The Survivor David vs. Goliath cast, and Jeff Probst’s thoughts about them

CBS has finally and officially announced the cast of Survivor David vs. Goliath, which is season 37 of the hit series. The 20 contestants include a two-time Amazing Race contestant, the writer and actor Mike White, and wrestler John “Johnny Mundo” Hennigan.

It’s an older cast than Survivor Ghost Island’s cast, which had an average age of 28; this cast has several people in their 40s, and an average age of 32.6.

Survivor David vs. Goliath premieres Sept. 26 with a 90-minute premiere, which will be followed by the 90-minute finale of Big Brother.

This season’s theme/twist—which organizes people in two groups based on those who “have overcome adversity in their lives” versus those who “tend to capitalize on their individual advantages and use it against their opponents,” according to CBS’ descriptions—was a last-minute creation by the production team.

Jeff Probst told EW, “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.” He said that it occurred to them during casting when Christian (a David) and Johnny Mundo (a Goliath) came in.

Will the season just be the stronger decimating the weaker tribe? Or will the weaker tribe dominate the stronger tribe?

That’ll be tested immediately with “an opening challenge,” Probst said, that the production team requested of the challenge team so “that we could explore this idea of perceived strength versus perceived weakness and flip it and show the opportunity that even the people you believe to be the weakest on any given day can beat the people you believe to be the strongest.”

In the press release, he points out that “Survivor is the great equalizer, because you never know which skill set will be most useful in this cunning game of social politics.”

Jessica’s n-word tweets

During the summer, Jessica Peet, who’s now 19, was revealed to have used a shortened version of the n-word repeatedly in three- to five-year-old tweets, including “Shout out to my [n-word]” and “I just called Kayla a frosty haha [n-word] aint from Wendy’s”. Another that insisted the slur “isn’t a cuss word !! Lol”.

She later apologized but also said that her use of the n-word wasn’t derogatory nor “racial,” even though it’s perhaps the most derogatory and racist word there is, which indicates she’s still pretty ignorant about why it’s problematic for a white person to throw it around so casually. She said:

“In response to the tweets you are referencing, I want to apologize for what I posted as a 14-year-old teenager. In no way did I mean it in a derogatory nor racial way. I do hope people are willing to forgive, and understand I was immature and I’ve done a lot of growing up since then.”

The Survivor David vs. Goliath cast

CBS released two videos, with Jeff Probst introducing each tribe and giving us a good sense of the storylines the production will focus on, at least early in the season.

Here is the full cast of this season, from CBS’ press release:

David tribe

Christian Hubicki, 32
Hometown: Baltimore, Md.
Current Residence: Tallahassee, Fla.
Robotics scientist

Nick Wilson, 27
Hometown: Williamsburg, Ky.
Current Residence: London, Ky.
Public defender

Davie Rickenbacker, 30
Hometown: Orangeburg, S.C.
Current Residence: Atlanta, Ga.
Social media manager

Pat Cusack, 40
Hometown: Cohoes, N.Y.
Current Residence: Watervliet, N.Y.
Maintenance manager

Carl Boudreaux, 41
Hometown: Beaumont, Texas
Current Residence: Houston, Texas
Truck driver

Jessica Peet, 19
Hometown: Lakeland, Fla.
Current Residence: Lakeland, Fla.
Waitress

Elizabeth Olsen, 31
Hometown: Dallas, Ft. Worth, Texas
Current Residence: Longview, Texas
Kitchen staff

Gabby Pascuzzi, 25
Hometown: St. Augustine, Fla.
Current Residence: Denver, Colo.
Technical writer

Lyrsa Torres, 36
Hometown: Puerto Rico
Current Residence: Boston, Mass.
Airline agent

Bi Nguyen, 28
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Current Residence: Houston, Texas
MMA fighter