The Survivor 50 cast left out all but three winners from previous seasons, but in a shocking turn of events, we learned that one of the most dominant winners of the new era wasn't even asked to be part of the cast of the season.
During an appearance on the By Order of the Faithfuls podcast hosted by Wells Adams, Dolores Catania, and Tamra Judge, Rachel LaMont, the winner of Survivor 47, revealed that she was a little disappointed that she wasn't asked to be a part of Survivor 50.
"I think I have mixed feelings about it," Rachel said. "I don't think I was ready to play on season 50. On the other hand, I wanted to be, like, asked, maybe, you know. It's like, you could have called me. I never expected to be on. Even just getting a feeler call would have been nice."
Obviously, I've known for a long time that Rachel was not part of the Survivor 50 cast, but she was one of the players who I think deserved to be included in the cast because of how great she performed on Survivor 47. She had her back against the wall so many times in that season, and she pulled herself out of it every single time. She's an incredible social and strategic player, but don't even get me started on her ability to win important challenges. She was a beast on Survivor 47, and she is incredible at puzzles. She literally has a puzzle company!
There's such a long list of Survivor players who deserved a spot on season 50 and didn't get picked. I don't understand how Rachel wasn't even asked to be part of the season when you had other new era winners in Dee Valladares of Survivor 45 and Kyle Fraser of Survivor 48 on board before Survivor 49 happened and they added Savannah Louie, the winner of that season.
Rachel, in my opinion, is a better player than all of those winners. It would have been so awesome to see Rachel hit the island, especially if Genevieve Mushaluk was playing. Rachel and Genevieve went toe-to-toe on Survivor 47. It would have been awesome to see them back in the game together. They might even have worked together! We all would have benefitted from that.
Rachel did make a fair point about being ready to play Survivor 50, though. As we heard from Savannah Louie, she wasn't really ready to play, mentally, after winning Survivor 49. I'm sure Rachel is in a similar spot, even though it was years between seasons, while Savannah had a few weeks. To play Survivor and win, it takes so much out of these players. You have to be willing to put everything on the line. Doing that twice is simply too much.
So, in some ways, I understand why the casting team made this decision, but I'm still shocked that Rachel didn't even get a call, which means she must have been ruled out way early.
It's even more shocking when you consider that Rachel has a relationship with Jeff Probst. Rachel is the only player, outside of Jeremy Collins, who has played Survivor multiple times already, who co-hosted the On Fire with Jeff Probst podcast who didn't get invited for Survivor 50. Dee Valladares, Rick Devens, and Charlie Davis are all part of the Survivor 50 cast.
Survivor 50 airs weekly on Wednesdays on CBS and Paramount+!