Jeff Probst reflects on the moment he became Survivor’s showrunner

We’ve always seenJeff ProbstasSurvivor’sleader thanks to his public-facing hosting duties for the show since its conception in 2000. But behind the scenes, it wasn’t until 2010 (around the time ofSurvivor: Nicaragua) that he actually got the full-title of showrunner and executive producer.

And apparently, it was creator and executive producer Mark Burnett’s wife, Roma Downey, that finally realized Probst needed to have more responsibility on set.

So when Probst sat down with Richard Rushfield forThe Ankler(in a video interview below), we finally got some more details about his transition from the show’s host to so much more.

“I’ve never really talked about this with our crew,” Probst says of the story of how he became showrunner, “but there were a lot of decisions being made in the days leading up to the start [of the season] and everybody kept coming up to ask me, and not the executive producer.”

While Burnett and Downey were both on location visiting the set, it was Downey who noticed the crew was turning to Probst, trusting him to make decisions and talk through updates in real-time.

“But here’s the thing…” theEmmy-nominatedhost continues, “we promote when people aren’t ready, or don’t feel they’re ready for the job, because we see the potential. That’s what happened with me. Now I can look back and realize, I wasn’t ready, I had never led anything like this, I had so much to learn.”

And on a set with a team as supportive as the one forSurvivoris, Probst was given the job and allowed to navigate it as he saw fit. No one was above him telling him he was making the wrong decisions, they simply let him figure it out for himself and learn what was best for the show.

Probst recounts, “Mark, once again, believed in me and said, ‘It’s yours. Take it and run.’ And then everybody that worked with me, even though they might have been talking smack about me behind my back, they didn’t let me see that. They just continued to let me believe I was doing a good job.”

And learning on the job was one of the best things that could have happened to Probst because it was humbling. It allowed him a chance to move forward, looking back on decisions he made and deciding if it was right or not. In fact, he claims, “it’s embarrassing to think back [on] things I might have said or decisions I might have made because I didn’t know…”

But at the end of the day, Probst’s best advice is, “try to have some grace with yourself.” Even now, 50 seasons in, he says he’s, “trying my best, [but] I don’t think I’m the best at anything. I’m just trying to domybest version of it.”

And for the fans at home watching season-after-season, we can absolutely say that we think Probst’s best version of leading the show has been phenomenal. He’s done a great job of delivering anentertaining, heartfelt showthat people sitting on their couch feel connected enough to that they’re still getting tens of thousands of applications to playSurvivorevery year.

“And now,” Jeff laughs, “what’s ironic, is the job I wanted so much doesn’t even feel like mine anymore. I don’t feel like ‘I'm in charge ofSurvivor.’ I’m just one of the people that make this show.”

Watch the full interview below:

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