When it comes to reality competition shows, Survivor is still the gold standard.
For nearly 25 years, Jeff Probst has been a mainstay. While his celebrity status has grown with the show, his goal has always been on keeping the focus on the players and the game itself rather than flashy theatrics or host-driven gimmicks.
Unlike many newer reality shows, Survivor has thrived by keeping its format relatively simple: ordinary people from all walks of life leaving the luxuries of life behind to battle it out on a deserted island in a game designed to test them both physically and mentally.
Probst knows the reality TV landscape has changed. Today’s reality competitions often lean into spectacle, with A-List celebrities turned hosts and crazy twists and turns. While Probst recognizes that other shows have found success in embracing this over-the-top style, he recognizes that Survivor has become an outlier in sticking to relatively the same format. In the process, he threw more than a little shade at other reality shows and one particular host, whose comments made it hard not to think of.
"When Survivor first hit, it was really the first big show of the genre. And so, I think the assumption would be that all shows in this unscripted reality competition would kind of be like Survivor. But really, we're the outlier, because most of the shows have a bigger presence," Probst told Gold Derby. "They have a shiny floor or a runway or a constructed house, or the hosts take on these incredibly entertaining, almost alter ego personalities sometimes. We're still doing that same thing. We're just dropping people in the jungle and getting out of the way."
Although Probst did not name names, it doesn’t take much to read between the lines and pick up on the one rival host in particular that his comments were seemingly directed towards.
We’re referring to The Traitors host Alan Cumming, who has openly spoken about playing a character on Peacock’s Emmy-winning series. While Cumming indeed hosts the show as “Alan Cumming,” the version of him we see on The Traitors is an alter ego, as he told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview discussing the show’s success.
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“I feel like it’s a huge acting job. I think about it as a character. Obviously, it’s me — his name’s Alan Cumming — but obviously it’s not really me. I don’t really sound like that. I don’t dress like that. I don’t have a castle. Alas, that’s too bad.”
To help bring his character to life, Cumming has created an over-the-top persona who he described as being a dandy Scottish laird, Bond villain-type figure who loves quoting Shakespeare and Plato. His character’s flair for the dramatic extends to his wardrobe, which features many statement pieces and bold designs that have made Cumming one of the most beloved hosts in the reality TV game.
Apparently, though, Probst is not exactly a fan of the hosting approach and feels that Survivor has proven they don’t need gimmicks to succeed.
While Probst did not directly call out Cumming or The Traitors in this particular instance, he’s made it clear he’s not a fan of the show.
Last October, Probst threw a bit of shade at The Traitors casting team for targeting icons of Survivor for the casts of the show. He followed that sentiment up in a clip shared by the Survivor YouTube in which he called out shows like The Traitors for poaching their amazingly casted players.
“We find an incredible human and they’re on an incredible season of Survivor, and the next thing you know, these other shows are going ‘Hey, why don’t you come do our show?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, of course you want [them]. That’s a great casting philosophy, just wait for us.’ So I do get a little territorial, I’m not going to lie.”
Probst has since walked back some of the comments, but it’s clear Survivor’s longtime host is not exactly a fan of The Traitors...