This is really detailed--tons of info!
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How to get on Survivor: Behind the scenes of casting season 45

We've got all the intel — and audition videos — showing the disparate journeys five players took to make it onto the new season.

By Dalton Ross September 18, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT

Survivor is the ultimate contest. The OG and gold standard of reality programming pits players against one another in a brutal test of endurance to see who can outlast the competition to reach the promised land. And that's before the show even begins.

Because as difficult as defeating 17 other contestants out on the island may seem, it is nothing compared to the 25,000 Survivor hopefuls an applicant must best just to get there. That's what it takes to get on Survivor, and that's what the 18 players that comprise the cast of Survivor 45 (premiering Sept. 27 on CBS) had to do before they could dramatically jump off a giant barge into the crystal-clear waters of Fiji.

How does one make it through the gauntlet of application videos, interviews, callbacks, more interviews, and more callbacks? And what exactly are producers looking for in a Survivor player? "First of all, there has to be drive," says host and showrunner Jeff Probst. "That should seem obvious, but it's not always the case. Sometimes people apply and even though they say and do all the right things, you can tell that the drive just isn't there. And if we don't sense a real need to be on this show, then we know it's not the right time for you."

The second thing Probst is looking for is simple self-awareness. "Do you know who you are?" asks the host. "If you haven't spent time reflecting on who you are or if you don't have a circle of friends who will tell you who you are, you need to know how you see yourself. And it really helps if you have an idea of how the world sees you because they're not always the same."

Probst notes that trying to put on an act — especially an act the show has already seen before — is unlikely to move the needle. "Where some people can trip themselves up a little is trying to be something that they're not. If you try to anticipate what you think we're looking for, or if you see somebody on a season that was really popular and you try to emulate what they did, it's not going to work."

The final tip of the casting trifecta is finding players who are simply good at… talking. "You have to be able to tell a story," says Probst. "Because we task the players with a giant responsibility. They are the narrators for their season. Everybody thinks they can tell a story, but the truth is, it's a specialized skill to be able to sit down and say, 'Okay, here's what's happening,' and tell that in a way that is entertaining or dramatic, but also clear and concise."

While all applicants who make it on to Survivor must possess all three characteristics — "I'll have a pretty good idea whether you're going to be on the show or not after 10 minutes," says Probst — no two contestants are the same, and neither are their journeys through the Survivor casting process. Kendra McQuarrie did her casting interviews while making a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Emily Flippen ended up on the show after sending in an application video because "I was really angry that morning after watching Mike Gabler win, and I decided that that was not okay in my book." (She got a call back that same day.) Julie Alley ignored her daughter's pleas — "Mom, that's so embarrassing!" — to stop texting a casting producer after getting a hold of her number. And Bruce Perreault essentially got to skip the entire process for season 45 since he went through it the previous year before being injured just minutes into Survivor 44.

What is an actual voyage through the Survivor casting process like? EW went behind the scenes to present the stories of five different players from the new season and how they ended up on the show. It's a tale of youthful exuberance, second chances, last-minute substitutions, cocky charisma, and good old-fashioned social media stalking. This is the casting story of Survivor 45, as told by those who went through it.

The Annual Applicant

The official casting process for Survivor 45 — which would commence filming in April of 2023 — began in August 2022. That's when casting producers started poring over the thousands of videos already submitted since the end of the previous casting cycle. The head of casting, Jesse Tannenbaum, estimates there were already 16,000 videos waiting for them when they began work for seasons 45 and 46, which were cast simultaneously because they filmed back-to-back.

Tannenbaum's casting team — which includes four other producers and two managers — then reached out to applicants they thought had potential, leading to multiple interviews and often reshot audition videos. "Sometimes we give them pointers like that it's okay to be vulnerable and open and tell us about who you are," explains Tannenbaum. "So the producers will work with them to create a great audition video."

The casting producers are not just the gatekeepers to the Survivor kingdom at this point — determining which hopefuls they will present to Probst, executive producer Matt Van Wagenen, and co-executive producer Hudson Smith III — they are also cheerleaders doing everything within their power to help their favorites along. "We're not just passionate about the show," explains Tannenbaum, "but we're passionate about the people we meet with. Those are the people that spark a fire and those are the ones that we want to see on the show."

Every fall, Tannenbaum sends the best audition videos — scaling thousands down to a few dozen — to Probst and the show producers, who then pick out the folks they want to meet. After the producers make their selections, that group of approximately 30 hopefuls per season moves on to the first round of what are called "casting finals." At this stage, anyone still in the running meets with the show's psychologists, completes a background check, and sits down for more interviews with the casting department, show producers, and executives.

The approximately 24 people who make it past all of that are eventually brought out to Los Angeles in February for the in-person meetings that constitute the last round of casting finals. "If a player is going to panic, this is the stage where it happens," says Probst. "The pressure ratchets up when the room is full of producers and CBS executives. This too is by design. If you drop the ball at this stage, you probably won't get on the show this season." Once those in-person L.A. interviews are complete, the casts for the next two Survivor seasons are finally set.

It's a long, arduous experience. But for Brandon Donlon, the casting journey started much, much earlier than all of that. Brandon still remembers watching Survivor for the first time during the Gabon season in September 2008. "It felt like this religious experience," he explains. "It felt like I was watching some higher power who was like, 'This is going to change your life. Whatever this thing is, you have to do it.'" He immediately sent in an application. Just one problem: Brandon was 11 years old.

"I sent in videos before I was 18 and eligible to apply," he laughs. "Which I understand now, having met with casting people — very annoying." Once Brandon turned 18, the videos continued. Every single year. As did the radio silence back from the casting department. "I knew that I had the sauce," says Brandon. "But Survivor did not care about my sauce. Zero percent interested in my sauce."

However, another CBS reality show was interested in tasting the sauce, as Brandon went to an open casting call for Big Brother and in 2019 made it all the way to the finals for season 21 of the summer series. "I watched the Edge of Extinction merge episode where Rick Devens comes back while I was in California at Big Brother finals," recalls Brandon, now 26 years old and a content producer at Temple University. "I was in a room with Ovi, and Cliff, and Jackson Michie."

But being cut at the very end from Big Brother turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because by this time, Big Brother's casting director, Tannenbaum, had taken over Survivor duties from original casting legend Lynne Spillman. And when Brandon finally got his callback for Survivor (actually for seasons 43 and 44), the superfan felt more prepared because of his Big Brother experience. "Like any kind of formal interview, if you have any experience, you are much better through those processes," says Brandon. "I went in with a little bit cooler of a head in that I knew what I was expecting."

Brandon's preparation even surprised Probst, who hopped on a Zoom with the prospective castaway for the first time back on Sept. 27, 2021. "I was like, 'Jeff, I don't know if I'm ever going be able to talk to you again,'" remembers Brandon. "'So I have 10 questions that I have always wanted to ask you, if you don't mind me running through them.' And he was like, 'Nobody's ever done this. By all means, kick off your questions.'"

Apparently, the approach — which also included Brandon crying in excitement at some point in every single interview — worked. "A super fan who is desperate to prove he can play this game and win," read Probst's notes from that first interview with the hopeful. "He's engaging, self-deprecating. He's very aware of the influence social media has had on his life and shaping who he is." After a later meeting, Probst wrote, "With every interview, he's getting more comfortable and more likable."