Showmances have been a staple on Survivor since the Reality TV series premiered on CBS more than 20 years ago. Host Jeff Probst even admitted that production would originally cast potentially compatible players to increase the possibility once the castaways were marooned.
From OG couples like “Boston” Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich, to more recent lovebirds such as Matt Blankinship and Frannie Marin, many Survivor showmances have lived on beyond the screen.
Jaclyn Schultz and Jon Misch as well as Joe Anglim and Sierra Dawn Thomas are two more examples out of many more Survivor couples who are still together in 2024.
There are, of course, multiple others that have not quite worked out. Among those is one from Season 45 that fans felt was never going to make it, regardless of how promising things appeared in the beginning.
Dee Valladares And Austin Li Coon Struck Up A Romantic Connection In Survivor 45
Survivor 45 was widely acclaimed as the best of the new era, with a very popular cast and a wide pool of standout storylines to pick out from. One of the layers that had fans excited at the start was the apparent love connection between eventual winner Dee Valladares, and her first runner-up Austin Li Coon.
The chemistry between the pair grew more and more palpable as the season wore on, but some audience members have argued that they could see cracks even in those early days.
Dee Valladares is a Cuban-born, Miami-based entrepreneur with a an education background in Psychology.
Dee and Austin started together on the red Reba Tribe, and they very quickly struck up a connection that allowed them to build one of the strongest alliances in Survivor history. At that stage of the game, however, very little was seen of any kind of romantic spark between them, if at all.
Austin was later moved to the blue Belo tribe in a swap, before their paths ultimately reconnected after that season’s merge. It was then that their flirtations started to become more concrete, eventually to the point that it was no longer a secret to the cast and crew on the island.
In a Survivor subreddit, one fan opined: “Imo Dee was never really into Austin, and just used him for the show/game.” Another concurred, saying, “Honestly feigning a showmance with someone at a point in the game where they might have otherwise turned on you is kind of iconic winner gameplay lol.”
The Love Story Between Austin Li Coon And Dee Valladares Barely Outlived Season 45 Of Survivor
Both Dee Valladares and Austin Li Coon remained tight-lipped about their intentions for each other after Survivor 45 finished airing.
Austin Li Coon was an MBA student at the University of Chicago when he was promoted from alternate to cast member of Season 45 of Survivor.
In his exit interview with Entertainment Weekly, the then-graduate student from Chicago said:
“We kind of want to keep that a little private for now, just because things have been so crazy. The finale just aired and I don’t think I’m ready quite yet for dealing with all the fans and giving out the answers. So [I’m] going to keep that private for now.”
Valladares had a very similar answer when the same question was posed to her. “It’s been too crazy and it’s getting crazier,” she insisted. “So we’ve decided to keep it low key for now, only because it’s been insane.”
The conversations were of course taking place long after both had left the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji where Survivor has found a permanent home, considering the season was aired four to seven months after filming wrapped in May 2023.
Dee did offer a glimpse of hope that they were still together and working things out, after she was pressed on what “keeping it low key” truly meant. “Keep it low key is you’ll see pictures here and there, but we’re not going to focus on it right now because so much is happening in our lives,” she responded.
It wasn’t too long, however, before rumors started to emerge about both having moved on, essentially proving the original naysayers correct. Austin was said to be involved with Jeff Probst’s niece, while fans spotted Dee out a number of times with fellow winner Wendell Holland (Season 36 – Ghost Island).
Jeff Probst Is Not Interested In Manufacturing Showmances On Survivor Anymore
A lot has changed since Survivor first hit screens in May 2000. Back then, it was almost expected that any reality series would have at least one romantic subplot in it, and the early seasons of the unscripted CBS show appeared to follow the same trend.
Some of the Most Popular Showmances In Survivor History
Survivor couple | Season played | Relationship status in 2024 |
|---|---|---|
Amber Brkich and Rob Mariano | 8 (Survivor: All Stars) | Married to each other, with four daughters together |
Amanda Kimmel and Ozzy Lusth | 16 (Survivor: Micronesia) | Broke up, Amanda married to husband Matt Cooper, with two kids. Ozzy reportedly still single. |
Whitney Duncan and Keith Tollefson | 23 (Survivor: South Pacific) | Flirted on the show, and eventually got married to each other after Survivor |
Matt Blankinship and Frannie Marin | 44 | Still together after Survivor |
Jeff Probst was only a host back then, a role he would retain exclusively for a long time as the network feared to give more power to him. He would eventually take on more responsibility as an executive producer, a tenure within which he insists there haven’t been any interest in casting potential showmance partners.
“You never anticipate [a showmance] happening,” Probst said to EW days before the Season 46 finale aired in May 2024. “We never, at least as long as I’ve been around as executive producer, we’ve never cast anybody because they were single and might mingle — ever.”
He was reiterating a point that he previously made to GQ in September 2023, when he discussed Survivor’s evolution over the years, and the enduring appeal that the series still carried. The charismatic executive was insistent that everything about the show was legitimate and fully dependent on the agency of the players themselves.
“I’m not putting on a show, which is why there’s no writers, and there never have been,” said Probst. “I don’t need anyone to write for me… [
Survivor
is] the most real experience you can have. Ask any player. There is zero help, never ever.”
The success rate of Survivor showmances proves that castaways don’t need help finding love among each other, anyway, even though some connections like that between Austin Li Coon and Dee Valladares would seem to have failed the test of time.
