Survivor host Jeff Probst warned us before season 49 began that not unlike a classic Glenn Fry tune, the heat would indeed be on. In fact, he told Entertainment Weekly that the poor souls competing on Survivor 49 would get a “smack in the face” from the intense heat. A smack in the face!
Well, we saw that smack on this week’s episode, when multiple contestants failed in their attempt to even string a few simple words together in the form of a sentence. And on the latest episode of his On Fire podcast, Probst explained that the heat was almost unmatched in the 49-season history of the franchise.
“I don’t really recall any season other than maybe Cambodia, when we had three people go down in one challenge, that was this hot,” Probst says on the podcast. “It was stifling. It was hard to think.”
But Probst isn’t just talking about the contestants. He’s talking about himself! “I was sweating through my shirts,” he reveals. “I was struggling with names and thoughts, and I’m eating and sleeping and, you know, fully supported out there.”
As much as Survivor tries to show the effects that extreme weather and lack of food and proper sleep can have on the body, some things just can’t fully translate through a TV screen. So the host made a decision that he knew could make him look bad to millions of viewers — which was exactly the point.
“I remember [executive producer] Matt Van Wagenen and I talking early on that, ‘Make sure the editors know to leave in every time I stumble with a name or every time I’m struggling to catch my breath.’”
And why would he do that, exactly? “Because we want the evidence to be there that this is really difficult.”
Robert Voets/CBS
Jeremiah Ing, Nicole Mazullo, and Jeff Probst on ‘Survivor 49’
Related: Survivor 49 recap: Will this tribe ever stop losing? (No.)
Check out the Hostmaster General taking one for the team! But the point is a smart one: If you see a super-fit host with all the food, sleep, and shelter one could possibly desire out there struggling in the conditions, just imagine how the players themselves must be feeling.
For Probst, it is another indicator of the challenges posed in Survivor’s new era. “I think it really speaks to the new-era idea of earning everything. Because when you take this kind of heat and then you put on top of it that if you lose, you will not have your tribe supplies — that makes it more difficult. Which means you might lose again, which means you’re going to go back to Tribal Council and you’re going vote somebody out. It just builds on top of everything.”
Only time will tell how many more shirts Probst will sweat through, but to hear more from on the host on what went down this week on Survivor, check out the latest episode of On Fire.
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