CBS spoiled Survivor fans one month ahead of the Survivor 49 premiere by sharing the cast list and all 18 new players competing to win the next season. The new season premieres Wednesday, Sept. 24, on CBS and Paramount+.
In a nice turn of events, the Survivor 49 tribes were announced, too, so we get to see which players will be hitting the beach out in Fiji together.
Survivor 49 tribes
There are three tribes, obviously, to start Survivor 49. We've seen that in every season of the new era. Each tribe consists of six players. To start the game, we'll see the tribes competing in immunity and reward challenges, with one tribe heading to Tribal Council to vote out one player each episode.
Hina tribe | Kele tribe | Uli tribe |
|---|---|---|
Matt Williams | Alex Moore | Savannah Louie |
Jason Truel | Annie Davis | Sage Ahrens-Nichols |
Michelle "MC" Chukwujekwu | Sophi Balderi | Rizo Velovic |
Steven Ramm | Nicole Mazullo | Jawan Pitts |
Sophie Segreti | Jeremiah Ing | Shannon Fairweather |
Kristina Mills | Jake Latimer | Nate Moore |
Overall, the tribes look pretty evenly matched. We don't know the players' attributes yet, but we're going to find out who has the physical strength, who has the skills, and who can handle puzzles rather quickly. There is no slow buildup in Survivor. It's a show that goes big right at the beginning with some epic challenge that truly tests these players from a physical endurance perspective, and there is nowhere to hide.
We've also seen, in two of the last three seasons, how one tribe has just been absolutely demolished in the first few immunity challenges. In Survivor 46, the Yanu tribe lost almost every challenge to start the show, and there probably would have been a tribe swap if not for Randen Montalvo being pulled from the game. Then, in Survivor 48, the Vula tribe kept losing, so there had to be a tribe swap.
Will we see that in Survivor 49? I hope not. It's a much more fun season when everyone gets to play with their Day 1s like Survivor 47.
There's also a very weird Survivor 50 twist with one of these three tribes. Let's talk about it!
Two Survivor 50 players start Survivor 49 on the same tribe
Spoilers ahead for the Survivor 50 cast!
So, we all know two Survivor 49 players are going to be playing Survivor 50. Those players were revealed months ago, and they are Rizo Velovic and Savannah Louie.
As you can see by the tribe breakdown, Rizo and Savannah start Survivor 49 on the same tribe, the Uli tribe. I definitely did not foresee these players being on the same tribe to start the new season.
Now, maybe this is a tribe that completely dominates; everyone makes the merge, and Rizo and Savannah go to the end. Maybe they are in an alliance together, like we saw with Kyle Fraser and Kamila Karthigesu, or even Kyle and Joe Hunter. All three of those players made the Survivor 50 cast.
Rizo and Savannah might even be bitter enemies who cause so much drama that Survivor had to bring them back for season 50. I doubt that, but I wouldn't be surprised if we get a little bit of drama from some of the seasons with multiple players.
Jeff Probst recently teased that the Survivor 49 players know they are also playing for a spot in Survivor 50. That's going to be an exciting development to watch, as well.
There's more that I want to say now, but there's also reason to believe that one of the Survivor 49 players in Survivor 50 will actually be the winner of the season. I'm not so sure about that, personally. There isn't that much time to recover between seasons of the series, but it's definitely possible!
Stay tuned for more news about the Survivor 49 cast!