With the hype around the 50th season of Survivor, one of the questions on everyone’s minds was whether or not host Jeff Probst would be retiring from his on-screen duties any time soon. And though he’s made it very clear that he’s not planning to leave the show in the near future, fans continue to pitch the players they’d hope to see take on the mantle.
Fan favorite players like Rick Devens, Boston Rob Mariano, Rob Cesternino, Colby Donaldson. Stephen Fishbach are often thrown in to the ring, but Jeff has never flat out commented on who he would want to see fill his shoes should he leave the show…until now.
In a new interview with Parade, the long-time host has shared that he knows exactly the kind of person who would need to replace him—and he might have met them when casting the latest season.
“It’s a very, very, very small list…” - Jeff Probst on who could replace him.
As the topic was set on the table during this interview, he first made it very clear that, “you need a producer who can host. I was never just a host.” Because while we know him as the man in front of the camera leading the show, he’s also the man behind the camera leading the show. While he started as a host, it quickly became clear that he was an important person that needed to be included in all decisions on the show.
He was added to the production team in 2003 around the release of Survivor: The Amazon and was later named showrunner in 2010, adding him to the executive producing team in time for Survivor: Nicaragua.
For those who don’t know, a showrunner is—just as it sounds—the person who really manages all facets of a TV show. For Survivor, Jeff acts as liaison between the network and the production, marrying creative visions with budgets in order to ensure everything hits the mark and runs smoothly. He’s in the pre-production rooms, on-site during filming, and making decisions in post-production as well.
He is truly the "Jeff of all trades" for Survivor. Which is why he’s someone who will be so hard to replace. Hard, but not impossible according to his latest statement.
“You know, every so often I meet a player… There’s actually somebody in Season 51 that in casting, I think I said to them, ‘You could probably host this show,’ meaning your instincts as a storyteller and about people are so good that you could probably sit in this chair and you’d be just fine.”
And while the cast of Survivor 51 hasn’t been officially announced, the teaser released at the end of Survivor 50 has helped people connect leaked player lists to faces, confirming who our 21 new players are. So if we weren’t already excited for a new season this fall, the fact that we’ll meet the person Jeff feels could replace him has definitely piqued our curiosity.
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