Survivor’s most divisive star ignites bitter feud with blistering warning that blows up landmark 50th season
For Eliza Orlins, it is nothing short of 'capitulation' – not something on the cards for a woman who made her name as a polarizing contestant on CBS's Survivor.
But that is what Orlins says the network bosses have done in choosing to cast fellow former contestant Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick for the show's prestigious 50th season, despite the fact that just last August LaGrossa Kendrick filmed herself spewing vile anti-Semitic abuse.
Orlins believes the reason executives are standing behind their casting is that LaGrossa Kendrick is vocally pro-MAGA.
Speaking with the Daily Mail on the eve of the show's Wednesday premier, Orlins said: 'They shouldn't have platformed her, knowing who she is.
'It's one thing to have people across the political spectrum on the show. It's another to cast someone who you know has used slurs in the past. She has made anti-Semitic comments, acts in a certain way, uses the R word, calls people gay as an insult.
'They knew who they were casting. It's clear that they cast people who they knew were MAGA.'
Today Orlins, a 43-year-old Manhattan public defender who competed in Survivor's ninth season in 2004 and again in 2008, says she has a 'moral obligation' to speak out.
In May 2025, she wrote a post on her blog calling LaGrossa Kendrick out for her staunchly pro-Trump beliefs.
Eliza Orlins, a 43-year-old Manhattan public defender who competed in Survivor's ninth season in 2004 and again in 2008, says she has a 'moral obligation' to speak out
Fellow former contestant Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick has been cast for the show's prestigious 50th season
Entitled 'The Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick Files: MAGA, Misinformation, and Deleted Receipts', the piece condemned LaGrossa Kendrick, who appeared in the 10th season in 2005 and multiple subsequent reality shows.
LaGrossa Kendrick, 46, responded by posting a video on Instagram in which she attacked Orlins.
'Eliza tried to bury me about Donald Trump. Don't come at me with your political status when you're f***ing Jewish,' Kendrick said into the camera. 'Your parents are one percent of the population of wealth. Don't you dare try to say I'm some right-wing bigot. Don't you say that I'm some anti-f***ing gay sh**.
'I love gay people. I love people from all walks of life. I don't care who you identify by. F*** you, Eliza. If you think you're gonna try to f***ing ruin me for one second, you're sadly mistaken. Good luck, b****.'
LaGrossa Kendrick told the Daily Mail at the time that she had made the video after 'my husband and I just put the kids to bed and were drinking wine.'
She added that she 'misspoke' and posted a lengthy apology on social media, claiming that Orlins's issues with her pro-Trump views represented Orlins turning against her own Jewish faith.
She said: 'During a conversation in which I was calling out someone for what I perceived as a lack of support for the Jewish community, I misspoke in a way that was abrupt, poorly worded and offensive.
'What I meant to express was frustration that someone who is Jewish was not standing up for their own community in a moment that called for unity and support. However, the way I said it was wrong, and I take full responsibility for how it came across.'
LaGrossa Kendrick told the Daily Mail at the time that she had made the video after 'my husband and I just put the kids to bed and were drinking wine.' She added that she 'misspoke'
Despite this apology, Orlins has insisted that it is wrong of CBS to cast LaGrossa Kendrick once more, particularly for such a highly anticipated season, and she has accused network executives of being politically motivated.
In August 2025 CBS was bought by David Ellison, whose billionaire father Larry is a confidante of President Donald Trump and a prominent Republican mega-donor.
Ellison hired conservative provocateur Bari Weiss to run CBS News, and their efforts to 'correct' a perceived liberal bias have ruffled feathers and seen progressives such as Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper either ousted or walk away.
Orlins said that she sees the Survivor casting as yet another example of CBS trying to curry favor with the president - who himself became a household name through reality TV with The Apprentice, created by Mark Burnett, the man responsible for adapting the UK version of Survivor for a US audience.
'CBS is bending the knee, is kowtowing to this administration, like so many other companies, universities, law firms, and so on,' she told the Daily Mail. 'They're all being cowards.
'I have this unique ability to speak out about CBS, especially given that I did appear on the show, and so I wanted to do so.'
Survivor, which first aired in 2000, has remained one of America's most beloved reality TV shows, with 50 million viewers tuning in for the finale of the first season.
Contestants are flown to a tropical location and then divided into tribes and forced to solve puzzles and complete challenges of strength and endurance.
People are voted out at the end of each episode in a 'tribal council,' and those who are voted out are ultimately tasked with deciding the winner who claims the $1 million prize pot.
Orlins said that CBS lawyers called her last month and 'encouraged' her 'to not attack other players,' ahead of the high-profile 50th season.
She said: 'It was an interesting call I had with them, and then they said: "Oh, this is primarily about intellectual property and trademark, because you're using a photograph from the show." But I think it was like related to my political statements about the show.
'This show has always been political, from casting a gay man in the year 2000 - who ended up winning the season - to doing a season that was divided by race for the Cook Islands.'
Orlins (pictured) said that she sees the Survivor casting of LaGrossa Kendrick as yet another example of CBS trying to curry favor with the president
LaGrossa Kendrick (third from the right, middle row) was one of the breakout stars of Survivor: Palau
Filmed in Vanuatu, a group of volcanic islands in the South Pacific, the ninth season saw 18 contestants divided by gender, and featured the first amputee contestant, Chad Crittenden. The series was won by Chris Daughterty, one of the lesser-known victors, who returned to Ohio and resumed his work in construction after his win.
Orlins said: 'I don't separate the art from the artist, or the contestant from their political views. I speak about this stuff a lot, because in times like these there is a moral obligation to speak up.'
Orlins will be watching on Wednesday and insists she is not calling for a boycott of the show.
But, she said, she will continue objecting to the casting of people who use anti-Semitic and other slurs.
'I famously don't shut up,' she said. 'I can't imagine that I'm just going to shut up, if that's what CBS are hoping.'
Neither CBS nor LaGrossa Kendrick responded to Daily Mail's request for comment.
