As “Survivor” celebrates 25 years, it’s protected to say the CBS reality series has evolved quite a bit since its 2000 premiere — with a lot of those changes spearheaded by host and showrunner Jeff Probst.
During a panel at American Cinematheque’s “This Is Not a Fiction” festival, Probst reflected on the last twenty years, including the indisputable fact that the primary winner wasn’t well liked.
“Richard Hatch was a villain. [He] purposely did things like got naked because he knew it will make people uncomfortable, say things that will drive people crazy. We couldn’t imagine he won the sport. We’re like, ‘Our show is doomed!’ Essentially the most unlikely, unlikeable person won,” Probst said. “The show starts airing and other people were like, ‘If Richard wins, I’m never gonna watch his show again.’ After which Richard wins, and that’s all anybody’s talking about.”
Luckily, everybody continued to look at the show. After Season 40, Probst and the team were ready to alter up the sport. They’ve began rolling out the Latest Era starting with Season 41 — and can proceed to dive more into that.
“I do think there’s still quite a lot of ground on this latest game that hasn’t been discovered. Rachel LaMont, who won ‘Survivor’ used her shot at midnight in a extremely interesting method to form of just test the waters,” he said. “That was something we never anticipated that someone would do, so we expect there’s still a ton of game.”
With the upcoming fiftieth season, which is able to feature all returning players, fans play an enormous part within the casting and gameplay, voting on how things will work. Some hope that idols will go away while others are only wanting the return of the live finale and reunion.
“Live finale could occur. It’s super fun,” Probst, noting that the show shall be doing regardless of the fans vote on — even when he doesn’t agree. “Possibly there’s a few of you here today who desire a season with no idols, no switches. I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be more boring than you think that… So I’m hoping people vote to let the players play, and that they need idols in the sport, but we’ll see. It’s fun to look at the tallies. We’ve done a pair. You voted on things already. It’s very fun to see. I nervously click the link sent to me, considering, ‘Please be something fun.’”
“Survivor” Season 48 is currently airing on CBS on Wednesdays.
