For the past 20 years, Survivor has been a mainstay staple of CBS’s lineup, as the reality show, where teams of people compete in remote locations to be the last one to survive for a $1 million prize, just finished its 40th season, since they do two-person year, in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has stopped production of the 41st and 42nd seasons, so Survivor fans will just have to wait until it’s own before the games are played again.
Jeff Probst has been the host of Survivor for the entire run, which is an amazing run as host of any kind of game show, let alone a reality one. The first season caught everyone’s attention, but as the season’s moved on, we started to learn some of the behind the scenes secrets of Survivor, and what Probst does when the cameras aren’t rolling, such as where he lives, how they film the show to make it look great for television, and how the games are played.
Probst Doesn’t Rough It
While the survivors are making their own shelter, huddling in the rain and trying to avoid bugs, Probst is living in a large, temporary tent city, where everyone from producers to cameramen to Probst live. It’s why he looks so refreshed each day and why he doesn’t lose weight like the other contestants do, because he isn’t living of rice and whatever else is available in the jungles and remote locations.
According to Today.com, Jeff Probst and crew work out of trailers or cargo containers that double as offices, while other structures are prefabricated on site. There is catering for those in the crew, including Probst, making sure that at least the people putting on the show won’t fall over the fire from not eating enough. Even giving contestants good is discussed, but Probst has said now, after doing it for so long, it’s a gut call. And when he goes to get food, he hopes no one during a challenge fails while he isn’t there.
“All we really want to do is make sure we establish the challenge and let it run long enough that we can see that everybody is good to go,” said Probst to Entertainment Weekly in an Interview. “That’s always a tricky situation when I have to leave to go get the food; I’m always hoping that someone doesn’t fall off while I’m gone.”
Probst Does A Lot More Producing Than We See
It should be noted that Jeff Probst is more than just the host of Survivor, he is a producer as well, and his job is to make the best television possible. So that means, a lot of the times the camera has to go off so the games can be explained or he can get additional information.
When survivors compete in challenges, plenty of behind the scenes work goes into them, such as shots of the scene, and dress rehearsals so that the viewers and the survivors get an idea of how the game is played. So no, contestants don’t just walk up, get a quick introduction to the games and head off to try and win a challenge. It’s explained to them so they have the best shot at winning, which makes for better television.
“Jeff has this ability to nail the content that the show producers need to tell the story in the edit bays,” said Jesse Jensen, a prop master turned executive producer. “He’s so in tune with the game and what is happening on a daily basis. When you watch, it seems so natural but it takes a lot of work to stay on top of everything.”
That even includes the crew stopping filming to give Probst some hints or ideas of what to ask survivors about that they saw on film that maybe he missed. Just so he can ask the best questions for a television audience.
The Works Of Tribal Council
What we see on Tribal council isn’t exactly how Tribal council works. According to Today, who spilled the beans on many backstage workings, the video of contests walking miles to council isn’t true. They start the walk, and then are driven to the location, only to be filmed again arriving. Probst does get some reaction from the contestants about how the week went, but it’s all about voting. And each contestant goes to the location to cast their vote.
Afterwards, Probst says his semi-famous line “I’ll go tally the votes”, but we don’t see is that he and the production crew, who has seen each contestant write the name of the person they want out down, are actually going through the votes and organizing them in a way that creates the most dramatic television possible.
There was a time when the survivors tried to play a joke on Jeff during one of the first Tribal councils, where instead of writing a survivor’s name down, they wrote down Jeff’s name. The production company caught them doing it, however, stopped them and had them re-vote. According to Jenna Lewis, Probst was definitely not having it.
“We were a jovial, fun-loving tribe and thought it would be funny if we wrote Jeff’s name,” she says. “We got through about three votes before production stopped and someone talked to Jeff.”
Probst gave them a talking to about taking it seriously and they went and voted for real.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErZ%2Bippeoe6S7zGiuoZmkYrGwsdJmoZ6elmK9s7vBrKtmnJ9ixKmxzWaroZ1dqMKzwsivpqtlk5a6pr7ArGSaqpWjwW6%2BzqWjoqaXZA%3D%3D