Survivor 45

Day 3 and Day 9: who quit Survivor 45

Hannah Rose left Survivor 45 on Day 3, at the season's first Tribal Council, where her tribemates cast a verbal vote at her request. Sean Edwards left on Day 9, in the fourth episode, while he was not being targeted. Both asked to go. Edwards later said he regretted it.

Confirmed Both exits are on screen and both players gave named exit interviews. Their stated reasons are their own accounts of why they left, which is the strongest evidence anyone has about a private decision.

Hannah Rose Hannah Rose Sean Edwards Sean Edwards

What the record shows

  • Confirmed Hannah Rose left on Day 3 at the season's first Tribal Council, the first person out of the eighteen-player cast. Her tribemates cast a verbal vote at her request.
  • Confirmed Rose told Gold Derby on 28 September 2023 that she was "completely at zero," and named exhaustion, hunger, insects and nicotine withdrawal. She also said she expected "the world is going to hate me."
  • Confirmed Sean Edwards left on Day 9, in the season's fourth episode, and asked to be voted out at a Tribal Council where he appeared safe.
  • Confirmed Edwards said he came on the show to reclaim time he lost growing up in a conservative community, and realised out there that he was already living the life he wanted with his husband.
  • Confirmed Edwards later told Entertainment Weekly that "there definitely is an intense feeling of regret about my decision."
  • Confirmed Neither exit was a medical evacuation and neither player was pulled from the game. Both asked to leave and the tribe voted at their request.
  • Unverified One widely circulated write-up dates the Edwards episode to Wednesday, 19 October 2023. That date fell on a Thursday, so the write-up is wrong about something. No air date is asserted on this page, because none was checked against a broadcast listing.

Day 3, at the first Tribal Council

Hannah Rose was on Lulu, and Lulu went to the season's first Tribal Council on Day 3. She said there that she wanted to go. Rather than write names, her tribemates cast a verbal vote at her request, and she left as the first person out of an eighteen-player cast.

That produces a quirk worth stating plainly, because it is the thing people get wrong when they search for the season's first boot. Rose was the first person out. She was not the first person voted out. Standard tallies, including this site's, count her exit as a quit and give the first vote-out to Brandon Donlon, who left at the next Tribal Council. Both facts are true at once.

What Rose said about why

She gave a named exit interview to Gold Derby, published on 28 September 2023, the day after the premiere. The reasons she named were physical and immediate: exhaustion, hunger, insects, and nicotine withdrawal. She described arriving at a state of being "completely at zero."

No diagnosis appears anywhere in that account, and this page does not supply one. She also said in the same interview that she expected "the world is going to hate me," which is a fair summary of what the internet does to a Survivor player who leaves early, and a reason to keep the reasons she actually gave in front of the reasons people invent for her.

Day 9, from a position of safety

Sean Edwards left in the season's fourth episode, on Day 9. The detail that makes his exit different from most early departures is that he was not the target. He asked to be voted out at a Tribal Council where the votes were not coming for him.

Because he asked, the tribe obliged, which is why the record carries him as both the third player voted out and a quit. He explained that he had come on the show to reclaim time he lost growing up in a conservative community, and that on the island he realised he was already living the life he wanted with his husband. Having reached that, he did not want to keep playing for it.

The regret came later

Edwards did not stay settled on the decision. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly afterwards, he said "there definitely is an intense feeling of regret about my decision." That is his own assessment, given after he had seen how the season played out, and it sits alongside his reasons rather than cancelling them.

This is the part that gets flattened in retellings. A player can have a clear reason for leaving and still wish he had stayed. Both statements come from him, and both belong on the record.

What neither exit was

Neither Rose nor Edwards was medically evacuated. Neither was pulled from the game by production. Neither broke a rule and neither was sanctioned. Each asked to leave and each was voted out at their own request, which is the mechanism the show uses when a player quits at Tribal Council. Leaving is something Survivor players are entitled to do.

One loose date is worth flagging because it travels. A widely shared write-up of the Edwards episode dates it to Wednesday, 19 October 2023, and 19 October 2023 was a Thursday. Something in that line is wrong. This page states the day in the game, Day 9, and the episode number, and leaves the broadcast date to sources that can show a listing.

Jeff Probst, who hosts and executive produces the show, said the following month that quitters would no longer have their torches snuffed. That was a separate statement about ceremony, made after these two exits, and it was not a penalty imposed on either player.

People in this story

Questions people ask

Who quit Survivor 45?
Two players. Hannah Rose left on Day 3, at the season's first Tribal Council. Sean Edwards left on Day 9, in the fourth episode, at a Tribal Council where he was not being targeted.
Why did Hannah Rose quit Survivor?
She named exhaustion, hunger, insects and nicotine withdrawal in a Gold Derby exit interview on 28 September 2023, describing herself as "completely at zero." She gave no diagnosis and none should be assumed.
Was Hannah Rose the first person voted out of Survivor 45?
She was the first person out, but not the first voted out. Her Day 3 exit is counted as a quit, so the first vote-out of the season is Brandon Donlon, who left at the following Tribal Council.
Does Sean Edwards regret quitting Survivor 45?
He said so. He told Entertainment Weekly that there is an intense feeling of regret about the decision. He had explained at the time that he realised he was already living the life he wanted with his husband.
Were Hannah Rose or Sean Edwards medically evacuated?
No. Neither exit was a medical evacuation and neither player was removed by production. Both asked to leave and their tribes voted them out at their request, which is how a quit at Tribal Council works.

Sources

Checked on 2026-07-26. If something here is wrong or out of date, we want to know: get in touch.