Let’s bring ’em in! All eyes are on “Survivor” ahead of the 50th season, which sees 24 former players — the biggest cast yet — returning to Fiji to compete for the $1 million prize.
And with any season of “Survivor” (and any reality TV at all, really), not everyone is happy about the returning members chosen. Showrunner and host Jeff Probst, as well as executive producer Matt Van Wagenen spoke to Variety on set during day 18 of the milestone season, shedding light on the extremely difficult process of narrowing down the cast and responding to the fans — and former castaways — who aren’t thrilled.
“That was a painstaking labor of love, and there were a lot of voices involved. No exaggeration — there were over 100 names considered. We’re talking about 751 players,” says Van Wagenen. And this time, casting “felt personal” because of the long-standing relationships the crew has with the cast. Plus, it wasn’t just the producers and casting teams weighing in.
“Casting was enormously difficult. [CBS] was a part of it. There were a lot of voices weighing in,” says Probst. Once the list was narrowed down to 50 and Probst knew he still had two dozen to cut, he really stared realizing how upset people would be.
“The players who end up not getting on the show, their feelings are hurt, they’re disappointed. They get frustrated. I understand all that. I’d probably feel the same way,” he says. “I wish I could convince them, it’s not personal, it’s not that you weren’t enough. We just only had so many spots, and just went a different direction. And if we did 50 again and we started over, we might end up with a different cast today. You never know.”
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Carolyn Wiger (Season 44) and Jerri Manthey (Seasons 2, 8 and 20) are two former players who have been very vocal about their disappointment — but Probst wants to remind everyone that there are many unseen factors to the decisions.
“I understand any player who isn’t on 50 and is frustrated with us. I really do. And if they read this or hear that, they probably have a comment back to me about why we should have had them. My dad used to say, when he was in a lower-level job, ‘I will never make those same dumb decisions my bosses make when I get to that position.’ And he said, ‘I got to that position, and I realized I hadn’t had all the information that they had,’” Probst explains. “I think the one thing that somebody who’s frustrated that they weren’t picked to be on the show doesn’t have is all the information. You don’t know what we were looking at or what we were thinking. So it feels personal. It’s not personal, and I hope those fences will be mended, because I don’t have any animosity or ill will — but I do understand it.”
Probst is also used to viewers or past players getting irritated over the last 25 years. So, he reminds himself, “If you try to please everyone, you please no one.”
He continues, “We have to please ourselves. We’re the producers of the show. You have to have trust in us that we know what we’re doing. Maybe we get it right, maybe we get it wrong, but we do have a point of view, and there is an intention behind every single person who’s here. Nobody’s here because they’re a name. Nobody’s here because they’re a certain era. You’re here because of a very specific quality that you bring to this tapestry that’s trying to capture the essence of 50 seasons.”
At first, when planning began for 50 began more than a year ago, a few “heavyweights” took their names off the table, including Boston Rob Mariano, Sandra, Diaz-Twine and Parvati Shallow.
“They don’t want to play anymore, and I’m not sure they should play anymore. They got a lot out of ‘Survivor,’ and we got a lot out of them,” Probst says. That’s especially the case, he says, for Mariano. “Rob is the epitome of the perfect relationship between us and the players. I asked him if he’d want to be a part of 50, and he said, ‘No, but if you need me to, then it’s an absolute yes. I will do whatever you need, because you’ve been so good to me.’ And I said, ‘Rob, that’s the only answer I ever needed. I don’t need anything from you. You’ve given us plenty!’ If I called Rob right now, still shooting 50 and said, ‘We’re desperate, I have an idea. Would you fly out tonight?’ He’d be on the plane tonight.”
After the team decided that past winners who competed on 40 were also out of the running, taking “20 great names off the table,” the puzzle began, as did the question of how to balance New Era and Old Era players.
“It isn’t just Old Era vs. New Era, in terms of a line, where you’re looking at dividing the types of players. There’s Old Era, then there’s Middle Era, and then there’s New Era,” says Probst. “[Rick] Devens played a game very different from Jenna [Lewis-Dougherty], and the game that Kyle [Fraser] and Dee [Valladares] played is very different from the game Devens played. So it’s not quite as clean as just an Old Era, New Era. There’s lots of mini eras in between. So it’s a combination of so many factors.”
He says that even now, midway through the season, the process is complicated to explain. There were “so many lists” with different combinations of different types of players. Then some people were taken off one list and added to another, as the team tried to figure out what was missing and what was great about each combination.
“Finally, you just start moving pieces around, you start narrowing it down, and you finally start to get a consensus: This is starting to feel good to all of us,” says Probst. “That’s when we finally landed on this cast.”
CBS
One person was on every list? Mike White. White first played the game in Season 37, nearly three years before he created “The White Lotus.” But his relationship with Probst began a decade ago.
“We met through a friend, and we would go to dinner, and he would say, ‘I want to be on “Survivor.”’ And I’d say, ‘I’m not putting you on because you don’t want it bad enough. You want the novelty of it. And when the novelty wears off, you’re going to just get yourself voted out and go home,’” Probst remembers. Then, one night, something felt different — and White said he was ready.
“So he went into CBS, and we did the exact same casting process. His storytelling ability is obvious, but in a room, he is incredible. You can ask him anything, and it’s an interesting answer coming back. So we put him on the show. And when it was over, it was Mike who called me and said, ‘Just saying, if you end up ever doing something where you need returning players, I want to play again,’” says Probst. “That was before ‘White Lotus’ hit. And I thought, ‘Well, that’ll never happen.’ And then when we started talking about 50, Mike texted and said, ‘If you’re doing returning players for 50, please consider me.’ So I just want to be clear, we did not go ask Mike White, ‘please change your “White Lotus” schedule.’ He said, ‘I will change my “White Lotus” schedule if you’ll have me.’ And that was the fastest yes.”
And to be clear, while a few “Survivor” favorites have popped up in the background on “The White Lotus,” Probst says he doesn’t see a time when he’ll join that select few at the hotel bar on the HBO hit.
Ultimately, “Survivor” 50 came down to trust. The producers trusting each other’s insticts, and then, as filming began, trusting that gut feeling that they chose the right group to honor the past 25 years.
“I thought, ‘It’s impossible to make everybody happy. I really hope when we get started, it all comes together,’” remembers Van Wagenen. “After the very first night, I thought, ‘We did it right.’ Because the producers came in glowing. I’ve never seen the producers so excited, so happy about a season before, and it makes me feel like all the work, all the effort we put into casting, the most important decision we make all season long, was worth it. We’ve been around each other enough where we trust each other. And if someone has a big feeling about something, they’re on to something. And I think that there’s a lot of trust with different viewpoints, different voices, different experiences that put together what I think is the best cast we’ve ever had.”
“Survivor” 50 debuts with a three-hour premiere on Wednesday, February 25, on CBS at Paramount+ at 8 p.m. ET.
From Variety US