SURVIVOR host Jeff Probst Is Already Planning for Season 50
By Movieguide® Contributor
There’s an old saying that goes, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
SURVIVOR host, Jeff Probst believes in that statement when it comes to his job that’s now on the 48th season.
Probst has already begun to plan for season 50.
“When you’re in an executive producer position, you have to have a global look at the show,” he told Variety. “I can’t just be worried about this season. I have to go, ‘How are we going to get to 50?’ And then, ‘What’s 51? How do we get to 60?’ So, I’m always taking a big picture view.”
“I just started a file for Season 51. Because I thought, I have an idea of something fun for 50, and then what are we going to do for 51? Not some dramatic change but another layer. It does take time to think about,” he continued. “The file for 51, it’s just scribbles. But you have to be great every time; you can’t have a lousy season of ‘Survivor.’”
Probst is feeling the pressure to plan something big for season 50 but he enjoys the pressure.
“But the pressure is with a smile,” he said. “This is the greatest job I will ever have. I do not want to be the one to drop the glass ball. I care so much. We’re not going to get stuck out of fear.”
Being one of the show’s best hosts, although Porbst would never admit it, many believe “it’s impossible to imagine the show without him. But he doesn’t see it that way.”
“I don’t think that’s true at all. I get why people say it, because I’ve been the only face. But if I ever left ‘Survivor’ and it continued on, there are lots of types of people that could bring a whole new perspective to it,” he explained. “I wouldn’t suggest hiring a television host. I’d say hire a curious person, who’s interested in people … I always feel like the mistake that networks make is they hire a name or hire somebody based on how they look, and they don’t hire a producer. You should hire a producer who happens to work in front of the camera.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Season 50:
“I just got an idea. SURVIVOR 50 is coming down the corner. The truth is, we really do focus on 47 and 48, that’s what we’re headed out to shoot next, and then we have to shoot 49. But we know 50 is coming, so I am curious, is there a feeling, should 50 be another season with new players and don’t make it a big deal?” Probst asked the the live audience. “Or should it be returning players?”
The crowd made it clear that they heavily favored bringing players back, shouting “no” to the first question and cheering when Probst asked the second one.
“In the spirit of sometimes letting the game be in the hands of the fans, I feel like—and there are a couple of people from CBS right now going, ‘Oh my God, what is happening?’—I feel like we should just commit and make this the moment where we decide that SURVIVOR 50 will be returning characters,” he said.
“I don’t know what is going to happen after his, but I’m pretty sure we’re committed,” he added.
It is not surprising that the show is doing something special for the major milestone of 50 seasons. In the past, it has celebrated similar achievements through special themes. Season 20 saw the combination of past heroes and villains, while Season 40 was comprised solely of returning winners. With Season 50 in the pipeline, Probst is concerned with how the show will truly set this milestone apart.
“If we get to 50, what are we going to do?” he told Entertainment Weekly in an earlier interview. “What is the idea that would be fun to do?”
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