Jeff Probst Goes Behind The Scenes of This Week's Unconventional 'Survivor 46' Exit

Jeff Probst

WARNING! The following article contains spoilers on Survivor 46 Episode 4. Please do not scroll any further if you do not want to learn who was voted out of the game.

Over the years, Survivor has become synonymous with the term "blindside." Every episode, players and fans alike go into Tribal Council with several possible plans and boots in mind. And, by the time the votes are cast and read, at least some percentage of the castaways and audience get a dose of the unexpected. But this past week of Survivor 46 was a rare exception to the rule, with an unconventional exit and edit of Bhanu Gopal.

In retrospect, it's only appropriate that Bhanu receive such nontraditional elimination, considering how nontraditional of a player is. For nine days and four episodes, we watched him struggle with containing his passion and emotions, getting in trouble a number of times for being so open in front of his tribe members, competitors, and even Jeff Probst. But, even though it was spelled to us leading up to the Yanu tribe's fourth Immunity Challenge loss that Bhanu was the most in danger, it was still surprising to see the other three members in Kenzie Petty, Q Burdette, and Tiffany Nicole Ervin all explicitly say via confessional that Bhanu would be the one to go.

What followed in the episode became less of a Survivor murder mystery and more like a funeral. The usual jungle scrambling was out the window. Instead, the story chose to follow Bhanu, who was left without a vote, a Shot in the Dark, or a hope of surviving. And over the course of the penultimate act, we saw him come to terms that the scenario he had been fearing for the past week had become a reality: He was going home.

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"I thought it was all beautifully encapsulated in the last two acts of this episode," Probst says in the latest episode of "On Fire: The Official Survivor Podcast." Speaking about the unconventional sequence with co-hosts Jay Wolff and Survivor 45 winner Dee Valladares, he gives credit to Co-Executive Producer Dawn Haber, who oversees every episode, and editor and Supervising Producer Brian Barefoot. The latter has actually been with the show since the very beginning, only one of five people in production to have worked on every single episode. Barefoot has been responsible for the edit behind some of Survivor's most iconic scenes over the years, most notably the famous moment of Erik Reichenbach giving up his immunity necklace in Survivor: Micronesia.

"Dawn and Brian knew that this was a very unique situation with Bhanu," Probst explains. "So the question for them became, 'What is the most interesting and insightful way to handle this while still being authentic to what Bhanu experience?' And because they had time, they were able to just watch the scenes over and over and over. And they realized he's mourning his death in the game."

Indeed, watching the sequence play out, the IT quality analyst does seem to go through some order of the five stages of grief over his dreams of winning a million dollars (or a million hearts, in his case) get crushed. As a representation of denial, he adamantly searches for his tribe's idol, not knowing Tiffany is already in possession of it. He outright tells Kenzie how angry he is at both himself and God for being in this position, saying to the sky, ""If this is what you wanted, if you wanted to end my story so soon, you shouldn't have put me on Survivor in the first place."

In a gutting moment of bargaining, he literally gets on his knees to beg Tiffany to keep him in the game, a plea that falls on deaf ears. Eventually, he comes around to the final step: Acceptance. He gives thanks to the island, and comes to the realization that, though his flagrant honesty had ruined his game, it made him remember how loyal of a person he is. The sequence even hits the nail on the head with the death metaphor, concluding with Bhanu lying on the ground, at peace with his fate.

"Once they realized that, they saw their way in," Probst says. "Just let Bhanu behave, let us witness this spiritual death through his eyes and through the eyes of his tribemates. Stay out of the way, which isn't as easy as it sounds, because there are so many options with somebody like Bhanu, who's so expressive." Indeed, Probst notes that the edit itself only makes use of one confessional, virtually unheard of in modern Survivor storytelling.

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"The key driver for us is always the same," he continues. "It has to be authentic to what the player experience, tell their story in a respectful way. We're not going to bury somebody, but we're also not going to try and protect somebody. It's not about that. It's about showing what happened. And that means you have to understand the essence."

Speaking on the essence of Bhanu segued to Probst giving some final words on the most recently-booted castaway. In particular, he addressed the player's most ardent critics who have questioned not only his gameplay, but why he was brought onto the show in the first place when he was clearly so outmatched.

"There's probably a lot of people who've watched Survivor that think, 'Oh my gosh, what a goofball.' That's okay, that comes with the territory. When you're courageous enough to say yes to this adventure, you're going to take criticism. But for my two cents, if we have the chance to go back and do this again, I put Bhanu on the show instantly. Because that is the kind of authenticity that we are desperately seeking." 

Probst then concluded by giving some remarks and words of warning to prospective players. "If you imagined how you would deal with Bhanu--Q tried to coach him, Kenzie tried to comfort him, Tiff offered to teach him a good move from a bad move--then you probably have the skills to play this game, and you'll probably be pretty good. But if you found yourself only critiquing Bhanu, and making fun of his emotional outbursts and his desire to win a million hearts when there's a million dollars on the line, and you found yourself asking, 'How did this guy get on the show when I can't get on the show?' Well, you have your answer. You're just not self aware enough to see it."

Listen above for the full episode of "On Fire: The Official Survivor Podcast." Survivor 46 airs Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Episodes of "On Fire" release shortly after, and are available on any podcatcher of choice.

Next, check out the photos, bios, and interviews with the cast of Survivor 46.