![\"Angelina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SUT-L-SURVIVOR-01.jpg\")
Angelina Keeley, pictured here during season 37 \u201cSurvivor: David vs. Goliath.\u201d (Robert Voets\/CBS Entertainment)<\/p>\nAngelina Keeley is joining a club that is low on membership but high on bravery: she\u2019s returning to \u201cSurvivor\u201d for a second time.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the long-running CBS show that tests contestants\u2019 ability to survive the wilderness amid a complicated game of social strategy. Now, for the 50th season, it\u2019s bringing back 24 all-star competitors, including La Mesa resident and season 37 cast member Keeley.<\/p>\n
Since she was last seen on \u201cSurvivor: David vs. Goliath,\u201d Keeley, 36, started a nonprofit, had two kids and opened a new business in La Mesa called JoyBabe Studio.<\/p>\n
\u201cEssentially, the idea is to create a third place for parents of littles, 5 and under, where they really feel like they belong, where it feels elevated, where it feels as calm as it can in that phase of life,\u201d Keeley said. \u201cAnd just meet people in the community and make some memories together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keeley finished third on season 37 after making it to the final tribal council but receiving no votes from the jury of her fellow contestants. She said that, though a lot of her personality traits from that season are still the same, she\u2019s experienced a lot of personal and physical growth (working out with a trainer beforehand this time) that helped her when the new season filmed in Fiji last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe things I think that are different for me now are just, I think I went into the game with the perspective of taking myself less seriously and taking the game a little bit less seriously in a good way,\u201d Keeley said.<\/p>\n
Ahead of season 50\u2019s premiere on Feb. 25, she answered a few questions from The San Diego Union-Tribune. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.<\/p>\n
Q: What made you decide to go back to \u201cSurvivor\u201d for the 50th season?<\/p>\n
A: I mean it\u2019s just too epic. Like who in their right mind\u2019s going to say no? \u2026 It\u2019s the adventure of a lifetime, or twice in a lifetime for some of us, and also the stars kind of aligned for me timing-wise. If it had been a couple years earlier or even three or four, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to go when my girls were infants. And so I felt really fortunate that, although it was really, really hard to leave a 2 and 5-year-old, I had family and community and friends who really helped make it possible, my partner as well. \u2026 And I just felt hungry. I felt ready to just go back and try it again, especially given all the life changes I had had. I mean, I had seven years of time passing, of growth, of watching myself back, being crazy and ridiculous, and just laughing at my shenanigans. And then of course yeah, becoming a mom, just getting older, I mean I was 28 (on \u201cDavid vs. Goliath\u201d), I was 35 my second time, and I think the curious and adventurous side of me just couldn\u2019t say no to trying my hand at it again and seeing how I might play a little differently given that time and growth.<\/p>\n
Angelina Keeley, pictured here during season 37 \u201cSurvivor: David vs. Goliath.\u201d (Robert Voets\/CBS Entertainment)<\/p>\n
Q: You said your strategy was to play a more joyful game this time, are you glad you went with that plan?<\/p>\n
A: Of course. Oh, yeah. Yeah, no regrets. I\u2019m honestly just so proud of myself for going and saying yes to it. Because it\u2019s so hard to leave little kids, especially as mom, and there were so many days when I was like, oh my gosh, am I making the right decision? I mean it\u2019s five weeks with no communication, with no updates either way, you\u2019re in a black box, right? \u2026 But no, it was worth it. I\u2019m glad I went. Obviously some sacrifices had to be made to do it, but overall, and in the long term, I know I\u2019m going to look back and be proud. My girls are going to be able to look back and be like, that\u2019s pretty cool that my mom said yes to something like that and went and did it.<\/p>\n
Q: Will you let them watch?<\/p>\n
A: That\u2019s such a good question. So yes, I do plan to let them watch. It is a family show, so that\u2019s helpful. \u2026 We don\u2019t do any screen time in the house at all, but the exception will be for \u201cSurvivor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Q: A question from a local super fan: How did the perception and editing of you in your last season impact your strategy for this season?<\/p>\n
A: What I tell people is that you can take snippets of someone\u2019s day and make them look a lot of different ways. So I have those aspects to me, right? Like you know \u2014 take control and be assertive, be confident, like a lot of the things we saw, maybe be a little delusional. Then, I mean, I am an entrepreneur, after all, we have to be a little delusional to do something like that. And so are those parts of me true? Yes. But I say, \u201cYes, and.\u201d The \u201cand\u201d is that there\u2019s so much more too, that\u2019s not shown to, you know, round out the whole picture of it. \u2026 I think what was shown made me look more mean than I am in real life, and it also made me look more, like, conniving and stuck up. I\u2019m definitely not those things and so I think, you know, again, I think when people meet me, they see the real me. But that\u2019s the gig you sign up for, right? You relinquish that control and the narrative is the narrative and a story has to be told. But I mean, look, I do own that like I did some stuff that was like totally insane and I will just say I hope it entertained people and I hope it made people laugh. And I\u2019m able to laugh about it now, too.<\/p>\n
![\"Twenty-four](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SUT-L-SURVIVOR-01_b74f39.jpg\")
Twenty-four returning players, including La Mesa\u2019s Angelina Keeley, are abandoned on the islands of Fiji for a monumental 50th season. (Robert Voets\/CBS)<\/p>\n
Q: So is it hard to not factor that stuff in as you play a second time?<\/p>\n
A: Look, I knew going in that because of my game the first time, zero votes and all my antics, that I was coming in with a low threat level. Like, I\u2019m not coming in as like Charlie Davis. I\u2019m not considered, like, one of the best to ever win, right? I\u2019m considered, like, a big personality and entertaining TV. But you know what? We all got a ticket to the show, so I was like, \u201cI\u2019m here, I\u2019m happy to be here, let\u2019s have some fun.\u201d So I factored that in and my strategy with that was like, \u201cOK, let me use that to my advantage\u201d where I hopefully will not be a target early on because, it\u2019s little old me, like, I didn\u2019t get any votes, like, I\u2019m an entertainer. I\u2019m not a threat. Maybe let me just work with you. You know what I mean? You want people to feel that comfort. So that was my thought with that.<\/p>\n
Q: You\u2019ve had such a focus on women\u2019s empowerment in your career \u2014 is that something you think about playing \u2018Survivor\u2019?<\/p>\n
A: \u201cSurvivor,\u201d when you play it, it unlocks something in you that nothing else can \u2014 like something that no school, no other experience I\u2019ve experienced can unlock. It busts you open and it shows you what you\u2019re made of. It pushes you to your limits and beyond, and out of your comfort zone, which, to me, is like, that\u2019s where the growth happens. That\u2019s where you find out like, \u201cOh, I can do a lot more than I even thought.\u201d \u2026 And the thing is like, something inside of you just clicks in, right? Where you\u2019re like, \u201cYeah, I\u2019m not going to have toilet paper, I\u2019m not going to have any of the luxuries, I\u2019m not going to have, you know, shampoo, soap, whatever, makeup. I\u2019m going to strip myself of all that and just see what happens,\u201d and it\u2019s a total trust fall with yourself, but it\u2019s so life-changing. Like I mean honestly, I\u2019m just so grateful for the experience and to have it twice and, to me, it just makes me walk through life a little bit differently. I don\u2019t think I would have started JoyBabe had I not played \u201cSurvivor,\u201d to be honest, because it really just makes you feel like, \u201cYeah, I can do this.\u201d Like it makes you more delusional. It makes you like, \u201cYeah, if I could do \u2018Survivor,\u2019 I can start a company, I can do X, Y, and Z, I can be a mom,\u201d you know, all the hard things. So it it just builds that resilience, for sure.<\/p>\n
Q: Why should someone who has never seen the show tune in for this season?<\/p>\n
A: There\u2019s no bad time to start \u201cSurvivor.\u201d And the thing is like, once you watch one episode, I guarantee you will understand why it has the legacy it does and why it\u2019s been on for so long. \u2026 It really just gets deep into like the human experience in a way that very few things do and that\u2019s what\u2019s so captivating about it. You never know what\u2019s going to happen, you never know where things are going to go. And it\u2019s just the characters. It\u2019s just the people, and that\u2019s what makes \u201cSurvivor\u201d so intriguing and fun to watch. And so if you\u2019ve never watched it, try one episode and I promise you\u2019ll be hooked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angelina Keeley is joining a club that is low on membership but high on bravery: she\u2019s returning to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75,420,1696,10237],"class_list":{"0":"post-185256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-san-diego","9":"tag-san-diego-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego-news","11":"tag-things-to-do","12":"tag-top-stories-sdut","13":"tag-tv-and-streaming"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}