Jeff Probst has gotten really good at teasing upcoming Survivor seasons without actually giving anything away. He’ll say I can’t wait for fans to see a few of my favorite blindsides ever, or he’ll say fans are going to love how hard everyone plays in the post-merge. It’s always quotes like that, which aren’t spoilers but are the sort of thing you can retroactively identify when they happen. He gave a few of those ahead of Survivor 51, but four episodes in, I’m still baffled about who one of the comments was referring to.
During an interview with The Wrap before the season started, the longtime host and showrunner was asked if there’s someone who he could see replacing him as the frontman for the franchise after he retires. He said it’s complicated because it’s really better if the person is a combination host and producer, but he said there is one player on 51 who he could see doing the job. Apparently he saw it so clearly that he actually told the mystery castaway during the casting process. Here’s a portion of his quote…
There’s actually somebody in Season 51 that in casting, I think I said to them, ‘You could probably host this show,’ meaning your instincts as a storyteller and about people are so good that you could probably sit in this chair and you’d be just fine.
Fans, including myself, who spend too much time obsessing over the show latched onto the quote during the preseason and speculated widely about who he was talking about. Almost a third of the way through the season, however, it’s still not clear who he’s talking about. There are a couple of possible candidates, I guess, but my assumption going in was that this was going to be one of those seasons with an obvious narrator that dominates confessional time. My assumption was that we all were going to know quite clearly who he was talking about.
Some fans are pointing to Devin as the most likely candidate. He has the most confessionals through four episodes by a pretty healthy margin and has a lot of natural charisma. He really pops when he’s on camera, but I’m not entirely convinced Probst was talking about him. The edit has dunked on him quite a few times and made it clear his reads on people aren’t necessarily perfect. That doesn’t align super well with the preseason quote.
I’ve seen others point to Ori, who has given multiple speeches and repeatedly said really thoughtful and profound things at Tribal Council. I’ve also seen people speculate about Eric, Brady and Jelly. I’m not sure about those three. I can kind of see the Ori thing, but if I had to pick the most likely contender, I’d actually go with someone else entirely.
Kristin doesn’t make a lot of sense on paper because she’s only in the middle of the pack on confessionals. She is, however, extremely eloquent whenever we do get to see her. She’s got a straight-forward, easy to understand way of communicating, and she quite obviously has a lot of enthusiasm for the game. As a crisis consultant, she seems like the sort of person who would be great in a producer role too.
I think she’s maybe who Jeff was talking about. She’s the only one who fully makes sense in my mind, but I definitely wouldn’t bet large amounts of money on it. Instead, I’m just going to have to wait until the end of the season for Jeff to finally clarify who he was talking about.
Regardless, if you aren’t watching Survivor 51, I’d highly recommend jumping on that raft. The Open Era has really taken the beloved reality competition back to its roots, and the chaotic and wild cast is bringing the scheming and shenanigans we all want. It’s definitely worth your time. You can catch it on Wednesdays on CBS or stream it on Paramount+.
