Whether it’s a near-lethal protein shake or those gays who were trying to kill Tanya, Mike White does know how to surprise us. The White Lotus creator and writer, who is also an actor, Survivor and Amazing Race alum, and absolute reality TV fanatic, is heading to Fiji as part of an all-star cast for Survivor’s 50th season.
Survivor host and executive producer Jeff Probst announced the 24 competitors Wednesday on CBS Mornings, revealing that White really, really, really wanted to come back. Like, to the point where it was easier for Probst to just say yes, at least for the sake of his phone’s notifications.
“Mike, after he finished playing, said, ‘I want to play again,’ and that was before White Lotus,” Probst said. “Then White Lotus hit and I thought, ‘Well, he’ll never play again.’ But he kept texting and saying, ‘Look, I’m serious, if you ever do anything where you have returning players, I want to play again.’”
Busy guy, Probst thought. Not that busy, White seemed to counter, with a gleam in his eye and a blender with that murder-fruit on standby.
HBO has already announced a renewal for a fourth season of The White Lotus, because, hey, what’s a pattern of gruesome murders at a chain of luxury hotels between friends? Have you felt those sheets? Filming dates and other crucial details (who? Where? Will a monkey actually shoot a gun this time?) are yet to be announced, though rumor has it that the fourth season is penciled in for a 2027-ish premiere.
Survivor season 50, meanwhile, is meant to film in June and air in spring 2026, giving White plenty of time to get his immunity challenge on in the meantime.
White isn’t just a master of social gameplay and fan of the show. He has also, as Probst shared in the past, literally changed the Survivor game with his ideas and gentle negging.
In a 2021 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Probst revealed that while plotting out the 41st season of the competition, he chatted with White about an idea he had to create an “elaborate and very complicated Survivor capitalist society that would be driven by players earning money (Fire Tokens) and spending them on shelter, rewards, and advantages. When I finished the pitch, I asked him what he thought. He paused for a moment and said, ‘Well… it sounds… in-ter-est-ing. But is it fun?’”
Suddenly, Probst said, “it was so clear that it sucked”—despite the fact that he’d been messing around with the idea on whiteboards for over a year.
In fact, even before he competed on the show, White knew Probst socially, and had already influenced the game’s mechanics. In a 2014 interview, Probst credited a pre-Survivor, pre-White Lotus White’s verbal flinch with convincing him to bail on a plan for the show to use its “Redemption Island” point again.
“He was over at our house for dinner just a couple of weeks before we started shooting,” Probst said. “I confided in him about the basic creative for the Blood vs. Water season and when I mentioned Redemption Island coming back he had a very lackluster response—‘Oh, you’re doing Redemption again?’ The words hit me like a stray, leftover Medallion of Power right between the eyes. We had debated Redemption Island during our Survivor creative meetings and for some reason hearing him say it at that moment tipped the scale.”
That’s right: Ned Schneebly brought Probst to his knees with implied shade.
While there’s no way to know what shenanigans White will pull on season 50, you just know there will be some. Will he once again form an alliance with former castmate Angelina, who is also returning? Could he exchange votes for a White Lotus cameo or the chance to, I don’t know, touch one of his Emmys? Tell the secrets of the fourth season in exchange for an immunity idol? Will this man be allowed to bring a blender? If so, beware.
On Wednesday, Probst said he was more than aware that White is a special class of contestant with unique tools at his disposal, thanks to all that’s going on in that pasty white noggin.
“Don’t think Mike White, who is clever enough to write and direct White Lotus, has not thought about that,” the Survivor host said.
One thing he has thought about, as evidenced by a 2020 questionnaire about the show he filled out during the Covid-19 pandemic, is which Survivor alum he’d most like to emulate.
“I feel like if I were a woman, I would be Kathy [Vavrick-O’Brien]—grasping, abrasive, weirdly flirty, and willing to pee on someone at a moment’s notice,” he said.
Well, Mike. Welcome to your second chance at glory.
Representatives for White did not immediately answer Vanity Fair’s request for comment.
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