‘The age diversity 100% needs improvement’: ‘Survivor’ superfans criticize the lack of older contestants on ‘Survivor 45’

From 23-year-old Brando Meyer to 23-year-old Drew Basile to 24-year-old J. Maya and beyond, the casts for Survivor seem to be getting younger and younger in the hit competition show’s “new era,” and Survivor 45 is no exception.

With the Survivor 45 cast averaging at 30 years old, several Survivor superfans have criticized the series for failing to include a sufficient number of older contestants in this season (or for a majority of the more recent seasons), causing the older contestants to stick out like a sore thumb as soon as they hit the beach.

Each season of Survivor has one or two individuals on the older side (think 51-year-old Mike Gabler from Survivor 43, 58-year-old Mike Turner from Survivor 42, or 52-year-old Heather Aldret from Survivor 41), but why is this number so low? There should be more representation!

Keep scrolling to see what viewers are saying about the lack of age diversity in the “new era” of Survivor…

@RecoveringRagaholic got the conversation started by criticizing the Survivor 45 cast via Reddit: “Survivor has become such a young game these days. I remember when people were calling Mike Gabler old on Survivor 43. He was 51 — that’s not old! Where’s the Sonja Christophers, the BB Andersens, the Rudy Boeschs?”

“I’ve seen Survivor commit to diversity in recent years, which deserves kudos, but we’re not seeing true diversity in terms of older people, or even people with disabilities like we see on The Amazing Race. It would be nice to see a more accurate representation of our society’s demographics, but maybe the game is too hard for older people or the challenges are impossible for people with disabilities,” the Reddit user continued passionately, garnering an overwhelming response from Survivor superfans across the globe.

@jerseysbestdancers explained, “Mark Long is 52 and still doing seasons of The Challenge, keeping up with the youngins. I don’t think being old is necessarily a disqualifier. If Survivor wants to move toward a more physical game, they don’t need to pay so much attention to age, but physical abilities. You could have a horribly out-of-shape 25-year-old against a lady in her 60s who rides ten miles on her peloton every day. Who’s more physical? Age doesn’t necessarily matter, IMO. If you want a physical game, you can’t be casting people bragging about not having gotten off the couch since they graduated high school.”

“It would be nice to have a more even amount of 20-35 year olds and 40-60 year olds. Poor Brandon can barely climb a ladder and he’s in his 20s, so age isn’t really the problem,” @GuyWhoWantsHappyLife wrote, garnering nearly 40 upvotes.

@ToPimpAButterfree shared as well, “If anything, they’ve made the game so much less physical than it was, so they SHOULD be casting a lot more older players.”

With challenges in the “new era” that focus more on endurance or mental strength rather than physical strength, people of all ages should have a fair shot on Survivor. Plus, we all remember 54-year-old Keith Nale dominating the challenges on Survivor: Cambodia… right?

Those posting on this Reddit thread seem to have a similar consensus; older contestants are lacking within the new era Survivor, however, they are more than capable of competing alongside those in their 20s. As @GuyWhoWantsHappyLife said, Brandon Donlon could not even climb a ladder during the Survivor 45 premiere!

@spud735 brought a refreshing take to the Reddit thread, offering a suggestion that could show that older players are equally as phenomenal as the younger players, despite having a different style of gameplay.

“Since they film two seasons back-to-back, I would love to see a season where they do one season of Gen X’s only, like 40-60, for the whole cast, then a season of Millennials, like 20-39, for the whole cast. I would love see the difference in the gameplay, which would only work if it was a whole cast for each season, not a versus-type season,” they wrote, amassing nearly 50 upvotes — this is clearly something Survivor superfans would love to see!

To see how the rest of Survivor 45 unfolds, and to see if an older contestant like Julie Alley or Bruce Perreault breaks the stigma and takes home $1 million and the title of “Sole Survivor,” tune into CBS every Wednesday at 8pm ET/PT.