We’ve known two Survivor 49 players would be returning for Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans for months, but they had a lot less time to prepare to play Survivor again.
Survivor 49 winner Savannah Louie and fourth place-finisher Rizo Velovic will be returning for Survivor 50. It was revealed in a Jeff Probst interview with Parade that Savannah and Rizo only had two weeks to fly home, recover, and then fly back out to Fiji before Survivor 50 started.
That’s an insane turnaround! As Probst pointed out on the new episode of the On Fire podcast, which features interviews with Rizo and Savannah, there have only been a few players to play back-to-back seasons with a break that short.
I don’t know how they are going to do it from a physical perspective. Losing that much weight, putting back on a little bit, and then going back out to the island to do it again with a group of Survivor legends ready to put it all on the line? That’s a dedication that is simply not normal, honestly.
But, as it turns out, the decision was basically a no-brainer for Rizo and Savannah. We learned from Entertainment Weekly interviews with Savannah and Rizo that they were asked almost immediately after the Final Tribal Council to be a part of the new season.
I highly recommend watching the clip from EW and Dalton Ross. Savannah knew something was up after production asked Rizo, and then later, she was pulled into the same room and asked to be part of the historic season.
I honestly can’t believe that these two players are going to do this. It’s one thing to play in consecutive seasons with an eight-month break or whatever to recover. Survivor 49 wrapped filming somewhere around the middle of May 2025. Then, by the beginning of June, Rizo and Savannah were already filming Survivor 50 with some of the greatest players the game has ever seen.
I can understand why Rizo and Savannah wanted to be part of such an iconic season. Even getting asked to return so soon has to be the biggest compliment production could give. It means that Jeff and the producers thought so highly of their games to invite them back for another shot.
In addition to the historic season that includes the most players ever, Savannah, I believe, has the chance to become the first back-to-back winner in Survivor history. There are only two other two-time winners, Tony Vlachos and Sandra Diaz-Twine, and they didn’t win to consecutive seasons. Will it happen? Probably not.
The quick turnaround is definitely a huge disadvantage. Just being the game, the lack of sleep, the mental, physical, and emotional anguish Rizo and Savannah just put themselves through, that will be a lot to overcome, and that doesn’t have anything to do with the other 22 players competing against them.
You can see Savannah and Rizo in the new teaser for Survivor 50 that dropped during the Survivor 49 finale.
We’ll see Savannah and Rizo on our screens again soon! Survivor 50 officially begins on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, on CBS and Paramount+. Stay tuned for more news about the upcoming season.
