Welcome to Pour One Out! In this series, IndieWire celebrates some of our favorite characters on TV that have come to the end of their run this season, with the stars that played them.
“Survivor” is now the kind of brilliant TV product that you couldn’t design from scratch if you tried. What began as a groundbreaking social experiment to see how a group of strangers could live together on an island for 39 days has gradually evolved into an intricate strategy game that superfans devote their lives to studying. The game is perfect because it was created by the contestants as much as the producers. Even if the original intention was to reward survival skills and accountability in order to crown the castaway most deserving of one million dollars, creative players invented tactics like alliances, voting blocks, blindsides, split votes, and shields in order to outwit, outplay, and outlast the competition.
Still going strong after 50 seasons, “Survivor” has become a show that’s about itself more than anything else. It’s now a given that contestants have watched the entire series, and that collective knowledge of past players’ mistakes and triumphs allows the strategy to evolve each season. It has also turned fan-favorite “Survivor” players into series regulars whose strengths, weaknesses, and legacies are debated as seriously as those of professional athletes.
Rarely has that phenomenon been displayed more clearly than in “Survivor 50.” The new season assembled its largest cast ever, bringing together 24 all-star contestants from across its 25-year run. Every era of the show was represented, from the 39-day marathon survival epics of the early seasons to the twist-heavy, 26-day sprints that we see today. The chaos that ensued has seen a clash of play styles, with some players trying to transcend their normal strategies and others falling victim to the same mistakes that have hindered their past quests for victory.
Regardless of who wins when the finale airs next week, the season has made one thing clear: “Survivor” might have started as a social experiment, but it’s now a way of life for some of its best players. IndieWire recently spoke to three Season 50 contestants — five-time player and fan favorite Ozzy Lusth, Season 45 winner Dee Valladares, and four-time returnee Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick — to get a sense of why they keep subjecting themselves to the elements and isolation over and over again. None of them denied how hard the experience can be, but they made it clear that when the phone rings, it’s almost impossible to say no.
As one of the show’s first true superstars and the ultimate embodiment of the survivalist mindset that dominated its early seasons, Lusth was one of the highest profile players to join “Survivor 50.” He hadn’t played in eight years since he fizzled out early on Season 34 (dubbed “Game Changers”), and assumed his time in the spotlight was done.
“I genuinely thought that four seasons of ‘Survivor’ without winning was enough, and I don’t think I played as well as I could have in 34,” he said. “So I just thought the ship had sailed on my ‘Survivor’ career.”
But when the opportunity to compete on 50 arose, he jumped at the chance. As he tells it, there’s nothing that replicates the experience.
“It’s almost like a detox from modern life. You get a chance to strip yourself from any distraction. You get out there, you’re in nature,” he said. “This is the closest that I feel to religious experiences, the closest that I feel to a Creator, because you’re in nature, and when you can tap into that, not only are you able to see something about the natural world and yourself, but sharing that with other people and forming these bonds that you may or may not have for the rest of your life.”
While Ozzy had spent the better part of his life chasing an elusive “Survivor” victory, Dee won on her first attempt. Valladares took the top prize in Season 45 with what is seen by many as one of the most dominant games of the New Era. Nobody would have blamed her for riding off into the sunset with a perfect track record, but she was immediately down to come back in a season where her recent win was destined to handicap her chances of repeating. And she’s already thinking about doing it again.
“I would never have any hesitations going back. I truly cannot imagine a scenario where I would say no to ‘Survivor.’ It would only have to be unless I am about to give birth or something,” she said. “Zero hesitation. If somebody tells you they have a hesitation, I think they might be lying.”
Stephenie was another iconic figure from the show’s infancy, first appearing on “Survivor: Palau” in Season 10 and returning for “Guatemala” and “Heroes vs. Villains.” But 15 years had passed since her last appearance on the show, and with a family and career to focus on, “Survivor” was not top of mind in recent years. But the love of — and in some cases, addiction to — “Survivor” never goes away.
“It’s not for everybody, but people that love a challenge and love adventure and love to be basically challenged down to the rawest form, it is for you,” LaGrossa Kendrick said. “And I always loved competition. I always felt like if there was a mental toughness exam, I would take me any day of the week over anyone and I’d bet on me. And when I watched the show as a fan, I was like, ‘I’ve never camped. I’ve never hiked. I’ve gone fishing here and there, but I can do that show.’ And I knew it.”
She continued, “Getting out there for the first time and being one with nature and having nothing, literally being stripped of everything and just figuring it out, you don’t even know a person, you have to make family out there. These people become family members to you. It was right up my alley. And so, when I was asked to come back a second time, I was like, ‘You’re damn right.’ And a third time, ‘You’re damn right.’ And a fourth time, ‘Hell yeah.’ I would do it again and again and again if I could.”
“Survivor” is many things to many people. The word describes a specific strategy game, a media franchise with its own instantly recognizable faces and iconography, and a global community of fans that only seems to get more passionate every day. The players expressed gratitude for all three components, and made it clear that they’ll be around for whatever it evolves into next.
“I think ‘Survivor’ is just a marriage, it strips layers of you, whether it’s vulnerability or strengths. It’s truly a journey of self-discovery if you let it be,” Valladares said. “And for me, I will always take that opportunity because sometimes life doesn’t really throw opportunities like that at you, and you really have to grab them.”
“Seeing the way that ‘Survivor’ has gone for the last 25 years, and another 20 years, I’ll probably be doing SurvivorCons and signing autographs for $10 for kids that are just now getting into it,” Lusth said with a laugh. “‘Survivor’ has been a way of life for me for 20 years. I’ve had the opportunity of a lifetime over and over and over again, and I’ll be damned if I squander the adventure that I’ve been able to have.”
The “Survivor 50” finale airs on CBS on Wednesday, May 20 at 8pm E.T./P.T. before streaming on Paramount+.
