'Survivor 50' Premiere Date Announced — And CBS Is Dropping a Two-Week Marathon of Iconic Episodes
Survivor 50 is coming! CBS just unveiled a premiere date for the highly anticipated season while releasing its 2025–2026 midseason primetime schedule, confirming the milestone season will debut with a three-hour premiere event on Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT.
The cast features a whopping 24 returning players, including former winners Dee Valladares (Season 45) and Kyle Fraser (Season 48). The roster spans more than two decades of the series, even from the earliest days of Survivor: Borneo with original castaway Jenna Lewis‑Dougherty returning to play. Fan favorites like Cirie Fields (returning for a sixth time if you count Australian Survivor, which – we do!), Ozzy Lusth (his fifth stint), and Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick (her fourth) are joined by a slew of new era players and other notable names like Mike White — the Emmy-winning creator of The White Lotus and runner-up on Survivor 37: David vs. Goliath — as well as Angelina Keeley, Aubry Bracco, Rick Devens and more.
After filming wrapped on Survivor 50, and ahead of the Survivor 49 premiere, host and executive producer Jeff Probst spoke exclusively with Men’s Journal about why the upcoming season represents a pivotal moment for the franchise. For the first time ever, fans were invited to vote on key elements of the game — including whether players should receive rice and basic supplies, how many advantages should exist in the game, and whether the fire-making challenge should remain at final four.
"Part of it’s going to be defined and decided by the fan vote because we really did put the game in their hands," Probst told Men’s Journal back in September. “CBS told us: if you make it a vote, you must follow the fans. That was simultaneously the most exciting and terrifying thing we’ve done in a long time.”
Probst made it clear he was prepared for whichever direction the audience pushed the show. "I wanted the game to go into the future, but there might be fans that want it to go backwards," he said. “Either way, it’ll dictate 51. First, we’ll play 50 and see the fan reaction to it, and then we’ll sort of decide where do we go from here.”
The casting process was also uniquely shaped by the milestone season because Probst confirmed that casting for Season 50 wasn’t finalized when Season 49 began filming. "We were not fully cast for 50 when we started shooting 49, and everybody involved in 50 knew that," he explained. "It was day by day — evolving, assessing, looking at the group. It’s a monumental task."
Two players from Season 49 ultimately earned their way onto the Season 50 cast, though that has yet to be announced because 49 is still currently airing. "We didn’t go in thinking it had to be a man and a woman or any specific type. They just emerged,” he told MJ about how he chose the two players. “It impacted 50 in a different way and changed how we balanced the rest of the cast. It was a fun puzzle to keep putting together.”
Ahead of the big premiere, CBS will launch a special two-week programming countdown featuring 10 encore episodes from past seasons, all showcasing players who are part of the Season 50 cast. Specific episode selections will be announced in the coming weeks, but the air dates are locked in as follows:
- Feb. 9–10 (8:00–9:00 PM)
- Feb. 11–12 (8:00–10:00 PM)
- Feb. 13, 16, 17 (8:00–9:00 PM)
- Feb. 18–20 (8:00–9:30 PM)
Following the three-hour premiere, Survivor returns to its regular Wednesday time slot on March 4 (8:00–9:30 PM), paired with Padma Lakshmi's new cooking competition series America’s Culinary Cup.
Survivor 50 airs on CBS Wednesday, February 25 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. I was on set in Fiji and Men’s Journal will be publishing exclusive interviews with longtime host Jeff Probst, executive producers and the full returning cast, which you will roll out in the weeks leading up to the February premiere.
Related: Jeff Probst Reveals Why 'Survivor' Will Never Do an All-Celebrity Season (Exclusive)