Aussie Survivor players do battle with the best of the best from around the world in the new season – but one all-star was hiding big news.

Some of Australian Survivor’s most popular players do battle against big international names in the franchise when Survivor: Australia V The World debuts this weekend.

And in a game where information is everything, there’s some tension in episode one over the fact that local winner David Genat and international champ Pavarti Shallow have a connection that’s undisclosed to the majority of their fellow players – they’d both recently competed together on another reality show, Deal or No Deal Island.

The news that the two had already worked together on a different reality show was enough to send some players into a tailspin – but Genat was keeping an even bigger secret: He’d won the season, and with it an astonishingly large cash prize of USD $5.8 million (around $AU9 million).

He won Australian Survivor: All Stars in 2020, earning $500,000 in prize money, after previously competing on Australian Survivor: Champions v Contenders.

Unbenownst to his fellow Australia V The World players, Genat was entering the game a newly-minted multi-millionaire – probably not the sort of news that would endear you to your tribemates and want them to give you a chance of winning yet again.

Fellow Australian Survivor mainstay Shonee Bowtell, also competing this season, confirmed to news.com.au that the players had no idea there was a newly-minted $9-million-dollar man in their midst.

“I have never even heard of the show, Deal Or No Deal Island?” she said.

Fellow player Shonee says she had no idea David had just won millions on another show.

Four-time player Shonee back in her first season. Picture: Channel 10.
“I knew from conversations that he had been on it, but I didn’t know that he had won. He kept it all under wraps, so we didn’t know. And to be honest I still don’t even understand the concept of the show! But seriously, he’s rolling in it… leave a couple of pennies for the rest of us.”

Bowtell’s appearance on this season cements her as the Australian player with the most days in the game, having already lasted 47 days in Champions vs Contenders, 42 in All Stars and 35 in Heroes vs Villians.

Now a mum to a young son and with another baby on the way, Bowtell said the short, sharp nature of this season (just 16 days in total) helped persuade her to break away from life as a new mum and try her luck on Survivor for a fourth time.

“It was such a hard decision because I was only four months post-partum,” she said of getting the call to compete.

The Aussie contingent on Survivor: Australia v The World.

…and the international players in the mix.
“So I was like, are you guys serious? But I think the thing that really enticed me was that it was a short season. I wouldn’t have been able to do a full season at that time… but also to get the chance to play against these incredible [American] players like Pavarti, Cirie and Tony… I thought, I don’t think that’s going to happen again. It’s now or never – just go for it.”

Bowtell jokes that she’s hanging out for a reality TV opportunity that involves “food and accommodation,” and says she has a “love-hate relationship” with Survivor.

“There’s just something about it… when, as a regular person, do you ever get the opportunity to go and live on a beach and battle the elements? It literally rains non-stop in Samoa. And then you’re doing these crazy challenges, putting yourself to the test, building relationships.

“It does seem like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity… but here I am four seasons in! It’s just too hard to say no.”