Savannah Louie won Survivor 49 and was asked back to the legendary Survivor 50 season. How is she doing two episodes in?
SAN ANTONIO — (Editor’s note: This article will be spoiling episodes 1 and 2 of Survivor 50 as well as the entirety of Survivor 49)
Former KENS 5 reporter Savannah Louie made headlines when she won Survivor 49 earlier this year. She made such an impact on the show, she was asked to be a part of the landmark 50th Survivor season, aptly named Survivor 50.
Savannah was placed on the Cila tribe with Jenna Lewis-Dougherty, Christian Hubicki, Cirie Fields, Emily Filppen, Joe Hunter, Ozzy Lusth and Rick Devens—some of the biggest names in Survivor history.
Since Survivor filmed seasons 49 and 50 back-to-back, Savannah’s other tribemates did not see her season nor knew if she won. To show she can be trusted, Savannah told her tribemates she won her season, which still put a target on her back as she was the only winner of her tribe (and one of only three winners on the whole season). Other tribemates said she had to have done something impressive enough to be asked to play Survivor 50.
During last week’s three-hour season premiere, Savannah went on a journey where she beat one of her Survivor idols and original “challenge beast” Colby Donaldson in a dual to win an advantage. She won a “block-a-vote” advantage, choosing not to tell any of her tribemates about it, instead saying she didn’t receive an advantage at all. Her tribemates did not believe her and assumed she had an advantage of some sort.
Cila lost the first immunity challenge and had to go to tribal council where Jenna, who notably played on Survivor’s first ever season in 2000, was unanimously voted out first.
Also in the first episode, one of the other winners of the season, Kyle Fraser, was medically evacuated due to an Achilles injury he sustained during the immunity challenge. This meant that Savannah and Survivor 45 winner Dee Valladares were the only two winners left in the season.
In the second episode, Savannah’s tribe once again lost the immunity challenge sending them to tribal council for the second episode in a row. This time, several players wanted Savannah out due to her assumed advantage she received during her journey among other reasons, including the fact that she was a winner.
During tribal council, Savannah told host Jeff Probst and her tribe that it was important to be vulnerable with people. She mentioned how in her last season she had a wall up for a while and was scared to let people see the real her because she didn’t want to be rejected, saying she had a “cool-girl mentality.”
This season, she made it a point to be more herself.
Despite it seeming like the vote would sway to Joe or Ozzy after some tension in the tribe, Savannah was ultimately voted out 6-1, placing 22nd out of 24.
KENS 5’s full preseason interview with Savannah: