Season 48 of Survivor premiered with a two-hour episode on Wednesday night. After this week’s premiere, two players in particular really stood out as people to root for, and that was Eva Erickson and Joe Hunter. There have been a lot of “firsts” in this new era of Survivor, and the very-inspirational Eva is the first openly autistic contestant to play the game. Eva, who is a 24-year-old PhD student at Brown University, was diagnosed when she was a year old. Doctors told her parents that she would never live on her own, have a job, or even marry anyone who wasn’t also on the spectrum. Eva and her parents fought hard to overcome some of her more extreme diagnoses, and now she’s not only on Survivor, but also has the honor of having been the first and only female player on the Georgia Tech men’s hockey team. To quote a former Survivor player, she’s basically a bad ass.
A Brown University student is making television history as the first openly autistic person to compete on “Survivor.” Eva Erickson will be trying her hand at the $1 million grand prize in Season 48.
“When I finally got the call, I was running around the room like a dog,” she said. “Just jumping off the walls, like, oh my God, I’m going to be on ‘Survivor!’”
The 24-year-old was diagnosed with autism when she was just a year old.
“The first doctors were telling my parents that I would never hold a job, I would never live independently, that at most they could hope that I would marry someone else also on the autism spectrum,” she told 12 News.
Now, Erickson is living thousands of miles away from her home in Minnesota. She is also getting her PhD in engineering at Brown University, where she is the captain of the club hockey team. Not to mention, she is competing in one of the most cutthroat reality competition shows on television.
“Knowing that ‘Survivor’ is a game of lying, people are always going to be lying, and I might not pick up on the same cues as everyone else,” she said. “That was something that I was very concerned about but that’s where I knew I wanted my strategy to involve having really strong alliances.”
Erickson has now embraced her autism as a gift. She hopes by sharing her story on “Survivor,” other people on the spectrum can do the same.
“Autism can be a benefit to you, you don’t have to see it as something wrong with you, accept who you are and that’s how you can be your best self,” she says.
Erickson is selling merchandise with a portion of the proceeds benefitting Minnesota Special Hockey.
Eva is incredibly inspirational. I’m in a Survivor fantasy league and put her high on my rankings list. I’m rooting for her so hard! While Eva was very open about her autism in her pre-season interviews and during her talking heads, she admitted that her lack of ability to understand when someone was lying to her would cause her fellow castaways to take advantage of her. So, she decided to confide in just one teammate, Joe. Joe, who is a fire captain and dad-of-two, was already vibing with fans because in his pre-season press, he shared that he’s playing the game in honor of his late sister, Joanna. Joanna always wanted to be on the show, but was the victim of domestic violence in 2011. Eva sensed that he was a safe space and opened up to him. It resulted in an incredibly moving scene that left Joe and basically all of the viewers in tears. He even said that if it came to it, he’d sacrifice his own game for her. Same, Joe, same. I’m rooting for both Eva and Joe to go really far into the game.
Here’s the scene where Eva confides in Joe about her autism and asks him to help keep her grounded in the event that she gets overstimulated. It’s really moving, so grab your tissues.
It was incredibly moving. Inspiring to see what I would call a “real man.” There’s a lot of them out there. Nice to finally see one on TV.
Love these two players. I watched it last night with my daughter who is on the spectrum and she was so excited by them. She had already heard that there was an autistic player this season ( I think there’s been a few before possibly undiagnosed) because a lot of people in her online community have been talking about it. Eva is in a position to do so much good by her example, regardless of how she does in the game. This is the face of autism today.
Yes! I need to forward this story to my son. His diagnosis/trajectory sounds so much like hers. He just finished a masters degree and is looking for full time employment and I worry every day that people may not see how amazing he is and how lucky they’d be to have him on their team. Best to you and your daughter.
And to you and your son 🙏🏽❤️
I am a huge Survivor fan and always thrilled to see the occasional story on CB.
Surprisingly, my spouse and I still haven’t seen the premiere. I didn’t read any pre-game press, or listen to the usual pre-game podcasts on RHAP or No Buffs, etc., although I knew about the first openly ASD player. The Joe and Eva video clip is compelling, and I must get caught up now!
Thank you for the article, Rosie!