Posted June 9 2015 — 11:42 AM EDT
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Talk about what it’s like kicking off a new season. You’ve been working on this for months and months. You finally get here, it’s day one. What’s it like when you get to this point?
JEFF PROBST: We started this Second Chance process almost seven months ago, and here we are shooting it. There is an excitement around day one that is hard to explain unless you’re here. It’s the culmination of seven months of creative that you’re laying out and essentially turning over to a bunch of other people to go play. So you want it to be good, you want it to work. We have this great opening plan where we’re going to do something we did the first season, and you’re going to see chaos and scrambling out of the gate. It’s very exciting. And it’s not lost on me that this is the greatest gift I could have ever been given, to be still doing this 15 years later.
The fan voting was a phenomenally successful endeavor in terms of getting people really excited. You had the players all campaigning, and you had fans making their lists of whom they wanted. It had to get you thinking about ways you can do something like this again.
I’ll tell you the truth. We started with the list at probably 100, and then we got it down to 50. That was really tough. Then we got it down to 40. Then we got it down to 32. And then there was a point where I called Lynne, our casting director, and said, “Is this a terrible idea? Are we crazy to turn this over to the fans and let them vote?” And she said, “Yeah, I don’t know.” And it goes back to something you and I talk about all the time: When you’re scared and nervous that you don’t know what’s going to happen, it’s usually a sign that it’s worth trying. I was so pleasantly surprised by the turnout of votes, the diversity of the cast, the enthusiasm of the 20 who made it, and the 32 who showed up at the live show that it just kind of once again renewed my spirit of “just keep trying to make it interesting and it will work.” People want this to happen.
I know it was tough for you to have to tell people on live television that they didn’t make the cut. But I also thought it was riveting to watch and made for great TV. Talk about that whole process. How did you feel about the live reveal at the reunion?
I felt bad for the cast of White Collar, Blue Collar, No Collar, because their reunion was truncated so much and I know that annoyed all of them, as it always does. They never get enough time.
Stop right there, because I want to stay on that. If you did something like this again, or if you could redo this, would you consider doing it as a whole separate hour the next night—kind of like what you did with that goofy America’s Tribal Council special after All-Stars where Rupert won a million dollars?
That’s not a bad idea. Maybe if we did it again that would have made sense. The other tough thing is that we are on a network, CBS, that is doing quite well. It’s hard getting an extra minute, and they give us three hours on our finale, so I don’t know if we could get the time. But I think you make a good point, that I didn’t even think about, which is you could probably milk that.
On the other hand, one of the things I like about Survivor—we don’t milk it. For instance, when we reveal the votes. When I walk up and read the last votes, you can think of all the shows that would say “And after the break, I’ll read the votes.” And they get a whole other five minutes of B.S. We don’t do that. I walk out and get to the votes as fast as possible. Let’s just keep the show moving. We’ve got good content. On the Second Chance vote, an hour might be milking. Maybe that’s exactly what you needed was five and half minutes, and the anticipation and it’s over. And it hurts, and we move on, and now here they are, and now we’re playing, and here’s a new season: forget about Joe, here’s another guy. I kind of like that.
But you could put recaps in and make little packages for each of the players, and reveal votes throughout the hour. You know me, I’m just a geek and want more.
Yeah, maybe. I still as a producer would say, “Does anybody really care, or are you just fast forwarding to see if they get on or not?” But to your bigger question of would we do it again, I think you have to have the right situation. This worked because the investment was so high, and the stakes were so real. You knew that Andrew Savage and Terry Deitz—they’ve been waiting for a decade to play again. And you felt that. And when you saw me say no to T-Bird from the third season, you felt this anguish of “Ugh, oh my God!” I can still see her face! So, yes, CBS called me the next day and said, “Oh my God, that was great! When can we do it again?” To which I said, “Well, it would have to be the right situation.” Because we’re never going to go back and do something if it doesn’t work.
When we spoke with host Jeff Probst on day one of filming Survivor: Cambodia—Second Chance, he said there was “chaos and scrambling out of the gate.” Probst also mentioned how CBS approached him the day after the live vote reveal, asking when they could do this again.
Well, Probst may not have an exact timeframe in mind—but he does say “we would definitely do it again.” He also talks about the risks and rewards of turning voting power over to the fans, explains what makes these returning players so different from previous ones, and drops a clue as to something we may see at the start of the show. Read on for part two of our chat from Cambodia.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How is a returning players season vibe different? You’ve done a bunch of all new newbie seasons in a row and now you have these returnees. How does it feel different to you when filming?
JEFF PROBST: That’s a great question, because typically it’s different in that returning players are more of a pain in the ass. And it always disappoints me that they try to push us around when we’re saying, “Look, we know you know the deal. We get it. And you’re our stars. That’s why we invited you back. But don’t push so hard. Let’s just do this with the same respect.” And they typically don’t. It doesn’t mean we don’t invite them back. We love them. It comes with the turf.
What’s interesting is, and what I will remind every other returning player is, this group has been so kind and courteous. We sent them on this huge journey though old, historic parts of Cambodia, and they were smiling every part of it because some of them have been waiting 15 years. And so they don’t take it for granted, and they appreciate it, and they remember, “Wow, this is a big deal. There are 350 people out here creating this adventure for me!” And I will remind future players: For what it’s worth, even though you might have only played two years ago—Kelly Wiglesorth, Terry Deitz, and Jeff Varner were super kind and a joy to work with. And as a result, the energy here is really electric, because we want them to do well. We’re rooting for all 20. We know what it means to you. You hear guys like Savage or Jeremy say, “I need this!” They don’t just say, “I want to do it.” They need it. The difference between want and need is the difference between everything.
I agree that there’s definitely not the entitlement among this group that you felt with the first All-Stars cast, where those guys had been in movies and commercials and Nash Bridges or whatever. You don’t feel that with this cast.
Yeah, and as a result I feel the audience is going to root for them in a way that they haven’t before. And, obviously, the investment from the fans—you voted them in so you’ve got a rooting interest in who does well in this game. And I really like that. It proved to me that our audience is as loyal as I suspected for the last 15 years. Tens of millions of votes cast for their favorite players. Right on! We would definitely do it again and I would definitely turn it over. And I’ll tell you, a lot of friends of mine who are producers of television emailed me after the announcement and said “Are you out of your mind? You’re turning the entire cast?” And their emails would say things like, “I could see you doing one player. Or maybe one tribe. But 20 people?” And look at the cast we got: diversity in ethnicity, diversity in sexuality, in age, regional, everything.
