Jeff Probst told TV Insider that the Survivor 51 cast has “the privilege and the responsibility” to launch the new era of the game. “So don’t mess it up,” he told them. This cast of 21 players, according to Probst, is a group of 21 stars that the casting department felt they couldn’t live without in this specific season. But we don’t know much about this cast as we usually do two days out from a Survivor premiere.
TV Insider caught up with the players at Survivor Island in New Jersey on September 19 to get to know them a little more (except for contestant An “Thien An” Nguyen, who wasn’t able to attend the event). Here, we’ve compiled their answers for the one thing they think fans need to know about them before Survivor 51: The Open Era premieres on September 23.
One player, Kristin Flickinger, has been applying since Survivor Season 2, with only a few years off here and there. Some of her applications have gone unanswered, but she spent 15 years working with the casting department, almost making the cut for previous seasons. Survivor 51 was finally her time.
“In casting, I defined the Open Era,” Flickinger told TV Insider, saying she described this season’s theme long before she even knew what it was.
“I said, ‘Listen, I want to play now. I want to play for 51.’ We’ve just gone through 50, we’ve seen so many seasons, people understand what’s happening, but we know it’s going to change in 51,” Flickinger explains. “Drop the four, keep the one, what’s going to happen in 51? For me, it was a moment of great opportunity. If you people are freaking out and you can keep your feet planted under you, you can convince people you know what’s going on. So this is what I was hoping for. When [Probst] said ‘permanent uncertainty,’ I said, ‘Let’s go.’” So did everyone in this cast.
Scroll through the gallery below to learn one thing about each Survivor 51 player that will help you understand their player personas during this season where every advantage and every twist from the show’s history could appear at any time. (And for an in-depth explanation on what that actually means, read our interview with Probst about The Open Era.)
Survivor 51, Premieres Wednesday, September 23, 8/7c, CBS