Survivor Is Dead and Jeff Probst Killed It

There was a moment during the “New Era” of Survivor where I accepted that the show I loved was dead. In its place was a new game wearing the skin of the game I had fallen in love with. A game that I had sunk countless hours into, rewatching old episodes, trolling message boards and facebook groups. A game I would eventually blog and podcast about, sharing the knowledge and opinions I had built up over the 20 year run of what I considered the greatest reality show of all time. 

Survivor went away after their 40th installment Winners at War. Covid delayed the filming of the 41st season and when it returned it had changed forever. Some changes were great, more diversity in casting, an initiative spearheaded by alumni who met with Jeff Probst and other producers in the wake of the George Floyd protests was much needed. However the game itself was different. 

When Jeff Probst returned to my screen in 2021 he peeled back the curtains showing viewers how the sausage was made. He launched a podcast On Fire With Jeff Probst which invited listeners in on the behind the scenes conversations and thought processes that went into the various changes. I was quite excited to hear Jeff’s thoughts and understand why certain decisions were made. Certainly the man who had a front row seat to every iconic moment that the show had produced would have a deep understanding of what made the show great. Unfortunately I quickly discovered a fact that has hung over me while watching the show and the show itself as it is produced. Jeff Probst does not understand Survivor. 

Perhaps even more damning it seems that no one wants to push back against the four time Emmy award winning host. The “New Era” has introduced many twists that have been perplexing but one stands above the rest. Players losing their vote. It’s easy to see how this became a staple of the “New Era”, in the 40th Season the show introduced Fire Tokens, a currency that enabled players to buy certain advantages throughout the course of the game. Indeed it seemed that this would become a mainstay of the series in the same way that Immunity Idols introduced in Season 11 Guatemala and seen in each subsequent season have. Perhaps if Covid had never happened it would have, but it did and in the intervening time Jeff Probst got on a call with Mike White. 

White is a former player and creator of The White Lotus television show. White dissuaded Probst from pursuing his grand vision for a Survivor economy and I believe the show is better for it. Or at least it would be if Probst dropped the idea of implementing a currency at all. I’m not against games involving a currency system, The Devil’s Plan on Netflix showed that if you build the game around that mechanic you can find success. The problem is Survivor has firmly established itself as a social game, the drama and intrigue is driven by the players and their relationships to each other. This is represented by their votes, conversations and promises aren’t real in Survivor, nothing is until the player is in the voting booth putting pen to parchment. 

That’s when you see which plans are real and where everyone truly stands. Unfortunately Fire Tokens have been replaced by votes, players have to risk votes to gain advantages and worse are oftentimes put into positions where they lose their votes simply for finishing in too low a placement during a challenge. We saw four players at risk of losing their votes this past episode, which hamstrung the remaining six players as they were in a strategic purgatory unsure of who would retain their vote and as such who they could incorporate into their plans. 

I won’t deny that the pre-tribal council scramble this delay caused was entertaining. Watching the players positioned and repositioned themselves in order to try to end up on the right side of the votes and enact their own agency as the light slowly faded on Beka beach added a great deal of excitement. Then we went to tribal council and discovered that things were still not set in stone, players were getting up and talking in what has come to be known as a “live tribal”. Eventually Sol was voted out 8-1 and as I thought about it the more I was left with a feeling that this mad scramble strayed closer to artifice than reality. The game was dictating the actions of the players as much as the players were dictating the game. It just reminded me that this isn’t the show it was, and probably won’t ever be again, unless Probst allows the players to play and lets up on the twists. For the record it has now been six episodes since Aysha was voted out in episode 3, six episodes since everyone attending a tribal council was able to vote at it. To me, a long time viewer and Superfan that is not Survivor, Survivor is dead. 

If you enjoyed this blog please check out the Podcast The Blindsiders where I complain about modern Survivor with my co hosts Ben and Dylan. 

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