Survivor Contestant Savannah Louie Isn’t The Only Person Accusing Her Former Station Of Being Toxic

During the last episode of Survivor, castaway Savannah Louie told a really disturbing story about her time working as a reporter for an unnamed news station. She said when she was brought in, all of the other anchors and personalities at the station iced her out. They were, according to her, mad she’d taken a co-worker’s job; so, they interacted with her on the air but wouldn’t speak to her off the air, unless they had to in order to plan a segment.

Savannah, who will also appear on the upcoming Survivor 50, shared the story with one of her fellow players and talked about it at length during a confessional. She said the experience was so traumatizing that it messed with her hormones and caused long-term damage to her reproductive system.

She never mentioned the actual news station she was talking about, but not surprisingly, Survivor fans started digging into her past immediately and speculating about which of her career stops she may have been talking about. She later hit up Instagram Story and defended every place she’s worked except one: KSDK.

Louie worked at the NBC affiliate based in St. Louis, Missouri for two years between 2019 and 2021, and she is far from the only person to have a problem at the station. Two longtime on-air personalities were recently let go amidst public fights with management. I also personally spoke with multiple people who currently work or used to work at the station. One told me their experience at KSDK was “miserable” and said the work culture was “not healthy.” Others complained about disruptive corporate oversight and management decisions that didn’t make any sense.

Both high profile public incidents with on-air talent happened earlier this year. Back in April, longtime weatherman Anthony Slaughter was let go after an eight year run at KSDK. He later told STL Magazine he was unceremoniously fired during a “three minute conversation.” He apparently had clashed with management who felt he wasn’t using the term “Weather Impact” enough in his reports, which was a brand they were trying to launch.

He also complained publicly after his firing of a constantly increasing workload and a management directive that had him re-record all his segments so the version on the app was different then what aired on TV. The station directors reportedly felt he had a bad attitude about the changes and decided to go in a different direction.

Last month, longtime anchor Rene Knott was also forced out. He was on the news for more than two decades but was recently the subject of an HR investigation. He’d reportedly been told he was being moved from mornings to the 5 PM slot, but some people working the evenings allegedly pushed back. They reported to management that he’d made comments threatening to bring his AK-47 to work and said he’d mentioned wanting to stab a particular co-worker. They also claimed he’d made comments about possibly having CTE.

Knott told STL Magazine he’s never even touched a gun, didn’t have a single negative performance review in 21 years and said he only talked about CTE because as a former college football player, it’s something he has to worry about when he gets older. He did admit to making comments about wanting to kick people’s asses, but he said those were jokes that were being taken out of context. His co-workers allegedly didn’t think they were jokes and speculated he may have been feeling intense pressure related to the possible timeslot change and issues with ratings.

Pressure from management was a recurring theme in the conversations I had with others with long connections to KSDK that didn’t want to go on the record. They mentioned directives to create more and more content that would work for online audiences and said it caused a lot of friction within the newsroom as responsibilities changed. They said management made it clear that everyone was disposable, whether they were entry level employees or on-air talents that had been around decades.

Words like “mean” and “grudge” were used in every conversation I had. One former employee even told me another person at the station once sabotaged equipment because they were unhappy about how a particular story was being shot. Some speculated the toxic culture may have been related to recurring issues with ratings, as the station lost ground in comparison to some of the other local St. Louis affiliates.

Everyone I spoke with had at least heard about co-workers being mean to Louie, even if they didn’t witness it themselves. They also all told some version of the same story, which was similar to what the Survivor contestant shared on the show. The staff was convinced an internal candidate was going to get hired for the position that later went to Louie, but instead, corporate and/ or management decided to go in a different direction and bring in outside talent. Opinions varied as to whether that was the right decision or the wrong decision, but there was a consensus that the decision led to an immediate unpleasantness when Louie arrived.

The television business is tough, and it’s been especially tough for those working in the local TV news business over the last decade. Many viewers have moved to streaming, and many others have started getting their news from the internet. Stories about layoffs, firings and ratings-related pressure are all too common, but even in that difficult climate, there’s been an especially loud amount of chatter about KSDK.

Louie has been clear that she doesn't want fans attacking her former station or her former co-workers. She said they didn’t sign up to go on national television and didn’t want them to be part of her story. Given the high profile firings, however, she’s definitely not the only reason the station has been in the news this year.

As for Louie herself, she’s currently in the middle of everything on Survivor. The now ex-reporter has arguably been the main character of Survivor 49, and she’ll reportedly return next season for the much-hyped Survivor 50. Whether this all opens up new doors for her as a reporter or a reality star or something else entirely is unclear, but given her popularity on the show, expect her to have a lot of options.