If, in a game of word association, you’re only allowed to say one word to make your partner guess Survivor, chances are you’re going to say “Probst.” Because as far as connections go, Jeff Probst is synonymous with Survivor—and vice versa.
And in a new interview (below), the long-time host, executive producer, and showrunner sits down live with Richard Rushfield for The Ankler to talk about all the things fans want to know about the long-running hit reality competition show.
After sharing a bit about what his life was like before landing his iconic role as the face of Survivor, Probst and Rushfield go into the details of that very first season (Survivor: Borneo) and what went into it. “Mark [Burnett] and I talked a lot about the vernacular of the show, and we agreed we don’t want to say ‘game’ or ‘players’.”
Probst recounts how strange it felt filming that first season sharing a language that had never been used for reality television before. If you watch back Borneo, you’ll see a lot more moments of Probst explaining game elements like tree mail—something so widely known as existing in the world of Survivor that they barely even show it in the edit anymore. It’s just assumed that before heading to any challenges, the castaways got a little rhyming clue of what to expect.
“I knew that I would be mocked,” he laughs, looking back on how ridiculous some of the—now famous—phrases for the show felt, having never used them before. “I say some of the weirdest stuff, I say ‘fire represents life,’ and ‘the tribe has spoken,’ and all these things, but I also really did believe that if we could create a world and I could be a part of it where what you thought was [that] we’ve been around forever. You’re the ones catching up.’
And it worked! Both of those phrases—and more—used in that very first season have been in the pop culture zeitgeist over the last 26 years. And just as Probst is synonymous with Survivor, you can’t hear those phrases and not think of him, either.
From Day 1, he and the entire team behind Survivor knew exactly what they were buying into. And now, as we venture into Survivor 51 and the new “open era,” those classic moments still bring us so much joy. For as much as the show has changed and evolved with the players over the years, the heart of the game hasn’t changed a bit.
Watch the full interview below:
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