Jonathan Young, is that you?!
The “Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans” finalist shocked fans on June 17 after sharing a new video to Instagram.
In the footage, Young—who placed second on the most recent season, behind winner Aubry Bracco and ahead of Joe Hunter—debuts a new look, one that really seemed to delight his followers.
Fans React to Jonathan’s Makeover
Set to Tiesto’s song “The Business,” the video shows Jonathan appearing to film himself while driving. As he looks into the camera, he takes off his hat to reveal a much shorter and less shaggy mane than the one he sported while on the CBS competition series.
Young simply captioned the video, “✂️✂️✂️”
During his first appearance on the show for Season 42 back in 2022, Young rocked dreadlocks, which he then cut off about five months after the finale aired. Though his long hair returned for Season 50, the dreads did not.
Young’s followers seemed thrilled with his latest makeover, filling his comments with messages praising his new look.
“Wait I love it!!!!! Super cool!!!! Love that it’s still a little long too bc shaggy hair is your looookkkkk,” exclaimed one fan, who also happens to be a hairstylist.
“Looks hella good sir 🙌,” shared another follower, while one wrote, “Wow wow wow you look so handsome.”
One stunned fan added, “It’s unsettling but it looks good hahaha. Still a legend!!”, before another compared him to “The Vampire Diaries” star Ian Somerhalder.
Meanwhile, fellow “Survivor” alum—and Season 36 winner—Wendell Holland wrote, “🔥🔥🔥”
Young Criticized for Exit Interview Press
During “Survivor 50,” Young made it all the way to the Final Three alongside Aubry Bracco and Joe Hunter, with Bracco taking home the $2 million prize.
After the finale, Young did a number of interviews in which he expressed frustration with the results. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Young said, “I believe deep in my heart that I played the better game. But because Aubry’s played five times, that weighed on a lot of the jury votes. And is that fair? That’s up to the fans and up to ‘Survivor’ to decide.”
“I wanna know where the foul-up was,” Young continued. “That’s $2 million. That’s life-changing money. I was gonna build a ranch for women and children down in Honduras. That was what I was gonna do with the money. But this season, they didn’t even ask you what you were gonna do with the money.”
Young’s good friend, mentor, and “Survivor” superstar Boston Rob Marciano later told TV Insider he felt Jonathan “butchered” his exit interviews with comments like those.
“But I told him that that was a wrong move. I don’t think belittling Aubry’s game to make your game better is a good look, and he agrees. But in the moment, he felt it. You can’t take it away from Aubry.
On Instagram, Aubry responded as well.
“Jonathan was hurting in that moment. It is devastating to learn that you lost,” Bracco told fans on Instagram. “We all handle it differently, and something that I’ve come to believe over the four times I played ‘Survivor’ is that your opinion of me is none of my business. It has nothing to do with me.”
“I disagree with him, but he’s allowed to have his opinion. It is what it is. I don’t like that saying, but I’m confident in the game that I played,” she added.
