The stage is set for the next season of CBS’s long-running and beloved reality competition show, Survivor. And the tribes to start Survivor 46’s battle for $1 million have been revealed. Perhaps the most important thing that can dictate a player’s standing in the game is the original tribe they’re placed on.

Take Survivor 45 for example. Three tribes of six duked it out — Belo, Reba, and Lulu. The hopefuls who represented the latter found themselves at the first three Tribal Councils, and the group was whittled down to three by day 7. There’ve been multiple examples of original tribes being devastated out of the gate, like Matsing in season 25’s Philippines, or most famously, Ulong in season 10’s Palau, when all who remained was Stephenie LaGrossa before the merge.

So, with all that being said, let’s take a look at Survivor 46’s opening squads. Once again, there will be three tribes of six contestants, and they were assembled by host and showrunner Jeff Probst, and his team.

Siga (Green)

• Ben Katzman — age 31 from Miami, Florida
• Charlies Davis — age 26 from Boston, Massachusetts
• Jemila “Jem” Hussain-Adams — age 32 from Chicago, Illinois
• Maria Shrime Gonzalez — age 48 from Dallas, Texas
• Moriah Gaynor — age 28 from San Diego, California
• Tim Spicer — age 31 from Atlanta, Georgia

Nami (Orange)

• Hunter McKnight — age 28 from French Camp, Mississippi
• Liz Wilcox — age 35 from Orlando, Florida
• Randen Montalvo — age 41 from Orlando, Florida
• Soda Thompson — age 27 from Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey
• Tevin Davis — age 24 from Richmond, Virginia
• Venus Vafa — age 24 from Toronto, Ontario

Yanu (Purple)

• Bhanu Gopal — age 41 from Acton, Massachusetts
• David Jelinsky — age 22 from Las Vegas, Nevada
• Jessica “Jess” Chong — age 37 from San Francisco, California
• Kenzie Petty — age 29 from Charlotte, North Carolina
• Q Burdette — age 29 from Memphis, Tennessee
• Tiffany Nicole Ervin — age 33 from Elizabeth, New Jersey

The three tribes will survive, compete, and vote each other out during the first rounds of play, until either the new-era “Mergatory”, or a tribe swap. Survivor 45 marked the first tribe swap since season 40’s Winners at War. So, considering the cast of season 46 didn’t see season 45 — Survivor 46 was filmed shortly after Survivor 45 (before the latter aired) — they may feel blindsided if a tribe reshuffling is dropped onto them.

If a swap does happen, and Survivor 45’s twist is followed, then 15 contestants will be reorganized into Siga, Nami, and Yanu through a random draw. That happened on day 8 of Survivor 45 after Lulu’s third tribemate had their torch snuffed. We’ll see!

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