Mike White is testing of his soft “White Lotus” inns and is getting again to nature … actually. The Emmy-winning “The White Lotus” creator is returning to his actuality TV roots with the fiftieth season of “Survivor.” White beforehand competed on Season 37, titled “David vs. Goliath.” For Season 50, White is touring as soon as once more to Fiji as one in all 22 introduced solid members.
Manufacturing on “Survivor” Season 50, titled “Survivor 50: Within the Palms of the Followers,” begins in June. The season will premiere in February 2026. Along with White, different fan favorites who’re again for Season 50 embrace Colby Donaldson (Season 2), Aubrey Bracco (Season 32), Cirie Fields (Season 12), and Ozzy Lusth (Season 13). The complete solid may have 24 whole gamers; two spots are nonetheless reserved for Season 49 alums after that season airs this fall.
White is not any stranger to “Survivor” and different journey actuality exhibits: His stint on “The Superb Race” even helped encourage among the “White Lotus” themes and places.
White informed IndieWire in 2018 that he had begged the “Survivor” producers to have him on the sequence for years. “The reality is I used to be a ‘Survivor’ fanatic from the start,” White stated. “‘The Superb Race’ all the time seemed extra enjoyable to me, you’re touring. ‘Survivor,’ in a manner, is a extra enjoyable present to observe, but it surely seemed like it will be extra hellish to do. Nevertheless, after watching round 35 seasons, my philosophy is, don’t simply be a spectator — be a participant. It took some time for me to persuade them. However I used to be all the way down to do it for years.”
He continued, “I used to be consistently placing my hat within the ring. I needed to keep for every week on the Sheraton Common, which I believe was the toughest a part of the method for me. As a result of I used to be caught on the Common lot for 5 days on lockdown. I simply needed to undergo the identical course of as everybody else — all of the auditions and the completely different cuts. They undoubtedly didn’t recruit me. … They wished me to indicate by way of the method that I actually wished it, and I’d put up with the humiliation that quite a lot of contestants put up with. I believe that’s the place they realized, ‘OK, he actually needs this and needs to do properly within the sport.’”
And being on “Survivor” additionally modified how White seen producing as a complete. “I can not consider how a lot work goes into each [‘The Amazing Race’ and ‘Survivor’] productions,” White stated. “As a producer, I’ve a lot respect for each exhibits, as what they’re capable of pull off. And the integrity of the sport. Each exhibits, there’s a lot satisfaction. They’ve quite a lot of integrity about letting the sport play out as it’s. And believing that by not interfering it’ll produce probably the most fascinating outcomes. I can’t overstate how impressed I’m.”