From speechwriting to Survivor! Podcaster Jon Lovett is one of the 18 castaways competing on season 47 of the reality series, which premieres on. According to a press release ahead of the new season,

“Based on how things were after the challenge, I was shocked. I thought Andy was done,” Probst says in the Season 4 premiere of On Fire, the only official Survivor aftershow and podcast. His cohosts this season are Jay Wolff and Survivor 46 alum Charlie Davis, who will also provide commentary on each episode throughout the season.

If viewers were shocked by the first person to be voted out of Survivor 47 on Wednesday’s two-hour premiere on CBS, they weren’t alone. So was the host. It appeared that Andy Reuda would be the first booted after the AI research assistant from Brooklyn suffered from heat exhaustion at the challenge and called out his tribe mates for not liking him.

Jeff Probst teased that Jon Lovett, is a former political speech writer, is one of the ‘greatest storytellers’ to be on ‘Survivor’

Jon Lovett, a podcaster and former speechwriter for the Obama administration, talks about the new season of Survivor.

Ever since Survivor ditched the weird Jeff Probst narration early in its run, the show has depended on the players to tell that story through their confessional interviews, and… well, some people are better storytellers than others.