<\/p>\n
Survivor<\/em><\/a> still isn\u2019t revealing the identities of the two Season 49 players who will be in Season 50 in 2026<\/a>. But Jeff Probst<\/a> has explained why they cast them, and how it led to the 24-person cast, one of the biggest groups in the show\u2019s history.<\/p>\n The Survivor\u00a0<\/em>49 cast<\/a> was revealed on August 20. Two of the 18 contestants impressed the\u00a0Survivor<\/em> crew so much, they made space for them in Season 50 as opposed to bringing in returning players fans already knew.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we agreed to as a group was, \u2018If somebody makes a big impression, we\u2019re going to want them on 50. So let\u2019s go into 49 with our own state of flux,\u201d Probst told Parade<\/a>. \u201cAnd what happened was\u00a0two<\/em>\u00a0players impressed us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe did not go in looking for two players,\u201d he continues. \u201cWe didn\u2019t go in saying, \u2018If we do it, it has to be a person of this age or this gender.\u2019 We didn\u2019t have anything. We just said, \u2018Let\u2019s just stay open.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Contrary to some fan comments online, the series wasn\u2019t trying to prioritize new era players in its Season 50 cast list. Former contestants and fans alike<\/a> expressed disappointment about the 50 cast when it had a substantial number of players, nearly half, from Seasons 41-49 alone, whereas Seasons 1-40 weren\u2019t as equally represented.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were never going to put somebody on just to have 49 represented,\u201d Probst told Parade, insisting that production simply found the two from 49 so compelling that they wanted to invite them back to play again immediately (Season 49 filming wrapped just weeks before the start of Season 50 filming). Probst said this allowed them to bring back more players from previous seasons than originally planned; at first, they were going with 18 Survivors.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat it ended up doing was benefiting everybody, because it expanded how many players we put on 50,\u201d Probst said. \u201cWe started out at 18 and immediately said, \u2018Well, that will never work. And then we just started doing variations on the math based on whether we were going to have two tribes, three tribes, or four tribes. And you can do the math and figure out which numbers work, 20 or 21, whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe landed on 24 in part because we saw these two players on 49 and said, \u2018We got to have them,\u2019\u201d Probst went on. \u201cBut what does that mean for our math? Does that mean we can invite more people onto 50? So it was really a win-win. But it was not guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n The Season 49 cast is shaping up to be a unique bunch. There\u2019s the two players coming back in 50, and there are two alternates who were brought into the game 12 hours before<\/a> filming began. Jason Treul and Michelle \u201cMC\u201d Chukwujekwu went to Fiji as alternates, knowing that the chances of playing in 49 were slim and in the hopes that they\u2019d be cast for a later season. But they were fated for 49. Two players, a man and a woman whose identities have not been shared, were cut from the competition for reported rules violations in the final hours of their pre-season sequester.<\/p>\n This was the quickest alternate turnaround in Survivor<\/em> history. And when a show\u2019s been around for 25 years and 50 seasons, firsts are hard to come by. But as Probst always says, the casts are what make\u00a0Survivor<\/em><\/a> so watchable.<\/p>\n