Survivor 50 has been highly anticipated by fans of the franchise eager to watch legends of the game come back to compete on the island again as old-era and new-era stalwarts mix it up for ultimate bragging rights.

But the franchise’s biggest legends — who competed in the season 40 all-champions edition of Winners at War — will not be appearing on the anniversary season. That means names like Parvati, Sandra, Tony, and Boston Rob will be absent when the season kicks off in early 2026, and Jeff Probst explained why on this latest episode of his On Fire with Jeff Prosbt podcast.

The discussion surrounding Survivor 50 began as Probst, producer Jay Wolff, and Survivor winner (as well as season 40 participant) Jeremy Collins were discussing Survivor 49’s Shannon Fairweather and whether she was gaming too hard by talking strategy with Steven Ramm before sunrise on this week’s episode.

Jeff Probst on ‘Survivor 49’.

Robert Voets/CBS 

Probst then talked about how the game has changed over the years, and how many franchise OGs struggle to adapt when they play a new-school game on Survivor 50.

“Let’s just remember seasons before 41 did not have things like a Beware Advantage or a Journey or the Shot in the Dark,” says Probst on the podcast of the new twists. “So all of that changes the nature of the game. And that’s what’s going to be interesting about 50 is somebody like Jeremy or Colby [Donaldson] who have played many times, but they played a slower pace. Not an easier or more difficult game, but a different pace because of the game design. How’s that going to work?”

Probst continued to tease next season of the show. “You could easily see a world in which new-era players say to somebody like Colby or Jenna [Lewis] or Stephenie [LaGrossa-Kendrick], ‘Hey, Let’s go get up earlier. No coffee.’ Or what happens if the older-era players say, ‘Hey, why don’t we slow down for a minute? I’m going to go make us some coffee, tend to the fire.’ That’s one of the elements that’s going to be fun about 50.”

Responding to the host’s comments about a faster new-era game, Jeremy responded that he would change up his gameplay if we were appearing on Survivor 50. “I think regarding me, Jeff, you have to play differently,” Jeremy says on the podcast. “For me, it’s a more of aggressive game and I would change my style up a little bit and play more.”

This led to an explanation from Probst as to why none of the legends from Winners at War were invited to play next season.

The cast of ‘Survivor: Winners at War’.
Robert Voets/CBS

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“If only Jeremy hadn’t just played in Survivor 40, chances of him being on 50 are very high,” he says. “But we made a decision not to bring any of the winners from Winners at War because we had just seen them and it was a big season. And I know a lot of people are going miss players like Jeremy, but that was the reason why. That simple.”

As much as we love the folks from season 40, we agree that most of them have been seen enough already (Boston Rob competed five times and also appeared as a season-long mentor for a sixth) and have already won the game at least once. So we support the decision to have those season 40 champions sit this one out. And now, thanks to the host, we officially know why they will not be battling it out on the biggest Survivor season ever.