Will ‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Drew Basile Return for ‘Survivor’ 50?

Survivor alum Drew Basile made such an impression during his recent Jeopardy! stint that it might have just bagged him another trip to the islands of Fiji for the CBS reality show’s milestone 50th season.

Talking with Rob Has A Podcast, hosted by former Survivor contestants Rob Cesternino and Stephen Fishbach, Basile opened up about his Jeopardy! experience, how it compared to Survivor, the differences between hosts Ken Jennings and Jeff Probst, and whether he expects to be asked back for the all-star Survivor 50, which will be filmed next year.

When asked which of the two hosts was more intimidating, Basile immediately said, “Dude, Jeff is so much more intimidating [than Jennings]. Jeff has been doing this s**t for 20 years, he has condensed himself, it’s his whole life. And Ken is just a regular guy.”

“I mean, Ken is great,” Basile continued. “But when I’m talking with Ken, I feel like I’m talking to a regular dude. And Jeff is well-oiled, Jeff is a machine, so he’s a little intimidating. When Jeff’s there, it’s like the principal’s office, trying to say the right thing at tribal council, no detentions.”

Basile competed on Survivor 45 last fall, where he finished in sixth place, dominating most of the game with his alliance and winning an individual immunity challenge along the way. He had even better success on Jeopardy!, however, after recently going on a seven-game winning streak and accumulating $129,601 in prize money.

Asked to compare winning immunity to winning a game of Jeopardy!, Basile said there was far more “euphoria” over winning Jeopardy!. “The thing with an immunity challenge is, most of the time, are you even sure you need it?” he explained.

“[Immunity] is nice,” he added. “But Jeopardy is life or death. It’s like a Hunger Games thing. I live, I get to continue playing. The stakes are a lot higher… Winning Jeopardy is a rush.”

The grad student from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also revealed how Survivor prepared him for the pressure of Jeopardy!

Jeopardy, Inc!

“Survivor prepares you to compete on television, to like be able to deal with an audience and deal with the pressure of being on camera and on stage,” he explained. “But it also prepares you for the idea that like, life will go on. Being on TV is not that big of a deal, and people are obviously gonna have mud to sling, but they’ll forget. It’s not gonna define your identity.”

In fact, Basile said he was so relaxed and comfortable with being on TV that he wasn’t afraid to show his emotions, including a big reaction to his tie-break winning game. He said he shouted, “Let’s go!” so loudly that they had to re-record his reaction.

Robert Voets/CBS

Finally, Basile was asked whether he would be interested in returning to Survivor for the show’s monumental 50th season, which Probst recently confirmed will be all returning players. And Probst clearly still has a soft spot for Basile, given how Jennings mentioned that the Emmy-winning host passed along his congratulations during Basile’s winning streak.

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“That was stunning, to hear that was really nice,” Basile said of Probst’s message. “I admire Jeff, he was very good to me. And it was like a part of my life that I potentially thought had closed a little bit was back open.”

“So this is gonna catapult you to Season 50?” Fishbach asked.

“I really don’t know,” Basile responded. “Everyone is so coy and so cagey about Season 50. I think there are so many qualified people from the new era [of Survivor], and there is so much competition in the nerd archetype, I’d be surprised if I got the call.”

Whether Basile will get that call to appear on Survivor 50 remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain: he will be back on the Alex Trebek stage as he has qualified for the next Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions.

Survivor, Season 47 Premiere, Fall 2024, CBS