Jeff Probst Reveals If Survivor Players Have Met Before the Show

One of Survivor‘s many challenges? Making friends.

Host Jeff Probst shared the surprising lengths the show goes to in order to make sure none of the contestants have met each other before competing.

We really try to find out everything we can about each contestant,” he said on the September 24th episode of his podcast, *On Fire with Jeff Probst*. “We do very detailed background checks, looking into their past and what they’ve shared on social media.

Verifying the legitimacy of the long-running series, which released its 49th episode on September 24th, requires a thorough but challenging review.

Even with all our efforts, we won’t find every detail,” said Jeff, who is also an executive producer on the show. “We still overlook things, and it’s often surprising to learn that someone didn’t bring it to our attention – we usually find out about it after the fact.”

Despite everything, it’s still crucial. He explained that ensuring the game’s fairness was the main goal, giving every player an equal opportunity to succeed.

It doesn’t make the process any less awkward at times, however.

As producers, one of our biggest challenges is dealing with players regarding things like thorough background checks and asking them to limit their conversations when we’re not filming,” he said.

As he put it, “We’re all adults and it is this weird relationship.”

An awkward situation arose before the start of the show’s 49th season. Just before filming began, two contestants were taken off the show for violating the rules in the days prior.

He explained that in the days before the competition starts, all the players are gathered together, but they aren’t allowed to communicate with each other.

He explained that contestants weren’t allowed to communicate with each other, which was a standard rule. This season, season 49, two players repeatedly broke that rule by talking to each other.

After the two contestants disregarded a serious warning about how they were acting, Jeff spoke with the show’s producers about the issue.

I spoke with our executive team and warned them that we might be facing a problem. Before we could even discuss it, I received another call indicating the situation had escalated and become even more disrespectful.

“That was all it took,” he added. “Candidly, the decision was made in that moment to immediately remove those two players from the game and replace them with our alternates.”

Besides the new players already mentioned, Jason Treul and Michelle “MC” Chukwujekwu, keep scrolling to meet the rest of the Survivor 49 cast!