‘Survivor’ Host Jeff Probst Calls Out ‘Blatant’ Disrespect by Season 49 Contestants

Jeff Probst is not one to risk the integrity of Survivor.

The host revealed after the Season 49 premiere of the CBS competition show that two players were removed from the season just 12 hours before filming was scheduled to start due to their “blatant” disrespect for the rules.

As the cast waited at Ponderosa ahead of filming, they were informed that they were “not allowed to talk” before the game was officially in play, Probst revealed on Wednesday’s episode of his On Fire with Jeff Probst podcast.

“That’s why we have so many handlers there to make sure nobody’s talking,” he explained. “You can obviously look at each other, you can try to make eye contact. That might work for you, it might not.”

“The only thing is, we have rules,” Probst continued, noting that while contestants can write down personal notes about the other players they see, “The rules are you cannot talk to each other, for obvious reasons. And in this season, Season 49, we had two players who were disrespecting that rule. They just kept talking.”

The situation was so serious that Probst himself received a call stating that there was a “level of concern” with the contestants, who were given a “stern warning” to cease talking to one another.

“I went and met with our executive team and said, ‘Look, we might have a situation,’” Probst recalled. “Before we could even finish our discussion, I got a second phone call saying that the level of disrespect had reached an even more blatant level.’”

“That was all it took,” he continued. “Candidly, the decision was made in that moment to immediately remove those two players from the game and replace them with our alternates.”

It’s then that Jason Treul and Michelle “MC” Chukwujekwu were added to the game in their place, which “sent shockwaves” through the rest of the players — in a positive way.

“What really happened was the players, once they were able to talk, they thanked our producers,” Probst shared, “because they said, ‘We were all aware that this was happening. And it felt like cheating. Like there was an advantage being had.’ And now they’re in the situation of — should I do that as well?”

Probst revealed that this was the “first time” the show had ever had to do that, but that he wouldn’t hesitate to pull people again. “It should be clear to future players, although I doubt this will ever happen again, to just know we will not hesitate to pull you from the game,” he warned. “It doesn’t matter how much time or money we’ve invested in you. …We value the integrity of the game more than anything.”

Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and is available to stream on Paramount+.