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They dont even cast that many older people anymore. Look at the breakdown of 40+ year old contestants:

Borneo: Sonja, BB, Rudy (3/16) (Rich, Sue and Gretchen were all 39 at the time)
Outback: Debb, Maralyn, Roger, Keith, Tina (5/16)
Africa: Frank, Linda, Teresa, Carl, Kim J, Tom, Diane (7/16)
Marquesas: Peter, Patricia, Paschal, Kathy (4/16)
Thailand: John, Jake, Helen, Jan, Clay (5/16)
Amazon: Janet, Jeanne, Roger, Butch (4/16)
Pearl Islands: Trish, Andrew, Lill (3/16)
All-Stars: 8/18 (although they were cast as all-stars/favorites, so I wouldnt point out the age situation here. Interesting to note that a high percentage of 40+ year olds are considered all-stars in the game....so its not like older people are mostly boring and uncompetitive.)
Vanuatu: Lisa, Lea, Scout, Twila (4/18)
Palau: Wanda, Willard, Caryn, Tom (4/20)
Guatemala: Jim, Margaret, Gary, Lydia (4/16....technically 18)
Panama: Tina, Ruth-Marie, Dan, Bruce, Terry (5/16)
Cook Islands: Sekou, Cao-Boi, Jonathan (3/20)
Fiji: Sylvia, Gary, Yau-Man, Cassandra (4/19...technically 20)
China: Chicken, Denise (2/16)
Micronesia: Yau-Man, Jonathan, Chet, Kathy, Tracy (5/20)

So in the first 7 seasons, 40+ year olds were roughly 25-33% of the cast....all-stars was a big spike, and then since then, there have only been 2 casts (Panama and Micronesia) that had more than 20% of the cast at 40+. I'd say there's a pretty high number of these people that are either considered good players or highly entertaining players (or both.)

It's gonna be hard (like Tracey said in the reunion) to make alliances when almost all of your tribe mates are young and view age as a weakness. Seems like if an older person does make it past the first two tribal councils they go to, then they're likely to make it pretty close or all the way to the end either because they're strong alphas or the goat. A lot of seasons had older players make it to the F3 (Rudy, Keith, Tina, Kim J, Kathy, Jan, Clay, Lill*, Scout, Twila, Tom, Terry, Cassandra) 13 out of 48 F3 contestants have been 40+......but only 2 of them were winners.

Older people either make great final TC competition because everyone knows they were just brought along for the ride in their alliances, or they make terrible final TC competition because they usually play the game with integrity and have the respect of their tribes.