Survivor 50’s All-Star Season Premiere Proves The Show’s ‘New Era’ Has Failed – SlashFilm

Don’t go looking for any immunity idols if you haven’t watched the season 50 premiere of “Survivor.” Spoilers ahead!

“Survivor,” the long-running reality competition show that strands big personalities on a beach and lets them all duke it out for a million bucks, just kicked off its landmark 50th season. After premiering in 2000 and becoming an international phenomenon, “Survivor,” which has been hosted by Jeff Probst (who also emceed an Adult Swim show crafted by “Severance” star Adam Scott) for the past 25 years, established itself as a mainstay of reality TV … but in recent years, fans like myself have started to wonder how much longer this “social experiment,” as Probst frequently refers to “Survivor,” could possibly continue. 

Thankfully, “Survivor 50” is great right out of the gate — but there’s one problem. The three-hour premiere episode, “Epic Party,” served as a clear and unambiguous reminder that something is rotten in the state of “Survivor”: specifically, the string of recent seasons referred to as the “New Era.” 

For context, “Survivor 50” is the first season to bring returning players back into the fold since the show’s 40th season, “Winners at War” (which is exactly what it sounds like — previous winners competing for a $2 million prize). That means legendary “Survivor” stalwarts like Oscar “Ozzy” Lusth, Cirie Fields, Colby Donaldson, and even Mike White (yes, the Emmy-winning showrunner of HBO’s sometimes slow “The White Lotus” who loves sneaking “Survivor” veterans onto the show) are back in their tribal buffs, flanked by players from the “New Era.” Even though there have been some legitimately good moments already with these two groups on-screen together, it lays one thing bare: The “New Era” of “Survivor” was an experiment that failed, and we need to go back to more seasons that involve returning players.

Something that’s become maddening — nay, infuriating — about seasons 41 through 49 of “Survivor” is how meta the game has become. What do I mean by that? At this point in the franchise, a certain faction of new players on “Survivor” are young — as in, young enough to have been watching Jeff Probst say “the tribe has spoken” since they were still in utero. (One “Survivor 49” player who’s returning for “Survivor 50,” Rizo Velovic, was born in 1999, meaning he literally does not remember a world without “Survivor.”) This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, except for one thing: All of these “New Era” players, being massive superfans, love reminding us that they’re on “Survivor,” an impulse that becomes exhausting after just a few minutes.

Instead of doing things, “New Era” players love talking about doing things. It’s become an unfortunate stereotype that players from this era love staring directly down the barrel of the camera to tell us that they’re “on ‘Survivor'” and that they “need to make a big move.” (The “I’m on ‘Survivor!'” impulse is especially grating to me, because, like, I know! I hit play on this episode! I know what I’m watching!) Sometimes, they throw in classic “Survivor” jargon like “blindside” or “alliance” seemingly just for effect, or they’ll pull a major blindside that doesn’t actually serve any kind of purpose. There are, honestly, too many examples of this for me to even list, but overall, the huge issue with the “New Era” is how hyper-aware the players are of the game’s lore and impact. Contrast that with “old-school” players, who are there to play, and the cracks in the “New Era” become apparent. 

Putting a bunch of “New Era” youngsters on a beach with “Survivor” legends really laid the cracks bare regarding the issues with that era, and to be fair, part of that is because some of the older “Survivor” players are simply better on-screen personalities. Something incredibly fun about this premiere was being familiar enough with these returning players to immediately clock dynamics in challenges or before votes.

I actively cheered when Ozzy Lusth leapt into the water for a challenge — the guy has proven, across four previous seasons of “Survivor,” that he’s basically part-amphibian — and I did the same when “David vs. Goliath” standout Christian Hubicki high-tailed it towards a puzzle, knowing that the guy is a flat-out genius. (Also, Christian starting a fire with two pairs of eyeglasses, a hope, and a dream when his tribe found itself without flint? Must-see TV!) Similarly, when Jenna Lewis-Dougherty, who played in the show’s very first season, tried to target Cirie Fields as their Cila tribe headed to the first Tribal Council and ended up receiving a unanimous vote to go home instead, I had a huge smile on my face; everyone familiar with Cirie knows you can’t publicly gun for the woman, or she’ll stick a knife right between your shoulder blades.

Sure, the familiarity with returning players is just fun, but it also proves that the “New Era” hasn’t produced a whole lot of superstars (though selections like Emily Flippen, Joe Hunter, and Kamilla Karthigesu are, basically, the best “Survivor 50” could do when it comes to “New Era” returnees). “Survivor” desperately needs more returnee-based seasons, but also? The “New Era” can die now so “Survivor” can … survive.