The host hopes that players will use the mystery to lie about the results in the game.

Jeff Probst was ‘genuinely surprised’ by Survivor 50 fan voting results

The host hopes that players will use the mystery to lie about the results in the game.

By Dalton Ross

Dalton Ross is a writer and editor with over 25 years experience covering TV and the entertainment industry. *Survivor* is kind of his thing.

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February 2, 2026 11:15 a.m. ET

Jeff Probst and the cast of 'Survivor 50'. Credit:

Jeff Probst is not only the host of *Survivor*, but he is the showrunner as well. That means he gets to make the final call on all key decisions impacting not just the game, but the season as a whole. Yet he ceded some of that power for the big anniversary season of *Survivor 50* (premiering Feb. 25 on CBS), allowing viewers to vote on 11 key categories as part of the “In the Hands of the Fans” campaign.

Sure, some of the categories (such as whether advantages should have Minimal Power, Strategic Power, and Dynamic Power) seemed a bit nebulous, but other ones (such as if twists should be rare or abundant, and if the show should ditch the final four fire-making contest and go back to a regular vote-out) could have a major impact on the game.

While Probst was turning the power over to the fans, he still held his own opinions on how *he* would vote in some of the categories.

Jeff Probst on 'Survivor 50'.

Robert Voets/CBS

“I would never give the players rice,” Probst told ** a year ago before the voting had opened. “Never. Because I think having your cognitive ability start to decline quickly makes it more interesting because people can't remember what lie they told. So if somebody was asking me, ‘Jeff, what would you vote for?’ I'd say absolutely do not vote for anything that makes it easier. But there's going to be a tendency from somebody who wants to make their impact on the game, so they might vote opposite of whatever we're doing. Okay, do that. It's not what I would do.”

So when we sat down with the host in Fiji a few months later during filming on *Survivor 50*, after all the results had been tabulated and were starting to be put into play, we couldn’t help but wonder if he was surprised by some of the outcomes.

“I *was* surprised,” Probst reveals. “I was genuinely surprised. But I had given in to doing whatever the vote was, right?”

7:23 The Cast of ‘Survivor 50’ Reveals Who They Want to Vote Out First

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That meant whatever the fans decided went, regardless of the host’s views. And we may have already seen that discrepancy play out with the announcement that viewers voted the pre-taped after-show (of which Probst was a fan) off the island in favor of a return to the old-era live reunion show back in the United States.

Watch cast members of 'Survivor 50' vote their first players out of the game (exclusive)

On the beach for 'Survivor 50': An exclusive, all-access first look at the biggest season ever

But for Probst, there really were no wrong answers. “That was honestly the biggest hurdle from the beginning,” he explains. “Somebody would say, ‘So you're sure you're okay if these votes come in, in this sort of fashion?’ CBS kept saying, 'This is a legal thing. You can't just change your mind!' But we just kept looking at the game and thinking: *What if what the fans wanted was to give them rice, give them supplies, have no idols?* They could all be about relationships and no advantages and twists. Great! You look at this group, they could do it.”

The biggest difficulty for the host with the fan vote was getting used to the uncertainty while mapping out the season… and being patient. “I'm used to being in charge of the game and knowing what's coming and knowing that there are turning points in the episodes and things that are going to change the story. And in this case, you don't know that. So every time we did a new vote, I would just wait for the results to come in.”

He continues: “We have to go with what the fans want and then we have to figure out how to produce around that. Whether it's a full scale, go and do what you want, or whether it's a severe limitation because of a decision they made. That is what was the key to that idea working is it doesn't matter what the fans decide, what matters is you don't know *what* they've decided.”

While speaking on day 3 of the game, Probst was hoping that one of the players might even use that fan vote mystery as a strategy. “I'll be really curious if anybody will try to use the fact that nobody knows for sure and be like ‘I'm going to tell you that I know.’ That's what I would do is say, ‘Look, I got a note and there’s nothing in the game,’ or ‘I got to note and everything's in the f---ing game.’ Or ‘I got a note and there's new things in the game.’ Whatever it is, you don't know if I know or not.”

Probst’s ultimate goal is that the fans feel even more invested in the season, having helped chart the creative course. And he already gives them credit for one of their choices. “Even the color scheme they picked is fantastic!”

- Survivor Fandom

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Source: “EW Survivor”