Survivor host Jeff Probst talks to Yahoo about endurance - both his and the show's - over the past 25 years. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photo: Robert Voets/CBS via Getty Images)As Survivor approaches its landmark 50th season, the inevitable question hangs in the air: Can the reality juggernaut really keep going forever? The show has outwitted trends, outplayed rivals and outlasted almost every other series of its era on television, redefining the reality genre and our understanding of what it means to compete.
Jeff Probst is at the center of it all, having hosted and, increasingly, steered the show since its debut. Ask him about Survivor's longevity and he doesn't hesitate."I think the Survivor format can live forever. And you can put a period at the end of that sentence," he tells Yahoo.A winning formulaWhat has kept the torch burning all these years? According to Probst, 63, it's the show's elegantly simple premise. A group of strangers is dropped on a remote island and the individuals are left to fend for themselves: forging alliances, building shelter and battling it out in challenges. Only one will win.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAt its heart, Probst explains that Survivor remains "a laboratory for human behavior - a complex social experiment inside a giant adventure." There's something, or someone, we can all relate to. That's why it's still a hit. It was the No. 1 entertainment show 2023-24 season among adults in three key demos.
From the moment Richard Hatch said, "I've got the million-dollar check written already. I mean, I'm the winner," on his very first day on the island in the very first season of the show, Survivor became watercooler fodder, drawing tens of millions of viewers and introducing phrases like "immunity idol" and "the tribe has spoken" into the national lexicon. It was appointment television in an era before streaming, blending game show suspense with real human drama.
Over nearly 25 years, the core formula has endured, even as tribal councils have grown more dramatic and gameplay twists have come and gone. But Probst isn't afraid to shake things up. In 2020, he and the producers launched what they call Survivor's "new era," rebooting the game with fresh strategies and a vibe he says was more inspiring and family-friendly."It was the biggest risk we've taken," Probst admits of the overhaul starting with Season 41. "We essentially closed [a 20-year] chapter and said we're going to birth a new version. Still within the rules of the format as we see it, but it was scary and exciting to make Survivor feel brand new again."AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementProbst, who also serves as an executive producer, admits they "went too far" with some risky twists, like "do or die" - a high-stakes gamble that forced contestants to risk their spot in the game on a luck-based choice - and the hourglass twist, which let one player flip the results of a challenge, turning the winners into targets and the losers into the safe ones. But as Survivor premieres on Wednesday, he believes they've finally found the sweet spot."We all think it's working, and we don't see any need to change it," Probst says. "We'll just continue to play inside this new format."Jeff Probst films Season 48 of Survivor in Fiji. (Photo: Robert Voets/CBS via Getty Images)Survivor's first torchSurvivor started as a summertime gamble for CBS, adapted from a Swedish competition series, when it debuted in 2000. Casting the host was the first piece of the puzzle, and Probst was both an unlikely and unconventional choice.
Probst grew up in Wichita, Kansas, making short films as a teenager before joining his dad at Boeing, where he produced and hosted marketing videos. His first on-camera break came on a Seattle home-and-garden show, and later he landed hosting gigs on FX, Rock & Roll Jeopardy! and Access Hollywood.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt wasn't star power that got him the Survivor job. It was his knack for live television and how he could pull honest, unscripted moments from even the most media-savvy celebrities. In fact, a 1999 television interview with Sandra Bullock first caught the attention of show creator Mark Burnett."The one thing that had been going against me [before Survivor] was that network executives would always say, 'You have talent, but you don't have a name, and we need a name.' Mark said, 'I don't want any name. I just want somebody who I think can handle it,'" Probst recalls. "Even though we're taping [Survivor], it's live. There's not going to be any do-overs. Whatever happens, happens, and you've got to go with it.'"Probst credits Burnett for empowering "me to be me.""He never told me what to say or questioned something I might have asked at Tribal Council, even though I'm sure there were times when he was squirming in his chair," Probst says. "But he made me believe I was doing a good job, which gave me the confidence to continue following m