<\/p>\n
The strictest rules on Survivor<\/em><\/a> come before the game is played. Production has stringent expectations from potential contestants in the casting process, especially when casting reaches the final in-person interviews stage. Once they\u2019re on the island in the days before filming, the No. 1 rule is not to talk to any other player. The same applies when the casting finalists are in the same hotel and about to do their last interviews. Jeff Probst<\/a> detailed the show\u2019s expectations for would-be castaways on an On Fire<\/em> podcast episode, reacting to Survivor 49<\/em><\/a> Episode 8. He said he\u2019s sure that people must have broken these no-talking rules on the final interview day and \u201cgotten away with it,\u201d but when they\u2019re caught, production takes it very seriously.<\/p>\n The topic came up through a fan question submitted to the\u00a0Survivor<\/em> aftershow podcast<\/a>. The fan wondered if players quit their jobs before filming begins and who they\u2019re allowed to tell about being cast. Probst told co-hosts Jeremy Collins<\/a> (Survivor: <\/em>Cambodia<\/em> winner) and Jay Wolff that there\u2019s \u201cno hard, fast rule.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe keep a very tight lid on who knows who\u2019s going to be on Survivor<\/em>,\u201d Probst said. \u201cVery few people at CBS<\/a> know. Very few people on our crew know. We use initials and internal code names, and we\u2019re changing it all the time. In terms of who the player can tell, there\u2019s not a hard, fast rule, but it\u2019s very specific. It\u2019s typically your primary person. It could be your partner or it could be your parents. Occasionally, we\u2019ve let people tell their boss, and they tell us, \u2018Look, my boss won\u2019t say anything. They\u2019re a Survivor<\/em> fan as well.\u2019 It\u2019s basically, we\u2019re just trying to keep the integrity of the game. In this sense, what we say to the players is everything we\u2019re going to go through together now starts with trust.\u201d<\/p>\n He then explained the rules for casting finals.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the finals for casting, when we do the in-person interviews, we usually gather at one of several different hotels,\u201d Probst said. \u201cAnd so a person who has made it to this point might see another person that they suspect might be at the hotel for the same reason. And we\u2019re very clear with everybody that if you decide to try to play detective and figure out who somebody is or contact them before the game, and we find out, you\u2019re off the show. You\u2019re never invited back. And as we all know, we have rules. That\u2019s why MC [Chukwujekwu]<\/a> got on this season. But really, we don\u2019t want that to happen. So I\u2019ll just say to future players, Survivor<\/em> is really fun. So if you\u2019re in the running or if you get put on the show, just play by the rules, and that includes who you tell that you\u2019re on the show in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJeff, how often does that happen?\u201d Collins asked. \u201cDo you find people try to reach out to other people? Does that happen a lot?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cVery rare,\u201d Probst replied. \u201cI\u2019m sure people have done it and gotten away with it. I\u2019m sure it has to have happened. I\u2019m just issuing this warning: If we find out \u2014 and sometimes the way we find out is the player you reached out to lets us know \u2014 just remember you are playing the game the minute you apply, and your best advice is to play by the rules. Because what\u2019s so fun about Survivor<\/em> is, there are virtually no rules once you get in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n In Survivor 49<\/em>, for the first time in Survivor<\/em> history, two players were cut from the game less than 12 hours before filming began due to violating these no-talking rules. That\u2019s how this season\u2019s alternates, Chukwujekwu and Jason Treul<\/a>, ended up in the game. Probst previously told TV Insider<\/a> that the two players were cut because they repeatedly tried to talk to each other during the pre-game sequester in Fiji. They were warned multiple times, but the \u201cblatant disrespect,\u201d as Probst described it, continued, prompting Probst to make the call to remove them from the cast.<\/p>\n