There are always rumors about celebrities joining the cast of Survivor. Country singer Dierks Bentley was the latest to get caught up in the wave of speculation about the cast of Survivor 49, which will likely leak on social media once production starts on the new season later this year.
Despite the many rumors about the Survivor 49 cast, Dierks Bentley is finally revealing that he's not, in fact, one of the players who will be traveling to Fiji and competing against 17 other players for the $1 million prize.
The country music star told the Taste of Country Nights that he's not joining the cast of Survivor anytime soon, according to a report from Cat Country 107.3.
"For now, I'm just gonna be a fan."
It's always hard to track down where these rumors start in the first place. Bentley is far from the first celebrity to be rumored to appear on the show. He certainly will not be the last. I saw this post on Reddit a while back, but I honestly didn't think anything of it. It's hard to say where these rumors come from, but the cast of new seasons of Survivor do often leak on Reddit and other places online before the season, so there's always some possibility the rumor could be true. And, CBS waits so long to announce the new cast.
For example, Survivor 48 premieres on Wednesday, Feb. 26, but the cast was just announced at the end of January 2025. And, that season was actually filmed in June and July 2024. So, there are a lot of people who know who is in the cast well before the new season premieres. It just doesn't get announced until right before the season begins.
Here's what Bentley said about the possibility of joining the Survivor cast and how the rumors came to be in the first place:
"I posted something online. I actually tried to support a friend of mine here in town, saying she would be a great contestant on Survivor, but it kind of came back toward me, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe this is a possibility.'"
For those out of the loop, the new seasons of Survivor typically film back-to-back in Fiji starting in May and ending in July. The new seasons are 26 days, so there's about a week in the lead-up to filming and then a few days after for production. It's a long time these players are out in Fiji, and it used to be even longer.
Survivor 47 and 48, which premieres in a few weeks, was filmed in 2024. This year, we'll see Survivor 49 and Survivor 50 filmed later this summer if the production pattern holds. Survivor 49 should be a season with all-new players, while Survivor 50 will feature returning players for the first time in 10 seasons. It should be one of the biggest and best seasons of the show to date.
I'm sure there are some fans who don't believe Bentley is being truthful about his involvement or lack thereof in Survivor 49. His tour schedule isn't doing any favors, obviously. Bentley happens to have a break during the time that Survivor 49 would be filming.
According to his website, Bentley is playing shows March 14-19, and there's a break before plays again on June 11-14 in Ohio. Survivor 49 will likely be done filming by June 11, but he said he's not going to be part of the season, so I think we should believe him.
We'll share more updates about Survivor 49, but you can follow along all season long for Survivor 48 at Surviving Tribal!