Jeff Probst explains why the best Survivor players 'excel at emotional intelligence'

We're only two immunity challenges into Survivor 47, and already, two players have thrown other players under the bus immediately after losing the challenge. It's not a good look for any player, and it's always bad for their game.

Jeff Probst shared his theory on the new episode of On Fire with Jeff Probst about why it happens, and why the best players in Survivor history are the best at navigating those emotional situations.

After the first immunity challenge, Andy Rueda, suffering from heat exhaustion, revealed that he was going to target Jon Lovett in front of every player. Jon was voted out in the season premiere. Meanwhile, Andy is basically a pariah on the Gata tribe, even though Sam Phalen and the tribe are trying to make him comfortable because they need him in the challenges.

After the second immunity challenge, Jeff mentioned that there were some smiles from the Tuku tribe after losing, which definitely rubbed TK Foster the wrong way. He called out the tribe, basically, for smiling after losing. I don't think what he said anything wrong or that wasn't true, but it's sometimes how you say something and when you say something that can be an issue. Remember, there are dozens of people standing around from Jeff to the producers to the camera crew. Emotions are running high, and when you shift the blame from yourself to others, things can get personal very quickly.

Jeff was asked about TK's comments and if he was still surprised that these situations keep happening on the podcast, and he had what I thought was a very thoughtful answer.

"No, it doesn't because you can't separate parts of your personality," Jeff told cohosts Jay Wolff and Charlie Davis. "Everything is interconnected. The competitive part of you that allows you to achieve and excel is the same part of you that gets frustrated when you don't. You know, emotions are often two sides of the same coin. So, you're not special when you get frustrated when you lose or celebrate a little bit too much if you win. You're just you."

Spoken like a true philosopher! Seriously, these weren't like all-time meltdowns in Survivor history, but this is the new era, and I feel like that makes a little bit of a difference. Perceived slights feel a lot worse because it feels, for some players, like they just lost the $1 million in those moments.

Jeff reveals why TK and Tiyana are not wrong for their reactions

The second half of the episode largely revolved around TK and Tiyana, who took exception to TK throwing her tribe under the bus. They squashed things back at camp, allegedly, but it still festered all the way to tribal council and worked its way into the vote.

For Tiyana, the right move might have been to vote out TK, but heading into the challenge, I don't think Tiyana or the other players were really even thinking about taking out TK first. At least, we didn't get to see that.

Jeff elaborated on why TK is valid in his feelings about the challenge.

"And in the case of TK, he believes his passion is the correct response to the situation," Jeff continued. "And, he's not wrong. It is the correct response for him, and that might be the right move. Because if others agree, then he'll get his way and he can push his agenda." But, Tiyana hears it, and she takes it personally."

But, Jeff also agreed that Tiyana was also valid for how she reacted, too!

"But, Tiyana hears it, and she takes it personally, and says, 'Is he talking about me?', Jeff said. "Now, her knapsack of life experiences comes into play, and she gets defensive. She's not wrong either. That's the correct response for her, and in her case, it did turn out to be right, to say something about it, because others did agree. And, that's why the great Survivor players excel at emotional intelligence."

That's a fascinating answer, to me. First of all, it's so awesome how excited Jeff, Jay, and Charlie get about talking about these kinds of things. I also have to hand it to Jeff in his understanding of both sides of this situation. He's seen, almost, everything that can happen in this game. Most people see what happened and think, "Oh, TK's right." Or, they think, "Why is he calling out Tiyana like that? Her reaction is totally justified." But, that's not how this works.

This game operates in a very grey area, and that's why the best players might not be the most physically talented or the best strategists or the best social players, because they get so caught up in the emotions, rather than controlling their emotions and the emotions of others. We've seen the greatest Survivor players know when to apply a little pressure to send someone into a tailspin or bring the best out of someone else to gain an advantage.

To me, the emotional intelligence is the hardest thing to quantify, but it's probably the most important thing in Survivor.

As Charlie pointed out in his reply to Jeff, TK treated his tribe like a sports team, and that's not how Survivor works. It's probably why TK is no longer in Survivor 47, honestly.

"Survivor is not a sports team," Charlie said. "You don't go back to the locker room and hug it out. Instead, you have to plan on who you are going to vote out as soon as you lose. So, instead of having time to make amends after comments in the heat of a loss, you go straight to tribal."

Will the next person voted out of Survivor 47 make the same mistakes TK made? We'll have to wait and see!

That's the story of Survivor 47 so far! Will it stay that way? We'll find out when Survivor 47 episode 3 airs on Wednesday, Oct. 2.