The White Lotus’ creator has a reality TV past and hid easter eggs in show – did you spot them?

We all know Mike White, the genius behind three seasons of The White Lotus, but did you know he once appeared in Survivor and has hidden easter eggs throughout all three seasons of the vacation drama?

Long before he put together the BEST ensemble casts for The White Lotus, Mike White was lending his brain to projects such as School Of Rock, Dawson’s Creek, and Freaks and Geek. In 2018, he appeared in the 37th season of American Survivor, Survivor: David vs. Goliath and ultimately placed second.

Despite Survivor being over five years ago, Mike has continued to pay tribute to his reality TV past by incorporating his co-stars into all three seasons of The White Lotus. Here’s where you can spot them.

Mike White included one of his Survivor friends in The White Lotus season one

In 2021’s The White Lotus season one, Mike White included Survivor contestant Alec Merlino in the show. Alec – along with his perfect quiffed hair – acted as a bartender in the tropical locale.

There were two Survivor cameos in The White Lotus season two

During arguably the best instalment of the series, The White Lotus season two, Meghann Fahy’s Daphne meets with two women moments before discovering a dead body. Those ladies are actually Survivor’s Angelina Keeley and Kara Kay who were in the final four with Mike White.

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Speaking to Vulture, Kay said in 2022: “A lot of it is how people deal with others and how we’re all human at the root of it. Survivor is about winning by being cunning and strong. In White Lotus One, winning is about money and socioeconomic levels. With White Lotus two, it’s about sexual politics and power.”

Season three featured a controversial participant

Season three of The White Lotus has only just kicked off but Mike White has already managed to include two survivor contestants in the form of Natalie Cole and Carl Boudreaux. They have a brief interaction with the returning character Belinda in episode one. Ironically, Natalie Cole and Mike were famously enemies during Survivor as the latter eliminated the former over other allegiances.

They buried the hatchet at a recent wedding, as Natalie told Entertainment Weekly: “When we finally caught each other’s eyes, I waved at him, and oh my god, he ran across the room and threw himself into a hug with me and said, ‘I thought you were mad at me!’ And I said, ‘No, when I first came off [the show] I was, but it’s a game, and I recognise that, and I’m cool.”

“The fact that he could look beyond the way he felt about me in Fiji and ask me to come do a part speaks volumes about him as a person … Initially, he thought he was never going to speak to me again!”

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