Jeff Probst reveals some “Survivor 50” things fans will and won't be voting on

The only thing Survivor fans like to question more than the moves of the players in the game are the creative decisions of the producers. That Thursday morning quarterbacking is an essential part of Survivor fandom as viewers love to discuss and debate every twist, idol, and advantage on the island. And it doesn’t stop there. Are the contestants being given too much food? Or is it not enough? Ask two Survivor fans and you are likely to get two different answers.

But for all of us out there who deem ourselves wannabe TV producers with very strong opinions about very trivial matters — our time has finally come. That’s because Jeff Probst recently announced that the highly anticipated Survivor 50 will allow viewers to vote several key elements into the game.

Starting during Wednesday night’s CBS premiere of Survivor 48, fans will be allowed to vote in four different creative categories for Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans. The result of those votes will determine the official tribe colors, if the tribes are given rice or not, whether the show continues with the final four fire-making competition or goes back to a straight vote, and if they return to a live reunion show in LA or stick with the Fijian After-Show. And there will be three more rounds of voting after that, spaced out during the Survivor 48 season.

How wild is it for the producers to turn all of this power over to the fans? “This is the riskiest idea we've done,” Probst tells Entertainment Weekly. We sat down with the host over hearty salads in midtown Manhattan to get the full scoop on all things Survivor 50, including why fans are not voting players onto the season, whether other certain big elements of the game could be up for a fan vote, if some of these vote results could become permanent, and whether we might once again possibly see Jeff Probst skydiving with an urn full of votes.

Related: Survivor 50 will allow fans to vote on putting key elements into the game

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you land on the theme of a fan vote? You knew you wanted to do something big for season 50. How is this where you landed?

JEFF PROBST: It started with me saying I wanted it to be a thank you to the fans because that's the whole reason we've been on so long is their loyalty of sticking with us. Even if they don't love every idea, they don't quit on us. And so that was it. And honestly, I was just sitting in my office for a few days thinking, and I came up with the name In the Hands of the Fans. That's when I kind of knew what the idea was and let's let the fans be in charge. The first instinct is: Let them pick the cast. But we've done that. I wanted to do something different, and this is the riskiest idea we've done in that we're used to being in charge of the game design,

But what makes it fun is it's forcing us to evolve again and say: Let's create a variety of game elements that you will vote on, and then let's just see what that mixture ends up being. Because we're more methodical. We would lay out a season and say A connects to B, connects to C, connects to D, and there's a theme and there's symmetry. We may not have that in Survivor 50. We may have some people voting for one thing that takes the game backwards, and voting for something that projects us into the future.

I wondered whether this idea came out of what you all did with the fan voting in the Second Chance season and if that was something you might try again.

Second Chance was people who had something left to prove and they had a burning desire. They wanted it so much that they would subject themselves to a live vote, and know that they might not get chosen. For Survivor 50, you can assume we're going to be bringing back some legends, and you just can't ask a legend that you built the show on their back and could argue they are part of building the show and then turn around and ask them to subject themselves to a vote.

It never worked for me. It always felt weird. I imagine somebody calling me and saying something similar and I think, “Gosh, I’ve proven enough that you either want me or you don't." So that was really it for me. Plus, we had done it and we've never done this. To me, this was a much more exciting idea because what I normally hear from fans is “If I was in charge, this is what I would do.” And so well, now you are, and really that's it.

Related: Survivor host Jeff Probst says strangers on the street are pitching him season 50 ideas

I’m assuming there will be creative elements the fans will not be involved with to maintain surprises for both the players and the viewers, right?

That's a fair assumption. One of the fun things is how much uncertainty you're going to create by letting the players see all the possibilities but not know the result. The only people that are going to know the results are the producers. Even the fans won't know the results until the season starts. So I think the big twist to this is what we often do on Survivor is we dangle something sparkly over here, but the real intrigue is over here. And I think that's what this is. The fans can pick from all of these different elements and assemble whatever game they want.

The majority rules, that's how it's going to go. The most votes in that category wins. But if you're the player, you now have a variety of possibilities. So you can't make any assumptions — you don't know! And I think what we're going to probably see play out is smart players capitalizing on the fact that nobody's going to know if what I tell them is the truth.

On Survivor 49, you can make an assumption there's going to be a Beware Advantage. We've done it every time in the new era. So if you go on a Journey, you could make an assumption that somebody might have a shot at an advantage. So when you come back, there's sort of a context to the situation. On Survivor 50, that's going to be tougher to do. And I think that to me that's the most exciting part of this next evolution is if this idea works, then maybe that's somewhere that heads us in a new direction.

How does it impact your pre-production process, not knowing the answers to these things in terms of what's going to be implemented?

It impacts. That's why we're going to have certain categories have to be voted earlier. For instance, the color scheme — that's in the very first category because we need to make the Buffs. We have not made them yet! We would already have them by now. So [production designer] Zac Jensen is waiting! And that's not the only thing that the fans are going to decide on that has an aesthetic impact on the show.

The idea is not just gameplay, but also let's shape a little of the look of the show, and let's also impact a little camp life, and then let's impact gameplay as well. So it's a taste of everything that we do in preparing a season. But I'm telling you the truth, I don't even know how we're going to do it. We've never done it before. I haven't had time to sit down and say, “Let's imagine what they're going to choose.” I'm not spending time doing that. It's a waste of time. I'm just going to wait and see what the result is and then say, “Okay, now we know what the game is.”

Related: Jeff Probst reveals type of players he wants for Survivor 50 (exclusive)

What happens if you get a result that you don't think is the right one? I mean, I know what happens: You'll do it if that’s how people vote. But how are you feeling if you put something out there to the public, you give them this power, and you think they're making the wrong decision?

Well, it's a personal vote. I would never give the players rice. 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.

I'm saying design the game you want. Don't feel like you just need to prove a point. If you really don't like the final four fire-making challenge, then don't do it. Get rid of it. You're going to create new uncertainty about what's going to come instead of it. So it all works. But yeah, my bias is clear. I've been running the show for a long time. I like to make players work and I like to keep them uncertain. But the fans will have a chance to either in one way go back to our roots, but in another way move us into the future. And I'm really curious where that is going to go because we're going to give you some choices to make.

So could these choices impact future seasons? You brought up the fire-making. What if you get an overwhelming response from people saying, “We don't want it?” And you look at the numbers and you're like, “Whoa!” Does that impact maybe what you do in seasons 51 or 52?

That remains to be seen, but I'm certainly open to it. I think there's two things that you have to remember when you're listening to advice from a fan. One is that's really how they feel and you've got to consider that. The other is your job is to produce an entertaining show. I've met people who said, “You should go back to season 1. No idols, no advantages, no twists, nothing.” And I say, “Okay, we'll probably never do that because that was 25 years ago and that game would be boring. And I can tell you why, because an alliance of four can beat an alliance of three because there's nothing that can stop anyone. You're going to not be entertained.”

And anytime somebody says we should do a season with no idols, no advantages, no twists, I say, “Fair enough, tell me your top 10 favorite moments from Survivor.” And they all involve an idol, a twist, or an advantage. So I'm feeling confident that the fans that are going to vote are going to pause for a moment and say, “Do I want to just be contrary or do I want to actually design the game I want to see played?” And then we'll see. Maybe I'm the minority.

Related: Survivor host Jeff Probst says season 50 will be all returning players

I want to ask you about a few specific things to see if these will be on the table for the fan vote. Is 39 days on the table as an option for season 50?

No. It's simply a production situation. We like this game and I can tell you that even if we wanted to, we already have our leases, our land agreements with Mana Island. 39 days isn't even an option.

What about final two versus final three? This is obviously one of the big fan debates.

Honestly, Dalton, it's a great question. You and I have debated this forever. I'm 100% certain on this. If I'm given the choice between taking one of two people with me, I'm going to take the person I'm much more likely to beat when I have another person. Now my equation is much more difficult. I want to make the game difficult to win. You got to beat two people now. It's a lot more complicated now. My game has to be better than yours. And yours. I don't understand why anybody would choose a final two. But again, just my opinion,

I totally get it. You don't want to be stuck with a great player versus a goat. I just think A vs. B is inherently more compelling than pick one of the above group.

Like the star showdown. Yeah, I like that. I get that. And that's dramatic storytelling. Where it falls apart is if you have a true hero and a true goat, you're in trouble. The argument I would make against myself right now is that the type of people we're putting on the show, we're putting on some pretty quality people. So the chances of having a true goat at the end are diminished quite a bit.

Not only that, but some of the biggest “Oh my God!” moments are when someone makes the “wrong” decision. Like when Colby brought Tina or when Woo brought Tony to the final two.

Yeah, you’re right.

Related: Jeff Probst says they have not come up with plan for Survivor 50 yet

This might be more difficult because of the lead time you would need on these production elements, but what about voting in a specific challenge? Like, say, letting fans vote in either “Last Gasp” or “Bob-Bob Bouy?”

With enough advanced time, we could do that. Absolutely. That would have to be a little earlier because constructing a challenge takes a while. I like that idea.

What about this one, which I assume might be difficult because it’s right at the start, but could people choose whether the marooning is on land or at sea?

That's actually a really fun one. I guess it'd have to have a little more to it so that there was a game element to it and not just the visual. I think so. If that were one of the options, I would probably say that category would have a couple of other layers to give it some context. Like do you want this kind of an opening where this happens at sea, or do you want this kind of a marooning where it happens on the beach? I mean, that's a really fun one.

Related: Survivor host Jeff Probst reacts to epic Tom Cruise Olympic flag delivery (exclusive)

Look, if you really want to give the fans what they want — in particular this fan — will we get to vote on how you deliver the votes back to the United States?

I mean, that's a possible option. It's definitely been on a list. Not saying it'll make it because I'm not saying we have any great ideas for how we would do it, but all the things you're hitting on are really exciting to me because you have an array like picking a challenge, final two or final three, marooning humor, something silly about delivering the votes — you're really hitting at the core of what we want it to be. It’s not just if there's an idol in play on episode 2 or not. It's the whole idea of Survivor and everything that goes into the world. So I'm taking all these notes. Some of them we may have, some of them might be new to me.

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