• Fans are convinced that the winner of Survivor season 49 has already been spoiled by the Survivor 50 cast list.
  • Savannah Louie is believed to be the winner of Survivor 49, and she is also believed to be competing in Survivor 50.
  • Survivor fans have opposing theories on Reddit, however, suggesting that Savannah doesn’t win at all.

The season may have just begun, but there’s already a popular fan theory about who wins Survivor 49, and it all relies on Survivor 50. Fans are convinced that the winner of Survivor 49 was spoiled, in part, by the Survivor 50 cast list, meaning it wasn’t a random leak that spoiled the season—the call is coming from inside the house! Warning: Potential season 49 Survivor spoilers to follow.

To truly grasp this fan theory/spoiler, you have to go back to May, when Survivor announced the season 50 cast full of returning players, including season 45 winner Dee Valladares and season 1 fan favorite Mike White. The cast list also had two empty slots reserved for players from Survivor 49. Those two players were later revealed to be Savannah Louie and Rizo Velovic, per Inside Survivor, a popular Survivor spoiler site.

Then, in July, Inside Survivor posted another spoiler, claiming to have uncovered the first Survivor 50 tribe divisions. According to this report, the 24 returning contestants will be split into three tribes—Purple, Orange, and Teal. And fans were quick to notice that both the Teal and Purple tribes include a previous winner, but the Orange Tribe didn’t. That is, unless Orange Tribe member Savannah won Survivor 49.

fiji october 1: "cinema" reality and hunger begin to take their toll as the castaways grapple with their limited resources to find food on the island. generational differences come into sharp focus as some castaways find it challenging to keep up with the younger players' current lingo. then, a never before seen disadvantage appears in the game during this week's immunity challenge, on survivor, wednesday, oct. 1 (8:00 9:30 pm, et/pt) on the cbs television network, and available to stream on paramount+ (live and on demand for paramount+ premium plan subscribers, or on demand for paramount+ essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)*. jeff probst serves as host and executive producer.pictured (l r): savannah louie. (photo by robert voets/cbs via getty images)
Robert Voets/CBS via Getty Images

Fans on Reddit had already speculated that Savannah, Rizo, and Sophi Balerdi will make it to the final three of the season after a photo shared by a member of the Survivor 49 crew appeared to leak the names of the players who make it into the merged tribe. So the idea of Savannah winning doesn’t seem all that farfetched.

Moreover, another fan on the SpoiledSurvivor subreddit suggested that Survivor host Jeff Probst hinted at Savannah’s win on the first episode of this season’s On Fire podcast. While discussing Savannah’s intro—in which she manifested a win and said it would be “easy money”—Jeff likened her to season 1 winner Richard Hatch, saying, “Maybe this is coming full circle.” Sounds like a pretty big hint to me! Or, is it all a big distraction?

As yet another fan pointed out in a separate thread, putting Savannah on the one tribe without a returning champ feels like a fake-out. Maybe all the evidence pointing to Savannah winning Survivor 49 is actually just proof that she’ll go home empty-handed.