‘Survivor’: Jeff Probst Reveals If The Twists Will Continue

It’s no secret that a lot of Survivor fans think the show has gone a little overboard in recent years with the twists. Between the Super Idols, the nullifiers, the Steal a Vote, Edge of Extinction — the list goes on and on and there are so many nowadays.

In our reader poll, the ones that topped the list of twists the fans are hoping never to see again include Edge of Extinction at No. 1, fire tokens at No. 2, and the final four fire-making challenge at No. 3 — and those three twists combined earned over 80 percent of the total vote.

However, according to host Jeff Probst, the twists aren’t going anywhere… though Edge of Extinction might be taking a break, even if it was paramount to getting an all-winners season off the ground. Read on to find out what Probst has said on the subject.

Host Jeff Probst Likes the Twists

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While some fans may be clamoring for the days of a more simplified game, host Jeff Probst likes having twists. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight Canada, Probst defended the twists, saying the last thing they want is for the show to grow stale for viewers.

“What I do feel in my soul is that when shows get stale is when the audience leaves,” said Probst. “So even to Survivor fans who say ‘I wish for the old days when there weren’t twists and turns and hidden immunity idols,’ I think maybe you do, but maybe you’d be bored … For me on Survivor, my deal with the fans who watch the show and the people who play is I can only promise you this — we will always try to make it unpredictable and we will always try to go deeper into the human experience.”

He then directly addressed the Edge of Extinction twist, saying that for him, it’s about “spiritual death and rebirth and it had a game element — you have a second chance to get back in. My focus was on how far are you willing to go for that and in the process what might you learn about yourself?”

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While he later told Rob Cesternino’s podcast that he has heard the criticism and they’re “not going to do Edge for a while,” he told ET Canada that for as long as he has a say, twists are “probably the direction the show will go.”

“I just wish people understood, I’m truly coming from love,” Probst told Cesternino. “This whole show changed my life. I would be nowhere without you guys. I just wish it was a little more harmonious, rather than some of the stuff people say on social media that’s just so… hateful.”

And Edge of Extinction Played a Big Part in Getting ‘Winners at War’ Off the Ground

Interestingly, if it weren’t for the Edge of Extinction twist, the show might have had trouble getting all the winners it did to say yes to “Winners at War.”

Probst told Entertainment Weekly that Edge of Extinction let him go to the past winners and tell them they would not be sent home right away, which he thinks was a big factor in some of their decisions.

“I did feel that when we called winners, that if they thought it was one and out — ‘I’m voted out and I’m done’ — their chances of saying yes were not as high as if it would be if I said ‘No matter what, you will have another shot at the prize,’” said Probst.

He added, “One player after another would say, ‘Are you doing something like Edge? Tell me you are.’ And I said, ‘I can’t tell you what we’re doing. I can only tell you you’ll have a fair shot to win the game.’ And they all read between the lines, which is what I wanted them to do. It’s fair. And so Edge of Extinction is really saying, in a season in which you are lucky enough to get these winners to come back and play again, give ‘em a chance to play.”

Survivor hopes to film season 41 in the spring of 2021 for a fall 2021 premiere.

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