Exclusive Interview
‘Survivor’s Colby Donaldson Reveals How the Show Led Him to Meeting His Wife
What To Know
- Colby Donaldson was eliminated during the April 1 episode of Survivor Season 50.
- He spoke to Swooon about how much the show means to him, especially because it indirectly led him to meeting his wife, Britt Bailey.
- Donaldson and Bailey have been married since 2016.
Colby Donaldson said goodbye to Survivor after being eliminated during the Blood Moon twist in Season 50. It was his fourth time playing, and he got emotional at tribal council as he discussed his legacy in the game, which began 25 years ago when he was named runner-up of Season 2.
Survivor completely changed the trajectory of Donaldson’s life, as it helped him “[carve] out a 20-year career in the television business,” he tells TV Insider and Swooon. Plus, the show is what indirectly led to him meeting his wife, Britt Bailey.
“I’m not married to my wife right now if not for Survivor,” Donaldson says. “I had to connect those dots to her, and it was five degrees of separation.”
Donaldson reveals that Bailey “had never even seen Survivor, never seen the show, never watched me on it.” However, they were introduced by a mutual friend, whom he only met because he was a contestant on the CBS competition series.
“Survivor led to me moving out [to L.A.] and getting a show called Top Shot. Top Shot led to a business I started here in Texas,” Colby explains. “I was doing business with her, and one day she said, ‘Are you dating anybody?’ I said, ‘No.’ And she said, ‘I got a friend you ought to meet.'”
That friend wound up being Bailey, whom Donaldson married in 2016. “It connected those dots for my wife. We don’t meet if not for Survivor,” he reiterates. “It doesn’t happen. And I wasn’t even living in the same city as her when we met.”
Ahead of Donaldson’s return to Survivor for Season 50, which was filmed in 2025, he and Bailey reconciled after a separation. “Plot twist- Who knew second chances could feel this amazing?” Bailey wrote on Instagram in February of last year. “Rebuilding has been a wild, beautiful ride—stronger, happier, and full of all the good stuff. Here’s to love that finds its way back and round two that’s even sweeter!”
After Donaldson’s elimination episode aired, Bailey gushed on her Instagram Story, “I couldn’t be more proud of him. Obviously we wished he could’ve lasted longer in the game, but it just wouldn’t have happened with that injury.” Donaldson hurt his foot earlier in the season and an infection had started to develop, leading to fears that he would be medically evacuated from the game. Before it got to that point, though, he was voted out.
Survivor, Season 50, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS
Reporting by Kelli Boyle
