Season 50 of Survivor sees 24 past competitors return to the screen.Robert Voets/Paramount+
For the 50th season of the long-running reality competition show, TV critics Amber Dowling and J. Kelly Nestruck will convene their own two-person tribal council after each episode to pick power players and whose torches should next be snuffed and discuss gameplay and drama.
Too long didn’t watch (TLDW) summary: Twenty-four past Survivor competitors – selected from the 751 people who have played from the first season to the 49th – have returned to outwit, outplay, outlast in the long-running show’s golden anniversary season on Global.
Three eight-member tribes – Vatu, Kalo and Cila – were formed with the latter being first to vote somebody out at tribal council.
Jenna Lewis-Dougherty, the sole original cast member competing, came gunning for fifth-time player Cirie Fields, whose underperformance in the immunity challenge was why the tribe was in peril in the first place – but it backfired. “First in, first out,” Jenna said before her torch was snuffed.
Vatu lost a tribe member, too, as Season 48 winner Kyle Fraser ruptured his Achilles tendon – an injury he first tried to brush off, but a visit from an Australian doc with an ultrasound device attached to his mobile phone confirmed. (Dr. Joe!)
Jenna Lewis-Dougherty, pictured here during the all-star Season 8, is the sole original cast member who returned to compete in Survivor's 50th season.MONTY BRINTON/Supplied
Power player of the week:
Amber’s pick: Benjamin “Coach” Wade. He proved he knows how to balance the old- and new-school styles best. The fact that he brought back supplies for his tribe will go a long way with them, no matter how he got them.
Kelly’s pick: Christian Hubicki. Watching one of the show’s greatest nerds make fire with the sun and two pairs of glasses instead of flint was old-school survival we’ve been missing in the new era.
Whose torch is in danger of being snuffed next:
Amber’s pick: Rizo Velovic. He hasn’t bonded with anyone, he didn’t fare too well during the first couple of challenges, and next to some of these legends he comes across as a fan – not a power player.
Kelly’s pick: Coach. He’s got baggage with fellow Season 23 competitor Ozzy Lusth he doesn’t seem able to check – “he can friggin’ eat my shorts,” no thanks – and his speechifying is stultifying.
How many Canadians are left: Two. Winnipeg’s Genevieve Mushaluk and Toronto’s Kamilla Karthigesu remain unsnuffed.
The 24 competitors are broken out into three tribes. Pictured is the Cila tribe, from left to right: Joe Hunter, Savannah Louie, Christian Hubicki, Cirie Fields, Ozzy Lusth, Emily Flippen, Rick Devens, Jenna Lewis-Dougherty.Robert Voets/Supplied
The episode breakdown
Kelly: Amber, did you get emotional too during the opening sequence where we rewound all the way to Survivor: Borneo’s premiere on May 31, 2000? We were so young and innocent then and unscripted TV was so new. The U.S. hadn’t even gone through Bush vs. Gore yet, let alone elected a reality-TV president.
I was worried a record 24 players would make for an overpopulated island – but all my favourites got a chance to shine in this three-hour premiere. The most delightful moments for me were getting to see news anchor Rick Devens and former reporter Savannah Louie team up to make some news, the White Lotus creator Mike White show off his new six-pack and immediately instigating drama, and past Canadian puzzle-masters Kamilla and Genevieve compete against each other in a giant jigsaw.
Amber: I didn’t think I would be so into this season right away but those callbacks hit every nostalgic bone in my body. I had the opportunity to attend a viewing party for the premiere and watching it with a cheering crowd reminded me of every reason I love this show. How has it been a quarter-century?
I love that you called out White’s six-pack. The physicality of several returning players struck me last night and I wondered how hard they trained for this thing. (Not Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick coming out of the gate as the biggest female threat, again!) Rick and Savannah were cute, but the real power couple so far for me is Rick and Christian, a.k.a. Kirk and Spock. I hope they make it really far this season.
Kelly: What I’m not so sure about is having left the gameplay “in the hands of the fans” as this 50th season is subtitled. There must be a streak of sadism in the viewership that they voted online to make contestants starve and have to earn their supplies and rice.
I also didn’t love that the producers have introduced an “Exile Island.” One of the weakest seasons of Survivor in my opinion was Edge of Extinction, where individuals kept being stranded separately. This show works best at its most social; it’s “reality” Lord of the Flies meets Gilligan’s Island, not Cast Away.
Amber: I didn’t mind the Exile Island return so much because it didn’t stand out against everything else happening. The boomerang idol is one of my favourite twists, even if it’s sponsored by Billie Eilish.
Kelly: Oh, I’m not with you on the boomerang idol – I like Eilish but not these “dynamic” advantages the fans voted for that result in fussy and overcomplicated storytelling. For Genevieve to have played this advantage right, Ozzy will have to go home with an idol again – which seems highly unlikely to me. I would have put him up next on the chopping block if that hadn’t happened.
Amber: My biggest takeaway was the contrast of the old and new guards. Old-school players like Ozzy and Colby Donaldson are all about winning challenges and providing for the tribe. The new-school players know that strong alliances and power moves are what new winners are made of.
Kelly: Those providers definitely seem in peril.
It was immediately clear that Jenna, who hadn’t be on since All-Stars in 2003, was playing too fast, too soon. A lot of what happened was predictable, actually: When the tribal council came only two hours into a three-hour premiere, it was obvious that someone else would go home and, barring cheating shenanigans, that would be the injured Kyle.
Amber: Jenna going home first is another example of that old versus new mindset. She was trying to catch up to a game that’s evolved a lot since she last played, and you’re right: It was too much, too fast.
As for Kyle, that was a heartbreaking twist. We’ve seen injuries take out players before, but on a season this monumental and so early, it seemed unfair. It’s a good reminder that these people really do put everything on the line for the show, and that these challenges are a lot harder to pull off than they look on TV.
Next episode of Survivor: March 4 on CBS and Global.