Why aren’t there many older people cast on ‘Survivor?’

It’s not a controversial thing to say that Survivor has typically been a young person’s game. Although castaways over 40 (which is old in Survivor terms) have captured the $1 million grand prize, players in their 20s and 30s dominate CBS’s flagship reality TV series.

But, why is that?

Of course, the first thought is that Survivor stands among other shows in the competition genre as one of the most physically demanding — hopefuls are marooned on an island and forced to live in the elements with the bare necessities all the while competing in grueling challenges.

But, we’ve seen older contestants excel on the show several times. Heck, season 1’s third-place finisher Rudy Boesch was 72 at the time, and then 40-year-old Tina Wesson won season 2. Terry Deitz is regarded as one of the greatest competitors in a season of Survivor, notching five individual Immunity wins as a 46-year-old on Survivor: Panama.

Most recently, Mike Gabler was the “Sole Survivor” of 2022’s Survivor 43, and he was 51.

Still, the success of older castaways is minimal relative to that of the younger generation.

But really, there are just far fewer contestants over 40 cast in the franchise. And that comes down to the number of older people applying to be on Survivor compared to younger hopefuls. That’s what longtime host and showrunner Jeff Probst revealed during an episode of On Fire: The Official Survivor Podcast.

During the November 22 episode, Jeff and his co-hosts, Survivor: Edge of Extinction’s Rick Devens and producer Jay Wolff, discussed how the two oldest players of Survivor 45, 47-year-old Bruce Perreault and 49-year-old Julie Alley, have excelled in the individual Immunity Challenges thus far.

In the most recent episode, Bruce earned his second straight Immunity necklace by narrowly beating out Julie — it was the second time in a row that Bruce and Julie were the final two competitors left standing in a physical challenge.

“I get the question a lot, ‘How come there aren’t more older people on Survivor?‘ Well, it’s reflected in the smaller percentage of older people who apply. We get a lot of younger people applying, which is great because they’re discovering the show, and they’re coming of age to apply. They’ve got that energy of, ‘I can do this. I can win that game.'”

Jeff reiterated that anyone of any age should apply to play Survivor. But, just because someone is older doesn’t mean they’ll automatically be selected.

“We’re not just going to put you on just because you’re older,” he continued. “That would be a wasted spot.”

At the end of the day, the Survivor team looks for a diverse crop of contestants with their own stories and experiences that align with the production’s non-surface-level goals. “In the same way that sometimes an 18-year-old is lacking a little life experience to make them ready for the show, I meet a lot of people in their 50s who are so locked into who they are, that it’s also equally not interesting on the other side of the spectrum,” Jeff said. “There’s no layers to them.”

Jeff said that wasn’t the case with Bruce and Julie, and he went as far as to declare that he’d gladly have them both return for another Survivor stint. But first, we’ll need to see how the rest of season 45 shakes out. As it stands at the time of this writing, there is a 25% chance that a player over 40 will snag the seven-figure check.