Survivor 50 | TVLine's Nick Caruso Talks Covering Survivor 50

Brian, before we get into hearing about Nick's perspective covering the show, uh, do, h- h- how has Survivor 50 sat with you, you know, these long weeks? Uh, it hasn't been many, Brian, but you've, you've shared that it's felt long [laughs], they've felt long since the finale aired.

Uh, any other, like, burning thoughts or takes that just have really simmered for you these, th- this past couple months?

I, I don't know about burning takes, but I, I do think the season just...

Well, one, it, it made me feel like we, like there really was a longing for more returning player seasons.

Um, at the same time, like, there were a lot of elements of kind of being almost overproduced and, uh, just like a lot of, lot of injection of that.

And then, um, yeah, like, so I, I think it's like a mix, like, oh, this scratched like an itch, we want more of this.

And also, um, you know, I don't know if, uh, like they were v- very experimental [laughs] with a lot of the formatting.

So, um, yeah, I, I, I just, I, you know, I wanna see again like more, I, I think more idols back in play, uh, in general.

Um, I, uh, you know, the, they're introducing a ton of things, but I, you know, I, I feel like the, the staple i- is the idol really, and it's, it somehow was not...

Yeah, I don't know, was not very featured.

Maybe they're just, people just aren't finding it, uh, and it's going back in.

But yeah, I w- I would like to see more of that in general.

And this season just, I don't know, I, I, I think, you know, once every, you know, 10 or 15 s- you know, that's, that's too long to go.

I think about maybe one in five seasons is a good, a good rate for a new, uh, for a returning player season.

Um, and just even though my favorite, like, I think pure Survivor is the first-time player season, no doubt about it.

Like, that, there's no like meta thread, pre-game alliances, all of the shenanigans.

Um, so from that perspective, you know, I, I of course want that to be the main thing, but I do think that it's really fun...

Uh, you know, returning player seasons are disproportionately representative of, I think, the greatest Survivor seasons ever, if you look back on Survivor history.

Um, not everyone hits of course, but, like, you look at the top 10, you know, you're looking at a much higher rate than first-time player seasons, I think.

Um, you know, between Micronesia, Heroes versus Villains.

You can debate Winners at War and all of that, Second Chances.

But um, so anyway, th- those are kind of my, my broad thoughts on Survivor in general.

Also, just like, so much recency bias.

I mean, we get one player from the first four seasons of the '40s, um, and it's, that's in, from '42, and there's so many...

That cast was amazing, and we don't, you know, we, uh, we're getting no one from there.