Survivor 48 is currently airing on the 2025 TV schedule, but Survivor 50 is right around the corner. The milestone season will bring back fan-favorite players, and Jeff Probst has detailed how casting is going, revealing “there’s blood everywhere.” It can’t be easy going through hundreds of players and whittling them down to just 20, especially since some of them have already been cut. The Survivor 48 cast is throwing out their own picks for returning players, and they’re pretty solid.
Even though it’s certainly too soon for anyone from the current cast to come back for Season 50, that isn’t stopping them from sharing their dream picks. After being asked by Entertainment Weekly who they wouldn’t mind seeing return, some of them gave very different answers. Now, if only Probst could get on this, it would be fun to see at least some of their dreams come true.
- California native Shauhin Davari wants to see Survivor: Nicaragua winner Fabio Birza, mostly because it’s been so long since his season, having been the Sole Survivor back in 2010.
- Mary Zheng, meanwhile, wants to see finance girl Emily Flippen from Survivor 45 since she “just started hitting her stride” and was very strategic with her game when she turned it around. It would be pretty interesting to see how she would do this time around after initially starting the game social isolated from her tribemates.
- Thomas Krotinger wants to see Kathy Vavrick-O’Brien, who took part in Survivor: Marquesas and Survivor: All-Stars, so putting her on another all-stars season wouldn’t be too bad.
- Joe Hunter wants Rupert Boneham to have yet another chance at being Sole Survivor after competing on Pearl Islands, All-Stars, Heroes vs. Villains, and Blood vs. Water.
As for Charity Nelms, she has a few different picks, and I can’t say I blame her for having more than one favorite. In her words:
I want Russell back. I love Russell. He has a bad rap. I think I would've voted for him. I think he is incredibly entertaining. He is a great competitor. I was glued to the TV. I also love Tony. I don't know if they called him this on the show, but my husband and I always called him Tony the Rat. I would love to see him again.
And that's not all, either, although Nelms' third pick is on that she prefaces by saying she doesn't even know if it's possible at this point. As she put it:
And then my all-time favorite player, who I would love to see back — but I'm going to be so real, I don't even know if she's still alive — is Jane from Nicaragua. Everybody goes, “Jane?” And I'm like, “How do you not love Jane?” She lived on a farm, her husband passed away, she's taking care of everything. And she was fiercely beating out these bodybuilder men in purely physical competitions. I love her. She is my inspiration. She's farm-strong. She was incredible.
There are so many contestants to choose from, and it’s hard to tell just who will eventually be picked to return for the stress-inducing milestone season. Survivor 50 has been getting hyped for a while, and when it was announced that the show would be bringing back fan favorites, it opened up a whole door of possibilities. And at this point, it really could be anyone out of the entire series that can pop up on the upcoming season.
When the cast for Survivor 50 will be revealed is unknown, as Probst is also working hard on Survivor 49, but the wait will surely be worth it. The series is going big for the 50th season, and it will be exciting to know who will be once again vying to be the Sole Survivor. For now, though, new episodes of Survivor air on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day with a Paramount+ subscription.
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