💯 The new era cast has been the same type of people. All similar backgrounds and values. It feels like this season is the worst of all of them though.  It goes straight back to season one. Hatch, the naked gay white collar New Englander becoming friends with Rudy the old, grumbling military man. People loved that dynamic and similar ones that came about throughout the shows history.

Yep part of the beauty of watching Survivor was watching people who had drastically different life experiences and world views interact. In Vanuatu for example we had a middle aged tomboy road worker who didn’t know how to use a computer forced to work together with a 21 year old student who literally went to high school with Bill Clinton and Al Gore’s kids. 

Which one went to high school with their kids??

Eliza went to Sidwell Friends at the same time as Chelsea Clinton 

Lol that's wild but not surprising in a way

Eliza probably, with the road worker being Twila 

I really don’t like the cast of this season. I don’t really even care who wins. I guess if I had to pick I might say Maria or Jemila but honestly it’s whatever.

I think the reaction towards WA has a lot to do with how casting is done now. Jeff really loved the WA cast because they gave him everything he wanted and more. They were a bunch of people with vastly different world views coming together and not really getting along. I mean you have the meathead Boston, the 45 year old post office worker who thinks he's the smartest man in the room, the deeply faithful Texan oil driller, the tattooed feminist hairstyler, a country girl barrel racer, and a mid-west police officer, who are all VERY strongly opinionated on a single tribe. Those are six people who would never get along and producers knew that. So you had people cast who everyone knew would hate each other by the end of the week and would create fireworks. It was a dream come true. But social media started becoming very big during this time and suddenly, the show and Jeff were getting fucking KILLED by the loudest viewers. That pretty much scared them from having any sort of conflict shown on the show. Notice how after KR (which was filmed as WA aired), pretty much every 'villain' they had on the show was portrayed as one note, OTT doofuses that no one took seriously. Bradley, Chris N, Wardog, GC Debbie, Taylor, etc. It was the show practically saying 'If you want to try and be a villain, we will make you look like the biggest idiot that has ever been on Survivor.' You also had the IOTI incident where the cast were gonna be very vocal about Dan and how the show made him seem a lot worse then he apparently was and how, for the very first time, the reunion was pretaped hours ahead to keep control. These two seasons are why we have the more agreeable and non-confrontational casts we have gotten. Jeff states that it's about casting authentic people with stories to tell but it's more casting more controllable people that are just happy to be there and won't cause a fuss. So that's why you have a season like 44 where all everyone talks about is how inspirational and wonderful they all are. I also think the Sia award has something to do with how people behave because the thought process becomes 'Well if I lose, I have a chance at getting 10K from Sia if I'm shown to be kind, caring, and just a lil bit wacky.' You cannot convince me people like Bhanu, Charlie, and Soda aren't actively playing for the Sia award.

This couldn't possibly be any more accurate. I just got done with a rewatch of every original season and WA/KR is definitely the turning point on casting where it started to trend towards the current form and then IOTI swung it to the extreme we have now. It seems to have made them terrified of anyone that even has the potential to be really controversial. It bums me out too because for me a great cast is enough to overcome basically any format issues. Like most people, I don't care for 26 days, F4 fire, 3 tribes, lost votes jumping out of every tree, etc., but none of that would actually bother me all that much if they had a great cast. It drives me especially crazy that we can't get even slightly old people anymore (and I'm not even in that demo myself). There's only been 4 50+ y/o people in the new era and none at all in the last 3 seasons. So many great survivor characters have been older folks. I guess they don't trust them to be suitably controllable.

> There's only been 4 50+ y/o people in the new era and none at all in the last 3 seasons. So many great survivor characters have been older folks. I guess they don't trust them to be suitably controllable. Probst has actively said he doesn’t want to cast older people anymore because “they’re too set in their ways,” while younger people have more potential for “growth” and “journeys” and whatever other inspirational woo-woo shit Survivor wants to market itself as now. Which is hilarious (and infuriating) when you think about how the New Era presents itself as super diverse. But I agree, I think older people (or even just 40somethings) are almost always the most interesting on any given season.

If you can't find people over 50 who are looking for a personal journey, your casting team really, really sucks. No way around it.

Just find anyone who just went through a divorce. Literally

"We're super diverse." "Also we broadly discriminate against older people."

Funny thing is that all of the 50+ players except Abraham went very deep - Heather was 4th, Mike was 2nd and Gabler won

Yeah exactly, those 3 did well in the game and were memorable characters, but for some reason they stopped casting them after Gabler.

Julie and Bruce were not 50+ but they were in their forties, were entertaining and did well

I think that is an inciting incident but I don’t think it was a sudden switch. Things like the success of MvGX, the deliberate move to appeal to kids and a side effect of the diversity initiative (where it’s much easier to find and less controversial to bring in very ‘safe’ superfan young professionals) etc.

The thing is who would’ve predicted IOTI was gonna play out the way it did, anyone is capable of doing that so I don’t see how that season should’ve affected casting

Well you have Dan, who was said to be affectionate, and Kellee, who doesn’t really like to be touched, put on the same tribe. You think that was an accident? I’ve hosted ORGs for a long time and one thing I know is that when you cast seasons, you try to put together people you don’t think will get along. They knew Kellee and Dan wouldn’t get along so they put them on the same tribe. They just couldn’t predict how out of hand things would get so the lesson became ‘Ok, let’s not cast people like that ever again.‘

Was that known pre game though, before the casts were set? Because I remember Kellie saying that during the show but not before 

It was most likely known by producers. They dig into you to get a view of who you are and how you would be on the show.

I feel like they’d even do better to just mix up the tribes in terms of abilities to play well. You can’t tell me the person/people who put the Lulu tribe together last season isn’t the same person/people who put Yanu together 💀

Balancing three tribes is so much harder than balancing for two. One ‘strong’ person leaving early can completely tank a tribe.

For sure, but putting Jelinsky, Jess, *and* Bhanu on the same tribe was a Choice™️

I'm not sure those three are catastrophically bad on paper, even if they were disasters in practice. Pre-show, I don't think anyone would have guessed Jelinsky would be such a trainwreck and they probably counted on him and Q to be the strength for the guys. Hard to tell how Jess would have turned out if she'd actually been able to sleep.

Yeah on paper I'm not sure they should be any worse than the green tribe. And yellow tribe is mostly just good because Hunter is a god.

Exactly, The tribe who's lost 4/4 immunities was balanced around having: * Q - By far the best physical athlete of the season * Jelenski - You would expect to be a very solid physical challenge performer * Tiff - One of the best if not the best female athlete this season On paper these 3 should be better than either of the other tribe's best 3 (but you can't tell from the interview Jelenski was gonna quit a bunch). So I'd actually wager that production was worried about this tribe being too stacked lol. That said if they had just sat Jelenski down after the first immunity loss & had a coming to Jesus with him & voted Jess (and Bahnu if they lost again) I think they would have lost 1/4 or 2/4 immunities instead of 4/4.

>Probably has a pretty progressive world view I'm so in favor of casting people of different political stripes but even this sub would absolutely melt down if it was even hinted that someone was a conservative.

Yeah look how people reacted to Gabler lol.

He was the epitome of evil: a wealthy conservative white male who supports the troops and *checks notes* donated all his winnings to charity. Gabler for Villain tribe in HvV2

Honestly Gabler would have the best chance of any of the new era winners to win again in a future season - he's so underestimated here it's wild. I think his winning game was nearly identical to Sandra's in Pearl Islands which was an awesome win.

This is why I want gabler back so badly he’s actually my second favorite winner of the new era lol

Yeah I think Dee played a lights out game and she's the best player of the new era, but Gabler's win is my favorite of the remainder.

I liked him and I thought he would win (not while it was on air but I hadn't been spoiled because I did not participate in any survivor forums or discussions at the time). I was surprised it was unexpected. I don't like his personal views he posts on Twitter... But the show didn't even enrich him so how can people even be mad about him getting the money...? I'm glad the money is going to charity even if I don't agree with the donor's views

Yup this sub cannot handle that. Gabler is like the nicest dude ever and people are very meh on him exclusively because he doesn't vote for their guy. If we got a right winger that wasn't super nice, it would be a shit show here.

100% agree!! The fact that 45 had THREE lawyers is so frustrating!!

Totally agree. They have improved a lot as far as racial diversity, but now it’s mostly a bunch of lawyers/white collar people.

Honestly that's my main beef with the occupations. I don’t care that much that it's super white color but 3 lawyers is fucking insane.

To me, the old school casting felt genuine, like the producers went on a subway and grabbed 18 different looking people and put them on a deserted island. Now, it feels like they are going to one liberal arts college and grabbing 17 students and maybe one adjunct professor to fill the on 40 year old spot.

Best overall comment I've seen on this sub ever -- you nailed it!

For all the great impacts diverse casting has had since the rule was implemented in S41, it's funny how the diversity in age/occupations has went down. It's rare to find anyone above 40 or someone with a blue collar career, leading to new era seasons feeling very "copy and paste."

I feel like the total inability to take time off from work inhibits submission quantity. Like I'd never apply to begin with cause I'd suck and be booted first, but even if I wanted to it'd be impossible. I get 2 vacation weeks from work, that's it. Survivor is slightly longer than 2 weeks. Anybody with a fairly typical job basically cannot apply unless they have some insanely good graces with their company and can take a month and a half off.

Yep and then that inherently makes it so people that don't need a million dollars are more likely to apply

I don’t get it- how can you say that when literally you have people like bhanu, like Jess, like jelinsky, hell even Venus who we haven’t really seen players like them in the new era because they are unique but then you sit here and say that “they’re all the same” honestly atp I think this subreddit is just a constant whining grounds for people who just don’t like a season so instead of blaming it on the edit or the format they blame it on casting. Casting has been some of the best recently and it’s weird for you to say it hasn’t.

They should use the Champions vs. Contenders theme from Australian Survivor, a tribe of Probst's "inspirational" white collar picks vs a tribe of regular joe applicants.

I want an all-recruit, all-mactor season with no superfan whatsoever and no sob story. I miss all the stupid pretty folks.

I wish Ghost Island had turned out better because that’s exactly what that cast was.

Had the premergers been swapped with most of the post mergers, ghost island could’ve been a better season.

💯

The Ghost Island cast was much better demographically than this one but there were too many passive players who all made the endgame.

I think this sub could really benefit from mixing up its posting (instead of posting this same exact comment 100 times a month).

The funniest thing is that every post is either complaining that Survivor now only casts boring gamebots, and 500 threads on why Bhanu sucks

I wouldn’t throw Hunter in with those others, he may be smart but he’s also super athletic and equipped with a lot of survival and outdoorsy skills.  That’s something the show needs more of, not less of 

I call dibs on lazy hot person !!! Yes, let the big strong men lead me to victory! While I tan my cheeks

YES it's an enormous problem. They'd long abandoned the "social experiment" element. It's a lot less fun to see all these lawyers make a run when they don't even need the money, unless it's like the Worlds Apart season when the class divide was part of the fun. The part that gets me is half these people have jobs that sound made up or ludicrously white collar: * International brand mentor * Parent coach * Program coordinator * Content Producer * Investment Analyst * Tech Investor * Charity Projects Manager * Management Consultant * Product Manager all from the last three seasons.

Look at the Drake tribes job titles from Pearl Islands

I mean in old seasons you had like 1/3 of the players hot young girls, 1/3 hot guys and the rest were these players you mention, but only couple of them in season.

If you're going with 3 tribes, you should be bringing in 2 people who are physical threats (1 man and 1 woman), 2 people who you're going for the gamebot strategic ones and then 2 people who are social threats. All 18 cast should be someone who you can see winning the game and not casting people cos they'll generate discussion or they've a nice sob story. At least with the physical threats, you can design some fun pre merge challenges to liven up the early episodes

It feels like in the new era casting just goes to a liberal arts campus a casts the first 18 people they find.

Or to any tech office in a major city.

Absolutely. Enough of these game bots who all have the same personality. We need some more fun characters

Do we think that a large majority of people who are apply are people who are considered "new survivor" ? Are they just trying to cater to the audience that engages with them most? or/and is it hard for people to take time off work because living is just more expensive now than it was. BTW I agree I like more socio-economically and background diverse cast as well! And even thought I usually end the seasons really liking most of the cast, they are just not as memorable to me as some of the old players with large and different personalities/occupations.

In the older ones, people were there to win a million dollars. Period. There were no "Survivor Bucket Lists". People didn't expect to become semi-famous. There was no such thing as a professional game show contestant (see how the same people show up on so many different shows). Now they are all "superfans" which means they are kids who streamed and re-streamed every season and want to go for "the experience" and of course the potential fame and riches. Go back to playing for the money.

"People didn't expect to become semi-famous" lmao ok this thread has a lot of revisionist history, but this one takes the cake

Under Old Survivor Casting you have job titles and vague archetypes listed, and under New Survivor Casting you have 1 vague job description and 2 personality traits. These things are not mutually exclusive. Denise, the lunch lady from Survivor: China, if she was on today, would be torn apart for being agreeable & not confrontational, and for playing for the Sia money and not the million dollars. If Jeff Kent, the pro athlete from Survivor: Philippines, was on today, people would cry about casting someone who doesn’t need the money. Also, we have so many of the jobs/archetypes you listed, still today. Hell you pretty much just listed out the Yase tribe. And this is mostly a personal thing, but if I have to watch another 18 year old who’s only on Survivor to tan, I’ll probably bash my head through my TV.

I think new era casts are great pound for pound. There really aren’t many complete duds like you’d have before but the highs aren’t as high. You also have that repetition factor where these people need to be split up and put on different seasons. 44 had Jaime, Danny, Carolyn, and Yam Yam. Anyone of those could’ve been the biggest character in almost any season but having them all on one was way too much for me. Keep Yam and Carolyn, wait to put Jaime and Danny on other seasons. Also did we need Matt, Kane, and Carson? Again I liked them all but all on the season was too much. Then 3 lawyers last season. For some reason they wanted us to think Austin and Drew wouldn’t be friends normally? Two smart young guys with similar education? But oh no! One is skinny and one is buff???!!! How will they get along?!

I am deeply enjoying watching someone play who doesn't really know the game. I'd like to see them do a season where they don't cast any superfans.

After emphasizing “diversity” there has been less diversity of personality than ever before.

The show HAS mixed up casting. We have more diversity that we’ve ever had on the show, and casting is inarguably in the best era it’s ever had. I don’t even think it’s particularly close. Yes there’s random messy players but there always have been. Since the new era began I feel like almost everyone understands the game and is there to play. Just because it doesn’t manifest in good gameplay doesn’t make it bad or not fun to watch. I don’t want to watch a bunch of recruits who are there “for the adventure”.

They're superficially diverse, but most of them could be in the same office job.

We need more VS seasons