Despite a major gaffe from Jeff Probst during the live, in-person finale of Survivor 50 Wednesday night, a winner was still crowned for the milestone season — and Polymarket users called it from the start.
Any Survivor fans who pay attention to the predictions markets may have had an inkling that Aubry Bracco was the favorite to take home the $2 million prize. Bracco, who placed runner-up on Survivor: Kaôh Rōng in 2016, won Survivor 50: In The Hands of the Fans in an 8-3-0 vote against Jonathan Young and Joe Hunter, respectively.
A Polymarket scenario predicting the season’s winner had Bracco, 40, as the favorite throughout the entire betting period, which opened in January.
After two attempts at winning the $1 million Survivor prize, it appears Bracco learned her lesson of taking the wrong people to the end. She successfully eliminated jury favorites like Cirie Fields and Ozzy Lusth.
She played a respectable game, seemingly at the bottom of her Vatu Tribe, but managed to avoid tribal council until the merge. There, she skated by in the middle, lowering her threat level by wasting her hidden immunity idol that the entire tribe knew about and utilizing her connections to eliminate all her targets.
Bracco's crowning achievement wasn't the only drama from the finale, however; Probst accidentally spoiled a major result when he revealed in the show's first live finale since 2019 that Rizo Velovic lost the show's final fire-making challenge — which determines who advances to the Final Three — before the pre-taped segment had even aired on TV.
“Rizo, you’ve become the final member of our jury. Take a spot over here,” Probst said, accidentally revealing Velovic had lost the challenge and been eliminated from the competition.
“This is it. These are our people. Their games fell a little short, but this is the group that is going to…” Probst added before suddenly stopping.
“What just happened?” he asked.
Several contestants seated nearby quickly pointed out the mistake, telling Probst, “The fire hasn’t happened yet.”
“Huh?” Probst replied as cast members continued speaking over one another. “Keep going,” someone yelled from off camera.
“I’m not even sure what’s happened,” Probst admitted before CBS cut to commercial.
When the broadcast returned, Probst addressed the mix-up. “Alright, so, I love doing live television,” he said as the audience cheered. Explaining his mistake to the audience at home, Probst poked fun at himself, introducing the footage of the fire-making challenge by telling the audience to “watch Rizo lose!”