'Survivor' Sneak Peek: Jeff Probst Previews This Week's Totally Brutal Episode

Survivor is a game of the mind, but it’s also a game of the body, and this week, the bodies get punished — hard.

This week’s episode is a physically brutal one, which Jeff Probst tells us is the most “scary hour of television we’ve ever done.” Several players are struck down by the blistering heat, the medical team is called in, and there could be evacuations from the game.

In this exclusive sneak peek clip, the players are digging through the dirt looking for three small bags in a state of “absolute exhaustion.”

“I’m dying,” one of them gasps.

Yahoo TV spoke with Probst about the harrowing ordeal, plus we got his thoughts on the season so far.

We know you don’t want to give too much away, but what can you say about this episode?
This is the most compelling, dramatic, and at times, scary hour of television that we’ve ever done. It was just a perfect storm of Mother Nature and physical effort combining for a very dramatic result.

From the clip and promos, it seems like there are several medical emergencies.
Yeah, medical is definitely involved.

Do you ever design a challenge and think: “This really is too much”?
We have a really thorough process for our challenges. Firstly, we draw them out, and then we workshop them in our art department. Then, we test them and rehearse them, and we’re modifying them at every stage, so by the time they get to the Survivors, they’ve been thoroughly vetted.

The challenge that happens in this episode is a challenge that we’ve done before — nothing particularly unique about it — it just happened to be the effort involved in the challenge combined with the intense heat and the exhaustion of the contestants led to this collision of elements. It was the perfect storm, and fortunately we have a really good medical team that’s on site 24/7, everywhere we’re shooting, they’re there. So, everybody’s always in the best of hands.

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As you get to the challenge, and the conditions — like heat, or torrential rain, or something — make it dangerous, would you modify it?
Oh, absolutely. Along the way of testing a challenge, if our dream team — which consists of a group of twentysomethings — was testing it and they are too exhausted or they say it’s too much, then we absolutely modify it. None of our challenges are designed with the intent to push anybody beyond their limit. It’s always designed to bring forth a hero or a goat, or force a decision, or create a crisis in terms of the tribe dynamics. But the challenges are never designed to put anybody in danger. When people see this challenge, they will not think the challenge was too much. The challenge was pretty basic.

Something similar happened last season, when Joe passed out at the end of a challenge. What was it like in the moment, on site, watching that go down?
It’s a very surreal experience to be simultaneously, the executive producer, who’s responsible; the host, whose job it is to guide the audience through; and a fan, watching it — all at the same time. So, all of those parts of me are working. For instance, last season, when we did the challenge with Joe and Keith, and it went so much longer than we had ever tested it — we tested, I think, it went for 30 minutes, and they went an hour and 15.

There are parts of you that are looking at it, going “Oh my god, this is amazing.” Then there are parts of you as the host saying “What’s the story we should be telling?” Then, there’s the executive producer going, “Man, what’s going to happen? And are we prepared for it?” And honestly, one of the things that’s comforting about Survivor is that we’ve been doing it for so long that we have great systems in place — we have a crew of 325, plus 100 locals that we hire, and I never worry about any of them, because we have evacuation plans and we can engage anytime we need, whether it’s for a contestant or a crew member.

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In these later seasons, do you feel like players are pushing themselves harder than before?
That’s a great question, and I think that’s the case. As the game has evolved, not only has the strategy evolved, but also the effort. There are people who have seen the show long enough, and I think they’re realizing that the show is there to test people and you don’t need to be afraid of it — you just need to embrace it. That’s why you’re seeing people like Joe pass out. It’s really interesting how, because Survivor has relatively few rules, the game is dictated by the people that are playing it. And they decide what’s appropriate, and that could be strategy, that could be physical effort.

What’s been the feedback so far on this season?
I’ve been really excited to have people tell me how much they’re enjoying this season, because coming on the heels of Second Chance, the audience response to that season was so overwhelmingly positive, that you do wonder how we will live up to that. We knew we had a good season, and we knew it was very different, and we hoped our fans would give it a shot, and they have. Out of the gate, you have people like Tai and Debbie that are instantly iconic characters that you root for or root against or just look at and shake your head. I think as the season continues, the audience will get more invested in the stories that are going to play out. And this is not the last time we will see medical in the show.

The first Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty season was a great season, and this one is doing well so far. Does that mean we’ll see this format again in the future?
We don’t cast the show to a format. We start looking for people, and then as we get our group together, we start looking to see how we could divide. This group just happened to play out where we met Liz, who’d scored a perfect SAT. Then, we met Peter who was an ER doctor with a super high IQ. Then we met Joe, who brought a whole new idea to Brains because he was an FBI hostage negotiator. That was the first inkling that maybe we have something happening with Brains/Brawns/Beauty. Then we met Scot Pollard, from the NBA, and Jason the bounty hunter, and that’s when it locked in.

I like that we’re expanding the idea of it — there’ve been a couple of people who’ve asked me why are different people on their tribes, like why Tai is on the Beauty tribe? And that makes me scratch my head because he seems like an obvious expansion of the theme of Beauty, because he’s such a beautiful soul. I like that we can challenge our own themes, and when our fans challenge us back. Survivor has existed this long because it’s a very interactive, experiential thing. We love hearing from our fans, that’s why we gave them control last season, as a way of saying thank you for investing so much in this. So, we listen to what they like and what they don’t like.

Speaking of Tai, he’s been a very interesting character so far. He really dug himself into a hole by looking for the idol on day one, but he seems to be turning it around.
Tai’s gameplay was a real surprise to me, because we put him on the show because he was a person we’d never seen on the show before: a Vietnamese immigrant who literally came over on a boat and has created this incredible life and loves Survivor. I had no idea he would be scampering up a tree looking for the idol five minutes into day one. That took me by surprise, and I think it took Tai by surprise, too, at how quickly the game turned on him and how quickly he became a target. And now the question: Can he recover from that, or did he blow his shot?

He’s got this bromance with Caleb going, this odd couple relationship.
Greatest odd couple in Survivor history! You have to go back to Rudy and Richard Hatch to find one as charming as this one. And it’s sincere! The other half of the Tai/Caleb equation is my reluctance to put Caleb on the show. I didn’t want him, but CBS said they really wanted to see him play Survivor because he was a big star on Big Brother. I met Caleb, and I didn’t get it, and fought against it. They said, you’ve got to give us this one, and they win, because they’re the network. And, man, I was completely wrong. I love Caleb, he’s awesome, and to see this older gay Vietnamese gardener meet this young, Army, macho soldier and the friendship develop between those two, it’s magical. I’m hearing from people on the street how much they love both Tai and Caleb because of what they bring out in the other.

Let’s talk about that crazy tribal council from the other week, when Jenny talked her way into getting eliminated. How much of a factor do you want to be at tribal? It felt like she burned her house down, but you gave her the match.
I would say I gave Jenny the match, only in the same way I give everybody a match. I look at tribal council — and I say this to everybody that plays: It’s really simple, your job is to please me. And the way you please me is by giving me something — it doesn’t have to be the truth. I won’t even know if it’s a lie. But simply saying, “Gee, Jeff, I don’t know,” or “Gee, Jeff, that strategy won’t work.” The good players anticipate a situation like tribal, and say, “OK, I just have to give him something to get him off my back.” The good ones use me at tribal, the bad ones get used by me.

Jenny is upset she got burned, but what I say back is, you made a big move. Your execution was faulty, but the idea of a women’s alliance was a great idea. Those are the kind of players that win the game — they’re willing to make a big move. If Jenny played again, she could win. When somebody like Jenny gets voted out and is looking for reasons why, just own it. You made a big move and got caught!

When a tribal council like that is unfolding, is a part of you just gleeful at how insane it is?
You know, it’s a weird thing, because subconsciously, I am always aware that this is a really great moment, but this may sound disingenuous, but I swear it’s the truth: Survivor has been on for so long now, I completely trust the format. Sometimes, I’m not even that excited after a great tribal council, any more than I’m disappointed after one that was a little flat, because the highs and the lows sort of all work. It’s a tapestry of a lot of different colors, and you need all of them.

Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.