Mike White Said the ‘Hardest’ Part of Being on ‘Survivor’ Happens When Cameras Aren’t Rolling

While Mike White’s biggest contribution to television has been The White Lotus, he also made his mark on Survivor. The writer, director, and actor appeared on the show’s “David vs. Goliath” season and is now back for its 50th. White, who was a runner-up on the show the first time around, said he jumped at the chance to return. He knew it wouldn’t be easy, though. 

Mike White spoke about the challenges of competing on ‘Survivor’

When White was invited to return for Survivor 50, he initially thought it wouldn’t work with his schedule. He didn’t want to miss it, though.

“Survivor 50, that’s a huge deal,” he said on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. “It’s a cultural milestone. I don’t want to miss out on something that could be super cool. I never thought it would work with my schedule, but then I found out the dates, and I was like, ‘I actually could go. That would be so gnarly to go again.’”

He said that while he enjoyed his time on the show, he had forgotten how “hellish” it could be. While he found the game as a whole difficult, he admitted that the moments when cameras weren’t rolling were the most challenging. 

“But you know the truth is the hardest parts [of the show] were the parts that there were no cameras,” he said. “As long as there were cameras, I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ The cameras give me life. I’m suffering, but people are going to watch this suffering. It’s the moments where you’re waiting to go to a challenge and you’re sitting under a tent and there’s a PA yelling at you and there’s no cameras and you’re just in the dirt, you’re like, ‘Why did I do this? Where are the cameras?’ I need cameras to suffer.”

Mike White said ‘Survivor’ fans frustrate him

This season of Survivor invited fans to vote on some elements of the game. This didn’t win them any favors with White.

“The fans, they suck,” he said. “The fans are, like, cruel. They’re sadistic.”

He sarcastically corrected himself to say the fans were “great.”

“Thanks, fans,” he said. “Love fans.”

He shared how the show influenced ‘The White Lotus’

The White Lotus premiered just three years after White’s time on Survivor. He admitted that he sees some similarities between the two shows.

“Survivor is not that dissimilar, which is a lot of times just people kind of kvetching about who’s tending the fire or they’re hangry because they haven’t had anything to eat,” he told NPR. “But then the music is making it feel like this is going to end up bad for somebody. And then you have these transitions of sharks in the water. And I was like, we do that in White Lotus.”

The long-running reality series helped inspire some of the dramatic choices on White’s show.

“I have to cop to being influenced by Survivor and these shows where you have a device that makes it feel like it’s a built-in cliffhanger.”

Survivor 50 airs on CBS on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.