Survivor 50: Lisa Whelchel was not contacted
We know that the upcoming Survivor 50 has a little bit of returning-player star power thanks to The White Lotus creator Mike White. So did they try to get more courtesy of Lisa Whelchel?
When you do think back at the history of the CBS show, there are a small handful of people who had considerable pre-show fame before being cast. Some of them (like Jimmy Johnson) are likely too old to give it a go now. Meanwhile, others (like Jeff Kent) may be too far under the radar at this point. More recently, Jon Lovett failed to make it out of the first Tribal Council. The roster of available non-show celebrity names to the casting group is not all that big.
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In the end, we do think that Survivor knows that it does not really need people famous outside the show to sell season 50. White works because he actually came close to winning David vs. Goliath. Whelchel, known for The Facts of Life, also has a case for similar reasons in the Philippines.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the actress (who has gone on to be a host and even briefly worked on Jeff Probst’s short-lived talk show) confirmed that she was not contacted for season 50 — but that may be because she previously told the aforementioned publication years back that she was not interested in coming back. Compare that to White, who repeatedly told Jeff Probst that he wanted to return even in spite of him being extremely busy. We tend to think that he just was fortunate that the filming dates landed where they did — The White Lotus season 3 was done filming, and the fourth season likely won’t start until some point next year.
As for a Survivor 50 premiere date, we are most likely going to be seeing it premiere at some point early next year.
Related – When are we going to actually going to see Survivor 49 arrive?
What do you most want to see on Survivor 50, and who do you think are the big snubs?
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