The creator-writer-director of your favorite resort-themed dramedy is returning for the 50th season of the show that first made him a household name.
“In between writing seasons of The White Lotus, Mike White is back,” Survivor host Jeff Probst announced on CBS Wednesday morning, pulling the star HBO writer’s name from a cauldron alongside 23 other players who will be heading back to the wilderness for an anniversary edition of the reality TV show.
Known then only as the writer of School of Rock, in which he also played a minor role as long-suffering music teacher Ned Schneebly, White first appeared as a contestant on Survivor: David vs. Goliath, its 37th edition, back in 2018.
He lasted 39 days, making it all the way to second place before tripping over at the finishing line to lose out to Nick Wilson, who’s since gone on to serve as a Republican member of the Kentucky House of Representatives.
It wasn’t White’s first foray into reality TV stardom either, having competed on CBS’s The Amazing Race in 2009 and 2011 with his father Mel White, a clergyman who came out as gay in 1994 and has since become a campaigner for LGBTQ+ rights within the church.
White has since attributed a share of the inspiration behind his hit HBO dramedy to his time as a contestant on CBS’ flagship reality show.
“[Survivor is] just people kind of kvetching about who’s tending the fire or they’re hangry because they haven’t had anything to eat,” the writer told NPR in 2022. “And then you have these transitions of sharks in the water. I was like, we do that in White Lotus.”
“I have to cop to being influenced by Survivor and these shows where you have a device that’s a built-in cliffhanger,” he added.
Though the cat’s now out of the bag about White’s return as a contestant on the island show, with the 50th edition due to begin shooting in Fiji in the near future, he’s remained characteristically tight-lipped about the setting for a fourth iteration of White Lotus, even pouring cold water on rumors he may be eyeing Colombia as an option.
“I don’t think we’re going to South America,” he told The Howard Stern Show in April. “Maybe one day we could do it there.”
