As a former three-time player and someone who has won the game, there is no doubt that Jeremy Collins has an extremely well-informed perspective on Survivor.
As a result, fans should take it seriously when Collins named who he thought was the "best Survivor player in the world," and when he gave his take on a controversial challenge tactic.
On top of his lengthy Survivor past, Collins has also been willing to express opinions about the show that could outrage fans, like when he argued Parvati Shallow isn't a true two-time winner. With that in mind, it shouldn't shock anyone that Collins was willing to be brutally honest about when Jeff Probst and the team behind Survivor should pull players from the game.
Jeremy Collins was blunt about when players should be pulled from the game
Since February 2023, each new episode of Survivor that has aired has been accompanied by the release of a new "On Fire with Jeff Probst: The Official Survivor Podcast" episode. For the podcast episodes that are being released alongside Survivor 49, they are being co-hosted by Jeff Probst, Jeremy Collins, and Jay Wolff.
In his role as one of the podcast's co-hosts, Jeremy reacted to the frightening medical evacuation of Survivor 49's Jake Latimer.
Probst spoke about Latimer being pulled from the game following a snake bite. After there were initially fears that Latimer's life could have been in danger, doctors concluded that the snake that bit Latimer didn't inject venom into his body. Despite that, Latimer was still pulled from the game. Probst explained one reason Latimer was still pulled was that he had been given fluids that could have been an advantage if he'd been allowed to re-enter the game.
"If you really wanna get into the nitty gritty, he had a lot of IVs and fluids and all sorts of things being injected into him, and you could say, 'Well, that's too much of an advantage." So, we made the right decision," Probst said.
In response to that remark from Probst, Collins immediately agreed that Latimer shouldn't have been allowed to re-enter the game even after they concluded that he wasn't in any danger. The former Survivor winner agreed that getting an IV and then being able to rejoin your tribe would be too big of an advantage.
"As a gamer, yes, I agree with that 100%," Jeremy said. "If you send somebody out and they get all the IVs and fluids and then they come back in the game, that's a huge advantage."
Even though Collins only echoed Probst's remarks, I feel like a statement like that coming from a former player is harsher than when the show's host made the same argument.
After all, former players could imagine how it would feel to be pulled from the game when it would be safe for them to rejoin the competition. In Collins' case, he has repeatedly experienced the weeks of anticipation before getting to play the game, having to put his entire life on hold, and more. So, Collins would mostly understand how devastating being pulled in that situation almost certainly would be.