Fans react to Survivor 50 casting announcement

Jeff Probst has spoken and we officially have 24 returning players linked to Survivor 50. While there are lots of fans excited for what's in store, there's also an equal amount who are feeling personally victimized by Jeff right about now.

The biggest surprise of the casting news was the amount of new era players vs. pre-Winners at War castaways who will be appearing on the anniversary season.

There are a lot of fans who believe a season meant to celebrate a show that's been popular for 25 years should include a second chance for more of the original generation favorites and less of the people who have very recently had the opportunity to play the game.

With the theme of the season being "In the Hands of the Fans," it's understandable why there are such mixed reviews of the final cast. Many fans feel like the names they've been throwing in the ring for over a year now were all cut for former castaways that have already had more than enough chances to prove themselves at the game of Survivor.

Fans feel like there's just not an even mix of what Jeff and CBS had previously been hyping up. While any fan favorite season casting will never appeal to every fan, the minimal representation from seasons 20-29 (an incredible era of favorite Survivor players) feels like the voices of the fans were not a factor in this decision at all.

But despite the spectrum of fan responses ranging from contentment to absolute betrayal (and a slew of White Lotus cameo jokes sprinkled in) it'll definitely be interesting to see how the season actually plays out. Especially considering this is only the casting announcement. We still don't know what fan-voted gameplay we're in store for.

And while fans are doing their best to figure out what the majority voted for, we know for a fact that Survivor 50 will not be identical to anything we've witnessed before. It will be the first new era season that doesn't strictly follow the same format (based on how fans voted), but it also won't be comparable to any structure we knew before season 41 due to the fact it will follow the new 26 day outline.

And don't forget we still have two Survivor 49 players who will be participating that we haven't even seen play yet. I'll definitely be keeping a close eye on this upcoming season to see if I can figure out who will be joining the ranks of some of the best players in history.

Because yes, no matter what anyone says, the players who were selected for Survivor 50 are an iconic group of former castaways. Are they all of the best we've ever witnessed? No, but there's so much more that goes into these decisions beyond what the fans want to see. So even if your favorite player of all time isn't on the list, that doesn't mean it's going to be a bad season.

Personally, I can't wait to see what happens in Survivor 50. It might not be exactly who I was expecting, but with so many different styles of players—and a game where anything can happen—I think we can definitely expect the unexpected.