Image credit: Monty Brinton/CBS

Each week, host Jeff Probst answers a few questions about the most recent episode of ‘Survivor: Caramoan — Fans vs. Favorites’.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I was never a fan of the smoothie food challenge because I felt putting the contents into liquid form toned down the gnarly factor a bit. So I was very happy to see the contestants back to suffering while attempting to put down the food in its original form. But why the decision on your end to go old school as opposed to smoothie style?
JEFF PROBST: Typically it goes like this — if we have great, organic, unusual types of food for them to eat then we do it “old school.” Sometimes we want to do a gross food eating but we only have typical sea creatures like octopus or squid — not unusual enough to warrant the old school approach so we try the smoothie. I do agree with you however and think the smoothie approach may be retired. Once again, Dalton Ross impacting the future of Survivor. Now if we could just get rid of that final three. READ FULL STORY »

Image credit: Monty Brinton/CBS

Each week, host Jeff Probst answers a few questions about the most recent episode of ‘Survivor: Caramoan — Fans vs. Favorites’.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Please say something about Julia since we did not hear her say anything all season long. And what are your thoughts on the flavor vanilla?
JEFF PROBST: Julia. Well, in fairness to Julia I think part of the reason you didn’t hear much from her is because she was playing in the shadow of Phillip, Brandon, Shamar, Cochran and others. Julia is a young person and young people often suffer on our show due to limited life experience, but Julia had life experience so we took a chance. I’m not surprised she was quiet, she was on the quiet side in casting but we really found her endearing. Sometimes those qualities just don’t make it into the game.  Now to the topic of Vanilla. Vanilla Ice was clever for a moment. Vanilla Sky is underrated. Vanilla Frosting isn’t worth the calories. Milli Vanilli is almost the same as Milli Vanilla.  Finally, Vanilla spelled backwards is Allinav. READ FULL STORY »

Image credit: Monty Brinton/CBS

Each week, host Jeff Probst answers a few questions about the most recent episode of ‘Survivor: Caramoan — Fans vs. Favorites’.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I asked you before the season started if Brandon was really emotionally stable enough to come back and play this game again, especially after we saw what happened to him last time. Now that we’ve all seen the result, I wonder if you can speak more on the decision to bring him back and how you all determine where the appropriate line is in terms of who is psychologically fit enough to handle this experience and who isn’t.
JEFF PROBST: Regardless whether you are a new player or a returning player, every contestant on Survivor undergoes an evaluation from our show psychologist each time they play. We never let anybody on the show who can’t pass the psych test. Brandon passed. He was also great in our interviews before the show began. We were actually very excited because he had a new approach to the game. He said he wasn’t going to be as emotionally reactive and felt that after playing once he was better prepared for the 39 day adventure. We felt Brandon had the potential for a true underdog story of a young man who was overwhelmed the first time he played and was seeking redemption.

READ FULL STORY »