We are in the final weeks of season 50 of Survivor. It’s been way more fun than I expected! One of my favorite moments was the contestants trash-talking Jeff Probst when he joined in on an immunity challenge. Ozzy Lusth shouting, ”You better dig, Jeff!” was gold. This season, the show introduced a new gimmick: twists inspired by Survivor’s celebrity superfans. So far, we’ve had a private concert from Zac Brown, the Jimmy Fallon “One in the Urn” twist, and an appearance from MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, who introduced a challenge that threw the remaining contestants into delightful chaos and resulted in the prize money doubling to $2 million.
Each of these celebrity moments has only lasted for one episode. There is one twist that has been in play from this season’s first episode: the Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol. The premise is that the person who found the idol has to send it to another contestant. If that player gets voted out with the BEBI in their pocket, then it returns to the player who found it. While Brown, Fallon, and MrBeast all hyped up their roles on the season, Billie has remained completely silent about her namesake idol. During an appearance on the Good Hang podcast, Amy Poehler asked Billie about her involvement this season. Billie explained how the idol was created and whether she’d ever want to play the game herself. Here’s more from E! News. The clip is below and it’s queued to that part.
Billie Eilish has spoken.
The 24-year-old—who is a self-proclaimed Survivor fan—has played a big role in the show’s 50th season, serving as the namesake for the “Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol.” Now, she’s revealing how the cameo came to be.
“So basically like I wrote a letter to the contestants being like, ‘Here’s your secret idol,’” she told Amy Poehler on the May 5 episode of Good Hang, using air quotes. “‘If you use this idol, you can, you know.’”
Indeed, if contestants find the idol, they can use it for immunity during Tribal Council—except Billie’s comes with a twist.
Players that find the idol, which comes with a letter from the “Bad Guy” singer explaining the rules, must give the talisman to someone on another tribe. If that person is voted out while still holding the idol, the immunity “boomerangs” back to the original player.
Naturally, since Survivor 50 is themed “In The Hands of the Fans,” famous enthusiasts of the show—including Billie, Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, Jimmy Fallon, and Zac Brown—have helped introduce exciting twists throughout the season.
“I love imagining that I could one day do it,” the “Wildflower” singer mused. “But I am so bad with like—the math part of the problems are the things that I couldn’t do. Like I feel that I could do the physical stuff. I mean I say that, which sure who knows ‘cause it’s so hard-seeming.”
For now, she’ll stick to having her own first-of-its-kind idol, which she helped come up with alongside host Jeff Probst.
“We sent her a couple of ideas, and she decided which one she liked,” Jeff explained to People in an interview published March 14. “She said, ‘I like the Boomerang.’ Then, we kind of wrote out the clue, and she approved that as well.”
The longtime host continued, saying, “It was really fun to collaborate with her. She was enthusiastic about it.”
Fans have been waiting for Billie to acknowledge the idol all season, so the clip of her finally talking about Survivor went viral. She sounded uncomfortable and gave off the impression that she had minimal involvement in the concept. To most fans, myself included, it also sounded like she either hasn’t watched Survivor in a long time or has never actually seen the show at all. The “math” portion is basically counting votes for tribal council to make sure you have the numbers or determine if you need to split the vote in the event of an immunity idol. That’s why you align with people who are good at math! That said, I have a message for Billie: Girl, I am good at math! If you and I ever end up playing Survivor on the same season, I got you covered.
Billie and her boyfriend, Nat Wolff, made their red carpet debut for the premiere of her new concert movie, Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D). Billie wore a Prada ensemble featuring a black skirt and a green polo over a long-sleeved white shirt. The overall outfit was meh, but the green really captured the color of her eyes.
Photos credit: Cat Morley/Avalon, Prada Press Office, MediaPunch/Backgrid