Times are changing, as is game of Survivor on CBS. Already we know that the new season premiering in September, simply called Survivor 41, doesn’t have an official theme as has been the norm in the past. The timeframe is also a whole lot shorter for contestants this time around. And it appears there are even more changes that altered the course of Season 41, with Survivor alum Mike White, also creator of HBO's satire The White Lotus, offering some assistance to host and executive producer Jeff Probst.
Though he is mostly known for his work as a Hollywood director/writer/producer, Mike White is also a fan-favorite contestant from the Survivor: David vs Goliath season. He came damned close to winning as the runner-up to Nick Wilson, and he remains a self-proclaimed “Survivor superfan” to this day. So much so that despite being busy with his own projects – namely the recently renewed HBO series The White Lotus that has gotten a lot of critics buzzing – White still has time to spitball with Jeff Probst over new Survivor ideas. The longtime host told Entertainment Weekly:
I was in my garage with several white boards, working on creative for Survivor 41. I called Mike [White] for his insight into a story-related element. He listened politely as I laid out the idea. It was an elaborate and very complicated Survivor capitalist society that would be driven by players earning money (Fire Tokens) and spending them on shelter, rewards, and advantages. When I finished the pitch, I asked him what he thought. He paused for a moment and said, 'Well… it sounds… in-ter-est-ing. But is it fun?'
So it would seem that Jeff Probst and CBS were cooking up a deeper Monopoly-esque spin for Survivor 41, but As Mike White put it, that's interesting but not necessarily what Survivor fans wanted. When fire tokens were first introduced in the last season, Winners at War, there were some gripes that the twist was actually a little tedious. (Although in the hands of someone like Tony Vlachos, winner of that season, it had its benefits.) I guess we have Mike White, School of Rock's Ned Schneebly himself, to thank for Probst shelving that scheme entirely.
In fact, Jeff Probst revealed that he “couldn't erase the whiteboards fast enough” after that convo. Everything he and the Survivor 41 creative team had been working on during the show's lengthy production hiatus last year was retailored to fit Mike White’s big question. Probst said,
Mike really gave me a gift because he not only pulled me out of an idea that would have really bogged down the game, but he connected me to a much bigger idea: After everything we have all gone through with COVID, we just need to have some fun. That became the driving creative focus on Survivor 41. Every time I would talk with Matt, one of us would ask the other, 'Is it fun?'
COVID-19 already affected Survivor's upcoming season by way of delays and postponements, but it's also the reason behind the huge change from 39 days to 26 days for contestants, with the two-week quarantine period accounting for the rest of the days. Jeff Probst had shared that the shorter game may be a permanent change, as well, which is another indication they want to make the show a little less stressful.
Now, Jeff Probst also mentioned that Season 41 players had far fewer comforts to work with out of the gate. However, to follow Mike White's edict of fun, Probst said they gave the game “the personality of a monster,” where nothing was “too big, too scary, too controversial.”
Creator Mike White is quite familiar to the concept of storytelling with inherent personality. His new HBO series The White Lotus, which he also directed and wrote, is a satirical dramedy focusing on the intersecting lives at a Hawaiian resort. And much like Jeff Probst’s new Survivor 41 plans, White shook the proverbial table with it, particularly The White Lotus’ Season 1 finale. The darkly comedic series had a lot of fun putting characters and viewers through stressful and awkward moments, which is familiar territory for Survivor contestants.
Traditional Survivor fans are apt to have polarizing reactions to new changes to the game. But Jeff Probst himself calls it “a new era” and one purportedly centered on fun alone. Let’s see if he made Mike White proud when Survivor 41 premieres on CBS on Wednesday, September 22, at 8:00 p.m. ET.
