Survivor’s Jeff Probst says season 50 will be all returning players

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Shoutout to my fellow Survivor fans out there! We are more than halfway done with Season 46 or, should I say, well on our way towards Season 40-Several, ha. You know Jeff isn’t letting Jelinsky’s “several means seven” comment go anytime soon! At least he’s having fun this season. I feel like it didn’t get good until the past two episodes. Anyway, this past weekend, CBS held a Survivor event in Los Angeles. There were fun games for fans to play and Survivor players like Parvati Shallow were there to mingle and play games, too. On Saturday evening, host Jeff Probst did a For Your Consideration event with Entertainment Weekly’s Editor-in-Chief. During the Q&A, he dropped a bomb that has basically exploded all over Survivor Twitter: Season 50 will be the first season of the “new era” to feature all returning players.

Jeff Probst recently told Entertainment Weekly that they did not yet have a plan in place for the landmark fiftieth season of Survivor. Well, those plans are now rapidly forming. During a Survivor Q&A event with EW Editor in Chief Patrick Gomez on Saturday night at the Ovation Hollywood complex in Los Angeles, Probst announced that Survivor 50 (which will be begin filming around Memorial Day 2025 to air in the spring of 2026) will indeed feature all returning players.

“I just got an idea,” said the host and showrunner near the conclusion of the event. “Survivor 50 is coming down the corner. The truth is, we really do focus on 47 and 48, that’s what we’re heading out to shoot next, and then we have to shoot 49. But we know 50 is coming, so I am curious, is there a feeling, should 50 be another season with new players and don’t make it a big deal?”

After the audience yelled out no, Probst asked “Or should it be returning players?”

After getting a positive response to that option, Probst announced, “In the spirit of, sometimes letting the game be in the hands of the fans, I feel like — and there are a couple of people from CBS right now going ‘Oh my God, what is happening?’ — I feel like we should just commit and make this the moment where we decide that Survivor 50 will be retuning players. I don’t know what is going to happen after this, but I’m pretty sure we’re committed.”

If you don’t include Bruce Perreault — who was more of a do-over as opposed to a returning player because he got injured just minutes into his first season — Survivor (which is currently airing Survivor 46 on CBS) is already in the longest stretch of all newbie seasons since the show first started bringing players back with Survivor:

All-Stars in season 8. There have been no returning all-stars in the entire new era that began with Survivor 41. And the host already told EW that there would be no returning players in season 47 or 48 either. It now seems that Survivor 49 will also be all new players.

While Probst has officially confirmed the speculation that Survivor 50 (like 40 and 20 before it) will be all returnees, he did not mention what the particular theme might be, although viewers have certainly talked about many options, including another fan-voted Second Chance, an Old Era vs. New Era battle, or a season full of runner-ups (after season 40 was all winners). It will be a while before the theme for season 50 is revealed, but fans can now continue to dream cast what could end up being the franchise’s biggest season ever.

[From Entertainment Weekly]

Like I said above, Survivor Twitter completely blew up at this news. Former players started pregaming out in the open, sharing What’s App groups they’re in and campaigning for themselves to come back. Fans started campaigns to let CBS know what players they wanted to see back, too. Ideas have been flying, as well. From the New Era of non-winners, I’d personally love to see Shan, Jesse, JD, Carolyn, and Emily return. I’d also really be down to see either a season that’s solely made up of people who were voted out first or a season of runners-up finally getting a chance to get the win that just eluded them the first time around.

Since Jeff let the cat out of the bag so early, are they setting it up for another Second Chances vote? The only other thing confirmed about Season 50 is that it will not be limited to just New Era players. (New Era is how Jeff defines the post-pandemic seasons of 41-current.) Since we’re still a full year out from filming, this could be a very interesting year for Survivor fans *and* players. Let the games begin.

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3 Responses to “Survivor’s Jeff Probst says season 50 will be all returning players”

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  1. Kate says:
    April 30, 2024 at 8:03 am

    Had no idea this show was still running, much less that there were almost 50 seasons?!

    • Concern Fae says:
      April 30, 2024 at 8:24 am

      This! I watched when I worked somewhere where my co-workers did. I enjoy gossiping about reality shows IRL, not as much online.

      Question- how many seasons a year does Survivor do? Is it basically always on?