As of Wednesday night, Survivor 48 is officially in full swing. That means a new cast of 18 castaways, plenty of social strategy and greuling challenges, and a lesson in gay pop culture for host Jeff Probst. … Wait, what was that last part?
Apparently, queer castaway Thomas Krottinger let Probst in on an open secret in the season’s first moments, but it didn’t make the cut for TV. Instead, Mike Bloom, one of Survivor’s most prominent journalists, revealed the crash course in queer culture in a social media post during the episode and an article on Parade the next day.
The interaction happened during the marooning, when Probst reportedly asked each cast member what drew them to apply to Survivor.
“I, like a lot of people, found Survivor in the pandemic,” Krottinger said. “And my husband kind of bullied me that I had never seen an episode in 2022. He was like, ‘You love pop culture. You’re very gay. You should know what this is.’”
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That’s when Probst stopped Krottinger with a follow-up question: “Hold on. What does being gay have to do with it?”
“Oh, Survivor is huge with the gays!” Krottinger fired back, earning laughs from his fellow castaways. “It’s like part of the culture, yeah. So he was kind of ashamed that I had never seen an episode.”
When the exchange made its way to the Survivor subreddit, fans backed up Krottinger’s claim with plenty of evidence, including how many watch parties are hosted at gay bars.
“They’re literally one of the more prominent and loud demographics of super fans, lol. That’s crazy that he didn’t know,” one user wrote.
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Others reflected on how the gays came out in full force last season for the rivalry between eventual winner Rachel Lamont and fan favorite Genevieve Mushaluk on Survivor 47.
“It’s true, the gays do love Survivor! There’s a reason why so many people were calling Genevieve Mothervieve,” one commenter noted.
“Exactly, you don’t get the Genevieve/Rachel Girl, So Confusing edit unless your show has a big gay fanbase!” added another. (You can watch that edit below, by the way — Charli xcx and Survivor are a winning combination.)
Now that Probst is in on the gay Survivor obsession, could we see seasons getting even queerer in the future?
“Survivor 51 will be Twinks vs Dolls,” theorized one user.
Another proposed a crossover with RuPaul’s Drag Race, seeing as several of the queens are big fans of Survivor and would no doubt love to compete. “monet x change has been knocking at your door jeff,” they joked.
New episodes of Survivor 48 release Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+ with Showtime. Check out the season trailer below.
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