Controversy about the Survivor 49 preseason has been surfacing on social media. Claims have been made that some players were strategizing before the season even began.
The strategy here is called pre-gaming, where players on a reality competition show discuss and strategize about the game with each other before filming begins.
Many fans consider this a form of cheating, and it’s something that producers of shows like Survivor and Big Brother try to avoid. But it happens. It’s hard to keep people silent during the sequester phase of these shows.
When players are sequestered, they are often residing in the same location (different rooms) for a week or two before a show starts filming. It inevitably leads to interactions, but people aren’t supposed to chat about the game.
It’s even harder to avoid pre-gaming when players are returning to a show. Such was the case on Survivor 40: Winners at War and Big Brother: All-Stars 2. Each season had many rumors about people creating pre-season alliances.
A Survivor 49 player accuses the cast of pre-gaming
Sage Ahrens-Nichols is drawing a lot of attention for the posts she has been sharing on social media lately. That includes several posts where she reportedly claimed that significant pre-gaming happened on Survivor 49.
As a reminder, Sage finished in third place. Savannah Louie won Survivor 49, and Sophi Balerdi was the runner-up.
Host Jeff Probst also previously addressed the pre-gaming when it was revealed that two players were removed from the Survivor 49 cast mere hours before it began.
“I cannot think of a time we have ever pulled somebody for violating our pre-game rule policy of not talking to other players,” Probst told TV Insider at the time. “I’m sure over the years we’ve had people push the envelope a bit, and then our casting team will step in and say, ‘Hey, we know it’s difficult, but just remember you can’t talk until the game starts. And that’s when you’re in front of Jeff.’ This was very different. This was blatant disrespect for the casting team.”
Sage Ahrens-Nichols teases pre-gaming/cheating revelations
“I’ll probably talk more about this when I get around to posting about my experience in Survivor the game, but wanted to put this out there. I saw the theory about @SophieSegreti being ‘bad’ during pre-game in terms of talking,” Sage posted on Instagram.
“As some people know, I was the alternate for season 47. So I got the unique experience of being able to compare pre-game for 47 and for 49,” Sage continued. “Talking during 47 pre-game was a 2/10 tops (with ’10’ being the worst ever). Talking during 49 pre-game was a 9.99999/10. It was insane and caused our game to actually start during pre-game (and absolutely influenced dynamics within our game).”
The accusations are really bad and suggest that Sage has a lot of information to share at a later date.
“There were definitely ‘tiers’ to the talking offenders (I’ll speak more to this later). But when it comes to Sophie Segreti, she was hands down the best behaved person in our cast. She wouldn’t even look at anybody during pre-game. I actually thought she was the alternate for our season since she wouldn’t engage with anyone,” Sage added.
It seems that Sage has teased us with this post to help clear Sophie, who has indeed been accused on social media of being involved in the pre-gaming.
Later, Sage shared a new post where she revealed that she will be “naming names” in a future social media interaction. She also suggested that the players involved come forward before that happens.
“The people involved know who they are, and while they will likely deny it, that is not surprising based on how they have moved post-game,” Sage teased.
It sounds like there is much more to come from this situation. And many Survivor fans are reacting in shock with posts and comments on social media.
Update: Sage named the people she feels broke the rules on Survivor. Later, Annie confirmed what Sage revealed.
More news and notes from Survivor
Savannah revealed what she’s doing with her Survivor winnings. She didn’t say whether or not it includes money from Survivor 50. And speaking of that new season, here’s the full Survivor 50 cast list.
Sophi Balerdi feels she almost won Survivor 49. She shared her thoughts in a new exit interview.
Jeff Probst revealed why they chose Rizo and Savannah for Survivor 50. They were fun choices from the long-time host and executive producer.
