We’ve known Survivor 50 was going to feature returning players for awhile. Longtime host Jeff Probst announced that during an industry event earlier this year, but fans did a bit of a double take a few days ago when CBS President Amy Reisenbach said the network plans to hold a “year-long celebration” of the beloved reality competition show. What exactly that means is unclear, but not surprisingly, this has led to a lot of speculation on social media.
Of course, Survivor fans are no strangers to speculation. Every episode in the history of the show has been obsessed over, as we all try to forecast what a certain move might mean for a player’s chances of winning, but to be honest, no one outside those directly involved in the show really have any idea what any of this “year-long celebration” talk means. I don’t even know if Reisenbach knew for sure when she gave her quote to Deadline. As fans, myself included, however, we do know what we want to see, and given CBS wants us to be happy, what fans want to see is probably a good place to start. So, here are the three most common theories I’ve been seeing on social media and hearing in personal conversations.
There Will Be A Longer Season Featuring More Than The Usual Number Of Players
Before we dive into the more players part of this, let me address the season length. Every Survivor fan I’ve ever met prefers 39 days instead of 26 days. It seems to literally only be Jeff Probst and probably whoever is paying the bills that prefers 26 days. So, regardless of whether the season features more players or not, everyone wants to see 39 days. Those working on the show, however, have clearly heard all our complaints for years and just don’t care. So, I’m not hopeful. In my mind, just going back to 39 days wouldn’t count as a “year-long celebration” anyway.
That being said, a lot of fans think we may get more players during Season 50, and if that’s the case, it’s likely we would get a longer season with more episodes and more days on the island. I saw one fan on Twitter pushing the show to give us 5 tribes of 10 players, each representing a different 10 season chunk. I would love to see that but am pessimistic producers would bring back that many people. Could we see 25 or 30 though? I certainly hope so.
If I’m in charge, however, here’s what I’m doing. I’m conducting two simultaneous games featuring full casts of returning players. Then, I’m blindsiding the players who make the merge with the big surprise. You think you made the merge? Actually, you just made it on to one of the two tribes that will be competing in the final round of Survivor 50, and you’ll be going up against another tribe of players who were just told the exact same thing. This idea is too far-fetched to bet on, but it would allow CBS to get a full year out of a single Survivor season and bring back 40 to 50 beloved players.
There Will Be Multiple Seasons Of Returning Players
This is, by far, the most common theory fans are speculating on. Right now, everyone is talking about how Survivor 50 is going to bring back favorite players from the past, but that would only be a half year and might not be as grand as CBS would like. So, maybe the real plan is to do returning players on both Survivor 50 and Survivor 51. Maybe Survivor 50 is the big splashy season featuring the most famous players of all time like Boston Rob, Sandra, Tyson, Parv and Tony and Survivor 51 is New Era Second Chances, where it’s all the best non-winners from Season 41 and beyond?
In addition to extending the celebration out and giving fans multiple seasons to get excited about, this would also help solve the problem of who to bring back. A lot of OG Survivor fans really want to see the all-time legends of the game come back. They feel like you can’t have a proper Season 50 celebration without the players who really turned Survivor into the juggernaut it is. To them, it doesn’t matter that we’ve seen some of these people 3, 4 or even 5 times. They want to see the biggest names.
Then, there are other fans who want to see returning players but don’t feel the need to see people we’ve seen so many times. Instead, they want mostly players who we’ve only seen compete once. There are also younger fans who have no emotional attachment to the OG players. For them, Survivor has always been the New Era, and promises of a bunch of older people coming back isn’t a sell at all.
I think there’s a good chance we’ll see multiple returning seasons here in the near future, but exactly what the format of 50 will be and whether the other returning season will literally be attached is unclear.
CBS/ Paramount+ Will Put Together Some Kind Of Retrospective Or Documentaries
Celebrating Survivor doesn’t necessarily mean messing with the upcoming seasons. Instead, it could mean finding ways to celebrate Survivor’s long and storied history. The competition, which was once the most popular show on television, has an army of fans and a wealth of content to explore. With documentaries now more popular than ever, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a companion series announced. Host Jeff Probst already does a podcast; so, in theory, he’s down for more content.
My preference would be to see documentaries on the more popular individual seasons, rather than a retrospective that tried to cover everything we’ve seen before. I don’t need a highlight reel of what’s happened. Instead, I’d much rather see interviews with everyone from Survivor: Cagayan or Pearl Islands or another of the most beloved seasons discussing what happened and why certain things went down the way they did. You could roll out one episode a month throughout 2025 and fans would be on the edge of their seats.
To Sum Up
Fans don’t quite know what to make of CBS announcing Survivor will feature a “year-long celebration.” The fanbase, however, is hungry for additional content and really excited about getting details on Season 50 and any information on whether there will be an effect on connecting seasons. Personally, I hope we get some kind of giant mega-season from Survivor 50 that brings back a ton of both OG and New Era players, but at this point, anything not coming from those connected with the show is just speculation.
