Survivor 49 players reveal whom they would have cast on season 50

Sage Ahrens-Nichols

I would love to see Shirin back. I just feel like she very much was meant to be a new-era Survivor player and was stuck in the old era. I just don’t think people really got her in the way that I feel like I could understand her and I would love to just see her have a second shot. I absolutely love her.

Alex Moore

I love the old-school players. I can’t lie. And I think Amanda Kimmel was so robbed, she just got screwed over back-to-back. I don’t know where she is now. I’ve seen videos of people trying to find Amanda. I have so much respect for her gameplay and doing that back-to-back must have been insane. Even just getting ready for doing this one time has been a lot. So to go back-to-back from China to Micronesia after that was just remarkable. She deserves to win and she needs to come back out here and play. I think she could do it.

Sophie Segreti

I’m all in on Rachel. She is our angel of alternates. But also because she was so fun to watch play, with her and Genevieve sparring. I would love to see her go up against some of the other really deadly women from past seasons. So yeah, Rachel, for sure.

Jawan Pitts

Alright, are you ready for this? I think the fans have been waiting for this for a long time. Sean Freaking Rector, dog — from season 4. Where has he been? Sean Rector! Come on, man. One of my favorite moments in Survivor history is when he goes on the reward challenge with Paschal, and he’s on the donkey. That man has a special spot in my heart and I feel like me and him are cut from the same cloth and if he’s not on 50, what are we doing? What are we doing?!

Annie Davis

I loved Kenzie. She was so kind to everybody and she sort of flew under the radar. I think she won a challenge or two towards the end, but she wasn’t a big crazy challenge winner. She just was helpful and was nice to everybody. I loved the relationship she had with Ben when Ben was struggling. She took care of him in the middle of the night when he was having issues. So I’d love to see her back on again because I think she was a really cool player and she was just a nice person and I like that. To be able to play this game with integrity is really hard.

Jason Treul

I think Randy from Gabon. He’s just such a stinky old grandpa about things. I don’t even know how old he is now, but bring him back for 50. I think that we’ve had so many other kooky characters come back again and again, but I don’t think we’ve seen Randy since season 20. He didn’t think that his family respected Survivor enough, so he just brought four random people from online to their live reunion. That guy will f— s— up on 50.

Sophi Balerdi

Vecepia. She’s underrated and she hasn’t gotten another chance to do it.

Rizo Velovic

When I think of random Survivor players that would be a fun story, I’m going to go with DK Chillin [Dean Kowalski] from season 39, and here’s why. I think Survivor 50, you’re going to have some heavy hitters. You’re going to have the Ciries, you’re going to have the David Wrights, the Rick Devens, whoever from the new era. You need some comedic humor. And obviously, like I said, you can have the Malcolms, but what DK Chillin brings that a lot of people don’t really realize is some comedic relief.

I remember Island of the Idols, just watching Dean came on Survivor wearing Jordans. As someone that’s on Fiji right now, I don’t know who in your right mind thinks you should pack Jordans on Survivor. I think about his whatever-mance with Chelsea Walker almost getting him voted out. I think about him somehow going from absolutely clueless to having all the advantages in the game and almost to the casual viewer thinking he’s going to win at FTC. He’s DK Chillin! “I got this, I got, I don’t nullify, I got this.”

You need some comedic relief and I know people are going to say Q is that or Coach is that, but why not spice it up and have some fun with some DK Chillin’?

Shannon Fairweather

I really love Andy. He did have that moment on the first episode where he essentially had a panic attack, but then really rebounded. He was just a very real player. We’ve had so many iconic players who are really cool and have a lot of swag, but to have a very vulnerable moment on national television, and then rebound and be able to come back, I thought was really iconic. So I’m going to go with Andy. He’s from Boston as well, so how can I not?

Someone that I really like from 48 is Joe. We’re both in law enforcement. He’s a firefighter. I’m corrections, but just his character and how he goes about the game and goes about life — he puts everyone else before him. I do the exact same thing at home. I put everyone else before me, and someone like that should have another chance. I don’t know if he’s out yet. I missed the last episode where I think he was on the chopping block. If I came back on 50 somehow, that’s the guy that I would hands down number one aligns with and trust him with everything I got. He’s a good man, and hopefully one day I could call him my friend.

Kristina Mills

It’s Cirie. She’s just too damn good at this game and she’s too loved by too many people to never have won. And I need her to at least have that spot. I need her to be the Sole Survivor at least one time.

Steven Ramm

I want to see Charlie come back. I, first off, selfishly kind of identify with Charlie. I hope to play a very similar game to Charlie. I loved his whole philosophy of options. In aerospace engineering, we have a concept called redundancy. You need to have redundancy in everything that you build. You can’t have a single point failure. This is billions of dollars of hardware on the line, so if you’re going to launch it up into space, it has to work.

And his idea of multiple options and maintaining a low profile and not realizing that the other people didn’t know that they were options — I thought it was flawless. He fell a little short and not being able to explain to the jury, at least from what was shown on the edit, how he played and how he navigated. It looked maybe like he was riding Maria’s coattails a bit. Maybe there were some hard feelings there. But I really like him and I think he deserves a second chance to play the game. I think he had a really good social game and he was just very strategic, too.

Nicole Mazullo

Tony Vlachos. I think he is the epitome of Survivor. He, to me, is the perfect player. Truly. I think he’s someone that is someone I hope to play like — charismatic funny, but also just like a challenge beast, a mental beast. He’s savvy. He is everything. And he’s also a family man. He’s also a good guy from what I’ve heard and seen of him. And so I’ll give him his flowers there. So he 100 percent should be on season 50. And I am obsessed with him. I think he’s my favorite player of all time. So if he’s not on it, I think they’re missing out.

Chrissy Hofbeck on the season that Ben won. She started that season as I would argue, an uptight, white collar lady who I thought had a great transformation into finding her own power. And I thought also strategically was killing that game. And she did not know that there’s going to be a switching the rules and all of a sudden it’s final four fire making and the guy is in the Special Forces. And it blew up her game. But I think she would’ve won that season and I think she should get a second chance because I just think she got robbed.

And I really did think she was funny. She was self-deprecating. She physically was doing s— that was outside of her comfort zone. I just think if she would ever play again, that’s a second chance I’d like to see.

My all-time favorite player is Jonny Fairplay. He’s hilarious, iconic, and I feel like he brings such a fun energy to the show. Maybe not if you’re one of the people who is playing against him, but as a viewer, I always love to watch him

It’s going to be Tai. Because Tai brought a certain energy that I don’t see a lot of Survivors play. He is his own individual person and he’s so proud of who he is. He was this great strategic player. He was really smart, he was likable, and most importantly, he was a very kind person.

Michelle “MC” Chukwujekwu

I’m going to say Charlie. I almost said Yam Yam, but he already won. So it’s Charlie because, Hot Take!, he should have won! If I was in the Tribal Council, I would’ve voted for him to win. And I feel like he played a great game and he deserves another chance for that million.

Christian. He makes for a great television, but just the quirkiness and the brains. I think I fell in love with him on that endurance challenge where he is just kept talking and talking and talking. I think I might be a bit of sapiophile. I’m attracted to intelligence, and I’ve never seen a more attractive man than Christian. That guy’s a brainiac. Just the way he talks and cracks me up, and I just want to hang out with Christian