A Survivor contestant says he never expected to be asked back after sharing explicit content on OnlyFans, but CBS welcomed him anyway.
Ozzy Lusth, who appeared on four previous seasons of the hit reality competition from 2006 to 2017, is now competing in the recently-premiered 50th season of Survivor.
The news came as a shock, as he believed his recent past as an adult video creator permanently ruined his chances of returning for another season.
“I'm surprised CBS asked me back after everything," the 44-year-old told The U.S. Sun. “I dabbled in some pretty hardcore stuff."
Lusth launched an OnlyFans account in 2021 where he posted naked photos and sex tapes, then came out as bisexual the following year.
“It was pretty dark for a while. I wasn't in a good place back then, and my choices reflected that, but I have no regrets,” he said. “I'm really surprised my OnlyFans wasn’t a reason for them to turn me down. It's a lot. I thought for sure it would be a reason they wouldn't want me on this, you know, sort of family-friendly show.”
He added that casting director Jesse Tannenbaum "assured" him it was not a problem with producers.
“When they first started making the calls, I was like, ‘Dude, are you sure?' He's like, 'Look, they know everything. They know it all. It's not a deal breaker. So that's obviously why we're calling you now,'" Lusth told Entertainment Weekly. “And I was like, ‘Fuck yeah, let's go.’”
Although his account is seemingly no longer active, Lusth’s OnlyFans account wasn’t his first experience in adult entertainment.
Shortly after finishing as the runner-up on his first season of Survivor, he appeared on Playboy TV's Foursome series.
“I remember answering an ad for Playboy TV that was something like, ‘Spend 24 hours with two couples, and if something happens, great.’ Something like that—and it paid $500," he recalled to Paper in 2021.
“So I sent in my stuff and got on the show,” he said. “I never thought I would be an actor or in front of the camera. I had done nude modeling when I was in college, and I was a stripper in college. I've been an exhibitionist my whole life. I figured this would be a one-off and no one would watch it."
Lusth admitted he did not think about his explicit scenes existing online permanently.
“I thought, ‘I'm going to have fun with these chicks, and it will be a blast,’” he explained. “No thought of the future. $500 to have a good time? Let's do it. And it was so much fun. And I got a taste of what it was like to perform in front of a crew of people, and it didn't affect me. In fact, I kinda liked it.”
He added that at the time, Survivor's former casting director Lynne Spillman was “furious” when she discovered his Foursome appearance, so he wrote an apology letter to longtime host Jeff Probst.
“It didn't seem to affect them casting me anymore,” Lusth said.