The upcoming season of Survivor features a contestant with political ties.
Fans spotted the “Pod Save America” cohost and former White House speechwriter Jon Lovett in the Survivor season 47 first look, released on Wednesday, May 22. CBS aired the upcoming season’s trailer after the Survivor season 46 finale on Wednesday. (Kenzie Petty was crowned the winner.)
While no official season 47 casting announcement has been made just yet, the teaser seemed to announce Lovett’s participation. His “Pod Save America” cohost, Jon Favreau, reposted the teaser, seemingly confirming that Lovett, 41, would be in the jungle.
“What did I tell you?” Favreau, 42, shared via X on Wednesday. “Eat Pray Lovett.”
What did I tell you?
Eat Pray Lovett https://t.co/Xc4gGf3feP
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) May 23, 2024
Lovett stated that he had “no outdoor skills” in Wednesday’s teaser. “What am I doing here? I went camping as a Cub Scout, I threw up and went home,” he added.
Prior to his role as a “Pod Save America” host, Lovett rose to fame as a White House staffer during former President Barack Obama’s administration. He was a speechwriter for Obama, 62, from 2009 to 2011. There was an anonymous contest to select the then-president’s final speechwriter at the time, which Lovett won to get his White House job. He only worked as a speechwriter for Obama’s first term.
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“As quick as I decided to do comedy, I decided to go to politics,” he said while speaking at Tufts University in 2012. “If my heart was really in it, I would have tried harder.”
Lovett also has a career rooted in comedy. Before moving to Washington, D.C. for his political career, he was the cocreator and executive producer of the 2012 sitcom 1600 Penn, which ran on NBC for one season. He’s also written and produced shows like HBO’s The Newsroom.
In 2016, he and fellow former White House staffers Favreau and Tommy Vietor founded the Crooked Media company with “Pod Save America” as their first show.
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Initially, they went “separate ways” while leaving their political careers, Lovett explained in a 2022 interview.
“Yet, all of us, like Michael Corleone says in Godfather: Part III, ‘Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in,’” he added. “We all felt this draw to stay involved, especially in 2016 when the stakes were total. And so, we talked about, ‘Should we do a TV show? What should we do? Should we do a podcast?’”
They were “frustrated” about how politics were being covered and wanted to create their own solution. “We decided we wanted it to have a different kind of show.”
