Did you catch the latest Survivor players to appear as extras in The White Lotus? On Sunday, Feb. 16, eagle-eyed Survivor fans spotted two former Survivor players in the season premiere of The White Lotus season 3, "Same Spirit, New Forms."
Mike White, the Survivor super-fan who also created The White Lotus, was one of the big players from Survivor: David vs. Goliath, which aired on CBS in 2018. Since then, White has brought in a few of the players from his season for little Survivor cameos in one of the most popular TV shows on HBO and Max.
Natalie Cole and Carl Boudreaux are the latest Survivor stars to make an appearance in an episode of The White Lotus. In the season premiere, Natalie and Carl are seated at a table in the Thai resort's restaurant. When Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) sits down at her table, she looks over at the couple. It's not quite a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance, but I'm sure non-Survivor fans would not make any sort of connection. I recognized Natalie right away, but I didn't see Carl until I hit rewind and watched again.
There was some chatter online that Natalie and Carl would be in the episode, so I do have to admit that I was looking for them.
After Natalie and Carl appeared in the season 3 premiere, the tally of Survivor: David vs. Goliath players to appear in the show jumps to five, according to Entertainment Weekly.
In the first three seasons of the show, Alec Merlino, Kara Kay, and Angelina Keeley also make an appearance in The White Lotus. Alec is the only player to appear in multiple episodes of The White Lotus so far. He was on camera quite a bit in the show's first season, which was set in and filmed in Hawaii. The first season premiered in 2021.
In 2022, Kara and Angelina appeared in the second season of The White Lotus, which was set in and filmed in Italy.
So far, I have not heard if any other Survivor: David vs. Goliath players will be featured in any of the other episodes of the season, but we'll just have to wait and see!
According to a new report from Entertainment Weekly, Natalie revealed that she had a conversation about Survivor 50 with Jeff Probst at The White Lotus season 3 premiere. Jeff also recently revealed that they haven't made many cast decisions about the 50th season yet. Will Natalie be included? My gut says no, but we'll have to wait and see.
New episodes of The White Lotus season 3 air Sundays on HBO and Max. If you haven't watched yet, there's only been one episode of the season, so you have more than enough time to catch up before the second episode airs on Sunday, Feb. 23.
Stay tuned for more cameos in The White Lotus and more news about Survivor 50!