Another Survivor Legend Is Complaining About The Casting Process, And It’s Clear There’s A Big Problem Here

We’ve heard from a lot of unhappy former castaways who were cut from Survivor 50. Many have said producers acted like they were definitely going to make the cast, only to find out later they weren’t going to Fiji. If it was just a person or two, you could explain that away as miscommunication or bitter feelings, but the sheer volume of frustrated ex-contestants has made it clear there is an issue. If one OG legend is to be believed, the problems didn’t start with Survivor 50 either.

Rupert Boneham, arguably the most popular contestant in the history of the show, was one of many fan favorites not contacted to be a part of Survivor 50, but he says he was contacted three consecutive years between 2016 and 2018. He claims producers told him to clear his schedule, but after doing so, he was cut from the first two. When he was contacted the last time, he says he told producers he didn’t believe them, and they reassured him, if he got cut again, they’d put him on The Amazing Race, which they did.

You can read a portion of the quote he gave to The Things below…

We obviously don’t know exactly what Rupert was contacted for, but given the timeframe, it’s likely the producers reached out to him about Game Changers, Edge Of Extinction and then Winners At War. Boneham, obviously, never won the show and was ineligible for Winners At War, but the original plan for that season was not to do an all-winners season. As such, it’s likely he was contacted at some point in the process, as I’m sure he was for Game Changers, which also brought back a ton of former players.

To me, the problem here isn’t reaching out to contestants to gauge their availability. Host Jeff Probst and the other producers need to know who is even available before they start actually casting the season. It’s not just a matter of shipping all the best possible people to Fiji. Good seasons of Survivor have many different personality types. They need variance, which is why you have to get a large available pool of players and then select from that.

Instead, the problem to me is that producers are clearly leading people to believe they’re likely going to get cast. So many former players have spoken publicly about how producers made them believe they were a “lock” for Survivor 50, only to find out they weren’t going. I get that you want players to commit to shooting in the timeframe outlined, but there has to be a better way to do it that doesn’t create so many hard feelings with your biggest legends.

These are the people who made the show into what it is. Any process that leads literally dozens of them to feel jilted is not ideal, and after these Rupert comments, we know the problem isn’t unique to Survivor 50 either.

Despite some gameplay and structure issues and plenty of complaints over who the show did choose, I’m still stoked for Survivor 50. Returning players are acting like it was fantastic, and I can’t wait to see so many legends back on the island, even if I’m going to be missing a ton of my favorites like Rupert.