When Jeff Probst first joined the “Survivor” family ahead of filming Season 1 in 1999, he knew that he’d be coming on board as the reality competition series’ illustrious host. In the years since, all while overseeing the journeys of more than 750 individual castaways, Probst has also added titles like executive producer and showrunner to this “Survivor” resume.
During the most recent episode of “Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans,” however, Jeff added “competitor” to the line-up for the first time in series history as he participated in an Immunity challenge alongside the season’s 11 remaining castaways.
Probst’s participation in the competition – prompted by a bet with “The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon – was staged alongside a side-bet, which stipulated that the remaining contestants could earn a bag of rice so long as at least four of them could outlast the 64-year-old host.
Spoiler alert: the castaways who took on Probst’s side bet – Ozzy Lusth, Joe Hunter, Tiffany Nicole Ervin and Jonathan Young – easily succeeded, winning rice for their tribe and humiliating the usually smack-talk-filled host in one fell swoop.
‘It Was So Much Harder Than I Thought,’ Probst Admits
CBS“My forearms are still sore,” Probst told Variety, who joined the cast on set in Fiji for the duration of the historic challenge.
The challenge, titled “Wrist Assured,” tested the castaways’ ability to hold a handle with a rope attached to it for as long as possible. At the opposite end of the rope was a bucket containing 25 percent of each castaway’s pre-game weight.
While Probst was able to outlast four castaways – Rizo Velovic, Emily Flippen, Rick Devens and Cirie Fields – he eventually dropped out of the “barbaric” challenge after seven and a half minutes.
CBSJoe Hunter – who only last year competed in the exact same challenge and nearly broke the all-time “Survivor” record, holding the bucket aloft for an entire hour – eventually won, securing Individual Immunity and a hefty bag of rice for his tribemates.
“It was so much harder than I thought,” Probst told Variety, admitting that he thought he’d have to throw the challenge to ensure fans wouldn’t think his participation was “rigged.”
Probst Worried Fans Would Think His Participation Was ‘Rigged’
“I had this thought: Don’t outlast too many people, because it’ll seem rigged and no one will believe it. And turns out, I could barely outlast anyone,” he added. “There was no concern about somebody thinking this was staged.”
Despite his pre-challenge confidence, Probst revealed that his fears of outlasting everyone went out the window as soon as the challenge began.
CBS“You take the handles and click them back, and instantly, I honestly thought, there’s got to be something wrong with my bucket. Did the art department play a joke on me? Is there a joke that I don’t know about?” he explained. “I asked! I’ll admit I even went to bed thinking: Was my station set up the same as theirs? Even though I know it was because I was making sure of it! But I thought, how can it be this difficult? And I am fit, I work out. I do pull-ups, I have a grip. I gave it everything. I had no more. That was it.”
Granted, Jeff’s performance in the challenge was made all the more difficult by the fact that the entire cast was dedicated to ribbing and jabbing the host with some of his own trademark smack talk.
“You gotta dig deep!” bona fide challenge beast Ozzy Lusth called out several times over the course of the challenge as Probst’s rope began to slip.
While the host later admitted that he was “happy” the players were able to embrace and make fun of him during the challenge, getting a dose of his own medicine was just one of the “litany of excuses” Probst used to justify why he wasn’t able to win the competition.
“I was disappointed and surprised, and then immediately, I started justifying,” he admitted. “I was also hosting, and I’m very depleted from the last year and a half of trying to produce the show.”
In the end, however, Jeff had to reconcile with the fact that it just wasn’t his day.
Probst Says He’ll ‘Never Be the Same’ After Competing on ‘Survivor’
CBSRegardless, Probst told Variety that the experience of competing was one of the most eye-opening he’s had in the last 26 years on the show.
“Beyond the fun of the twist, it was really informative for me. It’s very difficult to do these things. I happened to pick one that was more strength-based, but even watching somebody stand on a narrow beam and balance a ball, I will never again look at it the same way,” he said. “And I’m the one saying, ‘It’s so easy to talk about how well you could do when you’re sitting at home.’ I’ve been that guy for 25 years. I finally got off the couch myself, and I will never be the same.”
