“Survivor 45” host Jeff Probst reacts to that crazy Tribal Council

Dalton Ross
·4 min read
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Warning: This article contains spoilers for Survivor 45, episode 6.

It may have taken five seasons, but this week's Tribal Council on Survivor finally played out exactly as Jeff Probst had dreamed it.

As part of a bevy of new twists and changes implemented back in 2021 with the first post-Covid Survivor season (Survivor 41), the show introduced a new wrinkle called the Shot in the Dark. The Shot in the Dark consisted of a cube that each player was given at the beginning of the game, and if a contestant ever felt they were in danger of being voted out at Tribal Council, they could sacrifice their own vote and give up the cube for a 1-in-6 chance at safety via a bag of scrolls, one of which read "Safe" while the others all read "Not Safe."

In the four seasons since, eight different players (Sydney, Zach, Mayra, Swati, Tori, Sami, Matthew, and Claire) all pulled the Not Safe scroll, while the only person who ever pulled Safe (Jami) didn't need it since no votes were even put on her. The Shot in the Dark had never actually saved a player who would have otherwise been voted out. But all that changed on this week's episode of Survivor 45 when Kaleb Gebrewold was saved from a unanimous vote when his 1-in-6 shot paid off. That gave Kaleb immunity from the vote, and J Maya was then unanimously ousted in a revote.

Survivor 45
Survivor 45

Robert Voets/CBS Kaleb Gebrewold on 'Survivor 45'

Probst discussed the development on the latest episode of the On Fire podcast he cohosts with former player Rick Devens (Survivor: Edge of Extinction) and producer Jay Wolff, and when asked by Wolff if this was how he always envisioned it playing out, the host and showrunner responded in the affirmative.

"That's exactly it," Probst says on the podcast. "You imagine: What's the best thing that could ever happen with this? And that is one player gets all the votes and then pulls out the Safe, and the game is flipped upside down. And I remember when we were redesigning the game, we were during the pandemic…I had a note in my files about a wild card idea at Tribal Council — something that was always in play and could throw Tribal into chaos at any given moment."

Probst then read his very first idea notes on the twist that he written back in August of 2020: "It says, 'Tribal Council wild card, a way to make every Tribal unpredictable. Each player has the option to mutiny any time before the vote, but it comes with strong consequence.' So that wasn't exactly where it ended up going, but I kept imagining this bag and I would always say to the team, 'It's like a bag, and you reach in it and whatever's in the bag changes the game.'"

Survivor 45
Survivor 45

Robert Voets/CBS Jeff Probst on 'Survivor 45'

That germ of an idea eventually morphed into what became the Shot in the Dark. When it came to calculating the odds they would place on the move, Probst consulted with Exploding Kittens creator Elan Lee, and both independently landed on 1-in-6. And then there were other creative elements that needed to be worked out.

"We landed on some really important things," Probst says. "It's secret. You don't tell the tribe. You do it when you go up to vote, and that creates this dilemma. If somebody in your alliance is concerned they're in trouble, they may decide to play the Shot in the Dark and not vote. And if they're wrong and you need their vote, that could mess up the game in the wrong way. And then all the visual elements: the bag, the container that you drop your Shot in the Dark die. We talked about: How big is the Shot in the Dark die? How much does it weigh?"

For Probst, all those early creative discussions that took place three years ago eventually resulted in what we saw this week with Kaleb's Hail Mary. "All of that stuff comes together so that when Kaleb goes up there, you see the parchment, you see the bag, he may have the Shot in the Dark die in his hand and you're wondering, 'What's he going to do?' We could show you or we could keep the mystery. And in this case, you come down and you decide to keep the mystery and Kaleb says, 'I went for it, and I hope I'm lucky. And if so, I'm buying a lottery ticket.'"

When Probst was asked by Wolff how he managed to keep a straight face and not display any emotion when he first looked at the Safe parchment before revealing it to the players, the host responded succinctly, "Hey, that's my job."

For much more inside intel from Probst on the latest episode — including a promise that there will be no more quitters this season — check on On Fire: The Official Survivor Podcast.

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