Surprise! Longtime Survivor host Jeff Probst was at an event for the beloved reality show last night when he asked the fans in attendance what they wanted to see out of the upcoming 50th season. It quickly became clear the answer was returning players; so, in a huge win, he decided to commit to that on the spot. Exactly who those players might be or how it’ll all work is unclear and likely will be for the foreseeable future, but even without those details, I think it’s very obvious how the tribes should be set up.
Survivor has slowly evolved over the years from the survival-heavy reality experiment it started as to the relentlessly strategic game of blindsides and transitory coalition building we see now. All that change, however, didn’t come incrementally. Things like the immunity idols and the addition of a third tribe served as inflection points, and there’s perhaps been no bigger inflection point than Season 41. Dubbed The New Era by Jeff Probst and the producers, the reality show has prided itself on aggressively shaking things up since Covid. This has resulted in key changes like the Beware Advantage, the Shot In The Dark and Mergatory, as well as shortening the game to 26 days from the original 39, all of which continue to this day.
Most hardcore fans have complicated feelings about The New Era. Lack of villains and over emphasis on superfans aside, they’ve mostly loved the casts and some of the individual players. They’ve also enjoyed the increased focus on strategy, the longer episodes and some of the individual twists. The shortened time on the island, the disastrous hourglass twist and the relentless meddling by producers shaking things up too many times each season, however, have been viewed much more negatively. Personally, I agree with most of those takes and am somewhere in the middle on The New Era. I like change and keeping things fresh. I’ve loved a lot of the players, but there have been too many times in which the show hasn’t trusted the players to just play the normal game.
Regardless, I think it’s pretty obvious what Season 50 should be: OG Players vs New Era Players. Give us two tribes. Populate one with all our favorite older players who originally appeared sometime before Season 41. I’ll gladly take legends like Sandra, Parv, Tony and Boston Rob, but I’m also open to some of our favorites who didn’t win their seasons. Just give us a good mix of fun players who we all want to see play the game again. And then give us a tribe of great New Era players. There are so many castaways that fans are dying to see come back. Shan, Ricard, Xander, Cody, Karla, Jesse, Maryanne, Carolyn, Yam Yam and Carson to just name a few.
I know Survivor is down this path right now of preferring 3 tribes, but sometimes you need to let the basic premise of the season dictate the specifics. Players from The New Era clearly feel they’ve been battle tested in a way older players haven’t given all the twists and turns. Older players clearly feel New Era castaways don’t really know what’s up given they get off the island in 26 days. So, I think we let them battle it out. Give us two opposing tribes, give us some of The New Era twists and let them go the full 39 days. It would be fantastic television, and fans from every era would be so fired up.
Survivor is currently airing Season 46 on Wednesday nights on CBS or via other streaming options. That means producers have a year or two to figure out all the specifics since all we’ve gotten is the basic commitment it’s happening. I can't wait.
