Savannah Louie got real about the shocking amount of money she owed to the IRS after winning Survivor 49.
“It is painful, it’s actually devastating. I have already paid my taxes, obviously, from the past year and I think of that $1 million I paid about $380,000,” Savannah, 32, said during a Thursday, May 7 appearance on the “Financial Tea With Mrs. Dow Jones” podcast. “It was a punch to the gut.”
The former newscaster explained that the prize amount was “more money” than she had “ever made in a year.”
“To sign a check over essentially for that high, it was unreal,” she reflected. “It hurts.”
Savannah also acknowledged she was “grateful” to live in Atlanta, Georgia, and not in a state with high tax laws like California. (Georgia has a flat income tax system with a 5.19 percent rate while California has the highest income tax rate at 13.3 percent for high earners.)
While Savannah was “confident” about doing well in her first Survivor appearance, she was not thinking about the aftermath of potentially winning.
“I went in very confident … but at the same time, I wasn’t necessarily in the mindset of where I’m like ‘Oh I gotta financially plan for that money,’” she quipped.
Savannah isn’t the only Survivor winner who has addressed paying taxes on their prize money. Earlier this year, season 48 champion Kyle Fraser poked fun at the circumstance on Tax Day 2026.
“Me after paying taxes on the prize money today,” Kyle wrote via an April TikTok video.
The clip included the lawyer in a bathrobe sitting in a ball with his hands shaking while Reba McEntire’s song “I’m a Survivor” played in the background.
“This is satire, and I’m glad to do my civic duty 😁,” Kyle added in the caption.
Kyle, who resides in Brooklyn, has not publicly revealed how much he paid in taxes.
After winning their respective seasons, both Kyle and Savannah were asked back to compete on Survivor 50. Both former winners ended up leaving the competition early. Kyle was medically evacuated on day four after tearing his Achilles tendon. Savannah, for her part, was the second person voted out.
Earlier this month, the remaining Survivor 50 competitors got some good news after Rick Devens successfully activated Mr. Beast’s Super Beware Advantage via a coin flip. The twist doubled the prize money to a whopping $2 million. Devens, Aubry Bracco, Tiffany Nicole Ervin, Cirie Fields, Joe Hunter, Rizo “Rizgod” Velovic and Jonathan Young remain in the game to fight for the prize.
Survivors airs on CBS Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
