A familiar face from San Antonio TV is about to trade her microphone for a machete. Former KENS5 journalist Savannah Louie hopes to “outwit, outplay, and outlast” 17 other castaways on the new season of CBS’s reality juggernaut Survivor, premiering September 29.
The 31-year-old California native was a fixture on KENS5 between 2017-2019 as a correspondent, traffic anchor, and occasional morning show co-host. She left San Antonio for St. Louis, Missouri, and later Atlanta, Georgia, but has since left the news business. Although the Survivor cast reveal lists her as a “former reporter,” her LinkedIn says she is currently working in marketing for a Silicon Valley firm.
Louie hopes to follow in the footsteps of another former KENS5 personality, Kim Spradlin-Wolfe, who was the sole survivor of the 24th season of the series, adding an extra $100,000 to her $1 million haul as the fan favorite. In Entertainment Weekly’s cast questionnaire, Louie said that her time behind the news desk will give her a competitive advantage.
“Through my work as a journalist, I became an expert at connecting with others, building trust with all different types of people, and operating in high-stress scenarios,” she told the magazine. “A huge part of my job was getting people to trust me with some of the most intimate details of their lives. And the newsroom is ultra-competitive. If you can survive a newsroom, you can survive anything.”
The new Survivor cast features four Texans.Photo courtesy of Paramount.
Louie will compete against several other Texans, including Austin musician Kimberly “Annie” Davis, MBA career coach and native Houstonian Kristina Mills, and fitness trainer Michelle “MC” Chukwujekwu, who lists Dallas suburb Sachse as her hometown. Other notables include a film producer, a financial crime consultant, and a variety of men who have a tenuous grasp of shirt buttons.
Survivor fans will have to wait until this fall to see if Louie makes it to the final tribal council, but Louie feels she has the right stuff to make it until the end. If she makes it to the top two, she will compete against White Lotus creator Mike White and Survivor legends Cerie Fields, Ozzie Lusth, and Benjamin “Coach” Wade in the landmark 50th season of the show.
“I’m an under-the-radar physical threat with a social game that will get me to the end,” Louise told Entertainment Weekly. “I’m hoping others underestimate me while considering me someone they trust – only to realize I’m a force to be reckoned with once it’s too late!”
The 49th season of Survivor will premiere with a two-hour episode on September 29. The episodes will be available for watch on CBS and Paramount Plus.