Jeff Probst almost plummeted to his death filming a Survivor stunt

Dalton Ross
·5 min read
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Jeff Probst almost plummeted to his death filming a Survivor stunt
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Jeff Probst gives it his all while hosting Survivor. And the guy has come across some dangerous foes over 44 seasons. He's been knocked into by waves, had to fend off the caustic comebacks of Jonathan Penner, and even survived a multi-season fling with a cowboy hat. But none of those necessarily proved to be super dangerous.

However, the host and showrunner had one frightening moment in the line of duty that was legitimately life-threatening, and he has now revealed the harrowing incident in full detail on the latest episode of his On Fire with Jeff Probst podcast.

'Survivor' host Jeff Probst
'Survivor' host Jeff Probst

Robert Voets/CBS 'Survivor' host Jeff Probst

It is no secret that this Survivor reporter has long been obsessed with some of the hilarious vote delivery scenes of yesteryear. There was that time Probst took a helicopter and taxi to deliver the final votes from Marquesas all the way to Central Park. Or the time he brought the votes from the Amazon all the way to midtown Manhattan via jet ski and subway, as one does.

Probst even once revealed to me a secret skateboarding scene that never aired. Yes, they actually filmed Probst delivering the final Tribal Council votes on a skateboard. RELEASE THE FOOTAGE, YOU COWARDS!

But it appears none of these epic entries come close to matching the drama that took place while filming the vote delivery scene for 2004's Survivor: Vanuatu. The side-splitting sequence shows Probst leaving Tribal Council in the South Pacific, bushwhacking through the jungle, boarding a plane that looks straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, jumping out of the plane (!!!), skydiving to the ground, and then motorcycling the votes to CBS Television City in Hollywood. If you've never seen it, do yourself a favor and bear witness right now.

But as smooth as Probst looks in that epic montage, it seems the shoot was anything but. At least when it came to the skydiving. In fact, at one point it looked like the host of the planet's greatest reality show was going to plummet to his death. Probst explains on the latest episode of his podcast that since he was doing a solo jump, all of his practice jumps were also solo. All he had to do was follow the instructions.

"When you skydive, they tell you two things," Probst explains. "Check your altimeter, which tells you how high you are, and check your horizon line to make sure your body is oriented right. And you're supposed to pull your chute at 5,500 feet."

The problem was, by his sixth jump, Probst was getting pretty confident. Too confident, it turns out. "I check my altimeter, and then I look at the horizon, and I decide to take in beautiful California. So I'm just looking at the horizon and thinking, this is amazing. And I look down at my altimeter and it says 4,500 feet."

That's when the panic started to set in. "So suddenly I go, 'Oh my God!' And what they teach you to do is wave your arms together like an X. That lets everybody know, I'm pulling my chute. And they tell you very specifically, when you reach back to pull you chute, when you grab it, punch out to make sure none of your clothing gets tangled up. So I reach back and I punch out and my chute goes up. I'm like. "Oh, thank God."

The host thought he was okay at that point, but he thought wrong. "The next thing they teach you is to ask yourself two questions: Is it there, meaning, is your parachute above your head? And is it square? Is it there and is it square? I look up. Is it there? Yes. Is it square? No, meaning it doesn't have four points. It has not opened. This is no lie."

Jeff Probst on 'Survivor'
Jeff Probst on 'Survivor'

Robert Voets/CBS Jeff Probst on 'Survivor'

While I personally would have been wetting myself at this point, the host of Survivor is apparently made of much stronger stuff, because he remembered exactly what to do in such a predicament. "In that case they said to scissor kick. So I'm at 4,400 feet. I'm quickly getting close to the ground, and I scissor kick, and the chute opens."

What Probst did not know at the time he landed safe and sound is that not only did he see his own life flash before his eyes at 4,500 feet, but he almost took someone out with him! That's because when Probst failed to open his chute at the proper height, one of the safety instructors above him in the air flew down to open it for him… and got there right as the host reached out and punched it himself — also punching the instructor in the nose at 4,500 feet. "He said he had a brown out," reveals Probst. "He said, 'For a second, I passed out and then I came back.'"

In the end, Probst nailed the jump, and they got one of the greatest shots in Survivor history, even if it still causes the host's hands to start sweating every time he tells the story. "One of the scariest times of my life."

For more behind-the-scenes Survivor intel, listen to the On Fire with Jeff Probst podcast.

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