‘Survivor 49’ player super worried about having to pee during a challenge

Half the time I am on location for filming on Survivor, I am thinking deeply about the game, the players, the twists, and how what I am seeing in person with my own two eyes may translate to the screen once the episodes begin airing on CBS. The other half, I am experiencing major urination anxiety as I try to calculate the math of making sure I stay hydrated in tropical conditions while also potentially being stuck on a boat or a tiny island with no bathroom for hours on end.

Other people seem to navigate this quandary just fine, but it consumes my waking and sleeping thoughts waaaaaay more than it should. Which is why I was so delighted to meet my spiritual soulmate in Fiji for Survivor 49 (which premieres Sept. 24). Finally, a reality TV contestant who understood my biggest fear out in Fiji, and it was hers too.

Of course, Fijian fears come in all shapes and sizes, as was proven once again when we asked the cast of Survivor 49 prior to filming to tell us what scared them the most about their upcoming adventure. Would it be the weather? The lack of food? Living on the land? Or, as when Parvati Shallow answered this same question back before Survivor: Cook Islands, would the biggest fear be… body hair? Read on to find out!

Sage Ahrens-Nichols

I’m not embarrassed by it, but I pee so much. I’ve already peed 20 times today. I had to pee off the side of the boat, had a really intimate moment with one of the PAs — it was great. So I pee a lot. And it comes on very sudden. So in challenges, as an example, we can’t pause those, and when I have to go, I got to go. So that’s honestly the thing I’m most worried about. I’m not really worried about the elements. I was in the military for 10 years, pretty comfortable out here. I grew up in North Carolina. We were always in the woods, me and my twin brothers. So it’s definitely the bathroom situation.

Jawan Pitts

I’ll give you two. The first one, wet socks. I’m trying to embrace it. Even in my little interview before, they’re like, «Oh, welcome to Survivor.» I’m like, «I hate it.» Everything else is nice. The view is nice. The sun is beautiful. But just the wet socks, that’s going to drive me crazy. The second thing I’m worried about is overthinking. Coming into the game as a super fan, you’ve probably seen it before — people can really crazy spiral. So I think really just kind of grounding myself and being like, “Hey, let me just focus on the people. Let the game just happen to me. Just focus on the present.” I can kind of overthink it.

Kristina Mills

It really is just the dynamic of being out here in nature. I’ve never been camping. It’s the only family vacation I skipped. I hate bugs. When I work out, my friends know we don’t hug each other after a workout because I hate sweat, I hate funk. I am terrified of how I’m going to smell after this. And I have a sensitive nose after having surgery on it a few years ago for a deviated symptom. And so I smell things really well and I can smell now, but yeah, people really stink, so I am actually not looking forward to that part.

Jeremiah Ing

My biggest concern is actually being starving. I eat a religious meal schedule. I wake up, I go to the gym, I eat every single thing the same day, same portions. I eat six times a day. I also work out for an hour and a half every morning. So leading up to being on Survivor for a month, I stopped going to the gym and I ate pizza, I ate pasta, I ate donuts — just to gain a little bit of weight — and I gained 10 pounds. I don’t feel great, but maybe my fat will eat itself when I’m out here.

Annie Davis

I have done many, many physical challenges in my life. I’ve done Ironmans, I’ve climbed 14ers, I’ve done three-day adventure races, I’ve done lots of that kind of s—. And then I’ve done a lot of stuff mentally where I had to dig very deep. But I’ve never done anything that had a social component to it. Usually, I am choosing to carry the burden myself and do things independently. And I’ve never been on a sports team. I am part of a band, but that’s the first time I’ve ever done anything as a group.

So, for me, my biggest concern is I don’t know how to do the social game. I’m a CEO and I’m a musician, so I know how to work with people, but I’ve never had to do anything where I had to be really good socially. I’m usually just the boss. And so this is scary to me. I was an introverted kid. I didn’t have a boyfriend until I was in college. I was a wallflower. This is just going to be a weird thing, but it’s why I want to do it because it’s going to challenge me in a way that I’ve never been challenged before, and I think it’s going to be really cool.

Nate Moore

I think I’m one of the oldest people here, and the track record for old people is not great. I was looking back at past winners and there’s only been two winners who are older than I am, and it was Bob Crowley and Gabler. That’s it. Tom Westman was five years younger than I am now. I’m like, that’s crazy! He seemed like a grown man when I saw that season! And I think this cast, just by the looks of them, are younger. They don’t seem as old even as 48 where I’m like, “Oh, there’s a lot of people in their thirties.”

So, for me it will be: How can I adapt to fit in with them? They’re not going to fit in with me if they don’t have the same reference points. And I honestly don’t have great young people reference points. I’m not on social media. I’ve never been on TikTok. I don’t have an Instagram. There’s going to be stuff even musically where I’m like, “I love Pearl Jam” and they’re like, “Who?” So I do think there’s just going to be a generational divide that I’m going to have to solve real fast because these tribes are so small, you don’t get three weeks to kind of insinuate yourself. You get a couple of days.

Nicole Mazullo

Having watched many seasons and seeing how alliances form and game plans are made, the biggest concern for me would be just missing something by a hair. Whether it be just missing something because I didn’t go on that journey, or just missing something because I didn’t talk to that person when in my gut I knew I should have, but I just didn’t. And you miss it by a second. Just missing that second is what I’m most scared of because I know that has the propensity to drive someone crazy, myself included. I can see myself getting paranoid if I just missed that something, whatever it is. I think it speaks to my psyche.

Rizo Velovic

If I had to pick one, it’s probably just living outside. I’ve never camped a day in my life. I’m from New York, the concrete jungle — now to the jungles in Fiji. And if you know anything about New York, there’s not anything like this. So I’ve never been camping, I’ve never slept outside, let alone s—ing in the ocean.

Shannon Fairweather

The cold is the first thing that comes to mind for me. I’m someone who can deal with being uncomfortable. I can deal with some mental stuff. Being cold can be really, really hard for me. But I’m going to face some difficult things. It’s funny because on our buffs there are sharks, and sharks are one of my low-key biggest fears. I’m working through it, but I’m looking at it and it’s like Indiana Jones: “Why did it have to be snakes?” I was like, “Why did it have to be sharks?”

Alex Moore

Letting myself down. And I know that sounds crazy. There’s a lot out here. There’s bugs, there’s rain, anything that happen, you’re starving. My main thing is playing the game that I want to play. If I don’t play the game that I want to play, me being here was worthless. I want to play the best game possible. And anything that I ever go through, I always go through lows and I go through a lot of highs, but I always get back up if I go through a low.

When I’m playing this game, the thing that I’m most worried about is not playing true to myself. I want to be my authentic myself. Yes, of course, I will play this game hard and that means I will lie, I will cheat, I will steal. I’ll do whatever I need to do, but I’m going to do it in my way. And I know that doesn’t make too much sense now, but when the show comes out, everyone will understand.

Sophie Segreti

I kind of have two. One is the lack of sleep. I really love to sleep. I am somebody who, if I don’t set an alarm, I’ll sleep till 12. I really prioritize and love sleep. I sleep with an eye mask. I’ve really pimped out my sleeping situation, so it translates almost zero to sleeping on Survivor. And I also know that when I don’t sleep, you’re just less in control of your emotions, you’re less in control of your body, just everything. And so I can go without the food thing. I feel like I will adjust to that. I’ve dieted in the past, so the food thing is not as scary to me. The bugs, I have cockroaches in my apartment, that’s fine. But I do think the sleep is something where I don’t really pull all-nighters, so that will be tough.

And then I guess the more existential answer is, I’m worried about regretting something, and I’m worried that I will leave the game with regrets. I gave up a lot to be here. Between the alternate experience and this, I’ve missed four weddings. I was going to go to Coachella. I had to sell my tickets. There were a lot of life events that I chose Survivor over, and up until this point, I have no regrets about that. But what if I something happens and then I do regret missing all of those things. So I’m going to do my damned hardest to not have any regrets out here.

Jason Treul

It’s a really big one. It’s that when you’re on Survivor, you are alone, right? I am such a family first kind of guy. I am basically connected at the hip to my fiancée. I have a group chat with all my family. I talk to my mom every week. Whenever something is going wrong in my life, I have so many layers of safety blankets. I’m like in a two-story cocoon of safety blankets. If I need someone to talk to, I can. On Survivor, there will be times when it’s just me, myself, and I — and shouting into the void through confessionals. And that’s all I have, and I’ve never really been in that kind of a spot before. What I’m really scared about is something where it’s just too uncomfortable and I can’t handle it. That’s what I’m here to find out about myself.

Sophi Balerdi

I’m worried about just being in the elements, sleeping in the rain, dealing with having to s— in the ocean. But I think most of all game-related is the lack of control. I’ve worked really hard to get to a point where I have control in my life. I like to wear the pants in my life and my relationships — and in this game, I want to wear the pants, too. And I know that there’s a lot of things in Survivor you can’t control, but that’s part of the reason why I applied. I didn’t come here for easy. I don’t want easy. I want the torture. I live in Miami. If I wanted a piña colada right now and sunlight and the tan on the beach, I could do that, but I’m here. So I’m the most scared of the elements, the rain, the bugs, and the lack of control.

Matt Williams

Easy answer. The obvious answer and the truthful answer is being voted out first. Oh, man, that would really suck. I’m totally fine with the outdoors and I feel I’ve got a good social game. I’ll know about 48 hours from now which direction it’s going to go. But I’m head and shoulders above anybody else on this island as far as age.

I kind of thought I’d be the oldest guy out here, but I think the average age is 27. I am looking around and I’m at least 10 years older than the next oldest guy. I hope they don’t just target the old guy. So that’s the one thing I’m kind of hoping, but I’m getting some good vibes from the other people at Ponderosa, even though we can’t talk to each other. I’m feeling good. I’m feeling like I’m fitting in with a big segment of the people that are going to be on this island.

Savannah Louie

Over the past few days, I’ve been really worried about the weather. And for me growing up, going on Survivor always felt like it was a given. This is what I was meant to do. And then being at Ponderosa, I thought to myself, “I must be freaking crazy!” I’ve never thought I was crazy for wanting to go on this show until I started seeing how crazy this rain is. And I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I’m probably a little insane.”

I think other than the weather, my biggest fear is going out here and feeling like I’m rejected by my tribemates and feeling like no one wants to work with me. I’ve been in situations before where it’s felt like I’m at the bottom of a tribe and it feels like there’s no way to get out of your current situation, and it sucks. And all you can do is just play with that hand that God deals you. And sometimes that hand is s—. So I’m hoping that people will want to work with me and that I won’t be dead on arrival because I know that that has happened to people in previous seasons. And you feel for them. So I’m hoping that’s not me.

Steven Ramm

I’m worried about two things. One is the sun. I am about as pale as they come. I will melt under too much exposure like a wax statue. But number two is overthinking. I’ve made mistakes in my career where I’ve felt very confident about a decision and I’ve come in and I’ll be like, “This is the answer!” And then I’ve been fact-checked by another engineer who checked my math and said, “You’re wrong.” I’ve had that happen publicly. And as a byproduct of having made some mistakes, I tend to err on the side of caution. So I hope in playing this game, I can learn to trust that gut and move forward and not overthink.

Michelle “MC” Chukwujekwu

Typical things that bother people, I don’t think they’ll bother me. But I will say I want to keep my self-confidence and everything that I’ve learned to love about myself in the last few years. This is a game where people might not like you, and I need to be okay with that and not let that change me. So I want to keep the air of who I am as I go into this game. That’s what I’m worried about. I don’t want to lose that.

Jake Latimer

I can adapt to my surroundings, whether it comes to food and weather and stuff. It’s part of the experience of Survivor, all that stuff. I think my biggest fear would be going home earlier than I’d like to. I mean, I’ve come all this way. I’ve had months and months and months and months of the application process, finally got the call — so getting voted off in the first few episodes, that’s probably been my biggest fear.

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