Season 49 of Survivor starts up on Wednesday, September 24. It’s kind of an odd season for fans because we already know that the all-returnees 50th season filmed right after 49 did, *and* while they haven’t been confirmed by CBS, the two players from 49 have been leaked on fan sites. From what I’ve seen online, a decent faction of the Survivor community have somewhat written off 49, but are going to watch it in order to see how the two returning players end up faring. The overall feeling is that neither are winners, but both are entertaining characters or rootable players a la season 48’s Joe Hunter.
The cast list for season 49 was officially released a few weeks ago, but their CBS profiles and official pre-season press interviews are dropping now. In the preseason, picking what players to root for is all about the vibes and backstory. One of the biggest backstories from a castaway this season comes from a contestant named Jake Latimer. Jake’s big story is that he left to play the game while his wife was heavily pregnant and due to give birth while he was away filming. Jake’s wife did indeed give birth to their first child, a baby boy named Jax, on May 2. And no, Jeff Probst did not give Jake the news that he’d officially become a father.
They tried for almost five years to get pregnant: “Me and my wife were trying to have a baby for about four-and-a-half years,” [Latimer] explained. “We just had no luck. And we went for help, and doctors were helping, and then we finally just gave up. We weren’t getting answers. The doctor said, ‘We don’t think it’s going to work.’ So I applied for Survivor, just kind of like something to do to get my mind off of it. And while I was in the process, she got pregnant and now our firstborn child is going to be born while I’m here on the island.”
“I gave her the option for me to bow out. I said, ‘This is our child. You’re here alone.’ She’s Australian, so she doesn’t have anyone up in Canada. But she says, ‘No, you go out. This is your dream, go do it, and whatever money you make is mine.’”
Producers said they would only give him bad news: “What I’ve gathered from it is no news is good news,” Jake said before the game. “Of course, I would love to hear if my baby’s born healthy and stuff like that, but at the same time, they can’t favor me and then not tell other people what’s happening with their families back in home. So I’m just going into it as no news is good news.”
Host and showrunner Jeff Probst confirms that no special rules were put into place for Jake in terms of updating the player on his child’s birth. “The rules on Survivor are really pretty clear,” Probst tells EW. “Which is no news at all about anything that’s happening in the world, including in your own family. Unless it is an emergency situation. Then, of course we would tell you and present you with the option that if you want leave the game and go home, you can.”
Extenuating circumstances: “My dad has an eye condition called glaucoma. Basically, it’s a tunnel vision that gets smaller and smaller and smaller until it’s just black. And this will be the last season that he’ll be able to actually watch before his eyesight is all gone.” If Jake’s dad was ever going to have a chance to watch his son on the TV show they used to watch together every week as a family, now was the time. “For me to make him proud one last time and be on his favorite show and have him watch his son on there, that will be it for his Survivor story.”
A big choice: “He watched Survivor with his dad, and his dad was losing his eyesight very fast,” Probst says. “They thought this would be the last season of Survivor he would be able to watch. So for Jake, there was this tug on both ends: I have a new child coming into the world, but I have my dad who won’t be able to ever see me play again.” It’s a tug that may play out on the show itself. “It’s a very emotional story,” Probst teases. “And Jake’s a very emotional guy. You know, he is a big dude, and at first glance you think, ‘Oh, he’s going to be a certain way.’ But immediately, what you realize with Jake is he’s this really lovable, goofy, raw physical presence who’s playing this game for his dad and his unborn child. It’s pretty remarkable and really powerful.”
His wife sounds pretty chill: “It’s bittersweet,” he admitted. “I’m out here, I’m on Survivor. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but at the same time, I’m always worried about what’s going on at home and stuff like that. But she wrote me a nice little note before I left and it said, ‘Don’t worry about home, just go do your thing and you’ll have a baby here waiting for you when you come home.’”
Baby Jax was born on May 2, which was day 13 of the game. Jake, his wife, and baby Jax are lucky that modern Survivor is only 26 days rather than the 39 days that it was pre-season 41. That’s an extra two weeks of being away! I would absolutely freaking love to play Survivor one day, but I don’t know if I’d be okay with missing the birth of my first child that I’d waited so long for. On the flip side, I also don’t know if I’d be okay with telling Mr. Rosie to go play a reality TV game while I was alone giving birth to our first child without any family nearby. Hopefully she had family come out to help her while Jake was still away. I suppose the chance of winning a million dollars would be a big checkmark in the “Pro” column, lol. Still, I would have spent every moment out there wondering what was going on back at home. It would take a very high level of compartmentalizing that I’m not sure I have. I really hope that Jake goes far this season in order to make it worth it. If not, at least he’s got a wild story to tell baby Jax one day.