Jeff Probst on ‘Survivor’ Live Reunion, Themed Seasons, Returning Players

“Survivor” 50 is a milestone season for CBS and for Jeff Probst — and may just be the start of something new. On May 20, the show will air its finale, which will be live in front of an audience for the first time since 2019’s “Edge of Extinction.”

The live finale was one of the many game elements fans voted for during “In the Hands of the Fans.” Another fan vote is currently underway, as viewers can choose their favorite player, to be announced during the live show; Sia will award the player with the most votes with a $100,000 prize.

But the season also introduced many new elements — some that could stay around and others that won’t. Below, Probst hints at what the future of “Survivor” looks like.

Has Season 50 birthed a new era?

Yes. The idea was, can this launch us into our next thing? And I think it did. We said to the players before the game started, “Either you can launch us into the next phase of the game, or we’ll do it without you,” which was just me being the coach in the locker room, trying to encourage them. And I think they did, and how they did that was by showing up and embracing uncertainty.

Will you bring in more celebrities in the future?

It depends on the situation. I have somebody very well known who’s already reached out and said, “Now that I’ve seen what you’ve done, if you could ever use me, I’d like to come out and be a part of the show.” The thing with Zac Brown is that he loves “Survivor.” He’s never missed an episode. He said, “I’d like to be a part of your show.” I’m the producer who says, “I’m open to all ideas. Let’s try it.” Same with Jimmy Fallon. Same with MrBeast. These are all people who said, “I’d like to be a part of it.” I was over the moon excited to have them be a part of it. So, yeah, in the right situation.

Are you keeping the boomerang idol in the game now?

It’s in our arsenal; it could come out. Anything we’ve ever done, pretty much, is in our bag. Some people may think, “They’ll never bring this idea back” — I don’t know. Don’t be so sure about that, because the fact that somebody thinks we might not bring something back is all the more reason to bring it back immediately. I look at everything as IP. This is all part of the show. And you never know.

Does that mean you could bring back themes?

Yes, I think, in the future. We decided, for the new era, we’re going to number the seasons, and we’re going to stick with numbering the seasons. But moving forward, I don’t feel that we need to be locked into not doing a theme in the same way that I don’t think we have to do themes from now on. If, during casting, we discover a “David vs. Goliath” theme, it’s very likely we’ll do it, then the next could just be the number. The inconsistency is also another thing that we’re embracing. Let’s just do what’s best for the show and not worry about the overall symmetry. So all things are on the table moving forward.

Does the same go for bringing back returning players?

There’s nothing on the horizon, but they’re very fun to do — for us as well. And now we have enough players, we might be able to pull off something that includes returning players sooner than the period of time we had since the last one. But I don’t know. We know what we’re doing for 51 and 52. That’s it.

I have a random question: What happened to the mirror that used to be on the island for the players to see themselves toward the end?

Here’s a criticism I listened to! A few players told me that it was really emotionally disturbing to see what they looked like while they were still in the game, and I took that to heart. They were saying, “It’s hard for me now, because now I have self-awareness.” Literally, the idea of a mirror, of reflection, is not good, because now it’s a visual of looking tired — you’ve lost weight, your face is dirty — versus the mirror you may have inside of being a warrior who’s been through a gallant battle. The first person who ever said it, I was like, “Done. I would not want that either. I’d never thought about it. I’ve never been in this position. Thank you very much.”

You mentioned before that you see the show continuing whenever it is you leave — hopefully many years into the future. Do you feel like it should be a former player?

It probably, ultimately, won’t be my decision, but it could be a player. I don’t think there are any qualifications. Here’s the only thing I ever say anytime an executive has asked me about hosts and how to hire them: If you hire based on a look or social media following, you’re picking the wrong attributes. What you really want is a producer who is capable of presenting in front of the camera. You don’t want a host. The host has this idea of a long, skinny mic and a cool suit and a snappy batter. That’s not “Survivor.” “Survivor” is an in-the-moment show, and the reason I’m so grateful to be showrunner is not because that makes me the boss. It’s because I don’t have to ask permission to do anything I want as the host.

I don’t want to leave “Survivor,” but if I forecast into the future, I get really excited thinking about someone else taking over to see what they would do with it. Then I become the fan, going, “Oh, my gosh! They tried that. I never thought of that.”

How did it feel leaving Fiji with the votes this time?

That was fun. It was crazy because that’s all we ever did, and we stopped. Then to walk out and say, “I’ll see you back in Los Angeles for the reading of the live votes” was exhilarating. I’m still exhilarated now. I’m excited to do it. It’s a lot of work to put on a live finale in between shooting two seasons and hosting the season that’s currently on — it adds a ton of work. I’m super pumped. The whole team is back from our live show, and we’ve got a big stage and as many seats. That was the number one goal: let’s make the stage beautiful and ornate, and then let’s clear as much space as possible to get as many seats as possible.

So, will you keep doing a live finale going forward?

The thing that players don’t like to hear is that when they’re in the jungle, right after the show ends, that’s the most honest they are. They may not really know that or feel that, but they’re honest, and they’ve not been persecuted by social media. Every single player gets annihilated for things they don’t deserve — mostly from people who mean well, but they’ll never play, so they’ll never understand how out of touch comments like that are and how much they hurt. So you get players when they’re pure and they’re unaffected by the impact of social media in Fiji. When you do a live finale, all you get is defense. The live finale becomes people defending, and for me, from a storytelling standpoint, I never find it as interesting. So I get the pomp and circumstances, it’s super fun, but I think we’re going to change the format for the finale — make it more of a three-hour event, rather than a two-and-a-half-hour finale and a 30-minute reunion show.

We want to celebrate as we go. When you sit down and just rehash, it’s never satisfying. This year, the way we’re doing it, I’m pretty excited about it. We reimagined how we were going to do it, and it feels very fresh, big and equally fun. When we sat down initially, the first thing I suggested was, what if we don’t do a reunion show and instead, we take that time and sprinkle it in throughout the final episode? I think it’s gonna be more fun and exciting to take pauses along the way. It feels like a reinvention that feels right for where we are now, and it’s more inclusive of everybody. Our finales are so packed that we don’t really have enough time. The idea this time is: Let’s take the entire three hours, do it as one event. And then when it ends, it feels complete.

The “Survivor” finale airs on CBS on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET. This interview has been edited and condensed.