Photo: David M. Russell ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. "Appearances Are Deceiving" - Jeremy Crawford and Alec Merlino compete on SURVIVOR when the Emmy Award-winning series returns for its 37th season, themed David vs. Goliath, with a special 90-minute premiere.
The new theme of Survivor was revealed, ahead of the September 26, 2018 season premiere. And so, the CBS network brings to you … Survivor 37: David Vs. Goliath. Ahead of each season, and even sometimes during casting, showrunner and host Jeff Probst teams up with the president of MGM television and digital, Mark Burnett, to pick the theme. This season, Probst realized the theme during casting and approached Burnett.
So, how did Probst come up with David Vs. Goliath? In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Probst explained, “Like most of our casting theme ideas, it comes when Mark, me, the producers, and CBS begin the casting process. Usually we don’t really have an idea at first and we just start to see what’s there and we typically [figure out the theme] the month before. But we just never got to it this season. And then I remember a day when this guy Christian came in, and he told us his story which was that he was always a bit of a nerd when he was a kid, and he had to overcome social awkwardness his entire life. He was picked on, and you can see it in how he carries himself, his body language — it’s almost like he has to get permission before he speaks. So he was, in many ways, this personification of a David. He had been overcoming obstacles his entire life.”
Probst continued, saying, “And then we had a guy that was the polar opposite. This guy that’s known as Johnny Mundo [a.k.a. John Morrison], the mayor of Slamtown. He’s a professional wrestler, he’s gigantic, he’s charming, and he’s smart. He started with advantage, he had a great family, and he’s used all of these skills to slay everybody his entire life … So we looked at those two and went, we might be at a point where we could actually commit to this because the big risk is feeling enough confidence in the format and the idea to pit these seemingly lopsided groups against each other.”
Clearly, this season’s tribes will reflect the theme, as will the entire show. In a post on Reddit, a user named AnthonyD46 described the new cast members, saying that the David tribe will be made up of “common people,” and the Goliath group will consist of “people on top of their respective fields like CEOs, surgeons, etc.” The theme was first revealed during the live reunion of the previous season, Survivor: Ghost Island, according to Inside Survivor.
As for what to expect with how the theme plays a part in the competition this season, Probst told Entertainment Weekly that, “The theme that we kept coming back to is: When you are on the island and you don’t know what to expect, it doesn’t matter whether you were born with your advantage or had to work for it, because everybody knows that every David has a secret weapon and every Goliath certainly has their Achilles heel, and that’s what Survivor will bring out. It will bring you to your knees and it will lift you to your highest heights. It’s all about context and situation and how you respond.”
Like usual, the show filmed in the Fiji’s Mamanuca Islands. And when it comes to some spoilers on the new season, we’ve got a few. But, if you do NOT want to know any spoilers on season 37, STOP READING NOW.
With that said, Gold Derby has reported that two of the cast members this season are celebrities – filmmaker Mike White and pro wrestler John Hennigan. In May 2018, a couple of the contestants were threatened with a $5 million fine for violating their non-disclosure agreements, according to TMZ. When cast members Alec Merlino and Kara Kay posted a photo together online, it was a spoiler that the two were both competing on Survivor together. The two reportedly “hit it off”, but they didn’t think ahead when it came to the Instagram post.
Tune in to watch season 37 of Survivor on CBS. There are also several ways to watch the show online, as well as order episodes on Amazon, which you can find here.