One of the most reputable sources of leaks has indicated that Survivor season 38 will bring back returning players to compete for a million dollars.
While the Survivor offseason in January isn’t as long as the one spanning from June to August during the summer months, it has been a bit of a grind for fans in North America. Even the spiciest looks into Survivor Ghost Island props used from past seasons isn’t enough to warm up the overwhelming cold that many north of the Mason-Dixie line has suffered since Heroes vs. Healers vs. Huslters ended.
Thankfully, Martin Holmes of Inside Survivor has something of note while we wait somewhere between two and three weeks for the official reveal of next season’s cast. As noted on Twitter, his sporadic newsletter is taking a while to get into people’s inboxes, so he’s sharing to the world the casting breakdown for the two upcoming non-filmed seasons; 37 and 38.
First off, it looks like we will get three straight seasons in a row of newbie seasons, as the cast will apparently be finalized shortly. Survivor season 35 through 37 would mark the first three-season span of all-newbie players since Cagayan, San Juan del Sur and Worlds Apart, running from seasons 28 to 30. However, Survivor season 38, which would be scheduled to air in Spring 2019, will reportedly bring returnees back into the fold.
As the newsletter is taking forever to get to some people, here is the basic gist. S37 newbies, cast should be finalised soon. S38, returnees are being called. But not sure if for full-returnees or mixed season.
— Martin Holmes (@RedmondSurvivor) January 10, 2018
With a Blood vs. Water season seemingly not under consideration this time around, this leaves us with a few options. First, I would highly doubt that it would be an all-winners season of Survivor, as it appears newbie recruits and applicants are still getting contacted by casting, per Holmes. That means that we could be getting a season with returning player captains amongst newbies, an all-returnee season or a Fans vs. Favorites type of split.
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For all we know, we could have a return of the fan vote to bring players back a la Cambodia: Second Chances. We know Jeff Probst has been itching to leave it up to the fans to bring back players, so the timing could be right seven seasons since the last time they tried!