Join The Club
Survivor has seen some changes over the course of its run, even now after completing its milestone 50th season on the 2026 TV schedule. The reality competition series is still seeing some firsts, but there are some things that will never change. Longtime host and executive producer Jeff Probst weighed in on a perplexing mistake that Survivor hopefuls can’t seem to stop making, and he seems pretty frustrated.
It’s always fun to see who will be on the next season of Survivor and who fans will root for and against. It also means that some very lucky fans will have a chance to be on the show and try their hand at being the Sole Survivor. 51 seasons in, you never know what to expect with the next group of Castaways, and I can only imagine how long the casting process is. It’s probably pretty tedious, especially since some people can’t seem to stop making the same mistake. Probst shared some tips on how to film an audition tape at PaleyLive (Via Instagram) as well as one thing he finds pretty annoying:
What doesn’t work is… You don’t need to be a movie maker. You don’t need to go climb a big mountain, unless you’re a mountain climber. If you’re a mountain climber, then climb a mountain and say, ‘Look what I can do.’ This answer of, ‘I think it’s really fascinating…’ Be yourself is so perplexing to all of us. ‘What do you mean?’ I hear this all the time. ‘What do you mean?' Isn’t that fascinating? I don’t know! But I get it.
Survivor is all about deception and making alliances before breaking relationships, so it’s not so surprising that some people would rather enter the show as someone completely different. It is mind-blowing to know that so many people are afraid to be themselves, especially for a show like Survivor, where it’s better to be yourself than someone trying mischievous... even if it means not making it all the way.
That being said, no one knows what it takes to be on Survivor more than Probst, whose own audition tape proved that being yourself does actually work. He’s previously shared his Survivor audition tape, a.k.a. the tape he used to convince CBS he should host the competition series. It involves him being incredibly goofy, a look-a-like doll, and really just showing that he wasn’t exactly suited to be in charge of what would be a staple on reality television. That ended up working, of course, and it makes me wonder just what would have happened had he gone the route of a chunk of Survivor hopefuls.
It shouldn’t be surprising that Probst is trying to give advice to Survivor hopefuls. Earlier this year, he admitted that he wasn’t comfortable with what producers wanted in the early seasons, which was to hold the contestants accountable in a “slightly more aggressive” way. He confessed that there have been seasons where he wasn’t necessarily himself, so this is just another example of why being yourself is always the best route.
This does make me wonder just how many hopefuls truly go out of their way to make their Survivor audition tape stand out, whether it’s climbing a mountain or who knows what else. And how many of those actually make it on the show. But it sounds like those kinds of auditions don’t really stick out to Probst in the way hopefuls want them to.
