Kijiana "Aunt Kitty" Taito Was a Vital Member of the 'Survivor' Crew

The first episode of Survivor Season 47 was pretty by-the-books. One tribe lost immunity, and someone was eliminated. Unfortunately, viewers learned of some bad news with a title card that appeared at the end of the episode.

"In loving memory of Kijiana 'Aunt Kitty' Taito," the card read. Naturally, fans of the show looked for more info about who Kijiana was. As might be expected, she was someone who worked on the show.

Kijiana is not a former Survivor contestant who died after appearing on the show. Rather, she was an assistant accountant who worked on the show, per her IMDb page.

Kijiana worked on Survivor over the course of 107 episodes going all the way back to Season 33 in 2016. It's not hard to imagine that on a show with a huge cash prize and untold expenses, an assistant accountant must be a vital part of the team, and we're sure that her absence is undoubtedly felt by her fellow crewmembers.

Kijiana also appears to have worked briefly on a somewhat similar show called World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji in 2020. She was also an assistant accountant on that show.

Some of Kijiana's loved ones shared touching videos of her homegoing service and burial ceremony, which appear to have taken place in the beautiful island country of Fiji — also where Survivor is filmed. She was obviously beloved by many and was honored by several friends and family members who spoke at her service.

One person who spoke at her homegoing service was a man who worked with her in accounting (though not for Survivor). He said that upon hiring "Aunt Kitty," he "found the one person in the world who has never ever, ever made a mistake."

"One day I actually said to my daughter, ‘Write today’s date down, it’s a big day: Aunt Kitty made a mistake,’" he said. "She didn’t even look up from the desk, she just said, ‘What’s the mistake?’ I said, ‘She got somebody’s rate wrong.’ My daughter said, ‘Who gave her the rate?’ I said, ‘I gave her the rate myself. She said, ‘Check the rate you gave her.’ And sure enough — it was my mistake."

While early seasons of Survivor were filmed in countries around the world, every season since Season 33 has been filmed in Fiji — and host Jeff Probst says that's not going to change.

In 2017, Jeff told Entertainment Weekly that traveling around the world is simply no longer an option. "The real truth of the world is, when we started Survivor 18 years ago, there were lots of places we could go," he said. "It's been two decades. It's a different world. There are not as many places we can go for lots of reasons — the economy, population, political unrest, weather patterns."

"Fiji offers us everything that we want. Incredibly beautiful water that you can see down 30 feet, beaches that are amazing, a government that is working with us, local labor that loves to say ‘Bula!' every day because they're just happy you're here. And our crew has never been as happy. We actually have decent accommodations to do this show out in the jungle. It's a win-win-win."

It seems as though Kijiana "Aunt Kitty" Taito was one of the many Fijians who make Survivor possible. Our thoughts are with her friends and family.