Why the creator of The White Lotus is returning to reality TV

The Age

7 days ago

The White Lotus creator, Mike White, is heading to Fiji – but not to film his hit HBO series. White will star as a contestant in the 50th season of Survivor, competing against other returning players for a $US1 million prize.
The news may be a surprise to some fans who only know the 54-year-old writer-director from his Emmy award-winning show, but it's something followers of reality TV have been anticipating for years. White, then known best for School of Rock, first appeared on Survivor back in 2018 (three years before The White Lotus).
He came second in that season, themed David v Goliath, and has been high on everyone's wishlist of players to return to the series. Not that anyone thought it would actually happen.
'Mike, after he finished playing, said, 'I want to play again',' the show's longtime host Jeff Probst told CBS Mornings. '[Then] when White Lotus hit 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.'
'This is the guy that writes and directs White Lotus, which studies human behaviour in the most fascinating way. He gets Survivor.'
In fact, White has spoken a lot about how the series influenced The White Lotus, from the subject (bickering Americans dropped in remote locations) to the editing and the music cues.
He's also given a number of Survivor contestants cameos in each season.
' Survivor is the only show I really devotedly watch,' White told The New Yorker in 2021. '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.