Survivor 50 features two castaways who were also on Survivor 49.
Host Jeff Probst teased the Season 49 cast early in their season, suggesting that there were still open spots for Season 50.
Did it reshape how some people played the game? Possibly. However, it ultimately came down to a decision by the production team. And they went with more New Era individuals.
It became the worst-kept secret in reality TV as Season 49 began airing on TV. Many fans saw the online spoilers that revealed the identities of those players who had been selected.
As recently reported by Tea on TV, CBS has now confirmed that Rizo Velovic and Savannah Louie are on Survivor 50. Savannah is the Survivor 49 winner, while Rizo finished in fourth place after losing the Fire-Making Challenge.
Jeff Probst gives a peek into Survivor 50 selections
In an interview with Parade, Jeff provided some insight into how Rizo and Savannah were invited to be on Survivor 50.
“What we agreed to as a group was, ‘If somebody makes a big impression, we’re going to want them on 50. So let’s go into 49 with our own state of flux. And what happened was two players impressed us,” Jeff told Parade.
“We did not go in looking for two players. We didn’t go in saying, ‘If we do it, it has to be a person of this age or this gender.’ We didn’t have anything. We just said, ‘Let’s just stay open,’” Jeff elaborated.
However, as we now know, Jeff and the other producers selected 22 people from earlier seasons and then added a man and a woman from Season 49.
While some Survivor fans expressed that they didn’t enjoy watching Savannah and Rizo, many viewers found them to be extremely enjoyable to watch. And they definitely caught the eyes of Jeff and the other producers.
When did they decide on Rizo and Savannah for Survivor 50?
It turns out that it took most of Survivor 49 for the producers to settle on players. Jeff opened up about how long that took.
“We didn’t decide on Rizo and Savannah until we had our Final Three. It was that late into 49 and that close to 50! And remember, it wasn’t a situation where we had to have players from 49 to fill out our roster for 50. We just made the decision to stay open to the idea throughout the shooting of 49, see how it all played out, and then decide. We set up a Zoom the morning after the finale. They walked in, and I was waiting on the Zoom to invite them to be a part of our most historic season ever! We were so happy that they both said yes,” Jeff explained in detail.
So there you have it. Much thought went into the Rizo and Savannah selections. The final decisions weren’t taken lightly.
More news and notes from reality TV
Kristina Mills addressed her Survivor 49 jury question. She asked Savannah a really tough question on the finale night.
Here’s a link to the full Survivor 50 cast and promo. We are excited for the new season!
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