‘Survivor: David vs. Goliath’ Hit by 2 Cyclones During Filming

Contestants on Survivor: David vs. Goliath got more than they bargained for when they found themselves not only competing against each other, but also Mother Nature when two cyclones hit during filming.

When fans tune into Survivor: David vs. Goliath later this month, they should be expecting to see plenty of rain. According to longtime host Jeff Probst, the upcoming season was plagued by not only one, but two cyclones.

“Cyclones are becoming a normal part of shooting Survivor in Fiji, especially the first of the two seasons,” longtime host Jeff Probst told Entertainment Weekly. “There is a cyclone in the first episode that hammers the tribes with extremely strong and relentless rain as they attempt to establish shelter and make fire. This is not the last of the bad weather and this is not the worst of the cyclones they will have to overcome.”

The popular CBS competition series, which is now entering its 37th season, permanently staked a claim on Fiji, where it now films back-to-back seasons. The permanent residence on the chain of islands unfortunately means that while the second half of the filming cycle typically goes without weather-related issues, the first season of the filming cycle is plagued with harsh rain as it falls during the wet season.

The weather proved so dire in Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X, the 33rd season which aired in 2016, that contestants had to be evacuated when Tropical Cyclone Zena hit on only the second day of filming. The evacuation marked the first time in the series’ history that contestants had to be evacuated.

“This time, the storm caught us,” Probst said at the time. “It was only day two and in a matter of hours, a nice afternoon turned into a severe rainstorm that kept growing in intensity by the hour. We were monitoring the weather minute by minute back at base camp. When the national Fijian weather service upgraded it to a cyclone, we had to evacuate both tribes from their beaches and get them to safety.”

During 2012’s Survivor: Philippines, contestants and filming crews dealt with 21 straight days of rain, and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains just managed to escape disaster when filming for the season wrapped just weeks before a tsunami decimated parts of Samoa in 2009, including parts of the island where contestants stay after being voted out of the game.

Survivor: David vs. Goliath premieres Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.