Spoilers ahead for Survivor 51 Episode 5.

You know a Survivor Tribal Council is ridiculous when explaining how someone survived requires going back several episodes, an abandoned bag and a player who already quit. That's where we've landed with Survivor 51, which has delivered some of the wildest moments on the 2026 TV schedule. And Lewis Kelly is having a pretty good laugh about it.

Following Episode 5's wild Tribal Council, Lewis took to Instagram to explain the unlikely series of events that kept his torch burning. And, according to him, the whole thing might come down to a little Irish luck:

That would be Rhode Island Rob, who quit back in Episode 3. Before leaving, he gave his hidden immunity idol to Carter, whose position on Savu was already looking shaky. Carter later traveled to Toka on a journey that let players find an advantage or switch tribes. He accidentally missed his ride home, effectively mutinying.

While Carter was busy getting acquainted with Toka, Lewis got curious about the unattended bag he'd left behind. Lewis searched it and found instructions revealing where an extra vote was hidden. Maggie and Brady went after the advantage, which Brady retrieved from an oar and handed to Maggie after she asked for it.

It was the kind of chaotic, seemingly minor scene you might forget by the next episode. Lewis certainly hasn't forgotten it. In his video, he gave Maggie credit for a particularly gutsy move:

Fast-forward to the tribe swap, which stranded Lewis and Danny Kilby on Dina alongside four former Savu players. After Dina lost immunity, Lewis looked like the obvious target. He even tried convincing Sharonda that his wedding ring was a magical “Blood Ring” advantage, a bluff she didn't buy.

Fortunately, for Lewis, Maggie was randomly chosen to visit a losing tribe after Toka won immunity. Her reward was an extra vote she had to give away. She chose Dina, saw the trouble Lewis and Kilby were in and decided one vote wasn't enough.

So Maggie handed over both votes (on the condition that they'd vote out Linnea Capobianco), including the one discovered after Lewis snooped through Carter's bag. Yes, Lewis accidentally set up his own rescue several episodes in advance. (You really can't write this stuff.)

At Tribal Council, Lewis and Kilby used those advantages to force a 4-4 tie against Linnea. A revote changed nothing. Jeff Probst then gave the remaining voters a choice: agree on whom to eliminate or draw rocks. Kilby refused to budge, and Linnea's allies ultimately sacrificed her rather than risk going home themselves. Take a look at the full IG video below:

Maggie and Kilby deserve a ton of credit for pulling this off, and Lewis clearly knows it. Still, I can't get over how much depended on things nobody could have planned. Rob quitting. Carter missing a boat. Lewis going through somebody else's bag. Brady simply handing over an advantage because Maggie asked.

I love a good Survivor blindside, but it's especially satisfying when a throwaway moment from weeks earlier comes back to decide somebody's game. Given what we've seen from Survivor 51 so far, I wouldn't rule out something even stranger next Wednesday.

New episodes of Survivor air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and stream with a Paramount+ subscription.

I just want to clear up a misconception. There have been a lot of complaints over the past few weeks from Survivor fans about tribe swaps. Specifically, there have been a lot of complaints about how multiple fun, high-upside players have gone home because of tribe swaps. There was a similar refrain during Survivor 50, and to some extent, there was that same refrain during the entire New Era. The thing is, though, I want to say loudly and aggressively that many fans, myself included, are not against tribe swaps. We’re just against Survivor doing tribe swaps in the worst, most boring way possible.

Let me explain. When Survivor reconfigures its players into new tribes, it needs a method to do it. Producers aren’t just going to assign the players to the tribes they think would make for the best storylines, as they do at the beginning of the game. Instead, they need a way for the castaways to sort themselves. In theory, there are an infinite number of ways they could do that, but for whatever reason, Survivor has fallen in love with players randomly drawing buffs, which is a bottom-tier option.

Longtime host and showrunner Jeff Probst always likes to say he wants to create a game for the players that they can actually play. That means creating an unstable environment with advantages and other developments the players must respond to, but when tribe swaps happen using random buff draws, those same players have no agency whatsoever. They don’t have any say in their fate, and more often than not, it leads to a few of them getting randomly swap-screwed when they draw the wrong color and end up on a tribe with a bunch of other people already in an established alliance.

There are literally so many other ways to shuffle people around. You can randomly draw for captains and let them pick their teams. You can play a game to determine two captains and let them pick their teams. You can have one player pick a player and then let the player they picked pick the next player. You can have everyone compete in an endurance challenge and say the first certain number of people to fall are going to be one tribe and those left are going to be the other tribe. You can let tribes trade players or pick who they don’t want on their tribes.

Any of those options would be preferable to random because the relationships you’ve made and the influence you have in the game would have some say in the outcome. That doesn’t mean people wouldn’t still get swap screwed. Players absolutely would be disadvantaged and go home after any of those tribe swaps, but it would at least feel like they did something that directly or indirectly led to their ultimate fate.

But even if you ignore all of that and don’t care about the inherent fairness of Survivor, the random buff draw also isn’t a very good production decision because it’s not good television. The castaways doing something, anything, to reconfigure themselves is way more interesting than just randomly being assigned, and giving them some level of agency creates a real fallout. Imagine a player gets picked and then gets to pick the next player. Imagine they have two different allies, both of whom are expecting to be picked. That creates compelling television and potentially has long-term ramifications in the game.

To be clear, I’m enjoying the Open Era. I love the casting. I love most of the wrinkles that have been added to the game. I think the show is on the right track, but if I never saw another random buff draw for new tribes, I would be happy. Literally anything else is better. The players deserve it. The fans deserve it. Let’s start getting creative.

Survivor's Danny Kilby is an fascinating dude. He hired a guy on Reddit to teach him to swim, played a key role in the wildest vote we've seen in Season 51, and is a huge fan of pooping in the ocean. Yes, Kilby is a big fan of aquadumping, and might've convinced me to give it a shot sometime in the future.

While waiting to see if Kilby and Lewis Kelly's bold play allows them to escape the bottom of the totem pole in Dina Tribe, I stumbled across a hilarious video from Noel B Askin's TikTok where he described what it's like to take a dump in the open sea. He loves it, to the point that I wager he may continue to do it even after Survivor:

The passion in his statement really makes me wonder if there's a deleted scene in which he discussed this with buddy Eric Macksoud at some point. It's not like he talked about this unprompted, but it also sounds like he was nearly bursting at the seams, waiting for someone to ask.

After hearing him go on about it, however, I get the hype. Bowel troubles can really get a person down, and it feels like Kilby found some great relief when describing the experience:

Pooping for entertainment is a new one, and possibly one to add to the list of things not to do when you want to win Survivor. I think it's hilarious that he had so much to say on the topic and was so unashamed to share it with the world.

Honestly, this has me rooting for Kilby more, and hoping he can make a deep run in Season 51. It felt as though his back has been against the wall since the very start of the game, but some bold gameplay and a lot of luck have him primed to climb the ranks of Dina Tribe and survive until the tribes are merged again. Who knows? Maybe none of that would have happened had he not discovered his love of aquadumping!

As for whether Kilby has a shot at making it to the late game of Survivor, only time will tell. This era of permanent uncertainty has led to a lot of twists and turns that have led to some unlikely eliminations. It may work out best for a wildcard like Kilby, who seems to think fast and catch lucky breaks.

Catch new episodes on CBS on Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. I'm eager to see if the three tribes continue, or we'll see a merge to at least two tribes again with the dwindling numbers.

During the past few seasons, longtime Survivor host and showrunner Jeff Probst has hit up social and dropped notes and reflections after every episode. He calls the musings his Field Notes, and they’re typically several pages of behind the scenes facts, random observations and his reflections on what he thought of the eliminated player or players during casting. His comments aren’t typically the sorta thing that people get upset about, but let the Tribal record reflect that one current Survivor 51 castaway is not a happy castaway about what he put out this week.

Or I guess more specifically, she’s not a happy castaway about what wasn’t put out this week. Survivor fans have spent the past few days giving Maggie Nestor her flowers after she gave Kilby and Lewis two extra votes to snipe out Linnea, but she was not mentioned at all in Jeff’s Field Notes for Episode 5. Instead, he talked about Lewis being sick, how they filmed Tribal Council, a hero shot we got from Brady, why they included the backstories for Ori, Alexis and Devin, observations on the two tribal councils and the casting notes for Alexis and Linnea.

Maggie was clearly shocked that she didn’t even get at least a passing mention, and she made her feelings very clear in a public comment underneath the post on Instagram. You can check it out below…

I think a lot of this comes down to a difference in perception of how people view these Field Notes. I think Jeff looks at them as just random observations and points of clarification. I don’t know that he views them as like the definitive record for the episode or thinks there’s an expectation that he comments on the biggest moments that happened. That being said, I understand why Maggie is frustrated. She clearly had her breakout moment, and I’m sure it feels insulting and maybe even offensive to see the showrunner not comment on that but instead dedicate time to Lewis feeling ill.

Maggie is definitely not the first Survivor castaway (or fan) to deliver some negative feedback to Jeff and the producers. Typically the complaints are about the edit/ lack of screentime they’re receiving or a twist that happened in the game they’re not happy with. I’m not sure I’ve seen someone have a breakout episode and go off about the Field Notes before, but Maggie is clearly the type of person that is going to speak her mind. That’s why she’s been such a memorable character so far this season, and I’m sure it’s at least part of the reason why she was cast.

Regardless, if you’re not watching Survivor 51 right now, you’re making a tremendous mistake. The cast is full of wild, larger than life personalities who are bringing the chaos, and quite a few of the votes have been riveting. Do yourself a favor and get on board.

Survivor is a game of moments, and by the power of Coach Wade on Exile Island, we got a moment last night. One tribe delivered one of the messiest and most insane votes in the entire history of the show and in doing so, completely changed how a lot of fans see two different players, one of whom wasn’t even at said tribal council.

Let’s take off our buffs real quick and set the scene of what exactly happened before we get into how the fanbase has responded. During Episode 4 of 51, the producers, much to the annoyance of fans, randomly sorted the players out of their two starting tribes and into three new tribes. Kilby and Lewis drew the short end of the stick, as they ended up on a six person tribe with Sharonda, Erik, Christian and Linnea who were already in a not-so-secret alliance. If their tribe lost, it seemed predestined that one of Lewis or Kilby would go home. So, when that loss happened last night, everyone involved was just wondering which one of the two it would be.

A funny thing happened before Tribal Council, however. Maggie, whose tribe won the immunity challenge, was given an advantage that allowed her to visit another beach and gift someone an extra vote. She picked Kilby and Lewis’s tribe and she not only gave them the extra vote, she also gave them a second extra vote she and Brady found earlier in the season. At Tribal Council, they threw the two extra votes onto Linnea, which tied the tally at 4 to 4 between her and Lewis.

After a revote produced the same numbers, host Jeff Probst told Kilby, Sharonda, Erik and Christian that they could either unanimously agree to send Linnea or Lewis home, or if they were unable to make a decision, all four of them would draw rocks and whoever drew the odd one would go home. Kilby stood his ground and said he was willing to go to rocks. Everyone else wavered and Sharonda, Erik and Christian decided to send home their own ally Linnea rather than leave their fate to chance.

With all due respect to Brady chopping his finger off, that insane tribal council is the defining moment of Survivor 51 so far, and it has completely changed how the fanbase views both Kilby and Maggie. Most of the conversation around this past episode has involved the two of them, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. That’s a far cry from the treatment they were getting earlier in the season, and it could position both as potential returning players in the future.

Let’s talk about Maggie first. The response to her hasn’t exactly been negative from the game’s biggest fans on social media, but it has been quiet and at times, kind of dismissive. Her edit was mostly quiet through the first four episodes, and there was a consistent stream of joke tweets with her picture going around and people asking who she was. The fanbase’s collective read was that she was going to be an underdeveloped character who quietly went home sometime before the endgame without much fanfare. Not anymore. Now fans are dropping tweets of her dressed like Lady Olenna from Game Of Thrones and commenting on her big balls. Former players are even talking about how she basically hired hitmen since she told them to target Linnea.

For Kilby, screentime has not been the issue. He’s been one of the most prominent characters of the entire season, but it’s often felt like the edit has been dunking on him. The game has shown several conversations where his perception and reads on the game seemed to be way off, and his budding friendship with Erik has been widely mocked by the fanbase. A former player even called the two of them a nightmare blunt rotation. The fanbase’s read was that he couldn’t go home soon enough, at least until last night. Now every Survivor player and fan I’ve seen, myself included, is praising how hard he rode for Lewis and how much he pushed around Erik, Christian and Sharonda. He’s being treated like a war hero and someone never to be messed with.

Obviously the point of Survivor is to win the game, but for many people going on the show, the point is also to make an impact. The goal is to have your own moment and do something fans will reference and talk about for years to come. Both Kilby and Maggie got that moment last night, and in doing so, they went from being an underedited nobody and an overedited weirdo to both being badass fan favorites. Not bad for one episode.

I don’t know exactly when it’s going to happen, but at this point, it’s pretty clear we’re going to get another season of Big Brother with former Survivor castaways and/ or notable contestants from other reality shows. For better or for worse, Rick Devens and Dee (alongside returning BB fav Angela) created so much cultural noise and attention that it would be wild not to go back to the well again. Ratings were up. Fans were invested in the season, whether they rooted for or against the icons. It’s happening.

Who those players might be, however, is the big question mark. Survivor legend Cirie Fields was on Big Brother 25. She was a lot of fun to watch, but she also quite clearly had mixed feelings about the experience. Dee and Devens, however, loved it. They really embraced the game and brought a level of scheming and last minute vote chaos that could have a long-term impact on the game. So, who else might be a good fit? Big Brother superfan and 28 houseguest Barrett Pfeiffer dropped some suggestions, and his answers are top tier.

The question came up during a Reddit AMA Barrett did earlier this week. He was asked by a fan if Dee, Devens and Angela weren’t the returning icons, who are some other Survivor players who would have been good fits? Barrett said he’s not an expert on the franchise but then proceeded to drop three home run names, one for the comedy and two who could actually make a deep run. Here’s a portion of his quote…

First, let’s talk out the Emily Flippen of it all real quick. A standout character from 45 (which is Dee’s season) and Survivor 50, Emily is a good strategist and fun character, but she’s also quite terrible at tolerating people she doesn’t like or see value in. She would be a fantastic perjury character in Big Brother, but her chances of making a deep run in the game are not strong. His “lmao” says everything you need to know here.

Kyle and Rizgod, however, both have the potential to be top tier Big Brother players. They’re fantastic with social relationships and are quietly sneaky in a way that doesn’t read as nakedly deceptive or untrustworthy. Kyle is also really physically fit but also coordinated and steady in a way that would likely make him a Yash level comp beast.

Now, does that mean we’ll actually see these players get cast? I think Emily Flippen is the most unlikely. She did some Big Brother 28 analysis on podcasts during the season and would be able to handle herself strategically, but I’m not sure she would take an entire summer off work or even really want to. I’m also not sure she’s a big enough name with casual fans that CBS would go out of its way to grab her.

Kyle probably has the highest upside as a potential winner. With all due respect to Dee, I think he’s probably the best player of Survivor’s New Era, but he’s also not the most loud or personality-heavy player. He’s very likeable but in an understated and relatable kind of way. He doesn’t have that bigger than life Big Brother energy. So, once again, I’m not sure they’d cast him either.

Rizo, however, checks all the boxes Big Brother fans would look for. He’s maybe the most popular player of the entire New Era. He’s a goofy, larger than life character with big energy, and he’s an elite confessionalist that would eat up all his diary room appearances Rick Devens style. He’s the right age range and has shown an ability to get along with and strategize beside a wide variety of different personality types. He would be perfect. It’s not just Barrett and I saying that either. He was referenced several times on the live feeds by Dee and Devens who said they thought he’d be perfect.

Big Brother has already been renewed for 29 and 30. Many fans would like to see the show do a season of all new players on 29 and some kind of all-star season on 30, but I’m not so sure CBS is going to go for that. They brought fan favorite Rachel Reilly back for 27 and the Survivors plus Angela in for 28. It seems like they may want to stick with that formula, and if they do, it could be Rizo’s moment. We’ll see.

Jeff Probst has gotten really good at teasing upcoming Survivor seasons without actually giving anything away. He’ll say I can’t wait for fans to see a few of my favorite blindsides ever, or he’ll say fans are going to love how hard everyone plays in the post-merge. It’s always quotes like that, which aren’t spoilers but are the sort of thing you can retroactively identify when they happen. He gave a few of those ahead of Survivor 51, but four episodes in, I’m still baffled about who one of the comments was referring to.

During an interview with The Wrap before the season started, the longtime host and showrunner was asked if there’s someone who he could see replacing him as the frontman for the franchise after he retires. He said it’s complicated because it’s really better if the person is a combination host and producer, but he said there is one player on 51 who he could see doing the job. Apparently he saw it so clearly that he actually told the mystery castaway during the casting process. Here’s a portion of his quote…

Fans, including myself, who spend too much time obsessing over the show latched onto the quote during the preseason and speculated widely about who he was talking about. Almost a third of the way through the season, however, it’s still not clear who he’s talking about. There are a couple of possible candidates, I guess, but my assumption going in was that this was going to be one of those seasons with an obvious narrator that dominates confessional time. My assumption was that we all were going to know quite clearly who he was talking about.

Some fans are pointing to Devin as the most likely candidate. He has the most confessionals through four episodes by a pretty healthy margin and has a lot of natural charisma. He really pops when he’s on camera, but I’m not entirely convinced Probst was talking about him. The edit has dunked on him quite a few times and made it clear his reads on people aren’t necessarily perfect. That doesn’t align super well with the preseason quote.

I’ve seen others point to Ori, who has given multiple speeches and repeatedly said really thoughtful and profound things at Tribal Council. I’ve also seen people speculate about Eric, Brady and Jelly. I’m not sure about those three. I can kind of see the Ori thing, but if I had to pick the most likely contender, I’d actually go with someone else entirely.

Kristin doesn’t make a lot of sense on paper because she’s only in the middle of the pack on confessionals. She is, however, extremely eloquent whenever we do get to see her. She’s got a straight-forward, easy to understand way of communicating, and she quite obviously has a lot of enthusiasm for the game. As a crisis consultant, she seems like the sort of person who would be great in a producer role too.

I think she’s maybe who Jeff was talking about. She’s the only one who fully makes sense in my mind, but I definitely wouldn’t bet large amounts of money on it. Instead, I’m just going to have to wait until the end of the season for Jeff to finally clarify who he was talking about.

Regardless, if you aren’t watching Survivor 51, I’d highly recommend jumping on that raft. The Open Era has really taken the beloved reality competition back to its roots, and the chaotic and wild cast is bringing the scheming and shenanigans we all want. It’s definitely worth your time. You can catch it on Wednesdays on CBS or stream it on Paramount+.

Between in-person events, podcast appearances, watch parties and more, the community of former Survivor players has never felt so interconnected. It’s obvious there’s a close affinity between many castaways and a particularly special bond amongst multi-time players and legends of the game. Unfortunately, it’s also become clear over the last few years that the aforementioned closeness doesn’t always extend to longtime host Jeff Probst and the producers, and if there was any doubt about that friction, beloved fan favorites Tyson Apostol and Parvati Shallow ripped off that band-aid.

If you’re plugged into the Survivor community on social media, you’ve no doubt noticed it over the last few years. There’s been an undercurrent of negativity directed toward Jeff and the producers from many former players. Some of it has been about the format of the show and gameplay related decisions, and those squabbles have felt healthy and entirely normal. Those of us who love Survivor should have different opinions about game mechanics and three tribes versus two.

Unfortunately, a lot of it has gone beyond that and felt very personal. It’s obvious there are legitimate hard feelings amongst many former players. Some of that has been about the show’s casting process. Probst and the producers promised Survivor 50 would honor the legacy of the show. More than a hundred former players were reportedly contacted to participate, but some of the biggest names in the history of the show apparently didn’t even get a basic check-in or didn't get one until they complained on social.

Some of those who were contacted later said they felt deceived or lied to by producers who allegedly told them them to clear their schedules because they were locks to be cast, only to cut them later. One popular former player made it to the end of the casting process and was allegedly never even informed she was cut.

In addition, Probst made some negative comments about former players going on other reality competition shows. He made it clear that unless you’re a Cirie-style legend of the game, if you go on The Traitors, Big Brother, House Of Villains or other similar programs, it will be held against you in the casting process. Both fans and former players very loudly pushed back on his comments, to the point where Jeff actually came out and apologized and said his perspective was wrong.

Let the record show that apology has definitely not fixed the issue with everyone though. Parvati was a guest on Tyson’s podcast The Pod Has Spoken this week. The two talked about how much they’re enjoying Survivor 51 and the so-called Open Era. Much of the conversation was quite positive, but when the subject of returning to Survivor came up, it got a lot more negative. Tyson made it clear he’s very unlikely to ever return, and Parvati said there’s not any amount of money that would get her back on the US version.

Parvati was reluctant to talk about specifics and said people should read between the lines, but she did eventually offer a few thoughts. She said she’s still frustrated about Jeff saying he’s less likely to cast people who have been on other shows and said it’s particularly frustrating that Survivor pretends some people like Boston Rob, Michele Fitzgerald, Dee, Rick Devens, Cirie, Tyson and herself aren’t born to compete and go on these shows. She also said she doesn’t feel like those involved with the show treat her with the “kindness” she feels she deserves.

Tyson was clearly on board with her comments and said he feels the same way. He, however, put it in more practical terms. He said Survivor has this weird perspective on loyalty that even if they’re not paying you, you should remain committed to Survivor and be loyal in case they want to use you again in the future. He said that’s particularly frustrating because the show doesn’t pay very well and doesn’t even pretend to be thankful for your contributions.

I have no idea what Survivor’s finances look like, and I’m not going to comment on whether they should be paying bigger appearance fees for returning players. That’s a decision way above my paygrade, but I will say that Probst and company need to figure out how to mend fences with a lot of these former players. If it was just one or two, I wouldn’t necessarily draw the conclusion that it was the fault of production, but when so many players consistently make negative comments and say they’ve been treated poorly, it feels like a larger pattern.

Even if they don't actually play again, I want a world where Tyson and Parvati and legends like them make the occasional appearance on the show or during a finale or on an official podcast. I want a world where players going through the casting process feel like they're being treated fairly and honestly. I want a world in which the best players on Survivor go crush other shows like Dee and Devens on Big Brother and Cirie and Carolyn on The Traitors and then return back to their original home. I want a world in which there's more positivity around Survivor.

Minor spoilers ahead for the most recent episode of Survivor.

Survivor changed the TV world forever when it debuted back in 2000, and countless reality competition shows have been inspired by its format in the decades that followed. We're a few episodes into the whopping 51st season, which is airing on CBS (and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription). It's been a fun ride so far, and the most recent episode featured an adorably hilarious scene where Danny Kilby and Eric Macksoud became instant besties. Fans have been responding online, and their responses are A+.

While fans often wonder how much money Survivor contestants make, their commentary on each new episode over on Twitter usually includes some great memes. Eric and Kilby's meet-cute on the island has inspired a ton of responses, and I'm pretty obsessed. Case in point: the following Tweet that compared these two players to the love triangle from Challengers. Check it out:

While Kilby and Eric are seemingly not part of the LGBTQ+ community, it was funny seeing them fall head over heels for each other and become instant bros. The internet is having a field day with their scenes together, and the memes and viral tweets are not disappointing.

Fans might have been mad about Survivor 51's tribe swap, but it created new social dynamic and allowed Eric and Kilby to meet. Another great tweet compared this dynamic duo to Drew and Barrett from the most recent season of Big Brother. Check it out:

These two contestants hit it off immediately, bonding over their shared interest in theatre, wrestling, and video games. While they might have said the word "bro" too many time for my liking, it was pretty adorable. I've been saying that their "love story" is the best one we've seen since Boston Rob and Amber back in All-Stars. Fans sounded off online about Kilby and Eric with a number of funny tweets, some of which you can see below:

• "KILBY PLAYING WITH HIS HAIR I’M DEAD"
• "please i really need the screen cap of sharonda staring at kilby and eric it’s the perfect reaction image"
• "Jelly and Ori move over… Eric and Kilby is #Survivor51 ‘s best show-mance"
• "The #Survivor camera operator zooming in on Kilby twirling his hair like it's a Hallmark movie 😭"

Survivor fans are known for their passion, as well as their penchant for making fun of the players. Last week Rob got a ton of flak for quitting the game, and this time it's all about Kilby and Eric. We'll just have to wait and see how long their bromance lasts; Sharonda doesn't seem too happy about their budding relationship.

Survivor airs new episodes on Wednesdays on CBS as part of the 2026 TV schedule. The Open Era is here, so there's no telling how long this new dynamic duo will even be able to work together on the same tribe.

As part of Survivor 51 press, each castaway was asked to give their hot take on the franchise. Kilby said old-school players like Richard Hatch would also be great in the modern game. Patt said she wants more nudity. Devin said he hates shots in the dark being part of the game. There were a bunch of really good answers, but I need to specifically talk about Kristin’s because I’m so here for it.

During her conversation with Mike Bloom over at Parade, Kristin said she was once kicked off a Survivor message board she used to post at for suggesting a gay versus straight season of Survivor. The idea apparently didn’t sit too well with the moderators, but it’s sitting really well with me. Here’s a portion of her quote…

During her answer, Kristin also mentioned how much she loves Cook Islands, and I think whether or not you love this idea is probably very related to whether you love Cook Islands or at least the idea of Cook Islands or whether you hate it and think it’s uncomfortable. For those of you who may be out of the loop, Survivor 13 (subtitled Cook Islands) infamously split up the castaways into tribes based on race.

The season produced some of the most legendary players in the history of the game, including Parvati, Ozzy, Penner, Yul and Candice, as well as fan favorite side characters like Billy Garcia and Cao Boi. It also, not surprisingly, featured many conversations about race and racial identity, some of which were quite profound and some of which were not.

One of the most compelling things to me about Cook Islands was that we got to see POC players work together and plot against one another in a way that’s not always possible on a traditional season of the show. It featured a tribe of five Asian players, as an example, which, despite dramatic steps forward in POC representation over the last decade, would be very unlikely on a standard season.

So, yeah, give me a Survivor season that features a tribe of LGBTQ+ players. We’ve seen how they navigate in tribes that are overwhelmingly filled with straight people. I would like to see one season where we see how they navigate when they’re in complete control over the numbers. At the same time, I would also like to see how a tribe of straight people respond to that wrinkle. Would it change how they see numbers going into the merge? Would they trust the LGBTQ+ folk to work with them, or would they assume they would stick together? I need to see how that would play out.

Do I think this season will ever happen? Probably not. We got a season of the aforementioned Cook Islands that split based on race. We got other seasons that split by age or sex. The show was very open to these formats once upon a time, but despite saying they may bring back themes, I'm not sure they would use such a divisive theme like this.

Social media is a lot louder and a lot more intense these days, and there are a lot of people who are on the lookout to see the worst in any idea that involves race, gender or marginalized groups. I would be here for it. Kristin would be here for it. I think a lot of others would be here for it, but I’m not sure it would be worth it for the people who loudly would not be.

Regardless, we can all enjoy Kristin and both the straight and LGBTQ+ representation we have on Survivor 51, which has the potential to be the best season we've gotten in a long time. The characters are outrageous. The gameplay is chaotic, and many exciting changes have been introduced. It's definitely worth your time.

Minor spoilers ahead for the most recent episode of Survivor.

I've been watching Survivor since Day 1, when I was in elementary school. I continue to watch each new season on CBS (and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription), although I'm doing something different for Season 51. I joined a fantasy league for the first time, and I've got to say that it's making me enjoy the new season even more.

I might not be making Survivor's prize money through the fantasy league because it's just for fun, but that doesn't meant I'm not invested. While fans are mad about the tribe swap happening so soon after the mutiny, doing the fantasy league changed my perspective. In fact, I was happy to see the switch up.

I have to admit I haven't been exactly winning at Survivor fantasy so far. I've been in third place pretty much the whole time, with a friend and coworker sitting at #1. None of her players have been eliminated, so no matter who won when it was two-tribe game, she was making the most points. Now that there's three new tribes things have changed. I guess I should thank the Open Era for all that permanent uncertainty.

With the controversial tribe swap, I now have a whopping 3 players on the newly formed Dina tribe. So if they end up on a roll of Immunity wins, I could finally start climbing the ranks of my Survivor fantasy league. Plus, if the folks in the first and second place of the league losing a few players, maybe I can even end up taking the top spot. What can I say? I'm competitive.

Survivor 51 might have had a quitter, but I'm not going to go that route with the fantasy league. I'll be sore loser if I end up losing a bunch of players in a row, but currently I'm having a blast. What's more, I might have to keep doing Survivor leagues during future installments... especially whenever we get another Returning Player season. After all, I had to pick six players for the 51st season without actually knowing what they'd be capable of on the island. I've got some serious FOMO about all the fun that could have been had if I joined a league for Survivor 50, especially since so many fan favorite players were competing on it. I guess hindsight truly is 20/20.

So far I'm having a great time watching Survivor 51, especially observing the way the first-time players are blundering. I've got to give the draft system credit for adding even more enjoyment. We'll see if I change my tune once I start losing more players, though.

Survivor airs new episodes Wednesday as part of the 2026 TV schedule. Any fans who haven't tried out a fantasy league I've got to say it's totally worth it.

Through the first three episodes of Survivor 51, fans were almost euphoric. They loved the cast, loved the structure of the season and loved most of the production decisions. Even the normally cantankerous fan communities on X and Reddit were dancing around camp. It was good vibes and near universal positivity from the entire fanbase. Unfortunately, after episode four, the vibes have soured. There’s now plenty of negativity going around, and much of the anger is pointing squarely at producers for one really bizarre decision.

For the first time since Winners At War all the way back in 40, Survivor started 51 with two tribes instead of three, and it could not have gone better. With more players on each beach and room for the castaways to maneuver, every tribal council vote was a mad scramble that resulted in a blindside. There was also clear animosity building between the two tribes, especially after Carter mutinied and Brady told him to throw his buff on the ground. We were all locked in for an extended war and then producers said nevermind.

Last night’s episode started with a tribe swap. The players drew buffs randomly and were sorted into three new tribes of six, six and five with the unevenness being directly related to Rob’s outrageous quit during episode three. If that format sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same split we got during every single season between 41 and 49. Every one of those games started with three tribes of six players, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, the same issue that plagued those seasons happened here.

When you’re on a beach with eight, ten or as we saw last week, eleven people, it’s really hard to create a stable majority. There are always castaways stuck in the middle, and there’s always a lot of scheming, bargaining and backstabbing as everyone makes sure their side has enough votes. Unfortunately, with a tribe of six or five, it’s really not very hard to create a majority at all.

It’s quite simple for three or even four players to lock in and build enough trust to work together for a handful of votes, and if you’re outside of that stable majority, there’s almost nothing you can do. Jenna and Alexis were on the bottom the second they were randomly sorted into their new tribe, and while they could try and argue the other one should go home, the decision was always going to be made by Devin, Jelly and Ori.

We saw that same recurring problem during most seasons of the New Era. During the pre-merge. It was just a race on every beach to desperately put together a four person alliance. If they lost an immunity challenge, that four person alliance would vote out one of the other two. If they lost another immunity challenge, they would vote out the other one. Rinse and repeat. Throw in the fact that the three tribe format almost never created conflict between tribes, and it all just got to feel really safe, repetitive and tiresome.

Much has been made about the Open Era, which officially started this season. Longtime host Jeff Probst has said it’s going to be a new iteration of the game in which there’s permanent uncertainty. Almost every twist in the show’s history (except that one) is in play, and combined with new innovations, it’ll make it so every season feels unique and fluid.

We’ve really seen that in the first four episodes too. We started with two tribes. Players were given the opportunity to mutiny. Challenges have been a lot more physical. The mechanics around idols changed. The differences have been obvious and exciting. In theory, another unexpected change should be exciting too. Unfortunately, going back to three small tribes is exactly what we’ve all watched for the majority of the last ten seasons, and it feels particularly frustrating when that change produced further evidence of the same problem we saw over and over again with three tribes.

You don’t need to look very hard on social media to find the negativity this morning. It’s everywhere with numerous fans pointing out how shifting to three tribes was a bad idea and was the specific reason why we got the worst episode of the season. I try to be really positive about Survivor because it’s my favorite show on television, but honestly, I’m right there with the fans. This was a clear mistake from production, and it’s one the producers need to stop making. We want some twists. We want some uncertainty. Surprising castaways with the occasional curveball does create exciting television, but those curves need to leave room for the players to actually play the game. That means we need bigger tribes with more people on them.

I just finished my first ever season of Big Brother, and for the most part, I loved it. I jumped into the pool to watch Dee and Devens, but I’m going to stick with the show whether there are former Survivor players on or not. I love the strategy. I love how quickly the house can flip. I even learned to love all the stupid competitions. It’s a lot of fun and a great way to spend the summer.

That being said, that doesn’t mean the game is perfect. I talked to a bunch of Big Brother fans throughout the season about a few of my frustrations, and to my surprise, I discovered many of them agreed with me. They just said they’re used to some of the issues and have accepted that’s just the way it is. Well, as a new fan, I’m not ready to accept those issues. So, let’s talk about a few of the obvious suggestions I have that many other fans have apparently been making for years.

Fix The Timeline During The Endgame

I love how Big Brother is a slow burn. Giving the players multiple days to stew and scheme is what makes the game unique and the live feeds compelling. I’m definitely not advocating for the show to speed things up, but the timeline at the end of the game, at least how it was handled on BB 28, didn’t make any logical sense. It wasn’t a good viewing experience either.

Barrett, Yash, Melody and Dee were all eliminated between Day 73 and Day 80, which brought us from 7 players to 3 players. Then the final three sat in the house without a single elimination until the live finale on Day 87. Why? What’s the point of eliminating four players in such a short amount of time with the Pharaoh's Curse Twist if you have another week to play with?

Most reality shows want the excitement to build throughout the season. For the most part, that happened with Big Brother 28, but unfortunately, the excitement peaked and then steadily dropped off after that wild week with four eliminations. Upcoming seasons should consider spacing those out or simply moving up the finale so the reality competition feels like a slow burn for most of the summer until it concludes with a chaotic and fast-paced final week.

Fix The Confessional Situation

The confessionals on Big Brother are, by a pretty large margin, the worst in the entire reality television space. It’s pretty obvious that producers are coaching the houseguests on exactly what they want them to say, and because of that, so many come off sounding awkward and uncomfortable. Many of them also talk down to the audience in a way that feels almost condescending and offensive, especially during the competitions where we often hear multiple houseguests explain the rules or really obvious basic strategy multiple times.

It’s really frustrating because there are plenty of Big Brother confessionals that are compelling. When the DR just let Mallory, Melody and Yash especially vent out their feelings, we were treated to absolute gold and got a real sense of their personalities. Dee, Devens, Drew and Taylor especially were also very good at talking us through their feelings and dropping in amusing comments throughout the season. Clearly these players had the capacity to deliver good confessionals, which is why it’s so frustrating as a viewer to see those bangers intermixed with ones that felt like bad audition tapes. I don’t know why producers think that’s what viewers are looking for, but every Big Brother fan I’ve spoken to has told me they hate it.

To Sum Up

There are plenty of other suggestions I have or I’ve heard other people share about improving the game. Many fans want to stop sharing the actual vote totals. Many want to get rid of Blockbuster once jury starts or a few episodes earlier than we saw it go this season. (Almost) everyone wants to clean up the atrocious fan behavior on social media. There’s certainly a conversation to be had around advantages and mixed returning player seasons.

I think fans should advocate for the things they want to change and be loud about it. The confessional situation and the endgame timeline, however, are things I think every single fan agrees with, whether they’ve watched one season like me or they’ve been around since the beginning. Let’s clean those obvious changes up, and then we can argue about some of the others.

Warning! The following contains spoilers from the Survivor 51 episode "What I'm Smellin Is Stinky." Stream the episode with a Paramount+ subscription, and read at your own risk!

Survivor 51's Rob Antonson isn't apologizing for removing himself from the competition and is even going after fans for accusing him of wasting a spot on the cast. He's not the least bit sorry for writing his own name down at Tribal Council, and his lack of care just makes me angrier.

I was ready to show some empathy for Rob after he removed himself from a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity on the 2026 TV schedule. Unfortunately, the way he's meme'd the exit and talked about it in interviews has made me less sympathetic, and I agree with the many saying that he should've never been on the season in the first place.

Rob Is Trolling Survivor Fans Who Are Mad At Him

Survivor made it clear during Rob's medical exam that there was no reason he couldn't continue, but he decided to leave anyway. He was afraid that the "tiny cut," as it was called, could turn into a bad infection and make him sick. This reportedly evolved into him going days without sleep and little food or water.

Had he owned that maybe he overreacted, or just wanted to go home, I could've forgiven Rob. Unfortunately, he's doubling down on social media and trying to mock his critics. Take a look:

Not to be petty, but he put more thought into making that video than he did into his plan to save Eric Macksoud. It gives me the feeling that for Rob, this was never about winning Survivor, but more about promoting his own endeavors on social media. That's the vibe I get, and his comments about his exit haven't done much to convince me otherwise.

Rob Maintains His Fear Of Infection Was Why He Left

Parade had a chance to talk to Rob about his exit, and he added a bit more detail on top of what Survivor previously showed. He said he dealt with an ankle infection as a teenager, so when he had the cut and the same symptoms started cropping up, he feared it was happening again:

I totally understand fear getting in your head and the pressure to keep going, knowing that host Jeff Probst hates quitters. It screws with the game, and now there's a notable disparity in players between the Savu and Toka tribes. Had Rob just owned the fact that he was scared and might've overreacted and could've continued playing with no issues, that's easy to get behind.

Instead, however, he's gone on to say that he saw himself as a "main character" of the season, and he was making moves like some of the legends of the game. He also said he made the decision to leave because he had to think of his family, but wouldn't that also be the reason he did Survivor in the first place?

I know it's really easy to be critical, as someone who has never played Survivor, but that's the point. So many Survivor fans submit an audition tape every year, and even celebrities get overlooked for a chance to play. Contestants should do whatever they can to stay in the game, and I can't say that I saw Rob do this in his exit. I know the casting team supposedly tweaked the people they're looking for, but maybe they need to do some more vetting again.

Survivor 51 continues on CBS on Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. The twists and turns keep coming in the new era, and I genuinely wonder if we'll see anything wilder this season than what we've seen in these opening episodes.

Another Survivor season filled with returning players is coming. We don’t know exactly when it’s going to happen, but based on comments from longtime host and showrunner Jeff Probst, it’ll be sooner rather than later. 54, 55 or 56 seem like the most likely candidates, but regardless of when it happens, I’m now convinced it needs to have a specific theme fans have been clamoring for, especially after last night. Spoilers ahead.

On this week’s Survivor episode, fan favorite Pantsless Patt was blindsided after a pretty unlucky sequence of events. Her five person alliance was basically running the beach, but after her team blew a commanding lead at the immunity challenge and another player mutinied from the other side, their numbers advantage suddenly found itself one vote short.

Her exit from the game made for great television, but it also left us with a giant what-if. A fun confessionalist with a strategic head for the game, good social skills and low key athleticism, she could have made a really deep run and potentially even won the game under the right circumstances. Instead, she’s just the latest in a long series of fantastic characters who went home during Survivor’s pre-merge phase of the game. She needs a chance at redemption and so do so many other what-ifs.

For the most part, returnee seasons are filled with players who made deep runs and understandably so. Because we get to watch them for more episodes, we build a closer bond with them and there’s a stronger pull to see them come back. The best returnee seasons, however, aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest names. Instead, they’re the ones with the right mix of personalities who have more to show and prove when they come back. And there are so many great pre-merge characters with more to show who would appreciate the opportunity to try again and play as hard as possible.

I want to see Pantsless Patt again, and she’s not the only one. I also want to see Brad from Survivor 41, J’Tia and Brice from Cagayan, Thomas from 48, Ace from Gabon, Stephanie Valencia from Redemption: Island, Russell Swan from Samoa, Cao Boi from Cook Islands, Reem and Wendy from Edge Of Extinction and Jake from 49 who had to be evacuated after he was bit by a sea krait. I even want to see Brandon Donlon try to get redemption for his disaster tribe in 45. That’s just ripping them off one after another too. I’m sure if I sat down and went through every season, I could easily come up with forty or fifty worthy candidates for production to contact that would represent all eras of the show.

When Probst first announced another returnee season was imminent, I was convinced it should be Heroes vs Villains 2. I’m still on board with getting that at some point. I’d also love to see another Blood vs Water and a Millenials vs Gen Z season. I’m down to watch all of those, but last night’s episode really has me in the feels about pre-merge characters. There are simply so many who were a delight to watch, and yet, we only got a few episodes from them. I would love to see them get another shot, and I think it could make for a terrific season. Let’s make it happen, and let’s start by casting Patt.

The first two episodes of Survivor 51 have collectively been the best opening sequence to a newbie season in a long time. The fanbase is in almost universal agreement. Most are pointing to the structural changes (return to two tribes, way less complicated advantages, etc), but a key part of what’s working almost certainly is the cast. There was clearly a change in casting philosophy ahead of 51, and I need to talk about why it has led to what we’re seeing.

During the New Era, Jeff Probst gave several interviews in which he talked about wanting to cast all players who he felt like could win the game. I’m not sure the show ever totally followed through on that, but over the last five years or so, it mostly followed through on that. Each season was overwhelmingly filled with superfans, gamebots and really strategic thinkers. That led to some fun showdowns between high level players trying to shift voting blocks and do some creative things, especially post-merge, but it also almost entirely removed dumb, loud chaos and nonsensical moves from the game.

Two episodes into 51, however, it’s very clear that not everyone on the island has an encyclopedic knowledge of Survivor, nor are they interested in playing the way that many superfans have decided is best. This season, we’ve got players blurting out who is on the chopping block in casual conversations at Tribal. We’ve got players openly telling the person they’re going to vote for that they’re voting for them. We’ve got castaways saying they’re going to rely on others for strategy because they’re not experts in the game. We’ve got yelling during challenges, reckless behavior at camp and a player who tried to vote for himself, only to find out that’s illegal.

I thought the New Era had its moments, but the reason why it was so frustrating wasn’t just because every season started with three tribes and had so many structural similarities. It was because so many of the castaways viewed the game through a similar lens. Build a four person alliance on my original six person tribe. Win immunity challenges against the disaster tribe. Coast to the merge. Engineer one blindside to put on my resume. Figure out who the biggest threats are at the final six or seven and systematically work to eliminate them in order of threat level. It all just became so precise, like we were watching a high level Scrabble tournament.

The best Survivor seasons of all-time are not the ones filled with the highest numbers of technically good players. Even Heroes vs Villains, the best all-star season by a mile and maybe the best season ever, is so good because the players are fantastic television personalities who take big, reckless swings. They’re not playing optimally. One player gives his idol away to someone he’s never met based on a hunch. Another player hides the machete. Another burns someone’s hat. Another explains in graphic detail why wearing feathers in your hair at tribal is a bad idea. It’s a mess, and that’s why it’s great.

We’re a little early to be saying Survivor 51 is going to go down as an all-time season, but through two episodes, it’s very clear the producers made some great behind the scenes decisions. Many of those are what everyone else has been pointing out: the tribe sizes, the marooning, the reduced complexity. All of those are definitely playing a role, but we also need to shout out the casting process. This season is giving us a range of castaways who aren’t all lifelong superfans desperate to go on Survivor. We have some of those, but we also have just some real human beings who are playing with emotions and intuition, and it’s making all the difference.

Big Brother Season 28 recently crowned Rick Devens as its winner, and that didn't come without some not-so-warm reactions. Devens' big win happened much to the dismay of many BB legends. In short, they didn't want a Survivor alumni to make it to the end. Now, Devens is aware of his predecessors' feelings, and in a relatable turn of events, he admitted to understanding their feelings.

The 2026 TV schedule just recently marked the end of BB season and is easing into the beginning of Survivor season, though it seems drama from the former isn't over. Devens learned from VirtualRealiTea on Instagram that some of Big Brother's most memorable winners and legends were rooting against him. Rather than react with anger, he had empathy, and I can't help but appreciate his nuanced take on the matter:

Granted, it's easy not to be bitter when sitting on that grand prize money, in addition to what he won when activating the Pharaoh's Curse and winning America's Favorite Player. If I just won $810,000, there's not much anyone could tell me that would make me upset.

Of course, I'd also be a little cocky. It's no surprise, then, when Devens continued his response, he took a little jab back at those Big Brother legends that I'm sure won't be forgotten:

Dee did do pretty well, though I argued she sank her game through poor social gameplay long before she was actually evicted. I'll also give Cirie her flowers, though I'd add that her making too many moves, much like Dee, ultimately led to her undoing back in Big Brother Season 25.

Admittedly, Rick Devens played a great game, even if he had a leg up with a power awarded by fans. I'd also point out that he lasted longer and went further than he did in two seasons of Survivor, so maybe he's better in the BB house than he ever was on the island? I mean, look at the accolades between the two shows, and the numbers don't lie.

I genuinely think, however, that Devens sees Big Brother and Survivor as one cumulative experience, and as CinemaBlend exclusively learned, Devens loves them equally. I think his past Survivor experience is what led to his win, and based on what I heard him say when watching the live feeds all season and talking about past gameplay mistakes, he'd say the same.

If the Big Brother legends never embrace Devens, it looks like he still has plenty of fans in the Survivor fandom. I also think ribbing the BB legends, implying he played better than them, will only stoke the feud in this rivalry between shows and make future BB players all the more determined to play Survivor.

I'm excited to see what other jawing may happen over the coming weeks, and if we get any closer to announcements about an all-star season happening. I'd love to see Devens return, though I'm more interested in seeing Dee play after hearing what she'd do differently.

Rick Devens overcame the odds and won Big Brother Season 28. He won over a lot of fans in the process, including host Julie Chen Moonves. She famously didn't appreciate his pro-Survivor superiority stance at the start of the season, but softened ahead of the finale, admitting she was a fan. However, I am curious how she felt after she gave him the layup to declare BB the superior show, and Devens took the easy way out.

Rather than say he preferred his time on the island to Big Brother, or vice versa, Devens had another response prepared. Breaking news: he didn't take a side and said this instead:

As Survivor and Big Brother fans alike congratulate Devens for closing out his time on the 2026 TV schedule $810,000 richer, this disgruntled Big Brother fan wanted an answer. In my mind, if I played two games but won a life-changing amount of money on one, that's my favorite show.

Rick Devens feels differently. We had a laugh when I recalled the moment, and he explained that he couldn't lie and say he loved Big Brother more than Survivor. He explained why:

There's no denying he's media-trained, and I totally get the analogy. He's not going to be swayed into saying Big Brother is better, but he can see the advantages of both shows and appreciate them. Both changed his life, even if one handed him a life-changing amount of money before the other.

It's somewhat ironic that, like Drew Campbell, Rick Devens would play the middle on this topic. That said, I get where his head is at. There's no sense in shutting one door when you can leave both open and let the cash flow from both directions. Even if he's gained Big Brother fans, he still has a core of Survivor followers who have supported him long before some of us knew who he was.

Maybe it's me with the problem, and there doesn't need to be tribalism when it comes to liking Big Brother and Survivor. Plenty of people enjoy both shows, and we now have a winner who represents both. Devens is certainly one of Big Brother's most memorable winners as well, even if he did get a massive leg up that many of those other winners weren't given.

Jokes aside, Rick Devens made the right moves to win Big Brother, and the jury overwhelmingly agreed. I'm eager to see him compete on reality television again, and whether he'll have anything snarky to say about those shows as well.

Big Brother Season 28 is now available to stream in its entirety on Paramount+. After watching the live feeds all season, I'll need a break before I revisit it, but I'm excited to hear we already have two new seasons on the way!

Reality television fans were very mixed during the season on whether they wanted to see one of the Survivor contestants win Big Brother 28, but to the surprise of no one, the Survivor alumni community was a lot more open to the idea. Former players rooted hard on social media for Rick Devens and Dee as the season was airing, and after Devens officially claimed victory yesterday, they came out loudly and aggressively to congratulate him.

Way too many former players posted pictures of themselves with Devens or dropped a simple congratulations message on social to run down them all, but I’ll go over a few of the most notable, as well as some of my favorites. First, we have to start with Christian Hubicki. Rick’s partner in crime on Survivor 50 made a cameo during Big Brother Unlocked to make it clear he was rooting for his buddy, and he actually filmed himself watching the final votes be counted. You can see the footage below…

Christian is clearly overjoyed for his buddy, and it’s great to see how much genuine happiness and excitement he has for his friend. That’s a recurring theme with a lot of the messages from other alumni too, like say Survivor 50 winner Aubry Bracco as an example. The two were on multiple seasons of Survivor together, and Aubry made several podcast appearances during the season to advocate for her buddy Devens.

She also dropped behind the scenes pictures of the two after he won. My favorite is a shot that features Survivor and Challenge winner Chris Underwood, as well as Reem Daly, who is one of the best and wildest premerge characters in Survivor history. There was just something about that Edge Of Extinction cast. You can check that out on her Instagram, and you can check out this tweet below which encapsulates the energy she's been putting into the universe...

Those two were far from the only notables to comment on Devens’ win. He got a congratulations from winner and multi-time player Wendell Holland. He got a shoutout from winner Savannah Louie. Popular multi-time player and podcaster Stephen Fishbach sent out multiple tweets hyping up his win. His buddy Gavin Whitson from Edge Of Extinction, who he’s very close with in real life, posted a fun picture, and we got tweets from a murder’s row of other fun former players including Soph Balerdi, Rizo, Tiffany Seely, Omar Zaheer and even current players like Kilby.

Even longtime showrunner and Jeff Probst filmed a video to help CBS hype up the finale and make it clear he was rooting for Devens. You can watch his contribution below…

It’s so exciting to see Devens have his moment. He’s given us some great seasons of television where he’s played really hard in the past, and it’s so much fun to see that finally result in a win. I’m really happy for him, and it’s nice to see how many of his fellow Survivor alumni are too.

Dee Valladares may not have won Big Brother, but the former Survivor winner proved she had what it took to last in the game. She even fell in love with the CBS competition series, which makes her an easy choice to return for a future all-star season or whatever the show cooks up.

With the 2026 TV schedule wrapping up its time with Big Brother, CinemaBlend submitted questions to Dee ahead of her trip to sequester ahead of finale night. I asked a hypothetical about what she'd do differently if she ever played again, and it should come as no surprise that she had to credit Rick Devens and how he played as her model:

I love that Dee owned up to the fact that she was a huge gossip and made moves strictly out of boredom. Sure, it made Big Brother Season 28 more exciting than it might've been otherwise, but it also cost her a Final 3 spot that Devens is in.

Dee didn't necessarily say she regretted how she played, but she likely understands that one can't play Big Brother the same way twice. She continued to explain why she worked the way she did, and assured CinemaBlend she'd be watching and thinking more on this topic:

As for whether Dee could return to play Big Brother, there have been many instances in the past where former Houseguests were welcomed back into the cast. There have also been many pleas for a third all-star season, despite how poorly the last one was received.

Variety reported an 8% increase in Big Brother viewership compared to last season, so it seems Dee and Devens did give the summer show an added boost. If they're bringing more ratings to a legacy show, I think it's easier to convince BB to find another season Dee can compete in.

One has to wonder how Dee would do in another season, especially one that may not grant her the same advantages she, Devens, and Angela Murray received as "Icons." They exclusively competed for the Week 1 HOH and, thanks to the fan vote, had first dibs on some of the best powers of the season. Dee benefited heavily from her BB Bribe, as well as the Diamond Power of Veto that Devens won that saved her from eviction.

Remove the powers and go into the house with the reputation that you backstab all your allies? Playing Big Brother a second time would be a rough journey for Dee, but I think she's enough of a gamer that she could find a way to survive.

It'll be interesting to see what all the Houseguests have to say about Big Brother Season 28 a couple of weeks after the season ends. Unfortunately, I'm already jonesing for another season, so I can't wait to watch it all again come next summer!

Unlike Big Brother, which is happening in real time and about to conclude, Survivor is entirely finished by the time the first episode airs. That means the editors know the full story before they start telling it, which means they know who the main characters, the key side characters and the randoms of the season are going to be. Because of that, there’s a whole sub-culture of Survivor fans who meticulously track the edit to try and predict who is most likely to win, and let the record show they’re already out on three players. I, however, am not so sure.

Monitoring the edit and making predictions in an organized fashion is called Edgic (a combination of editing and logic), and one of the key metrics Edgic uses is the confessional count. That’s how many times we see a production interview from each castaway during a particular episode. The winner each season is not always the person with the most confessionals, but a general rule of thumb (sorry Brady) is that we are going to hear from the winner on a regular basis. So, if we’re not getting consistent content from someone, it probably means they’re not going to win, at least if recent history is any indication.

During 41, the winner didn’t get a confessional during three separate episodes and only got one or two confessionals in five other episodes. Many fans were upset after the finale and loudly complained about how we weren’t given a chance to understand the thought process of the castaway or really see their game. They never felt like a main character; so, when they won, it didn’t feel satisfying or earned, especially given another top four finisher was severely underedited too.

In the nine seasons since, the eventual winner has gotten at least one confessional in every single episode. During 50, the winner got at least three confessionals in ten of the thirteen episodes. During 49, the winner got at least three confessionals in eleven of the thirteen episodes. During 48, it was twelve of the thirteen episodes, and during 47, it was ten of the thirteen episodes. You get the point. Winners tend to be featured consistently because they’re main characters, and a season just makes more sense when a main character wins.

Unfortunately, there are already a few castaways who are getting a Purple Kelly edit, which is Survivor shorthand for a player who isn’t featured prominently in the edit like Purple Kelly from Nicaragua who infamously got six total confessionals in eleven episodes. During last night’s episode, Thien An, Christian and Carter all got the dreaded zero confessional stat line. That’s not a good sign for their winning potential, but it’s especially not a good sign because there were plot-relevant opportunities to hear from them last night.

Both Thien An and Christian were put into key spots in a challenge and struggled, and Carter was mixed up in all the pre-tribal council chaos. It would have made all the sense in the world to hear from each of them. The fact that we didn’t is, at minimum, a warning sign.

There are already some Survivor fans who are removing them entirely as potential winners. I’m not going to go that far. Longtime host and showrunner Jeff Probst has been very open that they’re doing things differently in the Open Era, which just began, and it’s obvious from the structure and game mechanics that that’s true. It’s possible they’ve eased up on needing at least one confessional from every winner this season. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone won despite having a quiet episode.

That being said, I am very confident that the winner of the season is going to be a central character in the edit, and if Thien An, Christian and Carter don’t start getting screentime very quickly, I will officially write them off. I’m already almost there with Christian. He’s had one total confessional in two episodes, which is wild considering Devin, Lewis, Brady, Jelly, Kristin and Rob all have at least nine. Carter and Thien An are marginally higher with two and three confessionals apiece, but that’s still lower than every single other player except Mike (also three) who I’m still high on because we’ve seen several scenes of him talking strategy at camp, as well as scenes from other players talking about how much they like him and want to work with him.

I’m a big believer that it’s way too early to start speculating on a possible winner based on the edit. There are so many examples of castaways who seem like a key side character and really change the narrative after the merge, but I am much more open to writing players off based on the edit. Let’s wait another week or so, and then we can start officially crossing names off.

You can catch new episodes of Survivor on Wednesday nights on CBS, or you can stream the show on Paramount+.

It's a good time to be a reality TV fan, as the 51st season of Survivor recently premiered on CBS (and streaming with a Paramount+ subscription). The first episode had plenty of memorable moments, including contestant Danny Kilby revealing he learned how to swim for the show via a tutor from Reddit. Now that individual has come out of the woodwork and offered his perspective of the already-viral story.

Aside from how much money Survivor contestants make, a big mystery surrounding the show is exactly how Kilby was taught how to swim via a Reddit user. Luckily for us, he posted a video on Twitter, which included a statement from his swim teacher. That individual set up the story by saying:

The Open Era of Survivor is here, but some things never change. Namely that contestant need to be able to swim, as there are usually a number of water-based challenges during each season. So when Danny Kilby was cast as part of Season 51, he knew he had to learn how to swim, and quickly. Luckily someone answered the call over on Reddit.

Later in the same video, Kilby's "swim coach" shared just how clueless he was about the role he was actually playing in Survivor 51. He humorously shared his perspcetive by offering:

This whole story is really tickling me. While I was shocked to hear that Danny learned how to swim via Reddit, his teacher's perspective is even more hilarious. Survivor 51 is changing its approach to Immunity Idols, and the way Kilby prepared is also totally original.

Not only did someone on Reddit answer the call, but the only payment he asked for was a case of beer. In the same clip he explained the origin of this form of compensation, saying:

Canadians have a reputation for being kind, and this story isn't going to help beat those allegations anytime soon. Not only did Danny Kilby's swim coach respond to a random post on Reddit, but he didn't even ask for money. Instead he requested a case of beer, just like he would if he was doing a friend a favor. How sweet is that?

You can see the swim coach himself speak about his experience in the video below, which comes from Kilby's official Twitter account.

I have to wonder if the swim coach was a Survivor fan before this fateful encounter with the Season 51 contestant. I have to assume that he'll be watching now, if only to see how well his tutelage worked. The premiere wasn't super encouraging in that regard; Kilby used a life preserver when the marooning began.

Survivor airs new episodes Wednesdays on CBS as part of the 2026 TV schedule. Hopefully Danny Kilby ends up making his swim coach proud. If not, he might want to buy him another case of beer.

Survivor brought back so many elements and made so many changes during its 51 premiere that fans are barely talking about immunity idols. I get it. My first reaction was to go nuts over only having two tribes, getting a marooning and even that fun start at the beginning of the game with everyone on the same beach. All those exciting developments and more deserved our attention as Survivor fans, but now that we’ve had time to appreciate all that, we need to talk about the change to immunity idols and whether that change is really as it seems.

During the New Era, castaways didn’t typically find immunity idols early in the game. Instead, they found Beware Advantages, which temporarily took away their vote until some complicated task was completed that gave it back and rewarded them with an idol. Initially, the change led to some interesting decisions and unique gameplay, but after awhile, fans started getting frustrated with the repetition (even if the task changed) and started getting frustrated about so many players losing their votes at tribal council.

That didn’t happen during the 51 premiere though. Instead, Rob found a hidden immunity idol in a tree, and it was just, gasp, his to keep. He didn’t lose his vote. He didn’t need to say a phrase in front of the other tribe or unlock a bird cage or find three maps. He just put the idol in his pocket and can use it whenever he wants.

Not surprisingly, the change was very well received by every single fan I saw post on social media and/ or I talked to about it in real life. All of us were collectively done with beware advantages and especially done with players losing their votes. On the surface, it feels like yet another example of production listening to the fanbase, but I don’t think we should celebrate permanently. I think there’s a larger scheme going on here.

The entire point of the Open Era, per longtime host and showrunner Jeff Probst in his speech to the players, is that (almost) any twist from any season of the show is technically in play, plus new game mechanics no one has seen before. He even teased that what happens on one beach or to one group of players may be entirely different than what’s happening on another beach with another group of players. It’s going to be permanent uncertainty.

To me, that means we should not get used to idols reverting back to their original form. Altering how an idol works and what you need to do to secure it is one of the easiest changes for production to make. It’s way less foundational than how many players will be on the season or how many tribes they’ll be split into or even whether they’re a final two or a final three at the end. I fully expect production to go back and forth between straight up idols, clues to hidden immunity idols, beware advantages, shared idols, super idols and God forbid, another Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol.

My guess is there’s another hidden immunity idol somewhere on the other tribe’s beach that someone will simply get for finding it, but there’s even an outside chance that that specific idol will require jumping through some kind of hoop. We just don’t know. It’s permanent uncertainty, and that is definitely going to extend to idols.

To be clear, I’m not mad about any of this. In general, I prefer when idols work in the traditional fashion, but if every now and again, there’s a wrinkle to them, that’s a good thing. It adds more excitement and uncertainty if they expire at different times. It adds more excitement and uncertainty if players have to occasionally scramble around because they found a clue, not an idol. So, let’s celebrate that idols are pivoting away from usually being Beware Advantages or some similar thing. Let’s just not assume we’ve seen the last of them.

New episodes of Survivor air on Wednesday nights on CBS as part of its TV schedule. You can also stream via Paramount+.

Given the breakout popularity of The Traitors, it now seems every buzzy reality star’s long-term goal involves going to Scotland. All season on Big Brother, fans have speculated about Dee and Rick Devens and whether they’ll be hanging out with Alan Cumming next season. I get it. I want to see them in the turret too, but a new fan-led campaign focused on another show is starting to get even louder.

Many fans of reality television including myself want to see Dee and Devens on our screens again, but more specifically, a lot of fans want to see them work together. Enter The Amazing Race. The third member of CBS’ reality trifecta after Survivor and Big Brother has a long history of casting reality stars and did a season entirely composed of Big Brother players. Recently, some fans pointed out that the two would be really fun to watch race around the world together, and since then, it’s been a lot of fans vigorously nodding their heads in agreement.

It turns out CBS is potentially interested too. After numerous fans posted the suggestion on social media, the official Amazing Race account responded with the eyeballs emoji, which is at minimum a sign that production is aware of the fan campaign and at least sees the appeal of casting the two together. And how could they not?

Devens and Dee were both major characters on Survivor 50, which gave the beloved reality competition show its best ratings since Winners At War more than five years ago. This summer, the two have been on Big Brother, which has helped the show attract its best ratings since 2021. During a time in which every long-running show seems to be losing viewers, to see two trend reversals like that is a huge deal. Throw in the fan campaign, and it feels like CBS would be crazy not to at least consider bringing the two back.

The thing that makes this so appealing is the specific relationship dynamic between Dee and Devens. The two obviously get along great and worked together for the entire season until her upsetting elimination with four people left, but it’s not exactly like their rapport was always perfect. The two snipe at each other on a pretty regular basis, and they’re each not afraid to call the other one out when they’re frustrated about something going on. Those interactions would be a ton of fun to watch on Race, as the stress is through the roof. Plus, it’s a blast to watch the two compete in challenges. They both love trying to complete stupid tasks and bring very different strengths and weaknesses to the table.

I would love to see this happen and would absolutely tune in for it. Win or lose, I also think it would be great for Dee and Devens’ personal brands. With an appearance on The Challenge, a Survivor win and this extremely memorable run on Big Brother, Dee has already emerged as the biggest crossover star of Survivor’s so-called New Era. A Race appearance would be a great next step, especially since she may be locked into a CBS-specific contract as part of her BB run.

Devens doesn’t have quite the same pedigree yet, but with a really memorable run on Survivor 50 and this Big Brother season, which is either going to result in third place or a win, he’s emerging as one of the most popular recent reality stars. I know he has family considerations to deal with, but an appearance on Amazing Race could be exactly what he needs to fully get pushed to that top echelon.

Fingers crossed CBS makes this happen, and we get to watch the two have fun again next year.

Survivor officially launched the so-called Open Era last night, and the fanbase is collectively buzzing. The game structure is different from every New Era season. The risk/reward of immunity idols is different. Even the cast feels very different compared to the types of people we got during the New Era. Optimism is very high about pretty much everything, at least apart from a roughly five minute segment of the premiere in which longtime host and showrunner Jeff Probst called out hater fans over fire-making at final four.

There is perhaps no argument Survivor fans have more consistently than the forced fire-making debate. For those of you out of the loop, I’ll explain it as coherently and concisely as possible. With four players left in the game, Survivor used to do a traditional vote. Someone wins immunity. The other three are eligible to go home. Everyone votes. Easy enough. Starting with Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers back in 35, however, Survivor changed the rules. Now, whoever wins immunity with four players left in the game gets to pick one person to go to the end and two people to compete in a fire-making challenge to decide the last spot.

Jeff Probst and the producers clearly love fire-making, and some fans agree with them. Typically, if there’s a vote at final four, whoever is considered the biggest threat to win the game goes home if they don’t have immunity, and if you’re the type of person who wants to see the best player win every season, fire-making increases the likelihood that happens. Others, however, feel like Survivor is ultimately a game of voting each other out, and figuring out how to literally survive that final vote, either through immunity or the relationships you’ve made, is a key part of winning the game.

Given the Open Era is all about making changes to the game and increasing the uncertainty, many fans speculated that we might get a traditional final four vote, or mix it up between seasons, which I would prefer. Let the record show that’s not happening. Probst addressed the hot topic last night and put it to a vote, albeit an unfair one. He said if everyone voted unanimously to remove fire-making from the game, he would remove it, but it had to be unanimous with a show of hands. Only five players raised their hands, and he used the opportunity to direct address the audience of alleged haters at home.

The accusation of Probst and the producers ruining the game comes up a lot from superfans. Even if you set aside the game shifting from 39 days to 26 days for production and budgetary reasons which every person I’ve ever met hates, there’s a feeling from some fans that the show doesn’t trust the players to play the game. There’s a feeling from some that the show injects too many advantages or big twists, and as a result, there are several players each season who end up going home more because of bad luck than anything else.

Probst also addressed fans who feel that way during the same segment. Here’s how he continued…

As you can imagine, this segment didn’t go over super well with the people Probst is talking about on social media. There were widespread complaints from fans and former players who felt like it was disingenuous and off-tone. There were also many, including myself, who felt like he wasn’t fairly voicing the complaint many fans have.

An overwhelming majority do not want the show to get rid of twists, advantages and idols. Instead, they just want them to happen with less frequency so that the castaways can navigate them when they do happen. It’s one thing to manage the occasional tribe swap and an idol or two floating around. It’s another thing to keep track of two people missing votes and three who have idols and one who has a Knowledge Is Power advantage and then navigate a post-merge split tribe vote in which two randomly drawn groups are going to tribal separately.

Regardless, I’m going to choose to focus on the positives. The premiere of Survivor 51 was a banger. I’m already invested in the season, and I really like a lot of the changes the show made. Whatever this speech may have communicated, it’s clear Probst and company have listened to at least some of the feedback from fans, and that’s given the show new momentum and excitement.

You can catch new episodes of Survivor on Wednesday nights on CBS, or you can stream the show with a Paramount+ subscription.

Later today, Survivor will officially launch the so-called Open Era, a new generation of the game that pushes away from the structural repetition and consistent themes we saw during the New Era. In theory, every challenge, twist and theme we’ve seen in the past will technically be in play, along with new surprises the show will incorporate. As a fan, it’s pretty exciting to think about the limitless possibilities, but let the record show, not every single twist is actually under consideration.

Longtime host and showrunner Jeff Probst recently sat for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter to hype the Open Era, and during the chat, he was asked if there were any twists the show would be reluctant to bring back. To what has to be the delight of every fan, he said the show will not be bringing back Change History, which is widely considered the worst twist in the show’s fifty season run.

Nicknamed The Hourglass by fans, Change History was a very prominent, game-altering twist that took place in 41 and 42. Castaways were split into two groups with one player put to the side. The two groups ran a challenge with the winning side getting immunity for the upcoming vote. Afterwards, the castaway who was left out (Erika in 41 and Rocksroy in 42) was given the option to either keep the result of the immunity challenge the same and be in danger of elimination with the losers or reverse the results of the immunity challenge and be given immunity themselves. Obviously both players chose to give themselves immunity and alter the results of the challenge, and in each season, one player who won immunity and should have been safe ended up getting voted out at tribal council.

Both fans and players were absolutely livid about how unfair and nonsensical the twist felt, and while Probst and the other producers defended it for a time, they eventually admitted it was not their finest hour (glass). As such, I’m not surprised to see Change History won’t be returning during the Open Era, but I am pleased to see how direct and transparent the host is being about it.

As for what changes or twists we will see, we’re mostly in the dark as fans. We know for the first time in ten seasons, the players will be starting on two tribes rather than three (which fans have been begging for). We also do know Rick Devens’ much-discussed coin flip to double the prize money will return, but beyond that, we’re just going to have to take the ride and see.

Survivor officially hits the TV schedule tonight. You can watch it on CBS or stream on Paramount+.

On the heels of strong ratings and excitement from fans during 50, longtime Survivor host and showrunner Jeff Probst announced we would get another returning season sooner rather than later. Without any subsequent update, however, some fans were starting to get a little worried. Let the record show that returnee season is still coming. Probst reiterated that it’s going to happen in an interview, and he did it in a way that’s great news for one New Era favorite.

The conversation in question happened during a chat with TV Line. Probst was asked when we’re going to get that returning player season, since we know it’s not happening on 51 or 52., which have already been shot He wouldn't commit to a specific season, but he said the conversation is being actively talked about. Here’s a portion of his quote…

Before I get into what this might mean for timelines, I need to single out my man Rizo. This obviously is not a promise to cast him in the next returnee season, but it’s clearly an indication that the show sees him as the face or at least one of the faces of the New Era. That’s a fantastic sign for his chances to be on a third season at some point, as we know the franchise is actively looking for its next Boston Rob or Sandra or Parvati or Cirie or Coach since we may never see that first crop of legends again.

The other thing fans should take away from Probst’s comments is the reference to themes. The New Era entirely got away from themes, but the show is clearly ready to start bringing them back, whether it’s for returnee seasons or ones with entirely new players. In fact, in the same conversation, the host went on to say that he’s instructed the casting team to take notes around themes and types of people they are seeing over and over again. That way, they can work backwards to see if the talent they like matches a theme, rather than try to mold the talent into fitting a specific theme.

I really felt like after Survivor 50 that we were going to get another returnee season on 54. I’m starting to lose my confidence a little bit that it’ll be that exact season, but I am heartened that the show is clearly still invested in giving us that season sooner rather than later. Most fans want to see a balance. We want three or four seasons with new players and then we want a season with returning players (hopefully from all eras). That keeps it special when it does happen, while also allowing us to see our favorite players again. Fingers crossed we see some familiar faces and some fantastic themes over the next few seasons.

In just a few years, The Traitors has established itself as one of the best reality shows on the air. The US version (which airs with a Peacock subscription) has become an Emmy-winning sensation, and is basically like The Avengers for fans of reality TV. The next celebrity season's cast was just announced, and I feel like I dreamed this up.

We're getting two season of Traitors every year, with the first season of New Blood recently having its two-episode premiere on NBC. But the main event is the one filled with celebs, and I can't believe how many of my favorite people have been brought together for the next season. You can see the official cast below:

• Bronwyn Newport, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City
• Bianca Del Rio, RuPaul's Drag Race
• Boman Martinez-Reid, Tik Tok Star
• Casey Rose Wilson, Happy Endings, SNL
• Cynthia Bailey, The Real Housewives of Atlanta
• Craig Conover, Southern Charm
• Chloe Kim, Olympic Snowboarder
• Cody Simpson, Actor, Singer, Australian Swimmer
• Dominic Monaghan, The Lord of The Rings, Lost
• Gizelle Bryant, The Real Housewives of Potomac
• Emira D'Spain, Next Gen NYC
• Ian Sirling, Comedian
• Jag Bains (Big Brother / Amazing Race)
• JaNa Craig, Love Island USA
• Joey Graziadei The Bachelor
• Johnny Sibilly, Hacks
• Kristin Chenoweth, Wicked
• Michele Fitzgerald Survivor / The Challenge
• Q Burdette, Survivor
• Rachel Robinson, The Challenge
• Rashad Jennings, NFL Star
• Taylor Hale, Big Brother / Amazing Race
• Whitney Leavitt,The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives

I am absolutely shook by the group host Alan Cumming has assembled, and there are so many people I'm going to be rooting for when The Traitors' celebrity version premieres this February. Once again, the show has included some iconic Real Housewives, namely Salt Lake City's Bronwynn Newport, Potomac OG Gizelle Bryant, and the truly iconic Cynthia Bailey from Atlanta. All three of these women are beloved in their own way, and will no doubt be formidable at the Round Table. We'll just have to wait and see if any of them end up chosen as Traitors.

The fact that Casey Wilson is going to be on the cast with the above trio is blowing my mind. While she's an actress known for her work on Happy Endings and SNL, she also hosts an wildly popular Real Housewives podcast called Bitch Sesh. She's even started her own podcast network called Casey and Danielle's Garbage World, and her takes on the Housewives are always hilarious. While she previously tried not to "fly too close to the sun" and engage directly with the women, she'll have to do just that on The Traitors.

As a reality TV addict, I love how The Traitors pairs Real Housewives with legends from my other favorite shows like Survivor and RuPaul's Drag Race. This new cast is delivering both in a major way. From the latter we're getting Season 6 winner Bianca Del Rio, who is an insult comic that's sure to make great TV. And from Survivor we're Michele Fitzgerald who won Koah Rong and was a finalist in Winners at War, and Q Burdette, a soundbite machine from Season 46 and the first boot from Survivor 50.

Then there's the fact that Tony and Emmy winning actress Kristin Chenoweth is also in this case. I never expected the Broadway legend to join a reality competition series, but that's exactly what we're getting. She seems like a real wild card, and she's also a fan of The Real Housewives. And I can't wait to see how she fares in the game of deception and treachery. Add in Johnny Sibilly from Hacks and Pose, and I don't know who to root for.

Typically, new season of the celebrity Traitors premiere in February, and indeed this group isn't expected to grace our screens until 2027. For now, new episodes of New Blood air Thursdays on NBC as part of the 2026 TV schedule.

We’ve had some blindsides and some questionable group decisions so far on Big Brother 28, but nothing has even come close to producing the level of reaction we got after last night’s vote. Survivor winner Dee Valladares, who was widely considered a dead woman walking if she ended up on the block next to Angela, somehow survived the vote thanks to a frantic few days of campaigning. Many fans hit up social media to express shock at Taylor and Yash’s decision to keep her, as well as admiration for the skills she showed to pull it off. In addition, we also heard from many legends of the show, and let’s just say they did not hold their opinions back.

The response from the Big Brother alumni community was one of collective shock. I saw dozens of popular former players hit up social media and overwhelmingly express confusion over Yash and Taylor’s choice to keep Dee. From their perspective, Dee is a significantly bigger threat than Angela to actually win the game, and with only eight people left in the season, most could not believe they wouldn’t take the chance to knock her out. Here’s a take from Dan Gheesling, widely considered the best Big Brother player in history, as an example…

Gheesling explored his thoughts in several tweets and even a video. He clearly felt like it was a bad and potentially game-losing decision for Yash, and that was a recurring refrain from other players. Janelle Pierzina, widely considered the best player never to win Big Brother, hit up X and echoed his sentiments. She ripped the other players in a series of messages and even came out and said everyone other than Dee and Devens deserves to lose the game at this point…

Seriously, if you made a list of the most notable Big Brother players in history, you would likely find a majority of them hit up social media to either praise Dee and her partner in crime Rick Devens, who won the Blockbuster, or call out the other players for their poor decision-making. It was just one after another after another, all making their feelings known.

Danielle Reyes accused the newbies of being in a “medically induced coma.” Derrick Levasseur dropped the Justin Timberlake gif with the are-you-kidding-me face. Morgan Pope said she was “in shock” and that this was huge for Dee’s resume. Josh Martinez dropped a Photoshopped image of Dee telling the haters to “STFU.” Cody Calafiore said the decision was all capital letters “WILD.” Evel Dick called it the most “idiotic move” in the last decade.

It wasn’t just legends either. A ton of random former Big Brother players and reality stars from other shows also hit up social media to talk about what happened. We got bigger and lesser names from Survivor, The Challenge, Traitors, and so many more. As a big fan of reality competition shows, it was fun to see everyone together and to see how many of us there are who are perhaps too emotionally invested in this drama.

There are now seven players left in the game. Yash and Taylor ultimately decided to keep Dee because they felt she will be a number for them moving forward and they can simply get her out later. Maybe that’s the case and this move, despite its unpopularity, will be looked back on as the key decision that won Yash the game. That’s certainly possible, because he’s the best player at the comps left and likely has plenty of win equity with the jury.

That being said, it’s also entirely possible that this vote goes down as the decision that unintentionally won Dee (or Devens) the game. Add together her fantastic usage of her Bribe power earlier in the season, which was originally seen as useless, and how she saved herself from certain death this week and suddenly she has a resume that rivals the top players on the board.

You can catch the next episode of Big Brother this Sunday on CBS or Paramount+. You can also get a recap of what’s going on with the live feeds in our latest article that’s full of spoilers.

I’m not surprised to hear Survivor has a larger crew now, heading into Season 51, than it did decades ago when it first became a cultural phenomenon. Viewers get to see conversations and challenges from multiple angles. There are rarely plot-relevant happenings that the cameras don’t catch. These big steps forward in production obviously require manpower, but even still, I’m rattled by the actual breakdown in numbers.

Longtime host and showrunner Jeff Probst sat for an interview with The Ankler, and during the conversation, he was asked about the challenges of shooting the first season. He said it was exhilarating to be on the ground and trying to figure it all out in real time, but he admitted the conditions were a lot harsher and required everyone to pull double duty.

Everyone on set carried tripods, cameras and pieces of equipment. If they needed to get somewhere, they were all walking, sometimes an hour and a half or more to get to where they were going. By the end of production, the crew only had one boat left because the other four were destroyed in a storm. They were all roughing it, and the “they” at the time was only eighty-five total people.

Most popular shows add more manpower in subsequent seasons. Producers naturally want to use the resources at their disposal, and that usually means a larger crew so that everyone isn’t pulling double duty. That usually means more elaborate and complicated shots that require more time-consuming set-ups and more seasoned professionals. All of that is normal, but going from eighty-five to eight hundred is still shocking.

Survivor fans complain a lot about the show reducing the game from thirty-nine days to twenty-six days. We’re obviously not privy to the conversations between the show and CBS, but we do know Probst and the producers kept the shorter format post-Covid at least in part because they didn’t want to make sacrifices in production quality. I think that likely has a lot to do with crew size. They don’t want to end up in a situation where the new seasons look worse or capture less than what fans are used to.

Whether that’s the right choice or not, Survivor looks great. There’s no denying how fantastic the production values are. It is jarring to watch the early seasons of the show and compare it to what we’re seeing now. Some of that is obviously related to technology, but a really healthy portion is also related to how many resources are put into the camera work, the set design and the schedule to make sure every moment is being filmed as cinematically (and covertly) as possible.

You can check out Survivor 51 and see where all those production resources go when it returns to the TV schedule on September 23rd. It'll air live on CBS and also be available on Paramount+.

We’re just a few weeks away from the official start of Survivor’s Open Era. If that phrase sounds familiar, it’s probably because the show has been saying it loudly and aggressively. Longtime host and showrunner Jeff Probst has talked about it in interviews. The show has hyped it in the marketing materials. Everyone involved clearly wants fans to understand that things are about to change. We are officially entering The Open Era.

But what is The Open Era? Probst has said it’s a new phase of the game in which anything, including twists we’ve seen from every era in the past, is in play to potentially be used. Obviously that sounds great, but it’s also extremely open-ended. It’s gotten me thinking a lot too. Yes, I want change for the sake of change, but there are some specific changes I especially want to see. So, let’s go over them.

We Need More Two Tribe Seasons

Every season between 41 and 50 started with three tribes. Every season between 41 and 49 started with three tribes consisting of six castaways on each one. I’m not against seasons with three starting tribes. It typically makes the merge a lot more interesting and prevents the dreaded Pagonging, where one side with larger numbers votes out the other one at a time, but there is also one huge downside to three tribes: a lack of animosity.

Popular New Era player Sam Phalen from 47 recently said that his biggest issue with The New Era is the lack of an us-versus-them mentality. When there are three tribes, and you lose the immunity challenge, the losing tribe tends to blame themselves. When there are two tribes, the losing tribe often fixates on the other tribe that’s beating them. That can create a lot of animosity and bitterness, which makes the immunity challenges more interesting and can make the inevitable merge a lot more contentious.

With the loud exception of Survivor 46 and a few smaller exceptions here or there, The New Era has really missed that negativity and that edge. Some of that is because producers don’t want to cast any true villains anymore, but some of it is because of the format. Thankfully, we know Survivor 51 is at least starting with two tribes, so that should be a big step in the right direction. It should also, hopefully, mean we don't get a disaster tribe either, which is a recurring problem with the three tribe format.

More Physical Contact

Back in the day, a really healthy percentage of Survivor challenges involved the castaways, either in teams or as individuals, directly competing against each other. Nowadays, almost all of the challenges involve people competing parallel to each other. So, instead of trying to throw a shared ball into each other’s goals, nowadays they usually throw their own balls into their own goals. Instead of knocking each other into the water, they try to balance on top of the water for as long as they can.

No doubt the show pulled back on the physical intensity because of injuries, but Survivor is supposed to be a rough game about literally surviving in the wilderness. A little physical intensity is good, and if someone occasionally gets injured, that’s an unfortunate side effect of competing in a hard-nosed competition. Even if the show doesn’t want people wrestling and dragging each other to competing mats, there are still physical competitions they can do that aren’t likely to result in injuries. Think giving each other pillows and knocking opponents into the water. Think log rolling against each other.

Whether because of lawsuit risks or some sketchy prior incidents or simply the times a changin, Survivor has gotten really shy about castaways having any physical contact with each other. They’ve reportedly even made a rule against cuddling. I get it. I want everyone to feel safe, but at the same time, it’s Survivor and not summer camp. We need to also let adults be adults and get out there and compete.

More Themes

Because of budgetary and production issues, Survivor now exclusively films the show in Fiji. Arguing that it should pack up and go to exotic locations again is a losing battle, but if that’s not going to happen, we at least need to bring themes back. Once upon a time, you could distinguish a season of Survivor based on the location, imagery or casting philosophy. Yes, sometimes that meant Australian Outback, but sometimes it also meant Millennials vs Gen X or Blood vs Water or even something like pirate-themed challenges, graphics and imagery (Pearl Islands).

Right now, if someone says Survivor 45, I have to remember the actual players to distinguish it from the other seasons around it. Back in the day, however, we would get multi-season runs like Heroes vs Villains, Nicaragua, Redemption Island, South Pacific and One World. Each one of those seasons feels different, even apart from the players. We need that level of reinvention each season. We need some level of individuality in theme and structure to keep things fresh.

Give us stay-at-home parents versus working parents. Give us West Coast vs East Coast vs Midwest vs South. Give us a season with all siblings or a season with separated couples or a season of returning finalists who got zero votes.

To Sum Up

I’m ready for The Open Era. I’m glad Survivor is pushing back against the uniformity of The New Era and being aggressive about its desire to change. As a loyal viewer and a superfan, I’m open to anything that feels unique and original, but for the show to really maximize its potential and get back to the version we all loved so much, I think we really need to see the three suggestions above. Thankfully, we know we’re starting 51 with two tribes. Fingers crossed we get more physical contact and more aggressive theming moving forward, too.

We can all find out what The Open Era looks like when the show hits the TV schedule on Wednesday, September 23. You can watch it on CBS or stream via Paramount+.

Powering through the discomfort is a big part of making a deep run on Survivor. Especially during the early seasons, the show made a big effort to show how grueling it is to literally survive without any of the modern comforts. As fans, we’re very aware of the physical and emotional struggle the players are going through, but one thing we don’t often think about is the struggle of those left behind. It can be a challenge to deal with childcare and other practical concerns, and it turns out, it can be really awkward too.

Survivor castaways can obviously tell their spouses they’re going on the show, but they need to keep it a secret from most of the people in their lives. That’s especially true for celebrities who go on the show, like say Jeff Kent. The former professional baseball player was a memorable character on Philippines. He quite clearly loved the experience, but for his wife, it was a bit more of a struggle. She had to deal with the lack of communication, manage the kids by herself and hilariously, deal with all the people who thought he’d left her.

Kent was recently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and this past week, had his jersey retired by the San Francisco Giants. Most of the media asked questions about his baseball career, but one reporter for 95.7 The Game decided to ask about his time on Survivor, and he was clearly elated to talk about it. He praised longtime host Jeff Probst and everyone involved in the show. He took shots at his own social game and said he’s talked about going back a few times but hasn’t been able to make it work.

He also dropped this absolute gem about the awkwardness his wife went through…

I wonder how many spouses adhere to the NDAs and legitimately say nothing and how many wind up whispering to anyone who listens that their husband or wife is on Survivor? I would have to imagine there’s some variance because as we know in Hollywood, some people are really good at keeping secrets and some people cannot keep a secret, no matter how closely guarded it’s supposed to be. I would imagine producers are a lot more aggressive about keeping information off social media anyway.

I think the key is you need to have a good cover story you come up with your spouse ahead of time. Maybe you're traveling for work or you're having surgery or in his case, he could have been out scouting baseball players for a few months in a foreign country. You need to come up with something, but telling people your husband isn't home or you're not sure where he's at is, of course, going to lead people to believe he took off.

Secrecy or not, the family members left behind are definitely the unsung heroes. Their sacrifice allows everyone to play the game, which is why I love to see them get their moment when the show does the surprise visits from loved ones. It was a joy to see that return on Survivor 50, and I’d love to see it return regularly for the Open Era, which is about to officially launch when the show returns to the TV schedule later this month.

Jeff Probst and the Survivor producers haven’t given us a ton of details about the next season featuring returning players. We don’t know exactly when it’ll happen. We don’t know the theme. We don’t know any of the players who will be involved. We haven’t even really started getting rumors. We only know it’s coming sooner rather than later, but my assumption is that at least the preliminary conversations have started quietly happening. They’re talking about themes. They’re talking about timing and players, and as they do that, I really need everyone involved to keep something in mind.

The fanbase was stoked and tuned in with huge numbers to see returning players on Survivor 50, but they were particularly stoked to see returning players from different eras of the show. It was so much fun to see legends of the game like Coach, Cirie, Ozzy and Colby interact with modern favorites like Q, Rizo, Dee and Genevieve. Part of what worked so well about 50 was its extreme diversity from an age and gameplay standpoint, and producers would do well to keep that in mind as they cast the next season.

The history of returning player seasons on Survivor is one of heavy bias toward recency. Survivor 50 was billed as a celebration of the entire history of the show. That was literally the whole point, and even still, 12 of the 24 players were from 45 to 49. That means the first 44 seasons of the show had an average of .27 castaways selected from each cast, and the most recent 5 seasons had an average of 2.4 players from each cast. And once again, that was as part of a theme that was meant to honor the entire history of the franchise. What do we think would have happened if the season had a different theme? How much worse would the discrepancy have been?

The Survivor fanbase is very split on what the theme should be for this impending season featuring returning players. Some people want to see Second Chances. Others want to see Blood vs Water or Heroes vs Villains or a theme we’ve never gotten before, like a battle between two or three specific casts. I’m open to any of the above, but like most other fans, what I feel much more strongly about is that I want to see players from more than just the New Era.

Yes, give me Carolyn, Jesse, Sophi Balerdi, Xander, Shan, Sai and other standouts, but pair them with other deeper cut players that first appeared back in the day like Amanda Kimmel, Abi-Maria, Jerri, Sean Rector, Cydney, Malcolm and Rob Cesternino. I want to see an alliance between Russell Hantz and Venus. I want to see Natalie Bolton play the game with Kaleb. Survivor doesn’t cast nearly as wide a net as it used to, at least when it comes to age and socioeconomic status. Bringing back players from different eras helps create that personality clash and makes for fascinating television, at least for those who make the edit.

I can’t wait for this returning season, whenever it does happen. It’s going to be a delight to see many of my favorites play together in Fiji, but the best possible scenario involves looking outside the New Era and expanding that casting net as wide as possible. That’s the lesson producers should be taking from Survivor 50, and I hope they keep it in mind as they pick from hundreds of potential players, most of whom have not played in the last two or three years.

A majority of the conversation around Big Brother 28 so far has been about Rick Devens and Dee Valladares. The two Survivor legends have used a combination of experience and production advantages to basically dominate and impose their will on the other players who are, for the most part, less experienced at the reality television game. Fans have been dropping hot takes on social media for weeks, but now Big Brother legends are speaking out too. Not surprisingly, most have been imploring the other houseguests to mobilize and fight back, but Rachel Reilly has a different take.

Reilly is one of the most famous multi-show personalities in the entire reality television game. She’s appeared on The Traitors, Snake In The Grass, The Amazing Race and several others, but she’s most known for her times on Big Brother. She won a previous season and has been involved in some huge WTF moments. She's also often the talking head the media chooses to interview on issues related to Big Brother. Because of that, you’d think she would be rooting against the Survivor players, but let the record show, she is doing the opposite.

During a conversation on Page Six with fellow Big Brother legends Britney Haynes and Danielle Reyes, Reilly said she’s at the point where she wants to see the icons just roll through the game because she wants it to serve as a lesson to future casts that you need to start playing hard immediately. You can’t just defer to people with more experience or play second fiddle. You need to come out aggressively and treat icons as threats. Here’s a portion of her quote…

I understand where she’s coming from. Sometimes the best reality television change comes in the season immediately after a notable win. A player or group of players dominating in a new or particular notable way causes the entire fanbase, which is filled with future players, to reassess the optimal way to play moving forward. Right now, there are many who think the best way to make a deep run in a game with returning players is to tie yourself to their side, but maybe after this season, that won’t be the conventional wisdom anymore.

Of course, there are plenty of alumni who are rooting against the Survivor players. Both Reyes and Haynes said they want to see Dee and Devens lose the game. Obviously some of that is because they want to see a fun season, but some of that is also because they don’t want the first person to win both Big Brother and Survivor to come from Survivor. They want one of their own to accomplish that feat.

Hilariously, the best positioned person to do that is probably Reilly herself. She’s been very open about her desire to go on Survivor in the past and has openly petitioned longtime host Jeff Probst. He hasn’t committed to putting her on, but her name comes up on a semi-regular basis in casting rumors.

Regardless, Dee and Devens still have a long way to go. The jury phase hasn’t even officially started yet, and while their alliance with Big Brother alumna Angela Murray has gone about as well as possible, everyone else in the house is starting to talk more loudly about taking them out. Dee in particular also seems to have made some enemies of future jurors. They may get to the end, but I’m not sure it’s going to be the steamroll Rachel asked for. We’ll see.

You can check out new episodes of Big Brother on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays on CBS, or you can stream the show or its much-discussed live feeds on Paramount+.

Big Brother's 1000th episode is quickly approaching and, for weeks, I've been terrified about what's on the horizon. Julie Chen Moonves and the show have suggested that a big twist is on the way, and I have a couple of theories about what it can be. While I love a few of those assumptions, there's one I absolutely hate.

Right now, it's known that the anniversary episode, set for the 2026 TV schedule on August 27th, will include tributes to the show, some of the past iconic players, and of course, a live eviction, but what else is on tap? Here's what I'm thinking, and if the third option ends up being the twist, I'm going to absolutely riot.

There Will Be A "Newbies Only" HOH Competition

Remember when Big Brother announced at the start of the season that the Week 1 HOH would be "Icons Only" and it gave them a huge leg-up in the game? I think it's only fitting, then, that after Dee Valladares' second HOH, this upcoming competition should be "Newbies Only," and the Icons are all ineligible to compete.

This method would be a great way to even the playing field and give the Icons a chance to show how great they are, without their gifted powers as a safety net. Some will say it wouldn't be fair but, hey, it wasn't when it happened in Week 1 either.

CBS Will Announce A New Big Brother House Is Being Built

Ahead of this season, it was announced that Netflix had plans to purchase Radford Studios, which is where the Big Brother house is located. That deal ended up going through in June and, while I'm sure CBS could arrange a deal that allows them to keep the house standing and they could pay Netflix for the rights to use it, the studio house is over twenty years old. If there are no plans to end the series, now might be the perfect time to build a new house on a new lot and showcase some concept art of what it'll look like during the 1000th episode.

A Survivor-Style Immunity Idol Will Be Hidden In The House

CBS seems to love leaning into Survivor vets playing the game, and I can't shake the feeling that another big twist tied to the reality competition series is coming. In my deepest nightmares, Jeff Probst trots out on stage and declares to the Houseguests that the game is about to get a lot more like his show.

It's then that the Big Brother Houseguests are told that an immunity idol is hidden in the house, and whoever finds it will have the opportunity to protect themselves from eviction until the end of the game. I hate that I'm even typing this because, if it comes to be, I will let out a howl of anguish from the Midwest so loud the Houseguests will hear it on the live broadcast. Yes, I don't mind seeing a Survivor player win Big Brother, but let's stop with the training wheels.

As mentioned, Big Brother's 1000th episode is on August 27th on CBS. The only thing we should expect, of course, is the unexpected. We'll see if any of these predictions pan out, though I'd sooner be wrong on all of them than have the final one happen!

After his most recent appearance on Survivor and ahead of his trip to the Big Brother House, Rick Devens decided to make t-shirts. The plan was to sell some of them to the general public and give some of them to his family and real life supporters. Unfortunately, the scheme ran into a little bit of a snag when his wife found out what he actually planned to put on the t-shirts.

Always a fan of puns and dad jokes, Devens worked with the designer to use the phrase “Big Rick Energy.” He thought it was going to be hilarious, but when he informed his wife Becca, she was not a happy camper. For whatever reason, she didn’t want her kids wearing shirts referencing their dad’s “Big Rick Energy.” In fact, after a video of Rick telling the story got clipped and posted on social media, she doubled down on her stance and used words like “tacky,” “yuck” and “ewwwww” to describe her feelings.

You can check out Devens telling the whole story below…

Fortunately, the t-shirt story has a happy ending. Rick and Becca eventually got on the same page with the designer, and they put together some really snazzy looking shirts that use the catchphrase “Fake Clues & Breaking News.” They went up for sale on Devens’ official website, and to the surprise of no one, they sold out pretty quickly. I’d imagine Becca also grabbed some for the kids, which they can wear without her feeling all kinds of weird and gross.

There’s still a lot of Big Brother left to go, but Devens is in a pretty good position at this point. He recently used his Diamond Power Of Veto to save his ally and fellow Survivor alum Dee, but he still seems to be sitting in a really good position in the game. He has several close allies and seems to have really positive relationships with pretty much everyone in the house, even those who aren’t working with him.

That being said, he’s also starting to get looked at as one of the biggest threats in the house and a likely winner if he makes it to the end. That’s been his story during both of his appearances on Survivor, as well. He forms strong relationships, makes some aggressive game moves and then everyone else decides he needs to go because he’s the biggest threat left in the house. It’s always the same story, but fortunately for fans, it’s typically a story that results in some pretty good television.

There’s no word on whether we’ll ever get another round of t-shirts since they’re out of stock, but given how much his popularity continues to grow, I think there’s a strong chance we do. Maybe one day we’ll even get a special edition that says "Big Rick Energy." I know that one’s not for his kids, but it must just be for the rest of us.

Isn’t it weird and disconcerting having cameras pointed at you all the time? That’s always in the back of my mind whenever I’m watching Survivor, especially since we occasionally get behind the scenes shots from the show where you can actually see a cameraman. Well, as part of the beloved reality show’s Emmy campaign, longtime cinematographer Scott Duncan and legend of the game Aubry Bracco decided to tackle my biggest question head on.

The two recently sat for an interview with Gold Derby to promote the show since it was nominated for Outstanding Reality Competition Program thanks in part to its recent landmark Survivor 50 season. During the chat, Aubry admitted that for the first couple of days, you really feel the cameras as a contestant. You look for them and notice them everywhere, but as time goes on, they fade into the background “like that Homer Simpson meme.”

Some of that disappearing act is because players get used to the cameras, but some of it is also due to how good Duncan and his team have gotten at moving around Fiji and blending into the background. Tribal Council is apparently set up in such a way that the crew can film from a ton of different angles with cameras built into the set without being visible, and during moments where players are moving around the island, the team has developed methods of tracking them without literally running after them.

Here’s how Duncan summed it up…

So, long story short, it’s a combination. There are times in which, as a player, the cameras and camera operators are clearly visible, but at some point, your focus is on the game. You’re there trying to win a million dollars and forming relationships with real people. Your attention and mental presence is on what’s happening, not the cameras recording you. In addition, there are other times in which the cameras are a lot less noticeable, and it sounds like as Survivor has gone on, there have been more and more of those moments, especially since they're now doing it in the same location every year.

Despite being the landmark reality competition show, Survivor has actually never won an Emmy in the prestigious Outstanding Reality Competition category. It’s picked up trophies for sound mixing, cinematography and hosting, but the big prize has remained elusive, thanks in part to a dominating run from The Amazing Race, which has won the category ten times. More recently, The Traitors has dominated, but with Survivor celebrating its fiftieth season, maybe this’ll be the year where the show finally gets the job done.

Regardless, Survivor will return with an all new season on September 23rd. 51 will launch the so-called Open Era, which will reportedly feature a wider diversity of challenges that will seek to rectify one of the main complaints about the New Era, which featured many seasons that roughly followed the same format. 51 and 52 have already been filmed, and there is speculation we’ll likely get another returnee season after that, which will, of course, feature contestants like Aubry who are already used to the camera situation.

After the smash ratings success of Survivor 50, the show has promised it’s going to give us another season filled with returning players sooner rather than later. Exactly who those returning players will be or even what theme we’ll see are still being debated behind the scenes, but those of us who have been paying close attention are noticing a lot of smoke around one particular former castaway, who is increasingly looking like a lock to return. Oh how things have changed.

When the cast of Survivor 50 was first announced, there was no choice that caused more confusion than Tiffany Nicole Ervin. She was an engaging confessionalist and pretty memorable player on 46, but her eighth place finish was the lowest on a debut for any returning player on 50. Some fans even speculated the sole reason she was being brought back was out of the hope that she’d have more run-ins with huge personality Q Burdette, who was also returning from 46.

Ervin had her defenders, of course, and rightfully so given how much personality she has, but those cheerleaders weren’t exactly vindicated after she was consistently underedited through most of the season. Some fans were so shocked by her lack of confessionals that they openly speculated she did something to get on the wrong side of host Jeff Probst and the producers. Her presence picked up quite a bit near the end of the season, as she made a deep fifth place run and was depicted as a major threat to win the game, but because she was so underedited for so many episodes, fans never took her seriously as a potential winner.

You’d think these would all be signs Ervin was one of the more unlikely Survivor 50 players to return, but not so fast. During the finale, the show gave her a really nice spotlight, highlighting a huge round of applause she got from the live audience, and to the surprise of many, Probst asked her if she would play again if the show called. That’s not something the host typically asks players, and her very enthusiastic answer had many wondering if the show perhaps liked her a lot more than we thought.

Well, let me present some more evidence that the producers do. Survivor is currently doing interviews to promote the show’s recent Emmy nomination. Probst has, of course, been front and center hyping the show, but for Deadline’s Contenders roundtable discussion, the show decided to put forward longtime executive producer Matt Van Wagenen, editor Brian Barefoot, casting producer Jesse Tannenbaum and Tiffany Nicole Ervin.

Because the conversation was about Survivor 50, they were always going to have a returning player, but it certainly feels noteworthy that they picked Tiffany. She’s got plenty of media experience from her time at BET, but still, they’re not picking her for a prestigious conversation like this unless they really like her. They're not picking her unless they trust her.

None of this is obviously a guarantee that she’s going to be on the next returnee season or any returnee season at all, but I think it is a guarantee that she’s at least going to be strongly in consideration for whatever comes next. Survivor likes to work with former castaways they trust and want to showcase. There’s a reason why Boston Rob, Sandra, Parv, Ozzy, Coach, Cirie, Aubry, Colby and a handful of others have gotten the call four or more times. They know what to expect and feel like they’re good representatives of the brand.

Regardless, the expectation from many fans is that the next returnee season will be 54. The show hasn’t confirmed that, but Probst has been clear that it’ll happen soon and won’t be 51 or 52. Personally, I’m hoping we’ll get the long-awaited sequel to Heroes vs Villains, but it could wind up being Second Chances, Blood vs Water or a new theme we haven’t had yet. Fingers crossed it delivers, no matter who the show brings back for it.

A couple of months ago, I was doing inventory of all the canceled and renewed spring shows and I realized one major network title was not on there. I wrote at the time about how Padma Lakshmi’s America’s Culinary Cup had not yet been greenlighted for Season 2, and in the time since the major foodie host has been out and about keeping the name of the series alive. However, in a surprising turn of events, we still haven’t heard anything about CBS making a decision yet.

I’d like to point out it is August 10th. The final episode last season aired on May 13th. Most of last season's shows were renewed or canceled around that time. At this point, shows like NCIS: Origins are already back in production at CBS. So, it’s wild we still haven’t been given a thumbs up or thumbs down on this competition series. I said it once before and I’m saying it again months later.

Padma Lakshmi hasn’t slowed down at least when it comes to America’s Culinary Cup this summer. She was out and about in LA just before the 2026 Emmy nominations dropped championing the show she produced. She noted that it might have landed itself on the bubble, but there are some major pros to keeping ACC around, telling THR:

One of the issues with America’s Culinary Cup might be its big prize package, which comes in at $1 million dollars. That put it on the same level as Survivor’s typical prize package, but without the dedicated audience via network TV and streaming. Padma’s said she really wanted to bring in the Rolls Royce of cheftestants, and needs a higher prize package and better logistics in order to get people to leave their jobs and come and compete.

She got her wish in Season 1, but this could also be the reason the show is on the bubble while other programs like Survivor and The Amazing Race are renewed. Survivor can justify its higher winners package. Big Brother’s prize package is a bit lower. Race now only airs once a year. Sometimes compromises need to be made to move forward, but the hard part of it all is I did like how high-end ACC felt during its first season run.

The one thing is that Race and Survivor will both be back and airing together on the 2026 TV schedule this fall. So, CBS has a little time to think about whether or not they want more from America’s Culinary Cup or if it will ultimately be a one and done. However, now that fall TV is right around the corner, they don’t have that much time to decide. So, we’ll be sure to keep you posted if it does ultimately get renewed. Even if that happens, though, I’m guessing some tweaks will be on the docket.

We’re going to get more Survivor seasons with returning players in the near future, but exactly what the themes will be are a matter of hot speculation. Some fans want to see Second Chances, where viewers can vote for their favorite players who have only appeared once. Some fans want to see another round of Blood vs Water, where legends compete with a family member, and some fans, including former winner Tina Wesson, want to see First Boots.

The basic idea is simple. It’s Winners At War, except the exact opposite. It would be a season featuring only players who were voted out first. It’s something Survivor fans (and Amazing Race fans) have wanted for awhile, and during an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Tina became maybe the most prominent member of the community to ask for it in an interview. Here’s a portion of her quote…

Tina, of course, knows the unique heartbreak of being voted off first. She famously won Survivor: Australian Outback, the most watched season in the show's history, but during her return appearance on All-Stars, she was voted off first, as all of the former winners were targeted early. She later returned a third time and made a really deep run on Blood vs Water, but clearly, the sting of that one early boot still lingers.

Now, as a Survivor superfan who consumes a lot of interviews with Jeff Probst, I need to pour some cold water on this but also offer a little hope. The longtime host has repeatedly said he only likes casting players who he thinks can actually win Survivor, and while some first boots got unlucky, a lot of them were voted off because they were not good Survivor players. I have a hard time believing Probst and the producers would want to bring back 20 or so of them. It’s too limited of a pool to choose from.

That being said, what I think Survivor might actually do is a season of players who were eliminated during the pre-merge phase of the game. Instead of having 49 former players to choose from (Francesca was voted out first on two seasons), that would give producers the option of picking a half dozen or so players from every season. That larger pool would include a ton of players who had high upside but didn’t make the merge for whatever reason.

We still don’t know exactly when the next Survivor all-returnee season is coming, but most hardcore fans are speculating that it’ll be 54. The ratings for 50, which featured an all-star cast, were the highest in years. 51 and 52 just finished shooting and reportedly include new players; so, the most likely scenario is the returnee season happens in that next 53 and 54 cycle. I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if Survivor actually works on casting two returnee seasons with different themes simultaneously; so, maybe we get Blood vs Water on 54 and my preferred choice Heroes vs Villains 2 on 56 or something.

I do think there’s a legitimate chance we could see a returnee season of all pre-merge players though; so, if you’re into that, keep your fingers crossed. It would be a great way to give us something that feels new, which is the apparently goal of the so-called Open Era, which launches with 51 this fall.

Cozy Earth’s Bed Rot Challenge is a very playful YouTube reality TV show. It puts ten contestants in a room together where they must stay in bed for about seven days. They’re given challenges to make them want to quit, be eliminated, or just have an uncomfortable sleep. It’s all for a $100,000 grand prize. The fourth season released six episodes on YouTube weekly.

The fourth season featured some well-known reality TV names, including Survivor’s Carolyn Wiger, Natalie Anderson, and Ben Katzman. The familiar names is what initially sparked my attention. I also wanted to know if the show was really just people trying to stay in bed. It turned out to be a lot more interesting than expected.

Warning: Bed Rot Challenge spoilers are ahead. Proceed with caution.

The Bed Rot Challenge Is Actually A Compelling Reality TV Show

The Bed Rot Challenge is a lot like other competition reality TV shows, except in a bed. Heroes, villains, alliances, strategic gameplay, challenges, betrayal, and triumph all play out in these six episodes. It’s paired with some silliness like the host being an antagonist to the contestants. These people are also put into uncomfortable beds and made to eat bugs. The show may not have the same budget as some of the greatest reality TV shows of all-time, but that’s partly why it works.

The Bed Rot Challenge is a back-to-basics type of series. It’s all about the personalities and the challenges these contestants go through to win the game. These elements are simple but make for compelling storytelling. It doesn’t need the big production team, but you can still tell a lot went into the making of this show. It’s not some poorly put-together series. The hard work is why this silly series is so captivating.

I Became Very Invested In Who Won

Bed Rot Challenge produced six episodes that allowed multiple story arcs. We watched the rise and fall of many of these contestants. The final challenges came down to Natalie Anderson and Luke Yates. Luke had been portrayed as the villain all season.

He was this unstoppable force that the Bed Rot contestants couldn’t take down. It seemed like Luke’s game to lose. However, Natalie had also been a strong competitor all season, and had a pretty great track record with reality TV competition shows. I cared which one of them took home the win. I won’t spoil who won for those interested in the series, but it was a captivating season finale. Also pretty insane and frustrating. We now know one of their weaknesses.

Seeing Familiar Reality TV Faces Helped It Gain Some Legitimacy

Natalie and Carolyn are the names that got me interested in the Bed Rot Challenge. They both have extensive reality TV careers at this point and have even been part of some of the most iconic moments in reality TV history. I wanted to see what they do on this show, especially after sparking conversations on The Traitors. The series was full of reality TV faces and other well-known figures. This made the concept more fun.

Watching Survivor legends just lay around in bed trying to win silly challenges gives the show some credibility. How can a show like that not be appealing? Bed Rot Challenge was fun enough that I will watch more seasons.

Stream Cozy Earth’s Bed Rot Challenge on YouTube.

I started watching Big Brother this season to support Devens and Dee, and two weeks in, I’m fully in the deep end. I’m making real alliances, sleeping in the have not room, making fake alliances, reattaching my microphone and eating slop. I think this show is just going to be a part of my summer routine moving forward, but as a Survivor fan, I need to talk about the confessional situation because yikes.

At least eighty percent of everything we see come out of the Diary Room is inauthentic trash. So many of these confessionals sound like the houseguests were given a paper to read from. Perhaps even worse, a healthy percentage of them are just narrating plot action that we’re all literally watching on the screen or detailing the most obvious surface level motivations that we don’t need to hear.

During Wednesday’s episode this week, we all watched Lala go over the rules of the Veto Competition in really extended and specific detail. Then, for unclear reasons, we got a confessional of Lyric blandly explaining the exact same rules to the audience like thirty seconds later, once again in really specific detail, down to telling us how many pieces they had to find (12) and how they needed to fit on the board (“flush”). What could have possibly been the thought process behind including that confessional? Choose one or the other!

Sadly, that’s a recurring theme with so many bits we see from the Diary Room. Let’s just focus on that same Veto Competition as an example. We also got confessionals from multiple houseguests explaining to us that some of the pegs have more space around them so that must be where the bigger pieces go. That’s obviously a good strategy observation and worth hearing about, but did we need that same a-ha moment from both Jason and Angela? No, we did not. Choose one or the other!

And don’t get me started on the references and puns. I love bad puns, and I love cheesy references. I kind of like how kitschy Big Brother is. I was fine with Rachel getting murdered by a dinosaur during the first episode, but a confessional either works or it doesn’t. If the houseguest sounds like they’re delivering a rehearsed line, it shouldn’t make the final edit. There are at least four or five confessionals every week that sound so inauthentic coming out of the houseguest’s mouth. It’s shocking so many of them make the final edit.

After a few episodes of this, I asked the other people on staff here at CinemaBlend who watch Big Brother what the story is with the Diary Room content, and they both said some version of, that’s just how the show is. You’ll get used to it. Why is that an acceptable answer? It's certainly not fine with some former players who have complained about it.

I watch so many reality competition shows. I watch Survivor, The Traitors, Top Chef, MasterChef, Dancing With The Stars, Project Runway, Tournament Of Champions, The Amazing Race and like a dozen more. None of the other shows have this problem. Not a single one consistently includes content that feels repetitive and inauthentic. It doesn’t have to be that way.

It’s all particularly frustrating because each episode does contain some legitimately terrific confessionals, and if you watch the live feeds, these people have a lot of charisma and are always hooking up and scheming. There is a reason they were chosen to move into the house. There is plenty for producers to work with.

Unfortunately, it seems to me like those same producers are encouraging players to distill their thoughts down into generic euphemisms, obvious observations ("I need to win to get myself off the block!") and corny line reads they're literally handing them. Why is that the goal? Who decided this was the most optimal Diary Room content?

The team needs to change their strategy for getting Diary Room content, and they need to be more thoughtful about what they’re choosing from the material they do get. We need less obvious narrational content. We need less inauthentic line reads. We need less generic summaries. Instead, we need more confessionals that show off the personalities and emotions of the houseguests.

You can catch new episodes of Big Brother 28 multiple times a week on CBS, and you can watch the live feeds on Paramount+.

Warning! The following contains spoilers from the Big Brother Season 28 live feeds as of Thursday, July 23rd. Stream the feeds with a Paramount+ subscription or on Pluto TV, and read at your own risk!

Things couldn't be going better for the reality television veterans in Big Brother. Rick Devens gave them some added power and comfort with his Week 2 Head of Household win, and the fact that he also won the Week 2 veto only made it sweeter. With the security of the Tool Shed, they can skate on to the midpoint of the game without much trouble, so of course they're probably about to ruin it by overthinking things.

Dee Valladares and Rick may know Survivor, but as Cirie Fields learned in Season 25, Big Brother is a different beast. In their eagerness to make moves, they may just blow up their majority alliance, and Angela Murray's paranoia is not helping.

The Vets Are Discussing Moves That Could Break Up The Crossovers

With it looking increasingly likely that this week ends with either Rome Seymour or Jason De Puy walking out of Big Brother in Week 2, Dee and Angela thought it was time to prepare to target their next enemies. Unfortunately, they're convinced that Crossover-alliance members Barrett Pfeiffer and Drew Campbell need to go to protect their position.

That alone is messier than Angela Murray badmouthing past Houseguests on the live feeds, but it gets worse. Angela and Dee are trying to form new separate alliances with people like Lala Verrett and Taylor Brown, but are realizing their current goals don't align with their new allies. It's messy, and despite Devens trying to advocate against turning on Barrett and Drew, it looks like the chances of that happening are growing, and it'd be the end of the Crossovers.

The Vets Have A Decent Chance To Steamroll The Season With The Tool Shed, And These Overplays Could Ruin That

While others watching Big Brother online may prefer the vets to blow up their games and shake up the house dynamic, I know Survivor fans may be upset that Dee and Devens might not be long for the house if they do this. I can't guarantee it'll happen, but what I can say is we've seen a past Survivor player engage in this kind of overthinking before.

Cirie Fields made similar mistakes when she played Big Brother in Season 25, opting to immediately target members of her own alliance rather than completely handle those outside of her numbers first. She went after solid allies Hisam Goueli and Red Utley to ensure she had a better grip on the alliance, but then dwindling those numbers ultimately led to her losing her closest allies, Izzy Gleicher and her son Jared Fields, soon after. Maybe Survivor players just can't adapt to the slow pace of Big Brother, and they try to make too many moves too fast?

The Tool Shed alliance, which consists of both the Crossovers and Red Corner alliances, was only recently set up. I wouldn't be surprised if that alliance quickly crumbles once word travels around that Dee and Angela are openly discussing cannibalizing it by targeting Barrett and Drew. I certainly wouldn't trust the alliance was real after that, and think this is going to blow up for the vets in a big way. I mean, at the end of the day, couldn't the Red Corner sans Devens just bring in Drew and Barrett and gang up on the vets?

We'll see how this all plays out after the Week 2 eviction, which airs on CBS on Thursday, July 23rd at 8:00 p.m. ET. Big Brother is delivering top-tier drama with Season 28 at the moment, and if The Crossovers blow up in Week 3, I'd clear my schedule to watch it all unfold on the live feeds!

Former Big Brother winner and reality television icon Rachel Reilly has been open about her desire to be a castaway on Survivor in the past, and let the record show, she’s just as determined as ever. In fact, her husband Brendan has been teaching her how to make fire in their backyard. Given her popularity within the competition community, you’d think we’d get to see those skills eventually, but the Survivor casting department has been notably reluctant to cast veterans of other franchises in the past. So, what are Rachel’s actual chances? Let’s talk this out.

In Survivor’s 50 season history, there have only been five total castaways who previously appeared on other majority reality competitions before they hit the beach. Twins Natalie and Nadiya Anderson were on The Amazing Race, as was White Lotus showrunner Mike White. Hayden Moss and Caleb Reynolds were both on Big Brother. That’s it. Other players may have been on lesser shows before, but longtime host and showrunner Jeff Probst and company haven’t consistently looked to their primary competitors and sister shows to find people.

That being said, now may be a unique moment. Survivor 50, with an all-star cast of returning players, just gave the show its biggest ratings numbers in years, and likewise, Big Brother is currently in the middle of a resurgence thanks to its decision to cast Survivor favorites Dee Valladares and Rick Devens. CBS is definitely looking at those figures and figuring out how to keep them rolling.

Probst has already committed to do another returnee player season on Survivor. The producers haven’t announced exactly when it’ll happen, but the fanbase is widely of the belief that it’ll be 53 or 54, which would mean it’ll air in late 2027 or early 2028. Outside of that, however, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some additional decisions made with ratings in mind, which could mean a cast that includes some celebrities or stars crossing over from other franchises. If the show did that, you’d have to think Reilly would be near the top of the list.

It’s hard to make a case that many reality television stars have been more successful than her over the past few decades. She, of course, won Big Brother, but her resume goes a lot deeper than that. She also won Snake In The Grass and Celebrity Fear Factor. She made three appearances on The Amazing Race, including two where she got to the finals, and she made additional appearances on The Traitors, Worst Cooks in America and more. She doesn’t have quite the name recognition or crossover appeal of a player like Boston Rob, but within the reality competition community, there aren’t many bigger names, which is why we've seen her make appearances on the last two Big Brother seasons.

Here’s what she told US Weekly about competing on Survivor…

Personally, I’m all for Rachel appearing on Survivor. She has a fantastic social game, and she always creates can’t look away television. It would be a lot of fun to see her bounce off some personality types she might not be getting on other reality shows as well. Fingers crossed it happens at some point, whether she's figured out how to make fire yet or not!

Warning! The following contains spoilers from the Big Brother Season 28 live feeds as of Sunday, July 19th. Stream the feeds with a Paramount+ subscription and read at your own risk!

Week 2 in Big Brother is already zooming along, as Survivor stars Rick Devens and Dee Valladares continue to tighten their grip on the game. Rick won the Week 2 HOH competition and has already gotten to work uniting his Crossovers and Red Corner alliance into the "Tool Shed" and is angling to take out the other side of the house.

Those watching Big Brother online live feeds on the 2026 TV schedule saw Rick put Jason De Puy, Lyric Medeiros, and Melody Morris on the block, but a bigger plan was on the table. Devens wants to "backdoor" Rome, but Lyric has a plan that could keep them both safe this week.

Devens Won The Week 2 Veto

The power is in Devens' hands to do as he wants this week, which is great because he feels committed to the plan of "backdooring" Rome Seymour. For that to happen, nominations couldn't stay the same, so he's feeling good about taking someone down and putting that plan in action. The question is who he should take down, which remains a hot topic with hours to go before he makes a decision.

Lyric Is Trying To Fake A Breakup With Rome To Save Them Both

Lyric received a lot of criticism for prioritizing her showmance with Rome over playing Big Brother, but she's now locked in and trying to convince the house that their relationship is over. Her pitch to Devens was to use the veto to take her down, and then put Rome on the block so that she doesn't have to suffer for his actions.

Truth be told, it felt like Lyric effectively fooled Devens for a time. He soon spun the narrative to Dee that using the veto on Lyric was a good idea, and they'd be better off targeting Melody to weaken the position of their ally, Drew Campbell, who was maintaining alliances with Houseguests on the "other" side of the house.

Devens has made it clear that he'll go with whoever the majority of his alliance backs to save, but that Rome is going up either way. Obviously Lyric would prefer she be off the block to make the odds better both of them survive this week, so she'll continue to push for that outcome.

I feel like it isn't being talked about enough, but Rome still has the BB Blockbuster to save himself, though Devens seems ready for that possibility. He's hoping he can find a way to work out a deal with Rome and Lyric to protect himself and Dee, should the other side get an HOH win sometime in the near future. I think, ideally, he'd prefer to cut the head off of the snake and take down the alleged ringleader orchestrating a solid alliance outside the Tool Shed, but people who want to win Big Brother always have to be flexible.

The situation is very much in flux, so continue to check in on CinemaBlend for updates on what's happening in the Big Brother house. Catch a new episode this week on Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 8:00 p.m. ET on CBS, or over on Paramount+.

We’re all used to Big Brother players shouting out family members and friends during their live votes each week, but now and again, one of them will drop a reference that makes you do a double take. This week, that person was Rick Devens, who said happy birthday to his daughter, said hi to his wife and son and then name dropped popular director and DC executive James Gunn. Initially, most fans thought it was just Rick being goofy, but it turns out there’s an entire backstory here.

Rick and James Gunn apparently know each other in real life. In fact, there was a plan for Rick and his family to appear in the background of the upcoming Superman sequel Man Of Tomorrow, which Gunn has been on-set directing the past few months. Prior to the shooting day, however, Devens called Gunn and told him he wasn’t going to be able to come anymore for a reason he wasn’t allowed to share. That reason was obviously he was going to be sequestered in the Big Brother House.

Gunn posted a video of Devens shouting him out on Big Brother over on Threads, and when fans asked what the connection was, he talked about knowing Rick in a series of messages. He also said that even though Rick missed out on the Superman shoot, his family did not…

Everyone, even James Gunn, likes being shouted out on television, but the excitement here no doubt ran a lot deeper because Gunn is a noted OG Big Brother fan. As such, that reference definitely hit harder than it would have otherwise. I’m sure he’s loving this season too, given he’s got a friend on the show and also, it’s been objectively a glorious mess so far.

Part of the reason why it’s been such a mess has been Devens himself, who doesn’t know how to do anything other than play hard. He was a menace on both of his seasons of Survivor, finding idols and getting up to all sorts of weird schemes. There aren’t any Idols on Big Brother, but there are plenty of opportunities to cause chaos. To the surprise of no one, Rick has taken advantage of those, forming multiple alliances and taking part in what’s rumored to be one of the wildest nomination ceremonies in the show’s history, which is going to air this evening.

You can catch Devens on Big Brother throughout the Summer, which airs new episodes several times a week on CBS. You can also tune into the live feeds at any time, which are streaming on Paramount+. As for Man Of Tomorrow, you can catch James Gunn’s newest a little less than a year from now on July 9th, 2027. Sadly, Devens won’t be a part of it, but we can all look for his wife Becca and their kids in the background.

Warning! The following contains spoilers from the Big Brother live feeds as of Friday, July 17th. Stream the feeds with a Paramount+ subscription or on Pluto TV, and read at your own risk!

It's a new week in the Big Brother house as it continues its run on the 2026 TV schedule, and we're already off to a hot start. While there were efforts to try and save Ashley Trail, she ended up sabotaging her own rescue by exposing the major alliance forming to the other side of the house. Now, the Week 2 Head of Household is planning to embrace that exposure and declare "war" in a way that mimics Survivor.

So many things happened overnight, so if you weren't watching Big Brother online and catching up on sleep, have no fear. Here's what we know about the Week 2 HOH and how their unique brand of "chaos" will potentially create two "tribes" in the game.

Rick Devens Won The Week 2 HOH

In what is no doubt another major coup for the returnees, Rick Devens won the Week 2 HOH. It's the best-case scenario for Dee Valladares, who can now rest easy following her Week 1 reign, as her biggest ally is running the house. Could this mean we'll see some traction in her budding showmance with Barrett Pfeiffer?

Rick Is Planning To Declare "War", And Split The House Into Two Tribes Like Survivor

Rick initially seemed intent on playing it safe with his nominations and targeting Mallory Aurichio, Lala Verrett, and Melody Morris. However, that all changed after a conversation with Angela Murray, which encouraged him to go full-tilt and openly declare "war" on the other side of the house.

As of writing, it seems Devens will now put up Melody, Jason De Puy, and Lyric Medeiros, with the hope of backdooring Rome Seymour. Rome is generally seen as the ringleader of the "other" side of the house, which comprises everyone who isn't in the Crossovers or Red Corner alliance.

Backdooring anyone in Big Brother is a tall order in the modern seasons, as Rome will still have a chance to save himself with the BB Blockbuster. This plan could also fall apart if Rome is chosen to play the veto, and ends up pulling down Lyric, which would grant him safety.

There's also talk of Rick making a public declaration of "war" during his nomination ceremony, openly acknowledging the house is divided down the middle. It feels very Survivor to try to split the house between two sides, but as Dee and Angela discussed that same evening, pushing that narrative only helps the returnees shield themselves. I'm curious to see how the "other" side of the house responds, and if they organize in a way Rick's alliances have in order to have a better chance at surviving what might otherwise become a steamroll.

Big Brother will show the HOH competition on Sunday's episode, which airs on CBS at 8:00 p.m. ET. I'm interested to see what the contest was, and how Houseguests respond to this declaration of war.

Most of the reality competition show chatter right now is centered on Big Brother and more specifically, the casting of Survivor favorites Dee Valladares and Rick Devens on 28. Their surprise inclusion in the cast, along with BB legend Angela Murray has added a really fun and chaotic twist so far, but it turns out Dee and Rick aren’t the only two Survivor alums returning to television. One of Dee’s fellow castaways from 45 is about to get her chance, and it’s about freakin time.

Survivor 45 is best remembered for Dee’s pretty consistent domination throughout the season (and Emily Flippen greatness), but it’s also remembered by hardcore fans as a season of missed opportunities for two players who seemed to have really high upside: Kaleb and Kellie. They both had strong social games and looked good strategically but wound up being the first two members of the jury. They’re both consistently mentioned by fans as ideal returning candidates, but it looks like Kellie is about to get her shot on another reality show first.

FOX announced this week that it’s bringing back the game show 99 To Beat in the Fall to pair with breakout favorite The Floor, and rumors are swirling about some deep cut reality characters that are being brought back. Kellie Nalbandian has consistently been part of those rumors, and some of her friends, including the aforementioned Dee, have commented on social media about how excited they are to see her play. That’s enough for me to assume this is happening, and I am fired up about it.

If you haven’t watched 99 To Beat yet, you’re missing out. It sounds like the dumbest show in the entire world, but it’s an absolute blast. It follows 100 contestants who compete in a series of really simple tasks. One of them might be threading a needle and sewing two things together. One of them might be dropping a quarter into a shot glass inside a fish bowl.

Whoever finishes last is eliminated, and everyone else moves forward to the next task until eventually, there’s only one person left who wins the grand prize. Once you get a few challenges in, everyone starts taking it really, really seriously, and it leads to desperation, a lot of crying and even the occasional medical emergency. It needs a few minor tweaks, but the spirit of the show is fantastic.

During the first season, a bunch of reality show veterans participated including Survivor Queen Sandra Diaz-Twine and former winner Danni Boatwright, as well as Challenge favorite Cara Maria Sorbello and Big Brother’s Tommy Bracco. Kellie will reportedly be joined by other reality TV alum including Quinn from Big Brother and Daya Betty from Drag Race.

99 To Beat will officially return in late September. There’s no point in speculating how Kellie will do because there’s so much chance involved, but as a fan of her Survivor run, I hope we’re at least going to see a deep run and a lot of confessionals. Until then, we can all watch Dee dominate Big Brother and maybe, just maybe give us a little entertainment with a showmance.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck is now a very well-known TV personality. However, back in 2001, she was a 25-year-old still rocking her maiden name (Filarski) who joined Survivor at the start of the reality TV revolution. She made an impression on viewers for her personality and her tight alliance with Tina Wesson, who ultimately won Season 2. While she did pretty well surviving in the Australian Outback, she recently admitted she only made a half-hearted attempt to learn a couple of things on the plane out to film the TV show.

In an interview with The View producer Brian Teta ahead of her 2026 TV schedule return, Hasselbeck admitted she was not as prepared for Survivor as her CBS edit made her look. The good news? The flight from the U.S. to Australia is not exactly what I would describe as short. So, on the journey, she learned about fishing and tying knots.

These days, the types of things contestants do to prep for Survivor include intermittent fasting and figuring out how to get rid of unwanted body hair for 26 days. Contestants care a lot less about the actual survival aspect of the series in favor of the gameplay, and Jeff seems to like it better that way. However, in Season 2, the show was still very much a social experiment. Having survival skills at making fire or fishing gave competitors a giant edge, at least before the merge.

Hasselbeck said when she got to camp, she convinced everyone she was a “knot specialist,” and the rest was history. She became one of the most memorable contestants of all time, and went on to garner additional gigs on TV, most notably on The View, after her torch was snuffed. Interestingly, though, while she’s returned to the daytime show in the time since her 2013 exit (despite some controversy during her original run), she’s shown no interest in trying to return to the island again.

She’s said it’s because she doesn’t want to take too much time away from her children, whereas it’s easy to “settle in” for a quick stint on The View. Though fans recognize her from both of her prominent gigs these days, she joked it depends on how much effort she’s put into styling on a given day.

So, I would not expect Hasselbeck on Survivor anytime soon, despite Jeff expressly saying the show will be doing more with returnees in future seasons. Though, I'd love to see her show off these knot-tying skills.

Rick Devens is one of the most chaotic players in the history of Survivor. Between finding real hidden immunity idols, planting fake hidden immunity idols and lying about what advantages he may or may not have, he played harder and weirder than his fellow castaways during both of his seasons. Big Brother producers are hoping they’ll get that same outside the box weirdness from him this summer, but unfortunately, there’s one problem with that.

During the refurbished Big Brother Unlocked, Devens said during an interview that producers told him he isn’t allowed to make up his own advantages. Unlike Survivor, there are rules on Big Brother that prevent contestants from manipulating their fellow players, at least when it comes to production directives. That guardrail is staying in place this season, despite Devens’ presence. In fact, Executive Producer Rich Meehan made that very clear during an interview with Entertainment Weekly when Devens’ outrageous history came up…

This article isn’t long enough to rundown Devens’ entire shady history with rule-bending on Survivor, but I’ll give one specific example to illustrate what I’m talking about. During Survivor 50 at the beginning of the season, he took materials he found around the beach, wrapped them up in a pocket square and planted the package inside the Tribal Council set.

Weeks later, when he thought he was at risk of going home, he told everyone he found a clue to an idol that would keep him safe but hadn’t been able to retrieve it. He then got up, tore apart the set and grabbed the package he left to the absolute shock of the other castaways. He easily survived the night’s vote, as well as several more during a deep run.

I would love to see an alternate universe where Rick is allowed to lie to everyone and says he has an advantage that lets him put four people on the Block or some such nonsense. That’s not going to happen, but I’m hopeful he’ll still find a way to do a few really unexpected things. That’s certainly what production is hoping for. Here’s another quote from Meehan…

As of now, Rick is still playing it pretty low key in the house. If the live feeds are any indication, he’s built up a lot of strong relationships already, and he looks like he’s in a pretty good position with most of the houseguests, apart from Jason who is skeptical of him and the other reality show veterans like Dee and Angela. I suspect he’ll continue to blend and try not to get too crazy for a few weeks, but if at any point he starts to feel his back against the wall, that’s when we might see something really wacky, even if he’s been partially handcuffed by producers.

You can follow along all season, as we'll be covering everything going on in the house, from early season spoilers to late game strategy.