The White Lotus creator Mike White is taking another crack at Survivor.
The filmmaker, 54, was announced as a member of the cast, along with 23 other returning players, for the upcoming milestone 50th season of the CBS reality TV competition on Wednesday, May 28. He previously competed on season 37 in 2018, known as “David vs. Goliath,” and came in second place.
“Mike, after he finished playing, said, ‘I want to play again.’ And that was before White Lotus,” host and executive producer Jeff Probst said on CBS Mornings on Wednesday as the cast list was announced. “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.”
CBS Mornings host Vladimir Duthiers then pointed out that Mike is “now one of the most powerful guys in Hollywood” and has even cast Survivor alums like Alec Merlino and Angelina Keeley in The White Lotus. He noted that fellow contestants would likely want to stay on Mike’s good side.
“Don’t think Mike White, who is clever enough to write and direct White Lotus, has not thought about that,” Jeff, 63, joked. “I’m sure it’s gone through his head, too.”
Before his run on Survivor, Mike — who is also known for writing and starring in School of Rock (2003) — competed on The Amazing Race season 14 in 2009 and The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business in 2011.
While he is recognized for other projects, including Nacho Libre (2006) and Enlightened (2011), Mike is most famous for creating, writing and directing HBO’s The White Lotus, which concluded its third season in April. The black comedy drama anthology series has earned him six total Emmy nominations and three wins.
Mike White
Despite his success with filmmaking, Mike has been open about wanting to return to Survivor and loving the reality show.
“Survivor is the only show I really devotedly watch, even though I get frustrated with it,” he told The New Yorker in 2021. “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 shit and capture your attention.”
However, the School of Rock star struggled to believe that Jeff would allow him to join the competition again.
“Probst is like, ‘Let’s be real — you’re never going to go on the show again,’” he continued. “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. I think the fact that we’ve become close is probably why he says that. I don’t know.”
Mike concluded, “I don’t think they want the Hollywood Goliath who knows Probst to win a season. 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.”
