Season 38 Returning ‘Captains’ Revealed

Who is returning on Season 38?

As previously revealed on Inside Survivor, the thirty-eighth edition of the long-running reality-show will feature four returning Survivor castaways competing against 14 brand new players. The season is currently filming in Fiji’s Mamanuca Islands and is scheduled to air on CBS in early 2019.

Below are the four former castaways who will return on Season 38.

Aubry Bracco
31 · LOS ANGELES, CA · SEASON 32, 34
David Wright
44 · SHERMAN OAKS, CA · SEASON 33
Joe Anglim
29 · SCOTTSDALE, AZ · SEASON 30, 31
Kelley Wentworth
31 · SEATTLE, WA · SEASON 29, 31

Aubry most recently competed on Game Changers in 2017 where she came in 5th place; it was her second appearance on the show after finishing runner-up on Kaoh Rong in 2016.

Kelley will also be making her third Survivor appearance having been a pre-merge boot on San Juan Del Sur in 2014 before returning on Cambodia – Second Chance in 2015 where she made it all the way to 4th place.

Joe is another two-time Survivor veteran, having reached the jury on both Worlds Apart and Cambodia in 2015. He’s also familiar with Kelley as they both made the merge in their second season – Kelley ultimately voted him out on Day 32.

David is the only one of the four returnees to have played just once before. He was voted out in 4th place on Millennials vs. Gen-X in 2016 because he was considered a huge favorite to win.

Stay tuned to Inside Survivor over the coming weeks for more information.


Written by

Martin Holmes

Martin is a freelance writer from England. He’s represented by Berlin Associates for comedy writing and writes about TV and entertainment, currently for TV Insider and Vulture, previously Digital Spy, ET Canada, and Yahoo. A finalist for the Shortlist Sitcom Search in 2012 for “Siblings,” Martin received his BA in English with Creative Writing from The University of Hull. Martin is the owner and editor-in-chief of Insider Survivor.


24 responses to “Season 38 Returning ‘Captains’ Revealed”

  1. Don’t care to see Joe again. I always root against him. I hate the perfect/attractive/charming character type. Reallyyyy hope he goes out early. I love the other 3, but I don’t want to see returnees mixed with newbies again. I am actually surprised to see Aubry because I thought she didn’t seem like she was ready to go back again, and I wasn’t sure they would bring her back after the bad edit they gave her last time.

    Also, does anybody know why they are holding an open casting call on June 2nd if they are already filming season 38? Do they just like to start looking for next year really early?? I thought it was interesting that Jeff was encouraging people to apply on finale night so close the start of filming.

  2. Three of the four I’m actually very interested in seeing play again. The good news is I think all of them will understand that they need to work together.

  3. I feel the same way, although I was never on board the Joe train in the first place. I never got the hype about him.

    And players often play like the winner of their season. Joe wants to do what Mike did and go on a run, thinking it’ll win him the game.

  4. And once again a chance at good returnees ruined by 3 barf worth players but hey at least Joe is back so that is good

  5. I don’t really want to see any one of these four. We’ve seen a lot from 3 of these and it feels like more since they are very recent. Kelley is the only enjoyable player all due to her amped up gameplay in Cambodia.

  6. Thank heavens Dr Mike isn’t coming back! Agree with all of the below, happy to see 4 of them. Cba with Joe

  7. This is exciting and heartbreaking at the same time.

    It’s hard to pick one of them to win. Aubry, David, and Kelley should have won their seasons.
    (Joe is nice, and I don’t mind him winning Worlds Apart. But, I normally root for ‘underdogs’.)
    While one of them will have a chance to hold the title, seeing the rest being robbed for 2nd/3rd times is sad.

    It’s also possible that none of them will win… 🙁

  8. I was hoping some actually decent players would be Captains…how about people that actually won?

  9. Can’t wait to see David and Joe again. I loved how David played and evolved and it’s interesting to see what will he bring to the table. I’m not that excited for Aubry and Kelly though

    • David has a mind like a steel trap, if his heart were like that he would of won it last time. But, he’s an empath, he’d sooner cut his own throat than one of a cherrished tribe mate or opponent. Loyal to a fault.

  10. As much as I hope Aubry can make it a 3rd time’s the charm, I doubt that she will. My gut feeling is that David & Aubry will go far. Wentworth is a give or take cause she has established a huge reputation as one of the greatest players in the “Big Moves Era”. Joe I don’t see going any further than the merge. His athleticism is too strong to be kept around longer than the first merge episodes

  11. as much as the seasons with only a few returning players don’t generally get a good reputation (Redemption Island, South Pacific), I think it might actually be quite refreshing to see the concept again – since Philippines it hasn’t been done. the last all-star season (34) was a bit of a dud, the last two all-new-players seasons (35, 36) were kinda disappointing too – mixing veterans and newbies might actually bring some new and fun dynamics. I’m BY FAR the most curious to see Kelley. a positive – all these four can be considered favourites, there’s no Sierra Dawn-Thomas type.
    sidenote: I wonder whether they considered Natalie A. but decided to save her for an all-winner season…

  12. I feel like these captains were the right choice for the season!
    Aubry played a really good strategic game and made it far both seasons and has the most days played of the four returnees with 76 days. I feel that she’s the threat to worry theleast about.
    David is someone who I believe deserved a second chance down the line and I’m glad he is getting his chance. I feel the his second time around, he may have a better chance because he entered Millennials vs. Gen-X scared and walked Day 38. He has what it takes to win.
    Joe, I’m not overly excited about. He put a target on his back because of his performances in challenge in Wolrds Apart and Cambodia. I feel he needs to play a better strategic and social game. He has a total of 56 days of playing Survivor.
    Personally, I felt Kelley didn’t deserve to be apart of Survivor: Cambodia. But after I watched Her performance on the show, she has grown on me. She definitely had a winning game in Cambodia, but the competition at the end was strong and Jeremy ultimately won. Kelley I hope can make it deep.

  13. Once again, Survivor continues to ignore old school castaways, that started it all! Don’t get me wrong, I like the returnees… but it would be nice to see at least ONE person from the first 16 seasons, or at least people that have only played once before.

  14. I know this is a super late response, but as someone who’s worked in the entertainment industry and had journalistic behind-the-scenes (luck) with CBS, I do know that they only find out their theme the moment filming begins. They are given a vague idea until the big “barge reveal”. That’s why they’re normally “too excited” than should be socially acceptable (ha!) when Jeff reveals the season’s theme. The returnees would only get what’s called a Show Brief or Theme Brief with a very, very vague description of what they’re letting themselves in for when they sign up again.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.