The full group.
Photo: Scott Duncan/CBS
Survivor 50 is out in a little over a month with a record 24-person cast that spans 49 seasons’ worth of the show. For anyone other than the people who subscribe to Rob Cesternino’s Survivor-focused Patreon, that’s a lot (maybe too much) to remember. Still, that barrier to entry shouldn’t stop anyone from watching the upcoming season. Casual fans matter too! So for anyone who has watched only half the seasons, or for anyone who half-watched all the seasons, here’s a guide (that’s extremely spoiler-filled) to this season’s players.
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Season(s): Survivor: Borneo (season one) and Survivor: All-Stars (season eight)
Most memorable moment: On the very first season of Survivor, when all the contestants received messages from home, Lewis-Dougherty’s family forgot to send one in and she cried about it.
Who they know: Lewis-Dougherty hasn’t played Survivor in over 20 years, but she did play All-Stars with Colby Donaldson.
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Season(s): Survivor: The Australian Outback (season two), Survivor: All-Stars (season eight), and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains (season 20)
Most memorable moment: After winning five immunity challenges during the first season, he got to choose who sat with him in the final two between his closest ally, Tina Wesson, and the less intimidating Keith Famie. Donaldson chose Wesson for his honor and then lost to her.
Who they know: He played All-Stars with Lewis-Dougherty. On Heroes vs. Villains, he was on the Heroes tribe with Cirie Fields, whom he voted off, and Stephenie LaGrossa, whom he worked with. All of them faced off against Benjamin “Coach” Wade, who was on the Villains tribe.
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Season(s): Survivor: Palau (season ten), Survivor: Guatemala (season 11), and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains (season 20); The Traitors season one
Most memorable moment: LaGrossa was on the worst tribe of all time, Ulong, which lost every immunity challenge during Palau. After weeks of voting people out, she ended up being the final member of Ulong and went back to her beach alone.
Who they know: She was on Heroes vs. Villains with Donaldson, Wade, and Fields. She also did The Traitors with Fields and was blindsided by her friend.
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Season(s): Survivor: Panama (season 12), Survivor: Micronesia (season 16), Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains (season 20), Survivor: Game Changers (season 34), and Survivor: Australia V the World; The Traitors season one; Big Brother 25
Most memorable moment: The best player to never win, Fields is best known for being part of Micronesia’s Black Widow Brigade, which voted out powerful men one by one.
Who they know: Fields has been on two seasons with Ozzy Lusth: On Micronesia, she and her alliance voted him off in a major blindside, but on Game Changers they mostly patched things up. She has also played with LaGrossa twice, on Heroes vs. Villains and The Traitors, and voted her out both times. Donaldson voted Fields out on Heroes vs. Villains, which meant she never got to play with Wade, who was on the other tribe. She was aligned with Aubry Bracco on Game Changers, but neither ultimately won.
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Season(s): Survivor: Cook Islands (season 13), Survivor: Micronesia (season 16), Survivor: South Pacific (season 23), and Survivor: Game Changers (season 34)
Most memorable moment: In his first season on the show, Lusth’s alliance of four (the Aitu Four) beat out the more dominant tribe largely because of his incredibly dominant challenge performance.
Who they know: The beach features a few people who have betrayed Lusth in the past. On Micronesia, Fields spearheaded the effort to vote him out with an idol in his pocket. Then Wade blindsided him at the South Pacific final four. On Game Changers, Lusth was voted out at the merge, but neither Bracco nor Fields voted for him.
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Season(s): Survivor: Tocantins (season 18), Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains (season 20), and Survivor: South Pacific (season 23)
Most memorable moment: After getting banished to Exile Island alone for a night, Wade comes back at an immunity challenge saying he’s had a revelation and screams while attempting to force his body to compete. He loses and gets promptly voted out.
Who they know: Wade was on Heroes vs. Villains with Donaldson, LaGrossa, and Fields but did not play with any of them because he got voted out before the merge. He then played South Pacific with Lusth and betrayed him at the final four.
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Season(s): Survivor: Kaôh Rōng (season 32), Survivor: Game Changers (season 32), and Survivor: Edge of Extinction (season 38)
Most memorable moment: With her alliance of mostly women under the control of some bullying men at the top, Bracco convinced Tai Trang to flip on his boys’-club alliance and vote them out. They were so bitter that they refused to vote for her to win, and she lost despite playing the most dominant, strategic game.
Who they know: She worked with Fields on Game Changers but didn’t play much with Lusth, though he was on the season. She also met Rick Devens during their time on Edge of Extinction.
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Season(s): Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers (season 35)
Most memorable moment: Despite running the show all season, a last-minute twist allowed her opponent Ben Driebergen to fight his way into the final three by making fire despite the fact that he lost the immunity challenge. Hofbeck, who won the immunity challenge, ultimately lost to Driebergen by just a few votes.
Who they know: She is one of just three players to have never played with another castaway on the season.
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Season(s): Survivor: David vs. Goliath (season 37)
Most memorable moment: Hubicki spent five and a half hours on a wooden pole during an immunity challenge to beat his foe, Alec Merlino, who knew he would be voted out if he didn’t win. To accomplish this, mechanical engineer Hubicki monologued about science in order to get his mind off the pain.
Who they know: He played with Angelina Keeley and Mike White on his season, but he’s definitely the odd man out of that trio. The other two made it to the finals together after voting him out at the final seven, and both had already attempted to vote him out twice before.
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Season(s): Survivor: David vs. Goliath (season 37)
Most memorable moment: The ridiculously fun Keeley is best known for being in on the plan to vote out Natalia Azoqa, not voting for her to remain in her good graces, then asking Azoqa for her jacket before she left. She did not give Keeley her jacket.
Who they know: She was aligned with White on the show after they began the season on the same tribe, and he later cast her to open season two of his show The White Lotus.
Photo: Scott Duncan/CBS
Season(s): Survivor: David vs. Goliath (season 37)
Most memorable moment: While hanging out with Keeley during the final feast, White got wine drunk and kept up a running commentary about how ridiculous she was being in her attempts to find an advantage.
Who they know: He knows both Hubicki and Keeley from his first time on Survivor. But he cast only Keeley on The White Lotus.
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Season(s): Survivor: Edge of Extinction (season 38)
Most memorable moment: Devens was voted out early in the season but came back after winning the Edge of Extinction challenge. He then turned himself into a huge threat by finding a series of hidden immunity idols before ultimately getting fourth place after losing to the eventual winner, Chris Underwood, at Final Four Fire-Making.
Who they know: Devens and Bracco were both voted out early on Edge of Extinction and got to hang out before he won his way back into the game.
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Season(s): Survivor 42
Most memorable moment: On a challenge with giant waves, Young pushed his tribe through the water and into a challenge win. The other two tribes worked hard, but ultimately neither could complete with what Young had done, and the challenge had to be altered in real time to skip the water portion for the other groups.
Who they know: Young is the second of three players to have never played with another contestant on the season.
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Season(s): Survivor 45
Most memorable moment: Valladares’s Survivor boyfriend, Austin Li Coon, told her about a planned blindside on her No. 1 ally, Julie Alley, and she spilled the beans and Alley played her idol. The next week, when the tribe planned a blindside on Li Coon’s No. 1 ally, Drew Basile, Valladares kept it quiet and Basile was voted out.
Who they know: She and Emily Flippen were on the same season, but Valladares got Flippen voted out when Alley played her idol.
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Season(s): Survivor 45
Most memorable moment: Flippen is best known for immediately coming off as abrasive to her entire tribe and almost going home on episode one. Then, after coaching from her tribemate Kaleb Gebrewold, she turned things around and managed to make the top seven, even beating Gebrewold.
Who they know: She may hold a grudge against Valladares, who got her voted out. Then again, she did vote for Valladares to ultimately win the game …
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Season(s): Survivor 46
Most memorable moment: Burdette is one of the most ridiculous people to ever be on the show, but perhaps his greatest feat was when he didn’t like who was going to be voted out, so he threatened to quit the game. Then everyone went into such a tizzy that the vote changed to his preferred target.
Who they know: He allied early with Tiffany Ervin, but after he became too erratic to work with, the two turned on each other. And at Final Tribal Council, he did not vote for Charlie Davis to win the game.
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Season(s): Survivor 46
Most memorable moment: Davis controlled most of the game with his ally Maria Shrime Gonzalez until he turned on her so that he would have less competition at Final Tribal Council. Shrime Gonzalez was so bitter over him beating her that she voted for Kenzie Petty, costing Davis the game.
Who they know: He knows both Burdette and Ervin but worked closely with neither.
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Season(s): Survivor 46
Most memorable moment: After getting voted out relatively early into the merge, she campaigned hard on the jury for her friend Petty to win the game, and it worked.
Who they know: She and Burdette became bitter enemies by the end of the game, and her campaign for Petty was at the expense of Davis, who lost the game at the end.
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Season(s): Survivor 47
Most memorable moment: While on the bottom of the tribe, Mushaluk helped pull off an insane heist move, called Operation Italy, that required all three people to perfectly play their parts.
Who they know: She is the third of three players to have never played with another castaway on the season.
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Season(s): Survivor 48
Most memorable moment: Fraser publicly aligned himself with the dominant forces in the game, Joe Hunter and Eva Erickson, while privately aligning himself with Kamilla Karthigesu, who fed him information from the minority alliance. He took Hunter and Erickson to the end and pointed out all the times he’d secretly undermined them, winning the game.
Who they know: His two biggest allies are both coming back with him: Hunter and Karthigesu.
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Season(s): Survivor 48
Most memorable moment: Hunter formed an early bond with Erickson, who disclosed to him that she is autistic. When she ended up having an episode in front of the whole tribe, he comforted her while knowing it risked betraying how much they cared about each other in the game.
Who they know: He worked closely with Fraser, but Fraser betrayed him at Final Tribal Council. He also played with Karthigesu.
Photo: Scott Duncan/CBS
Season(s): Survivor 48
Most memorable moment: Karthigesu was the other half of the secret alliance with Fraser that ran all of Survivor 48. She found herself during the game and learned just how good she is at lying.
Who they know: It’s hard to understate just how in sync Karthigesu and Fraser were during 48. She also secretly worked against Hunter for the entire game.
Photo: Scott Duncan/CBS
Season(s): Survivor 49
Most memorable moment: The merge vote did not go Louie’s way, but she then tied the record for most immunity challenges ever won by a woman on the show and made it to the end.
Who they know: She and Rizo Velovic were close allies during their season.
Photo: Scott Duncan/CBS
Season(s): Survivor 49
Most memorable moment: Velovic and Louie were on the bottom. While she won immunities, Velovic found an immunity idol that the entire tribe ended up learning about. Using scare tactics, he made it all the way to the end without ever needing to play his idol before losing to Louie in fire-making.
Who they know: Velovic and Louie were in lockstep for the entirety of Survivor 49.
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