“The White Lotus” creator Mike White will return to compete in the “Survivor” series for its 50th edition after saying he would never be allowed to come back on the show.
The Emmy-winner appeared on the 37th season of the show, “David vs. Goliath,” in 2018 and finished in second place, The Hollywood Reporter noted. He was determined to return to compete among the 24 returning players, persistently texting executive producer Jeff Probst despite being told that he was “never going to go on the show again.”
“Mike, after he finished playing, said, ‘I want to play again,'” Probst told CBS Mornings on Wednesday. “When ‘White Lotus’ hit, and I thought, ‘Well, he’ll never play again.’ But he kept texting and saying, ‘Look, I’m serious. If you ever do anything where you have returning players, I want to play again.’ So we’re happy to have Mike.”
White, 54, has been open about his interest in reality television and made it clear in a 2021 interview with The New Yorker that his decision to join the CBS competition wasn’t intended as a joke or publicity move.
“Survivor is the only show I really devotedly watch, even though I get frustrated with it,” he said at the time. “Part of my job and my way of life is studying people and analyzing motivation and character. I still feel like, even on the most contrived reality show, the people are human and they’re more interesting than some of the most well-scripted drama. And for me, as a writer of drama, I aspire to do what reality television already does. To create characters that are surprising and dimensional and do weird [expletive] and capture your attention.”
During his conversation with The New Yorker, White also revealed that Probst was initially not sold on having him compete in the show again.
“Probst is, like, ‘Let’s be real — you’re never going to go on the show again,'” White said. “I was, like, ‘Really? Why?’ We are friends. We’ve become more friends since I was on the show, and he’s an impressive guy.”
White attributed it to the fact that he came so close to winning last time.
“I don’t know. I don’t think they want the Hollywood Goliath who knows Probst to win a season,” he said. “Now that Probst knows I can get to the end, I don’t think he wants there to be a chance of that happening again.”
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