The countdown is over! The 50th season of Survivor officially begins tonight, Wednesday, February 25 at 8pm ET on CBS and Paramount+ with the 3 hour premiere episode, “Epic Party.” Grab your buffs, grab a snack, and get comfy because this is the longest premiere episode in Survivor history!
With the first episode taking up CBS’s entire primetime slate, it feels like an homage to some prior seasons—when episodes were only 60 minutes instead of 90—where we’d kick off a new game with two back-to-back episodes on the first night. If that’s the case, we could potentially be seeing two castaways going home right off the bat.
Plus, we’re sure to get at least a few results of the fan-voted elements, which has been one of the most anticipated parts of the anniversary season. Will our players have rice when they get to camp? And if anyone is bold enough to go looking for a hidden immunity idol, will there even be one to find?
We shared everything live—from the marooning, the social dynamics, the challenges, all the way to Tribal Council...and beyond! Because of course, the first episode of Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans was anything but expected.
Meet the Survivor 50 starting tribes
Cila Tribe (Orange): Joe Hunter (Survivor 48), Savannah Louie (Survivor 49, Winner), Christian Hubicki (Survivor: David vs. Goliath), Cirie Fields (Survivor: Panama, Survivor: Micronesia, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, Survivor: Game Changers), Ozzy Lusth (Survivor: Cook Islands, Survivor Micronesia, Survivor: South Pacific, Survivor: Game Changers), Emily Flippen (Survivor 45), Rick Devens (Survivor: Edge of Extinction), Jenna Lewis-Dougherty (Survivor: Borneo, Survivor: All-Stars)
Kalo Tribe (Teal): Jonathan Young (Survivor 42), Dee Valladares (Survivor 45, Winner), Mike White (Survivor: David vs. Goliath), Kamilla Karthigesu (Survivor 48), Charlie Davis (Survivor 46), Tiffany Ervin (Survivor 46), Benjamin "Coach" Wade (Survivor: Tocantins, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, Survivor: South Pacific), Chrissy Hofbeck (Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers)
Vatu Tribe (Magenta): Colby Donaldson (Survivor: The Australian Outback, Survivor: All-Stars, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains), Genevieve Mushaluk (Survivor 47), Rizo Velovic (Survivor 49), Angelina Keeley (Survivor: David vs. Goliath), Quintavius "Q" Burdette (Survivor 46), Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick (Survivor: Palau, Survivor: Guatemala, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains), Kyle Fraser (Survivor 48, Winner), Aubry Bracco (Survivor: Koah Rong, Survivor: Game Changers, Survivor: Edge of Extinction)
The Marooning
Host Jeff Probst welcomes our 24 castaways to the beach, establishing the high expectations for all of them—the most worked up we’ve ever seen Jeff at the beginning of a new season. As he goes down the line of players, there’s laughter, tears, and a general sense of camaraderie that, from this group, symbolizes the calm before the storm. The massive respect these people have for each other is evident and none of them are about to hold back.
Jeff has everyone grab a buff, pre-wrapped with their chosen tribes. He announces that the fans voted for players to earn their rice and supplies and gears up the first challenge, where the winning tribe gets not only flint, but a pre-started fire back at their camp.
Stephenie comes out of the gate swinging like it hasn’t been over a decade since she last played and Aubry keeps the Vatu tribe in the lead by dominating the puzzle round. Savannah clears the way for Christian to start the puzzle for Cila with Kamilla picking up the rear for Kalo, letting Chrissy make up some ground in the puzzle.
Joe and Ozzy speed ahead in the water for the Cila tribe and nearly catch up to Kyle and Colby on Vatu. Genevive and Rizo get started on the final portion of the challenge for Vatu with Emily and Devens right behind them for Cila. Coach and Jonathan make up a huge amount of time, allowing Charlie and Dee to catch up at the end for Kalo, but it’s too late. Vatu races across the finish line and earns fire.
But now each tribe needs to select one champion to go compete to earn their supplies.
Fan-Voted Elements
The first fan-voted element impacting the game is rice, which fans voted to make players earn in a 53% to 47% vote. And fans leaned the same way with supplies—wanting the tribes to earn them—with a 60% majority.
The fans also voted for idols to be in play as well as for advantages to be “dynamic.”
Supply Challenge
Turning to the Kalo tribe, Tiffany volunteers Coach to go fight for supplies. In return, Ozzy raises his hand for the Cila tribe, deciding it’s only fitting to battle against his former adversary. And finally, without a word, Q steps forward for the Vatu tribe.
Getting to the secondary challenge beach, Coach and Ozzy make amends over the final of Survivor: South Pacific and potentially begin a clean slate.
The three players are tasked with racing to climb a pole to grab a bag of wood and rope before moving forward to dig up a second bag. They then have to swim out for the third bag before using the supplies to put together a pole to extend through a gate to secure a key. The first player to get the key win supplies for their tribe.
Ozzy, out of the gate, gets all three bags before Coach and Q even get their second. But once he’s put together his pole, it’s not sturdy enough to reach. On his first attempt, Coach breaks the wood creating his pole and Q is still trying to build something while Ozzy and Coach are pushing for it.
Ozzy tries to make a deal with Coach that whoever knocks the key off first can have it, but Coach doesn’t say anything and instead steals the key after Ozzy pulls it all the way in. Coach unlocks the supplies and leaves before Ozzy—upset with Coach’s immediate betrayal—and Q open a secondary note informing them that for losing the challenge, they are now exiled for the night.
Exile Island Twist
Over on Exile, Q and Ozzy have a restless night. Ozzy tries to make fire with bamboo, but Q tells him not to waste his energy.
When the boats arrive to take them back to camp, there is one set of supplies that the two must negotiate over. The supplies cost one vote. The player who takes the supplies must give up their vote at their next Tribal Council and give it to the supply-less player as an extra vote.
Ozzy convinces Q to give up his vote and take the supplies in exchange for his vote.
Beginning with bonding or betrayal?
Vatu Tribe:
Colby reconnects with his Heroes vs. Villains ally Stephenie and they agree that Rizo is “annoying.” Colby isn’t a fan that he doesn’t seem to be doing a lot of work around camp and is always talking.
While grabbing supplies for shelter, Kyle grabs both Colby and Stephenie, but also wants to create a strong alliance with Genevieve, who he feels will be his Kamilla of Survivor 50. The four are ready to create a core Vatu alliance.
Aubry also approaches Genevieve, acknowledging a weird vibe between the two and Genevieve shares that she sees Aubry as dangerous, but would love to work with someone dangerous as they could be a dynamic duo. But Aubry doesn’t trust Genevieve at all and fears it will be a “I get you before you get me” situation, needing to keep one eye open at all times with her.
When Q returns to Vatu, he shares that Coach betrayed Ozzy and stole the key, but instead of sharing that he bought the supplies with his vote, he tells everyone there was another challenge this morning that the two had to compete in. Kyle pulls him aside, wanting to work with him and Genevieve and Q confides in him that he lost his vote.
Now on the second day in the game, Colby realizes he misjudged Rizo while he’s putting on a tribe fashion show to boost morale around camp. Colby shares some advice with him, offering an ear if Rizo needs someone to talk to, which means a lot to the Survivor 49 finalist.
Kalo Tribe:
Dee feels confident in her tribe and they’re all immediately working well together. Charlie agrees they are going to have a good group moving forward.
Coach returns to camp with supplies and is greeted with extreme enthusiasm, including a chant of his name. Chrissy joins Coach in the ocean as he cleans up from the challenge to strategize with him, throwing out Dee’s name as a former winner.
Jonathan and Mike prepare for their first immunity challenge day with some yoga on the beach where they talk strategy. Jonathan drops Dee’s name as the former winner on the tribe, also wanting to bring in Coach—who says he’ll never betray him in the game. He also chats with Chrissy, who’d previously noted Dee as a concern.
Meanwhile, Dee and Tiffany are excited to work together, also bringing in Kamilla—who is excited to play with strategists as opposed to Survivor 48’s honor and integrity style. Tiffany brings up Chrissy’s name as the only person they don’t seem to be vibing with and Kamilla says she doesn’t have strong feelings either way, open to whatever Tiffany wants as long as it’s not Kamilla.
Cila Tribe:
Joe starts connecting with everyone on his tribe. Savannah is asked to “spill the Survivor 49 tea” and she shares that she won. Jenna talks with Savannah, throwing out Cirie’s name as a potential threat, bringing in Joe and Christian.
Christian tells Devens, while on a walk, about Jenna mentioning Cirie. While they’re talking, Devons is leaping through trees and bushes, hoping to find an idol. Christian establishes himself as Mr. Spock to Devens’ Captain Kirk, ready to solidify their day 1 alliance. Devens wants to also bring in Emily, feeling like she really wants to work with him and will be a good number for them.
After starting at the bottom of her tribe in Survivor 45, Emily is very excited to have a day 1 alliance, but is also slightly cautious and not ready to feel fully validated in everything.
Ozzy returns without supplies, which begins to lessen morale, but with the sun out, Christian grabs everyone’s glasses and tries to make fire. He, Jenna, Savannah, and Ozzy work together and make fire without any supplies.
Devens tells Cirie that Jenna mentioned her name and Cirie connects with Ozzy about working together. They agree to be day 1 allies, sticking together, and Ozzy reveals he has an extra vote. But while they’re talking, Jenna flags the concern about the fact the two of them have played together before twice.
Immunity Challenge
All three tribes will compete in an obstacle course leading to a 50-piece Survivor 50 puzzle. The first two teams to finish win immunity and fishing supplies—with the second place finishers getting a slightly smaller kit. As is now usual in the new era, the losing tribe not only has to attend Tribal Council and send someone home, but also loses their flint.
Vatu is off to an early lead with Cila right behind them, but at the second stage of the challenge, Kalo passes Cila. By the fourth leg, all three tribes have caught up to each other with Kalo speeding ahead.
Chrissy and Kamilla jump on the puzzle for Kalo when Jeff calls for the challenge to stop after Kyle lands badly on his ankle while trying to run up the final ramp. Medical clears him to continue as long as he doesn’t put weight on it. Q jumps down and lifts Kyle up before pulling himself up.
Cirie is still working on unlocking the wall for Cila while both Kalo and Vatu have a major lead on the puzzle. But once unlocked, Cila gets everyone up the wall to the puzzle where Emily and Christian leap into their puzzle.
Kamilla and Chrissy are nearly finished as Emily and Christian begin—taking first place for Kalo—and Vatu had just enough of a lead to finish the puzzle and take second place, sending Cila to Tribal Council
Post-Challenge Strategizing
Back at camp, Cirie is feeling low for letting her tribe down and she also knows that Jenna has been throwing her name out. When Jenna approaches Ozzy about Cirie, he’s hesitant, which makes her not trust him. And Ozzy starts pushing to everyone that they need to keep Cirie over Jenna, definitively, which puts everyone off.
Joe turns to Savannah and they agree that tonight’s vote needs to be about ensuring they don’t end up back at Tribal Council. When Devens connects with Emily, she voices concern about how hard Ozzy was coming out in defense of Cirie and pitches that maybe they should vote out Ozzy.
She approaches Savannah with the idea and the two connect with Christian and Devens about all their possibilities: Jenna, Cirie, or Ozzy. No matter what decision they make, it’s going to be eliminating a Survivor legend and it’s going to cause quite a stir not only in the game, but amongst the fans.
Tribal Council
With an hour left in the broadcast, Jeff kicks things off by going back 25 years, asking Jenna to compare the feeling of walking into Survivor 50’s first Tribal Council vs. walking into her first Tribal Council in the first season of Survivor. He talks with each player about how this season is different because of past relationships coming into the game.
When asking about the criteria for tonight’s vote, Emily reveals that there isn’t anything definitive. She declares that everyone has merits and everyone has faults and the reason one person can pitch voting out someone is the complete opposite reason why that person might pitch someone else, that’s also valid.
Savannah admits that relationships are just as important as challenge performance because if someone who performs poorly in challenge is someone who can take her to the end, she’ll obviously want to keep them.
Overall, there is no consensus of which way the tribe is leaning and the only votes revealed are Jenna’s for Cirie and Cirie’s for Jenna.
Who was voted out of Survivor 50 episode 1?
After an intense Tribal Council, Jenna Lewis-Dougherty became the first person voted out of Survivor 50. Through the back-and-forth of all eight tribe members and their reasoning for keeping or eliminating each of the suggested castaways, Jenna was too threatening as a strategist for the tribe and was eliminated.
After Tribal Council
And since it's the premiere episode and anything can happen, of course even after the first elimination hits, the episode isn’t over.
The next morning, Vatu has Kyle limping, but doing okay, saying he’ll definitely stay in the game. Genevieve and Stephenie are walking along the beach, casually looking for idols when Genevieve finds something, the Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol. The rules of the idol are that she must gift it to someone on another tribe, but if they’re voted out with the idol in their pocket, the idol comes back to the original finder.
Genevieve, Stephenie, and Kyle ponder who to give it to that’s most likely to get voted out. Genevieve decides to give it to Ozzy as he’s previously been voted out with an idol in his pocket.
Over at Cila, Ozzy is acting as the provider as he always has, but Devens is making it clear that’s not a good enough reason to keep him around. Ozzy says he’s going off to do more work, but is really checking out something he found in his back—a gift idol that says he cannot give it to anyone else and it expires at Final Five.
A New Journey
A boat pulls up to each tribe with a note declaring that someone must get on the boat, but it can’t be anyone who competed for supplies. Mike goes for Kalo, Savannah for Cila, and Colby goes for Vatu.
Only two of the three of the challengers can play, so they draw rocks and deem it’s Savannah vs. Colby. Mike must immediately return to Kalo.
One at a time, each player places a piece in a stacking puzzle. The player who makes the tower fall loses their vote. In an attempt to go high so Savannah can’t reach, Colby knocks over the puzzle and loses his vote, but he feels like Savannah could be someone he could work with down the line.
A boat comes and takes Colby away and when Savannah’s boat comes to take her back to the Cila beach, she’s delivered a note informing her that her reward for not losing is a secret block-a-vote.
An Unexpected Visit
Jeff and the medical team arrive at Vatu and pull aside Kyle to check out his achilles tendon, which is what they’re worried he injured during the challenge. They’re able to do the tests on the beach, including an ultrasound, that makes Dr. Joe fear he snapped his achilles tendon.
Kyle asks what the risk is for him to stay and Jeff says the show has a duty to take care of their players. Dr. Joe deems that Kyle needs to leave the game to take care of the injury properly.
Next Time on Survivor…
With two players already out of the game, tensions are high and it’s clear no one is willing to back down for anyone else. I predict we might see a little emotion from Joe and Kamilla upon learning about Kyle’s removal from the game, but with the new Ozzy/Coach drama that’s clearly already coming to a head—after only one episode—it might get overshadowed by those emotions.
But I know this for sure, there’s no doubt we’re in for an epic season for Survivor! Tune in next Wednesday to see what happens next on the already history-making, jaw-dropping, tear-jerking, heart-stopping Survivor 50!