‘Survivor’: Jeff Probst Gets Real About ‘Polite’ Players in New Era

The Tribe Has Spoken

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[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Survivor Season 47 Episode 9.]

There’s a certain viciousness missing in the new era of Survivor. Players still betray each other to win like they always have, but there’s also been a swell of support among the castaways in recent seasons. They congratulate each other on individual immunity wins instead of feeling the competition more fiercely. It’s good sportsmanship that you’d see in the real world, but there are fans of the competition series who would like to see the cutthroat energy return. This is meant to be a grueling fight for $1 million, after all. Jeff Probst addresses the topic of “polite” players in the new era in the most recent episode of the On Fire podcast, which you can listen to in full below.

The reward/individual immunity challenge in Survivor Season 47 Episode 9, which aired on Wednesday, November 13 on CBS, ended with the losing players hugging the winners with big smiles on their faces. Podcast cohost Jay Wolff asked Probst if he’s ever “surprised” to see adversaries play nice like this. Probst revealed that fans might not agree with his feelings about this, seeing as it’s his “dream” scenario.

“Well, this is where I feel I always lose half the audience because I love this part of the new era,” Probst said in On Fire. “Honestly, this is my dream for Survivor. But let me explain why. Before you start throwing things out onto the field, we create a game that we design to push you further than you probably have ever gone or ever will go in your life. So we’re going to test you in ways you cannot predict or replicate, and we’re going to do it while you’re living in a jungle with no food, no shelter, with strangers who are conspiring against you. You’re going to learn things about yourself you didn’t know. You’re certainly going to impress yourself and in doing so, you’re going to inspire others.”

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He continued: “You’re also going to disappoint yourself, and you’re going to do all of it while you’re playing the most fantastic game of deceit where it’s not only OK to lie, it’s mandatory to lie. And the question is how good are you at it? And then hopefully when it’s over, you will have some new lifelong friends because only you all experience this crazy thing together. You’re the only people. Your loved ones will never know what it really felt like. So yeah, when people can play hard and are still able to celebrate others, it lights me up.”

Probst clarified that this doesn’t mean he wants to see less betrayals on the show. He wants the camaraderie, cutthroat strategy, and heartbreak to coexist.

“This is what I want to be clear about: It doesn’t mean that something like a blindside at tribal is not and should not be devastating like Anika’s. Devastation. Remember, it was a full minute after I read the vote before she could even go get her torch. She was so out of her mind. In that moment, I don’t expect or even wish for a player to simply say, oh, no problem, and hug it out. This is situational and it would diminish the tremendous stakes of the game if you didn’t respond, honestly. Me, I’d be destroyed if somebody I truly trusted lied to my face.”

The host then revealed that Anika’s elimination in Season 47 Episode 5 has produced more in-person fan reaction than he’s encountered in a while. It made him curious about the player’s perspective on polite players, so he asked cohost Charlie Davis, who came in second place in Season 46.

“It’s been a long time since fans have commented to me on a blindside like they have with Anika’s,” Probst said. “I was just at a dinner the other night and 20 people were there and they said they loved it and they said they loved it because it was a real reaction. I said, I don’t know that that implication that the other reactions are fake is true or not, but I’m going to ask on our podcast someone who’s played the game. So Charlie, that’s my question. Is there a new expectation in the new era, a new value system that you’re supposed to be polite or is this just every player’s still individual and you respond the way you respond?”

“I think it’s the latter, but bear with me a second because it’s more complex than that,” Davis replied. “Because when you get blindsided or you lose Survivor, however you lose Survivor, there are so many feelings that a player is feeling. It’s because of the stakes. It’s because you’ve been pouring your entire entire being into playing the game, playing as best you can, fighting every single day. And so when that all comes crashing down, your torch is snuffed, you feel so many things at once and part of that might be pride or recognizing, oh, they got me, it was a threat, so I’m going to latch onto that. But part of it might be latching onto an Anika-type reaction or whatever other reaction a player might have. You can’t convey 20 different feelings in 30 seconds a minute if you’re Anika. Maybe she could have gotten one more feeling in there, but she was feeling so strongly that feeling of betrayal. I’m sure she was also thinking, you know what? I played hard out here and somewhere inside of me I’m proud of what happened, but what overwhelmed her in the moment was just the shock. It’s different for everyone.”

What do you think of Survivor castaways playing nice? Let us know in the comments section, and check out the full episode of On Fire below.

Survivor, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS