Survivor 41 spotlight: Meet app developer Xander Hastings

Today we’ve made it to the end of our Survivor 41 spotlight series, but we still have a lot to discuss today with Xander Hastings. In addition to clearly loving floral shirts this is a guy who clearly seems to be a part of an archetype that includes the likes of Fabio, Jay Starrett, and maybe to some extent Joe Anglim. He’ll probable be judged based on his appearance, and that can be a blessing and a curse.

So how can Xander figure out how to flip these expectations on their head? He’s got his work cut out for him, but there’s all sorts of fun stuff that we’ll be talking about within this piece.

Watch our latest Survivor 41 preview video! If you look below, you can watch us talk all about the changes coming to this season! Once you do just that, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to Matt & Jess on YouTube — we’ll have more Survivor videos coming throughout the fall and we don’t want you missing them.

What stands out about him – Xander is 21 years old, making him the second-youngest guy on the season. He hails from Jacksonville, Florida and works as an app develop. The most interesting thing about him, from our perspective, is his endless pursuit of knowledge. He’s a really smart guy with a lot of interests beyond just fitness — though he’s also a cross-country athlete. If the entire cast knew his skill set at the start of the game, he’d probably find himself voted out sooner rather than later. He’s also someone with a fairly decent understanding of the game and he claims that no matter what, he won’t let his position in the game get to his head.

What could hold him back? – Sometimes it’s easier for younger contestants to divide themselves up into cliques — we could see Xander, whether it is intentional or not, pairing off with some other young people in his tribe and not making enough connections elsewhere. This could hurt him down the road, especially at a tribe swap. He’ll be valuable in the early going but there comes a point in the game where tribe strength doesn’t matter as much.

Our personal pre-season assessment

Travis from Big Brother this summer is a worst-case scenario for Xander’s game — he could hit some bad luck and go out early. Luckily Survivor is a different game from Big Brother and we think that he’ll be okay early on. Yet, it’s really hard for a guy in this archetype to win this game because they’re so obviously a challenge threat. We see him being taken out at some point around the merge.

Related – Check out some other Survivor 41 spotlights now

Are you rooting for Xander Hastings to do well on Survivor 41?

Share some of your thoughts in the comments! Once you do just that, stick around for some other updates. (Photo: CBS.)