‘Survivor’ Host Jeff Probst Answers Burning Questions About the Season Finale

Another season of Survivor has come and gone, another winner has been crowned and now, in a conversation with Entertainment Weekly, host Jeff Probst is answering everyone’s burning questions about the finale and reunion show.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a tell-all without an opinion on the winner. When asked about Sarah, Probst had some insightful thoughts on her journey.

“I thought Sarah played a great game. I was really impressed with her on all levels. As she said, ‘I’m playing like a criminal.’ And in a season of crazy gameplay, her best move was probably the subtle way she handled herself during the last decision Brad made — who to send to the jury and who to leave in the game. She played that like a con artist,” Probst said.

Then there was that tricky matter of Cirie’s being voted out without anyone actually voting for her thanks to a whopping five out of six immunities in the first Tribal Council of the evening. Not even Probst saw that one coming.

“Never. Ever. Never,” Probst said when asked if he had anticipated this. “We are always tracking how many advantages are in the game, for obvious reasons. You can’t have so many that the numbers no longer work. And with such crazy game play we never even considered that Tai would hold onto two idols and Troyzan would hold onto one idol and that they would both still be in play at the final six when the Legacy Advantage came back into play.”

He continued, explaining, “But more than even that craziness, we never dreamed Tai would play both of his. What a time to “make a move!” He was guaranteed final five and could have made so many different choices, but to his credit, Tai wanted to do something big. So he did. Then when Sarah revealed the Legacy Advantage, Troyzan wisely panicked and played his idol — again one episode earlier than I think he had planned. That’s when my head started spinning…. doing the math over and over to make sure it was right. Poor Cirie.”

When the reunion show aired though, fans couldn’t help but notice that Zeke Smith, who was outed as transgender earlier in the season by fellow contestant Jeff Varner, didn’t speak to each other once.

Probst insisted that wasn’t a production decision, but said he didn’t know anything beyond that.

“I would never tell two people to not talk to each other. I don’t have any further insight into whether they discussed it or not. I think it’s probably just a natural thing given the situation,” he said.

After a crazy season wrought with emotional tension and some seriously impressive gameplay, how do you feel about the finale and reunion show of this season’s Survivor?

Photo Credit: CBS