‘Survivor 50’ Sia Prize Twist Was Singer’s Idea

There are Survivor fans, and then there’s Sia — a Grammy-nominated pop star who has given away more than $1 million of her own money to numerous contestants across eight seasons. And, after a brief pause, she’s bringing back her tradition for the season 50 finale with a fan-centric twist.

The Sia Prize began in 2016 as an unofficial cash reward for players whose personal stories resonated with the “Chandelier” singer. After she surpassed the $1 million mark, host Jeff Probst put his foot down. “I’m stopping this because you’ll just keep giving money and you have a family,” he told Rolling Stone in an interview published Tuesday (May 19).

Now, 10 years after the inception of the Sia Prize, the reward will return, with the Australian singer-songwriter asking fans to vote for “the kind of player she always recognizes.” In keeping with this season’s “In the Hands of the Fans” theme, this year’s Sia Prize winner will be announced during the season finale on Wednesday, May 20, and walk away with $100,000.

At press time, representatives for Sia have not responded to Billboard’s request for comment.

“When we decided that Survivor 50 was going to be ‘In the Hands of the Fans,’ I reached out to Sia to let her know what we were doing and to see if she had any interest in being part of it again,” Probst explained to RS. “She loved the idea of fans having a real voice in shaping the game and was very enthusiastic about participating. And the twist on the Sia Prize was actually her idea. She said, ‘If this season is truly about the fans having a say, then the fans should choose the winner of the Sia Prize too.’”

Sia last handed out her prize in 2023 for the show’s 45th season, with Katurah Topps winning $100,000 and Jake O’Kane and Kaleb Gebrewold each earning $15,000. “‘I’ve been really fortunate [and] music has been good to me,’” Probst recalled Sia telling him. “‘I make a lot of money, and Survivor brings me a lot of joy, so I want to share my money with people who brought me a lot of joy.’”

Season 50 of Survivor has a strong musical bent — and it doesn’t stop with Sia. Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and his son, Jakob, recorded a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” for this season’s promos, and Probst’s original song, “Survivor 50 Come and Get It,” was recorded in the same studio as Joni Mitchell’s Blue and Carole King’s Tapestry. Country star Zac Brown also launched his own “epic spearfishing” prize this season, while Jack Harlow, Billie Eilish and Doja Cat have all proved themselves to be major Survivor fans over the years.

When RS asked Probst why musical artists might be drawn to the long-running competition, he shared: “From the music perspective, because people like Sia are fans who happen to be musicians. But I think, to extrapolate, our son is a musician. When he plays us a song he just wrote, he’s nervous. It’s from his soul. And that’s Survivor: real people telling you their truth. Being vulnerable. Like the vulnerability of sharing your art. That’s what people connect with.”

Sia’s most recent solo studio album, Reasonable Woman, arrived in 2024 and reached No. 153 on the Billboard 200. At the top of this year (Jan. 29), she released a 10th anniversary edition of her 2016 This Is Acting LP, which spawned her Sean Paul-assisted, RIAA Diamond-certified Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single “Cheap Thrills.”

Survivor airs Wednesdays on CBS at 8 p.m., and streams on Paramount+.