It’s a staple of “Survivor” that those in the game, and even the viewers watching at home, don’t know the twists and turns that are just over the horizon. Like any good reality television series, each season of the CBS hit comes packed with surprises that keep everyone on their toes. Whether it’s unexpected tribe swaps or new advantages, you never quite know what will happen next.

It turns out that host and executive producer Jeff Probst extends this policy outside of the show as well. Speaking on the latest episode of his podcast, he admitted to intentionally revealing fake spoilers in interviews to have some fun.

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Jeff Probst Admits to Dropping Fake Spoilers

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While answering fan questions on the latest episode of the “On Fire with Jeff Probst” podcast, Probst responded to a message from a listener called Kayla who asked if he had ever accidentally spoiled something from the show in an interview. This led the host to reveal that in the early days of “Survivor,” interviewers would often ask the same thing, prompting him to cause some mischief.

“I used to get this question all the time in interviews,” Probst says. “And on occasion, I would have fun, and at some point in the interview, I would pretend that I just said something I shouldn’t have.”

After making the supposed mistake, Probst would also employ some amateur theatrics to convince them that he had really made a mistake.

“I would let my eyeballs kind of roll around in my head, and I could see the reporter catching it,” Probst admitted. “And they would say like, ‘Wait a minute, I think he just gave… did you just give something away? Probst, I think you just gave something away. I saw you roll your eyes!’”

He continued, “And then I would linger for a minute and then kind of look at him and say, ‘Did I?’”

Probst feels like his actions were so effective that he could convince journalists of pretty much anything he wanted. He says, “I would always say, ‘I could tell you right now who the winner is, and because of the nature of the show and my personality on the show, you wouldn’t know if I was telling you the truth anyway.’”

On the topic of whether he had actually ever spoiled anything, the “Survivor” host was fairly certain that he’d avoided doing so at any point. “I don’t recall ever spoiling it, and I used to have to work hard at it and think very hard,” he explains. “Now it’s so drilled into my head.”

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Host Drops Hints about Returning Season 49 Cast in Season 50

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In a separate interview this week, Probst also dropped some hints about the “Survivor” 49 cast who will return to the franchise for the special anniversary season.

“Next week, the tribes merge, and when they were all together, I said, ‘I’m gonna tell you something. We haven’t shot Survivor 50, and we’re not fully cast,’” Probst told blakehaynestv on TikTok. “And I’m telling you this because I want you to know you’re not just players on this season before 50. You are players on our 49th season, and if anybody here makes a big enough mark between now and the end of the game, you could end up on 50.”

”And it lit a fire, because I think there was a feeling that maybe we are just the season before 50, and it changes the back half of the season,” he continued. “It’s bananas with really unpredictable gameplay, because suddenly, people have something to prove. I want to be on 50, and two players from 49 end up on 50 as a result of that moment.”