It doesn’t happen often, but even after 48 seasons, Survivor host Jeff Probst still makes mistakes.
His latest blunder happened in the Wednesday, May 7, episode of Survivor 48, when he incorrectly called Joe Hunter the winner of the final seven immunity challenge.
“In a moment like that, when I make the wrong call, the only thing on my mind is immediately correcting the call,” said Probst, 63, in the week’s accompanying episode of the “On Fire” podcast.
The challenge ended with an arch puzzle made of blocks that spelled out the word “unforgettable.” The catch was that the puzzle needed to be identical on both sides, and Joe had one block out of place. Probst declared Joe the winner anyway before immediately correcting himself and giving the win to Kamilla Karthigesu, who correctly finished her puzzle mere seconds later.
“It’s not the first time I’ve been wrong. I’m sure it will not be the last,” Probst told cohost Rachel LaMont and executive producer Jay Wolff. “And I do think it’s important for the audience to know that these things do happen.”
Probst called multi-phase competitions like the one on Wednesday “controlled chaos” as he is trying to track all seven remaining players at different parts of the challenge — adding his own commentary while determining who is assembling their puzzle correctly.
“You have to be able to tell the story in real time of who is actually close and could win,” Probst added. “But you also have to tell the same story for somebody who thinks they’re close, but isn’t, because the audience can see there’s a letter that’s wrong.”
Making his job even tougher, Probst said he does not wear an earpiece during challenges, so there is no way for a producer to give him a heads up if a player is about to incorrectly solve the puzzle.
“This goes back to the very first Tribal Council of season 1 when Mark [Burnett] said, ‘Hey, they told me there’s something you can put in your ear and I can talk to you.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, do you think you could give me one shot without that?’” Probst explained. “Mark was so cool. He said, ‘OK, everybody tells me I should do this, but OK, Jeff, you’re very demanding.’ And from that point forward, I’ve never worn one.”
The most famous Probst competition blunder happened in season 7, Survivor: Pearl Islands, generally regarded as one of the show’s best seasons. In one immunity competition, contestants were asked to correctly spell the longest word they could with individual blocks that spelled out “Survivor Pearl Islands.” Probst declared Burton Roberts the winner, not realizing he had misspelled “liaison” as “liason.” The castaways had already started leaving the competition when Probst realized his mistake and called them back.
Survivor 48 airs Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
