{"id":503858,"date":"2026-06-17T06:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/503858\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T06:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:29:13","slug":"survivor-50-stars-on-the-mrbeast-coin-flip-that-doubled-prize-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/503858\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Survivor 50’ Stars on the MrBeast Coin Flip That Doubled Prize Money"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s hard to change a game that\u2019s been running for 50 seasons.<\/p>\n

For this installment of Variety\u2019s Making a Scene presented by HBO Max, the team behind CBS\u2019 50th season of \u201cSurvivor<\/a>\u201d came together to break down a moment that did just that: a coin flip created by YouTuber Mr. Beast (aka Jimmy Donaldson<\/a>) that doubled the winner\u2019s prize money to $2 million.<\/p>\n

After the results of \u201cSurvivor 50\u201d were announced, winner Aubry Bracco, host Jeff Probst, EP Matt Van Wagenen and the coin-flipper himself, Rick Devens, explained the full process from the opportunity being presented<\/a> to the tense tribal council as the flip took place.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeason 50 was in the hands of the fans,\u201d Van Wagenen tells Variety. \u201cAnd someone who was a big fan of our show was MrBeast. We were trying to figure out something that still felt very \u2018Survivor\u2019 but could also be a little MrBeast.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a little brainstorming, the \u201cSurvivor\u201d team and Donaldson landed on the coin flip, but they knew it had to be \u201cdo or die,\u201d with Donaldson agreeing to put in a million dollars. The conditions were simple: if the participating contestant called the coin flip correctly, the prize money would increase to $2 million. If they didn\u2019t, the amount would stay at a million, and the contestant would go home as part of that night\u2019s tribal council.<\/p>\n

The castaways only found out about the twist at tribal council after spending the whole day back at camp debating what it could be.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us had seen \u2018Beast Games\u2019<\/a> and went, \u2018He likes to bribe people. He likes to offer up money for you to leave the game,\u201d says Devens. \u201cNow that seems totally against the spirit of \u2018Survivor,\u2019 because Jeff hates quitters. We were all sitting there going: \u2018How much money would it take for you to leave the game?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Do-or-die twists had appeared previously on Season 41 and 42, and Probst wasn\u2019t a fan of them due to a player\u2019s fate being up to chance. So, they looped all the contestants in through the food auction challenge and letters from loved ones, making them all \u201ccomplicit\u201d in whatever chaos was to come.<\/p>\n

The coin itself was handmade by the \u201cSurvivor\u201d art department on location, with a MrBeast logo on one side and a mixture of \u201cSurvivor\u201d elements on the other. A lawyer test-flipped the coin the night before tribal council, during which Probst realized the uneven ground could pose some problems. If the coin landed on its edge, they\u2019d have to tell players to re-flip. \u201cThe lawyer says: There is no re-flip. Our contract is a one-flip agreement,\u201d recalls Probst. She ran off set and, after some renegotiation, she came back and told them they were in the clear.<\/p>\n

None of that came to pass, since Devens \u2014 who volunteered to do the flip within seconds \u2014 landed the coin firmly on heads.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so positive that if I got to flip that coin, it was going to land on whatever I called,\u201d says Devens, who shocked Probst by volunteering so fast. The host admits, \u201cI thought: \u2018You all are going to have to persuade somebody to flip this coin.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Bracco thought about flipping the coin, but \u201creally listened to her gut and intuition\u201d when giving Devens the go-ahead. \u201cHe just has this magic about him,\u201d she says, adding that her gut told her Devens was \u201cborn to flip this coin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nerves were on edge all around, especially in production: What if the cameras didn\u2019t capture the flip?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe knew that we couldn\u2019t miss it,\u201d says Van Wagenen. Plus, tribal council is dark \u2014 there aren\u2019t big lights, it\u2019s only lit by fire. The team usually only brings in extra camera operators for the final tribal council, but they brought in a DP to shoot the close-up and had a few special cameras, including a handheld one whose only job was: \u201cFollow that coin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the most cinematic flip ever. I couldn\u2019t do it again if I tried 50 times,\u201d says Devens, who remembers the anticipation on everyone\u2019s faces as the coin rolled around on the floor.<\/p>\n

Unseen by the audience, fellow contestant Ozzy Lusth was the first to jump up from his place on the bench, yelling, \u201cIt\u2019s heads!\u201d, which is what Devens called.<\/p>\n

It was an \u201cindescribable moment\u201d for Probst to hold the coin up and show the cameras which side it landed on. \u201cIn a way, it felt inevitable. We put so much time, energy, love and thought into this season\u2026 This thing has to land on the side he called.\u201d<\/p>\n

Devens was gifted the coin at the season finale (after almost a year of asking for it) and carries it with him. \u201cAubry, who has $2 million instead of $1 million, might think it\u2019s her lucky coin also,\u201d he jokes. \u201cBut since she gets the money, I keep the coin.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s hard to change a game that\u2019s been running for 50 seasons. For this installment of Variety\u2019s Making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,215445,10531,282],"class_list":["post-503858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-making-a-scene-hbo","tag-survivor","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}