Jeff Probst Sets the Record Straight on Whether ‘Survivor’ Casting Depends on Tragic Backstories

The host also teases an ‘incredibly powerful’ moment later in Season 49 where one player will open up in a way that surprises both production and themselves.

Arguably, the “new era” of Survivor has allowed us to get to know every castaway that steps foot on the beaches of Fiji better than ever before. Between an increase in diversity in casting starting in 2021 and the advent of 90-minute weekly episodes, fans have been able to take a deep dive into some stories and characters that we’ve never seen before on the hit CBS reality series.

One of those stories came this week on Survivor 49 with Savannah Louie. Savannah kicked off the merge a little worse for wear. Despite being on top for the first two weeks of the game, she was promptly humbled by being one of the people left out of the vote against Nate Moore. And, despite spending the next several hours doing damage control, she felt immediately socially isolated from the rest of her tribe.

Despite the fierceness and steely resolve that she has brought through seven episodes of Season 49 so far — most recently an entertaining scuffle for a ring of keys with MC Chukwujekwu — Savannah was in a very vulnerable place. And that’s because, as she recounts to Steven Ramm, this situation is bringing up past memories from a situation in her previous job as a reporter, one that changed her life forever.

As Savannah tells Steven Ramm — and us — she joined a team where her co-workers believe she had “replaced” one of their former members. And so she was immediately and consistently iced out. As she describes it, when cameras were on, they would be friendly and chummy, joking with each other and laughing it up. But as soon as they cut, they would cut her out. They would refuse to talk to or even look at her, and talked badly about her in her vicinity.

“I went through that for 2 years,” she says. “I was under contract; I literally could not leave. It was so stressful that it must have messed up all my hormones. My body was basically in flux. I stopped getting a period. I can’t have kids naturally. It was so stressful it literally impacted the rest of my life.”

It’s a tragic story, one that Savannah feels she’s reliving in a manner of speaking out on the island. And when talking about the situation on “On Fire: The Official Survivor Podcast,” it became a way to discuss something that often comes up with new-era casting: The idea of “sob stories.”

While the past nine seasons have given us the opportunity to meet a wide variety of truly unique individuals, one of the critiques levied against casting and editing is an overreliance on contestants’ emotional backstories. Seasons 41 and 42 in particular saw every castaway getting a segment in the opening episodes about their background, usually involving some sort of tragedy or struggle they had to face in the past. While the stories were varied, the way they were consistently packaged and presented has caused some fans to feel that players nowadays are cast in part due to specifically having a tragic backstory or trauma.

Podcast producer Jay Wolff brought up this very subject to Jeff Probst in their discussion of this week’s episode. In speaking on Savannah’s story, he asked the host and executive producer, “How often do you learn these things in real time with us, versus knowing about these critical traumas from your casting process?”

“It’s a bit of both,” Probst answers. “Our casting process goes very deep, and as a result, it can get very personal. And sometimes family situations or trauma from middle school or work situations like this that might be inspiring or challenging will come up.”

“But I just want to be clear that our interest in those stories is only in helping us understand who you are and how you might react in certain situations,” he goes on to clarify. “We never expect a player to share anything they aren’t comfortable sharing. It is always up to the player, and it varies player to player as to how they want to handle it.”

In other situations, something will get triggered in a player that never came up during the casting process, surprising both the player and production. In fact, as Probst teases, we will get one of those moments later this season. “It does come out in real time, and we do discuss it. And it’s ultimately incredibly powerful and very healing for the player.”

Ultimately, though, Probst makes one thing clear to everybody on the matter of whether people like Savannah are cast on the show due to anything specific in their background prior to the island.

“The key to all of this for fans and future players is trusting that we don’t put people on the show simply because they have a great story, and we hope they will share it,” he affirms. “Your story is yours to share or not share.”