Being a contestant on “Survivor” is hard. You have to deal with hunger, exhaustion, exposure to the elements and tough physical challenges, all while trying to manipulate all the other contestants to make it to the end and win $1 million.
But is that harder than being the first openly gay principal in the Provo School District? Maybe not, according to Sean Edwards, who is both a gay school principal in Provo and a contestant on “Survivor.”
“Being an openly gay public school administrator in Provo, Utah, certainly comes with its nuanced challenges,” said Edwards, 34, who lives in Orem with his husband, Matt. “I have worked hard to build a reputation that people see me as someone who is an education leader who just genuinely loves and cares for the students that I work with.”
He said he feels “very fortunate” that he’s worked in the school district “for more than a decade.” Edwards did his student teaching at Canyon Crest Elementary, then joined the faculty at Timpview High School in 2010 as a special education teacher. He was named a vice principal at Timpview in 2017, a job he held until he became principal at Canyon Crest in 2022. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in special education from Brigham Young University, and a doctorate in educational leadership and policy from the University of Utah.
Although Edwards has “a group of very supportive parents” at Canyon Crest, he said, there is also “a lot of curiosity out in the community about me.”
Some parents have called the school, he said, and asked the school secretary “things like, ‘So the school principal’s gay. What does that mean my child is going to learn in school?’ And it’s, like, ‘Well, your child’s going to learn language arts and math and science and STEM and art.’ I don’t quite understand why these questions are coupled with, ‘So, the principal’s gay.’ …
“That is really challenging for me — just the various microaggressions that come my way because of my sexual orientation. It’s hard. And, ultimately, I keep going to work every day in Provo, Utah, because I genuinely care for the students that I serve. And so I hope by my example that I set that people can see me as someone who is an advocate for their child.”
(Robert Voets | CBS) Sean Edwards, an elementary school principal in Provo, competes on Season 45 of "Survivor."
Longtime fan, first-time contestant
Edwards said he’s been a “superfan” of “Survivor” his “entire life.” Well, since the series premiered in 2000, when he was 12. “I just remember thinking, ‘Oh, that’d be cool to have that experience. I really want to do that someday,’” he said.
The show has evolved through 23 years, 652 episodes and 44 seasons, but the format remains the same. The 18 contestants in Season 45 are divided into three tribes, who compete against each other in a variety of physical challenges. And members of the losing tribe must vote one of their members out. In the end, the three remaining castaways make their case to eliminated contestants, who vote to give one of them $1 million.
Along the way, there are alliances, backstabbing, hidden immunity idols and all sorts of drama.
“’Survivor’ has been a dream of mine,” Edwards said. “I literally got to live out a dream, and what an incredible experience.”
Watching the show as he was growing up, Edwards said he noticed it has “such a representation of LGBTQ+ castaways. And as I learned more about myself and started to identify as gay, I thought, ‘Wow, what a cool opportunity that these other LGBTQ+ castaways have had to go on the show. Maybe that will be me someday.”
Of the 662 contestants in Season 1-45, 164 have identified as members of the LGBTQ community. (Of those 662, 74 have competed more than once.) The first “Survivor” winner, Richard Hatch, was openly gay. As was the Season 15 winner, Todd Herzog, the first winner from Utah. And the most recent winner, Yam Yam Arocho, was the first openly gay person of color to win.
Edwards said he has “so much appreciation” to CBS and “Survivor” for casting so many members of the LGBTQ+ community through 45 seasons. “Seeing that as a teenager gave me so much hope. Even though I didn’t have the confidence to apply and get on the show at that time, it gave me so much hope that I could one day. And I hope that by my participation on ‘Survivor’ I can also provide that hope to other LGBTQ+ youth that are out there, just looking for representation.”
But for many years after he began watching, Edwards said he was “not confident in who I am” and contented himself to remain a viewer of the show. “I always thought it’d be a cool experience,” he said. “I never thought it would happen to me.”
At the end of Season 40 in 2020, though, when host/executive producer Jeff Probst urged fans to apply to be on the show, Edwards took it to heart.
“I was at a spot where I finally had the confidence in who I am as a gay man to say, ‘You know what? Now is my time. I can play this game. I can play it well, and I can win,’” he said.
He applied and, in 2022, was cast to be on Season 45, which was produced this past spring and premieres on Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 7 p.m. on CBS/Channel 2. (Episodes in Season 45 are 90 minutes long, airing from 7 to 9:30 p.m.)
Early in the season premiere, Edwards says, “I am here to reclaim lost time when I was trying to be someone who I wasn’t.”
(Robert Voets | CBS) The Lulu tribe on "Survivor" Season 45 — Hannah Rose, Brandon Donlon, Sean Edwards, Kaleb Gebrewold, Emily Flippen and Sabiyah Broderick.
Conservative ‘Mormon’ upbringing
Edwards grew up in New Jersey “in a very conservative Mormon home.” He came out to his family when he was a senior in high school, “and it was extremely challenging for my parents to grasp what this meant for my life and for our family.” They tried “for many, many years ... to find a way [for me] to live a faithful, straight, Mormon lifestyle” as a gay man, “and that was hard. It was really hard.”
He recalled “many nights” when both he and his parents were “in tears … really grappling with this complexity.” He served a mission to Las Vegas for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and after he got home, he made a decision.
“I got to a place in my life where I just said, ‘I have to live authentic and true to who I am, which means being an openly gay man and dating men.’” To his relief, his parents were “absolutely nothing but incredibly supportive. They saw my pain, they saw my struggle, and they realized that what matters more to them than anything is their son living a fulfilled, happy life.”
As he heads off to school, or off to the South Pacific to compete on “Survivor,” his parents are “my greatest cheerleaders and supporters.”
(Robert Voets | CBS) Sean Edwards, left — an elementary school principal in Provo — competes in a challenge on "Survivor."
Getting time off for ‘Survivor’
Although contestants are generally not allowed to tell anyone they’re going to be or have been contestants on “Survivor” until the official cast announcement, Edwards got permission from CBS to talk to Provo district administrators about it. They gave him their blessing.
“And one of the reasons they were supportive is because they saw this opportunity — as a potential community-building experience, where we can really rally the community together for something unique and exciting,” he said.
Even before the season premiere, there’s buzz in the air at Canyon Ridge Elementary.
“I mean, just this morning, I was doing morning drop-off supervision for the school,” Edwards said, “and I had parents pulling their cars over, rolling their windows down, saying, ‘We can’t wait to watch you on “Survivor”! We’re so excited.’”
That sort of thing has happened “every single day” since the cast was announced on Sept. 6. And the cast announcement released one bit of pressure for Principal Edwards. “I mean, keeping this a secret has been the hardest thing I’ve probably ever had to do,” he said with a laugh.
While he was on the island trying to outwit, outplay and outlast the other 17 contestants, his students were never far from his thoughts.
“That’s something that’s always in the back of my mind,” Edwards said. “I’m constantly, in my daily life, thinking about my students. How I can best serve them. Their well-being. How I can protect them at school, and all of those things.”
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