Farmers from South Dakota, West Virginia, and Puerto Rico are part of the cast
Members of the ag community are participating in the latest season of one of reality TV’s most popular shows.
Three farmers help make up the 21-person cast of Survivor 51, which sees players split into tribes, compete in challenges, and dabble in treachery in Fiji on the way to becoming the sole survivor and winning $1 million.
Here’s who they are.
Carter Krull is a 24-year-old livestock farmer, and owner of a snow cone truck, and moving company from Sioux Falls, S.D. He grew up on Moon Creek Farms, his family’s operation in George, Iowa.
“I’m a farmer at heart,” he said in an introductory video. “I love to stay busy. I love getting my hands dirty. And that’s where I think Survivor is going to be awesome.”
He told Entertainment Weekly he values communication among the players.
And if they’re being dishonest, he’ll sniff it out.
“I feel like I can read people pretty well,” he said in the cast video. “If people underestimate me in this game, that’d be the best thing that could happen.”
The Willow Run Event Room in Sioux Falls is hosting a watch party on Oct. 14 where fans can meet Carter and watch that evening’s episode with him.
The second farmer playing this season of Survivor is 40-year-old Maggie Nestor from Middleway, W.V.
“I wanted to be a farmer for a while, and I told my husband I wanted to buy a farm,” she says in her cast introduction video.
The family purchased their farm in 2023 where they raise chickens, horses, and offer equestrian lessons.
“I absolutely love it because my days are spent outside and it’s more so doing physical labor (rather than) sitting behind a computer,” she told WVNews. “It’s like my own slice of heaven.”
The farm also served as a training ground for Nestor where her family set up obstacle courses for her to prepare for her time in Fiji.
And the third farmer viewers will see on their screens this season is Lewis Kelly, a 28-year-old Irishman living with his wife in a school bus on her family’s farm in Puerto Rico.
The farm, Finca Pastoreo, is Puerto Rico’s only farm with an official pasture egg license. The farm also produces livestock.
The farm also suffered extensive damage in 2022 from because of Hurricane Fiona.
While other Survivor players prefer stability, Kelly plans to bring the opposite.
“I’m a lunatic. I crave just chaos,” he said in his player introduction video.
The three farmers on this season of Survivor aren’t the first producers to do so.
In 2009, for example, J.T. Thomas, a rancher from Alabama, won the 18th season of the show, and is credited with playing the game’s first ever perfect game.
Farms.com also compiled a list of 10 farmers who played the game.