodes and started ramping up the pace later. That culminated in the so-called Blood Moon Twist, in which the players were told they were merged into one tribe but then almost immediately were re-sorted randomly into three groups of five people. Each group then had to vote someone out, which felt extremely unfair considering the random drawings resulted in a few players being separated from most or all of their allies and having basically no chance to save themselves.

The Blood Moon Twist has become a hot topic of conversation in the Survivor community because it’s a fitting example of a philosophical divide between what the hardcore fans want and seemingly what host Jeff Probst and the producers want. The hardcore fans, at least those who post online and go on podcasts, want some twists and advantages, but in general, they want to reduce the randomness and let the players create the drama themselves. The producers, however, seem to think twists, journeys, advantages and idols are what makes the show interesting, and they want to insert them into the game to reduce stability.

I don’t mind the occasional twist, but it’s definitely been too much for me this season. We’ve gotten multiple players losing their votes, two players gaining advantages, three special Billie Eilish Boomerang Idols, a tribe swap and a Blood Moon Twist. Instead of being able to say this person went home because they put their foot in their mouth or made this mistake, it’s a lot of this person was in a great position but they went home because they fell victim to this twist.

Genevieve, who went home during the Blood Moon Twist and was my preseason winner pick, as an example, was in a majority alliance on her original beach that seemed like they were in a good position to run the game. Then she found two different hidden immunity idols, but producers forced her to give away both because of a rule change implemented specifically for this season. Her closest ally was medically evacuated and then she got swapped into a group featuring her primary adversary and two other people her adversary was working with, who obviously voted her out immediately.

Regardless, I’m trying to stay positive on Survivor 50. Yes, some infuriating things have happened, but there’s also been a ton of great character moments. It has been a joy to watch this cast of legends like Cirie, Ozzy, Colby, Stephenie and Coach Wade interact with more popular recent players like Christian, Rizo, Emily, Dee, Genevieve, Q and Rick Devens. The show has already announced it’s going to do more returning player seasons in the future. Hopefully, they’re listening to the fans this season and next time, we let the players play a little bit more and include one or two less random twists.

It’s been a chaotic, up and down start to Survivor 50. Fan response to the returning players and the actual gameplay has been incredibly positive. Ratings have been the strongest we’ve seen in years. There are so many reasons to celebrate, and yet, amidst all that excitement, there’s also been enormous fan backlash about the edit. Now, a rumor is swirling that the noise has gotten so loud that the show is recutting future episodes to make sure they don’t alienate fans.

Let’s do a quick preshow recap here to make sure we’re all on the same page. During the fourth episode (“Knife To The Heart”), the show decided to bring in Zac Brown as a reward for the players. Fans have been calling for better rewards for years, and in general, the idea of him being on the island was well-received. Unfortunately, the episode lingered and lingered and lingered and lingered on the reward to almost a comical extent. We got a segment of Brown spearfishing by himself. We got long excerpts from multiple songs. The whole thing just went on forever, to the point where it felt like the actual Survivor contestants were being overshadowed by Brown.

Angry fans, who already weren’t happy about the show naming an advantage the Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol and then bringing it up constantly, took to social media to vent their frustration. They also took to IMDB to throw up their middle fingers and quickly made the episode the lowest rated in the history of Survivor. The message was clear: we’re watching Survivor to watch the players, not celebrities.

Unfortunately for Survivor, we know they’ve already filmed more celebrity content for the season, as it was featured prominently in the trailer. Mr. Beast has been advertised to make a major appearance on a future episode, and we know Jimmy Fallon is somehow involved at some point too. Throw those in with a couple dozen more references to Billie Eilish, and the chance for future backlash is very high, which is perhaps why there’s now a rumor going around that the show is frantically making some changes to the edit.

Obviously no one involved with the show has spoken on the record, but The Sun has an article claiming the show stands by its decision to bring in celebrities but is working to trim the segments in future episodes so they’re not quite as long. The article claims Mr. Beast is the one most effected, as whatever he did will be reduced so it strikes a better balance and doesn’t put the actual castaways so far in the background.

I have no idea if Survivor is altering future episodes or not, but this is a case where I think it’s worth listening to the backlash and taking it seriously. Survivor 50 has an epic cast and is probably the last time we’re going to see a bunch of legendary contestants including Cirie, Coach and Colby. The fanbase is tuning in because they want to see how they navigate the game and whether they can add more fun moments to their legacies. They’re not tuning in to watch Zac Brown go spearfishing or to be reminded for the fiftieth time that Billie Eilish consented to letting her name be used on the season. It’s just not why anyone is watching.

The foregrounding of celebrities is also made worse by the fact that several players have been basically ignored by the edit so far this season. How little we’ve gotten from Tiffany, Chrissy and others has become a major source of conversation, and even current and former players are speaking out about how frustrating it is not to hear from some of the players. If Jeff Probst and company are really making tweaks to the edit, they might also want to consider making sure we hear from more of the contestants, especially the women who have been collectively underedited to an extreme degree.

The good news here is the fans are still in on Survivor 50. They’re frustrated, but that’s mostly because the ingredients are here for this to be an all-time great season. The editing just needs to be tightened up, and we all need to pray we don’t lose some great castaways this week when the show drops a huge twist.

You can catch new episodes of Survivor on CBS on Wednesday evenings or you can stream via Paramount+.

This week’s Survivor 50 episode is heavily teasing a merge, which is quite a surprise given there are still seventeen people from the epic cast left in the game. That’s one less than most modern seasons start with and feels like way too many players to bring together. Clearly some kind of shenanigans are about to go down.

Is it a fake out? Is it some kind of One World thing? Is it a real merge with a ridiculous number of players? I don’t know. I suspect we won’t know for sure until the episode airs. Many former players and hardcore Survivor fans including myself, however, are coalescing around the same theory, and if it’s accurate, I’m already mad about it.

Instead of fully merging the tribes, I suspect Jeff Probst is going to bring everyone together onto one beach and then re-split them all into three different groups. Since Kyle was unfortunately removed from the game because of injury, we have seventeen instead of eighteen, which doesn’t divide by three. So, I think we’ll ship two people off to Exile Island and the remaining fifteen will be sorted into three tribes. I think each one of those tribes will compete in an immunity challenge amongst themselves, with the winner being personally safe. Then every new group will go to Tribal Council and vote someone off.

Having three tribal councils next week would explain why the episode is two hours long, and it would solve a numbers problem. There are simply too many people remaining for the number of days left in Fiji to chop one at a time. We need at least a few more double boots. A surprise triple boot would ease the elimination crunch even more and give the players a little bit of space. Afterwards, it would also leave the game with fourteen players remaining, which would be a far more reasonable number to actually merge with. In fact, it’s possible everyone from that point forward would even make the jury.

So, yeah, from a production schedule standpoint, this would make a lot of sense, but from a fairness in the game standpoint, this would suck. There’s an incredible amount of randomness that comes with drawing buffs to get sorted into five person tribes. Good players are going to get swap screwed, and there’s a non-zero chance that a beloved player is going to go home because they randomly got sorted onto a tribe that includes three or four players with close preexisting relationships.

If Cirie goes home at some point in the game because she got out-maneuvered, I’m totally fine with that, but if she goes home because she draws a buff and randomly ends up with Coach, Jonathan, Colby and Joe, I’m going to be so mad. Likewise, if Coach goes home because he ends up on a tribe with a locked in Rizo, Dee and Cirie, I’m going to be so mad too. There’s just too much randomness involved here.

There are some Survivor fans who believe the players who are going to get swap screwed are the players who have been under-edited like Tiffany and Chrissy. Perhaps the show didn’t give them many confessionals or moments of personal content because they didn’t want fans to revolt because they got screwed here. Then again, there are other fans who feel it’s the opposite. They think we might lose someone like Christian here, which would explain why the show gave him so much content. I have no idea.

You can catch new episodes of Survivor 50 on CBS on Wednesday evenings, or you can stream them on Paramount+.

The first three episodes of Survivor 50 were almost universally praised. Superfans, casual fans and lapsed fans hit up social media and Reddit in droves to shout about how stoked they were. Of course they raved about seeing Cirie, Coach, Colby and all the old favorites back, but on the whole, they were also really positive on most of the New Era returnees too. The vibes were the best they’ve been in years.

Unfortunately, that all came crashing down this week when Survivor dropped the lowest rated episode in the history of the show. As of press time, it’s now sitting at a 4/10 on IMDB, and considering it’s still dropping as more people are scoring it, there’s a strong chance it’ll end up somewhere in the 3s. I wish I could say I’m surprised, but given all the night-of negativity on social media and how fans take out their frustrations in 2026, this doesn’t exactly feel like a blindside.

Most of the fan complaints centered around country singer Zac Brown. The Survivor superfan went to Fiji to spearfish and play some songs as part of a reward. Most of the contestants were clearly stoked to see him, but the show lingered and lingered and lingered on the reward. It gave Brown a whopping four confessionals and an extended sequence of him spearfishing. We also heard him play multiple songs and discuss his own journey as a fan of Survivor. It was way too much.

The negative feedback has been so loud that there’s no way host Jeff Probst and the producers aren’t aware of what’s going on. They’re certainly hearing the boos, but to be clear, the takeaway here should not be that bringing Zac Brown to the island was a bad idea. Having him spearfish and sing for the contestants was a fun reward that the players clearly cared about. Dee cried about losing. Coach said it was the best fish he’s ever had, and he’s eaten fresh fish all over the world. The idea here was good.

The problem is in how it was edited. We’re not watching Survivor to spend time with Zac Brown. We’re watching Survivor to see how the castaways react to spending time with Zac Brown. The reward challenge moments we spent with Colby, Joe and others talking about their experiences were great. It helped us see their characters in new lights. It was fun to spend time with them while they experienced something meaningful.

What was not great were the moments we got with Zac Brown that had nothing to do with the players currently playing the game. I don’t need to see him spearfishing, and I don’t need to hear him talking about his relationship with Survivor because he’s not on Survivor. He’s not one of the characters I’m watching the show for. He’s a cool reward. That is his function. For the purposes of this game, he has more in common with fried chicken and macaroni n cheese or hiking up the Great Wall Of China than he does with Genevieve, Q or Mike White. He’s not a player so I don’t care about his feelings on anything.

Heading into this season, fans were very concerned about the potential celebrity impact on Survivor 50. The trailer devoted way too much time to Jimmy Fallon, Mr. Beast and others, and fans were very concerned about how their presence might impact the game. The Billie Eilish Boomerang idol was a particularly loud topic of conversation, but Probst made the rounds before the season and assured fans the celebrities weren’t going to have a big impact on the game.

This episode is a good reminder that they both have and haven’t. So far, we haven’t had any instances of celebrities having an effect on the outcome or the strategy. The Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol, as an example, is merely a fun twist on an idol that could have been called anything. The Zac Brown reward is merely a reward that functions the same way as the Liz Wilcox Applebees burger. The celebrities are not taking over the game, but they are affecting how the editors are putting together the show, which is a problem.

I’m going to do my best Emily Flippen and just be blunt about this: the way Survivor is editing these celebrities is embarrassing to watch as a fan of the show. It is not SO COOL that Billie Eilish consented to her name being used for a new style of Idol. It’s actually embarrassing that the show has mentioned her more than a dozen times when she has nothing to do with the season. It is not SO COOL that Zac Brown came to Fiji to be a part of Survivor. It’s actually embarrassing that he was given more confessionals during an episode than Cirie and has more confessional than Tiffany through four episodes.

Survivor is far from the only show or event with this celebrity problem. Professional wrestling has a long history of shoehorning celebrities into big moments. Small market sports teams tend to cut to their celebrity fans over and over again during broadcasts. I’ve watched more TV shows than I can count that have given awkward cameos to celebrities after finding out they’re a fan. This isn’t just a Survivor problem, but with more celebrity cameos to come, the show need to take this feedback and adjust.

At some point in the future, we’re getting Jimmy Fallon. Sooner or later, Mr. Beast is going to actually appear on the island. We know this from the trailer. There may be more instances we’re not in the loop on. I’m certainly not advising the editors not show or reference these moments that already happened, but given how negative fans were about this episode, I’m imploring them to remember that fans are watching the show to see the actual contestants.

There is not a single celebrity on Earth I would rather see while I’m watching Survivor than Coach. There is no world leader I’m more interested in seeing on Survivor than Cirie Fields. Show the celebrities, sure, but don't give us their perspective, always keep it from the viewpoint of the players.

Was this last episode of Survivor the worst in the show’s history? No. Absolutely not. We got a really interesting (and I think stupid) blindside. There was a really fun challenge. We got some enjoyable confessionals from legends of the game. A lot of what we got was good. It was head and shoulders better than clip shows and both episodes featuring the hourglass twists and at least a hundred others.

What we did get, however, was disappointing and not nearly as good as it should have been. It took the focus off the players, and as the editors finish up on the rest of the episodes, they should remember taking the focus off the players is never the right call.

Survivor is a groundbreaking TV show, and arguably one of the best reality shows on TV. Fans of the series are currently three episodes into Season 50, airing on CBS and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription. It's been a wild ride already, with the most recent episode featuring host Jeff Probst... rapping? And two-time player Rob Cesternino spoke to CinemaBlend about that unexpected musical number.

It remains to be seen if Season 50 ends up being one of the best Survivor seasons, but the first three episodes were a delight. Every week Rob Cesternino, founder of the Rob Has a Podcast Network, is speaking to CinemaBlend about the latest episode, and I couldn't help but ask him about Jeff's rap. His response was:

If that was the goal, Jeff definitely succeeded. His rap about a tribe swap quickly went viral, even if some fans felt awkward throughout that already iconic sequence. Ratings for Survivor 50 have been high, but if it wasn't Probst spitting bars might have been able to turn the tide. Although now I want to see the raw footage without the music added underneath it; for some reason I doubt the cast of Survivor 50 was able to snap their fingers on beat the whole time.

While fans wonder how much money Survivor contestants make, I'm currently caught up on how/why Jeff Probst's wrap ended up happening. I mean, did he write it himself? Later in our same conversation, Cesternino shared his hypothesis about that surprise musical number's origins. As he put it:

If that was the goal, Jeff definitely succeeded. The Survivor Twittersphere has been going off about the rap, and I assume that so have the various podcasts that cover the reality competition series. It was a truly memorable moment, although the gameplay and personalities involved in Season 50 also seem to have viewers invested. You can see my chat with Rob below:

Before and after his time as part of The Traitors Season 4 cast, Rob Cesternino is arguably the most successful Survivor commentator. Luckily we here at CinemaBlend will be able to pick his brain about every single episode of Season 50. We'll just have to wait and see if there are any more surprise songs coming our way.

New episodes of Survivor 50 air Wednesdays on CBS as part of the 2026 TV schedule. As for Cesternino, RHAP puts out a number of episodes every single week examining what went down in Fiji, so be sure to tune in if you want more Survivor content.

We got another banger Survivor 50 episode last night, and there is so much to talk about. We’ve got wacky team-ups, really fun flashbacks, one of the season’s best characters going home way too early, and oh yeah, host Jeff Probst rapping. Not surprisingly, the Jeff Probst rapping part seems to be the thing fans are shouting loudest about, and now we have the backstory on why it happened.

It turns out it was an impulsive decision he made just hours before the shoot. During an interview with EW, he told the outlet he thought of it that morning and wrote it himself. He then ran it by the producers and other people working on the show, who all gave him the thumbs up. He then recorded it in one take and didn’t shoot a back-up because that’s not Survivor’s style. Here’s a portion of his quote…

Probst said when he delivered the dress rehearsal to some of the crew, he was thinking there was a chance they’d tell him he should just do a normal entrance. To his relief, they all gave him positive feedback and told him to do it on the show. Armed with that confidence, he jumped into the deep end and was able to remember all his lines, even if he wasn’t getting well-organized snapping from the castaways.

The whole idea for Probst was that if he was asking the Survivor 50 players to give us everything and bring their A-game, he also wanted to make sure he was going as hard as possible for this milestone returnee season. As an audience, we’ve definitely been able to feel that energy throughout the season too. It’s particularly noticeable during his mat chat speech during the first episode where he implores players to play hard and really push. It’s also felt like there’s been a little extra something during his challenge commentaries and during the tribal council conversations.

Now, keeping it 100, for me personally, did I need Jeff to show how hard he’s going this season by rapping? No. I’m not really looking for wacky character moments out of him. We’ve got a legendary cast with the likes of Coach (who was even getting wild during pregame), Q, Angelina and a half dozen others for that this season. We've got so many good characters this time around there's not even time to show them all. I would rather he be more of a facilitator of content rather than a creator of content.

That seemed to be a recurring theme amongst fans on social who largely rolled their eyes at his shenanigans or to put it another way, they responded the same way as Kamilla.

There were a lot of I didn’t vote for this style jokes, given the season’s theme from the fanbase. There were also others, notably Phil from Survivor Specialists, who felt the rap was symbolic of the New Era leaning too hard into cheesy family-friendly programming. Still, others found it to be a goofy, light-hearted moment that lasted all of fifteen seconds.

I imagine this will be something fans will reference now and again in both positive and negative ways when talking about the best and worst of the long-term Survivor host. He’s proven time and time again that he’s always willing to adapt and try things. Sometimes that’s a huge win for the franchise and sometimes not so much. You can decide for yourself where this one falls by rewatching his rap below...

Regardless, Survivor 50 has been fantastic so far. The OG characters are blending perfectly with the best of the New Era, and we're getting so many fun moments seeing all our favorites play with each other. I can't wait to see how the rest of the season plays out. You can check out new episodes on CBS on Wednesday evenings or stream it through Paramount+.

There’s been a lot of talk about underwear this week in the Survivor community, thanks in part to fan favorite Christian Hubicki having an accident, which the show played up with an entire segment that included multiple confessionals. Former players have been split on whether the show should have included what happened in the edit. I can see both sides, but to be honest, I’ve been a lot more interested in a secret underwear scheme some former players revealed as part of their analysis.

Former winner and legend of the game Tyson Apostol is the co-host of a weekly podcast on the Ringer network that’s dedicated to Survivor called The Pod Has Spoken. This week, he had on 49 finalist Sophi Balerdi, who is looking very likely for a future returnee season, and the two of them had a frank conversation about the Christian mess. During it, they talked about how underwear works on Survivor. Apparently, contestants bring two pairs of the exact same underwear and partway through the season, production quietly gives them the fresh pair after making a few alterations.

Here’s a portion of the quote from Tyson…

Tyson would definitely know. He’s played Survivor four times and is one of just a small group of players who have competed for more than one hundred days. Sophi confirmed the scheme too. She said on 49 they gave her new underwear and a new bra halfway through the game that fit a lot better. That’s apparently the process the show has quietly been using for years. Fans just haven’t been in the loop about it and haven’t been able to tell.

Tyson said for Winners At War, they actually asked him to bring a second swimsuit too. He bought two new pairs to bring to Fiji, but unfortunately, he still has hard feelings over what the producers did to his second pair.

Even though this is new information, none of it should really be surprising for Survivor fans who have watched how the game has evolved. For better or for worse, Survivor has turned into a much softer and more organized machine since it debuted twenty-five years ago. There’s less villains, less screaming matches, less nudity, less untamed adventure, less personal conflict, less hardship and in recent seasons, even less time. Host Jeff Probst is even a lot nicer and a lot less willing to call contestants out.

Fresh underwear or not, however, when Survivor is good, it’s still really good. The first two episodes of Survivor 50, which boasts the best cast in years, have been everything fans have wanted, and I can’t wait to see how the rest of the game plays out.

It’s only been one episode, and it’s already obvious there are a lot of hurt feelings and unresolved issues coming out of Fiji. The Survivor 50 cast is, of course, on really strict NDAs that bar them from talking about spoilers or things we haven’t seen, but once something airs, all bets are off. We got a good reminder of that this week when Jenna Lewis-Dougherty took a big shot at Rick Devens in one of her exit interviews, and he fired back in an aggressive way on social media.

Let’s back up real quick and create a little context for these quotes before we get into the specifics. Jenna, of course, was the first cast member voted out of Survivor 50. We saw a clip of her throwing out Cirie’s name. Word got back to Cirie, and the rest of the tribe decided to band together and unanimously vote her out during the first Tribal Council. The edit presented it as a pretty straightforward case of Jenna playing too hard too fast, but not so fast according to her.

The castaway who appeared on the first season of Survivor and also made a deep run in All-Stars spoke to Entertainment Weekly after she was voted off, and she was quite vociferous in saying she wasn’t playing harder than other people. She claimed Christian was actually the first person who threw Cirie’s name out and she merely got blamed for it. Check out a portion of her quote and the ricochet show Rick Devens gets…

Not surprisingly, Rick Devens was not a happy camper about being called a “little beyotch.” He also apparently did not agree with Jenna’s assessment that she was playing the same amount of hard as everyone else. He took a screenshot of Jenna calling him out, posted it on social media and gave his own impression of what happened. He said everyone was playing hard but more in forming relationships and trying to bond with other castaways. He said what Jenna was doing was very different…

Devens also further clarified in a follow-up tweet that he’s sure everyone agreed with Jenna when she threw out Cirie’s name during individual conversations and probably said Cirie themselves right back to her. His implication is clearly that they all talked about Cirie, but she was viewed as the most aggressive and the ringleader when she brought it up, which made everyone perceive her as playing too hard.

Ultimately, the line between playing hard and playing too hard is very subjective. How people perceive comments is often directly related to the other aspects of your relationship. We all know we have friends we can say certain things to and other friends who we need to be much more careful with our words around. So, what might look like healthy strategizing coming from one person might look like trying to boss everyone around and dictate the game to another.

CinemaBlend’s Laura Hurley talked to Jeff Probst prior to Survivor 50’s premiere at SCAD TVFest, and he referred to Jenna’s strategy as “hitting the ground running.” I think that’s a great way to put it because it’s something that can be interpreted in different ways. There’s another world in which the other players saw Jenna’s approach as a bold chance to make a move against arguably the most dangerous player in the game making what's likely her last appearance. But because we live in the world where they saw that same approach as overly aggressive, we’re getting a war of words in the media between two players.

I highly doubt this’ll be the last war of words between an eliminated player and someone left in the game. There are a lot of big personalities in as part of this epic Survivor 50 cast, and I can’t wait to hear their unedited thoughts after they’re allowed to speak frankly.

You can check out new episodes of Survivor on Wednesday evenings on CBS or via Paramount Plus. You can follow along all season, as we'll go too hard on our coverage that'll include analysis, predictions and weekly interviews with Survivor legend Rob Cesternino.

Ahead of Survivor 50, a lot of newer fans have gone back and watched the earlier seasons they missed, particularly those with castaways about to make their returns. Many have shared random thoughts, and a recurring theme of those observations has been how much host Jeff Probst has changed. He’s gotten a lot nicer over the years. The natural assumption would be that he’s softened as he’s gotten older, but according to him, it has a lot more to do with the expectations for his job.

When Probst was first hired to work on Survivor, he was specifically a host. It wasn’t his vision, and he took notes from producers on what they wanted out of him. Early on, that was to hold contestants accountable and be aggressive when the moment called for it. That apparently wasn’t something he liked doing, but he felt he had to because it was what creator Mark Burnett, who originally ran the show, wanted. Here’s a portion of the quote he gave to Interview Magazine…

Survivor was, of course, a smash hit immediately. The finale of the first season was watched by 51 million people, and it’s typically credited with the explosive popularity of the reality television genre as a whole. Burnett went on to create and/ or produce a ton of other hit shows including The Apprentice, The Voice, Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? and Shark Tank.

As his empire has expanded, he gave Probst more and more control over Survivor until he eventually named him showrunner. That allowed the longtime host to move the show into a direction he was more comfortable with. That involved being less confrontation, but it also involved repositioning the show less as a social experiment filled with conflict and more as a hero’s journey.

That concept of a hero’s journey is the primary driving force of Survivor now. It’s why the show doesn’t really cast villains anymore, and it’s why so much time is spent on the backstory of castaways and the adversity they’ve overcome. In fact, when Mike White told Probst that it was only a hero’s journey for whoever wins, the host pushed back hard in a way that further illustrates his thinking…

Fans, of course, have mixed feelings about the more positive direction Survivor has taken. The so-called New Era has been the source of constant arguments amongst fans, some of whom appreciate the changes and some of whom think it’s lacking the tension and aggressiveness that made the show so popular in the first place. They miss the Mark Burnett version, but with Jeff Probst now having all the creative control, we’re going to keep getting the show he wants to make.

Survivor 50 premieres tonight, and it’ll be fascinating to see where this show fits on that spectrum. It’s being produced in the New Era with Jeff’s more positive oversight, but it also contains a fantastic cast filled with many characters who played the game back when it was rougher and less optimistic. The end result will probably be a balance between the two. We’ll see.

We all know former Survivor players campaigned hard to get on 50. There were some very hurt feelings that came out very publicly when the final cuts were made, but even given that context, I was a bit rattled when I read this story. Apparently, after host Jeff Probst announced Survivor 50 was going to feature all returnee players, one OG legend tracked down the number of Jesse Tannenbaum, the new casting director, and asked to be considered for the new season. Hilariously, casting hadn’t even begun yet and not a single other player had been contacted.

Even more hilariously, that player was apparently Colby Donaldson. The beloved Texan was much maligned by the Survivor fanbase for appearing somewhat disinterested during his last two appearances. Arguably his most famous moment from Heroes vs Villains involved him sitting on a bed and watching Treasure Island while his co-stars wrestled each other for an Immunity Idol. None of that gives off I’m-going-to-aggressively-pursue-a-spot energy, but that’s actually the point.

No one is more disappointed about his last two appearances than Colby. He admitted in an interview with People that his head wasn't in the right place to play the game during All-Stars or Heroes vs Villains. He was still in Hollywood trying to make a career (shoutout Top Shot), and he was more interested in going on the show for exposure than for the right reasons. Now, more than fifteen years later, he’s back in Texas on a ranch, welding and raising cattle. He’s closer to where he was when he won America’s heart during an epic second place finish during Australian Outback.

That’s why, when he heard about Survivor 50, he knew it was his chance for redemption. He looked up info on casting and reached out immediately. Here’s how he told the story…

Part of the reason why Colby is so likeable is that he genuinely thinks he was a longshot to be cast on Survivor 50. The show definitely would have called him had he not reached out. He’s easily a top 10 most memorable cast member in the game’s history, and while his last two appearances weren’t as epic as his first, he still gave good confessionals and was amusing to watch. It’s hard to imagine more than a handful of cast members the show would take over him.

I can’t wait to see him in Fiji, doing his thing. It’s going to be a joy to see him out there. I just wish he was going to be joined by his longtime running buddy Jerri Manthey. She appeared on all three seasons with Colby, often in the capacity of a frenemy. Fans were furious when she didn’t make the final cast, despite also campaigning for it. Fingers crossed we get to see her again at some point down the road.

Survivor 50 hits the TV schedule on Wednesday February 25th with a special three hour event. Given the rumored structure of the season, we may see as many as four people from the epic cast go home that first night. Fingers crossed one of those isn’t Colby so we can all enjoy his company for a little while longer.

Survivor is arguably one of the best reality shows of all time, and the Emmy-winning series has been the blue print for countless projects that followed. Fans are gearing up for the forthcoming premiere of Season 50 on CBS (and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription), especially since they got to vote on the formatting. That includes bringing back the live reunion special, although host/producer Jeff Probst indicated it might not stick around. And a number of former contestants are speaking out against that decision.

The cast for Survivor 50 is stacked, and viewers are hyped to get a returning player season after years of New Era newbies. In addition to how much money Survivor players make, fans have been wondering if the changes made to Season 50 will be carried through. But according to Jeff, we shouldn't hold our breath about more live reunions in the future. Let's break it all down.

What Jeff Said About Future Reunions

Survivor 50 is titled In The Hands of the Fans, who were able to vote about various game details while watching Season 49. The community voted on tribe colors and if the cast should be given rice to eat, and also voted to bring back the live reunions in Los Angeles, which have been missing since the pandemic. While appearing at SCAD TVFest (Via Parade), Jeff Probst got real about the likelihood of more live reunions in future seasons, saying:

Talk about a bummer. As a hardcore fan of Survivor myself, this is not the news I wanted to hear. I much prefer the drama of the live reunions, for a few reasons. To start, it's filmed after the cast saw how they were portrayed on screen, which adds drama... especially if their cast mates talked poorly about them in confessionals. They also had months to think about where they went wrong gameplay-wise. Additionally it allows for the full cast to appear; when the recaps are filmed after Final Tribal it's only the finalists and jury members.

How Survivor Players Have Responded

Fans have strong feelings about Probst's comments, and the consensus seems to be that they'd prefer a live reunion in LA. The discourse played out in a post from the Drop Your Buffs podcast's Instagram, where a number of former players weighed in with their disapproval over Jeff's stance. Some comments include:

• “Collective sigh” -Everyone who was on the show - Corinne Kaplan
• No - Teeny Chirichillo
• After show sucks actually even more when u don't even have the full cast - Lydia Meredith
• What? - Lauren Beck

It seems like a bunch of Survivor players agree with fan sentiment, and would also prefer the show go back to live reunion specials. This is a big chance to be on TV for the contestants, and have at least one more chance to defend their gameplay and/or address beefs with their fellow competitors. So the idea of it going away after Season 50 simply because of the cost is truly a bummer.

Most of the best Survivor seasons featured live reunions, and they often got juicy. Villains get booed by the audience, feuds played out, and the audience even got to be introduced to the players' families. And all of that has been sorely missing when filming the "reunion" immediately after Final Tribal. No amount of champagne and pizza is going to change that.

Regarding the budget comments, some fans pointed out that newer seasons of Survivor now air 90-minute episodes, opening up a new block of advertising money. Couldn't that help to offset the costs? We'll just have to wait and see.

Survivor 50 will premiere on February 25th as part of the 2026 TV schedule.

I’ve come to terms with the Survivor 50 cast not being everything I wanted and am legitimately fired up for the milestone season, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still hit by the occasional ping of sadness over a legend that’s not there. I got hit with one of those pings again this morning while I was watching a pregame interview with Coach, who is returning, and he confirmed a fantastic Russell Hantz story about Heroes vs Villains.

Many Survivor fans, including this one, would tell you the greatest season of all time is Heroes vs Villains. There are a lot of reasons for that, but one of the things that makes it so great is all the returnees slowly realizing the destructive power of Russell Hantz. The all-time villain was the only player in the game who everyone else hadn’t watched play since his season had just finished filming, and it took a long time for players to truly understand what they were dealing with.

Players have said before that Hantz lied to them about what happened during his season, and during a chat with Mike Bloom from Parade that was shot days prior to 50 filming, Coach confirmed the “great lie.”. He said Russell played up his alleged loyalty and said he played the game honorably but went out with dishonor after he tried to hit someone who voted him out. Here’s a portion of Coach’s quote…

This conversation, of course, came in the context of talking about Savannah and Rizo. The 49 winner and fan favorite loser at fire are in the exact same position as Russell. They’re the only two who no one else has seen play, and it is a recurring theme in many of the pregame interviews that people consider them the biggest threats because of the uncertainty.

It’ll be interesting to see whether Savannah and Rizo come clean about their own games and what happened in Fiji, or if they’ll try to be deceptive as Russell was. Jeff Probst and the producers almost certainly won’t interfere; so, it’ll be up to the two players as to whether they want to lie or not. I suspect they’ll be truthful, as Rizo doesn’t have much to hide, and Savannah has been open about saying she needs to play a better social game on 50 if she wants to make another deep run.

Russell would certainly lie again if he had the chance, but unfortunately, Survivor doesn’t cast ‘em like Russell anymore. The show has largely moved away from such clear cut villains, and for many fans, that’s to the clear detriment of the show. Personally, I would have loved to see the schemer back, alongside other legendary villains like Abi-Maria and Jerri (who were both last minute cuts), but maybe in their absence, we’ll see one of the legends on 50 get more villainous than expected.

Survivor became a sensation upon its release back in 2000, and remains one of the best reality shows on the air. New seasons regularly air on CBS (and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription), and fans are gearing up for the upcoming 50th season. Emmy-winning host Jeff Probst recently was asked if the show could keep going if he left, and he and fan favorite Cirie Field have very different opinions.

The cast of Survivor 50 is stacked, and feature OG returning players as well as New Era contestants. During an interview with People about the highly anticipated season, Probst was asked if the show could continue if he finally retires from his role as host and producer. He responded with:

While he admits that Survivor would change without him, he doesn't see why the social experiment/competition series couldn't keep going after his departure. After all, there are international iterations of the show that are successful that he's not part of. But not everyone agrees with Probst's assessment.

Cirie Fields is a fan favorite player, and has competed on some of the best Survivor seasons of all time. She'll one again be back for Season 50, and when asked if she thinks the show could continue without Jeff, she responded with:

You can't deny that he Jeff knows what he's talking about, and continues to be passionate about Survivor more than two decades later. As such, Cirie doesn't think that the US Version could make it without him. We'll just have to see if/when he actually decides to leave the show. Fingers crossed it's not anytime soon.

Survivor 45 winner Dee Valladares echoed Cirie's thoughts on the matter, offering:

Aside from how much Survivor players make, the biggest mystery is how long the series will continue running on CBS. Right now it's unclear, and it doesn't seem like Jeff Probst is planning on leaving anytime soon. But if it does, he thinks the show could have legs without him.

Survivor 50 will premiere on February 25th as part of the 2026 TV schedule. There's lots of players I'm rooting for, but I'm also hoping Jeff doesn't go anywhere anytime soon.

It's a thrilling time for Survivor fans, because the next season coming up on CBS (and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription) will finally bring back returning players. The long-running competitions series is arguably one of the best reality shows on the air, and some of the best Survivor seasons have featured repeat contestants. Survivor 50 will feature celebrity cameos from the likes of MrBeast and Jimmy Fallon, with host/producer Jeff Probst recently telling CinemaBlend the origin of this twist.

The cast of Survivor 50 is stacked, and in addition to the beloved contestants who will compete in Fiji, we'll also see a number of celebrities factor into the action. CinemaBlend caught up with Probst at SCAD TV Fest, where the Emmy-winner shared how the concept of bringing in celebrity cameos was came about. In his words:

Points were made. While we've seen some celebs like Mike White and Nate Moore play Survivor, names like Jimmy Fallon would have a hard time taking the time away from their jobs to try and compete in the epic game and the money that comes with playing Survivor. Additionally, someone that famous likely would end up being targeted early. I mean, who does't know who Jimmy Fallon is?

The upcoming 50th season is titled In The Hands of the Fans, and throughout 49 viewers were able to vote on various details related to the game. But no one expected to see folks like MrBeast in the sneak peek for the forthcoming season. Later in his same conversation with CinemaBlend, Jeff further explained how those cameos came to life, offering:

And that's exactly what happened. There will be a number of celebrity tie-ins so Survivor 50, including the aforementioned names and Zac Brown and even recording artist Billie Eilish. It's already been teased that the latter will introduce the "Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol" although the details about how this new twist will actually works remains to be seen.

Check out the first trailer for tne new season below!

Answers will start coming when Survivor 50 premiers on February 25th as part of the 2026 TV schedule. I'm just hoping that my favorite returning players don't end up having their games ruined by these mysterious celebrity-related twists.

Survivor has evolved a lot over the years. The casts, the challenges and even what the show chooses to focus on are very different from the early seasons. Fan opinions are positive or at least mixed on many of those changes, but there are some things that have disappeared from the show that everyone wants back. Fortunately, it seems like one of the most requested staples of the early years is on the table again.

Just a few years after Survivor unexpectedly brought back the auction, host Jeff Probst revealed he’s open to doing in-person visits from loved ones again. The show dropped the family visit to Fiji for the New Era, as producers “didn’t see a spot” for where it fit in the new structure, but having already done nine seasons under the new format, producers are now open to working the classics back in. Here’s a portion of Probst’s quote that he gave to The Hollywood Reporter…

Survivor typically makes some type of communication from home the basis of a reward challenge later in the season. Sometimes that is in the form of letters or phone calls. Other times it is via an actual in-person visit from a family member who is allowed to spend a small period of time on the island. Historically, fans have especially loved seeing the big emotions that come from in-person interactions, but in the New Era, the loved ones reward has always come in the form of letters from home.

The biggest pushback about the New Era (other than 39 days vs 26 days) has been about how formulaic fans feel the show has gotten. In a sense, that’s actually the larger theme of this conversation. It would, of course, be nice to get loved ones visits back, but more than that, it would be nice to get something that breaks what we’ve seen lately.

Yes, there are some different advantages and challenges each season in the New Era, but many of the story beats and the larger structure have been very similar over the last nine seasons. We’ve gotten three tribes of six people every single time. We’ve gotten a final three at Tribal Council every single time. Almost every season has contained one disaster tribe that lost almost all the early challenges. Every season has taken place in Fiji without a unique theme tightly woven in. It’s a lot of the same.

A few weeks from now, Survivor 50 is going to hit the TV schedule. The much-anticipated first returnee season since Winners At War will definitely break the traditional format, as there are more cast members and fans voted on many of the in-game wrinkles. There's also plenty of wild personalities that are such to make the season feel unique.

What happens after that, however, is anyone’s guess. It seems like Probst and the other producers are open to making some changes, but we’ll just have to wait and see what we get with 51, which, for the first time in awhile, could contain loved ones visits.

Survivor is one of the best reality TV shows of all time, and is a groundbreaking series that has influenced countless competition series that followed. Survivor 50 will premiere in late February on CBS and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription, and will feature a group of returning players. Host Jeff Probst recently revealed one contestant who was "somebody one who got away", and I'm honestly so bummed they didn't get to play on the forthcoming season.

The cast of Survivor 50 is pretty stacked, including both legacy players and some standouts from the New Era. While fans wonder how much money Survivor contestants make, I'm more interested in the contestant who were asked to return. In a conversation with THR, Probst named one such fan-favorite, saying:

Well, my FOMO is through the roof. Amanda Kimmel is in many of the best Survivor seasons, including Micronesia and Heroes vs. Villains. The latter was her third time playing, and she's been noticeably missing from the franchise since it aired back in 2010. Plenty of fans, including myself, were hoping that the 50th season would bring her back into the fold, and it turns out that it very nearly happened. Talk about a bummer.

Amanda Kimmel is one of the most successful non-winners in Survivor history. She made it to Final Tribal in both China and Micronesia, and also made it pretty deep into Heroes vs Villains. Overall she spent a whopping 108 days before getting her torch snuffed out for the first time on Day 30 of the show's beloved 20th Season.

Because she was on such iconic seasons, Kimmel remains a fan-favorite player for Survivor fans. She proved herself as a strong physical competitor with a keen strategic mind. Who can forget her manipulating the cast of Micronesia that she was going home, only to whip out an Immunity Idol that not even the audience knew she had?

It sounds like Amanda was originally down to play Survivor 50, but logistics about leaving her family held her back from her long-awaited return to the series. While this is a serious bummer, I'm hoping it's a sign that we could get her competing in Fiji for another returning player season. Fingers crossed.

Survivor 50 will premiere on February 25th on CBS as part of the 2026 TV schedule. Let's just hope that Amanda Kimmel returns to our TVs sometime in the future.

Survivor is one of the best reality shows of all time, one that has inspired countless shows in the decades since its 2000 premiere. While we're looking forward to Survivor 50's impending premiere on CBS (and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription), fans and even Jeff Probst are still processing what went down in Season 49. What's more, the host and producer recently shared his "favorite moment" from the most recent installment of the competition series. And it's certainly a memorable scene.

While some fans want to know how much money Survivor contestants make, others are curious about Jeff Probt's perspective of the long-running series. While Seasons 49 isn't one of the best Survivor seasons, there were some moments that made an impact. While speaking with Parade, Probst shared one scene that's stuck with him, offering:

Honestly, this tracks. For most of the game Kristina was a ball of sunshine, even affectionally calling Probst "Uncle Jeff." So when she showed up one day in the dumps after a blind side, it was a noticeable change. The contestant eventually opened up about grieving her mother, in one of the seasons' most emotional moments. And after seeing it IRL, it's a scene that's stuck with Jeff.

While I personally think Survivor has a villain problem, there was no shortage of emotional moments throughout Season 49. Kristina's breakdown about her mother is just one example, and Jeff went on to explain why he loves that sequence so much. In his words:

On top of being a reality competition show, Survivor is also a social experiment. And when the contestants have luxuries, distractions, food and loved ones taken away from them, surprising things can come up emotionally. For Kristina, being blindsided at from a depleted place resulted in her emotional breakdown, and an honest discussion about grieving her late mother. Did it win her a million dollars? No, but she bared her soul in a moment that was refreshingly honest for a reality TV show.

It should be fascinating to see how many of these moments happen when Survivor returns. The Survivor 50 cast list is stacked, featuring icons from classic seasons and some of the best New Era players from recent memory. Will they still be able to be emotionally vulnerable, or will the pressure of a returning players season harden the castaways? Only time will tell.

Survivor 50 will premiere on February 25th as part of the 2026 TV schedule. While we wait, Season 49 and the entire back catalogue of American Survivor is available to stream over on Paramount+.

Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Beast Games Season 2 episode "The Survivor Takeover." Stream the episode with a Prime Video subscription, and read at your own risk!

Beast Games Season 2 is through Episode 4 and, as someone who loved Season 1, I've had a gripe. During the first three installments, the show has been light on the social elements that made Season 1 so addictive. Thankfully, though, that all changed with the Survivor crossover.

I guess when you're giving away an island, it only makes sense to invite Jeff Probst to get in on the fun. At least we now know why Mr. Beast is in the 50th season of the CBS reality series. However, before I get too sidetracked, let's talk about this exciting episode and the big twist that has me hyped.

Jeff Probst Helped Mr. Beast Give Away His Latest Island

Probst escorted Mr. Beast and the rest of the remaining competitors to an island for a chance to compete in Survivor challenges for their own private island. The challenges were similar to the ones competitors perform on the CBS show and, after a couple rounds, it was down to just two for the chance to win it all. Ultimately, a Tribal Council voted on the winner, which was where the game got interesting.

JC Predictably Lost, But Was Given A Gift That Could Change Everything

Given this came down to JC and Ian for the final vote, I'm not sure anyone was surprised by who was going to win. The former's big decision to keep $650,000 for himself was one of the jaw-dropping moments of Season 1, but it made it relatively obvious that no one was going to gift him an island during his return in Beast Games Season 2.

I don't think Mr. Beast or anyone involved in the show expected JC to be in the mix for the Final 2 for the island, but I'm glad he was. This led to him being gifted the Beast Coin, which has a huge impact on the game.

Should JC survive to the finale of Beast Games, he'll have a chance to flip the Beast Coin and double the grand prize money to $10 million. If he's eliminated, the coin goes with him. So, if the remaining contestants want a chance to double their winnings, they need to keep him in the game.

What really excites me about this development is that is sets up some great stakes going forward. Contestants must wrestle with trusting someone who has a track record of betrayal, all for a chance to win a lot more money. Of course, there's the possibility that JC ends up getting cut just out of sheer happenstance in a future episode, but I'm hoping the odds of that happening in these remaining episodes are slim.

We're still only in January, but this is the best twist I've seen on a reality TV show so far during the 2026 TV schedule. In fact, it's so good that I wouldn't be surprised if I still feel this way even by the end of the year.

Catch new episodes of Beast Games on Prime Video on Wednesdays. For Survivor fans who still have to wait until February 25th for its long-anticipated 50th season, this latest BG episode may scratch that itch in the meantime.

Survivor is one of the longest running and best reality shows, responsible for influencing countless projects that followed. While the show's full catalogue is streaming for those with a Paramount+ subscription, fans are looking forward to Season 50, which will feature returning players. The show will also feature some wild celebrity cameos, with host/showrunner Jeff Probst recently explaining why folks like MrBeast will be showing up in Fiji.

The cast of Survivor 50 features OGs and New Era players, and fans are eager to see how they interact when the show premieres in exactly 50 days. And while folks are curious about how much money Survivor contestants make, they're also wondering why/how these celebrity cameos will factor into the new season. While speaking with Variety, Probst explained the thought process behind this twist, saying:

There you have it. It sounds like these surprise celebrity cameos are meant to bring out something new in its contestants... even folks like Cirie Fields and Ozzy Lusth who have already played four times. We'll just have to wait and see exactly how folks like MrBeast influence the gameplay when the show returns in February. For what it's worth, longtime fans didn't seem pleased about this announcement.

While it remains to be seen if Season 50 becomes one of the best Survivor seasons, its celebrity cameos have definitely got people talking. It remains to be seen if fans will appreciate famous people popping up during the season, but Probst and company are hoping that it influences the actual gameplay. As he went on:

Personally, I think that these cameos might have a bigger influence on New Era players, who are returning for the first time in Season 50. These castaways are already going into the game after seeing themselves on TV the first time, and adding in folks like MrBeast and Zac Brown might also have the potential to shift their perspective. But that's just my personal prediction; maybe Cirie is a huge Jimmy Fallon fan and I didn't know.

The pressure is on for Survivor 50 to deliver, especially after the bad wrap that Season 49 got last year. Fans didn't love the gameplay last season, including the way Rizo was able to hold onto his Immunity Idol for so much of the game. Both he and winner Savannah are in the cast, and will be competing with legends from the game. Will the OGs or New Era players come out on top? Only time will tell.

Survivor 50 will premiere on February 25th as part of the 2026 TV schedule. We'll just have to wait and see how long it takes for celebrity cameos to start popping up, and if/how it influences the game as a whole.

We all know Survivor is staged for TV, which means there are optimal staff on hand to make sure moments between contestants are caught on camera. Heck, we know even Jeff helps the cast stage certain moments so nothing is given away. However, it’s one thing to know a camera crew is on hand to film challenges and confessionals, not to mention everyday camp life, with the cast. It’s quite another to see the process in action.

Before a Survivor contestant can become an official $1 million winner, he or she must survive 26 days on the island (don’t get me started on the loss of 39 days), outwitting, outlasting and outplaying their peers. What we don’t typically see are the giant number of crew involved with making the CBS reality series happen. Sure, you might occasionally catch a glimpse of a camera person in a shot when someone is injured or something chaotic is going down, but this BTS video from All Winners Survivor about what filming the show is like while Jeff Probst is "letting the players play."

Some of these shots seem obvious, but others I'd honestly just taken for granted without thinking about how the show gets them before. I’m sure I’ve seen shots from a drone's vantage point many times without realizing it. Also, during water challenges, it makes sense they have some people filming in the water. But the sheer number of people on hand in some of these shots is still blowing my mind.

An AMA a while back from someone who worked on Survivor did mention that even when no challenges are occurring, multiple camera crews will be recording at once. That individual said that filming in the jungle is not for the faint of heart and shots can easily get ruined, so usually there are multiple crews on hand just to make sure as much is recorded in a way that can be used later as possible.

Interestingly, sometimes camera people will ruin shots, but that’s why we often see the challenges and camp shots from only one main angle – to keep up the pretense that there really aren’t that many people outside of the contestants around.

I’m not alone in thinking this number of crew is “incredible.” The same Survivor crew member also mentioned that anytime he notes how many crew are on location, they “find it incredible how many individuals it takes to make the show come together.” In the comments section of this new post, I’m finding the same thing is true of other Survivor fans.

• Why was I imagining like 5 dudes?
• I heard the chef for the crew say there’s 500 people on the film crew. Insane.
• It’s kinda amazing how many people it takes to make it look like there’s no people.
• That’s a huge production... wowsa

Ultimately, a few Survivor contestants did comment on the post and noted that once you are in the challenges, you’re hardly paying attention to the other people around, but as someone who has never been to the island, it’s still shocking to think about the sheer number of people who are there with Jeff and co. we never ever see. I’m generally impressed with some of Survivor’s edits every season, but now I know all the added challenges that are going into it, I’ll be sure to give the team even more props as Survivor Season 50 heads to the 2026 TV schedule.

Survivor is arguably one of the best reality shows of all time, thanks to its groundbreaking nature and the way it's inspired countless shows that followed. Fans of the long-running series were recently treated to the Season 49 finale on CBS (and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription) meaning that the highly anticipated Survivor 50 is next. That highly anticipated installment will finally feature returning players for the first time in the New Era, and fans are eager to see what goes down. But who exactly is competing?

Back in May Survivor announced the partial cast list for Season 50, with the caveat being that two contestants from Season 49 would also be included in the fun. With that season now in the rear view, the group is finally complete. Despite fans complaining about Season 50's trailer, there's still lots to be excited about. Let's break it all down.

Cirie Fields (Panama, Micronesia, Heroes vs. Villains, Game Changers & Australia v The World)

Cirie Fields is one of the most beloved contestants of all time, and has been part of some of the best Survivor seasons. While she's already played five times (including Australia v The World with Parvati Shallow), fans are still thrilled about the idea of her back on the island in Fiji and competing to be Sole Survivor.

While Cirie won The Traitors (which is streaming with a Peacock subscription) and made it deep into Big Brother, she's famously one of the best Survivor players to never win. Between being eliminated without earning one vote and getting edged out of Micronesia when it had a Final 2 instead of 3, she's overdue to finally get that W.

Dee Valladares (Survivor 45)

Dee is one of a few actual winners who were brought back for Survivor 50. Dee rightfully won Season 45, and was a strategic mastermind throughout her time on the island. While not every New Era victor has earned the respect of he fans (I'm looking at you, Gabler), Valladares is not one of them. Will this result in her getting voted out early when competing against returning players? Only time will tell, but I hope not.

Coach Wade (Tocantins, Heroes vs. Villains, & South Pacific)

Coach a pretty infamous character in Survivor lore, which is why he's already had the chance to play three times. He was known for his wild personality, as well as dubbing himself the Dragon Slayer during his first season Tocantins. I didn't expect him to return for a fourth time in Season 50, but I can only imagine what kind of TV he'll bring to the table, in addition to his actual gameplay.

Joe Hunter (Survivor 48)

Joe competed on Survivor just two seasons ago, and instantly became a memorable character. This is largely thanks to his strong sense of morality, and the way Joe advocated for Eva when she had an episode related to her autism after being overwhelmed by a challenge. Their friendship, even across tribe lines, was moving and the pair ended up sticking together all the way to Final Tribal. But this strategy unfortunately didn't pay off, and he ended up third place. Will he be seen as a threat or a goat by returning players? We'll just have to wait and see.

Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick (Palau, Guatemala, & Heroes vs. Villains)

Stephenie at one point was one of he most popular Survivor players out there. During her first season Palau, fans watched as the ill-fated Ulong tribe lost challenge after challenge, until she was left alone and was absorbed by the other team. After being part of one of the worst tribes ever, she and Bobby John Drinkard returned for Guatemala. The last time we saw her was in Heroes Vs. Villains, where she was an early boot and got in hot water with Jeff for plugging her restaurant at the live reunion. After doing a season of The Traitors she's been brought back to Survivor for the highly anticipated fifth season.

Savannah Louie (Season 49)

Savannah is one of the two Season 49 cast members who will be going straight back into the game for Survivor 50. I think she was a great choice to return from that cast, as from the jump she had a keen strategic mind, delightful soundbites, and was the closest thing we got to a villain in that season. Doing back to back seasons is hardcore, but we'll have to see if the other contestants vote her out because of it.

Colby Donaldson (The Australian Outback, All-Stars, & Heroes vs. Villains)

Colby is one of the Survivor OGs and helped create a number of the show's archetypes when debuting on the second season The Australian Outback. He came one of the first challenge beast, and instantly became a sex symbol. He's returned twice already, but Season 50 marks his first appearance in over a decade. Colby was the last hero surviving in Heroes vs. Villains, taking 5th place.

Jonathan Young (Season 42)

Speaking of challenge beasts, Jonathan Young from Season 42 is one of the most impressive physical players we've had in the New Era. He brought a hulking presence from day one, and (literally) carried his tribe through victories in the early parts of the game. I can't wait to see how he does as a returning player, and if he's able to connect with players who have the same skill set.

Jenna Lewis-Dougherty (Borneo & All-Stars)

This one is going to please longtime fans. Jenna Lewis was a fan favorite in the very first season of Survivor, eventually returning for All-Stars. Aside from fans wondering how much money Survivor contestants make, they've also been curious about if/when Jenna would ever come back. Luckily she'll be hitting the beaches of Fiji in Survivor 50.

Kamilla Karthigesu (Season 48)

Kamilla played just two seasons ago on Season 48, and made it to the finale episode. Her lowkey alliance with Kyle helped to steer the entire game, and he ultimately won the title of Sol Survivor. They're both returning for Season 50, and it should be interesting to see if that helps or hinders their performances.

Ozzy Lusth (Cook Islands, Micronesia, South Pacific, & Game Changers)

Like Cirie, Ozzy is one of the most iconic Survivor players of all time. He's already played four times, and is hoping the fifth time's the charm. While he's always been a physical competitor, he has sometimes struggled with the strategic aspect of the game. We'll see if he changes his stripes for Season 50.

Charlie Davis (Season 46)

Season 46 has some good gameplay, with Charlie Davis becoming a fan favorite contestant throughout its run on TV. But in the end his ally Maria betrayed him, and didn't vote for him to win a Final Tribal. Will Charlie play differently the second time around?

Aubry Bracco (Kaôh Rōng, Game Changers, &Edge of Extinction)

Aubry debuted in the Survivor's 32nd season, and has already come back twice before Survivor 50. She's a great example of a super fan who excelled on the island, and there are going to be some big expectations set for her for her fourth time competing.

Emily Flippen (Survivor 45)

Emily is one of the most popular New Era players in recent memory. After financial analyst Emily Flippen started Day One by making enemies, the audience watched as she course corrected, grew, and ultimately thrived in the game. I'm eager to see what she's going to do on her second time playing, and who might align themselves with her.

Mike White (David vs. Goliath)

This one is going to be a real wild card. Mike White is an accomplished actor/director/writer, who was able to compete in David vs. Goliath without the cast understanding just how famous he is. But that was before his Emmy-winning work on The White Lotus, which has featured Survivor cameos from his competitors. Will get get deep into Survivor 50? Will his fellow castaways be vying for a spot on TV? TBD, but he's a fun wild card to watch.

Q Burdette (Survivor 46)

Q was a huge character when he showed up on Season 46, and is another very memorable addition to the New Era. He brought a ton of bravado to the show, in addition to his invention of the Q skirt. But he was also blindsided, which will likely influence the way he approaches the game as a returning player.

Chrissy Hofbeck (Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers)

Chrissy is a pretty great choice to return for Survivor 50. She appeared in the show's 35th season, where she was put on the Heroes tribe. On top of being a personable and strategic, she was also a challenge beast who won a whopping four Individual Immunity Challenges.

Tiffany Nicole Ervin (Season 46)

Season 46 of Survivor had a number of really strong player, and Tiffany was definitely towards the top of that list. She also made some great TV, including when Bhanu Gopa was literally on his knees begging for her to spare him. And I know she's going to be coming back with a vengeance for her second game.

Rick Devens (Edge of Extinction)

Rick Devens was a very charming player when he debuted in the 38th season Edge of Extinction. He also became a favorite of Jeff Probst himself, hosting the official Survivor podcast On Fire. But now he's going back to being a player, and competing against some of the greats.

Rizo Velovic (Season 49)

From the very beginning of Season 49, Rizo established himself as a contestant to watch. He had lots of swagger, but also was playing hard from day one. He seemed like an obvious choice to bring back for Survivor 50, and we'll have to see how he fares against a stronger group of competitors.

Genevieve Mushaluk (Season 47)

While Survivor has a villain problem, Genevieve was a player who unabashedly was putting strategy over feelings on Season 47. She was one of my favorite players in that season, so it should be interesting to see how she competes her second time around.

Angelina Keeley (David vs. Goliath)

There are three different players from David Vs. Goliath on this season, which should add an interesting dynamic to Survivor 50. Angelina had some really iconic moments her first time around, including famously asking Natalie for her jacket after she got voted out. We'll have to see how far she gets the second time around, and if she works with Mike White.

Christian Hubicki (David vs. Goliath)

Christian is the third David Vs Goliath castaway who is returning for the 50th season. He became a memorable character thanks to his neurotic personality and memorable soundbites, as well as using Hidden Immunity Idols and even winning Immunity. He went out in seventh place, and I have to assume he's hoping to make it deeper into the game the second time around.

Kyle Fraser (Season 48)

Kyle had a stellar game in Season 48, and he was eventually rewarded the title of Sole Survivor. He's one of three winners on the cast for Survivor 50, and he'll also be competing with his primary alliance member Kamilla. This has the potential to make him a big target, so we'll have to see what goes down.

The cast of Survivor 50 is a mixed group, and should presumably make for some great TV. The 50th season is set to premiere February 25th as part of the 2026 TV schedule. Fans will just have to try and be patient while we wait for the blindsides to begin.

There was always going to pushback to the Survivor 50 cast. Too many fans were advocating for too many former players to possibly please everyone. Deep down, I think everyone sorta knew that; so, after we all got out our complaints about who was picked and who wasn’t, the general consensus turned back to excitement. That excitement has been steadily building and turning into fun speculation the last few months on social media too, but unfortunately, the trailer for Survivor 50 just dropped and fans are back on exile island. I’m right there with them too.

Once again, the collective frustration is about who is on the island, though this time, it has nothing to do with the castaways themselves. The Survivor 50 trailer features an alarming number of references to celebrities and even in-person appearances by multiple celebrities. Mr. Beast and Zac Brown are shown in the trailer, seemingly in Fiji, and there are references to Jimmy Fallon deciding someone’s fate and a Billie Eilish boomerang idol.

These are, of course, far from the first celebrity appearances on Survivor. Actor and White Lotus creator Mike White is literally playing on 50, and celebrities like Tyler Perry and Rosie O’Donnell have gotten screentime during episodes in the past. It’s not necessarily out of character for the show to incorporate stars they think will make the show more appealing to casual fans and/ or make it seem bigger, grander and more culturally relevant. This feels different though.

A lot of the trailer’s runtime is devoted to bragging about what random celebrities are going to be involved, almost as if the show thinks their involvement is what the selling point is. Maybe it is a selling point to fans they’re hoping will try out the show or return to the show, but for those of us who have been here the whole time, it kinda feels like our rice was just thrown in the fire. It feels like the season we have wanted for so long isn’t for us. It’s for trying to please randoms who probably won’t watch the show anyway.

Not surprisingly, there are a lot of extremely negative comments on social media from prominent fans and outlets that cover Survivor regularly. Many of these comments are getting liked by hundreds of even thousands of people. Here’s a sample of what I’m talking about…

That’s just one piece of the slide puzzle too. A tweet pointing out Mr. Beast has more screentime in the trailer than Genevieve has more than a thousand likes. A snarky tweet about how we’re going to lose a legend because he didn’t collect enough Mr. Beast tokens is approaching two thousand likes. Fans are shouting HOW DID WE GET HERE in all capital letters and dropping that awkward Jennifer Coolidge and Haley Lu Richardson gif from White Lotus to describe their reactions. It’s a fire out there.

But maybe host Jeff Probst and the other producers think the backlash is worth it because if you look around, there are tons of outlets covering the trailer and most of them are talking about the big celebrity cameos. In fact, that’s the lead in the headline for most of the stories I’ve seen, and they’re overwhelmingly positive or neutral. So, maybe the producers are gambling that the hardcore fans are going to watch the show regardless (we will) and the trailer is there for lapsed fans and casuals they want to get on board (maybe they will).

Ultimately, the trailer doesn’t matter. No one is going to remember what was or wasn’t in it once the show starts, but I think, as fans, what does matter is the content of the show. Producers billed Survivor 50 as ‘In The Hands Of The Fans’ and let us vote on some of the things we wanted to see or didn’t want to see in the game. All the celebrity cameos or references in the trailer feel like they’re not for us, and that makes it hard not to wonder whether the actual episodes won’t be for us either.

Whatever. I get all the negativity and part of me is concerned, but I’d rather just figure out a way to stay positive and act like Keith Nale on that reward challenge in Cambodia. Despite its celebrity fixation, the trailer also gives us an extended sequence of all-time legend Coach quoting all-time legend Magellan. It gives us Q continuing to be the wildest one-man hype train, and it gives us great content from Mike White, Jenna Lewis and more. Cirie previously called this the best season ever, and I’m going to choose to believe her.

If you want to take a wait and see approach after watching the trailer though, I get it. Believe me, I do.

Survivor is one of the best reality shows of all time, and forever changed the genre as a whole. We're deep into Season 49 (which is streaming with a Paramount+ subscription) and while some folks are wondering how much money Survivor contestants make, I've been curious about how Jeff Probst feels about being dubbed "Uncle Jeff" throughout the season. Luckily for me, he recently broke his silence on that subject.

Survivor's New Era has had a villain problem, in the fact that there are so few antagonists in Season 49 and other recent seasons. Things are much more cuddly on the show than in the best Survivor seasons, including the fact that the cast felt comfortable enough to give Probst a nickname. In a recent conversation with THR, the showrunner/host shared his reaction to that ongoing bit, saying:

There you have it. While I was personally annoyed by the "Uncle J" talk throughout Season 49, the same can't be said from Probst himself. He seems thrilled with the nickname, and the fact that the cast feels so connected to the longtime host of the series. So if you thought he didn't like being given this title, you'd be wrong.

As someone who has watched Survivor since it premiered back in 2000, I was shocked that the cast of Season 49 felt so comfortable around Jeff that they would give him a pet name. I remember the OG seasons where Probst was more of a scary presence, and wasn't above putting contestants in their place. For instance, when Colby Donaldson (who was confirmed for the Survivor 50 cast) threw sass at Jeff in Heroes Vs Villains he totally shut him down. But nowadays the showrunner is softer and more focused on the emotions of each new cast.

Personally I prefer when Survivor has some boundaries between Jeff and the cast, with the contestants having a healthy amount of fear for the host. That was simply not the cast with Season 49, especially with Probst hosting mini therapy sessions whenever someone had an emotional breakdown. He actually likes being referred to as Uncle Jeff, but hopefully this isn't a nickname that sticks for future seasons.

New episodes of Survivor air Wednesday on CBS as part of the 2025 TV schedule, and there's just one more left this season. Next up will be Season 50, which will feature returning players for the first time in years.

After yet another failed negotiation over rice, longtime Survivor host Jeff Probst admitted producers might do away with the offer entirely. Thanks to a reduction in game length from 39 days to 26 days and the tendency for modern players to turn on their own alliance members, castaways are increasingly unlikely to trade a shot at immunity for food. Since Survivor isn’t interested in having recurring segments that turn into nothing, producers are apparently going to talk about scrapping it.

At least that’s what Probst said when the subject came up during an episode of his On Fire Podcast. He said players have “evolved the game” and as producers, they may need to evolve with it. He said there’s no final answer for what we’ll see in Survivor 51 and beyond, but it will be a talking point as they figure out the specifics of the gameplay.

His answer has gotten a lot of attention in the Survivor community since rice negotiations have been a key plot point in many previous seasons, but to me, whether or not the players can negotiate for more food is not the biggest 51 and beyond question. Instead, there is a far more important question the producers need to answer: is the so-called New Era continuing?

During Survivor 41, Jeff told the players the show was essentially reinventing itself. It was dropping the 4, keeping the 1 and making some key changes to the game. Those turned out to be both formal and informal. Formally, the show made the game shorter, added new features like Shot In The Dark and Beware Advantage and sharply reduced the amount of food players are given.

They also moved to 3 tribes of 6 instead of 2 tribes of 9. More informally, they started casting more superfans, reducing the number of villains and moving away from challenges where the players get directly physical with each other. They also started really emphasizing the emotional growth of the characters and featuring their real life backstories more extensively in the edit.

All of these changes have combined together to give the New Era a certain feel. Even though the individual seasons and players are different, there’s a spiritual and emotional cohesion that sorta lingers over all nine of the New Era seasons. Many fans, however, are clamoring to see something different. The pushbacks around casting have gotten particularly loud the past few seasons. Many want to see more villains and less superfans. They want to see some interpersonal conflict around camplife, and they want to see less confessionals where players talk out their trauma from the past.

Fans are also very sick of seeing three tribes. Almost every New Era season has produced a disaster tribe that loses over-and-over again pre-merge, and even former players want to see a return of the us vs theme mentality that often comes with having two tribes. They want to see more animosity and less of the 4 person alliances that have come to dominate the early game.

In short, I think fans want to see change. They don’t necessarily want fundamental change or alterations to the basic rules and gameplay, but they want a season that feels fresh, different and much harder to predict. They want whatever comes after the New Era, which would need to be a lot bigger than just dropping rice negotiations.

I absolutely love Survivor. It’s my favorite show on television, but 51 needs to give fans something different. It needs to break the format we’ve seen in The New Era. I think the show is going to listen to the feedback and give us that. Exactly what that change will mean, however, is the biggest question lingering over the show.

We’ve got a lot of Survivor content to get through before we figure out what 51 is going to look like. 49 is currently on the TV schedule and turning into a fun little season. After that, the much anticipated Survivor 50 will start airing in February. It already has really good buzz and will likely be the most discussed since Winners At War. I can’t wait. After that, we can start focusing on what will and won’t be apart of 51 when it premieres sometime in the fall of 2026.

Survivor is one of the best reality shows of all time, and it's showing no signs of slowing down. The long-running competition series (which is streaming with a Paramount+ subscription) is going strong as we're already looking ahead to Season 50, which will feature returning players. As we continue watching the 49th season, though, it's becoming clear that the show has a villain problem.

While folks wonder how much Survivor contestants make, I'm curious about what's been going on with casting lately. The New Era is known for being a bit softer than some of the best Survivor seasons, thanks to less days on the island and more emphasis being put on people's feelings. But I think that the game is way less interesting without bonafide villains. After all, they're behind the most iconic moments of the show's long run on the air.

Survivor Doesn't Have Villains Anymore, And The Seasons Are Suffering

Back in 2024, host/showrunner Jeff Probst said that he's no longer interested in seeing villains compete on Survivor. This got a ton of backlash, as lots of the most iconic players in the show's history are technically villains. After all, the game we're following is one about manipulation, deceit, and blind sides. I think that not bringing antagonistic contestants into the game is resulting in less exciting television, as well as less cutthroat gameplay. I mean, no one's confessionals are better than a villain's.

I've seen every season of Survivor, and my favorite to this day is Season 20, Heroes vs. Villains. The reason is right there in the title; one tribe was full of the franchise's villains, while the other was known for being more heroic. There's some really great gameplay throughout those episodes, and ultimately the villains ended up running the game. So the idea of production now trying to avoid this type of character is truly puzzling.

Villains make up some of the Survivor contestants that best knew how to play the game. Just look at two-time winners like Parvati Shallow, Sandra Diaz-Twine and Tony Vlachos. Boston Rob is also a notorious villain, and one of the most popular contestants of all time. Survivor wouldn't be the same show without its villains, so why are we actively avoiding them in the New Era?

Personally, I think this is part of the reason why recent Survivor seasons haven't gotten as much love. Since New Era episodes are expanded to 90 minutes, there needs to be adequate story to fill that space. On some seasons this has been helpful, but for ones with less drama (thanks to the lack of villains), episodes can be a slog.

Season 50 will feature returning players, so perhaps we'll also see the much-needed return to villains in the show as a whole. It might be just what's needed to help galvanize the fanbase and bring together new and old fans.

Survivor airs new episodes Wednesdays as part of the 2025 TV schedule. We'll just have to wait and see where Season 49 ends up going, and if we get any villainous behavior from its cast.

Despite being a well-known Hollywood figure – Nate Moore is one of the brains behind such big MCU movies as Black Panther, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and many more – he was able to keep that a big secret during Season 49 of Survivor. While he didn’t end up taking home the million dollar Survivor prize, he did at least earn a major compliment from host Jeff Probst. In fact, Jeff wrote before the show even hit the 2025 TV schedule that he thought Nate had the skills and chutzpah to win the iconic game, and I honestly would have loved to see it.

Jeff Probst Is Not Typically One For Big Compliments, But He Seemingly Loved Nate Moore

Jeff has been getting more candid of late during the On Fire podcast. One thing I’ve learned is that he keeps notes on all of the contestants, and he had some big ones about Nate Moore. Speaking on the podcast Jeff literally said his gut feeling was that Nate could win at the start.

When the cast of Season 49 started to align, Moore was in a relatively solid place. He was pals with most and had a cushy alliance with Savannah, Rizo and Sophie. He was kind of seen as the wise old dad on the tribe, but he pulled his weight in challenges, too. He was thoughtful when he spoke, as Jeff himself pointed out, calling it all the total package, or more specifically, a “home run.”

Unfortunately, you need some luck to make a deep run in Survivor, and Nate didn't get the luck he needed. After the merge, Sage and Jawan, who were on the outskirts of that alliance with Savannah, Rizo and Soph, decided to flip and vote with the other tribe. Sage specifically wanted Savannah out of the game, but because of concerns Rizo could play his idol for her, they ended up putting the numbers on Nate because it seemed like a safer play.

Most people who voted for him didn't even seem to want to. Some actively argued against it, but ultimately, they felt the most important move was to eliminate someone from the alliance. That ended up being Nate, who was the one everyone compromised around.

What Nate Moore Thinks Of Jeff Probst’s Comments

Speaking with TV Insider, Nate Moore was asked what he thought about Jeff Probst saying he was “a home run” for the show. He said he hadn’t listened to the podcast at the time of the interview, but Jeff’s comments, which also included a subsequent, “That’s about as good as it gets for me,” did make Moore “feel good."

There is always an element of chance on Survivor. Is your tribe winning or is your tribe a disaster? Are you able to make connections early on? Are you able to stick with your tribemates through a slew of changes, including tribe switches, journeys and more? Honestly, all things considered, Moore felt like he'd landed in a pretty good spot on the show.

Nate notably didn’t tell anyone he was a Marvel producer during his tenure on Survivor. He’d seen Mike White of White Lotus and School of Rock fame be honest about his career and likely hurt his chances of winning since his fellow castaways felt he didn't need the money during his first run. (White will be back for Survivor 50.) So, he played the stay-at-home dad card on the show.

It’s not strictly a lie, as the producer left Marvel to pursue other gigs following the release of Captain America: Brave New World. And it gave him just enough rope to be able to develop relationships with those much younger than him without having to divulge who he really was.

A little deception never hurt anyone, but I would have loved to have seen Nate Moore play a bit longer. As he noted in the interview, he felt like he would have been a strong contender in some of the individual challenges, and I honestly just really liked his vibes around camp. I also feel like the target audience for Survivor viewers skews older, but we keep seeing more casts with younger and younger players and it was nice to see someone in their forties remain a competitive force.

Maybe the lesson should be that we want more older players like Nate in the future, not fewer.

I’m a huge Survivor fan. I’ve watched every episode of every season, and I’ve written more articles than I can count about the casting, the evolving gameplay and the weird little moments. As such, I like to think I’m pretty plugged into what’s going on, but apparently, I completely missed a Survivor 49 contest accomplishing something for the first time in the history of the US version of the show.

Michelle “MC” Chukwujekwu apparently became the first contestant ever to win first place in every single pre-merge challenge. Now, to be clear, we have had more than several (shoutout Jelinsky) players make it to the merge without ever going to Tribal Council, but those castaways, at some point, either lost a reward or finished second in a three team Immunity challenge. MC is the first to just straight up clean sweep every single competition. It’s especially impressive in her case too because it’s not like she’s just been on a dominant tribe. Survivor 49 has already had multiple tribe swaps, and she’s continued to win with every change.

Now, obviously, she’s great at challenges. We need to acknowledge that. More often than not, she’s been put in key spots in the challenges, and she has performed well every single time. But it’s also worth noting that, despite playing a key role in so many victories, she’s not been showy about it… to the point where I didn’t even notice. I recognized she was good at challenges and a part of many wins, but I had no idea it was all literally firsts.

That could be really important in the post-merge. The history of Survivor is filled with players who were really good at challenges (Ozzy, James, Joe Anglim etc), but more often than not, those players have been targeted because of their challenge dominance. She hasn’t become this larger than life topic of conversation like so many others. Maybe that’ll be the topic of a feature episode, which is why Survivor has largely kept those comments from other players out of the edit. Or maybe other people just really aren’t noticing.

Regardless, MC’s strong challenge play has been one of the bright spots of a lackluster season so far. Host Jeff Probst was very open while talking to the press that he feels the action really picks up after the merge. Hopefully that’s the case because while we’ve gotten a shocking snake bite and few moments of conflict, most fans are calling Survivor 49 one of the slowest in the show’s history, as it has fallen into many of the same patterns we've seen recently.

Fortunately, that shouldn’t be the case for the upcoming Survivor 50. The early buzz has been really strong about the returning players, and Cirie said she thinks it’s the best season in the show’s history. I don’t know if it’ll live up to those standards, but if it gives us some great new moments from legends like Coach, Colby, Angelina and, of course, Cirie, we’ll all be in for a treat.

Until then, Survivor 49 will return on Wednesdays, where we’ll get to see if MC’s epic winning streak continues. Episodes can also be streamed with a YouTube TV subscription.

During the fifth episode of Survivor 49, we got a lot of confessionals about Shannon maybe playing too hard. She was shown talking strategy with pretty much every player on her tribe, and at one point, she was seen trying to scheme with Steven just moments after he woke up. Her overeagerness was definitely positioned as a strategy mistake in the edit, but during host Jeff Probst’s subsequent podcast, he was very defensive of modern players playing harder in general.

Probst was clear you definitely still need to pick your moments and read the room, but he said the New Era game design has forced the hand of the castaways. He said starting with three tribes, shortening the game and adding in so many advantages and journeys has “forced a different pace.” He said that’s why you don’t see castaways playing the same way you used to back in the day. Here’s a portion of the quote he dropped during the most recent episode of On Fire

Probst went on to say that one of the things he most looked forward to when casting Survivor 50 was thinking about how the clash of styles between OG players and the New Era players was going to go down. He wondered whether the older players would gang up on the more recent players and tell them to chill out and let them tend to the fire and do chores before talking about who to vote out or whether it would turn into a season that felt more like modern Survivor.

Probst’s co-host Jeremy Collins, who is not on Survivor 50, but is a former winner and multi-time player said he personally would adapt to the New Era. He thinks the OG players have to play differently because the game has changed. Here’s a portion of his take…

Here’s the thing. We know the game design of Survivor 50 is going to be fast and furious. We are reportedly starting with three tribes of 8, but because of there are 24 players who need to be chopped in 26 days, there’s probably going to be a lot of pre-merge episodes in which two losing tribes need to vote someone out. So, obviously the game play is going to be fast-paced and aggressive. They’ll have no other choice.

That being said, I think one key difference in the New Era that makes it more aggressive is how unwilling players are to take the easy vote. Of course there are blindsides and times in which the obvious person doesn’t go in OG Survivor, but there are also so many episodes in which the person on the bottom just gets voted out. That still happens a lot during the pre-merge in the New Era, but the superfans the show casts now are so aggressive about trying to make “big moves” and “pad their resumes” to try and attract jury votes and win the prize money.

That’s the part that makes me very curious about Survivor 50. Are we going to see people stick longer with their alliances like we used to see back in the day, or are we going to see a lot of frantic double-crosses and blindsides? To me, that’s less a function of game design and more a function of the type of people who are being cast.

Joe, as an example last season, won a ton of challenges and brought his closest ally to final tribal but was basically a non-factor because he allegedly didn't make any big moves. An OG jury, like the one we might see on Survivor 50, likely would have given him a lot more credit for calmly being in control of much of the game.

I can’t wait to find out what happens when Survivor 50 premieres in the Spring. Until then, you can catch Survivor 49 on CBS on Wednesday evenings where we’ll almost certainly see the exact type of chaotic energy and aggressiveness Jeff and Jeremy are talking about here.

Survivor is arguably one of the best reality shows of all time. And after recent Emmy nominations, the competition series is showing no signs of stopping its tenure on CBS and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription. Jeff Probst was recently asked about the potential of producing a season full of older contestants, similar to The Golden Bachelor (which is airing a new season now). Although I'm not sure I agree with the host/showrunner's perspective.

While fans wonder how much Survivor contestants make, others are looking forward to what might be coming with future seasons. During a recent episode of On Fire with Jeff Probst, the torch snuffer said he'd heard the idea of a Golden season "from time to time", but explained why he doesn't think it'll work. In his words:

This math does check out, but I don't think that Survivor fans are hoping to exclusively see Golden seasons. So if CBS only did it once, it seemingly wouldn't be impossible to gather a group of 18 players (plus Survivor alternates) who are over the age of 50. And I think it would be fascinating to see how a group of this nature would play the game without having to worry about being the minority of a traditional cast.

The best Survivor seasons had something unique to bring to the table, and doing an installment with a full cast of contestants over the age of 50 would likely have a huge influence on the game play. So I'd personally be down to see the CBS series explore this with a Golden season.

Longtime fans of Survivor will recall that older contestants are often targeted and eliminated early on-- particularly women. A Golden season would end this possibility, and might also bring new folds to the social aspect of the game. But in the same podcast, Probst explained why he's not too keen on the idea. In his words:

I'll give him this point. Survivor is typically a melting pot, where contestants of different ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds are paired together for the competition. So crafting a season where there's a great unifier like the same age range would go against the show's typical format. Still, I think it would be fun for just one season to see what happens when older castaways are no longer in the minority.

Unfortunately for those who would like to see a Golden Survivor season, it doesn't seem like Jeff Probst is interested. And as showrunner and host, he's got a ton of pull. As he shared on the accompanying podcast:

Touché. Sounds like we shouldn't hold our breath for this type of cast to make it onto Survivor. Instead, it sounds like diversity of players will continue to be a focus moving forward.

New episodes of Survivor 49 air Wednesdays on CBS as part of the 2025 TV schedule. While we're not getting a Golden season, fans are hyped or Survivor 50 to bring back returning players. That includes two contestants who are playing on the current season.

I don’t know if you watched the most recent episode of Survivor 49, but one castaway took a completely unprompted shot at Sandra Diaz-Twine. Not surprisingly, the Queen of Survivor wasn’t just going to sit there and take it; so, despite being on vacation in Hawaii to celebrate her husband’s birthday, she fired off an Instagram post defending herself and calling out the contestant.

Let’s back up real quick and set the stage. I’m just going to talk very frankly about the most recent Survivor episode; so, if you haven’t watched round four “Go Kicks Rock, Bro” then go do that and come back to this article later.

Anyway, Survivor hit the castaways with a surprise tribe swap at the beginning of yesterday’s episode; which was a good thing since all four eliminated members had all come from the same tribe. Matt and Justin from Hina, unfortunately, drew the short straw and ended up in the minority on their new tribe which was filled with mostly people from the former Uli.

That left them scrambling to stay in the game after they lost the elimination challenge, and during one of Matt’s scrambles he took a shot at two-time winner Sandra Diaz-Twine. He was asked about it later at Tribal Council, and here’s what he said…

Sandra is, of course, a legend of Survivor and one of the greatest players in the history of the game, but her reputation is a bit complicated amongst some fans. Her supporters say she makes great social connections and has a great sense of what she needs to do to get through each vote. Her detractors say she’s far too passive and has often benefitted from letting other people play the game more aggressively, which has allowed her to slide by.

Personally, I think Sandra is one of the best Survivor players ever (and proved herself a master strategist on The Traitors). There’s no extra money for putting yourself out there and engineering all the big moves. What you need is to make connections to get yourself through each week and get everyone else to vote for you at the end, which she has done twice.

She doesn’t need me to defend her though. After her close buddy and fellow Survivor legend and reality star Carolyn Wiger gave her a heads up, she took to social media herself to give her thoughts…

Diaz-Twine also re-posted a meme from the Drop Your Buffs podcast that essentially said the same thing and featured a split screen of Matt criticizing her and Sandra sitting at Tribal Council from one of her seasons ready to pounce. Both responses were exactly what you’d expect from the Queen of Survivor, who is somehow able to both be extremely snarky and aggressive at times but also forge really thoughtful and in-depth relationships with people.

Following the episode and Sandra’s Instagram post, Matt was interviewed by The New York Post and apologized for his comments. He said actually playing Survivor gives you a different perspective on how much scrambling you have to do to survive votes and said The Queen clearly knows something he doesn’t since she was able to use the strategy to win twice.

If nothing else, Matt’s original comments about Sandra are a very fitting way to talk about the show in 2025. Some fans, myself included, have been frustrated with the long-running reality show’s clear preference for casting superfans. Bringing on a contestant who describes his strategy by referencing the strategy of another player is perhaps the most fitting example of that.

Fortunately, we'll all be able to watch plenty legends of the game return when Survivor 50 airs early next year. Sandra will not be around, as they didn't bring back either two time winner, but many of her biggest competitors will be. I can't wait.

Survivor fans are ready for change. Judging by social media, articles from critics and various podcasts, most of the fanbase really wants to see something new. They’re sick of watching a disaster tribe lose almost every single challenge during the pre-merge. They’re sick of the three tribe format, and they’re sick of the lack of memorable villains and lack of genuine animosity between the players. I get it. I’m ready for change too. Thankfully, a former Survivor player has a way to solve all those issues at once.

Sam Phalen, best known for his recent second place performance on Survivor 47, stopped by The Survivor Specialists this week to talk to host Phil Wood about Survivor 49. During their conversation, the subject of three tribes came up, and the castaway, who many would like to see return to Fiji, made a really compelling point about the problem with having three tribes.

He said that’s actually where the lack of animosity comes from. When you’re squaring off with a single opposing tribe every single challenge, you grow to hate that tribe. Rivalries form. It feels like us versus them, but when you’re competing against two other tribes, you don’t build up that personal hatred.

Here’s a portion of Sam’s really thoughtful observation based on personal experience…

The conventional wisdom has been that The New Era has more positive vibes because the show is now almost exclusively casting superfans who are just happy to be there and not desperate enough for the prize money. People, myself included, assumed that explained the lack of palpable hatred between the tribes, but I think Sam makes a really good point here.

I’m sure some of it is personality driven, but some of it is also the nature of competition. When you have a single opponent, you fixate on that opponent and build them into an enemy that needs to be defeated, but if you’re talking on multiple opponents, it’s more of a competition with yourself to perform and beat the group.

Bringing back two tribes would also allow the show to do more brute force, physical domination challenges which have largely gone away in the New Era. Think Heroes Vs Villains with Coach physically dragging Colby to the mat or Sandra intentionally undoing Sugar's top. Those are the type of things that make the show feel like a brutal and animalistic competition, not a friendly game of Risk with an elaborate set.

This season of Survivor has been perhaps the worst case scenario for the three tribe format. All four of the eliminated contestants have all come from the same tribe, which still doesn’t have flint and cannot win anything. It’s the fourth time in the last five seasons one tribe has repeatedly gotten crushed to start the season.

In addition, the other two tribes have both had essentially the same pre-merge strategy. They’ve each hustled to put together a makeshift alliance of four people based on a shared not wanting to go home strategy, and we’ve just got a lot of confessionals about four people being in and two people being out. It’s a dynamic we’ve seen numerous times before, as we have with a lack of rivalry amongst the teams. In fact, after this week’s elimination challenge, the winners barely even celebrated because they felt too bad about the tribe that lost again.

I love Survivor. It’s one of my favorite shows on television, despite any complaints I may have, but it is time for a change. It’s time to see more animosity. It’s time to see some different pre-merge strategies. It’s time to see more balance. It’s time to see a season of Survivor that feels more old school, and to Sam’s point, the best way to do that is by bringing back two tribes and all the us vs them dynamics that set-up naturally brings with it.

You would think the big fanbase takeaway from a Survivor episode that prominently featured a castaway getting bitten by a snake would be about, well, that, but a couple days after the scary moment aired, the conversation has mostly shifted to a more structural concern. In short, fans have had it up to their buffs with watching yet another season start with one tribe losing over and over and over again.

Now, you’re probably thinking, but that doesn’t happen very often, right? Well, it does. Survivor Specialists host Phil Wood ranted about it in this week’s post-episode stream, and I looked up the data.

The first four eliminated players from Survivor 49 have all come from the same tribe. 48 started with three players being eliminated from the same tribe before they did a swap. Three of the first four players eliminated in Survivor 46 were all from Bhanu's infamous tribe, and the only reason there was any break was because Randen, who was on another tribe, had to be medically evacuated. 45 featured arguably the worst tribe in Survivor history, the disastrous Lulu, which lost four of its players in consecutive order. That’s four of the last five seasons, and I’m not even counting Survivor 44, which had one tribe contribute three of the first five eliminations.

Clearly, there’s a recurring problem here, and I think it has to do with how the game is structured. Right now, the show starts with three tribes. If you finish last in an immunity challenge, your tribe not only loses a person but also loses its flint, which means you don’t have fire, which means you can’t boil water and cook hot food.

Once a tribe starts going on a losing streak, they get weaker and weaker, which makes it harder to compete in the challenges, which makes it more likely they’re going to lose. Throw in bad vibes, as the younger Survivor castaways would say, and it gets really hard to climb out of the hole.

It’s not just a small minority of Survivor fans that are noticing this recurring trend either. Most of the places fans talk about Survivor are filled with posts complaining about how this is yet another season of watching a tribe lose over and over again. People are just getting sick of it, and rightfully so. The show needs to admit the current format isn’t working.

That format starts with having three tribes of six, rather than two tribes of nine. That’s been a recurring source of frustration among fans, as the pre-merge tends to turn into each tribe quickly forming a group of four and picking off the other two. That can be really repetitive and annoying to watch, but it’s a secondary concern compared to this issue of one tribe losing over and over again in all the recent seasons that weren’t Survivor 47. The show could solve that by just letting each tribe have flint or other sources of food the entire time, but personally, I’d rather see them go back to two tribes or at least change it up each season.

I love Survivor, and I’m not nearly as down on the show as other fans. That being said, host Jeff Probst and the producers need to look into making some changes after the much-hyped Survivor 50. The New Era has run its course, and it’s time for the show to take some bold new swings with different formats, different types of contestants and anything else that might prevent one tribe from getting decimated almost every season.

Survivor 49 officially premiered this week, and for the first time in months, the fanbase is finally talking about something other than Survivor 50. Response to the debut episode was a lot of “it was okay” type comments, though that shouldn’t really come as a surprise given host Jeff Probst has repeatedly said the season picks up after the merge. I do, however, think there’s one percolating theme that’s worth talking about: the tribe sizes.

The two most common complaints about Survivor’s so-called New Era are the change from 39 days to 26 days and the prevalence of advantages and chances for people to lose their votes. It sounds like the days thing is never going to change, but the producers may be listening on the second front, as the Survivor 49 premiere didn’t contain any idols, advantages or lost votes. As such, many fans have moved on to the third most common complaint: the number of tribes.

Back in the day, Survivor always began with two tribes of equal sizes. At some point along the journey, however, the beloved reality competition series started mixing in some seasons that start with three smaller tribes instead of two larger tribes. For awhile, the show rotated between three tribes and two tribes, but since the New Era began with Survivor 41, the show has always started with three.

Now, there are definitely some advantages to the three tribes format. It makes the immunity challenges more interesting, as there aren’t as many lopsided blowouts where it appears over halfway through. Three separate camps also makes it more likely that you’ll get very different vibes and tribe dynamics, which can make cutting between the different beaches more enjoyable as there’s typically a lot of variety.

Three tribes can also make the post-merge more enjoyable. Instead of one tribe having the numbers and being able to slowly pick off the other, the third tribe typically means there’s no absolute numbers advantage and new alliances need to be formed to get to a majority. That adds a way more compelling dynamic and prevents Pagonging, which is a real term Survivor superfans use to describe post-merge voting patterns.

Unfortunately, there are also some downsides to going with three tribes, and after so many seasons in a row, a lot of fans are starting to feel worn down by them. First, building a majority within a specific tribe is way too easy and can sometimes feel almost arbitrary.

Because Survivor almost exclusively casts superfans obsessed with the show these days, most people hit the beach with a goal of finding three other people to work with as soon as possible. Since no one wants to be voted out first, players are often very quick to enter into these early makeshift alliances. When you start with bigger tribes, it’s hard to form these coalitions quickly because you need more people, but with only six people, you can miss out on your chance to make that Survivor prize money because you happened to be getting water while four random players talked at the shelter.

It’s also a lot harder to hide when you’re bad at challenges. Contrary to what some fans would tell you, the slowest and least athletic person is not always the first person voted out on a tribe of six. Sometimes not fitting in with everyone else or being perceived as shady are the bigger crimes, but yes, if you’re not very athletic and your team loses the first challenge, you’re in deep trouble. That’s still the case if the game starts with two tribes, but with more players, there are almost always multiple castaways who are bad at challenges. That means the people at the bottom have a lot more wiggle room to use their social skills to keep themselves around.

Jeff Probst and the other producers have never come out and said they’re going to keep three tribes forever. The history of the game would tell us that they’ll want to switch things up at some point, but interestingly, the number of tribes was not something fans were allowed to vote on ahead of Survivor 50. They were given a choice on everything from firemaking to immunity idols to tribe colors, but the number of tribes was always set at three. With twenty-four players competing, however, it’ll be fun to see how having eight at each beach changes the dynamics or mitigates some of the issues fans currently have with the format.

Regardless, Survivor 49 is setting itself up to be a pretty fun season. It features a lot of really engaging personalities and should be a really enjoyable watch. You can catch it on Wednesday nights on CBS.

Survivor is getting closer and closer to its milestone 50^th season, but before that, Season 49 will be airing on the 2025 TV schedule. While other shows chase star power (The Traitors, we’re looking at you), Survivor host and executive producer Jeff Probst, who seems to have a lot of say in who makes it on the show, made one thing crystal clear: don’t expect a season stacked wall-to-wall with celebrities anytime soon.

In a new exclusive with Men’s Journal, Probst explained that the show doesn’t need a Hollywood makeover to stay relevant—but that doesn’t mean famous faces are off-limits. As he put it:

Survivor isn’t looking for clout, because they’re more worried about character–and boy, have there been some characters who’ve played the game over the years. One of the most recent seasons, 48, had the incredible bond between Joe and Eva to root for. And honestly, it's this leaning into great characters that makes the show great and is the real silver lining here.

If you're unfamiliar, Mike White isn’t just the guy behind The White Lotus (available to stream with an HBO Max subscription)—he’s a legitimate Survivor alum. Back in Season 37 (David vs. Goliath), he played a thoughtful, strategic game that clearly left a mark on Probst and many fans. The reality show host explained:

And if you're wondering: yes, the season 50 cast has been revealed, and White is coming back for the mega milestone season set to air in Spring 2026. Fans are split on Whites chances of winning in his return, but as a longtime fan, I’m happy to see him back. Though we might not get an all-star cast of household names, there’s still room for celebs and big-name players who actually respect the game for what it is.

With reality crossovers on the rise—and shows like The Traitors winning Emmys for stacking casts with familiar faces—you’d think Survivor might follow suit. Even The Traitors winner Dylan Efron has publicly said he wants to put his survival skills to the test.

But Jeff Probst isn’t chasing trends. On Survivor, fame doesn’t get you a spot. Being compelling does. That’s why the show’s still thriving after 25 years. The fact that Probst remains this intentional and fired up after all this time says a lot. Other reality shows chase headlines. Survivor sticks to one rule: cast people who are worth watching.

We probably won’t get a “Celebrity Island” anytime soon—but the door is open for high-profile fans willing to earn their fire. And honestly? That’s exactly how it should be. Survivor Season 49, which Probst teased as being very unique, premieres Wednesday, September 24 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, and streams the next day with a Paramount+ subscription, where all 48 previous seasons are currently available.

Survivor 50 is bringing back some legendary fan favorites, but a strong case could be made that the entire Mt Rushmore of the show is missing. None of Boston Rob, Sandra, Parvati and Tony made the trip to Fiji for the milestone season, and there are plenty of fans who aren’t happy campers about it. They voiced their outrage about those glaring omissions, as well as some more niche superfan complaints, after the cast was first announced, but in light of Parvati Shallow reminding everyone why she’s so freakin’ good during the most recent season of Australian Survivor, the noise has started to get loud again.

In fact, longtime host Jeff Probst was asked about Parvati not getting a spot on the show while he was at the Emmys by CBS favorite Gayle King. He told her it was because fans recently got the chance to see her during the reality competition’s 40th anniversary season. King didn’t really seem to be buying his answer, and judging by social media reaction, neither were many fans. You can take a look at a portion of his quote below…

The “we just saw them” portion of the quote is what many fans seem to be fixating on, mostly because it doesn’t really make sense given the rest of the cast. The Survivor 50 cast is made up of half so-called New Era players and half OG players. If you’re not a Survivor superfan, that means half of the players (12 total people) are coming from Survivor 41 and beyond. That means half the cast we’ve literally seen more recently than Parvati.

CBS put a video of Probst’s quote out on its TikTok, and most of the top comments are pointing that out, or they’re questioning why Boston Rob was allegedly invited back (and declined) and Parvati allegedly wasn’t contacted at all. I don’t really have a good answer to that last question, but I do think, based on some other comments, that I have a better idea of why Parvati didn’t end up on Survivor 50.

During a recent interview, Probst said he didn’t look at Survivor 50 like he was trying to put together as many legends as possible. He looked at it like he was trying to create a season that had little bits that represented Survivor’s long history. That meant not exclusively going after the big names but instead focusing on getting a diversity of different types of players so it would more closely mirror a real season. Now, maybe he came to that conclusion after Boston Rob passed, which is why Parvati allegedly wasn’t spoken to? I have no idea.

I’ve decided to be excited for Survivor 50. Yes, I have plenty of complaints just like everyone else, but I’m still excited to see Coach, Cirie and other favorites interact with some of the bigger personalities from the New Era. The early buzz is great. That being said, would I take another season at some point filled with more actual legends, starting with Parvati? Yes. Please make that happen too.

Rachel Reilly has given fans memorable appearances on Big Brother, The Amazing Race, Traitors and several other reality shows. She’s long been open about her desire to eventually appear on Survivor, but since that show features mostly ordinary people, it’s been unclear whether she’ll ever make it to Fiji. Thankfully, Jeff Probst finally weighed in, and it sounds like there’s a chance.

The longtime Survivor host was on a red carpet when he stopped for a chit-chat with Entertainment Tonight. The host asked if Reilly will ever be able to complete the CBS trifecta and appear on Survivor, and Probst did not say no. Here was his response…

Reilly has been in the news a lot lately after her return on Big Brother was unceremoniously cut short thanks to a surprise twist fans almost universally hated. The longtime reality star seemed to be in a good position to make a deep run at the time of her shock elimination, and now, fans are clamoring to see her do something else. Survivor would be a huge accomplishment to check off her bucket list, though how exactly she’d do is a matter of debate.

On the plus side, Reilly has long shown herself to be a strong social player, which is key to success on Survivor. She gets into plenty of fights, but she’s also able to build close alliances that stick together. In addition, she’s proven to be more successful than you’d think at challenges and competitions. She might not be the most athletic person in the world, but she’s a gamer that can pull her weight in the right challenge. Those attributes would really help her do well on Survivor.

Unfortunately, there are some reasons to think she might not do as well too. She wasn’t always the biggest fan of things like getting her shorts dirty on The Amazing Race, and there’s a lot of dirt, bugs and grime to go around in Fiji (though she probably won't be asked to shave her head). Also, those aforementioned fights I mentioned, those typically go down better on Big Brother than Survivor which isn’t typically populated with as many people used to drama in their interpersonal lives. Throw in how difficult it can be to advance as a known celebrity in the game, and she could have a tough time making the merge.

Regardless, I’d like to see it though. Reilly has been great television throughout her career, no matter what program she’s on. Her confessionals on Survivor would be highly entertaining, and I’d love to see her try to adjust her game to work with different sorts of people. I’m all in on this idea. Here’s to hoping she actually makes an audition and applies.