‘Survivor’: Jeff Probst Reacts to Rachel’s ‘Banger’ Tribal Line & Epic Performance in Finale Part 1

The Tribe Has Spoken

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[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Survivor Season 47 finale Part 1.]

Rachel’s Survivor 47 competitors better hope she doesn’t make it past the fire challenge in next week’s finale, because her performance in the finale’s first part just made it her game to lose. On the On Fire aftershow podcast, Jeff Probst reacted to her epic game play in Season 47 Episode 13, which included her hiding in bushes to eavesdrop on her opponents’ conversations, blocking a vote, using her hidden immunity idol in a tribal council that was meant to be her “funeral,” and winning individual immunity when it counted most. She’s truly the season’s best player, and it will take considerable effort and some great luck to stop her from winning the $1 million.

Early in the two-hour episode (next week’s finale Part 2 is also two hours), Rachel spied on her competitors when they returned from Tribal Council. She took advantage of the pitch-black darkness surrounding them on the beach and hid in nearby bushes to listen in. It was in this conversation that she learned about Genevieve’s idol, but it was misinformation. Genevieve and Sam had made a fake idol together as part of Operation Italy, but only Genevieve and Sam knew that. Listening in here was still valuable for Rachel, however, because she learned she was the next target.

Probst revealed in On Fire how the camera crew got away with filming this moment without giving away Rachel’s position.

“The first part maybe seems vague, but they’re just incredibly experienced reality shooters and audio gatherers,” he began, but added, “Secrecy is essential, not just for Rachel [but] also for the people on the beach having their own conspiratorial conversation.” He continues: “Reading body language or anticipating where a story is going is also essential when you’re a camera operator or an audio gatherer because at any given moment on any given day on Survivor, our shooters and audio teams are co-conspirators with different players depending on what is happening. So on one hand, they’re secretly shooting a group of people in the sand while another crew is secretly shooting Rachel. And on top of all of this, the darkness doesn’t just impact the players, it impacts our crew as well.”

Probst’s answer then revealed the thought process behind their editing decision to cut to black while the players were talking. The crew “can’t see either,” he explained. “When the sun sets in Fiji, there’s no ambient light in the middle of the Pacific ocean. That is why we took a moment and took the screen to black, so you could actually imagine. Because that is what it looks like.”

Then there came some valuable intel about why Survivor films every second they can. “We shoot hours and hours of players talking about their favorite foods, all sorts of things that will never end up in the show,” Probst explained to cohosts Jay Wolff and Charlie Davis. “We do this for two reasons: No. 1 and most importantly, you never know when a conversation about a player’s favorite recipe is going to turn into talk of a blindside. But No. 2 is we also do it so the players never have any idea if what we’re shooting is noteworthy or not.”

“What I mean by that is, just because we follow someone into the jungle, it doesn’t mean that person’s looking for an idol,” Probst goes on. “Ninety percent of the time they aren’t. The reason this is valuable to a player is that it helps them relax a little bit about the cameras and keep their attention where it should be: on the other players. That is where the game moves. Don’t worry about us.”

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As Andy, Sam, Genevieve, and Teeny conspired to vote Rachel out (Sue refused to join in on their plan), Rachel knew she was safe with her secret immunity idol. As Andy tried to play some jury management (aka telling the target they’re the target to garner favor once they’re in the jury), Rachel was sitting on the knowledge that she was completely safe. Seeing Andy openly admit to using her to improve his game made Rachel change course on her voting plan and turn the tides on him.

“She really primed him to open up to her by saying, ‘I don’t think anyone’s taking you seriously at all,'” Davis said in On Fire. “She’s gathering information even though she knows that she’s safe with that idol.”

Rachel used her block-a-vote advantage against Sam, leaving the only five out of six votes on the table. And she let the players and jury believe she was going home during Tribal talks to make her idol plot twist all the more impactful when it came time to read the votes. And then she delivered what Wolff called a “banger” of a line: “I think the only thing better than attending your own funeral is knowing that you’re going to wake up alive the next morning.” Probst’s On Fire reaction was a very pleased, “That’s pretty good.”

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Rachel was safe; no votes against her counted. And with the majority of them being for her, it only took two votes to send Andy into the jury. Probst reacted to Andy’s jury management on the podcast. While it was a mistake in this episode, and while openly declaring that the vote will go your way is often a one-way ticket to jinxing yourself, Probst doesn’t think it’s always a bad move.

“You have seen times on the show when the person going home is told they’re going home, and it is the person going home, and people are very strategic about how they handle being in charge of that, saying ‘I just want to let you know, it’s you. I’m sorry it’s you, but I didn’t want you to be blindsided,'” he said. “That can garner some favor if you get to the end … It’s a risk-reward like everything on Survivor, but you’ve got to trust your gut. I think Andy is in a hole in trying to win this game, so he’s going to need every vote he can get. Maybe it was a hail Mary that didn’t work, but it showed that he’s playing and playing hard.”

Later on, Probst said that both Andy and Genevieve (the other player voted out in this episode) had to audition a couple of times before making it onto the show. He said that “Andy personifies everything I love about Survivor” because of his willingness to show his authenticity, vulnerability, and “struggles.” “He owned his horrible start, he claimed victory with Operation Italy. I really enjoyed having Andy on the show,” Probst said. And as for Genevieve, Probst thinks she “could’ve won this game had she gotten to the end.” A Survivor tale as old as time.

Tune into On Fire for more inside looks at this season of Survivor.

Survivor, Season 47 Finale Part 2, Wednesday, December 18, 8/7c, CBS