'Survivor' 50 is everything the fans could have dreamed
'Survivor' 50 is everything the fans could have dreamed
Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY Thu, February 26, 2026 at 3:18 PM UTC
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Spoiler alert! The following contains details from the season premiere of the 50th season of "Survivor," "Epic Party."
One vanquished foe, a few victories and a heartbreaking tragedy: This is "Survivor" at its very best. Considering CBS and Jeff Probst have done this 49 times before, you'd hope it would be.
The 50th season of the show − which kicked off our national (and indeed, international) obsession with reality TV as we know it − is a landmark event (CBS, Wednesdays, 8 ET/PT). It's a big deal for its devoted fans, some of whom weren't even born when the show debuted in the fall of 2000, and for any casual viewer who is seeing host and producer Probst's face all over the place for the first time in a while, as the aging series re-enters the main cultural conversation after over a decade.
"Survivor" host Jeff Probst kicks off the 50th season.
Many of the show's most die-hard fans would say it never left the zeitgeist, but we are long past the period when 72 million people tuned into watch Richard Hatch get crowned the first "Sole Survivor," or even when 10th anniversary season "Heroes vs. Villains" had the name Russell Hantz floating around the water cooler. The show has been through many evolutions in its nearly 26 years on the air, most recently debuting a post-COVID "New Era" full of bright colors, Gen Z contestants constantly referencing the show's glory days and silly twists, all on tighter budgets and a shorter trip for our castaways (26 days living on coconuts and fish instead of 39).
One of the three tribes of returning "Survivor" players in Fiji for the 50th season.
So for a 50th season, a mammoth feat for any TV show, even one that airs twice a year, you'd assume producers might up the gimmicks, go for style over substance and possibly ruin what's kept devotees tuning in every Wednesday night for a quarter of a century. But, in spite of celebrity cameos (the first comes via a "Billie Eilish Boomerang Immunity Idol"), oversized challenge sets and the biggest cast in the show's history, "Survivor 50" does not, thankfully, forget how it got here. And based on the first two contestants to leave the tribes in the supersized premiere, fans might be in for the epic season they so want.
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More: 'Survivor' host Jeff Probst shares biggest disappointment of Season 50
There are big challenges and big moves already, with perennial fan-favorite Cirie Fields, 55, making her strategic prowess known on the first vote, ousting Season 1 returnee Jenna Lewis-Dougherty, who dared to go after the 5-time competitor. Then, just as fans were expecting a second tribal council, we instead got one of the most heart-breaking medical evacuations (and there have been many on such a risk-happy show). Season 48 winner Kyle Fraser, 31, critically hurt his Achilles' tendon in the first immunity challenge, resulting in doctors pulling him from the game while his tearful tribe looked on. It's only Episode 1 and we've already got ecstasy, betrayal and heartbreak. What else could these crazy kids cook up?
Colby Donaldson, who first played during the second season of "Survivor," watched by tens of millions in 2001, has returned for Season 50.
With players like Fields, "White Lotus" creator Mike White (really), Benjamin "Coach" Wade" and Season 2 hunk Colby Donaldson (now 51) joining the cast, you would expect all this drama right out of the gate. Some of the best seasons of the series have been chock full of returning legends (although not all — see the much-maligned Season 34, "Game Changers"), and you expect them to play fast, hard and loose. With people who have this much history with the game, chaos can only follow.
The true test for "Survivor" isn't with this 50th season (subtitled "In the Hands of the Fans," with many elements voted on by the audience), but with whatever happens with a 51st. How long can it go on? How many more legends can it produce? What will end first, network TV as we know it, or "Survivor"?
I'll bet on the institution with the motto "outwit, outplay, outlast."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Survivor' 50 is everything the fans could have dreamed – review
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